photobooth friday & mami ramblings

OC Fair, summer 2001
Maya is about six here, the same age Mina is now. They look just alike at this age, but they are really different in a lot of ways. Maya has always been true to her exact age; not trying to act older, not acting younger either. I love that she's not trying to be fast and that she revels in being a kid. She celebrates it, enjoys every single minute from the second her eyes flash open until she crashes her head on her pillow at night. Mina is a baby and an old person rolled into one. She's in her head a lot so many people think she's younger, or pensive. She still speaks with a tiny limp because of the hearing thing which makes her seem younger too. Despite their different personalities, Mina can mix it up with Maya. They wrestle and battle, beat each other with Hulk Hands and square off with padded fake swords they got from Tae Kwon Do. This is great to watch because they have a whole ritual to the sword fight where they prostrate and bow first then proceed to lash each other . . . until someone's really hurt of course which gets minimal sympathy from us, if any. They sing and dance around together too, Maya hogging the spot light, with Mina coyly stealing the show from behind. They both know how to grab attention in their own ways. When they play dress up, Maya wears the black, curly Mama Morton wig. She honestly feels she looks fantastic in this wig and has asked me if she can wear it in public. I might've let her once or twice. She dresses in a long skirt and Candies and puts in little wads of toilet paper giving herself small, athletic boobs. Mina puts on the Britney Spears blond wig and tells me that at nineteen she will dye her hair blonde which makes me cringe, but what are you gonna do? She puts on a tiny mini skirt and Cinderella plastic mules and stuffs her shirt to form a gigantic rack. She looks like a baby Dolly Parton. Maya says, "Dang Mina, what's with the boobs?" And Mina says, switching hips and feeling up her wads and wads of paper, "I want big boobs!" I shake my head as Maya answers, "God, I don't." They fight, for real, but minimally. It's more of a Who Can Annoy The Other The Most Game. But then I'll hear them making up imaginary games of school or house. Or they'll color for hours together or play a computer game. Maya has long learned that as the oldest she cannot get away with imposing her will on Mina. Mina doesn't play that, but when they just settle in as true friend-sisters, there is a connectedness --a swirling energy -- between the two of them that floors me. Lately, Maya’s class has been talking about money and the value of saving up. They were asked to write down their top three goals for saving money. Maya's were: College, a car and to live in an apartment with Lola and Mina. At school and at their AfterCareProgram, they speak highly of each other and get each other’s back. I have no brothers or sisters so I am constantly in awe of the sibling dynamic. I realize I haven't just birthed two independent geniuses, but life-long best friends. It makes me weepy even if I can't grasp entirely what they feel for each other.

And for GGF (Gratuitous Gorgeousness Friday): Easter Bunny Sitting, 2002. Maya is 7, Mina is 3.