A friend asked me where Maria would do Kindergarten next Fall.

I told her we are happy where she is, but that we would likely nose around some other schools just to see.

"The deadlines for private schools were all in early December,'' she said.

I was standing near the road Monday, trying to listen for the guinea hens, who broke with tradition and were not hanging around the driveway at 4 p.m.

A man, obviously spotting my Little Bo Peep look, slowed his truck and shouted:

"You looking for the guineas? They're down the road, that way."

Maria told me she is going to marry a boy in her class. She told me he wants to marry her too.

His mother confirmed the pending nuptials. We both giggled. Especially because about three other girls have said they're going to marry this boy.

We were standing in line to board our plane yesterday when a woman and I gave each other the universal, motherly, "Oh, Girl, I feel you'' look.

We each were weighed down with bags and coats that did not belong to us. In addition, she was carrying a booster seat and her husband had a huge car seat in his arms.

When Maria was just a few months old and at the height of drooly, chubby deliciousness, my husband asked when she would start to speak.

I told him it varies from child to child, but I felt she already communicated plenty. The child then yelled out her first "Mama!'' when she was just 9 months old and has gone full-throttle on the language – two of them – since.