Exploring New Territory

Maya and I met up with some friends at Rivertown Mall today. We had lunch with Diane, and she treated Maya to her first ride on the carousel! She loved it! She kept waving and waving at everyone as we rode around and around. It was so cute!
After lunch, we hit the playground, where we met up with more friends, Melissa and Ashley. Maya had a blast going up the stairs of the huge tree house, then flying down the slide. She would fly off the end of the slide about 1-2 feet every time she reached the bottom. It was so funny. I don't know how many times she went down that slide, but it was a ton! It was our first time at that particular mall playground, and we'll definitely be returning. It was awesome! Check out her face in this pic... she was having so much fun!Here's a little video of her in action!

Listen to her laugh! She had so much fun here! We can't wait to go back!!

Our Trip to Iowa

We just returned from a week long trip to see family in Iowa. We were busy every day and had a ton of fun. Stinker Bear did really well on the drive there and back. We left on Sunday evening, around 5:00pm and arrived at 12:00am. Maya didn't fall asleep until 10:30pm! I couldn't believe it. She finally fell asleep while a Baby Einstein video played in the DVD player (thank goodness for those things!). She was VERY tired and restless, so we had temporarily turned the movie off, thinking that she was too stimulated to fall asleep. That just made her bawl her eyes out! We let her cry for about 10 minutes, before giving in and pressing play. Will thinks that the car headlights coming at us was keeping her awake, and the DVD gave her a constant light, rather than flashing. That rationale sounded reasonable to me! I just couldn't believe she had such a difficult time getting to sleep. Usually she falls asleep relatively quickly in the car, especially when she's tired (which is why I thought the DVD was to blame for keeping her up). The reason for driving during her bedtime was so she would sleep for most of the trip. Instead, she slept for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, then she stayed up until 2am (Iowa time) after we arrived at my mom's house! She did sleep in a little the following day and continued on that kind of schedule for the whole trip (staying up until 9-10pm, not 2am, getting up between 8-9am, and still taking 2 naps a day). This was the first trip that she adjusted so quickly and well to a special "Iowa schedule". Last time, she fought naps, was in bed by 6pm and up between 5-6am every day. Not so fun. This time around, the trip was awesome! Here are some of the highlights:

Monday night, we went to a Rain Forest exhibit at the elementary school. I sat on the floor with Maya, and she kind of ran around during the entire first half of the show. There was a man showing animals, one by one, and it was a little too slow paced to keep Maya's attention. She was intrigued with the huge beautiful birds that flew around the gym a few times, and she went crazy when the chimpanzee in a diaper came out. She actually made a bee-line toward the stage, with every intent to give the monkey a hug. She wanted to squeeze it so badly! (She did get her pic taken with the chimp, but she was looking at the ceiling and the camera wasn't focused on us. Sorry, I didn't scan it in to post it on here.) We left at intermission. It was getting late, and Maya had enough by that point.

Tuesday, Maya spent the day with her Daddy, while I drove to Des Moines to visit a college with my brother, Chase. We were gone for most of the day and had a good time. On Wednesday, Maya spent half of the day with Will while Chase and I went to Bettendorf to visit another school, and we both loved it! He's interested in going to a culinary arts school, and the one at Scott Community is more of an apprenticeship, with 3 years of hands-on training, which he'll be paid for. We were very impressed with the program. The last college Chase is planning on visiting is Baker College in Muskegon, and he'll be coming up here with my other brother, Alex, to see that campus next week! I can't wait!

Wednesday or Thursday (I can't remember), Dee and I walked down to a family friend's house, and Maya got to play with some kitty-cats. There were four of them running around in the yard, and Maya spent the better part of an hour chasing all of them. She wasn't quick or sneaky enough to actually catch any of them, but she gave it her best effort! There was one cat that was teasing Maya. She would run a few feet ahead of her and lay down. As soon as Maya got within a foot of the cat, it would take off again, and lay down a few feet from her. They played this game almost the entire length of the yard. It was really funny! Maya just wanted to hug and kiss those cats so bad! She LOVES animals. The following day, we returned to the same house, and Maya got to look at their fish tank. It was VERY exciting for her! As soon as she saw it, she squealing, put her hand over her mouth, and bent down to the floor, kind of laughing as if to say, "I cannot believe it!!" She's SO dramatic these days!

Friday, mom and I went to a couple of stores out in the country, near Kalona, IA. We hit the Amish "country store" and bakery (where we bought some awesome pies and ate the best glazed doughnut I've ever had in my life... mmmmm....) and visited a fancy Mennonite gift shop with all locally handmade crafts. It was a ton of fun, and the time flew by fast. We really needed an entire day! Maybe next time!

On Saturday, Will and my dad went to the Iowa Hawkeyes football game. It was my dad's first time going ever and Will's first time in the new stadium. Iowa lost, but they had a really great time.

We left for Michigan on Sunday afternoon and arrived at home at 7pm. Maya got fussy only one time, and she fell asleep shortly after we made a stop and fed her hungry belly. Overall, we had a really great trip. It was good to be back in Iowa and see family. Will hadn't been back since last December, so he was overdue for a visit. It was nice to go back all together, even though Will and I didn't see much of each other all week.

Anyway, here are some pics from the trip:
Maya is looking outside at Grandma Cindy's house, sporting her new froggy slippers and holding her new interactive puppy (both from Grandma Peg). Her froggy slippers really help her "hop, hop, hop!"
I didn't think anyone liked mom's fruit salad more than Alex or I, but clearly I was wrong! Maya licked her bowl clean!Maya's newest obsession at Grandma Cindy's... the computer. She loves the fish aquarium screen saver. She loves the desktop picture of herself. She loves to type on the keyboard, and she loves to talk on the phone, er, I mean, the mouse. Here, she is hard at work... apparently there were some issues with her Internet connection, but after a lengthy conversation with someone in India, the problem was fixed! Hahaha...Grandma Lee, Maya's Great-great Grandma, came over for a visit to see Maya, so we got a 5 generation picture (from left to right, top row: Dee, myself, Grandma Lee; bottom row: Grandma Sharon, Maya).Here's me, Maya, and mom... look at that belly! Oh my goodness... even I can't believe I'm only 28 weeks along! I can't begin to imagine what it's going to look like in 3 months! Yikes!!Peek-a-boo! Maya played for quite a while at this park, and she LOVED going down the slide. It was one of those tunnel slides, so every time she came down, her hair was standing on ends. So cute!
Yet another animal to play with! Maya was so excited to feed Chloe, and it's a good thing that Chloe didn't mind being force fed because she didn't seem all that hungry!
Helping Uncle Colton pick tomatoes out of Uncle Chance's garden. They were delicious! Maya didn't wait for dinner. She ate them straight from the bucket! It was so funny because she would chew it up, then somehow, spit the skin back out. I guess she didn't like that part!
I just LOVE this pic of Maya, running with the big bucket. She was at Grandma Peg's house, and this is what she used to feed the horses...Maya loved "feeding" and "riding" these horse statues! She would take the bucket and hold it up to the horses mouth, so they could eat. I'm thinking someday, she'll live on a farm! Here, she says, "CHEESE!" for her Daddy while I took the picture. What a ham!Another pic on the horse. She was obsessed with these horses. Before we left Grandma Peg's house, she ran over and gave one of them a big kiss and a hug! I think a trip to the zoo or my friend April's hobby farm is in order. Animals make her SO HAPPY!

Learning Animal Sounds...

We've been working on teaching Maya her animal sounds, and she's picking them up pretty well. So far, she knows the sounds of a dog, cat, cow, monkey, and pig! Just yesterday, she demonstrated her awesome pig sound for the first time. Check it out!

Pretty cute, huh?! She totally cracks us up!

I Picked Out My Own Jammies!

Maya got the chance to pick out her own jammies at Target today. The choice was between pink jammies with cute little elephants on them (my personal favorite) or brown and turquoise jammies with pink and purple polka dots. Despite my trying to sway her decision by putting the polka dot ones back on the rack, she kept reaching out to them. I couldn't deny her clear preference, so the polka dots went in the cart. The elephants went back on the rack. Either way, she's a cutie-patootie!
Here, she's posing in her new jams, sporting her "fancy" shoes, and sitting in a big girl chair, which she climbed into all by herself. She does that a lot these days! Sometimes I have to remind her to watch where she puts her caboose, but for the most part, she does pretty good!

Stinker Bear Goes to the Doctor

We met our new family doctor today during Maya's 15 month well child check up. He's a family practice doctor, Dr. S. (also a D.O. like Will), and he'll be taking care of all of our non-emergent, non-OBGYN issues. Maya was a little nervous and scared when the medical assistant started taking her measurements (height, weight, temp, head circumference), so she fussed and shed a few tears. She was fine once the med assistant left the room, and I distracted her with some crayons to draw on the exam table paper. While we waited for the doctor to come in, we explored the mural paintings on the walls of the exam room. It was a jungle scene with lots of animals, bumble-bees, and butterflies. Maya kissed all of the bugs and animals she could reach. She's REALLY into kissing EVERYTHING these days. The other day, I thought we would never get out of the house, as Maya kissed everything from the laundry basket to her baby doll. I even have a shirt that says "Baby" in little rhinestones, and she always kisses the word several times when I wear it. When she kisses things, I say, "Oh, you LOVE that shirt (or whatever it is)!" It's so stinkin' cute.

Anyway, back the the appointment... Dr. S. came in and greeted us all very warmly. After chit-chatting and getting to know our family a little bit, he started Maya's exam with her sitting ON MY LAP! It was AWESOME! As soon as he sat down in front of us, Maya reached out, made pinching motions with her fingers, and said, "teechs, teechs, teechs!" I translated for Dr. S. and said, "She wants to squeeze your cheeks." Without missing a beat, he leaned forward and let her pinch away! It was pretty funny. They quickly bonded, and the exam went very well. Maya didn't fuss one bit! The med assistant even let me hold her while she gave her immunizations! She got two shots and had a toe-poke for a blood draw to check her hemoglobin. She watched her do the toe-poke first and didn't even flinch! She did cry during the shots, but that was expected. The older she gets, the more traumatic the shots seem to be. She understands now that someone is hurting her, but she's not old enough to understand why. Plus, she really doesn't understand why we allow someone to hurt her! It's kind of a helpless feeling for me to see the look in her eyes that seems to say, "Why did you let her do that to me?!" I hate it. That being said, you can imagine my relief when the doctor said that those were her last shots until she starts kindergarten! YAY! No shots for 4 more years... that's AWESOME!

Here's the low down on Maya's growth so far... height: 30.5 inches (50th percentile) and weight: 20 pounds 6 ounces (10th percentile). I think she's going to be petite!

Overall, my first impression of our new doctor is that he's going to be a great fit for our family. We have the same views of how babies and toddlers should be taken care of during doctor's exams (on mom's lap, not laying flat on their back alone on an exam table), and that's really important to me. This is the first doctor's appointment with Maya that I was able to be completely relaxed and at ease during the entire visit. I'm so happy to have been referred to Dr. S.!

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!

I finally caved and bought Maya the most adorable shoes today! I'd been dying to get them for her because I knew she would love them, and she does! Check them out! (Listen really close near the end, and you can hear her say "Mommy"!)

When she first put them on, she just kept staring at her feet and stomping around, just walking without looking where she was going. I think she was amazed that her feet were making so much noise. Finally, she figured out that she could run around like normal, and they would continue squeaking (even if she wasn't looking at them). Here, she goes "speedin' fast!"...

I just love these shoes! They will come in handy at the mall or other crowded places. It'll be really easy to keep track of her with squeakers on her feet! Oh, and just in case you're wondering, the squeakers are removable! I can't wait for you to enjoy these new shoes with us!!

A Fun Afternoon with Friends!

We spent the afternoon in Grand Rapids today. Maya took an unusually long morning nap, so I decided to take my chances and skip an official afternoon nap. She fell asleep in the car just as we were pulling into the city, so I took the scenic route to Grandpa's house, driving through downtown and Taco Bell's drive-through for a diet Coke. She woke up just as we pulled into the driveway. She was super-excited to visit Grandpa and was kind of bouncing around as she banged on the door, as if to say, "Open! Open!" Once inside, she quickly rearranged everything within reach. She put the guitar pick back into the guitar case, where she had seen it one time before (her memory blows us away), then she found a harmonica and tried to play it (again, she had only played with it one time before and remembered what she was supposed to do). She held it up to her mouth in a vertical position and blew with her nose. It was so funny! After Grandpa showed her the correct way to do it, she held up up to her mouth and hummed into it! We clapped and cheered! She's so stinking cute!! She was particularly fascinated with Grandpa's guitar, so she got a few chances to play it...When we left Grandpa's house, we headed to the Meijer Gardens to meet up with Jill and her daughter, Lauren, and April and her girls, Maddie and Charlotte. We went straight to the children's section and let the girls run free! The little girls Maya, Lauren, and Charlotte, all loved the bridge and climbed over it several times. Here's Maya and Charlotte peering through the railing at Charlotte's foot (note: Charlotte is a mere 20 days older than Maya, yet she stands about a head taller than her!)...Here, Maya and Lauren actually both look in the same direction when called... amazing!Of course a day at the Gardens wouldn't be complete without playing in the water! Maya kept picking up the boats, dumping all the water right down her front, so by the time we left the water area, she was soaked! She loved taking the boats to the next-highest level of water and watching them topple down the mini-waterfall. Look at the intense concentration on Maya's face as she checks out this sail boat...When she wasn't playing with the boats, she was content to just splash in the water (at the front of this picture, you can see the top of the waterfall, where the boats fell victim to the rushing waters, via Maya's guiding hands)...As we made our way through the children's area, Maya had a lot of fun just running up and down the walkways. I love this picture. She's so busy and still so little...After our big afternoon at the Gardens, we went to eat at Noodles & Company. Yummy! Maya and I shared a couple of different dishes and loved them both. Maya also got to sample April's food when it arrived before ours. Being the hungry-hippo that she was, just started helping herself to April's noodles! In order to keep Maya's hands off her food, I started stabbing a noodle with Maya's fork, handing it to her to eat, she'd take the noodle, and quickly hand the fork back to me, clearly ready and waiting for more grub. I heard people laughing behind us and could feel several eyeballs on us, so I turned around to see a table full of people getting a kick out of Maya's antics. One of them said, "She doesn't wait for anybody!" That's pretty much it, all of the time. Maya operates on her own time, so keep up or get left behind!

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes...

Will and I realized today that Maya knows most all of her body parts! She can easily identify the following parts on command: head, hair, eyes, ears, cheeks, nose, mouth, tongue, belly, belly button, arms, elbows, hands, fingers, legs, feet, and toes! Not bad for 15 months! She never ceases to amaze us, and it seems there's something new every day! (I'll try to get it on video sometime soon and have Will post it to our website.)

A Budding Vocabulary

Maya has started really trying to say some words lately. Her first official word is... drum roll please... "Mom-my"! Yay! She says it in two VERY distinct syllables. Sometimes she says, "Mom-mom-me-me", and I think she just likes how that all sounds together. I'm not 100% sure if she understands that I'm "Mom-my", so every time I hear her say it, I'll answer her with, "What, honey?" or "That's me, I'm Mommy." I THINK she gets it. Either way, I love it, and it's super-cute! Her first word was "Dada", but her first real, pronounced correctly, actual word is "Mommy"! I couldn't be more excited!

Some other words she is saying include: "Dad-dy" (also still says Dada), "bup" means cup, "bipe" means bite, "baa-bee" means baby, "teechs" means cheeks (and she loves to say this while pinching our cheeks really hard), "beb-bow" means elbow (and she can actually point it out), "ba" means ball, "thants" means thanks, "baa-boo" means balloon, "pat, pat, pat, pat" (from Little Einsteins while patting her belly), "sit", "HI!", "Boo!" (while scaring us), "BOOM!" (when she falls or drops something), "uh-oh" (Will's personal favorite), and my other favorite is "bub-ble" (again, two VERY distinct syllables). I actually got her saying "bub-ble" on video! Check it out...

I hope that I can get a video of her saying "Mommy" soon! It's so cute! I love that she's trying to say so much. Tonight, she was trying to say "couch", but I can't remember exactly how it was coming out... I'll post it after I hear it again. Stay tuned for more words!

A Great Day!

We met Brian and Max at the mall today, so the kids could play at the mall playground. These are quickly becoming one of my favorite places to take Maya because all the stuff is soft foam, the floor is padded, and there are walls. Plus, she loves to play with and amongst other kids! She just thrives in these little germ pits! She climbs and runs the entire time we are there. It's awesome! The turtle (in the picture above) was her favorite thing to crawl on. It actually stands about 6 inches taller than her, and she scaled that thing in no time! It was quite impressive! After working up an appetite, we ate lunch at my favorite food court spot, Sbarro's Pizza. Yummy! When lunch ended, Brian and Max went home, and Maya and I walked down to Gap Kids to look for some new jammies. I love their long pant/long sleeve jammies, but they are really expensive. Normally, they cost about $22 a pair, but I've never paid more than $10 for them. I always check to see if there are any on sale and buy them when I find them cheap! Last week, I found a pair that have firetrucks on them and decided that Maya could wear them, and she could pass them on to her brother when he's big enough! Double bonus! Who cares if she's wearing boy jammies to bed?! Not me!! Well, we didn't have any luck today. The cheapest pair were marked down to $16.99, not cheap enough for me! We didn't leave the mall entirely empty handed, though. We stopped at Mrs. Field's and bought some miniature cookies. They were pretty good!

Maya woke up from her afternoon nap to find some company at our house. Miriam and the girls came over for a visit, and we were so happy to have them. Maya just adores those girls! She showered them with hugs and kisses. At one point, Maya was sitting on my lap, and Mackenzie was sitting on her lap. She was holding on tight, squeezing and rocking her. It was so cute. She kept giving them toys, and she's getting very good about being gentle with them. Whew! After both girls had been fed a snack, we headed outside for some fresh air. The girls stretched out on a blanket with Miriam, and Maya blew bubbles and played in the pool. She actually blew a few bubbles today! Most of the time, the wand was partially in her mouth while she was blowing, so her lips and chin would be all sudsy. She's learning, though, so I let it slide. Here's a picture of Maya and her best bubble yet...Pretty good, huh?! Look at how her little cheeks are all puffed out. She concentrates so hard! After bubble-blowing, Maya got into the pool, and I sat Mackenzie on the edge with her legs dangling into the water. She splashed and stomped her feet, and every time Maya would make a splash or face or something, Mackenzie would totally crack up! It was so funny. She got such a kick out of watching Maya. It reminded me of how Maya used to crack up at the Collier girls, Erin and Ashley. It must be something about bigger kids being silly that makes babies laugh... maybe because they are so close to their same size or because it just comes so naturally to kids to be funny! I don't know, but it makes me laugh! After our outside fun, we came in, popped in a Baby Einstein movie, and all the girls watched the movie while I made some spaghetti and bread for dinner. Dinner was delicious, and shortly after we finished eating, Miriam and the girls headed out. Maya and I played for the rest of the evening, and we were having so much fun, I actually didn't want to put her down for bed! She's starting to give closed-mouth kisses, and I got three of them before bed! So sweet... she even makes a little *smack* sound! I just love her so much...