Happy Thanksgiving!

What a wonderful day filled with love, family and super yummy food.. My mom still is the best cook in the world! I feel so lucky!

Wish List

Everyone has been asking for Maya's christmas and birthday list... so, I've put it on the blog for all you family members.

http://www.amazon.com/wishlist/27I4TUPUSJSNM/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go

Catch Up

Man, keeping up with this blog is harder than I thought! I promise to make a solid effort for keep it more up to date...

Since the last couple of entries Maya had changed into a little person... She is officially no longer a baby. (tear :( ) In a few short weeks she changed completely...

Maya now eats most food we eat... She seems to favor Italian food, wanting extra parmesan cheese, goat cheese, pasta, avocado, smoothies, but will eat anything from Jimmy's restaurant as well, minus the raw stuff, give her a few more months for that! She also lets you know when she's ready to eat more, saying "Yum Yum"...

Maya seems to understand everything you tell her, and is saying more words everyday. Words she says all the time are - Mama, Dada, Yum Yum, Night Night, Doggie (which sounds like dou dou), up, Santa, light, and a couple more... Things she says here and there Om (for Omi) Amps (for Gramps), rain,(ain) kitty cat(itty at) woof, bird, balloon, book, ball, bye bye, hi, and a few others I'm forgetting. If she can't say what she wants with words, she finds other ways... she points at everything she wants, or things she just wants you to talk about with her. She lets you know which books she's into and which she's not. Reading books can keep her busy for hours, and sometimes she's quite pushy about making you read to her. She has an incredibly sweet disposition though. She rarely cries, and even responds to "No No" and "Danger" without much fuss. She gives hugs and kisses when you ask for them, if she feels like it, and it seems like she's already learning the art of manipulation. She gives herself endless kisses in the mirror, and also gives favorite toys kisses, especially her baby dolls. Lately, she's also been trying to sit in her baby's bed, and it's super funny to see. She has also started walking. She can stand on her own for quite a long time and can walk with the aid of just one hand all through the house, and has taken around 10 steps or so balanced by herself. She is still nervous to walk around alone, although she had a few bumps and bruises to prove that she will occasionally just take off without anyone. Sometimes she's just too quick, and it's giving us all near heart attacks, since the house is virtually all wooden floors. Maya is still going on her potty everyday many times. She goes number one everything you set her on the thing, and starts giggling at the sound, number two has only come a few times, and we're trying to work on that timing a bit more. She has four teeth, and I think more are on the way. She still wakes up all during the night, but we decided to get over it and deal with it... It won't last forever right?

Happy Halloween!

Maya crawls through her tunnel.

Maya goes on the potty..

 

Maya has been going on the potty here and there everyday for a couple of weeks now... Sometimes she's not totally into it, and other times she LOVES it.

Seven Months 3 Weeks

Maya is changing like crazy... the time seems to be going by way to fast, and I just want to freeze the sweet little person she is right now. I've been trying to keep up with her baby book, and have written several first drafts of "the letter from Mommy and Daddy"... every time I try to do this, I realize she's not going to be a tiny person for all the much longer, and I literally have to sit and cry a little. I thought it would get easier, when she got a bit older, so I keep putting it off... Now, when I hear her going around the house singing "Mama Mama Mama" it's made it even harder to put into words what it felt like to have her grow inside me, what it was like to first lay eyes on her, what it feels like to hear her giggle, how I can spend endless amounts of time watching her sleep, the thrill that rips through me when I watch her smile when she wakes up and sees me in the room, how even though I cherish sleep more than so many things, I'll now gladly sacrifice it just to be able to feel her little body next to me and breathe in her sweet smell each night, how much I love her and all my hopes and dreams for her future. It always sounded so cliche how people would say you never knew how you could love until you had a child, but wow, it really is something you can't explain until you feel those tiny little arms squeeze around your neck...

So, an update... Maya is still not really crawling, and after watching her buddy Pablo's video of him seriously "scaling the house," we started letting Maya hang out alone on the floor a little more. She can definitely do the military crawl and occasionally we find her on all fours, but more often then not, she looks at us like, "just pick me up already!" She loves walking while holding on to our hands and her balance seems to be improving as she's starting to be able to stand on her own a bit now. She's hugely into imitating everyone. She sits with Daddy and brushes her teeth (gums- we're still waiting on the teeth), she also sits on he little potty every morning and has gone pee pee most days. Yesterday she actually when poo poo! Who would ever have though I'd be clapping my hands, all excited yelling "Poo Poo, yeeeee!" at six thirty in the morning! She is also in love with farm animals. She watches her farm animal dvd every morning while mommy and daddy drink their coffee, and she giggles when she sees the pigs, bunnies, dogs, and kittens. She seems to love the dvd even more now after taking her to the fair last week with her cousin Jessie to see all the animals in real life. Since Daddy and Gramps are almost always next door with the dogs, we hung a swing right above the dome site, so Maya can check everything out... She LOVES it. She sat in it watching all the action for 45 minutes the other day without even a peep. She's such a big girl, we can't wait to see what's next.

Six Months 3 Weeks

It's been a while since updating, and it's because we've been SUPER busy. We've shot a few weddings, taken a few short road trips, and Jimmy and Dad have been endlessly working next door on the property to get it livable.

We went to the coast for the fourth of July and hung out with Walt and the fam, and stopped to take a few shots at Stateline Beach in Brookings. Maya loved the sand and got several mouth fulls. She has become quite the little traveler and is getting much better in the car seat, and loves wiggling around the hotel room beds. She's babbling quite a bit, and we've heard MaMa BaBa Dada... music to our ears. She's eating alot more- her favorites are yogurt, avocado, and cantelope. She's mastered her rolling and army crawl, but is too lazy to commit to all fours, and favors walking. All of our backs are killing us. Omi and Gramps bought her a walker to get themselves off the hook, but unfortunately Miss Petite's legs didn't make it to the floor, so we're back to bending over most of the day. She's now trying to pull herself up from sitting to standing, a disaster waiting to happen. She took one swimming lesson, loved the water, and watching all the kids, until they all started screaming and crying. That was the end of our swim lessons, but we're getting tons of swimming in on our own in the pool and river. Maya loves swimming in it, splashing in it, squealing in it, and most of all drinking it, weather it's in the pool, the river, the bath, the shower, the sink and the sprinklers. She is one little water baby. She's also totally ticklish and we get the best deep belly laughs when we kiss her hips and sides. She loves visiting Daddy at work, and wants to pet the waving cat, but mostly our days consists of going on walks, eating, playing, looking at the flowers, and swimming. What a life! We feel more and more blessed each and every day.

5 Months 2 weeks

We've had a very busy month. We have been steadily getting the property ready for the dome... the well is going to be drilled next Monday - pray for us, and think water! Jimmy has been clearing out trees, purchasing solar panels, researching composting toilets, and the design of the dome. We just returned from a whirlwind trip to Syracuse where Maya met the other members of her family. She did really well on the flights considering we spent over 10 hours traveling each way, and was really good with all the new people and the new surroundings. She visited her first zoo, and seemed to be interested in the elephant, and fell in love with the penguins, she let out some really loud whines when they would swim out of sight. She slept through most of the rest of the animals, so Uncle Sam gave us a personalized tour. Maya met two great grandmas and went to Johnny's Pizza for the first time. She did get a bit sick near the end of the end of the trip, but seems completely recovered after sleeping in her own bed and listening to the quiet we have here in Selma for a few days. She is sitting up by herself for 30 seconds and more at a time, is waving "bye-bye," and enjoyed her first meal of "solid" food. She's in love with the massive German Shepard "Dante" and she's enjoying her alone time with her toys more and more. What a little doll we've been blessed with, if only she wouldn't grow quite so fast!

PS The photos of us in the Denver airport was taken by a Beach Boy - Maya's first celebrity!

Four Months Three Weeks

The weather has finally warmed up and we've been too busy to blog. Maya has continued to grow much more vocal and much more mobile. I need to video one of her giggle/yelping sessions before she quits and something new develops. Right now, she is a drooling maniac, and keeps her fingers, or anything she can get her hands on in her mouth. She had her first picnic in the park with Daddy and Mommy, and went on the swing for the first time. Maya can now sit in her high chair, and in a couple weeks we're going to start her on solid food. She still isn't sleeping through the night, she wakes up around every three to three and half hours to eat, but does this for around 12 hours - then takes a couple of very short morning naps and a couple of even shorter afternoon naps (if we're lucky). Either way she's a bundle of fun...
We celebrated mother's day, just the three of us in Jacksonville at the Jacksonville Inn, then cruised around the Applegate Valley for the afternoon. When Mom came back from California, Walt, Monica, Jimmy, and I treated her for some sushi. We also got a fun photo session in, of Mom, Maya, and I. We signed Maya up for swim lessons which start in July with cousin Jessie, and on a weekend trip to Bend, Maya strutted her stuff in(and out of) her new bikini. She loves the water, and goes for a tiny dip now almost every day in the pool. Today we had a bar-b-q with the family for memorial day, and are going to work on the property the next two days. Next week we're off to Syracuse for a week, so I'm sure we'll have tons of photos and stories of the big trip... pray for good ears, and happy baby!

Maya Graduates Infant Massage Class

3 Months 3 Weeks

Maya has changed so much in the last couple of weeks. Along with growing, she's started being much more vocal. Mommy heard the words she's been longing to hear early yesterday morning! Maaaaa Maaaaa! Too bad it was in a dimly lit early morning fuss, and wasn't in a sweet cooing way, but we will take what we can get! Maya is also letting everyone know exactly what she wants and when she wants it with grunts, yelps, giggles, and yes... screams. She's finding her voice and temper at the same time. She loves her toys, and has figured out how to reach, grab, and stuff them into her mouth. When things don't cooperate, she gets furious, letting out loud yells. So much for Daddy wanting to be Mister Mom after he witnessed a fit!) She seems to be curious about everything, and also gets bored easily if you stop entertaining her. She loves her new standing play toy from Gramps, Omi, and Great Grandma Hayes, since she wants to be standing or rolling and that's it. (Our arms are all getting quite the work-out!) She loves being read to, tossed gently in the air, watching the dogs, going for walks in the stroller, going to farmers market, going to the park to look at the ducks, looking at her fish in the aquarium, the train at Daddy's work, and baths. The days of her hanging out calmly in the tub are now over. She wants to be touching the splashing water from the shower, or wiggling and rolling in the tub. We will be starting swimming lessons this summer, since Maya seems born to be a swimmer. She has, sadly, outgrown the sweet Moses Basket, and now takes naps in her crib. She's starting to get on a schedule, of at least a big nap in the morning, and if we're lucky, a couple short ones in the afternoon, with bedtime around 7:30. In a nutshell, our days exists only for little Maya, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

our sweet girl...

Four Generations of CRAZY!

Maya Three Months Old

Maya is three months old, and has had many firsts in the last week or two. Three nights ago, she finally rolled from back to belly, and this morning from belly to back. She's grabbing everything, and with both hands. She giggling up a storm, which makes us all act much sillier than usual, just to get an adorable little laugh. She took her first trip to the Illy River and loved all the little streams running into it. She's also realized the dogs, especially Illy, and loves to watch his tail. She's giving Mommy a couple extra hours of sleep at night, with her first stretch running 4-5 hours. She got her first round of vaccinations which she took like a champ and Mommy took it like a huge wimp. She weighs 11lbs 5oz, and is growing steadily, although she's only in the 30th percentile - petite little thing. She loves being read to every night before bed, and will sit though the entire of book of Corduroy and A Child's Goodnight Prayer. She met little baby Pablo, who is super cute. She lets us all know what she wants and we give it to as fast as possible, making her not only the most spoiled little person ever, but also the cutest!

Maya Enjoys the Springtime

 

 

Maya's new sunglasses, Omi bought her, and hanging in the garden.