Covariants: Two and a half and #2: we are still here and the summer in review

Somehow I blinked and the summer flew by. My sweet little peanut is now 2 and a half. She's not so little anymore. She's about 30 lbs and last time we measured right around 36 inches. I think she has probably grown since then. Maya is definitely a bit more sassy now than she was 6 months ago. But usually still sweet and quite hilarious. Since she's so verbal, she's fond of word play, making silly rhymes and the like. I think she knows all of her books word for word. And we have a lot of books. She will frequently correct us if we misread something. In the last few months, she realized that letters form words. Since then she will sometimes go through a book point at each word individually and asking what it is. I'm curious to see when she will read, but I'm not pushing it and I am by no means rushing or wishing away these toddler days.

Maya has a few challenging behaviors that I think are just related to being two. One is that she is terrified of noisy things or things that she thinks may be noisy. She had gotten over her fear of the vacuum now she is terrified again. The fireworks on the 4th were quite traumatizing for her. She like the pretty colors she said but not the noise. I made the mistake of telling her we were going to get the oil changed in the car. She had a 30 minute meltdown while we got ready because she was afraid it would be noisy despite my best efforts to convince her otherwise. She was still in tears when we got there but after a few minutes decided it was fun. We went to a park with a kiddie train and carousel. She cried in line because they might be noisy. I told her she had to ride both one time. She seemed to enjoy both after the rides started. Made me feel like a horrible person for torturing her though.

The second is her fear of being alone. She won't let me out of her site 99% of the day. If I leave the room she's rushing after me saying "mom, where are you?", "don't run away", or some variation of these. I talked to her about it and why she was afraid. She said "I'm afraid I might lose you". Sometimes it's endearing. But sometimes it would be nice to walk from the living room to the kitchen and back (in our very open floor plan house) without someone yelling after me. I'm sure I'll look back and this in a few years when I'm way less cool and miss these days.

Here's a recap of our summer. Just for posterity's sake. I'm pretty sure any readers have already heard about our summer or given up hope that I'll ever post again. Or perhaps both.

I last left you in May so we will pick up in June. June was somewhat of an exciting month. We celebrated Father's day along with the rest of the country. Derek got his present a little early though. You may remember from past years that Maya and I did this and similarly this the following year. This year was more of the same. But after taking these on the 13th, I decided to give them to Derek the same day.

Like her new shirt? In case that's too subtle and you haven't otherwise heard (don't feel bad you are in good company) (or you have heard and just like to see pictures)

this is from 8/6

Derek didn't pick up on the shirt right away. I mentioned if it was to subtle for him there was something else (a pregnancy test) in the bag. Speaking of pregnancy test, with Maya I think I took at least 8 tests. And I have pictures of at least one of them. This time I took two test and no pictures. I'm either slacking on the second child already or just less in denial this time. Also, the "morning" sickness that this one caused is largely responsible for my lack in blogging. I'm finally escaping that haze. Yuck. (Thinking about food made me gag, as did being hungry, eating to much, brushing my teeth, washing my hair, washing my face, etc. The nausea was almost constant but worse at nights.) My due date is Feb 16th. I'm hoping I don't go late enough to hit Maya's birthday on the 22nd.

June 16th Derek got waffles and coffee in bed. Maya thought it was lots of fun.

June 21 was the first day ever that Maya didn't nurse. She nurse a couple of times in the following days. But was pretty much weaned from that day. She had dropped down to twice a day even before I got pregnant. And I had a feeling that the end was near. But I think getting pregnant was what pushed it. She told me the milk tasted funny. I thought I was ready to wean her but it made me sadder than I expected. We'll blame the tears on my hormonal pregnant status rather than me being that mother.

The week of July 4th, Dereks parents came to visit. We gave them a double frame with a picture of Maya wearing the shirt from above. It took them a little while and several shirt hints to catch on. I had my first prenatal appointment while they were here. It worked out well since we had a babysitter and Derek was off work for the holiday. A week after they left, my mom and two of my brothers came to visit. They got the same frame and picture. I think my mom noticed the shirt with less hinting. It worked out well to have family here two weeks in July since I was feeling so crummy. They helped entertain Maya and cooked. We managed to do some fun stuff while everyone was here. I didn't get too many pictures. I need to get some from the grandparents.

From the 4th. Waiting for the fireworks.

7/19 Beach w/ two uncles. It was not the best day for the beach as you can tell from the sky.

Looking for crabs.

My mom brought this dress and doll from my grandmother when they came. We lost the dress until 8/2 when it was discovered in the bib drawer.

This is why there are fewer pictures these days. She can't sit still.

On July 26th, I had my second prenatal appointment. We told Maya the next day that she would be getting a brother or a sister. I don't think she really gets it. I mean she knows what brothers and sisters are. Several of her friends recently got baby brothers so she can somewhat relate to that. But she has no idea whats coming.

July 30th, Maya had her first dentist appointment. She did a great job. She watched me get mine cleaned first. Then she sat in my lap in the chair. They gave her sunglasses to wear since the light was bright. She let them take a look, polish her teeth with a little zebra head, and paint on some fluoride. She got a cool new piglet toothbrush and a bouncy ball. (Almost forgot to add. When I was getting prepped for my cleaning Maya replied loudly "she put a napkin on mom's boobs")

New shades and goody bag

This brings us to August. I feel like August was all doctors appointment and travel. We did squeeze in a visit to the park of torture on 8/7.

The non noisy part of the park

We visited Derek's grandparents and brother 8/13-8/17. My mom and brothers were in town as well since my youngest brother was moving in. He is starting grad school at the same university as Derek's brother attends.