Happy Father's Day

Hope all the father's had a great day.

We had a pretty uneventful day other than Maya being a bit of a crouch. That last molar is a tough one I guess. Maya was up early and helped me make breakfast for Derek. We unearthed the waffle iron since last Father's day, in a moving box under our shoes, so we made overnight waffles. It was a new recipe but they turned out well. You basically mix flour, sugar, yeast, salt, milk and butter and let it sit overnight. In the morning add eggs and cook. Super easy and tasty. We got Derek a serving tray for his breakfast in bed. I plan on personalizing it but I'm a slacker this year and didn't get it done in time. Maya and I also made photos for Derek, just like last year. I couldn't decide which set I liked best so here are both. 

Maya refused to nap at church, preferred to cry instead. She fell asleep on the way home so we picked up drive through burgers and surfed the web sitting in the car until she woke up. Poor Maya had to settle for baby food. Maybe tonight's hummus made up for it. It is apparently the latest spa treatment. It has to be followed by strawberries, yogurt, and whipped cream for maximum effectiveness.

Video Dump

Since I'm a slacker I have a number of videos that I haven't gotten around to posting. (Now that Maya regularly naps in her crib I have more time, not enough time so don't expect multiple posts a week in general, but at least more) Here is a sampling.

We apparently say boom too much around here. Here's video proof. Well the second one is mostly so that you can hear Maya say kick because it's too cute. These two are from last Sunday when we filled up her pool for the first time.

This on is from a month ago (5/15). Showing off her mad skillz in body part locating.

This one is from 4/24. She loves to play in the water, even when it's cool out, the water is cold, and she starts turning purple. It's hard to hold the hose and camera at the same time so not the greatest quality but you get the idea.

Obedience Training

The animals in our house are very poorly behaved. They require constant correction, "hey. no no no" with finger waggle. Watch the sheep (or the baa as it's better known here) over by the tub, he tried to eat clothes all day. The rabbit (hop hop) apparently wanted in on it too. And I won't mention who strew post it notes everywhere and unrolled all the toilet paper. But she later tried to through the sheep into the toilet. I guess he had it coming. Hopefully he will be better behaved tomorrow.

In other news, after teasing us with waking up only once one Tuesday night, Maya was up all night last night. This morning I noticed that the left molar on the bottom popped through. I think I forgot to mention in the last post that her top right one cut through this past weekend. The top left feels like it will be in any day now. Hopefully after that we can all get some sleep. I keep threatening sleep training but between illness and teeth, we haven't had the heart/opportunity to do it. And she seems to really improve when she feels well. Fingers crossed it just magically improves after these molars get through.

In still other news, we found a second black widow on our porch yesterday. First one we found right before Maya and I left town. CREEPS me out. Yuck.
Edited to add: My mom asked me if I killed it. I told her no way, I left it for Derek. We ran inside and locked the door (because everyone knows that keeps spiders out). Maya was mad because I told her she could sit in the chair but then she didn't get to.

15 Months

Maya turned 15 months on the 22nd. I took some photos that day and had planned to post them along with an update. But we have had computer issues in our house. Derek's was down. And someone did "nothing" to mine after which it wouldn't boot. Then Maya and I left on the 27th for a trip to visit the grandparents. But that's a story for another post. Enough of the excuses though. Look at this 15 month cutie. 

She had a well baby check-up on the 23rd. She was in fact well for it for the first time since her six month one or so. She got some of her 12 month vaccines. She had grown an inch and is up to 32 inches (so in the 91st percentile). She didn't gain much weight, less than a pound in three months, and weighed in at 23 lbs 7 oz dropping her to the 61st percentile. Her pediatrician was a little concerned about the drop but attributed it to the fact that she's been sick so much, particularly the month long poopocalypse, and that she NEVER sits still. She said we'd see how she's doing at 18 months. (Someone at church today actually commented that she looked like she'd lost weight and asked if she'd been sick) Of coarse, Maya's eating really seems to have gone downhill recently. Before, she would refuse breakfast but eat and eat in the afternoons and evenings. Now she generally picks at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and may or may not eat her snack. Her pediatrician also wanted us to try to get her up to at least 8 oz of whole milk (or as it's called around here boo milk). Maya drinks about 4 oz on a good day. And by drink I mean sip, wait, sip, wait, sip, open your mouth and let some/most of the milk run out, sip, turn your cup upside down and shake, smash the straw/spout onto the nearest hard surface so that milk sprays out, rub your hands in it to smear it everywhere, lick your hand, sip, and well you get the idea. At least she swallows some of it now so we will call this progress. Also at least she is still a big fan of "this" milk as she calls it while pointing at her chest or mine. Her noggin is still large, in the 96th percentile. After her freak out at the urgent care visit for the nose incident, I thought Maya would have a similar reaction at the pediatricians office. She did really well though. The doc came in and talked to us a while. Then when she started examining Maya, I told Maya what the doc was doing, i.e., she's going to look into your eyes, tickle your ears, etc. The pediatrician then asked is she knew her body parts. We told her she knew a number of them. The pediatrician told Maya she was going to listen to her back. Maya said back and pointed (or at least attempted to point) at her back. Her doc told us she's smart.

Maya has really become more articulate since she hit 15 months. Her favorite/new words are no (usually no no no complete with head shake and finger waggle), yes, this, hi, eye, two, mom, shoe, hat, ball, kick, dad, spoon, fork, bowl, hey, bib, nine, uh-oh, help, napkin, stick, rain, book, bucket, dig dig dig, towel, boom, hot. If something is cold she says ooh (or sometimes calls it hot). She loves to help cook and do laundry. Some days I can't walk into the kitchen without her running over saying/signing help. She is overly concerned about messes sometimes. If she drops a piece of food she says uh-oh, help, napkin (while also signing the last two) until you clean it up or finally distract her. 

I'm sure I'm forgetting something but at least you get pictures.

Dance!

An old video I put together but never posted:

Happy Mother's Day

I know I'm almost a week late but I hope all the moms had a wonderful mother's day. A day filled with love and elephants. Adorable elephants, with a yellow shovel and a single glove. No? Maybe that was me.

Derek made breakfast and Maya helped serve it to me in bed. Well mostly she hopped on the bed, mooched my food, smelled my flowers, and asked for milk. They gave me a beautiful African violet, a hat, and a card (Maya even signed it). After church we had leftovers, talked to our mom's (during which Maya at some point donned her elephant attire), and then Maya and I took a nap.

What else have we been up to?
Last Friday morning, I babysat a friend's 9 month old and 2 year old for an hour or so. It better than I expected, especially considering it was during Maya's usual nap time. Maya and the baby bumped heads once. Maya was really upset by it, I think largely because she was tired. Maya's crying kept upsetting the baby after I'd get her calmed down. Maya bonked her in the head with a toy also. Then tried to give her a kiss to make it all better. It was pretty cute but I was concerned she would just headbutt her again. Maya doesn't always give the most gentle kisses and usually leads with her forehead. The 2 year old kept taking the cushions off of the couch and trying to jump off onto them. Not the best activity when you have two little ones crawling around.

Friday afternoon, we went swimming with our library friends. This was the first time Maya had been in the pool. It wasn't heated so it was a little cool but she didn't seem to mind. She giggled about the whole time. She kept asking me to let her down. Unfortunately the shallow end was 3 ft so that wasn't really feasible. Here's a couple of picture from after her swim. Excuse the excess sunscreen and the drowsy look from a missed nap.

Last Saturday, I hit up a community yard sale at a nearby park while Derek and Maya ran some Mother's day errands. I picked up 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts, a skirt, shorts, 2 bibs, a dress, some pjs, and some other stuff I can't remember at the moment for $11. Then our landlord, who had a booth, gave Maya some books, a stuffed dog and duck, an elephant costume, and some other odds and ends.

Maya enjoys the park but it seems to be an invitation for an accident for her (although maybe most places are for a toddler). This week she ate sand and got choked on it. Then got bonked by a dog and made her lip bleed. Maya also got a new hat this week. She has a matching ladybug shirt but it was in the wash. Here are some pictures from Thursday. Have I mentioned she likes her shovel?

Newish words (some I forgot to list last week and some we've just figured out what she's saying): this, bucket, book, help, uh-oh, bib, stick, tree, chocolate, yogurt (this is more of a yumyum so maybe she just really likes it). This, stick, and help are some of her best pronounced words.

She has a book about colors that has a picture of yogurt on the pink page and chocolate on the brown. We can't read it without Maya wanting one or the other. She's drag you into the kitchen and point to the fridge or the chocolate stash. Pretty funny. Another funny story. Derek usually gets Maya out of bed if she wakes up before he leaves and then brings her to our bed for her to nurse. Last weekend he got her up from a nap. She wanted down, ran to our room, and looked on the bed. She started crying when she realized I wasn't in bed.

I think I have a toddler, a tale of teeth, temper tantrums and tumbles

Over the last few weeks, Maya has really become less baby like and more of a toddler. It's been a while but here's a summary of what we've been up to. On April 26 we went to the park to play. She threw a tantrum because I wouldn't let her carry her shovel while she climbed and slide on the play structure. She's generally pretty easy going so this was sort of new for her. It's kind of funny right now, but I'm sure it will get old soon enough if it is a frequent occurrence. Even without the shovel she managed to face plant into the stair and give herself a fat lip. Her tooth cut her lip. It bled quite a bit and swelled up. Fortunately her teeth were ok. The next day I was looking at her lip and noticed she had finally cut her lower left lateral incisor.

We celebrated Derek's birthday a day early on April 28 with strawberry shortcake. We bought strawberries from the farmers market then made homemade shortcake, frozen yogurt and whip cream. Very tasty.  Maya blew out the candle for him.

On May 1, we went to eat with a lady that Maya and I met at the library and her family. Her husband works at the same company as Derek and her little girl is only a few days older than Maya. As Maya and I were getting ready to leave for dinner, I noticed she had yet another tooth in there. She cut her first molar on the lower right. It looks the upper right one is starting to cut through also but hasn't broken the gum yet.

This past Saturday, we went hiking. We stopped by the small farm in the park to see the animals. Maya fell asleep about halfway up so I ended up with her on my back all the way up and part of the way back down. I was a great day other than one minor choking on pear incident.

On Tuesday, Maya and I went to the library story time. She took her shovel. She is always shy when we go to story time recently. She sat in my lap most of the time. She did get up for if you are happy and you know it. She cracks me up stomping her feet. After story time we were reading books in the kids section. Maya loves to sit in the little chairs or ch chs as she calls them. I scooted her chair away from the table so she wouldn't bonk her head on the table. Somehow though, she managed to lunge out of the chair and hit her nose right on the edge of the table. She had a nose bleed immediately. Then after an hour or two it started swelling and she sounded congested. I called the advice nurse and asked when I should worry and what, if anything, I should do. She suggested we go to the urgent care clinic so we made our first visit to urgent care. Maya didn't seem to mind the nurse taking her vitals. But she started signing milk when the doctor walked in, freaked out when the doctor touched her with the stethoscope and didn't stop until she left the room. Conclusion was no serious damage. Just bruising and swelling. Told me to ice it (haha) and come back if it bleeds too much.

Some pictures from Sunday. In the first one she had just stuck her hands in a spider web.

I tried to get down on her level but she just copied me

What else has Maya been up to? New words: ball, rain, elbow, home, knee, leg, hot, hat. I know I'm forgetting some. If you ask her where something is, she will walk around going hmm. If you try to play chase with her, she gets down and crawls (I think it's because that's how we always chase her). She likes to scoot around backwards on her belly on the tile in our kitchen. She also enjoys walking backwards until she crashes into something. Derek showed her how to use the salad spinner on Monday while I was out playing soccer. All day today she kept getting it out of the cabinet and telling me that she needed help. She is afraid of Derek's guitar. She runs away and signs milk.  She loves to play in the sprinkler when I water the garden, even when it's too cool to really do so comfortably in my opinion. Every time we see or talk about umbrellas, she says rain rain. It's my favorite word to hear her say. Tonight we had pasta and she was a big fan. She's still obsessed with her shovel. She's still not a great sleeper. I think the whole teething thing has been an issue the last week.