trick or treat, mostly treats

Halloween party (10/25/12)

Short interlude, introducing owl girl, bat girls new sidekick

Making jack-o-lanterns (10/29/12, also Maya cut her bottom left canine)

Admiring our work the next day

The stages of Trick or treating:

1) Um guys, I'm not sure what's going on 

2) You mean they give me treats?

3) I think I might like this

4) Yes, I like this. RUN!!

5) mmm, candy: no pictures of this, it was pretty dark by then

20 Months and Lots of questions

Maya has started asking questions such as
"what mom/dad/Maya doing", "who's that" (this means both who is that and what is that), "what that is" and my personal favorite "how it work"

She recognizes that writing is beey, bee, sees (also known as abc's). She knows some of the letters such as M, D, and O. She told me that our igloo cooler had two o's on the lid. She also recognizes the name/logo for Derek's work. She also recognizes some numbers. She told me that one of her shapes for her sorter had an 8 on it and it did in fact have one.

She opened the fridge for the first time a week ago Saturday and helped herself to some shredded cheese. She's opened it a few times since then. Fortunately, she usually just gets her sippy of milk and shuts the door.

She didn't nurse overnight at all last Saturday night. This week, however, has been rough again. She had a tummy ache on Sunday evening. I'm not sure if that's what's her issue is or what.

After going camping she recognized the fire in goodnight moon. She was so excited. She kept saying fire outside just like that and pointing to the picture.

She's gone potty several times last week. Tuesday she went potty and so got her ice cream reward. After she finished eating it, she asked for more. I told her if she went potty again she could have more. She ripped off her diaper, ran to the bathroom and went again. So she's getting the idea. I'm starting to have second thoughts about the ice cream as a reward.

One day at lunch this week, Maya kept asking for my cucumbers with vinegar. She ate a number of them then told me "I not like it"

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend. We rode a train and tractor, fed the sheep and goats, picked out a pumpkin.

I'm probably forgetting something but it's late and I'm tired. So now for picture overload.
Pumpkin dress my mom made (excuse the diaper pail):

The pumpkin patch:

20 months on Monday (For some reason 20 months seems so much older than 19)

First camping trip

We took our first camping trip with Maya this past weekend. It went pretty well all things considered. Friday we drove out and got set up. It was cold at night but we bundled Maya and stuck her between us in the sleeping bags and she slept ok. She kept rolling around and hitting us. Between that, the cold, and sleeping on the ground Derek and I didn't sleep much. Saturday, it was nice during the day. We hiked a little

We saw some fish swimming upstream

In the evening, we had s'mores

I don't recommend s'mores before playing in the dirt. We had to round up quarters to give Maya a shower. And we shared the shower with a frog. Saturday night was cooler than Friday night. Maya cried off and on all night. No one really slept.
On Sunday, we grabbed coffee and a bear claw then stopped by the lake on the way home. Maya ran right in despite the cool temperature.

Some friends stayed Sunday night and apparently we missed the coldest night and a bear coming through the campground digging in everyone's stuff.

Tuesday, Maya's other canine tooth (the upper right) popped through. Thursday, we went to a park and fed the koi fish peas. Maya wants to go back and do it again. Next time we are buying some fish food. The seemed to prefer it.

Today we went to a park for a picnic then rode the train and carousel. It's awesome that there are so many good parks nearby. We had pizza tonight. In honor of that (well mostly because I was digging through old videos and found this one and it makes me laugh), here's an old video of Maya's first pizza from almost a year ago (11/23/11).

19 Months

Here are a few pictures from the 22nd. When you pull out the camera she says pictures and runs over to sit in your lap to see them. It makes it kind of hard to take pictures of her.

These are a couple of videos from today. I took the floorboard out of her car so that she could try pushing it herself. She could only go backwards but she seemed to enjoy it. 

As you can see from these videos, she talks all the time. Her pronunciation is pretty good (at least I think so and don't think I am just biased) and is improving everyday. I was a little sad when cats stopped saying ow and cows stopped saying boo. Then Sunday we lost norse. And now in the last few days nohk has become milk. At least she still says wuv (love) and gibe (give). Speaking of wuv, she climbed up in bed with me this morning, snuggled up to my chest and said I wuv milk. 

Busy Month

On Friday, 8/31, after Maya got dressed she told me that we needed to take pictures in the chair with her bear. So we did. That evening, we took a redeye flight to visit with Derek's family. We didn't take the camera so I don't really have pictures from the trip.

On 9/3 we hitched a ride to visit friends, Auntie J and Uncle J. (She is still talking about her buddies G and E. The last few days it's been "remember G went potty" and "I wuv G and E" and "G's shoes?", "G's cup?", "E's chewy?" Also thanks to Uncle J, Maya and her dolls/animals do push-ups randomly in the kitchen or while playing outside. She always asks me to take part.) Maya's first canine, the upper left one, finally cut through the gum on 9/4 (I think). It took forever. She's still working on the upper right one. Hopefully it won't be as bad. Derek returned home on 9/5. Maya and I hung out there for a few more days before driving to visit my family. On 9/6, we visited a certain arcade/restaurant. With her tickets, Maya picked out a mouse whistle, then I picked out a straw and stickers for her.

Saturday, 9/15: we met up with all of the grandparents for a trip to the zoo. I know they all took pictures. I'll have to get some from them.

Tuesday, 9/18: Maya and I finally headed home. That morning, I was trying to pack and Maya was being a handful, climbing, pulling everything out, general toddler stuff. Her diaper leaked on her jammies so I pulled them off but didn't take the time to dress her immediately. Next time she came through she was completely naked. I went to investigate and there was a puddle in the bathroom near her diaper. She had put the little potty seat was on the toilet but couldn't climb up without help. It's the thought that counts I guess. Our flight home was with the same airline that we flew with last time, the one that left us with an overnight excursion. We went with them because we had vouchers to us. The first leg of the flight was great. They crew was helpful. They even carried the carseat onto the plane for me. The second leg, the crew was less than helpful when we were loading. I wrangled Maya, bags, and the carseat to row 17. I get everyone buckled in and settled. Then a helpful flight attendant tells me that I can't have the seat rear facing. I asked her why and she said you just can't have them rear facing on an airplane. She said she was 98-100% sure that you couldn't have them rear facing. I asked her about the infant seats and she said you can't have those rear facing either so she clearly didn't know what she was talking about. I told her I didn't agree with her, that we had flown with it rear facing several times, and that Maya would just kick the person in front of us. She said that wasn't a reason to leave it rear facing. She said she could look it up, so I said yeah why don't you. She said while I do, you change the seat around. I said something like ok but I still think you are crazy. She said that's not very nice to say to a flight attendant. I replied, you're right, I'm sorry, not crazy but wrong, you are still wrong. I saw her in the back flipping through a book and talking on the phone about me. I never heard from her again other than to get a drink later. Maya rode forward facing. But I still think I'm right. Fortunately she slept for most of the flight. And the couple sitting in front of us had 6 kids of their own. The lighting wasn't great on the plane but here she is watching "a time" on my phone before her nap.

Maya's language skill really seemed to explode during the 2.5 weeks we were gone. She went from 3 word sentences to 4 or 5 and her pronunciation of 2-3 syllable words really improved (i.e. she says all of the syllables rather than just one). Also she's pretty hilarious and can carry on a conversation. For example, she has trouble pronouncing one of my brother's name so both of them that still live at home she just calls Matt. She was saying her pray one evening and was saying thank you for everything and everyone she could see. She said thank you for Matt and Matt that one. Also, I was putting Maya, the diaper bag, and groceries in the car. I put Maya in then the groceries, then sat the diaper bag on top of the groceries. I said, "oh no! I smashed the chips." Maya said, "bad news". I wasn't sure if she was responding to me so I asked her what's bad news and she replied, "chips". 

Wednesday, 9/19: Trying on her cool new socks. Yes, I know they don't match her pants but they perfectly match the skirt I made her for her birthday.

Thursday, 9/20: Maya pooped in the potty. She got ice cream, the little bite sized chocolate coated ice cream bits, as a treat. No successes since then but she has been sitting on it fairly regularly. We aren't really pushing it but are encouraging it.

Friday, 9/21: Waiting to see the shuttle.

Saturday, 9/22: 19 months old. Hard to believe its been 19 months and she's grown from a tiny little peanut to a squirmy, talkative toddler. I have pictures but I need to upload them. In other news, Maya had a second successful potty attempt.

Sunday, 9/23: Today Maya sat on the potty but got up a too little early and it all went in the floor. Tonight when we were getting ready for bed she ran over and grabbed her dog and said "dog dog, wuv you". Also all day she's been saying more rather than norse/noose. I'm kind of sad to see her baby talk disappearing.

18 Months

These were taken last week when she turned 18 months. She went for her well baby checkup on Friday. She weighed in at 23 lbs 9 oz and 34.25 inches. She's in the 99 percentile for length and head circumference but that weight was only up 1 oz since 15 months. I really think she weighs more than that. She's more like 26 lbs on our home scale, with clothes on but I doubt her clothes weigh that much. We are supposed to keep an eye on it at home and make sure she is gaining. The doctor was impressed with Maya's verbal skills, both understanding and talking. She gave Maya a zebra (zeeb) sticker and looked in it's ears, eyes, etc. before checking out Maya's. It worked really well and Maya didn't freak out until it was time for the shots. She kept telling us Maya is smart. We knew that already :). (If you ask Maya if she is smart she will say no, yes, sign smart, and then say smart phone. We're not sure where she learned about smart phones.) After her shots, she kept whining and saying knees. It was so pitiful. I finally took off her bandages and put pants on her. After she recovered from that she seemed to whine less. 

When we are at home, Maya talks all the time. She talks about what she's doing or what her toys are doing. She likes to play with her FP little people, elmo, baby dolls and animals. From what I gather from her dialog, they spend a great deal of time eating (usually on our table or in her high chair), pooping (both on the potty and in diapers requiring frequent change), and napping. Maya also now talks about things that she did earlier in the day, previous days, or even weeks ago. It's been interesting to sort of see her memory develop. She is still talking about my mom and brothers coming to visit. She says airport, bye-bye, home, miss and talks about my brother sleeping on the couch and sneezing. A week ago we had one of her little friends over for a play date. She's been talking about it and about the previous play date we had with them at the park to ride the train and carousel.

Maya stories from this month (since I'm a slacker and haven't posted in too long):

She loves to sing (well really more for other people to sing, although she does go around singing hot buns, hot buns and ee i ee i). She knows you sing at church. One day, she asked to sing. I told her we had to wait until Mr. Mike was all done talking. She kept shouting, "Mike, all done, sing"

She also likes to pray recently. Our meals are always double or triple blessed, along with our chairs, forks, plates, anything she can see or happens to think about.

We go eat with Derek at work sometimes. When Maya talks about Dad being at work she frequently tells me he's eating. Knowing where he works, there is some truth to this, hehe.

Photo dump

7/24

7/28: Ice cream! She asks for/talks about ice cream all the time now.

7/31: We've been playing souside (outside) a ton recently. 

8/2: Always fashionable. She was wearing her swim cap with this ensemble but she took if off before I snapped the picture.

8/3: Riding the train at the park.

8/5: She tries to climb every tree she can touch. I helped her up in this one at church.

8/6: We picked up my mom and two of my brothers both of whom Maya calls Matt from the airport. We had told Maya earlier in the week that they were coming and while they were here we would go to the beach. When I told Maya we were going to get them at the airport, she said "beach".

8/7: The beach for a day of swimming and digging. After Maya recovered from the heartbreak of me making her eat before we could go play, she had a blast. She doesn't even mind when the waves splash in her face.

8/9: The zoo to see giraffes with long necks, zebs (zebras), bears, and lems (lemurs) that look like skunks, shoo stinky hold your nose.

For comparison, these are from 11/12/11 when we went with Derek's parents.

8/11

8/12: Hiking is hard work, Maya fell asleep mid walk. Before that, she kept telling Derek to run.