The Holiday Season

The holiday traditions have become so much fun now that Maya is old enough to understand and partake.  Here she is in action.

Heading out to find the perfect tree.

 Enjoying the spiced cider with Daddy.

Helping to put up the ornaments.  She didn't quite understand what we were doing at first, but once she caught on she didn't want it to end.  After we ran out of non-breakable ornaments, she decided she would just take them off the tree and put them back on.  Endless fun!

We celebrated Christmas with the Knowles family a week early - here she is tearing into her first present.  

She loved the magnetic alphabet she received and kindly "forced" Uncle Preston to play with her for most of the afternoon!

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Bennett discovered a much easier way to play with his new basketball hoop.

Cousins checking out Grandma and Granpa's Christmas tree.

The best we could get with the two of them!  Pictures of busy toddlers is not easy.

We held our annual cookie baking day with the Knowles girls.  It was a bit more chaotic with little ones, but also more fun.  The cute little redhead is Avery, a fried of Bennett's.

The kids decorated cookies, which Maya didn't quite understand at first.  She figured she should just eat them all.

But once she figured it out, there was no stopping her.

She became quite bossy in which decorations she wanted.

The final spread and the hard workers (we are just missing Grandma in the picture).

18 Months!!

Maya reached a huge milestone this month - she is finally 20lbs!  We had her 18 month appointment this morning and her official weigh in is 20lbs 1.5oz.  She has climbed back onto the charts and comes in at 3%.  It appears the heavy whipping cream we have been spiking her milk with (per the nutritionist) is doing it's job.  She is 30.5 inches tall (15%) so still a little peanut, but remains proportional.

She is full of personality and does not hesitate to make her opinions known.  She really enjoys coloring, playing with playdough and dancing to music.  Our nightly routine is made up of some combination of these before bed.  She is starting to learn her colors and can pick out the letters A and B in her books.  Her vocabulary expands every day and she has started to string together a few two-word sentences.  We have entered into a phase where everything is "mine" which has made play dates very interesting.  I can't wait for this to end.  She likes to go around the house and point out what is "Maya's/Mine", "Mommy's" and "Daddy's".

She has decided she doesn't believe in sleeping anymore and wakes up between 1:30 and 2:00 every night.  At that point she throws her blankets and animals out of her crib and starts yelling (screaming) for Mommy.  I also can't wait for this to end.  We need sleep!

She showers us with kisses and hugs and has learned to say I Love You. 

Here are a some pictures from the last few weeks.

Here she discovered the clothing in her drawers and had me put on a pair of overalls, a skirt (hidden under the overalls) and a pair of shorts and shirt as a hat.  All over top of the PJs she was already wearing.

We received a significant amount of snow Thanksgiving week.  Rey and I were excited to bundle Maya up to go out and play in it... unfortunately she had other ideas.  This is about as close to it as she would go.

Dancing before bed time.

Playing with bowls of rice.

And although she does think everything is "mine", occasionally she is great at sharing.  Here she decided the kitty needed a toy, a pillow, a blanket, her baby, a broom and a bean bag chair.  She specifically picked out each of these items and brought them over to Meri as she sat on the ottoman.