11 Months!!

I really can't believe how close Maya is to a year old.  She has been a growing girl in the last month and I think she's about 17lbs.

It is amazing to me how much she has changed in the last month.  I look at her and don't see a little baby anymore.  She is entering into toddlerhood and very quickly, I might add.  Her personality is growing each and every day.  She has realized she can have her own opinion on things and is not afraid to share it, especially if it is different from mom and dad.  Her range of emotions is continually expanding and we are learning them along with her.  She is a shy little girl for the first five minutes in any new place, however after she warms up she chats with everyone and loves to explore the new environment.  She has a great sense of humor and is constantly making herself (and us) laugh. 

New developments -

- She practically runs behind all of her push toys but no independent steps yet.  She is standing on her own more and more often.

- Her two top middle teeth popped through last week and they were not fun!  She is working on the next top two, one is just about poking through.

- Maya LOVES books.  She will sit and read them on her own both at home and at daycare.  She rushes to her teacher as soon as she sees her with a book.  She reads during diaper changes.  She reads while in the car.  She is a bit like Mommy in this area.

- Her food tastes are slowly expanding.  She reluctantly eats veggies (quite often I have to mix them in applesauce) and fruits.  However she loves meat and any sort of carbohydrate.

- She has added 'blowing kisses' to her bag of tricks. 

Who can say no to this???

Easter

We had a very fun-filled Easter Sunday with family.  Maya enjoyed the easter baskets (mostly the grass inside them) and had such a great time with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and a very cute cousin.

We started out by dying eggs the weekend before with Brecken.

She got her own basket at home Easter morning.

Then off to brunch with Grandma Sarion and Uncle Roy.

Enjoying some breakfast.

Teaching Uncle Roy how to play with the stacking/nesting cups.

The last stop was Grandma and Grandpa Knowles' house for afternoon play, another Easter basket and a great dinner.  Who knew Maya would LOVE ham? 

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

And no, we did not coordinate our outfits.  We didn't even realize we all matched until long after we left the house!

The proof

This series of pictures clearly show that Maya refuses to sit still.  All we wanted was one cute picture with her and her friend Brecken (who is five months old).  This is what we got (and there are about 20 more of the same thing).  And Maya, honey, you better watch out, once Brecken is mobile I have a feeling he will want payback!

   

My favorite series...

And this is the last one we took... apparently Brecken is worn out but Maya finally sat in one place!

10 months!!

I am estimating that she is now 16lbs, she just went through a little growth spurt.  Finally growing out of her 3-6 month clothing and moving on to the 6-12.

Pictures with Maya are near impossible these days, she does not appreciate me trying to get her to sit in one place for more than 10 seconds.  Here is the best we could do.

Props will help keep her still... but then she's not looking at the camera.

- She is cruising around more and more each day, both behind her push toys and along the furniture.

- If you can distract her enough she will stand on her own, but as soon as she realizes it she quickly grabs onto whatever is closest.

- She has discovered she can 'screech' and loves to exercise this new vocal level.

- In addition to pulling things out of baskets/buckets/drawers, she has discovered the fun of putting them back in (I suspect Aunt Jenny helped master this new skill).

- She seems to be working on her two top teeth but I think it will be a little while longer before they actually pop through.

And nothing makes you feel better as a parent than having each of her daycare teachers tell us (at separate times) that they will really miss Maya when she moves up to the next class.

All kinds of fun

Maya LOVES bath time. I have started to use that to my advantage. Crabby baby, throw her in the tub. Gives me a good 20 minutes of smiles and calm. She has a favorite toy and holds it in her right hand the entire time she is in the bath, leaving only one hand to play with the rest of her toys. Whether she is sitting or is on her tummy she is holding onto it tight.

Her new favorite game is to play "airplane" with Daddy.  Huge grins and giggles as they fly up and down the house.  While in her carseat today, we caught her holding her arms out in the airplane position and laughing at herself in the mirror.

She can sit and pull DVDs off the shelf for a good half an hour.  She is very meticulous about the whole process... she picks one at a time, takes a couple seconds to read the front of each, sometimes gives it a little taste and then puts it aside and moves on to the next.  She has figured out how to open the doors herself which has tripled her selection!  Hopefully it doesn't make me a bad mommy, but I completely encourage this activity as it keeps her occupied while I tidy stuff up around the house.

Weekend fun with the kids from PEPS!  I was lucky to have a mommy group who all hit it off and we still try to meet once a month even though the program has been over for months.  It is so fun to watch Maya interact with the babies she has known since she was six weeks old.

On the move

and chatting away the entire time!

We survived (barely).

It was a rough weekend at the Sarions. Maya came down with a case of Roseola. Nothing I had ever heard of, but apparently very common.

She had the classic symptoms - high fever for two days (we were lucky hers didn't get higher than 103), loss of appetite and EXTREME irritability. As soon as the fever breaks a rash appears over the entire body. "Luckily" for us, the rash appeared as soon as we arrived at the Dr so he knew exactly what it was and didn't have to do any unnecessary testing. We managed the fever and worked hard to try to keep her hydrated, the irritability however was by far the most difficult part. Our indpendant, happy little girl became clingy and needy beyond anything she has ever been before. She wouldn't sleep unless in our arms (including at night) and would break out inconsolable and screaming at the drop of a hat. All normal reactions according the the Dr.

We have no idea where she caught it, no one at daycare is sick, but when you put everything in your mouth I suppose this is bound to happen. We survived and she seems to be on the mend. Last night she actually slept for twelve hours in her own crib. We all caught up on sleep and woke up an entirely different family.

Oh, and on top of that, her second tooth broke through Saturday afternoon. Nothing like adding insult to injury.

This picture has nothing to do with the post, but it's cute and one look into those big eyes is a quick reminder that even when trying to console a screaming baby at 3AM, it is all worth it :-)