Very Belated Thanksgiving Day Post

We had a nice Thanksgiving and went to G.B's house and then to Dave's aunt and uncle's house.  Maya had fun playing with her cousins!

Santa

I really should do my Thanksgiving post before anything Christmas related, but I just had to get this picture up.

It's been really hard to fit Santa in this year.  Between all of the winter germs, the busy schedule, and well just life we just hadn't gotten there.  Today Maya was with my mom so I figured we'd just stop at the mall on the way home- easy right??!!  Nope, of course Maya was still asleep when I got to my mom's- which is totally fine, but then we got to the mall right after Santa went on break.  Maya was in good spirits and seemed bummed that she didn't see Santa and I was bound and determined to get this done!  So we went to the food court and ate junk, well I ate junk and Maya mostly played with her milk cup.  Then we left early to go wait in line because it was brought to our attention that I picked of all nights, the last pet night.  So the line would go like this- 3 pets, 1 kid, 3 pets, 1 kid... so we waited in line for over 90 minutes sans stroller with a fidgety Maya who wanted to get all of those fun dogs that were around.

Then as we approached bedtime, and were beginning to lose patience anyway, I sat her on the big guy's lap and this was the result:

Who am I kidding, Maya's end result would have been this anyway.  Remember last year?

Happy Early Thanksgiving

Maya's Daycare

I mentioned long ago that I'd blur some of the kids' faces and post some pictures of Maya at daycare.  Her daycare sends us a TON of pictures each month and I love getting them.   I hope you enjoy them too.

Maya's teachers like to dress her up.  A princess above and the cutest giraffe I've ever seen below!

"Woah, we watched trees come down in the yard to open up our play area."

"Let me check the oil."

"Hmm... these cotton balls have a soft texture."

"I love snack time!"

The preschool group made this house for a Western Theme.  They donated it to the toddlers and they LOVED it!  They even added fabric scraps to play "peek a boo" with them!

Another picture from the Western week.  The preschoolers all made something out of cardboard boxes.  This little girl made a salon and pretended to cut Maya's hair.  I can only hope she'll sit so still for her first haircut!  I love that the 2 age groups interact!

"We're all ready, what's next?"

Proud Momma

From her daycare's newsletter:


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Happy Halloween

"Look- it' ELMO on my shirt.  Thanks Mimi & Granddad!"

I'm officially the worst blogger ever.  I never have time to blog anymore!  I have lots of updates but tonight we'll just do Halloween. I just imported over 100 photos from my camera and was thinking "Oh yea, we did this... and that, oh that was fun, I forgot we even took pictures of that!"  I'm still finding a balance... but conferences and report cards are coming up, so don't waste any time waiting around for a blog update.  It might take another month and a half!!

Maya was an elephant for Halloween this year.  She was supposed to be a cow to look like her beloved "Moo Baby" cow cabbage patch doll, but the cow costume I found at a children's sale was mislabeled and was very small.  A trip to Macy's YESTERDAY led me to the elephant costume- thankfully it was only $4.97- amazing huh!  She looked super cute!

"I'll just help myself to this candy right here- then I don't even need to go trick-or-treating."

"Chocolate- yummy, I got some!"

"Hehehe, I'm covered in chocolate and hyper!"

"Maybe this jack-o-lantern wants some chocolate too, it makes you go CrAzY!"

Maya went trick-or-treating at daycare too.  They went to a neighbor's house.  I can't wait to see the pictures of all of her little friends dressed up.  From what I hear they were all animals so I'm sure it was a zoo today!

On a more serious note- we survived the hurricane without any damage and kept our electricity the whole time.  We're very blessed. Others, especially those in NJ & NY, were not as fortunate.  We're keeping them in our thoughts and prayers.  We have been relieved to hear that some of the shore houses we love so dearly survived the storm without any damage!

Happy Halloween!

Long Overdue Blog Update

Wow, I haven't updated the blog in over a month!!  Sorry!  Life has been... busy.  Very busy.  Adjusting to life as a working mom after living in a fantasy world for 16 months has been quite the adjustment.  We're finally starting to settle into a routine.  My house isn't as clean as I'd like it to be, laundry isn't done as frequently, and there's always a large pile of ironing to be done (oh wait- the ironing situation was always like that) but those things don't really matter anyway- right?

Maya sadly had a tough time adjusting to daycare- many hours of crying, not eating at daycare, waiting at the door for "mamma" to return.  Asking to go "night, night" in her pack n play because she saw it as her safe zone.  Fortunately, she now seems adjusted and is starting to show her true personality and is acting silly for them.  She's eating up a storm and dancing for them!  She has new friends and walks around saying "Hi ____" to them!

Here are her official "back to school" pictures.  This was before she was well adjusted to daycare...

                              

                                         "Uh oh- you're leaving me here again aren't you!?"
                              

Her teachers have been beyond accommodating- allowing her to take more than 1 nap if she asks for one,  dropping whatever their doing when she enters to help her transition into the room, giving her lots of one on one time, making any food modifications or adjustments that I request, and just being patient.  It's really an amazing little home based daycare.  She's still super clingy to me at night and on the weekends, and seems to worry that we'll leave her most places we go, but that too shall pass I'm sure.  We think daycare is actually bringing her out of her shell a bit more which is very fun to see as she's a super sweet and fun little girl!  They e-mail pictures out every month and the ones from August are amazing.  Once I edit out the other children's faces, I'll post them!

Onto another topic- last month we went to Longwood Garden's with my mom and my neice and nephew.  We had a blast.  Here are some pics!

"Bird, bird, bird"

Maya 15 months

Maya turned 15 months in July and I never posted anything about it!  Call it summer laziness!  She had a nice and healthy check-up.  She was 32" tall and 21 lbs 1 oz.  She's still high in the percentiles for height and low for weight.

                                 

Maya started walking in June and loves this newfound ability.  She loves to walk up the street in our neighborhood and wave at her friends' doors.

She now has 10 teeth and is working on her bottom molars!

Her favorite things are still her "dolly" and her Cabbage Patch Cutie- "Moo Baby" (a doll dressed up as a cow).  She also likes throwing balls that go with her toys through the baby gate down the stairs.  I figure she's experimenting with gravity right?... She also started LOVING her bath and the pool after returning from the shore (where she detested all things water related).  She tries to demand a bath a few times a day by saying and signing "bath" but she just gets one bath a day before bedtime.

One of our neighbors kindly gave Maya this stroller.  She got busy pushing "Dolly" & "Moo Baby" around right away!

                                   

She started eating really well- even her veggies- but I'm starting to see a bit of a regression in that.

The biggest change is that Maya started to transition into daycare.  I wish I could report that it's been an easy experience, but it hasn't been.  Maya has always been clingy and she knows as soon as we arrive that it means I'm leaving her there.  She cries and cries and clings to me like a tree frog pointing to me announcing to everyone that I am her "Momma."  It's really quite the scene.  Fortunately, last time I picked her up they said she did great and only cried a little bit.  She stayed the whole day that time so I think it gave her time to really settle in. She naps great at daycare but won't really eat yet for them.  It'll come- she won't starve herself!  She's made some neat crafts there and used a balance beam.  It seems like it's a lot of fun!

Her words:

• Momma
• Dadda
• Doggy
• Bath
• Up
• More
• Bird
• Cold (when she touches ice)
• Dolly
• Baby
• Gianna
• Keys
• Car
• Ball
• Pool
• Hot
• Banana
• Dexter
• Bubbles
• G.B. (for grandmom)
• Maya
• Blue ba (blueberries)
• Ka Boom (when she falls down)
• I think there's more but I'm drawing a blank

Sounds:

• moo
• baa
• quack
• ruff (sometimes)
• neigh (sometimes)
• hoot

Here she is wearing her silver medal from the "Olympics Week" at daycare.  Everyone won a 2nd place medal because aluminum foil is silver :-)  She also has pulled out the book that she consistently takes off the bookshelf when I ask her to pick out a book for naptime- Elements of Style.  Dave is ecstatic about this choice. 

Anniversary

Today is Dave and my 4 year wedding anniversary.  It seems like just yesterday we were at the altar saying our "I do's."  Our lives before that moment were very different.  During the weeks leading up to our wedding, I was finishing up my teaching job in Virginia, packing and moving my classroom and my room in my house with my roommates, and finishing the inevitable last minute wedding details.  In the meantime, Dave had moved from VA to PA and was actually living with my mom for the summer, while he studied for and took the bar exam.  In fact, he took the bar exam the week before our wedding.  Dave, was especially grateful for a long relaxing honeymoon.

Since the two of us became a family, after 8 years of dating, a lot has changed.  The greatest change have been in the size of our family.   First came Dexter the pug man, then Rose the feisty sweetheart pug mix, and most recently, Maya who is now almost 16 months old!

A recent pic!

Our Wedding Day

Honeymoon- St. Lucia

Shore 2012

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from our trip to the shore.  We went with "G.B." Aunt Eleni, Uncle Rich, Gianna, Baby Alex for a week to the shore.  The house we rented was newly renovated with a fenced in yard that backed a children's park.

I would like to say that Maya loved the beach, but I'd be lying.  Unfortunately, Maya (and I) both had colds.  Maya also was getting 2 molars and the teething and mucous from the cold lead to diarrhea which also led to a diaper rash.  Therefore, Maya wasn't in a great mood and basically just fussed on the beach.  Thank goodness the house had a nice deck that I could lounge on while Maya took her extra long naps.  She napped from 1:00-5:00 almost everyday.

We did go to the local zoo and she loved seeing the giraffes!  She likes them in her books and had never seen one in real life!

Cousins on the 4th of July!

This was how Maya was seen most of the week.  Gripping "Dolly," sucking her thumb, and walking around in circles!

Messy Eater Part 2

I really think Maya could win a contest for messy eating. This is the result of a lunch comprised of a tuna fish melt, zucchini bites, string beans with ranch dressing, & grapes.




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Children's Museum

Tonight we went to a nearby children's museum which opened its doors from 5:00-7:00 with a super discounted $2 admission. My neighbor told me about this and Maya and I had to go check it out!

She was a bit young for many of the exhibits, which I expected; but, she still enjoyed toddling around!








In this picture she's in a train car with her friend/neighbor.

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Maya the Messy Eater

Maya is by no means a neat eater. Especially when she decides to play " Peek a Boo" while eating when her hands are covered in food.



Or when she decides that the ranch dressing for her carrots tastes mighty fine on its own!



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Family Visits

At the end of June Dave's parents came up for a visit, sadly, due to a death in the family.  Despite the sad circumstances, I think they enjoyed seeing all of their grandkids!  Maya was spoiled with gifts and lots of attention!

Here are some pictures from their visit.

Pool

Here's Maya enjoying the pool. It took her a bit to warm up to it but she was laughing in it by the end!



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Dr visit

"How dare you take me to the doctor's office Mommy."


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Happy Father's Day!

Today we celebrated Dave!  We took him out to a brunch, fed him yummy junk food all day, and I made him a nice steak dinner.  Maya gave him a framed picture of the two of them and a handprint craft.  I have him a nice bottle of Scotch and a German Style Card game called "Loot."

It was last Father's Day that Maya seemed to decide that she actually liked her Dad!  Now she's SUCH a Daddy's girl!  Here is the blog post from last Father's Day.  Dave and I were reminiscing about how much she's changed!

I apologize for the terrible picture quality.  It was dark in the restaurant and Miss Busy Body wouldn't stay still!

On Friday, Dave came home from work early and we took the whole family (dogs included) out for a hike to see the cows that are near our house.  Unfortunately, the cows were not near the fence and were out far in the pasture with the farmer- but Maya still noticed them and "mooed" at them (and then almost the whole hike back!  We got to use out a hiking backpack carrier that our good friend Ben got Dave after we have Maya.  It was really nice!