Maya had a great first trip to the dentist! She even let them paint on the fluoride. They said she has perfect spacing between her teeth so there's no need to floss (the pediatrician was right that you want that big gap between their front teeth in infancy)!

So proud of her!




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Leo as a 1 Year Old

Leo turned 1 on May 25th! He's grown so much and loves to be an active participant in whatever is going on around him.  If Maya is given food, he wants (ok demands) something too.  He'll hold out his hand  until he's been given something as well.  He has quite a temper and when he gets mad he throws things- so watch out!

Leo you:

• clap
• sign "more"
• sign "up"
• sign "all done" loosely
• climb everything
• have 8 teeth with molars coming in
• have had 3 haircuts already!
• have no interest in walking 

You can say:

• Doggy
• Daddy
• momma
• Maya
• ball
• hi
• yea
• that (means you want "that")

Your favorite toys are:

• Balls
• Cars
• Your monkey bucket toy
• Balls
• Balls
• Dancing elephant
• Did I mention balls?
• Anything your sister is currently playing with

12 month stats:

• height - 31 inches (about 90%)
• weight - 18.56 lbs (about 10%)  we need to fatten you up little guy!

We can't wait to see how you change this year!

Fun!

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Leo's First Birthday!

We threw a bigger bash than usual for Leo's birthday!  Leo's grandparents were visiting from Florida, which was really nice, so we invited more family to join us to celebrate Leo!

I selected a Transportation theme because...I thought it would be fun :)  We had a beautiful but hot day so we kept everything outside.  It ended up being a bit hotter than we anticipated so many of our pictures are in the shade of our garage!  The kids played in a baby pool turned ball pit and a play yard with cars and balls inside, drove Maya's Batgirl Jeep, and rode around in the other cars and bikes.  The adults played Can Jam, which if you haven't played, is a really fun game!

These shows Leo's month by month pictures.  I did the same for Maya here

Wegmans made a great construction theme cake with a free "smash cupcake" and I made a dump cake and put it in a sand toy dump truck!

This little man LOVED his cake!

"YUMMY"

I can't begin to express how nice and helpful it was to have Dave's parents here!

Happy Birthday little buddy!!  

Leo is 11 Months old (ok now almost 12 months)

Leo!  You just won't stay an infant!

Leo is 11 months old, I can't believe he's almost a year.  He's fast, insanely fast.  Whenever I put him down anywhere people comment on how fast and agile he is.  That being said, he still has absolutely zero interest in walking, using walking toys, walking with our assistance- nope, he.won't.have.any.of.it.  Although he's not walking, he's into EVERYTHING.  I can't take my eyes off of him for a minute.  He loves to explore and see how things work. He seems to learn how things work quickly.  Balls, push toys, and cars are his favorite toys at the moment! However, he won't stay with any one activity for more than a few seconds.  He also just loves to be outside- as he always has!  He also continues to go crazy for bath time! Leo has a temper and can get really angry at times- we're working on this.

He's talking a bit- he says:
dada
Maya
hey
yea
ball

He did not want to sit still for his pictures this month, and I'm bummed I didn't get a single good one. No Maya photo bombs this month because she was still asleep!

"No, no, you're the cutest!"

"Mom, haven't I made it clear the last 10 months that I dislike this hat?"

"I'm BIG, I'm 3 now!" (Maya as a 3 year old)

I posted about Maya's party, but never reported about Maya as a 3 year old!

Maya is ecstatic to be THREE!  She loves to announce to everyone that she's 3 now and is big.  This has boosted her confidence.  She's now doing so many new things independently- using the bathroom all by herself, climbing on new things (which for her is a huge accomplishment), getting dressed with little help, basically putting herself to bed, reading simple picture reliant books, riding her scooter, pedaling her tricycle, etc.  It's been really amazing to see her blossom recently.  She seems to grow developmentally in such spurts and just learned so many new things.  Right now she LOVES to color and when she wants she is pretty good at staying in the lines.  She enjoys playing games- her favorite is Duck, Duck, Mouse.  She also like the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game.  Her favorite toys are her doll house and the dolls that go with it, and her large Princess dolls.  She continues to enjoy her kitchen as well.  She's quite social at funny times.  I was picking up paint at the local paint store which has a little kid table set up with crayons and a coloring book.  I let her back there alone while I handled the large paint order.  A gentleman came back and told me all about how he said "hi" and she told him all about how she was going to get her room painted brown and pink and she was so excited and on and on!  He told us that she seems very smart and social :)

She's overall very well behaved.  The times we have temper tantrums is when she's scared to do something- fears have kicked in big time and sometimes the little scary thing can trigger a huge fear and cause an epic melt down.  She also continues to be very pain intolerant- but we're working on that!

She's been asking me for weeks to not wear diapers at night and I finally obliged, so we are totally out of diapers and she's only had 1 wet night!  I'm hoping that continues, as it's been a recent switch!

On a previous visit Maya wouldn't even pet the goats. This past trip she really enjoyed petting and brushing them!

Maya can "read" Blue Hat, Green Hat.  She usually reads it faster but she was excited and distracted by the fact that I was filming it so... I apologize for the length!  The reading teacher in me is very proud that she points to each words as she reads after checking the picture!

Maya also relishes in being a big sister! 

Ok, Mommy brag over :)

Swingset

I am beyond thrilled with our decision to purchase a swingset (thanks to all of the family members who contributed to the cost as part of birthday gifts). Before we got it, Maya wouldn't go down slides, or climb ladders, or attempt a rock wall. We've had the swingset for 2 weeks and she now does it all and swings on the big kid swing by herself too (with some help with pushes). She constantly asks to play on it and plays outside alone. I left her outside with Leo while I cleaned up lunch yesterday and peeked outside and saw this wonderful sibling sight!




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