Developing every day!

Right before I went back to work, Maia started figuring out how to pull out her pacifier... and sometimes she was able to put it back in. Joy! She's been working on her grabbing skills for a few weeks now. This isn't her best work, but you get the idea. She loves to sit up in the bumbo chair at daycare. They say she seems so proud of herself when she does. We are sooo close to laughter. She's getting better at imitating, and her vocal range is growing. Along with the hands, she's getting other gross motor skills going, and she's getting her legs moving in different ways, those muscles she needs to start crawling. Oh, and Go Rangers! by the way... She did this much of the morning while we were decorating the tree (which she watched in fascination). By the time I got it together to get the camera, she was pretty tired out. Hence the whining. But you get the idea. I think we're in trouble... this girl wants to be On The Move!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for so many things this year: A healthy pregnancy; a smooth delivery; our great teamwork; a happy, healthy baby who brings us joy every day; each other (we learned a lot about each other this year!); a home we love; good jobs; a good daycare; our loving families; our supportive friends; all of you; and so So SO much more! We hosted Thanksgiving Dinner this year. It was my intention to take pics of the day, but I didn't manage to pull that off. So it's just our pics of Maia in the morning while we were getting ready. I'll help serve! I know what to do with these! On Thanksgiving Eve, we played a little 75 with Kathleen and Andrew. Maia hung out in her pajamas... And checked out Uncle Andrew's hand...

Getting bundled up...

Now that it's so cold, Maia gets all bundled up in her snuggly car carrier cover before we go to daycare.

Thumb Sucking

Maia has been getting more adept at thumb sucking, and, if necessary multiple fingers.

Play Time

Early Morning Pics

Maia is usually in such a great mood first thing in the morning, we took a couple moments to take a few pics. She's so cuddly in her fleece sleep sack!

Monkey Time

I think most parents find there is a toy or gear item that saves their sanity in that it helps calm their baby like nothing else. For us right now, it is this Fisher Price Waterfall Soother. Put Maia in front of this when she is crying or fussy (those times when all other comfort measures have failed) and she calms right down. We call it "giving her Monkey Time." She LOVES the Monkey! . She also has this Monkey Mirror in the car. She loves to talk to it on our way to daycare.

First week at daycare, and alas! The first cold!

No pics today. The power supply for the laptop died, so I am posting from my Treo. Maia and I each survived my first full week back to work, and Maia's first week at daycare. They said she did great. Pretty much no crying for at least the first few days. They say she's very good natured (which I thought too!) I was fortunate enough to be able to go see and feed her on two lunch breaks. That was really nice for me... helped break up the day into more managable segments of time away from her. She has had to adjust to a lot more activity around her (she is the youngest by several months, all the other babies are mobile). They can't allow the kids to sleep in the swings or bouncers, and she commonly wakes when you move her to her crib. As such, I think she'd sleep a lot later in the morning if we let her. Her first few evenings after daycare left her very sleepy. But we've got a good schedule now that allows me to feed her twice, pump once and get us both ready for the day and out the door in just under two hours in the morning. And I've learned what to ask the daycare staff for in terms of her feeding schedule, so I can do as much of it myself as possible. Now that I spend so little time with her, those feeding times become even sweeter and more precious than they were before. Despite the added benefit of nursing, however, she still managed to contract her first cold. We had to debate sending her to daycare on Friday, she was so stuffy. But, no fever, no yellow or green nasal discharge... So we sent her. And despite not being able to breathe clearly, she has been in a good mood, although with slightly less energy. Oh well. All the more reason to stay at home and cuddle her. Neither Ray nor I even got out of our pajamas yesterday. Of course, we both (especially Ray, who had to work an overnight shift) were pretty sleep deprived. As for Maia's development, she has been continuing to get better at sucking her thumb, and has less need for her paci. She is pushing herself up with her arms while on tummy time. While on her back, she is lifting her legs straight up in the air and rolling to her side. Daycare staff have remarked at how strong she is (which we knew, she was so good at holding her head up from the day she was born), they put her in a Bumbo chair and she did pretty well. When she slumped over, she was able to sit herself back straight up. Good ab workout!

Back To Work

So I headed back to work on Thursday the 6th. My mother took care of Maia on Thursday and Friday. She did well, although where she had usually taken about 3 1/2 ounces when she took a bottle, she started slamming down 5 ounces. I'm thinking that 3 month growth spurt might be headed our way. I, on the other hand, did fine at work (more or less) but could hardly stand it once I got home. I felt like, okay those two days were all well and good... but that's about enough. I'd prefer not to leave her anymore. She is growing quickly, as children do... and she has been successfully sucking her thumb for a couple weeks now. On Wednesday, she actually managed to pull out her paci, and put it back in. I figure it's a fluke, I don't think she realizes she's doing it... but she did it several times that day, and has done it once or twice since. Still no laugh, but her vocal repertoire is growing. There are now delighted squeals and "Heh!" sounds. Here are a couple videos from this evening.

Obvious...

Can you tell I'm trying to make the most of my last days home with Maia? My little Michelin girl... She was a bit too tired to enjoy this first experience with leaves. I took her back in and she fell asleep within minutes. Daddy took this one last night. Maia loves John Mayer! Outside of that... Maia accompanied me to the polls this morning, where I voted in this historical election. We also had two interesting proposals on the ballots here: One for the use of medical marijuana, and the other for embryonic stem cell research. All sorts of things that could change our future!

Photo Shoot

Since I'll be heading back to work soon, I thought I'd get LOTS of pics to tide us all over for a while. Also - since it's an absolutely spring-like day outside(69° in November!), I was excited to be able to dress her in some of her summery clothes that I thought she wouldn't get a chance to wear. Yay! Peek-a-boo! Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!