Drumming

A Sunday night visit to Grandma and Papa's for dinner. The excercise ball became a lot of fun in several different ways.... bouncing, drumming, rolling around. This was pretty funny, though. (Sorry about all the background adult intervention. After some time of this game, most of the kids were a little over excited, and needed a little guidance!)

Walking with Papa in the back yard.

M dances (1)

>

>

Random Funnies

Maia decided she was hungry (aht??) while coloring in her chair.  To show me her sincerity and interest in eating, she asked for her bibs. All of them.

Three... going on four...

All of them coming back off.

And she discovered this great new seat!

At the Park

It was a gray, cold, dreary Saturday.  The rain stopped in the morning, so I thought it would be okay to bring Maia to the part to get outside and blow off some energy before dinner.

Unfortunately, all the slides had big puddles, and she was more interested in watching the few bigger kids (8-11) there than playing on the toys this time.  But we had a little fun before we threw in the towel and headed home for dinner.

Brushes! and more Art.

She loves all things related to brushes.

Brush hair, brush hair, brush teeth.

Maia prefers to brush her own teeth... and she's actually not bad at it.  Although what she really likes best is to suck all the water off the toothbrush.

More art from Ocean Week at daycare.

Mr. Crab is red construction paper with sand glued all over him.

The two fish were made with bingo-dot pens.

The octopus was so slathered in green paint that its little arms began to curl.

And the starfish has been lovingly texturized with sand paper squares.

Little People

Maia loves the Little People House that she got from Aunt Tara for her birthday. The noises are great, and she's still trying to figure out what to do with the people and accessories that came with it.

Water

I love watching my toddler learn, and I am so thrilled to be a witness to it. It's really amazing to see how the human mind develops, and how quickly it adapts, and takes in new information and merges that information with what is already known. For example, how is it that such a young brain understands the concept of water (oo-wah-tuh!) in some of its many forms? She understands that there is water in her sippy, and that it is different than milk in her sippy. She tells me that it is water in this clear plastic bottle, and in the Pur Pitcher in the fridge, and knows that it is for drinking. She also understands that it is water in her bath (which sometime she has tried to drink), and coming out of the tap when we wash our hands, and water in a lake or fountain or pool at Meijer Gardens. And if the container holding a beverage is opaque, it's a drink (dihttt) unless she can get a look at it. So many of these transferences I am not aware of having taught her. And while it's possible she may have picked it up when we weren't thinking about it, or at daycare... I just want to go on record saying it's really cool to watch a child put the puzzle pieces of her world together.

Outdoor Weekend (part 2)

On Saturday, we took part in the Heart Walk, representing Spectrum Health in a team that Ray put together.  We brought Maia's stroller, and she was content in it for the first half hour, while we waited for the rest of the team to arrive.  There were lots of little health-related booths to walk through, and while sitting in the Herman Miller booth, Maia met Griff, the mascot for the Grand Rapids Griffins AHL Hockey team.  She was fascinated, and couldn't keep her eyes off him.  (Good for her, I thought. At six years old, at Disney World, Jiminy Cricket kissed me and I screamed in fear! He seemed huge!)

So we tried her in the wagon with Gracie, the youngest daughter of Ray's co-worker, Jeremy.

But it turns out, Maia wasn't so great at sharing, and kept taking Gracie's stuff.  So... she rode on Daddy's shoulders.

She was delighted.  She was drumming on daddy's head, waiving her hands in the air, and doing her "human squeaky toy" impression!

However, that couldn't last forever... so there were lots of hand offs, a little walking (she couldn't keep up with the pace, or she probably would have walked more), a little bit of riding... and by the end, she was exhausted.   So, after a nice nap in the car on the way home, she had a quiet afternoon.

And finished up the day with a little art.

Little Helper (?)

Alright... so she's not the greatest helper, yet... but she LOVES the vacuum cleaner!

She will gladly follow me around whenever I'm using it (which is much more frequently now that goldfish crackers make their home on my kitchen floor, and peas live in the sun room), and squeal delightedly.

But honestly, I think she just wants to do it herself!

Outdoor Weekend

On Friday I sent Maia to daycare, thinking I could get some errands done without her being miserable, and have lunch with a friend while she was napping at school.  I picked her up about 3, and we headed to Meijer Gardens for a little end-of-summer/early fall fun while it lasts. 

It is still pretty warm in the afternoons these days, so I took her swim diaper along.  I had planned on leaving her in her shirt, but that was completely soaked within about 10 seconds of standing in the wading pool, so I took that off to wring it out and let it dry!

The Giant Bird's Nest

There is no one here to have tea with me, and I am sad.

Proud Moment

Two weeks ago I got my hair cut. My hair dresser, Piroska (who has no grandchildren of her own, and won't), all but begs me to bring Maia to my appointments.  Maia sat on my lap while I was shampooed, and then we walked around the salon several times and she got ample opportunity to explore while we were waiting.  This was before the full-on stroller embargo began, so she was pretty tolerant about sitting in the stroller, drinking water and playing with a couple toys.  She often plays a little shy at the beginning of new encounters, but warms up before long and begins to jabber away.  I realize not everyone understands her words, but I catch quite a few.

About half way through the cut, Maia drops her sippy.  Piroska picks it up and hands it back to her.  "Dih-too!" Maia says, and Piroska is delighted! "Did she say thank you?"  Why, yes she did. "Wow... oh wow!" says Piroska.  

Why do I tell this story?  Because in addition to it being a moment during which I was proud of my girl, I also want it to serve as proof in the future that I DID actually teach my child manners, and she knew how to use them at one point in her life (even if it was only at 12 months!).  I figure I will need a reminder in years to come!

She also got lots of compliments on this dress at the shop.  Thanks Aunt Tara!

Asserting her Independence (part 2)

I wonder, sometimes, if we're hitting the terrible twos really really early! We are currently in the midst of (what I am calling) a stroller embargo. Strollers or moving containment devices of any type are abhorrent to Miss Maia, and result in loud screeches and screams if you either put her in one, or leave her in one for more than about 5 minutes. This includes her regular stroller, her umbrella stroller, grocery carts, and occasionally her car seat. In the past, of course, I have relented by allowing her to push the stroller herself:

So last weekend, throwing caution to the wind, Ray and I decide to take Maia for a ride in the Kid Karriage we received for Christmas last year.

The instructions, of course, require that you use a helmet when you use this carriage. Double Whammy for Maia, who doesn't really care for hats or anything on her head (even hooded towels) for very long (see post title, above!). But a helmet she must have, so I purchase her a toddler-sized one, but struggle to get the straps short enough to keep it on her head. We start by assembling the cart in the living room and giving her time to be intrigued by it. She is eager to get in and play. Great! She even tolerates being strapped in! So we'll take her out and get her used to the helmet. Of course, mommy and daddy model their new helmets too! She tolerates that pretty well while we're in the house, but easily manages to get it off, so we keep trying to get the straps shorter.

So we head out to the bike trails at Millennium Park. We strap Maia in, and put on her helmet. Heading out on the trails, Maia is delighted. The wind is in her face and she is watching the world go by as she bumps along. After a while, she yells because the helmet is over her face. We stop, and fix it. She's a little perturbed we put this helmet back on, but we move on and in no time, she is making happy noises again. Then I catch up with Ray and Maia and find out why: Maia has managed to get the helmet off. So we stop (again) and put the helmet on (again). Here's where the screaming starts. And it's high, and loud and persistent. She's had it. We turn around and head back to the car. Oh well, we didn't expect much for our first trip out.

About 1 minute after we turned back around, the sound of my bike changes, and I look down to see a very flat front tire. We're about 2 miles away from the car. Ray and Maia (who is screaming away) are quite a ways ahead of me at this point, so I have to yell very loudly to catch Ray's attention. He tells me he will go get the car and meet me back at the road. We're rather far away, so I think we're supposed to meet back at the car. Eventually we find each other, but so much for biking (safely) with Maia.

Interestingly, however, we both passed two separate bikers who had similar such bike trailers carrying children within a few months of Maia's age. Neither of these children were wearing helmet, seemed perfectly pleased to be out in the fresh air, and were not rending the air with banshee screams.

So on the way back home, we debate: How vital is that helmet? Is it better to fore go the helmet until she gets over her stroller embargo? She seemed to enjoy the bike ride except for the helmet issue. If we continue with the helmet - there goes one other option to get outside and be active as a family. Or do we force her to wear the helmet and hope that eventually the screaming will stop? Are we horrible parents for even considering taking off the helmet?

So I actually did some research to find out what the research shows on accidents in bike trailers, and eventually found that there isn't any research! I did find an article on ibike that speaks to the issue. And it kind of sounds like we might not be absolutely horrible for thinking about not using the helmet for the bike trailer. ANYWAY. So I'm thinking "immersion therapy." I'll start taking her for walks in the new bike trailer (which has attachments to make it into a stroller). We take a walk around a single block. She makes it about 75% of the way before she starts with the random frustrated screams. Prior to that time, it would seem she was enjoying herself. So I guess we'll keep trying as I have time to take her for walks, and be grateful that at least she is screaming her head off while we're outside, and not, say, in a restaurant.

Ah, toddlerhood.

Asserting her Independence

Last weekend (prior to the Labor Day beach outing), Ray and I spent our first night away from Maia.  I brought Maia over to my sister's house on Saturday afternoon.  She is going through a minor separation anxiety phase right now (some days are worse than others), and so we stayed at Kath's together for a while, with her clinging to me tightly, intrigued as she was with her cousins and Aunt Kathleen.  Once she warmed up, she was ready for lunch and didn't even care that I was leaving. 

She did pretty well, outside of waking up a little too early (4 am).  Ray and I did alright too... we managed not to talk about her the entire evening, but I think we both had her on our minds a lot.

Over the last few weeks, Maia has been adding so many words to her vocabulary.  It seems like there is a new one every day:

• Doggie (dah-dee)
• Froggie (lah-dee)
• Duckie (duh-tee)
• More (maahtt)
• what cows say (mah!)
• Book (butt)
• Hello (ah-wah) 
• Eye (ai!)
• Cracker (cwa-ka)
• Maia (mah-dah)
• Light (bah-tee)
• Cheese (sheez)

... just to name a few...and our favorite, No (nuh! or a-nuh!). That one comes complete with the head shake and seems to be used a lot at meal times.  My kid who used to eat just about everything (except maybe meat) is turning down most things, just as I've decided I don't want to make her special meals anymore.

It's really interesting to see her taking more control over her world.  She is now putting objects in to things (put your toy in the box!), and on things (put the book on the shelf!).  Each of these little successes are met with lots of "yays!" and clapping on our part - hers too, really.  So for this brief little period of time, where she really wants to please us, we're trying to take advantage of it to help her develop good habits... Right? Right? Yeah... This too shall pass!

Art Projects

Maia will do hundreds of little art projects over the next few years, and, as much as I love them, I know we can't save them all. So. I'm going to do it digitally as often as I can.

This is one of my favorites.  This mural (it's about 3 feet long and 1 1/2 feet tall) was painted by three of the "older" kids in the infant room: Nick, Celia and Maia.  Maia was the youngest of the three by several months - being about 8 or 9 months old when she did this.

Maia got to go first. They stripped her down to her diaper, gave her a bowl of orange paint, and let her explore. She was COVERED. I did get some copies of pics they took of her - but they're printed on plain paper, so I'm not sure they will stand the test of time.

So, how is it that I got to be the proud owner of this work of art?  The other two kids moved on to the toddler (T1) room several months before her.  Once she was the only one left in the room that had participated in this, they offered it to me.  It hung on the wall in the guest bedroom for a few weeks, but kept falling down.

Two weeks ago at daycare, the theme was the ocean.  So she came home with lots of little sea creatures.
A turtle, made out of contruction paper and a styrofoam bowl.

And lots and lots of paper fish, and two crabs.  I believe these were made with bingo dot pens.

Climbing

In addition to all the extra talking we are getting (new words every day...), Maia is starting to climb. Between the climbing and running, and walking on tip-toes, there are always bumps and bruises on her poor noggin. So here she is, climbing up the back of the couch and shouting "Dada!" as Ray mows the lawn (see him?)

Woo! Fun!

(I don't know why, but this pic reminds me of Max from Where the Wild Things Are)
So. A lovely day was forecast for Labor Day, so a quick little jaunt to Grand Haven for the mid-day. Again... Maia thought the sand was delicious!

Sticks! My favorite!!

She very much enjoyed playing in the sand with Emily, Adrian and Lydia.

 After lunch, we took a walk on the pier, however, Maia was exhausted and wanted no part of riding in the stroller - she wanted to push the stroller or explore. So she was carried most of the way. Adrian, Emily, Lydia... and Maia. Doesn't this look like a bad band picture?

Just Pics and Vids

Ray is extremely excited today - he got his first "MWAH!" kiss from Maia today at bedtime. He had gotten her ready: changed, jammies, read her book. I took over for a little cuddle, but I leaned her toward Ray, and said: "Say goodnight daddy!" "Buh-Bai!" "Give daddy a kiss!" "MMWAH!" Yay! (I usually get my kisses from her with teeth, I'm still waiting for my MWAH!)

Earlier this week...

The cheapest birthday gift... her balloon. She has actually played with it every day! It's on it's last legs, but it's a great distraction during diaper changes now that it doesn't float to the ceiling. I think tomorrow is its last day. When it was new...

Dis? This pic is worth a thousand words. Fill them in yourself!

At daycare, they painted with red paint... and it was everywhere!! Bath time!

Maia loves the bath sooooo much! She gets very excited about touching the running water, and becomes extremely displeased if something gets in the way of her getting to the water.

So she leans over as far as she can...

I think this is very funny! You may be able to hear the ABC song playing... The one you probably hear is from the bus on which she is sitting. That button was activated because she was sitting on it. The other ABC song is being played in short segments by the toy she's spinning on the shelf: A, B, C, D, E, F, G..... followed by the animal noise, and then it pauses until you spin it again. Then it picks up where it left off.

And last one: Maia dances to Daddy playing Guitar Hero. However... it IS bedtime. Choices!

Awwww... As I'm posting this, Maia just rolled over in her sleep, sighed and said "Ai Daddy!"