So Proud!

Maia is growing up! She has been transitioning to the T1 room (toddler one) at daycare, and doing great! The transition process at Generations includes starting at their home base (for her, the infant room, where she has been since she started at 12 weeks) and spending an hour or two each day in the next room up, gradually increasing their time as the child tolerates it. When they seem overwhelmed, or like they're ready to go back, they are brought back to their home base for the remainder of the day. The differences between the infant room and the T1 room is largely about age and structure. The infant schedule is all needs-based. They get a diaper when they need it, or every two hours (whichever comes first). They are fed and have naps when they need them. The toddlers have a schedule: free play in the morning until 8:30 am, then they prepare for the next event. Snack time is precipitated by hand washing. Snack time is then followed by diaper changing, and then they have "Circle Time" where the kids sing songs and learn about something new each day, with a theme each week (Ocean week: Starfish day). They spend time working on sensory development (playing in sand or rice or water, or painting), gross motor (playing outside), fine motor (crafts), and take a two hour nap after lunch. And they go to visit the residents at the retirement village more frequently than the infants do. The napping thing is a BIG challenge for Maia, but she is gradually acclimating herself. She's going through a growth spurt right now, so she is actually sleeping more, and getting better at soothing herself back to sleep (now that I've finally decided to NOT get up when she wakes at 5 am like she does most every day. She has been getting herself back to sleep and we're now waking her when we're ready for her to get up). So lots of changes for Maia in the last month. Growth spurt (leaving 9 mos clothes behind for in 12 months, except 12 month tops are still too long - leaving size 2 shoes behind, although 3s are still a little big). No more bottles: all sippies with whole cow's milk. Moving up to a new room at daycare, and losing her favorite daycare provider, Danica (who is moving on to supervise an after school program south of town) - who has been the only person she'd rather be with than Ray & I. A few quick stories about Maia at daycare: 1. They visited the residents this week, and I was told "She was a hit!" She apparently went around the circle saying "hai!" to everyone, and danced a lot! (Or did squats in time to the music and flapped her arms). They said the residents thought she was great. 2. Upon waking from her naps this week, she will sit up and say loudly "hai!" with a large grin on her face. Her new teachers will shush her and lay with her to get her to rest quietly until nap time is over. They say they have to try very hard not to laugh. 3. She has been reunited with her girls: Claire (2 months older than her) and Celia (4 months older). Maia and Claire are peas in a pod - similar size, similar hair (although different colors): petite, active girly-girls. Claire moved up to the T1 room about a month ago, and Maia has missed her. Yesterday when Claire discovered Maia was in the room, she walked up to her and gave her a big hug. Actually, the room is mostly filled with girls, only 2 boys.

Learning So Much!

The last few days we have seen many things just start to click. Since she was about 7months old, we have been signing "More" and "All done" at meal times, and looking for signs she understood it. As you know, if you've spent time with her, she completely bypassed learning the sign for "All Done" in favor of actually saying it: "Ah Dah! Ah Dah!" However, we've been getting a rather blank response for "more." Today, however, we saw a distinct understanding of the word, and a clear use of the sign. Yay! Maia has started to show more interest in using utensils to feed herself. At this time, it's me loading up the spoon or fork for her, and letting her take it from my hand. She generally gets it in right side up and without throwing it or dropping it. She is, of course, quite pleased with herself for this skill, and will throw her "So Big!" arms up and grin expectantly. We are also seeing more pointing with the intent of "tell me what this is." Lots of fingers in our eyes and noses. Sometimes she will point at our eyes ("That's mommy's eye! This is Maia's eye!") and sometimes she will point at hers. Mostly ours though. She is getting quite proficient at stairs. She wanted to be upstairs where I was, so Ray watched her go up the stairs. Once upstairs, she has NO interest in going down the stairs. In fact, every time we were downstairs, she decided she wanted to go up the stairs. Not just because she can, but so she could play with all the shoes in the mud room. That girl loves the shoes. Hers, mine, Ray's... it doesn't much matter. She LOVES to carry them around. I was very proud of her this evening. After her bath, I brought her downstairs to get her diaper on and some clean jammies. After she got her diaper on, she decided she'd had enough of the changing table, so I put her down and handed her the pjs and told her to bring them to daddy. She toddled out of the bathroom and walked straight to her music table, dropping her jammies behind her. So I went and sat on the couch while she played for a while. Then about a minute later, Maia walks up to Ray with her jammies in her hand and holds them out to him. So he stands her on the ottoman, and she sticks her leg straight out to the side and holds onto his arm to allow him to put the jammies on her feet! Man, she is always thinking! After a few cuddles with daddy, Maia and I went to her rocking chair in her room, where we read a book. She turns the pages (as she has for several months now) and will sometimes point at things (Bear! Duck!) and sometimes not. We finish the book and start to cuddle as is our routine. But she wiggles out after a moment. I let her go - generally this means she still has some energy to burn, so it's generally better for both of us to let her burn it. She slides down off my lap, and grabs another book off her rocking chair and brings it back to me. So we read the second book. Now she's ready to cuddle, and she's off to sleep. She has never brought me a book to read before! Also today I just caught sight of a new little gleam of white, signaling the arrival of the right lower lateral incisor. It's funny to me, because this is the first time the right side came in before the left, but I assume the left one will be coming along shortly... which will give her 8 teeth! Oh, my big girl!!

Massena... part 7

Aunt Tara, Maia and I headed over to the beach to give Maia some time to play in the water. It wasn't particularly warm or sunny... but Maia LOVED playing in the sand, and was absolutely fascinated by all the "big" kids around. She watched them run in and out of the water and squealed, bounced and flapped her arms. Most of the girls were pretty interested in her too, and we answered lots of questions. How old she was, what her name was, could she come in swimming with me?

Oh look! I found a stick here too!!

I love this picture. She planted her face right in the sand (all as part of the exploration, of course) and came up mildly surprised. However, she wasn't terribly interested in letting me wipe it off, and so it stayed there for a while. And, fact of the matter was... this was actually Maia's first time swimming! She'd walked in the water at Lake Michigan but had never really gone in very far. She was fairly brave, and went in up to her knees, but the St. Lawrence River is cold... and she'd toddle back out. Finally, Maia and I went in together. The water isn't very deep there, so our adventure began with me trying to find my way through the mucky parts (eeewwww!!!) to a sandy spot where I could be comfortable kneeling down to get her mostly submerged.

She did great, although she clung pretty tightly on to me (good to know that next time I want a good cuddle, all I have to do is take her swimming!). In true Maia-fashion, of course, you could see the wheels working beneath her furrowed brow. But after a while, I was able to move her back and forth in the water, and I got a few smiles and giggles. And she was very good and patient and cautiously exploratory until I realized her lips and hands were starting to turn blueish, and figured it was time for a warm, dry towel! On the way back to the campground, she crashed, and had a nice nap (if a slightly damp one) in her car seat. Aunt Tara has all the pics of Maia and I actually swimming... So perhaps I'll be able to add some at a later date!