We're celebrities, until January 31

Maya loves Stew Leonard's. 

What is Stew Leonard's, you ask? 

It's a mini chain of grocery stores in CT/NY that sells very little processed foods, but lots of fresh dairy, meats and produce.  But that's not all.  It's set up kind of like a maze---there's only one way to go through, and as you wind through the store (which is painted like a barn) you go through bunches of decorations---the produce sections has fake trees lining the ailes, the banana stand has a giant singing and dancing mechanical banana, etc.  There are dancing mechanical cows and chickens. 

I think that Maya might think it's a theme park.

Back in the day, when she was born (May 2008), it was HOT.  After 2 weeks spent primarily hanging around the house, we were desperate to spend more time out, and the air conditioned Stew Leonard's provided a chance to shop, have ice cream (they serve food, too) and relieve our stir craziness.  So "Uncle Stew's" (as we affectionately call it) was one of Maya's first outings:

See the little tippy top of her baby head?

And once she had a taste, she couldn't get enough.  We can't go shopping anywhere near Stew's without stopping in, or we are guaranteeing a meltdown.

 Guys, look, it's right up there!  We're in the wrong place!  I need to get up that big hill to Uncle Stew's!  Right now!   Waaaaaaahhhhhhhh.  (Taken in the Costco parking lot)

Oh, and in the summer, they have animals.  REAL animals.  They even have . . .

wait for it . . .

COWS!  (well, calves,  but whatever)

I'm talkin' to a baby cow and it's lickin' my cow sticker.  It doesn't get better than this :)

I love it here!



So, when we were at "Uncle Stew's" a few days before New Year's Eve, I couldn't stifle a laugh when a bubbly customer service worker came over and said "Hi, do you guys shop here often?"  Ha! (the service is really friendly, by the way, they give stickers to Maya everytime we go . . . and although she's super cute, I suspect they might give stickers to all of the little kids).  We said yes, and she asked if we'd like to be the "customers of the month".  And that's how we became celebrities :)

They gave us the worst flowers ever and a $20 gift card:

Ok, the flowers were actually alive when we got them, but then Maya got sick and I forgot to take a picture until it was too late.

And our picture/bio is on the plaque-----if you're local you should totally head to Stew's to check it out!

I think you can click this and it will appear larger if you wan to check out the text.

It's hanging behind the desk in the customer service barn:

Maya was so excited to have this award bestowed upon her.  You can tell that she's just overwhelmed by the honor:

Giggles

(if you don't see the video, just click play and it will pop up)

No dark sarcasm in the classroom*

(Well, maybe a bit of sarcasm.  But nothing really dark.)

Earlier this month I was invited to go and speak at a local college, which was really flattering.   I spoke to an Early Childhood class about our story---what it was like to realize we were in the special needs world, what day to day life is like, what it's like to become an advocate, and what my concerns/hopes are about entering preschool. 

Dave helped me prepare by surprising me with these (the night before):

*If you don't know what sitcom this is a shout-out to, shame on you the answer is at the bottom of the post*

The craziest part to me was seeing my blog up on the big screen in a classroom:

I sent this pic to Dave via text and he responded "Wow, you got 1 person to come?  Good job!".  (Eyeroll)  That's the professor . . . we were chatting and I said "Sorry---keep talking---I just have to take a picture of this because it's so cool!"

I had a great time talking and answering questions.   I talked about way back in the beginning, showed pictures, played video clips, and marveled in my head about how the blog is kind of our virtual baby book.  (That makes up for the fact that I never filled in the actual baby book, right?  Right?!)

Today,  Maya got a package in the mail from the class that I spoke with, along with a sweet little card thanking her for letting me come to visit. 

Is that what I think it is?!

I asked her, "Maya, where's the cow?", so she picked this book out of the bin that was next to her and held it up.  Clever little thing :)

He's so fun to roll around with.  Thanks for thinking of me, Early Childhood folks!

*The candy bars were an Office reference, from when Michael goes to speak at Ryan's business school.  Have a look for yourself:

Walking & Talking

Walking:

Maya's got a mind of her own.  She knows what she wants, and now that she can steer her little stroller (which she's able to maneuver better than the more medical looking baby walker), she's able to go after it, too.

(I could upload 700 pictures like this.  I'm so excited that she suddenly is motivated to move vertically that I can't help but giggle and take a million pictures when we're out and she's (almost) walking!)

Sometimes she wants to wander around the basketball courts:

If I sit like that, I can scoot myself along on the stroller . . . I feel like a big kid .  I wanted to throw my arms up and go "Whhhheeeee!"  

But things got a little dicey  when she found a flight of stairs that she really wanted to go down.  Really, really wanted to go down.

We tried to explain that stroller + stairs = trouble, but she wasn't interested in listening.  Luckily, she's 2 and easily distractable, so the tears didn't last long at all :)

Talking:

We were on our way to Trader Joe's the other day and Maya was babbling up a storm---she loves to chatter in the car (maybe because we're not focusing on her and she's trying to join in with our conversations?).  Anyway, most people---even her speech therapists---don't get to hear Maya "talk" often . . . she really seems silent to most people.  She's always watching and listening, but she doesn't use her voice much . . . so we're happy to let you all hear her "talk".

I'm not sure what happened with the cell phone video recording thing, but somehow the sound is on a delay---you see her mouth move, but the sound doesn't come for a few seconds.  It makes more sense if you click the "play" button and then just listen, instead of watching.

Clearly, her expressive language (able to use her voice to express herself) isn't so great.  But her receptive language (her understanding of us) is actually very good.  You can see a little taste of that here, as Dave talks to her about her cow.

Speaking of cows, guess what we saw when we got to Trader Joe's:



A bunch of little stuff

Highlights from the past few days:

-Miracles do happen . . . Maya's splints are finally here!  They're SureStep splints, and she seems to like them----after I put her socks on today she actually picked one up and tried to put it on her foot :)  Instead of the girly patterns, we went for barns and farm animals, because this girl loves her farm animals.  She took her "Little People" cow with her to bed tonight. 

-Speaking of farms, we took my mom to visit Maya's favorite farm/grocery store, Stew Leonard's.  I can't remember whether I've talked about Stew Leonard's here, but Maya loves it.  She made her first trip there when she was just 2 weeks old, since it was terribly hot and we were stir crazy in the apartment.  They have a little animal farm in the back, complete with Maya's fave, cows:

 (that's yogurt on her mouth)                                           Mom!  This cow is lickin' my sticker!

-We spent some time in NJ with my folks and my sister's family, and I showed off my hula-hooping prowess. 

(the look on Dave's face here is priceless)

-We went to a big dog/cat show, that we thought would make Maya laugh until she threw up again, but she really liked the T-shirts with the doggie pictures better than the dogs.  (So of course, we bought the stupid t-shirt.  I'm hoping I can make it into a pillow.)

-But I think Maya's favorite part of the weekend may have been just hanging out with her Dad at the playground:

Oh, and we had a big meeting-of-the-therapists, and our first ever playdate, and a bunch of other stuff I'm probably forgetting.  It's been a fun few days :)