Happy Valentine's Day

Maya dressed in her red heart shirt (thanks, Grandma) and even found her old heart sunglasses :)

She's so clever, this girl.  She pushed the sunglasses up like a headband, just like Mommy does.

And then we ran into Maya's  Mega-me.  (That's the opposite of Mini-me, right?). 

In the foreground, Maya 2011.  In the background, Maya 2111. 

I can't help but wonder if the older folks in the neighborhood think we're making fun of them.  You know, like "Why doens't that woman just get her kid a shopping cart toy like everyone else?! grumble, grumble  A mini-walker?  Is that supposed to be funny?"

(Seriously, that lady was nice.  I don't think she even noticed Maya's walker.)

Go vote in this week's poll--it's almost done!

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 picture post

Because it's Friday, I'm feeling lazy, and I don't have much to say.  In no particular order, some recent photos:

Just going for a stroll with my Grandpa . . .  

I love givin' my cousin Emerson a big kiss! (This pic is like a week old, but I'm sneaking it in here because it's so cute.)

 Mommy, you look ridiculous.

Why are you people always messin' with me?  (New placement of TheraTog straps to try to get her to not lock her knees.)

Seriously, I am simply adorable.

Is this some sort of bizarre flashback?  No, we're just crazy.  Maya loves the taste of home made applesauce so much that we're buying up cheap bags of apples to make & freeze it.  Who wants to come over and peel apples?

We get by with a little help from our friends . . .*

That's nearly been the mantra this week. I wish I had pictures for each day, but . .. eh. Here was our social calendar this week:

-Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day) morning with Sarita & baby Olivia (complete with fresh baked Irish soda bread & coffee cake , c/o my best baking friend)
-Thursday morning: playground playdate & brunch with my folks (pics from Grandma)

-Thursday afternoon: playground playdate with Cathy, Fernanda & Wendy (see pic on my last post)
-Friday evening: steakhouse celebration with Dave's folks, and Uncle Alan, Aunt Lori, & cousins Brooke & Sammy
-Saturday: lunch & playground date with Aunt Lisa, Uncle Jason, Collin & Emerson
-Sunday: brunch with Whitney &  Craig (by the way guys, we got the camera!)

It might look busy, but it was fantastic. I'm operating under a throw-yourself-out-into-the-universe philosophy (yeah, yeah, insert eye roll here). But seriously . . . the weather is getting warm. We have a very heavy therapy schedule (getting busier as we add 2 weekly trips into the city this week for private feeding & speech therapy), and we (or I) need to socialize. And I feel little sparks of possibility as I push myself out of my comfort zone. So I've (literally) posted fliers in the neighborhood, thrown things up on message boards, and am reaching out to old friends for contact. Do you live nearby? We'd love to meet up. For real. Don't be shy :)

Also this week, Maya got a (home-made) license plate:

And learned that shadows are mysterious and elusive:

And she's a monkey at the playground, climbing climbing climbing. I'm trying to get a good video, stay tuned.

The not snowing

(The title is my clever way of breaking the tension after my heavy last post "The not knowing"---see, a play on words? And also it points out that today is a dreadfully miserable rainy--not snowy--day. Oh, and I'm putting up our snowstorm pictures, finally.)

(Don't be insulted that I had to explain my clever title---I'm not underestimating you, it's for my other blog readers. Really.)

Snowstorm pics--Dave & Maya got to play together in the snow for the first time this year (if you remember, the last snowstorm was filled with vomit and the worst waffle ever . . . this one was much better).

I was hopping up and down, whistling, making animals noises, and trying desperately to get a picture of both of them looking in the same frick-fracking direction and smiling:


Alright, off to a slow start. Dave, why don't you get in there with her?

Ok, cute snowman :) But how about we try to smile?


Dave-well done. Maya, step it up! Weee! Come on Maya! (slight hopping)

Maya, yes!!!! Argh, DAVE! HONESTLY?!

Sigh. Yes, Dave, that's much better. MAYAmayamayamaya . . .

Then I gave up and we took her sledding:

Or just plopped her on the hood of the car.

And we tried again for a pic:

So close!

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new walker: Our OT brought a walker for Maya this week, and I was excited to get her moving. She wasn't super into it on Monday night at home, and I thought that maybe we'd have more luck with it outside.

On Tuesday I was a total rookie---I honestly felt impressive loading up the walker to go to the park. Good for you! Be bold, take it out! Maybe she'll be more interested in trying it outside. The clunking and clanging as I tried to figure out how to move around with it was ridiculous. I giggled to myself for about a third of the walk to the park, shifting and reshifting until I came up with this:

On Weds I was a pro:

Dave & I looked at this picture and realized that if I painted eyeballs on the bottom of the tennis balls than I might scare the bejeezus out of people as we walk towards them.

And, anyway, the playground idea worked. She can't get far on her own yet, but if I push she'll toddle along to keep up just fine.

And now I'm tired of writing this, and I have no interesting way to tie it together, so we'll end with my favorite pic from this past month:

Perfection :)