3 ducklings, 2 pigeon chicks, and 1 unsuspecting little girl

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Maya's special instructor, Virginia, brought over some ducklings today!  (She's a teacher by day, special instructor by night, and the eggs were hatched in her classroom.)  Maya and I were equally excited:

(gasp) Are those . . .

Mommy, ducks!!!!

They are only 5 days old and super cute.  We let them waddle around, drink and splash, eat some food.  When I walked and did a birdy whistle they followed me like I was their mama duck!  Maya was enthralled.  Check out my future ornithologist:

Hmmm.  You duckies are verrry interesting.

Then one of the ducklings started pecking at her foot, which was hilarious:



And did you notice that right at the end of that video the striped duck was checking out Maggie (one of the Little People.  Yes, we know their names.)?  Well, Maya thought it was ridiculous that the ducks wanted to play with Maggie:

Virginia!  That duck's kissing Maggie?!

Oh, Mommy, this is just too much fun.

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The second egg hatched this morning, and MP is now the proud mama to 2 very ugly baby pigeons :)

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Miss Maya went to sleep tonight blissfully unaware that tomorrow morning we're heading to the hospital for her ABR.  She's scheduled to start at 7:30, and we need to arrive at the hospital by 6, so it's going to be an early morning.

I can't help but feel like I'm betraying her when we head in for this kind of stuff.  She has no idea what's going on, or why she can't eat or drink anything, and then is scared, and then feels miserable.  I feel like I should have started my apologies tonight . . .

I'm sorry for misleading you into thinking this is just a normal night, little girl.  Truth be told, early tomorrow we're going to whisk you out of here with no food or water and pass you over to a team in the hospital.

 . . . and continue them straight through tomorrow afternoon . . .

I'm sorry that you're groggy and cranky and don't understand why.
I'm sorry that we have to keep waking you up to get you to drink when you just want to sleep it off.
I'm sorry because we chose this for you and you didn't even get a vote.

 . . . ending with the grand finale of either . . .

I'm so sorry that we put you through this whole stupid test only to find out that your hearing was perfectly fine all along. 

 . . . or . . .

I'm so sorry that it took so long for us to figure out that you couldn't hear perfectly. 

(sigh)

I will try to update the Facebook page when she is out and ok, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it from my phone.  Thanks for the good thoughts and prayers.  Although she's been sedated (3) other times, this is by far the longest procedure, and I can't help but be anxious (and apologetic).

(Re)united and it feels so good . . .*

We had an awesome weekend. 

Our first ever weekend road trip since Maya was born, and Maya's first hotel stay.  On Friday night we drove to my sister's place, where Maya ran (and fell) in the yard with her cousins nonstop for 4 hours straight.   I would have taken pictures, but I don't think it would have been physically possible to get all of the kids in the same frame anyway . . . and I was too busy stuffing myself with lobster rolls and homemade desserts to try :)  The running may have overtired her a bit, as she cried hysterically for most of the remaining drive to the hotel. 

We were a little nervous about her sleeping abilities in hotel room port-a-crib (pack n play), but she was super psyched to see a "special crib":

My own room?!?  And a special crib?!?  This is fantastic!

Saturday morning we went over to an old friend's house for a brunch playdate . . . which sounds normal enough.  Except for the fact that we've never met before.  Or spoken on the phone.  She's a friend that I "met" online---a few years back, and have since traded email, chatted online, etc. 

I'm betting that half of the people reading this are thinking "Cool!  I wish I could meet up with some of my online friends!" and the other half are thinking "Isn't talking to strangers on the internet an activity reserved for homicidal maniacs and pedophiles?"  

But really, I'm lucky enough to have "met" a bunch of amazing online friends (remember those awesome cardboard party animals?  They came from one.  And when we needed extra scrabble tiles to add Parker's name to Dave's scrabble plaque another internet buddy sent some over.).  And besides just mailing me stuff (lol), these are people who celebrate each other's victories and lend a lot of support in times of struggles.  So don't knock "imaginary" friends until you've tested the waters.

Hello, friend.  (See, we don't look that weird.  No homicidial maniacs here.)

And Maya loved playing with some new friends, too.  Every time that we're around other kids I feel some inner part of me holding my breath for Maya.  A little voice that thinks "Will they think it's weird that she doesn't talk to them?  Or that she walks a little bit differently than they do?" But her two (adorable) girls were oh-so-ready to play with Maya . . . they ran, played with chalk, jumped (or bounced, in Maya's case) on a trampoline :) They had even learned some signs to do with her . . . how sweet is that?

Ok, ladies, we've got the chalk.  What's the game plan here?  A landscape scene?  Animals?  Scribbles, perhaps?

After brunch, it was on to my 10 year college reunion.  An afternoon of running on the green and catching up with friends, followed by an evening of dinner, drinks and on-campus fun.  My dad came up to babysit Maya at the hotel so we could have a child-free evening (and Dave's parents babysat Parker for the weekend, so we were dog-free as well).

We returned this morning and I went out to check the pigeon (I had a feeling the hatching would be soon, because some other pigeon was visiting last Thurs & Friday---I had never seen him/her before, and I thought it might be a sign that something was changing).  Sure enough, one of the eggs had hatched---apparently just before we got in---the chick was still wet and wiggly.

Baby pigeon butt sticking out from under mom, with the other (unhatched) egg in the foreground

I left the video camera running for a while, with the hopes of catching footage of the other egg hatching.  No dice, but I did get to see Mama Pigeon (MP) pushing the egg back under her, which was pretty cool:




I think I mentioned before that baby pigeons are seriously the weirdest looking animals ever---bright yellow, gangly, awkward.  You may have nightmares.  You've been warned.

I had to refill Parker's dog food container tonight, which really bugs MP (you may remember that this refilling procedure was what first outed her prescence to us).  Anyway, sure enough, she flew onto the terrace railing while I refilled . . . and of course, I had my camera and video camera ready just in case she decided to leave.  I slipped off my rings and put them next to the baby for a size comparison---it's tiny and so weird looking:

Here it is wiggling:

(Don't worry, MP was back on the nest as soon as I walked away.  She picked an unfortunately high traffic area for her nest, but she seems to have quickly gotten used to Dave and I puttering around.)

We're waiting to see if the other egg hatches too.  I feel like I don't have time to do any cool animal behavior stuff anymore, so the universe has brought me my own little case study, right onto my terrace :)

A fantastic trip from start to finish :)

In other news, Maya's ABR is on Tuesday.  I'm nervous, and I feel bad for her poor little unsuspecting self.  But I'm going to not think too much about it until tomorrow night.

Technology nerdiness (if I can do this, you certainly can) in 8 easy steps

I went to an iPad workshop last night (app recommendations will come after I receive the list via email).  The best part was that I learned something instantly useful.  Often times we find ourselves in a situation where watching a video would be useful (waiting in a doctor's waiting room, for example), but I can't pull one up on YouTube because I have no wireless connection (our iPad doesn't have 3G).  Well, here's the solution!

I learned how to download YouTube videos and save them to your computer (or your iPad/iPhone)----once they're saved, you can watch them anytime, anywhere---no internet required.  Here's how you do it:

1.  Go download Firefox, here


2.  Once Firefox is installed, go to this page and type "YouTube" in the search box.  Then, download the add-on called "Video DownloadHelper".  This one:

3. Once you've installed that add-on, go to YouTube and pull up a video that you'd like to download.  The three little circles will start spinning, here:

4. Click on the little "down arrow" next to the spinning circles to get the drop down menu.

5. Highlight the format that ends in ".mp4", then click "Download".  (Helpful hint: save it to a folder that will be easy to find.)


***If you were just trying to download the video to your computer, you're done!  Now you can watch it whenever you want, with or without an internet connection!  If you would like to move the video to your iPad/iPhone, keep reading . . .


6. Once the download is complete, open iTunes.  Drag the video file over to your iTunes library and then release it.

7. Now, if you click on the "Movies" part of your iTunes library, you will see you new video!

8.  Sync your device with your computer, and you're done.  Magic!

Happy Birthday, Maya! (A primarily pictorial post)

Welcome to Maya's 3rd Birthday Party :)

It's not weird that these giant cardboard animals will possibly become permanent fixtures, right?

Maya emerges from naptime, all dolled up, to find both sets of grandparents here and balloons everywhere!

Daddy, did you see this tiger?!?  He's HUGE!!!

I think this party is going to be super fun!

This is her response to "How old are you, Maya?".  She tries to hold up 3 fingers (by making the "OK" sign with her hand).  And doesn't she look like a little doll?!  Everytime she sat the skirt poofed around her perfectly :)

Balloons are super fun---especially when an older friend will gather them for you!

It's a little scary when 30 people start singing . . .

Maya, you wish and we'll blow, ok?

:)

After most of the guests left, we were back to just us + the grandparents, and we opened some presents----she was a very lucky girl and got some great things . . .

 . . . like her very own umbrella!

All in all, a fabulous day!  Thanks to everyone who came, and to everyone who sent Miss Maya birthday wishes!

A little bit of birthday

I'm wiped out.  Maya is wiped out.  But it was a good day :)

We got shockingly few pictures, but here are a few tiny glimpses (more to come when I'm not as tired):

If you're just dying for more birthday, go check out last year's party, here and then here

Or take a look back at her first party ever :)

Twas the night before . . .

the birthday bash, and all through the apartment . . .
Every single thing was cleaned and in the appropriate compartment.

That's all the poetry you're getting.  Sorry to disappoint.

I've been cleaning and organizing all week.  All week!  And that's not an exaggeration.  It's like we've finally moved in to this apartment, for real.  The "garage" room has become a perfectly usable playroom/office/guest room.  Dave's office is functional.  It's really, really nice :)

Most of the cleaning was done as of yesterday so that today could be spent doing the shopping and as much  food prep as possible---I really want to be able to enjoy tomorrow, and not to feel so busy that I miss the day.   Although Maya's real birthday is Monday, she thinks tomorrow is the big day, and basically, it is.

Dave has been a big help---he's been taking Maya out to the playground so that I can work in peace.  Today he also tried to help by making a pot of coffee for me.  Despite explaining to him the new bean-grinding system (the grinder button bent and requires a special manuever) he thought he could figure out a "better way".

His "better way" caused a coffee explosion, which caused me (and every exposed surface) to get pelted with an onslaught of projectile beans.  I had put a cake into the oven mere seconds before----I would have flipped out if it had become coffee-bean-filled.

After Maya woke up we agreed that the best way to help would be to just leave and let me work :)

In other news, Maya received a totally sweet (and simultaneously totally creepy) gift from a lovely family who reads the blog, and who I then "met" on a message board.  Thanks to Laura & Harmony (from The Wagner Three) for the fabulous vulture puppet!

Yeah, a vulture puppet.

It's actually so weird looking that I thought Maya might not recognize it as a vulture . . . but oh no, she loves it!

I love this new vulture!

I push him in the stroller and read him this book.

 Vulture, you make me laugh!

A kiss for my new friend :)

I'm so excited for her birthday tomorrow!  We'll be up early to decorate :)