I remember the happier days . . . (from Maya)

 . . . when I was on vacation.  Times of eating ice cream . . .

and gazing out at the sea . . . (ok, at the lake.  whatever.)

But now I'm home, and sick.  Bad fever sick.  Trying to sleep my way through the day (here at a doc appt) and the night too. 

But I have a feeling that my mom will be up worrying all night :(

Sick-a-roo

Maya woke up with a fever.  Actually, she woke up, ate breakfast, had nearly an hour of special instruction . . .and her therapist then said to Dave & I "Hey, she doesn't seem like herself.  And did you notice she's a little warm?"  So we took her temp . . . 103.5.  Yikes.  I felt like a slightly negligent mother, especially since this morning Dave and I were laying in bed saying "Wow, she's been sleeping later since we got home---this is great!"

Oops.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get around to an update soon, but for now I'm taking care of sick little Maya.  I put a new pic from this morning up on the Facebook page, check it out!

We've returned

After a longggg day in the car, I'm not uploading and recapping now :)

But I have to throw something up to say:

1. We're back, and beat, but happy :)

2. WE HIT 200 FACEBOOK FANS!  Pretty cool stuff.

Maya and Parker want to say"Thanks for tuning in!":

Wait, that was Parker saying "Something here smells yummy" and Maya saying "Parker get your nose away from my tushie!"   Let me try again.

Hmm, this is Maya saying "Parker, you eat this grass now.  You're allowed to, I promise (wink)" and Parker saying "Maya, you are always trying to get me in trouble . . . but this does smell good."  Back to the drawing board.

Parker: Are we done yet?

Maya: Parker, look!  Now I'm a doggie, too!

(sigh)

There we go :)

Video plug. I mean, a video, and a plug.

1.  Maya's blueberry picking (and smushing) video has been uploaded to our Facebook page.  If you're not a fan already, you can get there by clicking the icon to the right, or searching "Uncommon Sense Blog" on Facebook.  (You DON'T even have to be on Facebook to see our page---because it's set to "public", so feel free to check it out even if Facebook scares you!)

2. If you're not already a Facebook fan, become one!  Just click "like"!   We're currently at 190 fans, and it would make my day week year to hit 200 fans :)  Do you know someone with a child with special needs?  Someone who likes poodles?  Someone who is losing hair?  Forward us along :)

Dolphins (?) and berries and storms, oh my! (VT, Day 4)

Yesterday Dave tried to get Maya really jazzed to go to the ECHO center in Burlington.  We had never been, but heard it was a cool hands-on aquarium for kids.  Dave told Maya all about how she'd see dolphins, maybe even a whale . . . instead, she saw a turtle: 

(Addendum: As I looked up the website to hyperlink it, I found that it is, indeed, an aquarium. But if you've ever been to any other aquarium, it's probably not what you're expecting.)

And some fish, to be fair.  But the center was kind of a bust . . . more of an eco-center, not an aquarium.  Really fun if you have a 5 or 6 year old, not so much for 2.   But we made up for it by going to Ben & Jerry's afterwards, where she got to see more (you guessed it) COWS!

After naptime, we packed a great picnic and were really excited to go to the evening blueberry picking session at Owl's Head Farm.  There was a Dixieland band under a canopy and we set up our blanket and headed out to get the berries.  Much to our surprise, Maya quickly got the idea of berry picking and was really into it:

Unfortunately, she's a quick little thing, and did some fancy fingerwork---she would pretend to drop her berry in the container, but instead would nimbly grab up 2 or 3 more berries from the bottom, and then smush them all and stare at the mess in her hand.  (Dave may have a cell phone video of this---it will be uploaded sometime soon if it came out.) So she didn't get to help pick for too long.

We noticed the sky was looking, um, ominous . . . so Dave went to quickly pick berries as I gave Maya a snack.  When he returned with berries, the sky was looking even darker.  We could hear the lightening across the valley between 2 mountains, and we were really hoping it would blow by.  We danced to the band and took some quick pics:

Dave, open your eyes

Maya, open your eyes

Ok, Maya, look a little less startled

Aw, that's sweet.  (But see the makings of the storm?)

Then it got darker and a cold wind started to blow, and we ran (ok, briskly walked----but I did yell to Dave "Forget me, save yourselves!" as he motored ahead of me with the stroller).  It rained so hard that we had to pull over driving home, because I thought we might hydroplane off the road.  We had our picnic in the car instead :)

And today?  Today was Maya's first beach trip :)

. . . and a cluck, cluck there . . . (VT, Day 3)

Yesterday you got a look at Maya's super psyched car ride to Shelburne Farms.  She is all about the cow statues here in Vermont, and we were excited to re-introduce her to the very sweet big brown cow at the farm.  Turned out that Maya doesn't much care about real cows . . . we didn't even get a picture. 

But the tractor ride out to the farm was fun:

And she got to meet some furry guys . . .

Before the CHICKEN PAR-ADE (imagine me singing that, a la "Ta-DA!").  Yep, the chicken parade.  It happens when a farmer (or teenager who works on the farm) opens up a magic trapdoor in the side of the barn, with a ramp leading into the field.  The chickens, who spend their evenings in the barn, are all pleased as punch that the magic door has opened, and march down proudly into the yard.  As Maya is a fan of moving animals, we knew she'd need a front row view for the parade:

Well, hello there.

Come on chickies, right this way!!!

I'm not sure if I would rather touch you . . .

 . . . or eat you . . .

(that's Maya's sign for eat, which cracked me up as she eyed the chickens)

So much fun, I can't stand it!

(I was there too, see?)

And I caught a chicken for Maya . . . but she was nearly chickened out by then:

Today's adventures included a trip to an aquarium that wasn't really an aquarium, and a near death experience at the blueberry farm.  Stay tuned for all that and more :)

Safety PS

Hey, parents & grandparents, did you know that many of the most well-intentioned adults still make mistakes when installing and using carseats?  A friend of mine, and car seat expert, emailed me after checking out our (adorable) video yesterday because she noticed that her chest strap was not ideally positioned. 

Chest straps should lay from armpit-to-armpit, right across the nipple line (as if you are "connecting the dots" is a helpful way to remember it).  So check out your car seats, people!  And remember to keep your kids rear-facing as long as possible (check your car seat limits, but "age 1 or 20 lbs" is pretty antiquated now, many seats can be rear facing up to 35 lbs---Maya switched after she had turned 2.)

With a moo moo here, . . . (VT, day 2)

(Today is Day 3 in Vermont, but I'm blogging a day behind.  It's too tough to relax and stay current, so something's got to give :) )

We had to go to Church street, to hang out and eat my favorite sandwich ever, at the Red Onion.  Maya fell madly in love with the random cow statues that are adorning the area (Parker was terrified of them).

Maya rides a cow all by herself:

Ok, maybe Dave was helping.  See if you can spot him:

Since she's obsessed with cows, we took her to Shelburne Farm today to get up close and personal with their big brown cow.  She was SUPER PSYCHED on the way there:

But for pictures of the farm (where she wasn't so into the cow, but loved the Chicken Parade (yes, you read that right) you'll have to wait :)

Vermont, Day 1

We left NY at 10:25am and got to Anne's house in VT at 7:15pm.  We had one rest stop, stopped for lunch, and went on a ferry ride in that time.  What did Maya do?  Not nap, that's for sure.  She babbled, whined, ate some snacks, watching Signing Times (3 times) and finalllllllyyyy fell asleep for 30 mins:

She was a big fan of the ferry ride, her first boat ride ever!

Parker loves having more space to frolic, but does not love skinny steep stairs, which he fell down last night (only 2 or 3 stairs, he's dine) and now gives the evil eye to.

Vermont bound :)

Tomorrow we head out for a fabulous week-ish in Vermont  :)  We are excited to unplug (slightly, less time online), unwind, and enjoy life at a slightly slower pace. 

Highlights will likely be: my favorite sandwich at the Red Onion in Burlington, Ben & Jerry's factory, Magic Hat factory, Shelburne Farm (where Maya will love the animals), watering (and eating) from my SIL's (that's sister-in-law's, for all of you non message board folks) garden, playing Scrabble, letting Parker run in the field, and enjoying general sillyness.  Possible bonuses include free time to nap, read, and maybe finish writing my little essay.

Any friends in the Burlington area?  Great suggestions of things that we shouldn't miss?

Hopefully I'll post at least one update from the road :)  I imagine that the Facebook page will get more frequent updates/uploads from my phone----so if you're not already a fan, become one now!

Zoo . . . Hair . . . CHEW . . . Where?

If I come up with a nonsensical rhyming title, then it totally makes my jumbled update-about-everything post appear cohesive, right?  Right.

1. Zoo:  We went to the Bronx Zoo the other day and had a fun time.  Well, Dave had a fun time:

Maya was so scared that she re-enacted her DMV pose:

Until Mommy came to save the day:

(Hmm, who's having more fun?  Maya or Mommy?  Or the magical glowing prairie dog?)

Fun at the petting zoo:

Miss Maya is attempting vertical movement more and more!  Here, some teetery walking holding on to only 1 hand!:

It may not be graceful looking, but who cares . . .

2.Hair: My hair continues to fall out at an alarming rate:

Ok, it's not quite that bad :)  Actually, I convinced Dave to cut my hair (with the balding patches, I've been hiding from salon folks----I don't want anyone messing with my hair, and I don't want lots of people coming to stare at it).  So we did a chop at home:

(not the most glamorous pic, but you get the idea)

3. CHEW!!!!!!!!  This is the best update by far (and if you check our Facebook page, you're already in the loop on this one).  Maya has come so far with feeding therapy that today Erica (her feeding therapist) said "No more jars (baby food)----she's an eating girl now!"  So, in theory, Maya could only be eating normal food now (with some exceptions---she can't do very hard things, like apples.  She can't manage something very complicated, like rice.  And she can't really regulate how much she gets in her mouth at a time, so we still have to feed her most pieces by hand.)   She's an eating girl!!!!!!  Real food!!! 

Here, she digs into dinner (yogurt, blueberries, some snacky stuff, and a cereal bar--not pictured).  The sushi belongs to Dave & me:

4. Where?  We're going away on Saturday and Maya has been studying up for the trip.  Here, Dave helps her to plan our week's worth of activities.  See if you can figure out where we're heading :)