"Punkins"

Maya loveslovesloves pumpkins!! Everywhere we go she says, "Ohh, punkins!" So I asked her, "what are we going to do when there are no more pumpkins?" Needless to say she was covered in dirt after this pumpkin patch experience. But she loved it. She loved the wagon the most.

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She also started to speak three word sentences that freak me out because they're so clear. "Momma going potty." "I running fast."

Babies aren't supposed to talk yet! I keep running into other year and halfers and they are quiet and don't talk but this little girl goes up to kids and says "HI!" And starts yelling, "Baby Elmo Gabba Gabba?!!" Which I think means, "Hey baby, do you watch Elmo or Gabba Gabba?"

And she's always yelling!!! "ELMO MOMMY DADDY ELMO!!" Hurts my ears.

Another one is "Fix it?" When I say "It's broken." Maya thinks everything can and will be fixed. "Maya your crayon is broken." "Fix?"

Changing faster than the leaves

Maya has really sprouted verbally and sleeping..ly this week. She's going to sleep on her own, and telling us..well, telling us everything. "Elmo, Elmo, Elmo" or "Be Bwird, Be Bwird". All of this while running back and forth around the apartment yelling for joy. She yells and yells when she's happy.

I don't mind it, cause she does it when I come home.

"MOMMIIEEE

Stinka at Fifteen Months

She's a stinka (and if you say "you're being a stinker!" she sometimes says "stinka, stinka!" or if you say "are you cranky?" She'll say "Crankee.")



Maya is obsessed with crayons. "Colur, colur, colur." She runs around saying. She doesn't actually color, she just holds them and accidentally draws on the couch...or me...or the stove. And then she tries to eat them.
"Maya, look there are deers behind you, Maya look at the deers."
(Rocks, she just wants to lick rocks.)

She's also obsessed with Abby from Sesame Street...okay, she's obsessed with anything Sesame Street. But she runs around with a squished up sticker (I don't know why, but she squishes them up and carries them around crumpled) of Abby saying, "Abby, Abby, Abby." Doctor says she's advanced in speech. I guess not many 15 month olds pick up there grandma's cell phone and say "Call Mom." Or hand there momma a book and say "Here ya go."

Walk, Talk, Books

Talk, talk, talk, babble, babble, babble, walk, walk, walk. That's all this girl pretty much does. Oh, and she throws books in our laps and makes us read them. Sesame Street alphabet board books- 26 of the best free things I ever brought home from work. Oh and she's eating a ton, and points at her bottle when she wants one (and says "Meeeeeee"), and points to the tv when she wants to watch shows. That ones just not cool. Our girl's addicted to Sprout. But, I guess there are worse things. She can watch Sesame Street in the morning, and some of The Goodnight Show at night, but we've got to get her off this smack somehow.

We took her to the big pool at our apartment complex. She cried.

Ed Gorman likes to come into the bookstore and say, "I saw that your kid was in the paper again...armed robbery this time."

"Yeah, it's either that or she's stealing cars."

Summer Begins

First time in the sand. The "flood buggies" were so bad this day that we didn't stay long at The Palisades.

Don't look, I gonna eat some clovers.

Lately, we've been spending almost everyday at the park. We'll, Maya and her Daddy have, and I'm usually working. She loves to climb on the equipment, spin the spinning things, and go down the slide. She also likes to pick up pine cones, go for walks, and try to eat things that are generally yucky..mmm, wood chips. The result of all this running around and playing is a baby that goes to sleep much earlier and sleeps fairly well. This makes mommy and daddy happy because it means more mommy and daddy time.

Maya is interested in other kids at the playground, but doesn't really interact with them (she likes to watch). Although she does enjoy chasing Max around and laughing when she sees him.

She still loves fruit, won't eat ice cream or cakey. But if you cut up grapes-that's the good stuff.

Man she's a talker now. "Up", "Wylie", "Shoes", "Hot" - these are just a few of the new ones. If we pour coffee, or if you open the stove she says "hot" in this cute whispery way that Max used to do when he was her age. They told us that she would know six words by 15 months. We looked at each other because she already knew six and now it's like ten or twelve.

I don't mean to brag, but she's getting an A- in AP English.

She also loves her new big girl car seat!

Almost One!

Maya is six days away from turning one. Where did the year go?? I watch her sleep in my arms and I can't even remember her being a teeny tiny. It goes so fast!
Right now Maya is all about "getting dressed." But her version of getting dressed is wrapping things around her neck. Scarves, belts, playstation controls, she'll even try to get shoes on there. She's accessorizing I guess. In five minutes this morning she had a scarf, a belt, a measuring tape and then an attempt at a shoe- all around the neck.
She's also all about walking!! (five steps and then plop!) And talking!! Her list is growing: "momma, dadda (her favorite word), bye bye, ball (she'll even point to them in books and say "ball"), wheeeee!!, uh oh, whoa, bubble, kids (she'll say "hi kids" ), noooooooo, kitty, and dat?"

Blowing kisses!! "mmmmmmmmoihhh!" And another toothie! And eating with her left hand only??!! A leftie perhaps??

She still loves berries (gobbles them up!), veggies (nummy nummy), Nina and Star on "The Goodnight Show" on Sprout, and carrying around socks. From all the other eleven month olds I've run across she seems to be way taller. And she has huge feet. Where she got this tall/huge feet gene, I do not know.

But, damn. She's cute. And silly. And a firecracker.

This weekend we go to Ames to celebrate her birthday and she'll have another party at Grammy Paula's and Grandpa Jeff's on Tuesday!

Until next week when she is one!!

Spring

These photos are from last Tuesday when we went to Siamville with Jered, Shauna, and Max for Brynna's birthday. I wasn't quite prepared for the cute nose kisses between Max and Maya so sorry that's blurry! Last Friday I got sick and I'm still in the land of serious cold so I haven't been taking any photos. But in Maya news she's starting to test us with tantrums which is loads of fun. If we put our drinking glasses where she can't reach them, she cries for them. If I hand her her sippy cup instead of my glass, she throws in on the floor. She cries when we say "No standing in the tubby." She's a firecracker.

She won't say "Bah Bah" when you ask her ("Bye, Bye"), but she'll yell it once you leave. "BAH BAH!!"

10 Months and Then Some

We have been busy with a cranky baby. First it was a nasty cold which she got from Momma. Then it was something else. "Why aren't you sleeping baby? Why aren't you happy? Why are you screaming your head off even when we hold you?" Oh, you have a new toothie that's why!

Then two days later she had a total of four new toothies. She popped out three in one night. She's still working on pushing them out, so she's still mildly cranky. Her new thing is that she's totally not interested in baby food. She just won't eat it. Good news is she likes chili (just beans and tomatoes). And she tried a pickle. Her face read, "Hmmm, it's weird but I like it."

Her new words are "duck," "bye bye," and "book." She also likes to just yell "whaaatt?" for no reason. At least, that's what we think she's saying. She loves being tickled ("tickle tickle" she'll try to say) and also to have her toes eaten. If I say, "Toes?" She'll pop them up for me to eat. She is a snuggler.

At the mall playground she loves to watch the big kids but seems to be afraid (Kyle said she cried when a seven month old started yelling) of baby's around her age. When I take her out and we see other kids in shopping carts she gives them shy little smirks, she also does this when strangers say "aren't you a pretty baby." The smirk is a Dieter trademark she must have learned from Max. At restaurants she jabbers away like she's in on the conversations going on in the entire room.

She has taken to letting go of things while standing and just stands there for a few seconds, and then slowly sits down. So she's a little closer to walking.

Nine Months!

On Monday Maya went to her nine months check up with Daddy. At nine months (I can't believe it!) she is 28 and a quarter inches tall (75%), 19 pounds and 10 oz (65%), and her noggin' is 46 cm (94%) As you can see from the above photo she has become very interested in the world around her. Cupboards especially, she uses her little fingers to open them and then pulls out all the pots and pans so she can sit in the cupboard. We play "Where's Maya?" and close and open the door saying "There's Maya!!) She likes that game. So at the moment all of our pots and lids are lying on the kitchen floor. She also loves standing up, she pulls herself to standing all the time and likes walking around (more like jumperooing/bouncing as she takes steps) with Daddy.

In this picture Maya is "lounging" with Momma on the floor. She spends lots of time looking at her books (which are covering our living room floor) and talking to the babies and animals in them. She is also crawling off her tummy and is so fast we have a hard time keeping up with her. With the standing and the crawling, and the trying to stand up from sitting we're expecting her to be walking by her birthday.


Thankfully (for Momma and Dadda) Maya is sleeping much better and able to fall back asleep without assistance from us- most of the time. We only have to get up and feed her once (sometimes twice) after midnight. (Maya is a gremlin and so we have to feed her after midnight or she'll take over the mall.)

So much has changed and happened in the last two weeks for her! She even likes playing with Uncle Jason now!!



She also will wave bye bye and occasionally say "Baaaaaa" to Momma when she goes back to work after lunch. And Momma still gets those "kisses" (more like puppy licks) when she asks for them..

Kisses!!

8 Mumphs

Maya is 8 Mumphs old! It's crazy we've got this talkative little wiggle butt who was just a little peanut 8 whole mumphs ago. She's gotta be close to 20 pounds of pure wiggle now.

(Maya watching Barack on Inauguration Day)

Maya is in love with jumping. Either in her jumperoo or in our arms she enjoys bouncing and jumping. She has suddenly become a good sleeper and eater in the last week, six whole hours without waking up?? This behavior scares mommy who has to check Maya at least once in that six hours. But it's nice to not get up and make four bottles a night. I don't know maybe all that jumping wears her out and she sleeps soundly.

She says "kitty" but it's always this excited little whisper (she also squeals when she sees one in her books or if she goes to see Wylie), she says Dadda or Daddy when she sees her Daddy, and a few times she's said, "bahbah" and waved bye bye.

She is just the bees knees.