HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYA!!

Today is Maya's birthday. One year ago today, the best thing in the world happened. A little girl came into my life, turned it upside down, and now makes my heart skip everytime she sticks her toes in my face for me to tickle. I fall to pieces when I see her up in the window pounding on the glass, smiling, and waving at me when I come home from work. It's one of my favorite parts of the day.
Here are a few pictures from her party in Ames. Grandma Jo, Auntie B and Uncle Jason, Uncle Jered, Aunt Shauna and cousin Max, Grandpa Greg, Cousin Nika, Great Grandpa Roy, The Pregitzer's, and other friends all stopped by to watch Maya try cakie for the first time.
She just wanted to eat her apple and was not interested in eating cakie.
This is as interested in cakie as she got.

Later she played in the pool for the first time! She loved it, and she loved having Max and Nika (and Lucy) there to enjoy the water with. She also loooovvveeddd Grandma Jo's kitties Pete and Poirot. She loves them kitties.
It was a great weekend, she played really hard and slept really hard!

Now, she misses her Grammy. I showed her pictures and she snuggled up to me and smiled.

Happy Birthday punkin'!! We love you!!

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!!

Doctors

Maya now hates doctors. She's fine in the waiting room with the kids and the Finding Nemo playing on the tv. But once she gets in that examination room she starts crying. And if you've got a white coat, a stethoscope, or a nursing degree you bring the tears and not the smiles.

Tomorrow she has to go in and have some completely unnecessary procedure done to make sure her kidneys are okay and that she has no problems in that area. Why? Because she had a UTI and she's too little to have a UTI. So they want to be sure she's okay. She is. So she has to go in and get sedated and blah, blah, blah, blah, nervous mommy, sad baby blah.

It sucks. I feel bad for her because she has no idea what's going on. And it further reinforces my dislike and distrust of doctors. We'll go in, have this test done, get charged a lot of money, and she'll be fine.

But here are some happy photos of her. And some news.
She loves shoes (thank god),



animals (here she is meeting piggies at Bever Park's little zoo) and she says bye bye, bubble, up, and ah oh.
She loves to eat broccoli, blueberries, mixed veggies,..well, she loves fruits and vegetables. She just loves em.

And tonight she took steps. Real steps!! So cute!! Pretty soon she'll be Walken.

Almost 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!!"

Max's 4th Birthday!!

Over the weekend we went to Ames for Max's 4th Birthday party which was at his Grandma and Grandpa Pregitzer's.
We watched Max open presents (yeah!!).


We watched Max blow out his candles (woohoo!!).

We watched Max zone out on frosting (so funny!).
And. we watched Jered blow a bigillion bubbles while Max took his bat to most of them (fabulous).
Grandpa Greg helped Maya pop a couple. Her first bubbles!!


It was a great day to celebrate a wonderful guy whom Maya absolutely adores.

We also spent time at Grandma Jo's and had fun playing with her kitchen set with Max, and going up and down Grandpa Greg's two little stairs at his house.

Maya played so much she slept the whole way home!

Maya recognizes the names "Pete" and "Max" and will try to say them when she sees them.

This morning she's trying "Ah Oh". It's like this "Ah, ah, ah."

Easter

We had Easter at Brynna's new house on Saturday and Maya had a great time watching Max run around. She thinks he's the bees knees. So do I so it's only fitting. Max was so excited to find eggs in Aunt B's yard that most of my pictures were only half of him as he ran around the yard finding eggs. Maya's favorite part was pulling her socks off and feeling grass for the first time.
Max said, "Take a picture of my face." This is it.

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.