On July 27th, our Mother's Group celebrated the collective birthdays of our little ones. All of the babies were born sometime between June and August. Five families were able to come (Sadie's family arrived late so she's only in the last pics). It was a little cloudy and cool, but still a lot of fun. It's amazing how much the babies have changed.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Mother's Group Birthday Party
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Weekend Fun
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
M & M
On July 16th, Malia came to visit Maya with her mom, Megan. That's a lot of 'M's. Malia is only 7 months older than Maya, but she's at a different level entirely. We walked down to the rec center and, once inside the playroom, I don't think Malia stopped once. The blur you see in most of the pictures is her. We had a great time with them.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
"Maya and Nick" video
Here's a video of Nick opening Maya's present to him, as mentioned in the previous post. Because Maya already has this toy, she is able to show Nick some of the features. Basically this video is potentially long and boring, but we found it an oddly interesting study in one year-olds opening a present and trying to play it while it's still in the packaging. But, we are not exactly objective...watch at your own risk...
Birthday Buddies
Here's some shots from July 9th of Maya with her friend, Nick, who is just has his birthday too. He's one day older than Maya. Although Maya didn't get to see Nick on his actual birthday, she insisted upon getting him a gift.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
"Maya's Real Birthday" video
Here's Maya on her actual birthday. You can see she is suffering from a little birthday angst...
Look Familiar?
Here's a photo of the three of us at around one year old. Notice any family resemblance?
One Year Old
On July 8th, our little Maya turned one year old. Maya has evolved so much in 12 short months. She now weighs about 19.5 pounds, and is 28.5 inches long. She's hovering somewhere around the 25 percentile for height and weight which is where she's been for most of the first year. Now that she's an excellent crawler, she's graduated to pulling herself up on the coffee table and her favorite activity table and then 'cruising' hesitantly along their edges. She's trying to climb up on us, the stairs...anything she can find. She likes to play ball and will actually catch a ball and roll it back to someone else. She enjoys music and bounces around to the beat of most songs. She also enjoys books and gets very excited anytime someone will read to her. Her favorite book right now is "Pat the Bunny." She loves to do all the little activities on each page.
She loves to find new ways to communicate with us. She does a couple basic baby signs: all-done and kitty. And she loves to point at things, sometimes to show us that she sees them, sometimes because she wants something, and sometimes we have no idea why she's pointing. She claps when she likes something or when she hears other people clapping. She loves imitating words and sounds. She will 'Moo' when she see's a cow picture, she will blow raspberries on cue, and makes a whole host of other sounds which might correspond to some object or person. We haven't figured out her language just yet.
She eats well and is now enjoying more 'regular' food including cooked broccoli and carrots, breadsticks, toast, waffles, fruit, yogurt, and cheese. We're still making her special stews, but we are using less purees everyday. She's using a sippy cup for water and we are just about to start weaning her to a sippy cup for milk too.
Her personality is beginning to come through more and more. She's very thoughtful and observant. When she gets into a new situation, she tends to want to sit and watch for a little while and then she starts to interact. She really seems to think before she does things. She's also pretty sturdy and easy going. Most things don't really phase her. She's very smiley and affectionate. She gives hugs and kisses and likes to snuggle. He laughs a lot and likes to be silly. She's also very dramatic when she does get upset. She goes from smiling to full blown sobbing and (luckily) back to smiling very rapidly. She's very alert and really likes to engage with people. She's been known to stare down and flirt endlessly with people that interest her. We can't believe such a wonderful person has come into our lives.
Happy birthday little girl!
Prints Time! 11 Months

We've uploaded all of the blog photos for "11 Months" to Kodak Gallery.
Maya Photos, 11 months
Monday, July 7, 2008
11 Months, Pop and Lulu Say Goodbye
All good things must come to an end. Lulu and Pop said goodbye to Maya on July 7th much to her dismay. Maya truly loves her grandparents. Anytime they walk in the room, she lights up.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
"Maya's First Birthday!" video
Here's a quick video of Maya at her birthday celebration. You can tell that she's enjoying all the attention...
11 Months, Maya's First Birthday Party
A couple days before Maya's actual birthday, we threw her a little party at our house. Being that one of Maya's very favorite things are balloons, we got plenty of them for the big day. We got lots of sandwiches and Mommy made two kinds of cupcakes. The weather was nice and sunny and many of Maya's favorite people were there. It was a very special day and we're pretty sure Maya really enjoyed it...