NDSC poster contest

thanks monkey musings for posting about the NDSC "more alike" poster contest. it's so cool to see everyone's posters. i tried to create my own for maya but there was a glitch somewhere along the way. someone actually responded to my troubleshooting email. that was nice, a real person too! they will create the poster for me via email. so i don't have ours to show you right now but hopefully it will get there soon. there are so many i like but here is one that stands out...

wordless wednesday

my little sunshine, shines

in a nutshell here are all the things my little sunshine is doing these days...

maya has started to eat regular food! she looooovvvveesss pasta and cheese/soy cheese, a girl after my own heart! it's so cool to see her chewing now that she has molars. she loves crunchy stuff and bread like her dada. whenever i go to the grocery store i try and find things that maya will be able to try like mandarin oranges, refried beans, sunflower seed butter and green beans. i have noticed she doesn't like veggies as much, so i'm still giving her pureed veggies/baby food so she gets her greens. now i understand what my friends all say about having issues in getting their babes to eat veggies. hahaha, i'm so happy to be in this stage with her!

maya has continued to learn new words (signing) almost every week. she is still in love with signing time and i'm glad for that. new signs include: cheese (ha!), noodles/pasta, book, bread, nurse/dr, cold, yogurt, fruit, walk, dance, jump, class, library, game, juice, different, thank you, please, happy birthday, cake, home. she also know the colors of the rainbow song by heart, including all of the colors. she is starting to also use 2 and 3 words together now (ie: more bread please.)

on thursday we hosted our first official play date with a mom's group. we had about 6 mom/kids over. there was a lot of parallel play but also there was some effort on maya's part to interact more with the other kids. it was nice to see.

before dinner that night i noticed maya standing by her push toy. she has never stood next to that thing unless she was in therapy. i called to her to start walking and sure enough her little legs started to move. it was awesome to see my baby girl upright, standing and walking without anyone behind her to nudge her or hold her hands.

it has been a constant battle to get her to walk and i often feel like i'm the only one working on it. frustration has set in and in a way i don't think i've pushed her hard enough. the guilt has started to built up about that. but on thursday i felt a new sense of determination. i have decided to put that push toy right in the middle of her play area instead of hiding it in the corner. it is my goal to get her to use it every single day. even if just for a few seconds at a time.

maybe it was the play date and all those kids running around...whatever the case i'm so happy that she is "trying" again. i will keep trying also.

pink is ok with me!

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."
-- Audrey Hepburn

wordless wednesday

a special birthday...

just a quick note to share the best birthday present i got today. while we had breakfast at a local restaurant, maya out of the blue said "bu-bye" to a total stranger. this was the second time in the last week that she has said "bu-bye" to someone. i can see that there is a shift going on in her mind...she is constantly trying to mouth "bbb" sounds and is vocalizing more in general. this is very different than the "ddd" sounds she has made for a while now.

it was a wonderful moment, to hear her sweet little voice. beside dada, this is the first "word" she has said and meant it. this is the best gift a mama could ever get!

sicky woes...

this week was a hard week. first i became ill with what i think is a bad cold (all in the chest), but what the doctor say is the flu. all week i was too weak to do much of anything. unfortunately all of maya's therapies were canceled since everyone is worried about getting sick. (who can blame them?!) being sick with a baby is not the easiest things to deal with. before i had maya if i was sick i would take the day off and just lay on the couch and watch tv...now, that is not an option. maya needs to be feed, changed and entertained to some degree (or she gets into trouble). she has been a trouper and hasn't complained one bit. although i'm sure she is very bored of staying home all day, she is her mother's daughter after all.

by tuesday i notice maya had a low grade fever. she wasn't cranky but she wasn't taking her naps like she usually does. hhhmm, that is strange. when thursday came and she was not sleeping well, still had a fever and woke up crying for no reason...i rushed her to the doctor. sure enough, the doc said she has an ear infection.

this is the first time that she has had an ear infection. thank goodness for my mama intuition...something told me that there was something wrong and i suspected her ear since i saw her touch her ear once when she was crying. on the way to the doctor's office, i almost talked myself out of going...thinking i was just overreacting with my one and only child. it seems i always have these little conversations with myself, things i should do, things i shouldn't do...i'm glad i didn't listen to that other voice.

luckily today the o.t. was brave enough to come. maya did pretty good but was definitely done before her usual time. the highlight of our day was when maya's dada came home early and we went to the park for some swing time. maya was so happy to swing....and i was glad to be out.
yes, fresh air that was the best thing ever!