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.