Alive with Anticipation

Choosing Positive

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 00:46:00 +0000

Hmm, if I'm not writing about my baby anymore, I'll have to figure out something else to take pictures of for these posts!

I had a major attitude change today, and boy that felt good. I really hope I can keep it around. Go figure, rubs off on all the kiddos I hang out with, it was such a wonderful day.

I have some journals hangin around from a variety of years of life. I was never good at writing in my journal regularly, so none of them are complete. And most of them are full of misery. Not so pleasant times of my life and really fickle and immature times. I know a lot of people go through similar things and I feel like I should save them, but a wise and lovely friend of mine told me that it was okay to get rid of them if they didn't give me anything positive in life. I mean honestly, every time I open them, I'm humiliated and want to scream at my younger self. So I'm going to recycle them. They are going away. And I'm learning a great lesson - don't just write about the crap, write about the awesome and the mediocre as well. Sometimes, actually take the time to write about deep feelings or come up with well thought out posts. It would be nice to look back on a journal some time and be inspired by my own journey and thoughts.

Time for me!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:55:00 +0000

Oh blogging.... Actually, oh lots of things that make me happy that I've been neglecting....

I have yet to finish Maya's 1 yr book, I'm not running much, and I'm not getting sleep. I have continued my addiction/hobby of thrift shopping, which has been a blast. We've found all sorts of fun, quirky and vintage things for our house. Maybe I'll have to post some finds sometime!

So, my question is how do I get back to this goal that I have of not being on the couch and living my life. At the moment, here I sit on the couch watching TV during kiddos nap time. There isn't a lot I can do during nap time, especially when I have kiddos sleeping all over the house. I can't get the kitchen clean and I can't do anything that makes tons of noise, so I sit here on my computer watching TV. I do appreciate the down time, but I also feel like I could be taking better care of myself.

I've been spending some time lately designing some stuff on the computer for stenciling (using my awesome silhouette sd die cutter that was my birthday present!) but all this artsy/graphics thing is so new to me. It's taking me a lot time to get much done and I'm itching to get some actual products made!

Oh! and I've now tried kayaking! I'm in LOVE. I've only been once, but I'm hoping for sooo much more. I've started to sock away a little bit of money to go towards getting one for myself sometime. It was amazing being out on the water with a friend, alternating between relaxation and physical exertion. It's the perfect exercise too - it balances out the lower body work out I get from running.

So we'll see what happens. I really want to continue living a healthy active life while still getting enough relaxation. Hopefully Maya finishes popping her molars out pretty soon so that we can start both getting a bit more rest.

The end of night weaning?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:51:00 +0000

So, I guess last night was technically night 12 out of a 10 night plan :) The last 3 nights have been pretty awesome. Maya has slept from 8/8:30 for a while each night. The first night was 3:30 am, the next was 5:30 am (!!!) and last night was 3:30 am again. While not exactly 10-12 hrs straight, I'm totally okay with it! I'm getting much better sleep and Maya is getting so good at putting herself back to sleep. When I hear a noise, I have to check the monitor first to see if she was just changing positions or if she is actually up.

Her bedtime routine has changed dramatically as well. When I tried to encourage her to go to sleep in her bed before, she would freak out and demand to nurse, so we'd have to get her to sleep in the rocking chair and then carefully move her. Now we read some stories in the chair but then we move to her bed for a few songs and going to sleep. Most of the time she wants me to hold her hand and sing or stroke her hair and sing. When I finish my normal songs, we just lay there together and she falls asleep. It's amazing! :) I feel like maybe someday I'll be able to lay her down and walk away again.

I definitely suggest checking out Dr. Gordon's plan. I feel like he describes things really well and has really realistic expectations. Not to mention it seems to have worked for us! I will say, the one down side of night weaning is that when she's allowed to nurse at 6 now, she often decides that means its time to get up instead of using it to help us sleep in a couple of hours when we can. But that's okay. I'm way more well rested for 6:30 wake ups now!

Night Weaning Nights 6 and 7

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Alright, I know a lot of people have succeeded using Dr. Gordon's night weaning plan. It all makes sense and is similar to a plan I've used in the past (before Maya was mobile) and is probably very close to what I would come up with myself if I'd taken the time. Right now, however, it feels like crap. It feels like in 2 days from now, there is no way this will be working. I do actually think it'll work but I have this feeling it may take us a bit longer than the 10 days his plan suggests.

Last night was impressive and awful, in that order. There were 3 occasions in the evening where Maya woke up and put herself back to sleep. So that was awesome. Most of the night after about 1:30 however was filled with tears and crying and wanting me to hold her. Also crying for milk which hasn't actually been a part of this for most of the time. I think in some ways, this is more of a night weaning from Mama rather than from milk. Here's hoping that the next few nights are a bit better, and that Maya continues to get over her cold. And that I don't get her cold.

On a side note: I've been having some really vivid and bizarre dreams during this process! I'm sure it has to do with the varying amounts of sleep (or lack there of) at a time and the different locations I've been sleeping.

Nights 2-5, wait, that means we're halfway done!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 20:36:00 +0000

Needless to say, the last few nights have been a total blur of not really looking at the clock and trying to sleep as much as possible in between wake ups. It's definitely gotten a bit more rough since we cut out nursing all together the last couple nights. It's been less peaceful and more snuggling to make it through. Which does make me nervous about the nights that are coming where I'm no allowed to pick Maya up to calm her down. She has been responding really well to singing her back to sleep and holding my hand (which is amazing in itself!)

Tonight is the last night where I'm allowed to give snuggles when she wakes up. I hope she gets over her cold super quick! We've thought about doing the first or second part of the night weaning for longer than the plan says until she gets over her cold (started on Saturday) but so far it's still working okay. I'm so tired that I can't imagine dragging this process out any longer! It has been better than I anticipated but it's still been really tiring.

I'm noticing changes in Maya's behavior at bedtime thanks to the night weaning process (here is Dr. Gordon's link again) we've been using. I'm now able to take her to her bed after rocking and singing a bit and she'll go to sleep in her bed. It's so nice to not have to worry about if she'll wake up when I put her down! Bed time has also been getting shorter (finally) but I think that has more to do with the changes I've been making in our routine. I now read my own book upstairs if she isn't ready to get dressed and read with me (making it a calm down time instead of interacting time). I will only read 4 books and then we turn out the light. We'll rock and I sing the Wheels on the Bus once and You are My Sunshine a few times and then I stop. If she asks for me I tell her "we're all done with singing, it's time for sleep." She's been settling down well in my arms to start going to sleep. After a few minutes I stop rocking as well.

I look forward to the day when I don't feel so taken over by sleep struggles/strategies. We still have naps to tackle some day too. I haven't figure out how to deal with not nursing to sleep for naps when I have daycare kids around. But I'm not allowing myself to stress about that until after all the night time stuff is done!

Night Weaning, and I'm back??

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 03:21:00 +0000

So I think the new Tumblr is a no go for Maya posts, but I really do want to start blogging on here about me again rather than Maya. So I think in the near future I'll be making a Life is Fuller blogspot for Maya posts and hopefully I'll start updating on here about my running, self-exploration, and about the new things I'm hoping to learn more about in the future (sewing, kayaking and who knows what else!!)

In the meantime, I want to document our night weaning process using Dr. Jay Gordon's plan. I know that reading another mama's journey with it was the final kick in the pants that I needed to believe that maybe it would work and I could have a normal nights sleep again someday. We've chosen Dr. Jay's plan because it fits well in our attachment parenting/family bed situation. He highly advocates for waiting until they seem ready after their first year. If we get a few nights into this and it's disastrous then we'll wait and try again soon.

However, last night was night 1. And it wasn't disastrous. The first few nights involve a short nursing and then putting the baby down awake in bed. I'm working to keep Maya in her room, even though the plan totally allows for co-sleeping. You are supposed to choose 7 magic hours, the hours where sleep is the most precious to you. They suggest 11-6 and that sounded good to me so that's what we did. She woke up several times before 11 last night so I went up and nursed her back to sleep according to plan. Then, she woke up at 11 on the dot. As she woke up she said, "bus."

When I went in and laid down next to her, I asked her if she wanted me to sing "bus" (The Wheels on the Bus, her current obsession). She instantly laid back down on her bed and said "yeah." So I quietly sang to her and she was out so quickly. Repeat this about 10 times over the next few hours. It was the weirdest thing. It was as if she knew she wasn't going to get much milk, so she didn't bother asking. Instead she asked for me to sing to her. It's all a little hazy though because it averaged about twice an hour for 3-4 hours. I eventually fluffed up my pillow beside her mattress and pulled up my own covers on the floor.

The one time we went off plan was sometime in the middle of the night. She woke up and was much more upset than other times. She wouldn't lay down and was crawling all over me. Eventually she said "poop" and so downstairs we went to make sure she was clean. I realized I was starving at this point and so grabbed a tortilla to eat quickly. Once we got upstairs Maya asked for some (normally she doesn't even like tortillas). She held on to that piece of tortilla for at least 10 minutes, just laying in bed staring at me and trying to go to sleep. The reason this is off plan is because they are supposed to start getting used to not always getting to fill their bellies in the middle of the night. She eventually ate her piece and asked for a few more and eventually drifted off.

There was only one other loud wake up and finally I was the one to suggest milk. I let her gulp and gulp and when it slowed down, I let her know we were all done and unlatched her. She was upset about it but with some singing and back rubbing she did it. She continued to wake up frequently until morning but as long as she could see and touch me, she didn't need and comforting except for a "shhh" here and there.

She is never that calm and mellow when waking in the middle of the night and she always asks for milk, so I really have no idea what to expect tonight. Hopefully some sleep, but we'll see.

Day at the Park - in pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sun, 29 May 2011 16:27:00 +0000

14 months!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 26 May 2011 21:55:00 +0000

Happy 14 months! You are quickly becoming more of a toddler and much less of a baby. You now weight 18.7 lbs. Way to finally gain some weight!

*You love to communicate! You are working so hard on words and signs at all times. You have a large list of words (upwards of 15) that you can say already! You are quite good at saying mama, daddy, baby and doggy very clearly and with intention. You have a whole slew of words such as cracker, water and shoes that you try very regularly but aren't quite clear yet. You are picking up quite a few signs such as please, cracker and sleep. Our days are full of requests and demands - walk, eat, cracker and up - sometimes with a verbal and/or sign of please. It's quite lovely.

*No new teeth this month. You sure seemed to be working on them. You even pointed in your mouth several times and said "owee." We've started having you wear an amber necklace as well as trying Tender Teeth (a homeopathic treatment) to try to reduce the amount of ibuprofen we use at night. It's amazing how much better you sleep with ibuprofen.

*Walking has turned into running! We've started taking walks around our neighborhood to get our energy out and exercise those legs! You love it and get many looks as people see your itty bitty body cruising for up to an hour!

on top of the couch watching daddy mow the lawn

*You still love to climb, but getting out and about seems to be more exciting to you :) You do like to try to walk down the stairs like everyone else does. Luckily, you know you can't do it by yourself, so you wait for a hand or two to hold before you try it out.

*Ah sleep. Let's just say we keep working to meet both your needs and our needs for regular sleep. I have faith that eventually you'll get there.

*You looove to read. You are constantly bringing us books to read while you sit in our laps. You often want to hear the same book a few different times and can sit through entire Dr. Seuss books. You love interactive books, especially ones with animal noises and peek-a-boos. Your favorite book is "Does a cow say boo?" You love to do their version of Peek-a-boo. ("Hide your eyes....Boo!")

*You still love mama's milk. You mainly nurse for comfort both during the day and night. We're still working to nurse less at night, but I have no qualms with letting you nurse during the day. Most of the time it's only once or twice a day, but sometimes more depending on teething etc.

*You've changed a bit this month when it comes to food. You can be quite picky about what you eat when. You've learned how to say no, which is somewhat helpful with deciphering what you want to eat. You're also learning to say please which is also helpful in that way. We seem to have discovered a food allergy of some sort. You got a massive diaper rash and a small rash around your mouth after eating both strawberries and raspberries (sad!!). I'm hoping that you'll grow out of it, cause those are yummy! You also just got another massive diaper rash so I think we'll do an elimination diet type of thing to try to figure out what's going on.

*You love animals! You are still obsessed with dogs and you like the cats (and now call all cats "Mimi"). You have quite a few books with animals and are getting quite good at making animal noises. You love to roar like a lion, bark like a dog, make monkey noises and go "ee ee ee" like a penguin (a made up sound mama made as your stuffed penguin comes to get you).

*You've become quite snuggly! You now will give dollies, mama and daddy, and yourself (in the mirror) kisses. You also will snuggle stuffed animals, which is quite adorable. Your bedtime routine has been ending with snuggles and songs rather than nursing.

*You're taking a break from liking the toilet. I don't know if it's all the excitement from having kids around all the time, the running around constantly or what, but I trust that it'll come back.

4.20.11 Progress?

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:11:00 +0000

whoa baby girl. just whoa. for the first time in 13 months, I have no picture for this. because i am up before you. showered, and sitting down to eat my breakfast and drink some coffee without juggling a baby.

it's hard to describe this feeling....this independence.

independence! that's what it is...

hello independence my old friend. nice to sit and chat for a bit.

Happy 13 months!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

It's amazing that we've already passed your first birthday. You are quickly becoming a toddler rather than a baby! I haven't weighed you in a while because we are focusing on your obvious physical health and development rather than your weight gain for a while.

*Your ability to communicate is definitely improving and you are soaking up every which way to communicate possible. You are trying new words and Mama is going to have to learn some new signs soon because you've learned all of the day to day sign that I already know! You picked up "bath" despite the fact that I've hardly used it. You still get a bit confused between signs when you are upset but you try very hard to communicate. You've learned "potty" very solidly but seem to think it works for dirty diaper as well as the need to go potty. You also love to point to things that you want or places you want to go.

*Tooth #5 poked through at the beginning of this last week. You seem to take quite a long time working on each tooth before we see any concrete signs of it coming in. You're still drooling quite a bit and so far your teeth have come in 2s so I'm anticipating another one soon.

*You continue to love drinking water, but have also begun to drink whole milk. You've taken to it much better than you did to almond milk or goat's milk. You have been taking baths in the kitchen sink as we work on our bathroom and seem to really enjoy it. You tend to sign bath when you see me doing dishes or when you notice that you've gotten really dirty while eating. It's really nice to have you asking to take baths!

*Oh man, Maya. You are walking all over the place! Just a month ago, you were taking 3 steps at a time at the most and really having to work hard at it. You still have to focus on balance, and you lose some of it on uneven ground or when you're tired, but we've stopped counting steps because you will just walk to and fro in the living room area and around the house. You're now able to stand up without using anything to hold on to also.

*The climbing continues. You still climb up the step ladders when they are out and you love to find new nooks and crannies to crawl into. You've found an empty cupboard where we nanny, our tupperware cabinet and our new tv cabinet. As long as there is a place or person to step onto, you use it to find your way into new and exciting places.

*We've taken a few new turns when it comes to sleep. We're working on your associations to your llama as you go to sleep rather than grabbing on to Mama even as you nurse. You've started wanting to snuggle to sleep the last few days, so we've done some bouncing and rocking to sleep instead of the normal nursing. If you ask for milk through sign, I normally listen to you but I'm trying to encourage your abilities to fall asleep in other ways so that other people can do your normal bedtime routine with you without much fuss.

*You continue to love being social and active. We've started an in-home daycare and if the kiddos aren't in the house, we often take off and go to the park or the store or to visit friends. You can get a little cranky all by your lonesome (apparently Mama doesn't count :) )

*You love clothing and accessories so far! You love to put on and take off hats. You try to put on shirts and pants by your self, and if given a bracelet (or anything similarly shaped) it goes on the wrist! I'm so glad that we've moved on from eating shoes to you trying to put every shoe in sight on your feet!

*You love to talk. You often interject in the conversation and even though we can't understand you, it's clear that there is plenty of meaning there. Now if only Mama and Daddy we morning people...you love to chatter first thing in the morning. You are quite good at saying eye while pointing to the eye of a person, cat or stuffed animal. You really enjoy pointing to noses and ears and hearing us say those words but you haven't tried yet. You seem to be working on ball, baby and cracker and possibly milk. You've said "moo" a couple times when picking up a cow toy. I imagine you are going to need a large cell phone plan in our future...

*Nursing has dropped down to being a mainly before sleep and in the middle of the night occurrence. Mama also uses it to try to convince you to stay in bed just a little bit longer... You've been sick over the last week and you did start nursing a little bit more for comfort but for the most part it's now something that only takes place upstairs. We've started to talk about what weaning might look like, but I really don't want to force it. Right now I'm just trying to wean you from nursing back to sleep every single time.

*You loooove Kiwi! It is by far your favorite food. You will eat an entire Kiwi in one sitting (small or large) and will not eat anything else if there is Kiwi in sight. We've been working hard to try to get more protein in you as you seem to be getting better at mashing the food in your mouth. You've tried new things like Kiwi, cows milk, granola and elk burger.

*You still adore dogs. Whenever we drive to someone's house, you get out of the carseat asking for "doggy"s. When we went to the park, you wanted to chase after the dogs playing fetch. You love your dog books and occasionally we watch OK Go's "White Knuckles" music video just because it is full of dogs :).

*You let mama know that you need to go potty all the time with the sign! Sometimes the sign means that you just went potty (you also make the sign when anyone around you farts) but sometimes it really means that you need to go potty! We just try to be consistent in taking you each time you do it. You continue to be really good at letting us know when you need to poop although that warning is still full of frantic pant leg tugging and urgent cries rather than a sign. We're so proud!

4.15.11 Happy Tax Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 01:36:00 +0000

Well, we did our taxes months ago, but you and the purchase of our first house definitely made this years taxes more happy than they have been in years! We spent today not stressing about taxes, making some grocery and thrift store rounds and getting really messy while eating! We've been working on videos and pictures of you as you've been walking a ton this week, but we've also still been busy working on the bathroom. It's amazing how quickly you're developing! Tooth #5 popped through today and so far all your teeth have pretty much come in 2s so we'll see how that goes!

4.11.11 ah the adventures...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:58:00 +0000

see those boards on the floor? those are a part of our bathroom remodel that is taking a loooong time to get finished. that and mama's pursuing of starting a daycare have taken over and i've been failing at writing and posting pictures on here. i have still been taking some pictures and we're trying really hard to get some good video of all those steps you're working on!

You are 1 year old!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:29:00 +0000

It's hard to believe that you are 1 year old! (and a week...I've been procrastinating!) At the doctor's office on Wednesday, you weighed in at 17 lbs 1 oz and you were 29 inches tall!

*Your sign language has exploded! I think sometimes you get a little confused about which sign you mean to make and sometimes go through 3 or 4 signs in a row. You can sign milk, more, all done, and you've tried potty a couple of times. You tend to use "more" as "I want" and use it all the time. You also point to show what you want. You've been quite insistent with it and it's no fun to tell you no, but with all the power tools and contruction stuff lying around lately, I've had to distract you quite a bit.

*You've got 4 teeth still, 2 top and 2 bottom. You've started drooling a bit again and your latch has changed a little bit so I wouldn't be surprised if you have another tooth or 2 workin' away.

*You are a big fan of water! You like baths again, and you love to drink through straws and regular cups. You sometimes drink too much at a time and it scares us a little, but you do really well most of the time. You don't have an attachment to a toy or stuffed animal yet but you love to hug your straw cups :)

*The walking has begun! You can stand without holding on to anything for a long time! You started taking a step here and there the week before your birthday and then at your birthday party you did 3 in a row! You haven't done any more than that since, but you are definitely trying to move upright more often, trying to cruise between things that are farther away and using Mama and Daddy's hands to help you feel secure. You still crawl a lot and are quite quick at it but you are finding all sorts of things to push around as you walk.

*You looove to climb. You are such a daredevil! You get in and out of laundry baskets, up on chairs and step ladders, you are great at climbing up and down stairs and if it seems like you can get on it you will! You got a toy horse from Logan and a 4 wheeler from Grammy, Grandpa and Nana and you not only love to sit on those, you stand on them. We will not be surprised when you call home to tell us you are joining the circus.

*Sleep. What's that again? Just kidding. Things haven't changed much. You still sleep on the floor bed, and you love it! You spend the first 5-6 hours of the night in your bed with 1-3 wake ups normally. Then when you wake up for the first time after Mama goes to bed, you normally come join us in bed. At some point, we'll work on the sleep thing, but right now there is so much going on in our lives (lots of work on the house, starting a daycare, your party!) that we've just been making it work. You've moved to one nap a day almost every day for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

*You had your first party! You had a ton of people come to see you the Sunday after your birthday. They spoiled you with lots of love and presents and you had a great time showing off your room and your bed! Every time we went up to show off your room, you would crawl on your bed and ham it up. We put pictures up everywhere and we've left them up because you're so cute to look at! You love to point at the pictures and talk about what you see.

*You're accumulating quite a few words! Your first word was doggy. Quickly after came Daddy, kitty (that one is still a sort of whisper word) uh oh, owie (we're working on when to use that one...) You've been working on Mama, baby, hi, and just last night you repeated "eye" after I said it when you were touching my eye. Today when I asked what it was, you said it! So now we're working hard on all the other face parts! You still love to babble and will hold anything that resembles a phone up to your ear (backwards for some reason)

*We're still nursing away. Things are going well and you're pretty good about being gentle with your teeth so not much has changed. I'm trying to get more solid food in you during the day, but I still let you nurse regularly. We will introduce whole milk slowly and see how you do with it. You've tried it and don't seem to mind it though.

*Your solid food has been very interesting. You'll still eat just about anything, but you can be very picky about what you get when. We are constantly suggesting other options when you seem done and try to get you to eat as much as possible because you are now in the 2nd percentile for weight. No one is worried about your health because clearly you are a healthy baby, but we do try to keep food in you regularly. You seem to have your Daddy's metabolism!

*We took another vacation this month, this time to visit Linzie! We had a blast seeing doggies, trying frozen yogurt, slides and generally having fun :). It was the longest drive you've done yet and you slept through both of them except for about 10 minutes!

*You've been doing a great job of letting Mama know when you need to poop (you have a very specific and very urgent sounding cry while crawling and reaching to me). You don't always tell us when you need to go potty but if all we get for a while is the poops, then that's okay with me!

3.18.11 Today.

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:30:00 +0000

Today.
Today you woke up just before your birth time last year.
You gave me the gift of coming up and laying in bed with you. I nursed you back to sleep and as I nursed you back to sleep I remembered this time last year. I told it to you as you drifted back to sleep and I cried. I told you I loved you and kissed your temple.
Thank you.

3.17.11 1 year ago today (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 06:00:00 +0000

1 year ago today, I decided to take a "sick" day. I was still having some contractions and work had been extremely stressful lately. I'd read about all the different ways to encourage babies to come out into the world, and was strongly considering trying them... (I really believed that you should come when you were ready, but I figured that if I encouraged you and you said no that'd be okay) I refused to drink castor oil but I did take a 45 minute walk to see if that would stop the contractions. Instead of stopping them, they became more regular from then on. I still assumed that it could be a while, so we went on with our day (it was Daddy's day off). That night, when I tried to sleep, the contractions kept waking me up. I assumed that this meant that not only were these "real" contractions but that we were closer to having you join us than we'd thought! Phone calls went out to all and while our midwife assumed we had lots of time, I asked your Auntie Beth and Grammy to come join me in trying to rest while your Daddy got some sleep...

Yes, that is your friend's binky in your mouth you stinker! You seem to like clamping on pacifiers when your teeth are bothering you.

3.16.11 1 year ago today.. (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:00:00 +0000

1 year ago today I started to get contractions. I was at work and wasn't sure that I was having them. When I told co-workers this, they told me that if I was I would "know." Well, they were definitely contractions but I still wasn't sure. They often stopped based on my activities and I had heard that they could last for weeks! So I spent the day obsessing over whether you were coming in the next day or still had a week or more to go. I also spent a lot of time debating over if I should go to work the next day. Overall - it was a day of uncertainty. I wasn't even sure if I should be excited! But they were real contractions....

(Today this year, you are trying to climb everything! You like to stand on the horses back, I did not get a picture of that yet...)

3.15.11 1 year ago today.. (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 23:27:00 +0000

1 year ago today - you were sitting pretty heavily on my ribs and I kept telling you every hour or so - "You have to wait until tomorrow, but feel free to come anytime after that." I knew most 1st time mama's weren't early, but for some reason I didn't think I'd be late. (You had to come after the 16th for health insurance/medical leave stuffs) Thanks for listening :)

3.11.11 Just a note of warning...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 05:29:00 +0000

Just a note of warning to friends and family who want to babysit:

You looooove to climb. You climb every set of stairs possible (which somehow I don't have a picture of yet). You've even started learning how to go down stairs. And anything and everything that can be used as stairs is fair game.

3.7.11 Furthest trip yet!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:20:00 +0000

This weekend we went to Tacoma to visit Linzie :)

Mama got some much needed girl time and we had a blast playing!

You tried some greek style unsweetened frozen yogurt, got your 2nd haircut and tried a slide for the first time!

First time... Ready set go!

You looooved it!

Just a little :)

You had such a blast!

2.26.11 uuuuugh.

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:49:00 +0000

Oh man. We are both sniffly, sleep deprived, and cranky. I know I have a sore throat, I can only assume you do too. And yet....

I love your messy haired, sleepy eyed, sleep cheek, snotty nosed, noodle covered self.

(not to mention those top 2 little teeth shyly pokin out!)

I'm so glad you are at least still eating and drinking plenty.

2.25.11 Our visit from Jackson and Logan

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:44:00 +0000

Waiting for them to arrive

Not quite ready to play together yet...

But you've come a long way from this! (although there may have been 1 similar moment yesterday...)

Thanks for visiting Jackson and Logan and thanks for the toys!

2.24.11 Today was your first snow!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:19:00 +0000

Okay, not technically, but the first one that was worth going out and traipsing in. You got all suited up including some cute boots and went went outside to explore!

(okay, you wore snow pants over, a coat and a hat too, but we had to show off the boots!)

We tried to do some walking around in the snow, but you didn't seem convinced.

I tried to convince you that it was fun to crawl around in, but you were quite against it after a minute. Maybe it would have been better if you had snow gloves on. Although I imagine that would also frustrate you.

So then we did some exploring while I held you, you enjoyed that much more!

Happy 11 months!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 06:31:00 +0000

Happy 11 months Maya Maya! (it's kind of crazy the large number of different names that come out of our mouths when we talk to you...) You are now weighing over 17 lbs, which is great, because for a while there you weren't gaining much weight. We haven't had a doctor appointment in a while, so I don't have your height. We have your official 1 year appointment scheduled for next month though. I cannot believe you have already been with us for almost a year!

*Let's see, what is knew in the movement department for you... You don't seem super interested in walking yet. We've been trying to hold your hands and help you walk, but you've been just wanting to crawl everywhere. You enjoying bouncing with help or on your own and will often give us a huge grin as you do 10 quick squats in a row as if you were jumping high off the ground. Oh yeah! In addition to trying to climb on everything, you've now climbed stairs! You're smart enough to not really try our stairs at home, but you love to climb the stairs at Brooks' house. You'l go all the way up by yourself and even though I'm right behind you, dreading the moment you slip, so far you've had no problems!

*Ah, sleep. Some day I will remember what it was like to get lots of it... It's been an interesting month with all sorts of twists and turns when it comes to your sleep. Your naps have become very inconsistent and some days you only take 1 instead of 2 and seem totally fine without the second nap. You really hate going to sleep and have been using nursing and the car to help you get to sleep a lot lately. You are however, starting to understand the concept a bit better I think. It is by no means consistent, but you had 2 nights in a row where we read our stories, turned out the lights and when Mama laid down, you crawled over into bed and about an hour later had put yourself to sleep with minimal crying and no help from me! This definitely is not the norm but we keep trying!

*This brings us to the next new thing! The frame of your crib is still in your room (probably not for much longer) but you are now sleeping on the crib mattress on the floor! We had a few rough nights were I just decided to try to floor with the rocker cushions under us, and it worked great! After a few nights of that, we just grabbed the mattress out of the crib and stuck it in the corner. You love your bed! During the day you love to crawl and jump on it. You love being up against the wall and using the wall to help you stand up. When you wake up in the middle of the night, you either sit in your bed crying waiting for us or you will crawl to the door. It's a little tricky opening the door while you are using it to stand up, but it's been very worth it so far. You get much less frantic when it comes to sleep now.

*Let's see: nursing... You are beginning to understand some of the words around nursing and the concept that it takes a little while for Mama to get ready for you to eat. You've become much less impatient about it and will watch me get ready for you. You generally are quite emphatic and excited to get started however. We are still nursing day and night and have even been relying on it a bit more lately to help you sleep.

*You are now very insistent on getting to eat solid foods at least 3 times a day. Foods that have come up this month: tuna, string cheese, rice cakes, a mix of frozen veggies, raw apple slices, refried beans, cupcake icing (eek...it was a wedding, and you were getting cranky...it's no excuse), baked beans, almond milk and who knows what else. On average you eat what we are eating, plus your favorites. This was pretty tough on our vacation in Arizona because Mama ate totally differently from normal.

*We had our first vacation by air! You did so amazing on the flights, I was so proud. You got many compliments from fellow fliers about your cuteness as well as your calm demeanor. (We got to share the flights home with cousins Ben and Ashley on the way to their honeymoon!) I was so grateful for your tendency towards comfort nursing because you did it like clockwork when we were taking of and coming down for landing. The roughest part was the very last 10 minutes of the last flight. You had a really hard time between your teething, your bedtime, the turbulence and the landing. I felt bad being that parent with the screaming baby and it felt like an hour, but really it was only 10 or 15 minutes and then I finally got you to sleep. You seemed to really enjoy Arizona, although you were a bit more clingy with all of the changes. This meant you got to sing in your first wedding :). You wouldn't let Grammy hold you during Mama's song, so you came with and couldn't stop trying to grab the microphone. You were singing along by the end of it and the wedding guests heard you singing as we walked back down the aisle to our seat. They all thought it was adorable!

*You love love love to talk. You are regularly talking to someone and sometimes we've caught you babbling to Sophie the giraffe or one of the dolls in your room. You are working on real words which has been really exciting for us! You've been saying Mama for a while but it doesn't always seem to have the right meaning to it. You regularly say Daddy when he gets home or comes into the room. You do the same for "kitty" when the cats are around. When we were in Arizona you started to work on saying "doggy." Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between "Daddy" and "doggy" but they are there. The last word I think you have said may be a bit of a stretch. I could have sworn the other day that you said "thank you." the words weren't quite there but they were close and the lilt of your syllables sounded just like it. I say thank you to you regularly when you share your food and toys with me and I ask Brooks to say it regularly, so you hear it often, but I was quite surprised to hear it!

*We used disposable diapers while in Arizona, which was the first time since you were a few weeks old. I found myself missing your cloth diaper butt (your clothes fit better!) during the trip, especially when at the end of it you started developing some rash. You did some E.C. while on our trip, but we were out and about a lot which made it hard. You do quite well at home, coming to tug on my leg when you need to go, especially poop. I continue to be grateful for few poopy diapers I have to deal with.

*You still sign all done sometimes but you've been working hard on other signs! You love to point, sign milk (mostly during nursing, not before) and bye bye. There are a lot of signs I forget to use with you, like bath and signs for Mama and Daddy but that's okay. I don't think you've gotten the potty sign yet but you do love to clap after you've used the potty and we say "Yay potty!" with the signs.

*This last week and a half you've been working on your top 2 teeth! The right one started to show itself the morning of the wedding, which may have explained some of your crankiness. The left one only took a couple more days to start trying to find it's way out of your gums. You seem to be having a lot of pain with these and we've been trying Camilia Teething Relief as well as the normal Ibuprofen stuff to help you get through it. We've also been doing a lot more nursing than normal.

*We've been working you and water. I mean that in a couple of ways. We've gone swimming in Grammy's hot tub a couple of times and you seem to like that. You've hated baths lately and when I took a bath with you recently it turns out you were probably really cold. So we are working on heating up the bathroom before bath time. This seems to help some, but I think you don't feel very secure with your mobility in the water at this point. You also have figure out how to drink from sippy cups of all sorts, including the straw kind. You looove drinking water! We're trying to encourage almond milk, but you aren't very convinced yet.

Seriously - it doesn't matter the type of face you make at me, I find you stunningly beautiful.

2.16.11 Today we will continue to work on our love of water...

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:41:00 +0000

Today we will continue to work on our love of water...

Okay, these pictures are actually a couple of weeks old.

You really weren't sure about the hot tub (cooled down of course) at Grammy's house at first.

But eventually you thought it was really fun! Now to work on bath time....

2.15.11 We've gotta lot of catchin up to do!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:19:00 +0000

It's been a crazy month full of new experiences and not a lot of sleep! I'm hoping to get a few more pics up right before a large 11 month (!!!) post!