Maya Rwenzori Haynes

29 Months

2009-11-03T05:10:57Z

Maya turned 29 months old this week and she's been doing great! Her memory continues to impress us, she still talks about the trip to New Orleans and can think about and talk about things we will do in the future. She can now carry on long conversations about things and is enjoying longer books.

She's enjoying day care but has some trouble leading up to the drop off but as soon as she gets there, she is fine. She's learned some new songs and really enjoys the painting and drawing that they do.

We've done a few fun things this month, a couple weekends ago we spent the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

The highlight of the trip was when we were hanging out by the beach and a sea lion came up right out of the water where we were standing. He was close enough that we needed to back up to get out of the way (and so Maya wouldn't try to pet him).

Maya's Uncle Mike came for a visit and had a great time. Maya really loves playing with her Uncle Mike.

Halloween came and went. Maya dressed as a Ladybug.

We went trick or treating during the day in Saratoga and scored a good amount of candy. They have a good set up for a couple hours where all the stores participate.

And of course, I had to teach her the correct way to sing for her candy...

(Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat)

Our evening trick or treating was a disaster, we only had one trick or treater all night and when Maya and I went out and knocked on doors, no one was prepared with candy. Maya loved knocking on the doors but got a little scared when someone actually answered so we cut the evening short after just a few doors.

The day after Halloween we went to a birthday party and the hosts gave Maya a beautiful outfit from India that Maya has been enjoying wearing.

Maya Starts Day Care

2009-10-09T07:30:26Z

Maya has been doing great with her play dates so we decided to put her in a family day care for 2 days a week, 3 hours each day. We found a great provider who already takes care of 4 of Maya's friends so Maya felt at home right away when she arrived.

We hyped it up for the last few weeks so Maya was excited to start. She cried for a few minutes when we left but soon was too busy finger painting to feel sad.

The care is provided by a woman and her mother (who Maya is already calling Grandma). The providers daughter is also two years old which gives Maya someone else her age to play with.

Here's some pics of Maya getting ready on the first day.

28 Months (and a trip to New Orleans)

2009-10-07T20:58:01Z

Maya turned 28 months last week (and her Mom had a BIG birthday also (one that ends with 0!). So we hopped on a plane and went to New Orleans. Maya is crazy about planes these days. We live very close to the airport so we see (and hear!) planes taking off and landing all day. Maya points out every one and its her job while we drive to keep a look out for airplanes and let us know when she sees one.

We packed a lot of fun in a week in New Orleans

We walked around the French Quarter

Saw the Mississippi River

Ate biegnets at Cafe du Monde

We took a short trip along the Mississippi coast, saw the beach and went as far as Biloxi looking for ice cream

We visited the Louisiana Children's Museum which was quite nice especially since there was maybe 3 other kids in the whole museum.

On Susan's birthday we went out for cake!

We drove a little to plantation country and visited some plantations. We decided not to go to Lafayette or Avery Island as it would be a 2 1/2 hour drive which was a little long for Maya. We drove about an hour from New Orleans to visit the plantations.

but of course the main reason is to eat. We had great Gumbo at this place...

and who can resist the Piggly Wiggly

We visited Mardi Gras World where they make the floats

We visited a graveyard

and we went to the zoo

lots more pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlhaynes/sets/72157622404898693/

27 Months

2009-09-01T23:36:04Z

Wow, another month went by? It was a month of big changes for Maya!

No more diapers! Yep Maya is now completely out of diapers (ok, she has pull-ups at night, but she very rarely needs them). It only took her about a week until she was about 90% there, Susan used the "naked method" where Maya was naked for about a week at home. She only had a few accidents and surprising, they were mostly when she was not naked. It took her a few more weeks to get used to telling us when we go out, but now she won't hesitate to let us know when she's got to go.

Maya's other big achievement is that she now sleeps through the night in her own bed. We went out and bought her a "big girl's bed" and she had no trouble. Susan just needs to re-assure her that she is right outside her bedroom, and Maya goes to bed willingly without any problems now.

She is becoming much more independent. Her new favorite words are "I do it". She is insistent on doing everything herself, especially getting dressed (and boy does it take forever). She's had a few meltdowns when she hasn't gotten her way but in general she's still a happy-go-lucky kid.

She loves bubble baths

We went back to Santa Cruz with some friends

She's graduated to the big kid's swing

We've gone to several birthday parties and even sang happy birthday in Portugese

26 months

2009-08-04T19:46:46Z

Maya turned 26 months old last week, unfortunately she is has had a few bouts of sickness this last month. Up until now she has been incredibly healthy, I can only think of one or two times that she's had a fever. Now that she is playing with more kids she seems to be picking up more illnesses. She had a bout with pink eye earlier and is now down with a fever and some red spots on her arm. We have a Doctors appointment this afternoon to find out what they are.

Otherwise its been fun as usual! This last weekend we had a get together pot luck with lots of families at the park. Maya had a great time seeing everyone.

Maya and I have been spending every Sunday at the children's museum.

One of her new favorite toys is a doll stroller which she takes everywhere

She's also a big help in the kitchen. Last Sunday we made crepes for breakfast

And she continues to be the funniest kid around...

Wigglemania

2009-07-24T19:33:11Z

Anyone who knows Maya knows she is Wiggle crazy. She knows almost all the songs and dance moves so when we found out that they were coming to town we bit the bullet and got tickets and Maya got to go to her very first concert.

Of course she needed a t-shirt

We got in our seat and she was very excited when they were getting close to coming out

Then....Toot Toot Chugga Chugga...

Maya enjoyed the show. Our seats weren't great and the sound was very muddy, especially when they were talking between songs. Maya would lose interest while they were talking but would perk back up when there was a song she knew or when Wags or Dorothy would come out.

Recent Happenings

2009-07-20T19:53:12Z

We haven't done a whole lot lately, Maya has hosted a few play dates, her group of friends seem to keep expanding each week.

We learned that she loves pizza (who doesn't!)

and chocolate

Jackfruit...not so much

I'm still amazed at her puzzle abilities

and her hair!

Last weekend we went up to San Francisco for the Renegade Craft Fair, we didn't buy anything (unless you count a bbq sandwich) but Maya had a blast running around in the wind.

and then she drove us home

July 3rd (and 4th)

2009-07-13T22:12:07Z

We had the day off work on July 3rd so we met up with some friends at a Lake Elizabeth in Fremont.

We mostly ate and played on the playground. Maya took a short walk to see the ducks.

We did go see fireworks on the 4th but Maya slept through them. I think we may do this as our new family tradition: We parked in the lot of the ice cream store and watched the fireworks from the car while eating ice cream.

25 Months

2009-07-01T19:38:08Z

Maya turned 25 months old yesterday. She seems to be growing exponentially at this point. She is now talking in full sentences and you can really see her trying to figure out the world. Her favorite words are "What's that?" and she will talk about events that happened weeks ago (and sometimes it takes us a while to figure out what she is talking about). She still talks about her birthday party (mostly about how she had to share the bubbles)

One of her favorite things now is to draw, she goes through lots of paper. She knows the names of colors but doesn't really know which color is which. When we ask her which color something is, she will name a color, but not the correct one.

Sadly, she is really afraid of the pool and refuses to go swimming this summer. It's been really hot lately and we head for the pool to BBQ but she refuses to go in.

She loves animals, on Father's Day we went to Ardenwood Historical Farm in Freemont which is a 100 year old farm set up for kids to see. They have goats and sheep and rabbits, all of which Maya enjoyed. She watched the sheep for what seemed like forever.

We had a nice picnic and ran around the farm.

06-20-09 - Birthday BBQ

2009-06-24T19:10:42Z

Maya had a birthday party in Uganda, so rather than having another party here we decided just to have a small BBQ in the park near our apartment.

Maya had fun...she ate yummy fruit salad with her BFFs, Jada and Acacia

One of our friends brought a canopy so we had some shade

Our friend, Senthil brough his parents and Maya took to them immediately and even let them take her for a walk around the park.

Maya opened presents (we got her a Abbie Cadabby doll and shelves for her room)

and we had cake and home-made ice cream too.

We had a nice day and hung out for a few more hours while the kids played.

A day at the park

2009-06-17T18:50:42Z

Last weekend was nice and warm so we decided to give a new park a try, we headed to Lakewood Park in Sunnyvale, chosen mainly because it has a water area for kids to run around in with lots of fountains that shoot up from the ground. It also has a nice children's play area.

Maya wouldn't go anywhere near the water but she did enjoy the playground.

We walked along the paths

Then I taught Maya how to play baseball.

I even taught her how to argue with the umpire

Maya's Big Adventure

2009-06-08T21:32:31Z

Maya and Susan spent most of May in Uganda where Maya got to visit lots of her relatives.

They took a very long plane ride but Maya had Sesame Street and The Wiggles on Susan's Ipod to help pass the time. She Did great but got sick on the first leg of the journey (luckily right before they landed).

They stayed at Susan's sister's house where Maya spent most of her days playing with her cousin Haythem.

Maya also enjoyed rocking her newest cousin

They have an chicken business so Maya got to play with lots of chickens (and rabbits).

Though there are drawbacks to having a two year old near your chicken business...

They ran around the neighborhood...

...and helped the housekeeper take out the trash...

She went with her Aunties on a trip to the beach

One of the new hotels had a really nice play area so Maya got in some swing and slide time

Maya got to visit her Great Grandma in "the village" (really just a bit outside of the city). Her great grandma is her only living direct ancestor so it was nice to be able to get a visit with her.

And they made sure to get a picture with Susan, Maya and Great Grandma all together

And as usual, she found lots of kids to play with

Maya had her two year birthday party while in Uganda and had lots of relatives over for the party.

They then returned on another long plane ride (about 30 hours door to door) and immediately slept for 14 hours straight. They are now almost over their jet lag.

Lots more pics here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlhaynes/sets/72157619282507991/

2 Years Old!

2009-05-31T09:05:10Z

Maya turned two on Saturday. She and Susan are still in Uganda and are hoping to have a small party today, the cake has been ordered!

Maya has adjusted nicely to Uganda and loves going out to visit the chickens and playing with Haythem, her 20 month old nephew. Maya will hopefully go and visit her great grandma on Monday. They leave Uganda on Tuesday and arrive San Francisco on Wednesday.

Hopefully we'll have lots of good pictures to share soon.

23 Months

2009-05-11T19:21:26Z

Maya turned 23 months about a week ago, hard to believe less than a month until her 2nd birthday. Maya and her Mom are currently enjoying a trip to Uganda where Maya will celebrate her birthday. We will have another party here a few weeks after they get back.

She is starting to use longer sentences, she blurted out "I like honey" after having a little taste the other day. She is much more confident physically these days, she wants to walk up and down the stairs by herself and can easily climb up the "rock climbing" portion of the playground.

She now has lots of friends at the park and is very good about waiting her turn for the swing. She would swing all day if she could.

Her eating and sleeping is still not great. She has developed a cough at night when she lays down. She has her two year checkup as soon as she returns so hopefully we can figure out what is going on.

The weekend before they left, we hit the Oakland Zoo again. Every time Maya goes, she's a little more interested. She loved the elephants and giraffes.

and even tried to find the monkeys in the trees.

But what she really loved was the metal pigs.

Afterward we walked around Oakland a bit. We found a hotel named after Maya.

Trip to the beach

2009-04-21T17:46:03Z

We've been having record high temperatures here so on Sunday we packed up and headed for the beach in San Francisco.

We went to Crissy Field which is right near the golden gate bridge. It was quite foggy and switched between hot and cold depending on the amount of Fog.

We had a visitor, who came to us from Colorado and is now on his way back home

After playing at the beach we walked around town where Maya went from parking meter to parking meter giving each one a hug.