Sunday, March 22, 2009

Weekend fun!

This weekend we woke up early to hit the zoo Saturday morning, we were hoping to make it there before they fed the Koalas so we could catch them moving around. Unfortunately we were about a half hour late, and they were, of course, sacked out already. They were fun to look at just the same, and Maya kept trying to wake them up, yelling "Koala! Wake up Koala!" The lady at the koalas laughed at her. She showed her a Eucalyptus leaf, told her to smell it, and she did. I said Maya, that's called eucalyptus, can you say eucalyptus? And she tried so hard, it was pretty cute. After we left the koalas, we went for a play in the playground area, I was in the bathroom and when I came out I couldn't find Ian in the under 2. Well...little Maya had beelined it for the age 6-12 area! And she had climbed up all by herself! I was amazed at how brave she was. Although in a few spots, she needed help and she found a few kids to help her along the way. She'd say "Can you help me?" and after they gave her a boost up or whatever, she'd say "Thank you!" When she talked about it later too, because I reminded her about climbing up and how brave she was, and how nice it was of the kids, and how polite she was, she'd say "very nice kids! Maya say thank you!" Man she is so cute! She even went down the slides by herself, which amazed me. Even tunnel slides! Usually she's too scared to go by herself, not anymore!

I took her to the park the other day and she was just starting to go by herself on the slides, and killing herself laughing on the swings. :) A little girl came, of course just as we were leaving (always the way!) and she said "hi kid! My name Maya! Come on, come play!"

The day after that day at the park, I took Julia and Maya both, Maya beelined it for the slides, and I took the opportunity to put Julia in the swing before her sister dominated it. I sat her in and gave her a good solid push...well poor Julia basically held her breath and looked like she was struggling to breathe! I stopped the swing and she was OK...pushed her again and same thing! I had to push her really really slowly, I forgot that I think it was actually her first time on the swing, poor thing had no idea what was going on! As soon as I slowed the swing down she started giggling like crazy, especially after Maya slapped her feet and pushed her in the swing too. After I took Julia out, I managed to get her into the baby carrier on my back, all by myself! Well, Maya helped, by clipping the straps for me before they were secured around Julia and I! Thanks, Maya.

One of the other things Maya says all the time- "Maya all self!" (Maya all by herself) Oh and "One second mommy, one second!" or two minutes, or two seconds, etc. Such a nut. :)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Giggles and first sickness

Julia's been an extraordinarily healthy baby, she's 9 months old and she's only ever been to see medical professionals for her vaccinations, which means she hasn't been to the doctor since she was born. Public health nurses do the vaccinations around here. However, we had to take her into the doctor as she's been pulling on her ears and smacking them around for awhile. Sure enough, first ear infection! Strangely enough, she's been mostly happy through it all, all of a sudden now she's not feeling super well and she's unhappy...and sleeping in bed beside me again. Tonight she didn't even make it into her crib! My poor kiddo.

Maya has finally figured out how to pedal her trike instead of just pushing it with her feet. I shouldn't say finally, she probably would have figured it out awhile ago but it's been sitting under snow hah. We took it out into the street the other day to go and get the mail, we were eating crackers as we went. Maya dropped her cracker, I stepped on it and it was reduced to crumbs. She was pretty mad, but I said we'd get another one at home and the birds would eat the cracker. She started to get angry at the sky going "Birds! Silly birds! Eat my cracker, hrmph! Birds! Hrmph." It was pretty funny.

Lately she says "You hear that sound?" all the time when she hears a sound. Other things she says "What you doing guys?" and said with an angry tone: "What is going on?" It's funny, I learned awhile ago that Maya is a little parrot of what I say, so I try and say better things. A lot of stuff I don't even realize that I say until I hear it from her. Like "Pretty cool huh?" and "Check it out!" She says those all the time, hah!

Ian told me a funny story too - she was watching him pee, and as he finished up, she goes "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle!" Apparently she used to say "front to back daddy!" until he explained that it worked differently for daddies. :)

Julia's first steps!

Look out world! Julia just took her first steps, two days over 9 months old. She was standing between my legs, and I set her an arms length back, she took 3 or 4 very confident steps towards me, not holding anything! I'm so proud. :D

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

What's new these days...

I've been neglecting the blog again, big surprise. I should really try to update daily just what we were up to that day, etc. That way maybe I won't miss anything!

It's March...that means hardcore cabing fever for me. It's about -20, I am lacking inspiration for fun type activities to do with the kids, and we're all bored out of our tree. We need Spring!!

Julia, as I type this, is sleeping in bed next to me. She's apparently not loving sleeping in her crib, as she wakes up about an hour after going down and cries for me. I'm tired of wasting time trying to get her back to sleep so I generally just bring her into our bed, nurse her, she sleeps and I resume my web surfing. :P Or she sleeps on one of us if she won't sleep in our bed. O well, whatever works right!? I remind myself that the baby stage is so short, and this too shall pass. I tell myself that anyways, bahaha.

Julia is also incredibly adorable these days, so adorable! She's getting really close to walking (as I write this, she's 8 months, 3 weeks old), she'll walk just holding one finger. My MIL told me that Ian was the same way at 8 months, I had my doubts but i don't anymore! People are in awe when I tell them how old she is, she is just so sturdy. No more baby food for her either, she's all about eating the same stuff as we are, if it's something different she knows, and she clamps her little mouth shut. Sometimes to get her to eat, i'll put food on the spoon, let her hold it and eventually the food will find its way into her mouth. She does pretty well! She started dancing a month ago, she does this little sumo stomp and wings her head from side to side, little bounces, that kind of thing. She was watching the bath fill the other day, and she kept bending her knees and trying to jump in. So funny!

Maya is in a really awesome spot right now developmentally and emotionally. Tantrums are rare around here, she wants to please us and help out around the house, mostly because it's fun. If something is spilled on the floor (solid, not liquid) she'll run and grab the dustbuster to suck it up! If she spills something, I'll grab her some paper towel and she'll gladly clean it up, and she says "sorry mama!" And man does she love her sister! Lots of hugs and kisses and cuddles for her sister, and of course mom and dad. She picks up on lots of stuff we say, today she was demanding pears just before supper, Ian wasn't going to get them for her but she said "I'm getting very frustrated!! OK!!!" and was very adament about it, so she got a couple of slices of pear.

We had a real awesome moment a couple weeks ago too! I've been taking Maya to a weekly class at the Y called "Twist and Shout", basically a music and movement class with different songs, dancing, instrument playing, finger plays, etc. Maya absolutely adores it! Before the class that week, she ran into the front room and said she wanted to bring her costumes box that she got for Christmas. I tried to talk her out of it, but there was no stopping her. The class is fairly small, so I knew there would be enough to go around. I asked her if she wanted to bring the costumes so everyone could wear one and she said yes, so everyone could dress up. When we got there, I warned her again that if we brought the costumes into class, that we would have to share and everyone would get to wear one. She said "OK mommy!" When we got into class, she opened up the box, and gave everyone a costume. I was amazed! She had no hesitation whatsoever in just sharing all her costumes. I think she really understands sharing now, or is at least well on her way to understanding.

The Twist and Shout class has actually been great for her. The songs from the class she remembers and sings through the week, like "Open and shut" and we've picked up some new songs to add to our collection at home. In class she is quite the character, when we bring out the instruments, she makes sure that everyone, even the parents, have instruments. At the end when it's time to put them away, she collects them from everyone and puts them away. Such a little mama! Her manners have come a long way too, she almost always says please and thank you, and is now starting to say 'excuse me' too!

It's so amazing to watch them grow!
 


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