My baby is THREE today!

Happy Birthday Sweet Maia! It is truly amazing that you are three years old today. I met you 20 months ago today... and even that is hard to believe!

You have grown up into a beautiful little girl now - no longer a 'baby' or even a toddler. I see big differences in you in the past month or less - and you are a little lady now! Mommy is sad in some ways that her precious little baby girl is growing up so fast - but at the same time - I love that you are such a beautiful and special little girl! I love you Maia Caroline!!

We celebrated your birthday yesterday at home with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Bobby visiting us. It was a great day and you got lots of nice toys and things that you loved. It was really neat to watch you know what to do with the presents, and after each one you were actually excited and wanted each one opened right then so you could play with it. I'm not sure there is a clear cut favorite yet, you really liked everything!! One of your favorites is definitely the Dora couch you got from Grandma and Grandpa which folds out to a little bed with a blanket zipped into it, so it's like a built in sleeping bag. You love it! You also love your Disney 'boom box' with little CD's you can change out to hear different songs. You love your Princess Back-Pack from Grandma B. You loved the pink bathrobe I gave you - and when you put it on over your party dress, and then laid on the new Dora couch... you looked like royalty in your plush robe, kicked back, relaxing... Quite cute!!

We had yummy cake and ice cream for dessert - you really liked the ice cream the best. You didn't really want the cake on your plate, but prefered to dig your hand into a piece that was left in the cake pan instead...

We also celebrated your Grandma's 65th birthday and your Grandpa's 67th birthday. They let you get most (read... *ALL*) of the attention, but we tried to fix them a dinner they would enjoy, rather than serving Mac'roni and Cheese, as you would have preferred. :) Your Aunt Regan has her birthday tomorrow, and we are sorry we couldn't celebrate all together with her too!

You are still a petite little thing... just now going in to any 2T clothing, some of which is still too large! Your shoes are a size 7 (and you love your shoes - and many hand me down pairs from Kake (as you call her... this is your cousin Kate...)).

You love to be a helper and are actually becoming helpful in some things! It used to be that you would unfold things I had just folded, or take things out of drawers that I had just put away. But now, you carry things to your room or throw things in the trash when I ask you too, and you do a great job!!

You bring joy to our lives and laughter to our days. You awake with energy and happiness I only dream of at that hour of the day! You are a good girl even when I keep you up too late, and you behave so well in stores and restaurants (almost always!). This past week, we went to dinner with some friends of mine and as they dimmed the lights right before we were leaving... you exclaimed with much anxiousness in your voice, in a very high pitch for all to hear... "OH NO MOMMY!! It's gark. Oh no! Mommy! It's gark! Night night Mommy, it's gark!! Oh no... " as you looked upwards towards the lights trying to determine what happened to them!! It was simply precious and has brought a smile to my face MANY times the past 4 days.

You love to watch Dora the Explorer and Go Diege Go. You like the movies the Jungle Book, Finding Nemo, and Toy Story. You like to eat Macaroni and Cheese, and that's about all. (*Not really, but that is by FAR your favorite and something I can get you to eat, without doubt, no matter how many times you've eaten it that day, or week, or month.) You love your school and are busy learning your numbers and colors and shapes. You are learning them more and more each day.

I love you Maia, and I am so lucky to be your Mommy!! You are a special little girl and God blessed me for sure when He let me be your Mommy! Thanks for being such a wonderful daughter to me and sister to Matthew! We love you!

Maia enjoying her day as royalty... plush robe, kicked back on her new love seat...

Mommy and her precious Maia!

I love this picture - she doesn't even see the cake and candles yet, and yet the excited on her face is priceless!

I'm not quite sure what she was doing here... but she had gotten so excited - it's like, talk to the hand, I can't catch my breath I'm laughing so hard!

I can NOT wait for you to give me my plate with ice cream... I'm just going to take a taste from here...

Dig in! Two fisted!!


Looks like she's sipping soup! Nice a lady like...

Now I'll use my fork...




I think it might just be easier to use my fingers...

Full fisted - like Winnie the Pooh!

Even that took too long - maybe just put it straight in my mouth!!

I may eat like a puppy dog... but aren't I am ANGEL mom??? :)

I'm pretty cute too, aren't I Mom? (except if he were actually asking, it would be more like, yo, mmmfffgh, hhhffff, gggghhh, huh?) Lots of mumbling at this age, but I still love him! :)

I think the sugar is kicking in!! Or maybe it's because it's 9:30 at night??? We started to get a LITTLE silly now!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAIA!!!

Maia is two today!! Happy Birthday, precious, sweet child!! I am so glad I get to be your Mommy and celebrate with you on your second birthday! In the 8 months (243 days to be exact) since I've met you - you've already grown up more than I'd like. You're getting big - FAST! I look back at pictures from 8 months ago and realize how much of a baby you were then, and how big a girl you've become!! Amazing. I've known you for exactly 1/3 of your wonderful life... and I cherish every single day I get to spend with you! I look forward to the next 8 months as much as I've loved the last 8 months with you. I am so glad I got to spend this birthday with you - I love you, little Maia.

We had a busy day today! We visited her new school for about 2 hours. She loved it! She played with lots of toys, met lots of teachers, got acclimated to her new room. They even had crafts set up at different tables in different rooms... while doing various crafts, she proceeded to eat playdough and suck on markers without the lids on. She ended up with a purple mouth... She eats everything! And puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I've never seen anything like it. So we took her to another room where they were serving cupcakes... but do you think she would eat a cupcake... Nope, not really!! She was too full from the playdough... We went outside on the playground too and when it was time to leave, Maia was having no part of that. I literally had to drag her to the car, kicking and screaming. I think she's going to be just fine on Monday... :)

We came home and had lunch and a nap. (Yes, I had a nap too!) Then we headed to our friend Kayleigh's 5th birthday party. There were lots of friends there, for all of us. It was a gorgeous fall day and they had a big bouncy tent in the backyard. It was fun for me too to be able to chat and reconnect with some friends I haven't gotten to see in a long time, in some cases. I found out one is expecting, one is adopting, one had a baby in July I hadn't gotten to see yet... Really exciting times!! We had a great time!!

Tonight was relatively quiet at home except for the call from my sister and her kids. They had sent Maia a package that arrived today. We were going to open it after dinner, but they called right at the end of our dinner, so we opened it while they were on the phone. It was full of really awesome stuff! They sent LOTS of dress up outfits, and hats, and shoes, and leotards, and ballet shoes, etc. Also, they sent If You Give a Pig a Party and a Cabbage Patch Doll! How neat - an adoptable baby doll!! :) She was overwhelmed with it all, and will have fun going through it all for days and days!! It was great to talk to Regan and all the kids. They are getting so big now, that we can have great, real conversations with them. Maia on the other hand... still doesn't chat much, which dissappoints the kids I think, but one day, she'll be chatting up a storm with the rest of them!

Tomorrow we have Evan's party to go in the morning. That should be a lot of fun too!!

Mom left yesterday and went on a retreat. Dad left the house this morning before the rest of us got out of bed. (Although Maia woke up right when he was leaving, so we were up shortly afterwards.) So, it was different around here today without Mom and Dad, but we weren't home that much either, so tomorrow will seem even stranger. It's always quiet around here with two less people in the house.

Tomorrow is football day - yeah! Gotta love Sundays in the fall - especially when our teams win and the ones we don't like lose.

Happy Birthday, Maia! We love you!!

It's Been a Long Time...

It may not seem like long to you all, but it feels like forever to me since I, not only wrote a blog, but downloaded any pictures, and even read many blogs. There just isn't time, and when there is, no matter how much I love blogging and following other blogs, I just don't feel like being on the computer! But, I feel like Maia changes daily, and I'll try to capture some events and changes as I write now.

The past month has been interesting trying to line up day care for Maia until the new school is able to take her. Well, Monday is the day! Maia will start at her new school - and I am so excited! Tomorrow there is an open house that we can attend. Perfect timing! I can take her in, and get her used to the room and the teachers, all while I am there. That will make Monday morning less stressful. (Frankly, I'm sure she will be fine, it's me I am more worried about!) Right now, I would say I'm not worried at all, and I'm NOT! BUT, come time to drop her off, worry isn't the right word, but something comes over me where I get sad to leave them at a new place. Like I said, SHE will be FINE!!

The first week of this month, my friend Julie watched Maia. Then my parents took Maia to their house for a week. The Friday of that week, my brother, Matthew and I went to the beach house for the weekend and brought Maia home with us on Sunday.

The third week, my friend Julie watched her again. However, Julie had an illness that just wouldn't go away, so I ended up having to stay home with her that Tuesday. Then, Julie still didn't feel well, and I had someone lined up for Wednesday, but that got mis-communicated, so my back-up fell through for Wednesday! At 8:30 pm Tuesday night I found out this wonderful news, SO, I had to find someone, at 8:30 at night to watch Maia starting about 7:30 the next morning. As it turns out, my friend Julie had a neighbor with a little girl who is just a bit older than Maia, and they had played together when Julie had been watching Maia, SO, we asked her Mom to watch Maia for me that day! Yes, a stranger to me, but a friend to my friend, and at that moment I had to trust her judgment! It turned out to be wonderful, and I hope I've found a friend for me (the mom) and a friend for Maia, the daughter as well. Julie was better that Thursday and Friday. Yeah!!

Then, the fourth and final week, my parents came up to my house and stayed her to watch her. Today ended this long stretch of people stepping up and helping me out!! Obviously I couldn't take all this time off from work to do it myself, so luckily I have great family and friends willing to assist!! Thank you ALL!!

We had a great weekend at the beach two weeks ago. My grandma was visiting from Florida, so it was awesome to see her, and have her meet Maia!! It had been too long since I'd gotten to see her (this past year has not been a typical one - obviously.) She religiously wrote to my mom and I though while we were in Kazakhstan living in Siberia in the winter... and we loved her frequent emails!! So, althought I hadn't seen her in about 1.5 years, it didn't seem quite that long as she stayed so close to us via email and kept us up on all the news stateside!

This weekend is going to be very busy. Tomorrow is the open house at Maia's new school. Then, at 3 pm we have a birthday party to go to. I can't wait to go see some of the Mom's I'm friends with that I haven't gotten to see in a while!! Sunday, there is a party for Matthew's brother, Evan. They invited both Matthew and Maia, so we will all be attending this party on Sunday.

Maia's birthday is tomorrow!! She will be two! The first celebration (I assume) for her birthday.) We have had a couple of little family celebrations already. Last night we celebrated with Mom and Dad. She got some presents and I made cupcakes (actually I frosted cupcakes, Mom made them for me!). It wasn't really what I wanted, celebrating on a weeknight. It was more stressful knowing I had to go to work the next day for some reason, but she didn't know any different. I did do presents before dinner though, and that was likely a mistake. After presents, while trying to seat her for dinner, she had a major meltdown. This has never happened before, but honestly, I think she was just hungry and thirsty!! She was much better after I gave her a juice box (as a treat, but also knowing she'd drink it really fast if she were that thirsty and I wanted some quick relief!) It worked, and then she ate some dinner and then a cupcake. I'll post some various pictures, not only fromt he borthday, but also other events I've been missing.

This week, Maia climbed out of her crib for the first time!! Mom went down the hall to check on her about the time she thought she would get up from a nap. She stood outside her door and listened and heard nothing. Then a few seconds later, she heard knocking. Maia was standing on the other side of the door, knocking to get out of her room. Her room, by the way, looked like a tornado went through it... so she had been up a little while, emptying her laundry basket, and diaper container, and dresser drawers.... it was quite a site. Mom left it 'as is' until I got home from work. The mattress is as low as it will go, and the sides are HIGH. She is just a monkey. She stacked up her stuffed animals, and blankets and bumper pad and made it high enough to get out. Maybe it's time to take the bumper pad out.... ?? That gave her some leverage (we could tell because it was crushed!) She hasn't done it since though - so ??? Who knows when she will strike again!

Maia got a baby doll stroller for her birthday. (Actually, she got too.) We decided one will be for inside and one for outside play. Anyway, Maia insisted that were for HER and she wanted to sit in it! I'll post a picture of Maia in the tiny baby doll stroller. Silly Maia.

Then today, she decided the stroller belonged on a chair and she climbed in the chair too. Mom took a picture of this.

I'm getting tired, and still have pictures to post, so I'll stop rambling and post some pictures. I'll be back sooner rather than later to talk some more and post some more pictures...