Maia's Ticker

Maia's Ticker

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Major updates

As stated on my main blog, I have been super busy this past month (overtime at work, knitting Christmas gifts, Christmas itself). I haven't been able to make time to post anything. And now I have SO much to post about, so many pictures, that it's going to take a while. So I am going to try to give you updates about Maia without taking up too much time, and again will throw lots of pictures at you, probably without time for captions.


First, Maia is now 8 months (as of the 22nd). I think I mentioned a while ago she had a second tooth...but if not, she has two teeth. And she smiles a lot as if to show them off (not that you can really see them, as she usually also sticks her tongue out a lot). She drools like crazy, so much that she is constantly rashy and irritated on her chin and cheeks, due to her eczema. We are doing our best to lotion/Aquaphor her up, but she drools faster than we can apply.


She has gotten far more mobile. Though not happy about it, if left on her belly she will pull herself along the floor and has gone as far as 3 feet pretty quickly. So now we have to watch what is on the floor. She is also moving into the stage of sticking things into her mouth, so that's even more cause to clean up. Liam has been warned about his small toys. Maia also love standing all the time, though she doesn't really like us holding her hands to help her stand. She wants to hug onto us while standing, or will stand in our laps while bracing her hands against our chests or arms. We've also managed to have her stand up against the couch, when positioned just right...there is a picture down below of her doing this, for almost 5 whole minutes. I really can't imagine her not crawling by end of January, and not walking well before her first birthday in April.
When music is on, she often sways back and forth, mostly side to side, but sometimes forward and back rocking-horse-style. She also bobbles her head back and forth side to side, especially if she sees you doing it.
Oh, and she can totally hold her own bottle now. Which is awesome, because that allows us to do things while she is eating. (check out pictures further down) She eats solids now, and usually will eat an entire container of baby food at dinner. So far the only thing she really balked at was peas, and last night she ate half a container without complaining this time, so maybe she is okay with it.


She "talks" too, trying out different sounds. For a while she was doing soft sounds like "tss tsss", and also "da da da da" a lot. Then she tried "nnnn". Lately she has been doing "gagaga", or more like "gquaa gquaa". And she has added "talking in her nose" to her repertoire...making sounds that would rival Britney Spears' ability to sing nasally. She will also sometimes make sing-songy sounds if there is music playing.


She plays with toys by picking them up, smacking them against things, throwing them around, staring intently at them, smacking them with her hands, and handing them to Liam or Mommy or Daddy. She is showing more interest in the things she can't have to play with, than the things you hand her or that she has played with many times before. She gets very frustrated if you deny her something.



I literally just weighed Maia. Dude, I was thinking that she is somewhere in the 16-pound range, probably close to 17-lbs. Nope. 18-lbs 2-oz! Holy heavy baby! Heh. Of course, she DOES have very chunky legs...more rolls than a deli has, I always joke. I swear her thighs are bigger than mine. Didn't bother with height. Her hair is getting a little longer, to the point where almost all of it is long enough to lay down now...just a little on the sides stick out...so I still call it Heihachi-hair. But in another month it should definitely be long enough. At least it's long enough to look cute with one of those bow headbands (seen in Christmas pictures below).


I am sure there is more, but right now I am blanking and I still have a ton of pictures to throw at you, from over the last month, as well as some Christmas pictures. I will have a Christmas post on my main blog (link to the right), which will probably have more pictures there if you want to check them out. I also need to update Liam's blog, and you'll probably see some of these same pictures there, since Liam is in them.

This begins the Christmas pictures, pretty much, though some are a few days before Christmas.





Christmas Eve at Sandy's house









Christmas morning: Liam had picked out a present for Maia, and was totally helping her to open it.




Grandmom and PopPop's house





Post Christmas




Sunday, December 4, 2011

All I want for Christmas is my two front Teeth

That's right.
Maia now has two teeth showing! She was chomping on my hand (she chomps on lots of things) so I decided to check on her tooth, and I felt a second ridge next to the first. It's not up very far, but the entire width is through. Two bottom teeth. Yay. (and ouch)

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Pictures/Updates of Maia

Okay, I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to at least get a lot of pictures up of Maia, as well as some basic updates.
I think she weighs somewhere over 16 lbs, but not sure. She slowed down, so she's kind of hanging around that mark. Still has the huge chunky thighs. She had one tooth pop in, which I posted about. No others so far. She sits upright without any problem, though she sometimes leans too far over and keels over, so we still tend to put something soft behind her so she doesn't bump her head. She is in love with Liam and laughs/smiles at him all the time. She loves banging things around, especially noisy toys. She makes lots of different sounds, and even tries mimicking sounds that you make if she can figure it out. She has started a head-wobbling motion that might be her trying to dance. If you do it in front of her, she will try to mimick you...it's adorable. She isn't doing the belly laughs that Liam was doing at this age, but she does laugh...it's more of a screeching laugh, if she really gets into it.
Sleep...well, let's just say she still hasn't gotten regular on this. One night will be great, another will have her waking up many times and wanting to be held, and some she only wakes up once and just wants the pacifier. *sigh* I wish we could get this part figured out. Liam was great at sleeping. *yawn*

Okay, the barage of pictures. Sorry to just throw them out at you, but I should be getting to work. So here they are, not in any particular order.
Some Halloween-related pictures.





Other cute pictures. Here is Maia with her "sword"






Playing with "Kraken"



Enjoy the cute...






Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Maia is 7 months

I know, I haven't posted in a while, and I don't really have time to post even now. But I at least wanted to make one celebrating the 7-month mark of my little daughter. There is so much amazing stuff to talk about, but it will have to wait a few more days, when I have a bit more time to do it. And there are pictures, definitely pictures. So please check in with this blog in a few more days (end of weekend, maybe?).

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Teeth!

I was getting ready to feed Maia and decided to check once again to see if she had any teeth popping through, especially since her chin is coated in a never-ending waterfall of drool. And this time I felt a little scritchy bit on her lower gums. Just the toniest bit of tooth popping through, but it's there! Her first tooth! A full month before Liam's first tooth popped in. Yay!
(of course, now I REALLY have to be worries about her clamping down when she's done feeding...eep!)

Friday, October 28, 2011

Ready for an outing

The sun was shining and there was that smell in the air, the smell of chill air (almost like snow on the way...which apparently it is...dude), and the trees were gorgeous colors, so I couldn't resist throwing the kids into outdoor clothing and going for a walk. I didn't expect it to result in so much cuteness, though. (Thanks to sister Michelle for the cute outdoor thingy...I think she called it a "pram")


Look at how cute she is, all snuggled up and ready to go for a walk on a chilly autumn day.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Allergic!

Well, apparently Maia is allergic to normal formula. Unless it's just a coincidence that she threw up about 1-2 hours after eating formula, on three different occasions. She hadn't had formula since I started work, since I was pumping enough. But my supply has been dwindling slowly, and so finally she caught up to what we had stored and there wasn't enough to get her through the next day. So she had a feeding with formula. She didn't seem thrilled about it, and later she threw up. We thought maybe it's because the can of formula had been opened a while ago, so maybe it had spoiled. We got new formula, and a few days later we had to use formula again. Same thing. The pediatrician wasn't convinced, and we thought maybe we just weren't washing the bottles well enough. So, we made sure bottles were double-washed, sterilized, you name it. She really didn't want to eat the formula but got about a half ounce, and about 2 hours later she threw up. So, we were convinced. Pediatrician (or rather, the nurses) still weren't convinced but they said to move onto to Soy Isomil and see if that made things better. So, Matt is going to run out and get some soon, and we'll have to try that tomorrow. Here's hoping it works.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Half a Year

The months just keep flying by. It seems like it was only a week ago that I was posting about Maia being 5 months. And now Maia is 6 months old. That's right...six! Half a year! (as of October 22nd) Holy cow, where is all the time going?! I don't feel like I can keep up with it. And I am definitely not taking enough pictures to share her cuteness.



Let's see. I just weighed her a few days ago, and she was almost 16 pounds...15lbs 12oz. She's slowing down in her weight gain, but still very chunky, especially in the thighs. She's outgrown the top part of her pack-n-play (bassinet), and she's starting to get a bit heavy to carry around in her car seat carrier, though she has about 6 more pounds to go before she grows out of that. As a result of growing out of the pack-n-play top, we packed that away and brought out the bouncer/exerciser. She had to get the hang of it, but she liked it eventually.


So much that she fell asleep in it. Many times.



I already shared that she has started solid foods, though it hasn't quite been a week yet. We switched from cereal to bananas, which she really loves. Although she didn't mind the rice cereal after we added the cinnamon to it. And we've found that the feedings go a little better if we give her her own spoon to play with.S



She rolls over a lot, and she does it really quickly. So quickly that walking away from her changing table for an instant to throw away a diaper resulted in me finding her like this:



When she is on her belly, she really gets her legs kicking and moving. She sometimes manages to turn in a partial circle. She wants to crawl SO badly. I honestly believe she will be way ahead of Liam in the crawling department. She often tuckers herself out and naps right there on the floor.



She is making a lot of progress at sitting up on her own, as well. Over the last few days, I have been able to get her to hover upright for longer and longer. Just a week ago she would hover upright for about a second or three, and then fall over. Or she would slowly lean forward, folding in half, unable to keep herself up. NOW, she will stay upright for almost a minute if she has her balance just right, and I can see her catching herself as she starts to tilt one way or the other. In another month I won't have to be there next to her to make sure she doesn't fall over...she'll be a pro at keeping herself up.



What else can I share? She has quiet moments and talkative moments, and complainative (is that a word?) moments. Her complaints are now more in the form of humming/blowing bubbles through tight lips, while furrowing her brow. It's very hard to describe, but kind of cute to watch. You can tell she is angry, or indignant. She is laughing a lot more, but it's still not the belly laughs that Liam had. She is still more silent with her laughs, and when she does make a sound, it's a sharp, staccato sound. Cute, very cute...but I can't wait until the belly laughs. And of course, Liam is the best at getting her to really laugh. She loves watching his antics, though lately she has gotten a bit annoyed at how much "love" her brother will bestow upon her. There is just so much hugging of her, kissing of her face, and talking to her that she can tolerate. And he has already gotten annoyed at her touching his toys. *sigh* The sibling wars are already starting. Sheesh.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of Maia and Liam together. But here are some with Daddy.




Oh, and we got her pirate-themed pajamas. Arggghhhhh! (Liam, of course, provided the stylish head gear)