All About Maia: July 2012

I am WAY behind on posting. Way behind. It's been over a month since I posted, and that one didn't even have pictures. I just can't keep up with everything. Of course, having a major knitting deadline and then taking over most of the house work so that Matt can find a job didn't really help. But I doubt the summer will get much easier. I will still try to post more often, though.

Quick updates on Maia and then a barrage of pictures.
She is walking. Everywhere. Almost even running now...although it's still really a quick waddle. She can crouch down and pick up something or play with it, and then stand back up. She hardly crawls anywhere, preferring to push herself up to standing and walking around...it's faster. She still has her balance issues, but is so much better now. Of course, that means she is much braver, too, which can be dangerous. We have to watch her around objects she might try to climb (chairs, couches, toys, stairs).
She babbles like crazy, in her own cute little language, and even has a few words of her own. She definitely says "night night" and "bye bye", and curls up her fingers in a sort-of-wave. She sometimes says "Thank you" if you say it first, though she doesn't understand why it's appropriate (she will hand something to and say it..."gyhaa gyaooo").

I haven't weighed her in a bit, but she is probably still around the 19-20lb mark. She was 15 months on July 22nd, and time is shooting by. Like her brother and mommy, she runs on the small side and still fits quite fine in 12-month clothing. And man, does she look cute in her little sundresses and summer clothes. She is awesomely cute. And her hair is getting longer, so it actually hangs down a little in the back, with slight waves. Another inch or so, and she is ready for barrettes.
She is no longer breastfeeding nor on formula...that all stopped when she was just over a year old. She is off bottles, now, too, using just sippy cups. She does juice and almond milk (not chancing any allergic reactions to cows milk), and eats tons of other stuff. So far there hasn't been much she won't eat, though she is pickier about pasta and leafy things.
Something we just noticed recently...she has a preference as to which way she eats crackers. When we hand her graham crackers, she always eats it with the "top" side (it's slightly more rounded around the holes) towards her thumb, so it actually ends up "upside down" in her mouth. She does the same with Ritz Crackers. You can hand it to her in any orientation, and she will glance at it, and either turn in-place in her hand, OR if it's a big piece, she will brace it against her side and turn it with her hand. She does this 98% of the time. If you take the piece from her and hand it back in the other orientation, she will fix it. The crazy thing is, the graham crackers are subtle...but somehow she noticed they have "sides" and she can tell which one is which. That seems frickin crazy for a 14-month-old.
She is learning so much. She loves books, and always points to them when she is near them. She wants to read. And she is always interested in how things work, and it pretty darn smart when it comes to figuring things out. At least, it seems that way, for her only being just over a year. She figures out buttons and how to open things, etc. Oh, and she loves playing with Liam (most of the time). He makes her laugh (most of the time).

Okay, picture time. Tons of them. Get ready to scroll.