All About Our Girls: Let's Talk About Maya

I look at these darling pictures and can hardly believe how big my baby is getting! Wow how time flies! She is turning into a toddler right before my very eyes! It's such a blessing and exactly what I want for her, but it's so hard for this mama to let go of the baby stage :( Here is a little catch-up about what our little Maya is up to at this very active age!

Maya continues to be a smiley kid :) We get comments on her "smileyness" all the time! She loves going to music class with Maryn and me and typically will smile her whole way through it! She also has turned into quite the outdoors kid (just like her Daddy!). She will stand at the back door and do her famous and intense "Oooooo oooooo ooooooo oooooooo" until one of us takes her out back to swing!

Maya has a few new favorite foods this past week. She finally decided that she LOVES black beans (perfect example of if you feed a kid a certain food enough times they will eventually cave and try it!). She also has a renewed interest in bananas. If she can see up to our fruit bowl from the floor or from her highchair, she will point and do the her "oooooo oooooo ooooooo" (which ironically sounds a lot like a monkey!) until we give her a banana. In the past she tolerated bananas. She'd eat a little and mash the rest on the seat of her highchair or throw it on the ground. Now she inhales them before I even have a chance to turn and look! And of course thanks to Easter and all of it's lovely candy, she has become a huge fan of M&M minis! I made the horrible mistake of giving her just one and now she wants them any time she sees any candy. Oh boy. But I have to admit the colorful M&M drool while she's eating them is awfully cute.

And another part of her eating that has changed... I weaned her from nursing at 13 months and 1 week. Maya is my first child that did not stop breastfeeding on her own. Both Makenna and Maryn weaned themselves between 9 and 10 months old. Maya loved nursing and it was our special time together. My goal was to get her through cold and flu season and I accomplished that goal so I am happy with that. She has adjusted extremely well and never really even bawked at being offered milk instead of nursing. As sad as I am to see this stage of my baby's life pass, I am thrilled to finally have my body back to myself!

Walking and talking... The walking is coming along slowly. Some would probably consider her a walker, but at our house we've never considered our kids "walkers" until they were using walking as their preferred method of transportation. She stands unassisted for long periods of time and is even able to stand from a sitting position without holding on to anything. She takes anywhere from 3-8 steps in a row more times than I can count on a daily basis. But with that said, she just won't take off. It will happen, it's just a confidence thing at this point.

But her talking is another matter. She is growing by leaps and bounds in this area. She frequently repeats words and with clarity that is shocking for Josh and me. She says things at the most random times. One night we were having pizza for dinner and Josh yelled "pizza" to which he got the most perfect echo of "pizza" from Maya. Then when we were taking pictures for Easter she followed our instructions and belted out a perfect "cheese"! And yet one of the most amazing parts of her talking, she is already singing parts of the ABC song and can mimic the sounds of counting "1-2-3...". I don't think I would have believed the ABCs if Josh and Makenna wouldn't have heard it as well... and then she repeated it continuously for all of us for the following 5 minutes! So fun!

At Maya's 12 month check-up she weighed in at 21 lbs (42%) and was 31+ inches long (96%). Josh and I continue to be baffled by these extremely tall girls we are raising!! And so much for her being our "big" kid... that onetime 9 lb 3 oz newborn continues to drop in the weight percentages and is getting skinnier by the day (despite eating more than an adult at some meals!). The doctor isn't concerned about her drop in percentages (yet) since it has been a very gradual decline. We'll see where she's at at her 15 month check-up. I'm convinced she's going to be built just like Makenna (tall and lean). The other thing we found out at her appointment is that she is anemic. I actually brought up to the doctor that I was concerned about her iron levels because I didn't feel she was eating enough foods with iron in them (I offer them, she just won't eat them). The doctor did a finger prick on her (which I guess is now standard at a 12 month check??) and sure enough, her iron was low. The doctor gave me the option of a prescription for iron (which she said is horrible and most kids don't take it well) or trying it via diet for a month and then re-check it. Since I tend to always go the most natural way possible, we opted for working on her diet for a month. So far things are going very well and we're figuring out some new items that she likes that are high in iron. I'm going to take her back in about a week to re-check her levels. The only other note of interest from her appointment is that I talked to the doctor about being concerned that Maya hasn't clapped yet. Very weird... this is something that is almost always done by this age. The doctor asked a variety of questions about other things kids do with their hands (ie. pick up cheerios, move toys from hand to hand, etc) all of which Maya can do with ease and has done for a long time. I've tried teaching her to clap and encourage her to regularly, but still no luck. The doctor wasn't overly concerned at the time, but told me she wants to keep an eye on it. I'm guessing it's just a personality thing and she sees no reason for it yet :)

I am enjoying seeing her personality develop right before my eyes. She is such a happy, sweet little girl who is just as strong-willed as her big sister Maryn (if not more so... oh help me!!). She is also my snuggler who will still fall asleep snuggling in my arms in the rocking chair. Oh I could take a million of those moments. She is my first little one to do that beyond a few months old so I take all the snuggles I can get :)

Enjoying a snack of Cheerios