Maya - 4 Months Old

All About Maya Grace at 4 months old....



Nicknames: My My, Maya My, Myna, Maya Mae, Baby Blue Eyes
Weight & Length: 26 inches long (96%) and 13 lbs 12 oz (55%). She only gained one pound over the last two months and grew an inch and a half! Thus her much lower percentage in the weight department. If this trend continues I have a feeling she's going to be built like Makenna.
Hair: A dark brown stripe of hair along the top, a bald spot on the back and blond fuzz coming in everywhere else!
Favorite food: Still only breast milk. She's not interested in anything else yet. But good news! She will finally take some pumped milk in a bottle! We typically supplement with about 2-3 oz. of pumped milk along with her nursing each night when she goes to bed.
Favorite toys: Grasshopper wind chime (which she played with so hard that she broke it apart), polka dot rattle, soft snail toy, exersaucer, swing when lights are on, baby radio
Favorite stuffed animal: none yet
Bedtime: right around 7:00 pm
Wake-up time: it has typically been right around 6 am - 6:30 am but the last few days she's been waking up with the sun at 5:30 ish!! She's also been waking up about once a night since I had mastitis a few weeks ago :( I'm ready to get back into our sleeping through the night routine.
Naps: She LOVES her morning nap. She typically goes down an hour to an hour and a half after she wakes up and will sleep anywhere from 1 - 3 hours. Her afternoon naps are more hit and miss. Some days she'll just take some 30 minute naps here and there (frustrating for mommy!) but other days she'll take a nice long 1 - 2 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon!
Favorite person: Mommy and Daddy
Latest Accomplishment: She now likes to hold toys and shake them and put them in her mouth. She's also reaching out for her toys. She is also getting very good at rolling from her tummy to her back on a consistent basis and is able to get from her back to her tummy as well.
Likes: baths, smiling and having people smile at her, being worn in mommy's sling when she's sleepy, any kind of toy she can hold, singing Wheels on the Bus with actions, Mousy Mousy game, if you slerbert her feet or tummy, when someone comes in to get her when she wakes up
Dislikes: getting put down if she is tired or hungry
What gets said about Maya most often: that she has beautiful blue eyes, what a cute baby she is, that she looks like her sisters, that she is a good baby, how easily she smiles
Interesting Tidbit: Maya is constantly sticking her tongue out and drooling all over the place. She sticks everything in her mouth including whatever shirt she is wearing that day. I typically have to change her shirt at least once each day.

Potty Training Update

Maryn is potty trained!!! Whoo-Hoo! It seemed like a really long road to get to this point, but I'm so glad to be here! She hasn't had an accident in over a week and the last accident she had was when she fell asleep in the car one day :( She was so upset when she woke up. She continues to wear a diaper at night but has been wearing underwear during the day and during her nap for probably more than a month. As with most things, Maryn is a creature of habit. She always wants to use the "downstairs" potty (which is actually upstairs) when she has to poop. She has piles of books in there and she will just sit and read for a half hour or more until she is done! But she also uses this to her advantage and will act like she has to poop so she can sit on the toilet instead of doing things she doesn't want to do (ie. nap!). When she does have to go poop she always says "I want privacies!" and holds her hand up. She really doesn't want anyone in there because if you check on her before she is done she will repeat "Privacies!!" until you leave.

Part of this long process seems to have involved having a naked toddler running around our house more than we would prefer. One day Josh even said "I don't remember Makenna having her clothes off this much when she was potty training." That's because she didn't! One day Maryn got away from me after she was on the potty and ran out side completely naked. I started yelling for her as I knew the construction guys were outside. She runs back inside and proudly announced "I see you!" And I wanted to say "No we all SEE you!" Silly girl!

During this whole process Makenna has been such a trooper. So many times Maryn's timing would be spot on for when I would be feeding Maya. Makenna can now take her to the potty, wipe for her, wash her hands and get her pants back on her!! What am I going to do when she goes to kindergarten in the fall??!! She's such a good helper! Luckily though Maryn is trying to imitate that independent style and is starting to try and go on her own as well!! Way to go Maryn!

Outside Fun

Like most little kids, our girls LOVE to play outside. The down side to all of this is that Makenna and Maryn have eczema and as a result are very sensitive to the sun. We just realized recently that almost all sunscreens cause a photoallergic response in our girls and thus make everything worse when they are exposed to the sun. We have spent a good portion of the beginning of the summer dealing with itchy, red eczema rashes which sometimes even get so bad they scab and bleed. Poor girls. I finally found two options of sunscreen that are available online that we are going to try. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will work.

Makenna has taken off on her bike this summer and loves riding on the sidewalk back and forth in front of our house. She continues to be extremely social and most often you can find her playing with one of the neighbor girls. Maryn has taken a liking to Makenna's scooter and takes off following Nenny on that. She also likes her little bike and does quite well at pedaling (just hasn't figured out that she needs to steer at the same time). We just pulled out the new exersaucer that Poppy got for us at a garage sale and let Maya enjoy some outdoor fun with us! She really liked it!

Maya's new outdoor exersaucer


Nenny on the scooter


Maryn hanging out in the broken car... this car's wheel was broken beyond repair last summer but she still likes to just sit in it lopsided

Maya

Look how big my baby is getting! It's so hard to believe! These pictures are all taken at about 3 1/2 months.

Backyard Picnic

Last Friday the girls and I were able to enjoy one of our favorite summertime traditions... a picnic lunch in the playhouse out back. Maryn was much too small last summer to remember this so the experience was a new one for her. She wasn't quite so sure what to think of mommy putting all of her food in a basket, but then quickly jumped on board as soon as she figured out what we were doing. Makenna of course remembered and kept asking every 2 minutes if it was time for our picnic yet :) I love picnics with the girls.

Baby Sling

One of the best things we got when Maya was born was this Peanut Shell sling. All I had with the other two girls was a Baby Bjorn carrier (which I still use with Maya sometimes), but I can't live without my sling. She loves this thing and 85% of the time it will calm her down almost immediately when she's fussy. It's also a great place to lull her to sleep when she's having a hard time falling asleep or if I'm in the middle of doing something else and don't have time to go and rock her. I love wearing her and having her with me all the time. I only wish I would have discovered slings with my first two girls.


Baby Maya taking a snooze in her sling. I absolutely love how her little feet pop out at the end :) This has only started happening recently because she's getting too long to sleep in it like a newborn typically does. Pretty soon I'm not going to be able to use it with her in this position :(


My peaceful sleeping baby.


You can see in the background of the pictures that we are outside. This is a great way to be able to go outside with the other girls but still take care of Maya's needs.

My Morning With Maryn

One morning this past week Makenna was at a friend's house and Maya took an extremely long morning nap so Maryn and I had some quality one-on-one time. I really cherish this time with my kids as it gets more difficult to find the time the more kids I have! We basically just hung out on the swingset in the back yard but we had a blast.


I LOVE this picture of Maryn! Maybe one of my all-time favorites...


And I just had to follow it up with this one - she's letting a little personality shine through :)


As always, puppy was on the scene!


We're not sure how, but Maryn learned to swing in a big kid swing over the winter. She just jumped on this spring and went to town with no help from me or Josh.


Another new talent....


I love the little wispy curls in the back.


Looking like she's up to something!


So proud of herself! I could just squeeze this little girl! She's so special to me!

Wrong Season

I think Makenna and Maryn were a little confused about what season it was outside...