3 Little Toddlers

Thanksgiving was a whirlwind. We spent the afternoon at Grammy and Grampy's house, and the evening at Juju and Dave's clubhouse. We had a great time. Maya loves playing with Jacob, Jaden, Aryella, and Tyson - her cousins. Bubby read them a Sesame Street story, which was absolutely the sweetest thing! All three of them are apparently obsessed with Ernie and Elmo. It's really precious...

Hangin' in CT

We've been hanging out with the fam in Connecticut for the past few days. Everyone is having a blast - especially Maya B. She loves her grandparents and her aunts and uncles. Right now, she's actually outside with Grampy, pushing around her stroller. She didn't want to ride in the stroller, but push it like a grown-up? Yup. She's into it.
"I'm relaxing on the couch with Daddy. Love it."

"When we went to visit Grammy at school, we hung out on the ledge, taking self-ports."

"We watched the Macy's TG Day parade on Thursday morning. I loooooved it."

"I blew kisses to Ernie and Elmo when their TG float rode by on the TV!"

Catching Up

Well, we're still in Connecticut for our Thanksgiving break, but I just haven't had time to update the blog. There are 8 of us staying at my parents' house, so I we are all sharing a computer at the moment. Anyway, we are having a great trip, but I need to catch up on my blogging, because I have a lot of photos to share. We're leaving for New Hampshire on Tuesday, but the computer is leaving this afternoon, so I might just have to post a whole bunch of things this morning. Anyway, these photos are from the day before we left for the holiday. Maya and Kevin were having a self portrait party...

"This is my family and me. We are getting ready for Turkey Day!"

"Daddy and I are watching Mommy bake bread and cake. Yumm-o."

"Daddy, I love your tickles."

"Mommy and Daddy love this photo. They say I'm a cutie."

"I'm just not quite tall enough for this..."

"Cheeeeeese."

"Daddy and I are showing tongues. You like mine?"

"If you came to Thanksgiving at Grammy and Grampy's house, you would have gotten to try Mommy's honey walnut bread. It was a hit!"

Baby Lovin'

Maya already loves her brother...
"That's a big belly, Mommy!"

"Kick me, baby!"

"When the baby comes, we can dance together!"

Chugga Chugga

This video features 3 things worth noting:

1. Maya loves this song, "Big Red Car." She always sings "Chugga chugga" while she listens to it.

2. Maya loves dancing with her baby, but she can apparently be very abusive when she gets carried away.

3. Maya loves "Big Red Car," but isn't so sure about the next song... I don't think she remembers it...

Wiggly Wiggly

Maya loves music - especially "The Wiggles." They have a show, as well as many videos, but Maya just likes to listen to the CD's. In fact, she has gotten to know them so well, she can sing parts of many of the songs. One of her favorites is, "It's my Bathtime," which features the phrase "Ba ba ba bobbly bubbles." She does her "Ba ba ba" very well. The second, is "Baby Beluga," an old classic. Maya always sings "Baby, baby, baby," while we listen to it. The other day, she was asking for music and pointing to the stereo, so I asked her to sing her faves...

The Lower Lip of Concentration

Maya loves playtime at the Norwich Library. She discovered this little ledge along the wall, and she loves to walk along it. It requires a lot of concentration, to keep balanced and not to fall. Maya has taken to sticking out her lower lip when she's concentrating. I love it!
"Watch me go up on the ledge, Mom!"

"I have to stick out my bottom lip like this, when I am trying to stand up on this thing."

"Is this a good look for me? Like a model pout?"

"Wait, Mom. I'm trying to concentrate, and these photos are distracting me."

"Oh wait, this isn't hard at all! I can walk on this thing easily! Silly me..."

This isn't going to Work.

I was determined to check out of the hotel without Kevin yesterday, since he was at his interview. I knew there was no way to do it without a luggage cart, so I put Maya on it, and rolled her along. Just FYI - it is an olympic feat to roll a luggage cart, with a baby on it, while also taking a video. You can tell I'm having a difficult time...

Miscellaneous Maya

I don't really feel like writing very much right now, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

"Mom, can I ride on the luggage cart?"

"This is a silly book. It's like the animals all have my face!"

"Hi. Yes, I am playing with the remote, and yes, I took the battery cover off, and yes, I lost it."

Tiny Dancer

We spent Sunday and Monday in Springfield, Mass, because Kevin had a Monday morning meeting at one of the hospitals there. Maya had a great time playing with Grammy and Grampy on Sunday night, while Kevin and I had dinner with some people from the hospital. I was a tad concerned, because she hadn't napped for very long that day, and she has been known to throw tantrums when we take her out to dinner after having had little sleep. Anyway, Grammy and Grampy reported that she was happy as a clam during their visit. The next morning, while Kevin was at his interview, we came down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. There was a TV on in the lobby, which was conveniently tuned to Nick Jr. So... Maya loved this show, because there was a lot of music and dancing animals. Does anyone know what this show is called? We saw it from the middle, but my little munchkin was hooked.

Food Fight

Maya and I are in a serious food fight. Basically, Maya is not interested in meals anymore, and would prefer to snack herself silly. For example, she will refuse to eat breakfast, and then ask for snacks as soon as we get to playgroup each morning. Then, she'll eat a pound of goldfish, pretzels, or raisins before lunchtime. She'll usually eat a pretty nice lunch, but then refuses to eat for the rest of the day. Dinner is a mess, because she's not hungry and doesn't want to deal with sitting at the table. Sigh. So we have a dilemma. Anyway, today, I decided I wasn't doing it anymore. Maya refused breakfast again, so I packed it and brought it to playgroup. She was pretty annoyed when she asked for a snack, and I broke out the yogurt, applesauce, peas, and PB&J. She eventually relented though, and ate at the table at Bouncy House. Then, she had a very healthy lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. Yay! I was so happy and proud of her! We need to work on this every day though. It's not easy, and it's frustrating, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

"Snacks, please!"

"Here's your purse, Mommy. I'm sure there are snacks in here."

"Now, how do I open this? I know there have to be pretzels and Teddy Grahams in here."

"What's the deal with this zipper?"

"Um, Mommy? You're really making me upset. I want snacks. Why would I eat yogurt, when I can eat something deliciously unhealthy?!"

"I ate breakfast at Bouncy House, and now I'm happy again!"

"I still love you, Mommy!"

"Watch me, Mommy!"

Now I Know How Grammy Felt...

Sorry, Mom. Now, I know how you feel when everyone eats a different dinner! Tonight, I cooked 3 different meals for our family, and boy was I exhausted! It took me 2 hours to get everything ready, and then Maya managed to whine and throw tantrums all through dinner. It was quite unpleasant. It ended up being okay though, because Kevin loved his food, and so did I. Maya, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with dinner tonight. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. I somehow think she's either going to wake up starving, or sick. One of the two... I'll keep you posted.
"We went on a hike last week, and the next day, Daddy had a really bum neck. It still hurts him, and it's been a whole week!"

"Sometimes I use Daddy's neck brace to keep warm. Thanks, Dad."

"I've been eating peas for breakfast lately. They're good, but I have to blow a lot, just in case they're too hot."

"Then, I eat them by the handful."

"Lately, I've been watching Sesame Street in the mornings. I just learned to climb onto the couch last week, so now I pretend to be a couch potato. I'm really not though, because this position usually only lasts about 2 minutes. Then, I get bored, and go on my way. I come back during 'Elmo's World.'"

"This is Daddy's Sweet Potato Curry Chicken. Blech. Not my thing."

"This is Mommy's Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup. Boo. Not interested."

"This is my minestrone soup. Normally, I love this soup, but tonight, I was so not into it."

"Mommy and Daddy finally let me out of my chair, after I whined for 10 minutes straight. Then I sat on Mommy's lap and whined there. I guess I was cranky tonight..."

Good Times.

Maya loves to dance. Can you tell?

Ear to Ear

"Hi."


Hmmmm... She looks like Daddy, but she smiles like Mommy - with teeth.

"I'm a happy camper."

Why does the Time Have to Change??

We have been exhausted since Sunday. Maya has totally adjusted to the time change, in terms of napping and bedtime, but she is still waking up over an hour earlier than usual. As you can see from this video, Maya is in a bit of a daze, because she's a sleepyhead. At least she isn't missing her mouth, right?

Pony goes Trick-or-Treating

You know, I always liked Halloween as a kid, but I honestly don't remember ever having as much fun as I had yesterday. Now I really love Halloween. We had a pretty low key day yesterday, and then started the Halloween festivities in the mid-afternoon. First, we went to a party on the lawn of the Norwich Inn, in Vermont (it's only about 5-10 minutes from our house). The party was great - there were hundreds of people there, and the inn provided cookies, brownies, cider, hot chocolate, and games for the kids. Maya had a terrific time eating all the treats, playing with the dogs, and just running around like crazy. She really wore herself out. We met Beth, Daniel, and Noah at the party, so Maya and Noah played until it was totally cleared out. Then, we decided to do a little trick-or-treating in Norwich, which supposedly has the best trick-or-treating ever. Well, I wouldn't really call it the best, but it certainly was crowded. There were lines at every house. Unfortunately, it started to pour while we were getting our treats, so we eventually decided to turn back and go to the car. Maya didn't mind the rain, but Kevin and I were quickly running out of steam. Anyway, we went home and had some dinner, and then decided to go out for round two. It was still pouring, but we wanted to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood, so we took the car. Let me tell you - driving around to get the loot is much more efficient. I think we visited every house in our neighborhood that had their front light on. It stopped raining halfway through our adventure, so Kevin and Maya started walking to a few houses at a time. Maya, though she was super exhausted, really enjoyed seeing the dogs and babies that came to the door. He favorite part, however, was when people would hold out their bowl and let Maya take whatever she wanted. She usually chose Milk Duds, which is quite coincidental, because we aren't really a Milk Dud family, but that's okay. Anyway, Maya had a rather restless sleep last night - probably from all the sugar she consumed in cookies and other treats yesterday (no candy for her - just goodies), so our first day on standard time was kind of a bust. It was well worth it though!

"I started off at the party, with this yummy oatmeal raisin cookie. It was okay. I would say I ate about a quarter of it."

"There were lot of things to look at during the party. I stayed serious almost the whole time!"

"This is right about the time where I got sick of this cookie."

"I may be sick of this cookie, Tigger, but you can't have it."

"Next, I found a giant basket of apples. It was supposed to be for a game, but I dug in. Actually, throughout the party, I started 4 different apples, but ended up dropping each of them in the mud at various times. Then, I would just go get a new one. I probably ate the equivalent of 1 whole apple at the party. It just took 4 tries..."

"I don't like the peel, so I usually spit it out as I go. Yesterday, I was storing my spit-out-peel in my bandana."

"Daddy let me try his chocolate chip cookie, but I preferred my apple."

"Then, we did bobbing for donut holes. I didn't really understand the game, so I just took my donut hole off the fork and walked away. Oh well."

"I really liked this doggie. Every time I walked away from him, I just kept coming back. He was really sweet. I think he liked me, too."

"Is the party over now?"

"When we got home for dinner, Daddy put my costume in the dryer for a bit, while Mommy made dinner. I busied myself playing with my candy. I like this candy a lot, because it's mine.

"I'm back in my costume for round two of "trick-or-treating!"

"Look at all my loot! I got a ton of candy! I wonder what I should do with it..."

"I think Mommy and Daddy dug into my candy after I went to sleep. How rude."

"I gave these to Mommy, because she used to love Charleston Chews when she was little. I don't have enough teeth for these anyway."

"This morning, I picked up where I left off, and continued to play with my candy. I really like wheeling it around in my play stroller. You know it's a successful Halloween when you wake up and want to take your candy for a walk."