It is hard to believe that you, Maia are almost a year and 7 months. At the start of this month, we took you to the paediatrican who expected that you would be saying at least 18 words and to his surprise you knew a couple of hundred and repeated individual words that we would say...now a month later, you are repeating longer phrases and sentences and speaking some phrases on your own. It is really amazing to hear the thoughts of such a tiny little person.
We were reading a book to you called, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?" and before we knew it, you were saying, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see a red bird looking at me." You are really an amazing little girl. The other thing that you started to do a month ago and continue to develop is the ability to say different colors and identify color. You are correct a lot of the time as well as trying to count, which you first started counting to six when you were only 15 and a half months old. I said "One" and you would say "Two" ect...up to six. Now you count, but the numbers are often out of order and it is fun to hear you say, "One, two, three, six, eight..."
You love playing with playdo and cutting out shapes as well as putting the playdo through the little press that makes different snakes of various shapes.
You often will say to me, "See....doing..." when I am at the counter cooking and I often pick you up to show you or have you stand on a chair so you can watch me.
The really incredible thing that you do at this age is sing on pitch, like, "Row, Row, Row your boat." And you know "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are...Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..." Sometimes when we lay you down for bed, you will start to sing it or you will request, "Twinkle, Twinkle."
When you hear a song playing and in the song it says to stomp your feet or turn around...today I watched you do the actions that the song was telling you to do like Stomp your feet and spin around...you are so sweet to watch. There is a beautiful innocence to be in the presence of a child your age who is also talking and giving us a glimpse of the mind of a year and a half old child.
In terms of your personality, you tend to be a very shy little person who takes time to warm up to new environments and people, but once you are comfortable with someone, you are warm and friendly. You are not a pushy little kid and don't take any other children's toys. If anything, I worry that the kids are too pushy with you and you allow them to take what you are doing as I have observed this at the Montesorri 0-3 years program we go to once a week. You always notice when another child is upset and look at me with a frown of concern and say, "Crying, Sad." I always make sure you know that you know they are o.k.
Next month, instead of going to Montessoi once a week, I may just take you once a month, so we can pay for a nanny who speaks Spanish to look after you a few hours in the morning so you can learn another language.
One of your favorite games is "Peek-A-Boo" and the cutest thing is that you will cover your eyes and we pretend we can't see you and we say, "Where's Maia" and you start to peek through your fingers as thought to see what we are doing and cover your face so we "can't see you." Often, you will hide yourself and if I haven't notice that you want to play that game, I will hear you say, "Where's Maia?" It is really cute and fun.
You love your Nanna and Poppy. And this past Friday was the first day since I was pregnant with you that I went out for the day to a seminar. Your Nanna watched you and you had a great time as did I.
I still am breastfeeding you as we both love it. It is such a nice thing for both of us. I tend to feed you three times a day...when you first wake up, before your afternoon nap and in the evening before bed...but sometimes you want your milk in between those times...especially if I am not paying attention to you and speaking on the phone. And you will bring your dolls and animals to me to breastfeed and when I have put them on one breast, you will say, "Other side" and I will switch to the other one.
You love feeding your doll Stella and the Birthday Bear. You will put them in the highchair and pretend to feed them or try and put nappies on them. The thing that you did for months and seem to have slowed down on was throwing your animals down and saying "Hurt...crying..." And I would ask, "Where does it hurt" and your response 9 times out of 10 would be "back." Now you just like to make a crying noise and pretend Stella is crying.
You often request for me to pretend that the animals are signing sorry on their chest in American Sign Language the you know so well from the "Baby Signing Time" videos we have...you know the signs for all your animals as well as other signs for colors, family members and manners.
You have a lovely father who adores you. He is so involved with you and takes time to play with you when he gets home from work every day. At night he given you a bath, then I breastfeed you, and then your dad comes in to read you a story and then put you in bed and sings "Twinkle Twinkle" and the "Good Night Maia" song. Lately, we have been staying with you until you relax a bit more and slow down as if we leave the room before that time, you tend to cry out for us for some help as you have a hard time just slowing down and relaxing at the end of the day...unless we did something very physical and you are tired....
When we were at Nanna and Poppy's last month, it was so cute to see you walking around the yard calling for Nanna and Poppy's cat Tommy. You would say, "Tommy, Tommy where are you Tommy?" Really, really sweet...
We feel so lucky to have you Maia. You are a real blessing. Such a beautiful, bright and wonderful little girl.
At this time, we are trying to get pregnant with another baby hoping that we can bring you a sibling sometime late this year or next. We are planning to move to our home in Berry at the end of this year. Your Dad is looking for work and I am looking to set up my pre-natal business in Wollongong.
What's going on in my life: Well, my Dad, your Pop Pop flew to China on March 16 and on March 20 married Hua Mei a woman he had been emailing on-line for eight months and who he decided to marry. It is a bit strange for me as my parents just divorced at the end of February, but what I have come to realize in life is that parents are just people like anyone else who are on this Earth to learn and grown and there is someting that my Dad, your Pop Pop needs to discover in this lifetime.
Well, I hope to write to you more often as I have not been regular at recording your journey. You are wonderful beyond words and we love you so very much.
