Dear Maya,
My adorable Maya Papaya, little Hazelnut, Doozer, messy buggerface (sorry its true)
This month has been one of such amazing development and firsts. I know that I sound like a broken record, but I'm just blown away by how much you have learned in a matter of weeks. You soak up everything; you surprise me every single day. There is much to talk about, so let's begin...
You are a tadpole! At daycare you have graduated from the little baby ‘Guppies’ room to the mobile baby ‘Tadpoles’ room. As expected, you have transitioned beautifully. I am incredibly grateful to Miss Dilruba, Miss Thamara and Miss Rosa for taking such amazing care of you these last six months, but now you have so much more room to crawl and explore and play with your new teachers and friends. In your new class, you love to stand at the mirror bench, bang and play with the musical instruments, and sit together with the other kids for breakfast and lunch.
your last week as a little Guppy surrounded by all of your favorite toys
All of this activity has made you one very excellent napper! You are down to two daytime naps: one around 9:30 AM (for about an hour) and one around 1:00 PM (for almost two and a half hours). The first few days in your new class really wiped you out. Even with your long afternoon siesta, you were cranky and tired at the end of the day. We’d try to get you home, feed you a little, give you a quick bath and put you to bed, but it was a long day for you my sweet, and you had nothing left in the tank. Now you seem to have adjusted to the new routine and we are back to watching Star and Chica together on the Goodnight Show while daddy makes dinner each night.
watching the goodnight show (with special guest appearance by daddy!)
Each night, we still have the same basic routine: we watch the goodnight show on Sprout, have dinner together, you take your bath and then go to bed. This month we've added a book before dinner (you are too tired at the end of the night to enjoy it) and after you are in pajamas and have said goodnight to daddy, you like to close your bedroom door and turn off your light all by yourself. When the room goes dark, you put your sweet head on my shoulder and I carry you to the glider and give you the last of your evening bottle. These days, you like to drink most of it at dinner, so there are only maybe two or three ounces left for bedtime. This doesn't take long for you to drink at all. Then we say the Shema, and I put you into your crib. You are usually asleep within minutes.
bath time fun
daddy drinks coffee and Maya has a bottle
You will usually sleep until 6:20 on weekdays and as late as 7:15 on weekends. During the week, daddy gets you up and dressed. You like to crawl down the hallway to show me your pretty outfit for the day and watch me dry my hair. You love to feel the warm air on your face. On Saturday mornings, we all hang out in pajamas until after your first nap. You like you play peekaboo in bed with mommy and make the doorstopper in the hallway going booooooooing!
watching mommy dry her hair
You are cruising! You ‘walk’ around the ottoman in the living room and push your cart all over. Look out to everyone and everything in your path! You absolutely love the tv remote, the telephone and crinkling paper/ receipts. You walk around and around the living room to get any and all of these items.
You are getting a top tooth! Your bottom two are officially not the only chompers in that mouth anymore- you have one (possibly two) poking through your top gums right now. (Perhaps another reason for the crankiness)
This month you have had all kinds of fun things to eat. But! The! Big! News! ..is that you had your first bagel (In NY of course). You’ve also tried fish, brussel sprouts, peppers, onions, strawberries, cherries, turkey and pizza crust; all of which you like. However, more than all of those, you adore papaya! This is how you’ve earned your nickname of the month, Maya papaya. You just cannot get enough of it. Even though it’s slippery, you grab as much papaya as you can from your tray and gobble it down. You are also getting much better at using your sippy cup.
first bagel
sippy cup and fish (yum!) and broccoli (eh)
You like to share. You like to offer me your sippy cup at dinnertime, your duckie at bath time and your socks all the time! Interestingly, you never feel compelled to share your pacifier. You also like to share your germs, and both mommy and daddy have been lucky recipients of your latest cold. Yes, you are a good sharer indeed.
You like to put things ‘in’. At home, you love putting your bath toys IN your rinse cup. At daycare, you like to collect toys and put them IN the bin. I hope this desire to always clean up your toys after playing with them sticks around for a long long time.
putting toys away
You are really interacting with your toys and other babies. You love playdates. You love the octopus toy- you take balls out of a bowl on the floor and put them into a slot on the octopus's head. Then you look for the balls to come out of its feet. You like to stack the crayola orbs and make them chime and light up. I love to watch how focused you become on each task. Sometimes you are so hard at work on your own toys, you don’t even notice when Jerry walk into the room.
stacking
playdate with your buddy Nathan
You had your first Thanksgiving! We drove to Queens and had a wonderful holiday! You were so good- smiling and playing with everyone. We watched the parade in the morning and took a long walk while Grandpa, Bubbie, Daddy and Uncle Brian cooked. Then, you sat in your highchair at the table with everyone else and ate turkey and sweet potatoes!
watching the parade together
great grandmas
nosies with Pappa Donny
First Thanksgiving meal- at the head of the table!
thanksgiving table
Maya's first Thanksgiving craft- a handprint turkey!
showing off how you play with your poppin' pals
Playing with Oma's necklace
You met Hammer! Now that Uncle Brian lives in New York, he brought Hammer over to Grandpa's place for Thanksgiving. You really seem to love him; you had so much fun chasing after him and getting big ol wet kisses. Hammer really liked you- it's rare that he isn't the shortest one in a room.
Maya and Hammer and Uncle Bri
You went to your first ‘museum.' While in NY, we had a playdate with Josh, Jordyn and Jared at The New Jersey Children’s Museum. Thankfully they let someone with a name other than J tag along! You had a blast crawling through the tunnel in the infants room, banging on the drum in the music room, voting and co-anchoring then afternoon newscast.
fun in the tunnel
kisses from Jared
anchoring the news
learning early that every vote counts
drums with friends
Your cousin Natalia turned one! We went to Tia Patty and Tio Ilan’s beautiful new home in the Bronx and celebrated your cousin’s first birthday! You got to see Abuelita & Saba, Bubbie & Grandpa, Ila & Rich and Adam & Makiko. You enjoyed the balloons and music and all of the other kids. It was a long day and you were so good. You partied so hard, you napped for over three hours in the car afterwards!
Las Primas
You also went to parties for Riley's 5th birthday and Josh's 1st birthday. You always have fun, exploring new places, playing with new kids and toys. I cant believe it's been almost a whole year since you were born, my sweet girl. I hope you have a blast at the party we are putting together for you.
Coming down the slide at Riley's pajama party
Playing with birthday boy Josh at his party
You are very musical. You’ve started to ‘whistle’ and it’s so cute. You purse your lips and blow- sometimes you really do make a whistling sound! You saw Miss Dee Dee whistling one day and really picked it up! Also, you had one helluva diaper rash this month. It went away once we figured out how to treat it, but for a while I was blowing on your bottom to make sure it was dry before I put the cream or the diaper on you. I think you thought I was whistling to you, so you’ve started doing it when I change you now. You also love the instruments at music class. You like to sway in my lap as we sing and shake your egg shakers during the train song.
music class egg shakers
music class drums
You have made this such a funny, sweet and memorable month. Your giggles are contagious and your smile brightens up even the chilliest winter day.
funny faces in your purple fleece kittly hat
smiles and hugs with Abuelita
I can't believe that in just one month you will be a whole year old. My sweet, this has been an unbelievable year and I can't wait to celebrate with you and all of the people who love you!
Love, Mommy
