Indy weekend

Maya stayed at her first hotel this past weekend! She and I (no Kevin) drove down to Indianapolis for my cousin's baby shower. Nana and Grandpa drove over from Ohio, too, so they got to spend some time with Maya. Maya is such a good traveler - which I'm grateful for since it's a 4 hour trip and I didn't have Kevin as back-up! She slept most of the way down there...it was cute because she'd wake up for about 10 minutes, look around, realize that we were still in the car and nothing was going on, then would go back to sleep :) On the way back, she slept the first 3 hours, then was awake for the final stretch, but just played with her toys and looked around - not a peep! We only made one stop each way - for gas, no feedings - and she was perfectly happy when we made it to our destination! We are so lucky!!! :)
Anyway - she was a little ham at Amber's shower - kickin' around on the floor showing people her belly and smiling at everyone while Amber opened her pile of presents. She got to meet the rest of the cousins in Indy as well as Uncle Jim and Aunt Deb....here are the only 2 pictures I took at the shower (I got completely distracted and forgot to take more!):

Here's cousin Beth and Maya...

...and the Baby Mamma herself - Amber!

All in all, a good weekend was had by all...and I reinforced why Maya does not sleep in our room...loud little sleeper that she is! I didn't get much sleep with her next to my bed in the pack-n-play! She breathes loud, sighs a lot, talks to herself and kicks the side of her bed in her sleep! Silly little monkey!

Success!!

"OK - I'm in the chair....now what are we going to do??"

Maya tried solid food for the first time today!!! I would say it was a success!! :) Abuelita and Grandpa came to be her audience as she took this big step, and we got some good pictures as well as a video to blackmail her with later :) Here she is taking her first bite:

It's like she's been doing this for years!! :) She's got down that she has to open her mouth, but then, once the food is in there, she seemed a little unsure of what to do with it. We think most of it made it down her throat - for a while we thought she was storing it in her chipmunk cheeks, but all in all, I think she's got it! Here are some more shots from the big event:

She even wipes her own mouth!! :)

"YUM!!"


"Oh - this is SOOOO good..."


Boy, this eating this is tiring for a little girl!!!! Night night!!

So close!!!

Maya is super close to rolling over from her back to her tummy!!! She's had the tummy to back thing down for some time now, but today she almost went the other way - the "hard" way. This is a picture of her attempt -- she gets stuck on her side - her back end gets fully around, but she can't seem to get over her monstrous shoulder :) So, she just hangs out like that...eating her fist :) We'll see how long before a true roll comes!!! Exciting stuff in the life of a 4-month old!

Lakehouse fun!

The lakehouse activity center -- this one's stationary, but Maya still thinks it's fun!!!

This past Saturday we took a trip to the lakehouse! We are ready for it to be warmer so we can spend more weekends up there in the water, but this day was primarily to visit our friends, the Skurlas. They live in Madison, so it's a nice in between spot to meet and visit. They had a little girl 5 weeks ago named Amelia, who is going to be Maya's new lakehouse friend :) Maya looks like a giant next to Amelia, though, because even at 5 weeks, she is still only about the size that Maya was when she was born!! Such a little peanut! I know that one day soon they will even out, but right now, the difference is amazing! We had a great visit -- Mike likes to cook for us and we like to eat his specialty - deep dish pizza - so it all works out well!!
Happy Monday to you all!

New toy!!

Maya got a new toy today!! She's ready to move on to toys that don't leave her on the floor or laying down....she's ready for the jumperoo!!! :) This was her first experience in her new activity center...and I think she likes it!! She got a huge smile on her face when we put her in it and was immediately interested in all of the cool things to play with. She hasn't gotten down that she can jump in it and turn around in the chair, but give her a few days and I'm sure that will come, too. So far, I'm enjoying the fact that this will keep her entertained while I get my work done, plus maybe those little pudgy legs of hers will get a work out!! :) (although I am partial to little pudgy baby legs!! :) We have to put a pillow under her right now, though, because her feet just barely touch the floor, but at the rate she's growing, they'll be touching by next week!

4 months old!!

"Hey! No Macy - that's my toy!!!" :)

Maya was officially 4 months old this past Saturday!! I can't believe my baby is getting so big!! She had her 4-month check up yesterday and was a very good girl! Here are her new stats: weight: 16 pounds, 2 ounces!!! (90th percentile); height: 24 3/4 inches (75th percentile); head: 16 1/2 inches (75th percentile). She had to get 5 vaccines yesterday - one by mouth and 4 shots :( I was not looking forward to them, given the screams she let out last time.... This time she did REALLY well! She actually didn't cry at all until the 3rd shot, then she looked at the nurse, like, "hey - what the hell was that??!!" and let out a big ole scream. She calmed down pretty quickly, though, as soon as it was over and hasn't had any ill-effects since then! She's so easy-going that shots don't even seem to dampen her mood! She took a nap in the car on the way home and was all smiley again when she woke up.
She is doing awesome on her baby milestones - doing everything the doctor says she's supposed to be doing...and them some. We got the ok to try cereal, but he said no rush, so just whenever we're ready we can try it. We haven't yet, but in the next couple weeks we may take the cereal plunge! :) I'm sure there will be good pictures to post from that!!

Busy Weekend!!!

We had a lot going on for Maya's first Easter weekend!! It started on Friday with a trip to see Jill's family, the Leones, at Aunt Hope's house in the city! Such fun! All of Jill's siblings were there from 3 different states, plus Aunt Van and Uncle Wayne from Texas. (I call them Aunt and Uncle cause I basically grew up with Jill and visited them when we were younger and called them that...) Maya had a ball with so many people to look at and talk to! We got a couple of pictures with Jill's brother, Brian, and her niece, Gabrielle.

On Saturday we all went to Holy Family Church with the family for the blessing of the Easter baskets. This is something I've never done before, since it must be just a Catholic thing. Kevin's family used to do it and Aunt Jenn loves family traditions, so we brought Maya to church for her first Easter weekend! :) I didn't get any pictures of that, but here's a cute picture of Maya on her Daddy's shoulders from this weekend that I think is adorable! :)
Sunday was, of course, Easter, and we celebrated at Jenn and Dave's with Kevin's family. We ate the blessed Easter breakfast in the morning with them, then came back for the big dinner later. The Baum/Knudtson Easter Bunny was very good to Maya this year! Thanks guys! She will be enjoying her goodies all summer long! We always have lots of fun when we get together, and it's so exciting to see Maya interact with everyone - she's just getting to be so much fun since she laughs and smiles and plays now! Her cousin, Ali, seems to like her a lot now - everything is Maya this or Maya that - it's too cute! This is good news, since when Maya first came, we were worried that Ali was a little jealous, but she's gotten used to her and we hope they will be great friends! Here are some shots we took on Easter of the 2 of them. It was so cute because Ali actually wanted to take pictures with Maya - "Maya sit" she said, and pointed to her lap! That was a first! :)

Cousins at breakfast...

Maya, Ali and Davie (Maya's step-cousin)

Cousins at Easter dinner - don't you love matching dresses?? :) ..Ali is saying "please, let me finish my milk first!!"
So cute!!!

After this my camera battery died, so I didn't get any more pictures, but Jenn and Dave did, so maybe if they give me those pictures, I'll have some more good ones for everyone to see, but this will have to do for now! Easter weekend was fun, too bad Maya won't remember any of it!! Thank goodness for pictures!!! :)

Thank You, Nana!

The Easter Bunny has come early to Maya's house! She got her first Easter basket from her Nana in the mail...I caught a funny expression on her face in this picture...she's saying "Oh my! Is this all for me???!!!" Thank you, Nana for the goodies! (and Kevin and I thank you for our goodies, too -- you're really never too old for Easter baskets!!)



Macy also thanks you for his Easter treats!!! He dug in right away, as you can see!

"I'm ready for my close-up!"

We got Maya's 3-month pictures today! We had them taken on March 30, so I guess they're actually 3 1/2 month pictures... Anyway, this is the 3rd time we've gone to this photographer (maternity pics, Maya's newborn pics and these) and I really like her! She's so laid back and spent over an hour with us for these pictures -- and we get a CD of all of them! (without having to buy any...although eventually when we move, I will be having her print some for me! There are so many, though -- how do we choose?? These are a few of my favorites, so you can vote for the ones you like the best! (the one in the gray and purple with the scowly face was the end of the shoot -- there's only so much a 3 month old can take!!) :) She is usually so smiley all day long, so I thought we would have more big smiles, but of course, when we got there and the camera came out, she got all serious looking at the camera. We got a few smiles, but I was exhausted after the shoot!! :)

Bath Time!!

Maya is really starting to love her bath time! We went through a phase where she would scream bloody murder when we put her in the water, but it only lasted about 2 weeks and now we've moved on to fun time! She's discovered that when she kicks her legs, the water moves and she seems to be enjoying that. She no longer stares at us the whole bath with her eyes bugged out as if to say "please don't let go of me!"...she actually looks at the water and seems to really enjoy it! This is a good sign as we hope this summer to get her into the water at the lake so that she is a water baby! She'll be skiing and tubing in no time!

Bumbo!

Hey - who knew this blog thing was so easy!!! I should have done this 4 months ago! I'm going to try to catch you up on some things that Maya has been busy doing.... First up today is the Bumbo chair!

Maya has been perfecting her use of the Bumbo chair! She finally doesn't scrunch up her shoulders so much when she's in it and looks more comfortable. Her favorite activity is just banging the tray with her fist, though, after she throws all the toys on the floor :)
Oh - and just in case you're wondering why she looks like a little boy here....this is her Cubs gear that she had on for opening day...the Cubs logo was down on her hip, though, so you can't really see it here.

Welcome!!

OK - I know this is so 2008...but I thought I'd start a blog for our family and friends to keep up with our little Maya. I know I've been addicted to Facebook, but quick one-line updates are not sufficient for me to describe how much fun we're having with our little baby!! I needed a place for stories to go along with the pictures, and for anyone who felt like commenting to do so. At any rate, here it is...I can't promise that it will be updated daily, but I will do my best to capture some precious memories of the wonder that is Maya!