Where is baby?

Here is Maia singing "Where is Baby?"

Artista

Maia is a very artistic child at her young age. She loves to paint, draw, and color (with crayons, markers, colored pencils, sidewalk chalk, and anything else that leaves a mark).

Her pants aren't usually this colorful.

The only thing the Easter bunny left in her Easter basket this year was a package of sidewalk chalk.

While Brian and Xochi were in Hawaii, we were so lucky to have Marin, Santi, and Abram stay with us. We took a day trip to Pretend City where Maia painted her first painting. It was actually very impressive (to us). She did a great job and almost filled the whole paper.

Maia and Abram.

Maia also loves music. She sings constantly and always requests that a song be put on in the car. She has learned so many Primary songs and nursery rhymes. On Tuesdays we go to the library for story time where Maia gets to sing, dance, listen to music, shake musical instruments, and listen to stories. She LOVES library days.

I got Maia on camera singing "Where is Baby?" in February while we were in Wyoming. I love it when she sings. I hope to get her more recent songs on camera soon. Unfortunately, while the video was being uploaded, Maia turned the computer off and now I can't post it. (Thank you, Maia)

Here are Maia and cousin Andi at library day. This is one of their favorite parts- shaking the instruments along with the music.

Maia is also very imaginative and takes great care of her little baby doll and her stuffed animal, "Snow Puppy." Often times she'll take Snow Puppy's white paws and cross them and make Snow Puppy pray, or make him wave bye-bye to daddy. She makes sure that Snow Puppy is tucked in at night next to her and makes sure that he also gets to read bedtime stories with daddy and Maia.

Wyoming (February)

Maia and I took a special trip to Wyoming to play in the snow with dad and Lainie. There was so much snow! I had never seen so much! It came up to my waist. Maia didn't really know what to think at first but she sure looked cute in her snow gear.

Dad dug a snow chair out for Maia. Behind her you can see the top of the balcony railing...kind of.

Maia did NOT like sledding. She cried the whole way down the driveway. BUT, she LOVED building a snowman.

Check out all the snow on the roof. It was insane!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was Maia just singing and talking. I finally got a couple songs on camera. I love this one of Maia counting to ten and then her sweet words of love.

It was a fun trip.

Christmas

Now that January has come and gone, I thought I'd post our Christmas pictures. (Sorry to the grandparents who have been waiting patiently.)

For the past 2 years, we have gone to Roger's Gardens to see the lights and the super expensive trees. This year they had a small choo choo train that went around a couple trees. Needless to say Maia loved watching that "choo choo rain" go around the trees. We hope we can make Roger's Gardens a tradition in our little family. Maia picked out her ornament this year- a pink lamb. She loves the "baa" and that is what she is reaching for in the first picture. The picture above is Maia sitting in Santa's chair. Santa must have been busy the night we went. We do have a great picture of Maia sitting on Santa's lap but we don't have it in our possession yet. That picture deserves it's own post anyway.

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer is [crying] loud for all to hear."

Back at Roger's Gardens looking at the different decorated trees. A real treat!

Maia and I also took a trip to Disneyland to see the holiday parade and Small World all decked out for Christmas. It was nice to hear Christmas carols rather than "It's a Small World" for 15 minutes.

This year I got ambitious and made our stockings. Maia seemed to like hers. Nothing beats bedtime like fuzzy pig pajamas and a nice tall bottle of milk while snuggling your new Christmas stocking.

All in all, Christmas was wonderful. A lot of special memories. Maia got to open some fun presents on Christmas day. When she unwrapped a gift, she would want to play with whatever it was for a long time. We had to hurry her along so that we could make it to Grandma Nay's and then to Grandpa Finn's for Christmas morning and afternoon. She didn't like that idea and got bored of just opening stuff. We will have a couple presents for her 2nd birthday wrapped in Christmas paper this year.

Favorites at 19 months

Maia is now over a year and a half. She does have her favorites still. Some of those things include Elmo, Monsters Inc., hats, sunglasses, pulling her hair ties out of her hair, pulling off her diaper, putting food on her tray and smashing the food with her fingers or creating a painting with the liquid-like foods, unloading the dishwasher, cell phones, and purses.

Here are some of her other favorites.

Her dad is definitely a favorite. She loves to be with her daddy. She loves to play games with him like 'Duck, Duck, Goose' which usually starts with Maia running around Joe who is sitting on the floor. Joe has to say, "duck, duck," before Maia yells, "GOOSE!" It is common that "goose" is the first word out of Maia's mouth when playing the game. She also likes to tackle daddy when Joe pretends to be a monster. (Remember, she likes monsters.)

She loves to draw, color, write, etc. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it marks the surface. Maybe she'll end up to be a designer like her dad.

Maia loves the park. I am grateful that we are currently living in such a warm and beautiful city. We find ourselves at the park to play on the slide, swings, and in the sand.

Maia loves her blanket!! She makes sure that her blanket is always close to her head. She loves it draped over the back of her high chair while she eats so that she can nuzzle her head into it. She is often found wearing her blanket like a shepherd or a nun (as shown above). She loves to take it anywhere if she can get away with it. (see below)

Maia loves her dad and also loves her dad's shoes or any shoes for that matter. She often brings us our shoes like a good little puppy. Yes, she does have big feet. She is 19 months and wears size 7. Hopefully she doesn't literally fill up her dad's shoes one day.

"Cado," as Maia calls it. Maia is my avocado and fruit baby. She loves almost any fruit you feed her. She loves avocado for breakfast along with a "ha-ha-ha" (naranja, aka orange) or any berries. She will take fruit over any other food you put in front of her.

Sand. We already mentioned the park and the sand. She likes to fill up her pale with her shovel, dump it out, and start again.

Bathtime! Maia still loves the bath (even better when I let her have her blanket in the bath with her ONCE). She would not let go of that blanket and I finally let her have it just to show her what happens when you put a blanket in the bath. She didn't care that it was super heavy and wet. She thought it was fantastic!

October

This year for Halloween, we went to multiple parties. We first went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat and then headed over to my mom's for a Penny Carnival. All the grandkids were there. All 10 of them.

I love my mom's facial expression contrasted with Maia's.

We were going back to the 50's this year.

Trunk-Or-Treat= trick-or-treating training for first timers.

One of our favorite days in October was going to the pumpkin patch, then going to CPK for lunch, and then finishing up at the mall for some window shopping.

At the mall, Maia found this car and wanted to take it home.

Maia loved sipping through a straw just as much as Joe did.

That is the cutest ghost I have ever seen.

Joe hasn't grown any taller this Fall.

August

WOW! We haven't had a normal post for so long!!! So here's a recap of the summer!

Maia and I loved the new "Pretend City" that is fairly close to our house. Maia would love an annual pass one of these days. She loves the moon sand at the "beach," loves to play in the water at the "harbor," pick strawberries and tomatoes of the vines at the "garden," and go shopping at the "store."


We also went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a Hulse Family Reunion. It has been over 20 years since the last reunion. YIKES! We had a great time in the mountains and loved the beautiful scenery.
Mom, Amy and I took a trip to Spain in August. We stayed in Marbella and then did some day trips to Morocco, Gibraltar, and Mijas. We had a great time staying on the beach.
On our way to Spain, we had about a 12 hour layover in NYC. I had never been to NYC so after we landed from our red-eye flight, we walked around and did a tour of NYC.
This is Maia sporting her new boots as I was trying to pack her stuff up for the Wyoming trip. I just loved this pic.

That was our August. :)