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. :)

Hit the Road Mac!

I'm speechless. I'm not sure what to say. I believed so strongly in Apple iMac computers for 3 terrific weeks. Now, I'm just lonely and sad and hurt. Our brand spankin' new iMac broke so bad that we had to ship it back for another new one. It was only THREE WEEKS! Apple Care Customer Support couldn't even do anything to save it. It was toast! THREE WEEKS! THREE! We lost all our files. Glad I didn't upload any photos.

I am grateful for our hand-me-down laptop that has been through 2 of our computers already. I know I laugh when I can only create Word Perfect documents and can't open Excel files but seriously, I'm grateful for Ol' Faithful PC.

This means another delay for pictures and fun posts. In the meantime, I'll be counting my blessings.

Just DOO It!

For my birthday, back in September, my mom got me a great gift. The gift of a new hair doo! I haven't had my hair done since I was married (almost 5 years ago). So on Saturday, I got it done. I am so grateful to have my hair look good again. It really has been too long.

This is today. I can't seem to get it exactly how the hair dresser did it. The part in my hair is a little off here. Tomorrow might look better.

This picture shows how the hair dresser styled it. This is the day it was cut and colored. Sure looks better than plain hair put up in a ponytail.

This whole experience of having my hair done reminded me of a story my good friend told me:

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner.

I took out my wallet, got out ten dollars and asked, 'If I give you this money, will you buy chocolate with it instead of dinner?'

'No, I had to stop eating chocolate years ago', the homeless woman told me.

'Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?' I asked.

'No, I don't waste time shopping,' the homeless woman said. 'I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive.'

'Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?' I asked.

'Are you NUTS!' replied the homeless woman. I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!'

'Well, I said, 'I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight.'

The homeless Woman was shocked. 'Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting.'

I said, 'That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and chocolate.'

Mac and "Cheese"

We finally got a new computer!!! It's awesome! We are so grateful to have a new iMac. We absolutely love it. At first I was super unsure because I remember my days in college when I had to do a whole project on a Mac and it was so difficult for me. I was always a PC girl. Macs scared the heck out of me. Now I'm not so sure why I was so intimidated. It is by far the best computer! It is really EASY too.

I've been trying to learn how to do things little by little. Maia and I love the Photo Booth.

We're still figuring out a lot of stuff but we now know how to smile, say, "Cheese," and capture pictures of Maia on a roller coaster at 18 months, standing on my lap.

Maia starting to get the hang of putting her hands up.

Maia got a little scared on that last drop. And I have a bolt (or part of the track) through my neck.

Again...still learning.

Bubby, Bubby

I had to share a funny story. If you have ever seen the episode of Friends where Joey speaks French (found at this website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D30U-nz_Hts

watch from 7:17 to 8:04)

you will appreciate my story.

So Maia had a diaper that was pretty full. I said, "Maia, your diaper is saggy baggy." She looked down and I said, "Maia, say saggy baggy."

She responded, "bubby, bubby."

I said, "No, say, 'saggy baggy'."

She said, "bubby, bubby."

I tried again, and said, "Maia, say saggy."

She said, "Saddy"

I said, "Say baggy."

She said, "Baddy"

"Not bad. Ok, say, saggy baggy."

"Bubby, bubby."