some more dec pics

Here is Maya with her backpack on (and totally navigating the iphone). She likes to put her blankie and stuffed animals in the backpack and run laps around the house. (check out her hair- it's getting so much longer!)


Maya with her pal Zane (so sweet)

Maya loves putting all the blankets on her crib when she's up from her nap

Here is Maya with her new little drum set (thanks Gabe!)


Maya and Romi playing on the "round and round" at the park next door. (its so hard to get a good shot of them together! And yes- I know her pants are short for cold weather :))

More soon.....2011 is approaching...!
Love

"happy monica"

It's been so sweet to see Maya get into Hanukkah this year. She asks to light the candles in the "nora," likes hearing the blessings and even finishes one with me and is giving enthusiastic shouts of "happy monica." We've only done a couple gifts with her and she has been truly surprised and delighted and it's so fun to see. Tonight she opened a gift from Angela (who watches her three times a week) Here are a couple photos of her excitement:


I've been on the barrette campaign with her- trying to get her to wear them is proving to be quite the challenge. She usually has them in for a few minutes and then is "all done."

It's December and Maya turns two soon- she is practicing saying she is 2, she is really getting good at counting, she's workin on the ABC's, can point out most colors and just yesterday she was playing with her little letter magnets and I couldnt believe how many letters she can identify. "W?" when did she get to know "W" so well!? I wanted to tell her "stop growing up so fast!"

This week is Tom's (Papa) birthday (love you Daddy!) and Sarah is in town. Big love for more girl time. :)

thank & full

Thanksgiving weekend was a full one- full of thanks, full of family and friends and full of some serious eating. From the Thursday feast to meeting up with Matt and fam on Friday to Tom and Tracy's place Friday and Sat- our hearts are full of thanks and our belly's were full of food. (Glad to have all pies and cookies out of site! ) Maya had a blast with all the activity and could be seen doing the "pokey pokey" & "posie" (ring around the rosie) with just about everyone.

Hanukkah is starting up this week, next week I have some fun plans with girlfriends, Josh goes to Portland soon and then we're talking almost NYE- where is the time going?

November begins

I started out the month with a bang. I had 4 full days with some girlfriends (go Jessapalooza!) and then came home to 2 nights out with friends to see a couple shows (that's right- I rocked the Usher concert in Oakland.) Maya had lots of fun with Grandparents and of course fun time with Josh. We are looking forward to a full Thanksgiving weekend with family this next week. Here are some recent photos and a video of little Munchkin:

Here are the ladies of the Jessapalooza weekend:

Goofing off at home:

Maya has some really cute friends she sees at the park all the time (Jenny, Gianna and Deklan, who she talks about often.) Here they are with teacher Maureen doing the Hokey Pokey (or as Maya says "Pokey Pokey")

Go Giants

Maya and Elise- Cute pals:


Maya and her "ice cream" at the park:


Halloween came and went and you would never have known it at our house. Between the costumes and scary houses and being 21 months- it wasnt a big hit this year. Fine with me- I know we have plenty of Halloween celebrations to come. This is about as close as we got to it:


Here is Maya cheering along with everyone for game 5 of the World Series:

I am heading out for a long girls weekend (4 full days!)- Looking forward to the girl time. Big thanks for all the help everyone. Big love.

sentences

Maya is now talking in sentences and its so fun to hear (ok- they are short sentences- but three or sometimes four words together). I'm just amazed at the language & social development happening right now. She talks about her friends often, she has a great memory for details, and is expressing herself really well. We've been frequenting the park - as usual, have made some recent trips to the zoo and it seems like we are in the birthday party cycle. She loves the jumpy house and has been in one the last 3 weekends in a row!

Maya and her pal Elise (holding hands) at the park:



JD and Maya Rose ("Daddy soccer"):

harmonica

Maya had fun learning this while Oma and Papa were here...

fun, busy week!

Sarah has been in town and I've been lucky enough to spend a bunch of time with her this week. Maya and I went up the coast to Jenner for a day to hang out with Sarah, her parents and fun little Parker. It makes my soul happy to see Maya and Parker together and they had a blast running naked out in nature for a day filled with snacks, art projects and a kiddie pool. I also lucked out with an evening with the college gals and then a full day with just me and Sarah on Thursday (thank goodness for girl time!)

Oma and Papa came into town this week, too, since its Romi's 2nd birthday. We spent the day playing and singing to cutie Romi. It was a fun family day and its been a full, busy but great week.

Maya's language continues to be such fun development. She is really into saying "Oh yeah" and is starting to sing along with songs in the car. She specifically asked for "More Donna (Madonna) and More Usher" the other day and she is so into an English/Hebrew CD we have and often asks for "Song Hebrew." She's funny and spunky and growing like a weed!

Maya and Parker- art project (Maya's 1st pigtails this week):

Maya and Uncle Matt ("Uncle Mack")

Birthday Girl Romi:


Maya practicing her last name:

recent photos

Maya and her pal Elise ("Ees") having snack at the zoo


Cheers Auntie Leah (Happy Bday!)


Happy #99 Grandma!


Daddy's Girl

time off

Thank goodness I work for a Jewish Organization. Not only is Labor Day this Monday, but Rosh Hashanah hits mid week. This means that I am taking 2 days of vacation and score 5 days off! The new school year just started at the preschool and thus, my work load has about quadrupled. I put in over 80 hours this pay period and I'm tired! Working over full time and getting to Maya and having the afternoons with her has been more than exhausting. Needless to say, I am ready for a week of down-time. I'll be getting up at a more reasonable Mommy-hour (about 7 thank goodness) We'll be hitting the zoo, seeing friends and also heading to OC to visit TlovesT and my Grandma who turns 99 this month!

Every day Maya is saying new words and we find ourselves thinking things like "When did you learn the word 'feather'?" My new favorite Maya phrase though is "Oh Boy!"- said in moments of excitement but also times when she has a big task at hand (lifting all the blocks or something of the sort). And appropriately, she told us in the car yesterday that it was foggy and said "Hi fog" a ton on the way to the zoo!

Here are a couple recent pics. Our little girl is rounding the corner here on 20 months- that's ALMOST 2!

Here she is trying out her friend Samantha's bike:
You can see Monkey and her other monkey she calls "Haircut" here:

some pics

Its hard to get a picture of Maya at the Little Gym but here she is this past week on the low beam:
Not a fab photo- but me with tired Maya and Niece/Cousin Romi

Rock & Roll Romi

19 months (today!)

In these last couple weeks, Maya's language is just so fun to hear - Its a little word explosion. She is repeating almost everything now and is putting multiple words together- SO fun! "Mo airpo" (more airport) "dow peas" (down please) "elp sit" (help sit). She is still adding more signs, too- this weeks favorite of mine is the sign for 'snail'. She is really into Elmo (no surprise), the "ouwweee" she has on her knee and playing with Josh's coaching cones. She's also really into drawing and often says "wow" after looking at her picture, jumping and playing with the magnetic letters on the fridge.

Here is a happy picture from our time this evening at the park (I could barely pull her away from spinning on that thing!) :

Tahoe

We had a great time with old pals in Tahoe this past weekend. The weather was warm and sunny, the ladies had some time to ourselves, the kids were so cute together, the house was amazing and...it truly felt like summer. We even got to make some seriously good smores. If only the trip could have been longer. I'm waiting for shared photos to post (I know other peeps took good shots) but for now here are a couple (above- Maya and Parker- Pals!):

On the tram to the top of Squaw for pool-side fun:

Love this one of Parker playing in the yard:


Maya is totally exploding with some cool language development right now- she's repeating a ton of what we are saying. Two of my favorite new words of hers are "ankle" and when she answers a question with "ya" (so simple but so cute)

18 month cuteness

Maya giving me a funny little smile while at the park:


Tired little M (after Little Gym)


A little video:

It's July?

I know I have said this a ton since Maya was born and I will be saying it forever now- but honestly, time is flying! What happened to May and June? I can hardly believe it's July and Maya is rounding the corner on 18 months- that's a year and a half! Sometimes its hard to summarize life- so for now a list of some things:

• I've stopped telling people how old Maya is in months. The answer is now simply " a year and a half." This is a new phase, for sure- she is truly a toddler- bye bye baby Maya.
  
• She loves loves loves strawberries and I had to cut her off today from them- if I would have let her- she would have eaten every single one I bought. AND she is saying "strawberry" in her own cute way.
  
• She is really talking a lot more and it's becoming clear that she is wanting more language. It's incredible to see- one of our new "games" is "name the things in the dishwasher." As I unload the dishwasher- she looks at each item and waits to hear what it's called. For now- she is calling everything a bowl.
  
• I can start to see her playing with other kids- not just around them.
• She likes the "big kid swing."
  
• She's getting more hair, more teeth, is now growing out of her clothes super fast, loves singing, dancing, her stuffed animals (watch out anyone who takes Monkey from her!) and digs her time at Little Gym and around other people- lucky girl has a lot of family around her, too. So sweet.
  

This week she got to see Oma and Papa again and spent time with Romi a couple times too- it's amazing to see them together.

17 months- pics

It's hot here this weekend. The kind of hot where I woke up at 5 AM to close all the windows-in hopes of keeping all the cool air in and the hot air out. Yesterday, Maya had a great time at a birthday party where she spent most of her time in a jumpy house and today we have hit the park and I think she might go swimming with J later this afternoon. Summer is here and I realized while we have 3 bottles of sunscreen in rotation- we'll be needing more!

World Cup is on and our DVR is working over time with all the games. Josh and I even got to hang together yesterday mid-day to watch the US tie England 1-1 (thanks Sarah for playing with Maya!)


One of my new favorites:

our anniversary and a crazy drive

We survived! It was a 10 hour drive to OC last Friday. It was quite a road trip for a couple days visit-but we did it. Josh and I spent one night at the hotel where we got married (love it there) while Maya stayed with her Oma and Papa (thanks guys!) They had a blast and we had a blast and then it was time to turn around and make the 7 hour trip home. Next year- we'll buy plane tickets way in advance and hopefully plan a few more days down there so we can also see other family and friends and so Maya can have more time there, too. 17 hours in a car with a toddler who doesn't sleep on the road was interesting, to say the least.

Happy 4 year year anniversary babe. XO

Maya is really talking a lot. This week she is saying words like "eyebrow," "elbow" and "bubbles." So fun!

Four Years!
At the park:

Pacifica: