Our Pre-Wyatt Family

We took a few silly belly pictures and stuff a couple days before Wyatt was born. They turned out pretty stinkin' cute!




CHEEEESE!!

Holy Haven't-Written-a-Blog-in-Ages, Batman!

I know I haven't been on here in forever, so I'm gonna try to make it up to everyone by mega-posting all the stuff we've been doing since mid-December. Okay, here it goes....

CHRISTMAS!
We made the drive back to Arizona for the holidays. I wasn't really looking forward to making the trek with Maya in the car, and was dreading listening to her whining for 14 hours round-trip. So, I asked Pete for a DVD player that goes in the car and hooks up to the headrests as my birthday present. Lo and behold, Maya was an angel for the entire drive! It is my dream come true. I'm all for sticking my kid in front of the boob tube if it will save my sanity, and make me a better and more patient Mommy when it counts.


We got to Phoenix, and spent the first couple days with my Dad and Terea. We also went to Ryan's Christmas Eve party, and I had my hair done by my cousin Sharisa. It was nice seeing all the sibs and nieces and nephews for Christmas Eve. Maya cleaned up! I couldn't believe how many pressies she got! She was pretty excited, and especially loved anything Toy Story themed that she received.






We did Christmas morning at Dad's place, and then drove to Prescott for some more Christmas goodness there with Grammy and the Granny up there.






Maya and Aunt Kate were accidental Christmas twinsies!


Maya was so cute snuggling with all her "friends" at bedtime that night, that I sneaked a picture of her.


We hung out in Prescott for a couple days, and then did a nice, late Christmas with Nana, Papa, Hanna, and the cousins the morning we were set to go home. Hanna made a yummy breakfast spread for everyone, too!





EMILY'S VISIT!
When we left, we kidnapped Emily for the week. We hadn't done that since we lived in Flagstaff, so that was lots of fun. She was a big help with Maya around the house, helped me set up Wyatt's nursery, and we co-produced a really cool Dr Who painting for Wyatt's new bedroom! It's an evil Dalek robot. EXTERMINATE! We also went to Explora, the kids science museum here in town. It was a fun week, and ended with Emily's first airplane ride!





SELLING THE HOUSE
Pete got a call from work asking if he'd like to replace the girl in Colorado Springs who just resigned. We replied with a big affirmative! We are really, really sad to leave all the good friends behind we've made here in Albuquerque, and leaving this house we put so much work into is bittersweet. But, we know that it's for the best. They are grooming Pete to move up the corporate ladder, and that is exactly what he was going for.

We cleaned the hoo-haw out of our house, put tons of stuff up in storage, had the overgrown agaves removed from our front yard, and had a professional photographer come through the house for our listing pictures. I had a dream the other night that our house sold in the first week for full asking price, and I'm REALLY hoping my dream will come true! Pete's work is giving us a couple months to get all our ducks in a row before we move, but they want us out there ASAP! The sooner the house sells, the sooner we can make a bid on wherever we're going to end up. It's such a tease looking at houses online knowing that they will probably be gone by the time we can actually really start house-hunting.


SOOOOO PREGNANT!! (A.K.A. Get Out of Mah Belleh!!)
Today is February 17th, and Wyatt was due to join us on the 10th. He is not being cooperative, and after having my membranes stripped on three different occasions, doing four rounds of acupuncture, running up and down stairs, ingesting black and blue cohosh supplements, doing jumping jacks, moving heavy furniture, and using evening primrose oil for cervical softening, he still is being a stubborn little cuss. So, we are going in tonight at 7:30pm to be induced. My Mom is here to watch after Maya while we are in the hospital, and we skipped her nap today so that she'll be super tired this evening, and hopefully go to bed early (fingers crossed). We've got our bags packed, the house cleaned, and all our ducks in a row. Let's do this!

We're outta here in t-minus three hours. Hopefully, the next blog I post will include pictures of our new family!!

The Holiday Schedule

Here's what we have planned for our impending trip to AZ! Let me know if anything looks weird or wrong.

Wednesday -
Leave ABQ @ 3pm
Arrive at Dad's house in Phoenix around 10ish

Thursday -
Laurie's hair appt in Mesa @10pm - Pete and Maya at Dorothy's
Hang around until the afternoon, and then drive back to Dad's
9pm Comedy Show in Tempe (Dad and T, will you babysit?!)

Friday -
Make cookies in the morning to bring to the shindig later
Christmas Eve party at Ryan and Lynsey's
Spend the night at Dad and T's

Saturday -
Christmas morning at Dad's
Leave Dad's at around 8am and head up to Prescott
Arrive at Grammy's house in Prescott around 10am
Christmas at Grammy's!
Pete's parents swing by when they're done at Hanna's

Sunday -
Prescott all day - go to the movies (True Grit and/or Black Swan)

Monday -
Breakfast at Hanna's - not sure on what time
Kidnap Emily and head back to Albuquerque after breakfast!

Dr Who Awesomeness

I'm posting this at Pete's insistence. It is pretty funny, and there's a nice surprise at the end. Enjoy!

Maya's Lullaby

With a new baby brother coming in just a couple more months, I've been really kicking myself in the butt to update Maya's baby book, decorate her bedroom, and spend as much time as possible doing things with just the two of us. Since I have a Mac, I decided to try my hand at my iMovie app. I made this sweet video for Maya. Every time I hear this song I get all weepy for my little girl! It was an easy choice for the soundtrack. Enjoy!

The Sound of Music Reunion!

I was all excited about this episode of Oprah (which is rare because I'm not really an Oprah person), because the cast of The Sound of Music were going to be on, 45 years after the filming of the movie. Of course, I missed it. Luckily, some wonderful person posted it on YouTube. So, for those who care and missed it, here it is!

Sweet Maya

Maya has had so many awesome breakthroughs lately, and I've been a huge slacker and haven't really posted any of them here. So, here's the latest in the world of Maya.

The talking has gotten cuh-razy! She still isn't combining words yet, but she will learn and repeat words that I didn't even think she knew. I wore a shirt a couple weeks ago that has little beads sewn on it. She pointed to them, and I told her they were beads. She repeated me, and that was pretty much the end of it. Fast-forward to a couple weeks later, and I wear the shirt again. She points to me and says "beads" without skipping a beat. That is one example, there are tons more. The kid has a crazy memory.

Another thing that she's learning is her colors. The first color she learned and repeated back to me correctly was blue. Next she learned green, then red, then yellow, and so on. She learns a new color about every two or three days. Of course, she has been telling me what color EVERYTHING is now. Whenever I get her out a bowl or a cup, I let her pick which color she wants. If blue is an option, she practically screams "BLUE!!!" It's pretty obvious that blue is her favorite color, followed by pink and green.

Whenever Maya has something she wants to tell me, she always kinda yells "Mom!" Once she has my attention, she shows me the thing I needed to see, and then does it a few more times. Example:

Maya: Mom!
Me: Yes, Maya
Maya: Pink
Me: You're right, that is pink. You're so smart! (I go back to whatever I was doing)
Maya: MOM!
Me: How can I help you, Maya?
Maya: Pink!
Me: Yes, I see that it's pink.
Maya: MOOOOMMM!
Me:What?
Maya: MOOOOOOM!
Me: What do you need, Maya
Maya: Pink.

You get the idea. It's super awesome, and not annoying at all. (I love you, Maya!)

This weekend also marked the end of the bottle era for Maya. We told her that bottles are something that babies use, not little girls like Maya. She's not a baby anymore, so from now on we will not be having a bottle of water at naptime or bedtime. She was not a fan, and whined for a couple of minutes her first non-bottle nap. But, once she realized it was a done deal, she got over it and went to sleep. Then, at bedtime she told me "Bottle.......no." I concurred that we will not be enjoying a bottle. Again, she was kinda sad, but she went right to bed after I tucked her in. I was so worried, because all the baby books say to yank the bottle early because doing it later (like 19 months!) would be waaaay more difficult. I found it rather easy to just reason with her, though. I am blessed with one reasonable little girl!

Speaking of reasoning with Maya, whenever she gets really frustrated recently, she will throw whatever's in her hand. If there's nothing in her hand, she'll look around, find something to pick up, and throw it. Then, she'll look at me like, "That's right...I just threw it. What are you gonna do about it?" At first I thought it was kinda cute, but now I make her go pick whatever it was up, make her look me in the eyes, and tell her it's OK to be mad or frustrated, but it is not OK to throw things because they might break. It's so dang adorable when she gets into trouble, because the talk we have afterwards is usually incredibly sweet and ends with hugs and kisses. She is still yet to be sent to time out.

With other kids around, Maya likes to be the boss. She is totally a future Hall Monitor of America! She is very particular about other kids following the rules, but rather than come to me about something, she like to police the situation herself. She can be quite the little bossy-pants!

We talk to Maya all the time about babies, and how we're going to have a new baby in the house. She knows there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, and whenever I ask her where her baby brother is, she pats my tummy. She also knows that the ultrasound pictures are of her baby brother. It's so sweet! For now, anyways. I think she is going to be INCREDIBLY jealous when he gets here! She has no idea what's really in store, but we're doing our best to prepare her. We will definitely talk about it a lot more when we get a little closer to my due date.

Pete and I are seriously the luckiest parents on earth. Maya is a great eater, she has an amazing ability to pay attention and learn new things, she is super snuggly and often comes over for random hugs and kisses, and she is so dang cute and getting cuter by the second! I feel so blessed with the family I have, and can't believe how much love I have for Pete and Maya. Seriously, I could be homeless, and as long as I have them everything will work out! I'm wondering what having a new baby boy will do to our little family, but I can't imagine anything but awesomeness!