Is she yours or adopted?

The yellow chair photos





"You look funny mommy!"

It is funny how 8 months seems an eternity and yet somehow like yesterday. I honestly cannot remember a day when Maya wasn't our daughter and I'm a bit sad that time is passing so quickly as she changes on a daily basis. I can remember long before Maya had a face that there was a little glimmer of questioning whether or not I would love Maya with the intensity of a birth child. Would it matter that this child didn't look like us? I knew I would love this child there was no doubt but I thought it would take longer to grow to love her. I just had no idea how much capacity for love I had. I think for both of us it was pretty much love at first sight. Our families have expressed the same sentiments and they couldn't love her any more then they already do.


"What do you have in here Papa?"


"How many zero's are in a million?"


"I'd like to make a wire transfer to China please."


"I'll share my millions with you Nanny!"

It never really dawns on me that she doesn't look like me or that she is adopted. It is only when the outside world mentions it do I have to sit back and take note of how she became a part of our family. I was at the park last week and a woman asked "is she yours or adopted?" The only answer I could say was "both". I found the question a little funny. Of course I know most people are just curious and have no ill intentions when they ask. But it did make me realize that our life will be filled with strange little comments that will undoubtedly be more annoying as Maya grows and becomes aware of what people are asking. Even the other day I was chasing Maya through the butterfly pavillion and this woman looked down and said "oh dear, where is your mommy?" Now being that I was only 6 inches away from her with the frantic look on my face you would have thought it would be obvious who her mommy is! I must admit it did irritiate me slightly but the reality is that my daughter has a Chinese face and I don't. The outside world doesn't see how much alike we are. Like the way Maya licks her fingers before turning the pages of her books, or makes a funny face when she smiles (John swears she got this from me) or that she has some incredibly bad dance moves which she thinks are fabulous (yeah ok she did get that from me). They don't see that her hairline, and ears are exactly like her daddy or that she shares in his incredibly warped sense of humor. By the way, they are eachothers best audience. And she is stubborn to a fault which is something that is part of both John and I. My point is that Maya could not be more ours then had she been cloned from our DNA. YES SHE IS OURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"I'm a lover not a fighter."

And nothing makes you more of a parent then when you have a sick child. Maya battled rotovirus a few weeks ago and it was not pretty. For those of you who don't know what rotovirus is if you have a weak stomach you might want to skip this paragraph. Maya started with 5 days of puking along with explosive diarrhea. I'm talking gallons of green liquid. Diaper changes were continual. We would just get one mess cleaned and another explosion. Lets just say the diaper levy was breached almost every time. Here is the conversation as it went at the doctor.

Dr: "Your daughter has rotovirus."
Me: "How do you get it?"
Dr: "It is transmitted oral-fecally." At this point my mind is processing what he is saying.
Me: "Your saying my child eats poo?" I'm thinking back to a few weeks ago when I caught Maya running down the hall with the plunger that I thought was secretly tucked away." Did she perhaps enjoy a plunger lollipop before I found her? Of course I'm crushed and feel like such a failure. We wash after diaper changes etc....how could I allow this to happen?

Sensing my defeat and feeling like I failed Maya the doctor told me that kids her age often explore their bodies and that daycare kids also have a higher incident too. The incubation period is a couple of days which would have made it a daycare day so I just quit beating myself up about it. Anyway rotovirus can last up to 10 days and hers did. Lets just get something straight. No diaper on the market can contain the poop explosion of rotovirus! Trust me we tried them all. What I want to know is how it is possible for a twenty pound toddler who has not eaten in days to completely dowse her self in poo from head to toe? Where is it all coming from? This is one of the mysteries of life. John has become quite the expert in poop detail and has perfected the art of baby clean up. I am proud to say that I have officially learned the art of becoming a vomit shield. You see it is much easier to shower me then to be scrubbing floors and chairs in the middle of the night. Yes this is true love people!


Paging Dr. Maya


"I don't feel like I have a temperature!"


Checking mommy's heart beat



Enjoying the last of winter......we hope!



Maya amazes us on a daily basis. She has become very verbal and has added a lot of new words to her vocabulary (hat, book, bye, no, yeah, whoa, cheese, baby, boom, keys, hot, shoe, sock, stuck, duck, peepee, milk, snack, side which can mean outside or slide). It can be most frustrating when she is asking for something and we aren't quite sure what it is. Luckily she won't hesitate to lead us around and point to what she means. Then the word she is saying becomes so obvious. We are also working on manners. Please is "peez "and thank you is "dee do" Her tone is right on when she says it so it is sweet to hear her say it. By the way when Maya has an explosion she looks at the diaper and says "I'm sick" Unfortunately instead of the (s)she uses a (d). You figure it out. She also shrugs her shoulders when you ask her where something is. Very cute!




"I dunno know!"

Her favorite toys are her leggos, and blocks. So far her record for block stacking is 10. Number 8 while she was gracefully standing on her tip toes and number 9 and 10 required daddy to hold her up. She loves books although she still lacks patience to wait until we are finsished reading before tunring the pages. She loves music and to get her groove on. She has started twirling and asks to put a hat and dress or tutu(compliments of Aunt Linda)on in order to get the full dramatic affect. She has dress up and pretend day at daycare so I think that must be where that has come from. She has a great imagination and can pour an imaginary drink like a pro with the sound effects and everything.


"If only I were taller!"

"Thanks daddy!"

Maya is into everything!!!!! If it can be climbed, she is scaling it. If her body will fit in it, she crawls in. We have nicknamed her hurricane Maya because she can destroy a room in a matter of minutes. Luckily she has gotten pretty good at picking up too. She loves being outside so we are savoring the nicer weather and the lack of mess in the house. The snow has finally all melted and we have had serveral great park outings and walks. Exhausting as much energy as possible is an important part of the day.


Sitting in the kitchen drawer


Say Cheeeeeeez......literally!


"This could be fun!"

"YES, it is fun!"


Hiding under the bathroom sink


Helping mommy.....sort of.

Everything has taken on a whole new dimension now that Maya is mobile. For instance grocery shopping which used to be pretty uneventful is now a major pain with a toddler. I feel like I'm trapped in some bad grocery game show of the 70's as I'm frantically trying to get my items into my cart and avoid Maya destroying it before we reach the check out stand. The straps on the cart are too big and Maya can climb out of them so I decided on one trip to try the obnoxious kid cart. At this particular store I was steering about 8 feet of car and cart. I could barely maneuver the isles it was soooooooo long. I can remember laughing at moms who would put their kids in such things and here I was barely taking out the end cap displays with the thing. It worked great except the design of this particular car did not allow me to see that Maya could still reach all the items in the basket. When I got to the check out stand she had opened and unloaded 3 boxes of Kleenex. I just smiled at the clerk at had him bag up my confetti of tissue. The next store visit after that I went to put Maya in a normal cart and she looked at me with the big brown eyes and pointed to the fun cart. It was a different store and the cart was a lot smaller so I gave it a try. The car part of it sits close to the ground away from the basket so it was a much better experience. Maya had a blast and had everyone laughing because she was steering and yelling "whoa!!!! whoa!!!!! the whole way. Apparently she thinks mom is a crazy driver.


Driving 101


"YEEHAW!"


Checking out the pinecones she collected


Getting reacquainted with chopsticks

She is also absolutely obsessed with her potty chair. I've had it stored in her closet and decided that I should move it to the bathroom since she was constantly sitting on it beneath her hanging clothes. She hasn't quite grasped the concept of it all but now tells us when she has peed and leads us by the finger to sit on her potty. Of course the pee is already in her diaper but we go through the motions anyway. She pretends to wipe and then says goodbye as we close the lid. It has been nice knowing when her diaper needs to be changed. Unfortunately she doesn't understand that the pee bowl is not a hat as we often catch her wearing it on her head. Hopefully she will curb this habit once she actually starts peeing in the bowl. She also thinks the bowl is great to put her feet into to get onto her potty. We still have many things to obviously work on before we are in full potty training mode but we are happy that she is showing interest on her own. The following pictures are a bit blurry but totally unscripted and without coaxing by us. Taking clear pictures is a bit of a challenge these days with and active girl.





"Who needs a potty when I can read right here!"

We enjoyed Easter with our China travel group. These families have literally become our extended families. I believe we had eleven of the 15 families there. It was great fun to see all the babies happy and full of life. Much different then the timid, shy and sad girls we saw in China. Tillie and her family came all the way from California which was a great treat for Maya. They stayed with us for a couple of days and Maya just loved having another baby here when she woke up in the morning. Maya has become extremely affectionate and loves to hug and kiss so she was smooching Tillie lots. When I picked her up at daycare the other day I was told that she is constantly kissing all the other kids. So I'm sure they all have rotovirus this week too! OOOOPS! We'll just call her the kissing bandit.


Patiently waiting


The kissing bandit strikes again!


Tubby mohawks with Tillie


Easter


Maya and Uncle Morgan


Attempting to take a group photo

Overall Maya is a very happy girl in the day. She still struggles with sleeping and it is hard to know for sure the cause. She has gotten 8 new teeth in the past few weeks and I think she is having some nightmares as well. The funny thing is the lengths a parent will go to in order to get their child some sleep. Driving Maya around for a couple of hours usually does the trick at nap time. Of course I have to avoid the red lights so she doesn't wake so a country drive is usually in order. One night after she had finally fallen asleep I was getting her clothes ready for daycare. She started to stir and I panicked. If she were to see me she would be up for another hour or so. I looked at the door which seemed way too far to chance it so I instinctively dove underneath the crib. Now at 41 I'm just not as agilie or as skinny as I used to be. I forgot that I had some things stored underneath her crib so I could barely get my hips underneath and my legs were sticking out from under the crib. I suddenly had a horrible thought. "What if she stands up and looks over the edge and sees legs sticking out from below?" That would for sure ruin her. So I did my best pretzel bend and remained there for over 30 minutes while she babbled and rolled around in bed. I think next time I'll chance it and go for the door.


Twirling


"Here I am!"

She continues to grow and her legs have finally gained an inch with her over all height gain of about 4 inches since we have been home. She is wearing 9-12 month clothes with 9 month clothes fitting perfect and 12 month clothes still a bit on the big side. She is 19lbs 5 oz per her doctor visit this last week. I think she lost a few pounds from being sick. She is still short for 18 months but overall has lots of baby pudge so she now looks nice and healthy. This is such a fun age and we look forward to more and more adventures in the months to come.


Sharing her favorite sitting spot with daddy


The Haugs