A few more pictures. Because I can.

Move outta her way- this girl has important places to go.

9 Months Old

:( 9 months is 3/4 of a year. Maya's growing up.

Height: 28 1/2" (80%)
Weight: 18 lbs. 13.5 oz (50%)
Teeth count: 7

Maya is really enjoying her mobility. She still likes to play in Jack's water bowl... only now she races me to it and tries to stick her hand in the water before I can get it away.
She can clap her hands and wave hello/bye.
She loves to play with water bottles and baby wipes (the other day she carried a wipe around for about half an hour).
She bumps her head on something about 10 times a day and is pulling up on everything.
We got her a little doll stroller that she can push and walk behind all by herself. It is definitely the cutest thing I've ever seen and she gets the proudest look on her face.
We've watched snippets of Barney a few times- and she loves it. One day when Aaron was watching NCIS, Maya got ahold of the remote. She started chewing on it and pressing buttons and, I kid you not, the TV flipped to Barney. We had a good laugh about that one!
Maya loves music and singing. If you turn some music on or start singing- she bounces up and down and hums. A few weeks ago in church, the congregation was singing the closing hymn and Maya hummed, rather loundly, through the whole song.
She is such a funny little goofball and so entertaining.

New hobby- or obsession? And a mischevious little monkey.

Here's what I've been up to lately:


I decided last week that I was going to learn how to crochet. For real this time. And not just a little crochet edging on a blanket or a little yarn potholder. I'm talking hats! I love a baby in a beanie -especially mine- but, I don't love walking into a boutique and walking out emptyhanded because vendors charge $20 for a little hat. Being the frugal little self that I am, I simply can't BUY something that I'm certain I can MAKE.

They make the perfect baby gifts for all the girls I know who've recently had or are soon going to have babies.
And, let's face it, Maya needs some cute little head gear for the upcoming chilly days that will be here before we know it.



Maybe one in every color?



I've gotta say, crocheting is not the easiest skill I've ever learned- I've made five hats total in the last few days- of which only two are salvagable. And I was doing the most basic and frequently used stitch incorrectly until last night.

Basically though, I love it. I feel like I have something productive and inexpensive to do in the evenings after the little one is in bed.

In other news, Maya is everywhere and just full of energy these days. Here are a couple of her new favorite things.



Walking the dog- she always grabs Jack's leash and I think it's awesome. He is amazingly gentle with her (more gentle than he is even with Aaron and I). Such a pleasant surprise. They are going to be best buds for sure.



Crawling all over. Just seeing this picture makes me tired...



Because I know she's headed for this!


Jack doesn't care though- he's happy to share =)

We are headed to Lagoon tomorrow- yippee for our summer vacation- even if it's just for one day, there's nothing like spending a fun day as a family.

In the last four years

We-
Got married
I started working at Bingham Memorial Hospital
Aaron was moved from the Idaho Falls news bureau to the Pocatello station
Did weather forecasting for a few months
Took lots of roadtrips
Aaron took a new position as the weekend anchor/producer
Realized this meant Aaron would be working weekends
Took a lot less roadtrips
After two years of driving a car that couldn’t go in reverse…we bought a car
Spent about 10,000 more than we originally planned to spend on said car
Heather went back to school at Eastern Idaho Technical College
We received our endowments and were sealed in the Idaho Falls Temple the next month
Aaron did weather forecasting for a couple of months
Took a dog in (on a whim)
Named her Sydney
Decided to move into a pet-friendly home
…In Idaho Falls
Heather started working at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center
Realized she didn’t fit in there
Quit and got a job at Kohl’s instead
Loved it and fit in immediately
Aaron got another job at Gap West Broadcasting hosting a morning news radio show
Aaron realized he’d have to get up at 5am every day
Thought about getting Sydney a playmate
Got another dog (kind of on a whim)
Whom Sydney hated
Named the new dog Jack
Bought an awesome camera
Aaron took some awesome pictures
Found out we were pregnant
Secretly hoped it was a girl
Heather graduated from Nursing school
Found out we were having a girl
Maya joined the family!
…

To be continued!

8 Months Old

One hour from now, Maya will be eight months old! She has hit a lot of milestones this last month and I'm still amazed at all she can do!
* Stands when holding on to something (& brave enough to just hang on with one arm)
* Began 'creeping' a week ago, and then crawling two days later- we knew she could do it!
* Prefers real food over baby food- not a fan of purees, but she eats them anyway
* Eats pieces of banana, cheerios and corn flakes, plain macaroni noodles, pieces of toast, crackers (her favorite)
* Says da-da ALL THE TIME (and na-na, ma-ma, ba-ba)
* Is starting to mimic (repeats da-da after I say it, has waved back when I waved at her (though she doesn't connect the wave to "bye bye" yet), will sometimes laugh when she hears someone else laughing
* ALWAYS smiles when she sees the dogs and laughs at Jack when he chases his ball around the house
* Beginning to enjoy peek-a-boo, itsy bitsy spider, and silly songs
* Hums when she hears music or when she's tired- she also clicks her tongue when she's falling asleep
* Still taking two naps a day (yay!) and is doing better with sleeping
* LOVES to pull things off shelves, loves magazines and paper, always goes for the dog food, and is starting to take an interest in looking at books and feeling the touch-and-feel animal type
* Starting the temper tantrum phase
* She's really a happy baby and so goofy and expressive- and she laughs all the time now which we love!

Update: Goodnight Maya

This big girl has been sleeping through the night for the past 3 nights. Yay! We all feel a lot more rested. I took someone's (okay, several someones) advice and started putting Maya to bed awake (after eating and rocking a bit to settle down). She still has a hard time with me putting her to bed and leaving the room, she cries pretty hard for a few minutes at most and then falls asleep. The other thing I began doing was letting her cry a bit during the night when she woke up. I can't say I didn't feel like a terrible mother when she was crying, but I felt like this was the best solution and the results speak for themselves.

Goodnight, Maya

When she was just a few months old, Maya started sleeping through the night. She would easily sleep from 7:30pm to 5:00am, waking up occasionally for one feeding around 1:00am. After waking at 5:00 in the morning, I would feed her and she would be out until 8:00am. We thought we were pretty lucky to have such an excellent sleeper on our hands.

Then Maya turned 6 months old. She began to get distracted when I'd feed her. She had a hard time settling down for naps and bedtime in her crib. She started waking up several times during the night. She wanted to explore everything and touch and taste and look at everything around her, and sleep? Well, that was just an inconvenience and something to be avoided so playtime would last 24/7. In her mind, anyway.

So, I (and she) developed a habit of nursing her to sleep. Because it worked like a charm (or like an Ambien).

And when she would wake up in the night, I'd take her to our bed- because who the heck thinks about their baby potentially forming a bad sleep habit from their actions at 3 in the morning?! All I wanted was a sleeping baby and a sleeping mommy.

So this nursing-to-sleep thing was a bad idea. Because what'dya know- now she relies on it. She doesn't know how to comfort herself. I put her to bed after she's fallen asleep eating and rocking. I cross my fingers and hope she doesn't wake up in the laying-down process (which is all the more difficult with a lowered mattress- my long arms simply aren't long enough and the last couple of inches are more of a gentle-ish drop) 90% of the time, her eyes fling open and the realization hits her that she is indeed in bed and that mommy will leave the room.

Awhile ago, I started letting her "cry it out" if she did wake up when I was laying her down. She typically cries for 5-15 minutes when this happens.

Right.

Well, as I've been told, babies wake up several times during the night (in fact, most people do). It's natural. And normally they stir and maybe whimper and sleepily cry and then they go back to sleep. But we have our bad little habit and when Maya wakes up in the middle of the night, the only way she knows how to find comfort is via her mom. And so, when I hear her over the baby monitor, I go to her room and feed her and rock her and within a few minutes she's asleep and she goes back in the crib.

She now wakes up every two to three hours during the night until 6:30 or 7 when she's up for the day.

At her 4-month checkup, her doctor let us know we could start eliminating night feedings because she had no physical need for it.

4 months later, here we are.

Now this is a boring and confusing admission of my (unintentional!) poor judgement. But whatever. I feel better, and determined.

It'll be brutal listening to her cry and making her learn to soothe and comfort herself. But because I don't want to be rocking (or nursing- HAHA) a four, five,six-year-old to sleep in the future, I think we need to make a change!