This post brought to you by the letter......L

It is a simple looking letter, and it leads many important words like ladybug, love, leg, and lollipop. However, learning to pronounce this letter is a tough task. In the past year, Maya's vocabulary has exploded. She seemed to learn and pick up new words everyday. Recently, to the astonishment of her parents, she used the word "automatically" in a sentence. How she learned that word I still dont know. The one letter and sound she has had trouble mastering is the "L". I guess it is just a tricky way the tongue has to work to say the letter is what is giving her grief. It is difficult for a three-year old. Words like "Claire" sound like "Care", and "Lemon" is "Yemon".

But not anymore!! Maya is on a mission, a quest. She is going to conquer the letter L. She has been studying hard and practing her Ls this week. Yesterday, she walked up to me and said, "liisten to this"...."Cllllaire". I gave her a double high-five and a big hug. She was so proud. Now she works on the L sound every chance she gets.

Maya does have a certain incentive too. I've heard some mention of a Barbie as a gift. How fitting that she is accomplishing this on LLLLLabor Day Weekend.

First Impression

This is Maya's first ever venture into the water at the beach. This is different from splashing around at the pool. Her mission was to "find the perfect wave". She really loved playing in the sand and in the surf.

Maya's First Beach Trip

Maya's First Beach Trip 018
Originally uploaded by natemonroe2002

Maya enjoyed some wonderful R&R in Florida....
more details to come

Saturday....In the Park

A fun day at the park. It is always a good thing

Big Girl Bed

Maya made a big transition recently. First she had the crib, then last year moved to a toddler bed, and now........a full size, brand new big girl bed. It is funny how her new bed just completely swallows her. She takes full advantage of all the new extra room that she has in her bed. Maya is kind of a wild sleeper. Another lovely attribute that she got from her mother. So often when we peek in on her before we go to bed, she is usually laying across the bed, not on the pillows, or she has already kicked the covers off.

Another bonus of the new bed is that her baby dolls and bear can now comfortably sleep beside her.

Word of the Day

GAPPY: (adj.) something that Maya doesnt like, or consideres yucky. Examples: "That show was very gappy." "I dont want to eat all my broccoli, its gappy" "Boys are gappy."

The Artist

A work of art! This is Maya's drawing of a face. She just recently started drawing faces, this was done in the bathtub. With special bathtub markers of course. Maya likes to do all sorts of artsy things. She loves her play-doh, and she likes to color, paint and draw, in fact she likes to draw on any and everything. Thankfully, she doesn't draw on the walls or floors, just paper and coloring books. .......and bathtubs.

A Hunting She Will Go

Maya has really got the hang of Easter Egg hunting. She had two on Easter Sunday and went to another one the week before. Whenever she would find an egg, she already knows to shake it to see if there is some sort of gift inside. She only would open the "noisy" eggs. Clever girl. Although, two eggs had a dollar in them and they did not make a noise when shook. So she had to go back and open each egg to get her prize.

Maya's Nana and Grandpa came to visit from North Carolina on Easter weekend. Maya got to show off her new, fancy Easter dress. She also got a big surpise.......details later.

Boots are Made for Walkin'

Maya shows off her footwork in mommy's boots.

DJ Maya

Maya likes music

As witnessed in an earlier post.

Maya's taste in music seems to be growing. Gone are the days when she we would make us listen to her Elmo CD on an endless loop. The CD only had two, maybe three, songs on it and the songs would be stuck in your head the rest of the day. She still has her kid CDs that she likes but here are some contemporary artists that Maya reccomends you listen to.

(she has been greatly influenced by her mother)


BON JOVI



Maya prefers Bon Jovi's latest album Lost Highway. She likes all the songs and was also pleased to find out that Jon Bon Jovi is a dad.

CHRISTINE KANE

Singer from Asheville, North Carolina and a favorite of her parents who have seen her live a few times. Maya likes the guitar playing and Christine's singing voice

BARENAKED LADIES

Another favorite of her parents, we think it is funny to hear her say "I want Barenaked Ladies."

THE GO GIRLS

Known to everyone else as The Indigo Girls, this duo from Georgia is the latest addition to Maya's musical requests. Maya's mom is a big fan of the group. Her mother played Indigo Girls songs for Maya when she was still in her tummy.

BILLY JOEL

Maya became a fan of Billy Joel because of the book and song Goodnight My Angel. Maya used to have the lullaby read to her every night before bed. She loves the book and still likes to read it. The book came with a CD of the song, and now she likes to sing along with the CD too.

2007, A Look Back part 2

The second half of 2007 was highlighted by Maya getting a brand new, bigger room. Maya got to survey her knew home before we moved in, and she got to pick the room that she wanted to be hers. She also got to pick the color that her room would be painted. A lot of thought had to go into this selection of room color. However, Maya's initial choice of orange was turned down by her parents, and she was given a choice of colors too choose from. She finally settled on yellow, which was also the color of her old room.

Maya also moved out of her crib in her new room. The crib had served its purpose, Maya moved on to a nice toddler bed (it is less than a foot off the ground). It wont be too long before she outgrows this bed.

She enjoys her new neighborhood, "her park" in the neighborhood and the pool. In August, Maya started pre-school, she really likes it and has learned a lot of new things:

The Pledge of Allegance
My Country 'Tis of Thee
The Lord's Army (her school is church affiliated)
A wide variety of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas songs
Watercolors

She has also been selected as the line leader on several occasions.

In December Maya went to the Christmas service of her new church, she could not see the Nativity program going on from her seat so Maya just walked down the isle to get a better look. She "had to see the baby Jesus."

2007 was a great year, many new firsts and Maya keeps growing and growing.

2008 is looking good....Maya will hit the beach for the first time (in the summer).

Growing Up

I have written before about the heart melting factor with Maya. Im sure this is true with all toddlers, certain things they do or say just make your day. You will never forget them, and they will be a part of your memory of her forever, even when she grows up.

Speaking of growing up, Maya is really into the book, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It is a classic story about a boy and a tree, there are lots of moral tales and "meanings" that I have read about the book. The little boy in the book gets grows up and gets older in the book, and eventually is an old man by the end.

One night after reading the book Maya says, "Daddy, when I get grow up I want to get knocked down so I can stay little." I was confused about what she meant by "knocked down" so I asked her. She said that she doesn't want to be a big person, she wants to stay a little girl. Of course, in my head I am thinking, "if there was a way that you could stop growing now and just be the adorably cute and wonderful, innocent person you are that would be great!"

Im sure that I am not the first parent to wish that their kids could just not grow up. It is just an amazing thing when you watch them develop and see how innocent they are, and how you dont want that to be "spoiled". It has been a fascinating three years watching her from a baby grow into this little independent person. She is very honest too, that is a good thing.

She also told me that night that when she does grow up, she wants to be a mermaid, like Ariel.

THREE

Maya turned three yesterday. Her Birthday week celebration started last Saturday with a trip to see Go Diego Go! Live. She had a great time and it was really a good show. It was just like watching an episode of the show, just in person. Maya danced and sang and really got into it. There was also a special guest appearance by Diego's famous cousin, Dora the Explorer. The show was followed by a birthday dinner of cheese pizza and ice cream with a candle.

On her actual birthday, Maya got to wear a crown at her school, and she was the line leader for the day. The highlight of the school day was Maya giving a book reading to her class and teachers. She read from Ian Falconer's Olivia collection, Olivia forms a Band. Word has it her teachers were quite impressed as Maya read the entire book to the class.

She opened some but not all of her presents that night, she got some more books to add to her library. A second birthday dinner was held at the fine dining establishment known as Wendy's. Grandma and Papa were present at this dinner. Maya chose the restaurant, even though other options were suggested. A plea for mexican food or pizza was quickly shot down. "But I want Wendy's", repeated over and over pretty much sealed the deal. She had the kids meal, and for the very first time ever had a frosty. She had the vanilla frosty, since she doesn't like chocolate.

There is still more to come. Another Maya Birthday bash is planned for this weekend. This will take place at Maya's home. Where more presents will be opened and more fun will be had, and there will be cake.

You cant just limit Maya's birthday celebration to one day, it is an event!

Two Princesses

When you find out that you are going to become parents, you always wonder what the baby will look like, who she will act like, etc... I was always hoping that Maya would turn out looking like her mother, obviously because I like the way her mother looks so why not.

Well not only did she turn out to look like her mother, she is basically a carbon copy of her. Claire commented on this while we were watching one of Maya's school programs. She said it was like looking at herself up on the stage. There is no doubt they are related. They are both very girly. Maya loves to play dress up, and be a princess. Her mom has princess pants. She has been walking around in her mother's shoes for some time now, she loves sparkly things and putting on "girl perfume". I have been informed by Maya that my "boy perfume" doesn't smell as good.

Maya couldn't have a better role model though. Her teachers at her school say Maya is very sweet and always likes to help out with the other kids. So she is going to be a caring, loving person who always likes to help people, and make others happy.

Just like her Mom.

Fun With Markers

Markers are bright, shiny and come in a variety of colors. There are so many really neat things you can do with a marker in your hand. You can draw, write your name, or scribble some cool designs. The scribbling should be done on paper and not on clothes or walls, especially not on the walls. Writing on the walls or the furniture will cause parents to get upset. Paper gets boring though, it just lays there, blankly and it is too simple. I need a different canvas to challenge my young, artistic mind. How about skin! Not just any skin, my skin. Look at these arms, what wonderful things I can do to them with my bright new markers.




Thankfully, crayola makes washable markers. Maya the tattooed lady was a sight to behold. She actually did some very nice work. Her shirt didn't even have a mark on them. When she came running in to our room and said "look", and held out her arms, I couldn't help but laugh. So off we marched to the kitchen sink, a little soap and water and her temporary tattoos were gone. Thanks again to the washable markers people.

2007 , A Look Back

2007 was a very big year for Maya. Many great experiences as Maya continued to grow. So lets look back at some highlights.

In February Maya turned TWO!! She had a small celebration at home, where she got some clothes and a really cool Olivia book among other things. We also found out that we were leaving Maya's birth state of North Carolina and moving to Georgia. So Maya had to say goodbye to all her friends at the great staff at her school.

This was a big growth time for Maya. Her vocabulary took off, she was adding new words daily, and her walking slowly turned to running and jumping. A few bumps and knee scrapes happened along the way, but she powered through her boo-boos with the help of boo boo bunny.

Maya's first stop in Georgia was with her Grandma and Papa, she took up residence with them for most of the Spring and early summer.

firsts:

• Maya made her first visit to the zoo. where she keenly pointed out that the elephants liked to throw poop at each other.


• She made her first visit to a beach. This is not considered an official visit becuase it was February and very cold on the beach so there was no playing in the water.

It was a pretty busy summer. Maya took in a Braves game, and learned the tomahawk chop. The Braves won. She also went to Centennial Olympic Park and got soaked by the Olympic ring fountain. She also learned about opera and performed a nightly after dinner concert for the family. Her major piece was an a capella version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Maya learned to go to the bathroom all by herself in 2007. She really seemed to grasp the concept pretty quickly. She never used the small training potty, she went right for the bigger version. This was a big time for her because about the same time she gave up her most trusted security item.......the boppy.

The boppy, also known as a binky, pacifier, cork, and plug was Maya's constant companion. She had a green one and a yellow one. The boppies stayed with her until they had just worn out. Maya gave it up on her own when she realized that the boppy just wasnt working anymore and she was getting so big she didnt need it.

That was the first half of 2007, in the second half Maya gets a new room....

Happy New Year

We promise more Maya updates in '08.