Big Milestone

From a parent's perspective, today's video may have captured the biggest milestone yet :)

Maya & friends hike Mount Tam

A walk out on Mount Tam to a great picnic spot, for a great sunset....
More photos here

Maya's First Thanksgiving

Maya has had a marvelous time in Princeton, New Haven, and Princeton. Tonight's wonderful meal --of brined turkey, stuffing, sunflower casserole, Virginia ham, mashed potatoes, yams, cauliflower & broccoli, roasted vegetables, cranberries, and of course pecan pie-- was delicious. Maya was looking forward to getting it all on a slight delay throughout the night.

For more photos from Princeton & New Haven with the Christiansen/Gearen/Junker clans click here

Maya getting clean

Not afraid of the bath, it's just the getting in and out that's a problem...

Maya Playing

Here's Maya competing in the floor exercise

Maya Talking

Here's Maya having a chat with her mom:

Maya Laughing

Here's Maya caught on tape with a quick laugh, one of her latest tricks.

She's been loving the time spent with family & friends over the past month and more. 

Click here for lots more photos 

Maya in Europe

Pushing the envelope with Maya we're reminded she's still in the easy, portable phase of life. We flew over direct from San Francisco to Charles de Gaulle, the folks at Air France provided us with a snap-in bassinett (sp?) in our bulkhead seats, thanks to Karen Ch Cain we knew to ask about this. We arrived after a red eye on which Molly & Maya slept pretty well, I slept not at all, but enjoyed a number of french movies. We had rented an apartment with Citalys, a rental agency whose first two google hits are the company website and a travel horror story. Turns out it's no scam, just a great apartment in Paris on the cheap! We poked around Paris for 3 days, soaking up the sights, getting over 9 hrs of jetlag, eating and drinking well.

From there it was on to Germany, and seeing the Christiansens - we spent a great few days with Mimi (now a great grandmother), and aunts & uncles Renate, Brigitte, and Jochen in Flensburg, with drive-by visits from Nanni and Christian, and to see Tante Lila. Basically a clean sweep. From there it was on to the signature event of Molly's cousin Felix's wedding, where we got to see all of [aunt and uncle] Andreas and Carla's family. Great times, great hospitality, Maya was a champ and partied until 3am on the night of the wedding, which got her pretty well ready for a return to SF time last night. We're home and settled, all bags arrived, and looking forward to tonight's debate; Maya's rooting for Obama

More photos from the trip.

Maya Smiling

This is where it gets even funner...er
Maya's started smiling and it melts our hearts and makes 3am seem not quite so bad after all.

Maya in Union Pier

Maya's catching some sun and surfing the waves on Lake Michigan ... what a great way to spend a week
click for more photos

Marin hike early August

A few shots from our hike in Marin with Scott and Emily earlier this month... kinda beautiful up there

Russian River weekend

A weekend with Kris, Billy, and Reed, and Ben, Karen, and Carter up on the Russian River. Maya took her first few dips and seemed to tolerate them more than enjoy them :)

Click for more photos

Maya with Anne and Russ

Hanging out in Berkeley with Anne Gentry and then Russ Baruffi...

Weeks 4-6

All healthy at one month, and as of today all healthy at 6 weeks. Time is flying by, and Maya's hanging out with friends, enjoying being held, rocked, sung to etc by our friends, and growing like a champ. She's already pretty big for her newborn size clothes, and moving her way up the percentiles for size.

Click for photos from meeting Karen and Teo, Keely, Liz & Tarek, Jesse & Kath, and more of these Reed - Maya - Edmund photos

Maya Meets her aunt Cam

Cam came from New Haven to visit us this weekend. Other than hanging in Cam's arms and lap, Maya had a hike in Tilden Park, her first (and our first) trip to Chez Panisse, and a jaunt to the international Kite Festival in Berkeley. She also had her first bath, so no more excuses for being dirty. A big weekend to be sure, and sorry to see Cam go.
Click for more photos

Maya meeting more family & friends

Maya has had a busy social schedule the past few days. Her gas mostly behind her, she has been out about the town, meeting Grammy and Grandpop, Aunt Sarah, and new friend Reed Wilder Witort. Since she's 3 weeks his senior, she did her best to show him how to wail. He didn't take to it yet, but hopefully he'll be a quick study.

More photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/johngearen/20080719_MayasMeetsFriendsAndFam?authkey=PPY7TpSJpco

Maya on her due date

Hard to believe this is the day Maya's 40 weeks in utero would have been completed. These past two and a half weeks feel like a total bonus. Hard to say whether starting today she'll be a noisier, outta-the-womb personality type, or if these first days have been her full-baked personality already. It's hard to notice the changes, since they're so gradual from hour to hour at the timescale we're seeing them, but we think she's awake a bit more these days, possibly just because she's filling her diapers with such gusto.

A few photos from Tony, Shelley, and Lucy's visit last night, from brunch with Kris and Billy today:

http://picasaweb.google.com/johngearen/20080712_MayaOnHerDueDate?authkey=qO7dTLCP3-k

Maya's 2 week birthday

Maya turned two [weeks] today. She said a sad goodbye to Mimi and Nuni, and prepared for the tough work of living with her parents alone. The rules would be stricter, the cushy naps fewer, and the singing not nearly so sweet or on-key, not to mention the quality of the home-cooked meals is about to nose-dive.

She celebrated the day with her favorite activities - sleeping, feeding, and filling diapers. Yesterday, she made her first trip to the Cheeseboard, she's probably still soaking up the breastmilk version of that great pizza.

Tonight she gave G-Diapers a spin -- one plunger episode later there are a few kinks to be worked out in the system yet. Back to 7th gen for the evening, but she feels bullish about more G-diaper tries come tomorrow.

A few more snaps from the past few days here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/johngearen/20080709_EndOf2ndWeek?authkey=E2TL2TZvjnU

First Hike

Maya's first hike of many many to come on the Quarry trail in Tilden park.

QT with the grandparents

Nuni arrived today, Mimi has been here for 8 days keeping the folks fed and housekept as they adjusted to life with Maya.

Take that! umbilical cord

The discerning eye will detect that Maya's got no more umbilical stump - she lost it between 2 and 5 this morning, while in the busy business of feeding, sleeping, filling and changing diapers. Her belly button is starting to make its own statement, and now the horserace is on between innie (pop) and outie (mom)

Resting Kid

Here she is napping just before a trip to her pediatrician. She's plateau'd at 6lbs 9, so we're still on a mission to tank her up.

Day8

Gearing up Maya's Blog - she's still not due for another 10 days, so in some weird way this is ahead of the game.

Here she is rep'ing for Erb on her 8th day.

Also, some photos from her 1st few days, and her 2nd few days:

1st few

2nd few