Catching up... Maya and Mom at the park after New Year's

Catching up...Christmas and New Year's

Maya spent Christmas and New Year's in Berkeley surrounded by family & friends, highlighted by a visit from Mimi, Nuni, and Andreas

Pictures from Christmas and New Year's

Catching up... Thanksgiving in Chicago

Maya with Grammy and Grandpop and crew in Chicago over Thanksgiving. more pictures here

Catching up....Thanksgiving

Maya took her grandparents out for a walk just before Thanksgiving...

She also got to meet her great grandmommy for the first time, & four generations of first daughters all spent time together.

More pictures from Princeton..

Fun Day at the Discovery Museum

Today we took Maya to the Bay Area Discovery Museum. I had heard from friends that we had to check it out, and it exceeded our expectations! What a find! It is set in old army barracks at Fort Baker right by the Golden Gate Bridge near Sausalito with gorgeous views all around. Much of the museum is outside and there was a great "tot" area with a play stream with play fish and frogs among many other things. Maya especially loved playing splashing the water on her face and chasing after the birds (see the video in the link below) We also had fun with the hula hoops. John and I enjoyed a lovely walk up to Sausalito and back while Maya took her afternoon nap. On our way home, we picked up Cheeseboard pizza - a terrific day all around! You can check out the pictures from the day and a few from this past week here.

Maya's 2nd Halloween and more!

Happy Halloween! Maya was a giraffe this year. I have to admit I wanted to find the lion costume, because Maya has such a great "Roarrrrr" and it kind of fits her personality but they didn't have it in her size. John taught her a Giraffe sound, however, (I know - I had no idea what that would be before he suggested it...) - a smacking the lips and moving around the jaw sign as if it is eating leaves. Maya caught on quick. We spent the evening in Rockridge with her friends, Reed, Edmund and Kai and their parents. Maya loved running down the sidewalk seeing all the homes decorated and watching all the other kids in costume in the neighborhood. She also got into handing out the candy to the many trick - or - treaters that frequented our friend's home there. At what age do you give a kid a bag to collect candy? Maybe that'll start next year - eek, I don't want her eating all that sugar! I'm considering dressing her in the giraffe tomorrow too so we get a bit more mileage out of the costume. She didn't seem to mind wearing it this evening!

Last weekend, John's folks - John and Ann were in town, and Maya had a blast re-bonding with them and her aunt Sarah who she hadn't seen in a while too. We made it back up to the farm in Tilden and in typical Gearen fashion, we spent plenty of time on the tennis courts, had some lovely meals together and even got a chance to take a dip in their hotel pool, which Maya of course loved.

Maya is full of energy these days and a ton of fun. You'll see in the pictures that she's started brushing her teeth. She is not interested in her kiddie tooth brush anymore - she only goes for the adult one. Not a problem with us. Oh, and she's gotten very adept at feeding herself with a spoon. It's getting less and less messy every day. New sounds and words all the time too. Basically, she's growing up fast.

Maya has such a zeal for life and knows exactly what she wants - we need to figure out continue to encourage and cultivate that wonderful part of who she is, while also helping to create some clear boundaries.

Okay, off to bed. Here is the link to some pictures from the last several weeks.

Maya the Toddler - 15 months

I returned from several weeks in E. Africa to find Maya completely grown up! She walks with great confidence, stoops, bend, runs, and is getting to be quite a climber. Now that she's mastered the walking, she's also getting much more verbal. She calls her buddy, Reed - "RahRah" and is increasingly naming things. The other day I picked her up from Kris and Billy's and she had a bubble blower in her hand and pointed to it saying "bubbah, bubbah!" She's got a strong "Mama" and even "Mom" now. Lots of new sounds too. The pictures here are from last weekend - my first weekend back home. We went up to the little farm in Tilden, where Maya was a bit startled by the big cows and fascinated by the chickens and geese. We should go up there more often. We also took a nice long walk. Maya slept on the first half and then was having none of the stroller and insisted on walking back with us on the way back. It was a slow and dusty journey but fun. John and I distracted her every once in while with songs, asking her to point out body parts and make animal noises while one of us picked her up to make some distance. Here are the pictures from that day.http://picasaweb.google.com/mollychristiansen/200910Maya15Months?authkey=Gv1sRgCJiF6IPU2-2FxgE&feat=directlink