20 month highlights

I don't think I ever posted Maya's stats from her last pediatrician visit. She actually went for her 18 month appointment 2 months late at 20 months. She weighed 20.5 lbs (<5%) and is 32" long (50%). They are not considering her too underweight right now, but we will continue to monitor. So here are a few other fun tidbits about Maya these days that I could remember to jot down:

Foods: Favorites are cremed spinach and anything Mexican, preferable quesadillas. She has given up on just about all other foods. We get in the occasional egg, bites of Indian food, and tostitos. We are having a pretty hard time feeding her actually. I have gone to making quesadillas at every meal! She absolutely under no circumstance will drink milk or eat ice cream or fruit. The milk thing has been since I stopped nursing but the fruit thing just boggles our mind. She used to love Gerber fruit so much that we had to limit her intake. Now she acts like it is poo and makes a yucky face when we put it in front of her. Toddlers!!!!

Toys: Maya was into Dora for a good couple of months, but all of a sudden she is now into Elmo and Barney. Elmo for about 2 weeks and then when Barney came along, it is ALL Barney. She calls him "BarBo" and insists on watching him all the time. Its gotten so bad that she won't let me put in her educational vocabulary DVDs anymore. I had to put my foot down a few times and only let her watch it at the end of the day. She is also into dollhouses and just loves the one at Hailey's house. We finally got her one and she only plays with the door. Open and close, open and close. OCD with things that open and close; lids on and off. She also loves holding her purse and I think she got it from watching me. She holds her purse just like I do!

Communicaton: Maya is talking so much more every week. We were worried there for a bit, but she is really coming around. You can tell that she understands every word and responds to all of our questions, but she's not a chatterbox like we thought she would be. We are working on names and picture association and often spend time in front of the fridge naming off family members.  I haven't counted her words, but she can say at least 50-100 words. Her favorite one lately is "No". Instead of yes, she will say "ah" as if she is responding in another language. She is still signing a few words, but she says them while signing now. It is SO much easier when you can communicate with your kids. I am actually enjoying this part so much. She lets me know when she is hungry, thirsty, or has a dirty diaper. What else do you need? She is starting to put phrases and sentences together, too like "I want more of it" or "You sit". Demanding.

New things:
- Maya has started drinking from a cup. She is actually pretty good at it, too. I am still a bit OCD about spills though and often get impatient with all the water going on the floor. I guess she won't learn if I don't ever let her!

- She is also blowing bubbles from the teeny tiny bubble bottle her Mimi gave to her. She is such a pro at it!

- Maya is obsessed with my hand sanitizer and washing her hands. I have noticed this is common in many toddlers. Everytime I use GermX, she says "wash?" and then plays with her hands like she is washing them.
- Bobos. I'm not sure how this got so out of hand, but I am the one to blame. The first "bobo" she got, I said "mommy kiss it?". She loves it so much now that I kiss her bobos that she insists on us kissing it 5 and 6 times. Everytime she will make her puppy dog face and sometimes a tear while she points to her bobo. Surprisingly this behavior has worked in our favor when she has had her blood taken. We kiss it over and over again and it helps her recover. She is just so cute and sweet you can't resist but kiss her all the time! Anyway, the point of all this is that she is learning new and interesting cunning behaviors. All her therapists comment on how smart she is - thank goodness we have some good news!
- Dada is moving up on the list of favorite people. She definitely gets sad when she sees Charlie leave for work in the morning, we often call Dada during the day after she calls out for him from time to time and when he gets home and the door chime goes off, she gets so excited and her face just lights up "Dada!!" Charlie is loving this of course. I'm okay with it, too, because I need a break by this time!

She is still a happy kiddo and full of love for her family. She gives out lots of hugs and kisses and we enjoy every minute of it! Its actually a game we play as to who gets a kiss from her and who doesn't. I can't believe she is going to be 2 this year. My how time flies!