Walking!

Maiya took her first few steps just before we left for Italy.  While we were gone, she didn't have a lot of freedom, or play time, and didn't seem too interested in walking.  Since we've been home, she has cautiously taken a number of steps.  She's  hard to catch on tape though because it only lasts seconds and there is no way to predict when she will do it.  Here are a few quick seconds I managed to catch.  She has made it a couple steps further than this but I haven't caught it on tape yet.

Hair cut!

I took Maiya this morning for her first real hair cut!  I had trimmed her bangs a few times at home, but thought I'd let the experts have a try at it.

She's also figured out how to walk behind her walking toy - it was a little challenging at first because with our hardwood the toys moves really fast.

Some video's

Maiya was in a great mood tonight, so I got the video camera out to capture it.  Here she is chattering away!

In this video, it looks like she's picking something up and eating it, after I finished taping her, I went over to see what she was eating, and there was nothing there.  She was pretending to eat the entire time! Haha fooled me!

And a picture with her new Hippo, it unfolds into both a pillow and a giant blanket!  She is totally in a loving stuffed animals thing right now, loving them and hugging them all the time.

Easter

Getting ready to dress up for Easter dinner at Grandma's.  She did NOT like getting her hair done.  I tried to tell her that these would not be her last tears shed over her hair.

Dressed up and ready to go... I think that the pigtails totally make her look like me as a baby - family, any opinions here??

Grandma reading a story...

 Post pigtails bad hair! 

Birthday Party!

Well it's hard to believe (and very cliche) but it is hard to believe that it has been a year already!  Through all of it, fussy nights, and fun milestones, I have to say that I've totally enjoyed being a mom, and wouldn't change a thing.

Maiya ended up being sick with a fever all weekend over her real birthday (April 2), so it was lucky that we had planned to have her party this weekend.  Here are some pics from the last week or two of my big 1 year old toddler (not that she's really doing much toddling).

This is a picture heavy post... but I haven't posted any in a while, so I have to catch up.

Maiya and daddy blowing raspberries at each other.

Uncle Colin and Aunt Jinny sent an awesome little people barn! 

And and an even better box! 

Poor sick girl got treated to KD for supper on her birthday. 

The making of the cake... here it is all iced and ready to put the fondant on. 

Here is the final product! 

Birthday girl and her cake. 

Daddy lighting the candle. 

A pretty cool cake if I do say so myself! 

Daddy wanted her to blow out the candle... maybe next year. 

Mmmmmm! 

Grandma Harder gave her a princes-mobile!  She loves it. 

Trying to get a picture with mom, but she was not cooperating. 

Grandma Toffelmire made the cutest sundress ever for her! 

It also works fantastically for peek-a-boo. 

And I just love this picture. 

Crawling!!!

Well, she's been threatening movement for a while now, gone through crawling backwards, scooting all around, but finally, she's figured out how to actually crawl forwards!!

Go Fetch

The new skill that Maiya is teaching Mom and Dad...

Valentines

Here is my goofy girl (with her puppy Jaeger) and her goofy smile... this is her newest thing, she loves to scrunch up her nose and give me a huge grin, makes me laugh every time!

Grandma came and babysat while Tim and I went out on a date on Tuesday (YAY) and brought a valentines gift for Maiya.  Both the card and especially the tissue paper were huge hits!

She also got to hang with one of her 'valentines' on Sunday... I think she really liked this new interactive 'toy'.  Thanks Alexander for putting up with her :)

And because my girls best skill is still eating, here is an eating photo... mmm asparagus!!

Standing!

Maiya has developed a love (or an obsession) with standing lately.  She wants to stand all the time!  She has even been pulling herself up to standing if she has someones hands to hold onto.  She hasn't figured out that she can use furniture for this yet, but I figure she isn't far off.

Here she is standing and showing off the Rider shirt that Grandma and Grandpa Toffelmire gave her.  Guess what color she'll be wearing for the Superbowl?  You got it, green! (I don't even know if either of the teams are green LOL).

She hasn't pulled up to standing in her crib yet, but has sure been close!  We lowered her mattress a couple weeks ago just in case.  She's also sporting a new pair of longies (knitted pants) that I made for her here.  I think they came out pretty nice!

More standing...

Mom finally gave her her first haircut today!  Her hair had been hanging in her eyes for far too long, and I was getting sick of washing food out of it at every meal!  I think it looks pretty good.  The bag that she's holding has the couple of locks in it that I snipped.

Christmas!

I hope that everyone had a very happy holiday season.  We had a great time during Maiya's first Christmas.  My parents were here in Calgary for the week, and it was great having them around to play with and hang out with Maiya (plus it was really nice to have babysitters available so I could get a few outdoor runs in!).

Christmas morning was as fun and chaotic as Christmas with a 9mo old should be.  She had a great morning, and actually did play with her toys.  That is after she enjoyed the wrapping paper and labels!

Thanks to everyone for the excellent gifts, Maiya loved all of hers!  She is blessed to have the best aunts, uncles, grandma's, grandpa, along with lots of great aunts, uncles and cousins!  Thanks guys :)

Christmas dinner was a lot of fun, my Grandma T was able to join us also!  Maiya dug right into turkey and all the fixings!

It was great for her to get to spend so much time with my parents, and especially great to see her warm up to my dad (when we saw them in November, just the sight of my dad brought tears!).

She also developed a new skill - which I think was fostered by all the attention she was getting - peek-a-boo!   She had a great time making everyone at the table laugh and cheer her on.

We did Harder Christmas on New Years day.  Thanks guys for all the fantastic gifts!!

 Here are a couple video's...