Maia Month #20 Battle Report

Maia is now 1 year and 8 months old and exactly 21 pounds. She can say individual words although they may not be intelligible to you unless you're around her all the time. Her recent obsessions are balloons, umbrellas, and really anything that is held up in the sky. She still likes reading books and has taken a particular liking to the Berenstain Bears books (we have a complete set from the early 80s).

Maia is pretty self-sufficient now and enjoys sitting around the kitchen making "soup" with a pot, a spoon, and all of her animal magnets while we putter around above her. She's a fan of cars and trucks and having all of the stuffed animals in her bed. She HATES changing out of her pajamas when waking up in the morning, especially her seasonally-inappropriate Christmas pajamas. She also HATES coming inside and would stay outside exploring the yard forever if we let her.

We've started doing more regular restaurant dinners as a family. Though not as cost-effective as grilling 3 nights a week, Maia enjoys the outings and is generally pretty well-behaved. It's hit-or-miss to get her to eat though, as her favourite foods rotate by the hour. One day she ate about 18 grape tomatoes at grandma's house and then let the next box we bought spoil on the counter. Another day, it was all of the strawberries.

I'm really looking forward to the Spring, so we can wander through the woods again, and hope that there are at least a few days in the year where the ground isn't a permanently soggy morass of rain and melted snow. Dad hates cleaning muddy shoes.