Christmas

We were busy, busy, busy this year for Christmas and were lucky to spend time with every member of the extended Glant family during the days surrounding Christmas.  We started the festivities by joining the Glant Aunts, Uncles and cousins for Christmas Eve dinner at Ryan's Uncle Gary and Aunt Vicki's house.  Gary and Vicki are the best hosts, and Maya loved getting to spend time with her extended family.  She especially enjoyed wreaking havoc with her cousin Henry who is only 4 months older than her.  Both Henry and Maya were having so much fun that they stayed up until almost midnight and were quite punch drunk by the end of the night.

Christmas morning was spent at home opening presents and watching her new obsession--a DVR recording of the old school Jimmy Durante version of the Frosty the Snowman cartoon (called "Frosty the Toeman" if you're Maya).  We also snuck in a FaceTime session with Boppa, Grandma and Uncle Craig who were all down in Australia for Christmas (God bless technology!).  That night, we went to Gigi and Jack's house to have Christmas dinner with a large chunk of Ryan's immediate family.  Maya, Emery and Ella had fun opening gifts and playing with each other's toys.  Maya was very sad to leave her cousins at the end of the evening, but little did she know she was going to spend 4 days with them in Whistler!

The next day, we drove to Whistler B.C. to meet up with Grumpa, B.G., Uncle Josh and Uncle Jacob.  Uncle Nick, Aunt Elaine, Ella and Emery joined, too.  Everyone enjoyed getting in a little winter getaway, and Maya especially enjoyed more playtime with her cousins--especially some quality one-on-one time with Emery while the rest of the family was skiing (don't worry, Alison hung back with the little girls to provide adult supervision since skiing while pregnant is frowned upon).  And, in what was the bravest move of the trip, Uncle Nick volunteered to take all three girls out to lunch so the moms could get in an adult lunch and Ryan could ski!  All in all, it was a great Christmas season.

All dressed up for Christmas Eve.

Henry giving Maya a Christmas kiss.  Her expression is priceless.

Checking out what Santa brought.  Even though a trike was her main Santa gift, her favorite by far was a new pair of Elmo slippers.

Opening presents and singing carols at Gigi and Jack's.

Off to Whistler to enjoy the snow, the winter wonderland atmosphere and hanging out with a whole lot of Glants (and one Bettles)!

'Tis the Season

Since our family includes one of the most Christmas-loving Jews around, our preparations for the holidays started immediately the day after Thanksgiving.  Coincidentally, it also snowed in Seattle that day (a rare occurrence) which made picking out our tree feel all the more festive.  Maya got into the tree trimming a little more this year and especially liked putting up the set of felt Australian animal ornaments that we inherited from the Bettles' clan.  The first thing she would do when we walked in the door after the tree was up, is demand the "lights on!"  She would then stare at the tree saying "pretty lights" over and over again.

Amy's Wedding Take 2

I finally got my hands on some more photos from Amy's wedding and our trip to Elko.  Just had to throw them up on the blog, even though they are a bit delayed...

Practicing "riding" at the Paris Ranch.

Luke showing Maya how it's done.

After much coaxing, we finally get Maya on the horse.

Ryan always makes sure to dress on theme.

My favorite ranch girl.

Rehearsal time with the bride-to-be.

Celebrating with the Mother of the Bride.

Friends since we were about Maya's age.

Hanging with some pretty cool Bascos.

No wedding is complete without a little Basque dancing.

Mr. Claus

We took Maya to see Santa this year, hoping it would go a little better than last year.  Remember this?  Sadly, she was just as afraid of the big man this year as she was last.  Since she is older (and therefore more cognizant of when we are torturing her), we opted for a family photo lest we inadvertently ingrain a hatred of Santa in her permanently.  Even with the parents in the photo, she could hardly hide her displeasure.

School photo

Maya, age 20 months

Maya at 22 months

As usual, we are behind on blogging.  The Fall has come and gone.  While we were busy watching the leaves turn, Maya turned into a full-fledged toddler.  In some ways, it happened so gradually we hardly noticed.  But, in others, it is like she woke up over night with a litany of new words and personality traits that make us see a little girl when we look at her instead of a baby.  Here's a glimpse of Maya at 22 months.

She has a TON of new words and has started using more sentences to communicate.  Some of our favorites:

-"Is dis mama/dada?" Means: What's this mom/dad?

-"What doin?" Means: What are you doing?

-"I do it" for when she wants try to do something herself or "I did it" when she completes the task. We are constantly impressed that she always gets the verb tense right on this one.

-"I help" Said whenever you are trying to do something for her, she wants to "help" and do it herself.

-"Bye.  See you." Said when she is talking on her play phone or pretending to leave the house by herself.

-"Night.  Luh you, too" Said when we leave her room at night after putting her to bed.

-"Bess you mama/dada." Said when either of us sneeze or cough.

-"Toot!" Exclaimed loudly anytime she farts.

-"Light on pease." Said to get us to turn on/off the overhead lights or the Christmas tree lights.

-"One, two, seven." Her version of counting, which is always followed by clapping when she is done.  She is starting to understand her numbers, too.  When there are two of something in a book (for instance, a dog) she will point to the first one and say "one doggie" and then point to the second one and say "two doggie."

-"Moosic on!"  The way that she requests we turn on the stereo so she can dance.

Although her vocabulary has expanded, there are still times when we have no idea what she is saying.  That doesn't stop her from talking though.  She is quite the littler jabber mouth.

Maya also has a bunch of newfound loves.  Here is a rundown of some of her favorite things:

-Pockets.  She always insists on wearing either a shirt or pair of pants that has pockets.

-Accessories.  She will line up her arm with as many "bacets" (bracelets) as she can find.  These "bacets" are usually mom's hair ties.

-Elmo.  Elmo's face is on the brand of diapers we use, so she often asks for a new "Elmo" when she needs a diaper change.  She's also obsessed with Elmo's World.  She knows that Sunday mornings usually involve her getting to lay in mom and dad's bed while she watches an episode, which she loves.  She can even sing the theme song.

-Chicken nuggets.  She asks for these by name for dinner

-Saying "pease" and "tank you"  She really can be a polite little thing.

-Playing dress up.  Some days she insists on wearing her Little Mermaid swimsuit cover-up over whatever she is wearing, plus a hat and sunglasses add a nice touch.

-Putting her stuffed animals to bed.  This involves putting a blanket over them, which she will keep fiddling with until it lays completely flat, and then patting their back while saying "nigh nigh."

-Moving furniture and other heavy objects.  The kid loves to carry objects larger than her around the house.  For instance, this morning she carried one of our kids' size chairs (which is still quite large and heavy for a 2 year old) from the playroom into our kitchen so she could sit and watch us cook.

-Boo.  This is the name of her favorite stuffed animal, which is a little pink bear.  It was a gift from Ryan's cousin Adam when she was born.  Two years later, she can't sleep without Boo and frequently carries it around the house with her. She also tries to put a diaper on Boo from time to time.

She continues to be very musically oriented.  She still dances every chance she gets.  She also has quite the repertoire of songs: ABCs, Row Your Boat, Ba Ba Black Sheep, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Where is Thumb Man, and Frere Jacques.  We also found out recently that she knows how to sing Happy Birthday.  On Ryan's birthday, one of us offhandedly mentioned when she was in the room that it was his birthday.  Upon hearing this, Maya immediately started singing Happy Birthday, a song we had no idea she knew.  We're sure we have daycare to thank for that one.

Finally, some photos of our little toddler.

Trying on Aunt Jane's boots:

Little Mermaid in full effect:

Spending the night at Gigi and Jack's:

All rugged up for Fall:

Trick or Treat

Maya was finally old enough to enjoy Halloween this year.  She loved wearing her monkey costume and handing out candy at Uncle Nick and Aunt Elaine's. 

This is the second year the Glant cousins and their friend Henry have celebrated Halloween together.  When you compare this year's pic to last year's (here), it's amazing how much they've all grown.

Our happy little monkey. 

She's Gone Country

We took a trip to Elko in mid-October.  The trip started out with a visit to the Paris ranch.  It's one of my favorite places in the Silver State, so it was great to introduce Maya to it as well.  

The morning at the ranch started out with Maya practicing her biking skills.

Then, she moved on to meeting the litter of puppies that were just born.  Since they were so small, she wasn't afraid of them.  A first for Maya when it comes to dogs!

Next up was feeding the chickens with her buddies Luke and Miles.

Then, it was time to practice her riding skills so that she could get ready for what was to come--her first horseback ride.

When the Maya finally met the real horsey, she was a little unsure. So, she watched Luke take a couple laps while she contemplated whether riding was for her.

She finally agreed to give it a try as long as mom was up on the horse with her.  If memory serves, Pete Paris was the first person to get me on a horse, so it was only fitting that he coaxed Maya onto one for the first time too.

After we'd spent a day in the country, we decided to hit up the park with Grandma and Grandpa.  Grandpa showed Maya around some of the play structures he helped build.

Maya liked checking out some of the same toys her mom played on at her age (Elko's parks haven't changed much over the years...)

Then, it was off to pick apples with Grandpa from the tree in his backyard.

It wasn't all fun and games while we were in Elko.  Maya also had official duties to perform.  She was excited to be the flower girl at Amy and Cam's wedding.  We had so much fun at the wedding we forgot to snap any photos.  Here's the only pic we got of Maya and Luke playing outside the church after they took their jaunt down the aisle.