First steps...

No luck getting the birthday cake video to post, but hopefully you can see some "foot"age of Maiya's first steps. As you can see, even walking is a performance for her! She's taken about 4-5 steps in a row a few times, so she's getting there!

Happy Birthday!!

November has been busy and Maiya continues to grow & change every day. We mailed off our 6 month report to Vietnam - November 14th was the 6 month anniversary of our Giving & Receiving Adoption Ceremony. It seems like it's been so much longer, and just yesterday at the same time. We will continue to send reports until she is 18, as part of the international adoption agreement between Vietnam & Ontario. It's a great way to reflect on all that she's accomplished in such a short time!

Maiya officially celebrated her first birthday on November 28th! It's hard to believe she's already a year old! She's definitely changing from being our little baby to being our little girl.

We celebrated with grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins on Sunday - and most people managed to brave the snow, ice & rain to get to Toronto! We were a little worried we'd have a lot of food & no guests!

The party started with a Toi Noi "ceremony". Traditionally, Vietnamese usually celebrate their birthdays on Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. However, first birthdays are sometimes celebrated, and one tradition in the first year is to lay out a variety of objects in front of the child to see which ones she picks first. Each object is meant to symbolize something that her future holds. At first Maiya just sat and looked at everyone looking at her, so we were a little worried, but then she leaned over & grabbed the Vietnamese money, and then wondered what all the fuss was about when everyone cheered! She then grabbed the pen, a hairbrush, a calculator & a map. So as far as we can tell, she is going to be a wealthy writer with great beauty who will be successful in business (like Daddy) and a traveler (like Mommy)!

Maiya had lots of fun - although the party ended up getting into full swing right around nap time, so she was a little grumpy at times...until she had her first sweet taste of her delicious, sugar-laden birthday cake that is! As you can see in the video, her tears stopped pretty quickly once she realized what was being offered! (NOTE: I can't get the video to load - will keep trying so check back for the video in the next couple days!) She ate the WHOLE piece - very delicately, pulling off one little piece at a time!

The sugar was enough to keep her going through gifts, and she eventually passed out on Aunt Shannon's lap - just long enough to re-energize for another few hours of play time with her cousins & the dog.

So all in all, it was a great 1st birthday! We are so lucky to have such an amazing daughter, and although we are always conscious of it, on her birthday we think even more of Maiya's birth family and the many wonderful caregivers at the orphanage who took care of her until we arrived. In honour of her birth family, who is forever a part of us, we are planting a bulb which will then flower in the spring around the time of the anniversary of her adoption. We hope this will be an annual tradition that will eventually result in a beautiful commemorative garden that will help us celebrate Maiya's birth family with her. We are also hoping to donate a washing machine to the orphanage where she stayed to help with the care of other children there waiting to meet their new families.

Looking forward to the Christmas & New Year season and hope to see lots of you then! Will post a blog for the holidays so check back again in a few weeks!

Big Days in October!

October has been lots of fun as Maiya has been changing almost daily. She loves to practice standing up on her own & is quite proud of herself - she usually has to clap for herself afterwards! She hasn't taken steps on her own yet, but has learned to use her little walker & tours around the condo crashing into everything and beeping the horn on it. Her top 2 front teeth just cut through last week so she's had a rough few nights, but otherwise is her usual happy, smiley self. Here's a video of her first steps with the walker!



She loves going to storytime and is now doing the actions for a couple of her favourite songs when we sing them to her. She loves being sung to and has lots of favourite books that she looks at throughout the day. We got her a Little People barn to play with and she plays with it constantly, putting the animals in and out...and in and out...over and over....!

Unfortunately Maiya was sick with a flu bug for the Mid-Autumn Festival and we weren't able to celebrate it in Milton as planned. However, we had a fantastic time with some other families who also adopted from Vietnam recently when a delegation of officials came to visit Canada through our agency. We were happy to see our translator again, and were surprised and happy to see the director of Maiya's orphanage as well. It was great for them to see the changes in Maiya since they had last seen her 5 months before. It's hard to believe that our 6 month report has already been sent off (we have to complete reports on Maiya's growth and development until she is 18, for the Vietnamese government). It will be 6 months on November 9th since we first held her in our arms!

We had Maiya's baby dedication service on October 21st at Grandma & Poppa Heise's church in Fordwich. She wore her first ao dai, and looked beautiful in the red and white colours. It was great to spend the day with lots of family afterwards as well. Our pictures didn't turn out so we dressed her up again the next day and managed to get a few good ones!




Halloween was also lots of fun (although more for us than her I think!!). She made a lovely little butterfly and looked pretty cute crawling around in her costume! We didn't have many options for taking her out, but managed to get down to see Uncle Breydon, Aunt Shannon & the girls. Their dog was quite taken with Maiya's pink feet and decided they'd be fun to chase, so we had a few good laughs!

Although there's been lots of great events this month, we were a little sad to go in to Daddy's work at TLS this week to say goodbye. Everyone there has been fantastic to Brett and were so supportive of us when we went to Vietnam and returned with Maiya. We hope lots of "TLS-ers" keep checking in on the blog! Daddy starts a new work opportunity today at ConAgra, so we're wishing him a good first day!

Only a few more weeks until her 1st Birthday Cake....

Busy, busy, busy!

Hard to believe, but another month has already flown by and Maiya has just turned 10 months old. We are now settled into our new condo and it's beginning to feel more like a home every day. Maiya loves the ladybugs & dragonflies in her room, and is finally back to sleeping through the night with only a few cries once in a while.

She loves to explore now and has disappeared on me a couple of times when I've turned my back for a second. "Helping" mom in the kitchen is a new favourite activity for her - which involves being everywhere I am, pulling herself up on any available surface, leaving nice little handprints on the stainless steel appliances, etc.!

Developmentally she is cruising along just fine. Still only 2 bottom teeth, but given the way she's chewing on everything we think there must be more coming along soon. She's crawling everywhere, and pulls herself up on anything she can find. She's able to stand for a couple of seconds without support, but it's not consistent just yet. We still think she'll be walking before too long, but we'll see! I think she's likely going to go straight to running!

Labour Day Weekend was fun, with visits to Uncle Matt who was home from the hospital by then, lots of time with grandparents, and Maiya's first annual Labour Day "drop-in" to the Mohr cottage in Kincardine. She had fun playing with Clara who is just a few months older, and loved the campfire. September also brought our first night away without Maiya and she did just fine. Grandma and Grandpa C. came to stay while we went to Johnnie & Leanne's wedding up north. The following weekend we headed south for Brett's cousin Jenny's wedding in Leamington. It was great to see that side of the family & introduce them to Maiya. Mommy caved and bought her a new outfit for the occassion - it was too cute to pass up!

We've been able to visit with some other friends who also travelled to Vietnam around the same time as us, which has been great. It's fun to see the kids playing together. We're looking forward to the Mid-Autumn Festival in October with FCV-Toronto too.

This past weekend was another exciting one as we headed downtown with Poppa & Grandma to watch Uncle Breydon complete the Scotiabank Waterfront Marathon. We caught him as he was approaching the last 100 m - looking pretty good for running that far! Maiya was excited to see her cousins, Willow & Chantler, again too and had fun playing with them for the afternoon.

Tonight we're off to dinner with some other families who also adopted from Vietnam, and a delegation of officials from Vung Tau, Maiya's home province. It will be great to see our agency's representative, Loan, from Vietnam who translated for us while we were there. It will be interesting for her to see Maiya after 4 months and see the changes in her!

Place your bets...

Maiya at 9 months, Uncle Matt at 23...which one do you think will be walking first???

Maiya has been keeping herself quite busy since she turned 8 months old!

August started off with camping at "The Back Bay" in Wellington. Brett's grandparents have property there & camping there is a long-standing tradition. Grandpa Ron & Grandma Trish were happy to show Maiya off to their friends at this decades old camping tradition! Maiya was also excited to meet her Great Uncle Greg, Great Aunt Connie, and cousins Tara & Shawna. Tara kept Maiya quite entertained throughout the weekend! Maiya was also excited to have her first swim in the back bay as well & the weather was perfect for it.

August has brought lots of new changes too - tooth #2 is through on the bottom, & Cheerios are now the treat of preference. She has started eating pieces of banana & other soft fruit, although she finds peaches have quite a kick at the end, judging by her facial expression once the juice hits! She isn't saying any words yet, but "dadadadada" seems to apply to pretty much everything at this point.

Tummy time is old news. Maiya has decided sitting up & crawling is much more fun & keeps her parents on their toes. She had finally perfected her crawling technique - only to have a curve thrown at her when we moved into our new condo - with nice, slippery hardwood floors. After a few days of sliding backwards, she is now going strong & has discovered it's fun to get into the cords from daddy's electronics when we're not looking. This has meant a lot of "practice" with the word "NO" the last few days! Hopefully once we're fully unpacked some of that will be less tempting.

It's nice to finally have Maiya into her own room (instead of in the office!), with her own furniture. It's a small space, but does the trick. She's been adjusting to the change really well, although she is a bit more clingy as she tries to figure out what yet another new place is all about.

The other big news recently was the birth of Maiya's newest cousin, Gavin Daniel Neabel. She wasn't too interested in meeting him seeing as he didn't provide her with any entertainment at 2 days old, but I'm sure that will change in no time!

Just because she's soooo cute...

Swimming at Great Aunt Rhonda's house!

Better late than never...

Okay, so it's taken a while, but for all you Maiya fans, here's an update! It seems like the days just get by us and we don't get anything posted here!

Maiya enjoyed her first Chesley Lake experience at the beginning of July. My family has been going every year for over 40 years now I think. Lots of 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2nd once removed, etc. cousins, and aunts & uncles of various generations were there - some meeting Maiya for the first time. The weather was a bit cold for the last half of the week, but we made it to Sauble a couple times at least. Maiya definitely loves being in the water and at the beach! She especially liked grabbing handfuls of Uncle Craig's chest hair when he took her in the water!

Poppa & Grandma Heise were in the area for holidays last week & enjoyed an overnight visit. Maiya kept Poppa entertained at the mall while Grandma & Mommy shopped! It worked out great! We're off to the "Back Bay" on the long weekend for Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson's traditional camping weekend with their "old" university friends - another tradition that spans at least 3 decades! I'm sure they're looking forward to introducing her!

Maiya hit the 8 month mark on the 28th. It's hard to believe it's been 2 1/2 months since we first met her. It seems like yesterday & forever at the same time. She's talking up a storm these days - saying "dadada" lots - but it applies to everything, not just Brett, so he can't claim it as her first word just yet! Her first tooth came through on the bottom when we were at the cottage. Another one looks like it's arriving any day now too. Her hair is filling in - now it pretty much sticks straight up! She's sitting up without support & is almost crawling. She has the back end working, but hasn't quite coordinated the hand movements at the same time. She loves to walk around while holding onto your hands & loves dancing whenever she hears music. She's imitating sounds, and has almost mastered the "bye-bye" wave. We think she's brilliant and of course, we're not biased at all!

Will post some pics of the long weekend next week...

7 months & growing!

Hard to believe, but Maiya has now passed her 7 month birthday. She just came back from her 2nd pediatrician's appointment and now weighs 14 lbs 4 oz, and is 25 inches long. She's still in the 10th percentile for weight & 50th for height, so is moving up the growth charts just fine, even though she's on the small size for weight (although if you carry her around long enough, she doesn't feel very small!). As you can see, her latest look is a very big pout - except that she uses it when she's checking something out, not when she's actually pouting!

We were back home for the long weekend - had a visit to Poppa's & Grandma's farm. She loves the swing, and of course had to have a ride on Poppa's John Deere "tractor".

Celebrated her first Canada Day with a bunch of the Brussels crew, thanks to Jimmy & Sarah for hosting a "meet & greet" for her. Also had her first visit to Great Grandma Myra's cottage on June 30th - and you can see in the picture that one visit from Maiya brings both her Grandma Trish & Great Grandma Myra to their knees!

Maiya finally got to meet her Uncle Scott, and met Uncle Matt last week too. She decided they were quite okay, and will make good playmates in the future.

She's rolling around lots now, and ends up in different places than where we left her - the other night she had rolled herself up to the suede glider we have and was trying to chew on the bottom edge of it. She loves to stand up while you hold her hands, and is starting to stand while holding onto the edge of the couch.

Off to Chesley Lake for a week at the cottage next week, so we're looking forward to seeing lots of aunts, uncles and cousins up there!

Time flies...

Our apologies to all of Maiya's fans who have patiently been waiting for updated pics & info! It's been a busy few weeks - hard to believe we've been back for 3 1/2 weeks already!

Maiya is sleeping through the night, and has been giving us up to 10-11 hours of sleeping through the night, which has been amazing! After a big event she tends to have some restless nights, but generally has been having no trouble at all. I think all the extra stimulation wears her out after the general quiet of the orphanage!

We have added green peas to her food roster, in addition to rice, oatmeal & barley, and she is doing not too badly with it -as long as the bottle is right there to follow the mouthful of food! We'll see how the green beans go later this week - and for all of you who think you are funny, no, Maiya has not tried to put her vegetables down the register to get out of eating them like her mother used to do.

She's met 3 out of 4 of her great grandmothers and loved them all. She's getting very attached to both sets of grandparents as well and other than her 2 uncles & Great-Grandma Clarkson, she's met most of our immediate family & lots of cousins & great-aunts & great-uncles too. On Monday she got to meet my old Westmount family in Kitchener (where I used to teach) and we'll see some other friends over the next few weeks too.

The strike that was delaying our condo is now over, and we have an earlier than expected (given the strike) occupancy date of August 10! So Maiya will hopefully have a room without the computer desk in it in a couple of months. We will definitely be happy to have a few more square feet of space for her to play in, especially once she starts to crawl!

As you can see from the pics, she has quite the personality! Still has lots of smiles - although trying to get 3 great-grandmas & a baby to all smile & look at the camera at one time was a challenge! She also loved her first visit to the farm, and although she got her first pair of pink rubber boots, she hasn't tried them out yet!

Maiya's health has been good - attachment continues to go well, gaining weight like crazy, and next pediatrician's appointment will likely be the beginning of getting immunizations on schedule. We have a pediatric dermatologist appointment on Friday which will hopefully answer some of our questions with recurring skin issues, but other than that she is doing great!

And Daddy celebrated his first Father's Day with a new pair of boxers to replace the ones he had to "sacrifice" while in Vietnam (see the unfortunate bathroom incident posted by Brett if you aren't familiar with this reference!)

Week One in Canada...

Well, we survived our first week back in Canada fairly well, thanks to visits from both Grandmas to help out - especially since I was sick for most of it! Maiya is settling in well, and continues to amaze us with just how many smiles she can dole out in one day!

She has had some big firsts this week:

1. First taste of rice cereal - has decided that it's okay, but it's more fun to squeeze it back out through her toothless gums as soon as we tell her what a good girl she is and take the spoon away...

2. First visit to Tim Horton's - of course had to be with Poppa Heise - you can see from the pic she isn't quite sure if she likes Tim Horton's as much as Starbucks...

3. First workout with Grandma Trish - who is determined to have her up to her gross motor milestones in record time! Looks like they were having fun!

4. First sleeping through the night...9:30 pm until 6:30 am - good for us, unfortunate for Grandma who was up with her while on her Vietnam time all last week!

Even though it doesn't seem possible, we seem to fall even more in love with her every day. Every day we are seeing her trust in us grow as she continues to learn that we are here to stay. We look forward to beginning to introduce her to everyone as she gets more secure in being with us - we guarantee she'll win you over pretty quick!

Smiles, smiles, smiles

Well, just over 3 weeks since we first met Maiya in person, and it's hard to believe how much she's changed in such a short time! The improvements in her muscle development and coordination have been incredible and she seems to be catching up to her 6 month milestones very quickly. We have a pediatrician's appointment tomorrow here in Toronto - thanks to Auntie Shannon's great connections we got one who's affiliated with Sick Kids so she will be great and should be able to help us get immunizations on schedule, skin issues looked at, etc.

I have been sick this week with ear & sinus infection (but fortunately it seems I've missed the pneumonia!) so it's been great to have my mom staying with us as Brett was back to work. In our little condo it means she's the first one up when Maiya decides it's play time in Vietnam (usually around 2:30 a.m.) so it's been great for Brett & I!

Grandma and Maiya modeled their rice hats for the blog today, as well as a shot of her obviously enjoying the change from the stainless steel & bamboo mat crib to the nice, comfy one she has now!

The final picture is a big thank you from Maiya to everyone at TLS for their support to Daddy while he's been off taking it easy in Vietnam, and for the Bumbo and other gifts she received at her welcome party at Daddy's work today. She discovered the chair is great for easy access to her toes & enjoys it immensely!

We'll keep the postings coming for a while, as our family & friends are spread out & it seems to be a good way to keep everyone posted on Maiya's progress. So if you're interested, keep checking in!

A few more pics to tide you over...

Presenting....Maiya Thanhlyn Clarkson

Here you go Poppa! Show her off!

Home Sweet Home

We're baaaack! And unfortunately I can't get pictures to upload today - so I'll post this so you know we're home, and will try pics a bit later!

All went well with our tickets, and Maiya had her first plane ride from Ho Chi Minh to Hong Kong on Saturday. We had exit row seating with an extra seat, so couldn't have had it better. On the Hong Kong-Anchorage-Toronto flights, we ended up being able to get Brett's seat moved so we could sit together, and had a bassinet, which was great - she slept almost the whole time!

Immigration & customs were unbelievably smooth & quick and we entered the waiting area around 11:00 p.m. It's hard to describe the emotions of walking down that hallway knowing grandparents and other family are finally about to meet your baby girl!

Maiya was full of huge smiles & laughs as we came out to meet everyone, which is amazing after travelling for over 24 hours straight & an 11 hour time difference! Although I think everyone had already fallen in love with her over the process of the adoption, I'm pretty sure the impact of actually seeing her in person was pretty strong, judging by the even bigger smiles on everyone else's faces! I thought Poppa Heise and Grandma C. were going to hurt their cheeks from the huge grins on their faces! Both sets of grandparents, plus Breydon & Chantler were there to meet us.

Breydon (my brother) had brought our car to the airport with the carseat, so we headed home. We were anticipating some screaming with the car seat, seeing as she'd never been in one before, but she actually loved it & smiled all the way home.

Grandma Heise is staying with us for about a week, so she helped out lots Night #1 - I think she maybe got an hour or two sleep! Sunday was busy with meeting more family - Uncle Craig & Aunt Heather, Cassidy & Carson, Aunt Shannon & Willow, Johnnie & Leanne, and another visit with Grandma & Grandpa C. The second night has been better (although since I'm writing this at 5:00 a.m., she's not quite sleeping through the night yet with the time difference!).

So, we're back & thrilled to be home. As Maiya gets adjusted to the time difference, new home & continues to attach to Brett & I, we will start to make the rounds and introduce to her everyone!



Thanks again to everyone who followed this part of Maiya's life with us. It was great to know so many people were reading & commenting - it kept us feeling very connected while we survived the first few weeks of parenthood!

Coming home tomorrow....hopefully...

Well, another eventful day, on what we're hoping is our last full day for this trip to Vietnam. We'll definitely be back some day!

After some last minute touring around & shopping in the pouring rain, we headed back to the hotel, only to find out that the single mother, whom we were rooming with for tonight, had to pack her bags & take her son back to the clinic, where he is being admitted to the hospital for asthma treatments. This means he's not allowed to fly for a few days. She has been amazingly strong taking care of him on her own this whole time, with all of the various health issues he's had, and we wish her the best over the next few days.

The problem - she called Cathay Pacific to cancel her flight for tomorrow - and they cancelled ALL our flights!! Fortunately we called to check and found out this afternoon rather than tomorrow morning at the check-in counter! Supposedly they re-booked Brett, Maiya & myself, after a stressful discussion on the phone with the Cathay people. So, we're hoping everything is okay and we will be able to fly. If they did re-book us, it does mean we should get a bassinet for Maiya, even though we're sitting separately.

Other than that, it was a typical day, with lots of people admiring Maiya. Our only concern is that, despite constantly being dressed in pink, everyone keeps asking us if she's a boy! We picked up a few little souvenirs for her and had fun dashing from doorway to doorway in the downpour! She enjoyed it too - she likes being out and about. Apparently she gets bored just seeing Brett & I all the time!

Attached a picture of her trying to escape from her crib last night. This is how we found her about an hour after she went to sleep! Also added a picture of the motorcyclists lined up at the light, with their questionably effective rain ponchos on!

Sorry it's not too exciting tonight, but have to get back to the room to pack. Next post will hopefully be with pics of Maiya's first meeting of the grandparents!