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!