Maia is amazing. Everyone’s asking how big she is now and we don’t really know, but we think she’s about 13 lbs. She’s been holding her head up since the beginning, but she’s much stronger now at 9 weeks and swivels that head side-to-side to check out things around her. Her eyes are an amazing shade of blue and they dart around eagerly following movements and sounds, trying to see what’s going on. She smiles much more frequently and the early morning smiles, right when you wake up together are the best. Not only that, but she is one talkative little baby. I wish I had the skill to spell some of the squeals laughs, and screams out, but I guess that’s what video is for. Maia will have long periods where she talks and talks if you keep asking questions and agree with her. It’s so much fun and the most amazing thing to be there when a child finds their voice. We can’t wait to hear more, but she’s certainly telling us all about it now. We had been using Keana’s old swing and it broke down, so we bought the Cadillac of swings using some Target gift cards we had received (THANK YOU Target gift-card-givers out there). The swing goes side-to-side and back-and-forth which is really cool and comes with five or six “noise” settings. She prefers the nature noises and will stay napping in that swing on-and-off throughout the day. Maia likes it so much that I was actually worried it was bad that she was in it so much, but after talking to the pediatrician, I guess those fears are pretty unfounded. Not that I wanted it to be bad. Without that thing, Sarah would never have a moments rest during the day and Keana would be mad as hell fighting for attention.

Speaking of which…what’s up with Keana? Well, Keana is amazing. She continues to be super sweet with Maia, often getting excited whenever Maia wakes up from a nap. At the first sound of Maia’s cry she usually says, “Oh! I think Maia needs us! Let’s go help her!” Down the road, at times, Maia may not think this, but she is very lucky to have Keana for an older sister. Keana loves petting her head and both of them enjoy lying next to each other on the bed and Keana either tells her a story or sing her a song—very sweet. Her nickname for Maia has been “Mi-Mi-Mai-Mi” usually followed by a, “She’s so cutie-cutie-cuuuute,” and a head pet.

Keana is active as always. In the house she loves running around and jumping up and down (especially on the bed) and still finds time for some “downward dog” and somersaults. She loves dressing up and the latest has been dressing up like Cinderella or a princess, using some of Sarah’s old jewelry as a crown and one of Tia’s old dresses for her “fancy dress”. This girl’s imagination remains quite active and we love seeing where she takes it. All last week she was really into having a “lovely apple”. Taking the idea from Snow White, she’ll get an apple from the fruit bowl asking either Sarah or I to offer it to her. She says, “You can say ‘here, take one of my lovely apples!’”. That’s another thing, she like role playing. So she’ll tell us what to say or how she wants us to react to get it started, then we take it from there. An interesting part of this is that she likes to role play defiance. For instance she’ll say, “You can say ‘no, don’t do that!’” and of course she’ll do it anyway. Luckily this is only a game at this point and she’s very respectful of the rules we’ve set. She definitely pushes those boundaries, but she continues to be such a good kid.

There have been some issues around going to bed though. They started before Maia was born, then mellowed out, then picked back up when I went back to work. Basically she tries to avoid going to sleep by coming up with every possible excuse or problem known to man. First it’s usually “I’m thirsty” followed by “My feet hurt” or “My stomach hurts”. I’m terrible at this, often folding at every request (though I have gotten better). Sarah does an amazing job with it and has gotten it back on track for the most part. I take regular discipline classes at the School of Mama Sarah. So there were a couple nights of very angry yelling and screaming, but for the most part it’s fine.

Another interesting development has been Keana’s love of movies. We always swore the TV wouldn’t be a baby-sitter, but honestly, sometimes there’s really no other way. When we’re both home, it’s different cause one of us can play with Keana and the other can watch Maia, but when Sarah’s there alone with both of them, there has to be a compromise involving the TV. Her consumption is still quite low, especially compared to the national average I’m sure, and we’re keeping it in check. This last weekend Grandma Jennie brought all the old Disney video tapes so I think it’s great that we have variety, but we’re definitely going to have to watch this. It’s another one of those things that you have opinions and theories about before you become a parent, then form new opinions and theories when you’re actually faced with it.