On her actual birthday we opened presents in the morning as a family and then the girls and I made cookies together in the afternoon. Maya was a big help and it was so fun to have her want to do so much all by herself.
Maya is speaking like a pro now. She has some words that she can't get out quite right, but overall she is easy to understand.
She loves to sing. Primary songs, Christmas songs, ABCs, and other nursery rhymes. "Silent Night" has become Brianna's favorite go-to-sleep song. A few nights ago she was fussing in her bed and all of a sudden I hear Maya start belting out "Silent Night". She sang it three times and then they both went to sleep (they are sharing a room now).
She can "read" an entire book from memory. (By entire, I mean about 8-10 pages with only a few words per page.) Ryan has started a tradition of reading a book together every night, which involves him reading a few words and Maya repeating him. I think this has helped her speech a lot as well as will aide her in reading in the years to come.
She loves Disney princesses. And princesses in general. She seems to have finally gotten through the phase of needing to wear a dress EVERY day. It lasted a good year.
She loves to make friends. She is not shy, which is surprising to me since she was pretty clingy when she was a baby. She started Sunbeams at church a couple of weeks ago, in a brand new ward where she knows no one. She walked right into Sharing Time, took her teacher's hand, and sat down like it was no big deal. When we go to the park she loves playing with the other kids. She gets very excited when we have visitors in our home, and she is overall a very friendly social butterfly.
Her favorite color is undeniably pink. And nobody else is allowed to like it. I am working on teaching her that there are some things we can't "own".
She still loves to help me cook and bake. No matter what meal it is there's always a cute little voice beside me asking, "Mommy, can I help? Can you get the stool?" And so I do. :)
Christmas this year was really quite magical with her. She was so excited about everything about it, from Jesus' birth to Santa to Christmas lights to gifts to the music...to everything! It made it pretty great for all of us.
On Christmas Eve we decorated sugar cookies at my parents' home. She loved getting to put on the frosting and sprinkles and I loved letting her do it by herself.
She enjoys getting into the theme of things. Our ward Christmas party was based off of The Grinch. She was so excited to see The Grinch come! (Which he did, instead of Santa.) I am finding that ward activities are more fun now that we have kids old enough to get excited about them.
For her birthday party this year we had my immediate family and the Kempton family come to celebrate. Maya had a blast playing with her big boy cousins (who she calls her brothers), opening her gifts, and eating her rainbow cake.
(Iron Man photo bomb.)
She still loves going to the library to look at books. We try to go at least once a month.
She has started liking to help me clean! When I clean the bathrooms she is my mirror helper. She also likes to sweep, dust, wipe the counters/table, and set the table for dinner most nights. At the end of the day she's great at cleaning up all of the toys.
She is my little goofball, always trying to make people laugh.
She loves the Broncos! She got this shirt from Uncle Ben and a Broncos cheer-leading dress from Papa and Nana for her birthday (she specifically asked for a Broncos shirt). She always wears one on Bronco game-day and enjoys watching the game with her daddy. She is always sure to point out the orange line they have to try to cross and cheers when we score.
Seriously. Goof. Ball.
She has a great love for her sister that I am so grateful for. They play together really nicely most of the time, and have recently started doing a game called "Hug". You can guess what that game is! In the morning she gives Brianna a book to look at so she isn't bored. Maya is quick to tell me when Brianna needs help. She's a fantastic big sister.
She helped me to build her first snowman this past November. The sun was hot and Frosty hardly made it more than a few minutes before he fell over (as is evident in this picture where he's already leeeeeaning), but Maya loved playing in the snow.
She played a baby lamb (a lambkin!) in a Christmas pageant put on by the cousins on Ryan's side. She was pretty excited about the role ("Mommy! I get to be an animal! I'm so excited!") and played her part really well when it was her turn to go on.
Maya is a joy to have in our home. My life is so greatly improved by her being in it. I can't wait to see what the next year brings for her!
1 comment:
Watching your kids grow up gives me warm fuzzies. I love spending time with you and your daughters! Also, Iron Man photo bomb made me laugh out loud.
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