I'm one of them!

Before Maya was born I told myself that I wouldn't become one of "those bloggers" who only blogs about her baby. Because, come on, there has to be more going on in life, right? Well, sure, but work and my beloved cooking aren't nearly as fun! 

So now on to the most fun part of my life! 

Shower Time with Daddy is immensely more enjoyable for all of us than Bath Time by herself

This is the face she makes when she's talking to us

I love this picture. She looks so pretty and peaceful.

Our friend Tiffany took this picture of Maya for us

Our first professional family photo

Ryan brought me home these tulips. Don't exactly POP against our red curtains, but they're beautiful

The high was supposed to be 54, but it snowed instead!

1-Month Old!

Time is flying! I can't believe it's already been a month since Maya was born. (Probably because the month prior to that, when I was still pregnant, did not exactly fly by.)

Here are some things that have happened in the last month:

• Maya weighed 6 lbs 6 oz at her 2 week check-up. Not bad! I did the whole weigh-me-then-weigh-me-holding-Maya thing a couple of days ago, and the difference was about 8 lbs. She doesn't have another appointment until she is 2 months, and I'm excited to find out how much she weighs then!

• Maya took a few baths. You would have thought we were cutting off all of her toes the way she was crying! But after the umbilical stump fell off and we could actually put her in water the experience was much less traumatizing (but still not all that fun. Except for the super yummy smelling baby afterwards. That's pretty fun.)

• I have learned how to get poop stains out of clothes/blankets/changing pad covers. She hasn't had a blow-out diaper yet, but there is the occasional shooting of poop while we are changing her diaper. 

I love those skinny little legs!!

• Maya got moved from bedside service to room service. She started sleeping in her nursery the night after Ryan went back to work so that he could sleep better. I was a little sad about moving her out of our room already, but it's actually been pretty nice. She sleeps in 4 -5 hour stretches and we don't wake up with every little grunt or squeak. I also really like utilizing the nursery we put so much time into.

• Speaking of sleeping, this girl does great! At least for a month old person. Having a baby who wouldn't sleep was the thing I was most worried about. But she does fine! When she starts getting fussy we swaddle her, stick in a binky (sometimes), and place her in her crib. 8 times out of 10 she falls asleep without us having to go back in, even if she cries for a little bit first. It is AMAZING and I am so grateful that she can do that already.

• I came to the realization that Maya does not like chocolate. At first I was worried that it was all dairy, but that does not seem to be the case. The overload of baby toots was kind of funny at first, until she was really cranky and spitting up a lot. This was a very sad realization because I had just been gifted a box of homemade chocolates from both my grandma and aunt (they are in the freezer until I stop breastfeeding), not to mention I like chocolate. A lot. This is about how I felt:

• Maya loves sleeping on her daddy's chest. She gets grumpy in the evening, which makes me really sad because that's when Ryan spends the most time with her. But when he gets home, he lays her on his chest and she falls asleep. She must feel safe and comforted with him.

• I am back in my pre-pregnancy clothes! I'm going to get on a soap box here for a second. I attribute my having lost all but 5 lbs by 2 weeks postpartum (and now at one month postpartum I have 1 lb left to lose) to two things: breastfeeding and exercising throughout my entire pregnancy. I cannot reiterate enough how much exercising helped me out. Not only with the postpartum weight loss, but with feeling great during my pregnancy, and then with the delivery. I'm not trying to "toot my own horn", just trying to inspire some motivation. Okay, I'm done.

"How YOU doin'?"

• I have gotten Maya to smile a handful of times! She's got a pretty cute toothless grin and I'm excited to see more of it.

"I'm falling!"

"Oh geez. I fell."

 I can't wait to see the changes the next month brings!

Funny Face

This afternoon Ryan was "playing" with Maya on his lap and took a few pictures. I laughed when I looked at them - this little girl makes some ridiculous faces!!

Christmas at the Koenig's

I had so much fun celebrating Christmas this year! The gift giving started way back on Black Friday. Ryan found lots of things we wanted/needed for amazing deals, so that's when we did all of our shopping. And we did it all together, so we felt it was pointless to wrap anything. Our big gift to ourselves was a new Canon Rebel T4i. We really wanted one to take pictures of our other humongous gift to ourselves that arrived on December 9th.

We went to my parents' house on the 15th (my actual due date) to decorate gingerbread houses and have dinner.

My parents' dog, Fox, was very curious about Maya

Ryan made this Santa :)

We took the opportunity to leave Maya with my parents and go out for sushi for lunch. It was an absolutely fantastic way to celebrate the end of my pregnancy! We also picked up a darling "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for Maya from Hallmark.

On the 23rd my family came to our house for an early Christmas dinner and to open presents. It was a really fun evening full of great company, delicious food, and fun gifts.

On the 24th Ryan and I did a little more Christmas shopping for ourselves at Kohl's and Old Navy. It was great to get out the house - I'm starting to understand "cabin fever"! That evening we made our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of spaetzle (sp??) for dinner. It was delicious!!! We recently bought a spaetzle press, and that made the whole process take a whole lot less time. After dinner we got bundled up and went out to look at Christmas lights. It had started snowing too, which added to the perfection of the evening. We saw a couple of really well decorated homes!

Checking out the lights on our tree

Ready to go look at lights!

Christmas morning was spent lounging around enjoying our little girl. We opened gifts and then headed over to Ryan's sister's to have dinner and play games. We always have a good time with them, and we were glad to get to spend part of our day celebrating Christmas at their home.

Cindy and Berne, Ryan's mom and stepdad, arrived in Colorado on the 26th. They are staying with us until the 31st. We had all of Ryan's siblings and their families over for dessert and more presents on the 26th. It was great to see everybody for the holidays!

Ryan and I feel so blessed by the generosity of our friends and family, and of course for the gift of the Savior. We have so very much to be thankful for this year, namely the safe arrival of Maya.

We hope that you all had a great Christmas and have a fabulous New Year!! I'm looking forward to all of the wonderful things 2013 will bring!

And now for just some fun pictures of a baby Maya!

My grandma (Sessie) crocheted this cocoon for Maya. I love it!

We put her in her stocking because we thought it would look cute. She thought otherwise.

 

Baby's first Christmas

Snuggle bug