Maia's World

We are getting into a new routine going to school every other day.  I am working part time and Maia is attending a day care near my school in Wassenaar.  On her transition day we went to the day care together and I stayed in the baby room for 45 minutes, said hasta luego preciosa and came back in an hour.  Of course when I came back her eyes were red after crying some tears, but she was sitting calmly in a bouncy chair.  Maia had shown her teachers just how well she can scream!

On the first full day Maia cried a little when she got tired but spent most of the day observing the other children in her group.  She hardly ate anything and only had a couple of 10 minute naps.  This was her face when I picked her up!
Does she look amused?

On day two she was better, eating and napping more.  By day 3 she ate and slept well.   At seven and a half months she is the youngest in her group; followed by another baby girl Zhosa, who is twice her size and 10 months old and a couple of cute Italian boys Lorenzo and Luigi who are around 14 months.  

This year's baby group is the smallest ever ranging from 5-7 babies depending on the day.  Being the newbie and the youngest has it's perks... Maia gets lots of attention! 
That's Lorenzo in the photo, waving arrivederchi to Maia!

Last Friday when I picked her up she'd had a rough day, crying and needing lots of attention.  When we got home I realized she had a runny nose and the early symptoms of a cold but no fever.  
My poor baby! Early bed and lots of fluids all weekend and she's almost over it after only a couple of days.  
Thank goodness!

It's been a chaotic week for Maia to start at the creche since the baby room was under renovation.  But Maia is such a little trooper!  She gets up early with no complaints and chats with me in the car before snoozing on the way to school.  The upside of the 45 min to an hour commute is that she sleeps most of the way!

My little observer.  Watching other babies crawl and walk around has made her want to move around more too.  She's crawling backwards and rolling and pulling herself forward and coming up on her knees and moving back and forth as if to get momentum to take off...  She's agile and fast and squirmy. 

At home, she continues her piano lessons with papa. And she's getting pretty good! See for yourself!

My little chatterbox.  Maia is very vocal.  Her language skills are swiftly progressing.  Mama habla español.  Papa spreekt nederlands.  And she hears English at home and at the daycare as well.  Baby Maia can make vowel sounds and marginal syllables like "ma", "ba", "pa", "da".  When I'm not in the room she calls me "mamama".  Sometimes when she's really, really tired she says what I hear as "nueño" (sueño or sleep and dream in Spanish) but not all the time.   She does say the word "nee!" (NO! in dutch) quite often though, especially when she doesn't want the bottle or food.   Meanwhile mama can't read enough about what the experts have to say on how babies develop language and how to raise multilingual children... We have to have a plan!

Ah books! Books, books, and more books! Maia went to the public library for the first time this week.  After going around and picking a stack of colourful books I put them all in a pile for her. She practically dove off the stroller!  She was all over them, touching them, climbing on top of them, and taking a bite of one!  She loved it! How do I know? Well, she cried when it was time to go and I put her back in the stroller! You can't fake this type of enthusiasm!

So many things are happening at the same time... Mama goes back to work, Maia starts nursery and swimming classes.  Amidst all this, little Maia has also moved into her own room. And she's sleeping 10 hour sleeps! Better than ever!  She dines on all kinds of vegetable concoctions made with love by mama, has a quiet play time, reads a bed time story and drinks her "pijamapapje" right before bed.  She likes staring up at her bird house lamp and hugs her monkey before closing her eyes and giving in to sleep.

Then the next day, my little chatter monkey wakes up cooing and babbling and rolling around on her belly, crawling around every corner of her crib updating all her toys on the latest news. It's glorious!

She is such a joy! And we are so blessed that she chose us! I cannot imagine a life without her...
Te adoro mi reina!