2 Weeks

Maia continues to grow strongly and boldly. She is transforming into a toddler before our very eyes. Each morning she greets us with a hearty smile. Each new day of life is a tiny adventure encapsulated between the time she is lifted out of the crib and the time she is laid back down.

It’s been two weeks now since she pulled herself up for the first time. Right in front of us. She grabbed the trunk in the middle of the living room, the one that acts as our coffee table, and did a pull up from her knees. It was a struggle that first time, but it is second nature now. In fact, Kelli says that much of her playtime is spent doing nothing… except standing. There have been moments when Maia has stood, balancing herself, holding onto nothing, for nearly ten full seconds. It seems that she’s dangerously close to walking.

The most exciting feat of all has proved to be the delight of an early morning crawl. It started off as a bit of a “gimp crawl”, one leg shooting straight out while the other acted as the bending mover. But now… now she has rid herself of this slight handicap and tackled the challenge with full force. There is nowhere her little legs won’t take her. If she tires of the toys in the living room, she lumbers into the kitchen—with a slap, slap, clump, clump of her hands and knees—to amuse herself with the barn-animal magnets on the fridge. We must take great caution now.

Every kitchen chair is a hazard, every unsuspecting picture frame or CD a swipe away from a catastrophic crash. When she stumbles and falls, she seldom cries anymore. She just picks herself up and keeps movin’. She is undaunted by redirection. If something is deemed off limits and her course changed, she’ll simply move onto the next thing. Of course, she often tests her limits, constantly returning to “no” territory. But it’s a joy to watch her continue to learn, to take the visually observed world to new levels with a new set of senses. So we’ll set up roadblocks as necessary, buy some spring-loaded hinges for the basement door and let the little baby go.

There’re Cheerios at the bottom of Maia’s highchair…

The other night, we introduced Maia to the child-hood favorite. That’s right, the famous General Mills “O”. As we place the first Cheerios before here, she’s not quite sure what to do with them. She struggles to pick one up, but, finally, manages to grasp one of the little “O’s” with her hand. Now she fumbles with both hands, fighting to get it into her mouth. Finally, after nine or ten innocent little hoops are sacrificed to the floor below, Maia gains success. The sensation of this solid food in her mouth is strange. With an uncertain frown, she cocks her head ever so slightly while chomping her gums and smacking her lips. She frowns a concentrated frown and stares with patient inquisitiveness at her mother and father, who are trying, rather hopelessly, to stifle intense laughter.

The cheerios have proven to be a new favorite for her. A couple of days later, Maia struggles with advanced proficiency to get them into her mouth. She uses her entire hand now to accomplish the task. But even then, she seems so enamored with the “o’s” that she can’t help but stick her finger back into her mouth, to play with the little thing. Inevitably it sticks to her finger and pops back out. No matter, it’s onto the next one.

So, our little daughter moves into the wild, crazy adventurous world of solid foods. The new tooth coming in on the bottom will probably prove to be frustrating at first, but the entire set that’s sure to soon follow will certainly prove to be more helpful in the long run.