HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today is Maya's 1st birthday, and what an amazing joyful happy year it has been for me.
My best ever.
I am so happy she chose me to be her mama.
I had a wonderful day today, it was more special to me than my own birthday really.
It was my birthing day.
She only got a 45 minute car nap today and was REALLY good considering.
Pedja made an incredible dinner for my family and her best friend Mia stopped by for dessert.
I spent it with the people that matter most and I couldn't imagine a better day--and the best part? Auntie Andrea stayed in California to be with us.

I love you mucho Maya!
Happy first birthday and MANY MANY more.
xox

another first

When Pedja went to Serbia to pick up Luka, Maya got her very first cold.
I ended up getting it too -along with a fever and the stomach flu. I was a hot mess.

We both recovered, but last night I woke up to Maya vomiting.
She has never done this. I think she spit up maybe 5 times her whole life.
I fed her and changed her and we all went back to sleep.
She woke up at 645am, ate and we were hanging out playing and all of a sudden it happened again.
But this time it went on and on, and our whole bed needed to be stripped along with both of us.
It was so sad for me to watch and not be able to do anything. I feel so lucky that I have a healthy child and this is not something I am used to.
When she was done she was her happy self and it hasn't happened again.
I didn't give her any solids until dinner so we will see what happens tonight. Fingers crossed.

one big happy family

It took over a year, but Luka is here for good.
He arrived on Wednesday night and we have been having a wonderful few days together.
Maya was asleep when he came home, but when she woke up in the morning and met him for the first time, she went right to him with a big hug and a smile, and she never goes to strangers.
They have been inseperable ever since. He adores his baby sister and is very helpful.
If Luka is in the room, all you have to do is look down and you will find Maya.
He is taller than me and as cute as ever, and looks an awful lot like Justin Bieber.
We all went to register him for school - 7th grade, and that will begin January 10.

a very busy day

Today Maya pulled herself up onto the couch all by herself.
She also discovered her nose today, so her fingers are spending a lot of time there.
Oh and she tried beets and seemed to like them.

yo gabba gabba

Yesterday I took Maya to her very first concert on the outside-YO GABBA GABBA!
I say on the outside, because when she was in utero I took her to hear INCUBUS with Luka-that was his first concert.
Since we live in LA, of course there were a few celebrity sightings-Jamie Priestly, Giles Marini, Carson Daly, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, and another actress that has twin boys but I can't remember her name.
The Agrolites played a ska song about bananas, and Biz Markie did his segment Biz's beat of the day live! That was my favorite part.
We had seats in the 5th row so we could see very well, and to my pleasant surprise, we were able to stay for the whole show on only a 40 minute nap all day.
All in all it was AWESOME!!!

11 months old

Today Maya is 11 months old.
I have been reflecting on how far she has come and what an incredible little human I get to hang out with all the time.
I can't believe she was a little blob that didn't do much less than a year ago, and now she is trying to talk, walk, plays at the park, loves her music class and tries to dance, eats solid food-kale every day! and my favorite, puts EVERYTHING she comes across in her mouth.
I was looking at her birthday pictures the other night when I couldn't sleep and I was smiling and crying all at the same time.
I am the luckiest mama in the world

giving thanks

This is Maya's first thanksgiving and it was the most special one for me having her here.
She was a great assistant in the kitchen with my mom and me making our bountiful lunch.
Brussel sprout gratin, chipotle yams, cranberry chutney, sourdough stuffing, and a salad with dates, persimmons, pepitas, goat cheese and arugula, and some 05 french red wine. Oh and dessert? pumpkin mousse and chocolate mousse with whipped cream.

The food was wonderful and so was the company.

A big nap was had by Maya and Pedja after lunch.

food update

This week Maya tried Parsnips, Cauliflower and Routabaga.
She was fine with all of them.
She is such an amazing eater now, still eating Kale for dinner every night, but I hear that can all change later on.

She also seems to be transitioning to 1 nap a day. I wasn't quite ready for that one!
And I think I see tooth 7 in her future.

and then there were 6

Today Maya's 6th tooth broke through.
She now has 4 across along the top of her mouth.
Hooray!

she just stood up!

She really did!!
My mom is a witness!
She was playing her musical instruments, an egg shaker in 1 hand and a maraca in the other, and all of a sudden she just stood up!
She stood for 1-2 seconds then sat down.

It was amazing!!!

Halloween part 1

The kids were SO cute today.
Luce was a Kangaroo, Dylan was a Devil, Ella 1 was a bee, Ella 2 was a cowgirl, Andrew was a Lion, Lyra was Minnie Mouse, Diya was a bunny, London was a princess, and yes the best for last, Maya and her best friend Mia were Run DMC!

movin' on up

Today was the Halloween party at our Thursday mommy and me class.
The kids were beyond adorable. I will post the pics next.
But more importantly, I turned my back to get my video camera and when I looked at Maya, she had climbed up 4 stairs and was sitting in the castle!
I was tearing up with pride and joy and surprise!
Amazing!
Oh and today she is 10 months!

10 seconds

Maya is pulling herself up to standing on everyone and everything these days, and tonight she let go and stood up solo for 10 seconds! This is the longest to date! Im so proud of her.

300

Today Maya is 300 days young! Hooray!
To celebrate she tried broccoli and it was a huge hit! Another Hooray!
Her latest and super cute accomplishment is clapping. She now claps after almost everything that happens, its so awesome.
I enjoy every second with her.

9 month check up

Today Maya is 41 weeks old, and we went for her 9 month check up with a new doctor that I really liked.
Her name is Dr. Rena and she is Russian and so mellow, I am much happier.
Sooo her are her stats: 19 lbs 3 oz, 28 inches long, and her head is 17 3/4 inches.
Dr. Rena said she was healthy and right on track.
No shots this visit was an added bonus.

big brother Luka

Luka loves fishing.
I mean he LOVES it. It's his life.
He sent us this picture of his biggest catch to date.
We are so proud of him!

give peas a chance

In honor of John Lennon's birthday we are giving peas a chance.
Maya is not a fan at all.
We tried them plain, no good.
I added rice cereal, still no good.
I mixed them with apples, a little better.

carrots

We had a play date with Dawson this week over at our house.
It had been a while since we had seen him and he has grown up so much.
The 2 of them were squealing, crawling, and playing with toys for quite a while.
It happened to be the same day we introduced Maya to carrots, so Dawson joined the fun, he had never had them either.
It looks like Maya likes them, and she did on day 1, but the next few days she just spit them back out at me and turned her head away from the spoon.
Dawson enjoyed them and is such a neat eater! No bib, no mess! And all on his beautiful mama's lap!
Sorry for the sideways photo, I cant get it turned around for some reason.

And then there were 5

Last night I discovered Maya's 5th tooth!
It has just broken through the skin.
This one is on top, in the middle on the left.
Hooray!

bubbles

Tonight in the bath Maya put her face in the water and started blowing bubbles!
We have no idea where it came from but we were so excited!
She is somehow teaching herself how to swim I think.

veggie power!

Yesterday we introduced Maya to Kale.
Here are the results.
Im SO proud!

watermelon

Last week we introduced watermelon.
Also a big hit.
The first time I gave it to her in the mesh feeder and she sucked out all of the juice until the piece was bone dry.
I then gave her a chunk in her hand. She tried to chew it and kind of started to choke so I quickly took it away and gave her more in the mesh feeder. Definitely candidate for mother of the year I know.
She is not quite ready for finger food yet, but I see it in her near future.

white peaches

A couple of weeks ago we introduced Maya to white peaches.
As you can see they were a HUGE hit.
So far this is the only food she has devoured 2 bowls of at one feeding.
It was also the first time she grabbed the bowl away from me and tried to drink it and slurp it up with her hands at the same time.
She just could not get enough of it.

peek a boo!

crawling

I have been so bad about updating, and now Im trying to catch up on everything Maya has accomplished.
This series made me UBER proud.
It was a while ago when she was not so mobile. She climbed up the padded stairs all by herself in our Wednesday mommy and me class.
I was all chocked up.

old mc donald

We had mommy and me today as we do every Thursday, and the topic was Nursery School.
I can't believe we have to start thinking about it before she is even a year old.
At the end of lecture, the teacher always sings songs, blows bubbles that the kids LOVE to chase, and we all dance.
But Maya's most favorite part is the old mc donald puppet show which is a new thing in the last couple of weeks.
She is just enamored by it, and here she is with the sheep and dog the teacher tossed to her. I can tell she is hoping she would toss the next farm animal to her also.

funny face

mi familia

Annapolis, Maryland

My mom, Maya and I travelled to Annapolis for my dear friend Jenna and Matt's wedding earlier this month.
Thats the gorgeous bride and I, (and her sweet mother in law in the background!) and Maya (with my cheetos, yes I LOVE them) on the plane.
She was nothing short of fantastic on the flights, and was a real trooper for the whole weekend.
Long story short: just to be safe, since I was in the wedding, and to reduce the shlepping my mom and I had to do, I had the brilliant idea to ship all of our luggage via UPS ahead of time.
Well guess what? My suitcase didn't make it.
Well guess what else? For some unexplainable reason I put my bridesmaid dress and all of Maya's diapers in my moms suitcase.
So instead of sight seeing or resting for 5 minutes, we spent our time running around the beautiful city on the water shopping for new clothes and shoes for the 2 of us. Could have been worse I guess.
All in all the wedding was like a fairy tale, and the weekend was wonderful in spite of the luggage mishap.

Oh and side bar: my sister Andrea was the BEST maid of honor ever.

new hairdo

the park

Maya now goes to the park to play and crawl around.
Im proud to say she was able to crawl thru the tube from Pedja to me! And looking surprised in the the green hippo rocking toy.

maya and mia

Maya and Mia met in mommy and me yoga a few months ago, and have been the best of friends ever since.
Mia also joined one of our mommy and me classes, so they get to see each other twice a week.
Maya started army crawling right before Mia did, and she would go over to her toys, grab a few, then crawl away and lick all of them. And Mia could do nothing about it, but still loves Maya all the same.
Mia is the best, most generous sharer, and the most mellow, kind baby ever.

I think the photo of the 2 of them looks like they are on a roller coaster.

9 months old

I can't believe my baby is 9 months old!
We celebrated by staying inside in this crazy heat :) and Maya enjoyed a lot of watermelon, her new food of the week.
She got 2 more teeth last week, both on top.
She crawls properly now, no more army crawl, and pulls herself up to standing on absolutely everything.
She babbles and talks a bunch and we are working on waving hi and bye.

Catching up

Maya is so active now, its hard for me to keep up! I havent had a moment to post lately.
So far she has eaten bananas, and avocado, and is now chewing/gumming on hard bread butts.
She has 2 teeth on the bottom.
She army crawls so fast all over the place, her arms are ripped! She likes to play catch with herself too. She will crawl to toy, pick it up, toss it, then goes to get it and does this over and over. She can entertain herself with this activity for hours!
She has been to the park twice now to actually play --and tasted everything in site - of course I was freaking out and am still trying to find a way to sanitize her mouth.
In mommy and me yoga, we have graduated to the "big kids area" where all the toys are in the front of the class.
She also enjoys crawling over to all of her yoga buddies, and squealing and sqwaking with delight- then tries to eat all of their toys from home.
When we go to restaurants now she sits in a high chair, and tries to eat it and the table.
Her sleeping schedule has been a little off the last 10 days, we're chalking it up to teething.
We are in 2 mommy and me groups now too.

First Solid Food

Today was a big day for everyone here, Maya ate her first solid food- an organic banana for breakfast!!
She did not seem to like it at all, but it was so much fun watching her.
She looks like such a big girl in her peg perego high chair too! Thanks to grandma friedman for it - its awesome!
At lunch I handed her a spoon for the first time, and she grabbed it and put the correct end in her mouth! It made me cry with pride and joy!

little mermaid

Today we took Maya to the pool and she swam with Pedja for 15 minutes. We took a break and then she went in for another 5.
I will post pics soon but she was so cute squealing and kicking in her little winnie the pooh swim diaper, and white sun hat.
This was the first time she has been in a pool since our trip to Arizona.
She then came home and crashed for 2.5 hours-so far her longest nap to date!
It was so much fun watching her.
A super nice lifeguard named Leslie took quite a liking to her and told me to bring her to mommy and me swimming for free in the fall!
Currently we are number 2 on the waitlist for the last summer session in August, but not with Leslie.

big day for a little girl!

It started off with mommy and me, todays topic was babyproofing (and boy do we have a lot to do!) It continued on with lunch with grandma Horwitz.
Then as we were waiting for the nurse to give Maya the rest of her 6 month vaccines, we saw her very first tooth!!
Yep, 1 little one on the bottom left! Its finally broken through! After months of drooling, chewing, sucking on tons of ice and teethers of all sorts, and furiously rubbing her gums. Hip Hip Horray!
We are home now; she was jumping and bouncing like crazy in her jumperoo while listening to Slayer, one of Pedja's favorite bands. She just had a bath and a snack and is napping on her side/stomach- its her new sleep position and SO cute!
Im afraid to take a pic, I dont want it to wake her up.

A & T designs

This is Amy. She would be the A of A&T designs. I would be the T.
Amy and I have been friends since 8th grade at which time we started a T shirt company called A&T designs. Essentially they were white t shirts that we painted with all types and colors of puff paint. This was the 80's. we wore them with leggings and shiny pink lipstick.
I think our only customers were our parents (and we of course wore our fab desings), but we had a great time. We even got a real receipt book like the ones that waitresses use. That was my favorite part.
Amy recently found some of our t shirts in her parents storage.
That's her adorable son Gabe.
Her 2 step kids Melissa 18 and Chris 19 are visiting for a couple of weeks from Colorado, so we met them for some Mexican food last weekend.

happy 6 months!

These were taken on June 28.

happy anniversary!

Last week Pedja and i celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary.
He brought me the BIGGEST flower arrangement ever! It was spectacular.
So you can see how big I mean, I laid Maya next to it on the couch.
And there they are in the vase.
The whole house smelled amazing for a week!

The Garden

The garden is doing great!
We ate all of the lettuce, broccoli and radishes.
Up next: tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers
Still going strong: mint
Maya is a great apprentice.

Aunt Helyn

Maya and I got to spend the afternoon with my great aunt Helyn. She will be 92 in August and is so lovely to be with. I love listening to all of her stories about our family, she has all of the history in her head and has an incredible memory.
We all had a wonderful time and I look forward to seeing her again soon.

the american grandmas