Big Girl bed...

It's been a wild weekend of changes. Maya's potty training successes have prompted us to make some other changes in our/her life. It was time to start transitioning Maya out of her crib and in to a big bed. Tying this big-girl bed in to her big-girl underwear, etc, etc just seemed to fit timing wise. We decided to do it in stages instead of all at once. Stage 1 was to remove the side-rail & drawer and put the mattress on the floor. Stage 2 will be to remove the rest of the crib and put her on to a full-size mattress. The final stage will be to put her in to an acutal bed. We did stage 1 on the weekend, with Maya's help, and she couldn't be happier. Within seconds of the bed hitting the ground, she was on it and reading 'Go Dog Go' to her dolls (with surprising accuracy on the wording). Bedtime was a breeze that night. She only rolled out of bed once the first night and not at all the second night. So far, the transition has been great!

Big Girl party...

The FCCBC Chinese New Year Dim Sum party was this past weekend and was a lot of fun. Of course, Maya thought it was all for her as she had successfully used the potty for #2 the night before and was now wearing big-girl underwear (training pants). She very proudly put on her mandarin dress and was at the door, ready to go, when the time came. The event was packed with over 100 familes (~400 people), all who had adopted children from China. The leader of the CNY events and parades is always the 'God of Good Fortune'. This year, John was asked to play this role and got to wear the costume and greet everyone as they came in. Maya thought it was quite entertaining that daddy was wearing a dress but was more interested in 'her' party and all of the crafts she got to do. It's all about her, you know...

God of Good Fortune

God's family

Potty update...

Potty training with Maya has been going well. She's almost perfect with going #1 without mistakes but wasn't interested in going #2. We spent all of last week encouraging her to try and telling her that she would get 'big girl' underwear (like her friends) when she did it. On Friday, she decided she would do #2 on the potty that day. Sure enough, she did the deed that evening. After finishing our happy dance, she wanted to put the underwear on immediately and to do so by herself. I gave her the underwear and I grabbed my camera to capture the moment. What fun and what smiles she had!

The next day, we were due to go to an FCCBC Chinese New Year Dim Sum celebration. As everything tied in well, I told her that we were going to have a big Dim Sum party for her to celebrate her being a 'big girl'. The event was ~400 people with Chinese Lion Dancers, The God of Good Fortune (who was actually John - separate story...), Chinese singers, fan dancers and lots of crafts. Her eyes grew huge and she was astounded that we were throwing a party... for her! She was so excited and couldn't wait until we could go to 'her' big-girl party.

It's potty time...

Suddenly, Maya has decided the potty is a good thing. No warning. No recent attempts. Only minor discussion. 5 times sitting on the potty yesterday & she was successful 3 times doing a #1. At daycare today, another 3 successes. We're hoping that these successes will continue all week and maybe even get a #2 success. If we do, then it's on to training diapers and, possibly, underwear. Wow!

Christmas of another kind...

Our 2nd Christmas with Maya wasn't really what we were hoping it would be...

My parents arrived Dec 14 and within 2 days, my dad was quite ill with a cold, sore thoat, fever, etc. Within a few more days, the rest of us were sick with the same cold and, in my case, a sinus infection as well. The 5 of us spent the majority of our 12 days together holed up inside the house.

We managed a brief outing to Van Dusen gardens to see the beautiful light displays and another one to the Granville Island kids market but Maya didn't get to see Santa. The only photos I have of her in her Christmas dress were taken one morning after her fever briefly broke. The rest of the pics are from Christmas morning where most of us took turns 'resting' to recover from fatigue and looking after Maya.

Oh well...

Memories...

I've been looking back at the blog entries that I made just one short year ago. I've also been looking at all of the YouTube videos we had posted up to this time last year. Maya has changed SOOOO much! It's wonderful to see how much she's grown, changed & developed. Maya loves watching these videos too and squeals excitedly 'That's baby Maya!!! Play it again!' So cute...

Maya's memories are really developing too. At breakfast this moring she said that Lyn (caregiver) wasn't going to be at daycare today. Sure enough, when we arrived, Lyn wasn't in. They must have mentioned it on Friday and Maya remembered! At least once a week, Maya holds up her toothbrush and says 'Doctor Charmaine gave me this!'. Maya had her dentist appointment 5 weeks ago! On the weekend, Maya held up a red t-shirt and said 'Emma gave me this!' Emma is my friend Leanne's daughter and they came to BC to visit us in September. September!! On occasion, she'll hold up her teddy bear and say 'Joshua gave me this!'. She got the bear from Joshua for her 2nd birthday - in May! How is it that a 30-month-old can have a memory like this?!

I'm REALLY going to have to watch what I say in the years to come because she's going to remember it (and likely use it against me)...

Yesterday...

I could start singing the Beatles song but I can't sing so I'll spare you. Maybe I'll hum. 'Yesterday, dum, dum, all my troubles hum hum hum hum-hummmm...."

It's been 4 months since my last posting. 4 months! Can you believe it? I can't... So much has changed since then so instead of giving you a long monologue about our occurances, I'll summarize them:
-Yesterday, our girl turned 2 1/2 (going on 12)!
-M has grown 1" since September but has only gained 2 lbs since Feb. Tall & skinny!
-M started a new Daycare September 1 and loves it
-M speaks in complete sentences now and understands abstract ideas. Wow! She is so far advanced over her daycare playmates that we wonder if she's challenged enough. Time will tell...
-We finally got M's Nexus card which was the last bit of documentation we needed to get for her. Yeah!
-We go swimming with M every Monday and she's become a complete water-baby jumping off the pool edge without assistance & swimming under water
-We took M skating 2 weeks ago and within 45min went from not standing up to standing and shuffling. Such fun!
-We took M tobogganing today and she is a speed junkie too. Was going down on her tummy, alone, head-first. Skeleton athelete in the making for Olympics 2026.
-John has 2 businesses now and is considering starting a 3rd.
-John was sent by PMI to Washington, DC to speak at a national PMI conference in October. Whoot, Whoot!
-I trained for and completed a sprint distance triathlon in September. Yeah me.
-I've signed up and have begun training for an Olympic distance triathlon in April (which will be held in Kona, Hawaii - Holla!)
-I'm in phase 2 of my Project Management course and will be done Dec 8
-I haven't started studying for my PMP course yet. Big surprise!
-We've spent lots & lots of time with friends and are planning on spending lots more with them over the holidays. (Come January though we'll be sick of y'all!)

That's all I could come up with in my short 5 minute writing sprint.
More later...
Christine

(BTW, please post a comment or send me an email as I'm interested to know how many of you have dropped off and don't check this blog any more. After 4 months of neglect, it can only be expected)