Maya learned so much so quickly that it’s going to be difficult to remember all of her accomplishments; the following is probably a partial list, but it will give you an idea of how fast her development is progressing.

In November, Maya:

~ learned to blow spit bubbles.

~ stood on her knees in the dome bed and tried to dive off it onto her head (she was thwarted in this attempt by her mean old Grandpa, however).

~ initiated “peek-a-boo” by covering and uncovering her face herself.

~ went from creeping (moving forward by alternately pulling with her hands and flopping onto her belly) to crawling (using her hands and knees to propel herself RAPIDLY forward).

~ ate her first “jar food” (pears); she looked amazed and puzzled at first, then “sucked it down” (her Daddy’s words). So far, she has tried (and loved) peaches, bananas, carrots, and applesauce. Daddy is glad that she seems to have her Mommy’s appreciation for different foods and hopes this means she won’t be picky like him.

~ learned to say “da-da” (or a reasonable facsimile).

~ gave Grandpa Richard five.

~ graduated to a big-girl bathtub.

~ developed her own unique way to express her displeasure. This is a hard one to try to reproduce on paper, but it sounds something like "Ying! Ying!"; her tone of voice and facial expression leave no doubt that she is ticked off and somebody’d better do something SOON.

~ learned to pull up ONTO HER FEET and walk around any object she chooses; I looked this up in one of the baby books, and she’s not supposed to be doing this yet – guess someone forgot to tell her.

Maya loves for people to talk to her and especially to sing to her. Her favorite songs (in no particular order) seem to be –