5 Months Old

Maia turned 5 months this weekend!

Some of her many faces:

(and she's sitting up on her own now!)

We love it when she's sleeping!

We went to the water park in Moscow, ID. It was Maia's first time in her bathing suit and hat. She loved it!

End of summer

Well, summer for the Sternfeld-Dunn's is officially over. Aleks went back to work on Monday and I will begin teaching next week. It's been so nice being home together, we will miss Aleks being gone most of the day. Maia is still not sleeping very well and this week has been especially tough. We think she has a cold and/or is teething. I try to remind myself that things will change in a few weeks at most.

Maia is starting to sit up on her own! We've been practicing lots and Maia is getting the hang of it.

The National Lentil Festival was this weekend and so Maia got dressed up in her cute hat and baby converse. She loved her first Lentil Fest.

Maia's friend Alden came over the other night to hang out in the air conditioning. He's 2 months younger than Maia and a total cutie! They'll probably start a rock band together one day.

Here are two more of Maia's friends; Oliver is in the middle and Owen is on the far right.

Owen and Maia are BFFs, they are 5 days apart and love hanging out at the park.

And a news update about me:

I've been hired to teach adjunct voice lessons at WSU this semester. I have 5 students and will be teaching one day a week at the university. I'm really excited about the opportunity to do something outside the house and for myself. I really enjoy teaching. My private studio is also full this year, I'm teaching 3 afternoons a week. Thankfully, Aleks will be able to watch Maia while I teach. She's still being super clingy and prefers mom to almost everyone. However, there are two exceptions, Dad and Aunt Terry. Thank goodness for them!

Visit to CA and family portraits

We spent a little over a week in CA visiting family. On this trip, Maia got to meet her great grandparents for the first time. It was a very special trip for us.

Maia with Great Grandma and Grandpa Pappas

Maia with Great Grandpa Peter

Maia with Great Grandma Barbara

Maia had her 4 month check up yesterday. Everything looks great. She's in the 97% for height and right in the middle of things for weight and head size.

At her appointment yesterday she weighed:

14 pounds 3 ounces

and was

26 1/2 inches long

On Aug. 4 we had professional photographs taken by Tania Soderman in Walnut Creek. To see more pictures you can go to:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=75scjk1m.1i015hsy&x=0&y=e97iko&localeid=en_US

Sewing

Of course I have to put some pictures of Maia. Here she is helping me cook.

"I love rice cereal!"

When Eliza was visiting this May, she had a dress that she used to wear when she was little.(The original is above) Since I've started sewing, I thought I'd like to try and make this dress. I had Eliza send me pictures and some measurements and tried to recreate the dress. I ended up making a pattern on my computer using PrintShop Plus, then blowing it up 300% at Kinkos. It was a lot of fun to figure out how to do this. If anyone wants the pattern, let me know and I can email it to you as a PDF.

The denim side

The white side (back)

Soon I'll try and post pictures with Maia actually in it...she's kind of grumpy today, so I'd rather not try a photoshoot. :)

4 months old

Maia turned 4 months old this Saturday. It's hard to believe how fast time goes by. It's been really hot here the past week, so we decided to let Maia have some naked time! Here are pictures from her naked adventures.

So, I've been known to give Aleks a hard time about his diapering technique. It's not unheard of for me to redo a diaper that he's put on. He actually does a great job, I'm just worried that there will be a blow out or something. Well, the other day Aleks was lying on the couch having Maia sit on his chest. She made her telltale pooping sounds and Aleks said "oh! she's pooping" in his "what an accomplishment voice" like we always do when she does anything. As he lifted her up he said "oh! she's pooping on ME!". Poop has slid out the leg of her diaper and onto his shirt. He was frantically yelling for me to take her and clean her, while trying not to throw up. 

After changing her, I continued cooking and put Maia in her Bumbo to watch me while I worked. I heard some sounds that seemed like she was filling her diaper again. Since I was up to my elbows in dirty dishes, I asked Aleks to check and see if she had pooped again. He lifted her out of the Bumbo and went to smell her diaper. As he did that, Maia wiggled her bum and hit him IN THE FACE (!!!) with the poop that was leaking out her diaper once again! I have never laughed so hard in my entire life. The irony is, I was the one who put both diapers on her. Ever since, Aleks has been threatening to sabotage me. Poop is funny.

I got a sewing machine this week and have been having fun learning how to sew. I made little blankets for all the babies in my mommy group. I think I want to try a dress for myself next. I feel so domesticated!

Here is a video we took this weekend of Aleks beatboxing for Maia and Maia eating rice cereal for the first time. It was a fun weekend.

Big Weekend

Well Maia had a very big weekend. On Friday Aleks and I left her with some friends and had a date! It was so nice to get out and reconnect. When we went to pick Maia up, they were all listening to reggae and Maia was on the shoulder of our friend Andy. Apparently, when Maia woke up, she totally freaked out that neither Aleks nor I were there and the only way she could be calmed was to dance around to reggae. Hey, whatever works.

Maia has developed a very keen sense of who I am. When we are with friends, she very rarely will let anyone else hold her before she starts crying and looking around for me. I wasn't expecting this to happen until she was 8 or 9 months. It's very sweet, but also kind of oppressive. We're going to keep exposing her to other people and hopefully it'll get better.

On Saturday Aleks witnessed Maia rolling over front to back AND back to front. When we would go get Maia after her naps, she'd be on her stomach after rolling over, but this was the first time either of us has actually seen her in the process.

Saturday night Maia slept 8 hours! We put her down at 11 and she didn't wake up until 7!!! We've yet to experience a repeat performance, but it was pretty cool.

Sunday morning, we heard Maia laugh for the first time. It sounds a lot like a cough with a smile. Ever since, we've been making funny faces, tickling, and blowing air in Maia's face to try to get more giggles. Maia probably just thinks we've finally lost our marbles. It's a lot of fun though.

I don't have any new pictures to post, but I'll try to take some soon. We're thinking about starting solid food soon, so I'll be sure to video our first attempts.

New pictures and a video!

Here are some new pictures from last week. Maia is just getting cuter and cuter! She's started blowing raspberries with her tongue and lips, now the burp rag is never far away.

Maia in her first pair of shoes and socks. It's so cute I can barely stand it!

Here's a little video with some highlights from months 2 and 3 of Maia's life.