So we were all happy to be at Grandad’s house where it was nice and warm. We got in just before bedtime on Friday night. On Saturday, we headed to Gram’s to catch up with some of the family. Maya was a little bit fussy, but it was still great for her to see everyone! She took an extra long nap when we got back to Grandad’s, so the drive the day before must have worn her out.

But Sunday was the big day for her. She got to attend her first parade, and it was a Mardi Gras parade so it was that much better! It was a little chilly, so she curled up in her stroller for the first half and took a little nap, but she got up for the end. We got a few smiles from her here and there when floats would come by, but I think she was mostly a little confused by it all! Why are all these people throwing things at me? But it was great to have her out there, and next year she’s sure to have even more fun.

It’s been quite a weekend for our family. Fort Worth looked a little bit like Minnesota last week, when we got 12 inches of snow in one day. Practically shut the city down! I wouldn’t have been so bad, but we lost our power. Had it been just Jason and I, we would have piled the blankets on the bed and toughed it out. But it was way too cold for little Miss Maya! So we headed to a hotel Thursday night.

We wish her first night in a hotel had been under better circumstances, but she did pretty well anyway. She was probably a little confused when Jason was trying to pack up with a flashlight! I was at work for the night so I met them at the hotel when I got off, and Maya was already asleep in her pack-and-play.

A little snow does wonders for the beauty of any city, and despite all the downed tree branches, it was fun to see snow covering Fort Worth. It was Maya’s first Texas snow (she got to see plenty in Minnesota over Christmas) and it was Bailey’s first significant snow. He’s been around for dustings, but nothing like 12 inches, and he LOVED it! He was running around in circles as soon as we let him out. He loved chasinng his ball and losing it in the snow. And he’d stick his snout in it and enjoy some for a snack, too.

Finally three days later our power is back. Luckily we had planned to head to Shreveport the weekend for Mardi Gras, so that couldn’t have worked out any better. We were happy to have a place to keep warm!

Height: 25 inches
Weight: 15 lbs, 8 oz

She took her shots with about as much grace as a 4-month-old can show, which means she turned bright red and screamed as loud as she could! Poor little thing.

We’ve been having a blast with Maya lately. She’s always smiling and laughing, which makes everything so much fun for Jason and I. We love knowing she’s having a good time instead of just wondering what she thinks!

Some fun facts about our 4-month-old girl:

She still loves her baths. She’s started furiously kicking her legs when she’s in the water and gets a kick out of being able to splash herself a little. A swimmer in the making?

She’s finally taken a little bit of an interest in Bailey. She’ll at least spend a little time looking at him now when he’s near her, and she enjoys watching him when he goes crazy running circles around the yard.

Her favorite toys are her small pink rattle that she can hold and shake and the snail rattle from her exersaucer. This one gets her attention even if she’s screaming.

She loves playing airplane and sometimes will even squeal a little.

She finally takes a bottle without too many complaints.

Bedtime is 9 p.m., so dad can have some playtime when he gets home from work. She usually gets up between 7 and 8.

She still takes five or six naps a days. Staying awake much more than two hours is tough for little girls!

She’s great at grabbing things, holding things and getting almost everything she can hold into her mouth.

She can hold her head all the way up while on her tummy and actually doesn’t mind it so much anymore.

She’s starting to eye our food when we’re eating…but her doctor says to hold off on anything solid until closer to six months.

At times, she’s a babbling, laughing fool. Other times, she’s a big ol’ bucket of fuss. It’s becoming more of the former and less of the latter, which makes for a lot of fun.

She’ll happily sit in her bumbo chair for short periods of time. She has fun sitting in it on the kitchen counter, watching mom cook.

Can’t wait to see what the next month brings.

I had originally thought I’d only return to work part time; I loved every second of maternity leave but knew that I still wanted to at least work a little, to keep using that part of my mind. But we didn’t want Maya in daycare if we could at all help it. Thanks to their flexibility at the paper, we’re getting to make full time work, without feeling like Maya has to spend too much time away from a parent. Two days a week, Jason works an early shift and I work a late shift, so we pass Maya off at the office. These days are great for me, because I get to be at work, around adults, stimulating my brain again, for a full 8 hours, but I know that Maya is with dad so I don’t feel guilty about being away! And I think Jason and Maya are going to really start to love their time alone together each week. (It’s gotten off to a rough start with them both being a little sick!) The other three days a week, I work from home. So I’m just steps away from my little gal! We have a sitter that comes to play with her during some of that time, and then I do some of my work while Jason is home in the morning or at night, some on weekends, etc. So overall, I don’t feel like she is missing out on much time with her parents, which is a great compromise for all of us! We have a sitter whose true love for kids is so apparent that I really am excited about Maya being able to spend time with her. I think it’s been great for her to have someone new to play with.

So in the end, even though the transition has been a little rough, we’re all thinking it’s going to work out pretty well after we get used to our new routines!

Before all the craziness, the three of us had a great first Christmas together, and Maya got to take her first plane ride to Minnesota. She and I headed up there about a week before Jason (wanted to take advantage of the end of my maternity leave) and I was incredibly nervous that I would end up with a screaming baby the entire two and a half hours! But Maya did great. She ate when we were taking off and didn’t wake up until we were at the gate in Minneapolis. No complaints from mom!

When we got to Minnesota, Maya got to meet her Uncle Ryan for the first time, since he was home from school in Poland for the holiday. We went on to spend much time relaxing with Maya’s grandparents, and I took advantage of having willing babysitters around, going to movies, shopping and getting together with friends. We all had a blast. One day, Maya and I headed to Matt’s cabin for his annual party. There weren’t many of us this year, but we had a great time (saved the sledding for next year when Maya is bigger) and Maya got to meet her slightly older friend Wyatt for the first time. It’s funny to think about how these parties have changed since we were all in college, now that there are little kids in the mix. Other fun things we got to do while in MN: See Santa #2 (Maya had a much more stoic face this time, instead of a frown), meet lots of mom’s friends for the first time and best of all, see Maya’s first snow!

What a first Christmas in Minnesota for Maya: we had record snowfall. It was beautiful and perfect weather for Christmas! Luckily Jason was able to switch his flight from the 24th to the 23rd to avoid getting stuck in Fort Worth alone for the holiday. So he made it in time to beat the real snowfall… we’re talking feet, not just inches! We spent Christmas Eve at my cousin’s house with about 30 people from my mom’s side of the family. Christmas Day was at our house with a much smaller gathering of family. We played lots of Scrabble and spent much time on the couch watching all the white! Maya loved her first Christmas, although I think she was rather oblivious to what was going on. She didn’t care about her presents at all this year! But I think she was happy to have so many people excited to hold her.

We ended our trip with Maya’s second successful plane ride, aside from Maya’s unhappiness with the changing accommodations in the plane’s bathroom. Luckily, the engines drowned out the screaming, and she was happy as a lark to get out of there. And happy to be home too.

This week (two for Maya and Kari) we’ve been visiting Maya’s grandparents, her uncle and several of Kari’s friends in Minneapolis. (that’s her with her new friend Wyatt, above). Preparing for Maya’s second plane ride early tomorrow morning as we head back home; here’s hoping for a sleepy baby come takeoff.

Here’s a quick recap of how we spent 2009.

Happy first birthday Ford: We began with birthday wishes for our nephew Ford, then turning 1, now about to turn 2. Talk about the difference a year makes. That 1-year-old, who we described as “almost walking, almost talking,” seems to have skipped right past walking to running. During our recent time together at Thanksgiving, he was a bundle of energy and fun, but he did slow down just enough to give his new cousin Maya a hug every once in a while.

Palo Duro Canyon: Morning sickness? What morning sickness? Soon after we learned that Kari was pregnant, we headed out to Amarillo for a couple days of hiking some beautiful Texas canyons. We brought Bailey along, or rather, he brought us along as he raced across the red clay on the most exciting couple of days he’s had.

New sod + crazy dog = bad combination: Most of the rest of this list is dominated by that new little girl in our lives, but before there was Maya, there was our first rambunctious little kid, Bailey. You know, the big freight train of a dog who tore out half of the grass in the backyard.

20 weeks pregnant, and she’s getting bigger: A few days after the sonogram, it wasn’t Kari who was getting bigger, it was our little girl.

The nursery is on it’s way: My Dad spent a quick, busy weekend in Fort Worth painting and working on Maya’s nursery.

Our “babymoon”: Nope, I didn’t know what a babymoon was until then either. But we had a ton of fun in Boston, Connecticut and Cape Cod, visiting friends and seeing a part of the country we had never seen before.

Eight months of pregnancy, one blog post: Kari recaps how we found out, each trimester, picking out Maya’s name and more.

Maya’s here!: Maya Makenzie Crane arrived at 3:37pm on September 23, 2009, weighing in at 8 pounds, 14 ounces and measuring 19.5 inches.

The labor story: Kari recaps the labor experience. Word of caution… not for the faint of heart.

Maya’s 1-month checkup: Growing big and tall: So happy to be blessed with a healthy, growing little girl. We were a little worried when the doctor recommended sleep training, but it was well worth it. Now, Maya sleeps 10 hours a night.

Maya’s first month: A video recap: A quick video look back at Maya’s first month on earth.

A Thanksgiving week of firsts: We spent a great Thanksgiving week with family in Fort Worth and in Shreveport. Maya got to meet most of her Shreveport relatives and spend some quality time with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Allison, cousin Ford and Grandad.

Thanks for being a part of our eventful 2009. Here’s to many more great memories for all of us in 2010.

Before everyone headed to the airport Friday, we all made a trip to Trinity Park to see the “purple” river in honor of TCU. It was a great day for a walk and a nice though on the city’s part, but we couldn’t really tell that the river was purple! More like murky brown…

The weekend before Thanksgiving Maya made her first trip out of the state to Shreveport to visit Grandad and meet many of her other relatives. Mom and Dad were so grateful for what a great traveler she was. We didn’t have to stop once… she snoozed the entire way!

In Shreveport she got to hang out with Grandad and meet Jason’s aunts Patti and Sandy and cousin Michelle. She also met her great-Gram for the first time. Saturday night she got to meet the entire Langford family and her great-Gramp. And we came away with a priceless photo of Gramp with all of his grandkids and great-grandkids. They were all in the same place for the first time since anyone can remember!

It was a great week full of firsts for Maya. She’s already dreaming of her next out-of-state trip, and we can only hope it goes as smooth as this trip since it’ll be by airplane!

She didn’t shed a single tear, so we were happy about that. Actually, dad said he was hoping for the photo of her screaming at Santa… that’s a little cruel, don’t you think!? She was content for the first few minutes, and just kind of looking at us all, wondering why we were all staring at her. But then the pouty lip made its appearance. She was ready to be rescued from the scary guy with the big white beard. We’re happy to have a priceless picture to remember her first visit to Santa. (Don’t you love her Santa slippers!)

We promptly headed inside for some football and warm food and drinks to finish off the fun outing.

* On a side note, we just want to put it on the record that last night was our sweet girl’s best night of sleep yet, and the first night she really made it all the way through the night without waking! (She did one other night, but that was after getting in bed later than usual… so I don’t know that we can count it!) But she slept from 8:40 p.m. to 6:15 a.m., so mom and dad were pretty happy! Although we have a rough time getting up before 7… something just seems wrong about that to two people who used to work nights! We just want to be able to remember this day (and night) in case it doesn’t happen again!

She was a trooper through her two shots and one oral vaccination. I’ve never seen her face turn as red as when the nurse pricked her. She’s been pretty fussy the last day since she got her shots, so we’re hoping that’ll wear off soon. And we had a little repeat in her red face and all-out scream when I removed one of her band-aids. Oops!

We can definitely tell huge differences in our little girl from last month. Best of all, she’s now a smiley
girl! If you shake the right rattle for her or talk to her in a sweet voice, she’ll reward you with a big, toothless grin. Nothing better in this world than that. She’s also “talking” lots more. And whining sometimes too! (video to come.) All and all, we can really tell she’s growing up. Next we’re getting excited for her to start laughing. She’s chuckles a few times in her sleep, but hasn’t laughed at any of dad’s jokes yet.

Since she had a good visit with the doctor, we celebrated by putting up the Christmas decorations. (I think all the crying after the shots wore her out so she took a long nap, allowing me to get everything down from the attic.) Maya did what she could to help from her swing. She loved staring at the lights on the tree the most. Can’t wait for her to meet Santa next week!