Filed under: maya on tummy
Avocados are very healthy ( by the way is that a fruit or a vegetable?)people are encouraged to give them to their babies when they start dabbling is solids because it’s very good for them. One can tell by the joyous look on Maya’s face that she totally agrees.
Ok, so the title is a bit misleading, she didn’t flip out on me, she successfully flipped on to her stomach while i was trying get her to sleep last night. Obviously the excitement that ensued meant that sleep was the farthest thing on her mind from then on. She’s been trying to do this for at least three and a half months now and finally did it. Talk about the month of milestones, sitting and now turning on to her stomach. So of course she’d been doing it over and over and always gets this happy look on her face.
look how fast those legs go, you could power a small village with that much energy
Puttiing a diaper on her gets more fun everyday. Speaking of diapers, Maya got hounded by her maternal grandma Sakeena -ever the environmental activist (www.evergreenghana.net) for using disposable diapers. So I decided to start her early on her environmental awareness- let’s just say she’s spreading the word; gotta start somewhere right?
Filed under: Uncategorized
michael phelps better watch out in like 15 years
Filed under: Uncategorized
Karlsruhe has been experiencing some high temperatures this week; so Maya had the opportunity to experience the cooling sensations of Karlsruhe’s fächer bad ( www.faecherbad.de ). I was particularly looking forward to this becasue we take baths here and she is yet to show any excitement, no splashing of water, no strampling of feet or even a smile. She just looks around the tub with wide eyes and a sort of ‘just don’t let go of me ‘ look on her face.
Needless to say, Maya’s first swimming experience was a success, first we got into the baby pool which is only about 10 inches deep and all nice and warm, then after a while, we went into the section where the big kids swam and she paddled away like a little power boat. With a big smile on her face and the occassional curious look towards the water slide where the older kids played, Maya proved that she wasn’t born a pisces for nothing.
Based on this fun experience, I have decided to enroll us in a baby swimming class but first mama needs to get herself a new swimsuit because her cup runneth over in this old one. We also hung out a bit at the park behind the pool area where Maya got some cuddling time with her Oma.
partner look mit Oma
The pool area photos are curtesy of Maya’s Oma Ursula- Danke Ursel
I think Maya is going through a growth spurt this week. She’s been taking longer naps during the day- like right now, she’s been sleeping for 2 hours and that -I’ve noticed- usually doesn’t happen until she has some kind of growth spurt. She gets more and more aware of her surroundings everyday and it’s really great to see all the changes she’s growing through. The latest big step so far has been sitting,

she’s able to do that for a couple of minutes without falling over and it’s always funny to see that, we can tell that she finds it quite exciting to see things from a sitting postion instead of the usual lying down position. I’ve also slowely started introducing solids to her and she seems to be taking it very well. We did a week of purreed carrots, then purreed apricots (which she really liked) for 4 days and yesterday I started her on some rice cereal and that also went over quite well. Yesterday, we also went for a walk in her stroller without her bassinet which must have been very exciting for her. Her eyes were as huge as saucers the whole time. However I think I’ll wait a few weeks for that one until she’s got the hang of sitting. I can’t believe she’s 6 months already, time really flies by:
So here she was, brand new and perfect. And then after three days, they said we could take her home ( I know,)woah! they are letting us take a new born home?!
So we packed up and took her home, but first we had to make a stop by Andre’s grandmother Omi Gertrude (R.I.P) who was terminally ill and about to depart from this world:

Maya meets Omi Gertrude (R.I.P)
After meeting Omi, Maya was finally able to go home so she could eat, and then she started getting big. In about 5 months she went from this

Maya rocking her size one diaper
to this

lady in red
Here’s how it started- in the beginning, she ate every 2 hours

she got a little bigger and was able to rock the gangster look
still small enough for me to carry her around in the baby hawk without any back lacerations ( note the maternity pants- yes ladies, you will still have to wear your maternity pants at least 5 more weeks post partum)

still rocking the maternity look
In between growing, she got lots of kisses from her

a kiss from papa
and her

mama's kiss
and she also got visitors who came bearing gifts. There was aunt Anja who even came to the hospital for a short visit

Anja and Maya
and then Carolin and Valerie (Valerie who will most certainly become famous for her architechtural and interior decorating skills also designed Maya’s nursery, she also likes to jog a lot which one can notice from her get up in the picture below). Ofcourse the grandparents were also there to share in the joy of the new addition (and help out)

Aunt Caro and Aunt Valerie

grandma ursula (oma) and grandpa jürgen (opa)

mareike and maya
Mareike and Stefen Bosch also came to visit with their own little one- the fearless Paulina- and by fearless I mean that kid will try to climb a piece of furniture, fall and hit her head, and then get up, laugh and try again. The funny thing is, they were here having brunch with us on the sunday that my water broke. Stefen is also a pediatrician and always gives Maya a quick once over whenever he’s around and Mayasmom really likes that. Paulina also showed a lot of interest in the new baby

Stefen tries to see how it will be when Paulina gets a new sibling











