the Chico life Reid style

No, we’re renting.  But we moved to a cool new place a block away. Meanwhile, (and of equal importance), Luke graduated from the Master’s Program, two good friends got married, I finished my job (for good, got laid off), and Maia is just doing more and more cute things. Oh, and I was uncreative in gifting for four events honoring Luke in 3 weeks: grad, b-day, anniversary, Father’s Day…not fair!

Here I was trying to get some packing done, so I let Maia play with oat groats and trash the kitchen:

Christine got married!

Graduate with distinction, Master’s in Kinesiology (did I spell that right?)

Party in the new backyard:

Some new toys: pool…

This time she got in before I could get a suit on her…who cares?! (In new backyard)

Admiring her dancing reflection

Sandbox…

Sprinklers!

A new dancing rug (OK, that’s more for me…thanks Ma and Pa)

(Sorry about the neckache…my mom hasn’t figured out to keep camera straight either.)

And just some other cute ones Luke got while borrowing our friends’ good camera to take some shots on the Sac river for an anniversary outing.

The kissing face:

Pelicans and herons on the river. We love where we live!

Maia is busy busy these days. The title suggests adult-like activities

She’s currently very into wearing beads. She wakes up, finds them, and puts them on…and could wear them all day if I didn’t insist on taking them off for outings or we didn’t get tangled up while diaper changing.

Maia is talking lots. She says lots of B words like ball, bubbles, balloon, book, bath, brush, banana, bunnies (as in the Annie’s cheese kind), beads, Beth (yes, that came before Mama), and “Lambie” is simply “Bee.”  Also Thank you and yes, and a current favorite is ice, as in what she is holding below in order to make it through another hard teething afternoon and a lip owie from scraping it on a rock (she was trying to use it to break her fall…).  And notice the beads again.

Another new word is E-I-E-I-O, so we went to the petting zoo today.

Maia’s also feeding herself, not just goats:

Almost forgot…she’s completely obsessed with the song and music video on Putumayo Kids called No More Monkeys Jumping on the bed. We havent’ yet got good footage of her waving her finger and doing the jumping sign and hitting her head, etc. which is surprising because we even wake up to her doing it in our face, waiting for us to starting singing the song!  She is so fun!!

And that last bonk was on the chair Luke didn’t want me to get because “it’s too hard and dangerous for a baby.” “Luke, are we going to put bumpers on the walls and table legs too?” Maybe now we are.

Maia turned 1 last week! Here are some photos from the little party we had.

Wow, 2 posts in one week. I couldn’t resist showing you Maia with her new toy: learning to walk with the pusher/car thing.

She can put stuff in the little trunk, too.

When she’s REALLY practicing walking, she goes back and forth between me and Luke or Suzie and then gets a huge hug and kiss with each arrival. She’s at about four steps now!

The girl loved her beans and tofu. Check out the progression:

Ticked she has no beans, even though there is sweet apple on the tray. No thanks.

Ah, there’s the beans. Thanks, Mom.

And tofu, she almost chokes eating it so fast.  Still no apples.

Here’s Maia’s new buddy, Libby MacGibbon:

And two fun videos, playing with Mimi and playing fetch with herself in Fresno last weekend.

She discovered the stairs there last weekend and now back at home she is trying to duplicate all the fun on one stepstool…

Oh, and one more, cute dress, cute smile.  Yay Maia!

Maia is approaching her 1st birthday and she’s got lots of skills to prove it.

Soccer: she loves to play with balls (in fact “ball” may be her third word, after “uh-oh” and “meow” which may not totally count anyway…are they in the dictionary?). She somehow figured out the black and white one is for kicking! Luke has been bragging to the soccer coaches at work.

This next video I cut up because it was mostly Luke playing…

We are taking swim lessons and she is learning to go under! Notice the mini flippers?

Climbing is fun, even when we are exhausted.

Learning Spanish…actually Maia just loves to spread these flash cards all over the house.  (I found two grammatical errors in the set!)

And of course standing and wanting to walk all the time! Our backs hurt. I had three videos of walking (with help) but one was naked and two were sideways (Luke hasn’t figured out videotaping apparently, it’s not like a camera…).  So here’s just an evening  shot with some standing, dancing, and uh-oh.  She is at her wildest right before bed!

Holidays bring old friends and new family around. And Maia is now crawling and pulling up and more curious than ever.  Here are some pics to chronicles the changes.

Dan visited from The True North Strong and Free.  Here he’s trying out his theory that if a baby fusses he should let her grab his hair.

A present from Mimi and Papa…but I’m lacking pics from the Fresno visit…Mom?

Christmas meant getting into Grandma’s knick knacks,

eating paper and obsessing over the little tags.

and all of us trying really hard to get a good cousin shot!  Here are the brothers and cousins Maia and Avery in matching Chico State sweatshirts and hats (I made Christmas Eve and Eve Eve!).  Avery was so fun with all her animal sounds and sign language, and she had a ton of energy!  She is exactly a year older than Maia, so it was interesting to think Maia will be in the same stage next Christmas!

Other exciting new obsessions…see the puzzle?…(and Baby Luke)

Yeah, she thinks it’s a binky or something and just cruises around with it in her mouth. Although without the suction of a real pacifier, drool falls out all over her path.

Maia is also pulling up to practice standing

and likes to show her one-handed skills with it as well, although with some frustration.

Now week 2 of vacation got a little boring.

Someone come play!

Anyone?

OK, fine, I’ll just play by the door, just in case someone shows up

And then our good friend, Dave, showed up!

Dave gave Maia lots of love and attention as he told us about his coming adventure moving to Pittsburg (thanks to a cool new lady in his life!). We love you, Dave!

And no, that’s not a beer bottle, but we are hoping to introduce it soon to her diet.

And just a couple more cute shots…it’s cold out there!

for play

for family

for friends

for friends like family

for food

for seasons

I’m finally getting to this…there has been much to do adjusting back to being home after our week in Honduras.  Luke, Maia and I had a great time visiting our friends in the village of Brisas del Volcan in Honduras.  We are partnering with them for 5 years as these 24 families work very hard and develop the land so that they can receive title to the land, be land owners, and leave povery!

We led a team of 15 people, most from Chico, but others from all over who are support the village. We spent 2 days travelling, 5 days in the village and the last day in Copan (or mostly driving there), the Mayan ruins on the border near Guatemala.  Our time in the village included some activities planned by us like a Thanksgiving cultural exchange with pumpkin pie (they were initially confused, as squash is not usually eaten as dessert!), games and crafts with the kids, and photo frame making with the women and family portraits. We also toured the land, pruned plantain trees, weeded the coffee nursery, visited homes, helped make tortillas, collect eggs, milk cows, and see the whole process of coffee–hulling, washing, drying, skinning, roasting!  And speaking of coffee, most of our hours were spent picking (or cutting, as they say “cortar cafe”) coffee since it was ripe and ready.  We strapped on baskets and picked the red berries, going up and down the rows of lush green plants in the misty air with a Brisas buddy.  Luke said this was one of his highlights–truly “walking and working together” as the slogan of our partnership states–picking from the same plants, feeling more alike than different in those moments.

Taking Maia was sure an adventure as we really didn’t know what to expect. She did pretty well, considering 4 plane rides, 2 daily hour-long bumpy car rides, and lots of Honduras (in the village, at restaurants, while nursing, at the hotel, everywhere!) grabbing her legs and cheeks and chunk and squealing “¡Qué linda! ¡Los ojos azules!” and other such excitements and witnessing a little gringa.  She often was completely overstimulated by 3pm and wanted some space.  We couldn’t have done it without my mom and Jeff and Lauryn. too!  Overall we were really happy we brought her to feel even more united with the villagers as family is everything to them!  It showed trust and value in this relationship.

One of my highlights was during home visits on the last day.  One of the women (16 years old and pregnant with her first!) was taking us to her house and those of some neighbors when we stopped in on Mireya who had her first baby only 4 days before!  I had also worked with her husband, Rigoberto, in the coffee finca a few days prior (apparently they don’t do paternity leave).  I entered the small one-room house to find a tiny newborn wrapped up on his mother’s lap with several women surround her trying to show her how to breastfeed.  The little unnamed baby (they usually wait 2 months to name the children) was struggling to latch on. In that moment all evidence of our economic and social barriers disappeared and we were two mothers who had experienced the exact same thing. I was able to encourage her and giver her a few tips, but mainly just relate completely, knowing that the difficulties and eventual success I had 6 months ago had nothing to do with my wealth or privilege.  I felt totally human and united with Mireya.  These are the moments Agros encourages us to look for, where we see that we too have poverty and we are like our poor Honduran brothers and sisters in many ways.

Thanks for listening, supporting, and praying. Check out lots of photos on Shutterfly