Maia Mi

The other day I heard something about Trafalgar Square getting covered in real grass. As it was one of my Maia days I thought, what the 'eck, let's go do a mini picnic together. Even though we'd already been to Greenwich play park and back (including swooping into Green Baby for a pair of BabyBanz shades), I felt anything was better than trying to entertain her at home.

Maia had a laugh a minute - it was fabulous, better than I expected. Trafalgar Square looked fantastic in a covering of green - although there were a lot of soggy bottoms around as they obviously had to keep the turf well watered. Maia made friends (as always) everywhere she dragged me in her classic baby walker style with her little hands around my fingers, me and my aching back...


This one woman told me she was 46 (she looked about 37!) and had a 26 year old daughter. That was weird. Then we made friends with an extended Turkish family who had a little 14 month old - much bigger than Maia though and walking like a pro. They had a pram with fantastic straps (well, Maia thought so anyway) and so she spent best part of half hour fiddling with them while I embarrassedly chatted to the mum. They even gave us a piece of their pizza!

After that Maia took me on another tour and we met another mother with two kids (one 4, one 5) who gave Maia her first ever taste of Pringles. She loved it. Oh and as we had a closer peek at the fountains (Maia was desperate to go all the way in) she made friends with a couple of guys sitting on the edge who took a photo of the both of us. A great afternoon out and well worth the effort.

Maia had one of her longest days out and about on 17th May - Norway's National Day. The day was fantastic, all in all. It was supposed to rain and storm and instead it was one of our sunniest days in our whole trip to Norway.

We got up, got ourselves sorted and dressed (Maia looking adorable in her outfit) and zoomed off to my sister's where we all rush out of the door to catch Elin, who is already walking in the procession which passes by the King's palace. Over a 100 Schools march past the King and his family, and she's number 27, so we are in a real rush. I plop Maia in the sling on my back and as we walk along the famous Oslo boulevard Karl Johan, we spot Elin and wave and take piccies. That over with, we have to make our way through the crowds to the top of the palace where the park is. Maia falls asleep in the sling & has a little snooze, thank goodness, as that's the only snooze she has apart from one tiny one which she has a LOT later on near the end of the day.


In the park Maia tries pølse med lompe for the first ever time. A hot dog in a potato cake, it's traditional on 17th May and she loves it. After that we watch the bands and the schools go past the King again and Maia eats nearly all my icecream (which is also only her second ever taste of ice cream).

Then it's off to my sister's for a delicious cold table and Maia has the time of her life as the human doll which Marie and Elin can't stop playing with. How much attention does she get? She barely gets the time to breathe!

We finally get home at around 9.30 and get Maia bathed and into bed asap (she's pretty worn out and very, very grumpy) and then, knackered as we are, we sit down for a glass (or two) of champagne. A brilliant if exhausting day.

We've been back a while but we've been so busy that I've yet to even mention our trip to Norway. Suffice to say all of us had a fantastic time and Maia, even at her age, got to 'connect' a little to her Norwegian roots. By the time she came home she was a little blonde norse and No was Nei and Hello was Hei!

The flight over was a little bit of a trial - Granny stayed over to help & take the car away after we got to the airport & we got up at 4.30am (Maia stayed asleep) and got the car packed - woke a jolly Maia who was in a great mood and popped her in the car. She didn't sleep at all on the drive (damn!) so I knew she'd be tired on the flight (which she was). We ate breakfast together at Stansted (me - chocolate croissant - (I'm the grown up so I get the treats, right), Maia - yoghurt and muesli)

On the flight she was fine until close to arrival when she got a bit hysterical - overtired and fed up with trying to play with her seatbelt (she's got this huge thing about clips and straps at the moment). But if I remember rightly she cheered up once we landed getting to my brother's after that was pretty straight forward. What shocked me was how she went up to a totally new room, in a totally new house, in a totally new bed and went for a 90 minute nap there and then!!!

Overexcited & overwhelmed Maia hardly ate for about three days and woke up loads in the night - but she settled in after that and even if the nights were a bit tough, she was up for anything in the day. We went to Vigelands Parken to see my big sisters and they (of course) loved her. We went to see my niece Charlotte, her hubby Per and their little 'un Alfred (who is so sweet). And then.... 17th May, which warrants a post of its own - which was a day and a half spent with my sister and her kids. Of course there was also Ernst Simon and Randi and little Sofie who was a little bit friendlier this time around - the best part was when they spent half an hour splashing in the bath together - it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen - we captured a little bit on a mobile phone but it really doesn't quite show just how manic the two girls were!




Another flight next - off to Bergen this time for my brother's 40th. This time we meet daddy at the airport and again she surprises me by settling in pretty easily in a new house. I'm totally sleep deprived at this point as Maia seems to think 5am is a good wake up time (it's so light in Norway by then), but as I've managed to slowly wean Maia off her morning feed during the past few days Dylan takes Maia off each morning we are in Bergen and I get a lie in - ABSOLUTE LUXURY!!!

On the night of his party, Maia is too excited by the doorbells and visitors to go to sleep right away, but WOW, she just babbles to herself (I can hear her say 'ding dong' every time the doorbell signals another arrival) and then she finally goes to sleep and sleeps through the WHOLE BLIMMING THING! including a bunch of blokes sitting right outside her door having a whisky party. her bedroom is right next to the party room! excellent - let's hope she can sleep through other parties!

we take a trip on the floybanen up to a great view of bergen and we also have a go on Torleif's boat (Maia absolutely loved that).

what was also fantastic was that their cat had kittens on the day after we arrived and we saw her give birth. not sure how much Maia understood but she did love the kittens, even if she didn't quite understand the fuss we were all giving them.

A great trip all in all, lots of family giving Maia lots of attention & lots of learning and new experiences - by the time we got home maia seemed a slightly older baby and has been sleeping really well (touch wood) and been really content.

Some of Maia's birthday pix are viewable here

I know, I know, watching telly at 1 year old!
BUT. I picked up this second hand teletubbies vid at the charity shop yesterday and decided we should have a little go - for one, I picked up a second hand La La doll at Spitalfields Market and even the doll was obviously something Maia really loved without prejudice - just seemed more attractive to her than some of our other soft toys... weird huh.
OH MY GOD. The baby 'sun' just works - she was grinning every time he came on. Then there was the teletubbies themselves who she just LOVED. seriously. they were doing some silly 'boom boom' dance which the little children in the film had been learning - and maia joined in. SUCH a find! As I understand teletubbies stuff is basically deleted and only available mostly on ebay for inflated prices - this was a really early episode and we haven't watched them all yet. Let's hope the quality stays ok cos there was some scrappy bits (old VHS style) which had me worried...
Aside from that, we've simply been to the swing park & now she's asleep - plan is to go to the big chill bar - but everything got a bit late and she's still sleeping and it's now 3.15! i shouldn't complain, she took half hour of jibber jabber to go down - thought she never would!

We had a lovely day yesterday. Even though it was actually rather sad - as Dylan had to leave at lunchtime to go to Seattle for work...
We started off at toddler group at The Bear which, as usual, was a delight for Maia - today she decided she could walk as long as she held onto the back of the wooden tricycle (shaped like a dog) - so she wandered about for herself just lightly leaning on this fabulous toy trike. She also got VERY excited about the singing and she's become very good at lying down like the sleeping rabbits - this happened last week for the first time, now she understands 'pretending' or, at least, she's moving towards being able to do something like that (pretending to be asleep even though she isn't - must be a milestone!)
Anyway - after her 2 hour (repeat - 2 hour) nap in the afternoon we sloped off to Tate Modern even though the weather was threatening and I thought I was being a bit foolhardy. Anything but to be bored at home though. And the whole thing was GREAT!
We walked from London Bridge and took in the sights on the way (Maia was okay in her pram and rain cover - I was getting slightly drizzled on...) - including the boats on the river and a fountain and I don't know what else, people with umbrellas - it's all exciting for her...
And then we walked on the Millennium Bridge - I just wish I had taken a few photos - her reaction was so sweet - she loved walking holding my hand and going wow at the views and she just loved the whole thing.
Then - for the goal of the journey - Tate Modern's cavernous entrance. And it didn't disappoint - Maia was hands in the air ecstatic! Gasping and shouting for joy. Lots of other kids there too. She could practise walking and did a bit of crawling too - made a friend with a two year old and generally grinned for about half an hour solid. She just couldn't get enough of the place. Wonder what it is that the kids like - I guess it just feels big and LOUD and echo-y
Of course, as usual, I had waited too long to get her home so we were both pretty tired and hungry by suppertime - but she didn't get into a state, ate well, enjoyed her bath and her NEW MIFFY book (couldn't resist at the museum shop) and was in bed asleep by 7.15pm...

Maia has made a huge step in the past week or so. She's discovered her own identity - by pointing at pictures on the fridge and saying Maia and repeating her own name while looking in the mirror. Although she knew that Maia the word had something to do with her, I think this is an acknowledgement that she understands she's a person who is called something and other people are called other things.

We took Maia with us to see our friends Melissa and James on their new houseboat at the weekend. Hendrik's the name of the boat and it used to be a hotel boat in the Netherlands, offering canoe trips and so on - so it's got a bunch of canoes on the top they're trying to get rid of, it's got loads and loads of bunk beds and bed linen and crockery - and they're busy converting it into a proper house boat. Meantime they've bagged one of the best views of the River Thames by landing a mooring just by Tower Bridge where you have to walk down all these weird walkways with floating flowerbeds around you (as well as a nesting goose!).

Maia absolutely loved it on the rocking boat - trying to balance as she walked (with support) around and chatting to James's parents. She tried a raw broccoli floret and it became her best friend for most of the time we were there (crazy gal). The idea of a houseboat is lovely but I felt a bit seasick so I'm glad we're buying a house... ha ha!

Fed Maia spaghetti bolognese the other day. She was loving sucking the threads of spaghetti and practically ate the whole lot - about double the spaghetti i thought she'd eat - filmed a short video of it, must put it up soon!
Maia's getting much better at handling finger foods in general and grabbing the spoon to eat with here and there (but then she gets frustrated and wants to let me do it instead).
At the moment Maia loves eating: blueberries, grapes, raisins (especially if she gets the box & can take them out herself), chewy fruit cereal bars and broccoli florets. strangely she seems to have generally gone off banana which was what she practically lived on before.

I can't remember exactly when we went but I took Maia to the Baby Gym at The Arches recently - it was hilarious!
There's this huge vast space filled with soft bouncy mats & shapes, slides of all shapes and sizes, big balls, small balls, squashy things to roll onto and over, and then, at the end of the hall, there's this mini bouncy castle - maia LOVED this, even though she wasn't really old enough and all the other three-year olds were throwing themselves around often landing on top of our poor little maia - but she only wanted to go back and bounce as soon as she'd had a cuddle!
Obviously it'll come into its own once she starts walking (she's kind of stalled since that last exciting five steps on her own - as if she's thought about it and decided she wants to wait a bit) - but it was great fun.

Maia absolutely loves telephones. She'll put them up to her ear and go 'eyo' 'eyo'. Funny how much they pick up at that age. They play with telephones at nursery so it's hard for us to keep her away from our real phone, but we try as hard as we can to interest her in playphones and old mobile phones (glad i kept 'em now!). the funny thing is that anything can be a phone, remote controls especially, make good substitutes.