Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!!!

Wow, I can't believe almost 4 months have gone by since our precious little girl came into our lives. Time flies and I have been hard pressed to find time to post in the blog. Sorry everyone! We have also taken a million pictures and videos of her since then and I couldn't decide which ones to post so I figured I'd post them all!!! (Well not literally "all" but a good percentage!! : ) )

We got some studio photos done of her on her first month birthday. When she was 1 month old she never cried--ever--not even when she was hungry. She got there and decided to take some family shots with all three of us. She would not stop crying!!! Then as soon as Jose and I let the pictures she was just fine. She just wanted to have all the spotlight to herself!! : )

"Huh? What??" haha When she was younger she always had this look on her face like she had no idea what was goin' on.

ha ha She always sleeps with her mouth wide open. Just like her Papi.

"If you think this dress looks good, you should see how it tastes! Yum"

Sunday is defintaly Maya's least favorite day. I always put her in really frilly and uncomfortable dresses. Poor girl. I always feel bad because she hates them so much but they are cute and I figure it's uncomfortable being a woman so she should get used to it. : ) But as soon as we get home the dress comes off and the smile comes on.

This day, however, she decided she wan't to try out Papi's tie.

Those of you who have ever seen Jose on Sunday after church know that this is how you are supposed to wear a tie if you have Lamanite blood.

Maya loves to sleep and cuddle with us, and I love it too, but I could never sleep when she was in our bed because I was so worried that she would suffocate or something like that so I pain-stakingly built her a mini-bed of her own to put in our bed. She loves it....

...but still perfers Mami's bed.

I finally graduated this semester!! Yay!!! I got my Associate of Arts from Weber. I was actually supposed to graduate in December but I didn't want to go to commencement 9 months preggers so I waited and it was nice to have Maya there.

She enjoyed it and thought that the dipoloma rightfully belongs to her.

Maya will get super chubby and then sprout up and get tall and skinny then start the whole process over again. Here's her during one of her chubby days...

"Rub my belly for good luck"

Almaya is such a good baby. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. She is so happy almost all the time. And so sweet and caring.

Her personality is starting to shine through more and more each day and I love getting to know her. She is definately one of my best friends. Some of her favorite things are giving hugs and kisses (very slobbery kisses), the color blue, chewing on anything, frogs, getting her diaper changed (wow, yes--she loves that), sleeping with mami for as long as mami will let her ( man, that girl would sleep all day if I let her), being outside (as long as there is no wind), and her favorite thing in the whole world is watching TV...

It doesn't matter if it's the news, and action flick, or Sesame Street, she could watch TV all day long. (and gets quite upset when mami doesn't let her.)

We love her very much and are so lucky to have gotten a little girl so patient and caring. (her mami loves all the hugs all day long!!)

I will try to update more often on the blog. Maya keeps me pretty busy because she thinks she is the center of my world (wonder where she gets that idea haha). But I will definately post sooner this time.

I haven't posted in the blog for so long because I was worried that maybe something I had written had offended someone else as well. I apologize if this is the case. My blog is a means for me to keep a diary of my and my little family's life. I, in no way, ever try to brag or search for pity in anything that I write. I know many times I complain or talk about the difficulties in my life in my posts. I realize there are many many more people that have it much tougher than me and I don't pretend to be blind to that. I write how I feel and say what happens to me from my personal prospective. I am not searching for any reaction from anyone. If people want to read my blog they are more than welcome--if not they don't have to. I would never wish to offend or hurt anyone and I apologize to anyone that has in any way felt offended by anything I have said. If you read this blog please keep in mind that you are reading a type of public diary entry that in no way takes into account others perspectives or experiences. I appreciate the two comments from Alysia and Allie--they gave me the courage to begin to post again and just try to ignore negativity. Thank you.

The last few weeks have been crazy. It's tough being a new mom--wow--a huge pat on the back for all those of you who have gone through motherhood--you are all amazing! : ) It's a challenge. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for those who have extra medical stresses on top of everything else. Alysia--I seriously respect you so much. I have no idea how you deal with so much on your plate everyday and have to watch Grace suffer so much.

That point was really driven home for me this last week because Maya has been very sick. It kills me to see her suffer. Maya had been a little sick and clingy all week but the Tuesday after her baby blessing she woke up just not looking good. By the end of the day she had a temperature of over 101 and was throwing up and diarrhea non-stop. Maya doesn't like to eat normally--in fact we have had to breast and bottle feed ever since she was born to try to force her to eat enough--so since she was sick she had absolutely no desire to eat. Every time we tried to force feed her she would just throw it up. By Wed. morning when we rushed her to the doctor she had not eaten anything for over 18 hours and hardly anything before that for a week. She was severely dehydrated and so lethargic that she couldn't even blink. It was so scary. When I looked at her she looked like she was dead, there was absolutely no sparkle of life in her dried out eyes. It was an all too familiar reminder of when I held her older brother. The doctor immediately sent us to the ER for testing and an IV. As soon as we walking in the ER door they took one look at her and rushed her into the ICU section of the ER. I was really worried about her before then be after seeing how all the doctors were reacting in the ER I started to get really panicked. She had 6 doctors working on her for almost 2 hours without leaving her side. An hour of that was just trying to get an IV in her. Her veins had collapsed from being so dehydrated. They tried 15 different times trying to find a vein--everywhere, in her head, her hands, her arms, her armpit...It was horrible. I have never heard her cry like that. After about the eighth time they pricked her I couldn't handle it anymore and just broke down bawling. Alysia--you are amazing--I will never know how you summon the strength to watch the doctors poke and prod and Grace so much, even though you know it's for her good it's still so hard.

After a while of the IV fluids Maya perked up enough to eat a little breast milk and they sent us home. The doctor kept saying what a miracle it was--how fast she turned around from being so far gone. Scary and horrible experience. Now, two days later, she is much better but still on lots of meds to keep her temperature down and try to help her have as little pain as possible. She still is throwing up almost everything she eats but we have been able to keep her at least hydrated. She is so strong--so brave. The whole time she has been sick she hasn't really even cried just lots and lots of moaning. Hopefully she will get better soon and not have to suffer anymore.

On a lighter note--I have some pictures of Maya from the last few weeks...

Here she is in her traditional Mexican outfit from her Aunt AlysiaWith Grandpa AndersenOn my birthday (feb. 3) I dressed her up in the dress I originally bought when I was pregnant with Helaman (I thought he was a girl--hehe) Jose has always said that Maya looks like a baby Orangutan--I hate to admit it but he's right. HahaOur little baby OrangutanJose and Maya look and act so much alike--she is like a whiter, calmer version of him. They even sleep alike : ) ....Maya LOVES to take baths...wow she would stay in her little jacuzzi bath all day if she could. This is what happens to her hair naturally if I don't comb it down while it's still wet. Poor girl...
She always looks like she stuck her finger in an electric outlet. haha

Maya got a chance to visit her Great-Grandma Talbot a while ago. That is who she gets her name "Paulina" from

Technical Note

Oh, by the way, if you haven't been able to figure out how to turn off the song to be able to hear the video scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog--there are two song lists press pause on the one that is titled Maya's Theme Song. It is right above the family picture sticker. Enjoy!!

Almaya's Birth Video

Sorry it took me forever to figure out how to get this posted. Also, have no fear, there is no video of the actual birth--just before and about 30 seconds after. When the doctors checked me and found out that she was already popping out I called my mom but she didn't have time to get there before she was born to video tape the actual birth--although that is probably for the better. : ) It truly was a miracle though because my mom got there seriously just a few seconds after she was born so she was able to video tape all the cleaning-up and first few seconds and glances Almaya had of this world. Ahhhh

*The video is really long and probably very boring for most of you, haha--feel free to skip through to see the parts you want*

Maya's First Tanning Bed

The doctor said Maya's jaundice was bad enough that he wanted her to stay in a light bed for the weekend. It's not fun at all because all she wants is to be held but we can only take her out to change her diaper and feed her. Plus, someone has to be awake and in the same room as the machine the entire time it's on which means Jose and I haven't slept yet since we got it yesterday. It's so sad to see her cry and scream and not be able to pick her up. : (
She hates the blind fold that she has to wear. She's constantly taking it off. The stinker.

This is her "I'm just chillin'" pose. hehe

Here are a few pictures from the hospital of Maya wearing her first outfit. This is the outfit that I bought for Jose's birthday to tell him I was pregnant with Helaman (at the time I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl so I bought one of each).

She loves to wear tights--thank you Amy!!! She loves them. She was screaming, then the second we put them on she stopped and was so happy. : )