Maya at 12 months: A Portrait

Now that Maya is a year old, it seems like a good time to recap her likes and dislikes and all her new found abilities.

Our smiley little girl

At 12 months, Maya CAN:

• Do 21 signs (monkey, mouse, cat/home, maman, daddy, more, food, water, all done, bath, car, hot, bye bye, milk, fish, hat, walk, kiss, Noah/brother, up, and sleep - she has also done the flower, diaper, please, and cold signs a few times but not yet enough to be counted). Unlike Noah who liked to perform his "tricks," Maya uses her signs when she wants something or to communicate  or converse but will generally not sign on cue except maybe for monkey, hat and kiss;
• String three signs together to ask for something (she has asked for "mama more food", and "mama more kiss") - she regularly strings two signs together ("eat cat" for feed Lhasa, "more kisses", "more food", "maman kiss");
• Understand a few additional signs: book, music, ball, banana and elephant;
• Understand the spoken words both in English and in French for all the signs she knows as well as many other words (for example "poubelle", "attention", "Lhasa"....);
• Say a few words in context (Mama, Dada, and we have heard "cat" and "lait" but she does not say them every time);
• Chew things well with her six teeth (only two of which are fully out, two of which are partially out and two of which are barely out) - she never seems to choke on anything and spits it out if it feels too big;
• Be in a room on her own without us fearing too much for her life (she seems to stay away from the most dangerous things);
• Listen to and follow simple directions (for example, "Maya touche ton nez", or "Maya va chercher le ballon" or "Maya va trouver Lhasa"); 
• Listen (and, surprisingly) heed us when we tell her not to do something (for example, if I tell her "Maya ne touche pas la poubelle" as she is walking towards the garbage can clearly wanting to touch it she almost always will listen, turn to me and then walk away, another example: the other day, she was approaching Noah's desk and I told her "Maya ne touche pas le bureau de Noah", she turned away and burst into tears because she really wanted to but understood that she was not supposed to);
• Understand and when she feels like it, point to her "nez, bouche, et oreilles";
• Point to things she wants to know more about or is curious about or wants (this is not new - it has been a few months now that she started pointed but I am not sure I noted it anywhere so I am including it here);
• Light up when she smiles which she does a lot but also fill a room with loud piercing shrieks when unhappy or just because;
• Feed herself anything that is not puree (I often put her food in her bib - especially when we are out - she happily forages for every last piece in there);
• Walk well and fast (she still refuses to crawl);
• Almost do a forward somersault on her own - she puts her head down curled up in position and starts pushing her weight forward;
• Hum a recognizable tune (her one recognizable tune is the first bit of jingle bells for some reason);
• Hold her breath when going underwater (I say A, B, C and blow on her face and she closes her eyes and mouth and underwater she goes and then back up) - although Maya lets us know when she is unhappy with a situation - she has never cried in the pool even when we first started and she did not quite know how to do it yet);

Playing with leaves, water and buckets

At 12 months, Maya DISLIKES

• Not getting her way - she gets shrieky if one takes away a "toy" (a leaf, a piece of paper, a roll of scotch tape, electric cables) from her or if Daddy picks her up when she wants Maman;
• Not being in Maman's arms when she wants to be - Maya can be very independent and play on her own for quite a while and roam happily around the house on her own BUT when she wants to be in Maman's arms she really wants to be in Maman's arms and nobody else's (except maybe Noah);
• Being tired - she gets very grumpy and sensitive when she needs to sleep;
• Changing her diaper - she tolerates it most of the time but is not very happy about it - especially when taken away from the action;
• Being kept on someone's lap (even Maman's) when she wants to go explore (she likes being held when we are walking around but rarely when we are sitting down unless we are reading a book);
• Car rides - she just does not like being confined to her car seat but has gotten easier to distract and now understands if we say/sign "we are taking the car (car sign) to go see Lhasa (cat sign)";
• Being stuck under a table or in a play tunnel when she cannot walk out and has to crawl out;
• Not being involved in big kid - grown up activities;
• Being fed (eg purees) when she wants to feed herself (eg finger food);
• Having her teething biscuit taken away from her when, for example, we have to go somewhere  or bundle her for the arctic cold (note that eating the teething biscuit is a 45mn affair);
• Not being allowed to grab things from Noah's desk; and
• Not being allowed to pick up all the little pieces of paper that Noah has carefully cut and strewn all over the floor. 

Maya eyeing the forbidden desk

At 12 months, Maya LIKES

• Receiving kisses and more kisses and more kisses preferably from more than one person at a time;
• Her big brother - her face lights up when he comes home or when he comes over to play with her;
• Monkeys - since I took her to the zoo she has been obsessed with monkeys - we have some pictures and drawings that have monkeys in her room and Noah's and she signs monkey monkey to go see them and then "eat eat, monkey monkey" so she can feed the monkey imaginary food - I took her to the zoo again recently and she kept asking to see "monkeys" and "more monkeys" and "feed the monkeys" (she loved watching the keepers feed the monkeys and got very excited);
• Balls of all sorts;
• Garbage cans (though she never actually gets to touch them she likes to walk towards them and then turn to me waiting for me to tell her not to touch it);
• Pointing to things and having us name them (nose, ears, eyes but also Maya, Daddy, Maman and objects around us "bottle", "stroller", "leaf", "flower"). Sometimes she will point at different parts of herself because she wants to play;
• Hanging around in front of the kitchen and watching Eleonor cook;
• Flowers - Maya really likes looking at flowers and smelling them and having me make the flower sign (scrunch up nose and breathe in through the nose);
• Her rabbit and pony doudous - she has a pony and rabbit in her crib and two other smaller rabbits attached to her carseat stroller and her normal stroller and loves stroking them to fall asleep;
• "Sing" - when the music is on or when we are singing - she will "sing" with us - usually "aaaaa";
• Her thumb - Maya still sucks the magic thumb that calms her and puts her to sleep (though she usually does not sleep with it in her mouth);
• Doing and being involved in whatever her brother is doing;
• Music and dancing - music and sounds have always been very important for Maya - when she was a newborn, she slept very well but needed her "womb sounds" to sleep, then she graduated to Mozart and Guantanamera but to this day if I put on Guantanamera when we are out and it is nap time, she calms down and goes straight to sleep - she also likes dancing to the music and shaking her rattles along with the music;
• Playing in the sand;
• Lhasa - feeding Lhasa at night (she asks "eat Lhasa" if I forget to feed Lhasa before putting her to bed) and running after Lhasa and trying to play with her, finding her in the apartment;
• Adult food (she loved the injera and Ethiopian food we made for Ethiopian night, she loves satay and kaya toast and chana masala and dahls and pretty much anything in our plates though her tolerance for very spicy foods is still limited);
• Picking up leaves on the floor - the smaller and dryer the better. She either carries them around with her for a while or she puts them in her "basket" (little water toy bin);
• Splashing around in the pool;
• Taking a bath with her brother;
• Tiny bits of paper she can hold in her hand, swap hands so she can suck her thumb and re-swap hands (she generally does not put them in her mouth anymore but with all the hand switching it is hard to keep track!);
• Hanging upside down from her legs and somersaults in the air and on the ground both forwards and backwards;
• Playing peek-a-boo;
• Riding on our shoulders... for about 5 minutes;
• Bopping around the apartment, doing her funny walks, dancing, looping around the living room;
• Being thrown in the air (and caught); and
• People - she is generally very sociable - for example in her music and movement group she always goes up to the various moms and the teacher (she immediately picked up on who the "teacher" was and went straight to her the first time) and smiles at them and tries to show them her toys.

Sucking her thumb

Our determined little girl

Overall, Maya is a very sweet and smiley girl who likes to make people smile with her funny expressions and walks. She is curious about the world and enjoys communicating with us (via signs or otherwise). She is independent (for a one year old). At the same time she also loves attention and kisses. She is very determined and knows what she wants and will easily become upset (read shriek) when her plans are foiled. She will also easily return to the smiley sweet Maya when redirected.