Flower Power

So as you can see, Maya made her debut as 'Flower Girl' for the first time this past weekend! PHEW. That was a somewhat.. oh.. painful? experience for Mommy. ;) But all's well that ends well. Or just ends.
I know, I know.. you are always treading into the unknown when a child this young takes part in a wedding - and frankly it's half the fun! But maybe not for the parents. Or parent.. as Aj was unable to travel with us due to a work commitment. I was photographing some parts of the wedding - it was my niece getting married - and trying to keep an eye on Maya/get her to walk down the aisle. We were able to finally get her to walk down the aisle, but only holding the maid-of-honor's hand. It was 3:30 pm and she was waaaay past the melting point. She somehow made it down the aisle. No flower petals were thrown and no ring of flowers was worn on the head.. but she made it! Whoohoo!! I had to be proud of that huge accomplishment!
I will have renewed respect for parents of flower girls/ring bearers in the weddings that I photograph!
Maya had a great time at the reception though. Once the music started, look out! She was a dancing queen! She kept trying to pull little boys out onto the dance floor with her, but none of them were agreeable. I think she intimidated them with her .. 'moves'. She was having huge fun. So fun to watch! It was all fun until she vomited.. twice. After the 2nd incident, it was time to go home. Too much fun had been had. I had photographed everything that I needed to get for my niece, and it was time to go back into Mommy mode. It was very nice of my family to help watch her while I was working tho - so if you are reading this (Mike, Christy, Charlie, etc) - THANK YOU!!! I got some great photos and could not have done it without your help.

Sooo.. what else is new? So long since we have sat down to have a chat!
I'm still training for the Tri-For-The-Cure. Hopefully I get comfortable on my bike - it's the only part I'm concerned about right now. Only reason for concern is that I JUST got it (well, it's Aj's old bike, all fixed up and ready to go). I have not ridden a bike in - oh - 15/20 years? I can ride it, but I'm paranoid as hell and feel like I'm going to hit a rock or something and wipe out at any moment. Where is my youthful confidence? What has happened?? I thought it was '..just like riding a bike..''? Who made up that ridiculous expression?? Obviously not someone who is as un-coordinated as I am.
But I'll be fine. I will ride that stupid thing every day until August 2nd and I WILL kick butt. I'm ready to meet the challenge.
And along those lines.. my mom is still holding her own in her fight against her cancer. YAY! GO MAMA!! She is sooo very tired all the time - and her back hurts quite often and quite a lot.. but she is living life, going out, and fighting hard. It was great to see her for the short time that I was able to this past weekend. Miss her.
Maya was sooo cute with her, btw. She kept asking mom how she was feeling and saying '..are you ok, sweetie??'. Sometimes she would gently stroke her grandma's face or arm.. and occasionally go get her a blanket and put it over her legs. SO adorable.
I actually had to do some photos for my niece and left Maya with my parents - they took her to dinner one night and to lunch one afternoon - and Maya was awesome! It was her first outing without me.. and she was super well-behaved. Didn't eat anything of course.. but that's normal. I was very proud! {not to mention relieved!!}

In child-medical-news: All of our freak-outs from the Int'l Adoption Clinic were laid to rest. PHEW. Good god if they didn't scare the crap out of us for what turned out to be nothing really. {eye roll} But hey - good news is good news. Glad it isn't bad news, so I won't complain much about that. Devi does have strabismus - which means a bit of eye-crossing. The opthamalogist said that it isn't bad at all and he is sure it is due to prematurity and malnutrition. He thinks that a year of hi-cal diet will make a huge difference, so we will revisit this in one year.
Devi did qualify for some PT and/or OT. We will be beginning that sometime in the next month or so. I tend to think that this is ridiculous and she doesn't need it.. but we'll see how the first session goes. The evaluators from the state did not impress me, and I think they were concerned about things that are not concerning. But whatever. We'll see.
Maya will be starting PT in a couple of weeks, which is actually very good. The orthopedist did not see any major issues with her and feels that PT will make a huge difference. He also told us that her leg pains are due to a milk allergy (which she was skin-tested for and that was negative). We did not really believe him, but we removed dairy from her diet.. and voila! The leg aches mostly went away! WOW! I'll be darned.
She does have problems with her joints/muscle tone though. The more active she is this summer, the more problems we are running into. She is turning her ankles or twisting her knees on almost a daily basis. And then she is in pain for a day or two. So yes, she has been in pain almost every day for the past couple of weeks. We actually can see it when it happens, so at least we know what we are dealing with. PT will be a great thing for her.

We went to DisneyWorld, Orlando a couple of weeks ago. What a great trip! The girls did smashingly well - I was pleasantly surprised. And I, of course, loved it! I am a huge Disney fan. Can't wait to go back someday!
So Maya and Devika are both doing very well. Devi is starting to talk more - she said 'thank you' today for the first time.. and is starting to occasionally say an entire word rather than just the first sound of a word. She is still throwing huge holy terror tantrums when she is with Maya and they are fighting for my attention. This is something that we are just going to have to work through over time. And of course, when she starts HER tantrums.. Maya has to make sure that she is not overshadowed. Our household is often very very loud! But we'll get past it, painful as it is.
It constantly amazes me how much I love these two little girls! They can scream and yell.. tell me that they don't love me (that one was hard at first but I'm totally immune to it now! and of course that is only Maya so far..).. tell me that they want to 'pour chocolate on me and push me' (hmm.. that actually doesn't sound so bad!) - and then in the next moment, I get huge hugs and wet kisses. I get told over and over how much they love me (ok that's just Maya also, but Devi hugs, kisses, and neck-snuggles). Maya crawls into bed with us almost daily.. and I want to be stern and force her back into her bed.. but then she snuggles up to me, strokes my cheek with her hand, gives me the loviest-eye look that anyone could ever give (those immense pools of black that are her eyes!), smooches on me, and with the cutest little loving smile, she tells me how she just loves me soooo, soooo very much. Yikes. Owch. Sigh.
Some recent Maya-quips:
On the plane to IN, just Maya and I. She is at the window, I'm in the middle. Some nice young man sitting next to me. Maya leans over and asks, 'Excuse me? Excuse me??? WHY are you sitting next to my Mama??' She did this on 3-4 different occasions during the flight. Poor thing.. could not understand the seating situation on a plane!

Waiting for the plane, watching them fuel-up through the window: 'MOMMY! MOMMY! They are putting fuel into the airplane's arms!!'

On the plane, in response to the flight attendant's request for our drink order: Maya (loudly): 'I want apple juice. That is good for my poo-poos.'

Maya - to her babysitter (who, incidentally, is caucasian): 'Miss J, what chocolate are you?'
Miss J: 'Chocolate??'
Maya: 'Hmm.. I think you are white chocolate like my mommy. I'm milk chocolate. Daddy is dark chocolate.'

Maya: 'Mommy, I think we need to sit down and talk about our feelings. We are having a confrontation.'