Back online!

Sorry for the silence on Maya's blog. We've had a hectic few weeks and blogging has been delayed. Here are my lame excuses:

• I was in Shanghai for 2 weeks.
• Maya moved into what used to be my office and our home computer is still in Maya's room. This means no late night blogging.
• Maya has been sick with a runny nose, fever, coughing and have been trowing up at night.
• I'm lazy.

Here's a puzzle for you until I get back with an update on doctor's visits and new adventures in Maya's life:

Can you find Maya in this picture? First person with the right answer wins a hug from Maya.

Visit to the doctor X 3 and a blood draw X 2

This month is full of doctor's visits. We saw Dr Rosen last week and she was very happy with Maya's development and growth. Maya is following the normal growth curve without compensation for prematurity.

We also did one blood test last week but had to go back again last night to do the test again since Dr Kidney wasn't happy with the results (and neither was mom and dad). It's time for all of you to again keep your fingers crossed, hall tummarna, pray, send positive thoughts etc for our little girl so the results come out better on Thursday when we go to see Dr Kidney.

The week after next we have a follow up with the Dr Development at the high-risk-infant-follow-up-clinic.

We'll keep you posted on the progress....

Playing in the sand

Farfar had some left over sand from a project at home which left a fun sand hill in the garden. Maya was having a great time playing in the sand with Malin and farmor.




I guess white pants are a bad idea when you play in the sand....

Visiting the godfather

Back to updates from Sweden...

Maya got to see her godfather, Johan, along with Karolina, Noa och Vera.


Maya had tons of fun with Noa & Vera. She really enjoyed playing with the big girls and didn't want it to end.


Noa's and Vera's slide was a favorite and she just threw herself down the slide over and over again. Fearless!!


Johan and Karolina have a really steep set of stairs that of course Maya thought was great fun to climb. Our house is one-story only but Maya figured out how to climb stairs right away.




Thanks Johan and Karolina for a great evening and sorry for keeping you up so late on a work day.

A dress from Bente

Farmor and farfar's very close friends, Bente & Gert, gave Maya this dress for Christmas. Bente is obviously a master seamstress as she made this outfit herself, with a matching ball which Maya loves to play with. We forgot to take pictures of Maya in this dress but finally got around to doing so. Get well soon Bente, we are all thinking of you.





We are not quite sure what Maya is doing here... stretching? or maybe trying to push the wall out of the way?

Horses and cats

Farfar and Maya went to check out the horses that are on summer break and left free to roam the meadows. Maya was probably less intimated by them than Lukas the dog. However, Lukas made a lasting impression so now whenever we show a picture of a dog Maya says "Woff, Woff" with great emphasis.











Maya and her loyal friend Felix taking a nap. Felix stuck closely to Maya most of the time and curled up next to her during nap time every day.

Wedding & Maya party!

My dear parents organized a party for us while we were in Sweden. It was a combination of a wedding party for us and a welcome-to-the-world party for Maya. It was a very nice event with lots of family and friends. It was great to see family that we normally wouldn't have time to go visit. I really enjoyed seeing aunts, uncles and my cousins and their kids which I haven't seen for years.

Due to the very unreliable Swedish summer weather my parents had arranged for a big party tent. The crew came out and had it up in no time. During our 3,5 week stay in Sweden it only rained one afternoon.....and of course it was the afternoon of the party so the tent was definately worth it.



After a few hours of work by the decoration crew the tent was done with both Swedish and Chinese decorations:



Filled with family and friends:



Maya eating cake with her godmother Xinran:



Three little Maya/Maja's from the Cedergren clan:



My dear parents with Xinran:



Thank you mamma & pappa for the wonderful party! We had a great time!

Faster Malin

Faster (aunt in Swedish) Malin and Maya hanging out in Sweden:



Maya absolutely adored her faster Malin. I really hope they get to spend a lot of time together in the future. I know they will be wonderful friends.

More animals

I know, we are actually back home in California right now but I'm behind on the postings so for the sake of the blog we'll continue with Sweden.

We took Maya to a really nice zoo with only Swedish animals called Skanes Djurpark. She got to see and touch so many animals and had a great time there.

Apart from petting cows and sheep she got to pet rabbits, guinea pigs etc and see seals, bears, lynxes, wolves and so on :





Lotta, my cousins wife/girlfriend training Knut the seal:


Farmor, mom and Maya checking out the lynx:

Maya's wooden truck.

Farfar built Maya a big wooden truck that she absolutely loves. It's perfect height for her to hold on to while walking around and she pushes the huge truck back and forth across the kitchen floor tirelessly.

Another favorite; Felix the cat. He gracefully agrees to be pushed around in the truck bed for hours.





Maya and her proud farfar playing with the truck that farfar built her:

Out for a walk with farmor

The weather has been great our whole trip and Maya is spending a lot of time outdoors with farmor and farfar.



View over the pond when Maya and farmor takes their walk.

Tractor driver

Maya got to play with the small tractor.....

First steps

Maya has started taking her first few steps here in Sweden. Yesterday and today she's been able to take a step or two of her own.

Farm animals

Maya has been busy getting to know a bunch of animals. Much better to see, touch, feel, smell and hear them in real life, rather than just look at pictures in a book.

Feeding the pigs:


Checking out the geese:


Helping prepare the ducks that godfather Johan came by to give Maya:


Checking out some sheep at Skanes Djurpark:


Petting calves at Skanes Djurpark:

Cats and dogs

Maya has been very busy playing with all the animals at my parents place. It's like a mini petting zoo.

One of the cats, Felix, is the nicest cat I've ever seen. He lets Maya pet him, climb over him, sit on him, pull on him etc and just keeps coming back to her. They both really seem to enjoy each others company.





The dog Lukas on the other hand is still a bit scary. She pets him but is very careful around him as he is rather large. She is excited to see him and greats him with a "woof, woof" when he comes by:

Gammelfarmor

Maya got a chance to visit her gammelfarmor (great grandma). Gammelfarmor was very tired but once we took her out in the sun she perked up and started saying hej, hej, hej to little Maya and reached out to hold her. They got a few nice moments of contact and it was very nice to see four generations of our family all together. We'll go see her at least weekly and spend some time with her.

First meal with farmor

Maya quickly settled in and adore her farmor, farfar and faster Malin.

Since dad was very naive and thought Maya would instantly like Swedish Välling (which she of course hates with a passion) we didn't bring enough American formula to last us the whole stay. After a few days of panicked experimentation we've now settled on an increased solid food intake and a Swedish version of formula that we found. It took a few tries and we now have every size of bottle nipples that the store has to accomodate the thickness of the formula and Maya's speed of eating.

On our way over

Finally able to post some pictures. Had to buy a new memory card reader for my parents as someone had spilled coffee on the computer and destroyed the built in reader....

Maya checking out the suitcase:


Arrived in Amsterdam and waiting for our next flight to Copenhagen:

Leaving on a jet plane

We left California Wednesday last week and took off for sunny? Sweden. We have a long vacation planned and will be here for close to four weeks so farmor, farfar and faster Malin gets to hang out with Maya a lot.

Packing was a bit stressful as we wanted to make sure we had enough of everything for the long flight. In the end it went well and Maya did great on the long trip. SF to Amsterdam took about 10 hours and Maya slept for about one of those hours. KLM gave us a great crib to put her in but we ended up using it mostly for storage of diapers, bottles etc since Maya wasn't interested in sleeping. Right next to us was another family with a baby girl the same age as our litte daughter. Their girl hung out in the crib for pretty much the whole flight. I have never seen such a calm and peaceful little baby. I have to admit we were slightly jealous of them while Maya was playing peek-a-boo with the whole row behind us, laughing at/with the lady across the aisle, pulling dads skin of his face, throwing everything on the floor, bouncing of the walls etc etc, their little girl just peacefully sat there and watched our little energizer bunny.

Amsterdam to Copenhagen took just an hour and was over before we could blink. Maya completed both flights without any fuzz or ear pain. Farfar and farmor met us at Kastrup and led two very exhausted parents to the car, all the while Maya was chatting up a storm with them.

Weather has been great so far and Maya and dad are already adjusted to the new time zone. Mom is struggling a bit but getting better with the sleeping pattern.

"Titta!"

Maya is a very talkative little girl. She's said some random "mamma" and "pappa" but it's not really conscious and repeatable. However, she's now found her first real word, pronounced very clearly, "titta" which is Swedish for "look". She is sitting next to me on the floor just now yelling "titta!!!!". She is very eager to show off everything now and gets really happy when we look at her when she yells "titta!!!"

Lucia's baptism

I'm a bit behind on the blog as usual but we went to Lucia's baptism a week and a half ago at the Norwegian Seamen's Church in San Francisco. Maya behaved very well and kept fairly quiet for the hour long service.

It was great to meet Pete, Heather and Lucia and some of their friends as usual.

The view is breathtaking:


Lucia and Maya "playing":

Boxes are fun!

Weeeeeee, this box is REALLY fun!
(Note: The toy that came in this box is long forgotten and not interesting at all)


Wait! This is not how how you are planning to send me to Sweden? You DO have a seat for me too right??

Daddy's little helper

So we spent the whole weekend organizing the house and cleaning. It was long overdue after Cindy's parents left. Maya was eager to "help" and tried to be in the middle of the action at all times.....which explains why it took the whole weekend to get this done.

Maya reading cards to make sure we don't throw anything away that involves her. Just like mommy...likes to save EVERYTHING.


"Pappa, pappa, look at THIS!"