Officially a family of 4!

We welcomed the fourth member of our family on October 3, 2009 at 5:08 p.m.. Maya Blake Farber was born with much anticipation and excitement surrounding her arrival. She was two days past her due date and everyone was eager to meet her. Maya arrived weighing 7 lbs. 2 oz. and was 19 inches long. She was met by her: (her parents), big sister Jenna, Emmy, Sabba, Nana, Uncle Gary, Auntie Samantha, Uncle Derek, Auntie Heidi and Auntie Rachel on within the first two hours of her life! Lucky girl to have so many people to greet her!

Maya had an exciting first week of life, heading to the pediatrician's office three times and Winchester Hospital's E.R. at only 4 days old! LUCKILY, all was fine and she is looking forward (as we all are) to her second month!

Maya's First 4 weeks!

We are so blessed to have two amazing daughters, Jenna Morgan and Maya Blake. When we discovered we were expecting our second child in less than two years, nearly everyone we told intentionally or not, tried to freak us out! All we kept hearing is, "It's SO much work!" "You'll never sleep!" And yes, both are somewhat true, however, Maya's addition to our family is nothing less than perfect! She is currently sleeping in 4 hour blocks at night and waking to eat and heading back to sleep with relative ease. She is sleeping in her crib in mommy and daddy's room at this time. Maya is also learning to be awake more during the day and is showing off her bright blue eyes and adorable pout at times too. She enjoys being bounced on the exercise ball or laying on her "safari mat," either on her back or tummy, and looking up at her animals. It does appear as of now, Maya is not a big fan of the bath, however, she likely will change her mind and be a huge supportive of it just like her mommy and big sister!

Sisterly Love!

From the time we told Jenna mommy was pregnant, her love of babies was obvious! We were really not all that concerned, naively we know, but Jenna seemed to be genuinely excited about the anticipation of a new baby sister. Boy are we fortunate. Maya has been welcomed into our world with open arms by her big sister. Frequent gentle hugs, kisses, songs sung to her, toys shared with her, help changing Maya's diapers and Jenna even will express Maya's desire to "EAT EAT MAYA" when the time is right! Whenever Jenna talks and Maya is in the room (and awake) her eyes go directly to Jenna's location. It is so clear that they are best of friends already.

The Guys!

Jenna's group of "buddies" have been keeping her company as we awaited Maya's arrival and then afterwards. She enjoys her "guys" going on pretend walks with her to "Yellow Beach" on Cape Cod, to visit Gigi, to see daddy at work and more. Some of them even talk--like Oscar Kitty or wear clothing, like Ossie Dog!

The Importance of Sleep

All Gensler (Great-grandma Ann's side of the family) relatives know, that there are key parts of life that one has to treasure; a great cup of coffee, warm soup and most importantly SLEEP! Particularly when you have two children under two. Please note how well our daughters seem to have the sleeping thing down pat--one on her daddy's chest, while the other happily passed out in the car!

The Girls First Official Babysitter!

We made the move and found a non-family babysitter to come and play with the girls two afternoons a week starting the end of this month. So far, Dara has come to visit three times and Jenna adores her--we know Maya likes her too. :) Dara is the daughter of Sabba's college roommate and she is in graduate school locally. She is extremely patient, learning the importance of dressing Jenna's numerous babies in all of the right apparel, as well as how much Maya likes to be kissed and how much she likes to eat--all according to her big sister!

Jenna and her love of art!

Over the last 19 months, we have found out that Jenna loves many things; dogs, buses, babies, the color yellow and art, just to name a few.  She has taken to the creative opportunities each morning after snack.  Making dogs, cows, sheep, pictures with stickers, finger painting, and more!  She is able to sit for over an hour working and then when we need to move on, she frequently requests "More art!"  Check out some of her masterpieces!

Halloween 2009

This was Jenna's second Halloween and obviously Maya's first!  Jenna chose to be a dog--known to her as her favorite "Puppy Car" aka Charlie Johnston.  Maya was fortunate enough to have a polar bear costume waiting for her, which she didn't seem to be thrilled with.   Jenna also was able to sort the candy into a bowl-which mommy soon realized was an exercise in how fast she could open a candy bar wrapper! She also had the pleasure of going to visit daddy's at the Hunt's Show on Halloween, while Maya and mommy waited in the car!