Tea Time

These are pictures from Maya's first official tea party. This is not the first time she played with her tea set, but it is the first time she put out her blanket, had stuffed guests, and successfully put together the tea party without any help from anyone.

Thanks to her months-long obsession with Goldilocks, tea was served first thing in the morning along with a bowl of porridge.

The tea and porridge were just right.

Ye Olden Times

Uncle Ron gave an interesting speech at the family reunion about how our ancestors made their way across Pennsylvania and Ohio into Indiana. They made their way through forests in wagons and on foot, with nothing but the twinkie to see them through. Our ancestors braved the harsh conditions that were common when traveling in the early 1800s: fording rivers, managing snakebites, constant bouts of dysentery, frequent stops to shoot buffalo, stopping to bury those that had died of drowning or snakebites or dysentery or cholera or fever, and of course nagging children. You see, it was the twinkie that these brave pioneers relied on. Leaning heavily on the sugar to get through the midday slump and quiet any children of their nonstop questions of "Are we there yet?" These twinkies were their driving force and because of that we honor them with a twinkie tower*. At least I think that's what Uncle Ron was saying; I wasn't really paying attention. Anybody want to play Oregon Trail?




*This year's tribute brought to you by John Rhoades, with special thanks to Courtney Rhoades for the design.

Peanut Butter

Fun Fact: Every night Jason devours a heaping spoonful of peanut butter.

There are some foods Maya was just destined to enjoy.

Why It's Never A Good Idea To Send Them To The Store Together

As soon as Maya enters the house:

"Don't get mad, Mommy, don't get mad."

"You don't get mad at Daddy."

"Chocolate secret."

Jason's last words to her were, "Don't tell your Mommy I let you have chocolate before dinner, or she'll get mad, this will be our secret."

This type of thing happens about every other week. It's cute that he keeps hoping this will be the week she learns to keep quiet.

Not Ready For Her Closeup

As a gift to Poppy, I thought I would have Maya wish him a happy birthday. It's a quick video but it does the trick.

I thought I would go ahead and include the video that was taken moments before the first one, I think it explains why I had to resort to bribing her with a cookie.

Confuses Being Tired With Being Hungry

Falling asleep before finishing her lunch of peaches and a peanut butter sandwich. And yes, she's still in her pajamas, it was just one of those days.

Should've Gone With The Chicken

I give Maya her lunch and get on the computer, when I realize she's been quiet for a while I look over and see this: This coming from the child who doesn't like to sleep unless it's in her crib or someone's arms. I had no idea what to do with her since she fell asleep with peanut butter and jelly on her hands and face and she freaks out when you even think about wiping off her hands. I eventually just picked her up to move her and allowed myself to be covered in pb&j. Sticky.

Birthday Boy

Jason's birthday was low key this year thanks to the stomach flu. We all managed to get it on his birthday and Maya is still recovering. I sent him to work with his cake that I made completely from scratch (where's my medal?) so he was able to have a slice and the rest wasn't wasted.



Maya enjoyed watching me make the cake but her favorite part was when I let her lick the spatula covered in whipped cream. This is a child who has never been shy when it comes to sweets so I knew that I didn't have to worry about her getting it all over the place. She immediately went to work licking it clean. A little fell on the floor and I had to act fast to beat her to it, she can't stand to see any goodies wasted. The entire time she had the spatula she was nothing but 'Ooh, mmmm, num num.'

My Buddy And Me

At first, Maya didn't want anything to do with Buddy, he may as well have been a giant that thought he was no bigger than a frog. There were many times when Buddy would cause Maya to cry by smacking her upside the head and knocking her down with his tail. Buddy would respond by running out of the room, he just didn't understand why the little person couldn't appreciate his wagging tail. In a gesture of goodwill, she was eating her grilled cheese and offered Buddy a bite but Buddy took the entire slice. Maya isn't one to share so she took the greedy behavior personally and kept her food for herself for a few days. Slowly, she came to accept his swishing tail and learned to duck at the right times while Buddy learned to keep his tongue to himself and only take the food that was offered. By the time we were ready to go, Maya and Buddy were inseparable.

Maya watching Buddy watching Uncle Morgan watching the computer.

After feeding Buddy a piece of toast, Maya offers him some milk to wash it down.

Catching Up

For Mother's Day we took a trip to the zoo where Maya got to ride an elephant statue since the real thing was no where to be found. That morning I was surprised with waffles that Maya had helped make, you just haven't lived until you've had lumpy waffles.
I knew I called her monkey for a reason.
Maya can now feed herself rice puffs which keeps her busy and gives me a few precious moments to myself. The bad side of her feeding herself is that now everything is considered food. All day she crawls along the carpet picking up fuzz, crumbs and mystery crust and attempts to eat it. Luckily, she likes to hold up her findings so that I can see the treasure she has discovered in our carpet buffet before sampling the tasty mystery, which leaves me a few seconds to retrieve it from her clutches.

Still Growing

So we have introduced peas to Maya's diet and things are starting to get a little gross. Maya has recently learned how to spit (see picture), and enjoys using this new ability whenever she is being fed. I thought that she was enjoying her peas, even if she did spit a little, but when she started to gag I got the impression it was time to move on. Next up is squash. I'm beginning to think that maybe I should start feeding her foods that don't make me want to gag as well. Last week was Maya's 6 month Doctor's visit and she did much better with the shots! As always she cried but it was brief. She weighed in at 17 lbs. and was 27.5 inches long which puts her in the 75th percentile for weight and 97th for height.
I had to include this picture. For some reason she has started to put things in her mouth and just let them hang there while she plays. It's too funny!

So Many Firsts

My baby's growing up. It really is amazing to see how much Maya has grown in just the past month. Last month she couldn't sit without a spotter and now I have no reservations about putting her on the floor to play with her toys. Maya is using her highchair and eating cereal everyday with the help of her two new teeth that showed up a couple of weeks ago. And finally with a brave face, we moved Maya into her own room *sigh*.
We knew that Maya was ready for solids when she tried to sample everything in front of her.
Maya's first taste of cereal. The picture is deceiving, she really did like it.
She was so good with drinking from a glass! I think I dribble more than Maya ever did!