Team Maya

Maya earned Buddy's loyalty pretty early on. If we tickle her and get her laughing, Buddy is next to us in a beat making sure she's ok. If we're chasing her around the house, Buddy is right on our heels, trying his best to knock us to the floor in a valiant attempt to save Maya. He's always looking out for Maya.

And that includes a game of basketball.

He plays a good defense.

Happy Easter!

The quality is lacking with this video since it was taken on Jason's phone, but the cuteness is still pretty clear.

The House That Sugar Built

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread house. It's a house made out of baked goods and covered in candy, what's not to love? Unfortunately, I never seemed to get around to making one but last month Jason stumbled upon a cute and easy kit that we decided to bring with us on our visit to Tennessee. I was going to finally see what making a gingerbread house was all about and the kids could have fun decorating it. Well, apparently it's all about careful assembly and allowing the frosting to set overnight. Since our visit was so short this year, we weren't able to get to the decorating part so we had to take it back home with us. I hate that Aubrie and Jacob had to miss out on the decorating, but Maya still managed to have a great time. I'm pretty sure that for every piece of candy she placed on the house, at least two went in her mouth.

Looking Forward to Christmas

All by Myself

Maya's favorite phrase for the past several months has been, "I can do it all by myself." Whether it's washing her hands, pouring the milk, or driving the car, Maya insists that she can do it "all by myself." It would be nice if instead of calling me into her room in the middle of the night because she no longer wants her blanket on her, she could just decide that she can do it all by herself. Or maybe learn to stop whining all by herself, or go to bed all by herself, or how about eat her vegetables all by herself? If only she was taking suggestions.

How Do I Look

I present to you a video of Maya singing a weird song that's dedicated to the fast food industry. It is basically a list of all the fast food restaurants accompanied with little hand gestures. For instance, the first place she mentions is Dairy Queen and she's pretending to milk a cow.

Last spring, the three year olds sang this song at the spring program. It didn't exactly go with the theme of the other songs, since they were either about God or having fun outdoors. I was going to reflect on all of that but instead I'm more interested in what she's doing with her hair:

I took this video several times but she always became preoccupied with her hair when she would come to the part about Burger King (seriously, this song is just odd). When asked why she wouldn't stop playing with her hair, she said, "I was just making it all pretty."

I had to show Jason this video as soon as he came home to verify that I do not do whatever it is that Maya is doing with her hair. I just wanted to be clear that it didn't come from me. However, I will be more aware of the faces I make whenever I look into the mirror seeing as how this would not be the first time I have been mocked by my toddler.

Hey! I Have A Blog

Yep, so I see I missed an entire month of posting. Normally, I would have noticed this and put in some last minute posts so I didn't seem so lazy, but I had better things to do, like sleep. Oh the naps that I have taken the last few days! Naps so wonderful that I didn't wake up until a little person had pulled themselves onto the bed and was kicking me in my head. I have many pictures to post including pictures of our trip to Tennessee and Indiana. And if you're sitting there thinking "Hey, I live in Tennessee/Indiana, why didn't they visit me?" It's because I forgot you exist. Please don't take it personally.

Enjoy this picture of Maya shaving. It seems like kids are going through puberty younger and younger these days.

Let's Fly A Kite (Seriously This Time)

More windy days came along after that last one and we bought another kite, a better kite, a kite that doesn't inflate. The only bad thing about these kites is that they have the habit of nosediving in such a severe way that you worry about someone being impaled, but hey, that's all part of the fun, right? The kite ended up taking so many nose dives that it didn't live to see another day.

I ended up buying one with Tigger and Pooh on it since the selection was limited to cartoon characters. What ever happened to just a plain red kite? Or at least dragons? Dragons are supposed to fly, not honey obsessed bears and their hyper friends.

Let's Fly A Kite (Maybe)

There's something about this part of the country that seems to be able to avoid storms, and after living in Tennessee, where every spring you spend most of your evenings waiting out tornado warnings in the tub, we don't really mind. So when we had some rain come through and brought a windy day, we took advantage of it and bought a kite. The selection wasn't great but we noticed that there were kites that didn't require any sticks, instead you would blow them up like a balloon, filling just certain sections with air. Sounds like a cool idea, right? It is, until you try to fly it and realize it already has a hole in it.

Poor Maya, she looked so cute chasing this pathetic kite around. It was able to hold a little bit of air, about enough to give the same effect as running around in the wind with a sagging balloon. Maya still had a blast; since this was her first time with a kite she didn't know it could be any different.

Just A Glimpse

Maya's communication skills have advanced a lot lately. She is talking in complete sentences and asking more questions; she's able to really express herself now. And she's using it against me. Recently, Maya has felt the need to point out, in detail, her desire for me to stay at home when she is going to do something fun with her Daddy. After 2 years she has come to the conclusion that I am boring. I find it a little insulting that a kid who thinks the Wiggles are top notch entertainment thinks I'm past my prime.

Maya: You stay here.

Me: Ok.

Maya: Don't go with me.

Me: Ok. I'll stay here.

Maya: I go with Daddy and Buster, Mommy stays here.

Me: Got it.

Maya: I go Maya, go Buster, go Daddy- go playground. You stay here.

Me: .....

Maya: Stay here, Mommy.

Me: Maya, I promise you I that I am not going anywhere.

Maya: I put on shoes, you shoes stay here.

Me: Jason, are you taking her or what?

I was looking through my pictures a realized this is the most recent pic. Well, at least it's cute.

Look At Me!

I'm really excited I was able to get this video on the blog. It means I am no longer stuck with only posting videos that are 10 seconds or shorter! I don't know what was keeping me from doing this before, I guess it was just the same old technical difficulties we have been having with the laptop.

Maya's big phrase right now is "Look at me!" It's really cute to hear her say it because she's always so excited about whatever it is that she's doing. I'll enjoy it while I can before she starts with the "Hey Mom! Mom! Look over here Mom! Mom! MOOOOMMM LOOOOOK!!!!!!!!!"

Even The Bow Matched

This video just makes me sad. I bought this outfit for her about two weeks before the video was taken and the pants are already ruined. This was the first time Maya would pedal the trike herself and she got her pants caught up in the wheels. It's just so sad to see cute clothes go to waste.

A Colorful First

When Maya woke up the morning of the 1st with an intense desire to go trick-or-treating, Jason decided to let her indulge in some lollipops instead. He said that when he held her up to the mirror and she first saw her tongue, she was a little frightened. I guess it didn't take her long to get over it.

The Things I Will Applaud

For the first (and sadly only) time, Maya went in the potty! She told me she wanted to use the potty so I put her on her potty chair. Nothing. So I decided to move her chair to where she usually runs when she needs some "personal time". Those curtains must be so relaxing.

Heading Out

Maya is heavily into copying everything Jason and I do. Well, she really copies anyone she sees. She has her own little kitchen, so in the morning when I'm making breakfast she's in her kitchen making breakfast for her baby. She'll give her babies and stuffed animals "baths". I've noticed that she now "washes" her hands before she starts cooking and will even cover her skillet with a plate just like me. (I seriously need more lids) And Maya is always on the phone calling everyone whose name she can think of, including her sippy cup.

Her imagination is also going crazy, or she is, it's a fine line. We've caught her changing her sippy cup's diaper and putting her plastic cheese wedge down for a nap. It's gotten so bad that I have laid down in bed only to jump up and toss out a cheese wedge or ketchup bottle that Maya had put down for a nap. Today she even made sure her hair brush told the baby goodnight. I've started to notice that she carries on a daily conversation with her toes and will occasionally ask my toes how they're doing. She's yet to befriend Jason's.

Maya saying goodbye as she heads out.

When fun with boxes goes wrong.

Training Wheels

We've taken Maya out to practice on her tricycle a few times now. She's still having a hard time understanding how to pedal. She just demands that we push her around as per our usual arrangement of Maya giving orders and us following them. We try to help her position her feet but Jason thought it would be better just to give her a demonstration on how it's done.

Pucker Up

Maya has discovered my chapstick. I was putting some on and noticed she was interested so I put a little on her lips. That was all it took. She now thinks that chapstick is the most fantastic, wonderful product in all of existence. So much so that she now will pull my purse off the table and rummage through it to get to it. This happened the other day, and she started bringing me my receipts from my wallet along with my i.d. and all my cards, I had to stop that. Later, when we went to the store, I realized I didn't have my wallet when we got to the checkout. I could tell you exactly where it was, sitting right on the kitchen table where I put it after taking it from Maya. They were really nice and let me write a check without an i.d. I guess it pays to have a cute kid in the cart. Of course, does it pay if that kid is the reason you need to be bailed out in the first place?

The Cow Says Cow

Recently Maya "rediscovered" her farm and farm animals and has since learned their names and what they say. We're still working on cow.

Anatomy 101

We have been teaching Maya to identify parts of the body and she's been doing really well. Ear

Nose

Mouth (she prefers to stick out her tongue)

Belly Button (currently an outie)

Toes

Amazing Self Discipline

My awesome tower that my difficult to impress child ignored until the moment I tried to put her down for a nap.