Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend Dave's law school roommate and good friend Jason flew in from Kansas City to meet Maya and spend the weekend with us.  We hope that he had a good time.  He was really great with Maya and she quickly became comfortable with him.

On Sunday we hiked through Valley Forge, which ended up being much bigger than we anticipated.  Regardless, it was nice to see Washington's Headquarters and a good activity for a Memorial Day weekend.  We, of course, treated him to some good Philadelphia food such as cheesesteaks and italian ice.

We'd be remiss if we didn't say thank you to all of the servicemen and service women who have served our country so honorably- especially both of Maya's great-granddad's, her Granddad, and her Uncle Eloy.

Jason with Maya

Maya's Photo Session

After we went to the zoo on Sunday, we hopped in the car for another long drive out to Middleburg Academy for the professional photo session that we won.  You can read about us winning the contest here.   Maya is slow to warm up and really made the photographer work to get smiles but I'm confident she snapped some good ones.  The setting was really pretty and Maya seemed to want to move, move, move after the session and sitting in cars or being carried around the zoo all day, so we let her explore while we snapped some pictures of our own!

The sneak peek at the professional photos blows ours away of course!  Here's the sneak peek!  I absolutely can't wait to see the gallery!  The photographer brought along the tutu and some balloons!  She snapped lots of photos of Maya and some family shots as well!  It was wonderful to see the photographer again.  She was a parent of one of my students my first year of teaching.  I think your first class always holds a special place in your heart to begin with, but that group of kids and their parents were really exceptional- and she was one of my go-to parent helpers!   You can check out her photography here.

Radnor Hunt Races!

We had a super busy and fun weekend!  On Saturday we were invited to a tented party at the Radnor Hunt races!  It was amazing.  My doctor invited us as well as my brother and sister-in-law.  She had the whole thing catered with buffet style appetizers, passed hors d'oeuvres, a buffet lunch, cocktails, bouquets of flowers at each table.  Really- it was truly "fancy schmancy!"  Her tent was right along the fence of the track and right near the finish line.  Unfortunately about 5 riders fell off during the first steeplechase.  This resulted in at least one injured jockey and the putting down of 2 horses.  I actually missed this race as I was chatting with someone I just met while she finished up her lunch- but I think it's better that I didn't see.  I just saw everyone's horrified reactions.  I heard that hats were a necessity so I had to go along and must admit it was fun to wear a fancy hat.  I found mine at TJ Maxx!

The family with Dr. Delaney, the host (center).  

Our wonderful view!

National Zoo

Yesterday we drove down to DC and met friends at the National Zoo. It was so great to see our friends and to see Maya's reactions as she saw different animals!

 As we drove into DC, I was reminded of how cool and hip DC is, and how very much I miss it.   Dave and I both do, we miss it dearly.  The parking meters in DC can now be paid for with your phone- how awesome is that?  The parking meters in our local town still ask you to crank the handle to accept the coin- the handle that doesn't even exist (I'm a little bitter as one ate one of my quarters on Saturday night). Also, the friends we met previously told us that now at most of the grocery stores down there you can bring your own reusable shopping bags, get a scanner when you walk into the store, scan each item as you shop and place it in a bag, and then just pay for everything that way.  They do spot checks to keep stealing down.  Seriously- why isn't that up here yet?  It was an adjustment when we moved back up here.  We felt like everything was soooooo slow and behind the times.  Anyway, I digress...

So Maya had her 2nd zoo experience- her first large zoo experience.

Dave's favorite zoo animal is the sloth bear- unfortunately, the sloth bear wasn't out, so we got a family photo at the sloth bear statue instead.

She seemed to enjoy seeing the owls and the cows the most.  She was funny and starting hooting like an owl as soon as we pointed one out to her.  She then continued to hoot during our whole tour of the bird exhibit.

"Hoot, hoot"

 I couldn't wait to show her a cow up close because she LOVES cows in her books and loves to "MOO." She was so excited.  I held her up the gate and she looked at it and then looked at me all excited almost as if she was saying "Oh my gosh Mom, these things exist in real life!" and of course she started mooing.  She grabbed onto the fence real tight as if to say "Park it right here Mom, I found COWS!"

Maya "mooing" at the sight of a cow!

I personally liked seeing the elephants and the pandas the most as you can't see those around Philly.  However, the National Zoo doesn't have giraffes or polar bears (which are my favorite zoo animal) so I guess they're about equal- oh wait, the National Zoo is FREE- so there you go- the National Zoo wins.  See we miss DC.

                                   

Water Table

We recently got Maya a water table!  Here she is playing at the table!  

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day today.  I started the day with a delicious breakfast that Dave cooked for my mom and myself.  We then took Maya to a local park. I went on a shopping trip while Maya Bean napped and treated myself to a much needed new pair of sneaks (ok and another pair of shoes as well- that DSW gets me every time!).  Dave and Maya surprised me with a wonderful new camera, which I can't wait to learn how to use.  It's my big gift for 2012, but Dave thought I'd get the most use out of it this summer.  I did play around with it a little bit today and took the below photos!  Dave went all out and even got me dinner and went to get yogurt with fruit toppings from our local frozen yogurt establishment!  He really went all out!

I hope all of the moms out there had a wonderful day and felt appreciated!

Maya's Latest Happenings

We haven't been up to too much lately as the weather hasn't been the greatest (until this past weekend).  On Friday, we went to a local pet store to see the chicks & goslings!  Maya loved it as she LOVES looking at chicks in her animal books!

   

She's been having fun playing with her dolls for her dollhouse. She crawls around the playroom carrying them!

 

She's not walking quite yet but seems to be close.  I think she is actually being a bit of a chicken about it.  She can walk barely holding onto just our pinky finger.  She seems to prefer to crawl- she's gotten so fast at crawling I don't know if she sees the point in walking!  Below she is pushing around her dinosaur walker- well pushing it until she runs out of space!

"Hey Mom, help me turn this thing around please!"

 As usual, she's been really into her books.  Her favorites right now are books with photographs.  She loves to point to the animals to hear me name them and she loves to point to the ones we ask her to find. She also loves "mooing" whenever she sees a cow.  Tonight she saw a picture of a cow on her gallon on milk and started mooing.  We were cracking up.

"This page is making me hungry!"

She seems to be enjoying story time at the library.  She's in the toddler group now with 1-2 year olds and while she's the youngest in the class, she seems to prefer this age group.  She's more daring in it (read- she's not clinging to me like a tree frog the whole time)- or maybe she's just comfortable there now.  

She's been getting really messy all of a sudden when she eats.  Here she is looking like a food monster!

"ARGH- give me more Trader Joe's gnocchi Mom!"

I'm feeling pretty good about her schedule as daycare is on the horizon  She's pretty much exactly on her daycare schedule with just 1 nap (although her nap is typically much longer than the 2 hour daycare nap time) and is on the same time schedule for breakfast, lunch and snacks! Oh and she's doing a nice job with milk in her straw cup!  She's so grown up :-/

She's still a book loving, outside loving, sweet little Maya Bean!