Assisted Walker..

Here are a couple of pics of Maya outside walking with her walker today...











Horsing around:

First Tumbles class..

Maya had her first class at JW Tumbles today. We didn't know what to expect, but have heard rave reviews about the class from other kids and parents.

It started out innocently enough...we were one of the first to get there and Maya decided to start exploring the equipment on her own:



Yes, that was as precarious as it looks. She ended up falling between the mats a minute later-but no tears ;)

After all the kids got there and the teacher started with songs and playtime, we saw a side of Maya never seen before. A quiet- sitting-on-her-own-watching-everyone-else Maya. It looked something like this:



The teacher tried to engage Maya with the Elmo puppet...little did she know that Maya's mom is an anti-TV-for-kids fanatic and Maya has no idea who the heck Elmo is. She started crying hysterically:



A ride in the swing quickly cheered her up..blurry action shot:



Then the ball pit came out and Maya started to come out of her shell:




Maya's friend Owen was hungry for lunch:



We're optimistic for the future of Maya in tumbling. We'll have to wait and see how next week goes. She cheered up immensely when she had pizza for lunch afterwards ;)

Wild and wonderful...

Well, a last minute work obligation for Peter foiled our plans to head up to Dziadek and WaiPo's house, but we managed to squeeze in a trip to West Virginia with Melissa, Daniel and Owen. It was so fun to be up in the "mountains" and we enjoyed fabulous weather.

We rode the lift down to a scenic lake...(that's the Blumenthal's, not us):





It's a lot harder to hike with 22 lbs strapped to your chest!



Maya found a playground:





We went on a scenic train ride:






Posed for a shot in the wilderness of our cabin:


On the way home we amused ourselves with mom's wallet, dad's ID, bottles of water and saying cheese for the camera:


And taking naps...


That's all folks!

In other news, Maya now is fluent in gibberish. She talks ALL the time. We don't really understand much. She's able to walk with a walker and is trying to stand on her own for longer stretches (up to 5 seconds from 2).

Mmm...Spinach Rice

Papou cooked come great Greek food on Sunday and we had leftovers--guess who enjoyed them??



Do I have something on my face?


I think I might have some spinach rice on my back?

Riding in my automobile...

Wow and Papou visited this weekend..unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures of us all together! We did manage to get out on Saturday night without Maya to celebrate Peter's 30th birthday at a restaurant in DC. It was a great meal. (For those of you who live in the area-Blue Duck Tavern is a must try!).

I can't believe that the summer is almost over and Maya's birthday is fast approaching! Here are some pictures of her riding her car:

Some pictures of my 11 month old..

Who loves the computer already?

11 months! (Yesterday...)

I was a slacker and didn't post anything yesterday on her actual 11 month birthday--I was still recovering from Peter's birthday weekend in Vegas (no, Maya did not accompany us!). We had a great time, but it was nice to get home.

Maya has been developing a little willpower...good for her. Frustrating for her parents ;) She definitely lets us know if she doesn't want to go in her high chair, stroller or be put down from our arms. On the other hand, she is so adventurous! Last week, she was playing at an indoor playground and went crawling right through a 5 foot tunnel-no encouragement or anything. She crawls right up to people to say "hi!".

No signs of walking-she's adept at crawling, pulling up, etc-and can stand for a little bit, but is too unsure of herself to do it. I think she figures she can get wherever she wants with crawling, so why bother with the walking?

I need to take more pics, but here is one with her dad from last week:

Dinner made difficult...

Maya has found a new form of entertaining herself..unfortunately it makes her actually eating pretty difficult:



However, I think the end result is the fostering of a beautiful friendship between Maya and Ajax. He clearly puts up with all her ear pulling, eye poking and crawling all over him because he gets some good grub at the end of the day.

Maya is such a little ham nowadays. She loves to flirt with pretty much anyone and will smile and laugh until everyone smiles and laughs back at her.

She's been getting more comfortable cruising while holding on to furniture and is standing for a couple of seconds on her own.

Playgroup Mania

On Saturday we had 9 families from our playgroup over for a potluck BBQ. Yup, thats about 20 adults and 10 children. Don't ask me what I was thinking. However, I think a good time was had by all (even if it was a bit chaotic).

Here are some pictures:

















I have a feeling that my mom will say there aren't enough of Maya...so here are a few extra: