Happy Halloween!

From your favorite little monkey! She loved trick or treating-she totally got it! She scored a good loot and made some friends in the neighborhood. We even had a little Halloween playgroup this afternoon, so she got lots of costume time-and she even enjoyed it!





Monkeys get very thirsty:





Trick or treating:





Checking out her loot:



All the pics:

Check out more pics: Flickr.

My little pumpkin...

Is so cute! I snapped a few pictures today in her little fall hat..I had some other hats and was going to do a whole series..but her patience wore out ;) Maybe it will be a weekly series!

Maya is doing just fabulous. She is a pro at walking and likes to go all over the place and is constantly worming her way out of your arms to go down on the floor to walk.

She is babbling up a storm..jibberish all the time. It often seems very intent--she walks up to the picture we have of Ajax and Kona in front of the supreme court and goes on and on and points at the picture. Maybe someday soon she'll learn English.

Here are the pictures I took today:















Oh..and here's a little video of Maya with her friend Grace:

13 months..and 2 days.

Sorry we haven't posted recently..life has really been going fast!

Here are a few recent pictures:



Peter thinks we should send this picture to the Obama campaign:

Fall is here...

Fall seems to finally have reached the D.C. area..temperatures were in the 90's earlier in the week, but by the end of the week we were wearing sweaters and loving the cool breezes. Of course, thanks to global warming, it's going to be in the 80's again this week, but we'll take it.

We've been enjoying the fall weather by heading to some local fall festivals. Maya's not really sure what to make of all of it, but she's been enjoying all the outside play time. She even got to dress up in her Halloween costume for the first time on Thursday for a special Halloween music class. You'll have to wait a little while longer for pictures of her all dressed up..

Maya's been practicing walking a ton..she loves her new method of transportation, though she is easily distracted by anything and everything. She's been babbling a ton and we may have heard "dog", but we're not identifying any words quite yet. She's down to two bottles of milk (real milk!) a day and eating lots of yummy foods-she was quite the fan of egg rolls and potstickers yesterday at dinner.

Here are some pictures from this weekend:

Back from Colorado...

We just got back this evening from Boulder for a weekend of fun and festivities for Dan & Gretchen's wedding. We had a great time and got to hang out with great friends.

Here are a couple of pictures from this weekend...

Stacy & Me at Holiday & Co:



Peter and I with the happy couple:



With our "Las Vegas" table-mates:



Enjoying the scenic vista outside Nederland, Colorado:



More pictures of Maya to come this week...

A trip to the zoo...

Maya, Melissa & Owen, Margaux and Grace and I all headed off to the zoo today. We started the trip off with a yummy lunch at 2 Amys. After a full tummy, we walked from 2 Amys to the zoo (which is all downhill) and then walked through the zoo (all downhill). Maya enjoyed the small mammal house the most I think-there were lots of little exhibits with random animals like an Acouchi-which basically looks like a squirrel on steroids and a Golden Lion Tamarind, which looks like a cross between a squirrel and a monkey, dyed bright yellow.

She also enjoyed watching the anteater (yes the picture is blurry-that's what I get with the little point and shoot camera in a dark mammal house with no flash).



We also saw some monkeys and a sleeping panda. Well, we saw the panda's butt at least.

Then we walked back through the zoo and back to 2 Amys where our cars were parked. Which was ALL uphill. Let's just say we worked off the pizza we ate for lunch!

Later, Grace and Maya decided to hold hands while in their strollers (again, point and shoot camera action shot=blurry):



And then they both looked so cute:



And then I took a VERY short video of Maya..she's so good at walking, she can do 2 things at once ;):

My little toddler...

No video yet. I know, I know. We actually took some today, but had a technical malfunction, so I'm hoping to get a good little movie tomorrow.

Our little walker has been getting more and more steady and confident in her new skill. She's also now very good at keeping her balance and standing up on her own without any support. She's really adventurous about it, so she gets lots of practice. It does, however, make for slightly more difficult meals out, as she would much rather be walking around and flirting with all the other restaurant-goers than sitting in her high chair and eating. The only place I'm sure to keep her attention is at Pie-tanza..it's her favorite pizza!

Sorry we haven't posted in a while-we've been without internet since Wednesday! It's been really painful. We're hoping that we're OK for a while...

Here are some pictures from today:

Walking:



You want this?





Her eyes are so blue!



Me and my mom:

Fancy portraits..

Well, for some reason the portrait place won't put the pictures online and I can't really scan them, so I had to take a picture of the little montage they did for me, which is a bit silly. I'm not sure that I'll use them again..even though the pictures came out nicely it was really so expensive and I feel like with some lighting and a black background (and someone singing silly songs behind me), I could do the same thing.

Here is the picture of a picture..

Birthday Party..

I'm currently too exhausted to type, much less upload a zillion photos of Maya's party..but I swear I'll update tomorrow with the whole story and pictures. It was a great time..but don't expect any pictures of Maya smashing and eating her cake!

OK..eta:

Maya's party was a good time. It was just the right amount of people without being totally overwhelming, but enough people to be a celebration. We ended up doing the party outside--the whole week we were going back and forth on it because the weather was supposed to be too hot. It was definitely a little muggy, but ended up being nice. We had cleaned up the lawn and it was nice to use it. Unfortunately, Maya decided to skip her afternoon nap--it made it difficult to run around and do the last minute stuff..and we thought she would be a big crankpot! She ended up being OK.

Maya's cake was a success with the guests, but the whole singing/eating thing didn't go over too well with Maya. She got overwhelmed and scared when everyone sang to her and then she really didn't know what to do with the cake when she got it. She played a little bit with it, but then wanted out of the highchair.

Here are some pics of the big day. I didn't want to spend the whole day with the camera in front of my face, so they're sort of limited.

Check out more pics: Flickr.

Happy Birthday Maya!

The day is finally here! Maya Joan turned one today! It was amazing to think that it was a year ago that she was born and came into our lives-in some ways it seems like it was just yesterday, but in others it seems like she's always been a part of us and our family.
She truly is quite scrumptious right now..she gives lots of smiles and waves to pretty much anyone who asks. She loves her da-da and is so excited when he comes home..all she has to do is hear the door open and shut and she gets excited. She has moments where we swear she is talking English-like today after someone was singing about clapping, I swore she said, "Clap, clap, clap!". I still laugh about the little girl in Neiman Marcus a couple of weeks ago who asked, "Does she speak English?".
We had her one year doctor's appointment-hey, we're nothing if not punctual! The stats:

Height: 30 1/8 inches (80th percentile)
Weight: 22lbs .8 oz (75th percentile)

We talked all about switching to whole milk, weaning off bottles, etc. It was very enlightening. The doctor was watching her and her attempts at walking and said from what she sees, she'll be full on walking in a week. I believe it!

We had lunch at Whitlow's nearby-her favorite lunch treat. We were joined by Grace, Margaux and Melissa. We went home for a nice long afternoon nap and then headed to a nearby studio for some photographs. I thought they turned out well..Peter thinks mine are better. He's so loyal! I'll have the prints of those on Saturday, I'll scan them in for everyone ;) Peter, Maya and I had pizza dinner (Maya's favorite) with Melissa, Daniel & Owen. We then headed to Baskin Robbins for a little first birthday treat. Apparently not too many people buy a cake at BR and eat it there on the spot..but we did! Here are the pics of that special event...I think they speak for themselves:










More pictures to come of Maya's birthday party and other fun stuff. Oh, and I swear we'll get some walking on video!

PS My dedication to this blog should be noted, as we are without internet access at home for some oddball reason-therefore, I am sitting in my car parked outside the apple store using their wireless ;) Good thing mom bought me this laptop!