608 Days...

Or 20 months and 1 day old. Maya is officially out of her teens ;) It's absolutely crazy to me that the next big milestone is 2 years old! Wow!

Today we spent the morning at the Botanical Gardens in DC. It is really so pretty there and Maya always enjoys herself. The last time we went we only hung out inside, but today we got to enjoy the outside gardens as well.

Maya did a funny thing today. She loves to throw pennies into fountains/water. She saw a little waterfall and starting adamantly saying "down! down!" Having no idea what she meant, I just looked at her inquisitively. She started grabbing at my bag, so I gave it to her, thinking she wanted a snack. Nope. She opens my bag, grabs my wallet and opens it to get change! We gave her a few pennies and she was very happy.

Here are some pictures from today:

Four Generations...

My own Baba is visiting for a couple of weeks and we thought we would mark the occasion of four generations together with a professional photo session with our favorite photographer, Matt Mendelsohn .

Here are a couple of pictures that he took-I hope that he is OK with me posting them-they are just so beautiful. You can see the whole group of them by going to the proofs page on his site. Email me, and I'll email you the password.

Steak Dinner..

My aunt Miska was in town this weekend all the way from Stockholm and she had one request for her visit-a big steak dinner. It was Maya's first foray into fine dining and she did OK. She has the attention span of a gnat, so long dinners aren't really her forte. However, we managed to squeeze in a couple of courses and a couple of pictures:

Greek Fest 2008

We may have just taken the second installment in what will be an annual tradition of pictures at the Greek Festival:

Playgroup wagon fun...

We had playgroup the other day at Melissa's house and everyone had fun in the wagon.

PS. I lifted some of these pictures from Stephanie, so I can't take all the credit!

Our Chicago trip..

We had a ton of fun in Chicago and we were so happy to be able to see so many friends and take Maya to some places.

We got into Chicago Thursday afternoon after an uneventful trip, other than some bad traffic coming into the city from O'Hare. We got a couple of cool shots of the city from the airplane:



We met up with Aaron & Greer for dinner in Greektown, which hit the spot! Aaron made a great first impression by showing up with a stuffed dog, as well as Elmo and Zoe puppets!


Friday morning the three of us had breakfast together before Peter headed to work. Maya and I decided to stop by my old Crate & Barrel and see some friends, which was great. Afterwards, we headed to the Shedd Aquarium. It was a bit more crowded than I expected, but we saw a fun dolphin show. We also went to the viewing area below where dolphins swam right past Maya..she was a little startled. At the aquarium:



Friday afternoon Maya took a great nap, and then the three of us headed up to Evanston to see Carrie, Peter and Mikayla (Maya's first friend!). They had a lot of fun together...
Eating chips:


Hugging it out:

Our friends Hugo & CJ were able to stop by to say hello for a little bit and Maya fell in love with Hugo instantly:



Saturday morning we met up with the Sterns. Maya is in love with Mike...she wanted him to carry her everywhere. She loved Amanda too..but Amanda was at a bit of a disadvantage because she is not a boy ;)


We went to Daddy's favorite place:


After lunch we headed back to the hotel room for a short nap and then went to meet up with Joanna, Alyse and Andrew at Navy Pier. We had a great time riding the Ferris Wheel, the Carousel and visiting the children's museum.




Riding the Thomas Train all by herself:


We followed up the fun day with some yummy Chicago pizza. Unfortunately Maya was feeling a bit under the weather, but she still ate plenty of pizza! She's an equal opportunity pizza eater.

We came back today..our trip was a bit rough (LONG cab ride to O'Hare, long flight, lots of rain, etc), but we're happy to be back home and happy to see Baba!

Check out all our Chicago pics here!

Interesting tidbit...

When we decided on the name Maya, we didn't realize that the name was actually enjoying a bit of a comeback...and every now and then we meet another Maya out there. In fact, one time I ran into a father buying clothes for his daughter in Nordstrom. We struck up a conversation and I asked what his daughter's name was. In a tone of voice that conveyed, "I am far superior to you in my naming choices", he said "Maya". I said, "Oh that's my daughter's name!". To which he responded, this time in a voice that said "Well, this name is REALLY original", "Well, her name is Maya Jean, the middle name is after her grandmother". I couldn't help snickering to myself as I responded, "Well, her name is Maya Joan, the Joan is from her grandmother".

I never really knew a Maya growing up. When the conversation of names and Maya comes up, inevitably the response from someone is, "Well, Maya's becoming more popular".

Today I have proof that the name is actually not becoming more popular. In the annual list of names compiled by the Social Security Agency, the name Maya actually dropped five places from 57 to 62. So there.

In other news, the Social Security and I have something in common, which is that we are befuddled by the Jayden/Cayden/Braden naming debacle. From their press release:


For reasons likely to puzzle baby name experts around the world, American parents have become infatuated by names, particularly for their sons, that rhyme with the word “maiden.” These names for boys include: Jayden (No. 18); Aiden (No. 27); Aidan (No. 54); Jaden (No. 76); Caden (No. 92); Kaden (No. 98); Ayden (No.102); Braden (No.156); Cayden (No.175); Jaiden (No.191); Kaiden (No. 220); Aden (No. 264); Caiden (No. 286); Braeden (No. 325); Braydon (No. 361); Jaydon (No. 415); Jadon (No. 423); Braiden (No. 529); Zayden (No. 588); Jaeden (No. 593); Aydan (No. 598); Bradyn (No. 629); Kadin (No. 657); Jadyn (No. 696); Kaeden (No. 701); Jaydin (No. 757); Braedon (No. 805); Aidyn (No. 818); Haiden (No. 820); Jaidyn (No. 841); Kadyn (No. 878); Jaydan (No. 887); Raiden (No. 931); and Adin (No. 983). This startling trend was present, but less pronounced, with girls names: Jayden (No. 172); Jadyn (No. 319); Jaden (No. 335); Jaiden (No. 429); Kayden (No. 507); and Jaidyn (No. 561). Social Security spokesman Mark Lassiter indicated that the agency would resist any legislative efforts to standardize the spelling of these names.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming of gushing over Maya and posting way too many pictures. We are in Chicago right now, but we'll be back home tomorrow, with PLENTY of pictures!

Peter made another friend...

He met Maya's idol today:




Last year he made a friend too-but we think Elmo is cooler now.

Tiny time...

A few pictures from Maya's gymnastics class that we take through the county...

Silver Diner...

We've started a little tradition of going to the Silver Diner one weekend morning for breakfast. Maya is a huge fan of the chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. She likes maple syrup on everything-sort of like Elf. Anyways, she also likes the little jukeboxes and the play cars they give you....





A little video of Maya dancing the locomotion (how cute are the pigtails?):

Playgroup Flashbacks...

We had a playgroup yesterday at the park and it got me thinking, yet again, about what a difference a year makes...

This year:












Last year.

Hangin' with my friends in the Papasan...

We had a mini playgroup yesterday with Owen & Lilly at Owen's new house..the kids had a lot of fun canoodling in the papasan chair:







Afterwards, we hit Pie-tanza for dinner with the Blumenthals and Grace and Margaux. Grace decided she needed some Peter time, but Maya wasn't willing to give him up-so they shared:

Real Estate Baby....

Maya, Babcia and I ventured up to East Hampton this week to close on Babcia's house, as well as meet with some contractors. As an added perk, we got to see Dziadek!

Here is Maya in front of Babcia's new house:



Smelling her fragrant flowers:



Visiting the ducks..we used to visit the same family of ducks when Aunt Tessa was little: