Baby Sister is here!!

Zoe Katherine was born on her due date, 4.28.09. I was induced and everything went great! We are going home today, so more to come..

Stats:

8lbs 7oz
19.5 inches long
2:19pm

A few pictures:

Maya's First Pony Ride

Yesterday we took Maya on her first pony ride. With the exception of the one moment on Cowboy (which has been permanently etched in her mind), Maya has never gotten on a pony or horse. However, she's been mentioning with increased frequency that she wants to ride a horse, so we took a leap of faith and booked her a pony ride at the Rock Creek Horse Center in DC. I have to say that I was definitely a little apprehensive about giving them my credit card number..I was pretty sure Maya would chicken out at the last minute. However, she took to the whole thing like a champ. It turns out that a former neighbor of ours in DC runs the pony ride program on Saturdays and she took to him really quickly. He took her hand, led her to the horse and a minute later she was on!





















The cutest part of it for me was when we were finishing the ride a family walked by us and Maya yelled back to them, "I'm riding a horse!!". I have a feeling we will be back to the Rock Creek Horse Center.

White House Easter Egg Roll 2009

Maya had a great time at the Easter Egg Roll...this year we got to bring Grace and Margaux. We had to wait on line for a little bit, but Maya loved frolicking on the lawn. She didn't enjoy the characters (again), but she found her own entertainment..dancing to the music, playing with the jump ropes and she loved watching the bigger kids jump rope as well. There were long lines for a lot of the "photo ops" so we took fewer pictures this year than last...

Easter Egg Hunt

Maya had a blast on Easter hunting for eggs in Baba's backyard. The funny part is that there were presents hidden too, but Maya had no interest in them. Just the eggs...

I Gondolieri...

Dziadek and Wai-Po had recently traveled to Venice before their visit to us a couple of weeks ago and brought a special surprise for Maya..gondolieri shirts--matching for both Dziadek and Maya..

Cherry Blossoms with Baba..

Baba, Maya and I headed down to see the Cherry Blossoms yesterday afternoon. The weather wasn't perfect, but the crowds were manageable and we actually managed to circle the entire Tidal Basin! Maya decided she wanted to sit in her stroller, which is something she hasn't done in months...

Here are a few pictures...

Painting with Grace

Last week Maya had fun painting with Grace. Maya loves painting and asks to do it all the time..inevitably she ends up deciding it is more fun to paint herself than to paint on the paper..

Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day..

From Maya and Grace:





And just a random video of them clowning around:

A weekend ago...

The weather was beautiful the weekend before last, so we decided to hit up all the animal hot spots.
On Saturday morning we went to the zoo, where Maya loved checking out the farm animals, the elephants and the gorillas (there's a baby gorilla after all, and Maya is obsessed with babies of all kinds)...





That afternoon we took a walk to the neighborhood playground and it was amazing to watch Maya--she's grown up so much since last fall..she can climb the chain ladder and hold her own with all the big kids...







On Sunday we hit up Frying Pan Park which has a working farm and an equestrian facility...











Luckily for us the farm was also hosting a horse show that day.



Maya loved watching all the horses and riders warming up and a few nice riders let Maya pet their horses. Maya loved it so much that we went to have lunch and came back to watch some of the riders compete and then go watch more horses warming up. We bumped into a nice man who was walking his daughter's horse. She had already competed and the pony, Cowboy, was relaxing. Maya had a great time petting Cowboy and at some point the dad offered to let Maya sit on the pony. And she did and she enjoyed it. And my camera? It was in the car..But I swear it happened.

Sledding Fun..

We went sledding yesterday afternoon with Lilly and Lilly's daddy (Joe). Joe and Lilly's aunt did most of the heavy lifting and sledding, but I did sneak one ride in. Maya had a great time and kept asking to go over and over again. Joe even asked who she got her daredevil side from--I'd like to think it was me-I didn't spend all those years in Colorado for nothing!

Here are some pictures: