What's Going on with Maya?

Well, she's just growing and growing...particularly her hair. Today, I was able to get this cutest pony tail in the top. She actually left it alone and it was in all day long. Even after I took it down last night, her hair stuck straight up. It was very funny. She loves to share her food. Fisher is her favorite sharing partner. Yes, we took the sucker away after she let fisher lick it.

This is the pitiful sight I get when return from downstairs. Both of my babies waiting patiently for Mom to come back. If I take too long, I get a yell.

Each afternoon Maya finds this pacifier that we bought in China and will suck and chew on it for about an hour. I usually don't even know where it is but she can find it. I think she hides it when she's finished so she can get it the next day. She has never showed much interest in a pacifier (thank goodness). There are a few lying around in her toy boxes and different places. I'm not real sure what's up with the afternoon paci fix but I hope that it doesn't amount to much more than that. I hate nothing more than listening to a child talk around a pacifier. Maya is a constant talker. But is quiet when the paci is in her mouth. It actually gives my ears a rest! LOL She does say many words but more so babbles. We have an appointment on Tuesday to have her tongue clipped. (OUCH!!) She is very tongue tied. The surgeon says that she shouldn't have speech issues and already doesn't have many feeding issues. She does say light ("dight") and lid ("did") now but hopefully she'll learn quickly how to lift that tongue up after it's clipped.

Still loves the water. She's happiest when she's wet!

Loves the sprinkler and the pool and a bath. Any time we go outside she has to have her "flops" on. It's actually a good thing she loves them because it is so dry here that our grass is crispy and it hurts to walk on it barefooted.

We went to Tennessee last weekend to visit Maya's Grandma and Grandad. She was teething and ran a fever most of the weekend. She was pretty much a bear. We did go to Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamp again this year. She loved the live music even through a fever and swollen gums. Just another confirmation that this treasure truly is our daughter.

Latest Photo Shoot

Sorry about the lack of pics lately. Our "sweet" girl is being such a turkey about pics. I did manage to get a couple of cute ones but in the midst of a million bad ones. She runs at the camera and when you catch her sitting....

This is usually what you get. Or hands in the mouth or rubbing eyes or a nice motion shot of the back of her head. Little booger, but damn she's cute!!

Good Dog and Better Internet

I know that you've all been wondering about Fisher and how he is doing with Maya. Well, he is very jealous but loves the extra attention that he gets from her. He will usually block me from her when she cries or come and squeeze in between us if she's getting some lovin'. He knocks her down and whacks her with his tail just like he does the rest of us. She squeezes her eyes closed and braces herself when he comes around. But he would never ever hurt her intentionally. She loves to watch him eat and if we don't watch her every second, she will put her hands in his bowl and try to give him a bite and sometimes helps herself to some of his food. Yeah, I know, nasty. Believe me, we don't let it happen if we can help it. We are trying to teach her to give him some space when he's eating. She will lay across his belly when he is lying down and pats him hard on the chest just like I do. She loves to touch his nose. She puts her feet in his fur. She tries to pat Maggie the same way as she does Fisher and she has the scratches to prove it. Maggie doesn't like anyone and feels the same about Maya.
We are trying out some Cingular (AT&T) wireless internet. Today is the first day that it has worked. I had to take the laptop to the store and they worked for more than an hour trying to figure out what was up and we finally left with working internet. So far it seems to work well. This pic uploaded quickly and without any fuss (much unlike our previous dial-up). I haven't spent much time trying it out other than this.
I have been tagged by Carrie and Kim for 8 things about me and I will play but it may be a minute.

Goodbye Sunset Beach and Good Internet

Today Maya was so tired that she fell asleep with her flip flops on. I thought about taking them off of her but opted to not disturb the nap. When she awoke, she was so confused about having her shoes on.

I'm not real sure but I think that sleeping in flip flops causes sever bed head. Check out that hair. It's all over the place!

She had a great time in the ocean again today. She loved being deep in the water and popping up when the waves came. She would suck her little belly in when the waves would hit.

Maya and Dad saying goodbye to the beach.

Another sedating wagon ride.

We take some family pictures every year. We are missing almost half of our clan this year. Maya is watching Sponge Bob.

I love this picture. As soon as we put Maya down in the floor she was dancing and smiling at Sponge Bob. Are we cruel to get such a kick out of this.

We say goodbye to this awesome beach for another year. We can't wait to come again. Maybe next year we'll all be together again.

Ever Feel Like You're Under a Microscope?

Another beautiful day at Sunset Beach (yesterday...I passed out early last night and didn't get updated). Maya's day started with a showing of Sesame Street on the enormous TV (which by the way, doesn't look as big as it is really is in the pic with Mike due to some funky depth of field issues). She was mesmerized. She doesn't watch much TV at home and the TV is on here ALL day long. She really doesn't pay much attention to it. But when we got a chance to turn the channel to PBS, she watched. She loves her some Sesame Street.

How's that sand taste?? You all know how this girl likes to put her hands in her mouth. Well, we can't even keep them out on the beach. She just grinds the sand between her teeth. She loves to put her hands in the ocean water and then put them in her mouth. I guess she's not too put out by the salty even though she's so sweet.

She loved the water today. She laughed and splashed and jumped. She just kept going deeper and deeper in the water. This beach is great for kids because of many reasons. Just a few of my favorites are that the beach is really wide and not crowded and the water stays shallow for a long way out at low tide. There are also lots of tide pools that are really fun to play in.

The wagon was another favorite today. She pushed it up and down and up and down. I think she could have done that all afternoon.

Notice the one lonely piece of shrimp on her tray? Yeah, shrimp. Loved it. There is only one piece there because she would shovel it in as soon as I would lay it down. I couldn't get the camera picked up quick enough.

2 Thumbs Up for the Wagon

We tried the wagon out today. And it worked great to haul all of our stuff to the beach including Maya. It also worked great to put her to sleep on the way back from the beach. Our house is all of maybe 200 yards from the beach. I guess she was exhausted. We had another good day of wave jumping and sand digging with our little beach bunny.

Here is our girl modeling for all of you keeping an eye on her duds. Yes Kim, Old Navy!! We love that place. She finally is getting to wear her squeaky sandals from China. Only one of the squeakers worked when she first put them on. I messed around with them and got them both to work. Then we went down to the beach and now neither work. I think the squeakers got sand in them. It was very windy.

Maya with Mom at Sunset Beach. This is a much more typical face from Maya when we try to take a picture. She is certainly uncooperative when we pull out the camera these days.

Maya loves her Daddy so much. She leans in for kisses from him and even chose Dad over Mom to pick her up today. She pats him very gently and lays her head down on his chest when she's sleepy. It melts my heart.

This is what happens when Dad picks her up. No wonder she chooses him over me. She gets thrown into the air and giggles and then has a super scared face for a split second. It is very funny.

Just so everyone doesn't think it's easy to get a pic of Maya smiling. We get many more like this than of the sweet smiling girl I usually post. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I so remember the days of developing film to find only a couple of good pics. Ahhh, those were the days...

We went out to dinner tonight and I gave Maya a bite of lemon. Everyone has seen the lemon faces on babies so you can imagine how hysterical it was. She shook from her head to her toes and then laughed big ol' belly laughs after she recoverd from the sour. Then she wanted more. She did it time and time again. She was really putting on a show for us and particularly her Grandad. She would laugh a silly laugh when he would laugh at her. She has been such a good girl on our vacation. She is having a great time and doesn't mind being out of her normal routine and surroundings. We are trying to keep pretty much to her schedule and that's working well. She has been staying up a little late some nights but hey, we're on vacation.

Until tomorrow...

Here Comes the Sun...Finally

The day started like this...

And continued like this. Maya makes a run for the water when ever she sees it. She wasn't as happy to be in the water today as she was yesterday but she still loved it.

You are right Nugget. She is smokin' hot stuff in this bathing suit that you got for her. She was the cutest baby on the beach. Ok, maybe I'm a little biased.

I love this picture!!


We didn't know how well Maya would like the ocean so we got a little pool for her birthday to bring with us. We blew it up and put water in it today. She had just as much fun in the pool as she did in the ocean. Now we have water for her to play in right on our side porch.

One last shot of Miss hot stuff.

Rainy Day #2

We were able to make a quick trip down to the beach today in between rain showers. Maya wouldn't have minded if it was raining. She LOVES the ocean!! I took her flip flops off and stood her in the sand. She only hesitated for a second before walking quickly towards the water cackling and screeching all the way. She loved the waves and didn't mind the splashing. We really had no intentions of getting in the water when we went down to the beach. It was only in the low 70s and we didn't know what Maya would think of the water. She was totally soaked in minutes and the water is actually pretty warm. We gonna have to keep a very close eye on her down there. She is fearless.

Pushing forward to get the the edge of the earth.

Look at that crazy crooked smile. I always think that she has something in her mouth when she smiles like that because I can see that big ol' molar back there. I think she is working on the one to match on the other side of her mouth. Silly girl.

We are looking for better weather tomorrow. This girl needs to spend a lot longer than a few minutes on the beach.

Sunset Beach 07

We made it here today. We are staying at our usual digs. This place feels like home after 10 years of staying in this same house. Each year we are greeted with something new. One year new furniture and mattresses. Another, new appliances in the kitchen...you get the picture. Well, this year the owners of this place have made Mike's vacation. He gets to watch the French Open in HD on this new plasma TV. (We can see the score Mike Page...very clearly)


We arrived to a complete wash out. It has been raining non-stop and right now it's very, very windy. It is supposed to rain again tomorrow. I don't think we have seen it rain this hard in the 21 years we have been coming here.
Maya traveled like a champ. We drove about 7 hours yesterday and 2 today. She was an angel most of the time. Only a few fussy moments and those usually lead to a nap. What a good girl. She likes the house and is sleeping soundly in her crib as I type. She is having a good time with her grandparents and we know she'll love the beach. After this weekend, the weather is supposed to get better. We can't wait!

Here are Mike and Maya with the truck packed to the gills for our first trip as a family of three. Sunset Beach here we come!!

Check out Alfalfa Munster. Maya usually looks like Eddie Munster with the vampire hair but this morning she had both the Eddie and the Alfalfa going on.

Our house also has good Internet this year (woohoo!!). I'll try to get some good beach pics for you all.

Pages...We miss you!!!