Santa

I took the kids to meet Santa yesterday. Maya loved it; Ben did great - until he turned around and got a look at Santa - then there were tears.

As we were leaving visiting Santa, I asked Maya if she enjoyed it; she did, but she said "I saw Santa, but no Mickey. Or Minnie."

Wendy and Mom, I have hard copies for you and Grandma. Will put them in mail soon!

Life as we know it is over.

Pictures from our adventures!

Here are a variety of pictures from our adventures the past 6 or 7 weeks...
Wendy and Gene took the kids to the zoo.

Maya and her Grandpaji on their ipads (I won't say who's better with the gadget.)
Larkin running the Marine Corps Marathon on 10/31
Getting kisses from his kids at mile 19
Tatman, Alison Fulton, me, and my little dragon cheering on the runners
Maya and Tatman at a post-marathon meal
Our little China girl and Judy Jetson
Mae, Maya, Claudia, and Ben
Ben and his Shu Shu
Ben at 5 months

Maya still loves her bubbles
She's becoming quite the fashionista
Maya and Kresley in Winter Park watching a "tb show" after dinner at the Reynolds' house
Ben at 6 months
Not a bad place to do some drawing....
Cruising can be very tiring.
Not a bad place to watch a football game.
Ben and Maya at the splash zone on the Disney Wonder
More splashing...
Ben watching Maya at ballet
Maya at ballet
More ballet....
Ben at the Carnegie Science Museum in Pittsburgh
With Tatman and Ryder Savio and Mary Elizabeth and Candler Lott during the Lotts' visit to DC
Candler had quite the thing for Ben...

Late October/November

The nice thing about the last 6 weeks is that we've been on the go: Charleston, Pittsburgh, and a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas - and we had a visit from Gene and Wendy in the middle of all of our travels. The bad thing is that means that we are way behind on uploading pictures to the blog about all these adventures....

Updating the blog is on my to-do list for this week. Until then, here are some videos we took from this morning. You'll notice that Maya is becoming quite the performer, and Ben is becoming more and more independent!

Larkin's birthday, pumpkins, and ballet

Larkin celebrated his 32nd birthday this past week. I took Maya and Ben to the dollar store, and let Maya pick out 3 things that she thought Daddy would like. (Ben slept through the whole adventure.) It was hands-down my favorite shopping experience (which is saying A LOT from me.) Maya took her job very seriously, going up and down the aisles looking for things that Daddy would like. She found the blue measuring cups pretty early on, grabbed them, and said "Oh, Daddy like these." The purple sunglasses were also a pretty easy choice. The soap dishes... it was between them and a green plastic pig. She kept asking herself, "Daddy like pig? Maybe gleen pig?" All in all, she was very proud of the gifts that she picked... "oh, Daddy happy. Daddy like all these." And he did....

The weather has been so beautiful lately, that we couldn't resist stopping at a pumpkin patch on our way home from the grocery store this morning. Maya picked out two pumpkins, one for her and one for Ben.

Ben didn't enjoy the pumpkin patch quite as much...





Maya and I had ballet this morning. She may not be the most graceful, but she thinks she is, so that is all that counts.



Ben still isn't sleeping through the night, so we get to see his beautiful blue eyes a little more than we'd like to. We are coming to the realization that we aren't sleep experts; Maya slept through the night at an early age in spite of us rather than because of something we did. We feel a lot like new parents as having a poor sleeper is all new to us. We are back to Baby 411, trying all sorts of things, all while trying to stay sane. Luckily, he is an extremely happy baby.... even at 1 am, 3 am, and 5 am.


We put up a bouncer we got from Jamie and Matty Dempsey when Maya was born. She never cared for it that much; Ben, on the other hand, loves it. I think his favorite things, in order, are Maya, the bouncer, Maya dancing, and milk. His 4 month appointment got pushed back to November due to our pediatrician's travel schedule and my jury duty. I did have him weighed when I took Maya in for a check-up for her finger. With clothes on, he was 17 lbs, 11 oz. I don't know how much he'd weigh without clothes, but it is safe to say that the boy likes his milk.

End of Summer

The summer of 2010 ended with lots of "firsts" and many "friends."

Maya began her ballet career with her first plies.

(Note: This is not a plie, it's more of a stretch/day dreaming/listening-to-directions pose.)


Ben completed his first roll, and now he can't lay down without turning over.


Katie got an ipad for her 32nd birthday and Maya was the first in the family to use it.


Although not her first accident (see previous post), Maya broke her first bone--the tip of her left ring finger. It's not a very cool story. She fell while cleaning up her wooden dolls. Fortunately it's not on a growth plate.


Ben is still not consistently sleeping through the night, so he had his first solid food--rice cereal.


According to babycenter.com, it's developmentally appropriate for two year-olds to have lots of "friends," including Philip and Tatman's new daughter, Ryder,


Chelsea and Kevin's sons Grayson and


Parker, as well as William, who visited from the UK where his parents Lizzie and Matt Samuels live.


We also visited friends in Austin and stayed with the Nolds. Danny Jr. was clearly upset with UT's loss to UCLA.


Maya enjoyed driving Ginger's car around the Nolds' house and


visited her friend Saro in Katie's old office.


Grandma and Papa, who Maya also refers to as her friends, visited during our 5th wedding anniversary.


The next few weeks will be busy--two marathons, a visit from Shu Shu and Grandpaji, and a trip to Charleston, SC. We're hoping Ben sleeps longer, Maya has no more accidents, and we see many more friends.

August - Wendy, Colorado, and The Accident

You know that you haven't posted on the blog in a while when you have to title an entry "August." We've had a great month with a visit from Shu shu, a trip to Colorado, and Maya's first impromptu trip to the dentist! Be prepared for a lot of pictures...

Wendy came out for a week in early August to visit. She watched the kids during my first overnight trip away since Ben was born. Maya and Ben loved having their Shu Shu here. While Wendy was here, there was dancing in the rain, playing at home, going to the Baltimore Children's Museum, hijacking Wendy's iPhone, and lots and lots of laughter. I don't think there is another person in the world who can make Maya shriek with joy like her Shu Shu does. Wendy also flew with me and the kids to Colorado; despite one slight accident (and thanks to a fortuitously located children's clothing shop in the Nashville airport), we had a great trip. I honestly could not have done it without her. (You wouldn't know that Wendy was here as she isn't in any of the pictures - next time I will wrestle the camera away from her hands and get a picture of her!)








After saying goodbye to Wendy at the Denver Airport, Maya, Ben, and I hit the road with my parents to Breckenridge. We were out there for a week with Scott, Cory and the kids. Maya and Ben loved playing with their cousins, Jackson and Ali. We "explored", rode the Alpine Slide, went horseback riding, rode bikes to Frisco and back, fed chipmunks, walked to meals, read books, ate lots of ice cream (Maya), and drank a lot of wine (me.) The weather was perfect - my only regrets were that Larkin was only able to come out for a long weekend and that we didn't stay for another week!

















Last week, Ben and I made another trip up to Wilmington to visit Grayson and Chelsea. This time, Chelsea and I ventured out for lunch and shopping. The boys cooperated nicely and slept while we shopped.

After returning from Wilmington, I went to pickup Maya from being with Claudia, the nanny, for the day. I got there just in time to see Maya, Claudia, and Mae fall face first into the sidewalk - a freak accident. Final score: sidewalk 1, Maya 0. Maya scraped up her hand and chin, got a bump on her head, and cracked her right front tooth into two pieces. I took her to the dentist the next day; she told us that the tooth couldn't be saved. The tooth got pulled (very traumatic for me - I will never forget it) but Maya is no worse for wear - except for the large gap in her mouth. Seeing her little gap-toothed grin was hard for us for several days, but we know in the long run, this is nothing. She'll get another front tooth eventually... and these will be great pictures to torment her with when she is older!

On our way to the dentist...

The "after" pictures...


Maya is completely back to her normal, daredevil ways. I'm now hoping that we can make it to age 5 without her knocking out her other front tooth!