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!

Weeks 8 and 9 - Ben

Ben had his 2 month well-check this week - he is weighing in at 14 lbs, 4 oz and 25 1/2 inches long. He's about the 95th percentile for both weight and height. Since he still likes to be held and carried around, I'm hoping to get some great-looking arms out of this.


He's really starting to smile and communicate with us. He isn't quite the talker his sister was at this age - which is a relief as Maya talks enough for two kids! (Check out http://babytackett.blogspot.com/2008/08/weeks-8-and-9.html for a video of Maya "talking" at this age!)

Last weekend we went to Annapolis for the day. We explored the Naval Academy - unfortunately this is about as long as we could get Maya to pose for a picture.
She did enjoy the Alex Haley statue by the harbor.

Ben slept through most of it, but when he was awake, he was happy.


Claudia, the nanny, has been on vacation this past week, so I've been home alone with both kids. I've found lots of activities for us to do - a trip to Ikea, circle time at the library, and a ballet class for Maya (she's signed up for regular classes beginning in September.)
I think Maya enjoyed wearing her ballet outfit more than the actual classes, but who could blame her? I always liked the outfits more than someone telling me how to dance!
Ben enjoyed ballet class more than Maya, I think. We also spent time at the fountain in downtown Silver Spring as a way to beat the August DC heat and humidity.




We also spent a lot of time at home as getting two kids in the car is challenging (to say the least).
I'm sure if the parenting patrol stopped by, I would have cited for some dubious practices: Maya watching TV under the table sitting in Ben's chair....


And Ben sleeping in Maya's bed...
and me just plopping Ben down in his Bumbo chair.

Wendy is here now, and we head to Colorado next week, so my time as a stay-at-home mom is coming to an end as Claudia will be back when we get home.