Kyle's birthday party

Last weekend we headed up to Albany for Maya's cousin's birthday party. Kyle turned five!

Here's Maya in her snazzy new car seat. She outgrew the infant seat a few weeks back.


Thankfully she got a decent nap in on the drive.



Maya was excited to see everyone when we arrived, and she loved to look at the balloons on the mailbox. Just don't get too close!



All better, wearing the cool sun hat Grandma got her:





We sat outside for a while with Grandma.



Yay, Aunt Mary made it:



Don't all babies love beer?



Here's Grandpa and cousin Samantha:




Aw, Maya and the birthday boy:



Uh oh, Maya discovered Kyle's ribbon.





Good move, Kyle.



Samantha is fun to play with, and all of her and Kyle's toys were so cool. Maya had a great time playing and watching all the kids who came for the party.



Mmmmmm, books!



Aunt Mary and Kyle:



With Uncle Luke:



Just hanging with her cousin:



Can't wait to go back!

8 months

At eight months old, Maya is changing every single day. Her little personality is really shining through. She doesn't do well with teething; she's been teething pretty much constantly since March! It definitely bothers her, so hopefully we can get a break soon. She definitely knows what she wants and gets quite frustrated if she doesn't get what she's expecting or hoping to get. She's very sensitive; separation anxiety has kicked in, and much of the time no one but Mommy will do. She may or may not crawl - she's not really showing much interest just yet. She's getting the hang of the pincer grasp, which is making meal times more fun.

She's also super cute, especially with bed head.



She loves books, mostly for eating.





She's very ticklish and loves when mommy or daddy surprise her with tickles.



We're not sure how much longer she'll enjoy her exersaucer. Most days she prefers playing on the floor, sitting up, or rolling around.



We retired the bouncy seat in the kitchen, and now Maya just plays on the rug while we're in there.




And here are some videos....

Maya loves juggling!



Just sitting in the kitchen:



Playing in her exersaucer:



Playing continued:




We laid low on Mother's Day. Our highlight was taking a nice walk together.





At the playground, she was more interested in the other kids than in swinging.





Playing on the swings at the playground:




She put the paci in this way all by herself:



Bye bye!

Tara's house!

Last weekend we took a jaunt out to our friend Tara's house. Tara and her husband have a beautiful log "cabin" in the woods with LOTS of toys!

This is Jackson. He was born 3 days before Maya. Isn't he a cutie?



Maya seemed to dig him!



She especially dug his cool toys! Here she is in the jumper with Jackson's big sister, Camryn.



Maya says thank you to Jackson for sharing his toys.









Here's Camryn and Maya playing:




This is Tom and Enda. They hung out with us that day, too. Tom is Tara's brother.



Here's Tara and Tom.



I think Tara liked Maya!



I think Tom did too. Maya was happy to hang out with everyone!



We had some snacks around the table. The kids had their own yummy snacks, too.



After some sloppy kisses....



... we were ready for Princess Cake to end the afternoon with!! YUM!! Thanks, Enda!