Maya's first popsicle

Cas looked at the photos I snapped of Maya eating her first popsicle, and as he very quickly flipped through them on the computer, it almost looked like a video.  Pathetically, that's how many pictures I took, not because the popsicle was that special, but because her reaction to it - the hatred of the cold, the love of the flavor - was so expressive.  We had an iphone video of Collin at one or two eating ice cream with the same type of love/hate reaction.

So here it is, the play by play of my girl, out of the pool in her adorable $1.50 pink tutu bathing suit my mom bought, experiencing her first popsicle.  The initial taste, slight wrinkling of the nose -

 The grimace begins -

 Pained expression, and yet she goes back for another bite -

Why do I keep doing this to myself?

 Sharing with Mommy -

 Oh this girl, we could not love her more!

Checking out her reflection or rubbing her treat in the dogs' faces -

Maya only lasts about 15 minutes in the pool.  She'll walk around the pool area for another 20 or 30 minutes, but that involves one of us closely trailing her so she doesn't walk right off into the deep end.  So while Collin can swim for 2-3 hours, Maya normally ends up in the swing until we herd everyone inside.

It is so fun to watch her personality develop.  She is our daredevil, throwing herself backwards on the bed assuming there's more bed behind her, throwing herself backwards in my arms for me to spin her around upside down.  We call her our destroyer, as she loves to pull paper towels off the rack at her eye level in the kitchen, loves to mess with the dogs' food and water, loves to take down all the cookbooks on the shelf in her reach, loves to take out all the contact solution, hair gel, and other bottles out of Cas' cabinets, and generally destroy everything in her path.  But she also loves to give hugs and kisses to her family, loves to talk on the phone, loves to hold and hug her baby doll, and loves to make us smile with peek-a-boo and other silly games.  She is a delight to us all!

From fear of bubbles to a fish in 48 hours

We finally put Collin in swim lessons, mostly to make someone else be the bad guy and help him overcome his fear of putting his face in the water.  Having taught swim lessons for years, I can teach him the basics, but I wasn't sure he'd want to go swimming with me if he associated me with dunking him underwater while he protested.  So the first week in June we crammed into the swim lesson spot for two weeks of daily lessons.

The place we went was highly recommended, but my friends also warned fairly aggressive with pushing kids underwater.  I clearly over prepared Collin that they'd be teaching him to swim with his face in the water, because the first day, he was the only kid I wasn't sure was going to get through the door.  I had to push him in and the instructor had to pull!  And unlike many kids who were reluctant on day two, Collin strolled in on his own after the first fearful day.  Here he is through the viewing glass with his class -   

Not sure if it was the five days of lesson or the positive peer pressure from our friends' kids or that he had finally gained confidence with his age - and probably a combination of the three, but at Maya's birthday party, we convinced Collin to wear goggles, and he became a new man.

At the end of the party, Amber suggested diving for rings.  And my boy, who two days earlier whined and cried about blowing bubbles, shrieked and screamed if we said we were going under, was game for ring diving.  It was incredible to watch the transformation in two short days.

We told him over and over how proud we were that he was brave and swimming!

Going down the slide by himself without a puddle jumper -

We didn't take photos during the party, but on Sunday I grabbed the camera to document our little fish.  

Collin has a lot of my childhood shy, tentative personality.  And like Collin, I was the kid sitting on the steps crying about putting my face in the water during swimming lessons, and then one summer the switch turned on and I was suddenly a swimmer.  So I was confident it would happen, and we're thrilled we got to witness the transformation.  And much like my younger brother, I think Maya will be ignorantly daring - as we've watched her walk off the edge of the pool without a care in the world.  I wish some of Collin's cautiousness would rub off on her, and it will be interesting to see her approach to swimming in the years to come.

Maya's belated birthday party and pool-warming

About a month after Maya turned one, we held a little birthday & pool party on Saturday afternoon.  We had a great turnout of family and close friends, and my kids had a blast.

Cousin Annie showing Collin her dragon puppet.

Maya thought it was crazy fun!

And that's about all of the photos I took, since as soon as we said hi to the on-time arrivals, we jumped in the pool with our kids.  Maya was in and out of the pool, and Collin came out only to put on "party clothes," stuff his face with chicken nuggets and cake, and then hop back in to swim until bedtime.

The birthday girl and her Chick Fil A feast (with cute tutu high chair skirt hand-me-down from my friend Kelly)

Singing "Happy Birthday" with Collin protecting Maya from the candle / making sure he got to be the one to blow it out -

Clapping for herself -

Cupcake time -

Unlike Collin, whose first taste of cake and much sugar at all was his first birthday party, this girl has consumed a fair amount of animal crackers, cookies, graham crackers, and ice cream in the seven months she's been eating food.  Thankfully she balances it out with her love of vegetables -

And she's done - worn out from the big party and mad at me for taking her Capri Sun that she squirted all over the rug -

Comfort from her favorite man, Daddy!

We had so much fun having family and friends over to swim and over to celebrate our sweet, one-year-old girl.  

Maya's mouth agape at the Children's Museum

We had a free Saturday morning, and Cas and I debated how to spend the day.  After a few rounds of ideas where only one child would be happy, we decided to split up for the morning, with Cas and Collin headed to a go-kart and arcade spot, and Maya and I to the Children's Museum.  For the boys, their spot ended up being rented out all day, the trampoline place was closed, so they made it back home to swim, where Collin was just as happy as he would have been without driving in a big loop around the city.

And we had a great time at the museum.  It was sweet to have this one-on-one time with Maya, especially now that she's interacting and getting to be so much fun!  This was Maya's first time to the Tot Spot since she's been walking, and she had a blast checking out all the toys just for toddlers.  She started out with the cars, one of Collin's favorite activities, but lasted only long enough for me to snap a picture with my phone.

Most of my photos of Maya from that Saturday morning show her mouth wide in grin or amazement!

Driving -

If I had been more ambitious, I would have included photos of Collin with these same toys, as we have almost identical pictures of him in these poses.  But if I waited to dig through my files to find the one picture of the many we took of Collin at the museum, this blog post probably never would have happened!

 

Caught about to eat the ball -

Worn out from climbing up the slide area, turning light switches on and off, toddling around, having tea parties, squealing and kicking in the ball pit, and saying hi to the packed room of toddlers and parents.  She fell asleep within 30 seconds of exiting the parking lot.

Maya and I are looking forward to many more trips to the tot spot, now that my mom and I can trade off taking Collin to the older kid area downstairs and Maya to the toddler wonderland.  And I'm looking forward to years and years of mother-daughter outings ahead!

My little monkeys at the zoo

The zoo is getting to be more fun with Maya, now that she's aware of the animals and not just along for the stroller ride.  I took the kids in the spring, and she noticed the big animals this time, though I'm pretty sure she missed the ones like the wolf who sleeps by the fence, nor was she impressed by the snoozing lions.  

She preferred being out and about or in my arms, so she was happy to play in the African exhibit area with Collin.

Acting like silly monkeys with the chimpanzees in the background -

Though she was feet from the fence and the fence was at my shoulder height, Maya made a once-in-a-lifetime toss for an eleven-month-old of her Sophie la Giraffe teething toy, and it ended up inside the giraffe exhibit.

While we waited for the zookeepers to rescue the teething toy (mostly waited for them to remove the live giraffe choking hazard), we hopped over to the petting zoo for Maya's first time with the goats.

She wasn't really sure what to think -

Collin posing away -

He's just now picked up on the boy gene to climb all over things, getting more and more daring -

We headed back to the zoo the first Friday of June, meeting up with my friend Michelle and her two girls.  Before we strapped Maya in the stroller, we let her chase some pigeons in the pond outside the entrance.

As all second children, she wants to be just like her big brother, who took off after the birds as soon as we came to the path.

Continuing our streak of adding a taste of adventure to our zoo visits (the first one being Sophie the teething toy visiting her real giraffe brethren), Maya slipped in mud within the first 15 minutes inside the zoo, and then proceeded to get mud all over me when I picked her up and all over Collin when he caught a ride in the front part of the stroller.  Keeping it classy at the zoo!

The kid crew -

Michelle had wisely suggested bringing swim suits for the splash pad, and it was the perfect combination.  We saw animals for 30 minutes, cooled off in the sprinklers, ate lunch, and caught a few more animals as we exited.  Collin was a wild man, running around and fighting the water -

Maya wasn't sold on getting soaked, but she toddled around and splashed around in the tame bubblers -

Visiting the home stretch of animals and posing by the rhino cutout -

Back to Maya's favorite part, the chimpanzees.  She threw a mini tantrum when we left.

Can you see her happy expression in the reflection?

Mesmerized by the up-close look -

Both of my kids could stay here awhile - and since this is one of the rare, air conditioned spots in the zoo, we normally take our time!

We had a fun morning with friends, and the day effectively wore my kids out.  Look forward to many more visits . . . though I'd be okay waiting for the fall weather for our next one!