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!