You hold the Key

Dear Maya,

Looking back over photos of this past week, it is obvious that mommy didn't have her camera out too much. Between the library story hour, hot afternoons spent in the pool, and the time mommy put in to having a yard sale, there wasn't a lot of photo documentation. We had some good times, though:

• Super early morning trip to the park--we were there before 8am!

• Yet more bubble machine playtime on the deck

• Studying "K is for key" by opening a lock to find a "K" magnet and surprises inside a gift bag

• Picking peas at the farm where we go every Friday for our CSA share

And some sad news...this week our 'downstairs cat' Lightning passed unexpectedly. It was very sad and confusing for the adults in the house, but you don't seem to have noticed yet. True, he only came out to greet you occasionally, preferring to sleep all day and only come out after you were in bed. When you did see him, you loved to feed him treats and call him cute, and what was really cute was how you pronounced his name--more like "nineteen" than Lightning. We'll miss you little buddy!

photo by Auntie Rhi

Love you, Maya!

Just Jumping for Joy

Dear Maya,

This last week was kind of unusual for us. Daddy had a cold, mommy and daddy each took some much-needed time for themselves, and, oh yeah, we got a new car! It is sooooo much nicer putting you in your car seat without having to stoop over and now we have so much more room. Yeah!

It's been rainy off and on this week (this year, maybe?!) so whenever we got a few moments of sun we headed outside to play. You are still very much in love with the crazy bubble-blowing machine daddy got you a few weeks ago and mommy is still very much in love with peony season!!!

 

We did our "J" studies, too, but mommy doesn't have any pictures of it. Since it's one of your favorite activities anyways, we used the key word "jump" and did things like making a paper "J" "jump" on a sheet we shook up and down like a parachute. You got the hang of this letter pretty quickly.

And, of course, yesterday was Father's Day! You worked hard on a picture with foam stickers and crayon drawing for him, plus you and mommy gave him a framed picture, chocolates, and Japanese language books for kids so that you and he can read more together. We went out for a nice lunch, took a long drive in our new car, did some window shopping at a mall (which we almost never do so it was kind of a treat), and then went to the riverfront to throw stones and play. It was a really nice day.

Well, little sweetie pie, mommy's headed to bed. Love you!

I: Ice, ice, baby

Dear Maya,

The weather this past week was all over the place--really nice early on, too cold for June in the middle, downright hot over the weekend, and now here mommy is writing this post to the sound of strong wind gusts and rain outside and it's kind of chilly again. When is summer going to start in earnest??

We celebrated your Aunt Kelsie and Aunt Bobbie's birthday on Tuesday. You took a nice long nap so mommy was able to get the food prepared and house decorated in a snap. You really enjoyed the chocolate cupcakes (surprise, surprise) and getting to see Baby Grace.

The next day we went over to see Baby Grace again so mommy could take her one-month photos. As always, you were more interested in her toys than in playing with her, but when you did finally go over and look at her for a few minutes it was so sweet--until she started to cry in your face.

As mommy had suspected in the last post, it was pretty easy for you to remember the letter "I" this week. On hot days you had ice pops and got to draw on your Aquadoodle sheet with an ice cube instead of water. On cool and wet days we did lots of reading, coloring, and drawing.

 

 

Over the weekend we had a play date with Wyatt and his friend. You loved jumping in the balls on the trampoline, playing in the big and small kiddy pools, and throwing water balloons with the big boys. In the course of a few hours there you also managed to eat about 5 slices of watermelon!

When we got home, mommy looked out the window and noticed a really big turtle in the yard. We all went outside to look at it and saw that it was a really strong-looking snapping turtle. Daddy managed to get him onto a snow shovel and drag him far away to a safer spot. Yeah, daddy!

Looking forward to another week full of laughs with you, sweetie. Love you!