Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend. On Saturday, Maya and I picked out the granite for our new countertops. Then we all went shopping with Grandma Audrey for her new dining room chairs. Audrey also brought Maya a whole new wardrobe, so be watching for that as the weather warms...

Saturday afternoon, we went to my parents house. Where we colored Easter eggs and my parents and sister crafted a gourmet dinner. We remembered our camera, but not our camera battery. :) Here are some pictures my sister snapped:

Maya was in the mood to make the same face as whoever was holding her. Here she is with my mom getting ready to color eggs:

And with me coloring eggs (it takes a lot of concentration!):

When the eggs were colored, we put stickers on them:

Here's the final result:

And the dinner table:

More Party Pics

Sameer has passed along some more photos from the birthday party.

Maya was a little overwhelmed when we arrived:

But Anila was more than happy to ham for the camera:

And, Maya warmed up once she heard there was food. Of the plastic variety:

Or pizza:

Jaydee and Brian

Our friends Jaydee and Brian came to visit from Saint Louis this past week. They were in town for SXSW and to visit with Brian's brother, sister-in-law, and niece (and us, of course!). We all met up at Rutamaya Cafe for their Sunday morning kid's show.

Little Piper adores babies:

And Maya actually watched almost the entire show. We're pretty sure, though, that when the audience clapped, Maya thought they were clapping for her.

Brian even got into the fun:

Anila's Birthday Party

Maya's friend Anila turned two this week. This weekend, we went to her party. We had some trouble finding the Modak's new house; they'd redone the exterior in honor of Anila's birthday:

Once we were finally in, Maya sampled Anila's grill toys:

Then the girls got down to some serious ball playing (though Maya doesn't care for the feel of the grass on her bare legs...):

And I must include a photo of the incredible cake (yes, that's a cake):

Everything was great until they cut into it... it was a little sick to watch a penguin lobotomy at a 2 year old's birthday party!

(And by the way, that's not really their house, but it is an actual house in the neighborhood between their house and ours...)

A Trip to Whole Foods

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Whole Foods with James and Laura and Addie. The girls had a good time hanging out in the wind. Here are Laura and Addie:

And the girls on the slide:

What developmental milestone is this?

The other evening, I was getting ready to make dinner (waiting for Tim to come home to help watch Maya before I started the ACTUAL cooking). Maya was playing nearby in the kitchen, standing and oogling at "the baby in the oven." (This is how we refer to reflections... "the baby in the window," "the baby in the oven"...) She was happily giggling at her reflection when Tim came home. He walked in from behind her and said "Hello." She saw his reflection and got giddy. "Daddy! How'd you get in there?" After a few moments of elation, she determined to crawl to that daddy guy and get picked up. So she lowered herself to her hands and knees... and... crawled around the corner into the dining room (to the other side of the wall that the oven is on). After we got over how funny it was, Tim came from behind her to pick her up. She looked at him as if to say: "Wow! How'd you get back here so fast?!?!"

Decision Time...

We had our Texas primary here on Tuesday. I've been postponing my decision for as long as possible, but I found myself driving home from work on Tuesday having to decide. This summarizes the difficulty in the decision much more eloquently than I ever could. And, unless you attended the caucus in my precinct on Tuesday night, you don't get to know how I voted. :)

Speaking of caucuses... how interesting! They were clearly not prepared for the crowd that appeared, but everyone remained very calm and well-behaved. Here's a blurry picture of the crazy crowd:

Maya came along; she even raised her hand as we elected a chairperson and secretary (I think just because everyone else was doing it).

Luckily, after we'd been standing around for about an hour, they expedited the process for people with kids in tow, so we got out in time to get Maya home and in bed pretty close to her bedtime...

Some Spring Standing

Maya's been practicing her standing lately. Yesterday, we were up at my parents' place, and she was showing off. Check out the super-cute spring outfit from GG. Maya's FINALLY grown into it, just in time for the warmer weather!


We also went with grandpa for a ride in his golf cart. At one point on the ride, Maya had both her arms in the air, squealing with joy. Just wait for when she's big enough for roller coasters!

Napa

Last weekend, we headed up to Napa for a little R&R. I had to attend a conference at the beginning of the week, so Tim and Maya came along for vacation. We met up with some friends from college and my cousin and hit some wineries. Maya traveled great again, though she was more antsy to get down on the plane and crawl around this time...

Here are some photos from our trip. Here we are with Brian and Sarah:

And Brian and Sarah clowning around:

Maya went on her first tram ride:

And the view of the Napa valley from the top:

Here's a very nice family picture: