Deep Breaths

We went back to the doctor yesterday to recheck Maya's most recent ear infection. (All better by the way.) The doctor also checked her breathing. She said to Maya: "Can you take a deep breath for me?" And then showed her what she meant. And Maya took a deep breath. "Great!" Then the doctor put the stethoscope on Maya's back and said "OK, take another deep breath!" And Maya just stared at her.

Once we were in the car and on the way to day care, all Maya did was take deep breaths and laugh between them...

Sleepy Baby?

Maya was asleep in the car when we came home from the grocery store today. I got her upstairs and into her bed without her really waking up.

About 5 minutes later we overheard her talking to herself a little bit on the baby monitor. We let her go to see if she would go back to sleep. A few minutes later, she was fake snoring over the baby monitor...

Befores and Afters

I shouldn't be doing this, since it's not really finished yet. But we just have some finish carpentry work left in the kitchen. So I thought I would give these interim updates.

Here's a recent "before" (before appliances and backsplash):

And today (eventually the duct work will be covered up by a cabinet and some trim):

And an original "before" (when the house was on the market):

And today:

McKinney Roughs

Last weekend, I surprised Tim at work on Saturday and took him "out of town" to the Hyatt Lost Pines resort. This is the kind of weekend hiking I can tolerate; sleep and eat in a fancy resort, then I'll grudgingly trudge along for several miles of hiking each day. (Though I did consider just going to the spa instead of hiking.) Here's a photo of us from the second day.

Random Weekend Photos

Arthur's Home!

Tim's little brother Arthur came back from Iraq on Monday. Since it was a holiday, Maya and I went up to meet Audrey and welcome him home. Tim joined us later for dinner... Here are some photos:

Salsa Maya

Maya helped make the salsa for the tuna steak last night. Here are a couple of in-progress shots:


And the final product (and that's not a booger, it's a tomato seed...):

A Visit to Indiana

Shortly into the new year, we took a trip to Indiana to catch up with all of the Juliens. Tim's little sister (Theresa) was in town on leave with her boyfriend Dan, Tim's step sister and her family came up for one day, Tim's other step sister lives in town (as do Tim's dad and stepmother) and Tim's grandma even came down from Detroit. And by chance, Tim's cousin's wife (Alana) happened to be around on Sunday. It was a great chance to catch up with everyone.

Here's Theresa and Dan:

and then Tricia, David, and Rowan:

Maya and Rowan were definitely interested in each other...

But others liked Maya as well (obviously):

In fact, the first thing Maya did when we got to the house was to jump in Grandma Julien's lap:

To the park on the new trike

It's this way:

Crazy playground hair: