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:

Keeping up with Maya

Let's see... what's new with the Juliens?

Maya has some teeth:

Two serious ones on the bottom, and several coming in up top.

This is helping her try new foods... we're always wondering if dinner time will be a battle or fun. This night was a mixture of both (see this huge smile... and the tear on her cheek?):


And, now that she's seriously mobile, she's all over the place all the time. She can stand all alone without holding on for a few seconds at a time... usually until she realizes she's doing it, then she slowly lowers herself to the floor. We're working on getting up and down the stairs, but she's far from mastering it (or at least far from mastering the fact that she shouldn't turn around while she's doing it). One of her super favorite things to do is to rearrange the kitchen furniture, pushing the high chair in front of the back door and the rest of the chairs into the corners of the room:

I learned something today...

About the Texas political process. It turns out that Texas is not JUST a primary state... it's a hybrid of a primary and a caucus. (There's a good, though party-biased, explanation here.)

Now the question is just on the acceptability of taking a baby to a caucus...

The Day with Grandpa and Grandma

Maya's been a little up and down sickness wise lately. She seems to get the wimpiest cold, and it goes straight into her lungs. She stays happy, but she sounds horrible. We went to the doctor on Monday, and the doctor thinks Maya has a touch of baby asthma. :( So now Maya gets a nebulized steroid every day. She seems to take it quite well. But while Maya was out of day care last week, my parents helped out so Tim could cure the animals (and, coincidentally, spay Ginger) and I could teach the undergraduates. Here are some photos of Maya cutin' it up at her grandparents' house:

More Maya Pics

Here's Maya with her play table. This is an awesome toy... the legs come off of it, so she's been playing with it for a while now. But now that pulling up is her super favorite thing to do, the legs are perfect. In fact, today she was playing with it on the tile floor, and it kept scooting away from her... meaning... she had to walk behind it to keep playing. Yay!


And, now that she's completely mobile, she seems constantly headed for the dog toys. What's the deal with this? The dogs think Maya's toys are better than theirs, and she thinks theirs are better. Luckily the dogs like to share... Maya can crawl up to Hannah and take her bone right out of her mouth...


And of course, the requisite "baby jail" photo. We LOVE our new baby gate. If anyone ever needs a recommendation, we've got one...