Flowers

While we were out for the bluebonnet photos, Tim also took some flower shots...

Bluebonnets

Here are the annual bluebonnet photos!

Family Photos

Some friends of ours took some family photos for us a couple of weeks ago.  It is good to have some photos of all of us before Cora is a big girl...

And a couple of Texas girls in the wind...

Rockin' the hawk

Cora's teacher was having some fun today.

Legos Friends

So when Legos introduced "Friends" a while back, I thought it was ridiculous and was near insulted.  Why would girls need their own special Legos line?  What's wrong with ordinary Legos?  Why do Legos need to be pink and purple for girls to like them?  Now I feel the need to eat my words.  Maya has become enamored with Legos Friends.  Turns out, it's WAY more than pink and purple Legos.  They come exclusively in "packs" with which you build something.  (We have a treehouse, a camper (thanks grandma and grandpa!), and a veterinary clinic (thanks cousins!).)  They also all come with some characters.  Whoever came up with this clearly did extensive research on the little girl age group.  They appear to know my daughter better than I do!  Maya LOVES these things.  She plays pretend and builds at the same time.  Which is what I assume they figured out in their research... that for girls, play time is as much about the characters and the situation as it is about the construction.  Oh, and the instructions are perfect for the age group.  They're entirely numbers and pictures, and they're completely clear.  Maya has absolutely no trouble following them all on her own.  Every once in a while she misplaces something, but when things don't fit later, she goes back and figures out why by herself.  And watching her spatial reasoning skills while she does it is simply fascinating.  She's able to recognize pieces of strange shape regardless of their orientation on the table.  She's able to visualize where the pieces go given the picture instructions and her partially constructed item, even if the two are turned different ways.  Fascinating.

Newsletter

2012 was a big year for the entire family.  The biggest first was a first day, for Cora Elizabeth, who was born on October 12, 2012.  This was also Maya's first day as a big sister, a role she has loved filling from day one.

Cora doesn't have much news of her own; she's done a lot of eating, pooping, and sleeping. And being adorable.

Even outside of becoming a big sister, Maya had a big year.  She graduated from pre-k, started kindergarten, played soccer, became a Daisy Girl Scout, broke her arm, learned to ride a bike (unrelated to the broken arm), learned that she loved riding a jet ski (also unrelated to the broken arm), and much more.

 

Tim and I are still pretty much the same.  Tim had more basketball injuries this year; this time they required extensive dental work to repair.  He has two new front teeth (I've been teasing him that they're his Christmas present). I've been mostly "off" this semester, at least from teaching obligations.  That all starts back up with the Spring semester, when Cora will also start daycare. On most days, I can manage to sneak in a couple of hours of work while Cora takes her morning nap; that's been used for keeping on top of my email and a few research related tasks.

We did find time to take a couple of trips and we had a few visitors.  Tim's parents made the trip down a couple of times (for Maya's birthday, for Thanksgiving, and for a construction project in between), and some good friends visited over Memorial Day.  Maya and I went to visit her cousins (and my brother and sister in law) in Chicago in March.  This was complete with a trip to the American Girl Store on Michigan Avenue.  I went on from there to Lugano, Switzerland for a conference (Maya went home with my mom).  Maya went on a trip with my mom (just the two of them) to Florida in May, and Tim and I went to Zurich (for another conference in June).  Tim went to a conference in San Francisco in July and also had the chance to spend some time with some friends out there.  We found time in August for a quick trip up to the Great Wolf Lodge (a last hurrah before Cora joined us).  Cora got her first airplane trip in early December, when she accompanied me (and my mom) on a work-related trip.  Cora loved the airplane and hated the hotel crib.  Hopefully she warms up to traveling more; we have some big travel plans for the coming year.

We hope the new year brings joys to you and your family and friends.  And we hope to see a good many of you this coming year!

Girl Scout Investiture

Last Friday, Maya had her Girl Scout Investiture (where the new girls are inducted into scouting).  This was just about an hour after Maya had, it turns out, broken her arm.  In hindsight, I feel a little bad (notice the redness and swelling on her right arm).  Though, in my defense, she insisted she was fine.  And she had a great time at the investiture.