Time with family & friends

The last few months have been very busy as we have had the blessing of being able to spend a lot of time with friends and family. Maya has really been enjoying interacting with kids her age and will often now stop at the park to "talk" to someone her size or in the grocery store or at the mall. And she always asks to play with her favorite friends Angelina and Gracie. Angelina is the other little girl that is cared for by our nanny. Every morning Maya gets excited about seeing her and will ask if we are going to see Angelina again today. It is a blessing for us that she is so happy being there. If we can't be with her, then we are glad she is somewhere safe and fun and is loved! She treats Angelina just like a little sister which has been good practice for her as we often talk about "baby brother". She knows that baby brother is inside of mommy's tummy and will run to the crib and tell us that it is now baby brother's bed. I'm just not sure that she actually "gets" it but we'll see in a few months!
The other friend that Maya loves dearly is her bff Gracie. The girls have played together since they were born (they are only a few months apart) and Gracie's mother, Carrie, is also pregnant with a boy so they now have even more in common knowing they have a baby brother coming. On their last visit, I took some cute pictures of the girls playing piano together. For two girls who are 2 years old, they play amazingly well together. They don't fight, they share their toys and seem to miss each other when they are away. So sweet. And it even more fabulous that the mommies get along great too!














We were also very fortunate that Nanna and Pappa came for a visit in February. It was just a short weekend visit but plenty of time to get in lots of hugs and kisses and playtime. While they were here they took Maya to the park, played games, colored pictures with crayons and decorated them with stickers. The coloring and stickers tended to be Maya's special time with Nanna as they did it often. Unfortunately Maya was feeling under the weather during their visit (cutting her 2nd year molars and getting over a cough and cold at the same time - poor Maya she was feeing dreadful) but always perked up when Nanna pulled out the coloring and sticker books. It was a lovely visit and we are very much looking forward to having them come again for a whole week in April!















Valentine's Day came and went at our house and was uneventful which was fine with us. We reminisced last year's drama and were very glad to have a boring Valentine's Day. If you recall, while Jason and I were getting ready for a romantic Valentine's night out (my mom was visiting and planning to babysit for the evening), Maya swallowed her first barrette. So we spent a panicky evening at the Children's hospital instead. This year we avoided all that drama and instead spent the day celebrating our happy, healthy, loving family. Maya was a total ham all day, cracking us up with her chatter and funny expressions. We laughed a lot. Check out Maya's Valentine's shirt - "I'm a little heartbreaker" - that she is!!

















We also had a visit from a very special cousin Linken. He is Maya's closest cousin in age and so when Auntie Danielle was in town recently, we made sure the kids were able to get together for some fun. At first Maya was a little leery about Linken - all of her friends are girls and unfortunately she doesn't see him very often so he was a bit of a strange boy. But soon they were fast friends playing with Linky's cool cars and even sharing a few little kisses. So sweet! And now whenever she sees Linken's picture she talks about him all the time asking to see him. I doubt she will forget him again. What a blessing it is to have such wonderful family and a close playmate for Maya.