Catching up over the past few months...

Okay, so I'm sorry that our blog has not been updated for several months. I've heard the feedback from many people. So let me try to catch you all up as much as possible in one entry.

Father's Day!

For father's day this year, Maya and I took Donny to The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Our 1st trip to the zoo as a family. My 1st ever the the zoo in Baltimore, normally we visit the National Zoo in Washington DC. We had to take the above photo because the giraffe is Oma's favorite animal.

We saw lots of animals on our visit. Maya really enjoyed all the commotion that was happening around us. We saw penguins, monkeys, lions, birds, elephants, etc...

Though Maya really liked the animals and telling us what kind of noises those particular animals made, she really liked the hill in front of the zoo entrance. As soon as we got out of the zoo she wanted to take off. So Donny & I let her run as much as she could. It's sad to say, but we probably had more fun sitting in the grass on the hill, than actually walking around inside the zoo.

SUMMER FUN!

In our yard in front of the house we have a little jungle gym with a slide & a preschool play house. Maya loves being outside more than anything! All spring, summer, & now fall she has really enjoyed having these toys to play with & in while being outside. At first the slide was a little harder to play with because Maya constantly needed the help of Mommy or Daddy to sit her up on the top of the jungle gym so that she could slide down. Now that she has had the slide for several months, & has grown 5 inches, she is a pro! She has a whole process now; she climbs up the back, walks cautiously to the edge of the slide, sits down on the top, and away she goes! There is not a single day that she ceases to amaze me with the amount of things she is learning.

Maya playing in her pool at Meme & Grand-dad's house.

Over the summer our babysitter had to be out on maternity leave after having a baby boy mid-July. We were very blessed, my grandparents aka Oma & Opa, were able to come out and serve on maternity duty. I am so happy that they are retired & have the opportunity to travel so often and for so long at a time. They were a tremendous help to us! It was also really nice to have my side of the family in town & they got to really bond with Maya. This is really important to me, as they were a huge part of my life growing up. I used to spend every summer living at their house & now Maya got to spend the summer with them too. :)

Maya & Daddy at our beach

Maya can now sing the entire alphabet & many other songs. She loves singing and dancing. She is speaking in sentences rather than a few words here and there, and she loves running! Uncle Tyler runs cross country for the high school and she has been to a few of his meets, from what I hear, she really enjoys it. She can count to 10 & likes the applause & cheers when she completes that task. She still loves Dora, although Elmo is now on the top of her favorite list of characters as well. Maya recently got her first baby doll. She picked it out herself. Out of all the little girl babies, she picked the only boy. She named him Maya, as she names everything! For the first week the baby had to go everywhere with us. However within a few weeks, you can find the baby buried in with all the other toys.

Walking around in Mommy's heals

Currently, Maya has 5 teeth coming in all at one time. And to my surprise, she isn't as cranky as I would have suspected. She is really good at showing you her teeth when you ask her where they are. She can identify her eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, hair, elbow, hand, fingers, knees, belly, belly button, feet & toes. She loves showing off what she knows.

Maya & Mommy in California

Our most recent adventure was for unfortunate reasons. My Aunt Melissa died in a motorcycle accident while on vacation in Hawaii. So Maya, Grandma, & I flew out to California to be with my Uncle Erich & cousin Beatrix, and to attend the celebration of her life. With our small family stretched out all over the country, it seems that we only get together for sad or happy events. It breaks my heart that Erich & Bea will have to continue on without Melissa. I know that she and Bea were very close, and the following years will be tough on Bea without her. I really feel bad that there is any entire country in between us, and we haven't been close even over the phone or email.

This was the first time that Maya got to meet Uncle Erich and Beatrix, so it was nice to have that happen. Of course Bea is at the age where Maya wants to follow her everywhere and do everything she can do. Maya went around calling her "my Bea" for the several days we were there. And Bea took to Maya right away too. She wanted to take care of her, and loved her singing. Bea has a children's drum set in her living room. Maya found the sticks right away and played them like a pro ( or at least better than any other 18 month old I know). Maya also got to meet Uncle Kristopher & Aunt Brenda while visiting California, so now she has met the entire Zander side of the family.

We had some down time during our visit, so we got to go to the Santa Monica Beach & see the Hollywood sign. We also got to tour my uncle's casting studio, 310 Casting.


Everyday on our trip we were outside, which is exactly where Maya loves to be. She also really took a liking to these butterfly chairs out on Uncle Erich's patio.