June 26th

A quiet morning. A little reading. A nice big breakfast (french toast, sausage, home fries... YUM! All of which Ray made. Usually the home fries are my deal, but as he was letting me rest and heal...) A lot of the day was just about hanging out, bonding, playing together, taking some pictures.

Maia is almost getting to big to do this with... but she loves it!!

And dancing! Turn on the ipod, and let her go!

Maia is a proud big sister, and loves to hold Parker...

... and cuddle him...

... but she isn't always the most gentle. She loves intensely... mostly because she's a toddler. Parker isn't always a fan.

However, it's not hard to move on. Let's do some drumming!

And Parker will chill out on this quilt.

Little Parker Feet.

Little Parker Hand (and chubby little arm).

Earlier in the day, Aunt Tara had talked about taking Maia shopping. One of Maia's favorite things to do (generally most fun when it's one-on-one with daddy, or with daddy and mommy together). So after her nap, Tara took Maia to Toys-R-Us and proceeded to spoil her completely. Maia came back with:

• A new tricycle (toddler sized. Maia picked it out from choices of green, blue and pink.)
• A new helmet (Maia picked it out... she liked the pink one with the kitties. Tara was hoping she'd pick the one that had the Very Hungry Caterpillar on it.)
• A doll that plays peek-a-boo.
• Pretty pink plastic dress up heels (her absolute favorite, she wears them every day).
• 2 pairs of sandals
• A beach towel
• Some clothes and shoes for Parker, some of which Maia helped pick out.
• And I may be forgetting some things...

We were told Maia did a great job, used her manners and had a LOT of fun. A highlight was an entire wall of "Many Kisses" Elmo dolls. She stood awestruck in front of them, and then went down the line, turning them all on, and then blowing a kiss back. Repeat.

Following their grand shopping trip, Ray and I loaded up Parker (having 2 mid-sized sedans currently, we have no way to fit another adult in the back seat with two huge car seats... so if we all needed to go somewhere together, it was two cars. Sigh. It's minivan or SUV/Crossover shopping for us, before too long!) and met Maia and Tara at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. And dinner was good.

Similar to Maia's first dinner out (at 4 days old, we went to Red Robin with Nana Effie and Grandpa Raymond), Parker (8 days) slept through the entire meal, with nary a whimper. And Maia did a great job.
After dinner, we sent both the kids home with Tara, and Ray and I ran quickly to Target to buy more diaper cream and to return an outfit I had purchased for Parker that was the wrong size. When we got home, Maia was enjoying her new trike and helmet.

Next up: bedtime for Maia. 

Uncle Ken stopped by for a little visit

And then bedtime for Parker and the rest of us!

Picture of Maia...

It's amazing what you can do with a free photo editor.

Enjoy...

Ps.  Thanks Tara for the AWESOME picture to work with.

- Ray

June 25th

Tara arrived about 2 AM on the 25th (original estimated arrival time... 8:30-something PM on the 24th. It was a LONG day for her! So when Maia woke up, we tried to get her downstairs very quickly so she wouldn't wake Tara up. Maia, who forgets nothing, knew that Aunt Tay-wa was supposed to be here when she woke up, and was insistent upon seeing her. Fortunately for both of them, I guess, they did see each other before Ray brought Maia to daycare. Then it was a quiet day at home for Ray, Tara, Parker and I. Tara had some work to do, so it was pretty funny for a while, the three of us sitting here with our laptops. But it wasn't long before the camera was hauled out, and Tara started to work on filling her memory card...

This is a fave tummy time quilt of Maia's. My co-worker, Marjorie, a nurse at FVH made it before Maia was born. She's a very talented quilter!

It was hot, and Maia's "ponies" didn't quite survive the day.

The night before, Aunt Kathleen, Emily, Adrian and Lydia had stopped by with a basket of "stuff to keep Maia busy while Mommy is feeding Parker." One of the most exciting items was a Leap Frog Scout toy phone. This phone talks, sings and counts. Maia LOVES it, and plays with it daily. In fact, it's hard to get her to put it down....

Aunt Tara swears she didn't teach Maia to make this face, she just made it on her own. We'd not seen it before, and we haven't seen it since...

After Maia got her bath and went to bed, it was time for Parker's first bath at home. He did pretty well!

Then Tara took advantage of nakey-baby and did a little photo shoot with Parker in his Pack-N-Play in the evening light.

You can also see how fuzzy he is... which is one of the reasons why he is soooooo soft! But at the moment, Parker is very furry. Hair on his ears, arms, back. It's really cute!

I love this one!

My dad had stopped by earlier in the day before heading off to an appointment, and had some cuddle time with Parker, although he was hoping Maia would be home to introduce him to her little brother. After attending a function downtown (including a performance by the GRS Youth Chorus, in which Adrian was singing), they stopped by.