froggy friends

We have two pet frogs, Shrek and Shrek 2. We've had them for over 3 years, since Shrek was found in a plant in my office building. They both croak at times, but never croaked in response to anything that we could discern (e.g., dusk, new crickets in the tank, etc.), until Maya came to live with us. When Maya is having a tough evening and really wailing, at least one of the frogs chimes in. This has happened several times now. So it seems clear Maya has some sympathetic froggy friends.

hold on!

Maya has been busy practicing one of her newest skills- holding things. She reaches for and grabs a rattle, and holds it for a while, sometimes trying to transfer it to the other hand. One thing she hasn't caught on to yet is that to get the rattle to make noise, you have to shake the same hand that's holding the toy. She usually grabs the toy with her left hand and shakes her right hand. That's our girl!!

something new, something old

Here is Maya wearing the outfit Aunt Ann gave her.

... and here is Maya wearing the outfit Aunt Ann gave her mom, 30 years ago.

playdate

Maya's friend Alice came over yesterday to hang out for a while. It was Alice's first babysitting experience (she was the sittee, not the sitter), because her mom had to leave for about an hour. Both girls did great!!

Alice was so excited she wore Maya out.

But after Maya's nap the girls were happy together again.

Maya does Shakespeare

Here is Maya's much abridged retelling of a Midsummer Night's Dream.

Important announcement

In honor of Maya talking more, we have decided to talk less. Well, really it's because Dad has pretty much gone back to work full time and Mom is taking over many of the blog posts. The upside is that posts will (hopefully) be more frequent, and will have lots of multimedia components. The downside is that they won't be as witty.

Conversation hearts

Maya had her first conversation with a peer on Thursday night. She has interacted a few times with Alice, who is a mature 5 month old, but usually Alice is interested in Maya and Maya is kind of oblivious. But Thursday, the girls both participated in exchanging cooing sentences for a good few minutes. They sat looking at each other, alternately cooing, smiling, laughing and giggling. Their mothers sat there holding them, also laughing hysterically.

Ready for liftoff!

Maya is preparing for space travel while modelling these fabulous sunglasses. The writers would also like to take this opportunity to thank the weather for finally springing.