For the week or two prior to Maya’s birthday, we’d been trying to teach her that she could show us that she was going to be two years old by holding up a finger on each hand. She’d grin, duck her head all bashful-like, and juuuust sneak her two fingers up for us to see. We tried to catch a photo of it for her birthday party invitations, but she just wouldn’t hold a pose for long enough.

See, I’m two.

Fast forward to her well check yesterday where she adamantly held those two fingers up to the nurse and the doctor both as if to proclaim that she was two now and would not be putting up with any of this doctor business any more. After many tears and much stubbornness, we were all really glad when the well check was completed and we could go home.

Maya’s party was this past weekend. Her grandparents all made the long journey to see her, and her Aunt Darci and cousin AP came by as well. Nanny Anna and a few of our friends rounded out the guest list. We again had barbecue – this time from La Barbecue. Barbecue seems to be a crowd favorite and leftovers are really easy to use. All the meats (brisket, sausage, and pulled pork) were incredible, and the bacon potato salad and pinto beans were solid. The jalapeño coleslaw was very good, but the heat overpowered the otherwise complex flavor of the slaw, which was a little disappointing.

Two years old!

I made a giant cookie for Maya’s birthday cake. Sean pointed out that he often had giant cookies for his birthday cakes and really liked them, so I went with it. On a whim one afternoon, I asked her if she wanted a cookie for her birthday. She shook her head no. Startled at her declining any form of dessert, I paused momentarily to regroup before asking her if she’d like chocolate cake. She grinned and shook her head yes. We settled on having a great big cookie with mini cupcakes arranged on top to make the number 2. I even took a crack at decorating it. I’m thinking I really need to decorate more than one cake a year for my skill to improve at all.

We were hopeful that Maya would be a little more into opening presents this year, and she was … for a little while. Parents who’ve already gone through the small child phase probably know what’s coming. She would diligently tear off the wrapping paper piece by piece, slowly uncovering her toy. The slightly older and more practiced kids in the room would be fairly vibrating at this point, itching for her to hurry and open another. But no, Maya wanted to take the neat new toy she had just opened and play with it. Or take the new book she had just opened and read it. Or wander off to play with some other toys. We actually opened most of her gifts from us the next day because she had just worn out on the enterprise.

Possibly her favorite gift.

All in all, we had a really nice weekend. Thanks to everyone’s generosity, Maya received some great gifts that she’s had all kinds of fun playing with. She was able to spend a bit of quality time with her grandparents. Plus, we spent all weekend eating barbecue and dessert. So far, I think she’s found that being two is pretty okay.

Our October was weirdly busy, especially for us. We spent the first few days of the month vacationing in Miami. I came back to jury duty (luckily, I wasn’t selected). We went to Dallas the next weekend to celebrate cousin AP’s 5th birthday. Then Maya was sick for a little while. And finally, we were to the point where we needed to get her around some pumpkins and into a Halloween costume.

Maya at the pumpkin patch – 23 months old

Last weekend we went to the same pumpkin patch we went to last year. Possibly my mood was a little soured by the fact that it was 90 degrees outside, but it just wasn’t as pleasant as last year. There weren’t many pumpkins (possibly due to how late in October we were going) and the placement and arrangements just weren’t as photogenic. Also, Maya has gotten downright ornery about having her photo taken. She really just has no interest at this point.

Daddy is a trooper

What Maya did love was taking beanbags out of the wooden beanbag game and dropping them back in again, over and over again, possibly forever. She also had fun feeding the goats, though she didn’t understand why she couldn’t climb the fence and get in the pen with them. There was also a giant tubular slide that she and Sean slid down several times. Apparently it was very fast and he was worried that Maya would be scared, but the moment they landed at the bottom she was grinning and asking for more.  And as if all that wasn’t enough, they had blow-up bouncy horse things that Maya rode with Sean, which of course she enjoyed.

In the end, we did manage to wrangle Maya in and amongst the pumpkins and trick her into looking happy for a few quick frames while Sean snapped photos.

I never claimed to be Martha Stewart

We haven’t really done too many crafty type things with Maya yet. She’s finger painted plenty. She colors a little bit with crayons and has an undying love of sticking stickers. For Halloween, I did a little looking into crafts that a not-quite-2-year-old could manage and happened upon some little pumpkins that were made by sticking tissue paper to contact paper. Maya tired after maybe four or five minutes so I wound up doing most of it, but regardless, they were cute and she seemed to enjoy the bit that she did. Anna of course was responsible for the remainder of the decorations on our door.

Kitty cat jack-o-lantern

The jack-o-lantern was a full house affair. Anna and Maya drew the design, I gutted and carved the pumpkin, and Sean installed and lit the candle while I corralled the grabby toddler.

Maya the Octopus

Choosing Maya’s halloween costume was a little difficult for us. We wanted it to be something she’d be interested in, but most of her interests are so fleeting it’s tough to really choose. She’s still enamored with tigers and roars frequently, but we did that last year. Finally, we settled on dressing her as an octopus.

See, I’m Oddipuddy

For those that don’t know, Maya’s security toy is a little stuffed octopus. Around eight or nine months old, when separation anxiety was making bedtime particularly heart-wrenching, we noticed that Maya the crawler was dragging her toy octopus around with her. Once we saw the attachment and started letting her sleep with it, she went back to calmly working herself to sleep. Her cousin AP named him Oddipuddy a while back and the name has stuck.

I did toy with the idea of making her an octopus costume, but I didn’t like what I’d have to give up to have time to do that, so we hunted one up on Amazon. Believe it or not, we had several to choose from, so we were able to select a costume whose colors roughly matched her little Oddipuddy.

On our way to the block party

We were lucky that it cooled off enough for her to wear her warm costume. We didn’t trick or treat yet this year, but that didn’t mean there were no festivities. The morning of Halloween, nanny Anna took Maya to a little kid party, which by all accounts she thoroughly enjoyed. That evening we walked our little octopus down the street to a block party where she nibbled on all kinds of goodies and got to play in a bouncy house. Much to her delight, she even got to wear her costume to her music class on Saturday morning.

All-in-all we had an eventful but relatively successful October. Now we’re on to manage Maya’s birthday, Thanksgiving, and the Christmas season all (hopefully) before kid 2 shows up in January!

Maya had her first haircut on July 6th. Nearly four months later, here are some pictures of it! In real time, I’m about 27 weeks pregnant, Maya is nearly 2 years old, Sean is busy contending with both of us, and we all seem to run out of energy before photos get edited and blog posts get written.

First Haircut!

Part of the trouble is that we now have a fairly unwilling subject. In July, Maya was just too busy to hold still. Now she actively runs the other way when she sees Sean coming with the camera.

First haircut!

At any rate, Maya’s wispy little hair was starting to pester her eyes, so we decided a trim was in order. We weren’t sure how the busy, stranger-averse toddler would do, so for her first haircut, we asked our friend Darla to cut it. The mood was relaxed and Darla was very quick with the scissors and before long, Maya could see past her bangs.