The Bridge Run and Palm Sunday

So, I got a wild hair last November and decided to start running. I made the mistake of asking my Dad if he would run a half marathon and unfortunately he hasn't forgotten! We decided that our first challenge would be the Cooper River Bridge run. To most this seems like no big deal, but to me, who literally struggled to run for 1 minute straight when I started, it was a VERY big deal. I also suckered Joey, Berny, and Wendy into running it with us. Mom got the honor of staying home with Maya- thanks mom! Joey, Maya, and I headed down late Thursday night, thankfully Maya cooperated and slept pretty much the entire way there, and Berny and Wendy met us at Mom and Dad's on Friday. We went into Charleston to pick up our packets that morning and then walked around for a while and ate lunch at one of my all time favorite spots, Groucho's. The whole experience was exciting to me, I have never done anything even close to this! So, race day came and we headed to the church very early, around 05:30, to get a parking spot so that we could have access to the church. It was freezing that morning and I keep seeing people walk around in garbage bags which I found pretty comical at first then, I began to understand the point and could have really used one! We were very lucky to be able to sit inside the church and wait for the race to start. We also met Trudy and two of her friends, Adrienne, Colin, Ashly, Joey and some more of there friends and they came into the church as well to stay warm. Just before the race started we decided that it was time to brave the cold and headed out to our spots. If you haven't done the bridge run, it is a very entertaining experience, we saw spider man, all the wizard of oz characters, men in dresses, and so much more. It actually provides very good people watching. Maybe next year, I'll sit out the race and just go for the people watching! So as soon as the race started Joey left us all in the dust and my dad and I got a little ahead of Berny and Wendy. So, Dad and I hung together until the very end. Once he saw the finish line he took off and neglected to tell me that we were racing, that's ok he only beat me by a few seconds despite all the effort. But, next year its on! My goal was to finish in 1 hr 15 mins and I finished in 1 hr 14 mins and some seconds. Not too bad for my first ever race. We all had a great time and we all finished and made it home in one piece. Berny and Wendy left afternoon grabbing some lunch with us. And, after grabbing a nap, Joey and I headed over to the condo that Ashley, her Joey, Adrienne, Colin, and some of their firefighter buddies had rented for a pizza dinner and a little corn hole. We had a great time hanging out, but it was nice to head home to Mom and Dad's quite house for the night. Firefighters can make A LOT of noise!

The next day was Palm Sunday and I was so happy to be able to spend it with my parents. I had to work Easter Sunday, so we went ahead and got Maya dressed up in her Easter dress. Her dress was really special this year, because it was one that my mom had made for me when I was little. It is white and has smoking around the neck. I just love it! Because it was a little cool that day, Maya also wore very special light pink sweater over the dress. The sweater was made by my Great Aunt, Maya's Great Great Aunt Joyce Hunter. She looked so pretty in her Easter dress and sweater and the story behind them both just made it even better. After Church at Hibben UMC they had a cover dish lunch, so of course we had to go and let Mom and Dad show Maya off. They were also having an Easter egg hunt after lunch. So, before all the kids went out, we snuck outside for a couple of photo ops with Maya. As soon as we put her down, she went straight for the eggs- off course she really only had to reach out in front of her because the eggs had just been thrown all over the grass, but still cute. After the photo ops we headed back to my parents to pack the car and dogs and then headed back home.

It was an absolutely wonderful weekend! We had a great time with family and friends, and I had a successful first run. Now, if my dad would only forget about this half marathon stuff we would be good to go!!

Tybee Island

In March we took a Hunter Family trip to Tybee Island. We stayed for a long weekend and had a wonderful time. We stayed in a REALLY old historic home on Tybee Island for a long weekend. Some of the highlights included walking around river front; walking around Savannah and stopping at several old churches, cemeteries, and parks; eating lunch at a hole in the wall BBQ joint- some of the best BBQ and fried pickles I've ever had; putting together puzzles- I think the grand total was 3; and touring Tybee lighthouse. Of course we also spent a little time on the beach, although it was pretty chilly while we were there. That of course didn't stop Maya, she loved the sand and holding my hands as she walked down the beach. Maya also entertained everyone with her push toy. She was very impressed with the wide open space of the house, and the wood floors made for quite the race track! It was great to have the 3 cousins together and so much fun watching them interact with one anther!

Maya turns One!!

I can not believe that my baby girl is One! Oh, how time flies when you are having fun. I feel like every month gets better and better. We celebrated Maya's 1 year birthday with a family cookout. It was the perfect way to celebrate! Not too overwhelming for Maya, but she was still surrounded by people that love her. I decided to get a little crafty (and as you all know, this is a very rare occasion!) and make her birthday hat and cake. Thankfully I have a wonderful teacher when it comes to making cakes! My mother in law, Marilynn, is so talented and can make the most beautiful cakes. The best part is, they taste good as well!! So, she instructed and I made Maya's first birthday cake, it was a baby face with a birthday hat on. The face was made of vanilla cake and the hat was a chocolate cake. It turned out much better than I had ever imagined! I'm so happy I was able to do this for Maya, but not sure how often it will happen, because it was A LOT of work!

For her birthday Joey and I bought her a little cushiony rocking chair, just her size and some books. It was definitely a hit, she just climbed right in and starting looking at her books. Of course, it also serves as a jungle gym at times!

As far as 1 year accomplishments, Maya has been very busy! She is pretty much wide open all the time, full speed ahead. She still takes 2 naps a day, which surprises a lot of people, but I say if nap time is the ONLY time you are still you probably still need two naps. I know I do! Maya is very independent. Her favorite toy is a little push toy and boy when she is behind that thing, you better look out! She has 5 teeth now, 2 on top and 3 on bottom. She can wave bye-bye which started at 9 months and has now turned into the princess wave instead of waving at herself. She can blow kisses which she also started at 9 months, but can actually do the hand motion now instead of just putting her had to her mouth. Probably her favorite motion is shaking her finger no-no, pretty much anytime she sees one of our dogs she starts shaking her finger no-no (does that tell you anything about how well behaved our dogs are?). She can also sign "more" which she loves to do while she is eating. As far as words go: she is saying Dada, Mama, "ta-ta" which means Till-till for Tillman, and "Jesey" for Jersey, done, and shoe. One of he favorite toys is shape sorter box with 4 sides that they can put shapes in, which she loves to do. I have to turn the box to the right shape, but then she can fit the shape through and always gives herself a round of applause for doing it! The biggest accomplishment is that she started walking 9 days after her birthday. She had taken a couple little steps when she was 11 months old on 2 separate occasions, but nothing for the baby books. But on March 20th, Joey was playing with Maya on the floor in our room and I walked out of the bathroom and she just took off across the floor right to me. I'm talking a least a good 8 steps, full speed ahead, typical Maya style!

I am so thankful and honored that I was chosen to be Maya's mom. She has already brought so much joy, love, and laughter into our lives and it's only just beginning!

Beaver Creek, Co

In January Joey and I decided to take a trip ski trip to Beaver Creek, Co. We went with some of our good friends Adrienne and Collin, and Mike met us out there. We had a wonderful trip. We stayed in a great 2 bedroom condo that was right on the slopes. We enjoyed 3 full days of skiing and relaxation. Maya stayed with my parents while we were gone and did great! They stayed at our house for the first 2 nights, then moved to Mt. Pleasant for the other 2 nights. I was so excited to go get her on Monday morning, the 3 hour drive seemed like an eternity. I obviously missed her way more than she missed me, because when I walked in their house she was eating lunch so she looked up gave me a big grin and a wave and went back to eating! Priorities... I don't blame her, food is pretty important to me too! I told my parents that it may be a bad thing that she did so well, because now we know and we may need to plan a few more long weekend get aways!

Maya's First Christmas!

Maya had a wonderful first Christmas and we had an even more wonderful Christmas watching her and seeing it through kid's eyes again! Our Christmas started out on December 17th when Unky Mike got to town! Maya loves her Unky Mike and we do too! He even babysat for us to go to my work Christmas party that Friday night, which was a blast! Then on Sunday as soon as a got of work, we headed to Grandma Thoma's in Hampstead, NC. We spent 3 nights there hanging out with Joey's family. We had a great time just relaxing and spending time together. Then it was time to head back to Charlotte so that we could enjoy a quite Christmas eve as a family of three plus Unky Mike. We went to a Christmas eve candle light service at church that afternoon, and because there was no nursery Maya got to join us for the service. Surprisingly she did extremely well, thanks to pretty much an entire box of Cheerios! That night Maya wrote Santa a letter and we laid out the cookies, carrots, and milk. On Christmas morning Joey and I both went up to get Maya- I don't think I've ever been so excited to get her out of bed! She was really cute when we got down stairs, we just put her down on the ground and she crawled right over to the Christmas Tree and all the new toys. The biggest hit by far was a little push toy that she can walk behind. I did not expect her to be able to push it yet, but she sure did take off across the room as soon as I stood her up behind it. It was so funny to see my little 9 month old running across the floor! Some other favorites were a leap frog play table, red wagon, and of course books! She also got her big girl car seat. Christmas afternoon, my parents came up so that was could have the Hunter Christmas on Saturday. The Steed crew arrived on Saturday morning and we opened more presents and then had a low country boil for lunch. Our last stop of the Christmas season was in Rocky Mount to visit my Granddad Hunter and the Sam Hunters. It was their first time meeting Maya, so of course we had a blast showing her off!

9 months!

I can not believe that my baby girl turned 9 months on December 11th! How time flies when your having fun! She is developing the best little personality! She is so much fun and is non- stop! Since she started crawling, she is constantly on the move, which is a lot of fun, but boy, I am worn out by the end of the day! She has also learned to pull-up and will pretty much pull up on any and every thing she can get her hands on. She LOVES to read. In fact the only time you can get her to sit still and cuddle is when you are reading to her or her music is on the TV. Just tonight, I was reading to her and realized that she was playing with the pages as I was reading and trying to turn the page. So, I would lift the page just enough for her to get her fingers under and she would turn the page. WOW, I can not believe that we are already there! It seems like she is doing something new everyday and learning new things all the time! She also loves her bath time. She just loves to splash and play with her toys! She also has crawling races, where she just goes back and forth from one end of the tub to the other as fast as she can. I'm pretty sure I should be letting her do that, but oh well. What can I say she loves and I love it just as much, if not more that she does!

Oh, and the stats for 9 months..... 19 pounds 8 oz and 27 inches long.

We also celebrated Thanksgiving during Maya's 9th month. We spent thanksgiving weekend at my parent's mountain house in Old Fort NC. We had 11 people (my O'Sheilds Grandparents were also there) in a 3 bedroom 2 bath cabin, which even makes for more fun! We had a great time just watching the cousins play, took a trip to the waterfall, took some long walks, slid down the hill on a cardboard box, and built some fires; exactly what you are suppose to do in the mountains! Oh and had some wonderful meals. It was a wonderful reminder that we all have so much to be thankful for!

8 months!

Maya turned 8 months on November 11th and she is officially a crawler! She started crawling on Nov. 4th. She had been doing the army crawl pretty well for a couple of weeks, but once she discovered the true crawl it was on! I was hoping that the step down to our living room would keep her contained for a little while- seeing as our house has a completely open floor plan down stairs and there is no such thing as barricading or gating off a play area. Well, that plan lasted about 2 days and she had already mastered climbing up the step. The getting back down wasn't quite as easy or graceful, but she has that done pat now as well, she just lays on her stomach and puts her hands down on the lower floor and scoots until she is down- it is so cute!

San Fransisco

The Egan 3 took off to San Francisco on Oct 22 for a wonderful 10 day trip. I was attending a conference in San Fran, so we decided to make a vacation out of it. Unky Mike and Uncle Larry met us out there as well. Uncle Larry lived in San Francisco for a long time, so he was the perfect tour guide! Some highlights included visiting Yosemite National Park, a tour of Alcatraz, Twin Peaks, Pier 39 (I got a little too excited over the sea lions and face planted right on the pier- oops!), Monetary Bay aquarium, and 17 mile drive. Maya was a champ the entire trip! She was adjusted to the time change by the second night (which made me a little nervous for the return to the east coast, but she did ok with that as well). She had a blast playing with Unky Mike and Uncle Larry- highlights for her included a killer game of steam roller with Unky Mike and a pillow. Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and it was time for me to start the conference on Oct 27th. Joey found us a fantastic loft to rent in the city, which ended up be the perfect location for us. So, while I was in the conference, Joey and Maya had a lot of quality Daddy/daughter time and Joey had to of walked at least 10 miles a day with her! They would come meet me for lunch everyday. So, we were able to tour a lot of the city during my lunch break: including Fisherman's Wharf, Embarcadaro Center, and the academy of science museum. One of the highlights came the last night we were in San Frances, which happened to be the night before Halloween! We had made it back to our loft after having dinner and I was starting to feed Maya and we heard quite the commotion going on outside our loft. Upon looking outside on our balcony we saw thousands and I'm talking THOUSANDS of people riding their bikes, some in regular clothes, most dressed up for Halloween and some wearing nothing at all lasting a good 20 minutes straight! It was unbelievable and the perfect end to a wonderful trip.

7 months!

Well, the 7th month started with a new tooth! Maya got her first tooth on Oct 11th (bottom middle) and her 2nd tooth 2 days later. No wonder the week prior had some pretty rough nights! As far as accomplishments, she is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking, eating 2 meals a day of solid food, saying "mama," "nana," and "baba" occasionally, but "dada is by far her favorite! We have always known that she likes music, but we have found 2 songs that she absolutely loves! "Meltdown" by Rob Thomas, and "Rock and Roll" by Eric Hutchinson. It never fails, if she is crying or unhappy, we can play either of these songs and immediately we go from tears to smiling and dancing! It is pretty amazing!

Mt. Pleasant

On Oct 1st the Egan 3, plus 2 dogs headed to Mt Pleasant to celebrate my Mom's birthday. We went to Pawley's Island and had lunch with Grand mama and Grandaddy O'Shields, Berny, Wendy, Becky, and Mike at a wonderful marina to from my Mom's birthday celebration. We ate outside, under a huge oak tree, looking out over the intercostal waterway; it was beautiful! We had a great time, including, checking out the new waterfront park in Mt Pleasant, going to the farmers market, kayaked on Shem creek and in the charleston harbor, had lunch at Groucho's on King street, and I was even about to visit with one of my college roommates, Ashely Gruber, who now lives on James Island.