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.

Maya's Baptism

On 9/11/09 Maya turned 6 months old! This was a big weekend for us, because it was Maya's Baptism weekend. We had a house full of family and friends to celebrate! She was Baptized on Sept 13th at Myers Park UMC, it was such a beautiful service and celebration. My parents were able to baptize her and participate in the service along with Dr. Howell (the minister of MPUMC). After the service we had lunch at our house; it was a wonderful time with family and friends.

At 6 months, Maya is doing wonderful. She is such an awesome blessing to our family. She is able to sit up. She has perfected "Dada" which adds a couple more loops around Joey's already wrapped little finger! At her six month check up she weighed in at 17 lbs 12 oz and I got another "Is she always like this?" from our pediatrician. Meaning, is she always this happy and LOUD! Again, yes, yes she is and we love it!

Joey is 30 and Maya is 5 months!

On August 11th, we celebrated Joey's 30th birthday and Maya's 5 month birthday. We had a great day starting off with breakfast in bed prepared by yours truly, including scrambled eggs and English muffins. Then after Joey got done with work we took Maya over to our good friend Adrienne's house and we headed to the movies. We saw "The Hangover" which Joey had been dying to see. It was quite funny and we both really enjoyed it. Then, we went to dinner at Cantina 1511, one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. They have THE BEST guacamole dip! After picking Maya up from Adrienne's we headed home and I sang happy birthday over a ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins (mint chocolate chip of course). For Joey's birthday I got him a zoom lens for our camera; he has been wanting one of these for quite some time and was very excited to finally have one.

As for Maya, she continues to do awesome. I'm know that every mom thinks this, but I'm pretty sure that Maya is the BEST baby ever! She is so much fun and has such a cute personality. It seems like everyday she is changing and learning new things. She loves to play in her exersaucer now and can hit the little animals to make them play music, she continues to play with her feet and can now get them in her mouth (which she thinks is a really cool trick), she is starting to sit up on her on- still pretty wobbly, but she is getting there, and she can shake her toys to make them rattle and LOVES to do that- the bad part is I've looked at her a couple of times and her little forehead will be bright red from her hitting herself in the head with the toy; at least she doesn't seem to mind! She had her first rice cereal experience on August 10th (actually we had tried a couple of weeks prior, but she wasn't ready- she just spit it all back out!). She was very impressed at first, thinking it was pretty cool, but still making a mess. Then after a few days she got bored with the plain rice. So, last night I mixed in some pears for her. (I know I'm not suppose to give fruit first, but that's what I had at home.) She liked them ok, but made some really impressive faces a few time- you would have thought I was giving her a lemon! She also started saying "DaDa" on August 15. This was after I got home from a 24 hour shift, so I am pretty sure Joey has been doing some serious practicing with her while I've been at work!

JT's Baptism

On August 9th we celebrated JT's, my nephew, baptism. Joey, Maya and I headed to Spartenburg on Saturday to begin the festivities. We stopped by the Gaffney outlets, forgetting that it was tax free weekend- wow it was crowed, to look for Maya a baptism gown. We didn't have any luck with Maya, but Joey and I each found a couple of shirts. Then it was on to Erin and Chris's for an awesome dinner prepared by Chris with his family and ours. JT had a wonderful baptism ceremony at church on Sunday and then we had a great lunch to celebrate, again prepared by Chris. It was a great time with family and friends.

Four Month Check up

Maya had her 4 month check up on July 22nd. She weighed in at 15lbs 11 oz and was 25 inches long. She is now 90th percentile in weight and length and 95th percentile in head circumference. As soon as we walked into the exam room she started showing off to the nurse by smiling, blowing bubbles, and squealing. Then when the doctor walked in she kicked it up a notch and became VERY vocal-to the point we could barely hear each other. The doctor's response was "is she always like this?"..... That would be a yes, yes she is! Four month accomplishments include: finding her feet (and now she plays with them all the time!), rolling from back to stomach and "Blowing bubbles" AKA spitting loudly if you are Maya!

Four Month/ Beach week

On Maya's 4 month birthday Taylor (my cousin), Maya, and I headed to the beach for the O'Shields 26th consecutive family beach week. Unfortunately Joey had to travel to Toronto to work for the week so he was unable to make it. But, about 20 people on my mom's side of the family converged on Garden City on July 11th for the week. My mom and dad didn't get there until Sunday, so I sure was glad to see them and have some helping hands with Maya. Although I didn't have to look hard to find helping hands, there was about 40 of them anytime I turned around or Maya made the slightest complaint- which lent itself to a very spoiled baby when I got home! This was little Macy's first trip to the beach, so it was a blast to have Maya and Macy together, we would just stick them under the tent at the beach and they would hang out together. One of the highlights of the week was celebrating my Granddad O'Shields 80thbirthday. We had a cookout in the back yard overlooking the inlet. Janey, my mom's cousin, her daughter, grandson, and son made the trip from Columbia to join us and surprise Granddad. Another highlight was going to the water park. We had a blast; Becky, Adam, Blakeley, Adam, Kristin, and I went- the grandparents did a little babysitting (Thanks!)! It had been years since the last time I made it to the waterpark, and I could definitely tell- there are A LOT of stairs! I remember running up and down those stairs like it was nothing when I was little- not so much the case this time! Highlight number three would be getting to see my friends Erica and Tommy and their precious baby girl Addie (21 months). I went to school with with Erica from Elementary school through Clemson. We were in 5th grade together, which was the year I moved to Lexington, and she was one of my first friends in Lexington. It was wonderful to get to see her family including her parents and brother and catching up with her. What a blessing good friends are! Maya had a couple of first this week, she rolled over for the first time from back to front on July 15th to a crowd of applause from the entire family, and she perfected "blowing bubbles." Although, for Maya it isn't so much "blowing bubbles" it is more spitting very loudly with a couple of bubbles thrown in here or there. Family beach week has been such a blessing in my life and has taught me many great lessons about the importance of family. Thanks Granddad and Grandmom O'Shields!! We love you!!

Story Time

I have only occasionally read to Maya so far, but I think she has now convinced me to make it a regular thing. On Monday, after a busy weekend in the mountains, I decided to try to put her down for a nap in her crib. Which typically doesn't work very well (she prefers her swing at nap times) and it didn't work that day either, but we did make some wonderful memories trying. I was reading a book called "Noodle," this is a great story about a dachshund that Aunt Diane sent Maya. As I read to her she just quietly laid in my lap and looked back and forth from me to the book the entire time! It was the sweetest thing! I loved it!

4th of July

Maya had a great first 4th of July. Ok, I know she probably didn't know it was the 4th, so I really should say Joey and I had a great 4th of July. My weekend started on Wednesday afternoon when Maya, Tillman, and I headed up to the mountains to meet my parents at the cabin. For diner we all went to Black Mountain and had some great pizza at "My Fathers Pizza," then of course we had to stop by Bi-Lo to buy some ice cream for later that night. On Thursday Mom, Dad, Maya, Tillman (the dog who can't be left out of a mountain trip, she loves the mountains!), and I took a walk to the near-by lake (although when you are walking it doesn't seem so "near-by," but it is only about 0.5 miles from the cabin). Then, that afternoon Mom, Maya and I headed back to Black Mountain to do a little shopping and pick up some groceries. Thursday night the Steed family arrived right as Maya was having a meltdown because she was exhausted from the days activities added with only a couple of short naps. So, Maya went to bed and the rest of us had a wonderful dinner of pork chops and burnt Veggies (had to throw that one it dad!) Then, Dad, Sarah and I played a mean game of hide and seek! On Friday we all went to the waterfall and had a picnic. That night we had a gourmet meal prepared by the family chef, Chris. Maya had another melt down that night at bed time due to activity and lack of naps. But, I guess melt downs at bedtimes lead to a good night sleep because both nights she slept 12 hours. Maya, Tillman, and I headed home on Saturday morning. Maya was so cute when she saw her Daddy, she was so excited she started shaking! Joey had spent the past couple of days working on the patio and had finished laying all of the stone by time we got home!! That night we had a small cook out with Melissa, Brandon, Liam, and Berny; and ended the night watching some folks on our street put on a fireworks show.

Welcome to Miami!

Joey had a business trip to Miami on June 16th, so Maya and I decided to tag along. We flew down to Miami on June 18th. Maya did great in the airport and on the plane ride. She had a blast watching all the people walk by and of course would give them a big grin if they made eye contact! We had a great trip to Miami, we spent the mornings on the beach until about 10:30 or 11, the afternoons at the pool, and the evenings we spent people watching as we ate dinner at one of the many sidewalk restaurants. One of the restaurants that we ate at was appropriately named "Maya Tapas and Grill." South Beach has to be one of the top 10 for people watching, and for me, who is a big time people watcher, sometimes to the point of obnoxious if you ask Joey, it was great entertainment! Maya was not much for the heat, so of course we spent all of our time outside in the shade and the heat of the day in our hotel trying to stay cool. That Sunday June 21st was Joey's first Father's Day. He didn't get breakfast in bed like I got for Mother's day, but we did hit up a great restaurant on the main strip and had some great french toast and omelets. Maya had picked out a card especially for her Daddy and gave it too him as soon as she woke up. The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the pool and in the airport. The flight back home went smoothly as well, what a difference having an extra set of hands makes in the airport and on the plane!