My Toddler NO

Maya has officially mastered the word, NO. Thanks to a book, Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, she has much practice. Ella Sarah exclaims NO to all the outfits her family picks out and goes for the over-the-top option which fits her just right. Maya, of course, finds the tantrums funny (and books are supposed to be so good for the mind, if only they would model good behavior). Here is a video for proof...

Michigan Leaves

Knowing that we were missing the beautiful colors of fall in Michigan, Grandma Liz sent us a box of Michigan leaves.  Maya loved the piles of "eefs."

Pumpkin Patch

Because California will not cooperate with Fall weather (still too hot for my liking), we decided to force a little Fall activity in anyways. Nothing like a pumpkin patch to get into the Autumn spirit (even though we are all sunburned). Isabella joined us on the ride over and then we met up with Aunt Jen and cousins Sean and Audrey.
The Halloween pumpkin patch came with many activities. Maya was a fan of the carousal!
Isabella didn't mind the ride either.
My favorite activity was the corn maze. I was actually stunned by the size of it given our location. We eventually lost everyone except Jen but met up at the entrance.

Maya loves hay, straw and dirt (a tomgirl, for sure). She spent most of the time playing with dirt (she looked like Playpen by the time we left and I didn't look much better).

Playing Around

We have spent the last week doing some of Maya's favorite activities. Fooling around with her Dad, the king of funny faces, going to the park and reading lots of books. Here are a few pictures from the park this morning.

A little video of Maya reading. She loves books and Clap Your Hands is one of her favorites.

Audrey's Birthday Party

Cousin Audrey celebrated her 6th birthday in true style. Aunt Mary throws the best birthday parties around and this year, Audrey's theme was a treasure hunt in Hawaii. The house was decorated in balloons and a few of them had clues to the location of a treasure chest of new toys. Maya got into the birthday spirit and sported her grass skirt with no problems. She was in heaven, chasing around the cousins, saying "balloon" a million times and even eating birthday cake.

The Getty Museum

We had a family day at the Getty Museum. Other than the heat, we had a wonderful time. Maya loved the beautiful fountains, the wide open spaces, and the attention from Mom and Dad.

The Getty has a little kids room that Maya loved.
Including a little nook with a bed and books (strange, I know, but she loved it because it had her favorite book).



Maya's Uncle Jeremy works at the Getty and was able to tear away from his office and show Maya the beautiful views from the Getty.

Peter and the Wolf

Maya waits patiently for Uncle Jeremy to arrive to go with us to her first orchestral concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The orchestra was performing Peter and the Wolf and she just couldn't wait...to be scared.
Uncle Jeremy and Isabella came with us for the concert. We have season tickets for the children's series at the hall and it was a wonderful outing.
Here is Maya checking out the orchestra as they warmed up. She kept pointing at the violins and exclaiming "lins." She really enjoyed the warm up session and was digging into her bag of goldfish like she was at the movies.
Let's just say Maya didn't last long inside the hall. As soon as the timpani started pounding, her body started to shake and she started screaming. So, we spent most of the concert in the lobby where we could still hear the performance and were joined by quite a few other little girls, equally scared by the music.
We then ventured outside of the hall to enjoy the wonderful architecture of the Walt Disney Hall and take in the beautiful flowers.




A wonderful Mother/Daughter day and I can't wait for the next performance!