New Fashion and New Toy

Maya has only recently started to express interest in her clothing, so I've started to let her pick out her clothes. Of course, I only give her choices that are suitable for the weather. She was very excited to receive a pair of leg warmers from her buddy Erica (and Erica's mom Kathryn) so of course I had to put those on her. She was also pretty happy to open up a new toy I got for her: wooden blocks. Maya has enjoyed stacking them up and knocking them down, and I've enjoyed tripping on them as they are scattered all over the floor. Here she is rather immodestly showing off her new fashion and her new toy.

She's also become quite interested in imitating us, even wanting to put on our clothes. Here's she trying on Dada's vest, which he received from our lovely neighbors Marilyn & Ken:

Her imitations are quite cute; in the shower she pretends to pour out shampoo, rub it together in her hands, and then put it on her head. In her room she pretends to pour out lotion, rub that together in her hands, and put that on her skin. She's also been trying to put on her socks and shoes for a while, so hopefully it'll be no time before she can get herself ready in the mornings! ;-)

Walking Without Assistance!

Maya has finally decided to take more than 3 steps on her own - she's been getting more and more stable lately, so I guess she felt comfortable with walking a bit more. She started doing this yesterday at a friend's house, but of course I forgot to get out my camera. Tonight I managed to get a bit of video of her walking across the kitchen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ur2dANLvDs.

Hopefully this, combined with the recent stair-climbing, is a sign of more to come from our little girl!

Enjoying Another Furry Friend

It seems that Maya has no shortage of furry friends to entertain her - she loves dogs, and fortunately, most of them put up with her!

Last week Hyder was out of town so Maya and I were on our own in the evenings. Our lovely neighbors Ken and Marilyn brought over a bunch of delicious food for dinner one night. They also brought over their adorable little dog Minnie, who was very patient with Maya:

It's tough to see from this angle, but Maya is grinning from ear to ear!

Art and Fashion

I recently ordered a print of a mother and daughter by a wonderful artist named Nidhi Chanani. The piece is lovely and I immediately put it up in Maya's room:

I probably need to adjust the positioning, but I love how it looks up on the wall!

Today Maya wore one of her new outfits, with a bit of fashion risk-taking. We are not afraid to mix prints at the Husain household, and she seemed to enjoy the clothes - she even practiced posing:

She also modeled an adorable new monkey towel that I recently got for her:

She finally seems to have grown out of her original chicken towel from her Aunt Sidney, so I figured it was time to move on to a bigger towel.

Climbing the Stairs

Maya has become more curious lately about everything around her, and she's definitely been on the move, exploring around the house. In fact, it's tough to keep her still for long! Tonight's conquest: the stairs.

She started small, on the first couple steps:

She then proceeded to climb to the top, with only one slight wobble: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-7G7_v2ac.

Maybe this is a sign of more to come!

Lookin Cool and Green

Today is St Patrick's Day so I made sure that Maya and I were wearing green:

She was in a good mood despite the fact that she's fighting a double ear infection. She had a fever over the weekend but she's gotten much better with antibiotics.

Earlier in the evening she rocked her new shades on the drive home:

She really seems to love wearing sunglasses - here's another shot of her from last weekend, wearing a different pair:

My theory is she sees me wearing sunglasses and wants to imitate me - monkey see, monkey do!

Enjoying a Terrific Weekend with Good Friends

We had another great weekend - the past couple days we were lucky enough to enjoy the company of our good friends Sidney and Andrew. We don't see them too often since they live in Canada, though we did get to visit them last Thanksgiving.

Friday we had fun shopping and a tasty sushi dinner at Blue Fin. Saturday we had a delicious brunch at Sound Bites, and headed out for a walk in The Fells later that afternoon (many thanks to Andrew for the amazing pictures):

On Sunday we headed off to Craigie on Main for a delicious brunch:

We decided to take advantage of another day with good weather by taking a walk around Harvard Square and along the Charles River, where we squinted in the partial sunlight and strong breeze:

This whole walking business was quite tiring for Maya, who decided to take a nap:

So glad we could spend the weekend with such good friends! And they cleaned our kitchen too - what awesome house guests. :)

Helping in the Kitchen, Goofing Off, and Warming Up

We started yesterday by doing some cleaning and cooking. Since Maya now wants to imitate everything we do, this can include her attempts to 'help' in the kitchen.

For example, here she's trying to sweep up the floor:

And here, she's assisting Dada as he starts cooking:

Later on, we had a lovely dinner with our good friends Kathryn, Kieran, and Erica. The meal included minestrone with chickpeas from the slow cooker, fresh pasta in a lemon cream sauce with veggies, and carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting. It was all yummy, and we had some fun goofing off after dinner with pieces of a foam play mat.

Here the foam squares are being used as hats:

 Maya seemed to enjoy this new hat:

Erica had to help her dad with his hat:

And then she used one as a frame:

 Maya then used a square as a shield and another piece as a sword:

In other news, the weather here has finally warmed up - the snow is melting, which is so nice, even though it's revealing all kinds of mud and leaves in our yard. We had brunch with some friends today, and then spent the afternoon walking around Cambridge. It was nice to get out and walk around again! In honor of this weather, the background image on this blog has changed.

More Success with Feeding

Maya has become more proficient with utensils and feeding herself lately. Sometimes she dumps food onto her high chair tray, scoots it onto her fork or spoon with her finger, and then lifts the fork or spoon to her mouth. But sometimes she scoops food out of her bowl using her spoon and gets it into her mouth, as in this video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4bg7ZTnxJs.

After dinner it was fruit time, and Maya Monkey got her banana:

I don't know who's more excited about that banana - Dada or Maya!

Brunching and Birthdaying

Happily, we've continued our brunch tradition with our good friends Ken & Marilyn. Our latest outing took us to Henrietta's Table, where the food was absolutely delicious and the company was lovely. :)

Maya seemed to enjoy herself:

In fact, all three of us ate quite well:

As usual, Maya got to spend some quality time with her Uncle Ken and Aunt Marilyn:

Later that night we headed out to our friend Brian's birthday dinner at Redbones. Maya got a good view of the action from her spot on top of the bar:

Another fun weekend, despite the 4 inches of snow we got Sunday morning! I am so ready to be done with shoveling.