What do you do all day?

Well, last week was pretty normal and usual for us, and friends or family have said, since you're not working, what exactly do you do all day? Here is a brief pictorial of a day in the life of The Mays:

We climb up the stairs about five or six times

We take a nice long bath right before bed (yes, this should be at the end, my bad)

We stand at the window and wave and shout to the neighbors, the dogs, the birds, whomever we see.

We climb on the radiator to get some height out the window.

We eat - lots and lots of food. And wear it.

Now that you have seen a brief day in the life of The Mays, I can tell you what else is going on.

Hayley is extremely active. She climbs on everything, cruises and crawls all over the house and climbs up the stairs all the time. If it's not raining, we got for a walk in the buggy to get outside for awhile and often will stop at the swing on the way home from our walk and go for a little swing. She is still loving to eat and we are struggling with her letting us feed her, though she can't feed herself with a spoon, hence the yogurt all over the tray in the earlier picture. She says mama, dada, a form of Josie, there it is!, and that's about it. She chases Josie around the house and poor Josie has no idea how much worse it's going to get once she starts walking! Eek! Though it rains almost everyday, we are keeping busy going here and there and making some new friends and some new playdates. We have been frequenting my mother's house, and Hayley loves it there because it's so big and she has so much space to crawl everywhere - not to mention she loves Opus and grabs at his fur and hugs around his neck, so cute!

I hosted Antina's baby shower 2 weeks ago now, and it was prefect weather and we held it outdoors. It was a great time and she got lots of great stuff and I really enjoyed hosting it. Making the food, decorating, so much fun. I did have one mishap in that one third of our balloons blew away while we were putting the others up, and it was so sad to see them all floating in the air, way above our heads, lost forever! We were able to get more in time, but so devastating!

Last Saturday we went to Lena Goldberg's 1st birthday (Christina (Bloch)'s daughter party at their new home in Deep River and had a blast. Hayley was so over tired she was acting totally crazy rolling around in the dirt like a piggy. It was hysterical and she was filthy! My camera wasn't working which was so sad because it was absolutely hilarious! She loved the big beach balls and was biting them and just blabbing away. Lena was asleep so she really was the center of attention and she loved it. Dave gave her a bath that night and he said she had dirt in her rolls, under all her fingernails, in between her toes, in her ears, and who knows where else. She had a lot of fun though, and that was the most important.

Last Sunday Dave had his birthday so after Hayley went to bed we went out to dinner just the two of us to PF Chiang's and it was delicious! He had never been there and I had only been back when I lived in Virginia, so it was such a treat for the both of us. We will surely return.

My grandpa also took another good fall over the weekend and is currently at Yale New Haven because he shattered his elbow, got 9 stitches in his forehead, and possible re-injured his neck. It is so sad to see him getting so older and it has been an emotional couple of days for me thinking about him and Grandma (her birthday was last week and I can't believe she's been gone almost 9 years). I have been so lucky to have my grandparents have been such a huge part of my life for almost 30 years, and I can't imagine what my childhood would have been like with out them. I feel very sad and scared of what is to come in the future, because Grandpa is 93. I just want to spend as much time with him as I can, especially since I'm not working right now. He is such an amazing person and has this ability to make every person in his life feel special and important and cared for. Grandpa, you are awesome. Get well soon.

Life with an 11 month old is an adventure everyday. She is very demanding and active. She has no patience (like her mother) and loves to look at new things and make lots of noise. She whines more these days because she understands the word no and doesn't like it (of course, it's hysterical because she shakes her head when you say no so it's so hard to not laugh). She falls and gets lots of little bumps, but nothing a kiss and a snuggle can't fix. She is fighting her naps these days, which means a new transition is in tow, and I love that she's getting bigger, but I still want her to be my baby forever. I feel like it was yesterday that I held her in the hospital and now we're planning her first birthday party. Time flies. I am so lucky to be home and tell myself that everyday. I wouldn't change my life one iota.