Plum Pickin’

I’ve noticed that Plums are becoming a theme in this blog lately – which is funny since I never even had a plum before I met Andrew!  I was more of the strawberries, bananas & apples kind of girl.  I think those were the only fruits I ate growing up.  This is definitely NOT true for Maya!  She loves almost every fruit.  Especially watermelon!  But she also loves anything she can eat herself, whole pears were one of her first favorites.  Forget it when we get to the fruit section of the grocery store…I can’t make it through without letting her chow on a nectarine!

But I digress…this is about Plums, particularly the plum tree in our yard.  Yup, that’s right we have our very own plum tree in our front yard.  I’m the type of person who wouldn’t eat from anything that I hadn’t taken care of, but Andrew will try anything that looks okay.  Thus, just the other night we were all in our front yard chewing on these small, but I must admit very yummy plums.  Maya LOVES them!  She especially loves that she can pick them herself.  She HATES when I have to take it away half way through to remove the pit (imagine a lovely little tantrum and not wanting to take it back all squished up).  But it’s been fun having our own plum tree – we even shared with the neighbors.

I don’t think we will be a fruit farm anytime soon, but we do have a pear tree & 2 apple trees as well.  The apples are plentiful, but insects seem to have ruined them before we could spray.  No pears this year, but we’re hopeful for next year.  So we enjoyed our plums the last few days and now all we have to do is figure out how to explain to Maya that they’re all gone & she can’t pick them anymore….hmmm!

Dinner outside!

The weather around here has finally cooled off a little.  Or at least it’s not as sticky.  So for the last few nights we have been putting our new patio set to good use.  We strap Maya’s portable chair right to our chairs and she’s happy as a clam to sit at the table with us.

We’ve enjoyed steak tips, grilled chicken salads, and tonight…turkey meatloaf!  It’s so nice to be able to relax & enjoy the backyard.  But the best part is the clean up.  Maya is VERY into feeding herself these days…which usually means a royal mess all over herself, and the floor.  But when we eat outside, the mess gets taken care of by the random animals around rather than me.  Brilliant!  Now I know you’re thinking we shouldn’t be feeding the local animals, but they’re here anyway…what’s the harm in keeping them happy?  That & Andrew loves the wildlife so it keeps him happy too

I’m hopeful the weather will continue to be nice so we can keep enjoying!!

Eat, drink & be Maya

Andrew likes to eat.  I like to eat.  And my 28 lb daughter 11 month old MUST like to eat.  But no one ever told me how tricky & exhausting it could be to feed all of these people!  No one told me that feeding Maya would be one of the more stressful parts of my day.  When to do it, what to feed her, is she really full, is she too full?  They told me she will let me know etc etc.  But seriously…we are talking about a kid who gets distracted every 2 seconds!  She’s up in the chair, then she’s back down, back up, back down.  Then we got in the habit of feeding her out of her chair…and getting her back in the chair was impossible.  On the bright side, she seems to like most things…but only a little.  All this stress has to be the reason I started taking pictures of her eating…everything!

For some reason watching her eat all of these foods is entertaining…and exciting.  So I take pictures.  Now it seems I have a collection of Maya eating.  Poor thing is going to look back at all of these pictures and wonder if she did anything else but eat (I swear she does – plenty!).  But part of the other problem is that she likes to eat 24/7.  I know, I know – she shouldn’t need to eat all night.  Given her 10lb birth weight she never really needed to eat at night at all…right?  Well, try telling her that, and try telling an exhausted me that!  So we do what we have to do.

Now, it’s almost time to start weaning.  And while my daughter likes to eat almost everything.  Getting her to take more than a sip of something is nearly impossible.  She likes water here & there.  But her favorite thing to do is spit it out.  Then there’s juice…what kid doesn’t like juice?  No way say’s Maya.  Milk…forget it!  So we continue the cycle of eating, not drinking and partying at all hours.  But all this is just a part of ‘being Maya’ and I wouldn’t change it for the world.  She’s a happy kid (as long as she has what she wants).

And we have found one compromise…WATERMELON.  Eating & drinking at the same time – brilliant!  Maya’s FAVORITE.  Now if only she survive on Watermelon alone, with an occasional hot dog & french fry mixed in…we’d be all set!

Maya's Favorite

Hot dog in one hand, fry in the other!