A Perfect Rainbow

I have never experienced so much lightening, thunder and stormy weather as what we have experienced here in South Carolina. Nothing scary though - and from what I can understand - nothing in comparison to what you would come up against in Kentucky or some other flat and dry place. Well, it had been stormy all day and Keith had just left for a late afternoon shift. He calls me from the road and asks if I had ever seen a perfect half-circle rainbow. What a pretty sight. Unfortunately, I couldn't get back far enough to photograph the whole thing (trees were in the way), but there you go. Our friend Laura sent these homemade beanbags for Maya spelling - Maya Kirstine. Maya isn't quite at the stage where you can get her to spell out her name, but until she gets to that stage, she loves throwing and bashing them about.

Enough is enough!

These photos are from Maya's 7 month photo shoot out in the yard. It is pretty obvious to everyone when she has had enough. - Did we ever tell you that she has some good lungs on her. We haven't heard any comments from the neighboors.... yet!

Grow spurt!

It feels like Maya has just gone through a bit of a grow spurt. She is at the age where there is no sitting still. Her two top teeth has come through and they are ITCHY. Maya pulls herself up everywhere - her favorite is at our flat-file, then she sits there chewing on the wooden sides YUM YUM. She is more adventurous in her crib. She now stands up greeting us when we come to her room to pick her up. The other day she got herself in a weird position while standing up. It was time for her nap and she was screaming her head off, because she couldn't find a way to get back down. She is such a pumpkin noodle. The photos are from a trip to the beach and #3 is in the garden the other day - Who says it is too early to get into mum's camera gear?

Swiiing!

A few weeks ago we went by the playground in the neighborhood and Maya tried out the swing, which she seemed to enjoy. These days it is too hot being outside for too long unless you are at the pool or the beach. It is humid and steaming hot. We have been to the outdoor pool a few times and Maya loves it, kicks in the water and splashes with her hands. She cries her little heart out when it is time to leave. Sorry no pictures from the pool. So far it has just been the two of us and well, I'm sure I would drop the camera in the water if I tried to snap a few pics.
The picture of Keith is half way through his summer haircut - charming, right?

This little girl knows how to pose!

Once a month we take semi-set up photos of Maya. I use my medium format camera, but now that we have a good digital camera, I usually shoot a few with that one too. Here's a few from when Maya was 6 month. Someone told me that all babies HATE to eat hair..... well, as you can see that does not go for EVERY baby. Anyway - it's amazing how this little girl can pose. By the way - she is 8 month old now - CRAZY!

Melanie on visit!

It is the beginning of a new month and time to catch up on much blogging. Mel was here from London in the middle of last month. Her visit collided with a busy weekend of baby related events at the Owens-Maier family (Laurens & Rick's baby shower and Baby Will's christening) and some nasty back pain for me. Luckily Mel rented a fast and furious white Mustang (1st pic), so she was able to see and do a ton of stuff without me (Keith took a few days off work so I could lay flat and get better). As always it was nice spending some time with Mel, it has been too too long since the last time (we missed Stephen). Often Mel spoils us with presents and ehh chocolates, Jaffa cakes and Twiglets. There has been some big delays on mail from London to us here in Charleston (very weird) so Mel arrived with tons of lovely presents for us all. We all got our next birthday present + christmas presents - needless to say it was party time here, and yes we did open everything!