A walk to the Playground

Sam, Maya, and I took a walk to the YMCA playground the other day. As is customary, Sam got off the stroller as soon as we passed through the YMCA gate. Again, as is customary, as soon as Sam saw the YMCA playground, he shouts "PLAYGROUND! I SEE PLAYGROUND."

But this time, Sam decides to walks next to Maya and proceeds to tell her all about the playground. "Maya there is slide, tunnel, firetruck." "Slides are for boys," etc... It was amazingly cute. It is really fun to see how much Sam cares for his little sister (except when she is playing with his trains, that of course is off limits).

Here are two pictures of the moment I tried to get on my phone. You can see Sam pointing to the playground and it looks like Maya is intently listening.

Catch up Photos

I finally got my pictures off of my camera. Some of these are old, but they are worth the wait:

This is one of the first pictures of Sam and Maya playing together. Sam was teaching Maya how to play with the barn. As you can tell by Maya's facial expression, she was intent on listening.

Well, what more to say. Sam wearing an Eagles jersey and sipping out of a Rita's cup. What a beautiful site!

Sam loved playing in the puddles during all the rain we have had over the last few months. This is him after one of the first times we went out to splash.

When Pop-Pop was here a few weeks ago we went to the mountains to get some apples and pumpkins. Sam and Maya enjoyed the wagon ride together.

I mean, how can you take these two seriously! Sam insisted that Maya sit in the car with him while grocery shopping today. And well, they were super cute together.

Sam and the Train

Yesterday Sam came along with me on a train excursion around Atlanta. It had been a while since Sam and I had a chance to ride the train together. We got a chance to see a lot of things yesterday: trees were more colors than just green, all of the "tunnels" on the MARTA line, large escalators, and probably his favorite of the day: pigeons! He loved the pigeons downtown.

My favorite part of the day was the confidence in which Sam moved around. Whenever we came to the gates to get on the train, Sam would ask for the breeze card (the fare card). He would then proceed to run to the gate, ask which one, and then tap the card to open it and walk through all by himself (usually with Dad trying to catch up as to not get left outside the gate :) ). It was a lot of fun to watch him have so much joy and fun in getting around town yesterday.

The past few months have been amazingly crazy for both Katie and I and unfortunately these moments that I had gotten used to in the first two years of life with Sam have been all too infrequent the past 6 months. That is probably what made yesterday all the more sweeter.

Maya is on the Move!

This week Maya has started to be able to move herself to where she wants to go. I hesitate to call is crawling. It is more like a chimpanzee scoot as she uses her arms to move her in a sitting up position, but it works. It has been a lot of fun to watch her as she begins to discover a whole new world, and a whole new ability to torment her big brother! Hopefully we will get a video up soon. The Delp house has gone through some technology changes and I am having difficultly getting videos off of our camera. Here is a picture for now:

This is one of the cutest pictures that we have of Maya yet! This outfit was a gift from one of good friends here in Atlanta.

A Glimpse of Sam and Maya

The past few weeks have a been a lot of fun around the Delp house. Sam is really playing by himself a lot and showing us his huge imagination, as well as, his OCD tendencies. Lining up his toys in particular order or by color is a common occurrence for Sam. All of this development is just in time for Maya starting to scoot a little! You can only imagine the fun this is!

Here are a few photos of Sam playing in his room:

These are Sam's cars lined up on the window sill. They are often going somewhere: the airport, in a tunnel, Texas, Pennsylvania, a friend's house, etc...

You may have seen Sam's last caps photo (scroll down), but here are all the caps that Sam owns. Yes, they are still $.50 a piece! And yes, they are as tall as me (Jeff).

This is Sam at his friend Beth's birthday party. Sam and Beth have become quite good friends since they are in the same class at school this year. Here they are painting pumpkins (another great love of Sam these days!)

Maya's Dedication

Maya was dedicated this morning at church. She was very serious about the entire process. We are so thankful God gave her to us, and hope to raise her to know Him.

Today, Maya wore the beautiful dress that Mandy brought back from India. Thanks, Mandy!!

Caps for Sale

We've been reading the book "Caps for Sale" at bedtime this week. It's an old classic that Jeff and I both remember from childhood. It is about a peddler who sells caps that he has stacked on top of his head. Sam has been enjoying the book and yesterday he made his own tower of "caps" made of legos. He has been walking around the house yelling "Caps for Sale. 50 Cents a cap." for the past two days. Maya has been his biggest customer, though Sam makes her give the caps back. Watching Sam's comprehension and imagination grow is fascinating for me to watch. Here he is with his caps.

Maya is 8 Months!

Since I missed celebrating Maya's 7th month mark, I thought I would give her extra love for 8 months. She continues to be such a joy for our family. Her continuous smiles and chatters are contagious! She lights up every time someone new comes into the room and she seems not to know a stranger. Maya LOVES to eat and eats more than Sam at every meal. We are all so thankful for our sweet girl!!

Maya has inherited several outfits from Sam. Here she is showing off her Red Raider gear for the Texas vs. Texas Tech game. Before the game:

After the game (poor Tech):

Like I said earlier, Maya loves to eat. Thus, she spends a lot of time in the high chair. Earlier this week she spent an entire meal holding a balloon. Don't worry, it didn't slow down her eating!

Last weekend I thought it would be funny to see her reaction to a pickle. Turns out, she loves pickles and she devoured the entire thing. Not too bad for a girl with no teeth!

I love the fall, and fall has finally come to Atlanta this year. Thanks to Grammy and Auntie Shelva, Maya has a great fall wardrobe. Here we are in our coordinating fall attire.

Sibling Love

Sam and Maya ended up in the toy box together the other day. After Sam stopped fussing about Maya sitting on his toys, he realized that it was kind of fun to play with her in the box. I even caught this sweet moment.