Maya’s Travels

Maya Rose Castañeda,

On the Ides of March, 2013 we celebrated your 1st Birthday. Your mother and I are so crazy some times. We put ourselves through the ringer trying to decide how to celebrate your birthday. Should we head back to Ohio? Should we do something kid friendly here? Should we keep it mellow and go out to dinner? Should we throw a kegger? Should we go to Mexico? Should we go to Alaska? Should we get a Piñata? Should the Piñata be filled with airport size booze bottles? What to do?

So, stereotypical us, we played it by ear and just winged it. We had planned on going out to dinner but we weren't feeling it as the day progressed so at about 5 hours before we were supposed to meet folks out at the restaurant we changed plans and decided to just invite folks over for cupcakes. Our friends must hate us sometimes. I'm sorry to say that you'll probably inherit some of our crazy ways.

At the end of the day, it all worked out and was perfect. We had friends, presents, some family in town and some facetime with Grammy. It was a pretty perfect day. Week in fact.

The week before your birthday, Grammy and your Aunt Linda sent you your first Kitchen! Woo Hoo! The kitchen is a pretty big hit with you and it only tackled you twice so far!

Mama put it together all by herself and only had this many screws left over after it was up! (I shouldn't it talk; sometimes it requires a six pack for me to get these things together. Here some advice for you as you grow up: Ikea stuff is much easier to put together than target. It's worth the Ikea madness in the end.)

Either way, you are a pretty happy camper with your kitchen. You also love your chair that Grammy bought for you 3 days before you were born at some crazy consignment shop here in Seattle. You'll soon discover that your Grammy likes to "Pop some tags" - if you will.

The day before your birthday your cousins Deb and Chris flew into town! We had some fun showing them around Seattle!

The day and time finally arrived and we had some great friends over to help celebrate with you. We did presents first! You made out like a bandit!

Then it was cupcake time. Here are the photos first then the video. The video is pretty indicative of how things are. It shows that we are still pretty new at this parenting thing and have no qualms about handing fire to a one year old. Second it shows how defiant your little beast self is. You refuse to try the cake. (probably because it burnt you first but whatevs) It takes Mommy shoving some in your mouth to make you try it. Then it shows your interest is piqued. You love it but you don't want it to be too obvious. You also show the power you have on us by refusing to use your hands and making mommy feed it to you. It finally shows us turning the table and just leaving it in front of you. Fine. If you don't want to eat it yourself it is just going to sit there. At this point you can't resist and dig in. At the end it also shows that you will probably eat to you explode. You don't seem to have much of an off button when it comes to eating. For what its worth, neither do I. We decide enough was enough and take it away from you. I know, I know. We are awful parents. But it was time to play with the presents!

Our current living situation finds our total living space being within about a 9 by 11 room. It was pretty hot with everyone there. We were also expecting you to make a disaster with the cupcake. Hell you make a disaster with cheerios and bananas, why wouldn't we expect a disaster with cake? Anyhow, this is the reason for your nekkid playtime.

You and Lorelei had a blast playing in your new kitchen. You also tried to climb in the oven. More advice for you: Don't climb in ovens.

This is Stacy your Birthday "twin." :-) You and her share the Ides of March as your birthday. I think that is kind of foretelling. At the end of the night you were up way past your bedtime, full of sugar and just having tons of fun with everyone. Stacy had you laughing like a crazed hyena with the Fish. It was more like.

Maya: throws fish to floor.

Stacy: Picks up fish from floor. Hands fish to Maya.

Maya: busts into hysterics.(goto step 1)

Be nice to her; she is going to babysit you soon for Daddy's birthday! :-)

Like I said earlier, it was a pretty good week Mai Tai. You are loved by many. I can't believe it has already been over a year. What would we do without you? (FYI, we'd probably travel to exotic places... I kid, I kid... for the most part :-)

Here's to a good year number two. I'm sure we'll get some good travel in this year and you'll have a lot more exploring to do. Maybe we'll get that Piñata for birthday number 2 also! 

Much love Mai, Much love,

Daddy