"Three"

Well, Maya has officially made it to 3. We had her party on Labor Day weekend, a week before the fair. A lot of the family made it up and we did the simple task of grilling burgers and hot dogs with our new grill. The weather could not have turned out better--mid 70s. And, the Tigers also came back and beat Illinois.

Maya got a lot of clothes and added to her baby collection. I honestly don't know how many she has now (probably 15 or so), but she loves every one of them. She has such a mothering instinct. I always forget to grab the camera, but she often lines up all her babies on the floor face down and then proceeds to find blankets for all of them.

Thanks to all of you who came up. We know it's a long trip, but it's great because Maya is really getting to know the rest of her family.

That same weekend, we also decided to visit the Botanical Gardens for the Japanese festival. We had the day off and it was something to do that did not involve us sitting at home (which tends to bore the heck out of our 3 year old). It was a pretty cool place. They have a playground area that even I didn't want to leave--tree houses, bridges, slides, water fountains. Maya was having one of her moments and we basically had to drag her into the playground. But, she quickly changed attitude and started to explore. After that, we caught a Japanese drumming show and caught a snack at the cafeteria. But then Maya started to get tired so we opted to leave. We hadn't even made it half way through the park. But luckily we have a membership and can go back and see the rest of it.