As her last night as an "only child," we took Maia out to dinner at Abuelo's and took her to Toys 'R Us and bought her a baby doll. Not that she really knew what was going on, but it was special for us. Abuelo's is where we went the night I went into labor with Maia. And, coincendtly, our server's name was Josie!

36 Weeks ... Less than 28 days to go!

That's right, we're in the home stretch. On Wednesday the 9th, I made it to the 9 month mark. My doctor's visits have become weekly now. In fact I went this morning and everything is looking good. I'm measuring normally and her little heartbeat sounds "happy" as Dr. Locke always says. I had contractions for about an hour last week that were about every 4-6 minutes apart. But I think she is just getting things ready in there. I did ask my doc about the possiblity of her coming early, being my second pregnancy and since Maia came 5 days early on her own, and he said it is likely. He said second pregnancies (and 3rd, 4th, so on...) usually come a little sooner because since your body has already done it once, it basically starts doing it all a little sooner. He said it wasn't for sure, but likely. Which honestly, would be fine with us. So in 2 to 3 weeks, we'll have another little one to love on! Maia is getting excited for her "Baby Stister" to come out so she can meet her. We'll keep you all posted. (BTW - sorry I look a little tired in the pic, but it was about 10:30 at night, and to be honest, I was.)

Happy Independance Day!

And what better way to celebrate than by going fishing?! We went out to Grammy and Granddaddy's house on the 4th. Maia got to go fishing in their stocked pond and within about 30 seconds of casting out her first baited hook, she caught a fish! She was very excited, but wouldn't really get close to the fish. She liked them but was also a bit terrified of them. With the help of others of course, she caught about 3 or 4 fish. Too bad we had to throw them back in. We all agreed that next time we'd have a good 'ol Southern fish fry!

Texas State Aquarium

On our our way back to Houston after leaving South Padre, we stopped at the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. It was so great to see all the different types of sea life, mostly native to the Texas area, around the Gulf. And of course, Maia really enjoyed it, which was our favorite part.

It's hard to tell since there is nothing to compare them to, but these fish were HUGE! They were nearly the size of Maia.

Maia liked these little fish of course, because they reminded her of Nemo and Dory.

This was one of our favorite parts of the aquarium. There was a huge room you walked in and just watched the dolphins swim. The glass wall of the tank went from floor to ceiling so we really got to get a good look at the dolphins playing.

Maia looks on as one of the dolphins pretends to sleep

The giraffes posing for a family portrait



Momma and Daddy being silly on our last night in Padre.



Hard to tell, but this is Maia with Mima and Boppy the morning we all left South Padre. The picture looks like this because at 9am, it's already hot and muggy there. As soon as we walked outside, my camera lense fogged up. But she doesn't have many pictures with them so I wanted to include it. We sure do miss you Mima and Boppy! Glad we got to spend that time with you.

Gladys Porter Zoo

One of the days we were in Padre, we drove back to "the Mainland" and went to the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. Shanny bought Maia a bird feeding stick so she could feed the birds, which she loved and was a bit intimated by at the same time. It was so hot, but we always love getting to go to the zoo. It's such a blessing to see up close, God's creativity in His creation of the animals.