Maile Girl here. Recovering from another fun-filled weekend in San Francisco. The weekend actually got off to an early start on Friday afternoon. Word trickled down to Hannah and I that the Bubble Lady was making an encore performance down at the library. Megan agreed to take us over … and Mommy even surprised us by leaving work a little early so she could come too! How fun is that?
Megan, Hannah and I were VERY excited for the bubble lady!
I was really happy I could share the Bubble Lady with Mommy ...
... and the Bubble Lady did not disappoint - she pulled out all the stops. I think Mommy was impressed.
Should I volunteer? Hmm...
Maybe I'll hang back and see what happens to this kid first...
We arrived a bit early and had front row seats - that meant LOTS of bubble action!
We even got bubbles in our hair!
Thank you Megan and Mommy for taking us to see the Bubble Lady!
The smile is forced, but at least Maile Girl is cleaning up the house!
Right around when Maile turned 2 years old, her natural, adorable, melt-every-time-I-see-it smile started to be harder to coax out. Instead, we often get this forced (still pretty adorable, but not at all natural) version of the Maile smile. Thought this picture captured it nicely.
All I can think of with this video is that this bubble pipe is the new version of that cigarette gum they used to sell when we were kids (I assume they don’t sell that anymore, right?) It’s a gateway toy!
(Click here for the video.)
I recently joined a new startup and last Thursday I had a busy day of meetings planned centered around getting our new office space up and running. Christine was actually working in New York last week and our nanny Megan took the day off to move. I tried to find a babysitter for Maile, but didn’t have any luck – so I decided to bring her with me. Yep, Maile Girl attended her first business meeting!
And she was wonderful. We were at the new office for about 1.5 hours. She mostly occupied herself for the first hour – watching some Dora, coloring, etc. Then she spent some time running around the empty office – I had to duck out of conversations on occasion to grab her, but everyone understood and was really cool about it. Towards the end, she picked up her notepad and a crayon and started copying one of the guys that was walking around with an iPad taking notes about some wiring we are doing.
Now, Mister, I just want to double check that you have everything my daddy wants covered. Can you show me what you have for the second office over there?
I’m not sure what happened after that, I let Maile Girl handle the negotiations. Daddy was very happy with the quote we got though 😉
Little known fact about Daddy (that won’t surprise anyone who really knows me) – I’ve never seen Fiddler on the Roof. Therefore, when we received a “Sunrise, Sunset” book from The PJ Library, I just thought it was another cute book about the sun. It was left to my Japanese wife to teach our hapa daughter that “Sunrise, Sunset” was actually a song.
Maile loves the book and clearly Mommy has sung her the song a few times…
Future drama teachers, please accept this as Maile’s audition for the role of Tzeitel (and yes, I had to look that up!)
(Click here for the video.)
Christine took some great pictures of Maile coloring this weekend. Her coloring is definitely changing – becoming a bit more elaborate. She also is coloring more on her own vs. it being something she has to do with one of us. This composition was probably just Maile coloring on her own for 15 minutes.
The artist at work...
Great art requires intense concentration...
I think it's missing some red...
Yep, this is filling in nicely...
A view of the almost finished product
Since Maile is two years old now, Papa Mike took it upon himself to begin her training…
Maile's first lesson on The Path...
Every time I go back to Boston I always have so much fun catching up with my east coast friends.
This time I met two new friends, Adam and Tyler. They are just babies so as a big two year old, I knew it was my job to take care of them. (Hint, hint, mommy and daddy – I can handle this big sister thing!) I sang some songs to Adam – I think he liked them…
On Sunday night, I saw my good friend Alex – her birthday is the week before mine, so we celebrated together with some pizza and a very special cake that Grandma Jill made just for me!
Pizza with Alex - she is so cool, I learn so much when I hang out with her...
Elmo! Grandma Gail sends Elmo to live with me and Grandma Jill makes me an Elmo cake - I am one lucky little girl!
Then on Monday, I went out to dinner with one of my oldest friends, Jordy – and we goofed around and just had so much fun.
Making funny faces with Jordy
Best. Friends.
I can’t wait to go back to Boston and see everyone again!
(Click here for the video.)
Tomorrow (Thursday) is Grandma Jill’s birthday. She said that Maile visiting last weekend was present enough, but I wanted to get her something else – Maile Girl singing her a happy birthday song. Yesterday, Maile and I flew home from Boston (Christine is still in NYC for work). For a large portion of the way home, we sang “happy birthday to you” – she was familiar with it because it has been sung in her honor roughly 100 times in the past two weeks.
We went to bed last night with one more rousing rendition and I was feeling pretty good that the video message to Grandma Jill would come out great when we filmed it today. Of course, two year old Maile had other ideas. I think this video actually does a good job demonstrating what it is like being around a two year old: a bit tedious, a lot funny and completely unscripted.
In any event, Grandma Jill we hope you enjoy the video and that you have a wonderful birthday!
We love you,
Maile Girl, Matt and Christine
I love you Gramma Jill!
(Click here for the video.)
On Sunday, we had a girls day at the beach, mommy, Auntie Elyssa, Grandma Jill and me. It was so much fun hanging with the ladies, playing in the sand, splashing in the water and eating plums. Yes, eating plums are a big part of the beach in Swampscott apparently…
Auntie Elyssa took good care of me at the beach - it was really hot, so she made sure I was properly hydrated.
The water was WAY colder than it is on Hawaii, but I still liked splashing around in it. I'm a tough little girl!
The water was cool, but the highlight of the beach was this plum. I can't even decide what part I want to bite next - so yummy!
Dad note: I just absolutely love this picture. It cracks me up!
