August 17th, 2009 - 2 years ago
August 17th, 2010 - 1 year ago
August 17th, 2011 - Today
Wow.
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From the monthly archives:
August 2011
One of the nice things about Maile’s new school schedule is that Christine leaves for work about an hour earlier in the morning and then leaves in the afternoon an hour early to pick up Maile. That gives Maile and Mommy some “fun time” in the afternoon. On Monday, Maile showed off some of the painting skills she’s been practicing at school…
Mommy, you can take pictures, but please don't make too much noise - art takes concentration...
I'm going to show you the double brush technique today, it's a complex maneuver, but I've been practicing...
This is coming out really nicely, I can't wait to show you!
Ta da! What do you think?
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I was back in Boston for a wedding this weekend. When I got home on Sunday, things were … different.
Roar!
Fancy seeing you here, Mrs. Tiger...
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Oh, syrup – where have you been all my life? Up until this point if you asked me what my favorite foods were, I’d probably say bananas or maybe even broccoli. Not any more. Syrup rules!
Syrup - so good when it hits your lips!
On Saturday morning, Mommy left the room and I noticed that her toast didn’t have any syrup on it. Luckily, Mommy had left the syrup bottle on the table. So I helped her out.
(Dad note: do we have a Buddy Elf on our hands?)
(Click here for the video.)
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With so much excitement due to the start of preschool, we didn’t have time to write about the last class of Maile’s first session of soccer. For the last couple of months, every Saturday, Maile and I have attended a SoccerTots soccer program. It was a lot of fun and Maile made a lot of progress since her first class back in June.
Let's do this!
Every session starts out with a stretching session - Maile always goes and stands on the purple dot.
After stretching, we practice our soccer skills - Daddy helps with balance, but Maile is getting pretty good at standing with one foot on the ball...
Rolling the ball back and forth is a little trickier, but Mommy helped Maile Girl out!
Then we do some drills - here Maile is kicking over the cones with the ball...
Not sure what this has to do with soccer, but it is a lot of fun!
About halfway through class, we take a goldfish break and talk a little strategy...
After our snack, Mommy and Maile sing some songs - it helps build team spirit...
We end class with a couple runs through the obstacle course - Maile rocks at the tunnel!
All in all, it was a fun couple of months and an activity that we are going to continue doing. Nice to start the weekend running around outside!
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Grandma Jill heard that San Francisco summers can be cold and rainy so she sent a new pair of shoes that are made specifically to go jumping in puddles. I love jumping in puddles! There weren’t any puddles in the house when I tried them on, but I practiced anyways. I think I’m going to get good use of these…
Thanks Grandma Jill!
(Click here for the video.)
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Maile Girl - all ready for her first day of school!
As we mentioned last week, today was Maile’s first day of preschool. We’ve been talking about it for weeks, so I think Maile was genuinely excited as we got all packed up this morning. (Perhaps too excited as she had one of her worst nights of sleep in months last night – hence all the tired looking faces in the family picture below!)
Family Picture - Maile's first day of school
We, honestly, had no idea what to expect when we got to school. On one hand, Maile is generally pretty sociable, but lately around strangers she was a bit clingy. (Dad note: We decided to leave the cameras at home for the first day – we didn’t want anything to get in the way of Maile getting settled in.)
I have a feeling we'll be chasing her from here on out...
Things went pretty smooth when we arrived at the school. We went a bit early and were the first ones there. Maile instantly started exploring the classroom and met a couple of her teachers (“lao shi”). Maile’s school does a Mandarin immersion program – so the teachers or lao shi speak a combination of english and mandarin. I have no doubt we’ll be exploring this fact more in the months ahead…
Funniest part of the drop off was when Maile found the bathroom. They have a bunch of toddler-sized toilets. Maile went right over and said she wanted to get on the “potty” and started taking off her pants. Sure enough, she jumped right onto the toilet and sat there for about 5 minutes. She didn’t actually go, but afterwards, she grabbed some toilet paper to wipe herself, flushed the toilet and washed her hands. The teachers were pretty impressed that she was potty trained. Of course, that’s the first time she’s ever done that!
There were definitely some tears and clinging as we left, but the school called about an hour later to say that Maile only cried for a few minutes and then settled in great to the class activities.
Chris went to pick her up for a half day at 12:45. Maile was all smiles and tonight at dinner said she was looking forward to going back tomorrow!
Maile's teachers sent home a fun personalized "report" of her first day - definitely a "nice touch"!
All in all, definitely a successful first day of school!
(Dad note: I haven’t fully decided how I’m going to handle blogging about Maile at school – which is why I didn’t link to the school directly. More than happy to talk about it though if you want to ping me directly – we’ve been very happy so far!)
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I have a big day tomorrow. It’s my first day of preschool. I’m very excited.
I’m not quite sure what to expect. Mommy and daddy say it is going to be lots of fun and I’m going to make a lot of new friends. Given all of this, I wanted to make sure I look my best. I know whenever Mommy dresses up fancy for a date with daddy or a meeting at work, she does this thing that she calls “curling her eyelashes”. I’ve watched her do it about a thousand times – so I decided to do it today in preparation for my big day tomorrow.
Mommy said I did a great job and my eyelashes look fabulous!
(Click here for the video.)
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Megan and Maile, November 2009 - the beginning of a wonderful friendship!
Tomorrow is Megan’s last day as Maile’s full-time nanny. Maile will start preschool on Monday. There will be plenty of time to talk about preschool in the weeks and months ahead, but Christine and I wanted to take a moment to thank Megan for taking such wonderful care of our daughter for the past year and a half.
It’s a hard thing as a new parent trying to find someone to care for your baby girl. After all, you are just in the process of figuring things out for yourself. You rely a bit on your gut, you listen to the recommendations of friends and, ultimately, you see what happens. We couldn’t have been happier with what Megan brought to our family.
She’s been a friend to Maile. A teacher. And, yes, a parent when Christine and I couldn’t be there. (And trust me, that last one is hard for any parent to put out there.)
Maile and Megan at her first birthday party (July 2010)
Coming home is always the best part of our day because we never know what awaits us. Early on it was a new sign that Megan had taught Maile. Later it was art projects all over our walls, some cookies or muffins they had baked in the kitchen, or a new song and dance they had learned.
Every season and holiday our apartment was decorated with art projects Megan did with the girls...
Always a fun day to find treats waiting for us from a baking session in the kitchen...
Maile knows every story time in a mile radius of our home, our book shelves are filled to brim with whatever she found on the most recent trip to the library and when I walk into the Peekadoodle kids club down the road, I feel like I’m with a little mini celebrity. This is all thanks to Megan.
Megan was even there for Maile's first Red Sox game!
The best part recently is that Maile is starting to talk and string words together, so when we come home, we get the stories from the day. All the fun times she had with Megan and Hannah.
Three peas in a pod!
This most certainly isn’t a good bye, but at the start of a new phase of Maile’s life, a reflection on the good times we’ve had and a heart felt thank you for the role Megan has played in shaping the amazing little girl our daughter is growing into.
Love, Love Megan!
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