Imagine my excitement when Christine said we were going to the Bon Festival. Only Bon I know is named Jon – but alas, Bon Jovi was not visiting Kauai. The Bon Festival is a buddhist tradition that honors the spirits of our ancestors. On Kauai, it consisted of some carnival-type games for the kids, some local plate food, taiko drumming and a big open circle that everyone danced around.
Maile dressed up all fancy in one of mommy's old kimonos. She felt like a princess and, boy, did she look the part!
Dad note: Not the first time Maile’s worn a kimono, but sure is fun to watch her grow into it!
Taking in the scene at the Bon Festival as the Taiko drummers prepare for their part of the show...
Mommy teaching Maile some of the dance moves...
Mommy was a rock star with the dancing – all the moves came right back to her. Maile Girl wasn’t quite ready this year – but she took it all in and is going to be ready to rock the Bon Festival next year!
(Click here for the video.)
After our visit to Fairyland, we swung by the Sketchbook Project Popup Library where Mommy’s sketchbook was being displayed. They do a really nice job with the exhibit – you create a “library card” and then you check out your sketchbook and any others you want (by theme, location, random, etc.). They also had an area where you could draw so Maile created some of her own art while we were inspired by the sketchbooks we viewed.
The artist at work
Maile learned all about the mail at school this year - so she set to work straight away putting together some letters to mail
Maile & Mommy checking out Mommy's sketchbook - Maile was very happy to see she was prominently featured!
One of Mommy's Maile portraits
A drawing from one of the other sketchbooks we viewed - very cool concept to flip through the books of different people
After Fairyland and all the artistic energy that was expended at the popup library, Maile Girl was exhausted!
It was raining today, so we thought we’d head into Boston and take Maile to the Science Museum. We never made it – on the way in, we went by this big parking lot with all these different types of trucks in it. We stopped in to investigate and discovered the 5th Annual Charlestown Mother’s Touch A Truck Day! It was completely random … but completely awesome too! We had a blast…
At first, I had Mommy or Daddy come with me on the trucks...
Daddy is a good booster seat that helps me see where I'm going...
Little girl, big truck!
Oh my god, Jake is going to be soooo jealous when I tell him about this!
Maile Girl was all smiles the entire time ...
... except for when someone pressed the siren on the fire engine!
Maile Girl wanted to keep going up the ladder - I thought it best to stop where we were...
Even Papa and Daddy had fun - you're never too old for trucks!
Maile and Mommy (2 days old)
Maile and Mommy (2 years, 10 months)
A lot has changed over the past (almost) 3 years – but not everything.
I love watching the relationship that has developed between Christine and Maile. Sure, Maile and I have our own bond, but the relationship between mother and daughter is truly something special and being able to watch it develop up close is incredible.
The second picture above captures a lot of it for me. It’s from a few weeks ago, but it shows how Christine is Maile’s #1 teacher. Christine is completely in tune with Maile’s budding interests and is always finding ways to help her discover and explore. Sometimes this is as simple as showing her how to blow bubbles … sometimes, it involves a creative art project (in fact, as I speak, Christine is sitting on the floor, creating little baggies of paper flowers, pasta and ribbon so Maile and her classmates can make leis in school tomorrow!)
I’d be remiss if I didn’t take this day to remind everyone that reads this blog that the pictures you see are almost always from Christine. Almost three years in, this blog is becoming quite the document of Maile’s life and it would be decidedly less interesting without all of Christine’s photos and videos.
So a very happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, but in particular, the one I am lucky enough to call my wife and who is doing an amazing job with our little girl!
On Friday, Mommy and I went to get ice cream at Swenson’s. While we were there, a cable car went by. I told Mommy that I wanted to go on it and she promised that on Saturday we could go.
Sure enough, Saturday morning we headed out for the cable car and my friend, Sophie, decided to come along for the adventure! It wasn’t my first time on a cable car, but I was still pretty excited.
All smiles on the cable car!
The cable car gives you an awesome view of San Francisco - Sophie and I pressed our heads against the windows so we didn't miss a thing!
I thought the cable car was the end of our adventure, but boy was I wrong! After we got off, we headed over to the Yerba Buena Gardens and went to the carousel. I got to ride a giraffe(!) and a horsie – Sophie and I rode right next to each other – and we made sure that Mommy and Daddy let us ride all by ourselves – no hands!
All I need to do is hold here, right? I won't fall off?
So. Much. Fun.
This is me on the horsie - Daddy said I'm ready for the Kentucky Derby!
Definitely a fun San Francisco adventure and I was so glad that Sophie came along for all the fun!
This is one of my favorite type of posts to do. Every once in awhile, I’ll post a picture and it will job the memory of the grandparents and Christine or I will end up with an email with a picture from way back when that basically is exactly like the one we posted of Maile. The apple indeed does not fall far from the tree!
Here’s a couple that we received last week…
Maile eating lamb (2012)
Mommy eating lamb (1978 - ~3 years old)
Maile on the carousel with Grandma Jill (2012)
Mommy on the carousel with Papa Cal (1977, ~ 2 years old)
On Sunday, Maile and Mommy headed to the park with Maile’s classmate Victor and his parents for an egg hunt! Maile had been practicing all over our house, so she was ready to hit the ground running when she got to the park.
And she's off...
Found one!
Look at all these eggs I found!
And the eggs had prizes inside! How cool is that? Bubbles with Mommy...
Maile Girl on Easter 2012
(Thanks to Victor’s dad for all the great pictures!)
We’re all beat from a long day of traveling back home to San Francisco – more tomorrow…
Safe to say, New York wiped Maile and Mommy out!
We’ve been staying in a very tiny hotel room for the past few days and Maile is loving all the quality time she is getting with her Mommy (especially) and Daddy. (Meanwhile, her Mommy and Daddy are “mostly” loving it… getting Maile to sleep without being able to leave the room has been the biggest challenge.)
There is no bath tub in our hotel room, so Maile has been taking a shower just like Mommy. And that means putting her hair in a towel just like Mommy. And wearing the same pajamas. If Maile wasn’t 3 feet shorter, I’d say I was living with twins!
Same Same
