Maile’s Great Grandpa Irv turns 92 on Monday! We headed to Chicago this weekend to wish him a happy birthday in person. Papa Mike and Grandma Jill also came in from Boston to meet us. We had a wonderful weekend spending time with the family and especially spending time with “GG Irv” who has 90 years(!) on Maile Girl.
I think it’s safe to say that Great Grandpa Irv’s 92nd birthday is the first time he’s had “Happy Birthday” sung to him in Mandarin Chinese! And I’m sure he got a kick out of the fact that it was his great grand daughter who carried the tune…
(Note: Poor Maile Girl started to feel a little under the weather on Sunday – too much excitement from the weekend perhaps. Not as smiley as she normally is, but hey, the rest of us look pretty good 😉
Auntie Elyssa, Mommy and Maile enjoy a hay ride (Daddy opted out due to his allergies ... truth.)
Swimming(!) with Daddy - not quite Hawaii waters, but we still had fun!
After yesterday’s failed excursion to the zoo, Grandma Jill and Papa Mike went back to basics and took Maile to the Children’s Museum. This was definitely Maile’s style – she was all over the place enjoying absolutely everything the museum had to offer … and we mean everything!
Now this is more like it, I'm a simple girl, give me some plastic fruit and Maile-sized buildings to run around in and I'm a happy camper...
Hey taller and slightly older little boy, let me show you how this works - it's just like my iPad, except stuck on the wall, so I bet you just need to touch the animals and they will do stuff...
A plastic banana! I'm in heaven!
You can't just run around with plastic fruits and veggies, you need to buy them first - I learned that lesson at Peekadoodle!
Papa Mike showed Maile how the fireman pole worked...
And then Grandma Jill and I did an art project - I told her to kick back and relax, Megan has taught me all about art projects!
Then Papa Mike taught me about grafitti - I have to be honest, it felt a little naughty...
It's not all fun and games, the museum asks you to make some deliveries for them to cover the cost of admission. Feels fair to me.
WAIT! I'm not done with my deliveries!
And then I played some music. Whew!
(Dad note: And that was all before lunch time – talk about a jam packed day for Maile Girl!)
Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike are in town and today they helped Maile knock off a milestone – her first trip to an art museum, the SFMOMA. Grandma Jill said Maile was great – she lasted an hour in the museum. They brought a book with colors and shapes and Grandma had Maile looking all over to match the different colors and shapes in the paintings and sculptures. Maile even used her inside voice and didn’t touch any of the art (bonus!)
Although they couldn’t take any photos in the museum, afterwards, they went up on the roof and took some great shots of Maile Girl enjoying the art work (and the great weather)…
Grandma Jill and Maile checking out the view...
Just another little girl in the museum, checking things out...
Not impressed, I stack stuff at home all the time... been doing that since I was 16 months old.
Maile meets Calder
You sure I can't touch this?
Biggest. Block. Ever.
Grandpa Mike and his little girl...
Echo! Echo! Echo!
This is definitely a cool spot - I can't wait to come back. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!
During our trip to Chicago, Daddy kept saying things like “bogus” and saying we were just like Bill and Ted. I had no idea what he was talking about – so just like any other 14 month old, I jumped on Google and quickly figured out he was referencing a movie from the late 80’s called “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure“…
I agree with my dad that the reference basically works, except that instead of going on an adventure to “olden times”, we were going to see some “old timers” – (don’t blame me for that one, Daddy made me put it in…). Although it was a quick trip, we saw Great Grandma Bea, Great Grandpa Irv, Aunt Julie, Cousin Donna, Uncle Jimmy AND Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike even came in from Boston to meet us!
I had a lot of fun seeing everyone and showing them all my new tricks (mostly walking and standing up all by myself). They mostly just wanted to give me kisses – its a good thing I like kisses, because I got A LOT of them!
It wasn’t quite a whole week, but last week from Monday thru Thursday, Mommy was in New York for work. And Maile Girl was in Boston with Grandma Jill, Grandpa Mike and Daddy.
Needless to say my girls were VERY happy to see each other on Thursday afternoon when Maile and I went to the airport to pick up Mommy…
A site for sore eyes - Maile Girl greeting Mommy after 4(!) days apart...
Overall Maile did really well. She definitely had her fussy moments, but she mostly avoided full on melt downs. Since she’s still been breast feeding this also meant the first time she went over night without nursing. She wasn’t great on the bottle the first few days, but luckily she ate up a storm and Grandma Jill made sure she fed her lots of juicy fruits (like watermelon).
Maile definitely knew something was amiss and she was more clingy to me than normal. She also would search all over the house for Mommy (including a fun adventure at 2 AM one night where I had to carry her to every room in the house to prove to her that Mommy wasn’t hiding behind the couch).
I think it was tough on Mommy too. We originally planned on using our new iPhones to FaceTime chat, but unfortunately Maile went a little bonkers the first time we tried it. She couldn’t figure out why mommy was stuck in the phone and wouldn’t come out to feed her (she just cried and made her milk motion over and over in front of the camera). So after the first night, Mommy had to go a few days without even seeing Maile Girl (minus the pictures and videos I’d send over to her).
I have to say Grandma Jill was a rock star – I think she took the brunt of Maile missing her mommy, but she made sure Maile had lots of fun and made the days until Mommy came back go by really quickly. Unfortunately, since Maile would get clingy to me whenever I came into the room, I actually couldn’t get any great photos of Maile and Grandma. Here’s the best I got – as you can see she’s already on her way to her Daddy!
Grandma Jill did a great job keeping a smile on Maile Girl's face while Mommy was away in NYC...
And as previously covered, Maile Girl is very much in love with her Grandpa Mike – he gave Grandma a bit of relief when he came home from work and kept Maile laughing until bedtime.
All in all, things went well, but we’re all happier now that Maile and Mommy are back under the same roof…
Yesterday morning, I'm minding my own business, having a little breakfast ...
... reading a magazine ...
... when all of a sudden I spy a giant sleeping on my play mat!
SNORE! SNORE! He was making so much noise! So I tried to wake him ...
... and he snatched me right up and made a get away!
I thought I was a goner for sure.
But then just when I thought all hope was lost (hence my lack of smile in the picture above) Grandma Jill swooped in from Boston (via Texas) and saved me from the hooded, loud snoring man!
She put me on the swing and we flew high into the sky and then just when I thought we had escaped ...
... the hooded, loud snoring man returned and removed his hood and said "Maile, I am your grandfather" - and it was true!
We all returned home and had a good laugh over our adventures! The end.
I had a blast with my Grandma Jill this weekend – I feel like we really bonded. She watched me on Thursday and Friday while mommy and daddy were working. I showed her all my new tricks and how things worked around the house. I was a very good girl (if I do say so myself). We went on a bunch of walks and I should her some of my favorite San Francisco spots. On Saturday, we went out to lunch and then I took her to the park and I strongly hinted how much I liked going on the swings. And wouldn’t you know, sure enough, Grandma Jill pushed me on the swing! How cool is that?
I had so much fun playing with my Grandma Jill this weekend - I can't wait to see her again soon!
Yesterday was very exciting. I went over to Hannah’s to play with her and Megan just like normal. But then right after my lunch time nap, daddy showed up … and guess who he had with him? Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike! How fun is that!? I hadn’t seem them since Thanksgiving – and the last time they were in San Francisco was August. Check out what I looked like then! I was tiny!
It took me a few minutes to get my bearings and warm up, but then we picked up right where we left off. We played all day together and I showed them all my new tricks. They tried valiantly to get me to perform a new one (crawling) by sitting apart from one another and teasing me with my toys just out of reach – but I’m not ready to put that show on quite yet.
Yay! Welcome back Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike!
We have so much to talk about - I've been up to quite a lot since the last time we saw each other!
Grandma Jill is watching me the next couple days while Mommy and Daddy work. I told her I would be on my very best behavior (well, that's not 100% true - I told her I'd be on my 80% best behavior - she said that was just fine).
Grandma Mike is only in town for one day, so I spent most of the day playing with him...
... and making sure he saw my most cutest poses like this over the shoulder number I pulled off just for him!
I’m a lucky girl. Mommy and daddy make me feel that way all the time (and Grandma Gail and Grandpa Cal and Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike – basically the list goes on and on…)
This weekend I was reminded of that fact once again when I journeyed to Chicago to meet daddy’s side of the family. It was great fun and I was definitely the center of attention. I loved meeting everyone and I was so happy that everyone came in to see me!
I felt especially lucky to meet my great grandparents – from what I’m told not everyone gets to do that. I have 3 great grandparents – Grandpa Mike’s parents and Grandpa Cal’s mom. (I’ll meet Great Grandma Kiyoko when we go to Hawaii for Christmas.)
True story: when I came in the room to meet Great Grandpa Irv, he looked at me and said, “Oh the baby, isn’t she sweet!” I’m told Great Grandpa Irv was always quite the charmer and we instantly became fast friends. I really enjoyed visiting him. (Check out the video below – apparently, the paparazzi heard about our visit and was ready with the cameras…)
After meeting my great grandparents, I went and met my dad’s sister, Aunt Julie and my mom’s side of the family. I got passed around like a hot potato and received lots of love from all comers.
Last, but certainly not least, I also got to spend some quality time with my Auntie Elyssa. It was really nice to see her again, we chatted for awhile and I caught her up on all my fun adventures.
It was a quick trip, but a great start to the Maile World Tour ’09 – next stop Boston for Thanksgiving and then on to Hawaii in December!
See below for all the pictures:
(Dad Note: If you click through to view the slide show, you should click “Options” in the upper right and turn on the captions.)
(Click here for the full photo set if you want to download/purchase any copies.)
