by Papa K on December 23, 2013
We arrived on Oahu on Saturday afternoon and wasted no time hitting the pool. Maile Girl was in her bathing suit as soon as our bags landed in our room and imploring Daddy to blow up her floatie. Lauren got in on the action too – she had no idea what to expect, but once she got in to the water, she loved every minute.
Maile Girl. Ready. To. Rock.
Lauren went more gracefully, but was a fish in her own right...
Not sure who enjoyed this more, Daddy or Lauren...
Daddy definitely had his hands full with both girls! Good luck once Lauren gets a little older...
Maile Girl is so comfortable in the water now - really a joy to see...
Building on the last point – it’s really great watching Maile take to the water now. As you can see, she started with the inner tube floatie, but quickly ditched that in exchange for the arm floaties. We done a lot of swimming over the past couple of days and every time she pushes her self. Our “short swims” where I stand a bit away from the edge and she swims to me without help have become “medium” swims and she has no problem putting her head in the water. We’re still working on the “small” water slide vs. the “big” one – but we’ll get there. Huge kudos to La Petite Baleen – while I’m some of it is just her age, I’ve been really impressed with the classes and Maile’s whole attitude towards swimming since we started classes there this summer.
Can’t wait for the rest of the trip!
by Papa K on December 18, 2013
Tuesday through Friday, Maile takes after school classes at her school. She’s taken soccer, gymnastics, Lego class, art – but lately her favorite is the Chinese Dance class she takes on Fridays with Lily Lao Shi.
Our little Chinese dancer...
Last week, Christine and I were invited to attend the last class of the semester – a performance! It was pretty awesome – and Maile did a great job listening to the teacher and it was clear she had picked up some of the moves over the past couple of months.
Maile Girl is pretty good with the ribbon!
Fair warning, the videos below are a bit longer than normal, but I think you’ll enjoy 🙂
Bring on the ribbons!
And, of course, Maile’s solo:
Proud daddy!
And Mommy too!
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
(Click here for the third video.)
On Sunday, Mommy and I went on a special date to go see the Nutcracker at the San Francisco Ballet! I was so excited all week – every day I counted the days and it got closer and closer. When I woke up on Sunday morning, Mommy helped me pick out a special dressy to wear – I decided on the purple one I wore at Auntie’s wedding – it felt like it would well at the ballet.
BTW – Guess who was at the Nutcracker!!!
Apparently, a couple Sundays before Christmas, Santa hangs out at the ballet!
Okay, back to the show. It was amazing. I was a little scared at some parts, but Mommy was there. My most favorite part was the Waltz of the Flowers. It was magical.
Every year for Christmas I get a new ornament for our tree (it's a tradition Mommy started when she was a girl). This year I got three dancing fairies at the Nutcracker so I can always remember!
Do you think one day I might be able to be in the Nutcracker? I think so – I’ll keep working at this…
Thank you Mommy for such a wonderful adventure!
(Dad note: Special thanks to neighbor Bill for getting us the tickets!)
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on December 15, 2013
Maile Girl wrote her first letter to Santa on Friday morning. Maile told Mommy what she wanted to say and then Mommy helped Maile write it by dictating each word letter-by-letter. (A good mommy indeed). She even (at the slight urging of Mommy I’m told) included a plug for her little (not yet able to write) sister.
The proud letter writer!
The letter itself
In case the photo is too small:
“DEAR SANTA
I HAVE BEEN GOOD
FOR CHRISTMAS PLEASE BRING ME
A BALLERINA BARBIE
A RAINBOW LOOM
AND SOME ART PROJECTS
LAUREN WAS GOOD TOO
PLEASE BRING HER A NEW BOOK
A HELICOPTER TOY
THANK YOU
LOVE MAILE”
She also wrote the number 1-29 in the right margin – just to impress the big guy 🙂
Her choices were kind of funny. The Ballerina Barbie came out of left field – we’d been purposely trying to avoid Barbie. She says she saw it in a store – I’m guessing she saw a commercial for it. The Rainbow Loom is something we’ve been talking to her about and she received a bracelet from her older friend Jennifer when we were home in Swampscott. No idea on the helicopter toy – maybe Lauren mentioned it to her 😉
After putting the letter in an envelope, we addressed it, put a stamp on it and then brought it to the mailbox.
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on December 11, 2013
A couple weeks ago we had a parent teacher conference for Maile. One of the things her teacher, Ruth, was most impressed about was how Maile’s Mandarin is really progressing this year. We’ve noticed it too, but obviously a bit harder for us since we don’t speak the language. With that said, we’ve seen her develop from individual words to full sentences and being able to express herself. It’s been really cool to watch … and even better, she can often explain to us what she is saying.
At the parent teacher conference, Ruth showed us a video from back in October when Maile got back from Auntie Elyssa and Uncle Stephen’s wedding. You can see it below – basically she is doing a show and tell to the class telling them all about the wedding … in Mandarin. My understanding is that she first is telling them that she actually had 2(!) dresses, one purple and one pink that she got to wear. That there were two parties she went to and then she goes on to tell them that I gave a speech and Grandma and Papa too.
Pretty awesome – I also thought it was cool how seamlessly she moved from Mandarin to English when she didn’t know a word (like “wedding”)…
(Click here for the video.)
by Papa K on December 10, 2013
Never one to let photos go to waste, here are some shots that we chose not to use for this year’s holiday card…
Ahh, Maile's fake 4 year old smile...
Banzai!
Help.
And I'm done.
Hard to believe that Maile has already been in preschool for 3 years and that next year she heads to Kindergarten!
Maile's school picture for 2013 (4.5 years old)
Check out how much she’s grown up!
Maile's First School Picture (2.5 years)
Maile's School Picture 2012-2013 (3.5 years)
The holiday season is really heating up in our house. We rocked it through Hanukkah and now Maile is working her way through her Lego Advent Calendar while Ellie the Elf watches from her shelf, getting more and more excited for Christmas every day! Lauren isn’t sure what to think, except that she isn’t really pleased when Maile uses her as a prop (see video below for the details)…
(Click here for the video.)
Lauren Girl here! On Sunday afternoon, Mommy, Daddy, Maile, Grandma and Papa took me to get my first Christmas tree! I was pretty overwhelmed by all the trees, so Maile took the lead on picking out the tree – I think she picked a really nice one.
My very first Christmas tree picked out my big sister Maile
Guess what? I wasn’t the only one getting a Christmas tree for the first time. It was Papa’s first time too!
Papa was excited too!
This is pretty cool – Papa had a fun idea to get a picture of me getting a bird’s eye view of the trees.
Lauren's bird eye view (11 months)
And it’s almost the same picture that Maile and Daddy took the first time she went to get a tree!
Maile's bird-eye view (5 months)
The house we rented was on a vineyard and actually had a decent amount of land that we could hike around and explore. Maile went on several explorations over the week – was nice to stretch the legs and spend some quality time outdoors in nature for a city girl.
Which way should we go first?
Quality time with Grandma Jill
Maile and Grandma went on a scavenger hunt to find some statues that were hidden around the property...
Follow me Grandma!
Girl on bridge
Thank you, Grandma Jill!
