Maile’s new favorite thing is sitting on stoops. We’ll be walking down the street and all of a sudden, she’ll spot a stoop, veer over to it and just sit down. She’ll sit there for about 30 seconds all proud of herself and then once we notice her on the stoop, she gets up and continues on her way.
Here are some of her favorites so far…
Outside Macy's
The N/R subway stop on 23rd Street
(She got everyone in on the stoop action for this one...)
At the Soup Nazi, excuse me, now the Soup Man... (I can only imagine what would have happened if she pulled this stunt back in the day...)
Outside Barney Greengrass on 86th & Amsterdam
With Tanner in Tribeca (Tanner wasn't quite as entralled with the stoop...)
At the statues at the entrance of Central Park on 59th & Broadway
One of our favorite parts of our annual New York trip is our play date with Tanner. Long time readers might remember the cuteness overload the last time these two got together in the Big Apple. Maile and Tanner are exactly one month apart in age, so it’s always fun to check in and see how they are progressing.
Things started off with some sharing issues (basically they both wanting to play with the same toy at the same time) and we had to remove a horsey from Tanner’s room since it scared Maile, but after about 20 minutes the two started to warm up to each other. Given that they are both hapa too, by the time we headed out for dinner, it felt like we had twins on our hands!
Tanner (20 months) and Maile (21 months) - yes, they are holding hands - more on that below...
At the restaurant they were running all over the place so we taught them how to hold hands. (Dad note: I realize Maile is a bit young to be holding a boy’s hand, but Tanner seems to be an upstanding young gentleman – daddy approves.) They took right to it and spent the rest of the evening dragging each other around. Chris caught a bit on video – a little bit dark, but really, really adorable…
And yes, that’s Tanner going in for the hug on Maile. Those who know Maile, know she is a pretty affectionate little girl. Tanner puts her to shame though in that category. (On second thought, maybe that hand holding thing wasn’t such a good idea… 😉
We can’t wait to see Vanessa, Tanner (and hopefully Tyler, who was traveling for work) again really soon.
Woops - we got the kids mixed up!
That's more like it...
(Click here for the video.)
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!)
Maile Girl here. I’m having a great time in New York City with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Papa. However, two things are kind of bothering me. First, we were just walking down the street and all of a sudden there was this huge Elmo! I mean he was HUGE! Elmo is this little red guy that lives inside the iPad, but in New York, he’s this huge, scary, red man that jumps around on the sidewalk outside of Macy’s.
Daddy, get me out of here. RIGHT NOW! Go Daddy, go! The big red Elmo is coming for us...
Mommy, it was horrible. What was that thing?
Is scary Elmo man following me?
Second, Grandma and Papa were all excited to take me to the zoo. There is one right in the middle of the city in Central Park. The park itself seemed pretty cool, but the zoo … well, I’m not a fan. Actually, let me be more clear to my friends: if anyone tells you they want to take you to the zoo, RUN AWAY as fast as your legs will take you. Seriously, fast feet all the way home. There are just these crazy animals all over the place – and they aren’t even on leashes or anything. You could get eaten. I’m pretty sure.
Dad note: This is pretty much the only picture Grandma and Papa came back with of Maile at the zoo. I think it pretty much sums up her opinion of the zoo - clearly did not go as smoothly as the art museum trip from last week...
We’ve been in NYC for one full day and we’ve going non-stop since we landed on Saturday afternoon. Here’s some highlights from our first full day…
We started things off right by hitting the new Shake Shack location in Times Square, just a few blocks from our hotel.
Maile couldn't believe the line, so she whipped out her crayons and started taking orders from the line...
Sunday morning Maile and Daddy got the day going by coordinating some plans - well Daddy, coordinated plans, Maile Girl watched Sesame Street...
We hit Chelsea Market in the morning and Daddy thought it would be fun to have Maile try chocolate milk for the first time at Ronnybrook Dairy.
Two straws. Chocolate milk. NYC. Couldn't get any better, right?
"Nobody drink the chocolate milk! The chocolate milk has gone bad!"
Any body get the reference? (If not click here.) Maile Girl wasn’t a big fan of the chocolate milk. Probably a good thing…
It was a bit too cold for a full exploration, but we briefly checked out the High Line before brunch. A very cool addition to the city that was added right after Christine and I moved to SF.
Mommy, yes, cute picture, but please take this off me now - it's "heaveee."
Another new addition to the city is the playground in Union Square - when we lived here it was a bar. Daddy version of Matt thinks this is a great new addition - 2002 version of Matt would be pretty disappointed.
What is up with the swings in NYC? This thing looks like the chair they kept Hannibal Lecter in...
Luckily, the slides still seem to work the same!
If you can believe it, these pictures don’t even cover everything we did. We had a great brunch with Uncle Ben and Auntie Gwen at Collichio & Sons. In the afternoon, Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike arrived. We walked all down to Madison Square Park and had a fun dinner at Eataly – which is a really cool Italian eatery/market.
Just give me a moment, this city is exhausting!
I had so much fun with Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike on their visit to San Francisco. Check out some of the fun things we did…
I went swinging with Grandpa ...
Enjoyed story time with Grandma ...
And learned all about new things in Richard Scarry's Word Book (one of my daddy's favorites according to Grandma Jill)...
I can’t wait to see them again!
(Dad note: which is good because we will be seeing them next week in New York City!)
A couple weeks ago, we went to Target and Maile Girl picked out her potty.
Since then it pretty much sat in our bathroom unused. Maile would eye it nervously every once in awhile, but mainly ignored our entreaties to take it for a spin. That is until tonight. I was doing some work on the computer when I heard an excited yell from Christine. Maile was ready to give the potty a try!
With her bunnies keeping her company, Maile Girl tries out the potty for the very first time!
A short time later, Maile actually tried the potty out bare-bottomed, no actual potty was made, but definitely a first step! (Sorry, no pictures, we had to draw the line somewhere…)
(Click here for the video.)
One bonus (among many of course) of having Grandma and Grandpa in town is that we get family pictures…
Matt, Chris and Maile - 21 months
One more at the playground...
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!
Love, love Jake's teddy bear. I hope he doesn't mind...
We went over to Jake’s house today to help him celebrate his first birthday. Chris took this great video of Maile playing with Jake’s teddy bear while we were there. I think it’s a good example of how Maile’s language is starting to develop a bit more – she still mostly says one word at a time, but she’s starting to string the thoughts together and you can almost have a conversation with her. And she is picking up new words very quickly (I have no doubt I will shortly be posting a video of her saying something inappropriate that came out of Mommy or Daddy’s mouth. Odds are on Daddy.)
(Click here for the video.)
