(For some reason a bunch of things came together this past week and it ended up being full of milestones for both Maile and Lauren. We’ll cover them here over the next couple of days…)
Saturday was Maile’s very first ballet recital! She and her Tutu School classmates performed a recital at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (a beautiful venue btw).
To say Maile was very, very excited is definitely an understatement. Maile absolutely loved her red tutu that was special for the performance (and especially the heart tiara that went along with it!)
Maile Girl, the Ballerina
They organized the show expertly – our session was 1 hour long and Maile’s group was the last one to go. It was a finely oiled machine with one group waiting while the other group went. Maile loved watching all the other dancers and when it was her turn, she ran right up with her friend Sophie and got right in line without a second though – our girl was ready to get on that stage!
On stage and ready to rock!
I’m including two videos of the performance – one from the actual performance and one from a practice session the week before – it wasn’t so easy to capture the video the day of (plus I was more focused on watching than recording π
Here’s the actual recital:
And here’s the practice session:
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
Grandma Jill and Lauren had some serious bonding time in NYC this week. Grandma watched Lauren all week while Mommy was at work. Papa was in town too for Sunday and Monday. They hit museums, ate at restaurants, did their far share of shopping from running some wedding errands for Auntie Elyssa to searching far and wide for rainbow socks for Maile.
Traveling across the country for work with a 5 month old certainly isn’t ideal, but Grandma Jill made it super easy for Christine and we couldn’t be luckier and happier that our little girl got to spend so much quality time with her grandma.
Lauren Girl here. I’m on a BIG adventure and thought I’d check in. Mommy and I headed to New York City early this morning for a business trip! Nice of Mommy to accompany me while I take care of some business, right?
Today was a full day of travel – Mommy documented our adventures all day long – here’s what transpired…
First we had to wake up super early and take a car to the airport ... well, Mommy had to wake up early anyways π
When we landed in NYC, we had to wait for the luggage. Mommy said she appreciated my company, but I wasn't so helpful with the bags.
The taxi line was really long so we had to wait a bit (Mommy told me this later when I woke up)
Then I took my very first NYC taxi ride! (Mommy also shared this with me later).
Finally, after all the travel, we were in New York and we had some Mommy/Lauren quality time.
Then Grandma and Papa Boston showed up!
And they took us to Morimoto to dinner, where I have to say, the milk was fantastic!
We received a fun email from one of Maile’s teachers today – it had about a week’s worth of pictures of Maile’s school journal. Last week the teachers gave some of the kids a journal that they could draw and write in every day. Apparently, Maile has really taken to the idea. You can see her entries below – Maile’s teacher wrote:
Attached are Maile’s journal entries since last week. Her first one was on princess. She has been showing interest to write in her book everyday. We have been encouraging children to take that responsibility on their own, so we don’t have to remind them everyday. Starting this week, I noticed she is adding Chinese dates on her entries. She would write ε ζεζ₯ζζδΊ (liu yue si ri xing qi er) June 4th, Tuesday.
Very cool to see the combined English and Chinese writing. Chris and I have seen her getting more and more comfortable with the Chinese. She still mainly speaks it at school, but she’s been using it at home a bit more. Most nights we ask her to teach us a new Chinese word at dinner and she always has something to share. It’s also clear that she is quite comfortable now conversing with her teachers in Chinese and is starting to take to writing the characters – my guess is that is the artistic side of her, since they are fun pictures to draw.
Maile's first journal entry - May 28th, 2013
Notice how she is starting to add the date in English...
May 30th journal entry
June 3rd she has the date in English and Chinese...
She’s really coming in to her own – her head is up and alert, darting back and forth between Mommy, Daddy and, especially, Maile. Her smiles light up her whole face (especially those cheeks!) and we’re seeing that smile more and more when she recognizes us. We’re also seeing some of the same empathy that Maile has – you can bet that if Maile starts crying, Lauren’s tears are only seconds behind.
She’s comfortable now on her belly – in fact, that’s her preferred way to sleep. Speaking of sleep, she continues to show that she is more of her Daddy’s daughter in that department – many mornings I’ll wake up with her snoozing away next to me (where Mommy has deposited her while Maile and her start their day).
