Mommy has been sketching me again. Isn’t she talented? I hope I can draw like her one day!

Maile Girl by Mommy

2 Year Old Smile by Mommy

Happiness by Mommy

Maile has been on a “mommy” kick lately, meaning that she liked to carry around her stuff animals in a pouch and pretend they are her babies. The other night she roped Daddy in on the action.

Maile, Daddy and our babies

Daddy: What is your baby's name? Maile: Giraffe. Daddy: She's adorable. Maile: Thank you!

Maile: Your baby is cute too. Is she an Alligator? Daddy: Yes, her name is Allie the Alligator.

Love, love, Allie the Alligator!

Say CHEESE!

(Dad note: In hindsight, I guess this was a Mommy and Maile weekend – Maile’s comments from Sunday make more sense

On Sunday, Mommy and I went to the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. I’m not so sure what that Conservatory word means, but man, were the flowers beautiful! The purple ones were my favorite.

Just like Dora, I had a map and I used to to find all the best flowers!

All the pretty colors were amazing, I had fun just looking at all the flowers....

... but I also had time to just run all around ...

... and to finish our day, Mommy and I sat on the steps and just took in the beautiful San Francisco day!

Guess what? Today is the Chinese New Year – we learned in school that it is different from the new year we celebrated in Hawaii because it’s based on the moon. I guess the moon was still sleeping or something. In any event, in Chinese you say xing nian kuai le (that means Happy New Year!)

On Friday my school had a big party to celebrate the new year. It was A LOT of fun. I got to run around with all my friends, eat lots of good food, listen to stories, sing and dance, AND, coolest of all, watch a lion dance.

As you can see from the video, I was really into the lion dance. Daddy kept trying to ask me questions and I’m like “can’t you see I’m trying to watch a lion dance here?” Sometimes that Daddy of mine…

Daddy did win a prize playing trivia though – he knew that 2012 is the year of the dragon (long nian). Check out the cool vest he won for me!

Mommy says I ate so much food that it was hard to snag a picture of me without something headed towards my mouth!

I hope everyone has a healthy and happy new year!

(Dad note: If you are interested you can see a bit more about the Chinese New Year celebration here.)

(Click here for the video.)

Daddy, this blog doesn't write itself - you think I can get a better setup?

Dad note: I’ll see what I can do, Maile Girl. Creative use of the shopping cart though!

We’ve covered Daddy’s attempts to get Maile bike riding a few times already. Today it was Mommy’s turn. They headed out after school with Maile’s brand new helmet and pedal-free bike that Grandma Jill and Papa Mike sent for Hanukkah. Maile had a blast – my guess is that under Mommy’s tutelage, she’ll be zooming around in no time!

Do you want to go for a bike ride with me?

Come on, keep up!

Need to concentrate a bit to get this right...

Watch out San Francisco, here I come!

Mommy supporting the cause of Maile Girl wearing her helmet. What a good Mommy!

Just a Maile smile to start your week...

Hope you have a great start to your week!

A good question. It appears this week’s theme will be “slightly embarrassing things Daddy will do for his little girl”. Yesterday, we had the matching pajamas. Today, it appears the wrong person is wearing the floatie…

Look tough Maile!

(Dad note: The truth is that Maile was scared of the blue dinosaur floatie thing and I was trying to show her it was no big deal. Really. No, really.)