Tomorrow (Thursday) is Grandma Jill’s birthday. She said that Maile visiting last weekend was present enough, but I wanted to get her something else – Maile Girl singing her a happy birthday song. Yesterday, Maile and I flew home from Boston (Christine is still in NYC for work). For a large portion of the way home, we sang “happy birthday to you” – she was familiar with it because it has been sung in her honor roughly 100 times in the past two weeks.
We went to bed last night with one more rousing rendition and I was feeling pretty good that the video message to Grandma Jill would come out great when we filmed it today. Of course, two year old Maile had other ideas. I think this video actually does a good job demonstrating what it is like being around a two year old: a bit tedious, a lot funny and completely unscripted.
In any event, Grandma Jill we hope you enjoy the video and that you have a wonderful birthday!
We love you,
Maile Girl, Matt and Christine
I love you Gramma Jill!
(Click here for the video.)
Maile Girl here. I’m two years old now. Pretty cool. And as a new two year old, I know that a little girl needs to say thank you when she receives presents. And, boy, did I receive presents! I’m working on some thank you notes, but in the meantime, I wanted to share a few pictures of me opening and playing with my new gifts.
First up, Grandma Jill and Papa Mike sent me a kitchen! Yes, a whole kitchen. I went to bed one night and then when I woke up in the morning there was this big red cover in the corner of the room and when Mommy removed it, THERE WAS A KITCHEN! With a sink and microwave, the whole deal. I’ve been cooking up a storm for Mommy and Daddy, I think they particularly like my eggs.
Grandma Gail and Grandpa Cal sent me a whole slew of presents as well. I have a blue big girl rocking chair now that I absolutely love – I like reading my stories in it. And a little birdy must have told them I really like Elmo because they sent me an Elmo book. I thought that was more than enough, but then I opened my last present and guess what? THEY SENT ME ELMO! Yes! The guy on TV. In my house! I gave him a pair of my jammies and he sleeps with me every night. So cool.
Can't wait to dig into this Elmo book. (Check out my new blue rocking chair too...)
Love, love Elmo!
My new best friend!
Thank you to everyone else that sent me gifts as well – way too many to list, but I love all the books, outfits and toys!
Dad note: much love to my very handy wife who put everything together! With only a little help from me…
Mommy about to dig in to all 150 pieces of the kitchen set...
(Click here for the video.)
Maile Trivia: What does Mommy and Maile do while Daddy is sleeping on Saturday mornings?
Answer: They go to Starbucks for coffee and a bagel!
That's filled with water, right Mommy?
Making friends...
Did I say making friends? I meant flirting...
Deep thoughts and a bagel to start the weekend....
(Click here for the video.)
Maile checking out the goods - it all started out pretty innocently...
Maile’s birthday is Monday, but we decided to celebrate it this weekend. We decided not to do a big birthday party this year, but Maile did get a chance to see some of her friends and, of course, have cupcakes. We had a great birthday weekend all around and we’ll be sharing some of the pictures and videos over the next few days. We are definitely setting a bad precedent for Maile Girl where she is going to think that her birthday is actually a week long celebration!
To kick things off in style, we couldn’t wait to share the video of Maile blowing out the candles on her 2nd birthday cupcakes. There’s a lesson here for all parents – two year olds don’t like sparklers!
More pictures and video to come …
(Click here for the video.)
We thought we’d end the week with a quick video that captures that best part of the day for Christine and I!
Have a great weekend and happy 4th of July!
(Click here for the video.)
Mommy's art show - so proud!
Some of you might remember that last year, Chris did a series of drawings for something called the Sketchbook Project. On Saturday, we went and checked out the art show tour that has been traveling around the country. It was pretty cool seeing Christine’s work in an actual art show!
Checking out the art show crowd...
The show was setup like a mini library – you waited in line to get a library “card” and then you could check out whatever sketchbooks you wanted. If you didn’t have a specific name, you could just ask for a theme or something random. Then they had a viewing area where you could sit and flip through the books. Cool concept. We picked up Christine’s book and the book right next to hers.
When we got home from the show, Maile was all inspired and wanted to make her own art. We liked her drawing so much we decided to frame it and help her make her own art show … just like Mommy!
I definitely have two talented ladies on my hands!
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
Mommy had a great idea that we should go for a family bike ride to celebrate father’s day. I told her that I wasn’t so sure we could all fit on my little green bike, but that I was willing to share. Turns out she had something entirely different in mind…
Wait, so I sit here and then Daddy drives up front? Are you sure you trust him on this thing?
Daddy and I reviewing our hand signals. One tap on the back means go faster. Screaming really loud means please stop.
It was a beautiful day, so after we worked out the kinks of driving the bike we went on a really fun ride along the bay all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. I had never ridden so fast before on a bike! Lots of wheee was involved.
Just like a true San Franciscan I touched Hoppers Hands at the base of the Golden Gate...
(What’s Hoppers Hands? Read here)
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!
(Dad note: It really was a great father’s day weekend – the bike ride was the icing on the cake. We really had a lot of fun and will be doing it again really soon…)
(Click here for the video.)
As we discussed yesterday, this weekend kicked off the Paci Wars with Mommy and Daddy claiming a first battle victory with a swift elimination of the purple paci. We decided to take a different tactic with Maile’s green paci.
Auntie Elyssa recommended having Maile Girl give away her paci to a baby – a passing of the torch if you will. This is also the technique employed in one of Maile’s favorite books, Knuffle Bunny – so you’d think she’d be familiar with the approach.
Lucky for us, we had a baby visitor on Sunday. Cordelia (and her big sister Maddie) came to visit from New York. After some snacks and coloring, we gave Maile her green paci and asked her if she wanted to give it to Cordelia, a baby in need of a good, trusty pacifier. As the video shows, we thought she was going to go for it … until she didn’t.
Back to the drawing board…
(Click here for the video.)
Saturday, June 11th, will go down in history as the start of the Paci Wars. We had been telling Maile that her paci was going to go away by the time she was 2 and we kicked things off a bit early with a mid-morning sneak attack in her 23rd month.
The final straw was Maile stopping half way through soccer practice and whining for her paci. As far as I’m concerned there are no pacies in soccer! When we got home, I grabbed some scissors and snipped the end of Maile’s purple paci. A little while later when Maile asked for her paci, we gave it to her as if nothing was wrong. The look on her face when she went to suck and air just came through was absolutely priceless. This video is from a few seconds later when she was still in total shock that her “paci was broke”…
Overall, the tactic seemed to have worked. Over the weekend she still asked for her paci like normal, but when she realized it was broken, she pretty much stopped bothering with it. Of course, I only snipped the purple paci so far – Maile quickly realized that she needed to be more specific and started to request her “green paci”…
The first battle definitely goes to Mommy and Daddy, but after the initial shock, Maile recovered and returned fire with a string of 5:20 AM wake up calls. A bold maneuver that has Mommy and Daddy reeling. This war is far from over – stay tuned…
(Click here for the video.)
Maile Girl all decked out in her soccer gear!
Saturday was a day that I’ve been looking forward to ever since I found out I was going to be a daddy – Maile’s first soccer practice! I actually thought I was going to have to wait awhile longer, but some friends told us about SoccerTots – a soccer program here in the city for toddlers 18 months and older. Perfect!
As you know we had a rough week being a little sick, but Maile started shaking the bug on Thursday and by Saturday morning we were ready to rock. We had a lot of fun at our first practice (well, at least for 2/3rds of it – Maile started to lose interest towards the end). One of our neighbors asked us to let us know when Maile had a game, so they could come watch – I’m not so sure we’re quite at that stage yet 😉
And how do we know it was a good practice? I think this picture tells it all…
Nothing like a good nap after hard work at soccer practice...
(Click here for the video.)
