Maile’s Great Grandpa Irv turns 92 on Monday! We headed to Chicago this weekend to wish him a happy birthday in person. Papa Mike and Grandma Jill also came in from Boston to meet us. We had a wonderful weekend spending time with the family and especially spending time with “GG Irv” who has 90 years(!) on Maile Girl.
I think it’s safe to say that Great Grandpa Irv’s 92nd birthday is the first time he’s had “Happy Birthday” sung to him in Mandarin Chinese! And I’m sure he got a kick out of the fact that it was his great grand daughter who carried the tune…
(Note: Poor Maile Girl started to feel a little under the weather on Sunday – too much excitement from the weekend perhaps. Not as smiley as she normally is, but hey, the rest of us look pretty good 😉
Auntie Elyssa, Mommy and Maile enjoy a hay ride (Daddy opted out due to his allergies ... truth.)
Swimming(!) with Daddy - not quite Hawaii waters, but we still had fun!
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!)
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!
Maile Girl here. I need your help. I’ve just spent the last week at Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike’s house and I have to admit I’m a little confused. Basically, I’m just not sure anymore what a “toy” is. Sometimes I see something and start playing with it and it’s fine. But other times, I get in trouble for playing with things that look exactly like toys. Let me see if I can explain with a quick example.
Grandma Jill and I playing legos...
So in this picture I am playing legos with Grandma Jill. Notice how the legos are about the same height as me. Grandma Jill encouraged me to “touch” the legos and even when they fell over and broke apart we all had a good laugh.
Now look in the picture below:
Grandpa is saying to me: Maile that is not a toy, do not touch it.
See that bike right next to me? It’s just about my size again. Looks EXACTLY like a toy. Guess what? According to Grandpa Mike, not a toy. In fact, he got really anxious when I got too close to it. Even worse, it’s in this room with all types of things on the ground that look JUST LIKE toys, except they aren’t and I can tell nobody was pleased when I was checking things out.
Grandpa Mike, I really, really want to touch this bike.
When we arrived in Boston, Grandma Jill was all excited to give Maile an early Hanukkah gift. Grandma Jill had been searching far and wide to find a doll that looked like Maile – meaning that she wanted Maile to have a hapa doll. She finally found the perfect doll – it was a Lots to Cuddle Babies doll. As you are about to see, these dolls are scary realistic (some might even say creepy).
Hey Maile, check it out - Grandma Jill bought you a present...
Fun, fun, let's open it...
Mommy: Wow Maile, it looks like your very own baby! Maile: Do all babies come in boxes for Hanukkah? Mommy: Umm... let's go with "yes" for the time being...
Hey Mommy, this doll kind of looks like me...
Seriously, this doll looks just like me. Come check it out.
I mean, it's uncanny.
I love my Mini Maile!
Grandpa Mike, let's show Mini Maile how much we love her...
During our trip to Chicago, Daddy kept saying things like “bogus” and saying we were just like Bill and Ted. I had no idea what he was talking about – so just like any other 14 month old, I jumped on Google and quickly figured out he was referencing a movie from the late 80’s called “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure“…
I agree with my dad that the reference basically works, except that instead of going on an adventure to “olden times”, we were going to see some “old timers” – (don’t blame me for that one, Daddy made me put it in…). Although it was a quick trip, we saw Great Grandma Bea, Great Grandpa Irv, Aunt Julie, Cousin Donna, Uncle Jimmy AND Grandma Jill and Grandpa Mike even came in from Boston to meet us!
I had a lot of fun seeing everyone and showing them all my new tricks (mostly walking and standing up all by myself). They mostly just wanted to give me kisses – its a good thing I like kisses, because I got A LOT of them!
For Father’s Day, Maile Girl sent Grandpa Mike a Star Wars t-shirt she found online. She actually sent him two (one Maile-sized and one Grandpa-sized). Unbeknownst to Grandpa Mike, Maile also got Daddy one. So when Grandpa Mike and Maile put on their shirts for some pictures, Daddy snuck upstairs and put on his too. Then Star Dork hilarity ensued…
Mommy said I should amuse them. Here it goes...
Maile: "Ha! Take that." Grandpa Mike: "You can't win, Maile. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Oh no, Grandpa Mike is attacking Maile with the dreaded Mum Mum Saber. But wait, she's fine, she parried it with the mouth counter-attack! The Force is indeed strong with this one.
