Mai-An Silja Nygaard

Movie Night

2012-02-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Mai-An's buddy Alexis came over for a movie night. The girly energy is in full effect.

Today was Mai-An's 100th day of school! I can't believe it's been that many. Above she was working on her 100 project for class. She meticulously lined up the clips with a toothpick. Below are random pics of our recent activities.

Jeff's Birthday

2012-02-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

It's Jeff's birthday again. Above is one of our first pictures together as a bigger family. It reminds me of Jeff's birthday 6 years ago when I was pregnant with Mai-An when his 'gift' was a matching outfit with the baby. I joked that they would be twins...I guess I was a bit of a fortune teller.

Mai-An was happy to present Jeff wtih special gifts she made for him in her ceramics class (a flying dragon bowl, a heart shaped bowl and a mouse in a dish).

Junior Art and Science Center

2012-01-31T22:04:00.000-08:00

Mai-An went on her first field trip as an elementary school student. Jeff chaperoned this one at the Junior Art and Science Center where the kids learned about amphibians and received instruction on drawing a toad. Mai-An's finished project is at school, but these pics capture the process a bit, and her picture turned out pretty cool.

As usual, Mai-An tries to find a way to get onto her teacher's lap.

There were no field trips in the first half of the year, and now there are 7 more scheduled for the second half. I hate for Jeff or I to miss any, but at this rate (and my ballooning size), I'm not sure I'll be making all of them!

18.5 Weeks

2012-01-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

We had the major anatomy scan today where various bones and organs were examined and measured. My exam this time around was done by specialists in the Perinatology department...first by the sonographer, then by my Perinatologist. Both babies are looking great! They are both nine inches long and weigh about nine ounces each. The babies are on the same growth chart as single pregnancies for a long time. By 21 weeks, they should reach one pound, so about double in weight. We saw Baby A hiccuping during the ultrasound, and both babies were moving around a lot during the ultrasound with their arms and legs outstretched. Those roomy days are numbered! Though it's early and things could change, both babies are head down at the moment, so if they happen to stay that way, I will be able to try for a natural birth.

I'm now being seen every two weeks to monitor the babies' growth and the status of my cervix for signs of possible preterm birth. As you can see in my belly picture, I am getting BIG, FAST! It's a little freaky to think that I'm that big with about one pound of babies in my belly...and I'm likely headed towards 10-15 times that! Up to this point, I've been feeling pretty well, able to walk around without really feeling weighed down, though I'm beginning to see signs of that changing. It's harder to get up, bend down and my back is feeling a little strained after a long day. The most exciting development is that the babies' movements are getting stronger and can be felt and seen from outside my belly. There are flutters, rolls and kicks in every direction! Mai-An, with her dedication and patience, got to be the first person to feel them kick, which caused her to squeal with delight.

Here is Baby A's profile. He is the "presenting twin" (lowest down), hanging out on my right side:

This is Baby B, on my left side, facing down:

MLK Oratorical Fest

2012-01-26T21:36:00.000-08:00

The annual MLK Oratorical Fest at Mai-An's school was this week, and she diligently studied the poem that her class was presenting. However, on the night before, she freaked out about the fact that a few other students seemed to know the poem better than she did, and that she could only hear their voices when the class practiced. She worried that she would get stage fright and want to run to me, that people would laugh at her and that she wouldn't remember the words. Gee, I wonder where she gets this Nervous Nellie behavior from? (Answer: her mother, maternal aunt, maternal grandmother. She has also inherited her father's ability to anticipate all the things that make something not worth doing). Nonetheless, she persevered and her class, and all the classes, did a wonderful job. It's pretty impressive to think about how far she and her peers have come in terms of their ability to participate in an organized activity like this.

Tet - Year of the Dragon

2012-01-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

Mai-An was anxiously awaiting Tet this year. She wanted to wear an ao dai for the party, and her grandmother was able to find one that fit pretty well. We celebrated at an annual party held by family friends. Everyone kept telling us how special it was that our twin boys would not only be born in the year of the dragon, but a particularly good year for dragon boys which only recurs once every 60 years.

Mai-An enjoyed some of the traditional gaming, loving it when she won, having a hard time when she lost. She was her grandma's assistant at cards, and enjoyed some kids gambling too. In the video below she placed her bet and reaped the rewards.

Reading

2012-01-19T18:20:00.000-08:00

Back in September, Mai-An had a spark of interest in trying to read, and then it seemed to fizzle out. I didn't really know what to expect in terms of how the reading would develop, but it ended up being more sudden and dramatic than I imagined. In the past few months, she's recognized a word here and there, been able to spell a few words, but nothing really significant seemed to be happening. Then on Sunday, Jeff bought Mai-An a book about the Nutcracker Ballet, and in the course of sitting at a cafe, she seemed to master reading the first page. It's considered a level 3 reading book, so I figured I should go check out some level one or two books soon to give her instead. Jeff maybe read the book one other time to her since, and she's looked at it by herself in bed. Then today, she was really excited to try reading the whole thing by herself, and did a really good job.

Oh Dear...

2012-01-16T21:38:00.001-08:00

Mai-An told me, with giddy excitement, "Guess what mama? Denim kissed me today...I can't believe he kissed me!" I tried not to freak out and play it cool, and asked her what happened. She then described giving him such a crazy bear hug that his lips seemed to be involuntarily placed on Mai-An's cheek, and he kissed her. Then a parent of another student told me that Mai-An has been putting the moves on her son too, and the teacher had to separate them. I then tried to subtly hint to Mai-An that all the kissing and hugging wasn't really appropriate at school since it is important that the teacher be able to keep the kids focussed, which she seemed receptive to. On another day, she felt the desire to explain her behavior by telling me that the reason for all the kissing was that "Denim is just sooo cute. He's got the cutest chubby cheeks and sweet little voice." We are not ready for this.

Speaking of things we are not ready for, Jeff and I went shopping this weekend for a double stroller since our local baby store was having a sale. We were taken aback by the size, price and variety of these things. I started test driving a few models around the store to see how they maneuver, and when I happened to walk by a mirror, seeing myself push these monstrosities was really alarming. Even though I'm quite aware of the fact that I'm carrying two babies around all the time, something about the visual of seeing what a huge load they will be was somehow shocking. I started feeling dizzy and out of breath and had to sit down. I assumed I was having some unrelated pregnancy ailment, and Jeff ran out to the car to get me some water and a snack (even though I had just eaten). I started to feel better so I got up to continue the shopping, and then it hit me again. This kept happening until we left the store. I can't remember ever having a panic attack before, and honestly, with all the surprises and scares we've had with this pregnancy, it's strange that the sight of a double stroller would be the thing that pushed me over the edge. I asked Jeff if he felt overwhelmed at all and he pointed out that my anxiety level goes through big highs and lows, while he maintains a steady medium level of terror, which is pretty much how we each are in all spheres of our lives. Well, we've opted to go the route of a snap and go infant car seat stroller frame for most of infancy, and we won't be in the market for a proper double stroller for quite a while. Hopefully by then, I will be in a better frame of mind for it. We'll see if we end up with Jeff's preference or mine.

Second Trimester

2012-01-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

Pictured at week 15 (above), I am officially in the second trimester, though looking at the size of me, you wouldn't know it. I've been feeling HUGE! I was complaining to Jeff about how enormous I am carrying twins, and he tried to tell me I was probably the same size as my first pregnancy. Thanks to my extensive documentation, I easily proved him wrong when we were able to look back at me at about the same time in my pregnancy, and it wasn't until we hit the week 24 mark did it seem like we were in the same ballpark. Occasionally, when I'm feeling swollen and uncomfortable, it's kind of bleak to know that it's only going to get unimaginably worse! I go see my OB this week, so I'm curious to see how big I'm measuring. Interestingly, I haven't gained as much weight as I expected I would with how much I've been eating...about five pounds so far, which is about normal (and what I might gain anyway after the holidays!).

I'm feeling relatively well overall these days. The insomnia persists, but there are some good nights, and other nights I still mostly get enough sleep. It's getting to be a little uncomfortable sleeping, mainly because I can only sleep on my side at this point, and the pressure points are getting more sensitive. One exciting development is that I'm feeling the babies move a bit. It's a little earlier than I expected but maybe with two in there, the movement is a little more magnified. Mai-An is still very sweet and talking to the twins in my belly everyday, and checking in with me on how I'm feeling. It will be fun seeing her be a big sister.

It was also an amazing relief to get news today that everything is looking good for the babies. Our initial CVS results caused a bit of a scare, but after several additional rounds of testing (and one agonizingly long month of waiting), everything looks ok, which is a huge relief. And the test confirmed the ultrasound technician's prediction: two boys!

Twins!?!?!!!

2012-01-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

This was to be the year that we tried for one more baby. On October 16th, I got a faint, but unequivocal sign that I was pregnant.

I followed up with my doctor and had my pregnancy hormone levels checked to confirm, and in two days, my levels went from 186 to 683. The levels are expected to double in that timeframe for a normal pregnancy. When I told a friend, she jokingly asked, "dude! are you having twins?". It seemed like a preposterous question, but I nonetheless googled it and learned that the normal range in hormone levels overlap for singletons and twins, so it's hard to conclude either way from hormone numbers. I didn't give it another thought for the next three weeks. Then I had some spotting, and was worried the pregnancy was all over. It didn't last long, so I was hopeful everything might be ok, since I also had that happen even more dramatically when pregnant with Mai-An. I scheduled myself for an early appointment with my doctor to be sure everything was ok. Jeff and I had convinced ourselves that everything was fine, and this appointment would just confirm that. The doctor performed an ultrasound and was quiet for what seemed like a long time. In that span of time, I began to worry that something might really be wrong. She then looked at me quite seriously and told me she had something to show me. And then she said, "There are TWO."

A flood of profanity poured out of my mouth due to the shock. My doctor was genuinely excited for me when she could tell I wasn't going to freak out in a bad way. She told me that the babies are fraternal twins since they have separate sacs and placentas, which also makes it lower risk for complications. I walked out of that office in a complete stupor. When I got to the car, I called Jeff, who didn't answer his phone!!! So after spending some time freaking out in the car, I drove to Jeff's office so I could tell him in person and see the look on his face. It was like color that isn't actually there drained completely out of his face. The few people I told that day were incredibly excited, which was an odd juxtaposition between my total shock and terror and Jeff's bewilderment. Jeff and I were in a stupor that whole week.

Then Mai-An happened upon the ultrasound picture. We had been trying to figure out when the best time would be to tell her about the pregnancy, and we rather unceremoniously told her then. Her response was amazing. She was so excited and overjoyed! She couldn't wait to tell everyone, and begged me to call someone so that she could tell them the news. Telling her when we did worked out well because it changed the energy in the house from shock and terror to happiness and excitement. She couldn't stop talking about it for days, and still checks in with me on a daily basis about it. Here she is enjoying the cartoons in a twin pregnancy book I've been reading.

Another reason the days after we first received the news was so crazy was that we had a flurry of appointments. On the same day, we squeezed into a genetic counseling appointment to learn about diagnostic testing options. Since I'm officially at advanced maternal age, we were considering doing CVS. We learned about the different risks and complications associated with abnormalities and the test in a twin pregnancy, which really threw me for a loop. Since there are two babies, the probability of there being a problem is about double, so instead of 1 in 140, it was more like a chance of 1 in 80 that something could be wrong with one of the babies. CVS isn't always possible with twins depending on the location of the placentas. We went ahead and scheduled it knowing there's a chance we might not be able to do it. The very next day, I had an appointment in the radiology department for a more in depth scan and measurement of the babies to ensure they were the same size....they were. Then two days later, I had my regularly scheduled intake appointment where I was scheduled for a subsequent appointment to be assessed by a perinatologist since a twin pregnancy is deemed high risk.

By the time we saw the specialist several weeks later, the news had more time to soak in, so we were better prepared to hear about what to expect. The incidence of various problems is about double, such as preterm birth (due to a lack of space/excess pressure on things), preeclampsia and gestational diabetes (problems caused by the placenta, so more of a problem with two), and c-section (about 50%). The good news is that even though the incidence of problems is higher, the overall rates for many problems are still relatively low, so it's more than likely that everything will go smoothly. A twin due date is considered to be at 38 weeks rather than 40, so that puts me at 6/14/12. We got these pictures of "baby A" and "baby B" at that appointment, when I was 10.5 weeks along. It was amazing how much more babylike they are in a span of a few weeks, with arms and legs waving around and bodies hopping about.

The following week, we went in for the CVS appointment and had another lengthy ultrasound session. I got to see many zoomed in and detailed views of the various parts of their anatomies, including the first signs that we have TWO BOYS in there. It was a scary thought to us at first, but after putting things in perspective, I think it is actually quite optimal...Mai-An gets to be our special first born daughter, never have to worry about sharing a room with a much younger sibling, and the boys have each other to play with and possibly have similar interests and activities. We'll see if I'm singing a different tune after years of wrestling and sword fighting. We got this nice snapshot of them during this appointment in the same frame, bunking up (at 11.5 weeks).

The CVS procedure was possible since my placentas were in very distinct and opposing locations. The first procedure wasn't bad, but the second one was really rough. Not sure if it was due to the position, or just that I was more sensitive and uncomfortable after having the first one done.

Surprisingly, this pregnancy has been significantly easier than my first. I had very little morning sickness in the first weeks, then I started having it at various points in the day for several weeks, but it improved when I ate. And then by about 10 weeks, it dramatically improved (and I also got used to eating all the time!). I am nowhere near as exhausted for no reason like I was with Mai-An, but this time around, I had nightly insomnia for two straight months. Though the insomnia continues, now I have some good nights each week. My belly has definitely popped out earlier, and I've been sporting a round paunch for weeks now. It's a little scary to think about how enormous I'm going to be!!! Every time I see a bleary eyed parent of one infant, it's really terrifying to think of what a challenge it will be with two. Fortunately, my parents have committed to helping us out a lot, and we are going to fully take them up on that. We are going to need all the help we can get!

Trip to Disneyland

2012-01-02T21:37:00.000-08:00

For the winter break, we headed south to warm weather, to see old friends and family and hit up Disneyland!

We received lots of advice on how to deal with the peak crowds of the season, so we woke up very early to get to the park close to opening time. The Great Indulger was hand feeding Mai-An her breakfast while she was consumed by an iPhone game.

It was a gorgeous day at the park. Despite the crowds, over two days we figured we made it to about 28 attractions (rides, shows, etc.) pulling 12 hour days. Well, I went back to rest in the afternoons but Jeff and Mai-An soldiered on. Mai-An was having a blast and didn't want to stop, and Jeff was determined to get his money's worth after being painfully separated from so much of it for this excursion.

Mai-An was definitely exhausted at the end of the days, and passed out quickly.

She enjoyed meeting her favorite characters and having some Mickey Mouse shaped beignets.

The Muppet 3D movie was super cute! (Yes, this unflattering camera angle accentuates how enormously pregnant I look...more on that topic at a later date.)

Mai-An declared "It's a Small World" to be her favorite ride (was always mine too), but a close second was Autotopia where she got to drive a car. Jeff worked the accelerator while Mai-An steered.

The morning we left Anaheim, we enjoyed an early morning dip in the hotel pool.

We headed to my cousin's wedding (the initial reason for our so-cal journey), and Mai-An enjoyed dancing with her best buddy.

She and her cousins also mingled with a celebrity. Another cousin of mine is dating Shia LaBeouf, so he was in attendance too.

It was a very fun, action packed trip. Given my expanding girth, we squeezed it in in the nick of time. Even though Disneyland isn't Jeff's cup of tea, it was fun for both of us to witness how delightful and magical it was for Mai-An. It was also poignant to recognize it was one of our last adventures as a little family of three.

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Mai-An has her hair in braids because she is showing off her newly pierced ears. She and Auntie Lo cooked up the plan to get this done a while ago (without consulting me), and while I wouldn't have chosen this age to do it (Mai-An seems way too intolerant of pain), Mai-An became so excited and fixated on having it done. In the final days leading up to it, she was harassing us constantly about getting it done. Finally, we made it to the mall and when the time was near, I was pretty surprised to see how nervous and anxious she was about the process. Despite trying to reassure her and even tell her we could wait, she wanted to continue despite shaking and having her hands sweat like crazy. When they finally did the two ears at the same time, Mai-An just crumpled into tears. Her sadness and devastation didn't last too long though.

It wasn't long before she was trying to tell and show anyone who would listen that she got her ears pierced. She also said that if anyone wanted to know when her birthday was, she would just refer them to her ears since she purposefully chose earrings with her birthstone.

Progress Report

2011-12-17T21:49:00.000-08:00

We had parent teacher conferences at school, and it was nice to be able to sit down and have some time to check in with Mai-An's teacher. In addition to asking us about how Mai-An feels about school, Ms. Fisher shared that Mai-An has been doing very well at school overall. She's bright and creative, gets concepts quickly and works well with others. Ms. Fisher said that Mai-An has an interesting vocabulary, and she can tell that she is an only child who spends a lot of time talking to adults (is that creepy?). At recess, she keeps busy eating her snack or doing her own thing, so she's not super social, but seems to get on well with the other kids. She does talk about playing with certain kids when at home, but I've always noticed her to just want to do her own thing and if other kids want to join her, she interacts with them, but she doesn't make a big effort to get kids to play with her. The teacher has also noticed her to be clingy (no surprise there!) and occasionally dig in her heels on stuff. So it looks like she saves most of her dark side just for us at home! Here's a self portrait and bio on display outside the class:

The Best Buddy relationship is still going strong.

It was a real delight recently to be able to lounge around in bed for hours (!) with each of the three us on our own electronic device (laptop, nook, iPhone). Then I spent time working on sugar cookies for another parent at Mai-An's school who had won them in the school auction. It was the best day ever!

Theater and Film

2011-12-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

Mai-An's afterschool drama class culminated with performance of the Little Red Hen. She has loved this class, and as you can see from the clip below, she was really into it. It was a 15 minute performance, and the two minute clip below starts when she breaks character and starts interacting with me, but then gets back into the swing of things. I love that there were multiple players for the various characters, so Mai-An was assured her first choice role as the hen.

In this short clip, Mai-An makes a foray into nature documentary film.

Handful!

2011-12-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

Even though the lighting isn't great, I love this picture of Ryan holding Miles, Mai-An, Lucy and Mia during our trip. What a bunch of rascals!

Best Buddies

2011-12-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

A very exciting development occurred during our trip to the east coast. Mai-An has been a barnacle on me her entire life, but during this trip, a crazy bromance developed between her and Jeff. Since I wasn't feeling well, Jeff sat next to Mai-An on the plane, which was like a crazy luxury for me to just sit there and read and nap at my leisure. He also indulges her desire to be carried around all the time, which also was a big bonus for her. They even took to referring to each other as "Best Buddy" at all times.

Here they are sitting together on the bus ride to NY. My sister and I are enjoying our own rows nearby :).

The bigger Best Buddy is also a trooper when it comes to playing Mai-An's favorite game which is holding the 'reigns' (sweatshirt sleeves) while she gallops ahead spastically.

Sightseeing in New York

2011-12-05T10:29:00.000-08:00

The sunny days continued on our trip to New York where I got to see my old college friends Ryan, Piper, Sarah, and Erin and their families. It was a new experience visiting NY with about 4 kids in tow at any one point. We stopped at the Central Park Zoo,

FAO Schwartz,

saw the 75 foot tree at Rockerfeller Center,

picked up Ryan from work across from Radio City Music Hall,

and managed to squeeze in a civilized meal at Momofuko Noodle Bar.

After a day downtown around the seaport, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, which had an amazing view. Though Mai-An has more energy and stamina than we do, she was quite stubborn about being carried, so Jeff carried her before, during and after the entire walk!

Having breakfast together on our last day with Sarah, Ryan, Tim and D!

We couldn't leave without a little momento/picture with Ryan's cat Luther, who Mai-An was also quite obsessed with.

Sightseeing in DC

2011-12-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

We visited the National Mall and saw the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,

the Lincoln Memorial (picture taken by Mai-An)

the new Martin Luther King Memorial,

and Mai-An helped support the Washington Monument.

Mai-An was crazy for the musuems, and we visited the Natural History Museum,

took in a doll house exhibit at the American History Museum,

some original Muppets,

and oddly enough, Mai-An was most excited to see Julia Child's kitchen after catching the end of Julie and Julia on TV and seeing the character visit the exhibit.

Here is Auntie Lo taking in the museum exhibits :).

Mai-An got really into posing for pictures.

She's impersonating this sculpture of George H.W. Bush at the American Art Museum.

This contemporary art installation was her favorite since the spot of the map for DC contained a screen with a video of us looking at the exhibit.

Family Vacation

2011-12-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving and my brother's 40th birthday were the occasions for our family to head to DC for a little vacation. We had beautiful weather for some sightseeing and QT with family. We took our first family picture at Whole Foods where we enjoyed some free Black Friday coffee. Our immediate family stayed with old friends Jaynie and Stephen (who we failed to photograph somehow!), where the nightly Nygaard slumber party began. This is Mai-An in her pillow cocoon, which wasn't super effective since she managed to fall off of the queen sized air mattress on multiple occasions on a nightly basis. One night, she managed to roll off the head of the bed, land on her feet and immediately tell us "I'm okay! I'm okay!"

The one night she managed to stay on the bed all night was when she kicked it old school and slept like she did as an infant in the fetal position. She slept reasonably well in that she didn't wake at the crack of dawn like during our last trip, but she nonetheless lost about 1-2 hours of sleep a night, which led to some difficult moments, but overall, she managed the lack of sleep reasonably well.

Mai-An was obsessed with our friends' cat Sister. She stalked that poor cat constantly, and when she pet her in a bad place and the cat nipped her hand, she was so devastated. She did get over it though and declared that she loved Sister so much and wanted this picture with her so that she can frame it and keep it by her bed.

Then we attended my brother's suprise birthday party. The guests were dressed as old people so as to make him feel less bad about getting old. Since we were bringing my brother to the party, we weren't in costume.

The party included a roast, and Mai-An was very excited to participate. However, the story she wanted to tell was so hilarious that she couldn't get the words out she was laughing so hard (a little anecdote about my brother once sending me a nosehair in the mail). I ended up having to finish the story for her.

We returned to an amazing place for Peking Duck with the family and our buddy Gerry.

Arty

2011-11-21T21:42:00.000-08:00

As I was emptying Mai-An's backpack, I came across these class assignments and was tickled by the way she wrote her name on the papers.

Her drawings are filled with lots of detail these days. Watching a kid draw is really amazing...ideas just spill out of their brains and go straight onto the paper. There's no hesitation, it just flows. The top of this picture is a bunny birthday party with balloons, one wearing a blindfold, and a pin the tail on the horse poster on the right. The bottom half is a different scene, with a mer-bunny inside a cage and a mermaid (whose hair is floating in the water) and kelp floating nearby, as well as eggs and bacon (of course).

This drawing is of a human hand (up top) feeding a cage of rabbits lettuce and carrots (some of which contain bite marks).

Food Blogger

2011-11-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

This kid is obsessed with taking pictures of her food. Whenever she thinks she's eating something that looks special, she begs us to take a picture of it. Not sure where she got this crazy impulse to document everything :). Below, behold oatmeal with sprinkles:

A freeze dried banana slice (significance forgotten):

A freeze dried strawberry that vaguely looks like a heart:

Breakfast that looks like a snowman:

Pizza crust that looks like a narwhal:

The world's cutest mini ice cream cone (according to Mai-An):

Current events

2011-11-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

We stopped by the Oakland Art Murmur recently and an artist was making these screen print posters to order, and Mai-An really wanted one. Now she has a little memorabilia from the Occupy Oakland movement. The demonstrations have been occurring mostly in an area of downtown that is away from where Jeff and I work, and most of the dramatic events have happened after hours, when we are home.

Mai-An was reunited with her BFF from preschool, Jake, recently at an outing to FROG park.

We attended the auction fundraiser for Mai-An's school. The art teacher organized this decoupage tray with contributions from all the students (Mai-An's is in the center of the top row). I really wanted to win it, but had to defer to a couple of other parents who were in a fight to the death over it. Starting bid was about $15...and it sold for $163!!!

This is Mai-An's blissed out face having her favorite dim sum dish.

Mai-An continues to do well with the transition to Kindergarten at school. She is an active participant in class and is making progress towards reading. She likes to try reading simple sentences when we read to her. When I was helping out in the classroom, it was cute to see her writing a book review for a story the teacher read. The kids were to fill in sentences that said why they liked or didn't like the story, which encouraged them to write and not worry about spelling. Mai-An's been talking about how Phoebe is the "smartest kid in the class". I was very amused seeing Mai-An write that she liked the story because it was "faneah" (funny), and when I walked past Phoebe, she was leaning over to look at Mai-An's paper and also wrote "faneah" on her paper.

We are still dealing with intense clinginess/regression at home. I took her to a birthday party with her classmates yesterday and she only wanted to interact with me the entire time. She also seems to get very upset when having conflict with her peers and holds an intense grudge that involves giving them the evil stinkeye and uttering unsavory words well past an acceptable time period. I hope things will mellow out over time, (parents of older children tell me their kids went through this too) but it does make me wonder with a birthday late in the year, Mai-An's relative emotional development may lag behind her peers...or maybe it's just her sprited temperament! Her intensity has always seemed jacked up on the dial to 11. After a particularly long period of whininess, I told Mai-An that it was very difficult to handle so much unpleasantness to which she replied "if you can't handle it, maybe you shouldn't have had me!!!". I was floored...way to unleash the crazy! The teenage years are going to be awesome.

Halloween

2011-10-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

This year, Mai-An said she wanted to be a cat for Halloween. I had looked online for a basic costume, but she and Jeff didn't like any of them, so Mai-An wanted me to make one. Then we went out for sushi one night and as soon as she saw the Maneki Neko/Welcoming Cat statue, she knew she wanted to be THAT cat. Fortunately for us, it was not too hard to put together.

The festivities started at Fairyland on Sunday. She's looking appropriately Asian and feline climbing the bamboo trees there.

After Fairyland, we went to our favorite pho restaurant. Mai-An was cracking us up with how much she was loving her soup, crafting the perfect bites of noodles, broth and chicken while expertly utilizing her chopsticks and spoon, and adding hoisin sauce to every bite, declaring the sauce to be "MAGIC!".

Then on Halloween proper, there was a parade at school and class party. All the costumes were adorable. Mai-An and her teacher told me how Mai-An has been sitting in her welcoming/beckoning cat pose at every opportunity well in advance of Halloween.

Auntie Lo didn't want to miss out on the cuteness either.

The staff were all crayons.

And the crazy Halloween crafting also included making these Jack-o-Lantern cookies for the class party. Mai-An did a great job helping me fill the cookies in with icing (though she was done after about 8 cookies).

We closed out the long day with trick or treating in the neighborhood. Her "homework" was to tally the treat total for the special class graph for math class. The grand total was 55 treats!

Crazy Outfits

2011-10-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

Mai-An enjoyed hiking her pajama pants up crazy high. It reminded her of a similar picture Jeff took of her way back when.

In San Jose, her grandma found an old stash of my Barbies, and Mai-An was delighted to play with my old toys. This one is rocking an awesome 80s outfit.

Then Mai-An decided to fashion some of my pajama pants into an avant garde look. She announced she would like to be on Project Runway. (That's her whole body in one leg, with the other leg wrapped around and pinned in places she requested.)

Colloquial, Shenanigans

2011-10-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

Mai-An is really cracking us up with the things she says. When she wants some cool toy du jour, she exclaims "just imagine all the fun I'll have with it!". Or when she felt her father was making an obvious point, she punctuated a response to him with , "uh, HELLO!?". Then when we were at a pig party today, and she claimed she wasn't really hungry but I was trying to get her to try the tasty food, she tried a bite and pronounced "that's rather nice".

In other news that is 'rather nice', Mai-An had been having an insane amount of bedtime shenanigans, causing her to get to sleep crazy late (10pm) and acting up more the next day. We had a little run of days when The Indulger happened to be away at bedtime, and we got things back on track. Night one of this was a disaster, with Mai-An escalating like crazy even after we made an agreement that I'd do one last thing she wanted if she would just go to sleep, and yelling that she'll never get to sleep (if I didn't go respond to her latest demand). I told her to give up the fight because I wasn't going back in, to which she yelled back "You'll be sorry!!!" (funny and a little scary at the same time). She eventually crashed, and the next night, she was so much better, and was lavished with praise and reward, and she has managed to keep it up. It's really been amazing how much earlier she goes to sleep (by 8pm) when she's not in there figuring out the next stupid human trick she's going to elicit from us!

My Birthday

2011-10-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

I was the lucky recipient of a series of birthay celebrations--an adult night out with friends, breakfast with my staff, a lunch retreat in SF with my colleagues (not specifically for my birthday, but made going to work on my birthday very nice) as well as a party with family on the actual day. My parents babysat for the first, and Jeff took time off work for the last to prepare a special dinner and pick up a tasty ice cream cake! Mai-An found a perfect role for herself supervising the entire operation:

(I hate to post such a blurry video, but the part I like best is the audio anyway...my sister somehow put the camera on manual focus)

School Carnival

2011-10-16T21:46:00.001-07:00

The Dads Club at Mai-An's school put on a carnival this weekend to raise some money for the school. When Mai-An realized that she could win a real goldfish in the game in which you toss a ping pong ball into a glass, she became obsessed and determined! After about 4 times through the line, getting more and more upset, I became intensely anxious with each turn, hoping and crossing fingers she'd get it. The kid was really unravelling, and fortunate for us, the parent volunteer working the booth became aware of how important it was that she win, so the fix was in, and he had Mai-An walk up very close to the table of glasses, and we were all elated when she finally got that ping pong ball in! Even though I tried to calm her down with a promise that we could just go and buy a goldfish (we had been promising that since her original ones died and never got around to it), in the end, it was a nice lesson about not giving up!

Then we had to go to the petstore to buy aquarium decor and friends for Flounder. So now Fishie, Nemo and Flounder can enjoy a lush underwater home, complete with a castle.

It was also fun seeing dads, and even the school principal (pictured below) take turns in the dunk tank. Mai-An successfully dunked a dad.

We donated some cookies for the cake walk. Given my cookie obsession, I just happened to have cookies and frosting already made and in the freezer at the ready. It was cute seeing random people walking around eating one of these cookies during the day.

"Monsters"

2011-10-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

One of Mai-An's recent school photos by fellow school parent and photographer.

For the past few weeks, Mai-An has been very clingy, not wanting us to leave her side at all...not to get a toy from her room, not to wash her hands, and not even to use the bathroom. It started with her saying she was scared of monsters, though Jeff got her to acknowledge and verbalize that it has nothing to do with monsters but just wanting to have us close...very, very close. Things came to a head as I was trying to make dinner and she begged and whined incessantly wanting me to do something with her or for her. When I got on her case for the whining, she burst into tears and exclaimed that she just wanted to spend time with me. It seems that bit by bit, Jeff and I have allowed ourselves to be sidetracked by chores and to take advantage of the fact that Mai-An is capable of entertaining herself that we didn't realize that much of the time we spend with her, particularly on the weekdays, is doing chores in her presence. After spending time at her school and hearing about other difficult behaviors going on at home with some of her peers, it's a real wake up call that not only is starting Kindergarten a big transition overall, the biggest one might be the marked decrease in individual attention all day. So we're turning over a new leaf (hopefully) and making a point of at least one of us giving Mai-An some undivided attention during our brief time together on the weekdays.

Fall activities

2011-10-10T23:10:00.000-07:00

On a recent school closure day, we met up with a preschool friend for a visit to the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

I was just telling her mom that Mai-An was enjoying Drama class at school when Mai-An very dramatically explained that she was the princess of the sea and that "the entire sea is alive all because of me...my clothes are very rare and expensive...I have the most amazing powers in the sea!"

We also attended the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival--one day with and another day without Mai-An. She was a trooper and handled the long haul on public transit and on foot quite well. She had us wrap my fleece around her torso and use the arms as reigns and we were able to hike out of the park at the end of the show with her as a (wild) horse the whole way. The only carrying took place during the show for a better view.

We took the show in at a variety of vantage points. Just us and about 600,000 other concert goers enjoying the free festival! Let's just say we restricted liquids a bit to avoid the porta-potty fiasco.

Fall is also high season for birthdays for us. We enjoyed quite an array of parties including a Rapunzel party,

a Star Wars party with Princess Lea,

a princess party at Fairyland,

and a Scooby Doo party at Pump it Up, which means there are armies of parents out there working hard!

Beginning to read

2011-09-29T21:57:00.000-07:00

Mai-An has been very excited about the prospect of reading. She's been enjoying having us read chapter books these days. We've read about five Roald Dahl books, The Wind in the Wilows, Alice in Wonderland, and currently we are reading Alice Through the Looking Glass. I was a little conflicted about making the jump to these books since I wondered if picture books were better for her since she has more to look at and figure out with the pictures, and for there to be simpler text for her to learn. On the flip side, it seems good to nurture her interest in literature, and the exposure to all the words and language patterns of these more complex stories. Jeff and I alternate reading, and when he's been reading, he points out sight words for her to find, which I've been seeing her do on her own for the past week when I read to her. Then tonight, she really got into it, and was determined to read this sentence. I started recording this video after a few minutes of her working on it, and it was an awesome thing to see! (I suggested we look at a simpler book after for her to try, but she had no interest.) It's been a while since we've witnessed a dramatic milestone, like learning to talk or walk, so this was incredibly exciting.

Sweatshop

2011-09-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

We're continuing to churn out labor intensive food products in this house. Mai-An helped peel and seed tomatoes from our garden for a pasta sauce. Those little fingers come in handy!

And just for kicks, I made another batch of sugar cookies for a friend from work for her twins birthday party. She asked to buy them, but since I'm running an amateur operation, I couldn't take her money...that and it would likely amount to less than minimum wage.

I also helped out at Mai-An's school for the first time today in the classroom as well as on 'yard duty'. Mai-An was super delighted to have me there, and her classmates were very sweet, treating me like a minor celebrity. Mai-An was clingy and didn't like it when I was working with the other students. I imagine she will mellow out on that over time. I'm in awe of her teacher, who manages to work with those 26 children each day...I felt barely able to keep track of the small group I was working with. Even though she does a great job meeting the challenge she is given, it really seems criminal to allow classes of that size.

Adventures with Bun-Bun, etc.

2011-09-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

Mai-An has been obsessed with her birthday bunny, "Bun-Bun". She plays with and talks about her incessantly at times that it's both cute and slightly creepy. Though she's back to sleeping with all her stuffed animals, it's uncanny how she keeps Bun-Bun front and center. There is constant narration of their play, special 'food' she keeps in the fridge and feeds to her at our mealtimes and of course there's the frequent nursing under her shirt. When she's at school, her imaginary friend Mrs. No One takes care of Bun-Bun...we had to open the door for her this morning and Mai-An gave her the run down on the day. I closed the door too soon, and was asked to reopen it so that Mrs. No One could make it inside. Mai-An is constantly asking for reminders of how old Bun-Bun is because she's decided she's cosleeping for the first two months and then putting her to bed in a separate crib at that point, just like when Mai-An was a baby.

In other adventures, we stopped by the Oakland Rose Garden:

Saw the movie Tangled under the stars at the neighborhood rec center:

And we attended our first PTA meeting. The principal had the parents participate in some ice breakers and we split into groups to discuss various quotes posted around the room that had to do with lofty ideals in education and a school community. She asked us if we could figure out where the quotes came from, and I expected the answer to be some famous big thinker, and the answer was that it came from the Oakland Unified School District strategic vision...who knew!? Then we all engaged in art projects that were to represent a word that we want to think of/how we want to feel when we are at school. Mai-An suggested "respect" so we worked on that. Below are samples of what the teachers did for the same assignment. Let's just say that theirs looked a lot better than mine! They are in this profession for a reason :).

DIY

2011-09-19T22:45:00.000-07:00

We're feeling very back to the land these days. Our tomatoes are starting to multiply.

Jeff went on a fishing trip and caught some trout...they were delicious! We had some grilled for dinner and then we smoked the ones below.

Another sugar cookie project was undertaken...this one was for a friend's Scooby Doo themed party (with her help, thankfully!).

To Love Somebody

2011-09-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

I was listening to this Bee Gees cover of To Love Somebody and Mai-An asked me if the person who wrote this song just had a baby: "You don't know what's it's like...to love somebody...the way I love you". The song just got 1000 times sweeter after hearing that (especially if you ignore the scraggly beard action).

Later in the night, when Jeff was putting Mai-An to bed, I overheard her say "In your whole life, I was the only thing that was missing right?"

Back to School Night

2011-09-11T22:38:00.000-07:00

Mai-An's first weeks of school have been wonderful. We went to Back to School Night and the warmth of the school and staff was very apparent. Outside the class, the teacher displayed the children's hopes for this year, which was very sweet. I'm embarassed to admit that unconsciously, I had imagined attending an Oakland Public School would feel gritty and run of the mill, but we are finding that her school is exceeding our expectations. The principal and staff are progressive, responsive, creative and inspiring. I love that the principal greets the entire school each morning for a pep talk/rules and song. At Back to School Night, the teacher went over a typical day for the children, and it's amazing the amount of organization and preparation that goes into each day. The children have a circle time together, and then break into groups to do a variety of tasks which include working on reading in a small group with the teacher, writing and drawing in journals, playing games and 'reading' to themselves/with a partner. The way the teacher talked about Kindergarten really made clear that she has a passion for teaching and working with this age when the children are so pure and eager and creative. Mai-An lights up when she sees her teacher in the morning and is so eager to chat her up. The highlight so far has been the school wide contest to have the cleanest classroom, as judged by the custodian, and Mai-An's class won the coveted Golden Trashcan award! After the big announcement over the PA system, the children's screams could be heard in many other classrooms.

The parent community is super involved and friendly. Despite steep budget cuts, the PTA has enabled special programs to continue, like PE, Garden, Art, Music and Library class for the students every week. They also organize enrichment programs afterschool, and Mai-An is taking a Legos Engineering class and, her favorite, a Drama and Storytelling class. She came home with many, many stories from that class and her (not surprisingly) dramatic teacher...and the most exciting part is that she gets to be the Little Red Hen of the play of the same name that they will be putting on at the end of the term.

Of course, this means that there is a lot of fundraising and appeals for help, and it's a little dizzying to see all the ways we'll need to do our part. For now, I'm a room parent with Mai-An's new/close friend Skyler's mom, and we've all become fast friends. On a side note, we went to their housewarming party this weekend and Mai-An had the good idea to make house cookies to bring over (she knows me so well!). Mai-An decorated a few for her and Skyler.

We are definitely feeling the newness and disorientation of being in a new world and routine. I've heard that things will feel more settled after a month, so we're looking forward to that!

Mai-An's 5th Birthday

2011-09-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

It's been another birthday bonanza for Mai-An. We kicked off the 5th birthday celebrations with a party at the aquatic park we've been to in previous years.

Mai-An was showered with love and attention from friends and family.

And she 'showered' her father with water sprays at the park.

After a classroom celebration with cookies (not pictured), Mai-An enjoyed a special visit from her uncle bearing a "T-Pain" microphone present. In addition to the special vocal effect, we now get to hear Mai-An belting out her songs with electronic amplification! Can't wait to bring it along when we have a long visit with him in DC in the fall :).

Mai-An went on the now annual tradition of a visit to Build a Bear with her auntie. It worked out nicely that Jeff and I got to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary in Napa during that day.

And when the official birthdate arrived, we commemorated it with a visit to Fenton's Creamery again. (Mai-An is wearing a home made sling with her newborn stuffed bunny inside).

Later that evening, we had a new friend from Kindergarten over, and Mai-An requested candles in the dessert they brought to share, so the 5th birthday has been officially well celebrated!

The last year could be viewed as the year life became free and easy(er). It seems like we can do virtually anything with Mai-An these days, like long restaurant outings, road trips, and long hikes and we also have the freedom to do things without her at times as she is (and we are) more comfortable and manageable staying with family. She has enough sense not to do anything too crazy (like running into traffic) and for the most part, knows what's expected of her. I remember in her toddler days of darting off, I longed for days when I knew she wouldn't wander off, and I could just hold my hand out and she would just know to hold on to it...and we are definitely there. Though just as life felt more free, we are now starting school and are now constrained by its schedule and demands.

She still loves to be in our laps, or carried around by her papa. It's been especially sweet seeing their relationship grow this year. Long gone are the days of Papa rejection...she's often misspeaking and calling everyone else "Dad". She sees her dad as the parent who knows how lots of stuff works, and has many of the answers she seeks about history and nature. She's also figured out that he can be a big pushover when it comes to her. As for me, she still wants to sit next to me at most opportunities, comes to me for comfort, and seems to recognize that I mean business when I'm laying down the law. We've had few complaints from school about her behavior, and being a solid non napper has been life changing for us. Her ability to last through the day without the fatigue and irritability she used to have has made our lives so much easier. It's amazing to think how much time, energy and frustration was spent trying to ensure adequate rest for Mai-An. It's like we were hostages to her need to nap and sleep on time...and now we are free!

Mai-An still melts down at times when she does not get her way, though it's fewer and further between. It's a trip seeing the angry face she flashes to us to demonstrate her displeasure...her attempt to make it look really fierce lends a comical effect. The biggest theme of our discipline these days involves instructing Mai-An to be respectful. Now that she is better at communicating and expressing herself, she just wants to talk to us any kind of way, so we are working on that. As we witness her mature and behave well most of the time, it almost makes it more frustrating when she does something crazy. She has an uncanny habit of wanting to sleep late during the week but waking at the crack of dawn on the weekends. She used to be content turning the tv on and letting us stay in bed a little longer but now she insists one of us 'sleep' on the couch with her as she proceeds to terrorize us with questions, wants, and accidental injury. Nonetheless, she can be very sweet, loving, eager, hilarious and joyful. I have a feeling this next year will be very eventful and the impact of going to school and being shaped by peers will be significant. I definitely feel the need to savor all the ways that Mai-An needs and wants us since I fear those days are now officially numbered!

Cookie Project

2011-09-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

Mai-An's birthday was the reason to embark on a somewhat elaborate baking project, but I was very happy with the results and found the experience to be very enjoyable and relaxing (and yummy). Mai-An picked up on my enjoyment of it and had a lightbulb flash go off in her brain when she announced: "Mama! I know...how about you quit your job and stay home and make cookies all day!". Then one morning she was trying to get me up and I wanted to stay in bed and she tried to coax me out by saying "Mama...if you get up now, you can come look at your cookies!". I'm officially obsessed.

Mai-An got in on some of the decorating fun, and was happy to decorate some scrap pieces.

We even added a monkey to the palm tree exactly as Mai-An had sketched herself.

First Day of Kindergarten!!!

2011-08-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

How is it possible that our baby is now officially a big kid?! Here we are walking on campus dodging running giant kids:

We all met on the yard where the kids lined up with their classes. The principal conducted the daily morning meeting where everyone repeats the three school rules--we take care of ourselves, we take care of each other, and we take care of our school.

I didn't think I'd be the one boo hooing, but yeah, I was. Jeff was not surprised.

Jeff and Mai-An were the stoic ones.

Despite standing next to a kid who was totally unraveling, Mai-An walked into school on her own like a champ. We all gave each other kissing hands, and Mai-An was totally fine once she got her last kisses in to both of us.

Mai-An had a great first day! She likes her teacher and the kids took part in the age old tradition of talking about their summer vacations. Mai-An drew a picture and talked about our camping trip, so it looks like all that hassle was well worth it for the memories. She concluded that Kindergarten was good, but that there is constant lining up for everything! She also lamented the fact that she didn't get a rest time today due to the half day schedule they are on for the first week...ironic coming from the sleep resistant, naptime shenanigan child, but as she was telling me this, she was constantly yawning. Looks like all the first day excitement was exhausting! We capped a great first day with a great little treat.

Mai-An: Mama, is Ici famous?

C: Yeah, it is. Lots of people know about it and come because it's so good, and there are different flavors all the time.

M-A: And because it's not too sweet, and not too rich.

C: Yep.

M-A: And the texture is so amazing!

A child after my own heart!

Grandma's visit

2011-08-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

Mai-An was excited for Grandma Nygaard's visit. She talked about it a lot at preschool, so one of the teachers helped her make a special sign.

We took in some favorite local sights like the Steam Train, Little Farm, the SF ferry and the high intensity hike to and from Coit tower.

Despite the distance, Mai-An connected with her grandma and enjoyed her time with her. She begged for a plane ticket to go to North Dakota with her or hide in her luggage.

Camping!!!

2011-08-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

We took the plunge and went on our very first family tent camping trip, and it was great! First of all, we went to Big Sur, which might be the best place ever--gorgeous scenery, perfect weather, spacious state park campsites, and best of all, the company of wonderful fellow campers. We shared a campsite with three other families, and one of them has had family coming to this annual trip since 1967. It started as a group of five high school friends and is now this large group of folks connected to those original five. This was great because Mai-An and the other kids roamed around a lot and were always among friends and family. One minute, she'd disappear and then come back with someone's grandpa, walking his dog. She rode her bike among the redwoods and had many playmates. There were several 2 year old siblings in the mix, breaking down left and right, and it was refreshing to see how far Mai-An has come in terms of her behavior now that she is older. She is at a great age for camping!

Mai-An slept like a champ...as good or better than at home!

Many folks displayed this cool poster with all the names of folks in the group, with the original campers names on the trunk of the tree. We are hoping to make it on the 45th anniversary poster :)

Craft Time!

As if it weren't enough that we tagged along to this annual family tradition of friends of our friends, we also got to attend the 70th birthday party for the five original campers!

There was a bluegrass band that Mai-An and the kids enjoyed dancing to. Mai-An continues to implement her spazzy impressionistic dance style that she debuted during our Christmas vacation.

On the drive home, Mai-An learned her father's signature dance move, despite having never actually seen a typewriter:

We joined the Sabos for a final meal at the beloved Nepenthe Restaurant. The girls channeled their previous state in our bellies at the same time:

More fun with fleece:

A stop at Jeff's favorite spot:

And we finally had the chance to stop at Denis the Menace Park in Monterey for a bathroom/play break. The playground lives up to all the hype.

We had a really nice time, and can't wait to go camping again. I was probably the most anxious and hesitant about it, but I really enjoyed it. We are definitely inviting ourselves back to the Big Sur Family camping trip next year too!

Graduating from Skyline

2011-08-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

Mai-An had her last day at Skyline Preschool. In the weeks prior, Mai-An was constantly tracking how much time she had left due to excitement to start Kindergarten as well as sadness about leaving Skyline...I think I especially felt that sadness. We have really enjoyed our time there. The teachers are loving, the activities are creative, the parent community is warm and close, and the physical space, especially the playground overlooking a lush canyon, is really spectacular. The graduates were trickling out all summer, and Mai-An and Jessica were the very last of the graduates left on the final week. They got to spend some nice time with each other.

Here's Mai-An with a couple of her teachers, Bernadette and Debbie:

I never posted about Mai-An's graduation which happened 6/30/11 because I was waiting for a very cute video clip to be shared by another parent but never materialized...my camera battery ran out at the worst time. With a partner, the kids did a little dance along to a song called "Dream Big" where they acted out different dreams and careers they might have which was the most adorable thing I ever saw. Anyway, I do think the kids' processional is really cute. Every kid walks in a different way and it really exemplifies their cute individuality:

Mai-An walked on stage and got her 'diploma', a rose, and an adorable memory book that a group of parents put together for each child.

My parents and sister were in attendance for the big event.

Mai-An's BFF dressed up for the occasion in his mom's tank top :)

Sillyness

2011-08-12T07:25:00.000-07:00

It's always interesting to check on Mai-An after she's asleep to see what she's been up to. On this night, she was looking at pictures of herself, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the New Yorker. It really tickles me that something as graphically uninteresting as the New Yorker is so captivating to Mai-An. I especially liked that it was open to an article titled "The Bush Doctrine".

On other nights, we deal with a vast variety and quantity of bedtime shenanigans, which goes along with the countless ways in which Jeff indulges Mai-An these days. A super long snuggle until she falls asleep? Jeff's on the case. Begging for an iPhone game all the time? Jeff steps in as her agent brokering the deal. An extra book after the last extra book, preceded by the one last book before that? He's your man. Telling made up stories while she brushes her teeth morning and night? Welcome to our new ritual. Best of all, she prefers tales about the characters that Jeff has developed including Eugene the pea, Mary the pencil, Clyde the gummy bear, belly button lint named Burt and a monkey named "Cheese". The lint apparently was born from Jeff's belly button and has adventures all over the house. Then one day when Jeff was cleaning out the lint trap in the dryer, there was a lot of excitement in our house over evidence of Burt's latest destination.

In other silly news, Mai-An vaguely demonstrates the power of commercials upon seeing me turn over our mattress:

And Mai-An's interest in all things awkward and taboo continue, like trying to sunbathe in the nude at school and talking about private parts...mostly other people's. She leaned over to give me a kiss and then asked me to lick my lips...when I asked why, she replied "so you can swallow my kiss and poop it out later"...of course! Then she kept talking about 'boobies' all the time that I tried to tell her a more polite and all-purpose term was "chest". She didn't really take to the word, but she did discover an alternative on her own. She apparently fell off the play structure the other day, which I learned about when she leaned over and felt a twinge, stating "ouch, my breasts really hurt!". Uh, your what?!

Summer Activities

2011-08-11T22:28:00.000-07:00

We've been keeping busy this summer! No grand plans, but we've had little trips and outings here and there. Above, we enjoyed a warm night over dinner at Southie...Mai-An loves to take pictures of us eating at her aunt's [Co (aunt) Dan Tam(Lo's VN name)] favorite restaurants and emailing them to her to taunt her. Then Jeff upped the ante by suggesting a video recently as well:

Mai-An loved this face paint from Valentina's 4th birthday, complete with pink lips and 'eyelashes':

Jeff and I were lucky enough to score tickets and babysitting for a night at the ballpark...to think we used to spend the better part of our summers there (sigh).

We've been enjoying the bounty of wild blackberries in our neighborhood (and at Dracena Park).

(showing off stained blackberry fingers)

We also managed to sneak away for a weekend in Sonoma while Mai-An was with her grandparents. We normally opt for super budget accommodations, but those weren't available and we decided the last time we got away and stayed at a depressing crack den that we weren't going to spend our limited time away in squalor anymore. And now that we have a taste of luxurious creature comforts (jacuzzi tub and treats!), it'll be especially hard to go back.

By Sunday, we were back with our baby and the suburban excitement of Target.

Lake Tahoe

2011-08-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a weekend trip to Tahoe again with the Swan family. We lounged in the room, by the pool, and dipped our toes in the lake.

Unfortunately, we spent almost the same amount of time in traffic. Considering how beautiful it is, it's no wonder so many people are headed here!

I also got a reminder of why Mai-An doesn't ever sleep with us. She woke in the middle of the night and in my half asleep state, I told her to come into the bed with us. She then kept 'accidentally' kicking and bumping into me in the hopes of waking me up so that I'd put the TV on for her...like at 1 and 3 am. The kid has no internal clock and is completely resistant to sleep!!!

Oh Dear

2011-07-28T23:15:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I talked to Mai-An about how tomorrow is going to be the last day of school for several of her friends, including her BFF Jake, which went like this:

M-A: Mama...I don't know if I should be spending time with Jake now, or if I should be trying to get used to playing with other kids.

me: I think you should spend time with Jake while he's here. When you leave tomorrow, make sure you give your friends big good bye hugs.

M-A: I'm gonna give them juicy kisses.

me: You should save kisses for mom and dad. (she's been getting a little carried away with the kisses these days). If they don't mind, you can give friends a friendly kiss on the cheek.

M-A: No...I want to give them juicy kisses!

me: What exactly is a juicy kiss? What makes it juicy?

M-A: Not juicy with spit, juicy with LOVE!!!

Under the Sea, etc.

2011-07-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

At preschool, July has been devoted to all things under the sea. In addition to reporting random facts to me (e.g. octupi change color, are very smart, can open a jar), all of Mai-An's artwork and drawings have embodied this theme.

She has enjoyed listening to and singing "Under the Sea" from the Little Mermaid. Today she sang it at the top of her lungs as we rode bikes in Alameda. Later in the car, the Cure song "Friday I'm in Love" came on the radio, which I pointed out to Mai-An since the lyrics contained all the days of the week. I thought I'd sing along so she could make out the lyrics, but she freaked out as follows:

M-A: Mama! Stop singing!

me: But why? When you enjoy singing a song, we don't ask you not to sing.

M-A: But you're ruining the song for me. (After hearing the lyric "Thursday I don't care about you...Friday I'm in love") Mama! that's just like me and Jake.

So true! Their love-hate relationship continues...

Gardening

2011-07-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

While I'd like to say we let the garden go fallow last year intentionally, things just ended up being so crazy that it wasn't until this year that we (and by we I mean Jeff and Mai-An) planted it again. It's really wonderful to watch things grow and eat fresh tasty vegetables.

We planted corn for the first time, in addition to tomatoes, squash, strawberries, eggplant, beans and lettuce.

What's great is that we have arugula and tomatoes coming up in random places from fallen seeds of years past. Here are some tomatoes coming up through our nasturtiums. In what Mai-An has deemed "creepy", we also have tomato plants growing out of our compost bin. Hope those fruits are extra tasty!

And speaking of growing, Mai-An is growing like a weed. Don't remember if I documented this before, but she was 44 inches tall and 47 pounds at a doctor's visit last month. Here she is looking super huge next to her grandma.

They're back!

2011-07-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

At long last, our dear friends returned to the Bay Area for a visit. It was wonderful seeing them again, and enjoying a little staycation with them. We stopped by the American Steel building in West Oakland to check out and imitate some giant art projects.

After some genuine Oakland coffee/chocolate from Blue Bottle, we headed to SF by ferry on a gorgeous day.

We walked up a gazillion steps towards Coit Tower and enjoyed the beautiful garden along the way. Here we are being quiet under the gaze of a mosaic tiger.

Mai-An had the energy to walk all those steps to the tower, but not surprisingly on the way down, she hit a wall. As usual, she got the royal treatment and Jeff carried her the whole way down.

Saturday we checked out Abbott's Lagoon at Point Reyes. It was a lovely walk along wildflowers and birds.

Mai-An enjoyed creeping us out with the sound of 'rattlesnake grass'.

It was so awesome to see our old friends. We're very excited we get to see them again on the east coast in November!

Fourth of July

2011-07-04T21:40:00.000-07:00

Summer has arrived in the Bay Area. We spent a few days at the pool where Mai-An perfected her cannonball. She's been attempting the cannonball for sometime, but she's finally gotten it down now. With Krystal's prodding, she's also doing the jack-knife (holding one knee) and the "Nestea plunge" (falling backwards)...fortunately, just from the steps inside the pool.

We checked out the Marin County Fair again this year, and it didn't disappoint. With a petting zoo, hog races, and rides, there was plenty of fun to be had.

We thought we had enough time for one last ride before the fireworks started, and fortunately for us, the line took a long time so that when we got on, the firework show began. We had the most amazing view of the show while comfortably seated in our high perch, which the operator ran for the entire show. As long as we tuned out the folks crying and whining in line begging for a turn, it was magical.

We finished out our holiday weekend by getting pedicures with my sister. Some of Mai-An's friends have been showing off their pedicures lately, which has spurred a major begging campaign by Mai-An. Fortunately, the nail shops offer an off menu basic kids pedicure for cheap, which was perfect. However, the pedicure experience is much better for the mom without 47 pounds of kid on your lap and legs the whole time.

A meditation on beliefs

2011-07-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

Mai-An elaborates here on what she believes in and the foundation for her beliefs:

The Bubble Guy

2011-07-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

The kids went nuts for this goofy bubble guy show we saw in Berkeley. There was a lot of audience participation and I don't think Mai-An ever put her hand down as a super willing volunteer. She was called up to 'smooch a bubble', including a donut shaped one below.

We walked around the Cal campus after with Ivan and Meredith, who knew about the giant T-Rex fossil in one of the buildings.

The campus squirrels have no fear.

And neither do the children atop high ledges :).

Fun with Dad

2011-07-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's very sweet seeing Jeff and Mai-An in action these days. They have a lot of fun together, and Jeff's all about indulging Mai-An. Whether it's the luxury of being carried around for kicks, or to help her smell out of reach flowers,

engaging in mutual face paint,

or creating bodies of water out of household items, they are quite a pair.

It's hard to imagine those early years when she would wail at the sight of him coming to get her in the morning during her 'no, I want mama!' phase. In addition to the wonder of watching Mai-An grow up, it's been pretty amazing to watch Jeff become such a great dad. Who'd've known he'd have such a knack for it!

Heat Wave

2011-06-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

We beat the summer heat back at the Aquatic Park where we celebrated a few of Mai-An's birthdays. If it weren't for the insanely limited hours, we'd have to go here more often. Mai-An had a blast! They also have a 3' deep area that she was able to enjoy...deep enough to do her cool new trick--somersaults--but shallow enough to stand.

Father's Day

2011-06-22T21:43:00.000-07:00

When I asked Mai-An what she wanted to do for Jeff for Father's Day, she immediately suggested painting some pottery for him. After an important lesson about a gift being something that the recipient should enjoy, I was able to persuade her against the jewelry box, the letters "JEFF" (for his office) and other nicknacks, and she selected a flower pot.

Then she presented it with a card and mug she made for him at school.

Field Trip to the Zoo

2011-06-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day for a school fieldtrip to the zoo. We only lost two children temporarily!

After the zoo, we went to SF to get my ring sized--I suppose it was bound to happen. I'm not exactly my wedding dress size anymore! This left us with a few hours to kill so we enjoyed a treat at Dolores Park.

When our game of chase seemed too disruptive to the homeless people sleeping in the park, we headed to the carousel at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Then we drove straight to the field for Porcupine Soccer. I traded with Jeff and headed off for a gathering with friends. When I got home at 9pm, this is what I found. I get why Mai-An was passed out...not so sure about Jeff.

Family Biking

2011-06-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

We now all have bikes, so the family biking shall commence! Mai-An upgraded to a bigger bike (with streamers and a basket), and Jeff and I got our first bikes since we were kids...all used. It was a beautiful summer day by the bay! Perfect for our inaugural family bike ride.

The day we got the bikes, we were planning on going to Target, and Mai-An asked if she could get a toy there. I explained that she already got a bike today, which fulfils her toy quota for the day, to which she replied "but Mama please!? A bike isn't a toy, it's a vehicle." She did not prevail, but it was a nice try!

Food Blogger

2011-06-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Mai-An was very excited to make a recipe from her kids cookbook, and wanted to document the results with a photo. Then when she was eating breakfast while we were getting ready for work, she called for us to come out to the dining room to see the pattern she created in her yogurt. Since we didn't come running, she took it upon herself to take a photo with my iPhone so that we could view it at our leisure.

She also surreptitiously took a video with random baby talk commentary:

Tis the Season

2011-06-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Porcupine Soccer is back in action...for the last time for Mai-An. We are participating in our final 6 week 'season' of the parent organized weekly soccer/picnic. The cuteness continues. Above she's pictured with her buddies Max, JJ and Etienne. It's worth mentioning here that Etienne's mother is a lovely, wild, eccentric Spaniard who is always talking about how she wants Etienne to marry Mai-An. She talks about it to us incessantly, and is always badgering her son to give Mai-An a kiss, and has interjected when Jake talks about wanting to have a playdate with Mai-An and asserting that Etienne has dibs. If she wasn't so charming, it would seriously border on creepy. Below, the kids are doing their warm ups.

There are several graduation activities lined up this month. Even though Mai-An will continue at preschool through August, it really feels like we are ending a chapter and starting a new one. We've started playdates with her new Kindergarten class and attended her elementary school's Kindergarten Tea this week, which was an orientation for the kids and the parents. It's really hitting me that she'll soon be starting elementary school. The principal talked about the first day and discussed how we will drop our children off on the yard where they will line up with their teacher and walk in to school on their own. It is really mind boggling to imagine our baby entering this whole new world--being in a class of 24 with just one teacher, one of hundreds of students (of various personalities and strengths and weaknesses), and then moving along to an afterschool program each day with minimal assistance. When I discussed this with a colleague in a similar situation, all these emotions just snuck up on me and I got so teary eyed thinking about it all. Hopefully these next few months will allow me to process this so I won't be overwhelmed on that first day of school!

Ba's Birthday

2011-06-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed some QT with the family for my mom's birthday, which included a hike along the bayshore,

some chillaxin at home,

out for some Korean BBQ,

(Photo credit: Mai-An)

and Mai-An went to town on the mini fish banchan.

Over dinner, my dad asked which of us Mai-An is most like, and Jeff and I threw out some ideas--my sister's clammy hands, Jeff's sense of humor, my mom's expensive taste, my dad's interest in science, and then Mai-An offers "Mama's niceness." What a sweetheart ;)

Ornithology

2011-06-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

Mai-An has been studying flamingos at school, so she decided to make a flamingo costume for herself. She's been dropping random flamingo facts, e.g. about how they get their color, how they sleep. A 'fact' she's been citing frequently is one she heard from her friend that a flock of flamingos is called a fandango...I haven't been able to independently verify this, but it makes her happy and blows her mind, so we'll just accept it as fact. I heard her cite this 'fact' many times, so I was a little surprised that when she was telling my sister about it, she misspoke and said that a flock of flamingos is called "flamboyant". After she realized she misspoke, we asked her if she knew what flamboyant meant, and she said "yeah, it means fancy and flashy." Turns out, she learned that from her rather flamboyant friend at school (the one who likes pink and wearing dresses).

I like this flamingo drawing:

Here's a wedding invitation she made for two birds getting married:

And she made this parrot for the rainforest scene at school. When she first made it, she was very proud to show it to me displayed in the classroom. It was next to a couple others made by other kids and when I asked her which one was hers, she replied "the one that is perfect." These days, it's pretty clear that the child definitely does not have confidence issues. I have often heard, usually in the context of dealing with Mai-An's bossy and willful personality, that these traits will serve her well in life. I was pretty impressed recently when Mai-An was at the park with her friend Jake and another (big) boy at the park made some comment about how boys don't like pink, and she basically got in his face and shouted "boys can like pink if they want to okay?!"Then the boy started to backtrack and say, "yeah, ok. I mean, I kind of like pink too".

A little getaway

2011-05-31T22:28:00.000-07:00

Despite all the fun and games, I'd be lying if we didn't yearn for a little kid free R&R. So we volunteered my family to watch Mai-An for the weekend and hit the road for Napa. It was glorious.

The long Memorial Day weekend allowed us to still have a nice full day hanging out with Mai-An. We joined a bizillion other people at Chabot regional park for a little picnic. Here's Mai-An in her preferred cuddle bug state. Even though she's bony and heavy these days, it's pretty sweet that she always prefers to be perched in our laps pretty much at all times.

Prolific

2011-05-31T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is a sampling of the art Mai-An has produced in the last 24 hours or so. She found some oil pastels and loves them. The pictures include a camel in the dessert, a sloth in a rain forest, a cheetah, a koala climbing bamboo, a hippo, a whale shooting water with its blowhole, a peacock and zebra, a dog eating dog food and a pumpkin patch. The top middle and bottom row 'posters' she made at school today...she actually made many more copies of the same posters. The top ones are of litter on the ground and a person throwing away a "Starbucks cup" into the garbage which she wants to write the words "don't litter", and then the bottom row conveys a vague philanthropic message. She's begging me to assist her in hanging up these posters all over town. It's hard to balance not wanting to crush her spirit with the reality that we can't exactly put tons of signs that say 'don't litter' that may end up as litter. We've agreed to put up the posters in a library or other place where public postings are allowed. Whew.

She also wanted to affix some author pics to the books she has written. It was amusing to see her cut out countless pictures of herself, thereby cutting us out of them.

This one makes for a comical display. This is a song she composed. I don't know if it's the combo of stalker-esque lyrics, Jeff's serial killer penmanship, and Mai-An's freaky pose, but it manages to be creepy and cute at the same time.

Alice's Birthday

2011-05-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Alice's 7th birthday over the weekend, which included a special animal rescue-three legged race, traditional pinata, and homemade pizza and cake. It's pretty special to watch this group of kids from the neighborhood grow since most of us met when Mai-An was three weeks old. This enormous garden has been particularly special since we spent so much time here for many years. It was a bittersweet visit since the family is selling their home, so it was our final gathering in this special place.

A few pics from back in the day in the garden:

2nd Spring Fling

2011-05-22T22:34:00.000-07:00

It was our second Spring Fling fundraiser at Mai-An's school, and this year, I was the coordinator for the event. It worked out well because there was a bunch of awesome parents who ran various committees and did a ton of work, so the whole thing went smoothly and was a lot of fun for the kids. Mai-An had a blast running around to the various games and attractions and collecting loot. Though I spent most of the event working, I didn't feel as flustered as I have felt in these situations before. I think the experience of being in my recent job for the past year has prepared me to deal with being bumrushed with questions and asking people to do stuff. A fellow parent was very sweet in telling me she liked how I brought a calm attitude to the project, which made me kind of laugh at the perception and tell her, "you must not see me at home!"

It was a family affair...my sister came out in support too, but I didn't manage to get a pic.

Inexplicably, my dad got in line with a ticket to visit Peanut the Pony. Reminds me of the 27th picture you need to see before the Rapture.

Being with a kid makes it less weird.

Sara and Mai-An got coordinating face paint, just like last year:

Because one lollipop at a time is just not enough:

The day was long (with set up and clean up duties), but worth it. Jeff pointed out how awesome it'll be to come next year as alum when we just show up and don't do anything!

First Big Spill

2011-05-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

We are really amazed with how quickly Mai-An is learning to ride a bike. This past weekend we went for the 2nd time without training wheels and she progressed dramatically, only wanting occasional assistance to get started when the slope worked against her. She's grown so much that the bike looks so little now, and with the wiggly steering/balancing, it looks like she's riding a clown bike. When she first learned, we had borrowed a friend's bike which was a bit bigger. Even though she has the hang of balancing, she'll need to gain some experience with staying focussed on the path and dealing with different circumstances. I was trying to record her riding a long distance and ended up catching her first major spill on camera. Fortunately, she landed in the best way possible and didn't have a single scrape or bruise. It was scary for all of us though!

After a little break, she was back in the saddle.

Entrepreneur

2011-05-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

Mai-An has been obsessed with money making schemes. Everyday she talks about wanting to sell stuff. It started with lemonade, but due to a lack of logistical support, she settled on selling to her grandparents and aunt during a recent visit. A major scheme lately is organizing a jewelry party. She heard about some jewelry parties that I've attended recently, and felt it was a racket she wanted to be a part of. The other day she announced that she would start paying taxes since she now has a job. She's been actively engaging in production and marketing activities.

She keeps trying to nail down the date and logistics of the event with me, which begged the question of how her friends/customers were going to buy anything since they don't have jobs and money. I imagine my stalling techniques will soon be overcome by her determination, so stay tuned for news of the jewelry party extravaganza.

Then today, she decided she'd make clothes to sell. I gave her an old sheet with a hole in it, and amazingly, she cut armholes in just the right spot to make it look like a wedding dress that's shorter in the front, with a long train in the back, inspired by the royal wedding of course. I convinced her not to sell it because it was so special (whew), and she decided that she'd probably wear it for her wedding day, or at least, out to a fancy dinner with us for our anniversary.

Pier 39

2011-05-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

Some coupons enticed Patty and I to plan a visit to Pier 39. The girls enjoyed themselves while the mamas got to be a little overwhelmed. As we arrive, cotton candy and many other things beckon. Shops full of trinkets and treats further entice the girls and provoke begging and whining. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant-arcade with all sorts of blind spots and possible exits (for wandering children and/or kidnappers), which caused me to enjoy even less the world's nastiest salad of lettuce, cheddar cheese, ranch dressing and buffalo chicken strips. Then as we leave and pay the parking machine, the whole experience is topped off by seeing Ava nearly get her hand eaten by an elevator door and Mai-An report that while my attention was on the machine, she stepped into the elevator and pressed some buttons, but stepped out just in time. Between the near amputation and the thought of Mai-An wandering aimlessly onto a random floor of a garage with speeding cars, I had some serious cortisol and adrenaline coursing through my body which took a while to come down from. Oh, but the kids had fun :).

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed another lovely Mom's Day brunch at Mai-An's preschool. I got another fabulous hat! The kids made egg strattas with cheese, mushrooms, onions and sausage...very impressive!

We all ate under the growing rainforest canopy...the kids are spending the month learning about the jungle, which makes for nice decorations for our jungle themed fundraiser coming up in a few weeks.

Here are a colorful stack of personally wrapped, handmade gifts for the moms...decorated flip flops!!! If I pair them with my pearl-button-puzzle piece broach from last year and hat, I will be uber fabulous.

Right after the Saturday breakfast at the school, I left for a preplanned trip with some other mama friends for a short weekend getaway. When we planned it, no one realized it was mother's day weekend, but it somehow was a fitting event...all us mamas got some R&R in honor of Mother's Day, which was just what the doctor ordered. When I came home Sunday afternoon, Mai-An presented this beautiful bouquet in which she personally selected each flower.

Mai-An has been talking about how much she wants a locket, and when I saw this while out shopping, I felt like I had to get it for her. She was so happy...when I told her I was glad she liked it, she replied: "no mama...I don't like it, I love it!!!"

The index print from a recent photo order had the perfectly sized pictures to use:

Afterwards, she got all secretive, working on another special present for me. She presented a large box that she had wrapped herself...it made for an amusing juxtaposition with the simplicity of the secret surprise...a fan :) Mai-An was incredibly cute afterwards asking me to sit down while she reclined my chair, got some wet wipes to clean and polish my toe nails, and then brought me some fruit to eat all while insisting that I not get up...I could get used to this.

The things they say...

2011-05-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Mai-An asks her teacher in all earnestness: "Would you like some help disciplining the children?"

As we were leaving school today, Mai-An's classmate Leo (who has a twin sister and an older sister) runs after us for the following exchange:

Leo: Hey Mai-An...can I tell you something? I'm going to steal some toys from my sister to give to you. I'll bring some pink stuff because I know you like pink.
Mai-An: OK, thanks.
me: Uh Leo...that's nice you want to give something to Mai-An, but you probably shouldn't take your sister's stuff without permission.
Leo: No, it's fine. Really. Mai-An...can I tell you something else? I love you.
Mai-An: I love you too Leo.

Over dinner:
Mai-An: Mama...I don't think Taylor's parents love me that much.
me: What do you mean? Why do you say that?
Mai-An: Taylor was boasting today that her parents think she's the prettiest girl and they love her more than anything.

Celebrations

2011-05-01T22:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a week of celebrations...it was Auntie Lo's birthday today:

We had our first "Hike Day" at Huckleberry Reserve. When we enjoyed hiking in Big Sur, Mai-An proclaimed that we should hike every weekend and dub it Hike Day.

And Mai-An and I enjoyed watching the Royal wedding together, while Jeff looked on totally confused. It wasn't all trivial and lame...it was an opportunity to talk about traditions, ceremonies, history (e.g. why we don't have royalty in the US, the rise of democracy), and how much we loved that wedding dress. With all the related programming on TV, I also had recorded images of the royal wedding I had watched (and obsessed over) as a girl, which Mai-An enjoyed watching also. After I told her about the significance of the engagement ring that was passed down (and endured incessant questions about why Diana died, why she wasn't wearing her seatbelt, what she was doing in Paris, etc.), I was subsequently asked "Mama, if you die in a terrible car accident, can I have your wedding ring too?".

Superfranks

2011-05-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

Ivan and Mai-An were back together again for an adventure at Superfranks. In the picture above, they were in a special room where they can see themselves on a videoscreen. Mai-An was dancing solo at first, and delightedly grabbed onto Ivan for some partner dancing. When we last visited a few years back, I felt totally overwhelmed since Mai-An was a little young for the place, and this time I was only mildly overwhelmed. The different playrooms were fun, and it was only the Safari room with a jumpy slide and the singalong with the mic'ed leader and amplified Diego and Dora theme songs that was repellent. The genius of the place is that there are waitstaff who service the play areas and will bring you food, and even beer and wine.

Here are the kids playing hide and seek:

Big Sur

2011-04-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

Mai-An had a few days off school for Easter, so we decided to take a trip at the last minute. We considered Disneyland, but thought better of it after friends warned us about the crazy crowds, and decided on Big Sur instead, and I'm so happy it worked out that way. The destination was close, beautiful, not crowded, and relaxing. My sister even joined in at the last minute.

We strolled in Carmel on the way.

We hiked at Point Lobos where we had a scary brush with poison oak. Mai-An went straight to find a 'walking stick' and grabbed at some branches that turned out to be an enormous poison oak bush. Fortunately, a ranger alerted us to the danger right away and some epic hand washing took place and I think we dodged a bullet on that one. There was an insane amount of poison oak everywhere we went!

It was otter pup season, and we got to see several newborns. We (and especially my sister) were taken aback at the sight of the placenta (next to the middle of that brown otter in the center) being voraciously consumed by a bunch of seagulls (not pictured...you're welcome).

Here's our rustic home away from home. No TV, computers or mobile phone reception for us...just reading and watching fires in the evening. Pretty nice!

My favorite sight--a coastal waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. A determined person in love had found a way down and wrote a marriage proposal in the sand.

Mai-An enjoyed trying out different versions of her 'bored' look for her paparazzo father. This one looks less bored and more a mixture of amused and annoyed.

Balancing on a rock at Pfeiffer Beach:

At the end of the day, we took a fairly strenuous hike to Pfeiffer Falls. Most doubted that I would make it as I trailed behind our group (panting), while we all were amazed that Mai-An was leading the group, after a full day of hiking and running on the beach, all while talking and singing non stop. On the way back, she abruptly hit a wall towards the end and could go no further. Fortunately, her papa is still able to carry all her 45 pounds around and make it look easy.

Above, the Bixby Bridge is behind us in the distance. Below, we stopped again to take a closer look.

After indulging in some great seafood in Moss Landing, we made a final stop at Natural Bridges beach in Santa Cruz to check out the tide pools and the Pacific Ocean one last time for this trip.

A perfect family vacation!

Intense

2011-04-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

A recent pic of her handmade Easter hat

Even though the onset of talking has brought about lots and lots of questioning, there seems to be an added edge to Mai-An's inquisitiveness these days. In the early days, she just wanted to know about anything and everything, and most answers were satisfactory. Now, she wants to know about things in a LOT of depth. I started to feel quite exhausted by it all and asked Jeff if he was feeling it too. He seemed puzzled, and hadn't noticed it at all...turns out, the bulk of the questioning was directed at me and Jeff was sort of oblivious to it. I then arranged for it to be unleashed onto Jeff on our drive to San Jose (while I read some reports for work), and he was soon exhausted and eventually passed his iPod back to her for a break.

On our drive home from vacation today, after Mai-An received the usual "no" to the question of whether or not she can have a dog, Mai-An started asking Jeff about his childhood pets when I dozed off as we were passing through San Jose. During the times I briefly woke and as we pulled into our street in Oakland, the questions about the pets were still coming fast and furious. As we unloaded the car, Jeff, sounding a little defeated, told me "I think we might end up having to get her a pet."

Artist

2011-04-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

Mai-An declared that she wants to be a famous artist. She wondered how people become famous, and seemed to understand that it might be a function of luck, and need not be one's primary focus. Then she repeated a semi-related (possibly distorted) mantra that seems to come from school: "It doesn't matter who you are...what matters is friendships." Uh, right. Anyway, she made me sit very still and pose for a portrait. My arms were resting on a table in front of me...though in the drawing, it looks like I'm rubbing my bloated stomach. Nonetheless, I quite like it.

She also was inspired to create some Easter art. She did all the drawing/outlining, but asked me to do the cutting. She also had me do the bow tie, because she whipped herself into a crazy rage when her attempt (on the back side of the page) wasn't up to her vision.

Learning to Ride!

2011-04-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Inspired by her friend Sara who recently learned to ride a bike without training wheels, we went to the park today to give it a go. We planned to have her get the hang of balancing with a pedal-less bike first, but she didn't like it, so we just went straight to the bike without training wheels. She was cautious, but pretty persistent and made great progress today. I think I was 8 when I finally learned to ride a bike, so I'm pretty impressed!

Cooking Class

2011-04-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Mai-An and Ivan made french toast in a cooking class at Habitot today. Despite the obligatory fight/tears that closed out the day, they had a nice day playing together.

As doctor and patient:

As EMTs:

As caged animals:

And even as mother and son:

Surprisingly, I was not totally wiped out as I typically am after a kiddie outing...even after experiencing a heart attack when I thought I had lost one of the kids.

Fantasizing About Freedom

2011-04-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

Mai-An was playing with a bride Barbie when she wondered who she might get married to one day...she thought maybe her friend Jake. I told her that people usually marry someone they meet as a grown up because when they are young, so many changes happen, and also there are lots of adventures to embark on first, like going to college and traveling. She then said she was really excited to go on vacation all by herself when she was older and we had the following exchange about it:

Alumni reunion

2011-04-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

At the 6th birthday party of Scout and Leeloo, Mai-An had a happy reunion with her Skyline buddies from last year.

One of the cooler activities at the party was owl pellet dissection. A big crowd was there at the start, but Mai-An and a couple of other kids comprised the hard-core set who stayed for the long haul, going through the pellets carefully, reconstructing skeletons out of the bones in the pellet, and of course, packing all the contents in a zip lock bag to take home.

School Projects

2011-04-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

Mai-An brought these projects home today. The rainbow is made out of packing peanuts, and the picture below is fingerpainted.

Another school project today was a Hop-a-Thon to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Association as part of Disability Awareness Week at her school. The week's curriculum was great, and Mai-An was coming home talking about the importance of the fundraiser to help kids who have problems with their muscles, and help doctors find new medicines to help. She asked if I could get her a wheelchair and braces to play with. Today, she told me about a special visitor, a friend of the church staff, who was in a wheelchair and used a machine to talk. She told me all about what a day was like for her, and the basic tasks she needed help with. I just love her school, and the kind of learning opportunities they provide.

Changes!

2011-04-03T23:44:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to update the layout of the blog forever since it's been, oh, five years or so with the same prefab template. Jeff's not particularly supportive of the change...he associates the look of the blog with 'baby Mai-An'. He's particularly bummed it affects the whole blog, as in the old posts, but change is good, right?! So I tried to keep the 'baby Mai-An' spirit with a big reminder in the background. I'll give it some time to see if I like the change, or if it drives me crazy as well.

Spring Picnic

2011-04-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a beautiful spring day for a picnic at the Palace of Fine Arts and Crissy Field. Mai-An wasn't cooperative initially with all the photos, but she acquiesced if we all made a silly face. On the way over, Mai-An was very excited that we had brought salami and made the following statement:

"Mama...I know what I want Santa to get me next year! I want a giant sack of salami, big enough that I can fit into it and just eat all that salami. I think Salami is my favorite thing! My second favorite is candy. My third favorite is sugar. My next favorite is cheese."

In the car, Mai-An had a lengthy conversation on an old toy phone. It was oddly realistic and went on for some time. I thought I'd try to record some of it on the sly, but I wasn't sly enough. I love how she tells her imaginary friend (at the 24 second mark) "hold on a second" before she gets testy with me:

Living Dangerously

2011-04-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

In an age when we are perseverating about the Consumer Reports rating on a carseat, and considering if the age and weight limits will last the child until age 8, Mai-An had a moment of kickin' it old school and spitting in the eye of all of that. She was picked up by our friend Krystal in her two seater, on a warm day, and Mai-An was delighted by the idea of riding with the top down in the convertible...and she was in a rinky dink backless booster seat to boot. I had a moment where I worried about the appropriateness of it all, but then I remembered how often my generation rode in the back of a pickup truck, so I guess we can let this one slide.

First Ballet Class

2011-03-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

Mai-An started dance class tonight with her friend Taylor. Mai-An was soooo excited for this class. She told everyone who would listen that she would be starting dance class. When I came to pick her up from preschool, she started tearing her clothes off to change into her leotard on the spot, even though I intended on her changing at home...even the teachers seemed relieved that the time had finally come (and maybe they wouldn't have to hear about it anymore). The class is a ballet/gymnastics combination, but it was very playful. Mai-An's only complaint afterwards was that it wasn't the serious ballet instruction she was expecting...huh, who knew she was so serious!

On the drive over, I was listening to President Obama's address on the radio, and Mai-An asked a lot of questions about how someone becomes president. I explained to her about the different ways to be a leader when she replied "I think I would be interested in being a leader".

Vaguely related to ballet, Mai-An decided to hide over the weekend and have me look for her, but she also set up a variety of decoys...I thought her use of her ballet shoes here to trick me into thinking she was behind the curtain was pretty clever.

Steam Train and Little Farm

2011-03-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

Her father's daughter

2011-03-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Last night, after some feisty pre-bedtime behavior, I finally got Mai-An settled in bed, curled up in may lap, and as I leaned over her to snuggle her and sang the nightly lullaby, my head resting on the small of her back, she says "Mama...that's a present for you.". Just as I ask "what do you mean?" I get a whiff of what she means. "Mama...I farted, ha!". Though I can laugh about it now, a nosefull of fart caused me to seriously flash. Jeff was so tickled by the whole thing, not understanding why I was so unamused in the moment, but I think that's the thing about fart humor...it's always hilarious when you are NOT the victim. I swear, Mai-An and Jeff are so alike!!! They get so much enjoyment from torturing me.

Here we are in happier times, sending birthday wishes to Uncle Aaron:

Speech, etc.

2011-03-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Mai-An is constantly saying funny and surprising things these days. I keep meaning to note them here, but it's so hard to remember after the fact. Today as we were leaving our car in the parking garage for a doctor's appointment Mai-An states "Mama, I think that only me, Papa and you fart, and no one else does"...just as we round the corner for the elevators with other folks standing there...awkward!

Later in the day, Mai-An talked about how excited she is to grow up and have a baby. I ask her why, and she tells me that it will be cool to see me as a grandmother, and "you know how you love me so much? when I have a baby, I will love her that much too". So sweet.

One of our appointments at Kaiser today was for a speech evaluation because I was concerned about Mai-An's ability to articulate her words well. Fortunately, there's no cause for concern and her trouble with certain sounds (th, r, l) is normal for her age. She's been sensitive about this issue since she's overheard me talking about it, and Jeff's been trying to get her to work on her pronunciation. We were advised not to draw attention to any problem and just respond to her using the word and modeling the pronunciation in as natural a way possible. Since she was aware that she was being evaluated for her speech, it was funny to hear her go to great lengths to enunciate her words during the testing. It was also amusing to see her growing vocabulary...the test was set up to elicit specific words from her, but she was often providing a synonym instead...like leaping instead of jumping. Below is a little slideshow of pages from a book she recently put together: "My Book of Growing". She dictated the text to me, and I was amused by some of her word choices:

After all that self awareness and cooperation at the speech appointment, it was quite a surprise then to go to the pediatrician in the afternoon and see Mai-An go insane. Though she cooperated with the exam, when the doctor was making notes in the computer after, Mai-An got all manic and ripped off her socks and began sucking on her feet while cackling. No amount of redirection from me would get her to stop until the doctor stepped out of the room. Then when I told Mai-An I didn't appreciate her acting so crazy, she apologized with what seemed to be some sincerity. When the doctor came back, Mai-An again lost her mind and began acting like she was galloping like a horse ON TOP of the exam table. Not only was her behavior completely out of (her already crazy) character, she was completely impervious to direction from me, which is also not typical these days. I just hope that Dr. Bolden has witnessed this type of situational psychotic break before and doesn't think that the child is being raised by wolves.

Get Togethers

2011-03-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

We've been making the rounds with playdates and birthday parties lately. I guess we've been busy socializing rather than capturing exceptional pics to share. Leaving a play date at Jake's house was sweet because he wanted to make sure Mai-An was properly suited up for the rain outside and buttoned her all up:

Enjoying a book in jammies with friends (Eli 5, Austin 14, Abigail 3, Vanessa 10) for Jeremiah's 2nd birthday party. Mai-An loved playing with the big boys who were good sports and played hide and seek with her in the backyard in the dark with night vision goggles.

For my uncle's 77th b-day, Mai-An initiated the karaoke part of the night with my cousin telling her the lyrics in her ear. It's funny to see a preschooler sing "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You" and the lyric "hold me now....touch me now".

My cousin the pianist even got Mai-An asking for private piano lessons with a special Russian instructor. I don't think that's in the cards. It's hard to believe that I started piano lessons at her age. I cannot imagine trying to make her practice regularly.

Hey Diddle Diddle Dance

2011-03-08T22:40:00.000-08:00

When she was little, Mai-An got a toy that sings a few nursery rhymes in absurdly rocking melodies. She likes to listen to her 'radio' a lot these days and after she was put to bed, she started choreographing a special dance to one of the songs, which she was really excited to show us. Jeff and I just fell out laughing when we saw it because it was so funny and she was so earnest about it...I subsequently learned that our laughing made her embarrassed, but after reframing it as being such a source of joy for us, she felt better about it. Anyway, I coaxed her to do it for the camera, and the lack of spontaneity took some of the oomph out of the original version, but I still love it and the snazzy finish.

Hijinks

2011-03-05T21:26:00.000-08:00

The girls engaged in fancy fantasy play with Mai-An declaring that she was the Queen of England and all the parents were her servants; Sara adorned herself with a fancy hat made of underwear and feathers.

The next day, Mai-An rediscovered her baby gear...and felt the need to locomote with as much of it as possible.

After a trip to the library for 'nature guides', she went on an exploration of our yard and street. She packed a special explorer bag with a small shovel for digging stuff up, flower headband, lei and butterfly rings 'to attract insects' and a bag of nuts to feed wildlife and herself.

Magnifying glass seems better utilized for trapping insects rather than magnifying them:

Then she tried her hand at some nature photography at the nearby creek.

Mai-An also rediscovered her walkie talkie set. Most of the time, she was pleading with me to come play and was not too patient with my excuse that I was still eating my lunch...I kept hearing crackly "C'MON Mama!!! I'm not kidding! I need you in here this instant! I'm so serious!!! I love you". I think I started the 'I love yous' through the walkie talkie, but it apparently caught on because she managed to sign off on most of communications that way...very sweet. I feel very lucky to have such an affectionate child...sometimes she'll stroke my face and tell me she loves me, or call my name and seem to forget what she was going to say and instead just insert an "I love you" just for kicks. Gotta soak it all in while we can!

Wacky Wednesday

2011-03-02T21:51:00.000-08:00

It was Wacky Wednesday/Wacky Hair Day at preschool today in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday. In addition to Mai-An's 'mohawk', she got a kick out of finding all the wacky things at school...e.g. shoes attached to doors, askew lampshades, upside down clocks.

The fun day was capped off with Mai-An's discovery of Calvin and Hobbs. The kid was in stitches forever over this (with a little laryngitis to boot). Even when story time was over, she laid in bed cackling away looking at the cartoons by herself. I was about to bust out the Bad Cop and take it away so that she could wind down and sleep, but she later set it aside on her own and went to sleep...maybe all that laughter tired her out!

Gender Studies

2011-02-27T23:04:00.001-08:00

Here is Mai-An with her BFF from school, Jake, on pajama day, in dress-up clothes. Jake likes to wear dresses, and his favorite color is pink. It's interesting how these details used to be discussed by Mai-An in judgement free observations, but lately, she'll occasionally tell me "boy's shouldn't wear dresses right mom?"..."I told Jake that boy's aren't supposed to wear dresses." It felt sad to hear this knowing that Jake is her closest friend at school, and she was saying things to him that could make him feel bad or uncomfortable. Jeff and I tell her that people can wear whatever they like and as a friend, she shouldn't say anything that could hurt anyone's feelings. It is really interesting to observe how Mai-An's understanding develops on these thornier issues. She has observed that several of her classmates have two dads, or two moms. One day driving home from school, she announced that the families should orchestrate a swap so that they'll each have a mom and a dad, which she thought was the most clever idea. Then the other day, she asks, "mama, what's a boy-girl or girl-boy?"...after further questioning it seemed clear she was trying to get more clarity on her friend's gender status. In addition to incessant questions about the old days, the Loch Ness Monster, etc., Mai-An keeps me on my toes and is making me feel like I need to brush up on info to come up with appropriate responses to all her questions!

New Year Parade at Skyline

2011-02-27T22:54:00.000-08:00

I just saw these pictures (a little late) from the preschool's Lunar New Year parade. The head is made from recycled objects the children brought from home and looks pretty cool! (That's Mai-An as the head.)

In keeping with the large creature theme, here's a short story Mai-An improvised about a T-rex and a monster:

Lake Tahoe

2011-02-23T21:15:00.000-08:00

We were graciously invited by the Swan family to join them in Tahoe again, and we had an awesome trip. It was nice to spend some time and catch up with them, and enjoy the beautiful snowy landscape.

We found this great place to sled near the place we stayed. It was so beautiful and quiet…so quiet that you can hear Mai-An cackling the entire way down on the sled:

I love this clip from our snowball fight, complete with Mai-An conspiring against Jeff:

The next day, I took Mai-An up the Heavenly gondola which was breathtaking...fortunately at her age, the ride is still free! Jeff could not stomach the $32 ticket so he waited down in the casino...but if you ask me, I think things worked out perfectly for him. We reunited at lunch when Jeff and Mai-An returned to the indoor pool at the place we stayed, and I got to hit the slopes by myself. A win-win situation!

In full snow bunny attire, courtesy of a loan from a school friend:

At the top of the gondola, we hit up the tubing. At $30/hour per person (I won't go into how traumatized Jeff was over all of this), I asked the person at the ticket window if it was something Mai-An could do by herself as I watched, and was assured this was ok. So with one ticket in hand, we walked up to the tubing area, and I soon got pretty worried. First, she would have to go up a 65+ foot moving walkway/lift by herself, then she had to drag her tube over to the sled lanes and walk up to a stranger for him to assist her, then she had to go down by herself. I asked her again if she was ok with this and offered to go get myself a ticket, but she insisted she'd be fine. The lift operator was concerned about her being able to hang onto the heavy tube up the lift and did a test go and the weight of the tube knocked her down. I was about to go to plan B when the lift operator said it'd be fine to get another adult going up the lift to pull her tube up for her, which made me feel a little better since it at least assigned someone partial responsibility for her.

I was pretty impressed with how daring Mai-An was! And I was very shocked at how fast the tubes come down. After her first run, she got right up and was ready to do it again...and again...and again. She was clearly having a blast. Then half way into her exorbitant hour, she looked at me kind of sad and asked if I could do it with her. I felt really guilty, so I traipsed back down to the ticket office and did what I should have done to start with and got a ticket, so we spent the rest of the time doing it together. Man, it was FAST!!! Here's a clip of her doing it solo...she's in the closest lane in use (3rd lane). My favorite part is seeing her getting out and leaving with the giant tube...reminds me of a cartoon character.

And no trip to the Swan's timeshare is complete without numerous bubble baths in the awesome tub. I even got a few in myself!

Paging Dr. Nygaard!

2011-02-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

Mai-An got to pretend to provide some life and limb saving treatment at Habitot with Jeff last week when school was closed for parent teacher conferences. I'm glad to see there was a vaccination station there so maybe we can start teaching the next generation that vaccines aren't so bad!

Meanwhile, I was meeting with one of the directors at the preschool. It was nice to see how far Mai-An has come--this time last year, I was seriously stressed over her acting out and anti-naptime shenanigans that were getting her sent home from school. The worst of that period peaked for about a month, and there really haven't been bad behavior reports since. The good news these days is that Mai-An listens and participates enthusiastically at circle time, is imaginative, is good at making connections between her experiences and new things she's learning and does well with legos and puzzles. The director did feel that she is ready for Kindergarten, but she also confirmed my concern over one domain that Mai-An isn't doing well with--social emotional stuff. This manifests a variety of ways from being easily frustrated when projects "aren't up to her vision", ripping into younger kids who unwittingly wander into something she's working on, and some "I'm not your friend" drama when she gets into a spat with her best buddy...which happens several times a day. We see it happen with us too...she used to tolerate limit setting fairly well, but she's definitely in a phase where anytime she is challenged, she gets really mad and wants to make sure we know by giving us not just a stink eye, but an entire stink face--her eyes, nose and mouth scrunch up and she shoves it in our direction for extra emphasis--and a verbal tirade to boot. I guess I have to have faith that this time next year, we will just chuckle at this (v. annyoing) phase that she outgrows.

Here she is displaying her puzzle skills. We did this puzzle with her a handful of times, and in this clip, she did the entire thing by herself for the first time.

Valentines

2011-02-23T19:05:00.000-08:00

For this year's valentine exchange at preschool, Mai-An decided she wanted to make her own valentines. With 33 classmates, I figured she'd make a few, tire of it, and we'd supplement the rest with store bought ones. Well, much to my surprise, she turned into a valentine making machine, churning out 30 valentines over a couple of days--it was a bit of a team effort, so going into it, I didn't realize I'd be sitting in a little chair assisting for that long. When we were in the home stretch before the party, she lost steam and I didn't think she'd be able to make the last three, but she pulled through at the last moment.

Some of the valentines:

A Valentine's quilt the kids contributed to at school:

Academy of Sciences

2011-02-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

We finally made it back to the Academy of Sciences. It was fun, though a little weird to see Mai-An seem to get more excited to see interactive computer/tv screens than the traditional exhibits. She was very excited to discover something called a monkey frog, that swings around on branches rather than hops. She asked to pose for a picture with it to show her 'monkey-obsessed' father.

Though we were about to visit a place with real snow, it was fun to get a simulated sneak preview:

BFFs

2011-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

Mai-An has a special affinity for our friend Krystal. Here they are at happy hour together, and then (gasp!) getting on her new motorcycle afterwards. Mai-An was the designated driver.

Bananas for Papa

2011-02-23T18:37:00.000-08:00

On Jeff's actual birthday, Mai-An celebrated her dad by getting him something she thought he'd really love...a monkey balloon to feed into his alleged monkey obsession.

Birthdays

2011-02-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

It's officially a tradition. Mai-An made a special request to return to Color Me Mine to make gifts for her dad and grandpa. This year, she was much more opinionated about what she wanted to make. It took a lot of convincing to get her NOT to select the giant cat statue for my dad. Then while we were there painting, a lady came in to pick up her latest project and talked about the various Noah's Ark projects she has worked on and will come back to work on...this place must be a hoarder's paradise (perfect for Mai-An).

A few days later...

And then we celebrated again with Sara's family with cupcakes and Svíčková. Super delicious!

Everyone likes their cupcakes extra crunchy right?

The birthday boys with their girls:

Tet

2011-02-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

Our lunar new year celebration began in Oakland Chinatown where we saw Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Mayor Jean Quan, and a bunch of super cute children sing and dance...Mai-An was bummed she wasn't able to be on stage too. We sort of accidentally celebrated there because Mai-An begged to go to dim sum for brunch and we happened upon all the festivities.

Then the festivities continued with a party in Sacramento with family friends. Mai-An remembered the money filled red envelopes from last year and was quite excited.

And she figured out how to gamble for the first time! It was fun until she lost a few times and that's when she broke with her family tradition and stopped playing.