Dear Mai,
You speak very well... for the most part. You're vocabulary has been bursting since 16 months old and now its over the top. You sling together 3, 4 and even 5 word sentences now like its nobody's business. I came home late from work last night and almost missed your bedtime. Mama was just about to tuck you in when I walked in the house. I hear this exclamation immediately. "Want water meddon (melon) pease Daddy!" That was your chant as you trucked down the stairs, right passed me (no kiss, no hug) and straight to the refrigerator. Mama had said you could have watermelon for dessert when Daddy got home. That was 2+ hours before I got home. Our girl likes her fruit. (you like food in general. Mama said you had a 45 minute dinner last night)
Besides "meddon" for melon and "micky" for music the only other word(s) I can think that you constantly alter is "wa won" meaning "other one." They day after Christmas we had to drop Mommy off at the airport and head to your other Grandma's house. Mommy and I were talking about how we should refer to each Grandma. Grandma C? Grandma G? Big Grandma and Little Grandma? We were telling you that we were going to see Grandma, the other one and you seemed to get it right away. You understood that you have 2 Grandmas. So that's it! It's just Grandma and when we are talking about a different Grandma it's just "Grandma. wa won."
You thought you were pretty cool eating your meals at the big girl chair.
Eating breakfast with Grandma
But then I made the mistake of sitting you on the high bar stools. From there on out. "big gurl chair."
Both Grandma's always have a lot of Christmas decorations out. Your favorites were the ones that play music, sing, dance and light up. At the other Grandma's your favorite was the Christmas Hippopotamus. At this Grandma's your favorite was the snowman even though it scared the bejesus out of you a few times. We heard the words "more noman" more than we ever wanted to. And that darn thing sang winter wonderland. Every. Single. Time.
You started coming out of your shell a bit more and saw my whole family again. Cousin Maria adores you and you warmed up to her. A little. :)
We got to see cousins Deb, Mel and Holly, William, Aunt Terry and Uncle Chuck!
But your favorite person by far (you're BFF if you will) was Uncle John.
While we were there you played pretend for the first time. At first I didn't understand what you were doing. You kept saying "choo choo train. On choo choo" And made Aunt Rosie and Uncle John sit with you on the floor. You pointed to the side of the coffee table that had box like frames and said "choo choo trian. on choo choo." Daddy:" Oh! You're on a choo choo train?" Maya (with excitement) "YA!" You tried to get cousin Matt to play too but he wasn't budging. :)
When it was time for them to leave you whined "John. want John." and pouted at the door.
You're kind of the center attention when we go back to Ohio. Whether it's watching you be goofy, try out your new outfits or just watching you play the iPad. Seriously, you had at one point like 5 people watching you play your iPad games. Spoiled much?
At the end you started getting really, really clingy to Daddy though. (we sometimes refer to you as our Klingon) We went to a Japanese steakhouse and you wouldn't get off my lap. Usually you love to sit in your high chair but too long away from your routine was tough on our little one this time. We finally got you in your high chair. Then the chef lit the fire. Wow. 5-alarm screaming. I even tried to prepare you for it. Did not help one bit. In hindsight it was kind of funny. You're a kid. You're resilient. You bounced back. I'm allowed to laugh. :)
You did finally get back to a normal sleep / nap schedule. Although as I'm remembering this, I think this is when I created the "30 minute tuck-in" monster. Ugh! Bad Daddy! :)
Even though it was a long time for you, it seemed like in no time are visit had to come to an end. It was goodbye to both Grandma's and all the cousins and friends. Off to the airport with our seasoned littler frequent flyer.
And home to Mommy! We landed in Seattle around 11:00 PM on New Year's eve so we even got to party with Uncle Shawn and Aunt Becky when we got home! You're first New Year's eve party! (Daddy likes to have New Year's Eve Parties you'll soon find out. Heck that is how Mommy and I met but that is a story for another time. Or maybe never)
There were some trying times Mai. You were crazed, funny, whiny and a partial lunatic. Most of all you were a trooper and it was awesome seeing you spend time with everyone back home. Like I said on my last post, Grandma (wa won) is coming out in 2 days! After that Aunt Rosie and Uncle John are coming! Hopefully we can get this Grandma out here soon too. Before you know it, it will be Christmas time again and we'll do it all over again!
Merry Christmas Maizy!
Daddy