Dear Mai,
You are not a party girl. You think you're a party girl but you're not. You like to talk a big game but when the rubber meets the road you tend to save your crazy antics for the comfort of your own home.
So in early November of 2013 you went to your first "Bouncy House" party. There was a kid in your daycare that had his birthday party there. Now let me tell you, I was dreading this. The thought of a gazillion kids running around at the top of their lungs bouncing off things like they just had 8 shots of espresso sounds nightmare-ish to me. As with many things in my life over the past two years, I was wildly surprised that I thought "it wasn't that bad." Oh who am I kidding. It was a blast watching you run around like a lunatic there.
At this point you're still not playing with the other kids directly but you're definitely watching what they do and want to copy. I'm sorry to say that you might have inherited Daddy's "jumping" ability. This was about three months ago and I'm sorry to report that you still have no air in your "jump."
But look! It's brave Mommy going to take you down the big slide! Oh wait. She chickened out and turned around! You might have got your "toughness" from Mommy because your kind of a scaredy cat too.
We lasted about 40 minutes at the party before the wheels came off the bus. That's okay. I was ready to go too. :-)
We had a few visitors in November. Walt, one of my best friends since I was a kid visited us. You guys bonded. So at the time I'm writing this Walt and I have been friends for over 35 years. By the time you're reading this in your silver jumpsuit futuristic space outfit, we'll probably have known each other for like 50 years. Maybe less than that. Maths.
Then my great friend Matt came to visit! Get this, his wife Lynn (also a great friend) sent him out to Seattle as a present to go to the Red Fang concert with Shawn and I. How cool is that?
You loved Walt and Matt and kept asking for them for days after they left. While they were here you provided dinner entertainment and showed your East Toledo pride.
So... Red Fang. I think you saw your love for Red Fang starting to form during our little name that tune game. Its only grown since then. I bought this little $2 Red Fang Skull patch for you at the show and gave it to you the next morning. You treated it like it was made out of pure gold. If there was any doubt, you are my child.
Of course, while they were here I had to take them out to some no kid allowed places. Mommy was a sport and stayed home with you. However, where did she say I was when I was gone? A party. Daddy, party.
You still like to bust this fine piece of parenting out at random times. Most recently? At a checkup.
Doctor: "How has she been doing?"
Mommy: "Good! She..."
Maya (interrupts) "DADDY! PARTAY!!!!!"
Doctor: "What did she say?"
Mommy: "..."
So at this point, you LOVE to talk about parties. You love to say you want to go to a party. You say you want cake. (okay, you still love cake at parties) But once the actual party arrives you kind of shell up and become a Mommy and/or Daddy hanger. All talk Mai, all talk. Some other great friends, Dave and Meagan, have a daughter that turned 1 recently. It was all the rage at Casa Castañeda leading up to this event. PARTAY! CAKE! DADDY PARTAY! When the day finally arrived you mostly played by yourself and you were very calm and subdued. You did like your cake though. Apparently you decided that hands were optional cake utensils at this point too.
You did get to play your first safely attach the no-pin-having tail on the Fox though. (Why can't we just leave it as the donkey? #getOffMyLawn)
After the party you improved your zero to disaster time by a few milliseconds.
So I don't want to paint a bad picture here for you Mai. You're not even two yet so who cares about some of our little quirks. I know I've said it before but by the time you are reading this you know you need some tough skin to get along with this family. All our attempts to publicly humiliate you are in the spirit of good clean fun. You are an awesome, awesome, awesome little being Mai and you will know that this hits on a few of our secrets to a good life. Be humble and have fun. You absolutely can't go wrong if you take those to heart. We're just throwing you into the fire, so to speak.
Love,
Daddy