Happy 23 Months Maya!

I can't believe in 1 month Maya will be 2!
I'm amazed by her every day, and feel so lucky to be her mom.
Today at lunch she said "Maya's eating cheese"
And yes, she was.

road trip

Yet again 0 photos
Maya and I took a road trip with Grama to Phoenix for Auntie Anda's graduation from Nursing School. Yes she rocks.
Maya did great on the drive out. We stopped a couple of times to stretch and run around and eat awful fast food. Mc Donalds fries are fantastic, Burger King's onion rings not so much. But their soft serve vanilla shake with fudge made up for it. And Taco Bell tostadas are #1 They are messy as heck but win out for best fast food for sure. Maya saw a lot of trucks, and listened to the acoustic Eddie Vedder CD nonstop both ways.

While in Phoenix we stayed with Aunite Anda and Uncle Ben in their beautiful home which they scrubbed from top to bottom for me so I didnt have an allergy attack from their 2 sweet dogs Cody and Charlie. Maya was scared of them at first but by the time we left, she was petting Cody, and still talks about them now.

The graduation was supposed to be from 10am-2pm, but it ended a bit early and there was an hour break between the ceremony and pinning.

Maya did as well as a 21 month old could, and passed out the second we left.

We ate SO well every day it was fantastic. Highlights include dinner at True Foods, graduation celebration dinner at Sapporo which was a Teppanyaki restaurant. Maya LOVED watching the chef cook right in front of her, but cried when he did something that released a TON of steam right in her face. It didnt burn her, it was just smokey and kinda scary for her. Thats where I discovered my love of Dark and Stormy cocktails thanks to Uncle Ben. And finally farewell brunch at The Wrigley Mansion. As in Wrigley Gum. Uncle Ben basically runs the place and totally hooked us up. It was SO delicious. After we ate he took us on a tour of the amazing and unique property. I cant believe that mansion was someones home. The Wrigley's built the luxurious Biltmore hotel right next door so their friends had somewhere to stay when they were in town. The Hormel family (as in Hormel chili and Dinty Moore beef stew) now owns the Mansion. See I was paying attention on Uncle Ben's tour!

After brunch it was time to drive home. Surprisingly Maya didnt fall asleep until we were 10 minutes from my moms house at 6pm. I tried to wake her up, but it didnt work, and she slept until 7am the next morning.
She talked our ears off the entire ride home about Cody and Charlie, and the garbage trucks which are her most favorite thing ever. And just so you know, Green bins are for compost, Black are for trash and Blue is for recycling. She said this over and over and over. She also asked me to play the Eddie CD over and over. And asked for a snack every 10 minutes.

We were sad to leave and miss everyone already but were THRILLED to share in Anda's special day.

Thanksgiving weekend

So much to be thankful for this year.

Im sad to say I don't have 1 picture, but I will give you the lowdown. Grampa Tu, Nana, and Uncle Dan joined us and I made:

Save the chicken pot pie
Brussel sprouts with Pomegranates and Hazelnuts
Stuffing with Roasted Acorn Squash and Chestnuts
Arugula Salad with Persimmons, Toasted Nuts, and Goat Cheese with a Mustard Vinaigrette
Pecan Pie
Vegan Pumpkin Pie
Coconut whipped cream
The cocktail was a Dark and Stormy which is dark rum, ginger beer, and fresh lime juice.

Nana brought Artichoke nibblers for an appetizer, and Sweet Potatoe Latkes for lunch.
Oh and Luka would like me to let everyone know that he ate 4 brussel sprouts without complaining.


Then on Friday we had the Russian's over for leftovers. That's what we call it, but I made a whole other dinner without too many leftovers:

Grilled Tofu with Mushroom Gravy
Stuffing (leftover)
Vegan Ceasar Salad with Lemon Garlic Croutons
Chinese 5 Spice Cranberries
Dark and Stormies
Pumpkin and Pecan Pie (leftover)

All in all it was a delicious 2 days, and today we finally finished everything.

Lots of THANKS and lots of GIVING

Thanksgiving weekend

YO GABBA GABBA!

Yesterday was Maya's second YGG concert! This time Mia and her parents came too so it was even better than last year.
She was very overwhelmed for the first half, and sat in my lap crying for a lot of it. She didn't even want to dance for her favorite "get the sillies out" song.
But after a brief intermission, she was ready and acclimated, and enjoyed the second half. She watched the big screen, not the stage. I don't think she understood the live part. When the concert was over she cried and said "bye gabba gabba" for almost 30 minutes. No joke.
My favorite part was Biz's Beat of the Day, he really got the party started.
Vlad gifted the girls with this adorable Brobee backpack, and I got her the YGG clips, there is 1 of each character. Here she is in all her new Brobee gear this morning.

peek a boo!

Maya discovered that the cabinet under the kitchen sink is the BEST hiding place now!

MJ

This is a super fashionable and cool Marc Jacobs hat that Maya got for her 1st birthday.
Not bad, since it took me 35 years to score some Marc. Yes Im SO jealous.

Ba ka la

Maya made up this word for Luka
Bata is brother in Serbian, and we think she sort of combined Luka and Bata and came up with
Ba ka la!

Riding high

Ok so I REALLY need to get Maya a skateboard.
Anything she sees with 4 wheels is now ride-able to her.
Here she is with her fisher price phone (probably older than I am), using it as a skateboard.

It's not safe at all, but I do give her props for creativity.

sisterly love

Im so glad that despite their huge age difference, my kids love eachother so much.
It is however, REALLY hard to get a picture of them both
A)looking at the camera
B)holding still
C)smiling

coolest nails ever

Ok, so I am TOTALLY obsessed with Sally Hansen's nail stickers. I mean, when I first discovered them, I went to like 20 drug stores to get all the varieties. Literally. And when I went different places (the valley, my moms house) I went to drugstores in those neighborhoods too. I always get a ton of compliments on them, and carry around a box so I can show other ladies what they are. Sally, if youre out there hook a sister up!
I had no idea they made halloween ones, but thankfully I have the coolest, best, most thoughtful sister in the world, and she sent them to me.
I tried so hard to get a good picture, and this was the best I could do. Pedja thought I was nuts. I was trying different rooms, different lighting, different backgrounds. It was kinda funny now that I think about it . In the end we have just a crappy camera.
They are silver with different black spider webs on each one. Seriously people, they are so cool.

halloween 2011

Here are the twins, as well as the coach.
We asked them if they wanted to give eachother a hug, and Maya always goes in head first.
After the photos with the coach (who blew his whistle all night and said "drop and give me 20") Maya's costume was off.

Princess Leia

And for act 3, Princess Leia.
Mia and Maya were twins.
The costume was VERY warm and bulky and long, and Maya was not a fan.
Half way through pictures she had the top half of the dress down. By the time we got outside to start trick or treating, she took the whole thing off.

spooky

Here is the only shot we were able to get of the 4 of us. This was our first halloween together as a family.
I was a witch. Pedja was a pirate, Luka was a basketball coach, and Mays was Princess Leia.
We went trick or treating in Mia's neighborhood along with 1000 other people.
They live in Hancock Park which is a really ice neighborhood, so there were a ton of people that came from all ends of the world it seemed, hoping for some good candy.
Too bad for Luka who was SO excited to go trick or treating for his first time, the neighborhood was not prepared for the masses, and everyone was out of candy by 830pm

Cowgirl

Cowgirl

I had a car issue on halloween, and my car ended up at the mechanic for almost 5 hours. This was totally unexpected, so I was not prepared with a stroller or many diapers and it was 90 degrees in the valley.
Fortunately, my mechanic dropped us off and picked us up from my dad's house so we had some shelter from that heat.
Nana busted out her bag of random halloween costumes and costume parts, and Maya liked this small cowboy hat and sequins belt that she decided was much better suited as a necklace. My dad carved this pumpkin for her.

FOOFA!

Maya had 3 costume changes for hallowen this year believe it or not.
Act 1 was Foofa from Yo Gabba Gabba!
My super mom/friend Elizabeth made her this rad Foofa hat, and she wore a pink top with a flower on it and pink pants.
Last week Pedja got her a Foofa doll and that is now her favorite thing.
Foofa! She's pink and happy!