lunch time

One of Maya's birthday gifts was a neat set of wooden pots and pans for her kitchen, that included an apron, place mats, and cloth napkins with flower shaped napkin holders.
We decided to have ourselves a proper lunch and set it all up.

nap time

So Maya's collection of Yo Gabba Gabba characters is now complete-she has all 5.
5 you say? I only count 4.
Well your math skills are top notch people. Maya suddenly has an aversion to Toodee.
These pictures are of Maya playing "nap time" with her Yo Gabba Gabba friends. And youre right-there is NO Toodee.
She lays everyone out on the brown pillow and then covers them with that white blanket while they "take a nap". Toodee is always laying on the floor face down somewhere in the playroom during "nap time". The other day I asked her about it, and all she said was "take a tail off" I said "her tail doesnt come off I think shes tired and she would like to take a nap next to Plex" She said "no" She doesnt like Toodee's tail and therefore shuns her from Gabba land.

cereal

Maya's favorite snack lately is cereal. Honey nut Cheerios with almond milk to be exact. Here she is at the head of the table, in one of our chairs-no booster, one of our bowls and one of our spoons. Eating all by herself.
My little girl is so grown up!

Maya goes shopping.

One of Maya's favorite things to do is "go shopping"
She puts on her black purse, and puts all her veggies in her shopping cart.
She says "mommy maya go shopping" and I say "ok bye have fun"
She takes a lap around the play room and comes over to me and says "maya back!" And I say "oh did you have fun shopping?" She says "yes" I say "what did you buy?" she says" rice, yogurt, tortillas" I say "did you pay the lady with your card" She says "yes"
And we do this over and over.

This is what I do for work - I guess I should say what we do for work, since she is my trusty assistant.
Actually today I really did made her work. It was pouring rain, and all the carts were wet so I couldn't put her in like I normally do. I saw the row of mini kids carts inside all nice and dry, so I had her push and had a blast! I also found a bunch of stuff that wasn't on our list when we got to the check out line like kumquats, sliced mushrooms, coconut water and tomatoes on the vine.

Party!

Yep You guessed it. I don't have 1 picture from her party.
All I have are these from home after.
My mom and I were organizing all her awesome gifts.
And she and Luka were having fun with the Yo Gabba Gabba blower/noisemakers!

The party was at Joey's Gym, which is a kids gym by us, and I take Maya there on Monday mornings for a 1 hour class and she loves it.
A bunch of her friends and family came ran around and played, and we had a ton of food and snacks for when they had worked up an appetite. Of course we had those Native Foods "Save the Chicken Wings I was just writing about, (btw she spit it out when she tried it on her actual birthday, but did eat a TON of broccoli dipped in the vegan ranch) along with fruit, veggies, and goldfish crackers. All Maya ate were the goldfish crackers. And a few strawberries. She had never had goldfish before, and holy cow did she like them.
For dessert I got these awesome vegan and gluten free mini donuts from a chi-chi new bakery I heard about by watching Ellen a while back. They were amazing. Flavors included chocolate peanut, lemon, coconut passionfruit, and banana chocolate chip. Seriously so yummy. Maya wanted NOTHING to do with them. All she wanted were the goldfish so that's what she had.
It was such a fun day. That night Luka said "I think every year from now on her party should be a Joey's Gym"

daddy's little girl part VII

Birthday suit

I was one of those INSANE people that attempted to get some Missoni for Target loot a couple of months ago. I wasn't too successful, but my girlfriend Melissa was, and she grabbed this fabulous dress. I'd been saving it for a special occasion, and the big 2 seemed perfect. (Notice how she's NOT wearing it in the lunch pics?)

Oh and btw, Aunite Anda gifted her with matching shoes! I can't wait until they fit!

And YES that is a Wii remote in her hand. Since Luka plays, she has to as well. She doesn't actually play. She just likes to hold it as long as he is playing. She says "Maya play Wii" when he goes to turn it on.

Maya's birthday part II

Here are a few pictures of the girls on Maya's birthday without their mouths full of cupcakes. Actually, aside from the cupcake photos, these are the only birthday pictures I took. Awful. Just awful. As you can see it was nearly impossible to get the girls to both look at the camera at the same time.
The day was really mellow. We all had lunch here with my mom and Auntie Anda, then after her nap, we met up with Nana and Grampa Tu and Uncle Dan for dinner at one of our favorite vegan spots, Native Foods.
Native foods is extra special to me since that was the very first meal I had post delivery. It was lovingly delivered by my brother Brad and his wife Bridgit.
In fact, the thought of my upcoming meal of "save the chicken wings, fries and salad with extra ranch " was about the only thing that got me through the last couple of hours of my 4 day labor.
For dessert I made vegan applesauce cake for her this year, and she ate some of it, but spit out all the raisins.

Maya's birthday part I

Mia and her mom Lo, as Maya calls her (her name is Michelle) and Baby Jack (that's the baby in Michelle's belly) came for lunch on Maya's birthday. They brought over these super yummy mini cupcakes from a local bakery to celebrate. As you can see they were a big hit! Of course to balance it out I gave her pasta with kale for lunch- I promise kale is her favorite food, so it wasn't a punishment at all.

big girl bed fun

This was taken the day we put Maya's bed together. She spent most of the day with her ducks on it.
She would line them up, take them down and do it all over again on her "big girl bed" as she calls it.
She had to drag Luka in for some duck-fun-time too.
It's hard to see, but on the wall above her bed is a Yo Gabba Gabba drawing Luka made for her for her birthday. It's all of the characters. It's pretty bad ass if you ask me.

sleep over

Auntie Lili from Santa Cruz came for a quick visit last week.
It was so great to see her, even for 24 hours.
Maya really liked her sleeping bag. We haven't taken her camping yet, so this was her first experience with one. She played in it for a while.

Books are your friend

I am thrilled that both of the kids love to read as much as I do.
Luka was in his room reading the other night, so Maya grabbed a book of her own and went into his room. She sat down next to him and started to read. When I asked her what she was doing she said "Luka Maya reading"

The Handyman

I knew Luka was handy, but didn't realize how so until I woke up to find him putting together the compost bin we gave Pedja for the holidays.
It was in like 100 pieces, with even more screws, and he did it all by himself in just a few hours as a surprise for his dad !
I was quite proud of this accomplishment, especially since he used his fingers-not a screwdriver for those hundreds of screws.

Big girl bed

Here she is!
She love love love's her bed.
She likes to pretend she's napping too.

Mommy's little helper part III

Maya still loves helping with all the household chores, especially the laundry.
She likes taking her laundry from the dryer, and helping me fold it and put it all away in her drawers.
She has learned how to fold her socks up together. Here she is in the process, and with the final product that she lined up all neat.
She did all of that by herself.

Best gift ever

Can you guess what it is? Yep, it's Aunite Anda!!
She came to spend Maya's birthday with us and we were all so happy!
After all, she was in the delivery room, so she and Maya have a super special bond.

yummy!

I think this is the BEST meal I've ever made.
Im serious.
It is homemade Seitan - (a veggie meat replacer kind of thing), with mushroom leek stuffing, all rolled up and baked.
I also made a mushroom gravy to top it with. It was a total labor of love that used every single pot pan and measuring instrument in the kitchen.
I don't know when I will make it again, but holy cow, it was frickin' awesome!

Band-aid ball

Here is a little project Maya did while I was making breakfast.
She was SO proud of herself!

Holy Cow!

Has it REALLY been so long? SOOOOOO long since my last post?
Holidays, New Years, Mayas Birthday AND party?
I so hope she doesn't take after my slacking blogging skills.

I have so much to catch up on, but the first thing that pops into my mind is she got her "big girl bed" for her birthday.
And she LOVES it.
She looks forward to naps and bedtime -any excuse really to get on it!
She is also facing forward in her car seat now.

And she had her 2 year check up- 31 pounds and 37 inches The doctor is pleased and so are we.
More to come sooner than later!