Kimono cutie, lovely lists

Dear Maya,

When we got back from Japan, before Uncle Matt and Aunt Rhi even had time to say so, mommy could tell that you'd gotten bigger. It must be something about how you looked in relation to our house, and we haven't measured you yet to see if you'd had a growth spurt, but you certainly look taller and more mature. When you had that nasty stomach bug, you lost about 6 pounds in 3 days (!) but gained most of it back once you started eating again. It seems as though the weight was distributed differently, and instead of a round-bellied toddler you're looking more and more like a little girl. Mommy is happy and sad about that all at once.

Seeing as how you seem to be growing up so quickly and aren't a little baby anymore, mommy would like to list some things about you and our life together so as not to forget as you grow out of them. Mommy was going to do this around your 2nd birthday, but we were so busy so I'm going to break it down now instead. We've been super jet lagged and sharing head colds this week so we haven't taken any new photos, but mommy saved up these cute pictures of you in a kimono from our trip so they'll break up the long lists.

Bedtime songs:

• Row, row, row your boat
• Mary had a little lamb
• Twinkle, twinkle in English 
• Twinkle, twinkle in Japanese
• Tsuki (Japanese children's song, 'Moon')
• Momotaro (Japanese children's song, 'Peach boy')
• Dendera ryu ba (Children's song from Nagasaki)
• "I love Maya, I love Maya, Yes I do, Yes I do, She's a little sweetie, And a little cutie monkey, too, monkey, too" (to the tune of 'Frere Jaques')
• "Maya, Maya, Pretty little Maya, Maya, Maya, Sleepy little girl x2 (loosely sung to the tune of "Soft Kitty" from The Big Bang Theory, but mommy thought she made up the song herself in the sleepless hazy weeks after you were born)
• "Good night birdies in the trees, Good night grass and bugs and bees, Good night mountains, Good night flowers, Maya's gonna go to sleep for eleven hours" (lyrics changed to "See you later birdies...Maya's gonna take a nap for a couple hours" for nap time)

Songs you can sing (to varying degrees of accuracy):

• Twinkle, twinkle
• ABCs
• Jingle bells
• Tulip (Japanese children's song)
• Old MacDonald
• Funiculi, funicula
• Bingo
• Clean up, clean up

Nicknames we've called you (approximate oldest to newest):

• Boopy girl
• Pookie girl
• Pookie bear
• Pookaloo (an oldie but a goodie from your great-grandpa)
• Punkin doodle
• Punkin boo
• Maya-moo
• Monkey moo
• Moo
• My-my (by daddy)
• Maya-ko (by daddy)

TV shows you like:

• Blue's Clues
• Yo Gabba Gabba
• Dora the Explorer
• Go Diego Go
• Shaun the Sheep
• The Backyardigans
• Curious George
• Thomas & Friends
• The Muppets
• Sesame Street

Japanese words/phrases you've been saying:

• Ji-chan, Ba-chan (Grandpa, Grandma)
• Kore (this)
• Oishii (yummy)
• chodai (please)
• Ikou ka (Shall we go?)
• Yaya koshiya x2 (an awesome chant in the traditional comic theater style of kyogen)

English words/phrases you've been saying:

• What happened?
• Help us! (using the royal 'we' I guess?)
• No I can't! (usually when you mean you don't want to do something)
• Chair! (usually meaning you want someone to sit somewhere)
• Pull! (usually when you're doing the pulling and want us to stand up and come with you)
• My Maya! (usually when we're trying to take something away from you that you shouldn't have)
• Thank you, (name)
• rainbow 
• airplane (you even recognize the sound from indoors!)
• broken (sounds like "glue gun")
• penguin (sounds like "penmin")

Well, we've got a special event here today which we'll report about next week. Until then, love you!