G: Guests & Great-Grandma!

Dear Maya,

Last week started off a little rough with the end of your cold and some crazy weather keeping us cooped up inside. We even had a tornado watch in effect one day, which is very rare in our part of the northeast. Luckily we had an amazing holiday weekend lined up to brighten our spirits.

On Saturday our friends Aidan and Keiko came to stay with us for a few days with their adorable 16-month-old son, Ruarc. You had met him once before when you were the age he is now and he was just an infant. This time it was so much fun to see you interact as growing, learning toddlers.

Saturday night we went out for Japanese food and the two of you kept swaying back and forth in time with each other across the table. Afterwards we went out for ice cream and you kept feeding him some of your ice cream cone. Unfortunately it didn't agree with him--sorry, Ruarc!

Sunday you and Ruarc both woke up an hour earlier than usual despite (because of) your late bedtime the night before. Between us all being tired and the yucky weather outside, we hung out at home all day and played with the two of you and ate daddy's homemade pizza for dinner.

Monday morning we took a quick trip to the park next door before saying goodbye to Aidan, Keiko and Ruarc. Now that they have moved much closer (a 3-hour drive instead of 10) we hope to see them more often. Next time we'll have to go visit them, but you'll need to learn to say "Arigato" first!

Monday afternoon we went to your great-grandparents' house for Nanny's 80th birthday! You fell asleep just as we arrived, having missed your nap, and snoozed on the couch a while with your cousin Grace. After you woke up and had some dinner and cake, you went outside to try out the new bike that Poppy fixed up for you. You didn't quite get the hang of it yet but it won't be long. Afterwards you played soccer in the adjacent field with Uncle Shawn, Billy, Matt and Rhi. It was a fun party.

As everyone was leaving, you called goodbye to them out the window, even adding an impromptu "See you soon!" to Bobbie and Billy. Your language skills have improved so much even just this week that it's astounding. You said a 5-word sentence ("This one goes in there.") and are applying words to different contexts ("I popped it" about green peas when we'd only used "pop" to refer to balloons, bubbles, etc.). You use the word "cute" a lot to refer to babies, farm animals, ants, spiders...

We did study "G" last week but it wasn't too successful because our key word 'guitar' isn't one that you can easily produce. You do recognize a guitar as Uncle Matt played his for us several times this week, and we even built our own as one of our activities, but it's still hard for you to remember.

Hopefully this week our "H" studies will go better and the weather will be nicer. Love you!