2 wheels...

Taking a risk, I suggested Maya try out her 2-wheeler bike again this past weekend.  She's been too afraid to try it in the past but seemed open to the idea this time.  With a brief time of reinforcement & reassurance, something clicked for her and she was off...  Stopping is a bit of a challenge, and she needs the training wheels, but she can really go!  She was even standing during hill-climbs. 

John made some comment about Olympics 2024 but we'll let that go for now...

Anniversaries...

May 18 was the day our daughter met her new parents. 
May 19 was the day we signed the papers to become her parents PLUS it is her birthday. 
May 20 was her Abandonment day PLUS the day she received her Canadian Citizenship. 

That's an intense 3 days of very powerful positive and negative anniversaries for our lovely little girl...

Mothers Day...

Once Maya's birthday party was all cleaned up, I declared the start of my extended Mothers Day.  For the next 36 hours I was not going to do ANYTHING.  No cooking, No cleaning, No decisions, No picking up, No nuthin'...

John and Maya stepped up nicely and took over most things (they kinda had to if they were going to eat though...)  We went for a long bike-ride, had a picnic (birthday party left-overs), wandered around Granville Island, lazed around on the deck in the hot sun and BBQ'd for dinner.  I didn't have to do anything but relax, play with Maya & be fed, wine'd, and pampered...

I could get used to this...

4th Birthday party...

Maya's 4th birthday party was a blast!  As we were going to be away in Kelowna for her actual birthday, we decided to have the party a week early.  Maya got to pick who she wanted to come to her party and, because of the wide age spread (4-12), we chose a splatter painting party.  Besides our regular gang of kids, she chose 3 boys from pre-school.  One of them has been her boyfriend since last fall.  (Are 3-year-olds supposed to have an 8-month-long relationship? That's longer than some adult relationships!)

The kids had so much fun 'throwing' paint, squirting paint, spinning paint and just getting really messy.  The end results have yet to be seen (sealing the canvases) but what we saw on the day looked pretty great. 

The post-painting party involved snack food, wraps, chips & dip and a Thomas cup-cake Cake (she's a tom-boy).  There may have been a bottle or two of wine and a case or so of beer for the adults, but we won't dwell on that.

The day was a great success and something I would definitely recommend to others...

Wind...

Maya: Mommy, would you like to share my wind?
Me: Um. OK...
Maya: It smells like chocolate!
Me: Definitely yes, then!
(the back car window was open and we just drove by a chocolate place)

Easter Bunny...

Well... we caved and decided to give M a commercial Easter, complete with bunny, painted eggs & fables (ie lies) about a rabbit that lays/poops eggs, sneaks in to your house in the middle of the night and then hides said eggs/poop all over the house for children to find and eat.

We couldn't really NOT go with this story as there was such a big emphasis on it at school.  We knew that the religious version(s) wouldn't be explained at school, or at home, so we went this this one.  Maya's excitement had been building all week as she anxiously awaited the Easter Bunny's arrival.

Here is a picture of our little bunny, and her little bunny...

     

Old-er...

Last Friday, Maya's pre-school had a dance party.  Walking home that night, I asked Maya to show me her dance moves.  While dancing, I started singing the Maroon 5 song  '... woo-oo-ooo-ooo, she's got the moves like Jagger...'  Maya laughs, stops dancing, looks up at me and asks, 'whats a Jagger?'.  

Oh... to know that he'll be dead before she even knows who he is just made me feel old-er.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD1eGqURFFA