And this and that

Her 2yo birthday morning.

Papa drew a cake for her.

Thank you all so much for gifts.  

Maya has been reading, playing, sitting on, admiring, wearing them.  Thanks! 

And these furniture set is great, Mamochka and Papochka.

She let the hippo sit and reading to him.

Having lots of Daddies.

And a chocolate.

She has so much to carry.

She's obsessed with two blankets and the monster security blankie she has when she sleeps in the crib.  She wants to carry them everywhere.

December 2014 yea.... Maya's growing.

Yes.  I did hide my daughter from you.
I was (actually still am) so busy with my work lately, I've been terrible organizing and sharing photos and videos with you.
Here are some stuff.
Maya's being so awesome.  Definitely following the necessary developmental stage of "terrible Two."

お久しぶりです。すっかり働くママになり、忙しくしてまして、写真やらビデオやらを整理する暇もアップする暇もなくなってしまいました。
マヤはますます可愛く、めんどくさく、うるさく、賢くなっていってます。
ロシア語のプリスクールでたくさんのお兄ちゃんお姉ちゃんからすごくいろんなことを教わって帰ってきて、帰りの車で今日新しく習った歌や誰と遊んだとかいろいろ聞くのが楽しい今日この頃です。
チョコレートデビューも果たし、最近は「えだまめ食べたい」の代わりに「クッキー食べたい」と言ってきます。うちでは一切あげてないから、まぁ、学校で年上のみんなに混ざって食べちゃうのはしょうがないか。

The Russian Pre School's Holiday Party.

They celebrated Maya's birthday as well at the party.

This is Milla and Marat (who did MC for our wedding)'s daughter, Sasha singing to get a Hanukkah gilt from Maya's favorite, Teacher Faina.

Milla was very pregnant with this child at the time of our wedding.

Maya is always in between Daniella (her favorite big sister and Maya is Daniella's favorite too) and her little brother, Sam.

Veronika and Sam reciting a poem.

Then cookies, gingerbread house, cake, chocolate, juice..... basically every possible form of sugar.

Maya learned "chocolate" is awesome. 

Then she runs around with sugar-high.

Dec. 2. talkative 2 yo.

Maya speaks really well.
It's now so much fun to have "conversation" with her on the way home from her preschool.

Today's conversation goes like........
Me :     "How was the school?  Was it fun?"  in Japanese
Maya:  "Yeah."  in English
Me :     "What did you do?"  in Japanese
Maya:  "Teacher Faina"  in Russian
Me :     "Did Teacher Faina teach you anything?"  in Japanese
Maya:   "Teacher Faina taught me many things."   in Japanese
Me:       "Wow!  That's great!!"  in Japanese (I honestly was pleasantly surprised how she said the full sentence.)

Me :      "What else did you today?"  in Japanese
Maya:   ".........."
Me :      "Did you sing songs?"  in Japanese
Maya:   "Yeah.  I sang songs."   in Japanese
             "And then I play Daniella." in Japanese
Me :      "Oh that's right.  You like Daniella, huh?"  in Japanese
Maya:    "Maya likes Daniella." in Japanese
Me :       "Who else did you play with?"
Maya:    "And then I play Nana." in Japanese (I don't know if there's a kid name Nana.)
               "And then I ate meal a bit ago." in Japanese
Me :        "Oh really.  What did you eat there?"  in Japanese
Maya:     "I ate meal."  in Japanese
                "I ate cereal." Japanese sentence with "cereal" said in English
                "And then.... I ate Nana."  in Japanese  (at this point, I daught Nana is her classmate. )
　　　　"And then I want milk!" in Japanese

And we sang "Rain song" in Japanese and "Turkey song" in English together.
Maya sang some other songs I don't know which she learned from school.
It's really troublesome to drive 1.5 hours for the pickup, but I feel it really worth taking her to this lovely Russian preschool.  She is a happy happy kid when I come to pick her up at the end of the day.

学校帰りの長いドライブ中、マヤとのおしゃべりがすっかり楽しくなった今日この頃。
今日はいくつもちゃんとしたフレーズを言って、びっくりさせてくれました。

私：「ファイーナさん今日は何教えてくれた？」
マ：「トォルテ　ファイーナ（ロシア語で園長のファイーナ先生の呼び名；ファイーナおばさん）、いろんなことおしえてくれた。」
とか、
私：「あとは？何した？」
マ：「ダニエラあそぶ」
私：「そっかー。マヤ、ダニエラ好きだもんね。」
マ：「マヤ、ダニエラすき」
私：「あとは？何した？」
マ：「うたうたう。」
　　「あとは〜、さっき、ごはんたべる。」
私：「ほんとー。何食べたの？」
マ：「さっき、ごはんたべた。シリアル食べた。ナナ（？）食べた。あとは〜。。。。ぎゅうにゅうほしぃっ。」

It's really amazing when some perfect sentences come out from her mouth.
In the flight back from St. Louis the last Sunday, when I said something to Toli about Maya lowering my voice, she goes "What're you saying?" in perfect English.
I think now, she understands and speaks three languages evenly.

Dec. 1. Maya turned 2!

Maya had been busy opening presents and reading cards.

Thank you so much everyone for the warm messages and thoughtful gifts.

Personal thank you-s will be on on their way.  

At night, we celebrated her second birthday at a neighborhood cafe with our favorite friends.

Maya thinks "Daddy" means Jared, Big Maya's dad.

Sometimes, when she lists up close persons, she goes "Mama, Maya, Papa, Jared....."

Welcome to the family, Jared.

Nov. 17th. Everybody wants to be Massimo

Our crazy baby Maya pretends to make a goatee like Massimo with a piece of fish and rice.

Clearly, she got the idea from me.....

この右がマッシモさん。

そのマッシモさんのあご髭を魚で再現してしまう、奇想天外な今日のマヤさん。

Nov.16. Happy Birthday おじいちゃん

Morning play time with Papa.

Sunday night, we went out for dinner.

What she meant was Happy Birthday, Ojichan.

It was his birthday on November 16th.

ハッピバースデー　「おじいちゃん」がなかなか出てこなかったね。

Nov.5. End of the first day of the school

So, Maya loves her new school.

When I went to pick her up at 5:30 on the first day of the school, she ignored me and pretended not seeing me.  It took a while for her to feel ready to go home and she needed a teacher to escort her out the door, since she kept being ignorant of me.

In the car while we drive back the long way, she told me she drew somethings with green.

Nov. 4. Maya' first day at school

We just dropped off Maya at her new Russian daycare/preschool for her first day.  She liked all the attention from teachers and other staffs.  When we were ready to take off after the paperwork, she just hugged and waved saying "bye bye."

Have a great day, Maya.  You'll learn so much in the school.

Sep.22. Portugal trip: half way report

We've been traveling around in Portugal for 10 days now.  

Lots of fish, wine, rain, walking, driving, churches, and diaper changing.

Maya seems to enjoy the local food as much as we do.  She is enjoying the time with both me and Toli very much.  She's always in a good mood and seems not mind about driving long time and sleeping in different cribs. 

We are staying in an old castle from 15c tonight and off to Spain tomorrow.

ポルトガル旅行中〜🎵

雨に降られてなかなか予定通りに観光出来ないけど、みんな楽しんでまーす。

Sep.9. iWatch 見た？欲すぃー！

今日は久しぶりにバークレーのぢひちゃんち。

私達がいるとうざがって、その姿を見せてくれない、みそ様。

昨日、韓国のお盆だったという事で、手間ひまかけてつくられたナムルやらわかめのスープやらを沢山頂きました。美味しくって、マヤも私も止まらない！！

私がトレイシーおじちゃんとお話ししている間、ぢひちゃんがお外の菜園に連れて行ってくれました。

ここでも止まらない！

結局熟れていた実という実を食べ尽くしてしまったらしい。。。

貴重な物を、すいません。。。

いちご、ブルーベリー、トマト、ぜーんぶ庭ごと食べちゃったとさ。

お陰さまでその後の５回のププ　ダイパー。

Fashionistas

Real fashionistas リアル•ファッショニスタ　↓

the first knife 初ナイフ

私達がナイフとフォークで食事をしていると、ナイフを取って真似したがるので。。。
日本から買っておいたマヤ用の木のナイフをおろしてみました。
なかなか様になってるけど、全然使えてないしー。裏返しだしー。

Maya wants to play with our knives, so we introduced her to the wooden knife I had bought in Japan.
She looks like she knows what she is doing.  But she doesn't, of course.
It's just cute she tries and tries so hard.

movie nights

ママ達はワイン飲みながらおしゃべり。
子供達は映画鑑賞。
Movie night for girls while moms enjoys wine and chat (well, non-alcoholic beer for Francesca since she's pregnant!)

On Mom's birthday night, Maya spent quality time with Lea while Papa took her to the nice dinner out at a new sushi place called "Maruya."

Thanks to Francesca, Lea, Massimo and his parents, we had great time and enjoyed the video and the photo they sent us.

Next morning, Maya decided to give Mom a little birthday gift.... cleaning for me ;)

But Do not worry, my daughter.  We are getting a Roomba so soon.