More Maiya Videos: Oki No What?

Here's a video from about a month ago. For awhile, Maiya kept saying some phrases that we didn't understand.

NO!!

Just in case you think our daughter is "always" smiling as she is often on this blog, here's a picture showing a face we see often these days. This frown lies somewhere between, "I need a nap," "It's mine," "I do it myself," "NO!!"--and simply, "I'm two a half." I can't wait for the teenage years. I have a lot of "bachi" coming my way.

Yard Sale with Craig

Help us clean out our garage this weekend! We're having a Yard Sale/Block Sale this Saturday along with several neighbors on our street. Lots of tchotzkes, baby things, books, and also some furniture. My dad once said that "One's trash is another's treasure." I hope it will be your treasure. Here's some stuff I put on Craigslist tonight.

DANISH MODERN CONVERTIBLE ROUND/OVAL TABLE - Reduced to $150 OBO











LEATHER CHAIRS - No longer available











NIGHTSTAND/END TABLES - $125 EACH














TV STAND/MICROWAVE CART/STORAGE CABINET - Reduced to $25!











FREE GOOSE FEATHER COUCH CUSHIONS - No longer available


Edited to add: We made about $78 from our yard sale. Great sales from 9am-10am, but then the rush was over. Slow sales for the next few hours. Then, out of no where, for the first time in like a year, it rained! For 10 minutes, no more. Long enough for the dust from our tree to drip onto EVERYTHING for sale. Then my friend Lianne, who I had emailed at 4am about the yard sale, showed up. She took almost all of the clothes to take to the Philipines and then bought a bunch of other stuff as well. We took several boxes to the thrift shop afterwards. Sunday we went through more stuff and kept on going with the clutter purge. We sold our 2 leather chairs on Craigslist. Yeah!

Visiting Grannie Frannie & Family

After our trip to Moses Lake, we went to visit Tony's parents in Idaho. Tony and I both got sick on the 2nd half of our trip, and we really didn't take a lot of pictures. Tony's parents bought a fixer-upper with access to one of many, many lakes in Idaho, and we all went out to see it. It was pretty cool--and definitely a project to keep them busy. I really loved the wild backyard. We could see where deer sleep on the land at night, and we walked down to look at the lake. I wish we had taken some pictures. We enjoyed relaxing and hanging out at the house for a few days.

Maiya enjoyed meeting their 4 dogs, especially Avigail, who is very calm and good with children. She squealed whenever she saw Avi and spent a lot of time petting her.

On our last day, we celebrated Tony's cousin Jacob's 15th birthday. Two of Tony's aunts and their families also moved up to Idaho in the last 2 years. It's really nice that they're all together. We enjoyed visiting with everyone and seeing how the kids have grown into teenagers.

Visiting the Great Greats

On our vacation last week, we flew up to Moses Lake, which is in Central Washington with Tony's dad and visited with Tony's family.

Dinner at Auntie Midori's house.

Maiya giving Great Great Auntie Aiko a kiss.

From Left, Mommy, Maiya, Great Great Auntie Midori,
cousins Doug & Gloria, and Grandpa

Playing with bubbles in cousin Irene's backyard

Visiting with Auntie Kiyo and needing a longer nap.

Visiting Cousin Lynn and 2nd Cousin Derek at their brake shop.

On the last morning, Maiya & I went to the Moses Lake Aquatic Center and enjoyed the toddler pool. We dropped off Larry at the airport and then went to visit Tony's mom's in Idaho, just 45 minutes from the airport. Stay tuned for the Idaho trip.

Maiya @ Venice Obon

Maiya enjoying Spam Musubi and dancing at the Obon in Venice last month. We met Lily, Kent and his parents there. We ate chili rice, corn on the cob, spam musubi, dango, and played a few games. A few pics to go with...

We're baack!

We got back about midnight last night from a 6-day family vacation in Central Washington and Northern Idaho. We flew up with Tony's dad last Saturday and visited his extended family for the first 3 days, then went to Tony's mom's house in Idaho for the 2nd leg of the trip.

Maiya wanted to come home after 2 days--and had multiple tantrums every day. She kept saying "I wan go back ome." Poor kid. They say that vacationing with a 2 year old is more like work than vacation. I think it was hard for her not having her usual routine, foods, books, toys, music and playtime. Tony and I both caught something. Tony was feverish with stomach queasiness and barely ate for 3 days. I had awful sharp shooting headaches and no energy. Despite the tantrums and sick parents, we did have a wonderful time visiting with everyone. It was nice that we got to relax more when we got to Fran & Don's house for the last 3 days.

Visited: 2 states, 9 places, 18 relatives. Wish we took more pictures. I'll put up more in the next few days. But in the meantime, since I missed World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7) and since I know Fran is waiting to see, here's Don, Fran, me and Maiya saying goodbye at the airport. She set personal best records on breastfeeding during this trip.

Bye-Bye Mimi

Oh man. On Sunday, just 4 days ago,
a little girl, we'll call her Maiya, won 2 little goldfish
at the West LA Obon Carnival. On Wednesday morning,
we named the orange one Rainbow
and white/sparkly one Mimi.

On Wednesday afternoon,
Tony mentioned that Mimi wasn't eating the food
and Jenni noticed that Mimi was looking
a little less sparkly and a little more brownish.

Guess what we found Wednesday night?
On the day that Maiya turned 2 1/2 years old?
Poor little dead Mimi floating
on the bottom of the fish bowl.

We quietly took Mimi out of the water and threw her away.

This morning, Maiya climbed up on her stool,
peered in the fish bowl and asked,
"Where's Mimi? Mommy, where's Mimi?"
Mommy stopped what she was doing
and went to go find Daddy.
"Honey, come quickly,
Maiya is asking where Mimi is."
Tony jumped up and came over to the kitchen.

"Where's Mimi?"
"Umm, Maiya. Mimi got sick.
Sometimes fishies get sick and then they die.
Mimi won't be coming back. Let's say goodbye to Mimi."

"Ok. Bye Bye Mimi."

Should we have done some kind of
ceremony, ritual or burial for Mimi?
What is the right thing to say to a child
when their first pet dies after only 3 days?

Over the next half hour Maiya walked
past the fish bowl several times
Each time she said,

"Bye bye Mimi."