Have Purse, Will Travel

Lately, Maya seems to love imitating us, copying whatever we're doing. Tonight she was carrying her little purse around the living room; maybe she saw me with my purse, or maybe she just knows how to carry a purse. Anyway, I found it hilarious and couldn't resist taking a few photos.

Of course, she has to carry her drink too - wouldn't want to leave that behind. After this, she decided to get something out of her purse. The following is what I imagine her thinking.

"Hang on, I need to find something in my purse."

"Now where are those keys?"

"Found my keys and my lipstick!"

"Gotta make sure I look good!"

A big thank you to Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Ken for the adorable little purse and its contents. :)

Princess Party!

Maya got to attend her first princess party last weekend - one of her daycare buddies Norelle hosted a bunch of friends for her 5th birthday. There was a balloon artist, who came up with an adorable turtle for her:

Meanwhile, Maya and I rocked in our pink outfits:

Thanks to family friends in Houston for the adorable princess dress!

Earlier in the day we relaxed at home - Maya has a new trick where she likes to touch fingers, like E.T. did when he phoned home:

And of course, she loves to give kisses:

Dancing, Painting, and More!

Today we headed down to Chinatown to enjoy the new year festivities - we saw lots of dragons or lions dancing, I'm not sure which:

Maya loved it and kept watching more of the festivities from the restaurant where we ate lunch:

The drumbeat was especially infectious, so of course Maya broke out with some dancing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iax5CCjNCvM.

After a delicious meal and some much-needed hot tea, we headed home for naptime. After we all had some rest, we woke up and Maya did some fingerpainting. I decided she might as well make some valentines for her daycare buddies since the last batch seemed to bring joy to their recipients. :) I stuck her in one of Hyder's old shirts and let her loose to create her artwork:

Hopefully her daycare buddies will like the valentines!

Swinging, Sliding, and More!

Well, we had quite a busy and fun-filled weekend.

Yesterday, Maya did some swinging and sliding at her buddy Zach's birthday party. First up was a few swings at the dinosaur balloon upstairs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XreU6u-L4Mk. Then she took a few swings at dinosaur pinata downstairs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4GUoGKVWQY. After that, she enjoyed some time on the swing in the Summerses awesome playroom:

She also thoroughly enjoyed the slide in their playroom:

And it looks like Zach had a good time at his party too:

Evaluating Our Camera Skills

So, I had gotten a cute video of Maya tonight, throwing a ball and squealing with glee. I then proceeded to erase it - darn it! Hopefully I'll get this on the video again sometime in the future.

In the meantime, here are a couple photos from tonight. I took this one:

And I took this one:

 Maya took this one, with only a little bit of assistance:

Artist in Training

As with any other parent, I am extremely proud of my kid. One of her new favorite activities is drawing with crayons, and of course I'm thrilled with her interest and her artistic talent.

She actually manages to make lines on the paper, though we occasionally help her with some squiggles and words.