This week, Maddy focused on developing her rhythm, as can be seen in this dancing montage I took today…

It all started on Monday when Maddy got to go out to dinner with my Uncle Dan and his family, and then to Gavin’s show at a little cafe in San Jose. She loved playing around with my cousins Becca and Kellie, and got really worked up and excited during the show. I mean REALLY excited…Maddy past her bedtime was a whole new world of never-ending energy. She ran around in circles, climbed on and off the cafe furniture, and frequently broke out in uproarious laughter.

Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, Maddy learned lots of new stuff in honor of Earth Day. At daycare all the kids planted some flowers, but Maddy didn’t like all that dirt – she kept saying “ewe, yucky!” Then they did some trash pickup at the park, and some recycling. It was very educational for her, I’m sure.

On Friday, Maddy had a bit of a rough afternoon. She was feeling very strongly that she needed to assert her independence and ownership over everything in the house – including the pen I took away from her right before she screamed at me and bit my arm. Luckily she eventually snapped out of the mood, in part thanks to watching lots of videos of her cousin Eva:

All week she got to spend lots of time with her Uncle Gavin (”Ga-gan”) and grew quite fond of him. They had lots of fun blowing bubbles, riding around in Maddy’s “car,” and wrestling/tickling.

Yet another exciting week…after Maddy finally started warming up to Gavin, he had to leave for shows in LA (including this GREAT set and interview on KCRW), and Maddy was stuck with just Dave and I for a couple days because her daycare was closed this week.

It was great to take some time off of work and spend it at home with Maddy, especially because she entertained us with many deep discussions about “boogars” and “bugs,” as well as her serious concentration while taking care of her doll, aka “baby.”

The boogar conversations started the week before when Dave and I both had colds, which Maddy promptly got herself. Any time someone sneezed or blew their nose, Maddy felt a need to comment with something like “Ewwwee! Boogar! Dada!” That was especially pleasant this morning when after I thought she was taking her morning nap, I was in the room next to hers and accidentally sneezed. Immediately I heard “Mama! Boogar!” through the wall, followed by crying and whining for me to come let her skip her nap.

On Thursday and Friday, Maddy got lots of quality time with her Ba Ngoai (grandma), who we think she actually remembered from Christmas. Ba Ngoai (pronounced “Ba Why” in American) is the first name Maddy’s learned. After my mom left on Saturday morning, Maddy was a little confused and asked a few times “Why?” while pointing upstairs – we were sorry to tell her that Ba Ngoai was not actually upstairs, but on a plane to DC.

And today, we took Maddy to Seacliff Beach in Aptos, which was her first big beach outing. She’s seen a few beaches, but never actually hung out at one to play so she was fascinated. She spent most of the afternoon intensly focused on staring at people, pointing out birds or dogs, and filling her bucket with sand.

We did check out the water at one point, and she was pretty interested in the feeling of wet sand between her toes for a bit, untill she saw a tiny wave coming in and tried to run backwards before wiping out and landing on her bum in an inch or so of water. After that it was back to the dry sand for the rest of the day. I took way too many photos, of which I’ve included a few favorites below and many more in an album here.

Now we’re set for another week of fun. Tomorrow, we’re having lunch with my Uncle Dan and his family, and Maddy may actually get the pleasure of seeing her Uncle Gavin perform live at Cafe Trieste in San Jose.

It’s Easter tomorrow, and this week we got to have an Easter egg hunt at daycare! Here I am with friends Sofia, Katie, and Anaya before and after the hunt (as you can see, I was much happier after I had my loot).

At first I was just really excited about all the plastic colored “balls” I got to collect, but after a while I finally figured out that they’re eggs and I’ve been playing with my “eggs” ever since. I like to take them out of the basket, and put them all around the family room, and then pick them up and put them back in my basket, and then take them out and give them to mommy, and then start the whole process over again.

In other news, I’ve been playing a lot on my slide, which is very fun.

And, my Uncle Gavin and his girlfriend Jaime are visiting us this weekend. I really really like Jaime – she’s cool – but I’m not so sure about Gavin, he’s kind of scary. I did like watching him draw on my bedroom wall, though.