Tonight, after we went to the park, I was trying to make dinner and hold Maia and she got a hold of the lettuce bag. I was too tired to fight it so I just sat down with her and let her play with it. She proceeded to grab little handfuls of lettuce and shove them in my mouth (along with her whole hand). Maia sure gets a kick out of feeding other people, and as I sat there, I realized feeding other people is kind of like feeding the animals at the petting zoo. What little kid doesn’t like that?

In other news, we celebrated Sarah’s 30th with a surprise party in the garage last Saturday. It was a blast and Maia was my party sidekick, sleeping most of the night in the sling, strapped to my shoulder. Keana ran around and played chasing games with various guests, and around 9:30 p.m., she and Grandma Jennie went inside to mellow out and ended up watching Disney’s Robin Hood three times until I came inside around one in the morning, and we put Keana and Sarah to bed. Although many of the guests provided the fun and helped decorate, Grandma Jennie, Tia, and Uncle Ryan were a big help all weekend, especially for clean up on Sunday.

So the week has pretty much been recovering from that. Some new Maia developments include head banging while walking as well as almost running. She can say “tickle-tickle” and a loud “Mmmmm!” when she sees you get some food out she thinks she might like. Maia is our little athlete and is an aggressive little climber and bouncer. She loves climbing on Keana’s little chairs and often insists on standing on them. Just today too, she danced in a circle with her arms up as Keana sang the theme to Sleeping Beauty.

Which brings me to the Zooba. She is amazing. Her latest, most articulate phrase is, “I’m three but I’ll be four in March.” She has continued to struggle sharing with Maia, but it’s interlaced with some of the sweetest sister moments you’ve ever seen. Tonight Maia took a water bottle over to her and Keana wanted a kiss, but Maia shook her head “no”. So Keana said, “No? Okay, I’ll just take a sip of water then.” A few minutes later Maia cashed in on that kiss. Keana can also pick Maia up and uses her special powers to help keep Maia safe—which is really sweet—but sometimes we have to stop her from scarily hauling her sister around for no reason (who, by the way, weighs half as much as her).

That’s the latest and I think we’ll be using the three day weekend to catch up with our lives.