We took the girls back for their first visit to Cali in the 18 months since we moved, and they had a blast.

It was fun to see a lot of our old friends, and Maddy especially loved getting a Santa hat at Dave’s Bix reunion party, as well as her playtime with six of the craziest Yahoo! offspring…

We also celebrated our nephew Jimmy’s 21st birthday, as well as Dave’s birthday of course.

Dave got very “special” treatment this year, because Maddy had saved up a lot of quarters to buy him tokens at Chuck-e-Cheeses. They had lots of fun playing all the games and redeeming prizes.

The girls enjoyed celebrating the holidays more than ever this year, including making gingerbread houses, caroling with neighbors, and having Grandma (Ba Noi) in town for a visit.

(They kind of liked opening their gifts, too.)

My mom (Ba Ngoai) and I took Hayden for her first viewing of the Nutcracker (Maddy was supposed to go but got sick right before and was devastated to miss it). Hayden watched intently the entire time, and enjoyed sitting on Grandma’s lap. After Maddy recovered, Dave took her to her first symphony performance, where she loved all the holiday music.

And after Christmas, we had even more fun outings – the Portland Art Museum, the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (Hayden’s 1st, with amazingly no squirming or fear of scary scenes), and ZooLights.

It’s going to be tough to start 2012 with nearly as much fun as we ended 2011, but I’m sure we’ll manage. Especially now that we’re getting more home performances like “the Dance of the Lemon Fairy.” Here’s just a short excerpt of the long show, which Maddy and Hayden regaled us with the other night:

In addition to lots of fun playdates with neighbors and cousins, we:

- Completed the Library Summer Reading program, and enjoyed performances by BJ the Clown and a bizarre family of magicians.

- Went blueberry picking twice, once at a local farm and once with Eva and Maren in Salem.

- Enjoyed a fun visit from Grandpa Busath, Nana Angel, Crystal, Addi and Bennett, including lots of family time and a trip to OMSI.

- Went to the big summer party put on by Parks and Rec and got beautiful butterfly faces painted.

- Hosted the Noonans (Leigh, Jim and Blake) all the way from AZ/RI and did nearly every fun Portland thing to do, including Multnomah Falls, the Portland International Rose Test Garden, the Oregon Zoo, the Nike employee store, splashing in the waterfront fountain downtown, and going to see the Winnie the Pooh Movie.

- Went to Oaks Amusement Park, the local teeny-bopper haven, where we rode some fun rides and marveled at the clientele.

- Spent a day at the Oregon State Fair, where Maddy had her first “volunteer from the crowd” experience in the Crazy Animal Races and even won a prize for successfully cheering on a goat.

- Hiked and picnicked in beautiful Forest Park with Lorna and the boys.

- Had fun sleepovers at Aunt Sarah and Aunt Maren’s houses while Dave and I spent a weekend in Vegas. While there, my cousin Kendra gave Maddy a sparkly magnet, to which Maddy said “I really love this magnet, I’m going to remember this day for the rest of my life.”

- Visited Aunt Sydney’s, where Maddy had her first horse ride on Tilda. Even though she was really nervous at first, once Sydney convinced her to give it a try she didn’t want to get down!

And of course, we also had lots of silly sisterly moments hanging out at home, just like this one:

We kicked off the celebrations in NY on Sunday with some presents from Dave’s family – an adorable stuffed monkey and a bunch of super-cute dresses. Then on Wednesday, it was her actual birthday, and Hayden started off the day by opening a cute present from her Grandpa Busath and Nana Angel – an adorable soft doll that giggles when she hugs it. Later, Maddy and I made some cupcakes to bring to our weekly neighborhood playdate where we celebrated at the park with a few friends. Then we went out to dinner with my mom, and sang Happy Birthday when we got home with a funny-looking mini cake I made for the occasion.

On Friday, our present for Hayden finally arrived from Amazon, but with critical parts missing. It is a standing easel (Hayden LOVES to draw), and I let the girls play with it briefly before putting it away to wait for the replacement easel that hopefully won’t fall over onto the girls every 5 minutes. Luckily Hayden has very low (actually, no) expectations about her presents and didn’t seem to mind the issues.

On Saturday, we had a little birthday party for Hayden at the park, with all her cousins and even some bonus guests from California (Nicole, Glen, Sierra, Lily and Micah just happened to be in town visiting family). We had tons and tons of bubbles and Hayden enjoyed the mayhem, despite being run over twice by bigger kids riding her own tricycle. She loved all her presents – some cool stickers, books and a tambourine from the CA contingent, really neat books from Lorna, Maren and mom, and a beautiful Alice in Wonderland musical snowglobe from Gavin.

To top off the week, on Sunday we even got to go to Lily’s 2nd birthday party (she’s 2 days older than Hayden), which was a real treat because we’ve missed the last few Leverich birthdays since we moved to Portland.

We got to go on a big airplane ride and I tried my best to stay up all night, but I ended up sleeping for a little bit. When I woke up it was morning and raining in New Jersey and me and Hayden slept for a loooong time while Daddy drove us to Albany. I was so super excited to get there and see Aunt Monica and my cousins TJ, Jimmy and Malcolm. Malcolm graduated from high school and I was almost as proud of him as I was in love with his cute graduating teddy bear.

The next day we hopped back in the car again and brought TJ along for a weekend on the Jersey Shore with new (Emily, Jacob, Tommy, Sarah and Olivia) and old (Greg, Karen, Faris, Lisa, TJ and Heather) friends. We slept some more in the car, and then had lots of energy for the BEACH in Point Pleasant. Hayden wasn’t so fond of the sand the first day, but I kept telling her to “try it and you might LIKE it” and she finally joined me in some digging.

Then came the BOARDWALK, which I loved except for the times when I was busy whining and being bratty because I’d skipped my nap. Despite my bad behavior, I still got to watch Daddy win and loose at Whack-a-Mole, and I got to go on super-fun airplane and swing rides with TJ.

On Monday, we played some more with all our new friends and then said goodbye and hopped back in the car for another nap on the road back to Albany. The rest of the week we had lots of great family time with the cousins, aunt, uncle and grandma, and visiting special people, like the DiPietros, Barbara and daddy’s high school friends Elana and Margaret.

My favorite part of the whole week was probably going to Build-a-Bear with Aunt Monica and picking out a fancy outfit for my new Hello Kitty doll, who I named Hello Sparkles. She is so beautiful and fabulous. Hayden got a cute teddy bear with an SU t-shirt, and dad named him Watson (the name of the college dorm where mom and dad met).

Thanks to everyone who took the time to see us and especially to you guys who spoiled me rotten – you know who you are!

- Maddy

P.S. When we got back we had a super-fun block party with all our neighbors on the 4th of July. I loved eating lots of watermelon and treats, blowing lots of bubbles, watching fireworks, and riding around like a crazy woman on Hayden’s tricycle.

The highlight of the trip was Sea World, where Maddy was mesmerized by Shamu, Elmo, Zoe, and pretty much everything else. She was reunited and became best buds with Amy’s 4-year-old Nathan (who now better get on Skype so she can stay in touch). Maddy was also extremely excited to hold Joanne’s 2-month-old Bradley and gave him many sweet kisses. Hayden had fun exploring new toys, and was an awesome sleeper despite the less-than-ideal schedule. Here are more photos:

In other news, Hayden’s adding a few more teeth and words to her repertoire. She now has 2 molars in the back, and finally her 4 front teeth on both the top and bottom. Her current vocabulary consists of “boo!,” “uh oh,” “hi!,” “mama,” and “dada.” Maddy’s getting pretty good with identifying letters and loves to practice “writing” them on my iPad with the alphabet apps we have.

On Monday, I turned 3. My Daddy was in NY, so we just started off the day with a few small presents. Mommy gave me a gymnastics leotard, Daddy gave me a watch, and Hayden gave me a cool bracelet. The first person to call me in the morning and sing Happy birthday was my cousin Jude. He’s so cool. Then my dad called and that was great, because I was really missing him.

Then I went to school, and it was neat because mommy stayed with me during circle time when all my friends and teacher sang happy birthday too me, and then she gave muffins to everyone for a yummy snack time. Sadly, 2 rowdy boys at school broke my new bracelet, but my teacher kind of fixed it for me. At lunch time, mom picked me up and took me out to a special Mommy & Maddy lunch and let me pick whatever I wanted on the menu, even raspberry pie and ice cream (but I mostly just ate the ice cream). After nap, we went to Grandma’s house to go swimming and had dinner, which was so fun.

Then when I was 3+1 day, daddy came home from his trip and brought even more presents from Ba Noi and Aunt Monica. I love the pretty clothes and hello kitty bag. Also mommy let me open my card from Great-grandpa and grandma Busath and some really fun bath toys from Grandpa Busath and Nana that I LOVE. Then at dinner, mom and dad sang Happy birthday again and we had some yummy chocolate cake and ice cream at home.

On Saturday, I woke up and got ANOTHER present! A sweet new table and chairs just the right size for me and Hayden and my cousins to play at. I love it, but  Hayden loves it more and thinks it’s just here for her climbing practice. Later that day, we got some cool balloons and went to this neat astronaut space place for my party. Sage, Jude, Ezra, Eva, Elijah, Aunt Lorna, Aunt Maren and Ba Ngoai came and we went crazy.

We climbed all up high in this huge tower structure thing, and then we drove around in these fun little cars, and then we went in the bouncy house, and then I played with all the little baby toys and kicked everyone else out of the playhouse so I could have it all to myself. Then I ran into my friend Logan from school and we had races down the slides over and over and over. ‘Course the best part was the yummy strawberry ice cream cake and my presents. Ba Ngoai got me a beautiful fancy purse and some hair stuff and a necklace, and Sage and Jude gave me this amazing purple Supergirl cape and mask.

To round out the week, we had a visit today from our friends Sierra and Lily, who were up from California. I was so excited to see them and loved playing and gave Sierra a big goodbye hug when she had to leave.

Here’s a slide show with photos from my week of fun. Not sure how any future birthdays can live up to this. I feel like such a big girl now.

She continues to talk up a storm at home (not so much in public), and lately she’s been especially obsessed with a few things:

- People’s facial expressions, especially the characters in her books. I need to get some photos of her imitating these facial expressions – it’s hilarious. We talk a lot about why so-and-so is “making her face like that?” She loves to cock her eyebrows to demonstrate consternation, even when asking a question that she already knows the answer to (which is most of the time). She also likes to shift her jaw when she’s puzzled (or pretending to be) about something.

- How other people are feeling. This morning my back was hurting and Dave was helping me stretch it. Maddy asked “why does mommy’s back hurt?” and Dave kindly said “Because she’s getting old.” Maddy promptly replied, “It’s okay mommy, I’ll take care of you if you’re old!” Then when I told her my back was feeling better, she said “Mommy you’re young! We’re all young together!” I asked her how young we are exactly, and she explained: “Hayden’s 1, I’m 2, Daddy’s 5 and you’re 6.”

- Daddy buying her a dollhouse for her birthday (in 6 months)

- Kids/animals who’ve lost their mommy and daddy (thanks to Annie, The American Tale, and The Lion King)

- Planting a Mango tree in our backyard

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in PhamsterWorld. I think the girls would sum them up as funfunfun, and Dave and I would sum them up as simply exhausting. Before getting into our recap, let’s pause for a moment to celebrate Hayden’s latest milestone. Yes, the little bubba is now a movin’ and groovin’ 8-month-old who says “dadada,” but not much else yet.

With all her locomoting, she hasn’t been gaining as much weight as we’d like – she’s now at just over 15 lbs, which keeps her in the 5th percentile for her age. She’s crawling/ trying to climb all over the place and gets very antsy if we leave her in the exersaucer or high chair for too long. Her favorite places to crawl to are under our coffee table and behind the recliner.

In other news, Maddy had her first real experience in the snow 2 weeks ago when we met up with my old college roommates (Amy and Joanne) and their families at Lake Tahoe. Pictures here. She loved building a snowman with Dave, and gave sledding a try but got tired of that after 2 runs down the hill in our backyard. Most of all, she loved making friends with Amy’s boys Nathan and Chase.

After that, my dad came for a brief visit and Maddy and Hayden got some good grandpa time in. Last weekend, we also had one of our super-fun playdates with Syd and Sierra and Lily at Burton Park in San Carlos.

This weekend Maddy and I have already had some fun playing around the house with Hayden and at our little neighborhood park.

Two weeks ago, the Noonans came all the way out from Rhode Island to visit us and it was so great to see them. I just love my Auntie Leigh, Uncle Jim and my boyfriend Blakey. I miss them so much now that they’re gone and ask mommy about them all the time.

While they were here, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Pastorino’s and Lemos farms in Half Moon Bay. We had close encounters with all kinds of fish and farm animals. I especially liked meeting the penquins and going on hay rides.

Everything was so much fun until poor Blake had a too-close-for-comfort encounter with the H1N1 virus. After that, he spent the next 5 days cooped up and miserable in our house.

That was no fun because mommy and daddy wouldn’t let me play with him hardly at all and kept telling me to give him space and not wipe my runny nose all over him to make things worse. I think we heard “Catch your cough/sneeze!” about a gazillion times from the grownups. I guess it was all for the best, because so far Hayden and I seem to have steered clear of that nasty nasty flu and now Blakey is all better.

In other news, I’ve enjoyed cheering for the Yankees in the playoffs and wear my Yankees hat for every game.

I also squeezed in a visit to Ardenwood farm with all the cool Yahoo! kids – Gavin, Sydney, Sierra, Lilly, and Sienna. I wasn’t too fond of the peacocks I saw there, but I was so excited about these little pine cone-like things I found on the ground. Mommy let me bring them home and I’ve been carrying them around in a disposable diaper wipes container ever since.

Oh, and I did a great job of singing Happy Birthday to my mommy on Sunday. Daddy helped me make her a really neat card with a drawing of our family – we even put Hayden’s mohawk and everything on there!

I’ve also been Skyping a lot with my Ba Ngoai (Gramma Anne), who’s working in Afganistan right now. We keep reminding her to stay safe.

- Maddy

And, here’s my hopefully-not-too-long recap of the vacation:

Day 1, Tuesday, 9/1 – Woke at 5am. Maddy scared of cab driver, but fascinated by airport. Got 2 extra seats on flight to MN and 1 extra on flight to Albany, yay! Hayden did great sleeping and eating on flights, no crying.

Arrived in Albany around 6pm, went to Dave’s mom’s where Maddy was treated to a dinner of chicken nuggets and fries set up in front of the TV with cartoons on. And that was just the beginning of the spoiling, hmmm…

Cousins came over and Maddy was initially pretty overwhelmed by the chaos ensued by TJ (4), Kiara (3) and Lewis (6).

Day 2, Wednesday – Settled in to a much quieter house. Maddy enjoyed exploring ALL of TJ’s toys (especially the electronic and tool varieties) while he was at school.

Day 3, Thursday – Visited with Mrs. DiPietro (Grandma Di). Maddy took her sweet time to warm up, but LOVED the tinkerbell cell phone, My Little Pony, and cool bag she was given (as well as the animal crackers – more spoiling).

Day 4, Friday – Visited Mrs. Di at work and played on super-fancy playground with TJ. Loved huge slides, and enjoyed tour of the gorgeous new elementary school.

Went back to grandma’s house and got to visit with family friend Barbara and all the cousins again – ate yummy pizza from The Fountain and enjoyed more chaos.

Left for 2-hour car ride to Syracuse with Dave, Jimmy and Maddy (who napped). Went to Faris’ house (Dave’s college roommate), where Maddy got to know Emelie (21 mos) and Jacob (4), and their cool kitchen toys, and had more yummy pizza before crashing.

Day 5, Saturday – Took way too long getting ready to go to Kristin’s beautiful house (my high-school friend, who I hadn’t seen in WAY too long), where Maddy was taken very good care of by sweet boys Atticus (6) and Thadius (4). Great to see Kristin and her family again, wish we had had more time to catch up.

Went to campus to meet up with Jimmy, Faris, Greg and Karen for the SU vs. Minn. football game. Maddy so excited that she COULD NOT sit still. After meeting Otto the Orange (school mascot), she passed out and spent last 45 minutes sleeping on my shoulder. Game was great until the end when The ‘Cuse sadly let it slip through their fingers.

After game, walked down to Marshall St., where Jimmy won an admirer for life by buying Maddy Otto doll, then back to Faris’ house for some delicious BBQ and a great night during which the girls crushed the boys in Taboo.

Day 6, Sunday – Back to Albany, where I was so happy to see Hayden again (and be done with pumping for a bit) and get more sleep. Rather than sleep, Dave for some reason opted to go to casino and loose money.

Day 7, Monday – Low-key day, hung around the house and visited with Lisa D. and her new man.

Day 8, Tuesday – Fun going apple picking with Malcolm at Bowman Orchards. Maddy loved seeing animals and picking apples – mostly dropping them in the bag. She also didn’t mind getting some homemade ice cream, cider and apple donuts.

Day 9, Wednesday – Off to Springfield Mass. to visit with old roommate Leigh, her son Blake, sister Lynn, and niece Addi. Maddy wasn’t so sure what to make of Lynn’s dog, but had a blast at the cool playground across the street – especially on the big slides, rock-climbing wall, monkey bars and swings.

Day 10, Thursday – Last full day was sad, consisted mostly of packing and some goodbye visits with the DiPietro’s.

Day 11, Friday – Up at 5am again to head back to the airport.

Thanks for all the love and hospitality from our favorite New Yorkers…until next time!