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:

Later, Maddy chose Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (because of their delicious chicken tenders and cool crowns), and then we wrapped up the day with some ice cream cake! I better get spoiled on my birthday too…

Hayden enjoyed the festivities for the most part, except for this moment —>

Maybe I shouldn’t have laughed at her, but I just love this face she uses all the time. It doesn’t typically accompany much crying, just the upside-down smile, sometimes with an “owie!” or 20. Hayden’s very sensitive and wants to make sure we’re aware whenever she is mistreated (which is often). She also points out her boo-boos to us for days and days after they’ve occurred (usually scrapes or scratches that we can barely see).

I’m trying really hard to get a video of Hayden talking or singing, because it’s just too cute (see below). She is gradually getting more understandable and also more insistent (she’s wanting lots of “wide!”s lately, which means please carry me everywhere). She loves to torture Maddy by waiting for her to be out of sight and then sneaking over to play with her sister’s precious toys. Hopefully Maddy will soon learn the lesson of keeping her things better hidden.

Hayden had a big milestone yesterday by doing a #2 on the potty, and Maddy’s been getting better at staying dry during the night. I can almost glimpse a future with no more diapers…

We got both girls immunized and measured at the doctor’s office yesterday, and Hayden finally broke the zero percentile barrier! She’s now up to the whopping 1st and 2nd percentiles for 27-month-olds, at 22.5 lbs and 31.75 inches. Maddy on the other hand is super-normal, weighing 34 lbs (41st %) at 40.5 inches tall (66th %). She also got her vision and hearing checked for the first time, which she found strange. Maddy’s vision is 20/30, but she didn’t exactly pass her hearing test with flying colors, although that may have been due to Hayden distracting her the whole time.

UPDATE: Just got these must-share videos to add

This past weekend, we had a joint birthday party for Maddy and her cousin Eva, who also turned 4 recently. Maddy has been seriously obsessed with the party for the past month and I believe it lived up to her expectations. First, she made THE LIST, and checked to make sure I carefully wrote down every name she dictated – including family members, friends from school, and neighbors.

I didn’t have the heart to limit her list because I was so impressed at her vast social network after only a year and a half in Portland. She was sure to tell everyone she’s seen over the past month whether they were on the list or not, and had me make revisions as needed.

Then at the party, she greeted each guest immediately with their favor bag (because she wanted to get rid of the favors and make sure there’d still be some left for her). Everyone did lots of art projects, played soccer, played on the playground, and ate a very very very large cake.

Maddy loved all her gifts and is very proud to be 4 – thanks to everyone who helped her celebrate!

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:

Not only will she be in Level B this fall, she also started braving the waters on her own a few weeks ago. In the past, she’s never been willing to let go of an adult, no matter how many floaties she was wearing, but after watching her older cousin Sage, she started swimming around the pool like it was no big thing.

She also had a lot of fun in her pre-ballet class this summer, and she sure likes to pretend that she’s graceful. This fall, we’re hoping she’ll give soccer a legitimate try and we plan to get her started with tennis – we’ll see how long before she starts begging to take ballet or gymnastics again

Maddy’s favorite games are to play mommy with any small objects, and to organize her collections. She’s getting better with Hayden and trying to include her in her games more often, which Hayden mostly loves until she gets bored and moves onto something else (much to Maddy’s dismay).

She’s still pretty emotional when things don’t work or someone is “mean” to her (usually that would be me giving her a time out), but I think she’s getting better at letting things go more quickly and resisting the urge to lash out psychically at Hayden when she does something Maddy doesn’t like. This afternoon they actually worked out a toy disagreement themselves without adult intervention! Maddy explained to Hayden in a calm voice why she couldn’t play with one of her toys, and Hayden actually listened to the long lecture patiently and then gave back the toy with an “I was bored of it anyway” look.

Maddy still loves to be read to, and she practically memorizes all of her favorite books. Today I got her to “read” one to Hayden in the car, and it was pretty impressive how well she followed along the with plot using her own words. She loves to hang out with her cousins and has been asking for them a lot lately, since we haven’t been seeing them as much as we were earlier in the summer. She’s very very excited to turn 4 next month, and has been dictating an extensive list of invitees for what she hopes will be a butterfly princess themed birthday party. We’ll see about that.

I haven’t put any Maddy quotes on the blog in forever, so here’s a compilation of the best ones I’ve shared on Facebook over the past year or so:

8/28/11 – After using the toilet: “It feels good to get all that pee out, because when I have a lot of pee inside I get all crazy and you and dad don’t like that, so when I go pee it makes you happy.”

7/27/11 – Commenting on when I check to see if she’s napping: “I’ll do the same thing I do every day, turn to the wall so you can’t see if my eyes are open.”

7/24/11 – While watching Dave’s tennis practice: “they need a coach to tell them not to hit the ball outside the lines.”

7/24/11 – “I love it when Hayden giggles like that. It’s soooooooo cute!”

7/8/11 – “Mommy, you’re the best mommy in the whole world. Even when you’re mad at me and send me to time out I even love you still when I cry.”

7/8/11 – “I’m hot in all this stuff, so I’m going to take it off and be naked forever.”

6/21/11 – “Mommy, did you put the clothes in the dry off machine?”

6/21/11 – “My tummy sounds like a fox, it’s going ‘arrghooooooo-o-o’”

6/16/11 – “I’m done with my pasta, now I want to eat some healthy food because I want to grow up and be a mommy.”

6/8/11 – Counting Hayden for banging her toy: “Hayden, that’s 1…that’s 2…that’s 3…that’s 4…that’s 5…that’s 6…!”

6/6/11 – Saying a prayer: “I hope daddy comes home okay in the weather and the clouds. I like this dinner and the salad. I like everything we did today, and all the flowers we picked. Jesus Christ, Amen”

5/23/11 – “You make the coolest rice I ever had in this whole country.”

5/20/11 – After being told she’s not allowed to hit: “You smell stinky!”

4/28/11 – Pointing to her cheek: “I have a russellsum!” Me: “Huh?” Then “Ohhh, do you mean a freckle?” Maddy: “Yes, I have a freckle, just like you mommy! I have 2 red ones and 1 brown one.” Me: “Um yeah, those 2 are actually little pimples.”

4/12/11 – Speaking to her bowl of fruit: “Cantaloupe, you’re sooo silly! whenever i pick you, you turn all around.”

3/30/11 – “Mom, thank you for everything in your entire life.”

3/5/11 – After orange juice pulp getting stuck in her sippy lid: “I have a wedgie in my cup!”

3/1/11 – “I guess Forbes and Lumas are the same because they both have black fur…”

2/18/11 – “I colored this pictures for you, so be happy. I made them for your happy-versary in Vietnam.”

11/24/10 – Playing doctor: “Mom, now don’t be scared when we shot you up.”

11/12/10 – Regarding Halloween candy… “The label says: Almond Joy, don’t share with mommy”

11/5/10 – Not wanting to go to bed: “When I get bigger, can I stay up late and do a little work and do the dishes at night like you guys?”

11/1/10 – Coming out of her room 5 times after bedtime… 1st: “I need the monitor in my room,” 2nd: “I need to go potty,” 3rd: “I want another lullabye,” 4th: “I farted,” 5th: “I peed in my Pull-up.”

10/26/10 -While I’m opening a box of cheesecake on one side of the kitchen: “It’s easier if you open it over here cause I’m lonely.”

9/21/10 – “Mommy, Hayden took off her sock again! We should glue it to her foot. No, actually, we should throw it out the window then the birds will get it and take it to Santa at the North Pole and he will wake up and say ‘Good Christmas morning! Hayden I’m bringing your sock to you!’ and he will bring it on his sleigh with the reindeer because he doesn’t live that far away.”

9/17/10 – “Oscar lives in a trash can and makes sure our dirty diapers are safe.”

8/23/10 – “Sierra, Sydney and Eva are my sisters, Hayden’s just my friend.” Me: “So, why don’t they live with us?” Maddy: “Because they live far away.”

7/24/10 – “Daddy is my best friend.” Me: “That’s great, but what am I?” Maddy: long pause, then… “Meagan.”

6/30/10 – When asking how preschool was: “You Talk ‘Bout It!” (then gets excited when I read her teacher’s daily report to her)

5/20/10 – “Mom I’m cutting up mangos for you. These are Lego mangos. You can eat them, but they’re really gross.”

5/19/10 – “We go in the girls bathroom, not the boys bathroom because that one is DIRTY!”

For example, she’s very pushy when she wants to worm her way into a discussion, play situation or just a spot on the couch. She maneuvers herself as best she can into position and then says “beep beep” over and over again until we move aside and free up her rightful spot. She also thinks its hilarious to slam doors closed, knock on them while saying “knock knock” until she’s let back in, and then say “bye bye” and close the door in my face to start the cycle again.

If she’s already hanging out in a perfect spot and we’re not participating, she lets us know that we need to join her by saying loudly “sit down!” and patting the spot on the floor or couch where we should clearly be. Also, if there is ever any mention or indication of possibly leaving the house, she starts saying “’side! ’side! shoes! ’side” until we let her outside.

She’s also very aggressive about trying to copy whatever Maddy’s doing, which as you can imagine leads to the inevitable sibling battles, although it also often leads to sweet sisterly games, like in this video where Hayden didn’t seem to mind being the boss-ee instead of the boss-er:

She loves her sister and her daddy and asks for them both every time she wakes up. If she finds out one of them’s still sleeping, she holds her finger to her mouth and says “shhhhuuussshhhh.” She’s then somewhat careful to play quietly until they wake up (although that often doesn’t last long because she runs to jump on top of them the second I turn my head).

Now to her latest milestone – after much encouragement and futile experimentation, Hayden finally used the potty for its official purpose on Tuesday, August 8th. She’s now peeing in it about every other night before bed. Yay for baby steps, the end of diapers is in sight!

P.S. Here are her official 2 year stats from the doctor: she weighs 21 lbs, which is STILL in the 0 percentile; she’s about 31 1/4 inches tall, which is in the 2nd percentile; and her head is 46 centimeters around, in the 13th percentile.

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.

Here are my 50 favorite photos of Hayden over the past 2 years:

Her vocabulary has grown drastically over the past 2 weeks up to probably around 25 words or so, and with more words comes more bossiness. Hayden loves to tell her “mama” and “dada” what to do (i.e. “sit”, “eat”, “book”, etc.), and she’s always sure to tell Maddy when she thinks a toy is “mine.” She also loves to repeatedly say “hi” or “bye” to anyone who’ll listen (or not) at the appropriate moments.

Hayden’s now weighing in at a whopping 21 lbs and 13 oz, which I think is still right around the 0 percentile for her age. She’s an amazingly great sleeper, and is finally over crying when we put her down (for now, at least). We love our crazy adorable monkey-girl!

In addition to quickly figuring out how to ride her bike, another big milestone this month was Maddy learning to write her name, as can be see in this lovely drawing:

(If you look closely, you can see that she labeled herself. You’ll also notice that as she was running out of space, she drew each of her family members smaller and smaller.)

Maddy finished up sessions of her swim and soccer classes, and in July she’ll start pre-ballet, which she’s very excited about. She also said goodbye to her much-beloved Goddard School, and she’ll miss all her wonderful friends and teachers there. We’ve switched both Maddy and Hayden to a smaller preschool/daycare that seems great so far, even though it doesn’t offer all the perks of Goddard.

We also had LOTS of cousin visits and as always Maddy loved her crazy time playing with Sage, Jude and Eva, especially this performance and “game“:

Summertime here we come!

As I climbed onto the recliner, she told me to be careful, but she says that all the time so I wasn’t listening. I was leaning over the arm of the chair, admiring our lovely carpet, and the next thing I knew my face/nose was slamming right into it!

Mom was pretty freaked out that she didn’t catch me in time, and I made sure to help her feel more guilty by screaming my head off for a few minutes. Then I seemed okay, just with a kind of pink face until I woke up the next day with a lot of swelling and black and blue going on.

These pictures don’t quite do it justice, but anyway I’m getting better and now at least the world knows that I’m one tough, fearless chick!

- Hayden