A favorite film of Mio’s to watch is Finding Nemo, and she always says “fishhh fishhh” and “turtle” whenever she wants to watch it. She must have seen the movie over a dozen times by now, and knows it pretty well now. (She’ll even exclaim “turtle!” right before the scene with the turtles start, which shows that she’s pretty much memorized the whole movie. lol) Today, she had a really intense reaction while watching the scene where Nemo is about to get abducted by the boat. She started shouting, jumping up and down and flailing as if to warn Nemo not to get any closer to the boat! It cracked me up. See for yourself!
Mio turned two yesterday, and while we opted not to have a big birthday party with friends this year, we spent the daytime playing outside and had a little get-together with the family in the evening to celebrate with BonChon Chicken dinner, birthday cake, and opening presents! Here are some snapshots and video from throughout the day…
We had another little Easter egg hunt in the backyard in the morning.
But then she got distracted by the swing.
Smiles of delight on the swing.
And no day is complete without climbing onto furniture! Mio loves to climb to the top of the sofa and straddle like a horse.
Wearing tupperware as a hat. Silly girl.
Eating BonChon chicken for dinner. Mio always says “kokko-” (short for “kokekokko”, or “cock-a-doodle-doo” in Japanese) while eating chicken!
The birthday cake I made for Mio!
I love this video that Dan took of Mio while we sang “Happy Birthday” to her. She seemed to know exactly what was going on, and that she had to blow out the candles at the end! I love her excited smile and clapping at the end…
…but then of course she thought the candles were candy and stuck one in her mouth! Very much a Mio thing to do. haha* You can see how much she loves eating the cake in the following video:
Mio with a mouthful of cake!
Mio + cake = happy girl.
Mio and Mama both share a love for desserts and all things sweet!
Dan says Mio and I have the same face here. lol
“Whatcha lookin’ at, Daddy?”
After cake, we opened some birthday presents together! Dan and I got her a dollhouse, while my parents got her a family of dolls to match. Her reaction was more than we had anticipated — she was ecstatic! 😀
She also got some sweet and generous gifts from Uncle Ted and Auntie Elisa!
An AquaDoodle from Uncle Ted and Auntie Elisa…
…and a toy medical kit to play doctor! Conditioning her early… 😉
Curiously looking at the stethoscope.
While it was a small birthday celebration in comparison to the birthday party we threw her for her first birthday last year, it seemed to leave quite an impression on her. Afterwards, she kept saying “two” in search of the candle shaped like a 2, and has been carrying it around with her ever since! I also caught her serving her stuffed animals toy cupcakes and singing to them “Happy~ to you~” (since she can’t say “birthday”) yet. It warms my heart to see how much she enjoyed and appreciated the family celebrating her birthday and how much love she must’ve felt!
Mio wouldn’t let go of the 2-shaped candle! Happy birthday sweetheart. ♥
I showed Mio an episode of the stop-motion claymation TV series Pingu for the first time today, and I’ve never seen her giggle so much while watching anything! Most of the time, she’ll look very serious and focused while watching video clips that we show her of Shimajiro and Sesame Street. Occasionally, she’ll crack a smile or two or stifle a chuckle… so it was really surprising to see her laughing so much and visibly enjoying the show!
Is it because she loves penguins? Or the claymation aspect? I personally have never been a huge fan of Pingu because it doesn’t have any real dialogue and just loud penguin noises, but maybe that’s the appeal to kids! I read that shows like Pingu “teach kids how to decipher a visual story; to respond to it in their own imaginative, creative ways; and, ultimately, to sharpen their skills for mastering media by using them critically.” Interesting! If you pay attention, the show teaches little social lessons here and there as well.
Well, I guess we know what Mio’s new favorite show is…
I’m no stranger to bullying, and those painful childhood memories of being a victim only cause me to dread the days when one day, someone will inevitably hurt my own daughter’s feelings. Author Elizabeth Stone once said that having a child is “to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Just imagining that my daughter may be bullied one day pains my heart in a way that hurts so much more than experiencing the bullying myself.
That is why when I watched this very powerful video with a poem written and narrated by Shane Koyczan and had to share.
“We always cheer for the underdogs because we see a part of ourselves in them.” I hope we can grow into a society that strives to confront bullying.
This Valentine’s Day, Dan was extra creative and put a little extra work into how he presented me with some of my favorite chocolates and messages of love. ♥ I was a little perplexed when I found these balloons in Mio’s room in the evening, with an accompanying note and needle that instructed me to pop the balloons.
Popping balloons is one of those things I kind of dread doing, but it was worth it to find what was on the inside… here’s a video! (Excuse my screams.)
A little hand reaching for the candy…
Sweet messages of love from inside the balloons!
Hubby gets an A+ for creativity!
Thank you Dan for a lovely Valentine’s surprise! 😀 He also treated me to lunch and dinner this weekend, so we could satiate our cravings for Thai and Vietnamese…
Eating at Natta Thai. Unfortunately, we’d eaten all our food before I remembered to take a picture.
