Meagan's 33rd birthday

I had a pretty awesome birthday this year. Matt took me to Roy's restaurant downtown, and my sister Malini kindly babysat Keira for us.

Matt chose Roy's, and he definitely made the right choice! We live the Mai tai's there. We were a little disappointed to find out that they didn't serve the Wagyu beef that they serve at the La Jolla location, but the other food we ordered definitely sufficed!

They make a really big deal about birthdays there, which was fun. When I opened the menu, I was surprised to see a personalized birthday greeting in the menu! Later on they took out picture and printed it and gave it to us in a frame, and then we got free dessert! It seemed like all the staff knew it was my birthday.

In the morning, Keira and Matt had a birthday cake ready for me. It is so much fun now that Keira understands birthdays. She keeps singing "happy birthday" to me and giving me her balloon. She is such a sweet girl.

Keira's kitchen

I reunited with one of my old high school friends about 6 months ago, and her and I have become good friends again even though we hasn't seen eachother for almost 10 years. She has three kids, the youngest of whom us 4 years old. Her kids had outgrown their play kitchen, so she kindly gave it to Keira!

She was enamored with her kitchen from first sight! Now it has been about 2 months since we got it and she still plays with it regularly. For the entire first week, she would play with immediately when we came downstairs in the morning. She likes to make "oatmeal" and "cookies", and even uses her socks as oven mitts! She likes to load her pretend food into her stroller and distribute it to us like she is a waitress or flight attendant.

When we first got the kitchen from my friend, the door to the microwave had ripped off and Matt needed to fix it. Keira hounded him everyday, bringing him the microwave door and saying "fix it, fix it!" It worked, because he finally fixed it! I thought it was hilarious because it was so important to her to fix it even though there were two other doors to open and shut in her kitchen. She knew how to get what she wanted!

She has started swiping my spices and real pots and pans from the kitchen and keeping them in her toy kitchen. It's cute but gets messy when she pours my spices into her food creations. She is quite the domestic goddess with her kitchen and all her baby dolls!

Ms. Duckie and the Build-a-Bear crew

Keira and I went to Build-a-Bear with her playgroup, and I am pretty sure I was way more excited about it than she was! Keira had a great time at Starbucks before hand, because she was running around with her friends and playing chase. On our way from Starbucks to the store, she held hands with two of her friends. I could barely stand how cute it was. At first Keira was behind her friends and she looked back at me with desperation because she really wanted to hold hands with them. It hurt my heart to see her upset like that! I guess I need to prepare myself for more of that in the future. Once they were holding hands, they oooed and ahhef at every store front. So sweet!

Keira picked the Easter chick at Build -a-Bear, but lost interest soon after that so I picked out the clothes. That place is so cute! I can't wait until she is older and is into it a little bit more. She was really proud to walk out of the store with her box, though.