halloween is the BEST… HOLIDAY… EVER!

mama had planned to take me out to a few houses in our cul de sac so that i could get some more use out of my awesome shark outfit. but i wasn’t ready to quit after just 3 houses! i signed “more” to mama, so we kept on going. my $1 treat bag got so heavy that the handle broke off of it (i guess you get what you pay for), but that didn’t stop us.  we kept on trick-or-treating until my bag was overflowing.

at the first few houses we went to, mama knocked on the door, and i just stood there. i didn’t know what to do. then someone opened the door, mama said “trick or treat”, and then the person gave me handfuls of candy.  cool!  by the 3rd house, i started to get the hang of it.  banging on doors looked like fun, so i helped.  i banged on the door, then turned around and laughed while i kept on banging.  a couple of times, i fell into the neighbor’s house when the door was opened

at every house, i smiled and waved vigorously to the candy-giver.  they all ooohed and aaahed, and  many of them called over other family members to take a look at all my cuteness.  two different neighbors even took pictures of me.  it was like they had never seen a shark before!  after i got my candy, mommy would tell me that it was time to go, but i continued to stand on the porch and flap my fin.  it would have been rude to just take the candy and run, right?

when we got home, i told daddy that he needed to step up the candy-giving because all of our neighbors are so generous.  we don’t want to be known as the stingy house on the block!

this was the greatest holiday ever.  maybe next year, mama will let me help her stab a pumpkin and mush up its guts.

after a long day of pumpkin-picking last sunday, mama put me to bed, like always.  we read a book, she sang me a song, then i turned off the light.  but instead of wishing me sweet dreams and letting me sleep, mama stayed in my room for a few extra minutes.   she was blabbering something about not seeing me for a little while, but  i wasn’t really listening because i was trying to get some zzz’s.  i figured that she could finish telling me whatever she wanted to tell me in the morning.

but when i woke up monday morning, mama wasn’t there.  and she wasn’t there the next day, or the next day, or the next day.  now it’s thursday afternoon and i still haven’t seen her. where did mama go?

mama calls and texts throughout the day, and everyone tells her that koda and i miss her.  they just tell her that to make her feel better.  i dunno about koda, but i’m having lots of fun hanging out with miss denise (my nanny), daddy, and gung-gung.  today, i even got to go visit daddy’s office!  i tried to bid on an auction, but i didn’t know the password to mama’s paypal account.

i’m having a good time and everything, but if you see mama, please tell her to come home. i’m getting a little tired of posing for all the photos and videos that miss denise takes of me to send to mama.  thanks.

mama and daddy said that around this time of year, we’re supposed to decorate our house with pumpkins carved into scary faces.  weird.  but, okay.  i guess the pumpkins are supposed to scare away kids so they don’t take all my candy.

so, kai and i went to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins.  there were so many to choose from!

there were big giant pumpkins that were bigger than us.  i tried to tell kai that they were too heavy to lift, but he didn’t listen.  (click on either photo to see more — there’s one of kai trying to carry a giant pumpkin!)

and then there were itty bitty pumpkins that must be for little babies.  mama said that those are not for carving anyway — they are used for decorating the dinner table and/or serving pumpkin curry when you have a fancy dinner party.

but don’t worry…  we found a whole section of kai/ky sized pumpkins that were juuust right

we were all really bummed that the hay ride and train were not running (due to rain), but we made the most of the afternoon.  kai and i had a fun time hanging out and we got perfect-sized pumpkins to take home!  (click on either image to see more photos from our afternoon at the pumpkin patch.)

for my birthday, uncle randy gave me a bunch of awesome presents, including shirts that say “GTL” and “The Situation”.  i had no idea what they meant.  uncle randy had to educate me about the tv show jersey shore and the guy on there nicknamed “the situation”.   this guy coined the term “GTL” which stands for “gym, tanning, laundry” — it’s his way of life, a recipe for success, i guess.  he even wrote a book called here’s the situation: a guide to creeping on chicks, avoiding grenades, and getting in your GTL on the jersey shore.

so i wore my GTL shirt today and went to the children’s discovery museum to go creeping on chicks.  it ended up being a sausage fest!  oh well, i had fun hanging out with my buddies matthew, edison, and logan, anyway.

i was too embarrassed to show my GTL shirt in the photo because i didn’t do so well with the chicks today.  maybe i’ll have better luck with the other shirt.

being a kid, traveling by airplane is awesome.  you get to fly for free.  you get to bring drinks through the security checkpoint.  you get to gate-check your stuff instead of having to go to the baggage claim area.  you get priority boarding.  you don’t have to wear a seat belt on the plane.  the only bummer is that you have to check-in at the ticket counter — no mobile or web check-ins.  i guess most kids don’t have their own iphones like i do!

our family trip to socal was so much fun.  here are the highlights and lowlights from the weekend.

highlights:  staying up past 10pm two nights in a row!  freely opening dresser drawers (no child-safety latches).  eating grown-up food all weekend long (since mama couldn’t bring the special organic food that she usually makes for me).  petting sharks and stingrays with sierra at the aquarium of the pacific in long beach.  brunching at duke’s with auntie cindy and uncle tim.  but the highest highlight was having a big sis for the weekend — sierra was constantly checking to make sure i was okay, sharing her snacks with me (we even split a smoothie at bubba gump shrimp co.!), and picking up my crayons and juice cup every time i dropped/threw them on the floor.

lowlights:  southwest airlines breaking the wheel off my stroller

mama’s and daddy’s highlights:  daddy getting to see auntie jenny get married (where he also rubbed elbows with chuck “the iceman” lidell!).  mommy getting to spend quality time with auntie jo — two days in a row.  complimentary crib use and baby toiletries from the hotel.  free rental car upgrade with XM radio.

mama’s and daddy’s lowlights:  unforecasted cold weather (daddy had to go buy warm clothes).  daddy cutting his finger and having to go to the ER late at night.  delayed return flight causing us to miss uncle john’s wedding reception.

this socal weekend was sort of a trial run for our trip to hawaii next month.  these are some of the things we learned that we’ll keep in mind f0r future travels.

• airport check-in can take longer than you think.  airport lines on friday and sunday afternoons are long.  non-ticketed passengers (like me!) have to check in at the counter.  it could take a few tries to get through security (since i had so much stuff, the TSA guys dumped everything out of my bag and re-ran it through the x-ray machine).  strollers have to be collapsed and sent through the x-ray.  drinks have to be x-rayed and specially tested (the tests were different at SJC and LAX).
• schedule flights around nap times.  i sleep well during plane rides, except for when other kids scream loud and wake me up.
• bring/rent a booster or high chair whenever possible.  it’s nearly impossible to feed me when i’m not buckled into a chair.  i make mama and daddy chase me around with a spoon.
• i won’t sleep when mama is RIGHT THERE.  why would i want to go to bed when there are other people around to play with me?  mama had to hide out of my field of vision until i fell asleep.
• my sleep schedule is flexible.  mama and daddy have been dreading the hawaii time change because they just know that i’m gonna wake up at 4am every morning.  but i think if they let me stay up later, i’ll sleep in later.  we’re all crossing our fingers on that one

thanks to everyone who made our weekend so much fun — auntie jenny and uncle peter, auntie jo and sierra, auntie cindy and uncle tim, and of course… uncle henry and kiara for inviting koda over for a sleepover while we were away!  XOXO.

i’m getting ready for my first airplane ride. we are off to LA. wish me luck! (mama and daddy say that they are the ones that need luck!)

during the weekend of 10/10/10, daddy went out of town. so while daddy was away, mama and i played and played and played! here are 10 things that i did on the weekend of 10/10/10:

i taught zachary how to walk. (i know, i know, i didn’t really teach him, but i was there, so i’m gonna take credit for it .)

i cruised around the neighborhood in my super cool cozy coupe. (i even know how to open the door and climb into the car by myself!)

i had a tea party with jacey. (don’t worry, fake tea is caffeine-free.)

i painted a wall with a real paintbrush and paint. (i used my hands, too.)

i scaled a chest-high wall at u-me place. (uncle joe says that i’m ready to start adventure racing )

i visited bob the builder at his construction site. (i also ran into his bobble-head cat.)

i ate a grilled cheese sandwich and yam fries. (jacey was nice enough to share her yummy lunch with me. forget that healthy organic stuff that mommy makes me eat!)

i co-captained a ship with zachary. (we are not very good at steering, so we just kept sounding the airhorn to alert everyone to get outta the way.)

i went to uncle jamie’s gig at pedro’s. (well, i tried to go, but the 80′s cover band that he was playing with packed the house, and i wouldn’t have had a place to sit and eat. so we had to leave and eat at another restaurant. but i got to stay out past my bedtime anyway. hooray!)

i convinced mama that i’m left-handed. (she was in denial for a long time, but i think she has finally accepted it.)

for the past month, mama has been saying that she couldn’t wait for my 1 year checkup to see just how shrimpy i really am.  i’m NOT shrimpy — i am normal-sized!  mama must be hanging out with giants like bob the builder.  of course i am shrimpy compared to him.  look at the noggin on that guy.  even his cat has an oversized head!

so i went in for my checkup, and i guess mama was right (sort of).  here are my stats:

• weight:  20 lbs. 4 oz. (13 %ile)
• height: 30.25 inches (64 %ile)
• head circumference:  46.6 cm. (56 %ile)

overall, i am a-okay, but my doctor says that i need to bulk up a bit.  by my age, kids should have settled into a percentile range and stick to it.  but look at my growth chart from birth through today.

my height has settled right into the 60-70 %ile range.  but my weight peaked at around 75 %ile, then continued to fall down down down to its current 13 %ile.  at this rate, i’m going to fall right off the chart in a few months   at least i’m not a pinhead anymore.

uncle jamie says that i am definitely not underfed.  if you’ve ever seen me eat, i think you’d agree.  i eat.  a LOT.  i think i must have koda-disease.  both koda and i eat as much as we can, but we just can’t put on weight.  (mama has even taken koda to the vet because he’s so skinny that his ribs stick out!)  this problem must be genetic, but i dunno where we got it from.  mama and daddy are both really good at gaining weight.  but shhh, i didn’t say that

baby teeth are supposed to erupt at certain times in a kid’s life and in a specific order.  these are the rules that teeth are supposed to live by.

• lower central incisors (6-10 months):  i got my first tooth at 3.5 months.
• upper central incisors  (8-12 months):  mine erupted before 5 months.
• lower lateral incisors (10-16 months):  mine were in by 6 months.
• upper lateral incisors (9-13 months):  mine were in by 8 months.
• upper first molars (13-19 months):  i got nuthin.  none.  nada.  zero.  zilch.
• lower first molars (14-18 months):  i got one molar at 11.5 months.  yes, just one.  i am asymmetrical.  no wonder i am off-balance and fall down all the time.
• upper canines (16-22) months:  mine came in at 12 months!

(of course, the teeth eruption chart continues, but my 11 teeth are all i care about right now.  they have not followed any rules, so i don’t expect that the rest will, either.)

uh oh.  why did my teeth move on to canines and skip the other molars?  at first, mama didn’t notice my canines because she was looking/feeling around toward the back of my mouth where my molars are supposed to be.  but the canines are here, and they are SHARP!  (either that, or they’re my molars and they are coming in waaay off target.)

what if i never get my other 3 molars?  how will i be able to chew all the pizza and steak that daddy is going to feed me?

originally, mama and daddy weren’t planning on having a party for my 1st birthday.  (i know!  can you believe it?!)  they thought that i would be too young to appreciate it.  but since i have been having such a blast at the little gym every week, i wanted to invite all my little friends there for a little birthday celebration.

so i had an elmo party!  mama even made elmo cupcakes and elmo goodie bags for my friends.  i had such a fun time with all the party games and gym activities (except for the jumpy air track, for some reason) and it sure seemed like all my friends had a great time, too.

oh, but i didn’t like it when my cake was brought out and everyone started to sing.  mama and daddy thought i didn’t like being the center of attention, but actually, i was just mad.  first of all, the lights went out, so i thought that mama was going to make me go to sleep during my party.  and what made me even madder was that i didn’t get an elmo cupcake like everyone else!  mama made me a “special” cake made out of organic apple sauce, organic soy milk, oat flour, and other blah stuff.  it was supposedly good for me, but it didn’t taste very good.  daddy says that food that is good for you never tastes good.

once the lights came back on, everyone braced themselves for the mess that i was going to make of my cake.  sorry to disappoint.  i was a proper little boy and barely touched my cake until i got a spoon.  i did lunge for the candle though, while it was lit.  i like fire.  heh heh heh…

thanks to everyone who made my very first birthday special.  i have the bestest friends and family in the whooole world!  (click on either image to see more photos from my party.)