i used to hear mommy joke with dada about having baby sister sleep with her forever.  except i don’t think she was joking.  dada didn’t think she was joking either.  so about a month ago, dada decided that it was time to set up the co-sleeper.  finally.  baby sister was over 5 months old, so it was about time.

then a couple of days ago, mommy fed baby at 1am just before she went to bed. just like always.  but instead of putting baby in the co-sleeper, mommy but baby to sleep in her crib!  you’d think that mommy would finally get a good night’s sleep, right?  wrong.  mommy couldn’t sleep.  she knew that she would have to get up every 3 hours to feed baby, and she was worried that she wouldn’t hear her when she woke up (even though she was in the next room and the baby monitor was on).  so mommy half-slept while she waited for baby to wake up.  she waited… and waited… and kept waiting.  she barely slept all night because she kept thinking that baby was going to wake up any minute.  but baby sister slept til 7:30am!  well, that’s mommy’s story.  the rest of us think that mommy just doesn’t know how to sleep without a baby right next to her.

the next night, mommy washed both of baby’s crib sheets.  and she accidentally forgot to dry them.  yeah, right.  so baby sister had to sleep in the co-sleeper that night.

last night, baby sister was back in her crib.  she was on her way to sleeping through the night, and mommy was facing another whole night by herself.  well, dada was with her, but you know what i mean.  i didn’t want mommy to be lonely, so at 4:00am i ran toward her room calling “mama?  mama?”.  she happily carried me back to my room and laid down with me in my race car bed.  i just laid there in silence with my eyes wide open.  after 30 minutes, mommy brought me to her room and let me sleep with her and daddy.  she said that she was worried that baby was going to wake up, cry, and disturb dada.  but i know the truth — she just wanted to cuddle with me because she was having separation anxiety.

see, mommy told everyone that baby and i were conspiring to keep her from sleeping through the night.  but actually, we are trying to gently wean her away from holding a baby while she sleeps.  we are sleep training mommy

remember my friend greyson?  it seemed like just yesterday that he was a newborn and i was looking for him all over his house, calling “baby?  baby?  baby?”.  well guess what.  he is one year old already!  gosh, babies grow up so fast

dada was very excited about greyson’s birthday party.  i have never seen him so excited to go to one of my friends’ parties before.  at first i thought it was because greyson is my half-and-half brother, but then i figured out the real reason – it was a dim sum party!  dada loves dim sum.

this was my first dim sum party, so i didn’t know what to expect.  there was assigned seating and a pre-ordered menu.  there were centerpieces on each table, individually wrapped gifts for all the kids, and three (that’s right, THREE) cakes — all in the badtz-maru theme.  fancy, huh?  i didn’t know who badtz-maru was, but baby sister told me that he’s a friend of hello kitty, her bobble-headed cat.

there were mostly grown ups at the party, but some of my friends were there, too.  i was trying to get to know ellie better since i don’t get many opportunities to spend time with her, but she was more interested in hanging out with baby sister.  oh well.  i heard that she has a boyfriend anyway.

cool dim sum party, greyson.  hope you had a happy birthday.  and thanks for the cool presents!

since i was such a good boy yesterday at baby’s head scan appointment, mommy said we could go to the zoo (palo alto junior museum & zoo) afterwards. i was so excited that i asked “zoo?” over and over again during the entire drive there.  luckily, the zoo is only a couple of miles away from the head scan place.

well, we pulled into the parking lot… just as it was closing.  i got all excited about the zoo for nothing!  luckily, there was a nearby park where i got to play on the slides for a little while, but i was still sooo mad.  i asked “zoo” the whole way home.  mommy felt so bad about it that we went all the way back to the zoo today.  yay!

even though all the museum and zoo exhibits were the same as the last time we went there, i still had a blast.  i watched some new animals that i didn’t really look at last time — like bats and raccoon and a turtle.  and then we went back inside the museum and i checked out a lot of the creepy crawly insects.  and then i pretended to be a spider and climbed around the web.  how fun.  bugs are cool

baby sister stayed in the special area designated for babies.  she played with some of the toys in there, but she mostly just rolled around.  while i was pretending to be a spider crawling on the web, baby sister was pretending to be a caterpillar sitting in the cocoon.

baby sister had a follow-up appointment today to check out her flat head.  just like last time, she had to wear a do-rag.  and just like last time, she looked funny.  but today, baby sister started crying as soon as mommy laid her down in the magic box.  i don’t know why.  she didn’t cry at all last time.

there wasn’t much change in baby’s head measurements between last month and today (numbers are marginally better).  she is in the grey area between normal and needing helmet therapy.  everything we were told made it seem like a helmet would be cosmetic only (like braces for her skull) and that her mild case of flat-headedness won’t cause problems with her vision or jaw alignment.  but still, they want to continue to monitor her and have her scanned again next month.

i don’t get it.  there wasn’t any significant change in the past month, and there’s no reason to think that things would suddenly get worse next month, right?  and it has already been determined that any treatment would be cosmetic only, which also means all costs are out-of-pocket.  and baby sister definitely doesn’t like being scanned — i think that’s obvious from the photo.  so, for all those reasons, mommy is thinking of not bringing baby sister back.  but then auntie ann (who is a pediatric physical therapist) told mommy that she should continue to have baby sister monitored just in case.  what do you think she should do?

personally, i think baby sister should go back because the head scanning place is really close to the palo alto junior museum and zoo.  scan for baby means zoo for me

gung hay fat choy!  today is the first day of the lunar new year.  last year, our chinese new year celebration was a quiet dinner that mommy cooked at home.  it was a good dinner, but mommy doesn’t cook traditional chinese food.  luckily, auntie mimi invited all of us to join her family’s chinese new year dinner at their house.  she said that the dress code was “gold and red”.  i wore the one red shirt that i have.  baby sister had plenty of clothing options and a selected a brand new red dress out of her closet.

auntie mimi and her parents cooked a feast fit for a king. or maybe an emperor.  make that 100 emperors.  there was chicken, pork, fish, chinese broccoli, mushrooms, sticky rice, nian gao (traditional chinese new year cake) and lots more.  they even cooked jai!  gung-gung kept talking about jai last year, but i had no idea what it was.  now i know.  jai (also called “buddha’s delight” or “monk stew”) is a very traditional stew that is usually only prepared for chinese new year.  it’s made with exotic ingredients like tree ear fungus, ginko nuts, black moss, golden lily buds, and other strange-looking stuff.  mommy ate three servings.  gung-gung was loving it, too.  dada wasn’t daring enough to try it.  i ate my share, though, and everyone was so surprised that i would eat such an exotic dish.  dada missed out.  (baby sister missed out too, but only because she doesn’t have teeth to chew with).  oh well.  more for me.

aside from the food, another great thing about a real chinese new year celebration is all the red envelopes.  i thought they were so cool that i kept collecting the ones that were laying around — even the ones that i had previously handed out to other people (from mommy and dada).  i saw one peeking out of auntie mimi’s back pocket, so i pick-pocketed her.  she didn’t even notice   check out these super-cool red envelopes that baby sister and i got that night.  did you that they come with money inside of them?

thank you auntie mimi (and family) for inviting us over for such a special chinese new year celebration.  gung hay fat choy!

i spent all day practicing saying “happy birthday” so i could say it to maddie when i saw her.  tonight was her 3rd birthday party and it was so fun.  here are the top 5 reasons why:

5)  new hotspot.  i got to check out airborne gymnastics, a new place that i had never been to before.  it’s a training gym for real gymnasts — like the ones who go the olympics.  (that’s what i heard, anyway.)  mommy said that i might get to join maddie’s class when i turn 2.5.

4)  circuit training.  to get through the circuit, we had to slide down a slide, swing on a rope, walk a balance beam, swing on the rings, and even hop through a hopscotch!  the best part was at the end when we got to slide into the giant foam pit.  (see video.)  i cheated and did that last part 3 times  sliding in is SO FUN, but getting out is like crawling out of quicksand.

3)  good friends.  maddie and i have a handful of mutual friends, and it’s always fun to hang out with them because i don’t see them often.  maddie, ava, zoe, kai, and i, all sat together for dinner after working up a big appetite.

2)  baby sister’s friends.  it’s nice that she had friends to play with, too.  after all, it is her half birthday.  while i was sitting with my friends at the party table, baby sister hung out with malia (her buddy who is only 12 days younger).  and when i wasn’t looking, she started “hanging out” with kai, too.  when i saw them out of the corner of my eye, i got SO UPSET that i ran across the room and put a stop to it.  no joke.  i mean, look at the photo.  wth is that all about???

and the number one reason why maddie’s party was so great…

1)  ice cream cake!  ‘nuf said.  happy birthday maddie!

just when i was getting the hang of handling my new high performance sports car… i got carjacked!  do you think baby sister will be a better driver than i am?

i got wheels!  i mean, i know i’ve been cruising in my cozy coupe for over a year, but now i have a real live motorized vehicle.  and it’s not just any ol’ car — it’s lightning mcqueen!  i finally took him out for a spin today.

i had never actually driven a car by myself, but like most things in my life, mommy took a sink-or-swim approach to teaching me how to drive.  or in this case, it was more like drive-or-crash.  i only crashed one time!  don’t worry, i didn’t hit a tree or anything — i just hit mommy.  and the car is just fine. whew.

mommy thinks that i am a bad driver, but i meant to go off-roading.  so what if lightning mcqueen is a race car?  staying on the road is boring.  i feel bad about all the plants and grass that i damaged, but i hope that the fact that i am driving an electric-powered vehicle makes up for it in the karmic balance of the environment.

check out my video.  and yeah yeah, i know that it looks like i’m driving a stick shift, but gimme a break.  it was my first time.  see you on the road!  vroom vroom…

i love football.  every sunday, i sit with mommy and dada and watch football.  it’s so exciting.  today is extra exciting because the 49ers are playing in their first playoff game of the season.  (i am watching as i type.)

we went out this morning to run some errands and have lunch.  on the way home from lunch, i fell asleep in the car.  dada carried me upstairs to my bed, but i woke up and came down stairs yelling “football!”  i knew the game was on and i didn’t want to miss it.

i get really into the games and yell “go go go!” all the time.  i usually yell at the wrong times, but it doesn’t matter.  it’s still exciting.  i’m confused about two things though.  (1) why did the guy on tv keep saying “vernon davis is a beast”?  i am in the “beasts” class at little gym, and vernon davis is not in my class.  (2) why did the guy on tv keep saying “touchdown 49ers”?  mommy tells me “touchdown” when she wants me to raise my arms in the air so she can help me take my shirt off.  are they playing strip football?

now that the game is over, i have to say that that was one of the most exciting action-packed games i’ve ever seen.  mommy and dada are celebrating because the 49ers won.  i am celebrating because that means we get to watch more football next week.  i am way too excited to nap today.  GO GO GO!

i didn’t have anything on my social calendar this morning (i know, i couldn’t believe it either), so we went for a walk to the creek by our house. all of us went — mommy, dada, baby, koda, and me.  dada kept wanting to turn around because he said that i would be too tired to make it back, but i think that he was the one that was getting tired.

walking 1.5 miles and running around at the playground we stopped at just wasn’t enough exercise for me.  i pushed and pulled baby’s stroller, i galloped and bear crawled down the street, i stopped to do froggy jumps and spins, and i still wanted to sprint all the way home.  i am a fast poke.  but i had to keep stopping to wait for the rest of the family. they are a bunch of slow pokes.