happy birthday to me

i am 4 years old. here’s what i’ve been up to these days.

daily schedule:

• 7:15am: wake up.  i crawl into bed with mommy and daddy (usually about 15 minutes after sienna does).  when sienna sees hears me coming, she lies right on top of mommy so that i can’t get near her.
• 7:30am: i change out of my pajamas and pull up (yes, i still wear a pull up at night) and get ready for the day.
• 7:45am: breakfast
• 8:15am: off to school.  daddy usually drops us off at school these days.
• 1:00pm:  we have nap time at school every day.  i usually nap, but some days (maybe once a week) i don’t.  on the weekends, i often forget to nap.
• 5:30pm: mommy picks us up from school.  but when i have soccer, gym, basketball, or other activities, i leave school before 4:00pm.
• 7:15pm: dinner.  we’ve been eating dinner later because daddy gets home later (due to his commute) and we try to wait for him.
• 8:00pm: shower or bath.  if we can take a bath, change into PJs and brush our teeth before 8:30pm, we get to watch one show.  usually, we watch either daniel tiger or kai-lan.
• 9:00pm: read a book.  mommy and daddy usually take turns putting me to bed.  i keep track.  one of them does most of the reading, but i can read a lot of the words now.
• 9:30pm: lights out.

things i’m good at:

• reading short words.  i can read a lot of 3-, 4-, and 5-letter words.  i’m good at recognizing words that i’ve previously learned and sounding out new words that i haven’t seen before.  my grammar is getting really good too — even with irregular verbs.
• going potty.  i don’t have potty accidents any more.  (i hope i’m not jinxing myself by writing that!)
• using my words.  when someone (usually sienna) is mean to me or hits me, i don’t hit back.  i tell her in a firm voice, “please stop.  i don’t like that.”

things i’m working on:

• basic math.  i always have to count on my fingers.  even if i’m just adding 5 + 1, i don’t get that i can start at 5 and then add one to get to 6.  i hold out 5 fingers, then 1 more, and count “one, two, three, four, five, six”.
• penmanship.  my handwriting is terrible and my stroke order is really weird, but for some reason, nobody ever corrects it.
• night time potty-training.  well, i’m not really working on this yet, but soon.  mommy says that when i run out pull-ups, i’m going to have to start using the potty at night so i don’t pee in my pajamas.

things i do that make mama and dada sad:

i often get overly sensitive about things.  for example, i was teaching sienna spanish the other day, and she was saying the word incorrectly.  i taught her the right pronunciation and asked her to repeat after me, but she ignored me and continued to say the word incorrectly — she thought it was funny.  i got really frustrated and upset and started yelling, but she still wouldn’t listen.  i eventually started to cry.  mommy and daddy aren’t sure if this is lack of emotional maturity, age appropriate behavior, or just me being a sensitive kid.

things i do that make people smile/laugh:

i am a funny kid.  everyone says so.  i’m not trying to be funny, i guess i just say and do funny things.

• i speak in spanglish and will only continue the conversation if the other person (mommy) responds to me in spanish.  i also sing “i am a pizza” in french (“je suis une pizza”).
• i like to check the labels on the fruit and veggies in our fridge to see if they’re organic or not.
• if someone asks me to throw away some trash, i inspect it carefully to see if it should be recycled instead.
• i’ve recently started speaking up for myself at restaurants (ordering my food) and stores (asking store clerks where the restroom is).  grown ups find this very charming for some reason.
• when we walk koda, i always make mommy and daddy turn on their GPS run trackers so that i can see the route that we’re traveling and where we are on the map.
• mommy used to always say (and write) “i love you so so much” to me and sienna.  but a couple of weeks ago, i decided that i should get 3 “so”s since i was 3 years old.  now that i’m 4, mommy loves me so so so so much.

favorite indoor activities:

• arts and crafts.  i like to draw, paint, cut, and make stuff.
• building things.  i like to build things with legos, magnetic tiles, blocks, or anything else that is stackable.
• helping out in the kitchen.  i like to help mix cake batter, operate the blender to make smoothies, preheat the oven, and anything else that mommy and daddy need help with.

favorite outdoor activities:

• riding my bike.  mommy made the mistake of buying me a bike that’s too big — my feet can’t touch the ground.  so even though i was doing so great with my run bike, i am now totally dependent on my training wheels.  when i tried out cousin zoey’s smaller bike (where my feet could touch the ground), i was a lot more confident and did pretty well without training wheels.  mommy is tempted to buy me a new (smaller) bike, but is waiting to see how much i’m really going to ride now that summer is over.
• basketball and golf.  i have a new basketball and some new putters, so i have been playing in our backyard!
• playgrounds.  i still love playing at the playground.  slides are still my favorite, and i recently learned how to pump my legs so i can swing by myself!

favorite book:  transformers: rescue-bot books.  i have the chase book and the heatwave one.  because of those books, i now love rescue-bots (even though i have never actually played with the transformer toys).

favorite songs:

• i am a pizza
• mister sun
• going on a bear hunt

favorite mobile app:  i actually lost my iphone when we moved, and daddy just found it a couple of weeks ago.  i still don’t use it much, but i do like to watch videos of my favorite songs on youtube sometimes.

favorite foods that i’m only allowed a tiny bit of:   jello.  mommy special layered jello for my birthday party and now i’m hooked.  it’s even better than cake!

favorite characters:  heatwave the fire-bot.

favorite animal:  owls.  because i am in the owls classroom at school.

today, i was a king for the day.  as soon as i opened the door to walking into my classroom at school, my entire class started singing happy birthday to me.   then, they all rushed over to give me a hug, and then i was crowned by my teacher.  my crown was super special — it even had my name spelled out on the little circles at the top of the points.  i really loved it and i wore it all day.

all day long, everyone wanted to be my friend.  the girls often fight over me anyway, but today was ridiculous.  i’m not sure if it was because i looked extra powerful wearing my crown or if was because they knew i was going to be passing out special treats in the afternoon.

after nap, it was time for my school firetruck party.  mommy arranged to have the owls and the eagles combined for the afternoon so i could celebration my birthday with all my school friends.  however, mommy failed to arrange for a firetrucks or fire fighters to show up at my school.  i passed out firefighter hats to everyone anyway, and most of them wore the hats for the rest of the day.  birthday treats had to be store-bought  due to allergy concerns, so we figured we’d do something different than cupcakes — jello!  nobody is allergic to jello, right?  there were also pudding cups because the jello variety pack comes with pudding.  score!  i had pudding for the first time and i loved it.

after my school party, i went to basketball class, did a quick 4yo photo shoot at the park, and then we went back to school to pick up sienna and went to dinner.  i picked the cheesecake factory for my birthday dinner because i thought they’d give me a free cheesecake for my birthday.  they didn’t.  i did get a free (mini) hot fudge sundae though. 😀

happy birthday to me.  i like being 4!

i had been looking forward to my fire truck birthday party so such a long time. i wanted to invite everyone from my school in both the owls class (my current class) and the eagles class (the pre-K class that all my friends moved up to after the summer). mommy said we couldn’t because our house isn’t big enough. so we made a deal. we’d have a home party for my friends and family, and a school party for my school friends. TWO parties!

when i woke up on saturday morning, i told mommy that i was going to tell my friends to give me presents when they came over. mommy said that wasn’t nice and that i shouldn’t say that. but i wanted presents!

well, everyone started arriving and we all started playing. some friends played inside with my train table and other toys. and some friends played golf and basketball out in the backyard. and then all of a sudden, we heard a big truck outside. we all ran out and saw the fire truck! a real life fire truck with real life on-duty fire fighters! what’s a fire truck party without a real life fire truck, right?

i passed out fire hats to all my friends, and we all got to climb into the fire truck and check out the control panel with all the gauges and levers and knobs. it was super awesome for about 20 minutes, and then my friends and i were over it. we went back to playing. other friends were still trickling in, though, so the fire fighters stayed until everyone had a chance to check out the fire truck and take lots of photos (and the grown ups got to ask questions about the recent morgan territory fire and the color coding of fire hydrants and other boring stuff). some of the neighborhood kids came out and joined us, too.

after the firemen left, daddy grilled up a bunch of food for us.  then we put up the jumpy house, played some more, had cake, and then it was time for the pinata. even though mommy had stabbed a bunch of holes all over the pinata, it was impossible for a bunch of 2-4 year olds to break with a plastic bat. we had fun trying though.  at first i was swinging the bat properly, but that didn’t work.  so i tried swinging it like a battleaxe, and that didn’t work either.  eventually, mommy helped by opening the holes bigger, and then i was finally able to bust it open.  all the chocolates fell out and everyone rushed to grab them, but they were melted and squishy. ewww. so my friends didn’t really take any of the candies. mommy put them in the refrigerator, and now they’re fine. more for daddy. (note to self: don’t put chocolate candy in a pinata when you’re having an outdoor party on a sunny day.)

unprompted, i walked around thanking everyone for coming to my party (which really charmed my aunties). i didn’t ask anyone to give me presents, but i got lots of presents anyway. how cool is that? i get to open one present per day. hmmm… which one should i pick to open tonight? 😀

kids like to organize and sort things.  most kids do that with colored legos or toy cars.  i prefer real life applications.

i like to sort garbage —  trash, recycling, or compost.  almost a year ago, i learned how to look for the arrows on containers and other items that indicate that it is recyclable.  i’m really good at that.  compost is a lot trickier.  at first, i thought that compost = food waste.  but sometimes mommy and daddy put yard trimmings in the compost.  or paper towels.  it’s very confusing, so i still have to ask for confirmation before putting things into our compost bin.

last week, i learned how to read produce labels.  generally, if it starts with 9, it means it’s organic.  if it starts with 4, then it’s not organic (mommy says it’s called “conventional”, but i prefer “not organic”).  and if it starts with an 8, then it’s a GMO product and we shouldn’t buy/eat it.  so now, i like to go through the fridge and sort our fruit by organic and not. i always remind mommy and daddy to buy organic, but i never knew if they actually did it.  now that i know how to read PLU codes, i can check to see if they are listening to me or not.

usually at bedtime, mommy reads to sienna.    tonight, sienna read to mommy.

remember when i was sienna’s age and i used to read to her? what do you think?

tonight was our first sharks game of the season. but before we went, we had to decide who was going to go to. mommy kept saying that we only had two tickets. and i kept thinking, “so what’s your point?” we’ve always had two tickets, and we’ve all gone to games together before.  so when mommy said that only two of us could go to the game, i didn’t understand.

daddy and i ended up having a guys night at the tank. (“SAP center” doesn’t sound nearly as cool as “HP pavilion”.) mommy and sienna didn’t mind because they went to dinner at auntie mimi’s house for an autumn moon celebration.

guys nights with daddy are awesome — we get to eat pizza and pretzels for dinner. 🙂 daddy let me decide where to eat. round table? pass. amici’s please! before the game, i told daddy that i didn’t want to see the giant shark head with the glowing red eyes. that thing freaks me out. so during the pre-game intros, we ate our pizza, and after the freaky shark head levitated to the ceiling, daddy and i went down to our seats. i hadn’t finished my pizza yet, so i brought it to my seat and continued to eat during the 1st period. but as soon as there was a power play, i dropped my slice to do the shark chomp. priorities! and throughout the rest of the game, i cheered and clapped along with all the cheers. 🙂

i don’t even remember who won, but it doesn’t matter — i have fun at sharks games no matter what. and besides, it was pre-season anyway.

btw, i never found my earmuffs.  i know they’re in this house somewhere…

a few weeks ago, sienna went to see some doctors at UCSF about her peely hands and feet, and they invited her to attend a clinic for disorders of cornification.  when mommy called to schedule sienna’s appointment, she found out that the clinic happens only once a quarter.  apparently, the world’s leading specialists in the field go to UCSF every few months, and they schedule patients in two time slots.  two.  i guess that’s all they need because the conditions are so rare?  i dunno.

well, the september clinic was full, and so was the january one.  the next one hadn’t been scheduled yet, so sienna was put on a wait list.  not 10 minutes later, the scheduler called and told mommy that there was a cancellation, so sienna got into today’s clinic.

after being weighed and measured, sienna had to wait a really long time (maybe an hour?) before the specialists came to see her.  while she waited, she played with the stickers that she got in the waiting room (she charmed the women at the front desk and got stickers before her appointment, even though they are generally handed out afterward).  and when she got bored with the stickers, she started playing with her nipples.  she has a newfound fascination with her nipples.  i guess that was bound to happen after spending so much time naked, in front of a mirror.

well, the two specialists finally came to see sienna, and they were accompanied by about 6 other people in white coats.  the specialists asked all the questions — the others (maybe fellows and residents?) just observed and didn’t say much.  the specialists didn’t really have any answers.  there are about 4 different possible diagnoses for sienna’s condition, but it doesn’t really matter.  whatever it is, there is no cure for it, and the treatment would be the same.  that said, they are very interested in sienna and her “extremely rare condition”.  they asked her to participate in a research study that is being conducted by a professor at yale.  he is looking for new genetic mutations that cause skin conditions like sienna’s.  (does that mean that sienna is a mutant?  like the x-men?  so cool!)  the downside to research testing is that it can take a long time to get results.  the upside is that it is free (to us).  since there is no urgency to land on a diagnosis, mommy agreed to it.  i feel bad for sienna, but it’s pretty cool that she has the opportunity to contribute to medical science and to society.

i was kidding before when i said that she might get written up in a medical journal, but now i think that it’s a very real possibility.  i bet that’ll make a good story for her personal statement in her med school application.

today was my first day of basketball class.  i wish i was a little bit taller… i wish i was a baller…  scratch that.  i just wish i could dribble.  but it doesn’t matter that i’m the worst dribbler ever.  i LOVE basketball!  i liked it so much that we went out and bought a ball after class.  mommy says that it’s a good thing that i’m a smart kid, because it doesn’t look like i’m going to college on a basketball scholarship.

all summer, sienna and i been swimming on sundays, but the session ended a few weeks ago.  we miss it, and we’ve been telling mommy and daddy that we want to swim again.  so today, when mommy and daddy said that we were going to go swimming with matthew, we figured that he was joining us for lessons at AVAC.  it took a lot of explaining until it sunk in that we were just going to play, and that mommy and daddy and sienna and i were all going to swim together.  we were so excited!

first, we met matthew and his family for lunch, and then we all headed over to the silliman aquatic center in newark.  it’s an indoor water park.  auntie audrey found a groupon deal for that place and invited us to join them.  she is always finding fun new places to check out.  matthew is so lucky!

well, we all got into the water, except for auntie audrey.  i’m not sure if she didn’t play with with us because she had to sit out and watch our stuff, or if it’s because she’s 8.5 months pregnant and didn’t feel like putting on a swimsuit. 😛  the water was pretty cold.  mommy was sure that i would complain about it, but i didn’t.  i was too excited to notice.  i was jumping up and down and yelling “i’m so excited!”.

there were a handful of different areas to play in, but we mostly stayed in the little kid area.  we wanted to go on the big water slide (like the ones you see at regular outdoor water parks) but we are too little.  in the little kid area, there is a play structure with a rope net to climb, some slides, a rope swing… basically a playground in the middle of a really shallow pool.  sienna and i both loved the slides.   we both checked out the lazy river too, but we were too little for the inner tubes, so mommy had to float with us so we wouldn’t slip through the middle.  i’d had enough after one lap around, but sienna really liked it and stayed in there for awhile.  matthew steered clear of the slides and tubes, but he liked playing in the spouting water fountains.  we all had so much fun that we stayed and played until our lips turned blue.

but the fun wasn’t over after we got out of the water.  after changing into dry clothes and getting warm, we played in the lockers.  sienna kept trying to photo bomb matthew and me, so we let her join us.  she sure looks grumpy for someone who insisted on being in the photo, huh?

matthew, thanks for inviting us to play at the water park.  we had so much fun and we can’t wait to go again.  but be warned:  your mommy said that she is going to dunk you in the water next time.  don’t tell her i told you.

so, you know how we’ve been trying to spend more time closer to home? well, that didn’t happen today. we spent the whole day in the south bay.

first, we went to abby’s birthday party at her house in san jose. but before i tell you about it, lemme give you some background. when we went to santa cruz for labor day weekend, bunny (my plush bunny, star of “goodnight moon”) and abby (sienna’s plush abby cadabby doll) went with us. i have been sleeping with bunny since before i can remember. and sienna has been sleeping with abby since july, when she got her for her birthday (and ousted minnie from her bed). since that santa cruz weekend, sienna and i have gotten super attached to our bedtime buddies. (maybe because kai-kai has a plush blue dog that he brought with him everywhere we went in santa cruz. i dunno. nobody knows.) sienna and i have brought bunny and abby downstairs to eat breakfast with us, i check on bunny when i get home from school, i brought him to school with me for share day last week, and i even asked mommy if we could have a birthday party for bunny.

so when we heard that we were going to abby’s birthday party today, we thought we were having a party for sienna’s abby cadabby doll. sienna was SUPER EXCITED. i started to whine and pout. if abby was having a party, then bunny better be having a birthday party too! mommy explained that the party was for our friend abby. oh. and then sienna and i started to fight over whose friend she was. “my friend abby!” “no my friend!” when i wrote about us fighting over abby at her first birthday party, i had no idea how true that would become.

anyway, the party was fun. we played with giant bubbles, dug in the sandbox, and i learned to swing all by myself by pumping my legs “in and out, in and out”. oh, and there was a pinata. but instead of whacking it with a stick, we pulled strings until the bottom opened up. i think i prefer hitting things with a stick. what did you expect? i’m a boy. happy birthday to my friend abby. i don’t care what sienna says, i met abby first.

after abby’s party, we met up with sierra at a nearby park. she (and sofia, who was asleep in the car) were in town just for the weekend for a family party. it was so nice of her to make time to hang out with us for a little while.

and then we headed straight to auntie lanny’s house for a bbq. it was supposed to be a pool party for mommy and daddy’s volleyball team, but it was a little too cold to swim. but that wasn’t a problem. auntie lanny has 4 kids and an awesome tri-level backyard with plenty of things for them (and us) to do — bikes and scooters on the upper level, a play structure with swings and a slide on the middle level, and the big pool and jacuzzi on the lower level. so with so many things to choose from, guess how logan and i entertained ourselves. by digging in a dirt patch, of course.

whew, what a busy day it was. we had a lot of fun hanging out in the south bay, and sienna and i passed out on the way home.