when we went to santa cruz over labor day weekend, two of the kids we went with were maddie and malia.  they are girlie girls who play with dolls and are always well-dressed.  sienna has no idea what that’s like.  she plays with trucks and trains (my old toys) and she wears long pants almost every day (to help prevent her from scratching the dry patches on her legs).

during that weekend, sienna discovered the girls’ dolls and took an immediate interest in them.  mommy groaned.  she knew the day would come when sienna would start liking dolls and princesses — she just didn’t think it would be so soon.  but that’s not all.  sienna now loves wearing skirts.  since that weekend, sienna has insisted on wearing a skirt almost every day. coincidence?  i think not.  i’m pretty sure that maddie and malia can take credit for that. 🙂

for the past couple of weeks, the first thing that sienna has been saying when she wakes up is “i wear a skirt today”.  luckily, sienna has a large collection of hand-me-down skirts from cousin zoey.  oh, and the pinker and flouncier they are, the better.  sienna has discovered that if she twirls around fast enough, her skirts will flare out.  she likes that.  until today, she had refused to wear the straight skirts (like the one in this photo), but all of her flouncy ones are being washed right now.  so today, it was a straight skirt, or pants.  she reluctantly wore this one.

yup, sienna has been girl-ified.  she hasn’t asked for a disney princess doll or wanted to dress up like a princess yet, but i’m sure that day is not far away.

sienna and i had our first official class at edge gymnastics today.  i love gym class.  i’m so good at doing donkey kicks and forward rolls now.  and i love that we get to bounce down the tumbling track and jump into the foam pit during every class.  i miss matthew and our post-gym dinners at galleria, but it’s cool having isaac in my edge class and it’s nice that there is a class for sienna at the same time.

isaac and i don’t have a post-gym routine yet, but today after gym, we went to his house to meet his new baby sister.  her name is isabelle.  mommy thought that i would be so excited to meet her, but i barely looked at her.  i was too busy playing with isaac and all of his toys.  sienna, on the other hand, was excited to meet  baby isabelle.  she wanted to touch her but wasn’t allowed to, so she just watched her sleep. 🙂  when mommy called me over and asked if i wanted to see isabelle, i said no.  i had already seen a photo of her on mommy’s phone, so what more was there to see?

i hope baby isabelle will hurry and grow up so she can play with sienna while isaac and i play together.  i like playing with sienna and we get along great (most of the time), but as soon as one my friends comes around, i drop sienna like a hot potato.  sienna needs more girlfriends.  isabelle is a good start.

so, you know how sienna has peely hands and feet?  before today, she had already seen 3 different doctors about it.  the first one thought that it might be eczema.  or athlete’s foot.  (c’mon, seriously?)  the second doctor had no idea what it was, but knew it wasn’t eczema.  he gave her a bunch of sample creams to try.  none of them worked.  the third doctor (at stanford) gave sienna’s peely hands and feet a fancy name — palmoplantar keratoderma —  which is a broad group of disorders that cause thickening in the palms and soles.  but he had only read about them in med school and didn’t know anything about them.  plus, palmoplantar keratoderma is just a symptom, and doesn’t tell us anything about what the underlying condition might be.  thanks.

well, at sienna’s 2 year check up, our new doctor mentioned that UCSF and stanford have doctors that specialize in pediatric dermatology.  we had never considered taking sienna to UCSF when we lived in san jose because stanford was much closer.  but now that we live in the east bay, UCSF is just as close (or far) as stanford.  plus, mommy has some HSA dollars to burn.  so sienna went to UCSF today to get a 4th opinion on her peeling hands and feet.

the doctors were “intrigued” by sienna’s condition.  they think it could be progressive symmetric erythrokeratoderma, a rare genetic condition.  some of the dry patches on sienna’s knees, ankles, and on the back of her hands might be related to that condition.  we had thought they were just eczema patches.  sienna got a prescription for a steroid cream, which i suppose will make the dry patches go away if they really are just eczema.  if the doctors are right, the bad news it that the symptoms will be lifelong.  the good news is that it shouldn’t affect physical or mental development.

sienna had a bunch of photos taken of her, and she was invited to return to UCSF for a clinic on disorders of cornification, where the world’s leading specialist will be in attendance.  the doctors said that the specialist might be able to identify what sienna really has, which will give us a better idea of how her symptoms might progress and for how long.  i think they just want sienna there to study her since her condition is apparently rare and not well-documented.  i wonder if she will be written up in a medical  journal or something.  that would be cool.

last summer we spent a weekend in tahoe with two other families.  we had so much fun that we decided to do it again this summer.  but instead of tahoe, we went to santa cruz.  we rented a house that was just a block away from the beach and a short walk (1/2 mile) from the boardwalk.

in our three families, there are a total of 5 kids.  two of the kids (kai-kai and maddie) are older than me and one kid (malia) is a week and a half younger than sienna.  it’s about a 2.5 year age range, and we all like playing together.  and since there are only 5 kids, the grown ups always have us outnumbered.  mommy and daddy really like that. 🙂

it was a 3-day weekend, so we got to do lots of fun things.  here are the highlights and lowlights on our trip.

HIGHLIGHTS

picking raspberries and strawberries.  mommy taught us to pick the red berries, because the white ones were not ready yet.  she showed us how to pluck them by the stem so the berries don’t get squished.  sienna is not a good berry picker — she kept squashing them in her little hands.  i am an excellent berry picker.  plus, maddie helped me by telling me to throw the moldy ones back on the ground.

riding the rides on the boardwalk.  we really liked the pepsi convoy, and the boat ride ride was really cool because we got to ring the bell.  but the best ride was the cave train.  the ride had a posted sign that said that it “might frighten small children”, so mommy tried talking me and sienna out of riding it.  but we insisted.  while we waited in line, she talked to us about how the ride was just pretend, and if we got scared that we should just close our eyes and hold her hand and sing a song.  but we weren’t scared. 🙂  we liked the train ride!  there were even dinosaurs inside the cave.  so cool!

playing at the beach.  all the girls were tired, so it was just me and kai-kai at the beach.  (sienna was with us, but she slept in the stroller the entire time.)  we played in the waves, dug ditches in the sand, and i even got to fly a kite for the first time!

building a fort with the living room couch cushions and playing “hiding places” with kai-kai.

cooking in the imaginary kitchen in the backyard.  the patio chairs were our stoves and ovens, and the landscaping rocks were our food ingredients.

doing fireworks (sparklers) every night.

LOWLIGHTS

no daddy.  daddy met up with us on friday night, and he spent the night with us in santa cruz.  but first thing in the morning, he left to go home because he had to work all weekend.  when i woke up on sunday morning, the first thing is said was “i really miss daddy”.

having to walk sooo faaar.  before sienna was born, i used to refuse to ride in my stroller.  but on this trip, sienna and i fought over who got to ride and who had to walk.  i ended up doing most of the walking since i am bigger, but i got tired.  luckily, auntie victoria helped out by letting me ride in kai-kai’s stroller for part of the walk to the beach, and she pushed sienna (who was sleeping) in her stroller part of the way from the boardwalk to the beach so mommy could give me a piggy back ride.

it got a little chilly at night.  but that ended up working in our favor because mommy let me and sienna climb into bed with her when we woke up in the middle of the night. 🙂

we had a really fun time and i hope we get to do summer trips like this every year.  mommy suggested that we go to cabo next year because all of us kids will be old enough to drop off at day care

a few days ago, sienna got bitten on her hand.  of course, it wasn’t koda.  it wasn’t even an animal or an insect.  she was bitten by a boy in her class!

don’t worry, she wasn’t hurt — the bite didn’t break her skin or even leave a mark — but she was upset about it.  as soon as we picked her up from her classroom, she told mommy that she got an owie and she demonstrated how she was bitten.  and of course, she ratted out the “friend” that bit her.

we have lots of friends that have been bitten by other kids before.  most of their parents shrug it off like it’s no big deal because it’s “developmentally appropriate” and apparently very common.  but i have never been bitten, so it was a shock to all of us when it happened to sienna.  mommy and daddy did not take it lightly.

the next day, mommy talked with the school directors about the policy for dealing with behavioral issues.  they explained that they had already scheduled a conference with the biter’s parents and that they would develop a joint plan to curb the aggressive behavior.  they were also very sympathetic and apologetic about what happened.

when daddy dropped sienna off at school today, the rest of her class was eating their morning snack.  the biter was sitting at the table with an empty chair on either side of him, separating him from the rest of the kids.  and then when mommy picked sienna up after school, the biter was sitting by himself while the other kids were on the other side of the classroom engaged in a different activity.  coincidence?  or does he always play by himself?  or is this part of the “joint plan”?

mommy and daddy are glad that the school is being proactive about the issue, but mommy is concerned.  for one thing, it doesn’t seem like the kid was being aggressive.  he wasn’t lashing out at her — the bite was unprovoked.  sienna was just standing next to the boy, and he bit her for no apparent reason.  he must not have bitten her hard since he didn’t leave any marks.  maybe he was just trying to get her attention?  but more importantly, mommy says that dogs who don’t play well with others need more socialization, not less.  isolating them only aggravates the problem and leads to more aggressive behavior.  i bet it’s the same with kids.  is this how serial killers are born?  i dunno.  i just hope that sienna doesn’t get rabies.

a couple of weeks ago, sienna and i went to a birthday party and we got goodie bags with a bunch of stuff in them.  one of the things in my bag was a water gun.  mommy wasn’t sure if she was ever going to let me play with it, but she eventually gave in to my pleading.  so we had the gun talk.

guns are dangerous.  i am not to point the gun at sienna or anyone else.  i am not to point the gun at koda.  i am not to point the gun at my own face.  blah blah blah.  if i do any of those things, my water gun will be taken away.

i don’t understand what mommy was making such a big deal about.  i just wanted to water the plants like i usually do when i play with water.

yesterday was our last swim class for the summer session.  on the last day of each session, the whole pool stops to do the hokey pokey together.  sienna is still a pollywog, even though she looked like a rhino today.  see that mess that daddy tied up on her head?  when it got wet, it tapered into a point and curled forward, just like a rhino’s horn.  well, an upside down rhino horn.  anyway, sienna got her 3rd pollywog ribbon.  she will stay at that level until she turns 3.

i didn’t pass the jellyfish level, so i only got a participant ribbon.  it’s plain white and it doesn’t even have an animal on it.  as soon as i got it, i crumpled it up into a little ball.  (mommy and daddy still aren’t sure why i did that.)   in order to advance to the next level, i have to perfect my glide.  that means pushing off the wall, extending my arms in front of me, and holding my body position (and my breath) for 10 feet.  i can do it pretty well, but i sometimes break position reaching for the wall.  i wasn’t able to master that skill all summer, but mommy thinks that she can get me gliding perfectly after just 30 minutes in the pool with me.  too bad we don’t have a pool.

it doesn’t really matter though.  sienna and i won’t be back at AVAC for the fall.  goodbye, AVAC.  we are planning to find a swim school closer to home.  i won’t miss the long drive to swim class, but i will miss hanging out at grandma’s house after class every sunday.

today, we got a call from edge gymnastics, the gym near our house that we trialed the week before last.  i had been wait-listed for the class time that i wanted, but they just opened up some more spots.  so now, sienna and i will both be taking classes at edge.  goodbye airborne.

i am glad that we’ll be going to gym classes closer to home.  i really hate the long drive to gym class every week and i always whine about how far it is.  i won’t miss the drive, but i will miss seeing matthew in my class and eating noodles at galleria every thursday.

after being contra costa residents for 4 months, we are finally cutting some of our ties to the south bay.  it’s bittersweet.

all summer long, we are “visiting” other countries as part of our school program.  we learn about new countries every week.  a few weeks ago, it was south africa week.  at the end of that week, we had visitors from africa at our school — a giant african millipede and a tenrec (and a couple of other really cool animals from the zoo).  this week was brazil week.  so to top off our visit to brazil, we parrots came to visit us.  they did all sorts of silly things like play basketball and ride a unicycle backwards.  one of them flew around the classroom and landed on people’s heads.  i hope he was potty trained!

so… animals from africa and parrots from brazil. but no pandas for china week and no bengal tigers from india. discrimination, i say.

when mommy was putting me to bed last night, we had this conversation.

me:  mommy, when am i going to be a grown up?

mommy:  why do you want to be a grown up?  don’t you like playing all the time?

me:  but i like to work.

mommy:  what do you want to do for work?

me:  i want to make pictures.

mommy:  oh.  do you want to take pictures with a camera?  or do you want make pictures by drawing them?

me:  by drawing them.

mommy:  oh okay.  so you want to be an artist?

me:  yeah.  and then i want to be superman.

yeah, superman.  i think that’s a reasonable thing to strive to be when i grow up, don’t you?

we’ve been wanting to spend more time in our neighborhood, so that’s what we exactly did this weekend. we hung out with the babes in our hood.  and when i say “babes”, i mean “babies”.

on saturday, we went to josh’s 1st birthday party. it was at athan downs park in san ramon.  sienna had been there before with caylie, but it was my first time there.  i love that park.  i had so much fun at the playground that i never wanted to leave.  i even told mommy and daddy that i want to have my next birthday party at that park.  (i’ve also said that i wanted to have it at airborne, our gym.)

so you might be wondering… who’s josh?  that’s a good question.  it turns out that josh is the little brother of one of sienna’s classmates, hannah.  hannah apparently insisted on inviting her best friends from school to josh’s party.  she invited 3 friends, and sienna was one of them!  (in the photo, hannah is in the middle.)  i am so proud of sienna for making friends at school.  i had no idea. 🙂  unfortunately, hannah is moving up to the next classroom starting next week.  and actually, hannah is 3 years old, so she might move into my owl class later this year!

on sunday, we did make the trek down to the san jose for swim lessons, but after that, we headed home for naps.  we had to rest up because baby emma was coming over for dinner.  who’s baby emma?  another good question.  she lives in our neighborhood, just on the other side of our local elementary school.  mommy met emma’s daddy on our neighborhood DL, and they were instant friends.  (a little weird, right?)  when sienna and i met emma several months ago, we were instant friends, too.

emma is still a baby — not even 1 year old yet — but sienna and i like to teach her things and show her how to play with our toys.  emma is like the baby sister i’ll never have.  oh wait, i have a baby sister.  emma is like the baby sister that sienna will never have.

oh, and i almost forgot…  isaac came over to play with us at our house on friday night and saturday morning, too.  he’s not a baby, but he’s going to have a baby sister next month.  that’s close enough to go with the title of this post. 😛

we all had a great weekend and we are happy to be making new friends close to home.