last year, mommy decided that she couldn’t (or didn’t want to) throw two birthday parties in 3 months.  what means for me and sienna is that only one of us gets to have a big birthday party each year.  last year, sienna had a big party. i just had a handful of friends (plus mickey and minnie) sing happy birthday to me at disneyland.  so this year, i’m going to have a birthday party, and none for sienna.  instead, sienna had a summer soiree at my old gym (the little gym).  the plan was for no decorations, no themed cupcakes, and no gifts.  (we wrote “no gifts” on the evite.  we wondered why almost everyone brought gifts anyway, and then it dawned on me…  sienna’s friends can’t read yet!)

well… even thought it wasn’t a birthday party, mommy bought minnie mouse plates, matching plasticware, party favors, and other supplies, and she packed them all up to bring to the party.  she was patting herself on the back for being super organized and prepared… and then she left all the stuff at home.  and she didn’t realize it until we arrived at the gym (40+ miles away from home).  bad mommy.

mommy ran across the parking lot to a party store and bought some essentials.  we borrowed the rest of the necessary supplies from the gym, and the party was on.  forgetting all the supplies at home threw a wrench in the plan, but there was a parachute, bubbles, balls, an air track, healthy snacks, and ice cream cake.  what else could 18 toddlers ask for? here are some photos of us bouncing around.  do you think we had a fun time? 🙂

even though it wasn’t supposed to be a birthday party, the summer soiree was on sienna’s 2nd birthday.  so we put 2 candles on the ice cream cake and we sang happy birthday to her.  she seemed to be having trouble blowing out her candles, so i helped her.  just a little. that’s what big brothers are for, right? 😀

thanks to everyone who came to sienna’s summer soiree.  we hope that everyone had fun bouncing around with us!  oh, and to everyone who brought a gift, it really wasn’t necessary, but thank you.  we love them.  and yes, i do me “we”.

happy birthday to sienna 🙂

things she likes:

• singing.  she learns new songs really quickly.  i recently taught her “i am a pizza” (a new song that i learned from school), and she is already singing along!  that is her new favorite song.  although, a couple of weeks ago, it was “five green and speckled frogs”.  so check back soon, it will probably change again.
• minnie mouse.  she sleeps with minnie mouse every night, she loves her minnie mouse bag, and she always wants to wear her minnie mouse shirt (she only has one).
• picking out her own outfits.  sienna has very strong opinions about what she wants to wear, and if you try to put something else on her, she will protest.
• getting dressed by herself.  if someone helps to put her pants or shirt on her, she’ll throw a fit, take it off, and put it back on herself.  so if you see her with her clothes on inside out and/or backwards, you’ll know why.
• buckling herself into her car seat.  she can’t buckle the bottom part yet, but she can climb into the seat, put her arms through the shoulder straps, align the chest clips and snap them together.  (i couldn’t do that when i was 2!)
• carrying her own bags.  for example, she always insists on carrying her lunch bag over her shoulder on her way in and out of school.  i’m not sure if this is a sign of independence or if she just likes to accessorize.
• going fast.  being pushed in the jogging stroller /shopping cart or riding in the bike seat with mama, she likes to go fast.  i know, because she says so: “go fast!”  and then she squeals with glee.
• jumping.  she likes making big jumps, and especially loves playing in jumpy houses.
• helping around the kitchen.  she helps mommy make smoothies in the blender, helps daddy to fizz his water with the soda stream, and helps mash the bananas when mommy makes scones for us.
• stickers.  she likes to stick them all over the place — on the dining table, on the couch, on herself…
• being tickled.  mommy does this tickling rhyme on sienna’s back, and sienna squeals through the whole thing.  and when mommy is done, sienna asks “try again!  try again!”

things she doesn’t like:

• raw tomatoes, and some other foods too, but i can’t think of them right now.  mommy and i used to play this game where i would close my eyes, and then mommy would put something into my mouth and i’d guess what it was.  sienna is not down with that game.  she will inspect the food on the spoon/fork before she opens her mouth.  sometimes, mommy will put something into sienna’s mouth, and she’ll spit it out and inspect it before she decides if she is going to eat it or not.
• staying home while i go to school.  sienna pretty much wants to do everything that i do.  so when i go off to school, she says “sienna go school”.  pretty soon, we will start going to the same school together.  sienna is so excited!

do you remember my friend clare?  probably not.  she came to my 1st birthday party.  and then i went to her 3rd birthday party.  and then she moved to taiwan.  i never heard of taiwan before, but i hear that it’s really far away.

that party was the last time that i saw clare, until today.  today was her 5th birthday party (she is so old!) and it was her little sister camila’s 2nd birthday party, too.  they still live in taiwan, but they hosted a U.S. celebration so they could see all their friends who live around here.  cool, huh?

the party was at pump it up.  not pump it up junior, but the big kid pump it up.  i loved going through the obstacle course, just like the one at pump it up junior.  but this place also had stuff that the junior version doesn’t have — like an air hockey table and a climbing wall.  sienna did pretty good on the climbing wall.  i tried it, but i didn’t like it.  i was in tears by the time i got 3 feet off the ground.  i loved the air hockey table, though.  i wanted to play all night, but mommy said i had to give other kids a turn.

after all the bouncing around, pizza and cake were served in the party room.  yummy!  we all dug right into the pizza, except for sienna, who just looked on longingly.  (see her in the photo?  how sad.)  mommy didn’t even bring any other food for her to eat.  bad mommy.

when i got my piece of cake, i only ate 3 bites (‘cuz i am 3) and no frosting.  mommy didn’t have to tell me — i know the rules.  auntie carol (clare and camila’s mommy) says i must take after mommy in not eating too much unhealthy food, but really, it’s just good training. 😛

sienna and i had a fun time and we hope clare and camila move back to the bay area soon!

for the past couple of weeks, mommy has been asking me every day if i want to go to sienna’s school or if i want to stay at my Y school.  it used to be that i would always say that i wanted to go to sienna’s school.  but more and more, i’ve been saying that i want to stay at my Y school.  mommy didn’t want to put me through another traumatic transition, but she also didn’t want me at a school where they aren’t diligent about sunscreen and they have way too many birthday celebrations (pizza and cake).  she thought long and hard about it, but what pushed her over the edge was when i was detained from recess because i didn’t eat my mac & cheese at snack time.  i finished my string beans, but i didn’t like the mac & cheese!  luckily, mommy showed up to pick me up for soccer, and she told me i didn’t have to eat the mac & cheese if i didn’t want to.  and it was decided.  i would go to sienna’s school when she started.

today was my last day at my Y school.  when mommy came to pick me up, the teacher announced that it was my last day.  all my friends (mostly girls) lined up to give me hugs.  i will miss them!  i wasn’t at the school long enough to make any lasting friendships, but maybe i’ll see some of my school friends again when i start kindergarten.

we went to go visit our old house today.  mommy said that it would be the last time that we could go visit.  i don’t really understand it, but apparently, our house is going to belong to someone else tomorrow, and someone else is going to live in it.  i asked it if was going to be miss denise, but mommy said no.

mommy and daddy are so happy about finalizing the sale of the house (and so quickly!) but they are a little bit sad, too.  it’s the first house that mommy and daddy bought together.  and then koda came along, and then me, and then sienna.  it was the place that our family called home.  we made a lot of wonderful memories in that house and in the neighborhood.  we will miss it a lot.

mommy is sad that sienna and i will probably have no memories of our old house when we grow up, so we took these photos to look back on one day.  our first house. our first home.

bye bye old house.  thanks for the memories!

after our day at disneyland, we checked into a hotel near the park.  we didn’t want to interrupt sierra and sofia’s regular routine by staying over at their house on school nights.  plus, our hotel is walking distance from california adventure, where we went on monday.

DAY 4

we started the day with a character breakfast at PCH grill.  (not a bad way to spend a monday morning, right?)  matthew, edison, logan, and mason met us there.  matthew and i were dressed like twins, and logan and edison were, too.  totally unplanned!  we had a buffet breakfast with over-priced, but pretty good food.  the chef made a plate of gluten-free, egg-free, mickey mouse waffles just for sienna, and that made it worth every penny. 🙂  while we were eating, mickey and his friends came to dance with us and visit us at our table.  we saw mickey, minnie, stitch, pluto, and daisy.  stitch even helped us sing happy birthday to sienna. 🙂  my friends had so much fun hanging out with the characters, but sienna and i weren’t all that into it — we were too busy eating.  after breakfast, however, we all ran and jumped and danced around the stage.  we had a blast!

auntie mimi met up with us after brunch, and we all rolled into california adventure some time after noon.  it was our (the whole tanaka family’s) first time at cal adventure.  everyone else had been there before, so they led the way and we followed along.  us big boys went to watch disney junior live! and then we went to a dance party.  we thought the dance party was going to be a show, but it turned out to be an all-day kiddie rave.  while we were partying it up, mommy and auntie cheryl stayed with the sleeping babies (sienna and mason).

after we left hollywood land, we headed toward cars land (with a quick spin on the bumper cars in a bug’s land along the way).  we spent most of the afternoon at cars land, which was the highlight of the trip for me.  i was so excited to see mater and lightning mcqueen, and we even rode some rides while my friends were napping in their strollers.

next stop: paradise pier.  we (very nervously) went on the little mermaid ride.  it looked and felt like it might be similar to the snow white ride (which trauamatized us the day before), but it’s wasn’t so bad.  it helped that mommy and daddy distracted us during the ursula part of the story.  after that, we headed over to the 3-D toy story ride.  while we were in line, i had to go potty, so daddy and i didn’t get to ride.  sienna said we missed out — it was her favorite!

everyone was hungry, so we left the park and headed to downtown disney for dinner.  we agreed to go to the restaurant with the shortest wait time, so to house of blues we went.  and that was our day!  we didn’t stay for fireworks and we didn’t stay for world of color, even though everyone said we had to go see it.  oh well.  i make it through the day with no naps and no major meltdown, so that was a win.  we didn’t want to press our luck. 🙂

DAY 5

the next morning, auntie alice and auntie mimi met us at our hotel and ate breakfast with us.  then, we kidnapped auntie mimi so we could take her home with us.  it was pretty awesome to have an another person in the car to sing songs and play games with.  sienna travels will in the car.  i do not.  throughout the entire car ride, i whined about “why aren’t we home yet?” and “why is it taking so long?”.  sienna just chilled.

well, that was it.  that was our fun-filled, action-packed, trip to socal.  mommy wasn’t sure that we’d survive back-to-back theme park days, but we did it.  (click here for disney photos.)  sienna and i had a great time and we can’t wait to go back to disney again!  but somehow, i don’t think that’s happening any time soon.

we purposely didn’t make any plans for sunday — we reserved the entire day to spend quality time with our friends, sierra and sofia.  we thought we might do something low key, like play at the beach, or check out an aquarium, or even just stay in and hang out.  since we were guests at their house, we left it totally up to them.  and guess what.  they decided that they wanted to go to disneyland.  (no complaints here!)

DAY 3

since we had just had 2 long days and late nights, we were exhausted by the time sunday rolled around.  we slept in, ate a good breakfast, and took our time getting ready.  by the time we got to disneyland, parked, and took the tram to the park, it was after 11:00am.  luckily, the lines weren’t long, so we had time for a few rides before lunch.

we headed to frontierland to find food (and ketchup, which i sucked straight out of the packet when nobody was looking).  we also found jesse and woody!  sienna did NOT like jesse, which was surprising because she likes other characters.  i guess jesse is kind of freaky looking with her gigantic head.  we hung out there for a long time, watching local performers and even joining in in the big thunder ranch jamboree.  mickey showed up too, and sienna and i sat at a table and colored with him.  he even drew a picture of me and sienna!  we could have stayed there all day.  the grown ups didn’t mind because the shaded seating was a nice break from the hot sun.

after lunch, we hung around toontown for awhile.  we visited mickey in his house, went on the roger rabbit ride, and we even went on the roller coaster.  the roller coaster was a little bumpy, but i liked it.

and then we were off to fantasyland.  first, we watched the beauty and the beast show.  it was a very campy production, and us kids didn’t really get the jokes.  but at the end, “rose petals” (made of tissue paper) were thrown all over the stage.  we collected lots of them as souvenirs — so many, that the clean up crew didn’t have anything to clean up.  after that we decided that we had time for one more ride before dinner, and we chose the one with the shortest line.  the snow white ride.  IT WAS TERRIFYING!!!  i wanted to get off right away, but there was no escape.  sienna jumped into mommy’s lap and cried “no! no!”.  mommy covered sienna’s eyes and apologized to her throughout the entire ride.  to erase the horrifying images out of our heads, we headed straight to the carousel afterwards.  (it didn’t work.  i woke up screaming in the middle of the night.)

we headed back to frontierland and had a leisurely sit-down dinner.  during dinner, someone — i won’t name names — had a bit of a diaper issue.  so… question to my aunties and uncles:  hypothetically speaking, if your kid had a diaper explosion and poo’d on your shirt, what would you do (on a hot hot hot day)?

a)  buy a new shirt at disneyland apparel prices

b)  change into the long-sleeved pullover that you had brought in case it got cold at night

c)  continue to wear the stinky shirt

hypothetically speaking, of course…

after dinner, sierra, sofia, sienna, and i put on a little show on a nearby stage.  and that was our day.  sierra and sofia stayed awhile longer to go on more rides, but we were exhausted, and we headed out.  our day at disneyland was about as low-key as disneyland gets.  and we loved it.  never mind that that low-key day cost us hundreds of dollars in park admission and food. 😉

uncle jason was planning to get married in “lo sandwiches” (los angeles) this weekend.  and lucky for us, matthew and edison were already planning on being down there for their annual so cal theme park tour.  so we decided to make a trip of it.  part 1 was all about

DAY 1

friday was a travel day.  i skipped school and we spent the day driving.  mommy sang songs and played word games with me and sienna for 6 hours!

we finally made it down to santa monica and met up with my friend marcus for dinner.  marcus is a couple of years older than me, so he had a lot of baby gear that he gave me to use — like his exersaucer, baby swing, breast pump, and other essentials.  i used his stuff, then sienna used his stuff, and now we’re done with it.  and pretty soon, he’s going to have a baby brother or sister, so we brought all his stuff back to him.  (he used to live up here in the bay area but moved down south when i was 1 year old.)  we are so excited for him and his growing family! 🙂

after dinner, we made our way over to sierra and sofia’s house and went to bed.

DAY 2

on saturday morning, we headed straight for the beach.  well all went to breakfast (auntie mimi and auntie alice met us there, too), and then we spent the whole day playing at hermosa beach.  sierra and i played in the waves for awhile, and we almost saw some sharks!  uncle dave saw leopard sharks swimming around,  and i went with him to find them, but they hid from me.  later, we brought out the sand toys, and uncle dave helped us dig a long trench in the sand.  when we poured water into the trench, it flowed all the way down to the ocean.  we made a river!

while sierra and i were busy in the water, sienna and sofia stayed on land.  they played in the sand and tossed (and rolled) some balls around.  auntie mimi mostly just took photos of us… and of the shirtless guys playing volleyball nearby. 😀  click here to see more beach photos.  sorry aunties, i didn’t post the ones of the volleyball players.

after a fun day at the beach, it was time to get cleaned up for uncle jason and auntie soomie’s wedding.

i’ve been to 3 1/2 weddings that i can remember off the top of my head.  (1/2 = a wedding when i went to the reception but not the ceremony.)  this is the first time that i went to a church wedding.  mommy prepped me for it and told me that there was no talking allowed inside the church.  i was mostly well-behaved and stayed fairly quiet… until i had to go potty… right in the middle of the vows.  and of course, we were sitting right next to the center aisle.  sienna didn’t make a sound during ceremony, but that’s because she slept through the entire thing.

by the time the cocktail hour rolled around, i was starving.  i ate 3 “sushi parfaits” (all the ingredients of a california roll layered in a cup), 2 crostinis with goat cheese, and 3 dumplings.  nom nom nom.  sienna continued to sleep on the church pews.

we eventually had to wake sienna up to bring her to the reception.  as we checked in, sienna and i got goodie bags which contained legos, glow-in-the-dark links (which we snapped together to make necklaces), crayons, and other things to keep little kids like us entertained during a grown-up party.  mommy and daddy didn’t get any toys, but there were wedding games for them to play, and also a photo booth.  we had a great time and stayed out past our bedtimes for the second night in a row — both days, without no nap for me.

<– this is what we look like when we are deliriously tired.

congrats to uncle jason and auntie soomie!  thanks for giving us an excuse to visit socal! 🙂

my soccer class started today.  this is my first soccer session here in san ramon, but it’s the same organization (kidz love soccer) that ran the program near our old house.  i love soccer!  and it’s not just because murci is in my class, although that does make it more fun.

i started playing soccer in san jose when i was 2.5.  when i showed up on my first day, i rolled my eyes at the kids who were wearing shin guards and soccer uniforms.  (okay, it was actually mommy who was rolling her eyes.)  i played for two seasons, and the coach explicitly said that we didn’t need all that gear.  but guess what.  today, our coach said that we have to get shin guards before next week!

why the change?  i’m not sure if it’s because they actually make shin guards in my size (and there weren’t any that would have fit me when i was 2), or if kids in san ramon have bad aim (and might kick me instead of the ball).  i don’t really care.  i’m just excited to get special soccer socks.  and i LOOOVE soccer!  (though i’m still not very good at it.)

i had so much fun yesterday that i really didn’t want to go to school today.  in the past, i used to be honest about it and i would just tell mommy and daddy that i didn’t want to go to school because i didn’t like it.  that never worked.  so today, i tried a different approach.  i put my hand to my head, just like mommy and daddy do when they are checking to see if i have a fever.  then i looked at mommy with the saddest face that i could make and told her, “i don’t want to go to school today because i don’t feel good in the forehead.”  she laughed.  can you believe that?  she laughed! she felt my forehead and said i felt fine, but i think that was after she laughed.  hmph.

mommy is wondering if am already feigning illness to stay home from school, what kind of elaborate schemes will i come up with to get out of going to school when there are exams and projects and bullies to deal with?  it’s not that i don’t like school.  i love school now.  i haven’t cried in weeks.  and i definitely want to stay at my school instead of going to sienna’s school when she starts in a couple off weeks.  (mommy asks me every day.)

when mommy comes to pick me up from school, i usually drop whatever i’m doing and run to her.  in fact, i used to hover around the door at pick-up time, waiting for her.  but when mommy came to pick me up today, i looked up from my legos and said hi.  and then went back to building my lego airplane.  mommy is happy that i like school, but she’s a tiny bit sad.  (this is just one day after i kicked her out of my bed.)

anyway, i always wondered what sienna does at home while i’m at school.  i figured that she plays with all my toys and watches kai-lan and daniel tiger all day.  it turns out that i was wrong.  apparently, she and mommy do each others’ hair (remember when gung-gung and i had matching hair?) and they practice counting.

mommy said that for about 2 seconds, she thought sienna was a genius. i knew sienna was going to forget to count the fish on her shoulder, but you can’t really blame her because only half of it is showing.  now that i pointed out the tail to her, maybe she’ll do better next time.