ever since we moved, sienna and i haven’t hosted any playdates with our friends.  our house is not kid-ready yet.  we still have stuff all over the place and lots of our toys are still in boxes.  luckily, kai-kai invited us over to his house to play today.  it was us, maddie and malia, and three new friends — dominic, kaylee, and katyana(?) — that we met for the first time.  once of the new friends has a lot of severe food allergies, so our mommies had a fun conversation about that.  it turns out that he used to be allergic to wheat, but he outgrew it!  mommy is hopeful that sienna will do the same.

anyway, kai-kai has a LOT of fun toys.  he also has a backyard with a baby slide, a baby pool, and a full-sized big kid play structure.  the other boys took off their shirts and splashed in the pool, but i didn’t want to.  i only like swimming in big pools.  sienna and i played on the big kid slide for a little while.  it was very fast, but we had fun.  when mommy was pushing maddie on the swing, sienna kept saying “swing, too!  swing, too!”.  so mommy put sienna on a big kid swing, and pushed her gently.  that was fun — until sienna decided to turn around and reach for mommy, letting go of the chains.  guess who ended up splat on the ground.

we all had a great time.  kai-kai is usually very affectionate with sienna, but today, not as much.  he spent most of the day splashing in the pool, and since sienna didn’t have any swim clothes, she couldn’t get into the water with him.  thank goodness.  however, kai-kai and sienna did end up alone together in his room at some point in the afternoon.  as soon as a i heard about that, i marched right upstairs to break it up.  (really, i did.)

thanks for a fun day, kai-kai.  we had great time with friends, old and new.

i’m finally getting into the swing of things at school.  i’m still crying a little bit when mommy leaves me in the morning, but at least i’m using the potty at school now.  yay!  baby steps, right?

one of my favorite things about school is project (art) time.  in fact, the one time that i didn’t cry this week was when mommy dropped me off at the start of project time.  i sat right down, started painting my octopus, and i barely even noticed when mommy left.  how do you like my orange octopus?  i also made a jellyfish this week, but i couldn’t take a picture of it because it’s still drying.

my other favorite thing about school is my teacher, miss rostini.  i love her.  i want to make her a card that says “i love you” and decorate it with hearts.  i think mommy is a little jealous, especially because i just made a mother’s day card for her just like that.

i don’t really like outside time at school.  mommy usually drops me off during outside play time.  maybe that’s why drop off is so hard.  i don’t really know my friends at school, so i usually just ride a bike around the play yard or play by myself.  mommy says she understands how hard it is to be the new kid in a place where you don’t know anybody, but she promises that it will get better.  we’ll see.

sienna doesn’t go to school yet.  mommy says that school is for big kids, like me.  sienna is still a baby.  she won’t start school until she turns 2.  (i have a whole separate post on that coming soon.)

since miss denise lives near our old house — not near our new house — she can’t come take care of sienna during the day any more.  so while i’m at school during the day, sienna hangs out at home with mommy and gung-gung.  a few times, gung-gung has gotten sienna dressed in the morning, and he has put her in some crazy outfits.  like the time he changed her out of her pajamas… into a set of oversized (size 4T) pajamas.

today, mommy picked out sienna’s outfit.  she put sienna’s flower print pants on her, but sienna insisted on wearing a polka dotted top instead of the one that mommy selected.  daddy worked from home today, so when everyone decided to go out to lunch together, daddy picked out some socks for sienna to wear.  he managed to find socks with stripes in every color except for the ones in the rest of her outfit.  so this is the avante garde look that sienna rocked today.  in public.  and nobody even bothered to comb her hair.  i think that’s bordering on child abuse.

they all went to denica’s real food kitchen for lunch.  mommy and sienna have been there 3 times already.  they love it.  mommy loves the food, and sienna loves the kids’ play area.  the place is always packed — even on the weekdays.  (it sure seems like there are lot of people who don’t work around here.)  on the weekends, we’ve heard that there is usually a one hour wait.

daddy liked the ginormous cinnamon rolls that mommy has brought home for him from denica’s bakery, so today was a good opportunity for him to try the restaurant food (since we are definitely not going to go on a weekend to fight the crowds).  he thought his lunch was just eh.  i think that because mommy likes the food, daddy assumed that it would be too healthy for him, so he never really gave it a fair chance.  and me?  well, i have no idea.  nobody has ever taken ME to denica’s to eat the almond joy pancakes (or any of the other desserts disguised as breakfast) or to play with the cars that roll down the ramp.   no fair.

can someone please take me to denica’s some time?

we celebrated mother’s day all weekend long.  on friday, we had a mother’s day breakfast at my school.  there were bagels and pastries and fruit for everyone, and coffee for the mommies.  at the end of the day, i gave mommy the special card that i made for her at school.  she loves it.

on saturday, gung-gung took us out for special mother’s day dinner.  mommy picked a chinese restaurant.  can you believe it?  she doesn’t even like chinese food!  but this place is highly-rated and was independently recommended to both mommy and daddy by several different friends.  they even offer gluten-free and vegan options for people who are difficult to eat out with (i.e. sienna).  we decided to give it a try, and it was a hit.  i have a feeling that we will be eating there again.

on sunday morning, sienna and i woke mommy up at the crack of dawn, as usual.  but then daddy got up and fed us breakfast and got us dressed while mommy took a nap.  that gave us a chance to make special v-cards for mommy. sienna kept saying “happy birthday to you” (just like i did last year) but it’s the thought that counts, right?.

after lunch, we went to grandma’s house.  i was so excited to play with grandma and auntie barbara, and to see grandpa and uncle randy, too.  uncle randy is so funny.  (i keep saying that, and everybody asks why i think he’s funny, but i never have a good answer.)  we spent the afternoon playing and reading books, including “goodnight ipad“, the super cool new book that auntie barbara got for me.  after that, we had another yummy mother’s day dinner.  i really like grandma’s house. 🙂

happy mother’s day to mommy and grandma.  we love you so so much!

i have been taking swim lessons at AVAC for 3 years, but i only swim during summer (and sometimes spring) session.  that means that my last swim class was almost 9 months ago.  even though AVAC is 46.5 miles away from our new house, we are going to swim there again this summer.  but there’s one little problem — summer session doesn’t start until june 9.  well, i’m doing a triathlon (don’t laugh) in the beginning of june, and mommy didn’t want that race to be my first time in the pool this year.  so i’m taking a 4-week swim session near my new house.

today was my first lesson.  i am in the jellyfish class.  the class is for 3-5 year olds, but i am the only 3-year old in my class.  i think i am more comfortable in the water than the other kids, but i was uncomfortable in other ways.

• it was a new pool that i had never been to before.  that wasn’t too big of a deal.
• i didn’t like swimming by myself.  as it is, i’m having a lot of separation anxiety because of my new school.  i don’t even like gym class anymore because mommy doesn’t come inside with me (even though i’ve been totally fine going into class by myself since before i turned 3).  so my first swim class without mommy or daddy brought out a few tears.  just a few, though.  once the class got started i did great.
• the water was a little bit cold.  at AVAC, the water is heated to 89 degrees.  at the dougherty valley aquatic center, the water is not heated.  because it was a hot day with temps in the 90s, the cool water felt nice at first.  but since it was the first class, we didn’t really do much actual swimming and i started to get cold toward the end of class.  mommy thinks the cool water is good for me.  i have been so spoiled by the warm water at AVAC that i cannot swim in normal pool water.  and guess what — the triathlon is going to be in a normal pool.

all that aside, i had a great class.  we played fun games like “red light, green light” (where we held onto the wall and practiced kicking), and we dropped rings into the pool and dunked our heads into the water to retrieve them.  the skills were really easy for me, but it was a nice easy transition into an independent swim class and good exposure to normal pool water.  just 3 more classes to go, and then the triathlon, then back to swimming in bath water temperatures! 🙂

mommy makes lunch for me to bring to school every day. she packs it in my sharks bag, and she slips a note with my name on it into the side pocket. last friday, she also started drawing a happy face on my finger when she drops me off in the morning. (she got this tip from matthew’s mommy.) she said that if i get sad at school, i can just look at my finger and it will make me happy! 🙂

mommy drops me off at school in between her morning meetings (usually between 8:30 – 9:30am) and on most days, she picks me up between 5:15 and 5:45pm. but on mondays, i get picked up a little early because mommy has to get me home and settled before she leaves for volleyball (in the south bay) at 5:30pm. and on thursdays, i get picked up around 3:45pm because we have to get to gym class in the south bay.

so that’s my routine. week 2 at school started out just like the end of week 1. every morning, i cried and protested about not wanting to go to school. when mommy dropped me off, i clung to her and cried some more. the happy face on my finger helped, but only for a moment.

on thursday morning as mommy was putting my lunch bag on shelf, i noticed that she didn’t write me a new note. she left the old note in my bag from the day before! i asked mommy why she didn’t change my note. she was surprised that i noticed (since i can’t actually read what the note says), and she felt terrible.

so on friday morning, mommy made sure to show me my new note when she dropped me off. it was a good morning. when mommy left, i didn’t cry at all. and when mommy realized that she had forgotten to draw the happy face on my finger, i told her “that’s okay, i don’t need it.” mommy was so happy that she wanted to cry.

since the morning drop off went so well, mommy thought that i was feeling more comfortable and that i might be better about using the potty at school. plus, the teachers started clearing the community bathroom for me so that i could have some privacy when i was doing my business. but it didn’t matter — i still peed in my pants every day during nap time.  one issue at a time.

mommy thought that we had reached a turning point with the crying at drop off, but the school director told her not to be surprised if i have a hard time again next week. since i’ll be spending so much time with mommy and daddy all weekend, the separation anxiety might set back in on monday.  (that means that i should cry when mommy drops me off on monday morning, right?)

the other day, mommy and sienna were talking about animal sounds.

mommy: what does cow say?

sienna: moooo.

mommy: what does mommy say?

sienna: i love you.

mommy: what does daddy say?

sienna: woof woof woof.

mommy thought that was so funny.  but maybe a fluke, right?  so she asked her again, and this time got it on video.

even though we moved to our new house last weekend, we didn’t really get to explore the area very much.  last saturday, mommy and daddy were out at auntie devin’s baby shower all day.  and then on sunday, we spent the day unpacking and shopping for house stuff and trying to get settled.  so this weekend, aside from uncle paul’s birthday party, we just hung out around our new neighborhood.

we like it here.  except for my school, that is.  i don’t like school.

we already knew that we liked our neighborhood, but this weekend, we had the chance to explore a little bit more.

• we like the easter egg hunts.
• we love movie nights.
• we like the trails behind our house where koda can run and i can ride my bike.  (i don’t like the hills, though, because they make my bike go slow.)
• we like the playground that’s just around the corner.  it’s so close that gung-gung can walk there without his cane.  (gung-gung and i were playing in the backyard yesterday, and then i dragged him out though the gate and we ended up at the park.  sienna and daddy eventually joined us.)  the park has a big flat open field, too, so mommy and daddy are looking forward to setting up volleyball nets this summer.
• we also like our backyard.  mommy doesn’t like the fake grass, but sienna and i like it because it’s a putting green!  our backyard is mini sports stadium.  i have my basketball hoop and baseball (tee ball) set up.  and pretty soon, we are going to get putters so that we can play golf all the time like grandpa!   daddy loves our backyard because there is no lawn to mow.  and he can’t wait to start grilling on the built-in BBQ.

we are still tripping over boxes and trying to get settled, but we love visitors.  come on up!

mommies and daddies don’t usually have parties for their birthdays.  when they do, they have them at boring restaurants, and kids are usually not invited.  but uncle paul had a birthday party today that was just like a kid party, minus the face painting and goodie bags.  i’m so glad he did!  we had such a fun time that i wanted to stay there forever.

there was sooo much yummy food.  nobody could believe how much i ate.  in addition to the noodles, fruit, and slider, i ate an ear of grilled corn that was almost as long as my arm.  sienna mostly ate fruit, but she had some corn, too.  she picked the kernels off the cob and popped them into her mouth one by one.

after we ate, isaac, sienna, and i went to the playground to play.  we climbed around the rope web, slid down the slides, ran around the play structure, and played in the sand.  in this photo, all three of us were supposed to slide down together, but when mommy said “go”, i was the only one who listened.  (the slides were pretty steep, so sienna and isaac needed a little more encouragement to go down.)  we could have stayed there all day, but it was so hot and mommy was worried that we were getting sunburned.

as we made our way back to the party area, i spotted an electric R8 spyder and decided to take it for a spin.  just as i was trying to figure out how to start the car, sienna hopped in.  the car is a 1-seater, but i was in a good mood, so i let her come along for the ride.  she loved it.  as we drove past the party tent, sienna waved to everyone like she was miss america on a parade float.

at one point, sienna stood up just as i started the car.  she almost fell out, but i caught her.  she thanked me and then kissed me on the cheek.  all of our aunties who were watching thought that was sooo cute and sooo sweet.  i don’t know why they were so impressed by sienna — i am the one that saved my sister from being ejected from a moving vehicle!  i even pulled the car out of a ditch while sienna was just sitting in there, looking cute.  (never mind the fact that i’m the one that drove us into the ditch.)

i had so much fun driving that car that i told mommy and daddy that i want one.  they reminded me that i have a lightning mcqueen electric vehicle.  oh yeah!  now if i could only find the box that the battery charger is packed in…

happy birthday uncle paul! 🙂

i don’t like school.  i don’t want to go to school.  i want to stay home forever.  here’s a recap of my first week.

monday:  mommy took the day off to go with my to my new school at the gale ranch YMCA.  we stayed for an hour and a half.  i participated in the classroom activities (practicing writing numbers, throwing bean bags into colored buckets, singing songs about the days of the week, etc.).  it was so fun that i didn’t want to leave.

tuesday:  that was my first official day.  (see how happy i was when mommy dropped me off?)  i had did great and i had so much fun.  all the teachers were so impressed at how well i did.  i stood up in the front of the class and talked about my favorite books and favorite colors.  when i came home from school, i told mommy and daddy that i held hands with one of the girls out in the playground. 😛

wednesday through friday:  the rest of the week was a struggle.  every morning, i told mommy that i don’t want to go to school and that i wanted to stay home.  i wanted to go to work with her.  i wanted to go to work with daddy.  i wanted to go to my old school.  i wanted to go anywhere but school.  i cried uncontrollably when mommy dropped me off.  (you can see that i was already crying on wednesday even before mommy left.)  i cried when mommy picked me up.  i peed in my pants each day.  on friday, i even told mommy that i wasn’t feeling well because i was coughing.  but i was crying so hard that i couldn’t even get out a fake cough.  oh well, i tried.

mommy feels terrible and she doesn’t know what to do.  the teachers at school tell mommy that once i calm down, i’m fine for the rest of the day.  but mommy doesn’t get to see that — she just sees the tears.  everyone tells her that the adjustment could take 2-4 weeks, but i don’t think mommy can handle seeing me so sad for that long.

change is hard.  with all the new things going on, i’ve developed really bad separation anxiety.  i want mommy to be with me all the time.  even at gym class on thursday, i wanted mommy to come inside the gym with me.  i cried so much and didn’t want to stay because mommy wasn’t inside the gym.  so we left early and missed out on going to galleria.  and at movie night on friday, i had to sit right next to mommy.  it wasn’t good enough that she was sitting a few feet away from me, i scooted my chair over until it was touching hers.

mommy assures me that school will get better.  i hope so.  and she hopes that once i am happier at school that the separation anxiety will get better too.  let’s keep our fingers crossed.