logan celebrated his party today at pump it up jr.  i ran wild for the entire time in the play area — up and down the slide, crawling through the maze, and jumping in all the bounce houses.  sienna did all the same things i did, too.  she is not very good at jumping yet, but she likes jumpy houses.  she’s not afraid of them like i was when i went to pump it up jr. for the first time.  i think her favorite was the bounce house with all the balls.  it was just like at camille’s birthday party a few weeks ago — sienna would run across the bounce house and then flop down on the ground.  over and over again.  i don’t get why that’s fun.

toward the end of playtime, we had a scavenger hunt.  there were 10 cups hidden through the arena, and if you found one, you got to trade it in for a prize.  both sienna and i found one.  we got to pick from toys, candy, books, and a bunch of other options in the prize bin.  i chose a pencil pouch and sienna chose a book.  what do you think that says about us? 😛

after we got our prizes, we moved into the party room.  we had some snacks and cake.  mommy said i could have three  bites of cake because i am 3 years old.  but after seeing how big my bites were, mommy cut me off after just two.  poor sienna didn’t get any.  she kept asking for “cake?  cake?  cake?”  mommy offered sienna some fruit instead, but sienna wasn’t having it.  she’s no dummy.  she wanted the good stuff.

thanks for inviting us to your fun party, logan.  we had a jumpin’ good time! 🙂

how do you like the title of this blog entry?  i came up with it all by myself.  clever, huh?

tonight, we went to the sharks game!  i LOVE sharks games!  mommy and i went straight from my gym class to the shark tank.  to the right of our seats was a guy wearing a red wings shirt.  mommy made me sit next to him.  to the left of our seats was an older couple who i met at the last game i went to.  they remembered me and told mommy how much they enjoyed it when i taught them how to do the shark chomp last time.

whenever i go to games, people are always commenting about how cute i am.  i mean, i know i’m cute and all, but i’m pretty sure it’s my enthusiasm for the game — not my cuteness — that grabs people’s attention. 🙂

mommy taught me a little bit about hockey etiquette tonight.  first, i learned that you can’t go to (our leave) your seat in the middle of a play.  so we didn’t. when we returned from a potty break, we waited at the top of the stairs until a stoppage in play. and then i learned that you aren’t supposed to sit forward in your seat.  i tried to follow that rule, but every time i scooted back in my seat, my chair squished me like a sandwich!

i didn’t get to do the shark chomp tonight because there were no power plays for the sharks. mommy explained that if the red wings were bad, they would get a timeout. they would have to stop playing for a few minutes and sit by themselves. then, the sharks would be on power play, and then i would get to do the shark chomp.  but the red wings were being good all night, so no shark chomping for me.  but that’s okay, the sharks won anyway.  2-0!  and i did have fun clapping along with the music, yelling along with the cheers, and singing “the hey song” — that is, until…  well, you’ll see.  (darn chair!)  i like “the hey song”, but i’m a little troubled by it because you’re not supposed to say “hey”.  hay is for horses. i kept asking mommy why we say “hey” at sharks games, but she never really gave me a good answer.

by the way, mommy asked me which of the two videos i wanted to post, and i insisted on including both.  so here ya go! 🙂

cows, pigs, and bunnies live on farms.   giraffes, monkeys, and elephants live at the zoo.  panda bears live in the forest.  so where do cats live?  at auntie jan’s house.

mommy, sienna, and i went to meet daddy for dinner tonight.  after dinner, daddy was heading to grandma and grandma’s house, and mommy had to go to to auntie jan’s and uncle harvey’s.  sienna and i got to choose where we wanted to go.  sienna chose grandma’s house, even though she just saw her yesterday.  i chose auntie jan’s house because mommy told me that i would get to see auntie jan’s dog and cats.

auntie jan has a dog (goldendoodle) named huey.  he plays the piano.  and i think’s gay.  yes, i know that straight dogs can play the piano too.  but huey is skittish around mommy, but he really liked me… a little too much.  he kept trying to hump me.  and when i’d run away, he’d follow me to the next room and hump me some more.  no means no.  sheesh!

mommy is allergic to cats, so her eyes start watering and her nose starts running as soon as she steps into that house.  cats don’t bother me, though.  i was really excited to play with all of auntie jan’s cats, but most of them hid from me.  so i went on a cat hunt.  i only got to see 2 cats up close, but i saw a bunch of others when i looked under the bed.  she has 9 cats.  yes, 9.  she used to have more — i think there were 11 at one time.

the cats have their own bedroom with 9 food bowls all in a row, 3 kitty potties, and a bunch of cat trees/beds.  in fact, the whole house is filled with cat decorations, furniture, and toys.  and i don’t mean “filled” in a crazy cat hoarder way, but like, if a family of cats hired an interior designer, this is the house that would be designed.  it’s a cat sanctuary.  poor huey.  i wonder if he realizes that he lives in a house that is ruled by cats.

if you’re wondering how auntie jan ended up with so many cats, it’s because she used to rescue and foster kittens.  and once those kittens entered her house, they never left.  daddy always knew about auntie jan and her cat “problem”.  this is why he was always so reluctant to foster puppies.  he knows mommy’s soft spot for animals, and he has seen first hand that animal-hoarding runs in the family 😛  he thought that was going to be us — the family with 11 dogs.  that sounds fun.  i hope we get to foster some puppies soon!

daddy and i used to go to the donut store all the time.  since it’s on the way to my school, we’d go there every tuesday and thursday morning before daddy dropped me off.  but now that i don’t go to school anymore, daddy hasn’t been getting his donut fix.

so, since today is daddy’s birthday, mommy and i snuck out early in the morning before daddy woke up.  we went to the donut store to get him his favorites:  maple old-fashioned and donut holes.  (remember that, in case you ever need to bribe him for something.)  the man at the donut store remembered me!

daddy ate some of his donuts for breakfast, but mommy wouldn’t let him eat all of them.  he had to save some so we could make his birthday “cake”. i’m not sure if daddy ever ate the ones that sienna spit on while trying to blow out the candle 😛

edison had his 3rd birthday party at airborne gymnastics. it was the 3rd time that i’ve been to a party at that gym, but i’m not tired of it. it’s fun! mommy asked me if i wanted to go to gym classes there instead of my current gym, and i gave her a very enthusiastic “yeah!” matthew and i are going to a trial class at airborne in a couple of weeks.

anyway, the birthday parties at airborne always have obstacles courses, but they’re a little different each time. one of my favorite obstacles that is always there is the big slide down into the foam pit. the first few times i did that, i slid down backwards on my tummy. (watch the video from my first time at airborne 14 months ago.) today, i slid down on my butt like a regular slide. so did sienna!  here’s a video of sienna sliding.

there was another slide that had a blind drop into the foam pit. the teachers there were amazed that sienna went down that slide full-speed. they called her “fearless”. she went down the slide, but her feet got caught on the edge of the ring, and she ended up rotating backwards and landing head first. if she develops a sudden fear of slides, you’ll know why.

anyway, sienna and i had fun. it was the first time that sienna got to participate in the activities instead of just watching from the sidelines. she still didn’t get to participate in the pizza or cake, though. too bad for sienna and all her food allergies. you’d think that it would mean that i’d get to eat her share, but that never happens.

oh, and by the way, one of the things that edison gave out as party favors were hexbug nanos. they are robot bugs. robots are cool. bugs are cool. robot bugs are awesome and have already provided hours of entertainment for me and sienna. (well, mostly just me.) mommy and i are going to build an obstacle course and have bug races!

we met up at the park this evening for a playdate with a bunch of friends — greyson, logan, mason, ehren, and emily.  i went straight for the sand area and got right to digging.  the other boys brought sand toys to play with and they were nice enough to share with me.

sienna and mason were the littlest kids in our group.  they stayed on the play structure — climbing up and sliding down — over and over again.  they are both pretty fearless.  one of the slides that they were going down was so steep that i think it would have launched them clear across the playground if someone wasn’t there to catch them.

i don’t think mason understands the concept of taking turns.  when sienna was sitting on the top of the slide, mason just pushed her out of the way and climbed right over her.  the funny thing is that sienna didn’t seem to mind one bit.  if i did that to her, she would have straight-armed me and yelled “my turn!”.  i think she knows that mason is smaller than her.  i’ve noticed that she is very gentle with smaller kids.

anyway, we played for a little over and hour, and then it was time to pack up and head to dinner.  we all started to gather around, and i was still holding logan’s shovel.  and then for no reason, i banged it on the ground.  guess what.  it broke.  the shovel blade cracked right off of the handle.  i looked at the two pieces, then i looked at the ground, and i asked (very sincerely) “why is the ground hard?”  i then followed up with “i know how to fix it.  tape!”  tape fixes everything, right?  like, when sienna tears the pages of my books and i get really really mad, mommy fixes it with tape.  surely she could fix logan’s shovel with tape, too.

apparently, shovels cannot be fixed with tape.  uncle greg threw the pieces in the garbage can.  luckily, logan was nowhere in sight so i thought i had gotten off clean.  but auntie cheryl busted me.  she brought logan over to the garbage can to show him his broken shovel.  i apologized to logan and told him that i would buy him a new one.  and then i asked him if he would forgive me.  (i learned that from kai-lan.)  he said he would.

and now i’m off to search for a new shovel for logan…

i used to be a ‘hanging with friends’ addict.  but one by one, everyone stopped playing with me.  i guess i was too good, and everyone felt bad because they were losing to a kid.  but that’s okay, ‘cuz now i have my own apps and i don’t have to play under mommy’s account anymore.

but sometimes, i still like to help mommy and gung-gung play their games.  (the games daddy plays are boring.)  when they play ‘hanging with friends’, they tell me what letter to press, and i press it.  or sometimes, i just press letters that i think are going to be in the word.  i especially like to help gung-gung play ‘draw something’.  i get to help draw, and gung-gung gets to use my finger as a stylus.  and that makes everybody happy!  mommy says that’s called a win-win.

and if you’re wondering if i know what a stylus is, of course i do.

things she likes:

• coloring. she holds a crayon properly, which i think is why she has fine motor control in her drawings. instead of broad lines and strokes, she makes little scribbles that look like flowers. i think they are supposed to be stars. we draw at home almost every day, and every thursday while i am in gym class, sienna spends the entire hour coloring by herself.
• reading. sienna loves to “ree-dah” (that’s how she says “read”). she could listen to the same story over and over again for hours. her current favorite is “mickey mouse and the pet shop”. it’s a good thing that i have that book memorized because i “read” it to her sometimes when the adults in the house need a break.
• babies. sienna adores babies. she gets excited when she sees one and yells out “baby! baby!”. and she always wants to peek inside strollers and infant carriers to see the babies snuggled up inside. i don’t think she realizes that she is still a baby, not a big boy (or in her case, girl) like me.
• elmo and all of his sesame street friends.  she calls all of them by name when she sees them in my books.
• kai-lan.  i get to watch ni hao, kai-lan on the days that i take a nap.  sienna watches with me.  i guess that’s fair — she takes a nap every day.
• practicing her colors (i.e. feeding m&m’s to daddy).
• calling me “kai-kai”. she can say my name properly, but she won’t. she calls me “kai-kai” so smugly, like she knows that i don’t like it but enjoys irritating me.
• nursing. mommy almost had her weaned. she hadn’t nursed all week, but mommy gave in this morning in a moment of weakness. sienna was sooo happy, but it was a big step backward for the weaning effort.
• being a little helper. it’s nice for her, but she’s taking over all my jobs! i used to always be the one to help make rice, start the washer/dryer, get koda’s food, etc. now that she wants to (and is able to) help too, we have to share our responsibilities.

things she doesn’t like:

• when daddy leaves the house without saying goodbye to her. he doesn’t do it often, but on the few occasions that he rushed off to work without acknowledging her, she was very upset and very loud about it.
• when elmo leaves.  once in awhile (like, if mommy has a conference call after miss denise has left for the day), sienna gets to watch youtube videos of elmo.  most of the videos are 2-3 minute clips, but sometimes she’ll find a full episode of elmo’s world.  she gets’s SO MAD when mr. noodle comes on.  i used to think she hated mr. noodle, but i think she just hates when elmo goes away.
• pooping in the potty. she’s still doing great peeing in the potty many times a day, and she cheers for herself every time :). (after she’s done, she always tells mommy “mommy turn”, so then mommy goes potty too. and then sienna cheers for mommy.) but sienna almost always poops in her pull ups and doesn’t ask to go to the potty. mommy can’t figure out why. i think it’s because, like me, sienna doesn’t want someone all up in her face when she’s doing her business. i think mommy should turn around or leave the room so sienna can have a little bit of privacy.
• the dyson airblade hand dryer. there’s one in the bathrooms at galleria (where we eat after gym class every thursday) and it freaks sienna out sometimes. it’s like putting your hands in a high powered wind tunnel — it freaks a lot of kids out!

this morning, just like every other morning, i woke up, picked out my own outfit, and got dressed. i decided to wear a maroon t-shirt and jeans. when mommy came into my room, this is the conversation we had:

mommy: good morning kyden!

me: good morning mommy.

mommy (excitedly): kyden, today is st. patrick’s day, so we have to wear green! 🙂

me: i wanna wear red.

mommy: but if you don’t wear gree–

me: i wanna wear red.

and that was the end of that. i guess mommy didn’t want to have to explain the peculiar punishment of punching for an arbitrary crime of color.  no st. patty’s day celebration for us.  not even another mention of it.  instead, we spent the day shopping for and installing ceiling lights at the new house.

since we’ve been spending so much time at the new house (4 days in the past weeks!) mommy and i have been playing the ABC game to help pass the time.  usually, we take turns picking words that start with each letter of the alphabet.  the first time we played, it went something like this:

mommy: A is for…

sienna (excitedly): APPLE! 😀

mommy (laughing):  okay, apple.  good job sienna! 

me:  B is for…

sienna (excitedly): APPLE! 😀

me: …ball

mommy (to sienna): oh.  and i was just starting to think that you were a genius.

mommy:  C is for cat

me: D is for dog

mommy:  E is for elephant

me: F is for frog

mommy:  G is for green

me: H is for hilarious

mommy (laughing):  kyden, you are hilarious!  do you even know what that means?

me: yeah!  it’s when something is really really funny.

it went on and on.  later that evening, mommy told daddy about our game and how i used the word “hilarious”.  daddy was unimpressed.  he knew that i was holding back and using easy words  that were on par with mommy’s.

so then i played the game with daddy while mommy watched on.  i started spouting off words like “demolish” and “gargantuan” that made mommy laugh.  she asked me to define each word to see if i knew what they meant, and of course, i did.  each time we play the ABC game, i surprise mommy with new words.  but no matter what, M is always for mommy/mama, and T is always for tanaka 🙂

in this video, mommy let me pick all the words instead of taking turns like we usually do.  and if you’re wondering why i’m so fidgety, it’s because i had to pee really badly!  as soon as the song was over, i ran to the potty.  mommy’s kicking herself for not getting that on video.

today, daddy had the brilliant idea to take us shopping at ikea. after 10 minutes in the showroom, mommy and daddy felt like it was the worst idea ever. sienna and i disagreed. it was awesome.

ikea isn’t a normal store where we sit in the shopping cart and ask for (or just grab) whatever is sitting on the shelves that we pass by.  ikea is the biggest mansion on the planet. there were dozens of rooms with beds to bounce on, cabinets to crawl into, and couches to climb on. mommy and daddy spent as much time wrangling us as they did shopping.

after hours of playing in the ikea mansion, sienna fell asleep.  shortly after that, we discovered småland. småland is a play area where kids can play in a “swedish forest atmosphere” while their parents shop.  i told mommy i wanted to go play in there.  so she signed me in, and off i went.  by myself.  no parents allowed.

i had fun drawing on the easels and jumping into the ball pit in småland.  sienna enjoyed her nap, i guess.  mommy and daddy definitely enjoyed the free childcare 🙂

i can’t wait to visit the ikea mansion again.  we all agree that next time, småland will be our first stop!