mommy has always used reverse psychology to teach me lessons about “bad” foods.  like that time that i wanted to suck sriracha straight out of the bottle.  mommy squirted some onto her finger and let me taste it.  WAAAHHH!!!  or that time that she warned me not to play with the wasabi, but i didn’t listen.  she didn’t stop me from touching it, and i ate some.  WAAAHHH!!!  i’ve learned my lesson.  now, when mommy tells me “you can try some, but i don’t think you’ll like it”, i believe her.    i don’t even want to try it.  i totally trust her.

well, i’ll tell you what.  the reverse psychology does not work on sienna at all.  when mommy lets her taste “bad” foods in an attempt to turn her off to them, sienna likes it.  and then she asks for more.

the other day, sienna insisted on trying mommy’s hot sauce.  mommy let her have a taste to prove that it wasn’t marinara sauce (or whatever sienna thought it might be).  sienna ate the whole cup of hot sauce.  with a spoon.  and the time that she took a sip of mommy’s black coffee, she wanted more.  no sugar.  no cream.  black.  yuck!  (don’t worry, it was decaf.)  mommy often orders her soon dubu jigee (korean tofu stew) and tom yum gai (thai hot and sour soup) extra spicy.  sienna likes it.  she eats it and doesn’t even need to guzzle milk after each bite.

clearly, reverse psychology does not work on sienna.  at least, not when it comes to food.  i think there is something seriously wrong with her taste buds.  either that, or she’s just way smarter than i’ve been giving her credit for.

even though gung-gung’s birthday is not until tomorrow, we celebrated today.  just like every year, he picked a special restaurant for his birthday celebration, and cousin zoey (and uncle jamie and auntie alyssa) met us there.  do you remember what happened last year?  that was when we drove all the way to a restaurant in redwood city and i threw up all over myself.  gosh, that seems like so long ago.

anyway, there was a little bit of excitement this year, but it was not nearly the adventure that last year was.  gung-gung picked vung tau for his birthday lunch.  the restaurant was featured on one of his favorite shows, “check, please!“, so he wanted to check it out.  he didn’t realize that we had eaten there before.  remember when i ate frog legs?  that was at vung tau.  when we arrived at the restaurant, i told mommy, “we’ve been here before!”.  that’s right, you never forget your first frog leg.

anyway, lunch was yummy and everyone liked their lunch.  and when mommy brought out the cupcakes, we all got really excited — especially me and cousin zoey.  zoey took one bite of her strawberry-filled vanilla cupcake and then started freaking out.  she started screaming and sticking out her tongue and wouldn’t put it back in her mouth.  everyone thought that she was just acting crazy, but then we realized that she was having an allergic reaction.  her chin and mouth were breaking out and her tongue was itching.  i guess that’s why she was sticking it out.

zoey has outgrown her egg allergy, is still allergic to sesame, and has a newly-discovered almond allergy.  but we have no idea how a strawberry vanilla cupcake could cause so much trouble.  she has an epi pen with her at all times, just like sienna does.  it’s getting harder and harder to eat out with the girls in this family.

happy birthday gung-gung.  can’t wait to see what kind of excitement your next birthday will bring!

every year on valentine’s day, we get cards in the mail from auntie barbara. we also get a fruit arrangement send to our house from uncle randy. but other than that, it’s just like any other day.  but this year, i found out how much fun valentine’s day can really be!

last night, sienna and i made valentines giraffes to give out as presents.  they came out pretty nice, don’t you think?  can you tell which one i made and which one sienna made?  mommy helped sienna, but i did mine all by myself (except mommy helped me glue the eye.)  mommy also helped me buy scratch and sniff valentines day cards, and i picked out which ones to give to each of my friends at school.

at school today, we had a special valentine’s day party.  we all wore red or purple shirts, we exchanged cards, and we got to eat a special treat (brownies).

look at all the cards and candy that i got!  sienna only got one card (from auntie barbara).  i’m not counting the fruit arrangement and balloon from uncle randy because that’s for both of us.  sienna thinks it’s all hers though because i wasn’t home when it was delivered.  she tried to eat all the grapes before i even got home.  how rude.

oh, and i almost forgot…  at school, i made a card for mommy and daddy.  i told them that i made it for them because i love them sooo much.

happy valentine’s day everyone!

today is the start of the chinese new year.  it’s the year of the snake.  i don’t think i know any snakes.  i’m an ox.  oxen are most compatible with rats, which is mommy’s sign.  maybe that explains why i love mommy so much.  i keep telling her that i’m going to marry her when i grow up.  she always tells me that i can’t because she is already married to daddy. no fair. anyway, back to chinese new year…

last year, auntie mimi invited us to join in her family’s chinese new year celebration.  we got to eat all of the traditional dishes that are prepared during that time of year.  not this year, though. tonight, we had a quiet evening at home watching kai-lan and eating hot pot.  that’s about as chinese as we get in the tanaka household.  but even though we didn’t have a big party, that didn’t stop sienna and me from collecting lai see (red envelopes).  i earned mine.  watch the video 🙂

gung hay fat choy and may the snake be with you!

just like every year, uncle randy made a family calendar for us for christmas.  on my calendar, mommy writes all of my and sienna’s activities, parties, and other social engagments.  i like looking at the calendar every day, but i know our routine even without having to look.

• miss denise comes to take care of us on all the days except S days (saturday and sunday).
• on sundays, i go to swim class, but only during the warm months.  when i swim, sienna goes to gym class.
• on tuesdays, i go to school.  after school, i play soccer, but only during warm months.
• on thursdays, i go to school.  after school, we go to starbucks, then gym class, then galleria, then home.

the square on my calendar for today says SHARKS GAME!  i’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time.  when we looked at the calendar this morning, i asked daddy why can’t every saturday be SHARKS GAME day? 😛

daddy and i had a fun day out.  we went out for a pre-game lunch at sonoma chicken coop.  then we walked to the shark tank, 0.6 miles away (yes, i walked the whole way there and back by myself).  i had so much fun at the game yelling “GO SHARKS GO!”, doing the shark chomp, and eating chunks of salt off of the pretzel that daddy bought for me.  after the game, daddy and i went out for froyo.  what a great day!

when we got home, i told mommy about all the fun we had.  she asked if the sharks won.  (they didn’t.)  i told her they did.  it’s what she wanted to hear.

look!  this is our new house.  we have been talking about it for awhile now, so i knew that it was in san ramon.  and i knew that it was near cousin zoey’s house.  but i didn’t know it was this house.  as soon as we pulled up, i asked mommy “this is our new house?  we went here before with cousin zoey.”  last time we went to the house, uncle scott and auntie emily (old family friends of mommy’s and uncle jamie’s) were still living in there.  now, it’s empty.  and now, it’s ours!

mommy and i went to the house today to pick paint colors.  but first, i had to pick my room.  there were two bedrooms for me to choose from.  one is a lot bigger than the other and has a walk-in closet.  but the smaller room has a window that looks out to the front of the house.  guess which one i chose.  the one with the front-facing window, of course!  mommy is going to buy me a window bench so i can climb up there and watch the mail man and garbage man when they come.

mommy has been asking me what color i want to paint my room.  orange.  she keeps asking me if i’m sure.  yes, i’m sure.  orange.  mommy says that we’ll compromise and use orange accents or something.  for sienna’s room, i picked pink.  i don’t think mommy went for that, either.

earlier, when i said that the house is empty, that’s wasn’t entirely accurate.  there are a few things in the house.  downstairs, there’s a big TV, an area rug, diet coke in the fridge, and my step stool!  upstairs in the loft are all the toys that sienna and i got for christmas.  they are sitting there unopened, just waiting to be played with.

the painters are coming this weekend, and then we’ll be able to start moving.  i can’t wait to live in our new house!

the 49ers played in their 6th super bowl today. they’ve never lost a super bowl before, so i hosted a get together to watch them win another championship. i know you’re thinking that it was really a grown up party, but it wasn’t. really. i invited 3 of my buddies: logan, greyson, and isaac. mommy put on her 49er’s jersey, sienna put on my old 49er’s pj’s, and i wore my football shirt. daddy doesn’t have a football shirt — he says it’s because mommy didn’t buy him one. anyway, we made lots of food, and we were ready for our guests to come over.

well, isaac came with his family. but guess what. logan was sick, so he couldn’t make it. but auntie cheryl (logan’s mommy) came, and she brought mason. and greyson was sick, so he couldn’t make it, either. but auntie char (greyson’s mommy) came. so it ended up being more like mommy’s party after all 🙂

the 49ers got off to a slow start, but they came back and made the 2nd half exciting. they ended up losing to the ravens 31-34, but it was a well fought game. and we got to use the projector in our house one last time 🙂

we went to the mall today. as pulled into the parking lot, mommy and i had this conversation.

me (pointing to the mall): are we going in there?

mommy: yes, we are going shopping.

me: i not steal anything.

mommy (confused): umm, okaaay. do you know people who steal things?

me: no. never!

well, i kept my word. i didn’t steal anything. we actually didn’t buy anything either. but we did spend $6 on a train ride. mommy only gave in to our begging because the japanese grandpa who was operating the train looked lonely.

one thing i forgot to mention about sienna’s 18-month check up is her teeth. the doctor confirmed that she has all her teeth except for her 2-year molars. that means she has 16 teeth. when she was 11 months old, she only had 8. so i guess the other 8 came in sometime during the past 7 months when i wasn’t paying attention.

anyway, sienna’s teeth are enormous. mine are normal-sized. (can you tell which teeth and mine and which ones are sienna’s?) well, mine used to be normal-sized, but they are shrinking. apparently, i grind my teeth. mommy is a little freaked out about it because she thinks that in a few more years, my teeth will be ground down to my gum line. but everyone says that there’s nothing that can (or should) be done about it at this point. and by “everyone”, i mean the internet. and my dentist.

about 30% of children grind their teeth. it’s called bruxism. it can be caused by stress, anxiety, an abnormal bite, or a bunch of other things. most kids stop grinding before their permanent teeth grow in, so that’s why nothing needs to be done about it right now. but once my adult teeth are in, if i’m still grinding them, then we have a problem. i guess i’ll have to wear a guard or something to protect my teeth when i sleep at night. or better yet, i’ll start doing yoga and meditation to reduce the stress in my life. it’s tough being 3.

sienna had her 18 month checkup today.

• weight:  20 pounds 10 ounces (5 %ile)
• length:  32 inches (58 %ile)
• head circumference:  46.2 cm (39 %ile)

according to my growth chart for weight, sienna has been hanging out in the 5-15 %ile range for the past year.  but according to our doctor’s chart, she’s been right around 20-25 %ile.  wait… what?  my weight chart is wrong?  if my chart is wrong, then my percentile for weight (which i was pretty close to my percentile for height) is actually higher.  and if my weight percentile is higher than my height percentile, that means… i’m overweight!  oh well.  it’s a good thing that we’re already at the end of january, so it’s too late to make any new years fitness resolutions.

anyway, back to sienna’s appointment.  the first thing the doctor did when he walked into the exam room was ask her to share some of the cereal she was eating.  she did.  she gave him 3 pieces.  he then saw mommy ask her to blow her nose.  she did.  the doctor also saw that sienna was in a pull up diaper, which led to a conversation about how sienna has been potty training herself.  the doctor noted that sienna is very advanced in “cooperative development skills”, or something like that.  i think that just means that she does what people tell her to do.  that’s true.  she listens pretty well.

the doctor finished checking out sienna, the nurse gave her one shot, and that was it.  sienna didn’t like her shot, but she is really diggin’ the snoopy band-aid that she got afterwards 🙂