today was the last day of the regular season at gilroy gardens, so we met up with my buddy kai-kai for one last hurrah. just like our last visit with cousin zoey, we started the day a little later, and that worked out great. we had a picnic lunch right outside the entrance, then got into the park around 12:30pm.

right away, it was pretty clear that kai-kai was more interested in spending time with sienna than hanging out with me. i mean, sure, we ran around together a little bit, but i mostly chaperoned their date. all day long, he was hugging and kissing sienna. all day.

we went on all of our usual rides, even the hot air balloons. daddy didn’t go with us because he thought it was going to make him queasy. he thought that i wouldn’t like it either, but he was wrong. it was fun! during the ride, i asked “sienna, are you having fun?” she didn’t respond, but her big smile and kicking feet indicated that she was.

at one point, daddy and i went off by ourselves to the carousel at claudia’s garden. (detour after a potty break.) it’s a mini merry-go-round for little kids only. it was my first time on it! we went there instead of getting back in line with kai and sienna for the rainbow gardens boat ride. those boats seat 4, so sienna, kai, mommy, and auntie victoria got to ride together. if daddy and i had gone with them, kai and sienna wouldn’t have been able to enjoy that romantic boat ride together.  auntie said it was like their first date.  i’m not sure how i feel about that…

we invited everyone over to our house for thanksgiving dinner this year.  so after the turkey trot, we went home to get the house and all the food ready.

mommy cooked the best turkey ever.  don’t tell her i told you, but her secret is brining.  we are definitely brining every turkey we make from now on.  in additional to the turkey, though there was a vast array of other food.  the tanakas like their thanksgiving dinner very traditional:  gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie.  the quons prefer a more modern twist on old favorites:  cumin-spiced cranapple sauce, cucumber/corn/avocado salad, quinoa with roasted fennel, beets, and brussel sprouts, a vegan pumpkin pie made with tofu and maple syrup, and more!  there was something for everyone at our fusion thanksgiving dinner.

holidays are always fun because we get to eat lots of yummy food and spend time with our families.  i especially like playing with cousin zoey — we bring out the crazy in each other.

but thanksgiving is a special holiday when we take time to think about all the things that we are thankful for.  i told mommy that i want to say thank you for mommy, daddy, sienna, and uncle henry — but not koda because he doesn’t say “you’re welcome”.

sienna just learned a new word this thanksgiving.  she is thankful for pie.  vegan tofu pumpkin pie, to be exact.

about a week ago, mommy showed me pictures on her computer from the turkey trot website and asked me if i wanted to go running on thanksgiving.  of course i said yes!  so we signed up.  and i didn’t stop talking about “going running” all week.

so we started a new family tradition this year — trotting with the tanaka clan on thanksgiving day.  (well, not if daddy can help it.  we’ll see what happens next year.)  first, we did a 5k trot with auntie barbara and uncle randy.  that’s right, even uncle randy slummed it with us at the back of the pack instead of competing with the other super fast runners in the first corral.  daddy pushed me in my stroller while mommy carried sienna in the ergo.  the walk was especially fun for me because we saw drummers and trains along the way.  sienna slept almost the entire time.

after we finished our walk, i met up with my friends in the children’s festival area.  we saw sharkie and stomper and a few other mascots (SF bulls, SJ giants, SF 49ers).  matthew, logan, and i were all in the 2-3 year old division, so we ran the 30 yd. race together.  we didn’t walk like our mommies and daddies did.  we ran.  fast.  we clotheslined the competition!  it was so much fun that i went back and did it again 🙂

i was so excited that i wanted to keep running again and again, but mommy said that i have to wait until next year.  i can’t wait.  next year, sienna will be able to run, too!

things she likes:

• shoes.  i know, all kids like to strut around the house wearing grown up shoes.  i did that too.  but sienna even gets excited about her own shoes and wants to wear them all the time.  she also wakes up every morning saying “shoes, shoes” and walks over to her dresser to try to open her sock drawer.  i’m not sure if she thinks “shoes” is the word for all things that go on her feet or if she just knows that she has to wear socks before she can put on her shoes.
• talking.   she says “uh oh” and “owww” a lot, but she knows a lot of other words, too, and is learning more every day.
• accessorizing.  she’s always trying to put clips and headbands in her hair.  (but once mommy and daddy put them in her hair she pulls them out.  i don’t get it.)
• giving kisses.  she kisses mommy on the cheek just like mommy does to her.
• row row row your boat.  when mommy is laying on the ground, sienna sits on top of her and says “row row”.  she likes it when mommy sings and rows with her.
• daddy.  every night when daddy comes home from work, sienna runs to the door yelling “dada!”
• spicy food.  she can eat food way spicier than i can.

things she doesn’t like:

• bedtime singing.  she doesn’t like it when mommy sings her to sleep, but she likes hearing her recite “goodnight moon”.

over the weekend, mommy took sienna up to her room to put her down for a nap.  they were in there for a long time, but that’s no surprise — sienna doesn’t nap easily these days.  but then i started hearing some banging, so i went to go check on them.  when i opened the door, i was confused about what i walked in on.  sienna had a screwdriver in her hand and her crib was… well, gone!  “what happened here?” i asked.

well, it was just what it looked like.  mommy helped sienna turn her crib into a toddler bed.  she’s only 15 months old, a little young to be moving out of her crib, but mommy thought sienna might nap better in there.  (lately, she only naps on koda’s bed or on a little inflatable trampoline in her room.)

well, naps are improving.  she will nap in her crib now, but someone needs to stay with her until she falls asleep.  but her bedtime routine, which used to be a breeze, is now a struggle.  her routine hasn’t changed — at the end of the night, she still reaches for her bed and says “bed”, mommy puts her in down in her bed, and the sienna rolls over and closes her eyes.  that used to be the end of it.  but now, she tosses and turns and pops up every few minutes to check to see if mommy is still there.  if mommy leaves before she falls asleep, sienna cries.  if she falls asleep and then wakes up in the middle of the night (which happens every single night), sienna cries and stumbles around the house looking for mommy.

this is just another transition period, and peace and quiet will be restored soon enough, right?  that’s what i keep telling myself.

have you ever gotten stood up on a blind date?  did you wonder if your date actually showed up, took one look at you, and then left?  that happened to me today, and it wasn’t even a blind date.

edison and i had plans to meet at champions academy, a new gymnastics facility.  we arrived at the same time, and edison was not happy.  as soon as he saw me, he started screaming that he wanted to go home.  i checked in, signed a waiver, and bought a day pass while auntie ann was trying to coax edison into staying for a little while.  he wasn’t having it, so they left.

i was the only kid in the entire humongous facility, so mommy (and auntie mimi, who came with us) thought that i might be bored playing by myself.  but we had already paid, so we made the best of it.  and guess what — we all had a fantastic time!

champions academy has all of the same equipment as the other training gyms that i’ve been to (beams, bars, rings, tumbling track, kiddie obstacle course, etc.) but they also have a full size volleyball court and a basketball hoop. in a couple of months, they are going to have a climbing wall and a zip line, too.

the first thing i did was step onto the podium.  auntie mimi said that i should stand on the 1 because i’m #1.  but i corrected her.  i’m 3.  i bounced around on the tumbling track, played volleyball with mama and auntie (check me out keeping my eye on the ball while i’m hitting!), and rearranged the obstacle course.  but mostly, i just ran wild in that ginormous gym.  it was a perfect place to burn off some energy on a rainy day.

i was bummed that edison didn’t want to play with me today (i asked mommy “why edison crying?”), but i didn’t take it personally.  mommy said that edison was probably just tired and wanted to take a nap, just like she did 😛  i hope we can go back to that gym early next year — they should have the rock wall and zip line running by then.  hopefully, edison won’t run away from me next time! 🙂

last night, mommy kept us out way past our bedtime.  we stayed up past 11pm — even sienna!  bad mommy.

it was the 10th annual tree lighting ceremony at santana row.  as first we thought it was going to be too cold, but it ended up being a nice evening, so we decided to go.  daddy was playing volleyball, so it was just me, sienna, mommy, and gung-gung.  we met up with greyson and his parents (auntie char and uncle ed) at santana row.

as we walked toward the 40′ tree, we passed christmas carolers, free hot cocoa stands, and caught a quick glimpse of santa.  it’s definitely christmastime.  we even walked through some falling bubbles.  the grown ups kept trying to tell us that it was snow, but sienna and i both yelled “bubbles!”  we are not that gullible.  (i think they fooled greyson though.  he kept saying “it’s snowing!”)

there was a huge crowd gathered around the christmas tree waiting for it to be lit.  it was like when we watched the fireworks show at disneyland.  sienna was on mommy’s shoulders, greyson was on auntie char’s, and uncle ed was nice enough to give me the best view in the house.  uncle ed is the best!  there were live performances, including former american idol finalist (deandre brackensick) singing christmas songs, but the dancers were my favorite.

the tree was supposed to be lit at 7:00pm.  by 7:30, it still wasn’t lit, and sienna and i were starving.  mommy didn’t even pack me a snack.  bad mommy.  so we gave up on the tree and headed toward pasta pomodoro.  as we weaved our way through the sea of people, we actually got to see the tree lighting 🙂

once we got to the restaurant, the wait was over 30 minutes.  which means by the time we got seated, ordered, and started eating, it was around 8:30pm.  uncle john lives in santana row, so he joined us for dinner.  i called him “uncle mike” and “auntie john”, but he just doesn’t look like an “uncle john” to me.  auntie mimi also came to meet us for dinner.  she doesn’t live in santana row — she lives far away.  but she just loves hanging out with me 😀

after dinner, we probably should have gone home, but we went and got froyo at pinkberry.  that wasn’t mommy’s fault though.  i insisted.  and since it was such a nice night, we ate it outside in the courtyard.  sienna loved it.  (i think this might be the first time that we’ve gone out for froyo since sienna started eating dairy!)

we had such a fun night out, and sienna and i were sooo good even though it was so late.  i like it when mommy is bad and lets us stay up past our bed time 🙂

let’s see… where did we leave off?  in week 4, sienna started eating wheat again, and her eczema flared up.  so we stopped the wheat.  the plan was to wait another full week to let all the wheat proteins get out of her system, but someone accidentally fed sienna cow’s milk.  i won’t say who, but his name starts with a “d” and ends with “addy”.  so week 5 turned into a dairy week.

week 5 and 6:  no eggs, wheat, or peanuts.  to everyone’s surprise (and delight) sienna did fine with all kinds of dairy!  not sure how to explain the previous repeatable reactions she had to milk, but who cares?  hooray!

week 7 and 8:  no eggs or peanuts, but we planned to give wheat another try.  her eczema returned, which could have been coincidental, but the fact that red splotches appeared on her face where it came into contact with wheat was enough to eliminate wheat once again.  she didn’t make it through the planned 2 weeks.  she stopped eating wheat on the 3rd day.

i think sienna is done with her elimination diet for now.

• she’s allergic to eggs
• she might have a mild wheat allergy (at the very minimum, it causes a skin reaction)
• she might be allergic to nuts, but no need to experiment with that

so it’s just like the blood test said.  it turns out that the skin test was completely bogus (for food allergies).  don’t feel too bad for sienna — there are plenty of things that she can eat.  it’s just hard for her to eat asian food because so many seasonings and sauces contain wheat — even soy sauce.

oh!!!  i almost forgot to mention a very exciting accidental discovery!  you know how sienna’s hands and feet are always peeling?  her condition seemed to have improved with the elimination of wheat.  and when she started eating wheat again, even for those 3 days, her hands started peeling again.  and now, with no wheat, they’re getting better.

the photo on the left is from june 2012.  the photo on the right was taken at the end of october, after 3 weeks of no wheat.

we are trying not to get too excited because it could be purely coincidental, but we are hopeful that we’ve found a way to “cure” (or at least improve) her palmoplantar keratoderma, a condition that everyone said she’d have to live with for the rest of her life.

the law requires kids to ride in rear-facing car seats until they are 12 months old.  but it wasn’t until i was 13 months old that daddy turned my seat around and i got to start facing forward.  4 months later, the american academy of pediatrics issued a new recommendation saying that kids should ride backwards until age 2.  the law wasn’t changed though.  thank goodness, because i would have been really mad if i would have had to give up my forward-facing view.

lemme tell you what i think about the AAP’s new recommendation.  it’s dumb.  it’s almost as crazy as their recommendation that kids don’t go outdoors between 10am – 4pm to limit their exposure to the sun.  crazy talk, i tell ya.

sienna is not the biggest 15 month old around, but she started getting too big to be rear-facing a couple of months ago.  her legs were scrunched up against the back seat and she always looked so uncomfortable.  so this this weekend, daddy turned her seat around.  he knew that we were going to be driving around a lot, and he wanted sienna to be comfortable.

on saturday, we went to a party in san bruno for a baby that uncle geoff’s and auntie pak are making.  i’ve been to a baby shower before, but never one where uncles were invited.  we got to eat food and play games, then most of us kids went to the next room to play on the long tumbling mat.  it was pretty fun.  i don’t get why baby showers are usually for girls only.  after the party we went to grandma’s house in south san jose and hung out there for the rest of the evening.  (miles logged:  102+)

on sunday, we went to look at houses in san ramon and then dinner in danville at uncle henry’s house.  auntie mimi, uncle ritchie, auntie margaret, and a few other aunties and uncles were there too.  we had pizza for dinner, and everyone brought a homemade dessert.  (one entree and 8 desserts!)  sienna kept trying to eat the fruit tart, but i knew that all of the desserts were only for grown ups.  i didn’t even ask to try any.  can you believe it?  (miles logged:  100+)

with all the driving that we did this weekend, i thought sienna would have appreciated the change of scenery.  it didn’t really seem like she noticed her new forward-facing view, but she was loving all of the extra leg room! 🙂

edison only goes to school 1 day a week, so on the other days he gets to scout out new local hotspots with his mommy.  i guess that’s why he’s always coming up with fun things to do and new places to go during the week days.  today, he invited me to an open gym at west valley gymnastics school in campbell.  it was pretty cool — it’s a real gymnastics training center, sort of like airborne in santa clara.  there was a lot of kid friendly gymnastics equipment but edison and i had the most fun in the foam pit, on the giant trampoline, and in the ball pit.

the foam pit is like the one at at airborne.  i had a blast sliding into in over and over again the two times we went earlier this year.  so when i refused to jump into the pit today, mommy was very surprised.  edison jumped.  and i just stood there.  i eventually climbed down very carefully into the foam pit.  that was fun.  so i did that over and over again — that is, climbed into the foam pit.

even on the giant trampoline, i didn’t really jump much — i mostly galloped around it.  only one kid was allowed to jump at a time, so when other kids waiting, we had to count to 10 while we jumped and then give someone else a turn.  i counted backwards from 10 while i galloped.

edison and i also really liked the ball pit.  there was only supposed to be one kid at a time in there, too, but we played together.  i didn’t jump into that pit either — i did big arms and kicks and swam in there.

there was a lot of other fun stuff to do at the gym (an obstacle course, a tumbling track, bars, rings, and beams, etc.) but the best part of the day was the puddle station.  edison and i both put on our rain boots and splashed in the puddles in the parking lot.   i had NO PROBLEM jumping in the puddles!