this post is for my friends who have a younger sibling or hope to have one soon.  here’s the lowdown on having a little sister.

the first few months are fun.  it’s great to be a big brother.

• you can help take care of your baby sister by getting diapers, holding her bottle during feedings, covering her with a blanket when she’s cold, etc.
• your mommy won’t go to work, and your daddy might even stay home for a few weeks.  that means you’ll get to see your parents all the time!  that is, unless you go to daycare.  if that’s the case, then never mind.
• lots of aunties, uncles, and other family will come to visit.  many of them will even bring presents for you 😀
• since your mommy will be busy feeding the baby all the time, daddy will become your BFF, even if you were formerly a mama’s boy, like me.  you will get to spend way more male bonding time with daddy than you ever could have imagined.
• if you crawl into your parents’ bed in the middle of the night, you might actually get to sleep there because your mommy will be too tired to take you back to your own room.  (daddies don’t hear kids at night.  it’s a superpower that they have.)

so yeah, the first few months as a big brother are pretty awesome.

after 4-5 months, the novelty wears off.  visitors stop coming to bring you gifts.  your momma goes back to work.  now you’re really competing with your baby sister for mommy’s time and attention.

at 6-8 months, your mommy will make “baby pears”, “baby strawberries”, and other yummy (pureed) foods.  she will also buy snacks like puffs and yogurt puffs.  you might get to eat some if you ask nicely.  i loved eating baby pears and yogurt puffs.  it brought back so many happy memories from when i was a baby.  during this time, it’s also fun to teach stuff to your baby sister.  you can read to her, sing to her, show her how to use your toys.  you pretty much have a captive audience since she can’t move around very fast yet.

9-11 months is the worst.  your baby sister will be crawling — fast.  she might even start to walk.   that means that if you look away for one second, she will steal your toys.  she will hit you.  she will yell at you.  and the double standard in the house will be in full effect.  if she hits you, she didn’t mean it.  if you hit her, you are in trouble.

around 12-13 months, everything changes.  your baby sister will become a real little person.  she will be walking, trying to talk, and eating a lot of the same foods as you.  the best part is that she will look up to you and idolize you (as she should).  she will follow you around and learn by your example.  and when you teach her things, she will actually pay attention and try to learn.  this age is so fun.

within the past few weeks, sienna and i have been playing together a lot, without “direction”.  we play well together, but a grown up still checks on us every so often to make sure i’m not being too rough.  we dance together, we play tag (to make it fair, i crawl while she runs), we wrestle, we practice counting, we play music, and we do lots of pretend play — we have tea parties, i take her blood pressure with my toy BP cuff, i pretend to bathe her with empty bottles of shampoo and body wash, etc.  this afternoon, we even had a baby powder fight.  that was fun!  i can’t wait until she gets older. i am going to get her into some real trouble. i mean, we are going to get into some real trouble together 😉

after my morning playdate and afternoon birthday party, i was beat.  i was so tired that we went home and napped.  that’s right, sienna and i both napped.  sienna naps every day, but i only nap about 3 times a week these days.  after my nap, i took my bike out for a quick spin around the neighborhood.  (i’m gonna have to get a video of myself so you can see how far i’ve come!)  then, we all got cleaned up and headed out to meet cousin zoey for dinner.

QUON CLAN DINNER

have you ever been to a party to celebrate someone’s birthday who wasn’t even there?  i have.  the quon clan got together tonight to remember po-po (grandma quon).  gung-gung said that we were celebrating her birthday, but i think it was just his excuse to get his grandkids together.  i never met po-po, but there’s a picture of her on our mantle and i know that she knitted all of the blankets that i sleep with.  when sienna gets older, i will tell her that po-po made her blanket, too.

we had dinner at a restaurant called spin-a-yarn.  it was featured on “kitchen nightmares” last year.  we had been there before the makeover, and we thought it would be fun to see what gordon ramsey did with the place.  the menu was different, but the food wasn’t any better.  (it wasn’t terrible before the makeover, just eh.)

next time we get together, i vote for meeting at cousin zoey’s house.  all day, i was telling mama that i wanted to go there.  the food there is better, plus when we go there i get to play uncle jamie’s drums and cook in cousin zoey’s play kitchen 😀

after leaving safari run, we made a quick stop at starbucks (i insisted) and then headed over to abby’s birthday party.

BACKYARD BIRTHDAY

abby celebrated her 2nd birthday with a very hello kitty party in her backyard.  her backyard is cool.  she has a swingset with a real slide — not one of those baby ones.  her daddy (uncle jimmy) made it for her.  uncle jimmy makes lots of stuff.  he told us that he realized last night that they didn’t have enough backyard chairs for all their guests.  most people would just let people sit on the ground or borrow chairs from friends.  but no, not uncle jimmy.  he built benches.  nice benches.  last night.  he is going to build a tree house for abby, too.  i hope she invites me over to play in it!

we spent most of the afternoon eating and playing.  sienna and i played on the swings together.  there was one baby swing and one big kid swing.  perfect!  sienna also played on the slide with greyson.  i passed on that.  i had had enough sliding at safari run.

abby also has a sandbox that i played in with isaac and some other kids.  i figured that uncle jimmy probably built the sandbox too, but it’s plastic.  so maybe not.

i could have stayed and played all day, but we had to leave when sienna got tired (and fussy).  i guess she’s no longer in her “sleep-anywhere” phase.  until today, i’ve never had to adjust my schedule around sienna, but i think it’s going to start happening more often.  boo.

today was one of the most action-packed days that we’ve had in a long time.  playdate, then birthday party, then a bike ride, then a family dinner with cousin zoey and the quon clan.  whew.  i’m exhausted.

SAFARI RUN

a new indoor playspace called safari run opened up nearby.  today was the grand opening, so edison, chloe and i went there to check it out (for FREE!).  there’s a big kid play structure with foam rollers to dive through, staggered platforms to climb, a rope course to navigate across, and other fun obstacles.  the only (safe) way out is to go down one of the slides.  (i didn’t realize this at first.)  the first slide i tried was a chute slide.  or maybe it was a shoot slide, ‘cuz it shot me out onto my back.  i skidded clear across the landing pad and onto the hard cement floor.  i didn’t like it.  i was ready to go home.  so was chloe. she left.  (i’m not sure why she didn’t like it there.) but mama suggested we check out the toddler play area (for 3 and under) first.  we did.  it was boring.

so i thought that i’d climb around the big kid play structure some more, but i would just avoid the shoot slide.  so i did.  but somehow, i found myself sitting on top of an even bigger wave slide.  i figured this one would shoot me clear into the next city!  plus, i had just watched edison get stuck on one the top of one of the waves and another kid slid down and crashed into him.  (don’t worry, he wasn’t hurt.)  everyone was yelling at me to go, but i didn’t want to.  i started to cry.  and the longer i sat there and cried, the more everyone was yelling at me to go.  mama couldn’t come into the play structure because she wasn’t wearing socks, so auntie ann climbed up and slid with me.  thanks auntie ann, for rescuing me.  guess what — it was so fun!  my tears turned into smiles on the way down.  it was so fun that i climbed up and slid down again and again.

safari run is a fun place, but we probably won’t be going back until i’m bigger.  edison and i agree that we are too big for the toddler area, but too small for the big kid play structure.  there are just too many big kids running around unsupervised that it can be a little bit dangerous.  and while grown-ups are allowed in the play structure, there are some obstacles that they cannot get through because they are too big.  maybe we’ll go again in a couple of years.  or maybe for my birthday party next year…

i missed my regular gym class yesterday because we were busy celebrating uncle randy’s birthday.  happy birthday, uncle randy!  so anyway, i went to a make-up class tonight.  but instead of going to a super beasts class (the one for my age group) i went to a funny bugs class for 3-4 year olds.

funny bugs is totally different than all my other classes.  the biggest change is that no mommies or daddies are allowed in the gym.  plus, it’s a longer class (60 mins instead of 45).  also, we break up into small groups (4-6 kids per teacher) and move in “trains” from station to station practicing new skills.  check me out on the uneven bars 🙂

in all my gym classes up until now, we got free run of the entire gym during exploration time.  i wasn’t used to staying at one station.  so without mama and dada there to help keep me focused, i ended up wandering off. twice.  see me on the balance beam here?  i was supposed to be doing crab walks on the parallel bars with my friends in the background.  oops.

my teacher was actually very impressed that i strayed from my station only two times, which is apparently really great for my first funny bugs class.  he said he would be happy to have me in his class full time.  so that’s it.  he pushed a few buttons on the computer, and now i’m done with super beasts.  i’m officially a funny bug!

now, how will mama and dada get their weekly workout?

today’s activities are brought to you by the letter G:  grass ball, grub, geese, and guitar!

after three straight days of activities and parties for me and sienna (let’s face it, they were really just for me), mama and dada finally got to spend an afternoon doing something for themselves.  we went to the park for a labor day grass volleyball BBQ.  i’d never been to one of those before, but apparently, mama and dada used to have those all the time in their B.K. (before kyden) days.

i thought i was going to be bored all day, sitting on the sidelines with sienna while mama and dada played volleyball, but i had a fun day.  for one thing, there was a ton of food.  and guess what — i like to eat.  so right away, i knew it was going to be a good day.

there were also a lot of kids there.  i checked out what they were doing in the playground, but i ended up only spending a few minutes there.  there were a lot of aunties and uncles that i had either never met before or hadn’t seen in a really long time.  they are all really cool and fun to hang out with.

uncle marvin and auntie mimi chased geese with me.  one goose was teasing me — he kept running just out of my reach, but he wouldn’t fly away.  dada wondered what i was going to do when i caught him.  i never did.

uncle brad brought his guitar to the BBQ.  if you didn’t know, i love guitars.  my eyes lit up and i got SO EXCITED when he took it out of the case.  it was my first time seeing a real guitar, and i even got to play it!  uncle brad moved his fingers along the neck while i strummed.  i am a really good guitarist.

i played volleyball, too.  the net was set at women’s height, but i think i needed it at toddler height.  i couldn’t get the ball over the net except for when uncle ang helped me.

if you’re wondering what sienna was doing while i was running around and having fun, just take a look at the photo.  she was tired, so dada was holding her, trying to get to her sleep.  but who was putting who to sleep?  hard to tell…

mama and dada got to play a little bit of volleyball too.  they didn’t play much (maybe 15 minutes each?) because they were mostly busy keeping an eye on sienna and me.  but they keep saying that they’ve retired from grass ball and they haven’t played in years, so no need to start now, right?

kai had a party at his grandma and grandpa’s house today.  they have a big swimming pool with a diving board and an attached jacuzzi.  i had never jumped off a diving board before, so nobody thought i would actually do it.  the first time, i made mama jump with me.  but after that, i jumped all by myself!  and when i say “jumped”, i actually mean that i belly-flopped.  the jumping part is not so bad.  it’s the cold pool water that i don’t like.  i guess i’ve been spoiled by all the years of swim lessons in a pool heated to 89 degrees.

i spent most of the day in the jacuzzi.  i actually did laps — doing big arms and kicks — back and forth across the length of the jacuzzi.  (yes, it’s that big.)  but during my potty breaks, i discovered lots of other cool stuff to do.  kai’s grandparents also have a a fish pond, a chicken coop, and an outdoor play area with a sand and water table.

first, kai showed us how to feed the chickens by holding up the corn to the chicken wire.  but then, his grandma actually let us go inside the chicken coop to hand-feed the chickens.  how cool!  i kept taking cobs of corn and only eating a few bites so there would be more for the chickens to eat.  when mama wasn’t looking, i also snatched some chicken nuggets and other snacks that mama never makes for me.

later in the afternoon, in between laps in the jacuzzi, i got to feed the fish in the pond and i also played with kai-kai at the sand and water table.  it was so fun!  i told mama that i wanted to stay there all day long.

today was chloe’s birthday party.  funny, since her actual birthday is in july.  i like how she thinks, though.  i wanna have parties to celebrate my birthday all year long, too!

the party theme was “despicable 3”.  i totally didn’t get that it was a play on the movie “despicable me” — i had never seen the movie before.  we were supposed to dress like minions.  i didn’t know what that meant.  some of my friends were wearing yellow shirts and overalls.  is that what minions wear?  sorry, dress code violation.  sienna wore a pink dress with a tutu, and she fit in perfectly with all the other little girls wearing tutus at the party.  i guess she got the memo.

there were a lot of fun activities at the party.  fun for me, anyway.  sienna didn’t participate in any of them.  she just wandered around the park, and then eventually fell asleep on dada.

first, daisy mae came.  i didn’t know who she was — a character from “despicable me”?  no idea.  she gathered us around to sing justin bieber songs — weird, but okay — and then she started painting tattoos on everyone’s faces.  i thought that was really weird, too.  why would i want a tattoo on my face?  i am not mike tyson.  so i got one on my leg.  i couldn’t decide what to get, so mama told me to pick an animal.  i picked elephant!  edison got a matching tattoo on his arm.  now we are elephant brothers 🙂

there was also a unicorn pinata.  i think pinatas are a little disturbing.  all the kids took turns beating the poor unicorn until it got decapitated.  and then all of its guts (candy) fell out.  the unicorn was decapitated pretty early on, so the rest of us waited in line to hit the floating unicorn head.  mama took a photo, but i’ll spare you the visual.  i don’t want to give anyone nightmares like i had about my floating warthog head.

the best part of the party was the giant jumpy house.  i loved jumping around in there and bouncing off the walls, literally.  the jumpy house was so big that there was even a basketball hoop and a slide inside of it!  it was so much fun.  and it was so big that some of the grown ups (like auntie judy and mama) jumped around with me.  mama said that it was even more of a workout than paddle boating at gilroy gardens.

happy (very belated) birthday, chloe!  thanks for a fun, despicable time 🙂

there’s something that mama can’t do that lots of other parents do — work from home while taking care of me and sienna.  she says that when she does both, she’s not doing either of them well.  so what’s the problem?

a)  sienna and i are wilder and harder to manage than other kids

b)  mama works harder than other parents

c)  mama is not a good multi-tasker

there might be some truth to (a), but definitely not (b) or (c).  i actually think that mama just likes any excuse to not be working on a work day so she can hang out with me and sienna.  so since miss denise took most of today off to get an early start on her long weekend, mama, sienna, and i did the same.

first, we went to the mall.  but valley fair is no ordinary shopping mall.  i think i might actually call it a local hotspot.  we went to the mini legoland (lego store), mini disneyland (disney store, which is now located downstairs near all the other kid stores), and played in the family playspace.  there are other fun stores to play in like build-a-bear workshop and sanrio, but we didn’t go there.  but the best part of the mall is the escalator right outside of the playspace.  we rode up and down the escalator, and i can get on and off by myself now!

next stop:  lakeshore learning.  i think it’s a teachers’ supply store, so they sell lots of learning toys and games.  we discovered it last month, and i love it.  my favorite thing is the touch screen TV at the back of the store where you can play games.  it’s like a giant ipad!  the only problem is that i’m too short to reach the top of the screen, so i can’t finish the games without mama to help me.

after all that shopping, we went to meet edison at a park near his house.  we played in the playground for a little while, but then we headed over to the sand pit.  we brought our sand toys so we had proper equipment to dig holes with.  but even with all the shovels, buckets, and other tools we had, none of them could open the door to the castle.  oh well, we tried.

after a couple of hours at the park, we headed back to edison’s house.  he has so many fun toys to play with for inside and outside.  sienna and i especially loved edison’s lawnmower.  when the lawn in our backyard gets fixed, we are totally gonna get one of those.  we could have “mowed” the lawn all evening long, but we got hungry.  so off to dinner we went.  our daddies joined us for dinner, and auntie mimi did too!

what a fun day we had.  it was a great way to start off the long weekend 🙂

before gym class today, sienna and i met edison at the park.

• sienna likes swings (i’ve known that for awhile), but she really likes slides.  i really like what the slides do to her hair.  static electricity is funny.
• i can’t tell if she is going to be a girly-girl or a tomboy.  she’s always grabbing her hair clips and headbands to try to put them in her hair.  but she also likes to sit on the ground, get dirty, and eat tanbark.
• when mama asked me to share my grapes with sienna, i plucked one off of the stem, peeled the skin off with my teeth, and then handed it to sienna.  “here baby.  your grape.”  mama made such a big deal about what a great big brother i am.  i don’t get what the big deal is.  that’s how mama feeds grapes to sienna.

then we went to gym class.

• i was sleepy because i didn’t take a nap today.  every 10 minutes or so, i told mama i was tired and i laid down in a comfortable place.  at one point, mama laid me down on the high beam.  i didn’t like that one bit.  that was not comfortable at all.  

after class, we went out to dinner with my friends, as usual.  it used to be me, matthew, logan, and edison and all of our families, but matthew moved up to the next class when he turned 3.

• sienna wanted to eat some of mama’s eggs, but we still don’t know for sure if she is allergic.  (we should get results from her allergy test next week.)  so mama dabbed some cooked egg white on sienna’s arm.  within a minute, her arm turned red, little bumps appeared, and she got all itchy.  dada didn’t understand why mama was making her suffer because he already knew she was allergic to eggs.  (we didn’t know, we suspected.)  now we know.  poor baby.

just another wednesday…