malia came over to play with sienna today.  and now i get why sienna tags along with me and my buddies all the time — her playdates are boring.  she just sits around with her friends and looks at toys.  and i noticed that her playdates are always really short.  i guess between meals and naps, there isn’t all that much time for anything else.

another thing i noticed is that sienna has enormous hands (and feet, too).  i had always thought her hands were tiny, ‘cuz they are… compared to mine.  but malia is almost the same age as sienna (less than 2 weeks younger), and her dainty little hands are 3/4 the size!  i’m not exaggerating at all.  sienna says that her fingers are just long like mama’s, but i don’t think so.  she has man hands!

i tried to get a side-by-side picture of sienna’s and malia’s hands, but sienna wouldn’t cooperate.  i guess i don’t blame her.  i wouldn’t want photographic evidence that i was a freak of nature, either.

i survived my first day at school with only 90 minutes of crying.  mama’s crying, that is.  i don’t know if she actually cried, but she felt guilty and sad and anxious for the entire 90 minutes that i was there.  you’re probably wondering why i only went to school for 90 minutes.  well, lemme tell you the whole story.

miss denise still comes to take care of me and sienna every day.  and between gym class, swimming, soccer, and my very busy social calendar, i get plenty of socialization with other kids.  and i’m only 2!  so why would i need to go to school?  well, dada said something about having money in a childcare spending account that he needs to use before the end of the year.  ahem… if dada needs to spend money on his children, i can think of a whole lot of other things to spend it on — like sharks games!

anyway, the plan was for me to go to school 2 days a week, 3 hours a day.  we did lots of things to prepare.  mama went with me to visit the school 4 times.  we wrote on our calendar so i could see when my first day of school was coming up.  we talked a lot about how mama was going to bring me to school, leave to go to work, let me play with my friends, then come back and pick me up later.  mama taught me how to firmly say “NO!” and “STOP!” if someone does something that is not nice.  i’m even shifting my nap time to match the school schedule.

even with my early nap time, i was still asleep at 3:45pm this afternoon.  mama woke me up and asked me if i wanted to stay home or go to school.  “new school!”  so i packed my backpack with some of my favorite snacks and a toy from home, and off we went.

mama went inside the school with me, just like before.  but when we started getting ready for our sports activity (hitting whiffle balls with foam bats), mama told me that she was going to leave.  it was 4:30pm.

after mama left, i cried.  a lot.  i calmed down after 15 minutes, but i still didn’t want to participate in the group activity.  i was hungry!  but after i finished eating my snack, i got busy playing with my new friends.  we cooked pizza and oatmeal for breakfast in the play kitchen, and i made a puzzle.  when mama came to pick me up, i was busy talking on the phone, so i didn’t want to leave.

mama came to pick me up at 5:45pm.  i was so happy to see her that i started tearing up.  mama saw my tears and was worried that i had been crying the whole time, but miss shawna (my teacher) assured her that i was doing fine.  i gave mama a hug and said “i miss mama!” and i told her that i had fun at my new school.  mama was so relieved.  if this works out, i might extend my 3 hours to full days.  we’ll see!

i have been talking to some of my friends about their upcoming birthday parties, and that got me thinking…  sienna is going to turn 1 in a few months.  i should probably throw a birthday party for her, but i don’t know who to invite.  she doesn’t have many friends.  in fact, sienna only has one friend that she hangs out with.  that’s right, one friend — her name is malia.  most of the time, sienna just tags along with me and my friends wherever we go.  i don’t really mind, but she’s too little to do the things that we want to do.  so, when allie came over to visit today, i was happy that sienna got to make a new friend.

actually, all of us met allie for the first time today.  she is 5 months old, but we hadn’t met her before because she lives all the way in southern california.  (remember when i went to socal and had brunch with auntie cindy and uncle tim?  they are allie’s parents, and they came to visit us tonight.)  allie is 4 months younger than sienna, but the girls are practically the same size!

allie and sienna were fast friends.  i don’t remember playing with other kids very much when i was sienna’s age — i mostly just hung out with mama and dada or played with my own toys.  but allie and sienna actually played together really well (with my toys).  they made each other laugh, and they kept reaching out to hug each other or hold hands or something.  girls are weird.

it’s too bad that allie lives so far away, otherwise she could have been the second guest at sienna’s birthday party.  it’s also too bad that she is going to be taller than me very soon, otherwise i might have asked her out one of these days 😉

last summer, matthew and i went to see elmo’s healthy heroes.  it was a fun way to learn about being healthy — exercise, nutrition, and good hygiene.  that was fun.  today, we went to see elmo makes music.  the show was about a music teacher who arrived at sesame street with no instruments.  but elmo and his friends saved the day by making music with normal everyday items.  basically, it was “stomp” meets sesame street.  did you know that a frying pan can be a drum and cookie jars can be maracas?  i got so many new ideas for “music” that i can make at home 😉

just like last time, we got aisle seats right in front of the stage.  those are the best seats because the characters come down off the stage and dance in the aisles.  i got a high five from grungie (oscar the grouch’s girlfriend) today!  matthew and i were a little bummed, though, because elmo ran right past us and didn’t even stop to say hi to us.

even though our seats were 4 rows from the stage, matthew bought us some special sesame street binoculars.  cool, right?  i haven’t figured what they’re for, but i liked looking into them (backwards) and i wore them around my neck for the rest of the day — even when we went out to dinner.  binoculars are cool.  thanks, matthew!

i didn’t think sienna was going to have much fun at the show today because she doesn’t know elmo and his friends.  but she was having a great time smiling and clapping along with the music.  my baby sister’s got rhythm!  matthew and i had fun singing and dancing and stomping along with the music.  i got upset when elmo wasn’t on stage, though.  when the music teacher was doing a solo, i kept yelling at her to “open that!” (“that” = the curtain, because i knew that elmo was behind it.)  and when grover and rosita were singing about being blue, i was yelling “elmo come back!”  the show is called “elmo makes music” — we want elmo.  say it with me…  WE WANT ELMO!

we all had a fun time seeing elmo and his friends making music, and i can’t wait for him to come visit again.  but before we do, i’m going to read more elmo books to sienna so she can get to know elmo and cookie monster and the rest of their friends on sesame street.  i’m such a nice big brother…

today was “bring your kid to work” day at dada’s work.  so, like a good employee, dada brought his kid to work.  me!  sienna wanted to go too, but i told her that she’s too little.  it’s called “bring your kid to work”, not “bring your baby to work”.

when dada and i arrived at his office, i got my own badge with a retractable badge holder thingy.  i love playing with dada’s, so i’m super excited that i now have my own.  dada is happy about that too, because he always thinks that i’m going to break his.  i also got lots of other swag, including a hat that says “i’m the boss”.  dada says that the hat is supposed to his, but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about — i am obviously the boss around here.

dada tells us that he is a software engineer.  i never knew what that meant, so i was excited to go to work with him to see what he does there all day.  well, now i know.  he plays in big jumpy houses with 2-story inflatable slides.  he eats cotton candy.  he rolls balls all in row, spins a big colorful wheel, and plays whiffle ball tic-tac-toe.  in exchange for doing those things, he gets paid with rubber frogs, bouncy balls, bracelets, and other cool toys.  because i did all of dada’s work today, he let me keep the prizes that i won.

being a software engineer is so fun.  that’s what i wanna be when i grow up!

earlier this week, mama went to (austin) texas.  she used to go on business trips all the time, but this one was her first in almost a whole year.  before when mama traveled, she always left early in the morning before i woke up.  but this time, she left on monday evening right before dinnertime.  i cried and cried and begged her not to go, but she said that she had to go to work.  so i begged her to take me with her, but she said she couldn’t.  kyden like work, uh uh.

i was sad that mama was leaving for 2 whole days, but i think dada was even sadder.  he was not looking forward to taking care of me and sienna all by himself.  but guess what — we were just fine.

during the daytime, sienna and i hung out with miss denise.  we played puzzles, bubbles, and games like hide and seek.  sienna was pretty good at finding me under my invisibility blanket.  (see video.)  oh and we even taught sienna how to safely crawl backwards down the stairs.  we had a blast!

at nighttime, dada took care of us.  don’t let his facebook posts fool you, he did great.  he fed us and gave us baths.  he helped me make cookies.  he helped us facetime with mama.  he even went to gym class with me while carrying sienna in the ergo.  that might not sound like a big deal, but that was dada’s first time EVER using the ergo.  he never carried me in there… not even one time.

when mama came home on wednesday night, she was expecting to find sienna and me sleeping.  but we were all waiting up for her!  i was watching kipper while dada was singing to sienna.  mama peeked into the room, but i was too engrossed in my show to notice.  when she got my attention, i yelled “MAMA!  i miss mama!”  and then i quickly turned back to the tv.  after a big hug, mama went to go see sienna.  she nursed sienna, who guzzled milk as if she hadn’t had anything to drink in 2 days.  oh, right.  i guess she hadn’t.

mama was so happy to see all of us, and we are happy to have her home.  but she is already planning her next trip to texas 🙁  i hope we get to go with her next time.

i’ve been really into animals lately.  every morning during breakfast, i stare out the sliding glass door to watch birds land on our fence.  and any time i see an animal, i get really excited.  for the past few days, mama and dada have been telling me that we were going to go the farm to see animals this weekend.  i could hardly wait.

on the drive over to mountain view this morning, all i wanted to do was talk about the farm and all the animals that i was going to see.  i was so excited.  when we got to rancho san antonio, i couldn’t wait to get out of the car and see the animals.  but we just kept driving around.  there was nowhere to park.  dada ended up dropping us off (me, sienna, and mama), and he went to go park the car.  uncle warren pulled up at the same time, and he also dropped off isaac and auntie viki. dada and uncle warren went to park the cars outside of the park.  yes, outside.  i think they parked somewhere in los altos.

isaac, sienna, and i (and our mommies) started hiking out toward deer hollow farm.  we were ready to see the animals!  but we just kept walking and walking.  i kept telling mama that i wanted to see the animals.  she kept telling me that we would see animals at the farm.  but then we just walked some more.  and when i say that we walked, i actually mean that mama walked.  and mama pushed sienna in the stroller.  and i wanted to be carried.  and it was a mile-long hike to the farm.  and it was a super hot day.  that mile felt like 5 miles… for all of us.

anyway, dada and uncle warren caught up with us right before we got to the farm.  we were all very excited that we had finally arrived.  we saw a cow, pigs, chickens, cock a doodle doos, and other animals.  and today was a special day at the farm, so they let us go inside the pens to meet the animals.  my favorites were the goats and the sheep because they had babies!

the mama goat was… well… hungry, i guess.  she tried to eat my hat.  she had some really cute babies that were only 10 days old.  and the mama sheep was very protective of her babies, so i was careful not to get too close to her little lambs.  one of them looked just like baby logan!  (it actually was my buddy, logan.  he was there with his family, too.)  i told mama that one of the animals that i saw was “baby logan”.

there were volunteers at all of the pens teaching kids about the animals — like how we get leather and how we get baby goats.  LA LA LA LA!  *covering ears*  that was cool, but TMI.  i liked seeing the animals, but i don’t think i’ll be going back until i’m old enough to learn more about all that stuff.

happy 9 month birthday to sienna!

things she likes:

• cruising.  she cruises all around and takes my toys from on top of the tables.  i need to find a better place to keep things out of her reach.
• crawling.  she crawls all over the house and even climbs the stairs, now.  she’s getting fast!
• standing.  she can stand all by herself.  she carefully gets her balance, slowly lets go of whatever she is holding on to, then stands all by herself.  and then she beams with pride.  it’s actually pretty cute.
• waving.  he waves her whole arm, just like i did when i first learned how to wave.
• high fives.  she gives high fives like a girl.  i need to teach her how to give a real high five — you know, like when you slap so hard that it stings your hand.
• her 4 teeth.  she likes to use them to bite.  mama doesn’t like it when sienna bites while nursing.
• combo meals.  sienna doesn’t have many teeth, so mama still mushes up her food.  she has been eating stuff like broccoli beef, chicken with zucchini, ground beef with avocado and shredded cheese (which is basically nachos, minus the chips).  she still has sensitivities to acidic foods, so she’s steering clear of tomatoes and a lot of fruits for now.  more for me!

things she doesn’t like:

• drinking milk from a sippy cup.  she drinks (diluted) juice just fine, but she refuses to drink milk unless it’s from mama.  spoiled.
• having her face wiped.  whether mama is washing her face or dada is wiping boogers from her nose, she hates it.  and she screams loud to make sure everyone knows.

this morning, sienna had a rough time at her doctor’s appointment because mama scheduled it right during her naptime.  well, mama also scheduled my dentist appointment for this afternoon, right during my naptime.  she did it so that we could be the last appointment of the day and have dinner with auntie margaret (my dentist) afterwards.  spoiler alert:  that was not wise.

6 months ago, i had my very first dentist appointment ever, and i did great.  i sat in the chair by myself, i got through a full cleaning, and i did not protest at all.  everyone assumed that my second appointment (today) would be even easier.  i had even been looking forward to my dentist appointment and telling everyone about how auntie margaret was going to count my teeth.  but nobody accounted for mama’s bad planning.  because of the bad timing, i had only napped for about 20 minutes in the car, and mama had to wake me up when we arrived.

i was in a bad mood from the start.  i didn’t want to sit next to mickey mouse, even though he is one of my favorites these days.  i didn’t want to sit on the magic chair, i didn’t want to smell the chocolate toothpaste, i didn’t want to be there at all.  after a few minutes and a few tears, i eventually settled down and let the assistant clean my teeth with the tickle brush.  i mean, you can’t really say no to chocolate toothpaste, right?  plus, it helped that mama sat with me on the chair.  (i didn’t even know that was an option, but i recently learned that trick from logan and uncle greg.)

by the time my dentist came to see me, i was in a fully cooperative mood.  she said that all my 20 teeth look good.  i think she also noticed that i grind my teeth.  darn.  busted.  she told mama not told to worry about that though — it’s pretty common in young kids, and i’ll eventually outgrow it (hopefully).

by the time my appointment was over, i was all smiles and i didn’t want to leave.  i scored another loot bag full of stickers, magic wands, a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, and other other goodies.  it’s better than halloween!  and to top it all off, i got to have dinner with my dentist afterward.  talk about special treatment! 🙂

i’m already looking forward to my next dentist visit.  hopefully, mama learned from her mistakes and will do a better job scheduling my next appointment.  we just need to figure out how i can get my nap in, go to my dentist appointment, and still manage to have dinner with auntie margaret and uncle ritchie afterward.  that was fun.

sienna had her 9-month checkup today, and i wanted to go with her to the doctor’s office.  mama asked me if i wanted to go see the doctor to get shots, and i responded “kyden like shots, uh uh.  kyden see baby shots.”  in case you are not fluent in kydenese, that means that i don’t like shots, but i wanted to go watch baby get her shots.   mama said that wasn’t very nice.

sienna cried through her entire appointment.  mama thinks it’s because she was tired — her appointment was right when she was supposed to be taking her morning nap.  i think she was crying because she knew that the needles were coming.  here are sienna’s stats:

• weight: 16 pounds 7 ounces (15 %ile)
• length: 27.5 inches (49 %ile)
• head circumference: 44.5 cm (36%)

the doctor is a little concerned about baby’s weight dropping from the middle of the curve down to 15 %ile.  umm, have you SEEN her cheeks and her thighs?  there’s no way that girl can be underweight.  but doc said she is, so it must be true.  he said to increase her milk intake to fatten her up.  well, since sienna refuses to drink milk from a bottle, and mama is going out of town next week, that’s going to be a problem.

other than that, sienna checked out great.  and it turned out that she didn’t need any shots at all.  what a nice surprise.  but the doctor wasn’t going to let her get off that easy — he ordered labs to do a routine screening for anemia.  if you’re not fluent in medical lingo, that means “needles”!  but guess what.  mama said no.  wait, WHAT?!  she said NO?  mama didn’t want to further traumatize sienna (who was still crying) with a blood draw.  uh, WHAAA?!  you can do that?  why didn’t anyone tell me?  i would have just said NO instead of letting them take my blood when i was 9 months old.  i am definitely going to just say NO to shots from now on!