before today, baby sister sat through all of her doctor’s visits all smiley and happy. she was just too little to understand that at the end of her appointment, she was going to get stabbed with those long needles.  i knew she’d get it one day.  that day is today.

i went to baby’s 6=month checkup with her this morning.  she goes to a different doctor than i do (i know it’s weird — ask mommy about it) so i didn’t recognize the building from the outside.  but when we entered the waiting room, i knew it looked familiar.  i had been there once before.  i  nervously told mommy that i wanted to leave, but she promised me that i wouldn’t get any shots.  i believed her.  so i just played on the slide in the waiting room.  it was fun.

when we went into the exam room, i found a basket of toys to play with and a book to read.  i hung out and played while we waited.  a couple of times, i told baby that we should go, but she didn’t listen.  mommy undressed her and put her on the crinkly paper, and she SCREAMED.  i told her to escape while she had the chance, but she didn’t listen.

the nurse managed to measure baby sister through all that screaming.  here are her stats:

• weight:  15 pounds 2 ounces (35 %ile)
• length:  26.5 inches (77 %ile)
• head circumference:  41.7 cm (25%)

when the doctor came in, i tensed up.  again, i asked mommy if we could leave, but she said no.  and she was saving her best ammo for that moment — “words”!  she let me play 14 games of hanging with friends all by myself.  i even managed to guess 2 words correctly!   a 14% success rate won’t set any records, but not bad for a 2 year old, right?

that was enough to get me through the rest of the appointment.  i barely even  noticed when mommy put baby sister back on the exam table for her 3 shots and yucky syrup.  baby sister noticed, though — she started crying as soon as her body touched that crinkly paper.  maybe she’ll listen to me next time when i tell her to get outta there.

i got wheels!  i mean, i know i’ve been cruising in my cozy coupe for over a year, but now i have a real live motorized vehicle.  and it’s not just any ol’ car — it’s lightning mcqueen!  i finally took him out for a spin today.

i had never actually driven a car by myself, but like most things in my life, mommy took a sink-or-swim approach to teaching me how to drive.  or in this case, it was more like drive-or-crash.  i only crashed one time!  don’t worry, i didn’t hit a tree or anything — i just hit mommy.  and the car is just fine. whew.

mommy thinks that i am a bad driver, but i meant to go off-roading.  so what if lightning mcqueen is a race car?  staying on the road is boring.  i feel bad about all the plants and grass that i damaged, but i hope that the fact that i am driving an electric-powered vehicle makes up for it in the karmic balance of the environment.

check out my video.  and yeah yeah, i know that it looks like i’m driving a stick shift, but gimme a break.  it was my first time.  see you on the road!  vroom vroom…

remember back at the end of november when i said that baby sister got her first tooth?  it turns out that i was wrong.  i was trying to count her teeth the other day (just like mommy counts mine) and there were none.  NONE!  she is waaay behind me in the teeth department.  baby sister does blow bubbles though.  so if you ask me how many teeth baby has, i will tell you “bubbles”.  now, it totally makes sense why baby hasn’t been eating when she sits with us at the dining table.  she doesn’t have teeth to chew beef and yam fries and all the yummy foods that i get to eat. (if you ask what baby eats, i will tell you “mommy” :P)

but tonight, baby sister got to eat oatmeal mush for the first time.  she acted like she liked it, but i don’t know how she could know — it didn’t seem like she was actually swallowing much of it.  mommy said it’s okay though, because baby is just practicing using a spoon.  and in a few days, she will be 6 months old and she’ll get to eat real food.  for my 6 month birthday i got carrots.  i wonder what baby sister will get.

i love football.  every sunday, i sit with mommy and dada and watch football.  it’s so exciting.  today is extra exciting because the 49ers are playing in their first playoff game of the season.  (i am watching as i type.)

we went out this morning to run some errands and have lunch.  on the way home from lunch, i fell asleep in the car.  dada carried me upstairs to my bed, but i woke up and came down stairs yelling “football!”  i knew the game was on and i didn’t want to miss it.

i get really into the games and yell “go go go!” all the time.  i usually yell at the wrong times, but it doesn’t matter.  it’s still exciting.  i’m confused about two things though.  (1) why did the guy on tv keep saying “vernon davis is a beast”?  i am in the “beasts” class at little gym, and vernon davis is not in my class.  (2) why did the guy on tv keep saying “touchdown 49ers”?  mommy tells me “touchdown” when she wants me to raise my arms in the air so she can help me take my shirt off.  are they playing strip football?

now that the game is over, i have to say that that was one of the most exciting action-packed games i’ve ever seen.  mommy and dada are celebrating because the 49ers won.  i am celebrating because that means we get to watch more football next week.  i am way too excited to nap today.  GO GO GO!

we went over logan’s house today so we could meet his new little brother.  his name is baby mason, and he’s 11 days old.  mommy visited him in the hospital right after he was born, but the rest of us hadn’t met him yet.  finally, a tai boy that’s smaller than i am!  (logan is 6 months younger than me but probably outweighs me by a few pounds.)

baby mason was sleeping for most of the time that we were there.  babies are boring.  they sleep a lot.  but that’s okay ‘cuz logan has a ton of cool toys, and i played i with all of them.  i wasn’t really paying attention to what everyone else was doing.

but then after dinner, i was showing logan how to play “words” (hanging with friends), and i swear that i saw baby sister stroking logan’s hair.  logan didn’t even flinch.  mommy asked logan if baby sister was stroking his hair, and he responded “stroking hair?”, like he didn’t know what she was talking about.  way to play dumb, buddy.

when baby mason finally woke up, we all climbed onto the couch for a photo.  instead of sitting next to me (i’m her brother… hellooo?!), baby sister sat next to logan.  she cuddled up right next to him and put her hand on his knee.  and he didn’t move away!

it’s pretty obvious to me that baby sister and logan have been secretly dating.  and he didn’t even have the courtesy to ask me first!  what happened to bro code?  i always knew that i’d have to deal with my friends hitting on my baby sister, but i didn’t realize it would be so soon.

logan, i’m keeping an eye on you, and you better not hurt my baby sister.  i don’t care if you’re bigger than me!

i didn’t have anything on my social calendar this morning (i know, i couldn’t believe it either), so we went for a walk to the creek by our house. all of us went — mommy, dada, baby, koda, and me.  dada kept wanting to turn around because he said that i would be too tired to make it back, but i think that he was the one that was getting tired.

walking 1.5 miles and running around at the playground we stopped at just wasn’t enough exercise for me.  i pushed and pulled baby’s stroller, i galloped and bear crawled down the street, i stopped to do froggy jumps and spins, and i still wanted to sprint all the way home.  i am a fast poke.  but i had to keep stopping to wait for the rest of the family. they are a bunch of slow pokes.

i was planning to try out for american idol, but i found out that the minimum age requirement is 15.  i’m only 2.  lucky for me, x-factor came along! that show has a category for boys under 30, right?  i’m a boy.  i’m under 30.  hollywood, here i come!

check out my audition video. baby sister said that she’ll vote for me. will you?

since mommy and dada took vacation from work last week, we have spent the past 10 days together doing fun stuff. today was our last day of vacation, so we made the most of it by going to pump it up jr. with matthew and his family. matthew had a groupon for that place. how cool! i wish i had one, too.

i am 2 1/4 years old.   here’s what i’ve been up to these days.

daily schedule:

• 7:00am:  wake up.
• 8:00am:  1st breakfast
• 10:30am:  2nd breakfast
• 1:00pm:  lunch
• 3:00pm:  ~2 hour nap
• 5:30pm:  snack
• 7:00pm:  dinner
• 8:45pm:  start bedtime routine (shower, brush teeth, etc.)
• 9:30pm:  lights out.  bedtime stories and songs.
• 10:00pm:  zzz…

things i’m good at:

• naming colors and letters
• counting to 10
• picking out my own outfits.  i picked the outfit that i’m wearing in this photo.  look how color-coordinated i am!  so what if i wanted to wear my pajama pants all day — mama does it, so why can’t i?

things i’m working on:

• using the potty.  lately, i tell mommy “pee-pee” and “poo-poo” so i can sit on or stand over the potty, but i don’t go pee-pee or poo-poo until after we leave the bathroom.
• dressing and undressing all by myself.  i still need help getting my shirts on and off my big head.

things that make me laugh:

• farts
• putting “lips in” and shaking them all about (doing the hokey pokey)
• tickle torture.  no fair that i am so ticklish!

things i do that do NOT make mommy and dada laugh:

• fake sleep.  i do this mostly when there’s something on my plate that i don’t want to eat.  i lean my head back, close my eyes, and let out a very convincing fake snore.
• throw food or “accidentally” drop it on the ground
• bounce off the walls.  literally.  i run through the house and bounce off the walls when i have too much pent up energy.  i learned this from koda.

favorite indoor activities:

• “reading” in kyden-language.  not my fault that it sounds like jibberish to everyone else.
• playing trains
• playing the piano
• helping out in the kitchen — making lattes, baking, washing dishes…

favorite outdoor activities:

• climbing.  i’ll climb anything — rock wall, chairs, fences…
• skating
• slides
• playing hopscotch

favorite book: “brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?”  did you know that you can make the story into a song?

favorite song:  “the wheels on the bus”.  in mommy’s car, i make her play the song (on CD) on repeat.  in dada’s car, mama and dada sing it.  and i make everyone in the car do all the hand motions with me.

favorite iphone app:  youtube (to watch videos of myself or trains), ‘hanging with friends’ (more on this in a future post)

favorite sayings:  “uh-oh”, “no no no”

favorite foods that i’m only allowed one bite of:  brownies, meringues

favorite characters:  thomas the train, elmo

2011 was a good year for us.  i continued my summertime swim lessons.  i continued my weekly gym classes.  we spent a lot of time (and i mean a lot) at CDM and gilroy gardens.  we saw elmo and his friends live on stage.  we took a family trip to san diego (including a visit to sea world).  i got a baby sister!  i had an awesome train party for my 2nd birthday.  we celebrated baby sister’s 100th day.  i dressed up like superman and went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood.  we fostered a puppy — just for a day, but it was fun!  we went to see thomas the tank engine and rode on a passenger car that he pulled through santa cruz.

we didn’t really do anything special to bring in 2012.  in fact, baby and i were fast asleep by midnight.  mommy and dada stayed up and toasted with sparkling cider.  they are party animals.

but in keeping with japanese tradition, grandma cooked up a mountain of food  because cooking is not allowed during the first three days of the new year.  she packed a special plate of food just for me — and i really mean just for me.  none for baby sister.  none for mommy.  none for dada.  grandma loves me 🙂

can’t want to see what 2012 has in store for us.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!