my cousin lindsey celebrated her 4th birthday today at chuck e. cheese’s.  how did i get a 4-year old cousin that you’ve never heard of?  no, uncle randy didn’t discover an illegitimate child.  lindsey is actually gung-gung’s cousin’s granddaughter.  i dunno what that makes her to me, so i just call her my cousin.

mama and dada hadn’t been to chuck e. cheese’s in a really long time, and they were both sort of hesitant to go.  they thought it was going to be run-down and creepy (rat heads popping out of the ceiling are creepy, right?) and that it would give me nightmares.  but family is family.  so off we went.  we were all pleasantly surprised!  if you haven’t been to chuck e. cheese’s in awhile, lemme tell you about it.

• the restaurant is well-lit, clean, and modern.  there are plasma TVs on the walls and automatic ticket exchange machines (no more counting strips of tickets at the prize counter).
• they do NOT mess around when it comes to child security. a bouncer guards the entrance. you and your family get stamped with invisible ink, then the bouncer lets you through the ropes. and get this… on your way out, the bouncer checks your hand stamp under a black light to make sure that you’re leaving with the same people that you came with!
• animal heads do not come out of the ceiling.  instead, animals (whole ones) sing and dance on stage.  chuck the rat even came out onto the show floor to sing “happy birthday” and “if you’re happy and you know it” with us!
• half the arcade is for big kids.  i tried playing some games on the big kid side, but most of the machines were too tall for me.  and i definitely couldn’t reach the pedal in the driving games.  mama says i am a terrible driver.  i disagree.  i wanted to go off-roading and drive into oncoming traffic.  it’s more fun that way.
• half the arcade is for little kids like me.  i played lots of games, but my favorite was the hungry froggy.  when the frog opened his mouth, i pressed the button to launch the colored balls into his mouth.  i won lots of tickets playing that game, but i could have cared less about the tickets.  i just wanted to feed the frog all day long.  the little kid games were still too big for baby sister.  there was nothing for her to do, so she fell asleep.

basically, chuck e. cheese’s is awesome.  it’s like a dave & buster’s, but for kids. happy birthday lindsey!  thank you for introducing me to chuck e cheese’s.  i hope i get to have a party there one of these days 🙂

i found my thumb when i was just over 2 months old.  it was so exciting for me to discover that i had a built-in pacifier!

baby sister is almost 4 months old.  she has been sucking on her fists and fingers for awhile now, but she just found her thumb about a week ago.  finally!  but the thing is, she’s not nearly as excited about it as i was.  when she’s awake, she doesn’t even suck on her thumb — she prefers her fingers.  she only sucks her thumb sometimes when she’s sleeping.  weird, huh?

dada thinks that she doesn’t need her thumbs (like i did) because she never used a pacifier.  she never had anything inside her mouth to suck on, so she doesn’t know what she’s missing.  personally, i think her thumbs are just too tiny.  that’s why she usually sucks on at least two fingers at a time.

i wonder why baby sister never got a pacifier.  i guess mama and dada really do love me more.

miss denise brought over some sidewalk chalk last week. so now, we practice drawing shapes and letters in the driveway, and she even helped me make a hopscotch course in front of our house. when i play hopscotch, mama says that i look like woody (from the “toy story” movies) with my shoulders shrugging and my arms flopping wildly. i dunno what she’s talking about — i’m a great hopscotcher. see for yourself!

some of you have been asking how baby sister gets her monchhichi hairdo. (did you know that “monchhichi” has two h’s?) i always assumed that it was au naturel, like the fauxhawk that i had at her age.  and i guess it sort of is — she doesn’t use any product.  but i think she gets her hair to stand straight up by hanging her head upside down all the time.  mama often lays baby sister in her lap, and baby sister extends her legs against mama and launches herself backward.  mama thinks that baby is just exercising her strong legs, but i think she purposely hangs her head upside down so that her hair will stand straight up and look crazy.

i, on the other hand, prefer a clean cut look.  i don’t like my hair looking messy and wild.  mama was going to let me grow my hair out (think justin bieber), but she wanted to clean up the straggly ends hanging over my ears.  but i didn’t let her stop with a little trim, though.  i insisted that she use the clippers to cut my hair short.

mama was shocked.  the last time she cut my hair, it ended up all crooked because i made her stop part way through.  i didn’t like the clippers! but after looking at all the photos that i’ve been taking of myself lately, i realize that i’m just not cute with shaggy long hair.

dada says my hair is crooked.  mama insists that my hair is cut evenly, but since it grows all different directions it looks crooked (and sticks up in some places).  *sigh*  i just can’t win.  i guess i’ll need some really good styling product.

i’ve known my colors for awhile now, but nobody ever believed me.  mama and dada thought that i have just been guessing all this time.  but i think i finally convinced them that i actually know my colors.  mama even tried to trick me by asking me to show her a red key.  but there aren’t any red keys.  so instead, i pointed to the red patch on the trampoline that i was laying on.  ha!  you can’t trick me!

i’ve been helping mama make her morning lattes for awhile now. but after baby sister was born, mama stopped drinking them. she said that milk makes baby sister gassy. i didn’t really know what that meant until last night.

when i was being the man of the house last night, i helped miss denise feed baby sister. she was drinking milk that mama made (and froze) a couple of months ago. miss denise defrosted it and put it into a bottle. after baby sister drank it, she started farting all night! i didn’t realize it at first, but mama must have made that milk when she was still drinking milk. it’s a good thing that baby sister only drank 2 oz. of it!

mama was really missing her lattes, so she bought some rice milk a few weeks ago. now, i get to help her make rice milk lattes. it works out for everyone because i missed making them. and the best part is that i get to make lattes for myself now, too! don’t worry, mine are caffeine-free. actually, they’re espresso-free. some might call it steamed milk with foam. i call it bubble milk.

now, when mama and i eat second breakfast together, she drinks her latte, and i drink my bubble milk. it part of our daily routine. dada thinks that my bubble milk is going to make me pretentious. he thinks that i’ll start to refuse cold milk in a sippy cup and demand bubble milk in an espresso mug.  and, i’ve already got the pinky-extension down.

when i woke up from my nap yesterday, mama came to get me out of my bed. she was all dressed up and ready to go out. dada, too. then, a few seconds after i came downstairs, miss denise arrived. i cried and screamed and clung onto mama. mama thought i was just tired. miss denise thought i just didn’t want mama to leave. i guess it was a little of both. mama told me that she and dada were going out with their friends and that i was going to be the man of the house while they were gone. she said that i had to stay home to take care of miss denise and baby sister.

after the mini coffees, they all met up with maddie and malia’s parents (auntie alisa and uncle steve) to go to a kapalana concert. i know, you probably never heard of kalapana. mama says they’re the earth wind & fire of hawaii. to me, they just look like a bunch of old grandpas.

mama texted us a few times during the night to see how everyone was doing. i was doing a good job taking care of everyone.  mama ordered a pizza for me, and i shared it with miss denise.  baby sister wasn’t very hungry.  i think she’s getting her teeth, though, so i gave her a teething ring.  she kept wearing it like a bracelet, so i held it in front of her mouth so she could chew on it. tough job, i know. but these are the things that you do when you’re the man of the house.

on mama’s last day of maternity leave (yesterday), i invited edison over for the last of our mid-week playdates. we had fun playing with my trains, cutting wooden fruit, and making play-doh cheese and popcorn. while we were playing, mama was making us lunch. but what i didn’t know is that she was also planting ideas in auntie ann’s head about using us kids for child labor. mama told her that i help make muffins, lattes, etc. auntie ann thought that was such a great idea that she put edison to work as soon as they got home.

now, edison helps auntie ann make her coffee and toast in the morning. it won’t be long before he’s sweeping and vacuuming, too. i hope edison isn’t too mad at me.  at least his chores are limited to the kitchen.

look what else got added to my list today.  on top of all of the things that i do around my own house, we went to grandma’s house to pick apple pears from her yard.  and there were a LOT of them.  she said that she was “saving” them for me because she thought it would be fun.  but i know the truth — she’s just too big to get under those low branches.  i never thought that grandma would take advantage of the free child labor around here.  and the worst part is that baby sister never helps out.  when i’m working around the house and in the yard, baby sister just lays around.  what happened to women’s rights and equal opportunity employment?  this is the 21st century.  sheesh!

i hear that normal kids my age nap after lunch at around 1:00 or 1:30pm.  well, i eat lunch around 1:00, and i don’t nap until after 3:00pm.  lately, it’s been closer to 4:30 when i fall asleep.  i guess i am not normal.  but that’s okay.  at least, it used to be.

after i woke up from my nap, there used to be plenty of sunlight so that i could take koda out, or play baseball (tee ball) in the backyard, or do something fun outdoors.  lately, i have been skating a lot.  i love skating. check out my video (below) and/or watch the outtakes on youtube.

but all that changed last weekend. now, when i wake up from my nap, it’s pitch dark outside. i guess the sun is getting old and going to sleep earlier these days. that’s what happened to mama and dada. they used to stay up until really late, but now they go to bed between 12-1am. they are getting old. just like the sun.

i hope that mama will still take me out on my skates during the day, in between her meetings. but i’ll probably have to do most of my rollerblading on the weekends. unless… do you think mama and dada will let me go skating at night? that sounds fun! anyone want to join me? 😀

while mama has been on maternity leave, she has mostly been taking care of baby sister and taking her out on playdates while i hang out with miss denise.  but this is mama’s last week of maternity leave.  so… starting next week, mama will be working.  miss denise will be taking care of me.  so who is going to take care of baby sister?  i guess that’s going to have to be me!

but i’m not worried.  i’ve been taking care of baby sister for a long time.  i cover her with blankets when she’s cold and i bring her tissue when she sneezes.  i help wash her in the bathtub and i bring diapers and wipes when she needs to be changed.

lately, i have been playing with her during tummy time — i drive my trains back and forth in front of her so she can watch as they pass by.  and today, i showed her a picture book.  she really likes it when i “read” to her.  but she doesn’t like it when i let go of the book and it conks her on the nose.

pretty soon, i’m going to teach baby sister how to roll… and crawl… and walk… and use her iphone…  but probably not in that order.  we are going to have so much fun together.  i can’t wait!  🙂