we didn’t have anything on our calendar for today, so when logan told us that he was going to gilroy gardens, we decided to meet him there.  i’ve been there a bunch of times, but i barely recognized it today.  it was all dressed up for “halloween scary boo”.

there were witches and skeletons hanging around the sycamore bridge, the kiddie water play area became a haunted hay maze, and the monach garden was turned into a spiders’ lair.  plus, kids wearing costumes were allowed to trick-or-treat at the “boo zones”.  oh.  now i get why logan was wearing cow pants around the park all day.

just like the last time we went to gilroy gardens, baby sister only got to ride on the train and the merry-go-round.  but unlike last time, i went on lots of rides… and loved ’em all!  i had fun on the scary big kid rides that i used to hate, i and even went on some new rides that i had never dared to try before.  it was fun hanging out with logan, but i can’t wait ’til baby sister gets to go on rides with me, too!

PSA to my friends:  gilroy gardens will be dressed up for “halloween scary boo” until the end of the month.  go check it out!

i have been hinting to mama and dada to get baby sister her own iphone.  i don’t mind sharing mine with her, for now — all she does it suck on it.  but pretty soon, she’ll be wanting to play her own ipod songs, take photos of herself, and play angry birds… just like i do.

so, guess who got her own iphone today.  yup, baby sister.  and what a coincidence that mama got a new phone today, too.  mama got a white one, hoping that the color would throw me off.  but she can’t fool me.  i knew what it was from the moment i saw it.  and i’ll be friends with siri in no time, so i’ll be able to text and facetime my friends without leaving incriminating fingerprints!

i wonder when koda is going to get his own phone 😛

i don’t know what to do about halloween this year.  i don’t really care what i dress up as, i just want to go trick-or-treating.  for me, it’s not even about the candy.  i just want to bang on our neighbors’ doors — that’s my favorite part of halloween.

i don’t go to daycare, so i won’t be marching in a halloween parade.  and my calendar is already booked on the day of the costume party that i was invited to.  so really, i only need something to wear so that i can bang on the doors of the 5 houses in my cul de sac.  that should take about 10 minutes.  that’s right, i need a costume to wear for 10 minutes.  10 minutes!

mama said that she could probably find something for ~$15, but i don’t know if i want her to.  it’s not about the money, it’s the principle of it.  i can probably still fit into my shark costume from last year, but isn’t it a halloween faux pas to wear the same thing two years in a row?  i dunno what to do.  maybe i’ll just bring baby sister with me and wear this shirt.  what do you think?

tonight was the sharks’ season opener and our whole family went to the game together!  dada wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea to bring both me and baby sister to the game, but we were on our best behavior.

i have always liked going to sharks games, but it was just the lights and the jumbotron and all the people that i got excited about.  but tonight, i actually got into the game.  several times, i leaned forward in my seat to follow the action on the ice, but mama kept pulling me back.  she says that’s not allowed at hockey games.  what a weird rule.

too bad that this is the last time all four of us will be able to go to a game together.  mama said that i am too old.  now that i am 2, i hafta to buy my own ticket for things like airplane rides and hockey games.  i snuck in to the game tonight, and i guess mama feels a little guilty about it.  dada doesn’t care that i am too old, but he says i am too big.  when i was sitting on his lap, my feet kept hitting the back of the person’s head in front of me.  oops.

so, no more free sharks games for me.  i guess that’s one of the downsides of getting older and bigger.

baby sister had a lunch date with braylon today.  who’s this braylon guy?  well, i’m glad you asked.

when mama was little, she had a friend named jen.  they went to the same preschool and they played together when they were small.  when they got older, they fell out of touch.  but then they ended up at the same high school.  after high school, they fell out of touch again.  they ended up at different colleges, but pledged the same sorority.  through sorority activities, they had a lot of the same friends and saw each other regularly.  after college, they fell out of touch again.  but through the power of facebook, they recently reconnected.

well, guess what.  auntie jen has a kid named ashton.  ashton was born in october 2009, just like me.  he has a daddy named mike, just like me.  he has an older dog brother, just like me.  and he has a crazy-haired sibling that is ~22 months younger (that’s braylon), just like me.

mama and auntie jen may not have always stayed in touch, but their lives seem to have moved along parallel paths.  i wonder if baby sister and i will live parallel lives with ashton and braylon, too 🙂

(have you noticed that baby sister only hangs out with other crazy-haired babies?  i think it makes her feel more normal.)

edison knows about all the coolest places that i’ve never heard of.  today, he invited me to check out the ardenwood historic farm.  it was sheep day!

a sheep farmer taught us about sheep and what they eat.  then he gave us a tour of the farmhouse and taught us how to milled corn.  after that, we brought the corn out to where the sheep live, and we hand-fed them the corn that we had just milled!

in exchange for our help (and maybe as a bribe to keep quiet about the 2 year-olds doing his job), the sheep farmer gave us some organic popcorn.  it’s actually just a whole cob of corn with dried kernels on it, but he says that if mama puts it in a bag and microwaves it, it’ll turn into popcorn.  i’ll let you know how that turns out 😛

after we finished our sheep duty, edison and i explored the rest of the farm.  we saw bunnies, piglets, peacocks, turkeys, cows, chickens and roosters.  there was also a real live pumpkin patch — the pumpkins were actually growing out of the ground!  one of the chickens followed me all over the farm everywhere i went.  i’m not sure if she wanted my corn or if she just thought i was cute.

aside from that stalker chicken, ardenwood farms was so much fun.  i hope we get to go back for rabbit day and goat day later this month.  i think i’ll skip chicken day.

10/5 UPDATE:  my one cobb of corn made two giant bowls of popcorn!  i LOVE popcorn 😀

i had such a great weekend.  so when mama got me all ready to go out today, i thought the fun was going to continue.  we drove to a building that looked vaguely familiar, but i couldn’t remember why.  i got to press the buttons on the elevator, and that was fun.  i got to watch the fish swim in the big tank, and that was fun.  i got to put antibacterial lotion on my hands, and that’s always fun.  but as soon as we got to the exam room, it all came back to me.  i took one look at the crinkly white paper and i bolted for the door.  but it was too late.  i was trapped.

the nurse asked mama to undress me, but i  wanted to get outta there.  i kicked and squirmed so that mama couldn’t remove my pants, and i pinned my arms down at my sides so that she couldn’t get my shirt off.  but she’s too good.  i thrashed around like a wild shark, so the nurse had a really hard time taking my measurements.  after a few tries, she gave up, but here’s what she wrote down:

• weight: 26 lbs. 7 oz. (30 %ile)
• height: 33.25 inches (21 %ile)
• head circumference: 49.7 cm. (77 %ile)

i can’t believe that i only grew 0.75 inch in the past six months.   my doctor couldn’t believe it either — he thinks that the nurse measured me wrong.  i guess i was just too squirmy.  either that, or i’m shrinking.

i screamed the whole time the nurse was measuring me.  i screamed through most of my check up with the doctor.  and i screamed while the nurse was giving me my shots.  but as soon as mama put my shirt back on me, i knew it was over.  and i was happy again.

i think the doctor said that i don’t have to get any more shots for 2 years.  did i hear that right?

remember when i borrowed chloe’s bike seat and took mama for a ride around the park?  well, mama got the hint and she got me one for my birthday 🙂  apparently, some of my other friends got their own bike seats, too.  i dunno how — it wasn’t their birthdays.

so today, chloe, abby, logan, greyson, and i took our daddies on a bike ride along the los gatos creek trail.  mama couldn’t go with us because one of my aunties borrowed her bike and wouldn’t give it back.  i won’t name names, but it starts with a “j” and ends with an “udy”.  well, there’s that, and also the fact that they don’t make helmets small enough for baby sister’s head.  it’s okay though, mama and baby sister met us for a picnic lunch at vasona park.  it costs $6 to park there, but the ranger let mama park for free 😀

i had so much fun that i didn’t want the ride to end.  dada had fun, too.  he wants this ride to become a regular thing.  mama disagrees.  she says that next time, my friends and i should take our mommies on the bike ride!

this morning around 10am, my friends and family starting coming over to my house.  everyone was hugging and high fiving me and wishing me happy birthday.  then all of a sudden, we heard a train whistle right outside the front door.  we all rushed out to see what was going on.  it was a train!  a real live train!

dada gave out train whistles to all my friends, and we blew them as we rode around the neighborhood.  most of my friends took turns riding the train, but i was having so much fun that i stayed on the entire time.

after an hour of train rides, we all went inside and decorated wooden trains with markers and stickers, and then we played with them on my new train table.  (we also decorated the couch, the carpet, and ourselves.)  mama also gave everyone train coloring books personalized with their own names.  we colored with a set of brand new crayons from the 1970’s.  it had colors in there that you can’t find anymore — like indian red and teal blue.  (mama hesitated to open the box because it’s probably a collector’s item now!)  cool, huh?  oh yeah, and we even had a thomas the train cake!  that’s a lot of train stuff.  mama said that my party was just as much work (but more fun) than planning her and dada’s wedding 😛

thanks everyone, for coming to my train party and making my birthday extra special!  i wish i could have invited more people, but my house just isn’t big enough to fit everyone.  (click here to see more photos from my party.)

happy birthday to me 🙂

things i like:

• baby sister.  i love being a big brother.
• drawing and coloring.  i like to draw on the table, my clothes, my hands and face, and sometimes on paper.
• keys.  i like to play with real keys.  i also like to put any long object (like screwdrivers) into anything like looks like a key hole (like electrical outlets).
• taking photos of myself.  i have mastered the extended-arm self-portrait.
• looking at photos and videos of myself.  (dada says i’m vain.)
• making phone calls and talking to my peeps.
• interactive songs like “hokey pokey” and “itsy bitsy spider”
• clinking my cup during toasts.  i learned that at the two weddings i went to last month.
• trains.  i love little trains (my train table and wooden train set), medium sized trains (train rides at gilroy gardens, the oakland zoo, and my birthday party), and big trains (waving at the light rail and railroad trains) — i am an equal opportunity train lover.
• helping mama and dada cook and bake.  my specialty is chocolate chip cookies.
• putting away my clothes in my dresser drawers after mama washes and folds them
• clearing dirty dishes off the table and putting them in the sink to be washed
• taking koda for walks.  when koda goes to get his collar, i get the plastic bag from the cabinet.  i especially like nighttime walks because i get to hold the flashlight and lead the way 🙂
• rock climbing.  actually, i like climbing anything.
• walking up and down the stairs.  sometimes i use the handrails.  sometimes i don’t.  (mama gets freaked out.)

things i don’t like:

• valet parking. why are mama and dada letting strangers drive away in our car???
• when someone tries to take a photo of baby sister without me in it.  i always manage to make my way into the photo.
• getting my hair cut.  i was okay with it for awhile, but i don’t like it any more.
• my doctor’s office.  one look at the exam room, and i bolt for the door.