i am getting old.  it used to be that when i went to parties, i was always one of the youngest kids.  but not today.  we went to abby’s birthday party, and i was one of the oldest kids there!  (baby sister was the youngest.)  her party was at park.  there was lots of yummy food to eat (hot off the grill!), and a lot of my friends were there for me to play with.  we played with the awesome bubble guns that abby gave out as party favors, we played in the playground, and i even got to ride in chloe’s bike seat (with mama).  riding in a a bike seat is so much fun!  when i grabbed the handlebars, extended my legs to the sides, and yelled “more!  more!” mama knew that was a hint that i wanted one for my birthday.

parties in the park are so much fun.  too bad my birthday is in october — the weather will be unpredictable, and i’d be bummed if my party got rained out 🙁  happy birthday, abby!

abby’s party was so fun that we went to her house to see her again, today. (plus, we had to drop off her birthday gift since baby sister forgot to bring to the party.) baby sister and i have been arguing about whose friend abby is. baby sister says that she’s her friend because she’s only 10 months older than her, and she’s a girl. i say she’s my friend — even though abby is almost a year younger than me, there are more things that we can do together now that she’s walking. plus, i met her first. what do you think?

in my 23 month post, i mentioned that i like being burped.  well, let me explain.

it used to upset me when mama and dada were burping baby sister.  i thought they were hurting her.  but they explained that baby sister liked it.  she does? how come nobody burps me?  i don’t want to be left out!

so i started “signing” that i wanted to be burped by patting myself on the back.  i can’t really reach all the way to my own back though, so i end up patting myself on the hip/butt.  (before mama figured out what i was trying to communicate, she thought that i had fallen and hurt my hip :P)  oh, and the best part — i pinch my cheeks to remind the burper to hold my face just like baby sister’s.

mama and dada wouldn’t normally encourage this behavior (me doing/wanting whatever baby sister has), but they play along because it’s so freakin’ cute!

like me, baby sister doesn’t like to be swaddled.  so when her friend malia asked to borrow some swaddle blankets, baby sister offered to give her all of mine.  she didn’t even ask me if it was okay!  how rude.

so today, malia took baby sister out for ramen.  i love ramen!  i can’t believe they went without me.  baby sister crashed my playdate last weekend — i should have crashed hers.

last time the girls went out together, someone they were asked if they were related.  today, the waitress at the ramen place asked if they were twins.  maybe it’s their matching crazy hair.  or maybe it’s just that all asian babies look alike.

after lunch, malia came back to our house to get my swaddle blankets.  she even stayed to play with baby sister for a little while.  i used to think that at their age, playdates are just for the mommies, but baby sister and malia had fun together.  they played dress up with matching socks, and they took turns putting their hands in each others’ mouths.  gross.  what kind of playdate is that?  girls are weird.

i don’t get what labor day is all about — nobody is actually laboring.  but i know that it means mama and dada get a three day weekend, and that’s good enough for me!  holiday weekends are the best because i get to hang out with family and have playdates with my friends.  here are some of the highlights from my long weekend:

auntie barbara flew up from southern california to spend the weekend with me and sienna.  mostly me 😉  we played at the playground, we went out for froyo, and we hung out all weekend long.  we even had dinner with all the tanakas to celebrate uncle randy’s birthday.  uncle randy let me help blow out his candles to practice for my birthday (coming up next month)!

i got to see my friends, too.  i had a sushi lunch with isaac, and then i had a dinner playdate at matthew’s house.  the playdate was supposed to be just us boys hanging out, but baby sister wanted to go with me.  i told her that there were no girls allowed, but she got all dressed up anyway.  and then i felt bad, so i let her tag along.  matthew has so many awesome toys.  he even has a super cool balance bike that he let me try out.  (mama is trying to decide if she is going to get me one of these or a regular tricycle.)  i had fun playing with logan and matthew.  baby sister just slept.  how boring.

yay for long weekends.  can’t wait til the next one!

mama has always liked going back to re-read my old blog entries from when i was little.  it comes in really handy when her friends ask questions about their younger babies’ weight gain or developmental milestones — she can easily check my old entries to see what i was doing at that age.

recently, mama has been using my blog as a reference manual for baby sister.  she looks to me as the source of information for everything.

• what was my rate of growth between 2-4 weeks?
• when did i hit my growth spurts?
• how much did i sleep during my first month?
• when did i switch from my snuzzler to my cradler?
• did i have baby acne?

and who can blame her?  i am sooo perfect that mama wants to make sure baby sister is just like me.  so far, so good.  just like i used to, baby sister makes several poopy diapers within 20 minutes of waking up.  (this makes it impossible to take her out in the morning).  and just like i used to, baby sister sometimes spits up after she eats.  (this makes it impossible for mama to get a good night’s sleep because she has to hold her upright after night feedings.)

i guess my blog is sort of a “how-to” manual for taking care of babies.  think i can get published?

things i like:

• spitting, kicking, hitting, and throwing things.  my “terrible twos” started at 15 months and i am now peaking.  at least, mama and dada hope and pray that this is the worst of it.
• taking showers.  i shower every day, like a big boy.  i haven’t taken a bath in over a month!
• peeing in the shower.  i did it one time on accident, and it was hilarious to see water coming out of me!
• “reading” by myself.  i read books, receipts, instruction pamphlets, and anything that has printing on it.  they all say the same thing: “ree-ree, ree-ree, ree-ree”.
• bounce houses!  well, i haven’t spent much time in actual jumpy houses, but i looove the maze, obstacle course, slide, and other inflatables at pump it up jr.
• taking photos of myself
• making iphone voice memo recordings
• stacking blocks to build tall towers
• receipts.  i love them.  nobody understands my fascination with them.
• giving gentle high fives and fist bumps to baby sister
• sharing with baby sister.  i share my juice, iphone, and all my toys, but she never wants to play with me.
• being burped like baby sister.  i’ll explain in my next blog entry.
• watching koda try to snatch flies out of the air.  he thinks he’s mr. miyagi from the “karate kid” movie.
• playing fetch with koda.  i give him the sit command, then i throw the ball for him to go fetch.  koda is getting better at obeying my commands, and i am getting better at throwing the ball far 🙂

things i don’t like:

• listening to mama and dada when they tell me not to do bad things.  like drinking their coffee or soda.  like putting sunscreen on koda.  like pouring milk into my plate of food…
• getting my hair cut.  during my last haircut, i kept signing “all done” and saying “no!” to the clippers before mama was finished.  mama says it’s my own fault that my hair is crooked.

during the week, most of my friends go to daycare while i stay home with miss denise, my nanny.  we do fun stuff at home like coloring, reading, learning numbers and ABC’s, and playing with my toys.  we also go out every day to walk with koda, play with the ducks at the pond, and run around at the playground.

ever since baby sister came along, mama has been playing hooky from work and taking her out.  no fair!  i like staying home with miss denise, but i want to go out to fun places with mama, too!  so baby sister and i made a deal.  some days, i’ll stay home and mama will go out with baby sister.  and some days, baby sister will stay home with miss denise and mama will take me out on playdates.  good plan, right?  but then i remembered that most of my friends are in day care 🙁  but not edison!

today, edison and i met up at pump it up jr.  i had been there before for maddie’s 2nd birthday, and i hated all the bounce houses.  mama wasn’t expecting me to have much fun in the inflatables, but she figured that i could play on the slides and ride in the cozy coupes.  plus, it would be cool just to hang out with edison.  but guess what.  i had SOOO MUCH FUN!  edison and i climbed, slid, ran, and bounced all over the place.  what a blast!  and even after mama got kicked out of the inflatables (she wasn’t wearing socks, which is required for all jumpers) i ran around and played by myself.  mama couldn’t believe that i was having so much without her.

one of the best parts of the day was playing with the water fountain.  mama has never let me drink out of a water fountain before, but she didn’t have the energy to stop me, today.  i climbed up on the step stool, pressed the bar to turn it on, and stuck my face into the stream of water.  some of the water made it into my mouth, but most of it drenched my shirt.  mama had to take my shirt off and wring it out over the sink.  good times 🙂

edison and i had such a fun time today!  mid-week playdates are the best because all my local hotspots are less crowded than on the weekends.  so if anyone wants to play hooky from daycare, gimme a holler!

baby sister was under-weight at her 2 week checkup, so our doctor told her to eat more and get chubby.  umm…  i think she’s gone a little too far.  she’s been packing on the pounds, and now, she is growing up too fast!

mama is sad because baby sister is outgrowing all of her cute clothes.  and she never even had a chance to wear some of them!  baby is not even 6 weeks old, and she is already too big for all of her newborn outfits.  she can barely even fit the 3-6 month onesies that she has!  yesterday, mama made her wear one of her newborn outfits just so she could wear it one time and have her photo taken in it.  mama is so mean, huh?  poor baby sister couldn’t even extend her legs in that thing 😛

i am sad that baby sister is growing up because that means that she’ll be going out without me more often.  she had her own playdate today!  she went out for sushi with her friend malia, who is my friend maddie’s little sister.  can you believe that baby sister is 1.5 weeks older than malia?  i didn’t think she was older than anyone — but she is growing up so fast.  (if you can’t tell, that’s malia on the left and baby sister on the right.  the waiter at the restaurant thought they were related.  it must be because they have matching hairdos :P)

when baby sister got home from her lunch date, i laid down, stretched out my arm, and patted the ground so she would lie down next to me.  i put my arms around her and kissed her.  i missed my baby sister!  i don’t want her to grow up too fast.  although, it would be nice if she would play with me instead of just sleeping all day.

this was supposed to be a big graduation weekend for me.  friday was my last gym class of the summer session, and today was my last swim class for the summer, too.

for my first two sessions at the gym, the last week of class was a “show week”.  we invited our families to come watch and we showed off all the skills we learned all session long.  at the end of class, we had a graduation ceremony.  last time, we even stood on a podium and the teacher presented us with medals!  i assumed that we would do something similar for this session, so i invited gung-gung and auntie mimi (and of course, mama, dada, and baby sister) to come see me graduate.  they all came, but there was no show week.  no graduation ceremony.  no medals.  auntie mimi said she felt gypped.  sorry auntie mimi.  apparently, there is no graduation for summer session 🙁

oh well.  at least everyone got to see me climb the rock wall.  mama and auntie mimi used to go climbing together all the time, but they don’t go anymore.  mama says she doesn’t climb because she is busy hanging out with me.  dada says she can’t go because of her bad shoulder.  that’s okay, they can just watch me climb!

today was my last day of swim class for the summer.  it’s probably my last day of swim class for the year, because it’s too cold to swim during the fall and winter.  yes, the pool is indoors (and heated), but who wants to swim when it’s cold outside?  it was just a normal class until the very end, when the whole swim school gathered together and we all did the hokey pokey together.  after that, i waited around for our graduation ceremony, but there was none.  the teacher just handed out ribbons — it says “o-fish-al pollywog”.  it was like deja vu.  i’m pretty sure i received a ribbon just like this, last year.  i feel gypped!  mama and dada said that i’ll keep getting the same pollywog ribbons until i’m 3 years old and i can swim by myself.  boo…

baby sister and i have been getting a lot of visitors lately.  everyone says they’re coming to meet sienna, but i know that they are coming to see both of us, because they bring presents for me, too.  i have such great aunties and uncles 🙂

today, a lot of family from mama’s side came to visit — aunties, uncles, and cousins.  (gung-gung has been staying with us, so he was here too.)  and guess who else?  bak-bak.  she’s our great-grandma.  lots of kids have grandparents, but sienna and i are super lucky because we have a great-grandma!  how cool is that?

dada was at a bachelor party, so he wasn’t home.  he missed out, because we had a party of our own.  we had a fun time eating and hanging out all day long.  of course, mama was happy to see her family and catch up with them.  but she was also very grateful to have them around to hold baby sister while she was busy helping me eat lunch and putting me down for my nap.  yay for family!