things i like:

• head-butting (koda, people, walls, the floor, anything…)
• turning things on and off (tv, baby monitor, lights, laptops…)
• plugging and unplugging mama’s laptop
• pulling things down from countertops that mama and daddy don’t know i can reach
• opening doors (i can just baaarely reach the door handles in our house when i stand on my tippy toes!)
• brushing (my hair, mama’s hair, my teeth — i think i have all of them now!)
• “touch” books that have different textures to feel on all the pages
• playing in water (ponds, fountains, ocean, sink, water works exhibit at CDM, koda’s water bowl… it doesn’t matter)
• collecting rocks at the percolation ponds (where we take koda to swim)
• playing my drums and xylophone (i’m still working on my aim with the drumsticks and mallots)
• helium balloons (i know i used to like them when i was younger, but now i looove making them bounce and dance along the ceiling!)
• “helping” mama and daddy — taking clean clothes out of the dryer, closing drawers and cabinets (after i’ve opened them), putting trash in the garbage can (after i’ve dumped it out)
• eating at the dining table with the family (so much better than eating by myself in my high chair.  after all, eating is supposed to be a social experience, right?)
• pumpkin pie!  (but how come i only get to eat a little bite when everyone else eats big giant pieces?)
• cereal (real grown-up cereal — no more baby puffs!)

things i don’t like:

• sharing mama with other babies (her arms are for holding ME and her lap is for ME to sit in!  i never want to have a little sister!!!)
• napping in my crib (i hate missing out on all the excitement going on just outside my door)

when auntie mimi came to visit last weekend, she and mama were talking about how parents take care of their kids.  they bring us blankets when we’re cold, they cook us healthy meals when we’re hungry, and they always make sure we’re okay — no matter how old we are.  but then mama said something about how there comes a day when the roles get reversed.  kids start bringing blankets to their parents, and cooking for them, and making sure they’re okay.  well, i think that time has come for us.  let’s face it — mama and daddy are really old.  and since today is mama’s birthday, that means she is getting even older.  so i’ve taken it upon myself to start taking care her and all of the old people in this house.

at nighttime after i take a bath, mama brushes my hair.  i don’t really have a lot of hair to brush, but it tickles my head and it makes me laugh.  lately, i’ve been grabbing the brush from her so i can brush my own hair.  and when i’m done with that, i stand up and brush mama’s hair too.  sometimes i bang the brush on her head to tickle her, but she doesn’t laugh 😛

and when gung-gung is sitting in the living room, i often bring him one of my blankets to cover his legs.  he must be cold all the time because he always thanks me very enthusiastically.

so the other day daddy when daddy was napping on the couch, i thought he might be cold.  he already had a blanket, but his head was not covered.  so i brought him my “hat”.  it’s really the top to one of my toys, but i often wear it as a hat.  hey, it’s the thought that counts, right?  (and daddy didn’t even wake up when i not-so-gently fitted my hat to his head!)

everybody has their thanksgiving traditions.  for some people, it’s the macy’s thanksgiving day parade.  for others, it’s volunteering at a soup kitchen.  before i came along, my family’s thanksgivings were about football, family, and food.

FOOTBALL:  mama and daddy always watch NFL games on thanksgiving day

FAMILY:  they always get together with their families on this long weekend.  i always enjoy seeing my grandparents and my aunties and uncles.  but i especially love playing with cousin zoey!  she is such a chatterbox!  is it true that all girls talk too much?

FOOD:  there is always sooo much food — i think over-eating is a thanksgiving requirement

this year, we added two things to the list:  friends and fun.

FRIENDS:  last year, thanksgiving happened twice.  but this year, it happened three times!  we celebrated with daddy’s family on thursday and mama’s family on friday.  then on saturday, mama and daddy invited their friends over for thanksgiving dinner (again!).  it was so fun to see my aunties and uncles.  i hope we get to have three thanksgiving dinners every year!

FUN:  it’s always fun to see friends and family, but i’m talking about the kind of fun you can only have at the children’s discovery museum!  i met my friends logan, sierra, and chloe there on friday morning.  i dunno what all the talk was about “black friday” — if you ask me, it was more like “blue friday” or maybe “wet friday”!  i am starting to get a little bored of the wonder cabinet (the place for little kids), but i painted a blue masterpiece in the art room (double-fisting it with two paintbrushes in my left hand and one in my right) and i had a blast playing in the waterways.  even though i was wearing a shower curtain, i got drenched!  we are definitely making CDM one of our thanksgiving traditions 🙂

happy thanksgiving to all!

i like to help mama do the laundry.  sure, it’s fun to press all the buttons to hear them beep and watch the lights change from orange to green.  it’s like a spaceship control panel!  but the best part is that i get to keep all the change that i find in the washer and dryer.  and lemme tell you — it’s a LOT.  i think daddy purposely fills his pockets with coins before putting them in the dirty clothes pile.  i guess that’s his way of contributing to my college fund.  but even with all the change that daddy leaves for me, they’re still just coins.  i’ll never get rich collecting nickels and dimes.  so i found a better way.

lately, mama has been using my bags as her purse.  i know they’re my bags because my diapers, wipes, shoes, and more of my things are in there.  (plus, one of them is a backpack that kai gave me for my birthday, and it has my name embroidered on it!)  you know what else is in there?  a wallet!  mama says it’s her wallet, but since it’s in my bag, it must be mine, right?  i used to open up the wallet and pull out the gold credit card, but i didn’t know what to do with it since i’m not good at scribbling mama’s signature yet.  don’t worry — i’m practicing.

in the meantime, i’ve started taking the cash (just the $20s and larger bills) out of the wallet and stashing it away.  i hid some in my truck and some in the storage compartment of my stroller.  mama and miss denise were laughing hysterically because they caught me stashing the cash.  but the joke’s on them because they haven’t found my other secret hiding places.  and i’m not telling.

so, what does a kid need all this money for?  forget about college.  i wanna play video games!  today, mama let me play with the tv remote for a few seconds.  i tried to order this game (see photo), but i got busted before i could confirm my purchase.  i must be getting sloppy.

hmmm…  i don’t need a signature to buy things with a credit card online, right?

when we went to hawaii last week, koda had to stay home.  poor koda.  i don’t understand why he didn’t get to go with us on our family vacation — he is part of the family.  mama even says that koda is her first child.

we wanted to bring koda with us, but hawaii has strict laws.  he would have had to have a blood test, and then he would have had to be quarantined, and it just didn’t seem like that would’ve been fun for him.  so koda had a week-long sleepover with his sister, kiara.

at first, i was happy to have mama and daddy all to myself.  but then i started feeling a little bit guilty about playing at the beach without koda.  he loves the beach!  in fact, the first time i ever went to the beach was with koda.

well, it turns out that koda and kiara had some fun of their own.  they had a hawaii party back at home!  they were definitely with us in spirit.  aloooha!

we’re baaack!  i just spent a week in a tropical paradise.  warm.  sunny.  beautiful.  maui.  i went with mama, daddy, logan, auntie cheryl, and uncle greg.  we lived like ballers at the westin in a 2 br / 2 bath villa with a full kitchen and an ocean view.  thanks auntie cheryl for booking such fancy digs for all of us!

hope you all missed me!  here’s a quick recap of what i did all week.  (and here are a few teaser photos.  uncle greg took some more, and maybe he’ll let me post a few after he gets around to uploading them.)

11/13 (saturday):  flew to maui.  aloha maui! with the time change and all, we didn’t have time to do much besides shop for food/supplies and pick up dinner.

11/14 (sunday):  swam in the hotel pools.  (one of them even had a pirate ship in it!  it was supposed to be just for us kiddies, but mama and uncle greg went down the water slide with me and logan, anway.  how come they don’t follow the rules?)  walked around the lahaina center and downtown lahaina.  lunch at longhi’s.  took a long stroll along the beachwalk to whaler’s village and had dinner at cane and taro.

11/15 (monday):  played at the beach.  took a drive to kihei to find some good waves for mama to surf.  ate lunch at pita paradise.  by the time we finished lunch and made our way to the beach, the surfboard shops were closing.  no surfing for mama 🙁  on the way home, we stopped at foodland for more snacks and supplies.  dinner at puleho, a restaurant in our resort.

11/16 (tuesday):  smashed my fingers in one of the heavy doors in our villa.  bad bad door.  my fingers turned purple and i wasn’t moving them (and i was screaming for a looong time), so mama was worried that my fingers might be broken.  went to a nearby clinic to get checked out.  was referred to a orthopedist for x-rays, but the wait was several hours long.  so we left.  went back to the villa to get the tai clan, then drove out to wailuku.  lunch at beach bum’s and spent the afternoon at maui ocean center (aquarium).  back to whaler’s village for dinner at leilani’s on the beach with mama and daddy’s friends (auntie ev, uncle john, and uncle john’s sister jackie).

11/17 (wednesday):  lunch at aloha mix plate.  walked around lahaina cannery mall.  kid swap (i hung out with the tai clan while mama and daddy went scuba diving, and logan spent the evening with us while auntie cheryl and uncle greg went out for a fancy romantic dinner).

11/18 (thursday):  shopping in lahaina.  shave ice at ululani’s (where mama and uncle greg were filmed for a travel segment and got free shave ice!).  lunch at star noodle.  played on the beach.  dinner at hula grill.

11/19 (friday):  packed up.  picked up lunch at whole foods.  flew home.  aloha, maui!

i know what you’re thinking.  yes, we ate — a LOT.  and while it’s true that between my naps and logan’s naps, we spent a lot of time relaxing around the resort, we did lots of other stuff too.  here are some highlights (and lowlights) from the week.

my maui highlights:

• playing in the water (pools, fountains, ocean waves, doesn’t mater — i love water!).
• fire (tiki torches everywhere)
• hanging out with birds (one even came in from our balcony into our villa!)
• visiting the giant koi fish in the pond
• morning strolls with daddy
• staying up waaay past my bedtime almost every night
• trying lots of new foods (cheese bread, jalapeno corn bread, seared ahi pita, spicy BBQ sanwich, etc.)
• making friends everywhere (i smile and wave and everybody, so everyone is extra nice to me.  the flight attendants even gave me a banana and a carton of milk, and washed my juice cup — without being asked!)

my maui lowlights:

• the bad bad door smashing my fingers

mama and daddy’s maui highlights:

• watching me have the time of my life splashing in the ocean surf
• scuba diving with a giant sea turtle (daddy says that the turtle was bigger than him and that it tried to eat mama!)
• mama getting to be a movie star and getting free shave ice!
• all the yummy food
• mama’s spa outing with auntie cheryl
• spending quality time with the tai clan
• evening with my practice little brother (a.k.a. samurai tai)
• long flight being easier for me than anyone anticipated
• me adjusting to the time zone pretty easily (i didn’t wake up at 4:30am — yay me!)

mama and daddy’s maui lowlights:

• bad bad door smashing my fingers
• sunscreen causing a yucky rash all over mama’s arms and legs (mama knows she’s allergic to sunscreen, so it’s her fault for rubbing it all over herself!)
• no surfing for mama
• daddy’s first time to maui, and he didn’t get to see any of maui’s must-see sights (sunrise at haleakela, road to hana)

mama and daddy are so happy that i’m not a picky eater.  so far, i’ve eaten everything that they’ve put in front of me.  and lately — meals have been quite an adventure!

<– this is me eating my first blueberry waffle.  it was so delicious that i tried to stuff the entire thing in my mouth.  my taste buds were so happy that i coudn’t stop bouncing up and down and kicking my feet!

this is me eating my first frog leg –> can you tell how much i liked it?  mama didn’t even eat one, but she wanted me to try it just so that i could cross it off my bucket list.  umm… that wasn’t on the list, but thanks.

but that’s not all.  i’ve been eating all kinds of stuff lately:  curry chicken, vietnamese tamarind soup, cioppino, pho, meat jun, soondubu jighee, and lots of other things that i cannot pronounce.  hard to say, but good to eat 🙂  can you tell who shares their food with me?  where are the pizza and steaks that i keep hearing about?

remember when i went to the doctor last month for my 1-year checkup?  i was 20 lbs. 4 oz. and 30.25″ tall.  and since my weight was falling down the growth chart, my doctor said that i should add cow’s milk to all the other good stuff that i’ve been eating and drinking.  sounded like a plan, right?  so i started mixing full-fat milk into my cereal, drinking milk with meals and snacks, and pretty much gorging myself every day until my belly protruded so far that i looked pregnant.  even uncle greg made fun of my milk gut!  i was sure that i was packing on the pounds (and inches).

so today, when i went in for my flu shot, i asked the nurse to check my stats.  all that eating and drinking is hard work, and i wanted to see that it was paying off.  but guess what!  i am the SAME height, and only about a pound heavier than last month!  (and actually, when i got home, i made a MONSTER poo that must have weighed at least a pound, so i am probably not any heavier at all.)  so, that means that in the past month, i didn’t get any bigger.  at all.

OMG, i have stopped growing.  that’s right.  at 13 months old, i’ve reached my adult height of 30.25″.  how sad for me.  i’ll never reach the height of that you-must-be-this-tall-to-ride-this-ride line at all the amusement parks, so i’ll never know the joys of bumper cars, roller coasters, or even the kiddie dragon ride at happy hollow.  mama said that if i hang from the bars at gym class, that would stretch me out taller.  i’ve been doing that, but i don’t think it’s working.  do you think i should move up to the higher bars?

i guess the upside is that i’ll save a lot of money on clothes.  and does anyone know when the next star wars movie is coming out?  i could be an ewok…  or R2D2…  or yoda.  yes…  be yoda, i will.

today was madison and kailyn’s party! i was so excited for the party that i woke up an hour early to get ready. (i’m sure that “falling back” from PDT to PST had nothing to do with it.)

anyway, we celebrated madison AND kailyn’s first birthdays. they are sisters, and they were born on the same day — that makes them twins. cool, huh? i heard that boys like to party with twin girls. all my friends will be so jealous 😉

the party was at gymboree, and it was a super fun. like any good kid party, there were cupcakes and bubbles and lots of other activities. but the best part… the birthday parade! all of us kids got to choose from a big bucket of instruments, and we walked around making lots of noise. we got to shake, rattle, and roll to our hearts’ content. we were actually encouraged to bang and make lots of noise. are you kidding me? parades are awesome!

i get why guys say that it’s fun to party with twin girls. i plan to do that much more often 😛

today, like every week day, miss denise took me to the park.  i always bring my bread, and i share it with the ducks and geese.  but today was a little different because mama and koda went to the park with us 🙂

usually, i just watch miss denise feed my bread to the birds.  she tosses little pieces on the ground and they gather all around us.  sometimes, the geese even snatch the bread right out of her hand and she says “no, not my faaanger!”  miss denise is so funny.  but she doesn’t let me feed the geese because she doesn’t want those aggressive suckers to bite my little fingers.

but i guess mama was not so concerned.  today, mama put a piece of bread in my hand so that i could lure the birds out of the pond.  are you kidding me?  i don’t have fingers to spare! so before those geese had a chance to eat me, i stuffed all the bread into my mouth.  then, just for good measure, i unleashed koda and let him at ’em.  he chased all the birds away real fast.  yaaay koda! — my personal bodyguard.