over the weekend, mommy and daddy went out without me — for the first time ever!  mommy felt a little anxious and guilty for leaving me, but i told her that it was about time.  it has been over 10 months, and she and daddy haven’t been out on a date night.  (and last weekend doesn’t really count because they went to a wedding.)  at first, i was mad that i wasn’t going to get to go with them, but then i realized what it could mean.  PAR-TAY at my house!

i invited miss denise to my party, and she agreed to come and bring her teenage daughter.  woohoo!  they couldn’t make it until an hour after mommy and daddy left, so gung-gung (who has been living at our house lately) and i pre-partied by ourselves.  mommy and daddy were a tiny bit concerned that gung-gung wouldn’t be able to keep up with me since i’m such a party animal, but i promised to take it easy on him.  we mostly just hung out and had some quality grandpa/grandson bonding time.

once the party got jumping, it was a huge success.  mommy made some special food and drinks for me just for that night: shredded sweet potato-infused chicken with avocado, fresh nectarines over cinnamon-spiced d’anjou pears, and virgin kahlua and breastmilk to drink.  i offered some to my guests, but they preferred to munch on the cookies that daddy made.  oh well.  more for me 🙂

i had such a good time at my party that i passed out while everyone was still at my house.  i guess i’m not a very good host.  but i had a lot of fun at home without mommy and daddy.  and from the looks of their photos, they had fun without me, too.  we should do this more often.

logan, next time our parents party together, we should party together too!

mommy, daddy, and koda do funny things sometimes.  and in order to fit in with my crazy family, i guess i have to do them, too.

recently, mommy and daddy started making funny “buhwuhwuhwuhwuh” noises to make me laugh.  so i thought i’d try it to see if it makes them laugh, too.  and lemme tell you — it does.  every time.

and i often see koda getting treats after he gives high fives and waves.  so i practiced doing those things so i could get treats, too.  so how come i never get nuthin’ for high fives, and whenever i wave someone usually goes away?

everyone thinks koda is so smart because he teaches me so many things, but i have been trying to teach him to climb down the stairs BACKWARDS for months, and he just isn’t getting it. who’s the smart one now, huh?

happy 10 month birthday to me 🙂

things i like:

• saying “mama” (sorry, no “dada”)
• wiggling my finger/hand across my lips to make funny noises.  buhwuhwuhwuhwuh.
• giving high 5’s
• blowing kisses (i can’t do this by myself yet, but it cracks me up every time)
• hanging upside down
• shoes (i like to put everything in my mouth, but shoes look especially tasty — especially mommy’s fuzzy slippers)
• taking the most direct route to my destination (even if that means climbing over koda or crawling under my exersaucer)
• sliding (not crawling — sliding) down the stairs on my tummy
• navigating the obstacle course that i have made for myself (army crawl through my exersaucer fort, exit at my bookshelf, pull books off the shelf to slide across the floor, climb onto my swing and take myself for a ride!)
• hanging out with my awesome aunties and uncles.  my stranger anxiety phase seems to have passed.  hooray!

things i don’t like:

• high-pitched whirring noises (hair dryer, blender, vacuum cleaner) — i think i have dog hearing
• heat (mommy says i am my father’s son.  duh, mommy.)
• walking (crawling is still much faster.  mommy and daddy can’t believe that i’m not walking by myself yet.)

my big brother koda-leave-it (i just call him koda, for short) turned 2 years old today!  he celebrated at point isabel with his sister kiara and his friends, tachi and wrigley.  mommy made some special birthday treats for koda to share with his friends.  uncle henry brought some treats for kiara to share also.  the ice cream and pizza that koda got sure looked tasty!  how come nobody shared any with me? 🙁

mommy and daddy (who are both first born children in their families) think that older brothers/sisters “break-in” their parents for their younger siblings.  i gotta admit, i think they’ve got a point.  so on koda’s special day, i want to thank him for all the things he taught mommy and daddy, paving the way for me.  these are just some of them.

• a fat puppy/baby = a happy, healthy puppy/baby.  that’s right — feed us well, and feed us often!
• if we have trouble latching, it helps to put some milk on the tip of the nipple, wiggle the bottle over our lips, and tug at the bottle so that it forces us to suck.
• a little vomit/spit up or diarrhea is nothing to worry about as long as we’re still eating and playing normally.
• when we’re chewing on electrical cords (or other things that we’re not supposed to), don’t just take them away — replace them with things that are okay to chew on.
• when we’re scared, don’t reinforce our fear/insecurity by babying us.  continue to act like everything is a-okay… and then it will be.
• expose us to lots of people/experiences/sights/sounds early in life so that we’ll grow up well-balanced and with good habits (e.g. comfortable in water, brushing teeth, sharing toys, etc.).
• teach us not to bite/hit/jump even when we’re small and cute.  it won’t be so cute when we get bigger.
• talk to us like we understand you.  we understand more than you think.
• let us make mistakes and get (a little bit) hurt.  that’s how we learn.
• take lots of photos because we grow up so fast!

uncle henry says that mommy should write a book called “everything i needed to know about raising a child, i learned from my puppy”.  i hope she does so that she can get rich, quit her day job, and play with me all day long.  and i think we need to foster some puppies too, so that mommy can get more material for her book.  i will even help bottle-feed them since i always wake up in the middle of the night anyway.

happy 2nd birthday koda!  (why do people keep saying that he is 14?)

auntie cheryl recently told me about a book called “mommy doesn’t know my name“.  i could have written that book, because my mommy definitely doesn’t know my name.  i could have been rich!

did you know that when i was born, i didn’t even have a name?  when the birth recorder in the hospital came to fill out my birth certificate, mommy and daddy asked her to come back later because they didn’t know what to write on there!  so for the entire time we were in the hospital, everyone called me “baby boy”.  and the name stuck.  to this day, mommy and daddy still call me “baby boy”.  but mommy has lotsa other crazy names for me, too.

• sweetie pie, sugar pie, sugar:  i’m not sure if mommy is always hungry, or if i just look tasty.  miss denise says that mommy calls me those names because i’m so sweet.  i guess that could be true.  i am pretty sweet.  hey, who slapped a nametag on my butt?!
• shuga wuga:  this is a variation on “sugar”, but i like it better because it’s sillier 😛
• king crazy hair:  this is me when i’m having a bad hair day.  and with my double cowlick, that’s all the time.
• kyderooni:  this funny name is what mommy uses when we’re playing together and i’m in a good mood
• crab monster:  this is what i get called when i’m in not so good of a mood
• faker faker trouble-maker:  guess when mommy calls me by this name.  yup, when she’s on to my fake-crying.  i gotta work on my acting skills!
• kyden-no:  i don’t like this nickname.  mommy calls me this when i’m banging on the entertainment center components, splashing in koda’s water bowl, eating fistfuls of dirt from our potted plant, or doing other fun things around the house.  when she calls me “kyden-no”, i stop what i’m doing and i turn around and look at her.  but then i realize that i shouldn’t be responding to this name if i want mommy to stop using it, right?  so i turn right back around and continue my banging/splashing/eating.

these are just some of my current nicknames.  remember when i was “chunky monkey“?  thank goodness that mommy has stopped calling me that — i didn’t appreciate the constant reminder of my full-figured physique.  with all the crazy nicknames that i have, mommy is truly shocked that i actually respond to my real name.  see, i’m not just a dumb jock.

mommy is a cool chick, and daddy is a hot guy.  literally.  their comfortable temperatures are about 10 degrees apart.  even so, they have somehow managed to co-exist for all these years.  when daddy is comfortable, mommy is shivering under a blanket.  and when mommy is comfortable, daddy is sweating bullets.

i am a hot guy like daddy.  there are times when i get sooo uncomfortably hot that i can’t eat, i can’t sleep, i don’t want to play…  i just want to crawl into the refrigerator and chill out.  but mommy can’t ever figure out why i am so upset.  thank goodness daddy gets me.  he rescues me and holds me in the cool breeze of the fan.  the fan is our friend.

there have been times when we’ve been out for a stroll, and mommy was just loving the afternoon sun.  meanwhile, the blazing heat was melting my skin off (even though i was protected in the shade of the stroller sun canopy).  i’d scream and scream until daddy realized that i was boiling.  thank gawd.  mommy would just let me melt!  i don’t think mommy gets me at all.

so just to remind mommy and everyone else that i am a hot guy, i got some fierce sunglasses with flames on them.  no, uncle greg, it’s not because i’m a flamer — it’s cuz i am hawt!

so there you have it.  i’m a hot guy.  if you didn’t know… now you know.

koda came home today.  for the past 3 nights, he was at his sister kiara’s house for a sleepover.  i missed him, but i hafta admit that it was kinda fun being an only child for a little while.  normally, weekends are for me and koda, but this weekend was all about me.  we were able to stay out and play all day and not worry about koda being bored and lonely.  so while koda and kiara were putting each other’s paws in warm water and crank calling animal control, i had a fun-filled weekend of my own.

after spending saturday at u-me with logan, we went to erik and matthew’s house for auntie jill’s birthday party.  i saw some old buddies, met some new friends, and we all got to play with a house full of toys!  it was so fun that i could have sworn that it was a kid party.

on sunday, i finally got to play with daddy’s new phone. my buddy isaac moved across the country, but with facetime on the iphone 4, i can see him all the time!  yay!  the audio and picture quality was fantastic — none of the lag that you get with a webcam.  so ladies, if you wanna see my handsome face, gimme a ring at… umm… my daddy will give you the digits.  (how embarrassing.)  daddy, now that you have an extra iphone, can i have one of my own?

i also had my swim lesson on sunday, as usual.  and guess what — there is new girl in my class who is a model!  i figure she must be a sports illustrated model because she was swimming topless 😀  boys, i’m telling you, AVAC is the place to be.

and the highlight of my weekend…  getting a mohawk with gung-gung!  don’t we look like twins?  actually, gung-gung’s mohawk is real.  mine is more of a fauxhawk.  gung-gung was loving the new ‘do that uncle jamie gave him, but i didn’t want those clippers anywhere near my lovely locks!   i’m all for bonding with my grandpa, but that’s taking it just a little too far.  although… i think daddy is in need of a haircut…  UNCLE JAAAAAMIE…!!!

today, logan and i took a drive up the peninsula to check out a new hangout spot called u-me. logan got in for free because he is under 6 months old. i tried to slip in without paying, but i got carded and ended up shelling out $20 for our family 🙁   i don’t get it. logan and i are almost the same size — don’t you think we can pass for the same age?

we had a good time, but like many local hotspots, there will be lots more for me to enjoy when i get older.

these are some of the things that i had fun playing with today:

personal ball pit:  now that i know how to swim, i’m not afraid of drowning in the sea of balls
ride-on fire truck:  it’s just as fun to walk behind and push it as it is to ride on it and be pushed.  mommy gave me a realistic fire truck experience, driving super crazy fast!
tent stocked with camping gear:  this was my favorite play area.  mmm, flashlights are tasty.  uncle greg!  i’m ready for the annual camping trip!
humungo legos:  it’s way more fun to knock down towers than to build them up
life-size ship:  i couldn’t see above the steering wheel, so i crawled out of a porthole to go for a “swim”

there are a lot more things for bigger kids that i will have more fun with when i get older:

giant slide:  you have to climb up a handful of platforms to get to the top of the slide.  it’s for ages 3 & up.  mommy said it was okay for us to climb up and slide down together because the average of our ages is definitely greater than 3.
play market:  it has a checkout scanner that beeps!
outdoor area:  i wasn’t allowed to play with the sidewalk chalk because they look like giant sweet tarts.
performance stage with mic stand and costume chest:  mommy raided the chest and dressed me and logan (and uncle greg) as girlie butterfly fairies!  gah!  i crawled away as fast as i could, but daddy was too quick with the camera on his new iphone 4.

oh, and for the grown ups…  there is an organic cafe where you old people can hang out and eat paninis and sip lattes and talk about us kids while we’re playing.  or you can play with your kids and take breaks to feed yourselves (and your kids), then go back for more playing!

u-me is probably too far away to make this a regular hang out, but it was fun to spend the afternoon checking out this new local hotspot.  thanks for joining me, logan!  from now on, we’ll pick our own costumes for dress up time.

anyone have any wrinkle cream recommendations or other tips for looking younger?  i’m determined to get in in for free next time 😛

i don’t care what mommy says, i am an excellent swimmer.  i’ve only had a few lessons so far, but i already know how to jump into the water and make “big arms” and “kick kicks”.   the weird thing is that i sink like a rock when i’m swimming.  i don’t think that’s supposed to happen.  you’d think that my neck rolls would keep me afloat, right?  but i love swimming and i look good doing it, and that’s what counts 🙂  daddy wanted to make a movie of me swimming during my lesson today, but since i’m already an expert, i didn’t need to practice much.  instead, i worked on safety skills like holding myself up on the wall (which i wasn’t able to do a month ago!) and “walking” by sliding my hands along the edge of the wall.

oh, and 2 new kids joined my class today!  and you know what’s weird?  in all our other “baby & me” classes (like at gymboree and the little gym) babies bring their mommies.  why does everyone bring their daddies to swim school?  i didn’t get that memo.

logan, zachary, and i took 13 adults and 6 doggies out for a stroll along the alameda trail yesterday.  and naturally, we were the leaders of the pack!

but before i tell you about the afternoon walk, lemme tell you about our quest for an all-terrain stroller.  after lots of research and test drives, mommy and daddy decided that we should get a baby jogger city elite.  the problem was, nobody around here carries them.  so on saturday, we took a drive up the peninsula to lullaby lane in san bruno.  i got my luxurious new ride — on sale.  score!  and on the way home, we stopped in burlingame so that daddy could get a burrito and mommy could get some meringues.  it was a good day for all of us.  mommy even shared a meringue with me.  yummy 🙂

we were so excited about our new all-terrain vehicle (ATV) that we assembled it right away.  well, daddy assembled, mommy supervised, and i QA’d his work.  good job, daddy.  now that i have my ATV, we can go to koda’s favorite spots without mommy having to carry me the entire time.  she says i’m getting too heavy.  hmph.

so, back to yesterday’s walk…  cesar milan (a.k.a. the dog whisperer) brags about how he rollerblades with his pack of several dozen dogs.  well, me and my buddies cruised in our ATV’s, leading a pack of half a dozen dogs and more than a dozen humans.  cesar ain’t got nothing on us!  (this photo was taken by uncle eric.  mommy took a picture with her phone, but uncle eric said that his would turn out much better.  he was right.)

we all had a great time.  mommy and daddy got to catch up with good friends, koda got to swim and run around, and i got to cruise with my buddies on my ATV’s maiden voyage.  the long walk worked up our appetites, so we all went out to lunch and gorged ourselves on mexican food.  since i gobbled up all the food that mommy brought for me, uncle henry let me try some of his carnitas 🙂

koda and i were both so exhausted that we conked out in the car on the way home.  what a great day.