the children’s discovery museum has become my go-to spot to bring girls on dates. my first time was with sierra — i was about 2.5 months old. aside from watching sierra create an art masterpiece, i mostly sat around, people-watched, and soaked in all the sights and sounds.  i did spend some time in the “crawl space”, an enclosed area especially designed for pre-walkers, but since i didn’t know how to crawl (or even sit up) yet, i needed mommy’s help to explore the enviornment.

today, i went back to my spot with maddie.  now that i am crawling like a madman, i had a lot more fun.  i was able to pull myself up to look at some of the cool displays intended for toddlers, and i was able to interact with a lot of the exhibits.  i was so excited to be crawling around and exploring on my own, that when i lost sight of all familiar faces, i didn’t care one bit.  i even found a giant block with a K for KYDEN!

there is so much of the museum that i am too young and too little to appreciate, but every time i’ve gone, i learned a lot and had a great time. of course, it doesn’t hurt that all my dates have been cutie pies 😉 i plan to continue visiting the children’s discovery museum as often as i can. it’s free for kids under age 1, so why not, right? who wants to be my next date? if you’re under age 1, it’s my treat!

when daddy was making my crawling video, i wasn’t very cooperative.  instead of crawling around, i made frequent stops to stand up and bang on… well, everything.  i like to bang on the wall, my crib rails, laptop keyboards, cabinet doors, my high chair tray (remember my rice, rice, baby video?), etc.  i even bang on mommy’s collar bone while i’m nursing 😛

here are the outtakes from my crawling video.  do you think i can be a drummer like my uncle jamie?

5.5 weeks ago, i learned how to crawl.  i wasn’t very fast at first, so it wasn’t an efficient means of getting around.  in fact, i almost gave up on crawling.  instead, i spent a lot of time pulling myself up to practice standing and walking.  i was determined to walk before i turned 8 months old.

but in the last month, i’ve somehow gotten really good at crawling.  i can crawl so fast now, that i have put my walking aspirations on hold.  i crawl all around the house (often pausing to stand up and inspect things as i pass them by), under and over koda, and even up the stairs.  mommy and daddy thought about kyden-proofing the house, but there is no way that they can prevent me from getting my little hands on everything — especially with all the gadgets and electronics around here!

a couple of weeks ago, daddy took some footage of me crawling/walking around grandma and grandpa’s house and even climbing up their stairs.  but he was too busy to make it into a movie, and now it’s old news.  so instead, here’s the short little clip that we made today 🙂

throughout my life, i’ve been reaching my physical developmental milestones early.  i cut my first teeth when i was 3.5 months old.  i rolled over before 4 months.  i pulled myself up to a standing position before 6.5 months.  i started crawling when i was 6.5 months old.  i can’t walk by myself yet, but i try all the time, so i fall down all the time.  my goal is to walk on my own before my 9 month birthday.  (over/under bets, anyone?)

i have not been so quick to reach my verbal developmental milestones, however.  sure, i can babble a bit.  and some days, i’m chattier than others.  but i’m not a chatterbox like cousin zoey was at my age.  and, i think that some kids my age can already say “mama” and “dada”,  but my vocabulary mostly consists of “ba ba”, “ah boo”, and “uh buh”.

so… i’m strong and athletic, i hurt myself all the time, and i don’t have much to say.  that’s why mommy calls me a dumb jock.

and as long as i’ve been labeled a dumb jock, i’m going to act like one.  check out the photos.  yup, i got inked.  all pro athletes have cool tats, right?  what do you think my elmo tat does for my manly image?  and i have been fueling up by eating a lot.  and i mean, a LOT.  and i’m not talking about baby mush, either.  i’ve been munching on whole pieces of apple, pear, broccoli, zucchini, asparagus, etc.  that’s the great thing about having so many teeth — i can bite and chew.  (i have 8 teeth now!)

game on!

earlier this week, mommy went to texas and left me and daddy and koda all alone. it was the first time that mommy would be away overnight. she was worried.

she worried that i might starve because i didn’t eat much the last time she went away.  she worried that i would be hungry and scared at night if daddy didn’t hear me when i woke up to eat.  she worried that daddy would be tired and grouchy if he did hear me when i woke up at night.

well, guess what really happened.  i went to bed around 7:30pm, as usual.  i woke up to eat around 1am, as usual.  but instead of waking up every 1-2 hours after that, i SLEPT UNTIL MORNING!  mommy couldn’t believe it.  she was sure that i had woken up several more times during the night, and that my cries had fallen on (daddy’s) deaf ears.

so when mommy came home around 11:30pm the next night, she was prepared to feed me in about an hour, like usual.  but 12:30… 1:00… 1:30am rolled around, and i didn’t wake up!  when i finally woke up at 2:30am mommy was so happy to see me.  all she wanted to do was hold me and kiss me, but all i wanted to do was eat.  mommy said i looked like a hungry hippo frantically searching for food in the dark.  i was starving!  it had been 7 hours since my last meal — that’s the longest i’ve slept in my entire life.  and after i ate, i slept straight through until morning.  mommy was completely floored.

mommy said that she doesn’t know what kind of voodoo, torture, bribery, or jedi mind tricks that daddy used on me, but she’s not asking any questions.  he managed to train me to sleep through the night with only one feeding — in just one night!  mommy said that she should go away more often and what other kinds of magic daddy can do.  but she would miss us too much 😛

(ironically, mommy was never all that worried about koda, but maybe she should have been.  he didn’t eat anything for two whole days while mommy was away.  he was so hungry that he gobbled up an entire bowl of food as soon as she got home.  then mommy refilled his bowl, and he scarfed that down too.  poor koda.)

we found some old boys’ day photos at grandma and grandpa’s house!

the boy’s day display is the same one that daddy had when he was a baby, and the outfit that mommy and i are wearing is the same one grandma and daddy wore a kajillion years ago. cool, huh? (nobody was able to explain the mexican donkey in daddy’s boys day photo. maybe it was in honor of cinco de mayo?)

do i look like daddy? does mommy look like grandma?

“tango no sekku” is celebrated every year on the 5th day of the fifth month.  that’s TODAY!  this day is traditionally known as boys’ day, celebrating the healthy growth and development of young boys… like me!  (mommy and daddy say that every day is boys’ day around here.) “tango-no-sekku” means “first day of the horse”, which is appropriate because horsies symbolize the attributes of manliness — bravery and strength.

traditionally, special costumed warrior dolls are given to babies to honor their first boy’s day, and these dolls are displayed in a prominent area in the home.  also, carp windsocks are flown outside the home, with one carp to represent each boy in the family.  the carp’s power to fight its way upstream and its determination to overcome obstacles are supposed to be fitting examples for growing boys.

mommy and daddy didn’t display warrior dolls or fly a carp for me, but grandma did. at least somebody around here realizes how important i am. but mommy did eat salmon for dinner.  she says it’s almost the same thing since salmon swim upstream, just like carps.

happy boys’ day to me and all my bros!

happy 7 month birthday to me 🙂

things i like:

• pulling/climbing into a standing position (when there are no hand holds, i am getting good at the friction hold and forehead press techniques!)
• traversing the walls of my playpen, crib, and anything that i can hang on to
• crawling all around… fast!
• swimming
• mangoes (mommy laughs so hard when i am eating mangoes because i open my mouth as wide as a pteranodon does when it yawns! i learned that from my “snoozers” book.)
• brushing my 7 teeth
• touching/feeling new textures (smooth mirror, cold hard floor tiles, textured walls)
• books that have flaps to lift and pieces to move (even when i read regular books, i feel around for flaps, just in case)
• flipping around in the air

things i don’t like:

• sitting/laying still (my changing tables are now completely useless)
• sippy cups (they’re not chew toys, they’re not bottles… what ARE these things???)

since the beginning of the month, both mommy and daddy have been working. and even though mommy works from home once in awhile (okay… most of the time), she has to concentrate on work and can’t give me her undivided attention. so i got a nanny!

gung-gung told me about a theory that boys who have nannies grow up to be cheaters. apparently, it introduces the concept of the “other woman” who cares for and caters to their physical needs. hmmm… it’ll be a few years before we can validate this theory. but in the meantime, miss denise (our nanny) is here to stay.

here are the top 10 reasons why we love having a nanny:

10)  i get to stay home with mommy and koda. my nap/sleep schedule, meals, and all the developmental changes that i’m going through are a little bit easier because i am in familiar surroundings.

9)  her hours are flexible. so if daddy has to go to work early, or if mommy has a late meeting, miss denise just hangs out with me for a little bit longer. or, if mommy finishes work early, miss denise just goes home early.

8)  i get one-on-one attention. this is especially important now that i am crawling around super fast and trying to walk everywhere (and falling down often, and hard). this also means that i get to go on walks around the neighborhood and to the park.

7)  i make my own schedule. i nap when i’m tired, i eat when i’m hungry, and my diaper gets changed as soon as it’s dirty.

6)  when i am napping, miss denise plays with koda and takes him on walks.

5)  miss denise is a germaphobe. she keeps my exersaucers, my play area, my high chair, and all my toys super clean and free of koda hair.

4)  when mommy is not around, miss denise helps me (and koda) write emails and send text messages to her so that she knows we’re thinking of her.

3)  miss denise is very respectful of the way that mommy and daddy want to raise me, but she offers excellent advice based on her experience raising her own 4 kids (including a set of triplets!).

2)  mommy gets to see all my “firsts” 🙂

1)  and most importantly… if i grow up to be a womanizer, it won’t be my fault! 😛

when i was still inside mommy’s tummy, she took me on airplane trips to fun places like austin, seattle, dallas, and san diego.  i was traveling with her up until 6 weeks before i was born!  but lately, we haven’t gone anywhere.  sure, we go on fun car trips, but i haven’t been on an airplane since my birthday.

yesterday, mommy had to go to work in dallas.  i wanted to go with her, and even daddy wanted me to go with her, but she said no.  so instead of flying out the night before her meeting, she flew to dallas and back in the same day.  crazy, huh?  mommy left the house at 4:30am and got home just before midnight.  she says that she scheduled it that way to make things easier for daddy, but i think the truth is that she didn’t want to be away from me overnight.  since mommy usually works from home, yesterday was the first time she was away from me for more than 3 hours.

i missed having mommy around, but i had a  good time playing with my nanny and koda all day long.   i even wrote mommy 2 emails and texted her a photo of myself so that she would know that i was thinking about her.  koda was a copydog and he wrote mommy an email too.

when daddy came home from work, we got to hang out for a couple of hours before my bedtime.  everyone thought that daddy was going to have such a hard time taking care of me all by himself, but he handled it like a pro.  in fact, i think we should have more one-on-one guy-bonding time!  we texted mommy a photo so she wouldn’t feel left out of all the fun we were having without her.

we all made it through the day okay.  i didn’t eat very much though, cuz milk just doesn’t taste the same coming out of a bottle.  daddy says the same thing about diet coke.  i think mommy had the roughest time out of all of us.  she had to pump milk throughout the day so that she could continue to make milk for me.  when the old TSA agent questioned her about her breast pump and battery pack, mommy offered to demo it for him 😛  haha, she’s so funny!  the worst part of it all was that mommy couldn’t even save the the milk that she pumped.  she had to flush it down the toilet.  waaah!  that’s my foooood!

when mommy came home at midnight, i was zonked out.  but when i woke up for my next feeding, i was sooo happy to see her that i didn’t want to go back to sleep — i wanted to stay awake all night and spend time with mommy.  so i did.

i hear that kids my age often have separation anxiety, but i think that mommies get bad cases of it, too.  i wonder what will happen next week when mommy has to go to work in austin for 2 WHOLE DAYS.  eek!!!