happy 5 month birthday to me 🙂

things i like:

• rolling over (although i can roll both ways, i mostly roll from back to tummy so that i can practice crawling in place)
• baby aerobics
• sucking on my toes
• flying like superkyden and doing back flips (with mommy spotting me)
• sitting up (mommy and daddy make fun of me because i look like an orangutan, stabilizing myself with my fists on the floor)
• grabbing food out of mommy’s hand while she’s trying to eat
• interactive toys that make noise and/or flash lights when i pull/spin/press/tap them
• my exersaucers (that’s right, plural!)
• twilight turtle (product review forthcoming)

things i don’t like:

• sleeping by myself 🙁
• not having mommy in my field of vision

so much change… and i’m not talking about coins. my world is changing so much these days. but i guess that’s just how it is when you’re a little kid trying to grow up too fast.

now that we’re back home from our little family getaway, i’ve once again been exiled to the co-sleeper. i guess i won’t be making my way back into mommy and daddy’s bed until i can physically climb into it. that won’t be long from now 😀 i really miss sleeping with mommy and daddy, but they insist that it’s best for me. but at least i get to stay in their bedroom, for now.

bathtime is less relaxing now that i’ve outgrown the hammock for my infant tub. i still enjoy my baths, but it’s just not the same. when i try to lounge and dangle my feet outside the tub, i end up sliding down, and mommy has to continually prop me back up.

you already know about my two lower teeth. those things are old news. but now i have two little upper teeth, too! (uncle greg says i am like a beaver :() daddy is super proud of himself because he saw my upper teeth two days ago — before mommy noticed them! when mommy saw them, she looked really sad for some reason. i felt sorry for her, but daddy didn’t. he just laughed. he said that every time mommy feeds me, he is going to sing the theme song from “jaws” and make chomping hand motions like when the sj sharks are on a power play. daddy thinks he’s so funny. mommy was not amused.

and the BIGGEST change of my life has yet to come. mommy is going back to work in two days, and daddy will be taking care of me alllll day long. who do you think will be more sad? mommy? daddy? or me?

i am love-love-loooving having koda, mommy, and daddy home with me all day.  for now, at least.  but someone — anyone — better start working soon so that we continue to have money for all my clothes (which i outgrow sooo quickly), diapers (which i continue to consume so many of), and toys (which i need a lot of to keep me entertained).  i vote for koda.  anyone want to hire a crazy puppy?  he’s really good at finding hidden treats, unstuffing plush toys, giving “big hug”s, and he just learned how to “dance”!  is there a market out there for those skills?

anyway, we decided to take advantage of our family time together and took a mid-week trip to monterey/carmel.  it was our first family trip, and we were all super excited.  i am proud to say that of everyone, i packed the most stuff!  (it turned out that i had waaay over packed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, right? :))

we were bummed out on our first day because it was raining cats and dogs.  but mommy and koda didn’t let that stop them from running around at the carmel dog beach and playing in the surf.  they are crazy!  they got soaking wet, but they had fun.  daddy and i were much more sensible, and we hung out in the car where it was warm and dry.

when we checked in to the mariposa inn in monterey, we were pleasantly surprised with a free upgrade to a room with a fireplace.  yay!  we are a fire-loving family — especially mommy and koda.  we had the fire burning every second that we were in the room (even while we were sleeping).  and there was a nice big bed with plenty of room for all of us.  yup, i slept with mommy and daddy during our trip.  point, kyden!

because it was raining so hard, we didn’t get to stroll around town like we had planned.  but it was a blessing in disguise because we ended up enjoying family time by the fire and catching up on some much-needed sleep. we did, however, make it out for a candlelight dinner at portabella, a quaint little restaurant in carmel by-the-sea.  the food was good (chanterelle risotto, paella valencia, lemon-scented capellini) and the service was outstanding.  but the coolest thing is that koda got to eat with us!  the restaurant accommodates doggie diners in a special room that is completely covered and heated.  they even served koda his own doggie bowl on a fancy dinner plate with a linen napkin!  it was so wonderful to have a dinner out with the entire family.

the next day…  out came the sun and dried up all the rain and itsy bitsy kyden went out to play again.  thank goodness that the weatherman was wrong!  we headed back to the carmel dog beach, but this time, all of us went out to play.  it was my first time at the beach, and i was mesmerized by the waves crashing on the shore.  but i don’t know if it really counts because i didn’t get to build a sand castle or swim in the ocean.  mommy and daddy said it was too cold for me 🙁

we spent the rest of the afternoon in carmel valley.  we had a late lunch at allegro gourmet pizzeria where daddy said his pizza was made with the freshest ingredients ever.  that’s saying a lot because daddy has eaten like a kajillion pizzas.  and mommy said her chicken cacciatore tasted like it was homemade.  that’s saying a lot, too, because mommy loooves the chicken cacciatore that she makes.  nobody shared their food with me 🙁  after lunch, we stopped at carmel valley coffee roasting company for mommy’s daily latte (mommy said she would rather have had starbucks), and then we were headed home.

so basically, we spent the last couple of days eating, sleeping, and playing at the beach.  that’s my kind of vacation!  it was a perfect way to spend time relaxing with the whole family.  and how nice that it was only a 1.5 hour drive away.  i sure hope that we get to go on more trips like that a lot more often 🙂

mommy and i both knew this day would come, but neither of us expected it to be so soon.  but for daddy, it wasn’t soon enough.  i finally got kicked out of mommy and daddy’s bed 🙁

it was a 3-day transition.  the first night, mommy read and sang to me as usual, but then she put me to bed in the co-sleeper bassinet instead of her bed.  she laid down next to me, talked to me softly, and put her hand on my chest so that i would know that she was there.  but it wasn’t the same.  when i tried to curl up next to her, i instead found myself pressed up against the wall of the co-sleeper.  it wasn’t nearly as soft and warm as mommy is.  i eventually fell asleep anyway.  but when i woke up, i remembered how unhappy i was and refused to go back to sleep.  after two hours, i was finally able to wear mommy down.  yesss! she eventually picked me up and let me sleep in the bed with her and daddy for the rest of the night.  when daddy woke up in the morning, he was surprised to see me curled up next to mommy, just like always.

the next night was more of the same.  but this time, i stayed in the co-sleeper for a few hours longer before mommy gave up and brought me into the bed.

last night, however, i slept by myself through the whole night.  oh, but nobody is celebrating yet.  it still takes me almost an hour to fall asleep.  i still curl up and press my face against the wall of the co-sleeper.  i still wake up in the middle of the night and need to be soothed back to sleep.  i still roll onto my stomach to attempt crawl into mommy and daddy’s bed.  all these things make for looong sleepless nights for mommy.  and for some reason, she is finding this more difficult than my first few nights at home when she was sleeping barely an hour at a time.   but it doesn’t matter because this is a victory for her.  or i should say, this is a victory for daddy.  (mommy told me that if it was up to her, i would be sleeping with her until i’m 8!)

mommy and daddy might have won this battle, but the war is not over.  we are taking a trip to monterey this week, and i’ll be sleeping with them while we’re there.  i think that one night sleeping in the bed with them will undo all the work that mommy did to transition me out of their bed.  if you ask me, i don’t think the timing of their plan was very well thought out.  but nobody asked ME!

mommies are smart.  especially my mommy — she knows everything.  well, almost everything.  but it’s because i have spent a lot of time training her.

she knows that when i’m hungry, i suck my middle and ring fingers.  i no longer give the hungry hippo look.  i’ve even moved on from the leaping lizard tongue flick.

my sleepy sign used to be turning my head from side to side like i’m shaking my head in a slow-motion “nooo”.  then i switched to grabbing my hair.  but now that i’ve gained finer control of my hands, i touch my right ear when i’m tired.  mommy knows this.  she can even predict when i’m going to wake up from my naps.

daddy is so amazed at how well mommy knows me and my habits.  and now that daddy will be staying home with me too, i can get him trained in no time.

but the other day, i showed mommy that i’m full of surprises.  i took her to a mommy & me gymnastics class at the little gym.  this was waaay more fun than when we went to gymboree last week.  this was actual gymnastics.  i did somersaults, back flips, forward flips, and all kinds of moves — with mommy spotting me, of course.  but when the instructor told us babies to stand up by ourselves, mommy said i didn’t know how.  i showed her, though!  i have all sorts of skillz that mommy never knew about.  check me out!!!

when i was still inside mommy’s tummy, mommy asked my friends for advice on what baby gear to get for me.  she wanted to know what things they liked, what was a waste of money, etc.  the responses were varied, which makes sense since every baby is different and has different preferences.  but the two things that every single one of my friends said was a “must-have” were the brest friend nursing pillow and the exersaucer.

the brest friend is a $50 piece of foam with a $18 cover.  moms are supposed to wrap the pillow around their waists and lay babies on the foam platform to nurse.  who wants to be lying horizontally, balanced on a hard piece of foam, while they’re trying to eat?  not me!  i don’t get why these things get such rave reviews.   i used the brest friend one or two times and i was done with it.  i was much more comfortable in mommy’s arms, or as i got bigger, sitting in reclined position in her lap.  and guess what.  mommy’s laps are easily portable, they don’t clutter up the room, they are never out of stock, and they are free!

well, since the brest friend recommendation was a bust, i was skeptical about the exersaucer.  but lemme tell you — i love it.  thanks to my very generous friends (marcus and joshua & connor), i have two of them!  each one is like a dozen toys in one.  there is a spinning monkey, a teething toy flower, a peek-a-boo lion, a duck pond that lights up and counts, a jeep that plays music, and lots more.  the seat in the middle rotates, encouraging me to “walk”/rotate around to play with (and of course, taste) all of the toys.  mommy and daddy think it’s great that the little toys are removable and interchangeable so that they can get new ones if i get bored with or break these.  i have so much fun playing in the exersaucer every day that i don’t even realize that it’s helping me develop hand/eye coordination and build strong leg muscles so i can stand and walk!  apparently, one of my exersaucers can be expanded into an s-shaped activity table, but i’m not old enough to use it in that configuration yet.  the only complaint that mommy and daddy have is that some of the toys are right at my eye-level.  and since i am not super stable on my feet yet, they have to watch me very carefully to make sure that i don’t fall forward and poke my eye on a hard plastic turtle tail or dragonfly wing.

note to my younger buddies:  tell your mommy and daddy that you hafta hafta hafta have an exersaucer.   there are several different models, so how to choose?  as a rule of thumb, the more batteries required, the better.  more batteries = more lights, sounds, and music!

brest friend nursing pillow:  (out of 5  )

exersaucer by evenflo: (out of 5  ) — i’d give it 4.5 smilies if i knew how

this is an extra special weekend.  today is the start of the chinese new year as well as valentines day, and tomorrow is presidents’ day.  chinese new year seems like an fun holiday.  everyone eats a lot of food, and kids get a lot of money.  (mommy says that when she was a kid, she used to get hundreds of dollars.  that was a lot of money waaay back then!)  we were lucky enough to be invited to celebrate a taiwanese-style new year’s eve with my friend isaac and his family.  but i don’t get why mommy and daddy give out red envelopes with money to everyone except me 🙁

to celebrate valentine’s day, grandma and grandpa tanaka and uncle randy came over for dinner.  i used to think that this was supposed to be a romantic holiday, but i guess love takes many forms.  and who better to spend this day and share your love with, than family?  and guess what!  i have TWO valentines 😀  don’t hate — i’m a ladies’ man and that’s just how i roll.  auntie barbara sent me a valentines day card and a big hug all the way from san diego.   and grandma brought me a card and a shiny red heart-shaped helium balloon that i just couldn’t stop staring at!  XOXO to all my ladies 😉

in observance of president’s day, daddy gets to stay home from work and hang out with me.  normally he would be excited about this, but we’ve been having some issues lately.  since last week, i’ve been screaming bloody murder when daddy holds me.  i cry so hard that tears and snot run down my face and i turn beet red.  but as soon as mommy takes me, i instantly become happy.  at first, daddy thought it was funny.  he even used it as an excuse to hand me off to mommy all the time so he could go play on his computer.  but after a week or so, i think it started to hurt his feelings.  don’t worry daddy, i still love you.  it’s just that i’m a ladies’ man — surely you understand.  wouldn’t you rather be in the arms of a woman? 😉  (besides, mommy has the built-in milk dispensers!)

p.s.  i wanted to title this post “LL cool K”, but mommy said that nobody would get the reference.  would you have?

now that i’m 4 (and almost a half) months old, everyone has been asking if i’m sleeping through the night.  well first of all, “through the night” for babies means 5-6 hours.  mommy says that’s crazy talk — it doesn’t count as ”through the night” unless i sleep til 9am.  in any case, i’m not quite there yet, but i’m on the verge.  (don’t tell daddy though, ‘cuz he’s going to kick me out of his bed when i start sleeping for longer stretches at night.)  i’m not on a schedule, so my sleep/eat patterns really depend on what i’m doing that day.  it’s a blessing because mommy and daddy can take me to lots of fun places and i just nap when i’m tired and eat when i’m hungry.  but being unpredictable makes it futile to try to plan around me.

at nighttime, i usually head upstairs to bed between midnight and 1am.  mommy got really excited when i started sleeping 5 hours, but that only lasted a couple of days.  now i’m back to 3-4 hours before waking up to eat again.  but mommy is sooo happy that i go right back to sleep after eating.  and the best part — i don’t usually need a diaper change in the middle of the night.  in fact, i only go through about 10 diapers a day now (down from ~20)!  this is also a blessing and a curse.  mommy is grateful for the extra sleep, but she is worried about me sitting in a wet diaper for so many hours.  yuck.  plus, she wonders if i am training myself to tolerate a wet diaper.  there is a “diaper-free movement” based on the principle that a baby’s instinct is not to pee/poop on himself.  (just like crate training for puppies!)  the use of diapers trains us to do just that.  mommy and daddy are UN-potty-training me?!

speaking of diapers, i dirtied mine when i went to my friend’s house yesterday.  fortunately, there were plenty of extra diapers in my bag.  unfortunately, my shirt also got dirty and someone forgot to restock my bag with a change of clothes!  (i’m not naming any names, but it starts with a “d” and ends with an “addy”.)  it’s okay though, i was happy to show off the chiseled physique that i’ve been working so hard to achieve.

i went to workout with my friend isaac today.  we went to gymboree for a play & learn class for kids under 6 months old.  we learned lots of new songs and exercises designed to support visual and auditory development through play-based activities.  i was definitely the most active of the bunch.  for example, during tummy time, all the other kids chilled out while i flailed my arms and legs wildly, trying to crawl.  mommy and daddy are bracing themselves because they know that i’m going to be a handful when i start crawling and walking!

the gym(boree) is not the only place where i work out.  there is a new exercise that i invented all by myself and i do it at home every day.  when i’m just sitting around, i hold my foot with my hand and i bend my leg, then extend it.  bend, extend.  bend, extend.  over and over again.  sometimes my foot gets really close to my mouth and i take a break between sets to suck on my toes.  mmm, tasty!  mommy thinks it’s sooo hilarious and laughs hysterically every time i do these exercises.  she calls it baby aerobics.  mommy took some photos, but she says that they don’t do justice to how cute and funny it is.  i’m sure daddy will try to record some video of my baby aerobics, and when he does, i’ll be sure to stare blankly at the camera 😛

a couple of weeks ago, i learned how to roll over by myself.  so daddy pulled out the video camera to record this exciting feat.  he waited… and waited… and waited… but i was too busy checking out my awesome new play area to roll.  daddy ultimately captured 600MB of me doing nothing.  he still doesn’t believe that i can roll over.

this video was recorded last week, but daddy finally had time to edit it last night.  i am a movie star!