mommy used to judge parents who let their kids out of the house with stringy matted hair that looks like it’s never been combed. she is now one of those moms. and she swears that it’s not because she doesn’t brush sienna’s hair. she does. and oh, what an ordeal that is. i witness it every morning.

sienna is very particular about how she wants her hair done — bangs clipped to the side, half up, 3 ponytails (yes, THREE)…   she also insists on choosing which hair clip and/or what color hair ties she wants. and the whole time that mommy is fixing her hair, sienna wiggles around and complains that it hurts, especially when mommy is brushing out the globs of food that have epoxied clumps of her hair together.  and then 5 minutes later, sienna is back to looking like a homeless child with her hair in a tangled mess.

well, we took sienna to get her very first haircut today.  (even though mommy cuts my, daddy’s, and gung-gung’s hair, she didn’t dare try cutting sienna’s.)  the stylist asked mommy if she wanted to keep sienna’s hair as a a keepsake.  uh, no thanks.  then she asked how sienna wanted her hair cut.  sienna wanted her hair cut like mine, since my hair never needs to be brushed.  the stylist vetoed that idea.  so mommy suggested bangs.  the stylist vetoed that idea too.  ummm, okay.  so mommy told her to do whatever she wanted.  she ended up giving sienna a little trim just to even up the straggly ends.  then she put a little braid in her hair and tied it with a ribbon.  now, sienna’s hair looks like mommy’s (minus the braid and ribbon).

sienna loved getting her hair cut because she got to sit in a race car and watch a movie.   i liked it because i got to play foosball while i waited.  oh, did i forget to mention that it was a kiddie salon? 🙂

<– this is the BEFORE photo.

this is the AFTER photo –>

i don’t think her hair looks all that different.  what do you think?

when we left allie’s house, our plan was to drive north for a bit and then find a hotel near redondo beach.  we wanted to stay some place near sierra and sofia’s house so we could wake up in the morning and meet up with them before heading home.  well, sienna and i fell asleep long before we got to redondo beach, which gave  mommy and daddy a brilliant idea.  they decided to keep on driving while sienna and i slept.  the new plan was to keep driving until they were too tired to keep their eyelids open, at which point we’d stop and find a hotel.  well, daddy kept driving and driving and driving.  and when he couldn’t drive anymore, mommy took over.  sienna and i slept almost the entire way home.  we woke up when we stopped in livermore (15 minutes away from home) for gas.  at that point it was around 3:45am.  and we were wide awake.

once we got home and washed up for bed, sienna and i fell asleep pretty easily around 4:30am.  we are bummed that we didn’t get to see sierra and sofia, but mommy and daddy feel that they made the right decision.  i didn’t have to suffer through a long car ride home, and the rest of the family didn’t have to endure my persistent complaining about the long drive.  we slept in today (sunday) and had a relaxing day recovering from our busy weekend.

trip highlights:

• helicopter ride at sea world
• sienna’s first pedicure
• the extraordinary desserts at extraordinary desserts
• auntie barbara’s new roku
• playing at the lake with allie
• chocolate crepes for breakfast every day

trip lowlights:

• not getting to see sierra, sofia, auntie jo, and uncle dave
• not getting to paddle the kayak
• sitting in the car for hours and hours and hours

thanks to auntie barbara and baby allie (and auntie cindy and uncle tim) for being such great hosts!  we had a great time in socal, but i think it’ll be awhile before we take a long road trip again. 🙂

when we first decided to take this trip down to san diego, we weighed the pros and cons of flying vs. driving.  mommy and daddy knew that the drive would be painful (mostly because i don’t travel well), but we really wanted the flexibility to be able to visit some socal friends while we were down in socal.  so that’s ultimately why we decided to suck it up and road trip.

the second stop on our trip was mission viejo.  that’s where baby allie lives.  and we had to go visit her this weekend because she will be moving soon (her current house is already on the market).  this was the last opportunity we were gonna have to see her current house and hang out in her lake.  we didn’t know this, but mission viejo has a private lake that is open only to residents of the city, and their guests.  how cool!

i think the last time we saw baby allie was almost 2 years ago at my disneyland birthday party.  she was only 10 months old then.  now, she’s all grown up!  check out his photo of baby allie and sienna.  baby allie is 4 months younger than sienna, but about 4 inches taller.  sienna and i could use some of those tall genes!  and i guess we shouldn’t call allie “baby” anymore. 😛

we swam in the water and played in the playground, then decided to hit the lake in some kayaks.  we had been looking forward to going kayaking for a really long time.  when we went to kauai a couple of years ago, we planned a kayaking day, but nobody would rent us a kayak because it had stormed the day before and the waters were too rough.  we were so disappointed.  so today, we were so excited to finally go kayaking!

daddy and i got a kayak, mommy and sienna got a kayak, allie and uncle time got a kayak, and auntie cindy got one all to herself.  do i look happy?  no?  that’s cuz i wasn’t.  i was so mad.  i didn’t want to sit around — i wanted to paddle!  i kept complaining that kayaking was so boring.  sienna, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind being chauffeured around the lake.

after our day at the lake, we went out for sushi, then back to allie’s house.  we were so eager to wash the lake off of us (there were signs posted saying that the water could cause rashes!), so we all showered up and then stayed and played for a short while.  we had such a fun time hanging out with allie.  we really really really wish they lived closer to us!

before we left for our trip, mommy asked us to choose between spending a day at sea world or at legoland.  doing both was not an option because we didn’t have enough time.  that, and mommy hates theme parks.  we’ve been to seaworld a couple of times already, so mommy and daddy thought we’d pick legoland.  but legoland sounded boring — who wants to look at legos all day long?  we decided to go to seaworld so we could see the dolphins.

we started our day with a leisurely breakfast.  my breakfast of choice?  chocolate crepes, of course!  auntie barbara had stocked up on all the stuff we needed to make chocolate crepes.  she got some sienna-friendly foods too, and plenty of snacks to last us the whole weekend.  auntie barbara’s house is way better than a hotel.  plus, she just got a roku, so i had fun playing with it.  i was able to pick up the remote control and navigate my way to super why without any help.  auntie barbara was so impressed by me.  mommy was more impressed by roku’s intuitive UI.

so, on to sea world.  we only stayed for a few hours, but we got to do a lot of fun things.  in the morning, we petted the fish in the new explorer’s reef touch pools, walked through the park with a flamboyance of flamingos, and played in the sesame street bay of play.  i had fun climbing up the 3-story nets, running across the suspension bridges, and sliding down the twisty slide.

sienna was so sad that she was too short to play in some of the attractions in the bay of play.  she tried going down the twisty slide but she was stopped by the slide monitor.  sienna stood next to the measuring stick to see if she was tall enough, but she ended up being too small — even on her tippie toes.  don’t feel too bad for her, though.  sienna had a blast in the water play area and also on elmo’s flying fish.  when she figured out that she could make her fish fly higher by pulling on the lever, she squealed with glee.  she actually squealed.  look how happy she was!  (this is a candid shot).

we watched a couple of shows in the afternoon:  pets rule! (a funny performance by rescue dogs, cats, and even a pig!) and blue horizons (the dolphin show).  we really loved the pet show.  it was so funny!  the dolphin show was cool (we love dolphins) but it was way too hot to be sitting in the blazing sun for so long.

my favorite part of sea world was the wild arctic.  daddy and i took a helicopter (simulator) ride to the arctic, and when we got there, we saw beluga whales, a polar bear, and a giant walrus.  the crazy thing is that we ran into mommy and sienna there!  i was so surprised to see them because sienna was too small to go on the helicopter.  i asked mommy “how did you get here???”  (i still have no idea how they got there.)  that helicopter ride was my favorite part of the day!

when we got back to auntie barbara’s house, sienna passed out right away.  auntie barbara came home from work early to hang out with us, so she took me swimming in her pool while sienna napped.

after our evening swim, we all went out to dinner at tender greens (don’t let the name fool you —  they had plenty of non-vegetarian options, so daddy didn’t starve) and then dessert at extraordinary desserts (everything looked so good that we wanted to get one of everything!).  our tummies are sooo happy.  the greens were tender and the desserts were extraordinary!  all of the desserts at that place were decorated with gold leaf and fresh rose petals.  and now, we (mostly mommy) are wondering if after eating there, everyone has sparkly poo that smells like roses. 😛

mommy has been going to san diego for work a lot lately.  and every time she goes, sienna and i want to go with her.  so mommy told us that next time, we would all go to san diego together.  we picked this weekend for our trip because it was the only weekend we had free all summer.  (although we did have to reschedule some plans with matthew and jeffrey and also miss swim class).

daddy had to work a half day, but sienna and i played hooky from school.  we slept in, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then helped mommy pack for the weekend.  we drove down to daddy’s work and picked him up for lunch.  then after a yummy lunch at chez sovan (one of mommy’s favorite places to eat in the south bay), we hit the road.

sienna is a great on road trips.  she’ll play games and sing songs, but she’s also perfectly content singing to herself or just sitting in silence and taking in the scenery as we drive past.  she also naps in the car.  me?  not so much.  i don’t like long trips.  mommy and daddy say that i “don’t travel well”.  i need to be entertained constantly, and even still, i whine and complain.  “why is it taking so long?”  “why does auntie barbara live so far away?”  “how many more minutes?  how about now?  how about now?”  “awww, why aren’t we there yet?”  see the photo?  that was taken right after lunch.  we hadn’t even left the bay area yet, and i was already pouting.

we left home at around 11:45am, and we finally made it to auntie barbara’s house in san diego at around 10:30pm (including stops for a sit-d0wn lunch and dinner, and a couple of quick stops for gas and coffee).  that’s ~525 miles of “who am i?”, “i spy…”, the word game, and silly knock knock jokes that didn’t make any sense at all.  our “in-car entertainment” was so good that we barely noticed that we didn’t get to hear a single disney song.  but it wasn’t good enough to stop me from complaining throughout the entire drive. 😛

tomorrow is koda and kiara’s birthday.  but since we are going to san diego tomorrow, we celebrated their birthdays today.  for the special occasion, mommy made “apple pie” treats for the dogs.  it was a recipe from a cookbook full of organic gluten-free treats that uncle henry gave koda a few years ago.  they were made with 100% human-grade ingredients that we had in our cupboards, so i guess it wasn’t all that weird that mommy sampled them.

while we sang happy birthday to koda and kiara, they waited patiently for their special treats which were sitting right in front of them.  then when we told them to “take it”, koda gobbled his right up.  kiara sniffed hers and walked away.  she eventually ate it, but it took her a long time and it seemed like she only did it to be polite.  i guess it was just too healthy for her.  we are used to eating organic gluten-free foods in this house. 😉

happy 6th birthday to koda and kiara!

mommy and i were watching a pound puppy rescue slideshow today, and one of the songs that was used for background music was “best day of my life”. mommy sort of recognized the song but she doesn’t know it very well. so she was so surprised when i started singing along. and imagine how shocked she was when i did this!

while mommy and i were at the WOC sports day event last weekend, daddy and sienna went bed shopping.  sienna’s new mattress was delivered that night, but daddy still had to disassemble her toddler bed and air out the new mattress, and mommy had to buy and wash sienna’s new bedding.  sienna wanted a hello kitty comforter and sheets, but mommy vetoed that idea because everything hello kitty is pink, which would not have matched with sienna’s yellow walls.  but mommy found a little mermaid bedding set which sort of matches if you squint and glance away after about 2 seconds.  (the walls in that room were baby blue when we bought the house.  the color would have matched perfectly.)

sienna loves her new big girl bed.  she calls it her “mermaid bed”.  she was so happy that she was finally going to sleep in it tonight.  that is, until mommy pulled the covers back.

sienna threw a fit.  she screamed and cried so hard that she couldn’t talk.  after she eventually calmed down, mommy figured out that sienna didn’t want ariel to be covered.  so, the pillow always has to be ariel-side up.  (the other side has a different design).  and the comforter cannot be folded over.  so, even though it’s a really warm night, sienna got under the blankets and insisted that the comforter be pulled over her so that ariel would be showing.

there is something seriously wrong with my sister.

i passed!  i passed!  i’ve been stuck on my last jellyfish skill for a few weeks, but i finally got it.  today, i passed the blue jellyfish level and i got to ring the bell.  now i’m a pufferfish.

one of the skills that i have to master in order to get my pufferfish ribbon is treading water for 20 seconds.  daddy says that it’s going to be really hard and that he doesn’t even know how to tread water.  i’m not worried about it at all.  i’ll teach him once i figure it out.

too bad i’m going to miss my next two swim classes.  next week, we’re going to be out of town, and the sunday after that, we have a birthday party to go to.  but i’ll be ready to swim like a pufferfish in 3 weeks!

every few months, my martial arts dojo hosts a movie night for students and their friends.  for us kids, that means a fun night of games, pizza, and a movie.  for parents, it means DATE NIGHT!  but for mommy and daddy, there was one tiny little sienna-sized problem.  the minimum age for kids to attend movie nights is 3.5 years old.  sienna just turned 3.

well, mommy convinced the dojo to allow sienna go to movie night as my guest.  they made an exception because they know her (since she comes to watch me in class every week) and they know that she is very independent.  we also invited isaac to join us.  we played a lot of games, we ate pizza and chips (mommy was not thrilled about me eating an entire bag), and then we laid out our blankets and pillows and watched “frozen”.  we all had a great time!

mommy and daddy took advantage of their kid-free time and went out for a nice dinner.  after dinner, they had an extra hour before needing to pick up me and sienna, so guess what they did.  yup, they went to target.  they’re wild and crazy like that.  this was the first time that sienna and i were left some place (outside of home) for the evening, so nobody was sure how it was going to go.  it went great.  when mommy and daddy came to pick us up, we didn’t want to leave.  we can’t wait to do it again, and mommy and daddy can’t wait either! 🙂