i never understood why everyone says that christmas is the best holiday.  sure, i like seeing all my family.  sure, i like staying up past my bedtime.  sure, i like eating “special occasion” foods (like a bite of pie or a few crumbs of a cookie).  but those things happen on lots of holidays, right?  well, i finally get it.  on christmas, i get presents!  opening presents is SO FUN.

last year, i needed a lot of encouragement (and a little help) to open my gifts.  this year, i figured out how to do it all by myself.  i take off the bow and ribbon, find the seams of the wrapping paper, then rip the paper off.  if the paper is taped to the box, i make sure to remove every single scrap of paper before opening the box.  i was going to help baby sister with her gifts, but i was taking so long to open my own that mommy had to help her instead.  unwrapping presents is so fun — it doesn’t even matter what’s inside.  although, i do love (and appreciate) all the gifts that i got.  and i got a LOT.

we hosted christmas at our house this year.  we had 24 people over for dinner.  there would have been 26, but uncle mike and auntie z couldn’t make it.  uncle mike was nice enough to send along the tri-tip that he cooked as well as some mystery goodies in a little plastic bag.  mommy asked auntie cindy to try the goodies to see what they were.  auntie cindy passed them off to auntie barbara, who thought they weren’t half bad…  until we realized that they were crickets!  crickets!!! *gahhh* auntie barbara gagged.  everyone else laughed.

we all had a really fun time.  and i totally get christmas now.  although, i’m still not sure about the santa guy that i heard my cousins talking about.  i think that’s the guy i saw on the train ride last weekend.  it seems like everyone knows him except for me.  i wonder if i’ll see him next year.

merry christmas everyone!

before i tell you about my thanksgiving, lemme say this:  two thanksgiving celebrations in one day is TOO MUCH!

we started off the day at cousin zoey’s house.  auntie alyssa is a vegetarian and cousin zoey is allergic to eggs.  so… guess what was on the menu.  tofurkey, vegan stuffing, and vegan pumpkin pie (made with tofu).  dada was very scared.  but uncle jamie took pity on dada and also served a real turkey, a real pecan pie, and lots of other yummy stuff like dungeness crab and brie mac and cheese.  i didn’t eat much, though.  cousin zoey and i were too busy playing with all her toys.  i made the wheels on her pink bus go round and round, and we made coffee and baked pies in her play kitchen.  good thing i’ve had so much practice making real coffee and baking real desserts.  (baby sister just sat around all day in zoey’s bumbo.)

one thing that i did take time to eat, though, was magic cream.  i watched auntie alyssa pour milk into the mixer.  then it turned into bubble milk.  then it turned into magic cream!  she called it whipped cream.  i call it delicious on top of pumpkin pie.  or on jello.  or by itself.

after lunch, uncle jamie thought that we might like to play at the park near his house.  actually, i think he just needed to work off all those pumpkin pie calories, so we went for a wagon ride to the park.  that was fun.  baby sister wanted to come too, but there wasn’t enough room for her.

i was having so much fun that we stayed until 4pm — way past my nap time.  so i slept in the car and we went straight to grandma and grandpa tanaka’s house for dinner.  i had a few bites of food, but i was having too much fun playing the piano and running around in circles (literally) to eat dinner.  but once again, i took a timeout from playing to eat dessert.  there was a real pumpkin pie, cream puffs, seven layer jello, and coffee cheesecake.  uncle randy made the cheesecake, and it’s best darn cheesecake i’ve ever had.  it might be the only one, but it was the best!

i always say that one of my favorite parts of thanksgiving is seeing family.  but now, i think that it’s a tie between family and desserts.  i only got like three tiny bites of dessert, but that’s more than i’ve ever had.  okay, i’m crashing from my sugar high now.  zzzzz…

when i woke up yesterday, auntie mimi was at our house!  i guess she and mama had a sleepover after their egg-making party.  they have been making eggs red for the past two days.  i don’t get it. aren’t eggs supposed to be white? but then mama showed me the pictures from my red egg party that i had when i was 100 days old. i guess baby sister turned 100 days old today, because we had a red egg party for her.

our grandparents, auntie, uncles, and friends came to celebrate baby sister. i was very unhappy for most of the day. everyone thought that i was jealous of all the gifts that baby sister was getting, but that wasn’t it at all. i just wanted mama to pay attention to me. she had been ignoring me all day to set out placecards, make sure lunch ran smoothly, and chat with friends and family.  once mama held me, i was just fine.

even though i cried a lot, i actually had fun at baby sister’s party.  i got to watch the fish and the water fountains at the restaurant, play with my friends, and spend time family.  i even got some presents!  i hope everyone else had fun, too.  (click here for some pics from the party.)

so when’s my next red egg party?  when i turn 200 days old?  oh wait… i think that might have already passed.

i don’t get what labor day is all about — nobody is actually laboring.  but i know that it means mama and dada get a three day weekend, and that’s good enough for me!  holiday weekends are the best because i get to hang out with family and have playdates with my friends.  here are some of the highlights from my long weekend:

auntie barbara flew up from southern california to spend the weekend with me and sienna.  mostly me   we played at the playground, we went out for froyo, and we hung out all weekend long.  we even had dinner with all the tanakas to celebrate uncle randy’s birthday.  uncle randy let me help blow out his candles to practice for my birthday (coming up next month)!

i got to see my friends, too.  i had a sushi lunch with isaac, and then i had a dinner playdate at matthew’s house.  the playdate was supposed to be just us boys hanging out, but baby sister wanted to go with me.  i told her that there were no girls allowed, but she got all dressed up anyway.  and then i felt bad, so i let her tag along.  matthew has so many awesome toys.  he even has a super cool balance bike that he let me try out.  (mama is trying to decide if she is going to get me one of these or a regular tricycle.)  i had fun playing with logan and matthew.  baby sister just slept.  how boring.

yay for long weekends.  can’t wait til the next one!

baby sister and i have been getting a lot of visitors lately.  everyone says they’re coming to meet sienna, but i know that they are coming to see both of us, because they bring presents for me, too.  i have such great aunties and uncles

today, a lot of family from mama’s side came to visit — aunties, uncles, and cousins.  (gung-gung has been staying with us, so he was here too.)  and guess who else?  bak-bak.  she’s our great-grandma.  lots of kids have grandparents, but sienna and i are super lucky because we have a great-grandma!  how cool is that?

dada was at a bachelor party, so he wasn’t home.  he missed out, because we had a party of our own.  we had a fun time eating and hanging out all day long.  of course, mama was happy to see her family and catch up with them.  but she was also very grateful to have them around to hold baby sister while she was busy helping me eat lunch and putting me down for my nap.  yay for family!

usually, our weekends are packed with my social activities.  but mama was so sure that the baby was going to come last weekend, that we didn’t make any plans at all.  in fact, mama came thiiis —> <— close to telling dada not to go to work last thursday.  she even packed her bag for the hospital.  but nothing.  and then last night, mama was so sure (again) that the baby was coming that she took a shower and got all ready to go to the hospital.  but after she got out of the shower… nothing.  next time she says that today is the day, i’m not going to believe her.

but even though we didn’t have anything planned this weekend, it was an eventful one.  everything we did was a game time decision, but it worked out great.

on friday night, i went to gym class.  uncle henry came to visit, and we all had dinner together.  he was planning to take koda home with him since mama was so sure that she was going to be in the hospital.  but since there was no baby, koda stayed home with us.

on saturday, i met matthew and chloe at CDM.  now that i know how to peel bananas by myself, i kept trying to peel the one in the wonder cabinet.  it was defective.  mama said it was plastic.  (why would they put a fake plastic banana on the dining table?  that’s just mean.)  there is also a new mammoth discovery! exhibit at CDM, so matthew and i went on a dig for fossils.  chloe didn’t want to help us.  i guess girls just don’t like getting dirty.

in the evening, auntie mabel and auntie jillie drove down for an impromptu visit and we all went out for hot pot.  i had fun staying out past my bedtime hanging with the quon girls

on sunday, i had swim class.  after class, we saw auntie jan, uncle harvey, and their new goldendoodle puppy, huey.  (dada called him a “snickerpoodle” )  then we went to visit grandma and had lunch at her house.

busy weekend, considering that we had no plans, right?  and then i realized that the baby didn’t come because we had no plans.  i’ll bet if we had organized a big party, the baby definitely would have come last weekend.  that’s how i know that the baby’s a girl — she’s waiting for a big crowd to gather before she makes her grand entrance.

i’m a big boy now, and i’ve done a whole lot of things in my (almost) 21 months.  so it was a little surprising to experience so many “firsts” today.

FLASH MOB

i’ve been to the children’s discovery museum dozens of times.  they change some exhibits once in awhile, but for the most part, i’ve been there, done that.  today however, mama took me to my first storytime at CDM.  and it wasn’t just stories — we also played games and sang/danced.  i actually wasn’t into the story, at all.  while the storyteller was reading the book, i wandered off and explored other areas of the wonder cabinet.  (the storyteller wasn’t very good.)  but when the music came on, i rejoined the group.  but guess what — i found myself in the middle of a flash mob!  all the kids started doing the exact same dance moves.  everyone except me, that is.  i guess i missed the youtube video with the dance instructions.  i’ll find it, though.  i’ve gotten really good at navigating youtube.

I AM BEAST.  RAAAWR!

i’ve been going to the little gym for a long time now.  i went to one “bugs” class and i completed two whole sessions in the “birds” class.  but  tonight, i was a “beast” for the first time!  the format of the class seems similar to the previous ones, but there’s more focus on cooperative play (rather than parallel play) and more advanced skills (galloping and jumping, identifying colors, standing on the high-beam unsupported, and doing rolls by ourselves without being spotted).  oh, and most importantly, the ratio of girls to boys in this class is way higher. and since i’m on the low end of the age range, that means i’m surrounded by older women   i’m liking being a beast, already.  RAAAWR!

MY UNCLE IS A ROCK STAR!

after gym class tonight, mama, dada, and i went out for dinner.  when we got to the restaurant, there was a band setting up.  i don’t think i’ve ever seen a live band before, so that was pretty cool.  and guess what.  uncle jamie was the drummer in the band!  how cool is that?  it was my first time seeing uncle jamie play the drums.  i know a real-life rock star!  i had fun watching and listening to the music even though it kept me up past my bedtime.

this is not uncle jamie’s regular band — he only plays with these guys part-time.  they are a classic/freedom rock cover band.  i dunno what that means, but mama and dada seemed to know all the songs.  and gung-gung was totally rocking out and singing along.  if anyone ever wants to go have dinner with me and listen to the band play, mark your calendars for the last friday of every month at sonoma chicken coop in campbell

in honor of father’s day today, i woke up an hour early so that i could spent extra time with dada.  and then, i took him swimming for the first time.  for some reason, dada didn’t seem too excited about my father’s day plans for him.

last summer when i took swim lessons, mama always swam with me.  but mama said that there’s no way that she can fit a swimsuit over her big belly, so i had to show dada the ropes.  i called for mama the whole time, but she wouldn’t come into the water — she just watched from the viewing area.  the skills we practiced today were all review for me, but since dada is just a beginner, i didn’t mind the refresher.  dada did pretty good for his first time

after swim class, we went to lunch with grandma, grandpa, and uncle randy.  we went to a fancy place, so i had to wear a collared shirt.  and even though we were going there straight from swim class, dada wouldn’t let me wear my crocs — i had to wear real shoes!  mama had to wear real shoes instead of her usual flip flops, too.  so i guess it was only fair.  here we are:  three generations of tanaka men.  we’re a good-looking bunch, dontcha think?

i am a super lucky kid to have 2 grandpas.  so at dinnertime, mama and i celebrated (grand)father’s day again with gung-gung.  dada couldn’t come because he had to work.  boo   we went to a thai/vietnamese restaurant in a ghetto part of hayward.  i know, there’s nothing about that that sounds good, but it was nice inside, and the food was delicious.  mama said that every dish we ordered was the best version of that dish she’s ever had.  (and she’s eaten a lot of thai and vietnamese food in her life.)  everyone agreed that we should go back there again soon.

when we got home from dinner, dada was still at his office working.  even though it was past my bedtime, i stayed up to wait for him so i could give him his father’s day card.  when he came home, i ran to the door and yelled “dada!”  he liked the card i gave him, but he said that the best present was hearing me call him “dada”

happy father’s day to dada, grandpa, and gung-gung.  i love you all!

cousin zoey had her birthday party today at studio grow.  i can’t believe she’s already 2 years old!  she has been going to classes at that place for awhile now, and every time she has talked about it, i thought she was saying “studio girl“.  i felt a little weird about going to a party at a girlie gym (mama said it was going to be like “curves” for toddlers), so i was relieved to find out that it was “studio grow“.

studio grow is a big playspace that has all kind of toys and things to play with.  there was a wooden climbing structure with a slide, a play kitchen, an arts & crafts corner, a stage for puppet shows, ride-on cars on mini rollercoaster tracks, and lots more.  cousin zoey and i run in different circles, so i didn’t know any of the other kids there, but i had fun playing with new friends.  i also had a good time hanging out with gung-gung, uncle jamie, and auntie alyssa

after playing in the studio room for over an hour, we went into the party room for cupcakes!  everyone got one except me.  there were plenty to go around, but mama only let me have one little crumb of zoey’s cupcake.  that crumb was delicious!  when will i get to eat a whole one by myself, with frosting and everything?

happy birthday to cousin zoey!  thanks for a fun party

we just got back from a long weekend in san diego.  we flew down there for auntie barbara’s graduation and decided to stay and make a mini-vacation out of it.  auntie barbara earned her masters in nursing, she is a member of a couple of honor societies, and she did all that while working full-time. i have the smartest auntie ever!  and now that she is a nurse practitioner, she can write me prescriptions for some good stuff

here’s a quick recap of my san diego trip.

5/19 (thursday): mama, daddy, and i met grandma, grandpa, and uncle randy at the airport and we all flew to san diego together.  dropped off our stuff at auntie barbara’s house, and then we all had lunch at the cheesecake factory.  went back to auntie’s for a nap.  mama woke me up so that we could catch the end of auntie’s grad reception at the mission bay yacht club, but it was over by the time we got there

5/20 (friday): attended the school of nursing commencement ceremony.  went to lunch at maria maria (carlos santana’s restaurant).  i slept through the entire lunch, but i heard it was delicious.  after my nap, we went to sea world for about 5 minutes.  we thought it closed at 10pm, but it turned out that it closed at 6pm.  we decided to leave and come back the next day.  so instead, we went to kate sessions park where i played in the playground, ran around the grass, and made friends with some dogs.

5/21 (saturday): sea world!  i loved the penguins, life-size elmo, and elmo’s flying fish ride.  (i even got to make our elmo pig fly by pulling on the lever.)  i hated the beluga whales and other giant sea creatures when they got up close and personal.  (it was okay to see them swimming around at sea level, but when they swam right next to me in the underwater viewing area it sort of freaked me out).  i was indifferent about shamu and the sleeping polar bear.  i wish mama had brought my swim clothes to sea world because there was a water attraction that i really wanted to play in.  she said she didn’t bring it because the weatherman told her that it was going to be overcast and cloudy.  he lied.

5/22 (sunday): flew home.

my san diego highlights:

• getting to spend the whole weekend with grandma, grandpa, auntie barbara, and uncle randy (who i usually only get to see for a couple of hours at a time)
• the big pile of presents that were waiting for me when i arrived at auntie barbara’s house!  i thought she was confused because it wasn’t my birthday or anything but she said she wanted me to have things to play with while i was visiting.  (little did she know that her coasters, refrigerator door, and rock band drumsticks were all the entertainment that i would need.)
• riding on (shuttle) buses to and from the airport parking lot, terminal, and car rental place
• swinging on the bid kid swings!  (mama always thought i hated swings, but i just hate baby swings.  i love swinging by myself on the bid kid swings!  ’bout time that she figured that out.)
• making daddy chase me up and down the big grassy hill at park.  i wore him out
• taking the elevator in auntie’s building up and down from the underground garage to her condo
• getting to share a room with mama and daddy.  i even got to sleep in their big bed for a little while.  (auntie got me a pack ‘n play to sleep in, but it was cramping my style.  so mama put me to sleep in the big bed, and she moved me to the pack ‘n play after i was conked out.)

my san diego lowlights:

• no koda.  i missed him a lot and asked about him all day, every day.
• sleeping through auntie’s reception at the mission bay yacht club
• not having my sun hat at sea world.  mama didn’t bring it because the weather man told her that it was going to be overcast and cloudy.  it was warm and sunny for most of the weekend.
• not getting to take a photo with elmo or even give him a high five.  the line was closed by the time we got there.  at least i got to wave to him and big bird.
• getting stuck on the tarmac for 1.5 hours before our plane ride home.  good thing i had lots of snacks to eat and bubbles to play with.  (who blows bubbles on an airplane?  mama is so silly!)

people in san diego are so nice.  like, when i went to the bathroom (in the airport) with mama, all the ladies in line in front of us offered to let us go ahead of them because they thought that i had to go potty and they didn’t want me to have an accident.  and, when mama dropped her jacket at sea world, she retraced her steps and found it hanging on a post right where she dropped it — with her iphone still in the pocket!

we had such a fun trip to san diego.  thanks for letting us stay with you, auntie barbara.  and congratulations on earning your masters degree — we are sooo proud of you!