we went over logan’s house today so we could meet his new little brother.  his name is baby mason, and he’s 11 days old.  mommy visited him in the hospital right after he was born, but the rest of us hadn’t met him yet.  finally, a tai boy that’s smaller than i am!  (logan is 6 months younger than me but probably outweighs me by a few pounds.)

baby mason was sleeping for most of the time that we were there.  babies are boring.  they sleep a lot.  but that’s okay ‘cuz logan has a ton of cool toys, and i played i with all of them.  i wasn’t really paying attention to what everyone else was doing.

but then after dinner, i was showing logan how to play “words” (hanging with friends), and i swear that i saw baby sister stroking logan’s hair.  logan didn’t even flinch.  mommy asked logan if baby sister was stroking his hair, and he responded “stroking hair?”, like he didn’t know what she was talking about.  way to play dumb, buddy.

when baby mason finally woke up, we all climbed onto the couch for a photo.  instead of sitting next to me (i’m her brother… hellooo?!), baby sister sat next to logan.  she cuddled up right next to him and put her hand on his knee.  and he didn’t move away!

it’s pretty obvious to me that baby sister and logan have been secretly dating.  and he didn’t even have the courtesy to ask me first!  what happened to bro code?  i always knew that i’d have to deal with my friends hitting on my baby sister, but i didn’t realize it would be so soon.

logan, i’m keeping an eye on you, and you better not hurt my baby sister.  i don’t care if you’re bigger than me!

since mommy and dada took vacation from work last week, we have spent the past 10 days together doing fun stuff. today was our last day of vacation, so we made the most of it by going to pump it up jr. with matthew and his family. matthew had a groupon for that place. how cool! i wish i had one, too.

today, i went with matthew to the bay area discovery museum (BADM) in sausalito.  it was matthew’s first time.  i had been there before, but today was a whole new experience for me.  for one thing, some of the exhibits had been updated since my last visit (last april).  and, i didn’t even go into the tot spot at all — that’s for kids who are little (like i was earlier this year).  i’m a big kid now.

we started the day in bay hall, i had fun crawling under the pier, climbing up to the wharf, and of course, playing with the ginormous train set.  those trains will never get old.

then we walked through the wave workshop.  eh.  not much for us there.  although, we did happen to be there just in time for story time.  matthew and i actually sat through an entire story.  can you believe it?

then we moved on to the art studio.  we made stamp art masterpieces and painted the windows.  i still think that’s so cool.  where else do you get to paint on windows?  mommy thought i would like the sculpting clay since i love playing with play-doh, but i wasn’t all that into it.  baby sister got in on some fun, playing with toys in the mirrored crawl area of the art studio.

after lunch we checked out discovery hall, which had a new exhibition: “out on a limb: adventures with nature and art”.  there was this awesome treehouse that was fun to climb up.  inside it was this talking tube that mommy talked into while she was on the ground, and her voice came out of the tube all the way up in the treehouse!  how cool!  i also liked banging on the drumheads with big sticks in the forest jam exhibit.  they were supposed to make forest sounds, but it all just sounded like banging to me.

we finished off the afternoon in lookout cove.  i showed matthew the fishing boat, then i brought him to to the shipwreck to dig for artifacts.  we took turns shoveling sand into the sifters, then we tried to “shake shake shake” the sand out to see what cool things we found.  turns out that we ended up dumping all the sand out instead of sifting it.  oh well.  the shoveling with the best part of it, anyway.

by 3pm, matthew was ready for his nap.  i wanted to stay longer, but i think mommy and dada wanted to go home and take a nap too.  party poopers.

on mama’s last day of maternity leave (yesterday), i invited edison over for the last of our mid-week playdates. we had fun playing with my trains, cutting wooden fruit, and making play-doh cheese and popcorn. while we were playing, mama was making us lunch. but what i didn’t know is that she was also planting ideas in auntie ann’s head about using us kids for child labor. mama told her that i help make muffins, lattes, etc. auntie ann thought that was such a great idea that she put edison to work as soon as they got home.

now, edison helps auntie ann make her coffee and toast in the morning. it won’t be long before he’s sweeping and vacuuming, too. i hope edison isn’t too mad at me.  at least his chores are limited to the kitchen.

look what else got added to my list today.  on top of all of the things that i do around my own house, we went to grandma’s house to pick apple pears from her yard.  and there were a LOT of them.  she said that she was “saving” them for me because she thought it would be fun.  but i know the truth — she’s just too big to get under those low branches.  i never thought that grandma would take advantage of the free child labor around here.  and the worst part is that baby sister never helps out.  when i’m working around the house and in the yard, baby sister just lays around.  what happened to women’s rights and equal opportunity employment?  this is the 21st century.  sheesh!

i spent the day at gilroy gardens with five girls.  FIVE!  well, one of them was baby sister, but still.  i spent the day at gilroy gardens with four girls that aren’t related to me.  from left to right:  baby sister, ava, zoe, maddie, me, and malia.

it was zoe and ava’s first time at gilroy gardens, so i showed them around.  we went on lots of rides together and they loved it.  especially zoe — she was so excited and giggly all day long.  she wanted to ride all the rides with me and she tried to hold my hand.  she even tried to bust a move with the ol’ stretching-her-arm-around-my-shoulder trick.

zoe and i are a match made in heaven.  while dada was eating his funnel cake, she and i hung out by the railing together and watched the trains go by.  she was even wearing a thomas the train shirt!  oh, and get this:  when mama was taking a photo of us on the strawberry ride, zoe told her “you hafta close the door!”  a girl who likes trains and is OCD about closing doors?  i think i’m in love.

matthew invited us to join him at “haunt the hollow” today.  it was an event at happy hollow where kids like us could go trick-or-treating.  in the morning we rode the train, played in the playground, and went on some rides.  then after lunch, it was time to put on our costumes and go trick-or-treating.

i came thiiis —> <— close to being a shark for halloween (again) this year.  but mama finally came to her senses and got me a new costume.  i was superkyden!  the three of us were superheroes:  spiderman, superman, and supercow

we went trick-or-treating at booths set up all over the park.  most places gave out healthy treats like fruit leather and organic crisped rice bars.  at one booth, they let us drive (well, sit in) the sharks zamboni.  how cool!  at first, i thought i got to sit in there cuz sharkie and i are buddies, but it turned out that they were letting just about anyone drive it.  after we got tired of collecting healthy halloween treats, we fed the goats, played some more, and then called it a day.  i liked the healthy snacks, but dada was disappointed that he didn’t find any chocolate when he raided my candy bag.

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 was so excited to go to the halloween party at the little gym today.  as soon as i woke up from my nap, i got all dressed up in my awesome costume, piled everyone into the SUV, and headed over to my gym.  when we got there, dada parked the car, mama unbuckled my seatbelt, and then she took my costume off of me.  then we all drove away.  what the…?!  i was SO  MAD.  i was pointing to the gym and screaming as we drove away.  mama said that it looked like the party was over.  i guess i slept through the whole thing.  but can you blame me?  after the day that i had yesterday, it’s a wonder that i didn’t sleep the entire day away.

yesterday morning, we left the house before 9:00am to go to lemos farms, the crack pumpkin patch.  we stayed there until about 2:30pm.  i slept in the car on the way home for about 15 minutes.  when we got home, everyone was so tired and wanted to take a nap — well, everyone except me.  so i stayed up.

after spending about an hour at home, it was time to go to aris’ birthday party at my regular gym.  i thought it would be just like when i had my 1st birthday party there, but it wasn’t at all.  we played fun games that i’ve never played before.  it was so fun, but sooo crowded.  aris is so popular that there wasn’t even enough room for all the adults to stand in the party room — they had to stand outside or stay in the gym while we were eating.  but all of us kids got our own chairs.  hee hee.  can you find me in this photo?

after the birthday party, we went straight to sonoma chicken coop to watch my rock star uncle jamie play with his new band.  it was their first gig!  i had fun watching him and listening to the music, but i didn’t recognize most of the songs.  i guess i have to watch them more so i can learn their songs and sing along.  i think they might be playing there again, so if anyone wants to come with me next time, let me know!  we can say “we’re with the band”

whew!  i’m getting tired just thinking about all the things we did yesterday.  what a fun and action-packed day it was!  but now you see why i was so tired today and slept through the halloween party.  today wasn’t a total veg-out day, though.  i did get to go on a walk with gung-gung, a bike ride with dada, and a run with mama.  well, koda and i ran while mama rollerbladed.  i can’t wait until i get to go rollerblading too!

matthew and i met up at the pumpkin patch today.  i brought mama, dada, and baby sister along, too.  we didn’t go to an ordinary corner lot with a pile of pumpkins.  we drove for nearly an hour to lemos farms which was transformed into a pumpkin patch on steroids. actually, make that crack.  the place was just nuts.  there was a petting zoo, train rides, hay rides, pony rides, jumpy houses, a live band, a haunted house, a face painter, a balloon-animal guy, homemade pumpkin goods (pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin ice cream) and more.  i know i’m forgetting something, but let’s just say that there was way more stuff than we could fit into a single day.

we fed the goats.  we petted the goats.  we rode the ponies (everyone was shocked that i rode the pony by myself).  we rode the train.  went on a hayride.  baby sister slept through all of that, but the bumpy hayride woke her up.  i think she was mad when she woke up and saw what my shirt said (“will trade sister for candy”).  see the look of horror on her face?  click on the photo to make it bigger.  i promise it will make you laugh

we ate lunch while sitting on hay bales.  we played in the mini pumpkin patch.  we danced to the live music.  then we walked across the street to pastorino farms.  there, we walked through the field of pumpkins.  we took photos in the wooden cutouts.  we played in the giant corn stalks.

after all that it was after 2:00pm, but there was still so much more to do.  i especially wanted to ride the pony again, but everyone was too tired and ready to go home.  everyone but baby sister, that is.  she was just getting started.  too bad for her that she slept through most of the fun.

here are more pics from the day.

baby sister had a lunch date with braylon today.  who’s this braylon guy?  well, i’m glad you asked.

when mama was little, she had a friend named jen.  they went to the same preschool and they played together when they were small.  when they got older, they fell out of touch.  but then they ended up at the same high school.  after high school, they fell out of touch again.  they ended up at different colleges, but pledged the same sorority.  through sorority activities, they had a lot of the same friends and saw each other regularly.  after college, they fell out of touch again.  but through the power of facebook, they recently reconnected.

well, guess what.  auntie jen has a kid named ashton.  ashton was born in october 2009, just like me.  he has a daddy named mike, just like me.  he has an older dog brother, just like me.  and he has a crazy-haired sibling that is ~22 months younger (that’s braylon), just like me.

mama and auntie jen may not have always stayed in touch, but their lives seem to have moved along parallel paths.  i wonder if baby sister and i will live parallel lives with ashton and braylon, too

(have you noticed that baby sister only hangs out with other crazy-haired babies?  i think it makes her feel more normal.)