last week, koda taught himself a new trick — he learned to scale our 6 ft. fence all by himself!  i couldn’t let the dog outdo me, so i taught myself some new tricks, too.  i’ve just been waiting for the chance to show off my new skills.  tonight was the night.

for some strange reason, mommy decided to put tonight’s dinner drink in a regular cup instead of my usual sippy cup.  she held the straw up to my lips, expecting me to chew on the straw or just play with it (like i did when i first started using my sippy cup).  but to her surprise, i drank my juice like a pro.  that’s right — i sucked!  mommy was so amazed because  nobody had ever shown me how to use a straw before.  she was celebrating by cheering and clapping…  so i started clapping, too!

WHOA!!!  now everyone was really excited and causing a commotion.  i had been practicing clapping for many weeks and was unsuccessful up until tonight.  mommy and daddy were sooo happy that i finally got the hang of it.  i was happy, too –  so happy, that i clapped throughout the rest of my dinner

that’s two new tricks for me in one night.  okay koda… show me what ya’ got!

my buddy matthew turned 1 today.  happy birthday matthew!

i had been looking forward to his party for a long time because he was planning to have a dol, and i had never been to one before.  for this special occasion, i got dressed up in my collared shirt and argyle sweater vest.  and during lunch time, i even wore my formal bib   mommy and daddy said that i looked like a country club kid.  they must have been sooo proud of me dressed up all proper-looking and chewing with my mouth open

matthew wore his special korean outfit and performed a traditional fortune telling ritual.  he picked the ball, dropped it, and then picked up the hammer.  so what’s the ruling?  does that mean he’s going to be an athlete (maybe not a very good one, since he dropped the ball), or will he be a builder?  or maybe he will become a builder after his pro athletic career is over.

there was also a balloon man at matthew’s party!  he made the most amazing balloon creations i have ever seen.  there were princesses, flying dragons, winnie-the-poohs holding baby rattles (that actually rattled), and all kinds of fancy things.  but all i wanted was a koda   i love balloon-koda, but real koda is not so much a fan.

i don’t think that balloon man is a korean tradition, but even if he is, i don’t care — i want him for my birthday party.  and now that i think about it, i want to do the fortune telling thing, too.  i’m definitely going to secure my future by choosing the wad of cash.  although… would a roll of bills mean that i’ll be rich, or will i just be a frequent patron at a gentlemen’s club?  or maybe both…

sorry, no photos of me with the birthday boy.  the grown-ups wanted to take a group shot of all us kids today, but matthew and i raced away from the paprazzi!

for the past few months, i’ve been feeding myself magic puffs.  mommy and daddy have been reluctant to give me other finger foods because they knew what a huge mess i would make.  but now that i have demonstrated improvement in my fine motor skills (like high-5′ing and waving), they decided to let me try to eat more things by myself.  cool, huh?

it’s way more fun to feed myself than have someone else feed me!  here are some of my thoughts about self-feeding:

1. i can stuff way more than one spoonful of food into my mouth all at once.
2. even though i usually show clear signs of right-handedness, i eat with my left hand just as much as my right.  i am an equal opportunity face-stuffer.
3. meal times take 2x longer than they used to.  mommy and daddy think i’m a slow eater, but i’m really just stalling so that i can stay up later at night.  (my bedtime has recently shifted back an hour to 8:30pm.)
4. i know i’m not supposed to eat oatmeal with my hands, but i put it all over my face because i heard that it’s good for my skin.
5. mommy and daddy think that i accidentally drop food on the ground because i’m uncoordinated.  gung-gung says it’s the rule of thirds: 1/3 of my food lands on the ground, 1/3 ends up on me or somewhere in my chair, and 1/3 actually ends up in my mouth.  but i’ll let you in on a secret — i drop food on purpose because i like sharing my food with koda.
6. it’s not cool to take pictures of someone stuffing their face and chewing their food.  it’s just not cute.  just saying…

mommy, daddy, and koda do funny things sometimes.  and in order to fit in with my crazy family, i guess i have to do them, too. 

recently, mommy and daddy started making funny “buhwuhwuhwuhwuh” noises to make me laugh.  so i thought i’d try it to see if it makes them laugh, too.  and lemme tell you — it does.  every time.

and i often see koda getting treats after he gives high-5′s and waves.  so i practiced doing those things so i could get treats, too.  so how come i never get nuthin’ for high-5′s, and whenever i wave someone usually goes away?

everyone thinks koda is so smart because he teaches me so many things, but i have been trying to teach him to climb down the stairs BACKWARDS for months, and he just isn’t getting it. who’s the smart one now, huh?

my big brother koda-leave-it (i just call him koda, for short) turned 2 years old today!  he celebrated at point isabel with his sister kiara and his friends, tachi and wrigley.  mommy made some special birthday treats for koda to share with his friends.  uncle henry brought some treats for kiara to share also.  the ice cream and pizza that koda got sure looked tasty!  how come nobody shared any with me?

mommy and daddy (who are both first born children in their families) think that older brothers/sisters “break-in” their parents for their younger siblings.  i gotta admit, i think they’ve got a point.  so on koda’s special day, i want to thank him for all the things he taught mommy and daddy, paving the way for me.  these are just some of them.

• a fat puppy/baby = a happy, healthy puppy/baby.  that’s right — feed us well, and feed us often!
• if we have trouble latching, it helps to put some milk on the tip of the nipple, wiggle the bottle over our lips, and tug at the bottle so that it forces us to suck.
• a little vomit/spit up or diarrhea is nothing to worry about as long as we’re still eating and playing normally.
• when we’re chewing on electrical cords (or other things that we’re not supposed to), don’t just take them away — replace them with things that are okay to chew on.
• when we’re scared, don’t reinforce our fear/insecurity by babying us.  continue to act like everything is a-okay… and then it will be.
• expose us to lots of people/experiences/sights/sounds early in life so that we’ll grow up well-balanced and with good habits (e.g. comfortable in water, brushing teeth, sharing toys, etc.).
• teach us not to bite/hit/jump even when we’re small and cute.  it won’t be so cute when we get bigger.
• talk to us like we understand you.  we understand more than you think.
• let us make mistakes and get (a little bit) hurt.  that’s how we learn.
• take lots of photos because we grow up so fast!

uncle henry says that mommy should write a book called “everything i needed to know about raising a child, i learned from my puppy”.  i hope she does so that she can get rich, quit her day job, and play with me all day long.  and i think we need to foster some puppies too, so that mommy can get more material for her book.  i will even help bottle-feed them since i always wake up in the middle of the night anyway.

happy 2nd birthday koda!  (why do people keep saying that he is 14?)

logan, zachary, and i took 13 adults and 6 doggies out for a stroll along the alameda trail yesterday.  and naturally, we were the leaders of the pack!

but before i tell you about the afternoon walk, lemme tell you about our quest for an all-terrain stroller.  after lots of research and test drives, mommy and daddy decided that we should get a baby jogger city elite.  the problem was, nobody around here carries them.  so on saturday, we took a drive up the peninsula to lullaby lane in san bruno.  i got my luxurious new ride — on sale.  score!  and on the way home, we stopped in burlingame so that daddy could get a burrito and mommy could get some meringues.  it was a good day for all of us.  mommy even shared a meringue with me.  yummy

we were so excited about our new all-terrain vehicle (ATV) that we assembled it right away.  well, daddy assembled, mommy supervised, and i QA’d his work.  good job, daddy.  now that i have my ATV, we can go to koda’s favorite spots without mommy having to carry me the entire time.  she says i’m getting too heavy.  hmph.

so, back to yesterday’s walk…  cesar milan (a.k.a. the dog whisperer) brags about how he rollerblades with his pack of several dozen dogs.  well, me and my buddies cruised in our ATV’s, leading a pack of half a dozen dogs and more than a dozen humans.  cesar ain’t got nothing on us!  (this photo was taken by uncle eric.  mommy took a picture with her phone, but uncle eric said that his would turn out much better.  he was right.)

we all had a great time.  mommy and daddy got to catch up with good friends, koda got to swim and run around, and i got to cruise with my buddies on my ATV’s maiden voyage.  the long walk worked up our appetites, so we all went out to lunch and gorged ourselves on mexican food.  since i gobbled up all the food that mommy brought for me, uncle henry let me try some of his carnitas

koda and i were both so exhausted that we konked out in the car on the way home.  what a great day.

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.)

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!

i have been practicing crawling for months now.  i usually end up crawling in place, moving maaaybe 2 inches or so (and sometimes in the wrong direction )  i just can’t figure out how to coordinate the movement between my hands and knees.  but that’s ok, i’ve found other ways to get around.

rolling: i can roll and roll and roll.  i find that this is the most efficient way to visit the four corners of my crib every night.

crab walk: i can get up on my hands and feet, stick my butt up in the air, and “walk” around a little bit.  i don’t move sideways, but mommy says that i look like a crab.

lunging: i can get on my hands and knees, rock back and forth to build momentum, then lunge forward.  i especially like doing this in front of the mirror.  and if you’re wondering…  yes, i do crash my forehead into the mirror.  repeatedly.

rotating: i can rotate around and around like the hands on a clock.

army crawl: i can get around pretty well, dragging myself on my elbows with my belly on the ground.  i learned this trick from koda’s sister, kiara.  she is the best army crawler around.  staying low to the ground, we can sneak around, undetected.  this is also good practice for adventure racing.  logan doesn’t know it yet, but he’s going to be my racing partner.

cruising: i can hold onto chest-high objects (coffee table, ottoman, exersaucer) and cruise around.  in fact, i don’t like to sit in my exersaucer anymore — i just stand and “walk” around the outside of it.  and rather than sit in people’s laps, i roll onto my tummy and slide down to the ground so that i can cruise along the couch.  i usually end up falling to the floor after just a few steps, but sometimes koda is there to break my fall.  how nice of him, huh?

so yeah, yeah, i can’t crawl.  it’s mommy’s fault.  gung-gung says she never crawled.  but i’m tired of being on the ground anyway.   so today, i pulled myself up from the ground and stood up — ALL BY MYSELF!  i think i’ll skip crawling and go straight to walking, just like mommy did.

i hope daddy doesn’t lower my crib mattress.  i’m gonna try to vault myself out of my crib tonight.

i’ve heard that there are ways for babies to tell their parents that they are ready for solids:

• at least 4 months old: check!
• doubled birth weight (or at least 15 lbs):  check!  i think i’m at ~17 lbs.
• head control:  check!  i can do tummy time all day long.
• sitting well when supported:  check!  sure, i can sit, but i’d much rather stand.
• chewing motions:  check!  this is same as smacking my lips, right?
• growing appetite:  check!  i am always hungry.
• curiosity about grown-up food:  check!  i am constantly lunging and grabbing at mommy’s froyo and daddy’s steak.

i’ve been trying to tell mommy and daddy for almost two months now that I WANT REAL FOOD!  i got really excited last night when i got to sit down with a bowl and spoon — i thought i was finally going to get a real meal.  but it turned out to be rice cereal mush

it seems that koda liked it, though.