mama and daddy have always encouraged me to develop problem-solving skills.  like when my ball rolls into a place that i cannot reach… or when i get stuffed inside of a laundry basket…  instead of answering my cries for help, they let me figure out how to fix it on my own.  like when daddy put child-proof latches on all my cabinets and drawers, i learned out how to “solve” that problem so that i could open them.  well today, i gave them yet another example that i’ve learned to fix problems on my own.

i had another playdate with maddie today.  this time we stayed local and went to the chidren’s discovery museum.  and as all CDM-regulars know, the art room in the wonder cabinet doesn’t open until 11:00am, one hour after the rest of the place. but i can’t tell time yet, so i headed over there at 10:45.  mama said to me: “do you see the sign that says ‘CLOSED’? that means we can’t go in yet. pretty soon, baby.”  well, since the sign was the problem (according to mama), i took the sign off the door and went right on in.  everyone laughed.  i dunno what was so funny — i was just fixing the problem like mama and daddy would have wanted me to.  the art room staff said i was sooo smart and sooo cute, so they let me in 15 minutes early.  problem solved.

today, we got to make sculptures with packing peanuts. these were no ordinary packing peanuts, though — when i squished them on the wet sponge, they started to melt and stuck together like glue!  i made a masterpiece.  mama called it abstract art.  then, mama helped me made a sculpture of koda.  the boy sitting next to me saw it and asked his daddy to help him make one, too.  copycat.  he didn’t like his koda sculpture though, so when his dad asked him to pose for a picture with it, he took mine!  what’s worse?  being a copycat, or taking credit for my artwork?!

oh well, i didn’t care that much anyway, so i let him keep it.  i have a real koda at home who doesn’t melt when he gets wet.

today, like every week day, miss denise took me to the park.  i always bring my bread, and i share it with the ducks and geese.  but today was a little different because mama and koda went to the park with us

usually, i just watch miss denise feed my bread to the birds.  she tosses little pieces on the ground and they gather all around us.  sometimes, the geese even snatch the bread right out of her hand and she says “no, not my faaanger!”  miss denise is so funny.  but she doesn’t let me feed the geese because she doesn’t want those aggressive suckers to bite my little fingers.

but i guess mama was not so concerned.  today, mama put a piece of bread in my hand so that i could lure the birds out of the pond.  are you kidding me?  i don’t have fingers to spare! so before those geese had a chance to eat me, i stuffed all the bread into my mouth.  then, just for good measure, i unleashed koda and let him at ‘em.  he chased all the birds away real fast.  yaaay koda! — my personal bodyguard.

mama and daddy are always saying that they don’t have time for their own lives because they are ruled by my social calendar.  it’s true.  but that’s the way it should be.  and besides, they’re old and they don’t need to party like i do.  this past weekend was just like all the others — packed with my social activities.  the highlights of my weekend were playing at the playground with my friends and finding king kong’s beach house!

sierra was visiting from LA, so logan and i met her at the playground in central park by lake elizabeth.  she ran circles around us — literally!  i don’t get to go to playgrounds very often because they are usually filled with sand or bark, both of which i would love to eat.  mama and daddy were pleasantly surprised to see that this playground had a rubberized ground covering.  good for mama and daddy.  bad for me.

my thoughts on playgrounds:  love the slides, hate the swings.  mama is really surprised that i don’t like swings because i looove hanging upside down and being tossed in the air.  maybe i just need to try them out more often.  (sierra’s gung-gung took a picture of me on the slide — which i loved.  i’ll post that once sierra emails it to me.)

i didn’t want koda to be left out of all the weekend fun, so we took him out to spend an afternoon in dog-friendly los gatos.  we shopped, ate froyo, and just strolled around.  and guess what we found — king kong’s beach house!  i mean, i don’t know for sure that it was king kong’s house, but look at the size of those flip flops!  who else could they belong to, right?

i went on a double date today, and you’ll never guess with who.  logan?  nope.  matthew?  nuh-uh.  zachary?  not him either.  do you give up?  it was koda!

yup, koda had a date with his girlfriend, and he brought me along so that i could meet her “sister”.  koda’s girlfriend’s name is shasta.  they were just friends for a long time, but at the end of last month, shasta spent almost a week with us at our house.  (this photo is from that week.)  i guess their romance blossomed during that time, and they took their relationship to the next level.  with all those late nights that they spent together — alone in the dark — i guess it was to be expected.  koda couldn’t take his tongue out of her ears!

koda doesn’t know this, but shasta was actually born in our house.  mama and daddy even named her!  doesn’t that make shasta koda’s step-sister or something?  ewww.

anyway, shasta’s “sister” is celine.  it turns out that celine and i had actually seen each other before before, but that was 7 months ago, so we didn’t really remember each other.  i knew she looked familiar though!

celine has an entire playroom full of fun toys and books that she shared with me.  i especially liked playing in her kitchen and chewing on her fake lettuce.  that’s right — i didn’t choose the pizza, but the lettuce.  the shape of the fake lettuce fit just right against my gums, which have been really hurting because of my molars cutting through.  yup, i officially have 9 teeth now, with 3 more molars on their way.  owie.

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 fiving 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 fives and waves.  so i practiced doing those things so i could get treats, too.  so how come i never get nuthin’ for high fives, 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.