Butterfly #2

Another tempera on construction paper composition. The texture captures the dynamic intensity of a butterfly in flight.
 

Butterfly #3

A very recent composition. Features stylized versions of the letter "A", representing the first name of the artist. Composition is magic marker and crayon on construction paper.
 

Bug #1

This composition, which features a reverse subject ground effect in the use of constuction paper, highlights the artist's skill with glitter glue. More than 5 colors of glitter are employed to harmonize the orange with the black of the construction paper background. This is a breakthrough work both in terms of composition as well as in the use of color.
 

Daddy in the News

Daddy, published in Contra Costa Times 7/17/04 

Daddy has been in the news a lot lately for helping to create a place to run experiments. (I hope he doesn't decide to run any experiments on me.) Here are some links:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2004/07/22_haas.shtml

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2004/07/12/daily31.html

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/9178184.htm?1c

Bubbles in the Toilet

In breaking news, I peed for the first time while standing up today.  I have done it two times today so far!  It is fun, and I say "like Daddy" when I do it.  The best part is the bubbles in the water from the force of the stream.  I've always clapped when witnessing Daddy making bubbles like this, and now I can too!  Hooray!

Spice is the variety of life

Yesterday was pizza day. I greeted Daddy at the door in my usual fashion, by running up to him while saying "ahhhhhhhh!" in an excited fashion. I was about to give him my usual big hug when I noticed he was carrying pizza.
 
"Pizza!" I said excitedly.
 
Of course, once I found out we were having pizza, I knew that we would be having some of my favorite spices to go with it.
 
"Pepper out," I said. Followed by, "Red one, blue one, green one!"
 
These are the colors of the caps of the various spices we all put on pizza. Mommy helped me to put on the spices and then I got to hold the caps while eating the pizza. At times, I thought the caps were the most exciting part of the meal. Hooray for spices.

In other news, we harvested our first tomato today. It was a cherry tomato from a plant I picked out at Target with Daddy. Mommy was quite pleased and told the two of us to keep up the good work on the farming front.
 

Wimoweh

I have a new favorite song, The Lion Sleeps Tonight. I first heard this song when Daddy started singing it on the way to Yosemite. It was a long car ride there, and I was grateful for the entertainment. Soon Mommy and Nainnie joined in to help Daddy with the singing. After they completed the song, I waited for a bit and then demanded an encore. "More weema-wokka, more weema-wokka," I cried. They heard my appeals and sang the song again (and several more times after that in the coming days.) Now last night Nainnie had to fly home to the east. Fortunately, she stayed long enough to read me stories and sing songs to me for bedtime. As she is an important harmonic element to the weema-wokka song, I requested it one last time with her. She started singing it herself and then Mommy and Daddy came into the room and joined her in an "extended dance" version of the song. This was absolutely the best.

By the way, the reason I refer to it as the "weema-wokka" song is because Daddy screwed up the lyrics in remembering the song in the car. The real lyric is Wimoweh. Of course, Daddy's in good company. The wimoweh lyric is actually Pete Seeger's mishearing of the real original lyric "Mbube" from the Zulu. You can read the whole story here.

Daddy tells me the song continues to make waves. Disney used it in the Lion King and made zillions of dollars on that film. Apparently, they felt that paying royalties of $15,000 for the use of the song seemed an appropriate amount and now they're getting sued by the heirs to the songwriter in South Africa. You can read more about the legal battle here. Interestingly, the Disney version gets the lyrics right---they use mbube instead of wimoweh. Here's a side by side lyrics comparison:

Disney

Seeger

Note: The Seeger lyrics are incorrectly attributed to Robert John who covered the song.

Faceplant dude

Two of my favorite toyz currently are my "Boom Boom Huck Jam" Tony Hawk skateboarder dudez that I received from recent visitz to McDonaldz. You can check out the offical spread on these toyz here and an unofficial but perhaps more amusing one here. Anyway, in addition to running Tony up and down the ramps provided, I like to have Tony perform in a variety of other venuez. For instance, yesterday we built a garage for my trains out of blockz. I liked to have Tony climb onto the roof of the garage and then plummet to the ground. As he did so, I'd cry, "Faceplant, dude!" Earlier in the week, Nainnie constructed a Tony Hawk temple out of blocks. The two Tony Hawkz seemed to like that very much. "Righteous," I said on their behalf.

Rock on dudez

(Notice the cool use of the "z" ending!)

Old School

When Nainnie comes to town, it's time for me to go "old school". Lately I've taken to wearing a big bead necklace (which I strung myself) while playing baseball. Nainnie really seems to appreciate this retro look. She says it reminds her of baseball cards from the 1970s where players wore a variety of necklace adornments. Daddy says that my beads are especially reminiscent of those worn by George Scott in the 1970s. Here is a side by side comparison.



 

Hat On!

After dinner last night, Mommy and Daddy started reading the newspaper. Actually, Mommy read and Daddy did crossword puzzles. It's fun to bounce around on them when they're reading. I liked to climb into the "tunnel" formed by Mommy's arms and the newspaper. At the end of the tunnel, I would curl up on Mommy's lap. Mommy said that I was like a cat in putting myself where it was impossible for her to read. Daddy formed a tunnel with his legs, and I crawled through this tunnel a lot of times too. After Mommy had finished a section of the paper, she decided to make me anew hat---one made from a newspaper. I"ve never seen a newspaper hat before. I liked it a lot and put it on several different ways. Then I asked (insisted really) that Mommy and Daddy wear a hat too.

Big Ball!

Daddy was feeling a bit better today, so we did a bit of running around and playing with the big ball. I love to throw the big ball around the house; however, Mommy and Daddy typcially do not view this as a good idea precisely because the big ball is so big---one of its best qualities.


I also like to crawl up and down the few steps of our house. Today, during much of my crawling, Daddy would sing the inchworm song, and I would pretend to be an inchworm.

In sad news, Daddy's laptop had a serious problem and is being shipped back to IBM for repair. This means no more "I" song at breakfast, a truly sad state of affairs.

Trainspotting

Every weekend, Daddy reconfigures my train track in a new way. He also swaps out some of the engines and the rolling stock for new ones. This week, the new addition to the train layout is an engine shed. Two engines can fit in the engine shed (although Big Gordon does not fit entirely, he's always peeking out a little bit due to his size). Anyway, Daddy took some pictures of me pondering the mysteries of the train shed. He also took some arty shots of me hanging out in the curtains. You can see the full album here.



But here's a taste of the arty curtain shot, which Daddy likes a lot.

Quesadillas! Mmmmm

 
Yesterday, we all went out to Chevy's for a celebratory "hard food" dinner prior to Daddy's getting his wisdom teeth out. Daddy was enjoying lots of tortilla chips and the Taste of Napa Quesadilla. I myself strongly endorse the plain quesadillas, which I enjoyed immensely. Even apart from the quesadillas, my kiddie quesadilla meal comes with an ice cream cone. I was really enjoying my ice cream cone a lot. However, I still don't have the hang of gravity and food. I dropped the ice cream out of the cone onto my lap a couple of times, and eventually I dropped the cone as well. I was dismayed since the cone is the best part. "Cone dirty, Sad Aidan," I said.


 By the way, Mommy has been trying to work with me on some of my opposites. The main one I have trouble with is the opposite of "dirty," which I often call "dry." As you must know, in addition to meaning "not wet," "dry" is a synonym for "clean." Thus, once a dirty thing is cleaned, then it is "all dry." Mommy says that sometimes things can be both dirty and dry or clean and wet at the same time. How confusing! (Mommy also says that she has herself to blame for this confusion, since she has told me when it is time to put on a "clean, dry diaper" for as long as she (and I) can remember.)

For the record, "Nannie coming soon."

PlayDoh Time

Yesterday, Daddy and  I played with PlayDoh before dinner. We got out lots of different colors and made snowmen, spaghetti, bunnies, horses, and much more. Daddy was particularly good at making snowmen, so he specialized in that task while I made most of the other things. I specialized in picking the color of the PlayDoh, which makes sense since Daddy doesn't see colors too well. Here are some pictures of our playing together. In one picture, I'm wearing a "hat" consisting of a device for helping to make PlayDoh waffles. In the other, I'm contemplating the mysteries of how the big ball of PlayDoh can fit in such a small container

Tofu---The Other White Meat

One of my favorite foods is tofu. I first discovered how good tofu can be eating it in miso soup. In fact, whenever we get Japanese food, not only do I get my own bowl of soup, but I get all the tofu "rectangles" from Mommy and Daddy too. Somehow, they like the soup, but are indifferent about the rectangles. For me, the rectangles are the best part. On discovering this, Mommy has bought me my own big block of tofu. She serves it in a little chicken or beef broth, again cut into delightful rectangles. It's delicion this way. The rectangle is one of the most delicious shapes in my opinion. 

Under the Big Top

Yesterday, we went to the circus for Father's Day (or Happy Daddy Day as I like to call it). Circus Chimera was in Moraga, a town not far from where we live, so we drove to see them. According to a press clipping from ANG NEWSPAPERS by Leslie Katz, these guys are

Cirque du Soleil without an attitude.

Daddy seemed to think that the word attitude was a euphemism for "talent". When we got there, they had two big bouncy castles---one shaped like a giraffe and another shaped like a tiger. I said hi to each of the bouncy castles, but did not want to go in. They also had a pony ride there. While I liked to be close to the ponies, I did not want to ride these either. They did have some rides that I actually liked though, a choo choo and some cars that went around in a circle.

Finally, it was time to go in the big tent where the circus was. While I liked the idea of a big tent, I was not at all sure that I wanted to go in the big tent. Mommy ended up carrying me in and for a long while I clung to Mommy since I was a bit scared to be there. After the intermission, I warmed up to the whole thing and had fun clapping along to the many acts. Overall though, this was a disappointing circus. They had no animals at all (except for a couple of woofs), and a lot of the music was rather boring and monotonous. Compared to Ringling, I give this circus a thumbs down.

Some Statistics

I've written an amazing amount of stuff about my life. According to the blogger statistics since January 2002:

Avg Posts Per Week 3
Posts Written 427
Words Written 75,424

By the way, while 75k words seems like a lot. Daddy tells me it's only about a tenth the number of words in the King James Bible. According to this site, there are 788,280 words contained there. Of course, I'm only 2 years old, so, at the current pace, by the time I'm of legal drinking age, I'll have as many words about my life as words in the Bible.

Building a Better Blog

I'm sure you noticed that my Blog has changed format a bit. Daddy says that the nice folks at Blogger improved their templates a lot, so we should use them. The new format makes my blog easier for machines to read, so that web search engines, like Google, can find me more easily. That sounded good to me. What really sold me though was when Daddy told me I can now have my picture on the blog. Hope you like the new design.

Play Blocks

I like to play with all sorts of blocks, but some of my favorites are my big blocks. To get out these blocks, it is necessary to lift up the big plastic container holding them, invert the container, and then let the blocks cascade over my head and down to the floor. Next comes building time. When I'm playing myself, I tend to favor towers, but when Mommy or Daddy are playing too, I encourage them to build either tunnels or bridges. Today, Daddy built a really good bridge out of the blocks. He then got a bunch of tracks from the Thomas the Tank Engine set and laid the tracks over the bridge so that the trains could ride it. Here is a picture of one of the trains, Gordon, peeking out of the covered section of the bridge. He's hauling milk. Whoo, whoo. All aboard!

Vroom

Daddy and I went to the park today and, for the first time, I was able to get onto the bouncy motorcycle all by myself. The trick is to put your foot in a stirrup type of thing and then swing the other leg around--horsy style. While I have no trouble with th leg swing since I've got myriad play horsies at home, the purpose of the stirrup has eluded me up until now. Daddy took a picture of my on my motorcycle. Vroom, vroom!


On my Motorcycle 

England

Mommy and Daddy have still not managed to finish editing the photos of their trip to England. They did ask me to post this picture to provide a little taste. This is a picture of a mill in a town called Burford.


A Picture of Burford 

Me

Me 

Daddy liked this picture, so it gets a quick post.

Hello Pictures

Daddy's first attempts at pictures were kind of lame. Many people saw an "x" instead of a picture. Daddy has now figured out hw to post pictures in a better way. He uses a program called hello. Daddy says this is a great little program that makes it very easy to post pictures to the Blog. He posted some pictures for the latest entry as well as fixing the zoo picture so it no longer displays an "x". Sometimes Daddy is, as Sir Topham Hatt would say, a "very useful engine".

Daddy Here!

Playing Football with Daddy I look forward to the time that Daddy comes home from work. I like to wait in the living room (or the movie room as I call it) and then run to the door and give him a big hug as he comes in. I've posted some pictures of some of my favorite things to do after he comes home. You can view them here. In the first couple of shots, you can see that I really like playing football with Daddy.

Today's version of football featured Daddy spinning the football "round and round" on the floor in the hall. I also like to go outside with Daddy and check on the tomato plants. If it's been a really hot day, we like to give the tomato plants a drink with the watering can. My job is to carry the watering can to the tomato plants.


I also take a tally if any plants are sick. Right now we have no sick ones.

New Media

Yesterday, I got to expand my media horizons. Mommy took me shopping at a local strip mall containing one of my favorite place, Taco Bell, which I refer to simply as "quesadilla house". Anyway, also contained in this shopping center is a store where I found a coloring book with a set of watercolor paints. The paints looked very pretty and I couldn't wait to try them out. In fact, once I discovered them, I immediately took them to the checkout counter---cutting in front of other people already there---in order to ensure that I got the paints soon.

When we got home, Mommy made me put on my Maisy paint smock and we got to work on painting. I painted on a page with a picture of a piggy and a cow. I painted the face of the pig black.

"Piggy dirty," I said after seeing the effect of the black paint on the piggy. I also painted Mommy's arm black by accident too. "Paint Mommy's arm" I said after that incident. Painting is lots of fun.

Phone Dancing

I mentioned before how Daddy had gotten a new cell phone that's a lot more fun than his old one. In addition to being able to take pictures, it also plays lots of great songs. One of my favorite things to do is "phone dancing"---Daddy plays various ringtones on his phone and we both dance around the room. My favorite is Polka, which Daddy says reflects my northeastern PA heritage.

Singing in the Blog

Here is an audio blog I made of my singing.

Elephant Time

With Mommy still hobbling with her hurt foot, Daddy and I went off to the zoo on Saturday. Now, when Mommy takes me to the zoo, we always bring a stroller in case I get tired and myriad goodies in case I get hungry. Daddy has a more minimalist approach to traveling with me. No stroller and only 3 cheese sticks, some veggie crackers, and some water to keep me happy. While I could do with traveling in more luxury, Daddy's approach does have its benefits--notably I get to go where I want to go in the zoo. Daddy ticked off the names of some of the animals in the zoo and then I decided which I wanted to visit and in what order. My ordering of the animals did not exactly coincide with the way the zoo people had placed them, so there was a lot of back and forth walking and climbing up and down hills. Still, I liked the freedom to choose what I wanted to see and in what order.

We finally came to the elephants, who are at the top of a big hill, and so I decided it was time to take a picnic break. We sat right next to the elephants and Daddy opened a cheese stick for me and got out my water. I only wanted a little help in opening the cheese stick since I like to do it myself. I quickly ate all three cheese sticks and a bunch of crackers. The elephants were eating leaves from a tree. I offered the elephants a nearby wood chip to nibble on, but they didn't seem interested.

Next, we visited the rides section of the zoo. I got to ride the cars (one of my favorites) and chose the orange car and the fire engine for my two rides there. Next, we got on the merry-go-round. Initially, I wanted to sit on the bench to go round and round, but after that first ride, I decided that I really preferred the up and down action of the tiger. We rode the tiger three times! Here's a photo album with a picture of me on the tiger wearing my hat and sunglasses (most guys my age eschew sunglasses). Daddy took this picture with his new cell phone, which we both like quite a bit better than his old one.


Riding the Tiger 

Here's a link to Daddy's cellphone photo album.

By the end of our time in the zoo, I was quite tired. I went to sleep almost as soon as I got in the car. What a fun day.

Apple Store

Yesterday, Mommy wanted to go to Nordstroms to look at some photos of me. Daddy, who was still recovering from a dental procedure, decided to come along too for the ride. Now, normally, I go shopping with Mommy and end up in the stores that she wants to go to. Shopping with Daddy is different---he has no particular preference where we go, so we get to go to stores that I find interesting. Fortunately, my tastes and Daddy's seem to run along similar lines.

First, we went to Sharper Image. This is a really fun store since it features lots of things to play with. I especially like the section with the sound soothers. I like to make them make the train noise or the wind chime noise. For a while, I had all six of them in the store making the train noise at maximum volume. Next, we went to the Apple Computing store. Daddy told me that they had lots of "i" stuff there including Apple iPods capable of playing Sheryl Crow's "I" song. We went inside and I saw the iPods. They come in lots of different colors. I pointed and named each of the colors to the delight of the salespeople: red one, blue one, gold one, silver one... Next we went to the kids section of the Apple store. Here, they had seats shaped like big black balls. I sat on one of the balls, and Daddy and I played the "Finding Nemo" game on an iMac. We also looked at some swell notebook computers called iBooks. Too soon, we had to leave to meet back up with Mommy. I really like the Apple store.

On our way back, we stopped at a store selling wind chimes and played with those for a while. We also stopped at a couple of stores selling cell phones. I really like phones and there are lots of them in the cell phone stores. My favorite thing to do was to pick up a phone and have a quick conversation. "Hiya" I'd say. Then I'd pause a few seconds. Then I'd say "bye bye" and move on to the next phone. It's fun shopping with Daddy.

Mommy here...Daddy here

Mommy and Daddy finally came back on an airplane. About two weeks ago, Daddy went away to work in a faraway place called England. About a week after that, Mommy announced that she had to go over to England to help Daddy "work" but that Grammy would take good care of me. She did---we had a great time together---but still I'm glad to have Mommy and Daddy back here. I've developed some new speech mannerisms in their absence. First, I like to say "Hiya" all the time. This is my way of saying that I'm happy to be with the person I'm saying "hiya" to. Mommy and Daddy got lots of "hiyas" when they came back. The other speech thing I've picked up is saying "hmmm" while I'm thinking of how to answer a question. For instance, if asked whether I want to wear a red shirt or a blue shirt, I'll now answer, "Hmm...Red one."

Big Gordon

I got one of the best new toys ever this weekend---my very own Thomas the Tank Engine train layout. Mommy apparently bought it on eBay for a fraction of its usual retail price. Right now, the train track is laid out on the coffee table and I've got many of my favorite engine friends going around the track. Of course, there's Thomas. I also have James, Gordon, and my favorite, Percy. Gordon is the biggest engine, so I usually refer to him as "big Gordon." One of the best parts of my train layout is the tunnel. I especially like to make the engines poke out of the edge of the tunnel. I exclaim, "Gordon peeking out!" whenever I get them in this position.

Sick One

One of my new jobs this summer is to be a gardener. Daddy has planted a whole bunch of tomato and pepper plants in big pots. Each day, we go outside to check on the plants, given them plant food occasionally, and water them if they need it. I like the plants very much and greet each one individually by touching its leaves. A couple of days ago, an unfortunate drainage incident led one of the tomato plants to get too much water. Now Daddy tells me that this tomato plant is not feeling well. I go over and touch its leaves to try to make it happy. Sometimes, while touching its leaves, I'll ask, "Happy tomato?" It never replies.

Since it's taking a while for this plant to get better, I like to take a survey of the health of the plants. I go over and point to each plant, announcing, "Happy, happy, happy, happy, and so on." Until I come to the sick one, then I point and say, "Sick one." I hope the sick tomato plant gets better.

Picture Time

Here are a bunch of pictures of me taken around Mother's Day for you to enjoy.

Professor Daddy

My Daddy was quite excited to come home from work today. It turns out that he was promoted to something called Full Professor or, more compactly, Professor. I guess he was only a partial professor before. Anyway, he told me that, as a result of this status change, I should refer to him as "Professor Daddy" instead of simply as Daddy. Naturally, I took him at his word and called him Professor Daddy throughout the evening. I'm very proud of Professor Daddy.

A Game of Catch

Daddy has been playing catch with me since I was about 6 months old. In its usual form, Daddy rolls the ball to me and then I throw it "back" (which technically means only that I throw it---without regard for direction). The accurate throwing part has gotten much better. When I want to, I can actually throw the ball to Daddy although sometimes it's more fun to throw it away from him to watch him go get it. This past weekend, though, there was a big breakthrough in my catching skills. I noticed that when I threw the ball to Daddy, he could pluck it right out of the air. I wanted to do that too, so I had Daddy throw the ball to me instead of rolling it. Initially, I discovered that catching a ball out of the air is difficult. I flung my arms outward but somehow the ball did not end up in my hands. With a few practice tosses, however, I got it. I caught the ball---straight out of the air. Daddy whooped for joy and we did a little "catch the ball" dance. Then we repeated it, and I caught the ball again. We even tried with different sized balls and, after a couple of tries, I could catch these too. Catching is great (but still not as fun as throwing.)

Picture Time

Daddy's been in the habit of taking random pictures of me on the days we hang out together. As usual with him, there is no posing. The shot of the two of us was a self portrait taken by me. See the pictures here.

What's "Happy Birthday" without the cake?

Mommy and I just returned from a lunchtime birthday party for our next-door neighbor kids' grandmother, who is visiting from England. (Daddy is teaching a class at "Wharton West" in SF today.) Birthday parties raise certain expectations in me, particularly "lights" (candles) and cake. I was pleased when I arrived to spot a candle on the table on the patio, which I tried without success to blow out. I also told the birthday grandma "Happy Birthday!" Mommy later gave me pieces of some small iced cakes (later identified as brownies).

There was a magician at the party for entertainment, who was kind of interesting but went on for too long for me to sit still, so Mommy and I retired to the kitchen for refreshments and some ball rolling. After a bit, all of the people by the magician started warming up to sing "Happy Birthday" (a comical warm-up led by the magician). After the warm up, Mommy told me that we were going to sing in earnest, so I thought that I'd save the day since there was no cake with lights in sight and, after all, what is "Happy Birthday" without the cake? I ran to the kitchen a hoisted the box of fancy brownies (previously identified as "cake") off the table with the intention of proudly presenting them to the birthday lady. Alas, the box was too heavy and the remaining brownies fell on the floor. This made me a little sad, but Mommy told me that she understood that my intentions were good, and now I have a good story to tell. I got to pet the magician's dwarf rabbit, Fluffy, so that made a good end to the party.

More Stories

At story time, I always want more and more stories. Annoyingly, Mommy and Daddy ration the stories to three per night. (Occasionally I can sneak in a fourth when Mommy's in a really good mood.) Anyway, I figure that the main reason the stories are rationed is that they're time consuming to read. To help with this situation, Daddy helped me to find this site: The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature. As it says on the site: "Great books distilled to their essence and presented in the most efficient form of communication ever devised."

My personal favorite is this one, which reduces the longish story Goodnight Moon down to two convenient slides filled with bullet point "take-aways" from the story.

Aidan Hong Kong

In our conversation at dinner, Daddy started talking about Hong Kong. Apparently, one of his students was just offered a job there. He asked me if I wanted to go to Hong Kong. Mommy frowned. "Yes!" I said. Daddy seemed pleased. What he didn't know was that I wanted to go right then, right that very second. I didn't really need or want to finish dinner as there was no point in delaying my trip to Hong Kong. Daddy and Mommy continued to talk.

"Aidan Hong Kong?" I offered, in case they forgot about our trip.

"Later. When you're a bigger boy." offered Mommy and Daddy.

Checking my height I concluded that I was certainly big enough to go to Hong Kong.

"Aidan Hong Kong?" I repeated.

Later that evening, Daddy got out a big book called an atlas to show me where Hong Kong was. He pointed to California and told me I was here. I then pointed to some other places on the page to indicate where Daddy and Mommy were. I pointed to the horn of Africa and said, "Daddy here." I pointed to the southern tip of India and said "Mommy here."

Daddy pointed out where Hong Kong was. It's pretty close to California on the page in the atlas.

"Aidan Hong Kong?" I reminded everyone since our trip was already delayed by more than an hour.

We looked at some post cards of Hong Kong that Daddy brought me. Hong Kong is filled with boats, which I liked very much. There was also a picture of a bunch of people climbing steps to visit a big golden guy named Buddha. I liked the steps a lot though Buddha was good too. Hong Kong seems like a great place to go.

"Aidan Hong Kong?"

Time is on my side

I'm getting more sophisticated in my speech. I now use things like articles ("Hit the golf ball") as well as prepositions ("Mommy with green car"). One consistent pattern which I've adopted is to append the term "time" to whatever it is that I want to do at the moment. I've discovered Mommy and Daddy have used "time" very effectively in scheduling things (bath time, teeth time, bed time, etc.) so I've adopted this as well to good effect. I choose other kinds of times like "choo choo time", "golf time", "outside now time", and so on. Adding the word time lends a kind of urgency and authority to the request that I think translates directly into results.

Easter & Wheel Day Photos

Click here to see photos of our Easter celebrations!

Click here to see me having fun with all the trucks and cars at "Wheel Day" in Lafayette!

Wheel Day

This morning Mommy and I went to an event called "Wheel Day." It featured lots of cool wheeled vehicles for kids to look at and climb on. I yelled, "Oh boy!" when we got out of the car and saw all of the neat things. I first chose to get on the yellow school bus. I have a schoolbus toy and also know the "Wheels on the Bus" song, so it was really exciting to get on the bus! I chose a seat, sat down, and said, "Whee!" to encourage the bus to go, but unfortunately the bus did not move. I still had a good time though. I sat in the driver's seat and even beeped the horn! I also sat in the drivers' seat of a huge dump truck (I also beeped the horn on this one), a yellow loader (much like Bob the Builder's truck, Scoop), a fire engine, a camoflauge-colored army hummer, a police car (only the back seat of that one), and a little red European coupe that opens by flipping the whole front end up so you can climb in! (This last car, the BMW Isetta, was so cool that I'm inserting a link about it here.) All of these vehicles were visited multiple times by Mommy and me. I also got to push a button to make the siren go on a police bicycle! I ran into my friend, Chloe, and her family at Wheel Day too, and we enjoyed the Hummer and the fire engine together. Photos will be forthcoming.

Speaking of trucks, I had a great time on Wednesday watching a yellow backhoe loader and a dump truck work to get the ground ready for the new playground at the Lafayette Community Center. I watched the loader (also like Scoop) pick up dirt and pebbles across the parking lot, haul it to the playground site, dump it and then level it off. Several of my friends watched this too as we had all come out of Kindergym, but I was lucky because I convinced Mommy to stay the longest. We got to see a dump truck arrive and raise its dumper all the way up to dump out a huge new load of dirt and rocks! Wow! Oh boy! Then the Scoop truck went to work carting the dirt to the playground. I can't wait for the new playground to be finished, but the trucks make waiting easier!

A Good Walk Spoiled

As you already know, golf is a big part of my life. I really like the "dot machine"---a machine that spins the golf ball really fast while Daddy puts dots on it. Here's the model Daddy has. Anyway, lately I"ve expanded my golf horizons. Dadddy recently bought a book called A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein. This book features a nice green cover and is all about golf. For a while, Daddy read to me from this book during my breakfast. I liked this idea so much that over the last few days, I've been requesting that Mommy read me stories from the golf book. Last night at bedtime, I eschewed my usual favorites at story time---A Lot of Otters, Ten in the Bed, and Guess How Much I Love You---in favor of more stories from the golf book. Last night's story was about a golfer named Tom Watson who made something called a bogey at the 18th hole of the British Open in 1994. He was sad about this bogey.

Wiggle Time

On Saturday, Mommy and I went to see The Wiggles (our favorite singing group) at the Oakland Arena. It was really exciting! Mommy started talking about going to see The Wiggles the day before, and I talked about nothing but that until bedtime. I was all ready to go as soon as I woke up the next day. I exclaimed, "Wigls!" (Wiggles) as soon as I woke up and that periodically exclaimed, "Wigls! Songs! Dance! Oh Boy!" in various combinations to remind Mommy that we had somewhere to go.

Mommy and I got to the arena an hour early, and we were really glad that we did. She got a great parking spot, and I got to walk up and down ramps and pick out the white Wiggles shirt that I expressed a special preference for with smaller crowds than showed up later. We also got to our seats on time, which was great since there was such a crush of people arriving closer to the official start time, that they had to delay the start time a bit to let them get into the parking lot and to their seats.

Anyway, the show was really exciting! (I was a little intimidated by all of the lights, so I stayed on Mommy's lap like many other kids, but I had lots of fun!) Some kids brought signs to hold up with their parents, and The Wiggles read all those that they could see. (Mommy thought that was very nice of them.) One family in seats pretty high up held a sign that said, "We have food for Anthony!" He's always hungry, so he went up into the audience and received an open bag of baked Doritos (guess the kids were hungry too!).

We had great seats, and Mommy and I loved watching Greg, Anthony, Murray, and Jeff singing, dancing, and joking around. They came into the audience a couple times, and I was only a few feet away from Jeff! (Mommy wished it were Anthony, who is the heartthrob Wiggle of many in her mommy group. Click here for a SF Chronicle column by another mom fan of Anthony.)

My special favorite, Dorothy the Dinosaur, sang and danced to many songs with the others and even sang her solo butterfly song (a special favorite since Mommy and I sing it at home!) Wags the Dog and Henry the Octopus were also there dancing around. Mommy especially enjoyed Captain Feathersword, who sang his "Quack Quack Quack, Cock a Doodle Doo" song as Barney, a Teletubby, Mick Jagger, Ozzy Osbourne, Celine Dion, and an operatic tenor. He was really funny, and Mommy says he has an incredible vocal range despite all his clowning around!

As we walked to the car after the concert, Mommy asked me whether I had fun, and I said "Aidan Wigles fun!" We listened to Wiggles songs the whole way home in the car. I want to go back and visit the Wiggles again!

Easter

Easter is yet another great holiday, or wingding as I like to call it. (An aside: When we went to the P-Nuts playgroup joint 2-year-old birthday celebration, Daddy taught me that we were attending a wingding over and over in the car. I internalized it and now all events where there is both fun to be had and people to have it with are wingdings.) Yesterday morning I got up and found that the Easter Rabbit (the "buddy bat" as I call him) had come to visit me. I got all sorts of good stuff including a bit of chocolate. While I dislike all other forms of candy, I really like chocolate. Next, we all got dressed up for church. Mommy tried to put me in a shirt with evil buttons on it, but I protested vigorously and ended up button-free. Mommy explained to me that church is where people think about Jesus. Jesus is, apparently, a nice man who helps people. I'm all for that. In church, the highlight was all the songs. Every time we would stop signing songs and people would start to talk, I would pipe up from the back of the church my request: "more songs, more songs." Daddy seemed to agree with me on this sentiment. When church was over and we went outside, I kind of missed the church and the songs. I suggested that we go back by saying "more Jesus, more Jesus."

When we got home, we went on an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. While some people like to gather all the eggs on the hunt before determining what's inside, I prefer more immediate feedback. I would give an egg to my assistant, Daddy, and order him to open it. I would then inspect the contents and make an immediate judgment: If it was chocolate, then it should be eaten immediately---"eat" I'd say. If it was a toy, then it required immediate playing with. If it was a non-chocolate piece of food such as cereal or teddy grahams, then it could be safely ignored and I would proceed to the next egg.

I like Easter.

Big Slide

In addition t my newfound jumping ability, I'm also become quite an excellent climber. Daddy took me to the park yesterday and I went zipping up to the top of the big slide. The first part consists of steps leading up to a level where there is a little slide. I used to only go to this part and come down the little slide, but recently I discovered there is a ladder leading from the landing of the little slide up to the top of the big slide. I can zip up the ladder and go zooming down the big slide. The other thing that's great about slides is sliding lots of things other than Aidan down them. I'm particularly fond of sliding golf balls down the slide. Daddy or Mommy thoughtfully put the golf balls to wait for me at the top of the slide (that way my hands can be free for climbing rather than carrying golf balls). Then, when I get to the top of the slide, I'll roll the golf balls down. Sometimes I roll them singly (whee!), other times I roll them in bunches (lots!). Finally, I slide myself down to greet the golf balls at the bottom.

NO Buttons!

Sometime in February or early March, I decided that buttons were especially unpleasant things and started declaring "No buttons!" each time it was time to get dressed. I decided to be very firm about this point, since my mild expressions of distaste for buttons in 2003 were obviously not getting me anywhere. I am happy to say my early 2004 arguments against buttons were so vehement that only one shirt with buttons has disgraced my chest since I started the 2004 Anti-Button Crusade. (The one that slipped by had buttons shaped like baseballs so, after much debate, I yielded since baseballs are cool.) I feel very powerful.

Photos from Uncle Ted & Aunt Holly's Visit

Click here to see photos from Uncle Ted and Aunt Holly's visit in March!

Other Roo

I am a big fan of Tigger, Eeyore, and Winnie the Pooh, but up until recently I have been less familiar with other characters, such as "Other Roo." "Other Roo" figures prominently in The Tigger Movie, a video which I received from my godmother, Jo Ann, at Christmastime. (Much like Tigger, "Other Roo" is excellent at bouncing, as I am too since I started consistently jumping with "Two feet!" off the ground last Saturday.)

You may not recognize the character "Other Roo" since Mommy calls him "Roo" (for short I guess). Mommy thinks that I am so used to referring to the "other room," which is how everyone in this house refers to a room we're not yet in, that I have tacked "Other" on to Roo's name. I think that she just neglected to learn his full name and is being too informal.

Red Hat

I'm really starting to enjoy reading books. Currently, there is only one book that I can actually read: it's called Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton. I like to open up the book and read aloud---"Blue hat, green hat, red hat, uh oh" and so on. The key to my reading skills with this book are that all of the words correspond exactly to the pictures. So if I simply say what I see on the page, I end up reading the book. Actually, I'm not quite accurate. The "uh oh" part is my innovation. In the book, "uh oh" is replaced by "oops". Reading is fun.

Grammy's Visit

Click here to see some photos from my Grammy's visit!

My Grammy flew on an airplane to visit me the other week. I really enjoyed having her here. She came with me to Kindergym and "preschool" (a mommy and me pre-preschool experience) and I showed her around. We also went to the Oakland Zoo together, where we saw cool animals like giraffes, camels, and elephants. We spent lots of time at the attached little kids amusement park too, where we all rode the choo-choo together and I took many rides on the neat cars that go around and around in a circle. I chose a different car most times, but my favorite is still a shiny blue roadster.

Like me, Grammy seems to like STOP signs quite a bit, and we enjoyed pointing out each one we saw and anticipating when the next one would show up. This is a fun game on the local streets, but less satisfying on the freeway, where the cars so fast and don't stop often. I am very happy that I can see a stop sign right outside my window over the backyard fence!

Mommy, Grammy and I went on a big adventure her last weekend here. We drove to Monterey to see the fishies there who live at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Since it's a 2 hour drive, we stayed overnight at a motel in nearby Seaside, where I got to sleep in my Pack n Play. I was very happy to see it and sleep in it again!

The aquarium was neat with huge tanks of fishies, plants, otters, penguins, etc. There was a dark little space you could climb up and view the penguins away from the crowds, and I declared that the penguins seen from that spot "Aidan's penguins." We watched the otters play with toys and eat lunch. That was fun too. I have a book at home that I really like called, A lot of Otters, and so I really looked forward to visiting the otters. We all came home with otter merchandise.

On the way back to the car after the aquarium, we spotted a big, brightly lit carousel. I decided to take a ride despite my year-long fear of carousel horses. (This despite my love of horsies everywhere else!) Anyway, while at first I was going to sit on the bench on the carousel, with a little coaxing a chose a white horse this time and had a great time. Then I chose a grey horse for the next ride! I would have chosen an apricot colored horse next, but mommy insisted that out long day was coming to an end, and we went to our "green car" and rode home. It was a very fun day! I miss Grammy!

Happy Birthday Uncle Jack!

Today is my Uncle Jack's birthday. Mommy and I called him at work to wish him a happy day. I listed for Uncle Jack the things that he will require in order to have a perfect birthday : 1) cake, 2) lights (candles on the cake), and 3) Elmo hat. Now that he has this information, he should have a magnificent birthday.

While Mommy tried once again to get me to call Uncle Jack by name while speaking with him, I did not cooperate until after we hung up the phone. Then I clearly said, "Uncle Jack, bye-bye!"

DVD

I like to watch videos and am becoming more skilled in operating the VCR. I now know how to eject a video and replace it in its dust jacket. Mommy and Daddy have also set up my video library in such a way that I have easy access to all my favorites. Right now the current "heavy" rotation includes Maisy, Little People, Wiggles, and Elmo. Sometimes I get addicted to videos and want to watch lots of them. Often, Mommy or Daddy will try to rein me in by telling me that we're all done watching videos or that the VCR is tired and needs a rest. Fortunately, I've come up with a creative solution to the tired VCR problem--it turns out that when the VCR is busy playing videos, the DVD player is resting. Hence, when faced with no more videos, I thoughtfully suggest, "DVD, DVD" as a solution to the problem. While Mommy and Daddy like the creativity of this solution, they still don't let me keep watching stuff.

Asia

Daddy just got back from Asia. After doing pretty well on his return, he's a bit of a mess from insomnia right now. Anyway, he told me to point out to you some pictures he posted of his trip. You can view them here.

No happy

I usually indicate my mood as being either positive (Yes happy) or negative (no happy). Over the last few days, I"ve been no happy a lot. Yesterday, Mommy took me to the doctor and it turns out I've got an ear infection, which is especially painfull when I lie down. This is a problem since I typically sleep lying down. Monday night was an especially "no happy" night for all of us. Fortunately, the doctor gave me some antibiotics (mmm, delicious medicine) and I'm already feeling mre yes happy than I was earlier. I hope I recover soon although Mommy promises that I'll get to enjoy the tasty medicine for the full course of the antibiotics.

People

We've had a whole bunch of visitors come through our house over the last several days. Over the weekend, Aunt Holly and Uncle Ted came to visit. The brought me a present (bows!!!) that I like very much. It's a set of legos (duplos actually) that create an elephant, a giraffe, and, in honor of their Floridian roots, an alligator. I really love my legos. Uncle Ted and Aunt Holly are lots of fun to play with. Uncle Ted especially likes to roll around on the floor with me. The main difficulty is that with so many new people coming through, it was hard for me to keep track of their names, so, throughout their stay, I simply referred to them as "people." For instance, if Aunt Holly would come in the door with her shoes on, I'd suggest (strongly) "People shoes off." And so on.

The morning after they left, I woke up and said "Bye bye Aunt Holly." I finally figured out her name, but just a little too late.

Pool

It's been unseasonably hot here this past week. After the temperature soared into the mid 80s yesterday, Daddy broke out the swimming pool for the first time all year. This was the best. As Daddy was getting out the pool, I flapped my arms up and down and shouted "pool, pool" in my excitement. The pool didn't disappoint. It was nice and cool. I also got to do one of my favorite pool activities: the ritual throwing of all the balls in the yard into the pool. Then throwing them back out again. And so on.

In the driver's seat

Daddy got a new toy yesterday---a driver that his friend Vijay sent him. We were both pretty excited to get the golf club out of its box. It's a Ping TiSI model. It's got a huge clubhead. When I saw the size of the clubhead, I opened my mouth wide and went "ohhhhhh", followed by a couple of "oh boys!". Daddy had a similar reaction. I quickly identified the club as a driver and scurried off to get out the box of golf balls and the putting green. We putted with the "big dog" as Daddy likes to call the new club. It doesn't look much like a dog, but I woofed at it anyway. Then it was my turn to hit with the club. While it's a really long club, since the head is so big, it's rather easy for me to hit golf balls with it. Soon after that, I brought out my own golf clubs ("Aidan's golf clubs" as I refer to them---I always refer to myself in the third person) for comparison. I toyed with them briefly and then went back to the driver. I like Daddy's golf clubs much better than my own.

Woof!

Hum

I know how to hum. Mommy caught me humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in the car today, and then we hummed it together in the car and at home. Hum Hum Hum Hum...

Here are some links to recent photos of me with some buddies:

Click here for photos at Kindergym February 26 and in rain gear afterwards.

Click here for photos taken at the P-Nuts Playgroup group 2-year-old birthday party on Feb 29.

We are still wading through the digital photos taken around Christmas. Some of them will be posted within the next few days!

Wingding

Yesterday, we went to the P-Nuts group 2 year old birthday celebration. P-Nuts is one of the many groups to which I belong. The origins of the name are obscure though. Anyway, on our way there, Daddy taught me a new word to describe this event---wingding. I liked saying it---wingding. The best part of this house, which I call the choo-choo house, is the train table where they have a Thomas the Tank Engine train. I loved playing with that. Indeed, for the couple of hours that we were there, I paid almost exclusive attention to the choo-choo. Occasionally, other children would join me in playing with the choo-choo (and sometimes I'd rather that they'd have gone away) but none were as consistently faithful to the railroading spirit as I was. The other highlight of the event was receiving a balloon. I now officially have a favorite color---yellow. Given the choice of many different colored balloons, I wanted the yellow one. I display similar preferences when it comes to my clothes as well.

Feetball

One of my favorite activities to play with Daddy is "feetball". I pick up two (always has to be two) feetballs and summon Daddy to our back hallway. Here, the game takes on various forms. Sometimes I toss a feetball to Daddy and he tosses it back. Other times, I'm the fullback and I come charging into the "line" (Daddy) in an attempt to break through. When we're doing the fullback version of the game, Daddy prefers that we be on carpeted surfaces rather than the hard floor. The noises Daddy makes on impact are the best part (although being bounced around is pretty good too.) Daddy seems to think that I'll make a fine fullback some day since I don't shy away from contact at all. I just lower my head and plow in.

Feetball is fun.

Maisy

Last weekend, Daddy and I went out shopping. Well, we went out shopping in the crazy Daddy way where we get to the mall before it opens and I get to run around and explore. Anyway, after things opened, we found a warehouse bookstore and explored there. I was attracted to a number of large boxes that looked good for climbing into. Daddy put me in a nearly empty box and I frolicked in the books at the bottom of the box. One of the books I found was about the character Maisy, who is a mouse. In this book, Maisy was working on a farm. The best thing about this book is that it had lots of little handles to pull Maisy up and down a ladder, ride a tractor and so on. Finally, we left the store and, on leaving, I cried out plaintively "Maisy, Maisy."

That was enough to melt Daddy's heart and get him to buy the book for me. He gave me the money to hand to the salesperson, and I got to take the Maisy book home with me. It's one of my favorite books now. I especially like it when Daddy reads it to me.

Teezy

Sometimes when Daddy comes home from work, he makes a "teezy". He always seems to want more of this drink since he keeps saying he's making "more" "teezy". This is a fun drink to make. First, he puts a wet glass in the freezer to cool. Then he puts some ice cubes and some juices called gin and vermouth into a shaker. Then the fun begins. He shakes the shaker and it makes a great maraca sound. Then he pours the "more" "teezy" into his glass. Then it's my turn to shake the shake. I used to only give it a desultory shake and then return it to Daddy saying "Daddy's turn". But now I shake with gusto all the while chanting "teezy, teezy, teezy". Then I pass it back to Daddy for more shaking. When I want it back, I request "More teezy"

Can you guess what this drink is?

The hard-working letter I

I have a new favorite song---Soak up the Sun---by Sheryl Crow. I actually know it as the "I" song. Daddy started singing this too me in the tub while making my foam letter I dance along to the music. I love it. Later, he downloaded the song (legally using iTunes) so that I could listen to it. Sheryl Crow's singing is even better than Daddy's. Now, it's my new favorite song. In fact, I like to listen to it exclusively. It's best repeated in a continuous loop. Here are my favorite lyrics:

"I"'s gonna soak up the sun
Gonna tell everyone to lighten up

I love the letter I. I think it's displaced E as my favorite letter---largely because of this song.

A hearty breakfast

I'm a big believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That's why I prefer to have my breakfasts as enormous feasts. Lately, breakfast has consisted of two yogurts, some juice, and two bowls of oatmeal (I really like to have two of everything). Daddy says that this is a full day's worth of calorie intake for him while for me it's just breakfast. Of course, I run around a lot during the day, so I need the energy.

Singing

I've become increasing interested in singing over the last few weeks. Mostly I like to make up my own songs with lyrics about things that interest me. Sometimes I sing or hum songs that I know from my music together class. A favorite in this regard is the chugga chugga choo choo song, which I really enjoy. On Sunday, Daddy was reading a book called Barnyard Dance by the amazingly prolific Sandra Boynton. This is a book that's meant to be sung though perhaps not in the way that Daddy does it. He would singsong some of the words to the book and then take extended breaks to hum the theme from that all-time classic, The Benny Hill Show. I really enjoy the Benny Hill music. Since that song doesn't have words (or at least Daddy doesn't know them), I added my own lyrics. While Daddy hummed the Benny Hill theme, I'd singsong "Balls in holes. Ballf ballf balls in holes!" and so on. He seemed to really like these lyrics.

Teeth!

My Daddy was in charge of me on Sunday as Mommy went out to see a concert by someone named Cecilia Bartoli. She even waited in line after the concert to get her autograph. Meanwhile, it was a pretty overcast day. Daddy originally had in mind to go on a hiking trail somewhere but the combination of the weather and my unwillingness to get into the car dissuaded him of this. In stead, we went to the park across from the house. I did lots of sliding on the sliding board. The best was when Daddy would hold my hand on the way down and give me some extra acceleration. Whee!

We had to leave the park when a large and overly friendly dog came to visit. I really don't trust dogs that are significantly bigger than I am. This guy gave me a bunch of kisses and then wouldn't leave.

"Bye bye woof." I said.

The dog just looked at me and circled around.

"Bye bye woof"

No response from the dog. Obviously he was not getting the message.

Eventually, I became so distraught over the dog following us that Daddy had to carry me home.

The afternoon was a bit better. We went out in the backyard where I discovered my big red wagon. I love my wagon---and especially the long wagon rides Daddy takes me on. We went round the whole neighborhood. I would greet everyone as we passed. I'm evolving a preferred style of conversation that I perfected when dealing with the little people and the golf balls with smiley faces on them. I look the person straight in the eyes and, with a big smile, say "hi". Usually the other person says hi back to me. This signifies the end of the conversation, so I say "bye bye" and turn my gaze in another direction.

Ample Bubbles

Whenever I take a bath, I have to have bubbles My usual ritual is to run to the bathroom while crying out "eeeeeeeee". Then when Daddy turns on the faucets, I say "bath on" followed shortly by the plaintive cry, "bubbles!" One Daddy puts in the bubbles, things start to get really good. As the number of bubbles increases, I closely monitor the situation until, when there are enough bubbles, I declare "ample bubbles". "Ample" is not a word I normally use, but Daddy taught it to me to describe situations where there are plenty of bubbles. Finally, when my bath is over, I say bye bye to the bubbles as they go down the drain.

"Bye bye bubbles."
"Bye bye ample bubbles."

Good day sunshine

It's been a glorious weekend--sunny and mid 60s. Naturally, I spent a lot of time outside. On Sunday morning we went to the driving range to hit golf ball. I brought my own set of clubs so that I could hit golf balls with Mommy and Daddy. Even better was a trip to the putting green, where I pulled all the flagsticks out of the holes and carried them around with me. Then I put them back in the holes. "In holes" I said as I did this. I also got to see the swans and the geese and pretended to be a swan and munch on the grass. In the afternoon, I went out for a wagon ride around the park near where we live. I got to swing on the swings there--"higher, higher" I cried. Daddy brought some golf balls and a club with him to the park. He was practicing his sand shots from the sandy area where the swings are. Sand shots are cool since he "blasts" both the sand and the ball up in the air. "Whee" I would say with each shot. My job was to get the balls and set them in place for each of the shots. Sand shots are much more interesting than normal golf shots.

Jammy Whammy

I used to like to run around and play "chase the Aidan" whenever it was time to put jammies on. Now, jammy time means time to put on my dancing shoes Addy invented a new way of putting on jammies while I "do the Jammy Whammy" and "turn myself about". The way the dance works is that, as Addy sings for me to put my left leg in, I put my leg in my jammies. Somehow, things aren't symmetric when it comes to the part of the song where I put my left leg out. Addy still keeps my leg in the jammies. The best parts of the song are where I shake my legs about and turn around. I really enjoy both of these.

"C" is for everything

Sunday is "Addy Day" in our household---Addy typically does stuff with me the whole day and gives Mommy a much needed day off. Anyway, yesterday was a rainy day here, so our usual strategy of going for walks and playing in the park was a no-go. Instead, Addy decided to drive us to a big indoor mall called the Stoneridge mall. We got there early---about 9:30---before any of the stores opened. This was fine with both of us since we really had nothing to buy. It was also good because it let me run around and be free without lots of other pesky shoppers getting in my way. There are lots of fun things in malls. One of my favorites was the escalator. I liked to ride up and down and up and down...and up and down...over and over again. Indeed, I really never get tired of escalator rides. Addy apparently does though. He wanted to stop after our fourth consecutive round trip. Elevators are also fun. Stoneridge has an elevator with windows on all sides. I liked looking out the window at the people as we went up and down.

The comedy highlight of the day involved the letter "C", one of my favorite letters. There are lots of big letters on the signs for the stores in the mall. Addy would ask me what different letters were and often I would tell him. Then, I decided to play a kind of joke. No matter what letter Addy pointed at, I would tell him it was the letter "C" and smile and laugh. He thought this was quite amusing as well. We looked at a big sign for an ATM. "What letter is this?" Addy would ask, pointing at the "A".

"C!" I would say confidently, smiling at him. He looked at me doubtfully and laughed. He moved on to to the "T" (which was tough for me to keep a straight face while saying "C" to in that "T" is a really great letter. It even resembles a golf tee, which is one of my favorite objects. Similarly with "M".

By the end of the morning, I was really tired and went to sleep in the car. It was a busy, but very fun, day.

Purple Yogurt

I've long been a fan of yogurt, but, as I've grown older, my tastes have become more refined. First, I'm very brand loyal. I only eat Danimals yogurt. Other competitors, such as YoBaby, are distinctly inferior and I refuse to eat them. Now, I've refined my taste even among the Danimals. The six pack of Danimals consists of three purple yogurts and three orange yogurts. I've now decided that only the purple ones are edible and not the orange ones. Sometimes Addy tries to sneak an orange container past me. But I'm very alert. When he brings me an orange, I tell him forcefully "purple, purple"---of course, the way I pronounce it, it sounds more like "people, people" I've noticed that the orange yogurts are starting to pile up in the fridge. I wonder what will happen to them?

Sentences

While my conversation is always sparkling, I've decided that Mommy and Daddy are finally at a stage where they can handle some increased sophistication. I've now started making three word sentences instead of my usual two word sentences. However, so as not to change things too radically, I'm still confining myself to only imperative statements. Here are some examples:

"Ball in holes" (Refers to the fact that if there is a hole around, such as in one of my toys or on the putting green, it is necessary that balls be placed in it.)

"Aidan apple all done" (Aidan is all done eating pineapple)

"Two piggy off" (The two piggies need to get out of the crib so I can play with them)

I've also discovered the joys of the possessive case. I'm very big about ownership and property rights, so for many objects I identify them by owner: Mommy's, Addy's, Aidan's, and sometimes, for some items, Nainnie's.

I'm feeling more urbane and sophisticated every day.

News Flush

Over the weekend, I successfully used the toilet on several occasions. Of course, these were mingled with a fair number of "hanging out" toilet experiences, but Mommy and Daddy are quite impressed at my progress. Saying "pee pee" is easily the fastest and best way to get them to drop whatever they're doing and pay attention to me.

Brought to you by the letter D

I learned a new word this weekend---or perhaps a new acronym is more like it---now, whenever Mommy or Daddy put a disk in our home theater, I exclaim "DVD, DVD." I sort of got to know this word through repeated viewing of my Elmo DVD. Mommy and Daddy have both stressed the differences between VCR tapes, which I can put in myself. The word DVD is also useful since it has helped me to key in on the letter D. I can now spot D's quite readily and I proudly announce "D" whenever I see one.

A Mystery

Last night, we were reading a story about Winnie the Pooh. While the story seems to be about a bear, I kept pointing to the toilet every time Addy said the character's name. Why would they name a bear pooh? It makes no sense.

Royal Vista

Yesterday, the whole family went to Royal Vista golf course to hit some "ballf balls." As we arrived, I noticed a couple of abandoned ballf balls in an ashtray. I absolutely had to have them, so Mommy and washed them off and gave them to me. The first part of our time was spent with Mommy hitting the ball and Addy supervising me. I found lots of good stuff around the driving range. In addition to the two ballf balls, I found a couple of tees and a broken rubber tee thingy used for the mats of the driving range. One of my favorite activities was to put a wooden tee inside one of the rubber tee thingies, pull it back, and then make it fly. "Whee," I said as the tee sailed away. I also pulled out some of Mommy's clubs and hit some balls myself.

After we were done driving, we went over to the putting green. I was initially helping Mommy and Addy to putt. They would hit a ball toward the hole, and I would intercept it. Then I would pick it up and deposit it in the hole. This way, Mommy and Addy made every one of their putts. Surprisingly, they didn't want this help even though it meant sometimes (or most of the time) they would not make their putts. Instead, Addy took me over to look at the big lake surrounding the 9th green. We saw lots of waterfowl there: herons, ibises, pelicans, ducks, and, my favorite, swans. Later, the swans came to visit us. They were eating grass on the ground. I was so excited by the swans that I decided I wanted to be a swan too. I got down on the ground like a swan and pretended to eat grass just like they were doing.

After my big morning, I fell asleep soon after we got into the car to drive home.

Toilet

One of my new favorite pastimes is to hang out on the toilet. Or, more accurately, to get on and off the toilet repeatedly. To initiate this game, all I have to do is loudly announce "pee-pee". This then sends Mommy and I to the bathroom where she helps me up onto my special seat on the toilet. Then I hang out there. Mommy seems to expect me to do something other than just look around when I'm on the toilet, but I don't quite get what else I'm supposed to do. Then I try to get down from the toilet and---the best part---flush the toilet. I love flushing. Once that task is accomplished, it's time to get back up on the toilet and start all over again. Happily, Mommy really seems to enjoy hanging out with me as I sit on the toilet.

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Last night, Addy put me to bed. This is, of course, not my preferred option. Whenever I hear that we're going to bed, I race over to Mommy and, if she's sitting down, I tug at her leg and say "off, off." Mommy wouldn't do the whole bedtime thing last night. Eventually, I went into the bedroom and Addy read me a story---one of my favorites---"Ten in the Bed". My initial reaction was to lie in the doorway as far from him as possible while still being in the room and cry. The story, however, is so compelling (three stuffed animals have been pushed off the bed...what could possibly happen next?) that I quieted and eventually listened for a while. But not for that long. During the "slow" parts, I would run out in the living room to check if Mommy was around. Addy eventually grew tired of this and put me in my crib, which was not what I wanted. I complained for a while.

Eventually, Addy came back in and I realized that story reading with him was not so bad after all. We read several stories together and Piggy sang the A-B-C song to wish me good night. At that point, I wasn't sure I wanted to go to sleep, so I turned the light of the room on. (I can reach the switch from my crib.) Addy turned it back off. So I turned it back on. That was enough for him. I got to go to sleep with the light on.

People's Republic

I've got a new favorite in the video department. Elmo is out. Ernie is out. Wiggles are out. Now what's cool and fashionable are People. "People" refers to the videos accompanying the many Little People (TM) items I received over Christmas and my birthday. These videos consist of short vignettes where the Little People do different things. Each vignette is preceded by the dulcet tones of Aaron Neville singing the Little People song. I love it. The cars--vroom--the people, the music. Best of all, the Little People like to watch themselves on TV.

While Mommy and Addy initially liked the Aaron Neville song and the cuteness of the People, I think they're kind of sick of it by now. Addy says that he feels like he's living in a "People's Republic" these days.

Sick

I hate being sick. Not only does it make me miserable, but I miss out on lots of exciting social opportunities. For instance, yesterday I was due to go to my first day of Kindergym this semester. I was especially looking forward to the tunnels there. I was also looking forward to using my newfound climbing skills. But, to no avail. I got sick about 20 minutes before we were due to leave, and I had to stay in all day. Today I was supposed to have a playdate, and that was cancelled too. Being sick is no fun.

A Night at the Opera

Last night, Mommy went with her friends to the San Francisco Opera where she saw La Boheme. Since I'm not yet an opera buff (and since Addy is a Philistine), she left the two of us to hang out at home. Initially, I was pretty distraught about Mommy leaving, but soon enough I rediscovered the joys of the Little People and was happy again. Addy has a much different management style than does Mommy. For instance, in eating, we mostly shared everything. Addy had cheese and crackers as a kind of starter and so did Aidan. By the way, the trick of balancing the cheese on the cracker is a tough one. I used to have a terrible time with this, but I'm getting better. The secret seems to be not to turn the cracker to a vertical position when inserting into one's mouth. Later in the evening, we had pizza. Now normally I sit in my high chair with my own tray. Tonight, however, Addy wanted a dinner companion, so he pushed my high chair up to the table, removed the little tray, and had me eat directly off the table. He offered me a host of different choices, but pizza was my preferred option. I especially like the cheese on the pizza. The crust, however, is nothing very interesting.

After that we had a bath and then Addy read me stories. I like my bedtime routine with him to be different than that with Mommy. For instance, Mommy has me sit on the big chair with her while she reads stories. Addy tried to do this as well, but I didn't like it since it reminded me that Mommy was not there. I preferred to stand next to him and check out the stories on my feet. Later, he tried to sing to me before bed. I didn't like this either. What was okay was when he put me in my crib and had Piggy sing the A-B-C song.

A Day on the Links

As you know, ballf is a big part of my day-to-day routine. One of the best parts is the ritual associated with getting all the equipment together for a day of golf. Yesterday morning, I had it in mind to play. I quickly found the box of golf balls and placed this in the middle of the living room. Next, I knew we needed golf clubs. Since Addy was sitting on the couch, I immediately ordered him "off, off" and scurried to the closet where the clubs are kept. We picked out the putter---our usual club---but this was clearly not enough clubs for the task. "Two, two", I said. Addy pulled out a 7 iron as well. Two is, of course, the right number of clubs (one for each hand). I dragged both clubs back to the living room. Next, we needed a hole to hit the balls into. I ran into the bedroom where the putting surface lives under the bed. I got it all by myself and carried it into the living room. I carefully set it down and then unrolled the 9' felt green so that we had a proper putting surface. But, you cannot play golf without tees as well. "Tees, tees!" I said. Daddy produced a couple of indoor tees to place the balls on. These tees are not as much fun as the pointy outdoor tees, but they do work better on carpeted surfaces.

Finally, it was time to get to work. I hit a couple of balls then handed the putter to Addy to hit with. I placed a ball in front of his putter and then went to the hole to watch the results. When he would hit the ball in the hole, I would say "Yes" and "bye bye" to the ball. Sometimes, however, Addy would miss. In that case, I would shake my head at him and say "nooooo". Addy says that this new form of feedback from me increases the pressure on him to putt successfully. Still, Addy did make most of the putts, so there weren't too many "nooos" from me.

I love ballf!

Bubbles

While there are many things to love about taking baths, one of the best things are the bubbles. Lately, Daddy has been bathing me, so I've got to train him in the routine. I get into the tub while the water is still running and splash around for a bit. Once I'm acclimated, it's time for the bubbles. "Bubbles?" I say. He then provides bubbles and they start to foam up as the water is running. Once the water stops, the bubbles settle down and disappear quite quickly. I'm a bit sad when this happens and I anticipate it. As soon as the water stops I say, "Bye bye bubbles." This way the bubbles know I'm saying goodbye to them before they disappear.

Booze

This morning Daddy was watching me while Mommy went out to sign me up for another program of learning and enrichment. After we were playing for a while, I ran over to the kitchen gate and started pointing to the kitchen and saying "booze, booze!" Daddy was confused. He didn't know what booze was (or rather he did, but didn't think this was an appropriate request.) He tried some alternatives:

Him: "Milk?"

Me: "No"

Him: "Juice"

Me: "No. Booze"

Finally he gave up and let me show him. I ran down to the Christmas tree and scooped up a couple of bows. "Booze!" I cried. Finally, the light bulb went on an Daddy understood. "Booze" are "bows".

Unwrapping Gifts

As I mentioned, Christmas comes early in California. I got up Sunday morning dressed in my Christmas jammies. The house was quiet and only Daddy was up with me at the time. Anyway, we came into the living room and I asked for the little tree to be turned on. "On, on," I said while pointing at the tree. Mommy tells me that she got the little tree from her Mommy while she was sick just before I was born. Anyway, Mommy came out and we all went down to light the big tree. I was shocked and delighted to find a whole load of presents under the tree. Apparently, Santa had come the night before. (Daddy says that this staggered Christmas schedule in Cali is due to all the traffic on the roads here. Santa has to go out early to avoid the congestion.)

I quickly hit upon the biggest box I could find and tore it open. Fortunately, nearly all of the boxes were for me, so choosing randomly, I was still likely to get one of my presents. Last year, I had a hard time tearing through all the wrapping paper. Not this year. I have a method to unwrapping gifts---here it is. When you first see a present, you have to find the spot on the box where the bow is located. Then you exclaim "bow, bow!" This is followed by disemboweling the bow. Then it's on to ripping the wrapping paper off of the present. In the case of the first gift, this revealed a Fisher-Price farm! Now comes the part where Mommy and Daddy have to help. There job is to get the gift out of its box and assembled as quickly as possible. "Off, off" I say as they open the box. They got out all the animals including my favorite, the piggy. Then they put the farm together for me. After that, it's time to play.

One of the best things about the farm is the dance area. There's a little spot on the floor of the barn where, if the little people step on it, it plays some great songs. I like to have the little people dance to the music. Sometimes I ask Mommy and Daddy to make them dance so tat I can be free to stand up and dance along with the music too.

Christmas is great!

Apocalypse Now

This past weekend I got to open many of my Christmas gifts. Christmas comes early in California apparently. Mommy tells me that this is first Christmas and that I'll get to enjoy another one when we fly back east. Anyway, I got many great toys but some of my favorites are my two Fisher-Price helicopters. One of the helicopters came with my Fisher-Price Airport. When this helicopter flies near the control tower of the airport, there are sounds of whirring rotors and radio cross-chat. The other helicopter came separately. It's also Fisher-Price. With this one, if you press the little trigger mechanism, the rotors rotate and make sounds. Lights also light up.

Last night, Daddy taught me a new game---Apocalypse Now. In this game, the helicopters fly round and round the little people's town. Of course, there are lots of rotor noises, but, in addition, Daddy sings the melody from Ride of the Valkyries. Occasionally, the helicopters sweep low over the frightened little people as they scurry away. Daddy says that flying low helps to "win the hearts and minds" of the little people. He says that if we buzz them often enough they'll stop following someone named "Uncle Ho". I don't know what he's talking about, but I sure like the music and the helicopters.

Elmo-spotting

My Mommy is amazed at my powers of observation when it comes to my favorite Muppet, Elmo. We visited a mall a couple of days ago and, as we walked around the stores, I would point excitedly and cry "Elmo." Many times Mommy thought I was hallucinating since, in her field of vision, there were no Elmos to be seen. But, on closer inspection, she would see what I was seeing--a small Elmo icon here, a picture there. In short, if there were Elmos to be seen, I saw them, and commented excitedly on the fact. Daddy thinks he should put little Elmo pictures on his golf balls and take me out with him when he plays. That way, he reasons, he'll never lose a ball in the woods again.

Picture Time

I've posted a bunch of pictures from a pumpkin carving party, my trip to Habitot, and, most importantly, my second birthday. To see them, click here. Enjoy!

Party!

Today was my 2nd birthday party. My actual birthday is on December 30, but I had a kids' party today so that my friends could celebrate with me (since many will be elsewhere celebrating the winter holidays later this month). I've been watching an Elmo's World video featuring birthday parties lately to get myself ready for today. Daddy's birthday in November was also a good practice run. The big take-aways from Daddy's birthday and my Elmo video are that people give you nice things that often have bows attached and that candles and cake are involved. Last night, when Mommy reminded me that I would have a party today, I told her, "bow" and "Elmo" to let her know that I was ready.

Anyway, I was in excellent spirits for my party. We talked about my friends coming over and I was excited to show them my ball pit. I enjoy the ballpit immensely myself. I had 5 friends come to my party: Jaren, Chloe, Sophie, Emmersen, and McKenna. (Sam called in sick this morning, unfortunately!) Chloe's baby brother was there too, as were all the mommies and my Daddy. We played in my ballpit and with my other toys. Mommy also led us all in circle time with some songs about balls as we rolled the balls around. Then we had lunch. Spinach quiche (baked by Daddy!), fruit salad, cheese and crackers, and pita bread dipped in hummus. (I skipped the hummus myself.) After lunch, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" while I blew out the candles on my platter of cupcakes (iced to look like baseballs). Then we all ate our cupcakes and did some more playing before opening gifts. I got some great books and Wiggles' stuff, all of which I took into my room so that it could "rest" in the chair while I napped in my crib. Birthday parties are fun, but they sure do tire a guy out!

A little night music

Last night was not a fun one for me. Daddy put me to bed, which is never as good as when Mommy does it. Initially, I was quite distraught over the prospect, but after many pages of The Cat in the Hat, I settled down. In fact, I was so tired that I requested that Daddy turn off the light so I could sleep. This all went well until around 9:30pm, when I awoke again. I was not happy to still be in my crib and wanted to get up and play. Mommy kept telling me it was sleepytime as I called to her. She would pick me up from time to time and even change me, but still I was unhappy. I continued to call out increasingly unhappy until around 11pm. Then Daddy came in the room and picked me up. I didn't want him to pick me up, but decided after a short while it was okay. We went into the kitchen for a glass of warm milk. I liked watching the microwave turn round and round. "Ding" went the microwave. "Ding" I said back to it. After I got back into the crib with my milk, I was much happier. I took a few sips and went straight to sleep.

Bye Bye Nainnie

Sadly, my Nainnie had to go back to her house yesterday. I was very sad to see her go since she's lots of fun to be around. She even managed to figure out a way to wash my hair without my noticing it. I appreciate that since, when I notice, I hate to have my hair washed. After she had gone yesterday evening, I would call for her, "Nainnie, Nainnie," from time to time to see if she would reapprear. Sadly, she didn't.

On the plus side, Mommy gave me the best toy ever yesterday: A ball pit. Mommy filled up an inflatable swimming pool with 300 (!!) plastic balls. I love t roll around in the ball pit, to throw the balls around, to be buried in balls, and so on. During dinner, I just kept saying "ball, ball, ball" and hoping it would be over so I could get back to the ball pit. It's super!

Ballf

Daddy and I share a passion for Ballf. In fact, it's my favorite sport. The funny thing is that Daddy keeps calling it "golf" rather than the more sensible name ballf. After all, it's played with a wonderful little ball; hence it seems sensible that ball should be somewhere in the name--ballf.

While I have my own set of clubs, I prefer Daddy's clubs. In fact, my favorite club is the putter, which also happens to be a word I can actually say, "puddah". We get out Daddy's putting green and line the balls up about 3 feet from the hole. Then I take the putter (I choke up on it a lot) and Daddy helps to guide my stroke to putt the balls into the hole. I love it when I sink these three footers. I like to make a little jump for joy with the putter in my hand.

In addition to putting, the other great thing about ballf is organizing the balls. Two days ago, I gout out my dump truck and loaded it with freight---golf balls. Then Daddy would help the truck back up to the unloading area, the hole on the putting green, and unload the freight into the hole. The balls would go into the hole and then slide along the return shoot back to the loading area where we would take the dump truck to get another haul of golf balls.

I'm also getting pretty good at counting the balls. The highest I've gotten up to is to count four golf balls, though there seem to be a lot more than that.

Ballf is a truly great sport. A feast for the mind and the body.

Habitot

Yesterday we went to a place called Habitot in Berkeley. This is a cool, hands-on "museum" built especially for guys my size. I was immediately impressed with the Brio train table at the entrance to the place. I liked to turn the rotating bridge around and around. Occasionally, other children would try to drive a train over the bridge. I liked to set the bridge sideways so the trains would derail. Boom!

Next, we visited the store, where I picked up all manner of pretend fruit and other items. My favorite was something called a matzo, which looked like a giant cracker. Mmmm.

Then we headed for the water play area. Unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy made me wear a plastic smock so I wouldn't get too wet. I did not like the smock at all. It seemed scary the way it tied around me. Water play was lots of fun though. I got to pour water down a homemade waterfall and let my friend, a plastic fishy, swim in the current.

Next, we headed for the art area. I made a lovely piece---it's a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil. On it, I painted using glittery glue. Then I stuck some sequins and other sparkly things on the glue. Finally, and best of all, I got to stick lots of feathers on it. I loved the feathers and wanted to put all of them on my piece, but there wasn't enough glue or space to fit them. Still, it's a really nice piece. Maybe I'll get Daddy to scan it and put it up on my website.

I like Habitot!

Organizing

My plastic pail has many uses. I can play with it in the sand on the beach. I can throw it into my little pool at home and watch it float around. But it's even very useful indoors as well. One of my favorite things to do with my plastic pail is to turn it upside down and press it into the carpet. This makes a lovely circular indentation in the carpet in the shape of my favorite letter, "o". Another thing the pail is really useful for is holding golf balls. Lately, I've enjoyed getting out all of Daddy's golf balls (we just bought a dozen over the weekend to make an even 16) and then placing them in the pail. When all the ball are in the pail, I lift it up and spill them out all down my front. This activity is even better when Mommy and Daddy help to count the golf balls as I put them in. 1, 2, 3, ...