The Adventures of Eitan and Aidan

2009-06-17T09:53:00.001-07:00

Eitan talking:

Hello, what's happening? Long time no see, I know. Aidan and I've been busy growing, learning and enjoying life. Summer is here, yay!!! Well, the weather doesn't seem like summer but I'll take any kind of summer as long as Mommy, Daddy, Aidan and I get to spend family time together without one of them gone at work.

Anyway, for me... I've been into the literacy world lately. I learned how to write my name and so far, only the E is intelligible. I can read some words and I can fingerspell some words as well. I can spell my name, some of Aidan's, Mommy's name, "car" and buzz. Here's an example of me with my literacy fun:

I found a sticker that had "e" and fingerspelled "e"... I peeled it off and put it on my chin because when you sign my name, you crook your index finger and pat it twice on your chin. I told them that it was my name in writing. Mommy and Daddy thought this brilliant and took pictures.

As for life in general, I keep asking questions and find myself saying "why why why" lately. I guess I'mjust a curious kid who want answers to everything, well, nearly.

I looked up to daddy and saw his hairy chest... I pulled my shirt up and had a puzzled look and then said, "where's my hair?" Daddy told me I gotta wait until I get taller. Why does everything look good when you're taller? Mommy told me she prefers me to stay shorter.

Aidan Talking:

It has been a long time since I've seen you guys! I'm also growing a lot too. I can crawl, I can say some words and love to play games.

Here's me playing peek-a-boo with Aunty Cat.

This was on Mother's Day and I made sure I was on my cutest that day. I kept giggling and playing with Mommy (I'm giggling at her in that picture).

Here's me crawling. Yeah, I know I got corn bits on my face... we had delicious BBQ dinner for Mommy's day.

I love doing this when I'm on her lap, I would arch backwards and watch the world go by. I was looking at the sky and going ooooooo!

Eitan talking:

Aidan didn't suffer food bits plastered on his face, I did as well:

Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches does that to you.

After hanging out at Grandma and Poppie's new home, we drove on a scenic route back home. We stopped to enjoy the wind turbines and... well, illegally went over the fence to take pictures. I tell you people, it was majestic, awesome and very windy!

Aunty Cat and I with the turbines. It was super windy and the machinery were HUGE!!! The picture does not do its justice.

Mommy swinging me as if I was a turbine. Whee!

Aunty Cat let me borrow her camera and I took lots of pictures. I hope to be a photographer someday.

Aidan talking:

Eitan hopes to be a photographer indeed, whenever he's given a camera, he'd just demand to have it and to shoot. Sometimes Mommy would find random pictures taken as she looks through the shots on her camera. I don't know about my future profession but for now, I'll just remain cute whenever, even when sleeping.

Here's Zeus and I tucked in together. She tucked herself in like that, seriously!

And here's me with my big brother, sweet?

I'm singing la la loudly as I merrily sat next to the big ball.

I love our backyard, we could sit for hours and soak in the quietness of our home. As for Eitan... well, he has his hobby, or Mom calls it, bug fetish.

Eitan talking:

Well, it's my duty to love bugs, I'm a boy and you'll eventually be so into it, Aidan!

Look what I found!

"bug"

Lookit! I found another one!

There! Now you get the idea of my hobby with bugs. I still love cars though.

Here's us two, we play with cars together. I'm teaching Aidan how to properly play with cars and so far, he has gotten it and also loves them.

Aidan talking:

I just love how the wheels move and I like making them park or go through buildings.

Whoo hoo!

Eitan talking:

Mommy found this and thought it hilarious.

Aidan talking:

We went hiking at a place called Del Valle. It was my first hike and I thoroughly enjoyed riding in the backpack thingy on Daddy.

Here's us hiking up a hill into a meadow and it was breathtaking.

I just love it!!

Eitan also enjoyed it immensely.

Here's the four of us ontop of a hiking trail in Del Valle.

Other than loving cars, Roomba, hiking... I absolutely LOVE taking baths!! I enjoy them even more when Eitan's with me. We'd splash around giggling and giggling forever.

Yup, cars take baths too!

Here's us giggling together.

Also, to practice my cuteness, I put on a show for Aunty Cat with a spoon while eating rice.

mm, I like the spoon!

I'm just smiling at Aunty Cat, she alway says I'm adorable.

Right, Aunty Cat??

Now you want me to do the spoon thing again for photo op? Sure, here you go!!

Eitan Talking:

Mommy watched me relaxing on the hammock and I had no idea she took pictures (or that she even watched). I was enjoying myself looking at our Meyer Lemon tree and then, what ya know... look at the series below:

Enjoying the lemon tree, the blue skies...

Let me move a wee bit over for more comfort...

aaaarrggghhhh

woah! I clung onto it with my dear life and hear Mommy laughing. I then realized she saw and captured the whole thing. I now think it is hilarious too.

We went to another hiking place at Sycamore Grove, right by our home and amdist the wineries. It was mediating.

Aidan talking:

What's dis?

It looks good...

smooth, round... gritty.

eitan always is to the rescue

Mommy, Eitan and I at Sycamore Grove.

Eitan talking:

Mom got a little bit crazy with her camera, she kept telling me to pose, pose... pose!

Where do I look?

Woah! What's that?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

bugbugbugbugbugmommyiseeabug!!bugg!!

see?!!

I'm a goner.

Seriously people, bugs to me are like squirrels to dogs! Anyway, Mommy gave up and got a stable picture of Aidan's bum:

Can't go wrong with this, can you?

We went camping in our own backyard, Daddy and I slept like a baby but Mommy and Aidan failed and ended up indulging in luxury on their bed in the house.

See him with his big eyes? That's his expression of, "what is dis? woah!" when he sees something utterly fascinating... and what was so fascinating??

Me blowing bubbles with the gum!

Our school is closed for the summer. Before closing, we had a ceremony where I walked over a bridge as if I was "promoted". Anyway, it was frickin' cold and after walking over the bridge, I simply made a beeline to Mama and we all left early. But here's a picture or two:

Me in the middle of the crowd of my pals.

I crossed the bridge, paused and smiled to everyone and proceeded to finish walking the bridge. I practiced that for two days before the ceremony during class. I nailed it.

Well, that's that for now. Summer is here and our Grandma and Grandpa from the East are coming, Aidan's 1st birthday is coming up as well and hopefully, the weather warms up so we can enjoy the pool.

Til then!

Here You Go!

2009-04-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Where have the time flown?? Aidan and I continue to be busy and spring has arrived therefore, it is nearly impossible for Mommy to have the time to sit down and translate what we are saying.

Let's just dive into pictures. There are a lot more and they will be posted next week but for now, here you go!

Aidan: Here's me at 7 months old, aren't my eyes dashing?

Yup, me in my birthday suit... sighs, Mommy thinks it is cute with all the baby fat I've got.

I'm holding "M" for Mommy. She rocks.

I'm giggling because Aunty Cat's thumb is wiggling under my hand and I'm holding onto it. I just thought it funny.

Of course, what's a photo shoot without smooches from Mama?!

This picture is actually cool, Eitan took it!!

Eitan talking: I told Mom to please take a picture of me... as she was snapping the picture, I posed thinking, "gotta look sweet, caring, loving and handsome."

I almost had stitches, yup. I was rocking on my chair at school and fell backwards, the bottom of the seat hit my chin. I bled everywhere and panicked when my teachers told me I ought to see a doctor. Mommy unusually came by early for a visit (not knowing about what happened) and took me to the school's infirmary. They said it looked okay but to have the doctor see it. Eek...

Soo, the doctor checked and gave my Parents two options: stitches or glue. Lucky me, my Mommy and Daddy opted for glue, whew!!

I was sooo excited when my girl, Chloe, came over for a visit. We are so close in age and have met few times. I know if she was closer, we'd par-ta-tay everyday.

Chloe and I getting ready to slide down with the help of Chloe's Mama, Laura.

Whee!

This is Chloe and I at 5 to 6 months old.

Us now :) I miss you Chloe and hope we can vp soon!

Aidan talking: Okay guys, what is more fascinating than raindrops slowly rolling down windows?! Nothing! I absolutely squeal with delight and coo at each drop that dribble downwards. They talk to me about where they have come from and will go to. I look forward to more rainy windows.

My brother goes to school, you know? He's lucky but heh, I get to stay home and hog Mama. Anyway, recently he had a trike-a-thon event at his school. He got to be a cheering fan then became a racer himself.

Eitan talking: Here's me patiently WAITING (forever) for my turn to race on a bike. I was on team purple, the last team, and there were other colors ahead of me (red, blue, green, yellow, orange... you get the gist). Mommy, Aidan and Grandma with her good friend, Patty, came to watch and cheer me on.

I was very good and waited behind the line until the green flag was waved. When the race started, I put on my "hard work" expression and pedaled HARD.

I pedaled harder when I saw Grandma jumping up and down cheering for me. I made it three times around the race arena and did a very good job!

Mommy says I am a good brother to Aidan. Well, it isn't hard you know, Aidan is such a sweet brother and he loves me too. When we go out for drives, we always hold hands.

Brave. That's what this picture says for me. I have this fear of swimming pools or lakes but Mommy and Daddy insisted for me to learn how to swim. We have a pool at home and it makes them nervous. So, my first swimming experience wasn't easy. I screamed, cried, wailed and clung onto Mommy with my dear life. After awhile, I realized all the panic was for naught, I enjoyed it. I ended up begging Mama to let me stay in the pool longer!! We go there every Friday for swim classes, so far, I've floated with Mom's help and learned how to hang onto the edge of the pool and slowly move sideways toward safety. I still cannot submerge my head under water and hold my breath for 3 seconds, soon I will.

Our school had a field trip and we went to the Oakland's Zoo. I had a lot of fun with my classmates.

Waiting for the ride to start.

"Wahooo wahooo wahoo" Shaelyn, Landen and I merrily riding the Fire Truck.

We rode on a train and went into a dark tunnel, we let our imagination run wild.

Mommy laughed and laughed and took this picture. I don't know what's so funny about this picture. She says she hopes I remain that innocent for much longer.

Aidan talking: I get to play with Eitan a lot more right now and we love to chase together, play with cars together and hug!

Eitan talking: Yup! I love to wake him up on purpose in the wee hours (6:30 am) against Mommy's wishes, and play with Aidan. We hug and I would basically smoosh him until he has had enough.

I've been hanging out a lot with my friends lately too. Here are some pictures of friends I tend to hang out with.

The Chang twins, Chang Lynn and Chang May. They're my classmates and I enjoy playing and talking with them, especially Chang Lynn. She has a funny sense of humor.

Jevon and Jarrod are fun people to hang out with. We live closeby and see each other when we can. I usually ride to school with Jarrod.

And of course, Gio!! I wish we could hang out everyday, I saw Gio's parents recently and they said that Gio has been asking for me too!

Here's Jahren and I right before his baseball game. We tried to look "tough" and "athletic," I think we did good.

Here's me admiring his baseball bat. I even got to wear his gloves, cool beans!

Mally held me as we watched Jahren play. I am so lucky to have cousins that love me :)

Daddy is a superman because he can lift us both with grace... I think.

Aidan talking: Yeah, Daddy is a superman and Mommy is a superwoman, they're a super parent. I love them!

And, I have a fabulous brother who makes sure I am happy.

Well, that's that for now. Eitan's at school, Daddy's working, Mommy needs to start cooking dinner and I? I wanna nurse myself to sleep. Have a good day people and Happy Passover as well as Happy Easter's!

Hugs.

Hold onto your panties

2009-04-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

We'll have an update soon, there are too many pictures to go through.

see you by and by!

Eitan & Aidan

Long long time overdue.

2009-02-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

Eitan Talking:

Happy Hanukah! Well, I know this was a long time ago but still! Love the sticker on my head, don't ya?

It was our feeble attempt at a family picture. There are more funny ones but Mommy doesn't want to overwhelm you or this blog.

I woke up in the wee hours and asked for water. Mommy got me a cup and I happened to look into the living room. I was shocked to see presents piled up there because there was nothing the night before. Mom told me I had to wait until the first light came. I waited, waited and waited. I patiently sat in my bed as the rest of the gang were snoozing. Finally, when dawn broke, I decided to go and check the presents. I went ahead and opened one but then I thought to myself... "hmm, something doesn't feel right." I realized, I was supposed to open them with the rest of the family. I then ran and woke up the gang during the wee hours.

The opening the gifts was done in less than 15 minutes. I couldn't believe all the things we got and really had fun.

Aidan Talking:

I had fun that night, Daddy and Eitan let me ride them. Here's me on papa.

I know Eitan enjoyed having me on his back because I could feel him laughing the whole time.

We spent another morning of opening gifts at our Grandparent's home. I watched Eitan and Cousin Mally, Jahren open gifts. They were quite comical as they kept bouncing all over the place and squealing (before knowing what they had because the gifts were still wrapped).

Eitan Talking:

Yeah Aidan, it was exciting! I think it is my first time to actually appreciate opening gifts and it was loads of fun!

I got this cool gift from Daddy, wooden blocks to build whatever I could conjure. Daddy and I played one night and I just loved playing with him.

Building blocks series:

Mommy made us stop so she could take pictures of us. Can you tell, it was almost painful to pause and pose.

More on the top!!

Daddy, you stand up!

"me self!"

uh oh!

New Year's was spent at my friend Jevon's home. We stayed there fora long time and even past midnight. I partied longer than Mom. Dad and Aidan were home asleep! I think I was the last person asleep in our household.

Mommy and I.

Me with Nora and Jyles, love my Elmo slippers?

A whole bunch of us kiddoes got together in a small room to watch Lady and the Tramp.

"I'm having a birthday party soon! you guys come!" I'm telling the kids about my birthday coming up.

We all watched TV and the excitement kept building up minutes before 2008 ended. At first I didn't get it but then everyone started shouting and going crazy, I jumped into the frenzy and started celebrating too.

Playing with Landen almost at 1 am.

Aidan Talking:

Eitan loves to entertain me. The second I wake up, he's there in my face doing all kinds of things: shouting, giggling, tickling, smooching, cuddling or pinching my nose. I never fail to greet him with happiness because he makes my morning and day.

Whoo hoo! I can do mini-push ups!

I can sit up all by myself!

Eitan Talking:

I had a great birthday party. The pictures are over the top in quality AND quantity. I am choosing few to share. MY birthday cakes were great, the activities were fun and the friends were even better.

The cakes made by Dad, half decorated by Dad and Uncle Kurt. Cool huh?

Lit candles.

Begging didn't help. Uncle Kurt obeyed my parent's wishes by not letting us sample the cake until the actual cake time.

We all made our cars for the race game.

Getting ready for the race.

whooo!

I was one of the last player to win. Really, the game was over as Shaelyn won but I kept going at it until I finished.

Daddy made this for the party. It is a cool race ramp, you pull up t he orange "wall" and cars shoot down.

The cake time!!

I want that one!

Daddy cut the cakes and we all thought it delish!

We opened gifts and everyone slowly left. Aunt Cat, Uncle Kurt, Cousin Mally and Jahren as well as David stayed behind. We all chatted, played and started working on the work bench I got.

I helped Dad build it but Jahren mostly enjoyed helping as I played with Uncle Kurt.

Here's me with Aunty Cat and David... and money! :-D

Here's me with Jahren and my wooden robots.

I loved the work bench I got from my Grandparents in the East. There is a part I especially love, the drill.

I want to make myself deafer.

It goes up in your nose too.

"Mommy, I think I hear something whirring."

Mommy: "eitan, that's not for your or aidan's ears! (or nose in that matter)"
Me: "yes it is!"

I ran away so mommy or daddy couldn't take the whirring toy.

Aidan Talking:

I got to eat solids for the first time. My first actually was a rice cereal that I gagged with all my reflexes possible. Mom and Dad decided to try table food; therefore, avocado was my first solids.

Our dinner table.

"What the?!?" But I liked it anyway. I also like bananas and peas so far.

Eitan Talking:

You know, I turned 3 so, I moved up to preschool. Preschool is a lot of fun so far. I have immersed myself into that class and have not looked back. I find myself daily stimulated with language and lessons that are intriguing and challenging for a change.

Here I am, standing tall on my first day of preschool.

Going to school rocks!

Mommy, I wanna go to school and have that cool lunch bag like Eitan's!

Eitan, the mechanic, that's me! I helped Dad put a new bulb in the car's headlights.

Aidan talking:

Eitan has become a teacher lately for me. He teaches me what toys do and how they work. Here's a series as an example.

"You gotta pump and pound it, it'll spin, watch."

"There you go, see how it spins!"

OOO lemme see!

I love playing with Eitan!

Eitan likes hugging me and sometimes I get afraid because he squeezes a tad bit too hard!!

Here's me at my 6 months pose. Like my outfit?

Eitan Talking:

We went to Half Moon Bay beach on a last minute decision. It was warm, sunny and perfect. At first I got scared with the waves and refused to come down to the shore. When I finally braved walking to the shore, I started freaking out becauase sand seeped into my crocs and it felt gross. I eventually learned to enjoy and play with sand. I then struggled when we had to leave! It was so much fun! Oh yeah, we also played with Daddy's kite that looks like a pirate ship.

Eitan: Hey Aidan, look! *taps taps* Aidan? *tap tap*
Aidan: Woah! Sand!!!

We went to the shore and Daddy miscalculated- the wave swam through Daddy's legs and drenched the bottom of his pants. It scared the bejesus out of me and I demanded him to bring me back to the safe zone.

I was afraid of the waves and felt safe as long as I was close to Dad.

Aidan Talking:

I really LOVED it there. I kept laughing at the birds and spent a long time playing with sand as well as watching the waves crashing onto the shore. There were people swimming and surfing on the water. Mommy took me over to the ocean and dipped me for my first ocean water ever:

Brr, it was cold!!! At first I giggled but after the third feet dip, I let Ma know that it was cold and I didn't want anymore!

We were all content sitting there and watching as we basked in the sun.

Here's the family picture on Half Moon Bay beach.

Whew, that was some blog.

Til next time!

Eitan and Aidan

Happy 3rd Birthday Eitan!

2009-01-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

Hello Eitan, we cannot believe it that you're 3 years old today. Exactly at this time, 4:24, I returned back to the hospital in a lot of pain (they discharged me because the induction was a failure at 2 pm). You came into the world at 10:51 PM not screaming but wide eyed and watching. They tried to rouse you to "make" you cry but you didn't. You let out a little peep like, "dude, I get it now back off, I'm dandy!" It's so you, even to this day. You're very observant, bright, comical, witty, silly, mischievous and you definitely have a mind of your own. We love you and are very lucky to have you, Aidan also is so lucky to have a big brother who actually ADORES him.

Minutes old, an observant personality shows.

A beginning of your and Jahren's friendship. Jahren is your first BFF.

You make Daddy a happier man.

You always had your tongue sticking out as a reflex... whether it be me kissing you or tickling you, out came your tongue.

That smile has not changed.

You loved being with Uncle Kurt and vice versa. Even to this day, you'd grin silly when seeing him.

As for me, I cannot believe how big you are now.

Here's you at 6 months old.

Aunty Cat has claimed you as her 3rd child and you would see her as your 2nd Mom.

You have made everyone in our families smile:

You and Aunt Kim

You with your Grandparents in the East

With cousins

Poppie and you loved to play by chasing each other.

Aunty Keri would probably be the only aunt who would let you lick her face even when you're 3 years old.

You had a special place in Uncle JC's heart.

See how you've warmed up three people's lives in this picture? Uncle JC, Aunty Lis and Grandma.

"lights blinking" your language always amazed us.

(tampon in your mouth)

In a hurry to be a big boy?

You're always looking so cute even when doing things that'd be a "no-no"

Our fun camping night at Big Basin.

You always gave Aunty Cat photo ops

Here's you as a two years old boy. I then thought you were big!

My favorite shot of your mop top before we cut it off for the first time.

The first haircut.

You were enthusiastic and fascinated with my pregnancy. I remember the first time you felt Aidan kick, you got crazy!! You were so excited and said "baby awake!!" and then you started crying because daddy wasn't around to feel it. You, to this day, still get so excited when Aidan responses to you. I know you'll be a great big brother.

For some reason I love this picture, it makes me feel like you're beyond your age.

Meeting Aidan for the first time... you were saying "we have the same nose!"

Here's you laughing because Aidan sucked your thumb for the first time.

This picture has a special story.

One of my favorite story. You were walking down the stairs and was about to hold the rail. I explained that it was dirty (it was outside) from car smoke... you then held your hands and said you were "holding" yourself as you walked down :)

You decided to stop wearing diapers all by yourself sometimes in July.

Here's you being silly as ever.

You love to read, that's the best thing we could wish for.

Your eyes are so deep just like the first picture we have of you minutes old: observant, sincere...

So serious yet...

very silly!

You insist to dress yourself up... be it shoes, socks or shirts. You were so proud of your shoes choice in that picture.

You have shown NO interest in drawing until one day, boom, you've become an artist. This is your self portrait you drew all by yourself. Every time you see that picture, you'd proudly point at it and say "that me Eitan!"

One of the biggest thing about your growing up is you've moved into the "system" (school). You're SO loving it right now and I hope you continue to love going to school.

You've blossomed into being a fun brother that Aidan 110% adores.

You're also very inquisitive these days. You're saying "let me see" as if "I don't believe you, prove me!" You also ask us what do those words say in a book or somewhere visible. After we sign the words to you, you'd say, "oooooh."

"it says my name!!" (he asked us what was on the shirt and I told him it was a buck like an elk, just like his nick name, he then declared it his favorite shirt he got for his birthday).

May your wish come true,
Love Mom, Dad, Aidan and Zeus

Brothers, School Visits, The Jumpy, Promotion and Holidays

2008-12-21T14:31:00.000-08:00

Hey AJ!!

HEE HEE!

I love being a big brother to Aidan. He is easily amused by me when riding in the back of the car together.

Here's a self portrait I drew:

Pretty good huh?

I got to hang out with Gio, my "play share" friend. I also have another friend, Jevon, who I've nicknamed "discuss" friend. When I play with Gio, we run around, fight and share but when I'm with Jevon, we talk and read books.

Here's Gio and I in his house, I have a similar one at home. We love playing in it together because Mommy "doesn't" see us.

And I thought I was overly affectionate with Aidan. Gio took the cake.

Believe it or not, as big as Gio is when comparing to Eitan, he's much more gentler than elk!

Hey!

Anyway- we celebrated Thanksgiving AND Jahren's 8th birthday at our new home. There were loads of people and I had a lot of fun. Jahren got a new Wii and I gave him a game for us to play together (Hot Wheels).

Daddy took me to the Train Expo and there were many mini train tables and cars too.

I got to "control" the train by pushing a lever.

Cars, I cannot get enough of them. Dad told me we weren't getting one but that it was okay to "look" at them. So, I put my hands in my pocket and looked ever so wistfully. Didn't work, I went home empty handed.

However at home, I've got plenty of toys.

Playing with Lego Thomas Train Set, I built the set all by myself.

I embellished the bridge with Cars stickers.

I didn't stop there...

Cool beans??

oi!!

So... where was I? Oh yes.

One night as Mommy and Daddy played Wii, assuming I was fast asleep in my own bed, I decided to be mischievous and snuck into their bed. I put on Aidan's hat and I waited... waited... and waited.

This is what Mom and Dad found in their bed when they finally came.

One night we had our fireplace lit and I ate tons of chocolate:

"What?" as Mom snaps a picture of me eating too much chocolate.

Haha, that was funny. You had chocolate smeared all over your face. As for me, I laid on Mommy and we all enjoyed the fire Dad built.

Cozy and warm with Mommy. Can't beat that.

Well, then it got really cold, really. I was bundled up and barely could see out of my clothes. People thought I was cute in that brown thingy but seriously dude, I miss summer already.

We went to school a lot to pick Eitan up as well as visit Daddy during his lunch breaks. I enjoy watching Eitan play on the trike.

Yeahhh, I finally could pedal that big thing all by meself!!

I also do side visits with Grandma, I love going to her corner of the world- it's usually filled with candies and surprises!

I also love visiting grandma :) Anyway...

Here's Eitan hitching a ride on my limo.

Mom got a new camera, she tried out the self-timer and well, it had too many features she said. Here's a series of us trying to get a family picture in Daddy's classroom

Somebody here likes brown, eh?

When Eitan's at school, Mommy gets to stay home with me. I enjoy those moments because her attention is undivided.

I always get excited and my body does weird reflexes when Ma looks at me and goes, "whaaat?" My back arches up and I have this silly grin I cannot control.

"Yea Mom!! More PLEASE!"

Then she worn me out.

Speaking of cold weather, we went to a small party at Aunt Cat's flat and they had a festival on the street. I got to play this cool game. Someone asked me if I liked baseball, I replied "no, I like curling!"

Waiting for my turn.

Get set, go!

Whee! I won a toy but it was too babyish for me. So, I gave it to Aidan.

We also celebrated Festival of Lights at my school. Mom, Dad and Aidan came and we did all kinds of activities.

Daddy holding Aidan as we watched classmates giving a show about different culture's celebrations

I also got to play with fake snow but it felt real! I stayed there for quite some time.

Okay, as Eitan had his fun at school, I also found a new activity I cannot get enough of. My Jumpy Glee!

It also rocks when I have my Wacky Spider, which tastes real good by the way, with me.

Whoo!

I could stay here forever and ever.

And Eitan enjoys watching me. He tells me to jump or to stop... he also claps when I follow his commands. I try to clap too you know but that requires a new set of skills I need to master.

Okay, I want to say this, Eitan is a big brother of mine and I am so proud to have him as MINE. He takes care of me (still has his squeezing moments) and makes sure I am okay. He doesn't like it when I cry and if I do, he'd quickly be by my side and talk to me or try to tickle me. Anyway, I am so proud to announce that Eitan is no longer a toddler, he has been promoted. He moved from Toddler's class into pre-school last Thursday!

Thanks aj, you rock too. You're fun to watch :)

Here I am at class, my last class with the infants. I now am a big boy. In this picture I am telling my classmate, Diego, to look because his mama just walked in.

I sit here all excited knowing about moving up.

I sat with Holly, my "former" teacher as we sat in a circle. I know all this excitement is because of me.

"who's gonna be 3 soon??" Michele asks and Holly looks at me. I, of course, raised my arm and said "me!!"

We had some cheesy moments but I had to say good bye to Cassie. I really loved her and she always let me help her put toys away. I'm her personal little helper.

I made frames for my 4 teachers. Holly got the one I made all by myself, the others were helped by Ma. I thought Holly would love it. She sure did, she cried! In that frame there's a picture of me with the silly glasses on and it says, "thank you for letting me be me." I'll miss Holly.

Grandma, Daddy and Aidan also came (with Mom of course, the lady behind the camera).

I've moved into pre-school and rejoined my classmates, who I've missed sorely... Landen and Shaelyn.

Family picture of me on my one of many big days. See how much I love Aidan?

And while we are at it:

Have a great winter's break!!

Eitan and Aidan

News Flash!

2008-12-12T17:29:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to offically announce that I am DEAF!

I'm just like Mommy, Daddy and Aidan. I get to stay in that great school where my parents, grandma, cousins, aunt and uncle work!

I am so happy and I got to eat a huge pile of banana split.

Okay, we're off to make some Buckeyes and get into the holiday mood. Will blog very soon, tons of pictures coming your way, FYI!!

Eitan

2008-11-24T22:47:00.000-08:00

Wow. We apologize for the lack of posting... let us blame it on Mom's favorite camera dying on her. Lucky for us, Dad and Mom got a new one.

Anyway, we'll go alllll the way back to when Aidan was 2 days old. Aunty Cat took pictures of Aidan and we finally got our hands on it. Look and see what a cutie patootie Aidan was as a newborn.

Learning all about reflexes, tongue included.

Sleeping was my specialty as a newborn, still is though.

I love resting on Ma's hands or being around her.

Don't you feel content just looking at this picture?

Here's Eitan saying, "I'm a big brother!! But take pictures of me too!!!"

Now fast forward to our October fun. We pretty much spent the month whizzing around and barely got by. Halloween was short-lived due to the rain and Mom stealing all of the Halloween candies.

We all went to a pumpkin patch in Livermore on a school field trip. There were bunch of pumpkins- of all shapes and colors- as well as squashes and gourds. There were also animals for us to pet and feed. Finally, there was this old wooden maze and I loved playing in there as Mom and Aidan watched.

Here's me feeding a sheep. It then licked it's big disgusting tongue onto my hands...

"Eeeeew mom!! I don't want to feed it anymore!! Please take the cup." *shudders*

Mom told me to pick a pumpkin. You gotta be kidding me... which one?

"Okay how's this mom?" *I then tossed the pumpkin down and ran to a nearby playground. Ma ended up dragging that poor pumpkin around.

Here's me with my classmates on a tree. I think this picture is hilarious and hope it'll be a cherished photo in years to come when we all grow up together.

Here I am quietly soaking in the view and cooling off as well, it was almost 90s that day.

That's what Mom looked like most of the time, wearing Aidan as if he was a t-shirt.

I asked Mom to take a picture of me with my shoes. I insisted to wear them that way.

Now I'll give the floor to Aidan.

Here's me discovering reach and touch for an object. I've been having fun playing with Bee. I also have Taggy Elephant and Wacky Spider as my toys.

I also love to hold my foot.

Back to you Eitan:

As Aidan enjoys his discovery of reach and touch, I enjoy my privilege to play with Mom or Dad's laptop. I was playing an ABC game online.

Our hometown, Livermore, is quite a place. We all went to downtown where streets were closed off to cars and all kinds of costume worn kids, adults mingled. I went with Dad, Grandma, Poppie, Mally and Jahren (Mom was stuck at work). I got lots of tootsie rolls (they are my favorites!).

Here's a story of what I did with the tootsie roll. I told Daddy that I needed to go to the bathroom and I kicked him out. To my joy, Daddy respected my wish and I abused that privilege by sneaking in some tootsie rolls I snuck in my pockets. When Daddy checked on me, he was surprised to see me grinning like a caught fool when I had a tootsie in my mouth!!

My school had an event called the Barnyard Bash. We harvested pennies around campus to donate to deaf schools in other countries that are poor. Then we spent the remaining time at school watching a story telling and playing on the playground filled with farm fun.

Here's me painting my pumpkin. I was seriously into painting and Mom annoyed me by saying "hey Eitan! look at the camera, look at the camera!"

There was a table with that disgusting looking thing, it looked like puke, a lot of us avoided that table- but not Landen or Mom. It actually was made of soap chips, recycled newspaper, toilet paper, warm water and orange dye colors. Mom made me put my hands into it and I nearly freaked out.

Aidan sat back and soaked in the "view" of the Barnyard Bash.

Here's me with the headband thingy. Mom made me wear it because there is a picture of me wearing the same shirt and head thingy last year. She cannot find that picture now. Oh well. I look cute, don't I?

It was fun jumping around in the sack.

Everyday, without fail, I am the last person to leave school. I always love to help my teachers clean up the playground area.

Mom was sad that she missed out the Halloween fun and insisted we go trick or treating that Friday night. It rained but we had fun nonetheless. Especially me because I got candies and ultimately for Mom, she got to eat up 3/4 of my batch!

Now, I'll return the floor to Aidan:

I got to vote with Mom and it was a historical day.

Here's a happy me at 4 months old. I was thrilled with Aunty Cat's expressions. She makes me smile big, easily.

This tank is at our Grandparents. Eitan always make sure he feeds it or bug the poor fishies whenever we visit them.

See? Even that buggar brother of mine painted the tank. I think the fishes felt like they were in a blue lagoon.

Here's Grandma's doggy, Jazzy.

I got to visit Aunty Cat, a rarity these days and she, again, made me the happiest baby on the block.

My patented big grin.

I loveeee yooooooou Aunty Cat!

And I also love my Bee!

I've grown, I can sit in the Bumbo seat without help too.

And here's Zeus, Mom's cat.

Okay, back to you Eitan!

Mommy is so happy with the new camera and made us play around. She wanted us to do many things. It was dark in the house but she did amazingly well with the camera.

Daddy standing still as I ran around in circles... I look like a ghost!

Then Daddy ran around me, I couldn't stay still because I found it too much fun to do so. Daddy now looks like a ghost.

Then we went to the store to buy foods for Thanksgiving this Thursday at our home. I wore my new glasses the entire time we were in the store. Aidan happily stayed in his seat watching the world go by, with his Taggy Elephant of course.

Finally, we shall end the note with my silly photo and hope to come back sooner than expected.

Til then!
Eitan and Aidan

p.s. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Brotherly Conversation

2008-10-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Hello! I wanted you guys to know I'm mastering on a skill: reaching out to touch whatever is near me. I still am shaky with it and sometimes poke my eyes in the process.

Yeah, but he's so cute when he does it. I give him my cars and he still cannot hold onto them. Ma says he is still too young.

Yes I'm probably still very young but look at me, I'm too cute for words (and pictures).

See? Ma says I'm going to be a heart-breaker too!

Yeah, you will be and look at what I'll be someday...

I'll be a hot fireman.

I already got the groove on how to use the hose, yeah baby!

Okay Eitan... move over and let me have the spotlight for a minute here.

Mom says she is beyond thrilled that I look like her. I even got her blue eyes. She says that Eitan is 99.9% Daddy and I am 99.5% Mommy!

That's Mom's old cat, Zeus. She doesn't like us very much, especially Eitan because he chases her.

hah, wait until you start using your legs, you'll find chasing cats fun. Besides, your loud cries scares her away.

Alright. Okay I admit you're right. Anyway...

I was momentarily startled by the light on my Mom's camera-

*snickering* "deers with headlights" anybody?

Hey!!!

My turn people! I went over to a friend's home and we discovered his Mom's lotion. We did all kind of things with it (smeared it on those big mirrors, rubbed it on our hands, faces and even hair).

Hmm, where else do I rub the remaining lotion? (see mirror behind me?)

The remaining lotion went into my hair, looks good?

I also went over and met Jyles, a 7 days old baby at that time.

And I thought I was small!

Anyway, I spent most of my time trying to reach for things, eating, smiling at whomever aim to please me and I admit I easily cry. I know the power of crying and sometimes abuse it. Oh well, whatever works... parents have NO idea how manipulative we little ones are!

Here's me snoozing peacefully.

While Aidan was snoozing, Mom's full attention was on me. We played dress up and I got to walk around in her shoes.

These are big shoes to fill, huh?

One morning as Aidan was sleeping, I had Mom's undivided attention, which is a rarity by the way (lately). I decided to get silly.

Hmm, Ma loves it when I'm silly.

Wheeeeee!

Got to make Mom laugh!

Ah, mission accomplished.

What do you think I'm saying with those eyes?

"Mommy, I love you!"?

close enough but really, I was thinking "Mom, save me." And that's another story.

Until then,
Eitan and Aidan

All in a month...

2008-10-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

A typical Sunday Morning.

All growed up.

Putting on shorts in a silly way, but of course.

I love being silly.

Aidan was really sick with the stomach flu, poor kid had to have an iv. I tried to be a brave brother by standing near him and playing cars with him- I put my lucky red car on his belly to make him have a speedy recovery.

In hospital bed.

At home with the iv still in, but he bounced back so fast that they took it out.

Aidan is doing really well now, resting a lot but he smiles and coos once again.

"coo!"

Here's me at 2 months old for comparison:

We look different don't me? First of all, Aidan has blue eyes for sure.

And yes, my brother has red hair- he also has more hair than I had until I reached around 6 months old.

Aidan's hair.

Here's me at 6 months:

See? Wasn't kidding- I was around 7.5 months old at that time.

In one of my possible career's uniform, hey, think cleanly!

Dad and I in front of a plane at an open house of an airfield in Livermore. Look carefully, you'll see two planes zooming behind us :)

Mi casa :) I love our new home. We're still moving things around but for now, Aidan and I have invaded our home.

And Aidan says hello by the way.

Til then,
eitan

pictures: just pictures.

2008-09-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Aunty Cat returned back to the west coast (whoo hoo!) and so did her camera. Mama camnapped it and went berserks.

too cute for captions

Look Ma, I got a monkey in my mouth!

Looking all grown up with the haircut.

"Hellooooooooo" softly into Aidan's ears.

"Ma, please make sure he doesn't poke my eyes out."

Aidan loves it when I yell in his ears and tickle his chin.

"okay, that was a little bit too loud."

Elk: Opps
AJ: WAAAAH

All's well with a make up smooch.

Coo!

Self-portrait by Mom.

Guess who's been potty trained? 2 weeks and still going.

Family Portrait

Silly us. Study Aidan's mouth.

Daddy's great, you can see it in there.

You like?

Me too, I think it funny.

Cousins playing together.

Here's a series of Mom smooching me and talking in my ear:

Hey! I want more!
______________________________________________________

Cute stories told by Mom:

Eitan is growing in so many ways. He has been potty trained, talks a lot more now and his imagination is so far out. Here are some stories for you to see how his imagination is too frickin' adorable.

First story, one morning he woke me up early and I was groggy. He asked me to get up and get out of bed "now!" I told him give me few minutes (mind ya, it was 6 in the morning). Instead of waiting patiently, he got up on the bed and went to my hip side area and started "winding" me up as if I was a robot.

Second story, yesterday when cleaning his room, you could see dust floating in the sunshine. Eitan tapped my shoulder really hard in excitement and said, "look! moon and star dirty mix fall here!"

Finally, just now, we're sitting on the couch in our den room and the sun is directly in our faces. I teased that the sun was kissing us but it was really hot. He said, "let me go and get water to throw at it!"

:)

Let's wrap up with two more pictures:

Here's Mom and Dad/

And Zeus.

Til then!

Evidences, Museum and Park, oh my!

2008-08-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

Well, remember I told you about how much Eitan loves touching me? I decided to get it noted via pictures and you'll see for yourselves that I was not kidding.

"Hey, wake up!"

"Yo, wake up, I wanna play!!"

"aaaaidan??"

"AAAJJJJJ!!!!!" *licks*

(evidence, enough said).

Even to this day, Big Bro Elk is relentless- that's good to know, it means his love for me is unconditional as I for him. Thank goodness for big brothers.
____________________________________________________________________

Alright, I admit it Aidan but I was super excited because it was time to go to the Museum in San Jose.

Now, the museum was filled with interactive hands on fun! I got to play in the water world, I explored the circles and its infinities possibilities and even got to paint my own face freely without reservation.

This was a cool place, I'd throw the ball into the funnel and it'd suck it down to come out and I'd do it all over again. Each time I threw in a ball or two, it'd do something different, never being in the same pattern. Fascinating!

And face painting,

I tried to cover up a lot more but some almost drooped into my eyes and Ma swooped me away from the paint station. Darn.

We live nearby few parks and the closest is at a school few blocks away. We walked there and I got to swing forever, climb high and challenge my limits.

Walking to the park.

Mommy and me.

Wheeee!

Walking on chains, Dad says to me.

"Mom, lookit, I'm walking on chains!"

Wheeee again!

"Climbing up (with Daddy's sturdy help)...

high!"

Daddy has been busy doing things around the house. He did a lot of projects as Mom was doing her mommy duty (which consists of keeping us sane in the kitchen, clothes and having fun). I get to help Dad from time to time:

Someday I'm gonna grow up to be as handy as he is!

Daddy made this cool board for me to put up my artwork and some pictures I'm proud of. I love seeing it above my play area.

(play area, it looks so much better right now than it did in the picture. Dad made the board with the leftover moulding base of our house- he's one creative resourceful dude, I tell yah)
____________________________________________________________

This is what I do most of the time everyday, so far:

I have to, I'm growing like a weed and here's two pictures for you to compare:

Me at 2 days old.

Me at one month old.

Here's a picture that will explain my name sign:

Choose a hand, make your fingers say "two" or "peace". Imagine you were signing a "quote". Now, put that hand above your eyebrow, slant it sideways not vertical- and squeeze it as if you were saying "quote" two times (Aid-an). That's my name sign because of the lines you see in the picture (by my left eyebrow).

Well, that's that for now- til next time and who knows when that'd be... but before we end this blog, here's a fun picture to share:

Cheers!
elk and aj

A month has soared by...

2008-08-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

It has been a month since life changed for all of us, in a good way that is. I admit, I really love squeezing my bro nearly to death as well as pet his head and try to make him hold my toy cars, something he hasn't mastered on yet.

As for me, Mom and Dad said I've been saying the darnest things as well as being real cute. For example, I walked down a stairs at the parking garage with Mom. I wanted to walk by myself without her holding my hands so I held the rail. Mom pointed the thick layers of black grime and dust on the rail saying it was dirty and to hold her hands. I told her, "no, I want to hold myself, let me hold my own hands." She laughed, for whatever reasons, and allowed me to have some independence:

See me holding my own hands as I walked down the stairs on me own.

I also was busy by going to summer school. We all learned about playgrounds and basically played the entire summer session. Mom and Aidan joined us a lot and there was a day when we all went to the park. We walked there:

because it wasn't far from our school- it was a lot of fun.

Don't you also love the hills as a back drop? Beautiful. It's much more prettier during wintertime, the hills are green.

We played duck 'n' goose, I got to run around once (although I had no idea what or who I was chasing, everyone pretty much ran amok).

Sitting and watching, laughing and giggling as my friends ran around in circles.

Even one of my favorite teacher, Heather, had loads of fun!

Here's me on the swing, I looooove swinging, I could stay on it for hours!

Aidan also came with us:

Well, it was nice and cozy in the stroller, safe from some of those girls who couldn't keep their hands off of me. What can I say, I'm a chick magnet already.

Okay, back to me, you'll have your turn Aidan.

The plus side of getting a brother is seeing my grandma and poppie so much more. Grandma takes me in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon while waiting for Daddy to finish work. We hang out in her 'hood, eat cookies and basically, she lets me do whatever I want. A good Grandma that she is.

She surprised me with her buoyant energy by playing with me at school:

Where's Grandma? Ack!

Don't tell her I'm hiding in the doll house! *hee hee hee*

AAaaarrrrr! She found me!

Wheee! See, she's fun.

Now aside from my glee, I love being a big brother to Aidan. I help Mom and Dad a lot and I do admit, there are times when I get jealous and I start acting like a baby, just like Aidan so I can be held. It doesn't always work though. Anyway, I think the best part for me when I feel like I am truly involved is when I get to feed Aidan. Mom will go to work and Aidan, a hungry horse that he is, will need milk. So, Mom has this really fascinating yet creepy machine that produces milk and stores them for Aidan. We tested to see if Aidan would accept the bottle. See pictures below to see Aidan's first time to be fed away from Mom and by us two boys, Daddy and me.

See his expression? Isn't he cute?

I was actually thinking, what's this?? What's this fake cold nipple thingy?

Okay Aidan. Anyway, we fed him and he took to the bottle real quick and actually gulped the whole thing down fast.

True, it was much faster than I could get it from Mom but Mom's the best way to go, right Eitan?

Yep but still, I enjoyed feeding you.

Boys only club :)

Now it's my turn to share what's been up with me for a month now.

I've been pretty much busy eating, sleeping, peeing and pooping (and burping too). Mommy is sweet, Daddy is endearing and Eitan... Eitan is a young brother! I know in time, I can get to play with him as he wants me to (with cars, talk back to him and et cetera) but at the moment, I just need to grow. Eitan loves to pet me as if I am a dog, he loves to smooch me and yes, lick my head... he also tries to pick my hair off of my tiny skull-

Aidan, dude, stop exaggerating.

What? It's true! Let me finish okay?

Anyway, I just feel lucky to have a brother like Eitan who wants to hold me, carry me and have me play with him rather than doing the opposite.

Here I am at two weeks, wondering what the heck is that thingamatie that Ma keeps putting in my face.

Eitan holding me and being doting as ever, a little bit too doting though, he wouldn't stop squeezing me, asking me if I was okay (he put his fingers in my face barely touching my nose whilst signing "ok"). Poor Parents, sometimes they gotta fend him off of me and poor Eitan, he just wants to hug or kiss (or lick) me.

Brotherly smooch.

"Okay okay, I've had enough!! Mommmmmyyyy"

Yeah, you call Mom a little bit too much that I got plenty of opportunity to make good imitation of what you do:

Mommy, look! Waaaahhh.

Alright, you and I know the power of tears and what it does to Mom, hee hee.

I'm a big brother!

Huh, I think there's something in me eye.

Eitan "elk" and Aidan "aj".

Oh boy, here we go again.

This is my "wth" look.

Mommy then put me on my tummy for some "tummy time" to exercise my neck. I really don't need to, I'm already strong:

See? I'm Hercules' long lost cousin.

Here's me at one month old.

And here's me at one month old for comparison!

Anyway, being a devoted brother and trying to be a good 2.5 years old boy is good but exhausting.

Being a baby is exhausting too!

Til then,
elk and aj

I'm a big brother to Aidan Jonas

2008-07-11T02:34:00.000-07:00

Hi! I became a big brother on the 4th of July. My brother Aidan Jonas was born early in the morning on Friday last week. He is now a week old and so far, I'm enjoying him. I cannot get enough of his little feet and laugh every time he yawns (did you know that they aren't born with teeth! Isn't it the funniest thing ever?!).

Aidan looks a lot like my Ma and she's thrilled that there's one that looks like Dad (me) and now looks like her (Aidan).

I'll share pictures with you guys and I'm super excited, curious and thrilled to share my life now with another boy and especially, that he's my bro!

WAAAHHH! :) Mom said I didn't cry at all, Aidan is definitely a little fiery one. He came with a bang though, Ma arrived at the hospital at 4:30 and had him by 6:28am.

Mommy and Daddy with Aidan, they're making sure he's all comfortable and cozy.

Mom, Dad and Aidan Jonas (aj).

Now, few hours later, I came with my grandparents- at first I was very wary but with the second visit, I felt much better and more confident.

Upon meeting Aidan, the first thing I said was "funny! no teeth!"

My Poppie looks on.

"He has the same nose as me!" and Grandma is signing "yes, same"

I finally braved my wariness and touched Aidan.

During the second visit, I proudly boasted my new little brother to Mally and Jahren. Here's me saying, "my baby!"

I'm already protective of Aidan. During his follow up appointment, I wouldn't let the doctor touch him at first and yelled at the doctor to give my baby back to Ma! Ma explained that he needed to be checked and that he wasn't going to get hurt. I finally let the doctor look at Aidan without objecting.

Big brother and Little brother shirts given to Aidan and me from my Grandparents.

I saw Mom putting her thumb in aj's mouth and wanted to try. It was a lot of fun and felt very funny.

I'm a helpful big brother :)

See how content Aidan is? Thanks to me.

Cousin Jahren held Aidan, Mally too. Mally always want to hold Aidan because methinks she has fallen in love with him.

I'm on Mom as she explains to me how Aidan was born. I found it very fascinating, the whole time I thought the baby would come out of her belly button, boy was I wrong?!

"Baby born!"

Aidan and I, our feet together for comparison. He's definitely 99% Ma!

Aj's so serious with those expressions and furrowed eyebrows, he's fun to watch.

The gang with a new addition.

Aidan happily sleeping in Mom's arms on his first day home (we stayed at Grandma and Poppie's because our new home in Livermore is undergoing a floor facelift).

Daddy has been a great Dad, he makes sure I am not feeling left out and he also handles Aidan with ease. I'm lucky to have him as my father.

Here's me sleeping like a log surviving the heat!! We've had a long week of heat waves, at Livermore it hit 115 the other day, yikes!

Aunty Cat and Aidan :)

Here's what Aidan looks like nearly everyday for the past week :)

I have to change my blog's address to Big Elk and Lil' Aidan's Adventures, what do you think?

Eitan

Updating through pictures

2008-06-09T22:11:00.000-07:00

Several people asked Ma when the heck was she gonna help me update my blog. Sorry people, things have been hectic lately. When Ma and I checked out blog's latest post, we were shocked to see it has almost been two months!

I do have pictures but nothing really exciting has been happening other than moving to another place soon, Mama getting bigger and Daddy being the best Daddy.

For a month sometimes after April, I was sick for awhile with goodness knows what. Medicine became our friend until we all agreed that it was probably making things worse. Finally, Ma and Pa stopped the meds and I was on the mend. So that "month" of tale is shot out of the window.

Rashes were my best friend in the month of May. Fever and painful poo too.

Still,

That didn't stop me from loving It's It Ice Cream :-D

Aunty Cat needed us to help her with her Final Exam on a photo themed "coolness". Mama is supposed to be the big pregnant woman dealing with three out of control kids yet maintaining a coolness.

The shot.

Practicing on my pouty face.

I'm good, huh?

My best pouty face by far but Ma missed it. Good thing it was captured into a Kodak moment.

Now one of the biggest news in our Kulchinsky-Cassidy household:

What's that? Yep. We're still on pending status.

Got a shot with me and Malvana for a change (not Jahren this time!):

I got the Cassidy's eyes and the Kulchinsky's mouth/cheeks :)

But in this picture:

I'm all Daddy!

The best part about going to school where Mom, Dad and Grandma (sometimes Aunty Cat) work as well as where Mally and Jahren go to is: I get to visit them at random moments that makes all of us happy.

Jahren's class had a bug day where they went around to fund raise money for bugs. I got to participate as if I was a 2nd grader. We stopped by Dad's and then Mom's classroom. Ma was swarmed by us bugs as she wrote a check to the 2nd grade bug fundraising event.

Here are some shots I think are cute of me and worthy to share:

I oughta be a model for Hanes t-shirt.

Na-na-na.

Swiped an old coffee cup in the trash and licked all the chocolate syrup in the bottom as quickly as I could before Aunty Cat busted me.

"EEEEEW!" Aunty Cat said, I'm just copying her.

I know you said "eew" but it sure tastes good.

Aunty Cat took me out for a ride through Niles Canyon Rd to Sunol. We stopped at some place and went out for a hike.

Lost in my own thoughts.

Embracing Man-Made junk and Mother Nature at the same time.

I'm signing "ILY!" as I'm hollering "U LUV YOOOOOOU"- when you yell into that thing, it echoes. Really cool.

"I LUVVVVV YOOOOOOOOUUU"

Aunty Cat and I.

I love love this shot of the tree. Seriously, the trees here are unique and for some reason, gives out energy of tranquility.

Every morn I crawl into bed with Ma and cuddle with her. It's our special moment and after some cuddling and short chat, we both fall back asleep.

Playing with Grandma during Cousin Kortney's birthday last month.

Ma came home from work and I was telling her all about Jahren being a monster and we played that game all day.

"He has fire coming out of his eyes!"

"Monster"

Finally...

Ma painted her belly and let me paint hers after she was done. Here is what I created:

Aren't the colors dashing?

Wait til you see what Dad did!

Isn't that awesome?!?

Soon my little brother or sister will be here- less than a month. It's so exciting and I keep telling the baby to wake up and come out!!

Until then and hope I update you much sooner than two months.

Eitan Lorcan

IOU an Overload Dude

2008-04-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hi. Welp. Time has passed by. No, not passed, soared! Whoosh.

Found some old pictures...

Me and Aunty Keri- she makes me laugh and really knows what I like... lipstick!

Poppie and I. Dude, look at my hair!

Found this picture of Cousin Jahren and I. Love it, had to share.

Here's Super Helper Me. I'm blow drying Ma's hair before she goes to work.

Ma shows off her belly at week 25- she belly bangs me in this picture, it was hilarious.

I shall travel back in time and allow my pictures narrate what has been up with me.

Here's me playing with my own metropolis.

Fast asleep in my carseat when riding Aunty Cat's red van (it rocks like a boat).

Mom loves this picture, she says my hair is all over the place and that I AM her lucky charm.

This is what a toddler looks like when watching TV. You can tell that the brain cells are dying by the seconds. Fizz.

I wanted to help feed Zeus healthy food. I shared her my pomegranate seeds. Mom took it out before Zeus got to see my generosity :(

At my school there was a special Grandparents day. Grandma came, Aunty Cat too. Mom and Dad quickly popped for short before they had to run back to teach.

Daddy and Aunty Cat helping me make my masterpiece with glue and whatever else.

I had my face painted too :)

But the real fun part was, dying eggs with Grandma and Poppie.

Poppie and I.

I'm serious when I want to be and this is one of my sincerest moments.

After dying eggs, we went outside to the backyard and drew on the ground with chalk. Poppie sure draws good!

Watching Poppie drawing.

Not only he drew, he did graffiti too!

The next morning we came early and hunted for eggs. I got a lot of candies AND new cars!!

Then we went to Lake Tahoe, it was a beautiful stay. There were snow, mountains and warm weather to boot. We stayed for 3 days.

We rode a tram up the mountain to elevation 9500 feet into a ski resort called Heavenly Resort. It was a lovely and fun ride up and down.

Up and up we went.

The view we saw at our first stop.

Us three.

We rode all the way up for 17 minutes to reach to the middle of the resort, the final destination of the tram we rode. It was HUGE, I tell ya.

Everyone was skiing, snowshoeing, walking, laughing, falling, sledding and generally basking in snow.

After coming down from the mountains, Ma and Pa surprised me with ICE CREAM! I had coffee and cotton candy flavour mixed together. It was fabulous. Mom and I had to fight for the last bite (she won, she's pregnant so hands down, she's the queen).

Here's us at Mom's week 26 shot- she popped didn't she? I mean, lookit, you can barely see me!

Large picture I know but too nice to be downsized. Here's Ma and me few days ago.

Looking at Aunty Cat because she was laughing. I took the picture of us with the timer :)

Love this picture because you can see how identical Aunty Cat and Ma are- they both are wearing blue sweater, brown pants and even, similar color undies- totally UNplanned.

Trying to pull my pants up with the drawstring, it proved difficult.

Okay, I think I'm done wearing myself out!

Last Saturday we went to Livermore to look at houses and just basically hang out there. During lunch, we ate pizza and then had Bay Area's best ice cream called "It's It". It's an ice cream sandwich- oatmeal cookies squeezing vanilla ice cream and the whole thing is covered in milk chocolate. It's blissfully perfect.

Yum!

Messy but toooo darn good.

We had a birthday party for Daddy at Coyote Hills. Grandma, Poppie, Aunty Cat, Uncle Kurt, Cousins Mally and Jahren, Mom, Dad and I (Jazzy too) were there. It was VERY hot! We all had hats (except Ma!!) and had a mellow picnic with a delicious cake. I love birthdays.

I went on a brief hike with Uncle Kurt and my Cousins.

Trying on Grandma's hat.

I got to walk Jazzy with her cute pink leash.

Grandma gives me Gatorade as Mom insisted to keep me cool from the heat. I took a quick sip then proceeded to "walk" Jazzy.

Daddy's carrot cake from the Farmer's Market- it was really good, especially the frosting.

singing Happy Birthday to Daddy, I know this song really well!

The spot where we celebrated Dad's birthday. Good thing there was shade from our shelter or none of us would have made it past 5 minutes in that heat.

I also enjoyed having Jazzy there. She loves to lick my face. Here's a fun series for you guys to see my and Jazzy's healthy relationship :)

Hee hee. That was FUN!

After Dad's party, we got home and crashed into our beds. When waking up, the heat was still unbearable (more for my Mom though) and we hung out at the balcony of our home.

Week 28 (7 months) shot together.

Okay, here's another series. Mom told me she was gonna take pictures of me saying different animals' sounds. Enjoy.

"I'm a robot with big bad metal teeth!" (from Liliput Robot book)

"Can you do this too?"

"quack quack!"

"moooooo"

"oink oink!" (okay that was difficult)

"mirrraaaoooowwwww"

"okay, I'm done. Now can I play with my cars?"

Mommy and I.

Hope you enjoyed this overloaded album as much as I've enjoyed catching up.

Until then folks,

Eitan Lorcan

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

2008-03-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

Ma said she caught a pot of gold and that I'm THAT pot of gold. Hmm.

Leprechaun Eitan

Busy. Socialized. Pooped. Happy.

2008-03-12T09:55:00.001-07:00

Title says it all, pictures to follow and reveal its own story:

Been lazing around on Aunty Cat's bed. She moved to a new spot and to the best spot I gladly admit. I like lying down there and claiming it as my own bed.

Yo?

Hey, you're trespassing on my territory!

Anyway, other than trying to mark territory, I've been busy going to places. One night Ma and Aunty Cat told stories at a bookstore with bunch of kids. Poppie and Grandma were there! It was a nice surprise seeing them.

Hey! Hello!!

Bring me back to Poppie and Grandma!

Posing pictures with the celebrities of the night: The Cassidy Twins. They told stories really well and I love the book I'm holding in my hands (The Small Pig)- Aunty Cat read it to me MANY times and I always want MORE.

Then last weekend I hung out with Ma and Aunty Cat on Saturday at a conference. I basically walked around, ran, play with cars and even *gasp all you want* was nice to a little baby boy named Tristan.

Self portrait with Aunty Cat at the Parent Tent.

Playing with one of my favorite car. Vroom.

Was a tad bit bored until Ma gave me her lip gloss. Whee.

Here's me signing, "I Love You."

then I laid down on the floor by a door and played all by myself. I can entertain myself for hours you know? But it wasn't necessary, a little wee babe named Tristan came along.

Da da dum, Tristan crawls up from behind.

Hey, is that a baby behind me?

Yo! Back off! Who are you??

I ran onto her lap and plopped there- telling Tristan that this woman was MINE.

Ma was patient and explained to me that Tristan was a sweet baby who wanted to play with me. I decided to give it a try.

*see Ma explaining*

Teaching Tristan all about reflections.

See? Come on, look!

We played for short but that was it, I had my fill and went off to play somewhere else.

Now here's the highlight of this post called "Pooped". I'll let my email do the talking and share pictures from when I was at Aunty Cat's home and demanded to pee with Ma's help (they didn't have my favorite potty chair there).

"March 11, 2008 evening:

When playing doodle with Ma on my new table, I gave her the look of "opps" and she immediately knew I peed somewhere. Lately she has been having me half naked. Ma looked at the rug area and saw where I lightly tinkled and said, "you know where to go to the potty, do you need to pee some more?"

I looked at her and contemplated- I could just pee right there and get it over with but then, I didn't want to miss out the fun of dumping my pee into the toilet bowl, flushing it down and then washing my hands.

I then decided to opt for the latter and ran to the bathroom. Mom followed me as usual, to make sure I was doing it properly. Well, this time, I thought I could do it on my own. I pushed Ma out of the bathroom and told her, "out!"

She left.

I peed and POOPED.

Ma and Pa were shocked, I did this on my own and I didn't need them giving me that "grunt-I-am-pooping-bricks" expressions.

I proudly picked up the eewie pot and dumped it into the toilet, splashing water in the process but that's okay, it's all a learning experience. Then I put the pot back, flushed the toilet and turned my butt around facing Ma demanding her to wipe me arse. I know I can do that myself but well, I wasn't going to let her or Dad go that easy- wiping my butt is no fun you know? Let them do the dirty work for now.

Anyway- of course I washed my hands like a big boy.

Aren't you proud??

I am also so glad Mom didn't take a picture of my poo, that'd have been disgusting, no?

eitan"

"grunts-I-am-pooping-bricks" expression taught by Mom and Dad.

eeerrrrrr!! *I successfully peed*

*I like watching how the pee flows*

Mama's proud :)

Aren't you too?

And as for happy. I'm just happy. I'm happy that I have a great Dad and Mom, fun Cousins, Caring Grandparents, Loving Aunts and Uncles and ultimately, that I'll be a big brother!

And the best of them all, Mommy and Daddy love me so very much.

MWAH!
lil' elk

Silly Uncle John

2008-02-21T18:49:00.001-08:00

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

I miss you Uncle Clown. You made this movie for your kids but we will always cherish this, always.

Remember how much I've always looked up to you and wanted to be held by you whenever you were in the room- you were a hot competition against Mom.

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

XOXOXOXO, you're missed by ALL of us:

Eitan

Nature Walk

2008-02-12T01:33:00.000-08:00

I've been to several places where nature continue to amaze me with her beauty. Some of the pictures are old but then, it'll be new to you.

Ano Nuevo, Coastal California on Route 1

We came here to see Elephant Seals. At first, all I wanted was to walk walk walk but I had to stay in the special carrier due to safety. We walked really close to the seals and it was cool! All of them were sleeping though, they barely moved. We had a tour guide who could sign in ASL and the people in our group were mostly Deaf.

Walking with Daddy.

Walking towards the shore, we walked 3 miles total that day. It happened to be very warm and not too windy, a rarity especially at that location.

"Please let me down!!" After walking half a mile, we were told to STAY together as a group and NOT to stray apart.

The lady in red, Pat, is signing, "CLOSE". We were told we'd be very close to the seals and try not to startle them, they could quickly chase us but wear themselves out instantly within 15 feet. The males weigh around 3 tons, FYI!

We walked through the sand dunes and winded around the seals that were lazily lying at random places.

An elephant seal male. It may look small but it really is big, as big as 16 feet and up to 4 or 5 tons.

Fascinated... looking onto a harem- where many seals, females, males and babies were grouped up together. I saw the bull fight with other males and most of them were sleeping. They rest a lot because they're so heavy and full of blubber! The guide explained that their heart beats once per minute!

Many of them by the shore. There should have been hundreds more but they were lost or taken out by the Maverick from the big storm we had a week before.

Bull fighting, the guide said the bull in that one was around 5,000 lbs!

Signing, 'smile!' as we ready ourselves to go back to our car.

The hike worn me out and I slept like a baby, literally.

Lake Tahoe: South Lake Tahoe

We went to Lake Tahoe! It was a first for all of us. We stayed in a nice huge cabin and basically hung out there. It was really beautiful outside but as long as I was inside, I was a happy boy. The snow... I wasn't sure what to make of it.

I wasn't sure nor was I happy, I clung onto Daddy's hands with me dear life.

Please get me out of here?

Us three in Tahoe... in our cabin's backyard.

Inside the cabin, there were lots of us including Aunty Cat, Uncle Kurt and the Cousin Wyns. I cannot forget Dan, he was a funny man who liked to entertain me.

See?

Watching him.

I'm cute aren't I?

Here are a picture from Aunty Cat's- she went snowshoeing not us. However, I wanted you to see how beautiful it was there.

It's a meadow right out of our cabin, you'd have to go through the back gate and walk there. Beautiful!

Whee! We ate at this same spot three times because it was sooooo good, Sprouts Cafe. Methinks Mom and Dad daily pine for it.

Sunol-Pleasant Ridge Trail, Sunol (near Fremont)

I'll let the pictures do the "talking"

Beautiful oak tree in background.

Watching cars whiz by from a distance- you could see the freeway over the hills.

Mommy and I go up to see the tree.

We were surprised to see this. There were literally thousand of holes in the tree's bark and in some of them, stored nuts.

Up close. Cool huh?

The hike worn me out!

Since we have SOME pictures of me sleeping, here's one more:

I dream of cars. **Wanted to add something here, this picture is also special to my Dad because when I was told to go to bed, I got up on the bed and pulled the sheets over myself and fell asleep. Dad checked on me and was surprised to see me 1) sleeping already and 2) covered with something because I HATE having something on my legs when sleeping**

:-D

Eitan

I had my first haircut!

2008-02-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

This wild do had to go.

We went to Cute Tops and out of all the motorbikes and cars, I choose horse. Why? I saw a lot on the way over there. It was a long drive from home.

Me on the horsie and having fun. I didn't cry a whit or feign worry, in fact, I was thrilled.

The lady was fast, snip snip snip!

Watching with fascination at myself in the mirror.

I look to ma and pa who are watching me. Ma had emotional watery eyes and Dad was smiling at me, all proud.

"I like it, it looks neat," Pa says.

Woah nellie! Hot air!

The finale! You like?

Eitan

I'm TWO!

2008-01-07T18:02:00.001-08:00

I'm two years old and so far, a wonderful boy, I'm told. This will be loaded with pictures because I had two separate parties and a photo shoot :) Enjoy.

The photo shoot:

I'm all smiles!

With my Cousins.

"i'm two! 1.7.08"

I love being two!

My patented look.

Jahren and me! I'm saying I'm TWO!

"two!" (I tried, it's really hard for my fingers to cooperate!)

Now onto the first party, we played at a place called Gymboree's. There were lots of kids my age, my friends and classmates, we all played together and had loads of fun!

Doing the birthday jump, I wanted to do it all by myself.

Mom: "Want my help?"
Me: "no, self!"

Whee!

That was fun!

Now the birthday slide...

"Why can't I slide down any faster? I keep squeaking as I try going down!"

Ah ha! Whoa nellie.

There were lots of bubbles, I could even catch and hold them for a second or two.

We had this parachute fun, I think it was everyone's favorite, you could see smiles galore, even on the adults' faces.

Watching Grandma explain about what we had to do. We had to sit in the middle while the adults would shake the parachute. We had NO idea of what fun was to lie ahead.

Wow! Waves of rainbow!

After the waves of rainbow and colorful fun, it got down to business: the birthday song.

Grandma and Daddy says my name, "eitan!"

Me: "me?"
Grandma and Daddy: "yes, you!"

Oooo the cupcake with candles!

Everyone sang happy birthday to me and I at first copied them by saying 'you'and eventually realized that I was to say "me" instead of "you" I know Ma took a video of it, she'll probably post it sometimes soon.

Last year I had Tyler and Giovanni at my birthday party and we three took pictures together again to compare notes:

Tyler, Me, Giovanni and Dylan in 2007

Us three (Me, Giovanni and Tyler) as of now.

After Gymboree's we went over to Aunty Cat's for older people to celebrate my birthday. We had pizza, more birthday songs and opened presents. It was loads of fun, let me emphasize this, I was spoiled!

Grandma and Grandpa East were there also. I had a lot of fun with them, my Grandma East is silly and funny while Grandpa East is sweet and caring. I can't wait to see them again in July.

Here's us eating pizza (Grandma West, Jahren, Malvana and Mama)

I opened lots of presents...

I got bored of opening the wrapping paper...

and realized, I wanted to play with Jahren's robot. I left and Mom and Dad finished opening presents for me.

I got mittens and I loved it! I love red, did you know that?

We all migrated to the kitchen for my 2nd wind at the birthday song/cake. At first I didn't know what was up because I was busy sticking my finger up my nose.

"oh, they're singing the song, better get the finger out of my nose"

"Happy"

"birthday"

"to me!"

Yummy. Banana cake with cream cheese frosting made by my Parents. Hmm.

Gotta have them all!

Here's Dad and Grandpa, Dad's saying "we're done with the birthday cakes!"

Two days later (today) Mom, Dad and I had our own mini party. First, they took me to In 'n' Out because I love their hamburger SO much. Then we had the birthday song and candle blowing once again.

Singing.

Mommy says to blow but I turned my head as I realized the lights were blinking :)

Here's a last picture for you guys to see... what I looked like 2 years ago and every one sees this picture with the caption of:

"Hello world!"

Til then,
Eitan

Vacation Mode: Pictures overload!

2007-12-29T20:18:00.000-08:00

I know I titled it as picture overload.... There are too many to share so I'll just jump into it with captions. They're pretty much self explanatory. Mom and Dad are on their two weeks vacation so we've been super busy and at the same time, super lazy! Our holidays have been fun filled with families and friends- we couldn't have asked for a better holiday this year. We miss Uncle John very much but feel him near and that he's happy for us all.

Anyway. Pictures.

We spent our Christmas morning at Aunty Sarah's home. Her and Uncle Tim made yummy breakfast and spoiled me like CRAZY! Grandma and Poppie too... I think Mom and Dad nearly lost their eyeballs when seeing what I got. Hee hee. I'll leave the pictures taken by Aunty Cat the job of showing you the evidence of the piles of gifts there were!

When we arrived, I was shocked with the gifts

and my stocking was filled with something that scared my Ma.

Whoooooa! It's bigger, much bigger, than my face!

Eek says Ma. There were a lot more in the stocking. I don't know where it is now, methinks she is eating them all.

I'm saying, "many presents!"

Guess who also enjoyed the presents? Mimi, Cousin Kortney's kittie.

Mimi is much sweeter than Zeus, she lets me pet her and even pull her hair.

The first present I opened was a Schwinn bike... when I realized what it was, I immediately lit up and gave Aunty Sarah a thumbs up!

Toppling down the stack pile, Grandma animates the "uh oh" making it funnier than funny.

In the middle of unwrapping paper frenzy. Everyone looks curious, happy and excited.

I got a brand new fancy Schwinn bike from Aunty Sarah and Uncle Tim- it's a tad bit too big for now but nope sireebob, I ain't letting it go!

Helping Dad and Poppie set it up.

YAY!!! This is MINE! Thanks Sarah and Tim!

Here's Pa slaving away in the kitchen, it took him two days!

The Christmas Dinner Dish- Daddy made them special for Grandma and Poppie- he wanted them to have a great Christmas because they made our Hanukkah a memorable one! For me, I didn't like it- I'm a baby you know? (lame excuse I know)

Viola! Dad made wonderful dinner, apparently, because everyone ate their plates clean!

Isn't the holiday cards wall cool?? Thanks to those who sent one our way.

Like I said, I didn't like the Veggie dinner for Christmas and kinda was bored with the mac and cheese-- Jazzy really loved it but too bad it also was very sticky!

Of course, dessert was served, it was a homemade cheesecake by Dad! Chocolate crust with cranberry and orange toppings. It was a hit.

After dinner, I got to chat with my Aunts of the East, Kim, Keri and Lis through iChat. Poppie and I also played together. Poppie's a funny man!

Talking to the Aunts of the East- they were happy to see us, it was like we all were together on Christmas night.

Trying to get his sunglasses out of his pocket.

I got it and put it on to show my Aunts in the East. They thought I was a cute silly bugger, of course!

Cousin Kortney played a lot witih me. She had gum and I was naturally drooling. Brilliant her, she distracted my pining by playing a game with me called Pop the Gum!

Oh I want it...

Gimme.

Got it!

Wheeeeee.

Popped! Yeaah.

After the fum game, my family played Wii and they were funny to watch. They kept yelling, laughing, cursing (!!) and dancing!

We love Wii!

Daddy dances!! Hahahaha.

Cassidy Family on Wii.

Aunty Cat with her big laugh!

Even Mommy is crazy.

"Someone help me, this family is crazy!"

Here's me with Aunty Cat :-D

Busy huh? Tiring?

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I wish my Parents would be on their vacation EVERYDAY.

I have a special announcement to share:

Yep, I'll be a big brother! The baby is due on the 4th of July, how cool is that? We nick named it Spark for "Sparklers" like the fireworks.

I love getting smooches from Mom. She says I'll always be her baby.

Now I'll stop and come back to share news which will be exciting because my Grandparents from the East are coming!! Yay! And I'll be 2 years old in 8 days!!

Whee.
Eitan

Holiday Train of Lights, Niles Canyon and some pictures

2007-12-14T20:55:00.000-08:00

Hi! Choo choo. Trains are still a top thing on my list of "fun stuffs!"

Daddy surprised Mommy, Grandma and Poppie by buying all of us tickets to ride a real train through Niles Canyon. The train is special because it's decorated with all kinds of Christmas lights and decorations.

When we arrived, we all were in awe of the inner decoration- there were lights, ornaments, wreaths and strings of whatnots (mostly green). There were pine cones in those things too making it all feel like we were in a magical train. Outside was even more prettier- light bulbs ontop of light bulbs adorned the train. It definitely would have made Chevy Chase's house look insignificant (You gotta see the movie to get it).

Here are some pictures, not a lot but still enough for you to get an idea.

Boarding the train, we sat on it for almost 40 minutes for the sun to finally go down and started chugging.

This picture is stolen from the website but that's what the train looked like.

Another stolen picture from the website, just wanted you guys to see what it really looked like. Actually, you have to be there in person to see it. The tickets are always sold out before the train of lights actually started. So, we were lucky :) Thanks Daddy!

"I see Santa!" (secretly thinking, "ooOOooo candy canes!"

A family picture-- I look possessed but really, it's the sugar in my blood.

After that train fun, we all went to Bronco Billy's pizza place in Niles town. It was a perfect way to end our night and we all went home very happy. I slept soundly therefore, my Parents slept wonderful that night.

Now way off the topic, Aunty Cat took pictures of me today and here are some of them to show:

Cool huh? I posed for awhile so she could take those pictures. I'm becoming a great model. Thanks to her though.

Have a great weekend guys, I know I will.

Eitan

Happy Hanukkah Evening One

2007-12-04T21:43:00.001-08:00

Happy Hanukkah! I'm so excited, I already had a lot of fun with Ma, Pa and the hissy Zeus. Still, you should smell my home, it smells way too good.

As usual, I'll let the pictures tell its story.

Watching the candles become smaller and smaller sure beats watching TV.

"Smile!" *I'm copying what Ma told me to do*

"Candle's flickering!"

Mama! The camera's flashing like crazy!

I told Ma I wanted us two taken together and I took this picture... it was funny, we weren't ready!

I couldn't stop laughing!

That one obviously shows I messed up opps!

I then asked Daddy to join us, he patiently waited as I tried to fix the camera.

Then Ma was being patient too.

My first family portrait, not bad? The light in the background was a wee bit too much so we shifted a little and have made our 2nd Hanukkah family picture:

I think I like the first one better.

So far Hanukkah is fun in a delicious way. I cannot wait to celebrate it tomorrow at Grandmama and Poppie's house! I heard they decorated a lot and will cook lots of food.

Holidays rock!
Hugs,
Eitan

My Dream Job: Blue Man Show on the Broadway

2007-12-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

This is what happens to me when I hang out at Aunty Cat's home... who happens to have a very girly daughter, my Cousin Malvana. Her and her wide assortment of lip balms, I'm in heaven. I will let the pictures do the story telling.

A blue discovery!

Busted by Aunty Cat but she doesn't stop me... hmm. I wonder why.

I gotta show this to Uncle Kurt!

Unsuspecting Uncle Kurt has no idea that there's a blue monster on his way.

He's really into his reading stuff, I had to go up real close and spook him.

Isn't his facial expression the funniest ever? Tee hee.

He whacks his head and probably inwardly muttered something like omg!

He got his special mirror and I saw myself for the first time.

I then whacked my head and thought, "oi!"

But then my momentarily disbelief dissipated and I was totally elated!

May be it was a little bit too much.

Aunty Cat acting surprised but methinks she secretly loved this photo opportunity!

Cool huh? I should be a Blue Boy from now and on.

It took two separate baths to wash all this off, I even sneezed blue snot, gross huh? My hair still has the goo in it and I look like some slick dude.

Have a bluey day and thanks Aunty Cat and Uncle Kurt for the fun!

Eitan

Pah! Pictures from Halloween and Cookie Fun!

2007-11-21T20:38:00.000-08:00

Here I am! Well, I do have an excuse to my lameness of not blogging. I've been sick with sinus infection, cough and pretty much feeling crummy. I'm feeling great these days and am happy to blog tonight!

Well, before I start telling you all about my fun day making cookies with Ma, I got to share you really old pictures from Halloween.

I was a monkey again because last year's costume still fit me very well. This time, I was super stoked to wear it unlike last year. I actually got to wear it twice! But anyway, here's me in the cutie patootie outfit with Dad:

We were on our way to go to the Haunted House. There was a Good Fairy section and Mom and Dad thought it would be fun for all of us to go inside a kid-friendly haunted fun.

Boy, were they wrong. It was gory, graphic and creepy, dark, goulish and scary. Mom and Dad were horrified that I had to witness such horror. Actually, the actors inside did not scream or wail but instead creepily and happily said "Happy Halloween" as they mechanically waved to all of us (they looked really bored). I held onto Mom with my dear life until we passed into t his dark space filled with purple glowing birds flying everywhere. I then screamed like crazy and hit my Mom's chest with my fists crying to get out.

Out we went and guess what? I begged to go back in again. I still ask about it today. I know, I just can't help it, sick fascination of mine I guess?

OK, enough blabbering, pictures.

This monkey gotta eat some lolli-pop!

Here's me in my favorite store, HobbyTown. They got 4 Thomas and Friends Train Table. Fun, fun and fun.

Now Halloween's old news (except for my desire to see the haunted house), let's jump into what we did today. We made COOKIES!

Mom asked me for help in making shortbread cookies. I was more than happy to lick the batter mess clean as well as the icing of the cookies. I helped though, I got to shape the dough and chop it into pieces as well as repeatedly sprinkle it with flour. Here are the pictures to follow through my cookie monster moments:

"He got the whole kitchen in his hands"

Busy chopping the dough into shape for baking.

Looks delish? It really was good.

The best part of making cookies? Licking off the icing.

Our final products (in other terms, salvaged cookies).

Mommy and I rock in the kitchen.

Anyway, this week is Thanksgiving week for my Parents which means? They have been home every day for the entire week. I love love love love it. We hang out together in the mornings, take our sweet time without any rushing and even, play together a lot all day long.

All of us watching Ratatouille, my new favorite movie.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. We're hanging out at Aunt Sarah's home with all the cousins and my Aunts as well. Aunty Keri from Boston is here and she has spoiled me like crazy! Hee hee. I foresee lots of chocolate fed to me tomorrow. Shh.

Til then!
Eitan L. K.

Sorry... will blog soon.

2007-11-09T19:42:00.001-08:00

Mommy, Daddy and I have been very very busy. I promise to blog sometimes soon. Here's a picture to satisfy your pining for my cuteness:

Eitan

Twinsey Family

2007-10-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here's I with Mally, Jahren, Aunty Cat and Mama. When I can, I could share a picture of Mally when she was my age, you'd be shocked on how much we look alike. A lot of people say I look like dad but when they see Mally's pictures during her wee lass days, they'd exclaim, "wow!!"

Anyway. I am lucky to have many cousins and wishing I could hang out with alllllll of them too. Kortney, Kerjsen, Klaudia, Elijah, Austin and Kalvin, I miss you!

Here's to family *toasts*

mwah
Eitan

San Francisco Zoo: September 3rd, 2007

2007-10-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

On Sept 3rd I went to the zoo with Mom and Dad. Been meaning to share pictures from that day. We met up with Mom's friends called the Brrr Babies. They met when they were pregnant and expecting December '05 babies (But Catherine and I ended up being January babies, heh heh).

Waiting to go to the zoo, was at grandparent's home and visited Uncle John. Mom was toying around with her manual camera while Dad talked to Uncle John when she took those pictures. Little did we know it'd be our last time to see him because he died later that night.

Mommy and me at the zoo; she had to buy an expensive touristy long sleeved shirt because she had no idea it'd be cold that day (it was a hot week).

Here's us, the Brrr Babies gang from left to right: Catherine (in the stroller), Jeni (Catherine and Jame's Mother), Erika, Grace's Mother (Grace's on her lap) and Mom holding me and James.

(here's us meeting sometimes in March 2006)

See, they were friends for a long time, so were Catherine and I!

Anyway, here are some pictures from that fun morning/afternoon.

Playing with the frog, there were a lot in that area.

"Holy!" That's what Daddy and I would look like if we ate all the fast foods, all the sugar and all the processed food from the super markets.

We saw Meerkats, they were comical to look at. Just like the Meerkats we saw at Oakland Zoo.

This was at the Grizzly Gulch. We arrived in time to see the Grizzlies walk away and disappear from our sights, darn!

"Where's the bear?"

Here's Catherine and I getting friendly with each other.

I kept running around a lot that day. You see Catherine? Here's her chasing me and she would say, "I catch you!" I had fun playing with her.

Whee!

I had fun that day thanks to Grace and Catherine. I hope I get to meet my other Brrr brothers/sisters sometimes soon.

I really want to meet Kai tho, we were born on the same day. You can see Kai's blog by clicking on the link at the right column of this web page.

Anyway...

A tired and worn out me sitting in a cool dude's pose.

I like sitting this way.

Alright, off to bed... I am sick with cough and cold, so are my Parents. You could say, this everyone in this household is feeling quite lamentable at the moment. Hope everyone feels fabulous and have a great day.

Eitan

Pictures

2007-10-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Really don't want to get into words but just share pictures, enjoy.

Reading Archies require seriousness.

You could never get bored of Archies, try it and your mind will feel so relaxed. A rarity.

Waiting patiently for Osh... "Oh Osh? Where are you!"

Aunty Cat, can you tell him to come?

He came!

I'm the dude that has the hair gone wild.

I'm Medusa's competition when it comes to the mop on top.

Someday I'm going to own this van.

We had a birthday party for Aunty Keri and Aunty Sarah as well as Uncle Kurt (and a belated one for Uncle John). A whole bunch of us hung out and I ate lots of sweets.

Riding backwards ontop of Daddy.

Bunch of us played together all night long.

I blew out the candle for Uncle John.

Mommy making fun of me and my chocolate smeared face.

Daddy then was silly. Oi.

Here's me with Cousin Austin and Cousin Jahren.

I get to see my Grandma and Poppie a lot more lately. Grandma makes me laugh so hard with her tickling ways.

Uh oh, Grandma's hands are out and ready...

Hee hee, see her hands nearing me?

omg omg, I know she's SO going to tickle me to a giggle fit!

SQUEALS!

Grandma makes my jaw hurt because I smile way too much but that's a good feeling.

Love ya Poppie and Grandma. Love you too Aunty Cat.

I color my Parent's world and I am glad I can brightly do so.

Eitan

Uncle John, I really loved you, I did.

2007-09-04T00:50:00.000-07:00

I am really sad. We all are so sad. You were the funniest uncle that any nephews or nieces could have. I will miss your hollering voices, your funny expressions and how you beam a huge smile and turn hyper when you see me. I will miss you and when I get older, I will make sure I'll remember the Uncle Clown I had and that he really loved me too.

Here's you with Kalvin, the boy you thought the world of.

You made the best siren sound effects, really, you did!

I learned the term, "funny" just from playing with you. In that picture I was laughing at you while you were hollering and hooting like a crazy Uncle John.

You were also so kind to let me borrow your glasses.

I really and really wished you didn't have to go the way you did. I wish that all of our love for you would have been enough to have you stay for a little while longer. But now I know you know how much we all really did and DO love you.

Eitan

I know! Two blogs in a day, lucky you.

2007-09-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

Howdy!

Remember I said I had more pictures but they were stuck in Aunty Cat's camera? Well, there you go.

This is a cool picture taken by Pa:

Mom, Aunty Cat and then me. If you want to scrutinize the differences between them, remember this, Mom's glasses has lime green touches while Aunty Cat's black and purple.

I love Aunty Cat's camera and know how the self=timer works. I even took some pictures of myself. One self portrait is now my Mom's FAVORITE. You'll see it soon.

Jahren and me.

Here's me squeaking/squealing at the timer. It blinks and makes a long beep sound before capturing a photo.

"Please please, please let me use your camera, I understand how it works, really!"

Good thing Aunty Cat is really a softie because she let me and I took tons of pictures allllll by MYSELF. Here's the best one and also Mom's favorite.

Good huh? Yes, before you get rapid heart rate, I drew on my legs with a red marker.

Well, that's it for today and be sure to look at my next blog from today too.

Til then ladies and gents,
Eitan

Going greener, cuter by the day and going to school

2007-09-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

Yup, I wear cloth but how could I get any greener? I now wear wool shorties at night. They're really soft, smells fabulous and so very comfortable that I get excited when Mama puts them on.

Irish shorties

Just a cute one of me sitting on Ma with my shorties. I loved that toothbrush until it fell into the toilet (by my experiment) and now is somewhere in a landfill.

Here is a series of pictures when I drank almost the entire cup of water and eventually had to pee lots.

Yup. Still at it.

See how much I've drank so far? All this took less than 2 minutes.

The next picture has a story. It's quite funny though. We all were at Gio's 1 year old birthday party (remember Gio, my pal I hung out with during 4th of July?). There were a whole bunch of us hanging out at that cool place for kids. My Aunt Cat was the photographer and she had to get ALL of us kids (like 15 from ages 5 months to 9 years old) sit together and take pictures. I, at first, didn't know what the heck was going on and nearly went ballistics. Mom explained that they were taking pictures and I immediately understood, thanks to my trainings with Aunty Cat.

Here I am calmly sitting down next to a very patient Landen.

Speaking of Landen, he's my new classmate and I really love following him around to everywhere! Seriously, he's one cool dude.

Me excited why? I'm about to devour the cake decorated in Thomas and Friends theme!! It was so good by the way.

Here's a picture you'll think is cute. My hair is all over the place, seriously, it's like Medusa caught on a bad hair day. Sometimes I got them up in a ponytail or sometimes in a bobby pin.

Whee!

I started school for the first time last Tuesday and have fallen in love with it. I did not even cry when Ma or Pa left and I was really sad when I had to go. I go there every Tues, Wed and Thursday. Sometimes on Fridays too. Here are some pictures from my first day at school, ever!

Getting ready to go to school. I know, shoeless but it was in the car. I'm eating apricot fruit roll, FYI, not chocolate.

Family picture at home. Too bad I didn't have my orange crocs on, it'd have been a crocs familo pix. I am blurry because I'm laughing at the camera's lights as it was blinking away on a timer.

MY school! It's the same place where Ma, Pa and Grandma works. Also the very same place where my Cousins Klaudia, Mally and Jahren go to. AND, the very very same school where my Aunty Cat, Mama and Uncle John graduated! You can see G'ma and Aunty Cat in the playground area waiting for me. It was fun to see my family watch me go to school on Day One.

da da dum. Walking towards school, at first I wasn't sure...

Smiling at Grandma and Aunty Cat who were encouraging me to come closer and closer.

Family picture AT my school.

Here's me playing with Chang-Lynn and Chang-May, yup, twins! And Michelle, one of my 4 teachers.

Guess where I went to first? Yup, the area with cars!

Holly, my other teacher, asking me for a blue car.

I gave her the blue one and she was impressed.

Remember Landen? The one with painted face?

Here's him! We're together in the same class room. I'm super stoked.

Not just school is fun, I get to pig out and even play with cars while eating.

Drawing with Holly and Landen.

Last Friday I had a treat and that was? Getting to STAY at my home. I had a lazy morning with my Aunt Cat. I played with big bloks and fell asleep in a rare spot and that'd be, not on a bed.

Aunty Cat slept too. Mamma loved this when she got home. It was peaceful and quiet. She got to hang out with Zeus in peace.

Zeus thinking: Yay, Eitan is asleep! Now I can sit on MY mommy's lap without disruptions.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Anyhoo, I have a lot of pictures to show but they are in Aunty Cat's camera. Ask her, she will tell you that I took those pictures all by myself and they'r really impressive.

Have a fabulous Labor Day's weekend!

hugs,
Eitan

Big Basin, Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Oakland Zoo and Ice Cream

2007-08-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

Helloah! Busy busy, fun kind of busy though. I will simply step aside and let the pictures tell you about my adventures, with captions naturally.

Our campsite at Big Basin. It was a walk-in tent site. That means, you don't pitch your tent right next to a car but, walk for awhile to arrive to your campsite.

We had a huge campsite of our own and I could freely roam with my wagon in tow.

Our first night's dinner was a feast fit for a king! Dad made delicious steak kebabs and we had corn on the cob, bread and veggies. There were so much left that we actually reheated and ate them during our lunch (when hiking) the next day.

Mama tried something new when making Smores. Someone told her to assemble the graham crackers, mallows and chocolate into the foil and let it roast above the fire.

Daddy thought Mama left it roasting for way too long... he's opening it up as Mama anxiously (me, excitedly) wait...

Eeps. Where's the marshmallow? And whoever heard of an overcooked graham crackers? Not I.

This was the least damaged of them all. Mama and I scraped off the chocolate and licked the marshmallow off. It was still very delicious!

After salvaging what was "left" of the foil smores experiment, we proceeded to do it in the good ol' fashioned method.

We all got into our tent because it started getting chilly. Mama wanted a picture of me and Dad. Here is a series of how Dad drove Mama crazy.

Dad!!Ahh, Daddy being silly as usual!

Needless to say, I kept seeing spots from all those flashes!

Mama couldn't resist for just one more.

The following morning we got up and started hiking. We hiked from around 9:45 am and did not stop until 4pm. Mom and Dad were thoroughly exhausted but me? I wanted more. Good thing the campsite was big enough for me to walk and walk while Ma and Pa slothly moved about like zombies.

Me riding with Dad. Ma was upset, when taking that picture, the battery died. We were almost a mile away from campsite, where two other extra batteries rested on the picnic table. Oh well, the beauty will remain in our minds then.

Eating smores once again after a big feast. We had Hobo (Poor Man's Dinner), corn on the cob, roasted tomato on the vine and other delish stuffs. We were so stuffed and slept well.

We woke up and made a beeline for home because it was cold! We rested and aired our home with smoky campfire scent. The next day we went back to the same area not for camping, but for an amusement park called Santa Cruz Boardwalk. I already went there and didn't take pictures. This time, I did.

On the way to Santa Cruz Boardwalk, Jahren and Mally kept me entertained and my hands too. I was teething at the time which explains why I got my hands in my mouth.

See Dad? He is signing "camp" as he's telling Uncle Kurt (see eyes in review mirror) about our camping fun at Big Basin. We definitely want to return there, it was so beautiful.

We arrived at the boardwalk and I immediately knew what I wanted:

"WANT!"

WANT THAT RIDE!

Daddy went with me this time. The last time Ma was the one who rode with me. I had loads of fun.

See why I had loads of fun? Daddy is so silly.

I returned on that ride again but this time with Jahren!

Wheee!

That was fun! More??

Jahren brought me to this ride, I couldn't go on it before because Mama or Daddy were too big for it. So, in I went with Jahren and he was such a good cousin.

We rode in a helicopter. Jahren made sure I was safe and secured before we lifted off and went into fun circles.

The next ride was really loud and busy. I went with Pa again and simply enjoyed the loud music that was blaring there. Also, I loved seeing all those horses.

Not sure what to make of this ride, yet.

Okay, here we go... da da da dum (see Uncle John and Cuz Jahren in back?)

After the Merry Go Round, I was plain knackered out. Mama had ice cream and she shared some with me. I fell asleep eating it with my blue monkey that Jahren won for me.

yum yum (notice the scrape by my nose? got that when falling down during our hike at Big Basin)

Must finish.. before...zz must finish...

Oh wait, must kiss Blue first...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

hours later, I woke up to see Daddy riding this:

It was really hot and too bad I couldn't be allowed onto that ride.

Sunburnt me (tsk tsk Mommy)-- I look different than I did earlier that day. I'm laughing at Mally and Jahren, see next picture.

Them sunburnt too.

Few days later we went to the Oakland Zoo. Man, that place was perfect! You could see all the animals and that they were well taken care of. Mom and Dad loved it so much too that they want to come back again.

Sign upon entrance-- see my crocs? Cool eh? Anyway, we saw some feedings and the Giraffe seemed not to care for it but the Meekrats? They were already hungry and impatiently waiting to be fed. The show was quite comical.

Us watching the Meekrats and their antics.

Where's the food? Where's the food? *digging everywhere* Where's the food? Where's the Food?

F-O-O-D?

The Giraffes? They didn't care if they were fed. Methinks they were happily content already.

Giraffes in the background, there were lots of them and they seemed smaller than I envisioned from Planet Earth.

When walking around, I immediately noticed what I wanted: to go down a slide. It took us a long time getting there because there were many neat things in that Children Zoo Area.

WANT!

We trekked through the bugsville, saw bats, played in the otter land, climbed frogs and pretended to be tortoises before arriving at the slide.

The bug building was super fascinating. I wanted to stay in there forever. See this picture:

That's a huge huge green grasshopper thingy. It hung down like that and around it were tons and tons of walking stick bugs. At first I thought they were plants or vines clinging onto the glass panes. Imagine my shock when I saw them move!

Walking Stick Bug.

See the window? It's covered with those bugs.

Huge black grasshoppers doing something naughty, or so, my Dad says.

Off we went to the frog land. I climbed on a red frog and was happy to sit between its eyes.

I wanted to jump down but asked for help. I insisted Mom to count. She's on Three and I'm saying THREE!

We went to the tortoise area and there were empty shells for us to play in. I happily played pretend.

Wow, cool!

Mom, you gotta try this!

So she did and believe me, it was not easy for her to fit through that thing.

We finally headed towards where I wanted to go in the first place.

Yay! The slide! OOh it looks dangerous.

Bumpity bump.

That's it?

Mom asked if I wanted more, I simply said NO WANT WALK.

So we walked around some more. We saw different animals and then rode a sky tram to see the Zoo from up above. It was beautiful. I simply sat and watched the world go by. My eye lit up when I saw the Giraffe and the Lions as well as the Camels. We also got to see Tigers that were hiding under the shade that we couldn't see when on ground.

Sky Tram.

Giraffe's home.

:)

OOOOOH look!

Lions!

We spent the rest of the afternoon riding on trains and eating. I then fell asleep after a long day. I cannot wait to go back again and say howdy to those animals. Oh yes, the elephants, how could I forget. They were magnificent!

Finally, I'll close this long post with pictures of me eating my favorite thing in the world (besides chocolate). Popsicles! Mom makes them. She says she put in strawberries, bananas, grapes and beets. They're so good that I always ask for more but no luck (I haven't had more than one in a day, bummer).

Why are my feet crossed like this?

Yup, I'm having ice cream and oh so loving it.

It was starting to get messy. I nicely asked Mom to get me napkins. At first she wasn't sure what I wanted them for and gave it to me. I gingerly wrapped the napkins at the bottom of my Popsicle and when it was secured, I proceeded to finish it without making further messes onto my hand.

Alright, I must wrap this up and go to bed myself. Been sleeping late these days, got to, summer is flying by way too fast and before I know it, Mom and Dad will be gone most of the time again.

Til then mates,
Eitan Lorcan

A Day Out With Thomas!

2007-08-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

Choo choo!

Grandma, Daddy, Mommy and I went to Felton to ride with Thomas the train! Seriously people, that dude was real life sized, not some mini trains I got on my train set. I was ridiculously overwhelmed with giddy glee. I got to bring home this humongous Thomas Train balloon, a new train, a DVD of songs, pictures and the best of them all, a hat! I picked that hat all by myself. Mom wanted me to wear this conductor thingy hat that had THOMAS on it... I didn't like it and I showed my dislike to her by taking the hat off and hurling it into the air at the same time throwing a fit. I demanded for THAT hat and well, what ya know?! I've been wearing it since I got it yesterday, yup, even all day today.

We arrived so late that we missed our train, noting irony here, I wore a T-shirt with Thomas on it and it says "Right On Time!" Ha ha!

But my Parents and Grandma did not worry, we all merrily strolled the park, saw steam engine trains (fabulous!) that made LOOOOOUD choo choo sounds and got meself a tattoo of Lady. You'll see all this through pictures soon, I just want to excitedly yak here!

When Thomas, the real big one, chugged along and then wheesh'd as he stopped, my aweness went over the top and all I could do was to stare and try not to drool. We took pictures together, Grandma filmed the whole thing so I wouldn't forget it (I don't think I'll).

We rode on the train for awhile through the big redwoods, it was so beautiful and a lot of fun. Ok ok, I gotta slow down with my chattering and let you see how much fun we all had yesterday.

Don't I look all geared up for A Day Out With Thomas?

While Dad was in a long line, Mom and Grandma came with me to shop. In this picture, I was telling Grandma to take me back to the store (they had Thomas play table there).

We arrived late and missed our train but fret not, we could hop onto the next one. You can obviously see how at ease we were, look at Mom, she's smiling as Dad is getting updated tickets.

I wasn't sure what was going on but I just sat there and watched... until I realized that the man was going to put something on my leg. Something called a tattoo.

I admit, at first I thought it was strange that a stranger was touching my leg with wet sponge-- I tried to pry it off but Mama stopped me. Good thing she did or I'd have not gotten the masterpiece.

Mom's blowing on my new "Lady" tattoo so it'd get dry and stick. Looks cool doesn't it?

One of many steam engines we saw that day.

Wait a minute, is this for real?

Here comes Thomas the Train! choo choo.

Mom, Grandma and I with Thomas chugging by.

Before the train started, I was happily chatting with Grandma and she's finding me adorable.

Daddy held me most of the time and was telling me what we were doing, "the train is chugging over the bridge"

I like this picture, doesn't my face scream "Daddy"? We look exactly the same.

Riding with Mom and Grandma. Mom is giddy, Grandma is filming and me? A little bit unsure of what to make of the train ride.

I got to sit ontop of Mom's shoulders and I enjoyed that part the most because the view was great, hitting Mom's head and taking her hat off/on was hilarious.

This is what the train ride mostly looked like, beautiful sights huh?

Grandma tried to take a picture but it was crazy, everyone wanted the same shot as us so, Grandma fumbled with her video camera, her regular camera and then ours. She forgot to press the shutter with her camera and then took this:

Do you think she was also a tad bit excited too? Thank god for the professional camera people that captured this moment (see later) but I'll always love this picture because it shows how crazy it truly was.

Professional picture, wish Grandma was in there too to make it complete:

Thanks Grandma for making this day funnier and thanks for the picture, the balloon and your spoiling habits, grin.

chugga-chugga, wheeesh!

Eitan

Cousins and movies

2007-07-31T11:02:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures of me with Cousin Jahren:

Jahren is calling me to come over.

I happily ran... and as a result, I got this:

Sweet!

He looks like Indy Jones huh?

Jahren: You have orange shoes.

Me: Yea, there!

Ever since I've gotten those shoes, strangers are saying I'm a cute girl...?

MWAAAAH! I love mwah'g people, it brings light to their eyes.

Cousin Mally had her 9th birthday two days ago. We all ate BBQ meals, a delicious cake and swam together. There were a lot of kids but I gave my attention to Mally.

Us two on the hammock.

Looking at ma as she's telling me that it was Mally's birthday today.

As a birthday treat, I pushed her hammock to make it swing:

I sure made it swing!

Then I gave her this:

A big birthday MWAH!

Just a cute random shot of me.

Movies:

Here's a funny movie of me, I keep asking Mom to play it over and over.

Daddy and I were playing "who's who" game- I love playing it when I'm with more people because it shows that I can identify who's who.

Hope you enjoyed the videos as much as I liked them.

Have a fabulous day people, life is too sweet to not savor it.

Eitan

it's fun telling a person you love him or her

2007-07-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

I woke up from a nice long nap and decided to play a little without going to mom or dad.

I don't know how long I played but I decided that I wanted my parents and started gathering cars up in my arms, armpits and the nook of my neck. I turned around and was startled to see my mom smiling on my bed and watching me. I don't know how long she was there but when I saw that smile, I felt all warm. I dropped my cars, all of them plopping onto the floor and signed, "mommy."

She nodded and said, "yep! hello!"

I made a beeline to her and wrapped my arms around her neck and started mwah'g on her cheek. I could feel her laughing and then I used my hands to grab her chin and squared my big wet kiss on her mouth.

I pulled back and said, "I luvvaaaa uuuu" with signing "ILY"

You should've seen my Mom's face-- I never seen her this happy before.

Do the same for your Mom or Dad, I betcha it'll make their world so much brighter.

Eitan

Beautiful people, squirrels and bears, oh my!

2007-07-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

I had to make a reference to Wizard of the Oz because that's how my past two weeks have been for me. We did a lot together. I actually got to ride rides in Santa Cruz Boardwalk (no pictures unfortunately) and then hung out with Deaf Americans/Swedes at Yosemite National Park. Mom took me with her and we camped together, just the two of us, with the gang. I swam a lot which is pretty good for a lack of swimming records in my life so far.

Anyway, let me jump into pictures of Yosemite.

Our campsite, our tent is the orange one on the second last.

Here's me keeping myself busy while Mom helped the gang set up tents at our huge campsite. It was soooo big that I freely walked around for hours without having to be harnessed back.

Mom's busy helping.

It was soo dirty but it felt good to have some on me, well not some, a lot.

The night came too quickly and I was out like a light. I even continued to oversleep, surprising my mom who ended up bored and waited for me to finally wake up (an hour after she did... trust me, it's an impossible thing in our book).

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ x 1000.

It took me awhile to wake up and right after I woke up, Mom made a beeline to the bathroom. Opps. I made her hold it all in because she very well couldn't leave me alone in the tent.

When I woke up, I started chasing squirrels which were very friendly and came up to me. Funny story though, when we arrived an hour ahead of the gang, we pitched our tent up. Mom brought bags of food to put into the bear lockers but for now, she left it on the top. As she was busying around, I noticed squirrels, within 5 minutes of the bag's presence, started chewing through the baq and popped the Doritos bag open. I ran to Mom and said "SQUIRREL!!" She looked confused and said, "crocodile?" I told her, "NO SQUIRRELS EAT CHOMP CHOMP"

She immediately got it and turned to see the squirrels swarming our bag. You should've seen her run, it was hilarious.

Me sitting patiently waiting for a squirrel to come up to me. I sat for a long time on that stump, quietly, and succeeded.

Cute huh?

After a brief morning squirrel chase, we were off to see the Glacier Point, one of the beautiful spots in Yosemite. It was a loooong ride there but worth the trip.

I rode in the big white state owned van with the pretty Swedes and Americans. Seriously, they swooned for me and I easily charmed them.

Mom and me at one of the vista points on the way to Glacier Point.

I wanted to walk the guardrail like a big boy would. Mom permitted as long as she held me.

When we reached Glacier Point, it was really hot and so beautiful. I kept wanting to climb and climb.

I was hurrying Mom over so we could see the edge of the world. The half Dome was a beautiful backdrop to the already gorgeous landscape.

Of course, a must... Mom and me with Half Dome in the background.

We had our lunch break, during that break, all the girls swarmed me and took pictures because I was being cute.

This tastes like CHEESE! (signing cheese, fyi)

Done with sightseeing, we headed back to our campsite. On the way, this is what we saw.

A young bear! it was around 15 feet away from us!!

A lot of excitement put me right to sleep, naturally.

I even was privileged enough to sleep with beautiful ladies.

Later that day, after much hours of driving in the sweltering heat, we went swimming at the Rainbow Pool. At first I did not want to go in... not until Mom changed me back into regular clothes from swimming suit, I decided to dive into the water, much to her chagrin.

Moments before I was forced into the pool. Can you tell, I knew it was going to happen.

See? In the pool. It had water falls and cliffs for people to jump into. I much prefer watching... because when we got in, the water would bite you as if you soaked into the ice-filled tub but then, interestingly enough, you'd suddenly warm up and feel like you were taking a bath. Interesting experience but very refreshing.

I confess that I was really clingy. I wouldn't let anyone near me even though I was happy at camp. I just wanted Mom and if anyone seemed like they were going to take me away from her, I'd go on a freak-mode, totally. Only two people I'd allow to temporarily hold me were Cody and Collin.

Collin holding me whilst Mama quick for a quick dip into the Rainbow Pool.

What Ma? No, I don't wanna swim, I much rather sit here and squirt the water gun.

OOO beautiful butterfly! That was on my hat recently?! Cor!

After our long day driving, sight-seeing and swimming, we came back to our "home". As Mom changed my dipes, I looked up and saw this:

I frantically signed, "lizard! lizard!" She looked up and watched the lizard eating flies ontop of our tent. We could see the long tongue extending and quickly flicking bugs into its mouth.

I have a funny story to share. Mom thinks I was brilliant. The next day at Yosemite, we went to a village to get fruits. Mom got me a pint of fresh blueberries (which I finished in one sitting moments later) and Leather Fruit Rolls (not those HFC filled and chemically processed ones). When in the aisle, I was happily nibbling on my grapes leather fruit roll, I immediately noticed that Mom snuck in some Snickers Ice Cream. I tapped her so hard and said, "ice cream want!"

She said, "after you finish that fruit roll, I'll let you bite some."

She didn't say I had to finish it so I, in a lightning speed, smacked the fruit roll into my Mom's cheek and tried to stuff it into her mouth, wrappers and all, and she looked stunned. She then opened her mouth to "eat" but realized that I was stuffing the whole thing in there.

When I succeeded in having it half hanging out of her mouth, I said, "FINISH! ICE CREAM NOW."

Realization suddenly dawned my Mom and all she could do was to not drop me as she was laughing so hard with tears.

I got my bites for my brilliance.

The next, last, day-- we went to a private lake which was pretty much boring. There was nothing rustic about it, nothing refreshing but all primed for rich people. I got utterly bored there. I simply walked around, wandered aimlessly (no squirrels to chase) and sat in the shade. It was soooo boring that a fly who landed on me actually was the highlight of my day.

What's dis?

Hey!

Too quick for me.

Mom!! Did you see that bug crawl on me!?

Here's me on the beach: I'm laughing not because of the waves or water, but because there was a pretty girl my age in bikinis walking past me.

Whee!

Remember I explained my super clingyness with Ma? I was so clingy that I would not permit her to leave me alone even for a quick pee trip. When she was out of sight, I'd automatically go into a monosyllabic mode, "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY" until she came back, I'd light up.

The girls found it funny and wanted to take pictures of him beaming when he saw me again, as well as me signing "MOMMY"

They didn't get to capture me saying Mom- even Mom tried to convince me to sign her name when she asked me who she was.

Ma: Hey, who am I?
Me: *preoccupied, obviously*

Ma: Who me?
ME: bird!

Ma: Huh? Me a bird?
Me: No, duh! Up there!

Quit badgering me, I know you're Mom and I want some milk NOW!

Then a swede, Frida, swooped me for a picture and I said...

"MOMMY!"

We returned home and I was so happy to see Dad again. Aunty Cat, Jahren too! Grandma, Poppie, Uncles... Itchie too!

We hung out at my Grandparents home on the last night before the Swedes flew back... here's a picture of me:

Engaged in a serious conversation with Collin.

I got new shoes, orange crocs and I love them so much. Mom, Dad and I now have crocs...

Cool huh?

We went out for a walk to the park at our home and had some good family time. It's good to be back and great that Mom doesn't have to work anymore. I assured her that my clingyness will end ASAP :)

Wheeee, I'm swinging with Mommy.

Even Daddy pushed me.

I'm a happy boy. I have a great family and a good circle of friends. Really, life is swell.

MWAH
Eitan

Happy 4th of July 2007 (updated)

2007-07-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

HAPPY Birthday America! Let's stroll down a memory lane:

Here's me in mommy's tummy, I was only 4 months "old"

Last year I hung out with Aunty Cat and Mama at Calistoga for their spa fun. I took a nap in the wee morning last year looking like this:

Sleeping peacefully.

Now this is what I look like napping exactly a year later:

Laaaaaa!

Anyway, a year ago, we spent our 4th of July at a baseball stadium.

6 months old with Daddy waiting for the fireworks

boom boom! I was captivated.

Mommy and Daddy held me so I felt very safe.

This year, we'll be hanging out with the Kovacs, pictures will come after the actual party itself. I can't wait, I'll be swimming! But here is a quickie family picture of today, a year later (sans Zeus, she refused to come outside).

I'm giggling because I think the flashing lights are cool.

I currently use BumGenius as my diapers alongside gDiapers. Daddy thinks if you put it on your head, you'd become a genius-- a literal thinking cap altho I think it made him look like he lost some IQ points.

heheh Daddy, I think you're really awesome, you make me laugh and laugh! MWAH!

Anyway, happy 4th!

XOXO,
Lil' Elk

Okay, I'm updating in this same post of my fun at the Kovacs. It sure was hot where we went (100's) and I definitely was not used to the heat! On the way over to Livermore, we got stuck in traffic therefore, the heat was crazy. Good thing Daddy and Mommy left all the windows down as they drove. Here's a short clip of me reading one of my favorite book despite the strength of the wind:

Cute huh?

Look closely, I'm hot!!

When we arrived there, I immediately was whisked to the wading pool to cool off- my cheeks were ruddy. Giovanni hung out with me.

Here's me in the wading pool, see my cheeks?

Okay, this was a few minutes worth of fun but I want out. I don't like swimming (just like Daddy! Mom claimed with exasperation).

Good lookin' fellow huh?

They had a pool and a bunch of kids kept jumping off the diving board. I enjoyed watching at first but then asked to be given a try.

See how cool they are when they jump?!!

Da da da dum...

Whee!

Gio and I hung out a lot in his play pen, I surprisingly loved it and stayed there for almost an hour in total. Gio and I played together and then fought together. He's pretty big for his age but too bad, I'm older and quicker.

Us playing together in harmony....

Wow, Gio sure loves to suck and chew.

Lookatme, I can copy Giovanni.

Giving Gio a kiss, mmmmwwwwwaaaaa---

Me: MWAAAH!
Gio: Dude, what the heck are you doing?

Mom!! Help!! I tried to be nice but he's pulling me.

Hey Gio, look! This is a cool toy huh?

Grrrrrrowl! Don't even think about it! (evil stare)

HAAA!

The toy is now far, far away from you!

Mommy said to share but I said NO! Then she pulled me out of the playpen and said I was not nice and that I was a bully. Well, whatever!

Here are some pictures from the party and the fireworks at night.

I loved Gio's sister, Ashleigh "Apple" as I call her. I say Ashdee or Apploooo because it charms her to no end.

"Apple!" As she asks, "who am I? What's my name?"

Gio, your sister is so "funny!"

The Kovacs family, this is an exciting night for them because it's Giovanni's first time, ever, to see the fireworks and celebrate America's birthday with style.

We're waiting for the show to start-- Dad let me walk all over the park to kill time.

Fireworks!

Watching the fireworks with Dad. At first I was realllllly quiet but then I kept saying "boom! boom! fireworks boom!" Actually, I said it AFTER the whole thing happened. I think I'm slow in registering and reacting.

Alright, it was a LOOOONG day as long as this post-- I'm probably sleep-typing as of now.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ boom boom!

Eitan

Pictures of Our New Apartment

2007-07-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Come on, let's take a tour at our new home... Here's me standing in the hallway, obviously.

When you go down the hall and make a right, that's my room. It's green and right now, it's just a playroom until I get my own bed.

This is what you see when you enter my green bedroom. Kari made this for me, many thanks Kari!

View of room from the door, ta dah! Cor huh?!

See the color? Fabulous huh?

Walking (with the walker of course) past my room, you'll come into a dining room/living room/family room all crammed into one area. Also the foyer directly front of you. The kitchen is on the left. We're still unpacking-- with my Parent's speed, it takes nearly forever.

The kitchen, a really tiny kitchen, but we all hang out there and actually eat our meals on the floor. I got my own chair and eat like a big boy.

Ignore the weird cabinet on the pole but anyway, see how tiny the kitchen is? I like it because it's bright and I can have access to different places to independently help myself for instance, climb, bang pots, open the ref, help with the dishwasher and whatnots. The laundry is also in the kitchen on the far right (see by bulletin board).

Here are some pictures of my life in the kitchen:

Okay, this blue bowl goes to... dang, I can't reach the spot where it belongs--

Gotta give it to Dad, he can put it away for me.

Me: "Hey Dad!"
Dad: "What? Ohh thanks!"

Here's me eating yogurt with my truck, chair and masterful hands.

Vroom Vroom.

The trunk needs a yo baby bath.

See? Looks better already right?

What??

This is the view of the combo room from the kitchen.

Last but not the least, the balcony which is quite enchanting herself.

view of the balcony from my Parent's room. The trees are so magical and mediating. Mom and Dad don't let me out there much because I tossed a ball over the balcony (we live on the 3rd floor) and attempted to toss cars too. They say they gotta put up some kind of protection then I can hang out as long as I want.

Mom and Dad's bedroom (mine too, I still sleep with them, hee hee). If you look far up ahead, you'll see me and Dad peeking and teasing Ma. Behind them is another bathroom, sink and a huge walk in closet.

View from their bed-- aren't the windows gorgeous?! At first I was scared at night time and clung onto Mama with me dear life until I realized it was the trees gently swaying from the breeze, not a towering monster ready to eat me.

My job touring the apartment is done! Now time for me to flash my cute belly to the world and ask for tickles in return, whee!

Here's me watching Planet Earth and eating grapes:

Mom, Dad and I went to a great place to have authentic dumplings, egg rolls and buns in Palo Alto called Cho's. We went for a walk afterwards and I insisted for Mom to hold my hand as we strolled:

Mommy and me walking together.

Alright, I'm done for now. Hope you enjoyed yourselves- gonna go and have my homemade ice cream on the balcony, whee!

Eitan

Updating for Aunty Cat

2007-06-28T19:10:00.002-07:00

Hi Aunty, I promised you I'd update but I'm soo sorry, I don't have any pictures to post.

We moved to a new apartment and I'm so loving it because it's big and I got my own room, which is green by the way. We live right by an East Bay Park so that means, whenever I sign, "duck water bird fly walk" my parents whiz me away to the trails. The other day my Parents and I walked for two whole hours, we saw ducks, goose, rabbits, turtles, trains and rocks, a lot of rocks. The turtles were swimming at the quarry lakes and I didn't go near the lakes because I think they are dirty (Mom says they aren't but I insisted that they were).

I've been a sucker for this new (and huge) TV my Parents got altho, they only allow me to watch it in the mornings. I watch Planet Earth with so much devotion-- I love how the fledging owls practice their first flight off the world tallest trees, the Redwoods. I also enjoy seeing the Kodkod cat and the rare (endangered) Leopards of Russia. I especially adore seeing white ice cream all over the trees, oh how I wish I could spend my lazy days licking it all off.

Anyway, it is so nice having my Parents home every day but I miss my Uncles, Aunts, Grandma, Grandpa and my Cousins. Most of them are out of town or busy. Lately, I've been asking for Grandma (gramamamama), Poppie (popoo), Uncle John (Uncle Clown), Itchie Bird (Uncle John's new bird)... even for Mally, Jahren and Aaaa Cat! I get to see Uncle Kurt sometimes but not enough.

Oh yea, soon I'll be a year old and a half! I definitely will post pictures with that... I'll be at one of Mama's favorite childhood place, Booneville, for a wedding.

Until then, enjoy summer, soak in the nature you have around you and give every one a hug and a loud mwah!

MWAAAH!
Eitan

Explorer, Avid Reader and Darn Cute

2007-06-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

Books and books. I used to be crazy for trains (I still am) but right now, it's books all the WAY.

I'd grab a book, give it to Ma or Pa... as they start signing, I'd run and get another book- they'd drop the first one, read the recent one I got and in mid-sentence of the first page, I bolt to get another.

Mom says our life span is not even enough for all the good books there are out there. That's depressing! I hope I at least read a third of what's out there.

Anyway-- I'll be posting pictures and then movies! Long over due ones and methinks you'll love them.

But first, here's a picture of Mom. I'm posting Mom in this thread because all I want, lately, is her. I cling onto her with my dear life if someone threatens to take me away. I don't care if you're my cool aunty, my fun papa or my spoiling grandma, all I want is my M O M. She comforts me, and makes me feel safe even though I can feel her urging me to go and be brave. I'll be braver Ma, when I'm a teenager however, for now, I think I'll stick to your legs, thank you very much.

Mommy and me.

Me and Mommy's trusty legs.

Well, Aunty Cat and Daddy get special privileges but not when Ma's around. Here's a picture of Aunty Cat and her loving touch:

Aaargh, not the head!

We went to a birthday party and I got to hang out with kids MY age. It was fun but I still think hanging out with my OLDER cousin Jahren rocks.

Me with Giovanni-- he's gonna be 1 in August. A good lookin' kid eh? The child in midair is Tyler-- it was his 1 year old birthday party. He slept through most of it! Dude, that's a cool skill.

I'm always talking and Gio's always listening.

What? I'm cute, right? Actually, I'm trying to take off my ROOOOO BOT shoes.

Forget it, I'll just leave them alone.

Anyway, books.

Reading with Mom. Mom or Dad always read with me every night and now it's almost most of the time during the day. I do have my few favorites and you'll see them through the video.

Reading the Dinosaur book, one of my favorite.

My Parents are now on vacation, yahoo!! Although I'll miss being with Aunty Cat, Uncle Kurt, Mally and Jahren. Here's a series taken by Aunty Cat and I'll dub it as, "the curious explorer treks"

Life is full of possibilities, we must always explore to keep on learning (with the help of lights)

Enough talking, let's go.

Ba ba bum bum *whistles a tune, or two*

Ah ha!! Jackpot! Toys to play with!

That's that for the photos section now onto the.... *drum roll*

MOVIES! Grab some popcorn and soda, be sure not to snort it through your nose tho.

Mom and me reading together, the Dinosaur book.

Here's me telling one of my favorite story to Dad, "A Duck Stuck in the Muck" It's really hilarious and Mom tells it really well.

And here's me absolutely battling to the very end in a feeble attempt to avoid taking a bath without Mom.

hope you enjoyed yourselves and have a fabulous summer!

Eitan, over and out.

Pictures Overload Warning

2007-06-01T14:57:00.001-07:00

Hi! Yea I know, long time no see. Life has been fabulous so far and I'm enjoying every second I can because I'm told it's too short.

I'm still growing, I talk in phrases and today I can count from 1 to 5-- although saying 3 and 4 is difficult so I just skip them "oooneee, twwwooo... five!" hee hee

Mom and Aunty Cat celebrated their 30th birthday last week and they celebrated it twice which means, they got more than enough cake, ice cream and fun. Lucky for me, I could fully participate too :-D

Also I met Great Uncle Dale, Grandma Cassidy's brother. He's really nice and I hope he moves here to the West Coast like Great Aunty Mary Gayle (Poppie's sister). We ate dinner at my Grandparent's home- look how I literally ate the plate clean.

Slurrrp.

Licking is the best way to savour each taste, ask Ma!

Yum! Spaghetti rocks.

My Grandma was babysitting a friend's dog, a hyper doggie, and I had fun playing with it. We played through the window and here are the pictures of me teasing that giddy dog.

Come here! I wanna kiss you!

MMWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW--

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I enjoy cars, trains and planes. You all already know this. Here's a series of me with my cars. I usually do this every morning or night-- or when I finally come home from a long day out.

See? Cars are mediating, especially how the wheels turn. I like experimenting the terrains by having the wheels run over smooth surfaces, rocky ones and even wildly bumpy (the best bumpiest ride they can get is on a blanket).

Great Uncle Dale visited Aunty Cat's home and it was wild there. We danced to music and played games, MY GAMES, where everyone would freeze when I asked them to. It's fun seeing that I had some kind of power over the adults, hee.

Everybody, clap your hands!

Now put your arms over your head!

FREEZE!! (see Uncle Dale behind me?)

We took a break, Jahren gave me carrots (he's signing carrots to me). I tasted it then spit it out, I hate veggies.

The dancing fun began with Aunty Cat and Mom... Mally, Me then it gradually became almost all of us.

Wheee!! Uncle Dale looks on.

We formed into a circle and danced, danced and danced all evening long.

As we all winded down, I heard sirens and was telling Uncle John that the sirens was outside.

WAHOOO WAHOOOOO

Finally, I love love my Cousins. I especially love to wrestle with Jahren, he's SOOO funny.

First, he tickles me nearly to death and I'm trying to gasp for air.

"crying" (I was telling Jahren that I was crying but what I meant was I couldn't stop laughing)

Jahren then lets me topple him with my mighty strengths.

I'm Hercules!

Aaaaah! hee hee heeee *insert belly laughs here*

Now, my turn!

See, he's barrels of fun.

Ok, I had a long day and wanna nap before another long evening.

til then!
Eitan