Happy Birthday Naomi!

It was a busy busy weekend but the highlight was Naomi's 3rd birthday party! It's been a while since Jasper and I have seen Naomi and her brother Eli so it was nice to catch up. The best part of the party were the balloons. They were everywhere!

Jasper kept himself busy gathering up bunches and bunches of balloons along with all the other older kids.

Meanwhile, I made some apple pie...

and ate some strawberries.

Happy Birthday Naomi!

Show me the money!

1 Year Report Card

And now, for the moment you've all been waiting for, my 1 year old report card. Despite what you all might think, I'm just average all around. But the doctor said that I was a good looking, healthy boy.

Weight: 23 lbs and 2 oz - 53%

Height: 29.8 inches - 45%

Head Circumference: 46.5 cm - 52%

So what else can I do these days? Well, let's see.

• I have a fierce army-style commando crawl. I can get around pretty quickly in the house.
• In the past two weeks, I've learned to go from a lying down position back up to a sitting position and I've learned to pull-up. Apparently, I was even slower than Jasper in achieving these milestones!
• While I can pull up to stand, I have shown no real interest in learning to walk.
• When I stand, I like to stand on my tip toes.
• I'm off the formula and on to good old whole milk. YUM.
• I take two good naps a day tho' I'm sort of playing with the idea of dropping a nap. Not sure yet. Oh, and I can put myself to sleep without help from Mommy or Daddy. They are really happy about that one.
• I'm a good eater (duh) and like a good variety of food. I think my all-time favorite right now is plain yogurt but I like all kinds of fruit, spinach and potatoes, Os, green beans...but I really want to eat this...

• I haven't shown signs of food allergies yet although I do seem to have inherited the Yu family's sensitive skin. I get eczema but it's unclear what triggers it.
• I think my first word was "ball" but I can also say "mama" and "dada."
• I love my big brother and we have lots of fun together. My favorite is sitting in the back of the car together. We like to make each other laugh.

New hat

I wasn't allowed to open any of my birthday gifts on Sunday because it was late by the time my party was over and I had to get to bed, so I got to open them all at once yesterday (with Jasper's help, of course), and I think this is my favorite -

Yep - a scally cap! What do you think? Here, have a look from a few angles...

(No comments about the cheek in that middle picture, please.) Daddy has many more pictures of me in my new cap, and complimented me several times on how well I tolerated his photo shoot this afternoon. Jasper on the other hand seemed to have had enough by the third picture...

But never mind about that, check this out:

That's right - standing on my own. Granted, only long enough for Daddy to take a picture, but still, progress. I'm going to my one year doctor's appointment tomorrow, so a full update on my progress and report card then.

Happy Birthday to Me...Again?

Wait a second. I thought that my birthday was last weekend? Apparently, instead of just celebrating it for one day, I get to celebrate with 3 different birthday parties! Today was my party with my "friends" aka Jasper's friends' younger siblings. Lots of people came by to help me celebrate and I was busy pulling myself along the floor to greet each and every one of them.

While the younger kids were out in the living room chewing on toys, Jasper and his friends (plus Desmond) hung out in his room to play.

I also had a special visitor all the way from Japan - my cousin Skylar! He and his Mommy and Daddy (Tomomi Biu Couma and Lawrence Biu Coufou) have been in town visiting Lawrence Biu Coufou's parents - 6 Yee Pau and 6 Yee Kung. Jasper had a chance to go out to Douglaston to meet them a couple of weeks ago but this was our first meeting. We hit it off right away.

Skylar munched down on all the berries we had in the house.

Then, it was time for the main event - cupcakes! Everyone gathered around and sung Happy Birthday to me. As with the other two parties, the candle was lit and once the song was over, Jasper quickly helped me blow out the candle before I even knew what was happening.

I couldn't wait to dig my hands into the frosting. But that's all I was interested in - mushing around the frosting and fingerpainting my highchair tray.

At the end of the party, the cousins got to hang out some more. Even though Sklyar's several months older than me, we look about the same size, no? Maybe I'm a little bit bigger?

It's so nice to finally meet a boy cousin. I was beginning to think that Jasper and I were the only little boys around in the family! Apparently, that's all going to change this fall when we welcome two other boy cousins into the family. Wait!! Then I won't be the littlest one anymore! Not happy!!

BTW - I can now sit-up and stand-up by myself but more on that later. You will get a full report card later this week.

The best choo-choo ride

On one of our shore vacation days, while Everett was taking his morning nap Daddy took me to Smithville, NJ, a little town nearby to where we were staying. When Daddy first told me that we were going there, I had no idea why he would want to take me to a random place like that, but I soon found out...

That's right - a scale-model diesel engine choo-choo...

That works! Could this really be true?!

Yes! You can go on rides, which is exactly what we did as soon as we got there (apparently before anyone else even had a chance to get out of bed, much less drive out to the middle of nowhere, NJ...)

This choo-choo ride was great because it lasted a long time and took you all around the village of Smithville (and as Daddy pointed out more than once, cost only $2, less than half the price of the choo-choo ride on the boardwalk in Ocean City.)

I loved seeing all the colorful and fun sites around the village (though Daddy kept muttering phrases that I didn't understand, like "tourist trap" and "now I know what hell must look like" - what does that mean?)

But I loved every minute of it - can you tell?

After the choo-choo ride, I also got to captain my own scale-model power boat.

I took my responsibilities as a captain very seriously, and concentrated very hard to make sure my boat wouldn't crash into those operated by some of the other boys visiting Smithville with their Dads.

Who knew that there is so much to do down the Jersey Shore, even without Snookie or The Situation around?

Mr. Smiley

All day long, Mommy and Daddy kept saying that "someone woke up in a particularly good mood today"...

"All the better to show off their one top tooth."

I have no idea what they were talking about.

All I wanted to show off were my shades...

OK, OK, and maybe just a little tooth - I'm very proud of it!

Beach warrior