Sledding is fun

I am not sure if Mama is enjoying this, but I sure am. She thinks we're going to run over Papa who is taking the picture. I just like going fast, no matter the vehicle. We are on a neighborhood street up in Tahoe where we spent Christmas vacation this year. The roads had been plowed, but not completely so they made for a nice slick track.

There were lots of things to do up there, but primarily it was a nice relaxing vacation for my parents with lots of eating. GrannyM and Pop-pop Bob, as well as Uncle Billy and Auntie Caroline all joined in for a memorable time. Lots more pictures of the vacation are posted on Papa's Flickr account. We hope everyone had a safe holiday break.

Happy holidays 2007

Happy holidays everyone, we are getting ready to spend Christmas week up at lake Tahoe. I am going to experience snow for the first time. GrannyM and Pop-pop Bob will be joining us from Los Angeles, while Uncle Billy and Auntie Carolyn will also be making the pilgrimage from the SF bay area. There is even an unsubstantiated rumor Uncle Misha from Oregon may join us for a day while we're up there.

These are the Christmas lights on our neighbor's fence. They were first ignited on Thanksgiving day and thus were the first in the neighborhood. I can see them from my bedroom window when I am getting ready to go to sleep. They're awfully pretty in the evenings, so much so I had to touch them - every last one of them.

Ladders are mine

Something must have not registered with my parents before this weekend. I can climb ladders. Zeke do. Papa was certainly surprised when I helped myself to this blue one over at the school. It really isn't a ladder in the sense that I don't have to use my arms to pull myself up, but it does have rungs and stands vertically near the bottom. I've been climbing the gym ladders at my daycare's park but neither parent has ever seen me do it. They are so easily amused. To be sure, I ran around and climbed it two more times.

Still watching

If one does a search for "see you" in the box at the upper left, one will find many different posts that use that phrase. I've been watching the World for quite a long time, a little over two years in fact. Well... I still like to watch. It's fun to watch. Here I am hiding underneath the stairs of one of the playground sets over at the school. Sometimes I like to go under there to make piles of wood chips or to find especially big ones.

I'll come back out later when I get hungry or have to go potty. But for now, I'll stay in the comfort of my toddler-sized space as long as I have a good vantage point on the World outside.

Sunset limits

Papa didn't take any pictures this weekend because both of us were sick. I think we have the same chest cold Mama had over Thanksgiving; she endured it and so will we. Instead, this photograph was from last week when we were looking at the birdies down at Shoreline. Papa kept trying to take a picture of me with the sunset in the background but I kept trying to catch him. This is one of the few he managed to salvage.

A photograph's exposure is determined by three things; aperture, shutter speed, and ISO setting. This photo has all three pushed to the extremes. Maximum aperture, at the expense of a shallow depth of field. Slowish shutter speed, at the peril of camera shake and subject motion. High ISO speed, with loss of resolution and increased digital noise. But what is not taken into account is how cute I am. The technical stuff behind the camera means nothing if the subject in front is not interesting. Cute trumps tech any day. I win.

Waiting for a train

I've got choo-choos on my mind again. They seem to be on my mind a lot these days. Why is it that we boys like trains, construction equipment and other forms of public transportation (buses, trucks, and airplanes) so much? I don't have a sister so I really can't ask her if she has the same obsessions. Sometimes, to get out of the house, Papa and I go down to the train station to wait for the :14 Southbound and :19 Northbound trains. On the weekends, they only come hourly in each direction, but if we time it right we can see two choo-choos in about five minutes (and that's not counting the light rail line). We don't usually get on; we just go to see, smell and listen to the big diesels. If you ever stop by the house and we're not home, you may want to check out the Caltrain station. They're worth the wait, I promise.

What's the big deal?

So today shall stand as a landmark. Today, I voluntarily made a poo-poo in the potty. I haven't done that in a very long time. I will usually wait until nighttime when I have a protective diaper on to drop the bomb.

Mama, Papa and Hua have been trying to get me to go potty forever. In fact there's a poster next to the potty with each of our names on it. Whenever there's a poo-poo, the creator gets a sticker. Since Mama works from home, there is also a policy that the sticker is only valid upon visual confirmation by another family member, otherwise she would have an unfair advantage. Present score; Mama 4, Papa 10, Zeke 1. To sweeten the deal, Mama offered me a treat too. Tonight I got a big star sticker and a piece of chocolate. Hmmm, chocolate exchanged for poo, how apropos.

Backwards sliding

What kind of two-year old climbs up the biggest slide in the playground? This kind. Zeke do. Maybe it's because there is a short ladder on the normal ascent that I cannot figure out just yet (I still need a little help). Maybe it's because if I get tired I can just slide back down on my belly. Or, maybe I climb up the slide just because it's there. Daddy was surprised to see I made it all the way.

This week is Thanksgiving - the California Amagasus are going to bake a turkey, smash potatoes, stuff stuffing, sauté green beans, whisk gravy, and I hope that's all. We'll probably eat too much and fall asleep in front of the football game, which is not an entirely bad thing. We have much to be thankful for. We hope you do too.

Crayons and 150 posts

There are some crayons in this box. I know because I stuffed them in there just a moment ago. Now I am trying to get them back out. I like order and patterns, you see. For example, I like to put my toys in their place, then take them out, and perhaps put them away again. It gives me a sense of security in an otherwise chaotic World. A little birdie told me Mama and Papa were the same way when they were young. Papa still does it at work - he's obligated to because he's a scientist. They too gravitate toward order and patterns; I think it gives them comfort.

I just noticed that this is the 150th post of my blog. That's a lot of entries over my two+ years. There's no telling when I'll run out of ideas to ruminate upon. It could be when I hit 200 entries, or three years, or some other as-yet-to-be-determined milestone. I am not sure when it will happen, but I do enjoy writing about the things on my mind. I hope you've enjoyed reading them.

Grandpa Tetsu and choo-choos

Papa's father, my grandpa Tetsu, came to visit us last week. He was on his way from New Jersey to visit Japan where his family grew up. Lucky for us San Francisco wasn't too far out of the way and we got to spend some time together.

What better way to spend a lazy weekday afternoon than watching the commuter trains at Mountain View station? By the looks of it, Grandpa Tetsu is equally excited to see the big diesels pull into the station. He seems to have an affinity for choo-choos as big as his hat.

Anyone who likes trains that much is a good person in my book. I should know.