About Hawaii:
I like boogieboarding! I go like "whoosh!" (scrambling on belly across floor)
When I'm like six can I take driving lessons?
That there looks like a rocket ship! (tribune tower at night, returning from OAK)
There's so many stuff to look at!
I love sea anemones, they have stinging tentacles! They can grab on to fish! But the crab can tear them to pieces with their claws!
I love barbecue sauce soo much lots of barbecue sauce! I love spicy things!

I am learning LOTS.

I try to sound out words now, and I like to play with the Boggle dice to make silly words. Then I laugh myself silly about them.
I sometimes add up numbers on my fingers just for fun.
I was in a play! The St. Martin's day Laternenfest play at my preschool. I got to hold the microphone! I sang really loud! I was dressed up nice, too, with a tie and everything. Mommy said I looked great.

I'm learning to swim! I'm an Eel, that means I'm bigger than a Pike. I can swim with just a water noodle! Well, float and blow bubbles. My teacher is really nice, and goofy.

I love to do art, and paint, and tell stories with my cousin Tory. The one we made up with Mommy the other night went like this:

Once upon a time there was a:
Princess
and a Dragon who breathed poo.
They decided to go to a:
Haunted house
filled with Mommies.
The Mommies said "Woowoowoowooowoo!"
The Princess was scared, but the Dragon said "Don't worry, I have a:
MUMMY!"
The Mummy said "MOOO."
The Mommies were scared, and said "ACK!" and ran away.
The Princess and the Dragon who Breathed Poo lived happily ever after.

Actually, FORTY POUNDS.

I can also write my name now, and spell it, in German! I-V-A-N. I'm very proud of it, and Mommy acted soooo excited about it!

And I like to play games with the Boggle game, I make silly words and she helps me sound them out. And I can read things a little bit, like Mommy wrote "A CAT RAN AT A BAT" and I sounded it out! Myself! Then she drew the picture. It was fun.

Today my school is having a HALLOWEEN PARTY! I'm going to be a dragon, "ein DRACHE!" Mommy made the costume with me, and I can breathe fire! It's not real fire though.

I am 3 and three quarters, and THIRTY POUNDS

My favorite activities are:
Making art with glitter
Dancing super fast, with jumps and spins and kicks and falling down, to the Dead Kennedys
Going to Habitot or the Space Museum or grandpa's work
Riding my bike
going to Bug-O-Rama car show with Dad. I saw DRAG RACING cars!
Playing dress-up in my tiger costume, purple dress, or various hats

My favorite foods are:
Shrimp sushi
Shrimp pizza
Almond butter and jelly sandwiches
Berry (with chard or carrots or spinach OK) popsicles
Yogurt

I love going to my new school, Bay Area Kinderstube. I speak more german there every day! Ich bin super stolz, und meine Mama ist auch super stolz!
I memorized a poem and some songs in german from school, and I'm making good friends.
Like this one:
Viele kleine Fische
schwimmen jetzt zu Tische
reichen sich die Flossen
denn sie hab'n beschlossen
jetzt nicht mehr zu blubbern
stattdessen was zu futtern
drum sagen alle mit:
Guten Appetit!

a little confused

Mommy says my friend Ian is going to be a big brother.
I asked if I could get a big brother.
She explained something about how baby brothers and sisters come from mommy's tummies.
I said "Yeah! So when I'm a daddy and Alex is the mommy, then he can make big brothers in his tummy!"
Mommy laughed for a long, long time.

I'm starting preschool on Wednesday! I'm super excited.

I like to dance to fast rock and roll music. I was dancing to a punk rock song this morning, wiggling my hips and snapping my fingers. Mommy said I was hilarious.

I like holding Alex's hand and helping him go places without falling down. Other times, I knock him over and then dive under him so he lands on me, and we both laugh. Unless he bonks his head, then he cries and I get in trouble.

I am making up stories with my toys more and more, they have different voices and they talk to eachother. And I like to build stairs with blocks, I know how to do strong construction, I build more blocks underneath!

"I'm 2 and 4. Or three and a half."

Beer soup: "Bear soup! Bear poop soup! This tastes like bear poop soup!"

Superhero: "I'm the good guy! I trained Alex to be the bad guy. He stays in here, where the bad guys are, in the living room. I'll save you! Here, hold my hand, I'll take you where the good guys live in my room! OK, now you're saved. I'll go back to the bad guys, I live with the bad guys."

Gardening: "Mommy, can you give me a noodle? I'm going to plant it in the ground. Then a plant will grow. A tree, a noodle tree! Haa, that's silly.
(what kind of noodle do you need? cooked or raw?)
"A raw noodle, that's the kind the dirt likes best. And some water."

Mountain biking: "I went biking with Daddy, on a dirt trail! I went over BIIIIG bumps! And I dint even crash! I dint need the band-aids, but I did eat the sweet things! I ate all of them!"

Divorce: (playing with cars) "Hi, want to play? OK, let's play! Is your mommy here? No, my daddy's here. Where's your mommy? They have a divorce. Oh, OK, let's play some more. La la la." (Mr. Rogers did a wonderful episode about divorce; Ivan's been processing this.)

Feelings: "That makes me SUPER SUPER MAAAD! ARRR! (stomp, pretend-hit, guilty look, stubborn pout look)"

VACATION!!!

We have been on a long trip for three whole weeks in our bus. We
drive to see Aunt Elizabeth and my cousins Mark, Libby and Baby
Nadia. It was a lot of days of driving, and sometimes I said "I can't
wAit this long!!!!". But I watched movies in the dar and ate snacks
and read books with Alex, and rode my bike when we got to the
campsite. I love sleeping in the bus in my bus hammock!

I got to climb on lava rocks and see bunnies and a moose and a badger,
and lots of cats and dogs. We stopped at a fun place where I played
mini golf and rode in a super fast gokart! I swam in lakes and
swimming pools, and went in a canoe. We saw Tory and Lillian and Ava
and lots of aunts and uncles at a family reunion. And now we're going
home.

I have been a really good big brother sometimes, saving Alex when I
think he's in danger and making him laugh when he's crying. Other
times I've been bad, hitting mommy and daddy when they tell me no. I
want to be fast and exciting all the time, playing sword fights or
having bike races or climbing and jumping, so I hurt myself almost
every day. But I'm sure having fun!

heroes

I want to be Peter Pan, but sometimes I like to pretend to be Captain Hook. I poke people with my sword. I pretend to have a gun, but I don't know what it does.

When Mommy wears a dress or skirt, I want to wear a dress or skirt too. Sometimes I do, to play dress up, usually with my dinosaur jammies and sneakers underneath. But Mommy says maybe people at school will think it's a little silly, because my dress is a very fancy purple dress. So i told her I need a regular dress. She said we can look for one.

I love watching Kleiner Eisbaer stories, and Bob the Builder.
I love baking cakes and cookies for people.
I am excited that I'm going to go to german preschool soon.

I like having Tuesday Science Day with Grandpa. We go to the Lawrence Hall of Science, or the Botanical Gardens, or Grandpa's work. I learned about oxygen and carbon dioxide.

I had a science art class, too, that was fun. We did things with pigment, and pulp.

Sunday was Mother's Day. Daddy and I baked heart-shaped cookies for Mommy. When Mommy came home from work, I told her "WE MADE A PRESENT FOR YOU! It's a secret!"
Then i asked if I can eat the cookies for dinner. At night, in the dark, I asked her "Why can't I tell you the secret?" I really wanted to, but she likes surprises.

A little while ago, I got to go to mommy's work for Take your Kid to Work day. I helped with the confidential recycling. She's a lawyer. I said I like helping Mommy "loy stuff."

I love to dance, I do amazing jumping spinning moves.
I also love going camping. We went camping with our bus, and a lot of other busses, to Syncrofest. We went OFF the ROAD! I got to drive in a jeep, over rocks. And Mommy and Daddy made me a special hammock to sleep in, in the bus. It's going to be fun to go camping in this summer!

"Peter Pan is a boy that can fly!
When I grow up to be an airplane, I can fly too."

Mommy calls me:
sweetiepie
little bear
honeybear
little one
cutiepie
Ivan-bivan
schnoogie
little mouse
sweetiebear
honey
sweetie
honeysweetie


Daddy calls me:
Ivan

I told mommy she has to wear her train conductor hat, just like me,
this morning. Otherwise she can't do the train conductor dance!

The train conductor dance is bending over and hopping, with your arms
up behind your back. Mommy did it three times wrong before she did it
right.

Being Three

I still have some nightmares, mostly about a tiger chasing me and eating me. Mommy says I should tell the Tiger he's NOT REAL and tickle him until he squeaks. I told her that doesn't work.

I am thinking about what I want to be when I grow up. I have said a mechanic, a doctor, a scientist, a lawyer. But then this morning, after talking about those things, I said no no, I want to be a ROBOT!

I am sweet to my brother. This morning a fed him half of my banana. It's tricky because he always wants to grab it. Then I sang him the lullaby that grandpa sings, "Hush little baby." I got all the way to the part about the diamond ring, and then I made up words that were silly.

I like making up silly songs, and usually they get sillier and I get louder until I'm yelling "LAAAA LAAAA GOOOO BAAA DAAAA" as loud as I can. Sometimes Lillian sings with me, and Alex always laughs and claps his hands.

I'm doing Science Stuff with grandpa today. I'm going to go to the lab. That's exciting.
I get really mad when Alex breaks my train tracks. I like building the train tracks.

Oh, and I love baking! I ask whose birthday is next and then I want to bake a birthday cake for them. I baked a soccer ball cake for Tory's birthday, and a rocket ship cake for Uncle Chris' birthday (Daddy's brother), and I'm going to bake a duckie cake for Alex's birthday. It's fun, and I like to taste the frosting.

Dreams

I have more dreams and nightmares now. Mommy can tell because I say
strange things. A few days ago I said "I'm happy that Alex was
born.". I told her I was just remembering the hospital.

Another day, I asked a very quiet question about "somebody come and
take me away?". When she asked me what was wrong, I thought about it
and said "can you tell me there's nothing I have to be worried about?"

I can do more things! I buttoned my own jammies, and I can tell
people my name and mommys name and daddy's name.

Christmas and my birthday

I asked Santa to bring me a purple bike with no training wheels. And he DID!
It's dark purple. I wanted light purple, but I forgot to tell him that. Mommy put some light purple stickers on it with me, they say "IVAN."
I rode it right away! With no training wheels!

And now I'm three years old, so i can ride the bike really well!

On my birthday, we drove up to the snow to see Nanny and Poppa. It was great! When we got there it was late and dark, and after my bedtime, but I got to go sledding! It was snowing! It snowed all day the next day, too, and I got a clown suit from Mommy and Daddy for a birthday present! Then I went sledding some more.

And then, we had a clown birthday party at my house! My friends came, even some friends from day care! All the kids were clowns, with clown noses and silly hats. There was a juggler, Nick, who did some juggling. I liked the juggling a lot! But then he dropped an egg, and it made a mess. I don't like messes. But I liked the party! We threw beanbags at a clown beanbag toss, and we jumped around and played with balloons, and Mr. Pat and Ms. Pat gave me a clown pinata! The pinata had lots of candy in it! And then we ate clown cupcakes that Mommy and Oma made!

My birthday was really fun.

wordy

"I think I have books in me!" (points to ribs)
"I think they're books, because they can't come out! See! (poke, poke)"

"The moon is made of lemonade."

"I think Alex should be named Jack. Hi, Jack! No, that's Alex, that's SILLY!"

Daddy was reading a book about a pony. He said "That's a pony." I said "I tend to call that a horse."

Mommy, I can do Magic!

I can do Magic!
I make a stranger appear out of my eyes. Watch!
(Focuses very hard, crosses eyes, blinks and widens eyes with a big grin)
See?
The stranger went out of my eyes, down my face and onto the table!