Daddy and I play chess

"I like playing chess 'cause I can do it. So it's cool."

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Yesterday was Mommy's birthday. She's much older than me. She's an old lady. I told her this. Then Mommy asked, "If I'm an old lady, then what is Bachan?" I said, "An older lady!"

I made Mommy waffles using Sha and Brenda's most favoritist Belgian waffle recipe. Daddy helped a little. Mommy loved my cooking.

I also made Mommy a chocolate cake while she was at her photography class. Daddy helped a little. I made sure the batter and the frosting tasted good. 'Cause you don't want to make a cake with yucky batter or yucky frosting.

Watch the video of us making the cake!

Early night sky

Last night I stayed at school for a super long time--12 hours. There was a Pee-Tee-Yay meeting. It's where the parents and teachers talk about school stuff. I hear it's pretty boring, so after the potluck dinner in the cafeteria me and the other kids played together and watched videos while the parents talked their boring talk.

It was very warm on the walk home, even though the sky was dark. There was a breeze, but it was toasty and felt good. I tilted my head back to look up at the dark, blue-black sky. I said to Mommy, "Ooh! The sky is so pretty! It's like... drinking blueberry juice... and the stars... they remind me of cookies."

First Day of First Grade!

Today was my first day of first grade.

Usually I sleep without clothes on because I get hot. But last night I wanted to make sure I would not be late for school, so after Mommy and Daddy gave me my bedtime hug-kiss-nosies, I put on my school clothes. Then I went to sleep. In the morning Mommy found me sleeping in my clothes. I told her that I wanted to be ready for school. She said that I'm very efficient, whatever that means.

After eating a toasty bowl of oatmeal sprinkled with brown sugar for breakfast, I brushed my teeth, put on my shoes, and put on my backpack (with my lunch bag inside). We went out the door but then I realized it was super cold so I put on my sweatshirt. I didn't zip it up though 'cause I didn't want to cover up my doggie picture on the front of my shirt.

Mommy, Daddy and I walked to school. The big hill didn't feel so big this time. Mommy said it's because I'm stronger now than when I was in kindergarten. I walked ahead of them on the last couple blocks because I was so excited.

We actually made it to school before the bell rang. This hardly happened last year. We always ran late for some reason. They really should just make the bell ring later. Then we would never be late. It was great seeing everyone again. Except for the boy team that my team always runs away from. We usually play Chase. I don't always like it though.

I lined up with my class and we walked in the room together. My teacher is very nice and she told us the rules of the classroom and all that. I found at my desk my very own box of 24 new crayons. And pink scissors! And a pencil! And an eraser!

I had lots of fun in first grade. Except that we only get to play once in the classroom. The rest of the time we do first grade work. But that's okay. It's still fun. And we get to play a lot in the After School Program too.

And guess what else? On the walk home, Mommy and I saw the SF parrots near our house. What a long, happy day!

My new craft

Mommy taught me how to sew. This is my first project. I call it a Hanging Bear because it's flat. You have to hold it up and the bear hangs there. I only poked my finger once with the needle. I didn't cry because I'm very brave. And I didn't really poke the needle very hard. I'm giving my bear to my friend Z tomorrow.

Mommy made me a tiny pincushion out of a bottle cap. It looks like a mushroom. I picked out the fabric and let her use some of my red ribbon I had in my dress up box. I have pretty pins and my needle in my pincushion.



I love sewing because I can make neat things! I'm now working on a sheep.

I'm back!

I had a great time in Orange County visiting Uncle Eric, Auntie Wendy, and baby Ellie Belly. Here they are in case you don't know what they look like.



Lots of fun. I took their doggie Sami out on walks. I went swimming almost every day. I even went to the beach and made a fancy sand castle with seaweed and shells.



I played a lot with Ellie. She likes when I make funny faces and sounds at her. I met my other cousin Cali. She's fun too!



I also spent some time with Auntie Wendy's family. They are very nice but I'm very shy around them.

We visited a placed called something like Mission San Juan Capastrami. It's an old building. There is a Mission near our house here in San Francisco. But the one we visited in Orange County was a little different. I liked jumping around.



I also did a little photo shoot with Ellie. A photo shoot is where Mommy fiddles with her camera for way too long to get "the perfect shot" and I get impatient. How hard is it to press a button? I've been pressing buttons since I was a baby. Just take the picture already. But I do love holding Ellie.



I love a vacation, but I also love being home. I really missed Daddy when I was gone. Mommy missed him too. I think Daddy was bored without us. When he picked us up from the airport, I gave him a super big hug.

Later that night we went to watch the Persied Meteor Shower near Mt. Diablo. My friend Izzy and her mommy came along. We got to lie in our sleeping bags and stare up at the sky. We saw some really neat shooting stars with long tails fly across the night sky. So cool! But Daddy got really sick and threw up a lot. He mostly looked at the ground while we looked at the sky. I don't think he saw many shooting stars.

Two days later, I got sick. No fun. It was pretty miserable. I threw up a lot. I cried a lot. I stopped throwing up yesterday, but I'm still tired. I've been keeping busy by sleeping through. I told Mommy that I wish people never got sick. It really hurts.

But I'm feeling much better today. And did I mention that Ella is visiting again from Israel? My best friend is back! We have a sleepover planned for this week. Yay!!!!

I love Ellie!

She's so cute. I love giving my baby cousin hugs and kisses.

No more stuff!

Hello! This is Yoshi's mom.

As you may or may not know, our household really wants to have a simple, but full life rich with experiences. And one of the ways to reach this is not to be bogged down by "stuff." Sure, it's just about impossible not to have material goods in this day and age, and we are definitely fortunate that we can live comfortably with modern conveniences, but it seems that when I have a lot of Stuff, I end up worrying about Stuff, and then wanting even more Stuff. Stuff that really isn't important and ends up taking up space, not being used, and then creating a lot of guilt of owning it but feeling bad getting rid of it.

And from an environmental standpoint, Stuff takes a lot of resources. Think about that one plastic bottle of water you drink, the energy it took to make the bottle, to transport the bottle, to package the bottle among other bottles, advertise the selling of the bottle, then the energy to recycle that bottle once it's used. Ugh.

But I digress.

This is another plea not to give us material goods. Chances are if we've gone this long without it, we don't really need it, and probably don't want it. And this rings especially true for things given to Yoshi. She doesn't need anymore things. And to be completely honest, I will probably be offended if you read this post and continue to give her stuff.

If you want to give her something, please, please, ask me first. I hate to be the Mean Mommy when I end up taking away a toy she got from someone else.

And if you have a compulsion to spend money and want to put it to good use, consider donating to a charity or non-profit like Habitat for Humanity, the American Cancer Society in memory of her grandpa, or to her elementary school.

Thank you for your support and love.

Baker Beach

The ocean has a lot of water.

Joke of the day

Me: What smells like a banana and is invisible?

Mommy: An invisible banana?

Me: No. A monkey's burp!

Story: Shapetown

Once inside of Shape Town, there were a couple different kinds of shapes. There was Square and Triangle, Circle, Oval, Diamond, Rectangle. And those were the only shapes.

And one day, five Letters moved in from Letter Town. And then the four friends, the Diamond, the Oval, the Circle, the Square and the Rectangle and the Triangle, they said, “You don’t belong in Letter Town. We do!” The Letters said, “We’re the beginning of the alphabet. We’re A, B, C, D, E! We heard there were more houses and we came to move in. That is why.”

So the four friends five friends moved in. And then the five letters and the five shapes became ten best friends. They played every day. And then five animals moved in. There was a cow, a chicken, a cat, a horse, and a frog. Moved in to Shape Town. And then it was called Anything Town where move five things like Five Bottles moved in. A tall bottle, a fat bottle, a skinny bottle, a soda bottle, a metal bottle. And then five chicken pox roosters moved in. They were covered in red chicken box ‘cause they ate too many red gum! And they got some medicine and then they ate healthier.

And animals kept moving in. And different things keep moving in.

Doo doo dooo, doo doo doo. (sing this)

And one day something big and scary moved in. It had a weapon! It scared everything. They were frightened and cuddled together. It was a giant Transformer named Bumblebee!!!!

They all ran away. And came back. And then the five bumblebee transformers all became friends with the rest of them. They always ate dinner together, ate lunch and breakfast and they did everything together. It was so happy story, that they wanted to always have more friends moving in and one day….

They had a new friend come in. They didn’t know what it was. It was a person in a racecar. Five persons in a racecar. And they became friends, too. And they all had smiles when they met.

The end!

I'm So Sari!

About a week ago, Mommy, Daddy and I went on an airplane. We flew to New Jersey for a wedding. Daddy went to college with Dee. Dee is the bride. I was a flower girl.

A couple days before the wedding, we went to Dee's Mommy and Daddy's house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I didn't see any cherries or hills there. That's weird. We were there for the Mehendi Party. Everyone wears green. All the girls get their hands painted with Henna. Henna is a plant that is used to make this brown paste stuff that colors your skin. It looks like chocolate, but don't eat it because it's not chocolate. It's henna. Dee got the most special henna designs because she's the bride.

Here I am getting my hand painted:


Waiting for it to dry (see the peacock?):


The rehearsal was on Friday, the day before the wedding. Rehearsal is when you practice. It took a long time for people to rehearse I guess. But I hear practice makes perfect. We must be perfect after all that practicing. I mostly waited around for everyone else because I knew my part well.


Finally it was Saturday, wedding day! I got dressed in my yellow sari made especially for me in India, which is a country far, far away. It's sparkly and I feel like a princess when I wear it. Daddy didn't have a sari because he's a boy. And he wasn't a flower girl either.


After the Hindu ceremony, there was a break so we could get ready for the Catholic ceremony. I changed out of my sari and put on my poofy white dress. I made sure I had all my flowers in my basket. I did my job walking down the aisle and threw flower petals on the ground. Fun!


I got hungry towards the end.


More wedding photos can be seen on Mommy's Flickr.

Me and my cousin

I love Ellie!

Fun time at the zoo

Lately I've been spending my time at the zoo for day camp. I know all about the zoo. If you want, I can show you around.

The people that work at the zoo get to hold the animals because they know how to hold them. But we get to pet some of the animals while they are being held. And guess what? Today I pet a Koala Bear!! She is 13 years old and really soft and cute. Almost as cute as a giraffe.

Oh! And speaking of giraffes, I saw them today. Usually when Mommy picks me up after camp ends we go straight home, but today we decided to hang out a little longer at the zoo. We went to see the giraffes together. It was their dinner time. They were eating leaves, alfalfa and giraffe kibble. They have long tongues that are purple. I said to Mommy, "They have the biggest, darkest, most perfect, round eyes ever!" So pretty!

Alcatraz

Alcatraz is a jail on an island here in San Francisco. But bad guys no longer are there. It's a museum jail. That means regular people get to visit and walk around. I had a good time and learned a lot about how people try to escape from jail. They should really practice their swimming.

Pay attention, Mommy

Sometimes she misunderhears me.

Story of a house

Once there was a house. Inside of the house was a little girl. Her was name was Yoshimi. Her mom was named denise. Her dad was named Tom. They were a good family. The best cereal Yoshi liked was Honey Nut Toasted Oats and Honey Nut Cheerios. One is toasted and one is not.

Yoshi loved to wear any type of clothes that looks good to her. Denise likes to knit stuff. Tom likes to work in an office. You can draw on the windows or you can draw on the board. If you draw on the windows you have to draw on the windows with the kind of makers that you use on the white board. Then you erase it. Yoshi once in San Mateo worked and drawed a picture that was as big as herself.

5 Years

I don't really remember Grandpa alive because I was only a little baby when he passed away. But I know he and I had a lot of fun. This picture was taken the last time I played with him. It was at the beach. We were good buddies. He loved me lots.

I went to his Rock at the special park for dead people who are rocks. I said hi to him and told him that I was a flower girl at a wedding the day before. I also told him that I finished Kindergarten. Then I picked flowers from the grass and put it on his rock. And I arranged his other goodies already there on his rock to make it look more nice.

I miss Grandpa.

My favorite animal is a giraffe

Once there was a zoo. In the zoo lived a zebra and a giraffe. The zebra liked camels but there were no camels in the zoo. The zebra was sad. So she almost cried. The giraffe likes people feeding her but at this zoo no one could feed the giraffe! The giraffe was so sad that she almost threw up and cried.

One day, a little boy came and the little boy had a pet camel. Zebra was so happy that the zebra and danced for joy. (do a dance and sing: hmm hmmm hmmm hmm mmmmmm!)

Then came a little girl. She had giraffe food. Giraffe was so happy she dance around and danced and danced.

And then they were both happy dancing around.

The end.

I'm now a first grader!

Today was my last day of kindergarten. Now I'm big.

In kindergarten, I learned how to count by ones, twos, fives, and tens.

In kindergarten, I learned how to read.

In kindergarten, I learned how to write.

In kindergarten, I learned how caterpillars turn into butterflies.

In kindergarten, I made new best friends.

In kindergarten, I had a lot of fun.


Here is a page from my writing and drawing that I do every day.



"In kindergarten I learned how to do my writing and how to play nicely."


I wish I could go to kindergarten forever.