November 19, 2011: Saturday farming equipment!

Hi everybody!
It's me, Julien the Toddler!
Back in November, we spent the Thanksgiving holiday with my mommy's family in Chicagoland. We celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday, as well as Thanksgiving. We also visited a variety of friends and family.
The Saturday before Thanksgiving, I spent the day with my parents' friend Jenny, who lives in Chicagoland and is especially a very good friend of Aunt Nancy. I previously met her because she helped take care of me on the day of Daddy X's funeral, which was extremely sweet. She goes to a farm to ride horses, and invited me to join her during our Thanksgiving trip.

November in the Mid-West is going to be cold, so I was dressed and ready for the weather!

As much as I enjoyed seeing the animals, I really enjoyed seeing the farm where they lived.

I really love construction machinery, and the farm had this gigantic front-loading bulldozer!

I even got to stand in the mouth. Imagine how large this is! You know that I'm a tall guy as it is.

Here's the picture of me in front of the front loader once again, just so you can imagine the size.
I had a fantastic day with Jenny!
Aunt Nancy is very lucky because she can see Jenny a lot. However, I don't think they play with the construction trucks together as much.
Love,
Julien the Toddler

February 11, 2012: A Streetcar Named Julien

Hi everybody!
It's me, Julien the Toddler!
I wanted to write about public transportation. After all, it's one way that many people around the world get from one place to another.
I first experienced public transportation when I was 4 months old, when we flew to Chicago in October 2009. It was my first time on an airplane as well as any mode of public transport! Otherwise I traveled via car, stroller, and baby carrier! This is because I was not yet walking or crawling or rolling over - at the age of 4 months, I was lucky if I was rotating my body.
Since that time, I have been on public buses and subways in Paris, Manhattan, London, and Chicago. But I've never been on any form of public transportation in my home city of San Francisco!
Saturday February 11, 2012 now marks the first time that I've been on the San Francisco MUNI, my home city's version of public transportation! I rode on a streetcar - the J Church. This is not to be confused with the music band from the '90s, who my father once met while at the airport in February 1995 (he was flying to Germany and they were flying to Japan).

Here I am on the J Church, with Veronica, Nathan, and his mommy Julie. My parents and Veronica's mommy Jennifer are seated nearby. It was not possible for us all to sit together, but it was okay because we were all super close!
We headed downtown, to Market Street, to enjoy the Chinese New Year Parade!
The Chinese New Year Parade was a lot of fun! I got to sit on Daddy's shoulders and watch a lot of action for almost an hour. Ironically we stood right across from his pilates studio, which is probably why he was able to have me on his shoulders for so long! He has some good shoulder strength!
And the Chinese New Year Parade will be the focus of a separate blogpost.
After the Parade, we went to Dubai for dinner. Not the city of Dubai, but the food court at the Westfield shopping mall, because that's the type of shopping mall that one would see in Dubai! Afterwards, we took the J Church back to Jennifer's house, where we had parked our car.

When we got on the streetcar, it was a little crowded but there were 2 teenage boys sitting by the door and they moved so that Veronica, Nathan, and I could sit down! This was good because we were a little tired!

I really loved looking out the window.

Even in the dark evening (8pm), there was just so much to see in the streets of San Francisco.
Love,
Julien the Toddler
ps - I have a *lot* of information to share with my loyal readers about what I've been doing the past several months! I'm aware that I've been very busy and haven't been blogging very much.

Update - and suspending the suspension of disbelief

Hi everybody!
It's me, Julien the Toddler!
I am very sorry for not having blogged for some time.
I always like to say that there's a lot going on. That is the usual excuse / reason I use for the delays I have with blogging.
I also have some very sad news to report. Most of you may already know this... basically, my beloved maternal grandfather, aka Daddy X, passed away on November 5, 2011. He had physical problems for the past few years, and things got worse in the latter part of 2011. We visited him several times in 2011 - February, July, August, and October. And we have skyped together a lot. Momma was able to see him right before he passed away.
Here are some pictures (video stills) from our October visit (Oct 24, 2011). We are sharing fruit salad and rice pudding / tapioca together. We also helped feed each other.
I miss Daddy X a lot - we always had a lot of fun together.




Also, I know that a lot of you think that I'm writing this blog on my own. I'm sure a lot of you have suspended disbelief that a toddler can blog. So to briefly suspend this suspension of disbelief, I want to explain that it's my own daddy who ghostwrites the blog under my name. But regarding Daddy X, there is a lot of video footage that my parents have filmed of us together, where we are both very happy and active together. And in the Todd Parr "Family" book that my parents have read, one page mentions the loss of a loved one, and we talk about Daddy X. I definitely recognize and point out pictures of Daddy X, and I know that as I get older, I'll get to watch videos where I am playing with Daddy X, and I will continue to see even more pictures of Daddy X.
I love you, Daddy X!
And in the meantime, I get to enjoy and charm my other grandparents. Well, and everyone else around me!
Love,
Julien the Toddler
ps - happy belated Thanksgiving, December holidays, and Happy New Year!