Random Brain Dump

We dressed the girls in their traditional Chinese outfits and took them to the lunar New Year parade in downtown San Jose this past weekend. It was the girls’ first time watching a parade. Despite the cold & gray morning, the girls seemed to enjoy it. The lions & dragons came up right next to the girls! Katelyn & Allison even got to pet a few of them.

There were a lot of photographers there, some of them pro’s wielding very impressive equipment around. I definitely felt inadequate. 🙂 But here are some of my snapshots. Interestingly, I encountered more Nikon than Canon users…

Katelyn had a little party at The Little Gym to celebrate her 5^th birthday, this past weekend. The kids had a blast doing kiddie gymnastic activities. Katelyn definitely seemed to enjoy the extra attention. Even Allison, who’s normally a bit shy, participated in all activities whole-heartedly. Here some snapshots from the party.

I was happy celebrating Katelyn’s birthday. She’s making great strides this year- constantly surprises & impresses me with things she learns and does. She likes to sing, loves to color and teaches me the names of all sorts of dinosaurs (most of them I really didn’t even know)! She’s getting more inquisitive and can be thoughtful at times. She’s always very active and plays rough sometime. I see a bit of tomboy-ness in her. She can write words phonetically and do simple math. Not as crazy about Dora as last few years, but definitely still way into Disney princesses. Still likes pink but shuns Barbie because she knows I don’t like her getting into Barbie. Still a picky eater, but she’s at least trying new things; she even eats brocolie now. Her best friend is her cousin Malia, who she loves sleeping over with. She’s starting to help out little bit around the house- her biggest responsibilities being setting up the table at dinner time and feeding the fishes. Her face is usually the 1^st thing I see when I come home from work, she’d run to be the first to open the door for me.

But the best thing I saw in Katelyn this year is the little glimpses of her trying on the role a big sister: helping, encouraging and protecting Allison at certain times. I simply cannot be any prouder when I see that…

Unbelievable to me that Katelyn turned 5. At the same time, it seems forever that she’s part of our lives though. I can barely remember the bk era- before Katelyn. 🙂

Happy birthday kiddo…

A rarity: we started this past Saturday morning earlier than usual. It was a nice brisk winter morning, wasn’t very cold. After a hearty breakfast at Hobee’s, we headed out to the Children’s Museum in downtown San Jose. It was nice being early birds for once, there wasn’t the usual crowd to fight through. A few minutes into it however, Suzanne began feeling ill. She felt bad enough that we had to abruptly pack up & leave for home.

Later that afternoon, the weather worsened but we braved the rain back to the museum with the mom resting at home. The girls had a blast with all the exhibits, especially with the ever-popular bubble display and face painting. They were well-behaved so I didn’t have troubles without their mommy’s help. We stayed until closing time and by this time, the rain got even heavier and made me regret for parking a bit further away to save a $5 parking fee.

As we got off 280 on Stevens Creek, we came across a man holding a “Homeless, Need Help” sign. I felt bad for the guy for having to brave the cold rain. He looked particularly pathetic and he reminded me of a Cowboy Junkies’ song called “Cause Cheap Is How I Feel”:

“And when a bum asks you for a quarter, you give a dollar. If he’s out tonight, he must be truly down.”

I pulled a few bucks out of my wallet, handed to the guy and told him to take care. As I pulled away, Katelyn was puzzled as to what I was doing and asked me who the guy was and why I gave him money. I explained to her that unlike us, he probably doesn’t have a place to come home to and that he’s probably hungry. I explained that I felt bad that he’s out in the rain and the cold, that I gave him the money so he can buy food for himself.

Through the rear-view mirror, I saw Katelyn was listening intently and occasionally sat up & looked back at the guy. She remained quiet for a while and was obviously thoughtful. As I turned into our neighborhood, she said quietly:

“Daddy, I think you’re very nice.”

This past weekend, our family went down to LA. While we were there, we took the kids to Pharoah’s Lost Kingdom in Redlands. The place is a huge: rides, miniture golf, games and a water park. It was a hot afternoon, so the kids spent all the time in the kiddie pools. Katelyn & Andre were hitting the water slides non-stop, while the younger kids, Allison & Justine, spent most their time in the wading pool & float around the lazy river.

Of course, I brought my camera and spent most my time snapping shots. I was a bit nervous with all the kids splashing water all around, but in the end I managed to keep my camera dry.

Here’re a few of the shots.

This past weekend Kyle, the Jedi-in-training (also, the birthday boy), lead the young rebels in the fight against Vader and the darkside. Katelyn & Allison relunctantly joined the rebellion. Yes, they have much fear in them. Who wouldn’t fear Vader in his full suit and sandles? The padawans valiantly fought their way to Yoda’s swamp where all young rebels eagerly took a refreshing dip in celebration. May the force be with the young rebels…

Here are the visual newsreel documenting the younglings’ efforts.

Katelyn and Allison got a hold of an old family photo album the other day. They excitedly asked their mother about some photos of an old dog they discovered. I guess they found it was cool for their own mom to have a dog (Katelyn asked for a dog a few times). Suzanne explained the photos and described how the dog was her pet and that it died some years ago.

That night, when I was readying Katelyn for bed, she went on bragging to me how her mommy used to have a dog. I told her that I do remember the white poodle. She then said to me in a sudden sad tone: “Daddy, Mommy said her doggy died.” I acknowledged it with a nod. Since I noticed a sense of curiosity in her, I explained to her that the dog died of old age and how that’s is natural process. After some thinking and debating in my head whether she was old enough for me to explain the concept of eventual death, I went on explaining that even her daddy & mommy will grow old too.

Katelyn immediately made the connection, sat up and asked me in an alarmed tone “does that mean you & Mommy will die too?” I replied “yes, we will die of old age eventually.” She started to tear up and asked “will you come back after you die?.” I answered that you cannot come back from death but that death is natural and happens to everyone.

Growing more distraught, Katelyn said “but I don’t want you to die.” I calmly tried to allay her fear and explained how that it is in a very distanced future. I explained that we’ll be taking care of her until she grows up and that it’ll take a lot of years before we even reach her grandparents’ ages.

At this point, Katelyn hugged me and in tears, she said “I will miss you!“

It’s Father’s day, so I want to blog a few quick lines about my girls. As you get to my age, I find that you start to look more forward to Father’s days than your birthdays… 🙂

Last month, we took the kids down to LA for a spring break visit.

While Suzanne was paying a visit to her friend Ly and her newly born baby, I spent some time with the kids and their cousins. We had a little easter egg hunt in my sister’s backyard. The kids had fun looking for the left-over eggs that Suzanne had prepared for her class. The older kids were too fast for Allison as they were darting back and forth grabbing the hidden eggs. Not wanting her to miss out on the fun, I resorted to lead Allison to one of the hidden eggs. She happily grabbed one and put it in her ducky basket. Didn’t take long for her to realize that the other kids got more eggs than her, so she complained to me: “I have only 1 egg Daddy, I don’t even have two eggs!” I bursted out laughing and explained to her that there weren’t any eggs left.

On another day, we took the kids to Getty Center. My friend Allen recently showed us some pictures of his visit to the place. The museum recently opened after years of renovation; it sits on top of the hill next to UCLA campus and provides an expansive and awesome view of LA and the pacific ocean. Just the view itself was worth the trip. We didn’t get much of a chance to check out the art collections, as the kids quickly got rowdy. When Katelyn fell into the water fountain, we packed up and headed straight home. What a nightmare! 🙁

The highlight of the trip was a day visit to Disneyland which has become sort of an annual spring break mecca for us last few years. Suzanne got all the kids each a hat; Katelyn picked her own hat and wouldn’t take it off the entire day! As usual, everyone liked “It’s A Small World” and of course the Dumbo ride. The highlight for Katelyn was posing with Minnie Mouse who was her favorite Disney character. After catching the Disney parade in the afternoon, the adults and the small kids were exhausted and ready to call it quit. I decided to stay with Katelyn and my nephew Andre.

With only three of us left, we were whizzing from ride to ride the rest of the day. Andre was a great sport— the oldest kid and had to stick with the girly and kiddie rides all day.  So to make it up to him, I took him & Katelyn to a Buzz Lightyear ride, after which Andre proclaimed “that was an awesome ride! It’s all worth it!” The two cousins even braved the “Haunted Mansion”! After a late dinner of hot dogs and pretzels, we caught the fireworks. Katelyn loved it when Tinkerbell flew back and forth high above the castle. We didn’t leave the park until 10PM. Katelyn was a trooper as she walked all day long on her own two feet. I was totally exhausted when all was said & done!

Here’s some of the pictures from the trip.

Last Thursday, Suzanne had to hold teacher conferences at her school. So I quit work early and came home to take care the kids. It was a gorgeous evening, so we grabbed some food and headed to the park. We sat down on a field of grass and happily chowed down Baja Fresh burritos. Afterward the girls & I ran barefoot on the grass in the park, chasing ducks and each other… The girls had so much fun that they didn’t even nag me about taking them to the playground, like they usually do.

I brought along my big zoom lens and snapped a bunch of close-up shots. Of all that I took that evening, the one pictured here on the right stood out to me. A little sepia treatment and it’s become one of my personal favorite shot of the girls! I simply can’t help but smile when everytime I look at it.