Portraiture

I have no idea how people are able to get those perfectly posed professional photos of their kids.  Their kids are not like our kids.  Getting one kid to look at the camera and deliver a natural-looking smile is a near impossible task for us.  Getting both kids to do it simultaneously without at least one parent trying to adjust a dresses or collar or wipe some drool is something I just can't even imagine.

We had the photographer for an hour, at the park across the street from our house.  I even baited Huelan with a tadpole catching session immediately after the photo shoot if she would cooperate.  That's a biiiiig incentive.  That wasn't fully effective.  I'm admittedly overly critical with these sorts of things, so while we did end up with a few pretty good ones, immediately after the shoot I was pretty frustrated.  I've taken enough pictures to know what it feels like to potentially have some great shots, and this did not feel like that. At least we got one of the four of us that will work, which honestly was more of a relief than anything. It was the first time we'd brought in a pro photographer and I was hoping for some magic.  Oh well. Huelan wins this round, but I want a rematch.

Here's a pic of her after she scooped up some tadpoles.  She even managed to snag a baby frog. Strictly catch-and-release. At least we had one good smile out of her that day!

Re-Cital

Another 13 weeks comes to a close and the ballet/tap class is back at it- the session end recital.  They've added a few things to their repertoire, which admittedly wasn't vast to begin with, but their increased comfort is evident.  I would prefer her have a tough-ass, french speaking ballet instructor who speaks with a Russian accent and walks with a cane, but Huelan and the other girls seem to like Ms. Ariel quite well.

This time we brought Vansen, who was pretty enthralled by the whole thing, and Sophia, who has a few days between the end of school and the beginning of tennis.  Seeing all the girls dressed up and wearing extra-wide grins in front of their parents and grandparents is just as cute as you would imagine. For 10 girls, there are about 45 cameras in the audience.  We had three.  Maybe four.  The fawning families and the beaming girls made for an outstanding show, and what they lacked in precision and grace was well compensated for with enthusiasm. I love the leap she does in the middle of the first embedded video- reminds me of Sister Mary Catherine Gallagher from SNL.

One of the funny things is that for their last number, the teacher just said eff it and had all the girls sing "Let It Go" and run around in circles while she cleaned up and got ready for the next class.

There are nine videos.  I'm embedding a couple and will leave links to the rest.





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Swingers

Last weekend I hooked up a hammock on the deck. 

Not much else got done. 

Our First Camping Trip

Patty and I had one of our firsts this weekend and camping was a lot of fun.  We drove about 3 hours south off the 101 to the Arroyo Seco Campgrounds. I reserved the "group site" which was really cool since it's isolated from the rest of the grounds and it was awesome.  Patty and I stocked up on a load of new camping gear and hope to camp more often with family and friends.

One of the highlights was our hike down to the Gorge.  We swam and hung out on the rocks for a little sun bathing.

Check out the pictures.

Memorial Day

My brother changed his FB profile pic to this one.  It's what my dad's flagpole used to look like, not just on Memorial Day, but everyday.

Long Weekend

Everyone loves a long weekend.  Somehow, it seems like long weekends are the only opportunities that we have enough time to get anything done around the house.  Of course that's not really true, but it seems like with all the hustle and bustle and more hustle of getting through a regular week/everyday, a long weekend provides such a welcome breather.

We did a pretty decent job this weekend of both Maxing and Relaxing.  We had a few peeps over for some pulled pork (14lbs worth went in tummies and doggie bags) to celebrate Mel's Birthday, Part II: Chill Edition. Sunday was mostly dedicated to sleep and recuperation, then a nice sunny Monday running through the sprinklers with Laurie and Sophia while I cleaned the garage top to bottom.  No fewer than 40 spiders lost their lives that afternoon.

Great to feel like a lot was accomplished while still getting our recharge on.

Some pics here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101465883844458883558/MemorialWeekend2014

Flyin Part 2

This pic makes it look like I'm wearing a toupe. It's a decent look I'm considering it...

So two weeks ago Huelan and I took a long weekend and flew down to SoCal for Jonathan's graduation from Cal St. Fullerton. Contrary to the stories I've heard, he said it was pretty easy to knock out in four years, no summer school or anything. We're super proud of him, and he even managed to lock down a job at Yamaha in the Motorsports division, just 5 miles from home!

Given the hot weather, even by OC standards, my mom prohibited Huelan from going to the ceremony. She heard that some kids and senior citizens fainted the day before, so we got nixed. So we took the morning and went to the beach and shared a milkshake at In-N-Out. Not a bad consolation.  

More pics from that weekend here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101465883844458883558/BaNoiVisit

Graduation

I have no idea...

Jonathan just graduated from college. It was great having the family back together to celebrate.

Click for more pictures.

I just started posting again because my mom was totally bugging me about it.

Flyin

Somebody's excited about flying to visit Ba Noi!

Mothers' Day

The top collage is two recent pics of Ba Noi juxtaposed with a pic of her well before she was Ba Noi, taken in Hong Kong during our six-month residence in a refugee camp there, when I was still an only child. 

Fast forward about 36 years and here we are, feeding Vansen his first pho noodles at a Vietnamese restaurant in Oakland. Whood-a-thunk?

(Not-at-all-surprising fact of the day: he loved his pho and couldn't get enough.)

Set, Hike

We found this brand new infrant carrier backpack for sale at Urban Ore for $7, which is way below the threshold for me caring about the possible effects of a carrying my son in a pink backpack. He actually really dug it. 

Seeing as how we live across the street from a regional park with dozens of miles of hiking trails, we're slightly embarrassed that this was our first time venturing past the play structures. We only did about a mile, but it was a good start, and we not only survived, but had a really nice time. The lookout point we "summitted" gave us an clear view across Diablo Valley to Mt. Diablo and beyond. Huelan was impressed, though slightly concerned about the illuatrated warnings at the trail head for bobcats, foxes, and deer. 

Next time, packing a lunch?

Freestyle

Pretty much every kid from 3-13 can belt out a few lines from their favorite Frozen song.  Huelan combines her love of those songs with her desire to put off going to sleep for as long as possible.  I recorded this from the hallway outside of her room, where she is going through one of the Frozen songs, adding a few new lines, and generally rebelling against bedtime.  To herself, in the dark.

Tale of the Tape

His 10 month check up today, and he weighed in at 24.5lbs, 30inches long. That's 94th & 93rd percentiles, respectively. Still a big kid, but leaning out a tad with all the exercise he's been getting in. 

We mentioned to the doc during our last visit that we thought Vansen had some kind of allergic reaction, but we couldn't identify what he was allergic to. We still haven't figured it out, she she sent us for a blood test to check out all the usual suspects. It took both of us to hold him down and still while the not-super-friendly phlebologist drew THREE vials of blood. Thankfully it only took one stick, but Vansen did not like it at all. The screaming. The tears. Oh my. 

The look on the face of the lady in the waiting room holding her 9month old, waiting for their turn, was one of apprehension bordering on terror. 

Giggles

This is a prime example of the ephemeral nature of little kids.  His laugh will change, and our ability to bring it out in him will change.  I'm just leaving this here to remind ourselves down the line what a little Vansen laugh sounded like when he's driving us nuts around age 6 (or 12, or 15, or 24...).

Mo-Bile

This is his scoot.  He is quite a capable crawler, too, but he prefers this modality when he can.  He maybe gets a little better POV from his head being higher vs. crawling, but mainly I think it's the speed.  He can easily get from one end of the house clear to the other end, which is basically his whole world.  We recently put in a gate at the top of the stairs, so we let him roam freely on the main floor and he totally digs it.  His own room he's not that in to, but he loves raiding the accessible shelves in Huelan's room.

He knows when he's about to do something or go somewhere that we might not allow.  His gait changes a bit, slows down, and he pauses every few scoots to see if we're going to check him.  He's already got his little mischievous smirk working, and when we give him permission to explore something new, he grins broadly.

His world has not just expanded laterally; in the past few weeks he's also discovered that there's a whole universe above his head.  He can pull himself up to standing using basically anything as a crutch.  He generally looks around, reaches for stuff, then gets himself stranded and needs help getting back down to his bottom.

As if Around and Up wasn't enough for him to explore, he's also getting In.  As in In cabinets, and In drawers. It seems like he's learning all of this stuff at once.  Over the past 2-3 weeks you can almost see a new spark in his eyes, a sign that he's beginning to sense that there's a whole world of things for him to see and touch (and taste).  Then after a little while he gets tired, sucks his thumb, and wants a nap.