Meditations on Torrance

Mickey hat from Gary.

This wraps up our week-long visit with Grandma and Papa at their home in Torrance. For me and Thu this was a much-needed break. Even though she managed to work several hours almost every day, with our eager babysitters available daily, we found time to see a couple of movies, go shopping, visit a spa, dine at an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant, and sleep for more than eight hours almost every night. (Thumbs up, by the way, to "Red Cliff," "Up In the Air," and Tahoe BBQ.)

Beef, beef, and more beef.

One might say that we just did all the things that we used to do before we had Tai. But that is what constitutes a vacation these days.

Of course, we'd like to think that we had the best of both worlds. Tai constantly amused and gave love to everyone in the house. Whether he was joining Daddy and Papa's hands together to form a circle and sing "Ring Around the Rosie," or running around the house shouting "Jingle Bells," or pushing his trains on the tracks, or rolling his eyes in a playful manner, he's a fun and imaginative kid.

So now that we're rested, on to 2010!

Watch out for snakes (at the Rainforest Cafe)!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Tai understands presents now.

Merry Christmas, everyone. It was nice to see some relatives tonight and celebrate with food, songs (thanks for playing guitar, Dan), presents, and even bingo games.

We wish you all a safe holiday season!

Jingle Bells!

Tai performed in his first Christmas show last week. All the preschoolers got on stage and sang a medley of songs, including "I've Been Working on the Railroad," "Jingle Bells," and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."

We were proud of Tai for just getting up in front of an audience. He managed to sing a few words and shake his bell.

The video below is a little shaky since, even though we staked out second-row seats near the middle aisle, the crush of camera-wielding parents was mad once the kids started singing. Throw in some wandering toddlers without stage direction and you've got holiday chaos.

Marketing

Gorilla Munch!

This post is dedicated to those marketing whizzes who make kids go bananas over a cereal box. Tai's favorite cereal at the moment is called Gorilla Munch. Organic corn meal and sugar, excuse me, organic evaporated cane juice, and sea salt. A gluten-free and organic version of Kix.

A tasty cereal, for sure. But the thing Tai loves most is the picture of the gorilla on the cereal box. "Gorilla Munch!" he yells in the morning for breakfast, and in the evening for a snack. After every bite, Tai roars like a gorilla, just as gorillas do when they eat Gorilla Munch.

Have you heard the one about . . . ?

Bath animals

Tai made his first joke to us last week. It happened in the car, where Thu was practicing Vietnamese with Tai while we were driving home. To understand the joke, it helps to know that "one, two, three" in Vietnamese is "mot, hai, ba." So Thu and Tai were counting in Vietnamese, "mot, hai, ba . . .", when Tai cut Mommy off and said, very proudly, "No, baaaaa. That's sheep."

We thought it was pretty funny, quite a clever play on words.

Tai's first trip to ER

Bloodied guy waiting to be stitched.

Tai took his first trip to the ER tonight. What happened? In short, Tai jumped on Mommy's leg while she sat on the couch. He slipped, hit his head on the glass coffee table, and opened up a gash on his forehead. We drove to Children's Hospital, where they sewed him up. Sewing up a 2.5-year-old is not easy, let's just say, although Tai did as well as could be expected. Three hours after we left the house, Tai got big ol' bandage and a popsicle.

Tough guy rewarded with a popsicle.

Tai rides his tricycle

As we recover from our post-Thanksgiving food coma, I'm posting a video taken earlier this week.

I had just spent five days in Philadelphia for work and came home to find that Tai was now able to pedal his tricycle. As you can hear from his enthusiastic "I did it!"—he's proud of his new skill.

Cal Wins, Let's Run Onto the Field

On the field!

I took Tai to his first Cal football game tonight, thanks to a couple of tickets from Thu's co-worker. It was freezing in the stands, but we stuck through it to watch Cal pull out a victory in the final minutes.

Hmm, can I tackle Daddy again?

After the game—Cal's final home game of the season—fans ran onto the field to celebrate, including me and Tai. Tai had a blast running down the field, evading the other fans, and falling down on the turf, pretending he was tackled. When he was down, he tried to pull me down with him. I hope he doesn't think every football game ends this way!

Ready for a Baseball Game

"I'm ready to play!"

This evening, Tai went into our closet and pulled out the duffel bag with my softball gear. A few minutes later, I came back, and I heard the click-clack of cleats on the hardwood floor. Tai had put on my cleats, batting gloves, and cap, and held my water bottle for good measure.

"Where Wild Things Are"

Gnashing his terrible teeth.

Tai just loves Where the Wild Things Are. He can really get into a character, whether its stomping like a Wild Thing or screaming like Max. Something in the book speaks to him.

The wild rumpus scene.

Now whether Tai picks up on the deeper themes of the story—which is what I assume the movie is about (we must see the movie!)—seems doubtful. That Max treats the monsters the way he is treated by his mother might be difficult to comprehend. But maybe not.

Decorating his bedroom walls with the yellow eyes.

Tai is starting to use his stuffed animals—mostly Piggy and sometimes the Wild Things—to play make believe. It's really cute, but rather eye-opening. He'll have them play out whatever thought is in his head, which is a thought that's somehow influenced by us. Okay, so maybe that is just like the book.

I'll have to document the next time it happens. For now, here's Tai by his finished decorations, which make him so happy he jumps up and down to celebrate.

The King of All Wild Things

And another thing . . . Tai knows the lines of the book quite well, and which pictures go with which lines. When we were putting up the scene of Max walking through the trees, Tai yelled, "And grew . . . and grew!" And that's correct. Tai must be paying closer attention than I am.

The Night Max Wore His Wolf Suit

"Let the wild rumpus start!"

Tai started watching the animated version of "Where the Wild Things Are" this year, over and over again. Then we started reading the book to him, over and over again. And now, with the movie out, we figured Tai just had to be Max for Halloween.

So Thu bought a polar bear outfit online, then sewed on some big buttons, some black whiskers, and a big bushy tail. I cut out a gold crown from poster board and there you go, a semi-homemade Max outfit!

I'll go more into the "Tai as Max" thought in the next blog entry. For now, this is just a Halloween recap. We went down to San Jose again, and Tai got to roam the sidewalks with his cousins. This large group of trick-or-treaters must have cleaned out the candy bins of at least a few houses when they showed up. Safety in numbers, and lots of fun too.

Tai didn't have any candy that night, but he was amped up plenty just by playing with his cousins. Thank goodness we gained an hour the next morning.

Tai gets on his new Radio Flyer tricycle, a gift from Auntie Uyen.

On the prowl for candy.

A San Jose garage decked out for Halloween.

Tuyen knocks on the door and finds a fellow penguin!

Ethan carefully takes inventory of the night's haul.

Some of the trick-or-treat gang.

Post-trick-or-treat mayhem with Jason and Ethan. Non-stop laughs!

Ridin' the Range with Tai

"I'm back in the saddle again . . ." sort of.

Every year at New School, they have a guy who brings in his pony and takes pictures of the kids sitting on the animal. We wondered if Tai would go for this, since he's never sat on one before. After we picked him up that day, we asked him if he did, and he said "I sat pony!"

Well, the pictures came back this week and there were no pony pictures. Our guess is that Tai, as he usually does with animals and rides, got really excited to be near the pony, but once he was put on, probably cried a bunch. Instead, he took these pictures. If you look closely, you can see a tear coming down his cheek.

So, no pony pictures this year, but we still decided to buy these posed shots anyway. They're just too cute.

"Whoopie-Tai-aye-oh"

Cowboy Tai

Accident or Work of Genius?

Half-realism, half-abstract.

After working in his room for a few minutes, Tai came up to me last night in the kitchen with his drawing board and shouted, "I make pumpkin." I guess I wasn't expecting much because when I looked at his drawing, I thought, "Wow, that really does look like a pumpkin! How did you do that?"

Maybe he got the idea from the pumpkin sitting on the kitchen shelf. Who knows? Whatever the case, Thu and I were impressed. It's probably too much too assume artistic genius at this point. But that doesn't keep biased observers' minds from racing!

Halloween costume, early version.

Thu was gone for work most of the week, so the grandparents from LA filled in to help watch their grandson. As you can see in the picture above, one night Tai dressed up in his polar bear outfit, which will serve as the base for this year's real Halloween costume. . . .

Halloween cookie

We stopped by the New School Fall Bazaar on Saturday, where there were tables of baked goods to buy, including the cookie above. I worked the bean bag toss game. It was the first of many parent volunteering duties, I'm sure.

"All aboard!"

Later, we all went for a ride on the steam train in Tilden. Also not sure where Tai learned to do this, but when we sat on the train, waiting for the ride to begin, Tai yelled "All aboard!" is his best conductor's voice for everyone to hear. He yelled it several times.

Tai loves the train.

Tai's been on that steam train a few times before, but now I think he really understands what's going on and so he enjoys it fully. He absolutely did not want to leave.

Pumpkins, Wedding, Championship

On Sunday, we attended the beautiful wedding of Thu's cousin, Phuong, and her new husband, Chris. This picture is far away because that's where Tai ran during the ceremony (which began 40 minutes late—way too long for Tai to sit).

We didn't get too many close-up shots, but here's one of the lovely bride.

And of the bridesmaids. We're biased, but we think Tai's aunt looked prettiest.

Tai had fun goofing off with his cousin, Ethan, who thinks Tai is more fun to play with now that he talks. We can see his point.

And goofing off with Ethan's parents, Lan and Chuong. Tai kept everyone busy through the day and night.

A screen grab from the photographer's website. (We're buying other photos from him.)

A family photo at the reception.

In between the morning wedding and the evening reception in the South Bay, I drove back to Alameda to play in our church league championship softball game. For the second year in a row, Buena Vista won the title! I hit the first homer of my life, a 3-run shot over the fence (a pathway really). You have to know how competitive this church league is—a skirmish breaks out on the field again this year!—to appreciate the adrenaline rush this game provided. What a great (undefeated) season, team!

The league commissioner (far left) presents Buena Vista the trophy. From left to right—Leki, Joy, me, Luke, Chris W., Tim, Mike, Sam, Shaun, Chris T., and Andrew.

Earlier in the weekend, we visited Monterey Market, where Tai climbed the pumpkin pile. We didn't buy him one of these, but we did buy him a mini hand-held pumpkin, which he took with him to bed tonight.

Lastly, we enjoyed hosting our friend Kevin, aka Mia's father, at our place for a week while he put the finishing touches on his doctoral dissertation. Now he's Dr. Urayama, and for that, we took him out for a last Berkeley meal pictured here . . . at Barney's Gourmet Hamburgers.

September Days

"You're leaving?"

Tai spent a final day with Mia this month before she left for her new home in France (via LA and Japan). We tell ourselves it's only temporary, which is what her family says. If you can call two years temporary.

"Friends!"

We'll have to do some videoconferencing so Tai and Mia don't forget each other. They won't forget each other, right? Well, however it goes, we wish Mia and her family the best of luck in their new home and country!

* * *

Some random photos:

Tai sporting his two tattoos: Cookie Monster holding a baseball bat (from Alina) and a ninja fighting the Hep B virus (from Mommy).

A thumbnail photo of us attending Breast Cancer Awareness night at the A's game (Thu's work was one of the sponsors).

A photo of us at Clarence and Shefali's wedding. This was part of a cool series of "Jump!" photos in which attendees got to lift off and be photographed.

First Day of School

Oliver and Tai arrived early to school and got first dibs on the train set, while their teacher Marcelena watched over them.

Oliver has been at New School for a month already, so he showed Tai around, including where to put his bowl and spoon after snack time. The nap teacher said they fell asleep next to each other.

We all survived Tai's first day at preschool. It went very well, actually. It helped to have his good buddy there with him. We'll keep our fingers crossed—teachers say there's always a "honeymoon phase"—but I think Tai will enjoy this setting. More people, more toys. Play all day.

Fire Truck, Ethan's 5th, Sentences

Albany Firefighter

Earlier last week, Tai and his daycare took a field trip to the local fire house. They got to see the big fire trucks and they each received a fireman's hat. So when I came home from work, Tai looked like this at the dinner table. It was really cute.

Ethan and Tai

We celebrated cousin Ethan's 5th birthday yesterday at their house. They threw a very fun party. Tai had his eye on this Wall-E character, but Ethan didn't mind. He cleaned up in the video game and action figure department.

"Now that's what I'm talking about."

* * *

One thing I have forgotten to blog about has been the increase in Tai's vocabulary and use of short sentences (and long ones that don't make sense to us). One day earlier this month, after we'd pakced away most of his toys, Tai managed to wedge his way into his closet, climb the shelves, and pick out a toy from his basket. We could hear him yelling, "I found Dory! I found Dory!" We looked in the closet, and there he was, holding up the fish from "Finding Nemo."

The next day, at one of Clarence's dinner parties, Tai was wandering around the kitchen when he caught sight of a chocolate cake. Of course, he screamed "I want cake! I want cake!"

Not the most complicated sentences, but he put them together himself. He's repeating a lot of what we say. His favorite sentences right now by far are "I did it! I did it!" He yells that after climbing onto our bed or opening something. Tomorrow it's on to preschool. What kinds of words could he possibly learn from the other kids?