Old Gold Mountain

Spring Break

This past week has been Spring Break from school.  I must admit, it seems like we had less holidays when I was in school, but probably that is more selective memory than reality.  Anyway, it's been a quick two months.  Of course, this month has included Charlotte's birthday.  Can you believe it?  She is eight years old.  She's almost up to my armpits which is pretty tall considering I'm pretty tall.  Charlotte is still really skinny.  She's right now wearing a coat that she received as a present probably four years ago.  It's obviously too short, but her arms still easily fit into the sleeves. 

For her birthday party, we hosted our very first slumber party with two of her school friends.  Since her best friend Chessie left last year, Charlotte has become better friends with two other girls at school, Josie and Elanor.  We had the two of them over on her birthday which also happened to be a school furlough day.  The girls started off making crafts, they watched a movie, and had a fashion show complete with makeup.  Surprisingly, the girls didn't stay up much later than Charlotte's normal bedtime.  Or at least, I didn't notice, since I went to sleep myself.

Philip will be going to Grattan starting this Fall.  He's pretty excited about going to school although I think he's somewhat nervous at the same time.  Although he's been around the school a lot, he still gets pretty shy around the other kids and teachers.  For example, during a recent Portfolio night (essentially an open-school night where the kids show off their recent schoolwork) we visited Charlotte's old Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Kathy.  She said hello to Philip and said she hopes that he's in her class next year.  Philip kept hiding behind Teresa the whole time. 

This summer, Teresa and I have decided to send the kids to Steve and Kate's Summer Camp.  It's sort of a classic summer camp with multiple daily activities like crafts, go-cart racing, races, sports, etc..  Perhaps, not as academic as I would like, but after looking at all the options, I think that it was the best option.

Teresa is almost done with her Masters in Library Science.  It's been almost six years since she started.  We're both pretty excited about her new degree, but unfortunately we're going to miss the commencement as we'll be down in Southern California at that time visiting her mom.

We went bowling for the first time last month.  The kids were itching to do something and I thought that they were finally old enough to pick up a bowling ball.  The kids actually did pretty well (with the bumpers of course).  We've now gone twice and Philip especially seems to like it.  I think he likes the destruction aspect of the game.  It reminds him of Angry Birds which is his favorite app.

Speaking of apps, like the rest of the world, we've started playing 'Draw Something'.  This is a game that is similar to Pictionary, except it's played via smartphone.  Philip is actually nearly amazing at Pictionary.  Seriously.  Several months ago, we started playing a game like Pictionary where I would give the kids words and they would draw them on the chalkboard wall in Philip's room.  Philip would guess the word before Charlotte would even make a -in my opinion- recognizable drawing.  Similarly, now he's able to guess some pretty complex words.  As a bonus, it helps his spelling!  Over the last six months he's been making some real progress with reading.  I don't know if it's the tutoring classes that the kids have been continuing to take, but he's definitely ready for Kindergarten at this point.

11 photos added to Pictures 2012.

Muffin Lover

Every once in while, I realize how quirky the kids are.  They both have a set of seriously strange habits that I cannot ascribe to either an influence from myself or Teresa.  For example, Philip has this habit, that before he eats a muffin top (mind you that's the only part he'll eat) he will first kiss the muffin and then lick the muffin.  I think part of this ritual is a throwback to when he was unsure of whether or not he would like the way something tasted and now the habit is engrained and manifests as the kiss followed by a lick.  Also, for reasons that are unclear to me, Philip insists on changing his underwear before he goes to bed.  Charlotte also has her own little nuances.  She loves to sit in front of heating vents.  She will eat an apple all the way down to the seeds.  She will gnaw the apple all the way down to the individual seeds and then sadly leave the remnants usually near a heating vent.

It's been a busy holiday season.  We went to Tim's house for the traditional family Christmas party, which was fabulous as usual.  We also went to this amazing holiday light show in the parking lot of Great America with Tim, Lars and Lauren.  A company from China created a set of light sculptures, some huge, representing many of the famous landmarks around the world.  You can see a few pictures of it in the photos section.

Over the holiday we also took a few days to go down to Monterey.  I had the idea of going whale watching since Philip has been asking about going on a boat repeatedly and it happens that during the winter there is a large migration of grey whales along the California coast.  In theory it was a good idea.  Unfortunately, the reality was a little bit of a disaster.  I get pretty seasick, but the kids and Teresa are usually fine.  I prepare for this by premedicating myself prior to any trips on boats, but like I said, the kids and Teresa are usually fine.  That day, however, the seas were not kind.  Besides being bitterly cold, the seas were quite rough.  There were probably ten to twelve foot swells, meaning that while I was standing on the deck of the boat, I would sometimes be looking up to see the top of the next wave.  Anyhow, both kids and Teresa got seasick.  Philip even threw up twice.  The most heartbreaking part of the trip for me was when Philip came to me and said 'Daddy, can we never ever do this again?'.  At least we saw three whales.

School is back in session, which means all the kids activities are back.  Charlotte's dance school will be performing dances around the theme of Sleeping Beauty.  Charlotte's class apparently will be dancing bluebirds.  She continues in her drama class, where apparently she will be playing a horse.  Last time she was a cat.  She obviously has some aversion to speaking, although not at home.  Philip is back in T-ball, where he continues to improve.  He can sometimes get a glove on a ball that you throw to him, but again batting is where he shines.  He is a good contact hitter which I hope will translate into a big contract in the future.

It was also Philip's fifth birthday on January 2nd.  We had a quiet celebration at home.  Teresa baked him a cake with a boat on it.  Go figure.  I bought Philip his first Nerf gun for his birthday.  I guess I couldn't help myself, since I really wanted those kinds of toys when I was young.  He's really interested in 'Angry Birds' so I thought he might like to shoot things in real life.  I was right.  Teresa, however, is not amused.  We are restricted to playing with it in Philip's room.

15 photos added to Photos 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Happy Turkey Day to everyone!  We're headed down to my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tao's house to spend Thanksgiving again this year.  Perhaps we'll get to play more virtual bowling or table tennis.  I can't wait!

The last few months have been pretty uneventful.  The kids continue to do well.  Philip started playing T-ball.  He initially was very shy about it, so shy in fact that the entire first session he wouldn't even play.  The subsequent session Charlotte had to be next to him the whole time, but by the third time, he was comfortable enough to participate all by himself.  Last week, they even had an outdoor 'game' and impressively Philip hit the ball that the coach pitched to him.  That surprised me, even though I know that he can do it. 

We've also registered Philip to start kindergarten next year.  He'll almost certainly go to the same school as Charlotte, although with the crazy San Francisco schooling policy, you never know for sure.  He's doing well with his reading and math, I really think that the tutoring has helped him a lot, as has doing a workbook at home on a daily basis.

He's also having a lot fewer meltdowns during the day.  At least that's what Teresa tells me.  Hopefully, he have some reasonable self control by the time he starts school next fall. 

Charlotte starting taking some rudimentary guitar lessons after school on Fridays.  She's learning some chords and some of the basics of reading music, rhythm, and such.  I have a hard time getting her to practice though.  I guess I can't really complain, I was much the same when I was her age.

She is also in an afterschool drama class.  They're doing a modified version of Hamlet.  I'm kind of surprised by that since, as I recall, Hamlet is a pretty violent play.  Anyhow, Charlotte is playing a cat, so I guess I don't have to worry too much.

In the past two months we've done a few interesting things.  The first is that we went to a football game.  Cal is playing out of AT&T Park while Memorial Stadium in Berkeley is being renovated.  The game was only so-so, but the funniest thing in my opinion about the experience was PJ's infatuation with the cheerleaders.  We got to the stadium a little early and we were lucky enough to see the Cal Band march in.  Accompanying the band, were the cheerleaders of course.  They did a little performance outside before they all marched into the stadium.  Then, throughout the whole game, Philip was asking me 'where are the cheerleaders?'.

We also saw the Blue Angels as we do every year, but this time we also watched the parade of ships from Crissy Field. 

Halloween was pretty chaotic again this year.  We went down to Belvedere again.  It's a lot of fun to see the houses and the effort that people put into decorating, but it is really crowded.  Philip dressed up in a mechanic costume from the Cars movie, while Charlotte reprised her role as Jasmine using her costume from last years dance performance.

Then last week we went to the San Francisco International Car Show.  That was fun for me because I got to drive the Nissan Leaf.  It's unbelievably quiet.  The kids got to climb around in all sorts of cars, from Mini-Coopers to giant Escalades. 

I think that's it.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

12 photos added to Pictures 2011.

Back to School

It's that time again, back to school.  Charlotte has been back in school for almost a month now.  She is slowly adjusting to not having her best friend around anymore.  Fortunately, she's a fairly outgoing person and makes friends pretty easily so I'm not really worried at all.  This year's teacher goes on a lot of field trips and the class has already made one to see a preview of the Children's Film Festival.  Teresa was actually a chaparone on that trip and brought Philip along.  Apparently the kids sat through most of the movies without a problem.  They might eventually be able to watch a real movie in the theatre one day.

Charlotte is also back in dance class, this time on Tuesday afternoons with teacher Tammy.  She'll also start her afterschool drama class next week. 

Meanwhile we're trying to sign Philip up for T-ball.  He's taken a real interest in the sport since my mother bought him a real tee.  He's actually got a decent swing and some pretty good hand-eye coordination for his age.  I'm excited to see what an organized sport will do for both his self-esteem and self-control.

I can't really believe the summer is over.  We had a great time at my cousin Tim's Labor Day barbecue.  We also spent quite a bit of time at Great America as you can see in the photos.  We even went there with Tim and Lauren once.

Also, Teresa's mother came for a visit.  We got to hang out at a block party near Aunty Zeene's house and then went out to Coyote Point for a picnic.

Another important milestone was reached this summer.  Charlotte can ride a bike.  That's one more major parenting duty that I can cross off my list.  She still has a little trouble getting started, but once she's going, she can ride indefinitely.  I think with a little more practice, she'll be fine.  I also think PJ is pretty close to riding his bike as well, except he definitely needs a bigger bike.  The kids both are swimming well, so well in fact that we've decided to stop swimming lessons and swap them for music classes.  Hopefully those will start soon.

12 photos added to Pictures 2011.

Summer Fun

It's hard to believe that summer is half over.  School starts again in a few short weeks and it seems that we've only been to Great America three times.  Looking back, we've had a good time and we're looking forward to making more great memories. 

Last month we went to Point Reyes up the coast on highway 1.  The kids actually did a lot of hiking.  We saw some wild elk and stood on the San Andreas Fault.  We also went to a Pirate Festival up in Vallejo.  It was sort of a pirate equivalent of a Renaissance fair.  PJ loved it.  Best of all, we got to spend a lot of time with our little cousins.  We hung out with Tyler and Kaila at the air museum where the kids got to fly a flight simulator and watch planes take off and land up close.  Finally, two weekends ago we had what I think was one of the most magnificent days of the summer.  We went out to Lake Chabot with Marie and her family.  It was a gorgeous day.  We rented a patio boat and sailed out on the lake.  The kids even got to drive the boat.  It was really beautiful to see the kids having a great time together.

Meanwhile, the big news of perhaps the whole year is that Philip is effectively totally toilet trained.  After months, more like years of frustration, he was potty-trained within one week.  Teresa finally decided to use the strategy of letting him run around the house naked.  Although there were a few minor accidents, he quickly got the hang of it and now has had absolutely no problems.  He's even dry at night, something that Charlotte still has problems with.

The kids are making definite progress with swimming.  Charlotte can probably swim twenty or thirty yards and perhaps even more if she were more motivated.  Philip probably could swim a half pool length if he could stop fooling around long enough to do so.  The math and language lessons are going well.  Philip has seen the most benefit from them, I think partially because he needs the routine.  We have the kids do workbooks daily at home, but that's usually more of an exercise in frustration.  However, for some reason, while they're at tutoring, they tend to concentrate.

The kids have also been participating in a library summer reading program.  Charlotte and Philip are trying to reach a goal of reading for ten hours this month.  Charlotte has already exceeded that goal, although she not very rigorous about keeping track of the time she spends reading.

So far it's been a blast and we're looking forward to an equally great second half of the summer. 

30 photos added to Pictures 2011.

Education

So this past week was the last week of school for Charlotte.  She did well by the schools standards, but I'm a little concerned that those standards may be pretty low.  As a consequence -or perhaps as a consequence of the fact that I'm a Tiger Dad- we've signed both Charlotte and Philip up for tutoring at this Chinese school in the city.  They both go twice per week for an hour a day where they learn more of the basics such as math.  I've already seen some improvement in both kids.  Philip can recognize numbers and can tell time, whereas Charlotte recognizes the concept of fractions.  Hopefully after a year they may be at the average level for kids in Singapore, for example.

The other big change that's happening this summer is that Charlotte's best friend from school is moving.  The two of them are virtually inseparable at school.  We'll have to see how she handles it.  Her friends parents are encouraging us to set up an email account for Charlotte so that the two of them can continue to be electronic 'penpals' at least. 

I'm hoping to get Philip interested in a sport such as baseball or tennis.  He has pretty good hand-eye coordination and a lot of excess energy.  He enjoys swimming and is actually getting quite good at it.  But I think that he needs a more structured physical activity.

Finally, this past weekend we went to Great America.  We took the kids on a pseudo-roller coaster.  Sort of a step between the kiddy rollercoasters that are fairly tame and medium sized rollercoasters.  Charlotte loved it, surprisingly.  Philip was a little shocked but he also seemed to enjoy it.  I'm surprised because Philip is actually the fearless one, whereas Charlotte is scared of her own shadow. 

5 photos added to Pictures 2011.

Happy New Year of Birthdays

Happy Lunar New Year! Sort of.  It happened in February, but we're blogging about it now.  Every one was invited to Aunt Cathy's house for a pot luck dinner.  Everyone was there, including Jeff and Eric, who we never get to see as they live in L.A.  We bought home made white turnip cake (low bo gao), and had quite a feast.  Every one really enjoyed playing with Aunt Cathy's Kinect - the kids bowled and danced, while Ling and Eric worked to beat the Xbox at ping pong.

Charlotte had lots to celebrate in March.  First, lots of teeth fell out.  She looked like a jack o'lantern.  Thankfully, they're starting to come back in.  We'll see if her underbite has corrected itself, or if she'll need braces.  It was also her birthday on the 16th.  She got to invite her two best friends over for some lunch and crafts.  The girls had a blast, especially with the make-up samples that Michelle, Chessie's mom had included in her gift.  Charlotte invited us to her classroom for Portfolio night where she showed us what she had been working on at school so far.  There was a lot of work, although we are still concerned that she isn't being challenged enough.  We have bought several workbooks to enhance her school work, and she's been reading a fairly advanced chapter book series.  I know it's advanced becuase she'll stop and ask me to define a word for her, which normally doesn't happen.

Finally, we spent some time at Nai Nai's for spring break.  It was a nice staycation.  The kids rode their bikes, and may be on the verge of actually learning how to ride without training wheels.  Afterwards, we spent the weekend at Tilden Park in Berkeley.  They have a fram where you can feed the animals celery or lettuce, two model railways that actually hold passengers and an old fashioned carousel.  The kids enjoyed the day, even though Philip got a little too up close and personal with a cow looking for more treats.  We made sure to really wash his face before we left.  We ended up having lunch at the Claremont Diner in Berkeley, where they have a model train that runs around the ceiling.  It was quite a trainy day, much to Philip's delight.

11 Photos added to Photos 2011.

Seeing is Believing

There was a lot of activity of the holidays.  Over New Years, we went down to Monterey for four days.  We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium of course, but we also took a little side trip to a place called Pinnacles National Monument for some hiking.  There was a short hike, about two and a half miles total, that the kids did great with.  I was pretty pleased that I didn't have to carry PJ during the hike at all.  The scenery was spectacular, and because it was over New Years, there were hardly any other people in the entire park.

Coming back home has been a difficult adjustment.  The kids were used to getting up later during the vacation and getting them back on schedule has been difficult.  For the time being, we're keeping PJ at home and trying to let him work out whatever has been frustrating him the past few months.  It seems to be working.  Today, Teresa took him to the park and he actually told her that he needed to use the potty.  Then when he sat down he didn't go.  As soon as he got up, he pooped in his diaper, as usual.  However, the difference this time was that he then said he hadn't finished pooping in his diaper and sat down on the toilet to finish.  So in the end he actually used the toilet!

Of course, January 2nd was PJ's fourth birthday.  He's getting to be a big boy.  I think he's making real progress in terms of reading and writing, mostly thanks to Teresa teaching him at home.  He's very much into sharks these days.  He's got shark books, shark toys, and now he wants shark sheets for the new big boy bed we're going to get him.

We've also started to have these family meeting as part of a suggestion we got from the pediatrician as to how to control PJ's behavior.  We sit down every Sunday and talk about rules, issues that are going on in the family, and other big things like vacations or pets.  Which reminds me, our fish unfortunately did not make it through our vacation.  I suspect things got too cold in the house while we were away.  We'll now we're discussing getting another pet in our meeting.  We're also discussing signing PJ up for tennis which he is suddenly very interested in.  Charlotte wants to learn to play the keyboard and Philip wants to learn to play the guitar.  We also learned that Charlotte was hiding uneaten sandwiches in the car next to her carseat.  So these meetings have been very enlightening. 

Charlotte, by the way, has gotten her new glasses.  She looks very studious with them.  The other kids in school have all been very kind.  Her best friend has even been asking for glasses of her own just like Charlotte's.

Charlotte also had her mid-winter dance recital which was cute as always.  The theme for this years big dance recital is going to be a trip around the world.  Charlotte's class apparently will be France.

Well, Happy New Year everyone!

30 photos added to Photos 2011.

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays everyone!  Another year flew by.  Each year seems to go by faster than the last.  Again, we had the pleasure of spending the holidays with the family at Tim's house.  It's always a great feast with Lars cooking.  As the kids get older they are playing together more.  Even PJ is getting in on the fun, although that may not last as he becomes less interested in playing 'princess'.

A few things have been happening otherwise.  First is that Charlotte needs glasses.  The school picked up her vision problem on a screening test.  We took her to our eye doctor who confirmed that she's about 20/40 in the left eye.  We picked out a few frames from a catalog and will be going back next week to try them on.  So far, she seems excited about wearing the glasses, although I don't know how long that will last.  She has a couple of friends who wear glasses, but none in her own class.  Overall, it's not a surprise that she needs glasses since both Teresa and I are essentially blind without them.

Meanwhile, PJ is getting in a lot of trouble at school.  He's at a stage where he's saying that he's going to punch and kick you all the time.  The problem is that when he gets upset, he'll actually start to do it.  He's now getting to the point where the teachers at school are having trouble controlling his outbursts.  We took him to the pediatrician who thought this was still normal for his age.  She gave us a few good ideas of how to deal with his behavioral issues including two great books.  One of those books, has helped me re-frame his problem into a positive light.  A lot of traits of so-called spirited kids are actually very positive adult traits, it's just that they don't have the mental maturity to put it to productive use.  For example, whereas we say that PJ is stubborn now, that translates into persistence as an adult. 

Also reading some other new books on child development have made me realize that our kids are not doing too bad.  They get along pretty well, and apparently the important part is that they are able to play together which apparently predicts that they will also get along as adults.

Well happy holidays again and a happy new year to you all.

Moving Forward

Wow, that month went by fast.  We started off October with our niece, Amelia's batmitzvah.  It's incredible to think that she's grown into a young woman already.  However, looking at the photos of my own kids, I can see that the same thing is happening.  PJ is slowly moving out of his extended terrible two phase as he nears his fourth birthday.  Although I often still get very frustrated by him, I have to remember that at least he's not pooping in the bathtub anymore.  Actually, in many ways he's probably ahead of Charlotte when she was his age.  For example, this weekend he rode his bike -with training wheels- about a mile to the library near my parents house.  He's also getting pretty good at swimming.  As long as he remembers to hold his breath, he's alright.  In fact, he's able to backfloat and even swim a little on his back. 

As for Charlotte, as you can see, she's growing into a beatiful little girl.  She's got a really quirky sense of humor which I blame on myself.  She's got a great imagination and can talk endlessly if you don't interrupt her.  I was thinking in the car today, she could be a great radio personality.  This month during our parent-teacher conference, her first grade teacher gave her high praise.  Charlotte did so well on the tests given to the first graders that in the spring the teachers going to give her the second grader's test in order to gauge her progress.

Anyhow, this Halloween the kids went as generic superheroes.  Teresa again made their costumes for the most part.  We went with two of Charlotte's friends, Chessie and Josie, to the big Halloween block party, not far from our house.  It was a sugar-coated bonanza, a chocalate-covered conveyor belt of madness. There was barely enough room to walk.  The people did an amazing job decorating their homes and there was an incredible assortment of costumes.

 

3 photos added to Pictures 2010.