Category Archives: Julia

Christmas 2009 Video

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It’s taken a bit of fiddling with some uncooperative software, but we’ve posted the video we shot during our Christmas trip to Nebraska last month. You can find it here.

We have actually posted two versions of the movie. The first, which you’ll see if you visit the page using Firefox, Safari or Chrome, is a smaller, lower-quality representation that is sized for viewing over the Internet: just click the link above, and the video will play. Well, it should play.

The second version is a high-resolution copy that you can download and play full-screen or burn to a DVD. To get this version, click the link that says “Download the high-resolution version.” Note that this is a very large file that may take some time to download.

More Retro Goodies

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As we move into 2010, one of our resolutions is to avoid falling two years behind in posting pictures. To that end, we present tonight two troves of photographic treasure.

The first is a small collection of pictures of Joe’s introduction to his big boy bed, which, unbeknownst to him, is just his old crib with the drop side removed. Because it’s a crib and not an actual bed, it was too high for him to climb into for the first six months or so. To give him a leg up, we moved one of the sofa cushions from the living room to the floor of the kids’ bedroom. This didn’t do much for the ambiance of either room, much to Julie’s aggravation, but it did serve to assuage my paranoid fears about Joe falling out of bed and ending up with brain damage.

The second album contains a larger group of photos from the same timeframe, during which Grandma and Grandpa Wong were here for a visit. As an added bonus, it contains a short video clip of Joe performing a patently unsafe stunt.

Christmas 2009

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We’re back from a weeklong trip to Nebraska for Christmas during which we somehow managed to avoid being killed, arrested or frozen until spring. You can find the pictures here.

Things started out on slightly shaky ground when I had minor surgery four days before we were scheduled to leave. There wasn’t any real health risk associated with travel—other than the fact that I wasn’t supposed to lift anything heavier than ten pounds. Needless to say, this made navigating the check-in process more interesting and fun for Julie.

Just to make things more interesting, I somehow managed to shave off one of the knots holding my stitches in place the morning we left town, which left open the possibility that my wound might reopen, and my head simply roll off my neck at some point during the flight. That was the image I had running through my mind throughout the day, at least.

Nobody flies directly from San Jose to Omaha, so we had a convenient, two-hour stopover in Denver. This was perfectly fine in theory: it gave us plenty of time to get from one gate to the next and to grab some dinner, since our flight was scheduled to arrive in Nebraska sometime after 10:30 that evening. Unfortunately, United had something altogether different in mind, and our outgoing flight was delayed. Not just delayed, but delayed a full four and a half hours, until 11:40 Mountain Time. Now, instead of a convenient two-hour break to stretch our legs and have a relaxed (if preposterously expensive) dinner, we had six and a half hours to kill.

Now, a six or seven-hour delay really doesn’t seem that bad in the grand scheme of things. In fact, at that very moment, my friend Steve was in the middle of a two-day delay in New York with his mother, during which he had to make his own arrangements for lodging and travel to and from the airport. So a few extra hours in Denver wouldn’t be so bad, except for two child-sized factors.

As it turns out, though, we underestimated the kids. All things considered, they behaved extremely well while we waited for our departure, though there were a few times I thought security was going to drag us off to the bowels of the airport for spending too much time doing laps on the moving walkways. Fortunately, we were at the far end of the terminal, and there weren’t too many people for us to disturb.

Incidentally, Denver International Airport has the worst WiFi network in the history of the known universe. I know it’s churlish to complain about Internet access that is, after all, free, but still: worst ever.

We finally arrived in Omaha around 2:30 the next morning, and thanks to Julie’s brother Bill, we made it up to Madison by 5:00 and settled in for a nice, relaxing visit. In fact, things ended up being even more relaxing than we’d planned, as the region was knocked for a loop by a combination of snow, wind and cold that left us virtual shut-ins for the second half of the trip. Roads were closed throughout the state due to drifting snow, so we didn’t even make it down to Julie’s brother Dave’s house, and Julia was extremely disappointed that she didn’t get a chance to see her only cousins in the world.

The one other piece of news worth noting is that I think it’s safe to say that Julia is officially reading. She was already doing a pretty good job of sounding out words and parsing sentences when my parents were here for Thanksgiving last month. Now, she’s pretty much reading whole books—when motivated—on her own, and she’s picked up the trick of reading random roadside signs aloud when we tool around town in the car. Obviously, this is just one step in her development, but it’s a pretty nifty one.

Easter 2008

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Yes, you read that right: we’re posting 18-month-old pictures. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. Highlights include: one measly shot of Joe at his school egg hunt; pictures of Julia and her friends at her class party (careful observers will note that she was then in the same class that Joe is in now); shots of Easter morning at home; and, finally, photos from a party at Julia’s friend Molly’s house.

Coming soon: a first glimpse of Joe’s birth!

Boo! Halloween 2009

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In an heretofore unseen display of efficiency, we’re posting pictures from an event—in this case, Halloween—within twenty-four hours of the event itself. How’s that for timeliness? Of course, we’re conveniently ignoring the fact that we’ve got a full year’s worth of stuff to edit and post, but let’s not let that minor consideration take away from this accomplishment.

The day was hectic from the start. Julia had a soccer game at noon, and for once, she was really into the game. I keep hearing, from Julie and others, that she does great at practice, chasing the ball and getting into the mix. At games, however, it’s been another story: she’s been distracted and reserved, as if she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do.

The distraction thing seems to come with the age. All it takes is a barking dog, a passing ice cream truck, a police officer or a particularly interesting cloud, and Julia (along with several other kids on the team) will lose all interest in what’s happening on the field.

Her hesitancy to jump wholeheartedly into the game is another matter, though. We know she likes the physical act of playing soccer, so that’s not it. I think the issue may be that she doesn’t know exactly what she’s supposed to do in game situations, and she’s worried about doing the wrong thing. In practice, she has her coaches right there explaining what’s happening in a given routine or drill, but the games are chaotic and confusing by comparison. On some level, I think she just freezes up a bit when confronted with a situation in which she doesn’t know precisely what her role is.

In fact, it’s my theory that this is why she used to sometimes have problems being dropped off at preschool. She seemed to do a lot better when we got there during structured classroom activities than when the kids were doing free play outside. On the other hand, Julie’s theory is that Julia only acted that way because she knew could get away with it with me. I like my theory better.

In any event, Julia played well yesterday, chasing the ball up and down the field and generally getting involved. Her favorite part of the game is being goalie, which is a little mind-boggling to me, but at this age the kids aren’t kicking hard enough that losing teeth and limbs is a particular concern. All the kids seem to want to tend goal; I think the fact that the goalie can use his hands and the other players can’t just makes them feel special.

After the game, we headed out to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin. We’ve been to the same place a number of times over the years, because it has a little train for the kids to ride. Joe, as you probably know, loves trains. The setup also includes a mock geyser that forcefully sprays cool mist at intervals as the train makes its way around the track. As it turns out, Joe does not love geysers, at least not fake ones that loudly “blast,” to use his phrasing, as he is trying to enjoy a peaceful train ride.

As we left, he confided that he didn’t ever want to go back to that particular pumpkin patch, because, he said, “The geyser keeps blasting.” And when we arrived home a good twenty minutes later, he commented with relief, “I can’t hear the geyser anymore.”

After lunch and a nap, we finally got started on carving the pumpkin, as you can see in the pictures. Naturally, the kids had picked one with no ideal place to put a face and that wouldn’t stand upright without being braced, but it turned out nicely in the end.

Finally, at about 6:30, we headed out to trick-or-treat. Julie wasn’t feeling well, so I had the privilege of taking the kids around the neighborhood while Julie stayed home to hand out candy. This was a first for me, so it was a bit of a treat. People kept telling Joe that he was a cute dragon, which only seemed fair considering that’s what the costume packaging actually said, but Julia sternly corrected them each time: “No, he’s a pterodactyl. See, he has wings.”

Joe held up well: he made it up and down our street and down a side street and back, but at that point, he was pretty much done. Julia was still going strong, so Julie took her out for a trip around the other side of the block. I can only imagine that this was a preview of future Halloweens, with marathon, three-hour trick-or-treating sessions and heated arguments about how far afield she’s allowed to wander. By the end of the evening, they had amassed an impressive quantity of candy, the vast majority of which I’ll probably end up eating myself over the next couple weeks.

At 9:45—quite possibly the latest we’ve ever intentionally kept the kids up—everyone was tucked in and ready for bed. Julia was asleep within a couple minutes, but Joe fiddled around for a good long while, as usual. After maybe a quarter hour or so of lying there in the dark, he clambered out of bed, walked over to the rocking chair where I was sitting, and whispered, “Daddy, I’m afraid of the geyser.”

Update, 7/10/2011: Joe is still afraid of the geyser. We haven’t been back to that pumpkin patch since.

Milk Cakes

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The kids have figured out that they can wander the house on Saturday mornings without worrying about being eaten by a grue (as long as it’s light outside). Generally speaking, this is all right: it lets me catch a few extra minutes of sleep, and there’s only so much trouble they can get into in the house.

A couple of weeks ago, however, I thought they might have actually done themselves some harm. I could hear them scurrying around and whispering among themselves, and then I heard them make a quick dash back to their room and close the door. Figuring that wasn’t a good sign, I hauled myself out of bed, lumbered down the hall and opened the door. Julia was quick and/or aware enough to jump into bed and under the covers. Joe was caught in the middle of the room staring at me like a deer in headlights. His lips were ringed with some sort of sticky white substance.

At first, I thought they might have gotten into the dishwasher detergent, drunk the toilet bowl cleaner, or swallowed lithium batteries. But then I noticed a sweet, pastry scent that hung in the air. And then I remembered the box of powdered mini-donuts that Julie had brought home earlier in the week.

Relieved of the worry that they might have burned through their esophagi with lye, I settled in for an always-fun child-rearing activity: performing an interrogation when the information ostensibly being sought is known a priori.

Julia hung tough for a few minutes. She stayed under the blanket, where she didn’t have to look me in the eyes. Joe, on the other hand, had nowhere to turn. After just two stern queries about what they had been doing and a colorful allusion to the terrible fate that might befall him had he consumed something poisonous the wrong thing, he finally blurted out, “Daddy, we just ate milk cakes.”

Somehow, I managed to avoid cracking up right then and there.

Julia is Five

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This post is only about two months late, but it roughly corresponds which Julia’s five-year checkup, which was just a couple weeks ago. According the doctor, she’s now three feet, seven inches all—they measure in feet and inches now, instead of just inches, which is a little bittersweet—and weighs thirty-nine pounds.

Julia’s also about two months into her kindergarten career, and she’s loving it, though I think she enjoys the after-school care run by the YMCA as much, if not more so, than school itself. She likes her teacher, Mrs. Romero, tremendously, but it’s not entirely clear what Mrs. Romero thinks of Julia.

The class uses an interesting disciplinary system. There are green, yellow and red apples posted on a bulletin board, along with the kids’ names. Every day, each child starts out on the green apple. Kids who are well-behaved stay on the green apple; kids who need to be reminded to listen or follow the rules move down to the yellow apple, though they can move back up to green if they pay particular attention to being good. Kids who don’t heed warnings or commit gross violations of the rules end up on the red apple for the day. At the end of the week, Mrs. Romero sends home a green, red or yellow certificate summarizing each child’s performance during the week.

Things started out well enough for Julia, and she was on green for the first month or so. But then things took a decided turn for the worse: she brought home red certificates for two consecutive weeks and a yellow certificate last week, which would seem to imply that she’s spent a fair amount of time on the red apple. Worse, for a while there, she was actually telling us that she was on the green apple every evening, so either there’s been a terrible case of mistaken identity or our darling daughter as learned to be a bit flexible with respect to the truth. We’re not quite sure exactly what happened on each occasion, but we’re told that spitting was involved at least once.

On the plus side, yellow is a step up from red, so at least we’re on an upward trajectory.

Obligatory Joe note: he’s now more or less completely potty trained, and we finally put away (well, hid in the shower) his potty chair last weekend. Naturally, he rewarded us by having two accidents yesterday morning.

Updates Pending

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So much for the momentum we were trying to build with that last post. Suffice it to say that it’s been a long summer that’s gone by very quickly.

Julia starts kindergarten in a little less than two weeks. There, I said it. But I don’t have to like it. Since the end of Junior K, she’s been having a grand old time at summer camp at the Y. So much so that I’m a little worried that she’s going to be upset when school starts again; she shouldn’t start feeling that way until at least third grade, right?

She’s going to be attending Booksin Elementary in the San Jose Unified School District, which is a little bit scary: apparently, we picked the worst possible year to have a child entering the public school system, as the state of California’s budget is an all-out train wreck and, thanks to the wonders of California politics, the state’s financial woes directly impact local school systems (where by “impact” I mean “bend, fold and mutilate”). The net result is that kindergarten class sizes have increased to around 30 across the district.

We gave some thought to keeping Julia at Primary Plus for another year or moving her to another private school, but Booksin had been very well regarded—at least before the news of the budget cuts hit. We’ll just have to see how things shake out.

Meanwhile, Joe continues his merry amble through preschool. We think he’s starting to get anxious in the particular classroom he’s in, because most of his friends have already moved up to the next room. Unfortunately, the powers-that-be have determined that Joe’s potty training isn’t quite up to snuff yet, and on some days, it’s pretty hard to argue with them. That said, he’s started to approach us about using the potty just before (or sometimes just after) he needs to, so it appears that we’re finally making progress on that front. Theoretically, he should be moving up to Room C at the end of the month.

Student of the Month: The Still Pictures

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After yet another long interlude between updates, here at last are the actual photos from Julia’s Student of the Month assembly back in February. I wish I could say that I’ve spent the intervening months editing and tuning these pictures to pixel-perfect quality, but that would be a lie. Rather, work, family activities, work, the yard and work happened.

The good news is that this means that we have a nice backlog of pictures to post. The bad news is that our track record on that front doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.