I was helping Allison finishing up her bathroom “duties”, when Allison stepped on the stool in front of the sink and looked at herself. Then she grinned and said:

“Hello gorgeous!”
Then she bursts out laughing…

That girl is too much!!!

I received news that my last-surviving grandparent passed away yesterday. She was 95.

I haven’t seen her in the last 30 years. My last memory of her was when she took my sister & I out to the market to sell a basket of fruits that she harvested from her orchard one day; my parents had sent us to stay with my grandparents on their farm during the final days of the war. It was dangerous and chaotic time when the communists were launching the offensives that eventually overtook southern Vietnam.

When I was little, our family usually celebrated the new year by visiting my grandparents for a few days. It was always a treat to visit a small village and stay on a farm for a city boy like me. My grandparents’ place is by a river and has all sorts of fruit trees and farm animals. The best thing was eating all the home-grown fruits. Jack fruits being my favorite. I loved wandering among the trees and sometime I’d work up the guts and go all the way to end of their orchard and check out the people working in the adjacent rice paddies. I never stayed there too long for fear of getting lost– the place seemed huge to me.

Each new year, my grandmother would bake up all sorts of bake goods for the celebration. I do remember fondly of her ginger cookies. She was constantly busy. I’d jump at the opportunity of helping her feeding the chickens and the pigs. I remember one time, she chopped down this young banana tree and sliced up the entire tree and cook it as part of porridge for the pigs. She’d sometimes reward me with a fresh egg. She’d drop it into a glass of hot water and voila, hard-boiled egg.

My grandmother was a small and skinny woman. She was surprisingly resilient though– remaining strong even in her later years, my Dad told me. She stayed all her life in the same village: born and died there. The hard life she lived showed through on her rough hands and hardened face.

I regret that my daughters never got a chance to meet any of their great-grandparents when they were alive. I guess they’ll have to learn about their great-grandmother through the stories I will be telling them.

Goodbye Grandma…

I use Flickr for sharing my photographs. While I like the social aspects of it a lot, I always find the page rendering to be too minimal for sharing (after all these are pictures not search results).

Shutterfly is a “personal expression” site and is one of few sites that store photos in full resolution, with no storage limits. Your photos are guaranteed never to be deleted. All free of course. Check out the photo books, they’re pretty awesome!

This isn’t meant to be a shameless plug. But Shutterfly is beta-testing a new photo share service. It’s very cool and super easy to design pages and render photos. Since I started to upload pictures on a monthly basis mainly for online storage, now I can effortlessly share them and make prints all in one place. I’ll use Shutterfly for family photographs but I’ll definitely continue to use Flickr for my other type of photography.

Anyway, check out Our Lives In Pixels of regular updates of our family pictures…

Allison is known to be the drama princess in the house. Here’s proof from yesterday when the sisters got into a small arguments:

Katelyn: “Stop that …”
Allison: “You stop it, Je Je (big sis)”
Katelyn: “I said stop it, Allison!”
Allison: “No…”
Katelyn: “Keep your balloon over your side…”
silence… then Allison: “Je Je… you broke my heart!”

We were driving home from L.A. yesterday when Katelyn & her mommy had this little memorable exchange…

Katelyn: “Mommy?”
Suzanne: “Yes baby?”
K: “I love you forever!”
S melts: “Oh… I love you too, sweetie”
K: “I don’t know how to love you any more!”
S: “ohhh Katelyn, I hope so…”
K: “…and I don’t think I can say anything sweeter, Mommy!”

We kept it pretty simple this past Mother’s Day. The girls dressed up and posed for some pictures with their mother before heading to a BBQ with our relatives.

On the previous post, I had neglected to mentioned that the museum @ Legion of Honors also featured a traveling exhibit from Isreal called “Highlights from the Israel Antiquities Authority“. It includes a display of one authentic Dead Sea scroll! Never thought I’d ever see it, never thought the scrolls would ever leave Isreal’s antiquities. Awesome!!! Go check it out, it’s a rare chance shouldn’t be missed if you’re in the bay area…

A Saturday few weeks ago, Suzanne & I ditched the kids and spend a day in the city. For lunch, I brought Suzanne to Ti Couz for some French crepes. It was okay, wasn’t as good as I remember. It was probably at least 10 years since I last dined there. I just remember I had the best sangria there then.

We then headed to The Legion of Honor Musuem for the rest of the afternoon to catch the Annie Leiborvitz 1990-2005 exhibit. For those who aren’t familiar with her work, Leibovitz is well-known for her gritty and provactive portraiture of pop icons like Bob Dylan, Demi Moore, Mick Jagger etc…

The exhibit was excellent but was a bit over-crowded. Worst was the fact photography was strictly prohibited.

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather this past weekend, we took the kids & their cousin to a local park for a “bear picnic.” They each grabbed their favorite teddy bears and we spent the afternoon eating, flying kite, taking pictures, biking, reading and playing. I can’t remember the last time I got to nap in a breezy afternoon in the park like that…

Suzanne & I ditched the kids & spent Saturday evening dining with a few old friends of ours at Ana Mandara in SF. I learned later that it was Loanne & Wayne’s 10th anniversary– they flew up to the Bay Area for the weekend. Congrats to them. How time flies…

It’d been awhile since Suzanne & I had a fine dinner with the company of only adults. Fine wine, yummy food, good conversations, old friends… ingredients for the making of a memorable time. Thanks everybody for making it was most enjoyable evening!

I was watching TV the other evening and began falling asleep on the couch. Footsteps woke me up and I discovered Katelyn unfolding a blanket and trying to put a blanket on me. She gently put the blanket over me and made sure my toes were covered. Then she quietly left for her bedroom.

I still haven’t talked to my precious girl about it yet…

Few that know me a long time understand that I’m an night owl. Actually, I’ve become an insomniac!

My bad sleeping habits seem to stay with me after those initially stressful nights as a new dad when my girls were born. But I think it’s combination of things. My late-night gaming habits at the time probably didn’t help. Both of my parents are also insomniacs to various degree, my mother being the worst. Her nights are rarely restful. But my grandfather is well known for his insomnia. I remember from my visits, he would get up in the middle of a sleepless night and play his erhu (a traditional Chinese fiddle). And sometime he would even sing. Needless to say he regularly disturbs the entire village nightly. But I think his sleepless nights were caused by his choice of drink: tea. I don’t remember him drinking water, there’s always tea brewing in one of those tiny traditional tea pot by his side. And I remember the tea was darn bitter and strong.

But I’m not suggesting insomnia is necessarily genetic though…

I actually don’t have problem falling asleep; staying asleep is the problem. I’d find myself awaken during the night with total alertness– my mind would be racing 100 miles an hour. Sometime I would get up and immediately find my brain immediately processing some information, sometime complete with a context. My brain obviously is working while I was asleep. Sometime the processed information are present and pertinent, sometime random and senseless. And this would happen several times a night. There seems to be a constant alertness about me.

Staying in bed to force myself back to sleep is usually futile. I’d get out of bed and spend the next 2 hours in front of a computer or TV. Often, I’d stay up until the morning. My system would go with 3 or 4 hours of sleep per night some time weeks-long before crashing in total exhaustion.

My wife claims that I’m a very “light sleeper”; the slightest sound of a flick of a light switch, turn of a page, a fluff of a blanket would disturb my sleep. And my kids learned this too, whenever they come in the middle night to ask for something or to snuggle in with mom & dad, they always come to my side of the bed since their footsteps would’ve awoken me already.

On the other hand, I don’t experience the telling sign for insomniacs: daytime sleepiness. I’m always alert and totally functional during the day time. I’m a one-latte-a-day type of guy, so my system isn’t compensating by loading on caffeine. Sleeplessness is accommodated somehow so in general I’m not distressed.

When I crash though, my system would be out completely. I don’t compensate by a longer night of sleep. I’d still get up early in the morning, but my system would be out completely. It’s one of nights when I get a complete and full sleep. Another way I compensate is a catnap on the weekend. 10 or 15 minutes in the afternoon and I would be fresh– power naps from my college days I guess…

So all this make a full night of rest rare for me. It’s a vicious cycle: series of nights with limited sleep, followed by a night of crash. It’s definitely not healthy. This past winter I got really sick. The stress from a new job didn’t help. But the insomniac nights almost did me in. I was bed-ridden and close to getting pneumonia according to my doctor. I was on all kind of antibiotics and took me over month to recover!

So a few weeks ago, I decided to get help and went to see a specialist. I spend a night getting strapped in at a sleeping disorder clinic. I’ll write about that experience sometime in future.

This Saturday was a beautiful, typical Californian spring day. So we decided to take the kids and spend the day at Oakland Zoo. Kids had a fun sun-filled day and I got to snap a few pictures.

This past weekend I drove the girls to Palo Alto for them to check out some roaming horses on this open pasture. The girls got to feed and pet a few horses, they always enjoy that. I got to snap a few shots, and I enjoyed that.

I spent more time this weekend on basketball than normal. I started playing hoops again after about 6 months hiatus thanks to bum knee & shoulder. I’m convinced these two long-time injuries will not improve further, so I just strapped on a brace and just went at it. To the injuries added an ankle as I rolled my left ankle going for a steal. Sigh… but at least it’s not too bad and I should be okay for next week. The Stanford Recreational center is a great facility with wide & open courts– very enjoyable.

Suzanne took the two girls to Disney on Ice, so I had the Sunday afternoon to myself. So I of spent it in front of the tube catching UCLA & Lakers games. Both were exciting close games and best of all both teams emerged victorious which made my day. A DVR would’ve helped, I had to flip between the channels since the games were aired at the same time. That was a bit annoying!

But, it’s all good…

I came home today to find Allison distraught, yelling at the top of her lungs. I learned that she was arguing with her sister and mis-behaving. After she refused to apologize to her sister as ordered, her mom promptly sent her to her room– she was told not to come out until she calms down. She balked when I offered my help, so I left her alone in her room.

As I walked away, I heard her screams:

Nobody loves me in this family. My sister doesn’t love me. My mommy doesn’t love me and my daddy doesn’t love me. And I don’t like anyone!

What drama princess! And stubborn. Took another 10, 15 minutes for her to calm down. I came in to sooth her and gave her a nice talk; then I carried her out to the family room. Then she did something nothing short of being miraculous; she walked up to her sister, started bawling and apologized (I didn’t even prompt her to apologize) with rivers of tears down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry JeJe (big sister). bah…”

See what I mean about stubbornness? She refused to apologize when ordered and did it only on her own terms. Katelyn gave Allison a big-sisterly embrace, wiped away her sister’s tears– telling Allison that everything is okay. When asked why she is crying, Allison then said:

I cry because it’s very hard for me to say I’m sorry. bahh, bahhh…

Her mom & I looked at each other in total amazement. I mean total shock since we never seen an admission like this from Allison, ever. Suzanne almost cry right then & there. Me? I’m a rock!

bahhh, bahhhh….

Today is a big day for our family. It’s our Katelyn’s birthday– she turns 6. Naturally, she’s very excited. Last night, we took her to a book store to choose a book as a gift for her classroom. And this past weekend she happily went with us getting stuffs ready for her party. We encouraged Katelyn to invite anybody she wants but she indicated that she doesn’t want a big party. So we’re keeping her party small, thank goodness!

Katelyn is doing well in kindergarten; she loves singing, dancing, reading, writing, drawing and coloring. She can do simple addition and subtraction. She’s on the shy side but made two close friends in her class, always telling me things about what she & Alicia or Chaelee do in school. She’s starting to help out with simple chores– she likes rinsing dishes (let’s see how long that’ll last). She’s really into Hello Kitty this year. She likes taking pictures and asked for her own camera, so I got her a pink Kodak digital camera (Valentine’s day makes it easier to buy things pink). Can hardly wait to see her reaction when she opens the present this evening. Looking forward to share with her the hobby of photography. Who knows, we may have a young shutterbug in the making.

Overheard Katelyn to her sister this past weekend that both cracked me up and gave me a jolting reminder:

“I have a purse. I’m a woman now!”

Katelyn is a good girl, I think we’ll keep her…

Any comments of birthday wishes will be appreciated. I’ll make sure Katelyn gets a chance to read them– I’m sure she will get a kick out of them.

My youngest daughter Allison has a favorite pillow. It’s actually a throw pillow, but it’s made of this super soft material. She doesn’t actually sleep on it, but uses it as a body pillow. She places it on her right side of the bed every night. She really loves the pillow– so much that she’s become very protective of it. Here’s a telling episode…

We let the girls sleep with us on our bed on Saturdays– it’s a treat for them and us! A few times we’d asked Allison if she wants to bring her favorite pillow with her to our bed. To our surprise, she always declines. Odd, but whatever… So this past Saturday, Suzanne grabbed Allison’s pillow without asking. Allison objected, but relented since it was late and Suzanne didn’t want to go back and get another pillow.

The next morning, Allison got up. First thing she did was stealthily got off the bed, grabbed her pillow and put it back on her bed before heading out to the living room. Little did she realized that her sly actions were being observed by Suzanne who was already up but been laying still in bed. Curious, Suzanne asked Allison later that morning why she took her pillow back rather than just leaving it behind (she’s not the tidy type)– to which Allison replied that she didn’t want her mom to starts liking her pillow and then keeps it.

Unbelievable! So it all made sense to us now, all this time she didn’t want to take her pillow into our bedroom on Saturday nights because she didn’t want to risk the chance that we decide to keep it after we “discover” how soft the pillow is. It’s so funny how a 4 year-old can get so paranoid & protective of their things.

Too funny…

There once was a rabbit named Miguel. His curiousness always got him in trouble. One day he smelled an unbearable essence of fresh dandelion, lettuce, and pieces of mint all smothered in acorn sauce. Miguel couldn’t take it, and ran as fast as his feeble legs could carry him to the direction of the smell. But once he got there he fell down a six foot pit, full of darkness. His scream was so loud it could shatter a human’s glass window. A wolf came up and said “Ooh, a nice plump one, I usually get skinny, bony ones. After that the wolf laughed liked a maniac. Miguel thought “Here is my chance!” He felt the energy pump through his blood and forced it to it feet and leaped! Once he hit the ground he ran home like there was no tomorrow.

When Miguel came home, he was in a sweat. When his mother, Rose, saw him she kept on asking motherly questions like “Where were you Miguel!” and “Oh, are you sick, you’re sweating!” Miguel quickly told his mother about the wolf before she put a spoon of disgusting medicine into his mouth. He shouldn’t have told her about the wolf because her worrying turned into hard, loud sobbing. Then she cried “ You could of ended up like your father!!” This caught him off guard. His mom didn’t usually talk about dad which name was Brian. He died by not paying his side of a bargain with some squirrel gangsters. Miguel pulled himself back into reality. Then he told his crying mother about his plan. She was just about to say it was too dangerous when Miguel said” It’s what father would do.” and gathered his friends into the center of Sherwood, his village.

Miguel told his friends Rocky the badger, Lightning the squirrel, Remy the rabbit, and Tuck the turtle about his brilliant plan or so Miguel said. After Miguel talked Tuck asked “ How are we going to get the fresh meat?” “ We’re going to the Sugarmen house.” This wasn’t suprising to the party of friends. They had been there when they were around six to seven years old. When they were rushing to the huge house Miguel thought “Will this work?”

When they got there , Remy asked if Rocky could open the door. Fortunetly the strong and huge badger opened the door with no difficulty. Lightning looked as cute as possible for a distraction. The others opened the freezer as quietly as they could and took a big piece of lamb chop and the escaped through the window. Lighting had no trouble escaping, he bit the family’s hands and went through the window like his friends.

When they got back to Sherwood they went back to their parents for hot supper and a colossal nap. But when Miguel came home instead of being dead beat he was full of life. He told his mom that they completed most of his plan. They had a celebration with food like roasted lettuce, sizzling corn and some fresh dandelion.

In the morning the four friends woke up very early and dug a immense hole as big as a rhino. They put the huge piece of meat cautiously into the pit. At the wolf’s cave he smelled the meat and exclaimed “ Mmm, smells good!” and took off. Just like Miguel the wolf fell down screeching all the way down. But when he jumped, instead of getting out he fell flat on his behind. Miguel and his friends all thought of a single word,”Yes!!” The friends all told everybody in the village about what had happened. Sherwood would now be safe with joy for now.

The story above was written by my 4th grader nephew Andre. His story is entitled “Miguel’s Adventure!”. I thought he did a super job so I figure I’d post it as a way to show him that I’m proud of him and his work.

Andre must be super proud since he even signed the email with his full name (I didn’t even know his middle name till now).

Hi Uncle,
Look at this story I wrote all by myself.
What do you think? Good, huh?

Your only nephew,
Andre Alexander Tan