Happy Father's day to me

Most people who blog about families seem to be females. Maybe its because women are more expressive and like to talk about their families and remember details and all that stuff. Maybe its because men are outside being rugged and mowing and stuff like that when their wives blog, who knows. And yes I am fully aware that I just made a comment that is very much a stereotype, but then again many stereotypes are stereotypes because more often than not they are true. I didn’t choose to be obsessed with whether my lawn is the perfect length with perfectly straight diagonal mowing lines or to secretly die a little inside every time something I grill something and it doesn’t turn out perfectly. Lela didn’t choose to love All Clad and Le Creuset or be happy when I get those things for her for various holiday or to think that immersing emma in pink is the greatest thing ever. These things just organically happened. Anyway, the point I was getting at was every blog I see was how awesome of a dad the husband is, etc because it was written by the wife. So I am going to congratulate myself with a happy father’s day blog entry to myself.

It was a great day. Well really weekend. I think they should change it to Father’s weekend. One day isn’t enough to be able to say “you can’t say anything about what I just did because its Father’s day, you have to be nice to me and ignore any wrongdoing,” it should at the very least be a weekend. And by weekend I mean starting Friday am, not just the days you don’t work. Once we get everybody adjusted to thinking of it that way we can begin talks about a full week. I have learned this expansive technique from my niece, Julia. Julia doesn’t have a birthday she has a birth month, and every year that seems to get longer. She turned five a few months ago and I am pretty sure by the age of 11 we will just celebrate Julia’s b-day will have become a B-11-month-thing. It’s really a well-played plan. This is why we need to listen to kids, they can teach us things. Hopefully my sarcasm in most of that paragraph came through so I don’t sound like too much of a self centered a-hole.



So yeah, Father’s weekend, I don’t normally do a detailed run down of festivities because I usually forget 95% of the important details and it becomes really boring, but here goes. We hit up the OP farmer’s market for the first time this year. We love the OP farmer’s market, it is the perfect size. Not one of those farmers markets where there are 2 things but also not like the River Market farmers market where it’s a 30 min ordeal to get just one thing. And then that evening Lela made us Linguine with clams. Delish. I am glad I married a good cook, even if it just perpetuates the aforementioned stereotypes or if it makes it so I have to run to 18 grocery stores a week because some grocery stores have better versions of various things. Sunday we started off with church, and our pastor, Dan, agrees with me on the expansion of father’s day as we are apparently doing a 3 week series on dads. See my expansion theory is catching on already. Anyway, for some reason getting to church every Sunday is a scramble. It always happens, I feel like every Sunday is going to be better, but its not. On this particular Sunday we were planning on having some homemade Korean BBQ with our homegrown bibb lettuce for lunch. Everybody knows that in addition to pork belly and lettuce you obviously need rice for Korean bbq. . .except when you forget and your wife has to remind you 3 times that morning to get the rice ready and set the rice cooker to start while you are at church (when you live in a wasian household you have rice cookers and they have timers). . .and then rather than setting the timer you just start the rice cooking. Did I mention that Asians are very particular about their rice not being over cooked and that cooking rice in our rice cooker for 2.5 hrs could overcook the rice? It’s a good thing it was father’s day so as lela had red flames in her eyes I could say, “it’s a good thing its father’s day so you can’t be mad at me.” Again, expansion of Father’s day could only be a good thing. So after a lovely Korean BBQ lunch, I was treated to a lovely professional massage, not to shabby. After some pool time (to be discussed later), we headed to Blue Koi, to cap off a very Asian day. Except Blue Koi wasn’t open. . .but luckily some random person had the same plan to treat her husband for fathers day. As discussed in the previous post, people talk to me if I don’t know them, so of course she signals for me to roll down my window. And she says something to the effect of “we are going to Red snapper, you should too.” So we did. But we didn’t sit with them because that would be weird. But it was a good end to an Asiany Father’s day that will someday be known as father’s weekend.



So the weekend before my mom treated us to a zoo and water weekend in Omaha to celebrate her bday. She shares a bday with Emma, and Jill is 9 months prego, so she figured this would be the best time to celebrate. So anyway, that Friday we headed to Omaha, a trip which thanks to a lovely overturned trucked was an extra hour or so. But we got there. Emma thought that it was awesome that we were all sleeping in the same room, to the point where she stayed up til 11. We prepared for a rough day at the zoo. . .but somehow emma was good to go on her little sleep. And it was pretty much the perfect zoo day, the weather was surreal it was so good and all the kids had a great time. Julia and jacoby are extremely good to emma too, so that makes it even more funny and easy for a weekend like that. The hotel we were staying at also had an indoor water park, so after we got back from the zoo we headed down there. We had a good time, even emma enjoyed it (again more later). That night we even got our first night out to the movies since emma joined us just under 2 years ago. After meeting up with one of my college friends and her family for some lovely Vietnamese, we headed back to KC, both tired but having had our fill of fun. Thanks Grandma!



Emma isn’t a water kid. She gets it from me probably. Some kids loves baths, always have and think they are great always. Some kids are like fish, you put them in their bathing suit and give them a body of water than they run in. Emma isn’t one of those kids. She’s okay in the water, she loves transporting water, and pouring it or doing water table type activities. But as far as being in it, she’s sort of Meh about it. At the water park it took her a half hour to warm up to the idea of playing in water. After we showed her some of the fun stuff she gradually warmed up to it and had a good time. When we go to the HOA pool Emma generally takes at least 15 minutes to decide she wants to do more than lean on us and watch the other kids. After she gets going she will play in it and again she loves water table type activities, but she just isn’t a kid who thinks it’s the greatest thing ever and runs into it like crazy. Probably a bit similar to a young red headed boy I used to know. Sorry Emma!



Here are some recent pics of the Wasian and some of the events in random order

 Random park pics

 Love it when she gets a head of steam going

Why me

With alarming frequency, for some reason random people tell me things. I have no clue why. More than a few people I am now friends with have said I looked mean or scary or like a prick when they first encountered me, so it’s not like I am some guy who could live around the corner type. So as stated in the previous blog, Lela and I went to Chicago a few weeks ago. I really enjoy going to larger cities, I actually enjoy taking mass transit and getting to feel a little like it would to live in the city. Lela and I have lived in KC or Denver, and both times we were in the ‘burbs which means we drove a lot and didn’t do the mass transit deal. Coincidentally about 4 months after moving from Denver they finished the light rail about a 4 min walk from my last apartment, and taking the light rail would have been much more pleasurable than my 45 min commute downtown. Not that I am bitter or anything.




Anyway, when you take mass transit you encounter interesting people. We were staying outside the loop in Chicago, so we ended up taking buses quite a bit more, which almost seems to bring in more “unique” persons. It was rainy and crazy cool our first day –think 47 degrees, mist and a wife who is threatening to throw me in a very cold Lake Michigan because she didn’t want a cold vacation. So we are sitting on a bus after a lovely meal and a man, who appeared to be an older business professional, turns to me and has the following interaction



Random dude, “You know why it’s so rainy this spring, don’t you?”



Me, “Um, no”



Random dude, “it’s because they are killing the rainforests in South America. I have been there, its all becoming farm land and that makes it so the rainforests can’t contain that water content and it comes up here.”



Me (internally) – weird I thought it had something to do with La Nina or any number of other variables, but apparently just one thing is causing it



Me “interesting, thanks”



Then the guy walks off the bus and everyone starts laughing. First of all I want to state that after our church did a documentary series (what I called church heaven because I got to make lela watch documentaries with me because it was what God wanted us to do) and one week was about Environmental Stewardship, which had us watch “An Inconvenient Truth.” Though that movie is admittedly one sided, we came away from watching it with a strong feeling that we needed to actively be better stewards of our environment by wasting less and doing more to support environmental efforts. Watch the movie, it will change how you think about not recycling, wasting gas or various other things(stepping of my soap box). Anyway, while deforestation could have an effect on it raining in Chicago in may, its just weird why people tell me these things. Coincidentally during another cab ride in Chicago a few years ago, I was given a dissertation by my cabbie about how to create sustainable mini communities after Armageddon hits. Then there is the time when I was asked in a ghetto gas station in Denver if I thought Aurora housing prices could keep pace with the other suburbs when the housing boom was in effect. Not remotely kidding, there are many more instances



So the real reason you read this is for the star of the show, Emma. A few weeks ago, lela and I discussed how we should get some animal crackers for Emma. They seemed like easy to grab snacks that weren’t insanely bad for her and something she might like. This is like saying that Apple thought by creating the iPhone a few years back they might sell a few phones. We created a monster. Emma loves playing with them. She loves eating them. Rarely an hour goes by where we don’t see our Wasian princess look at us, shrug her shoulders and say “cackers?????”. Tantrums have occurred for 20 min time span because Emma wants 5 crackers and we only will give her 2. Oh the animal crackers and the joy they have brought to our lives.



The next post will have some pictures, but right now I don’t think we have any that haven’t been posted.

A few of our favorite things

Emma is a funny kid. A lot of these things I have previously mentioned, but I thought it would be fun to mention a few of Emma’s favorite things

1) Emma has become increasingly concerned with the whereabouts of everybody. If you leave a room, Emma will same something about you followed by “go”. She especially constantly wants to know where lela is. For example, we went to Iowa for her cousins’, Julia and Jacoby’s bday celebration. So with 10+ hrs of car time, Emma got used to all of us being in the car together. When I went to take Emma to daycare she asked about 30 times in her 3 min drive to daycare “mommy go?” its pretty funny the first 5 times at least, someday we will teach miss emma that if she asked continuously the answer doesn’t change

2) Emma’s favorite foods to this point – virtually anything Mexican or Korean. The girl likes her spice, if her face is red and she is chugging water its almost as if she feels challenged and eats more. She is off and on for all types of fruit, for a while she will eat something nonstop and the next week she won’t touch it. Emma has become enamored with dipping as of late, though it often morphs into using food as a different form of spoon, rather than eating it.

3) Puzzles. Emma loves them. It’s not always the same ones every day, but rarely a day goes by that she doesn’t spend time with her puzzles at home. At daycare if she doesn’t have one in hand within 20 seconds of walking in she is less than happy.

4) Jumping and bouncing on everything is her favorite past time. If you put a thick blanket on the floor emma will let herself fall into it about 30 times. If you put the girl on a mattress she will bounce up and down. If you put her to bed she will bounce her head for at least 20 min. its just how she rolls.

5) Emma doesn’t like tv, but likes Elmo. If you ask her what her favorite animal is, its elmo. I guess Elmo is sort of an animal, so her opinion is not completely unfounded, right? She also enjoys saying the sounds that various animals say. I have taped a few sesame streets and she will watch the “Elmo’s World” portion, but gets mad at the parts where Elmo isn’t involved.


Anyway, that’s not by any means a full list, just seems to be what emma is generally into lately. We have had a busy few months We of course had mothers day in there, Emma gave Lela a Panini press for making among other things make quesadilla’s that emma loves. We went up to the IA for Julia and Jacoby’s bday. We all had a good time up there and if you ever see the video of the gift opening, emma is in almost the entire thing. Emma wasn’t worried about the wrap or any of that, but seemed to notice that toys were being pushed off to the side and she decided she was going to play with each of them.
A few weeks ago we took our first Emma-less trip and went to Chicago for a few days. I think Emma did all right as she went to Grandpa and Grandma’s, aka the land where there is a million toys and people play with me from the second I wake up til the second I go to bed. Even though we knew she was in good hands and having fun, we obviously missed our little princess to death.

We have also noted the coming of toddlerhood. We used to think that toddlerhood meant a temper tantrum once a week or so when Emma would be hungry or something. We were wrong. Toddlerhood has become a battle of wills at any and all times. Some days Emma will fight everything. Some days she’ll go along her merry way and not fight anything. It’s the uncertainty that’s the biggest fun as we can’t see it coming. I know, shocking that Lela and I would have a strong willed child. She is still fun most of the time and still loves to laugh, but she’s now like the raptors in Jurassic park, testing every fence until she figures out how to overcome it. That’s my requisite movie reference for the day. Go Hawks.

Some Easter pics.  Emma wasn't being uber cooperative, so they are action pics.

Emma playing at the Johnsons

Picture time with the kids.  Jacoby got tired of smiling after 500 pictures, so he had to hold his smile with his hands below.  I can relate buddy.

Note the black eye.  I look pretty BA, right?  Unfortunately I wasn't defending my families honor or something cool, but ran into someone playing bball. 

Emma's many faces

Even if I was a cheerleader, I would dunk on them.

Lela and I at Frontera Grill.  Thank you Rick Bayless, it was divine.

Architecture boat tour.  I am a nerd and could have spent all week doing architecture tours, but apparently that's not cool.

Gilt Bar on our last night

The view of navy pier from our room.  Of course this was the 15 min window where it wasn't foggy, but what are you going to do!