Kai's Jujitsu / Kids are doing ok / Vic's Surprise Birthday Girls' weekend / The dads survived / Happy Chinese New Year

Let's see what's happening this week..

Kai is continuing with Jujitsu.  I'm really proud of him.  He's not a big kid, just like I am not a big person, and I know it's not easy but he's a hard worker and is very scrappy :)  I think if he keeps up with BJJ, it could teach him a lot about discipline, self control in addition to the skills of BJJ itself.

A bit of sparring action

Sora is also working on her piano.  She really likes it but has a tendency to become frustrated when it isn't perfect.  This is a tendency she has when she does a lot of things.  When frustrated, she starts to whine a lot and this builds upon itself until she is crying or distraught and can't do anything anymore.  We keep telling her that the way to improve at something is to practice or just keep at it as becoming frustrated or angry isn't going to help and usually just makes things worse.  But it's also easier to see it from the giving advice side and she's only 7 so we'll keep working on it.  

Jad is doing well as usual.  He's so happy go lucky and is generally a joy, most of the time.  He does need to work on not crying / yelling / punching (playful) when he doesn't get what he wants but usually responds well to correction.  Just have to remember not to give him too much attention for bad behavior.  

Otherwise, the kids are doing well overall.  There's always a bit of a thought about whether we are doing enough to push them but Amy and I both agree that they need time to be kids and they are happy so we're not asking for much more at this point.  Hopefully, we can develop the "soft" skills like discipline, self control, patients, empathy and resilience so they can use those when they are older to succeed.  Not that we're doing a particularly great job but that's what we're working on anyway :p

The big event last week was Vic's birthday party celebration.  Kegan had been planning this for months and the plan was for Vic and the moms to go on a weekend trip to Napa while the dad's kept the kids at home.  Anyone who is a parent knows this is a difficult undertaking already but everyone planned and kept it quiet (we didn't even tell the kids for fear they would let it slip.)  Kegan arranged with Vic's assistant and boss to give her the day off but also to put fake meetings on her agenda. The pièce de résistance was that Audrey would fly up on Thursday night to surprise Vic and then they (Vic, Amy, Audrey, Kendra and Kristy) would go on the trip from Friday to Sunday.  

Thursday night we all arranged to have dinner outside on our driveway (a weenie roast!) which was a lot of fun actually.  We also had to delay a bit as Audrey wouldn't arrive until about 720p.  Luckily, the meeting about the RCC crosswalk was that day and Amy also had to take Sora to gymnastics so she was late getting back.

I didn't get great pics of that evening for some reason but there is a video of Audrey arriving (couldn't upload to blog.. file size excessive apparently) that Amy took.  The uber pulls up and stops, the rest of us are pretending we don't know who's arriving, Audrey gets out in a mask and Vic has no idea who she is.  Audrey walks towards us with a suitcase and says "hi' and Vic replies with a curious "hiiii.." but then Audrey takes off her mask and Vic is like "What?!?"  Audrey then proceeds to reveal the rest of the surprise and, after a brief moment of disbelief, it was great.

The moms left the next day after the kids were off to school.  It would have been great to have Trang go as well but she was being careful with Terry's mom coming back to stay with them.

Things started with a pedicure

They had a chef come in a cook them
dinner on Friday night

Workout to burn off some of the food

Wine tour to Viansa and Homewood on Saturday

Very stylish (and a little drunk :)

Saturday dinner at The Girl and The Fig
(Vic's favorite apparently)

Sunday breakfast at Murphy's

Stop at Dirty Girl Donuts for a sweet treat 
on the way home

Overall, the girls had a great time and we were glad we could give them that time to get away.  Now for the dads..

I enjoyed the few hours of solitude to myself on Friday while the kids were at school then the kids came back and we had art class. 

Peggy and Wally worked on colored outlining

Friday night, we all made spaghetti dinner and ate outside at Terry & Trang's 

The kids got a bit of extra Switch time

Saturday, the connicks came over and we had donuts for breakfast and then lounged for a while.  After lunch we went for a bike ride up to the playground in Alum Rock with everyone.

Nice day!  We had nine bikes + one trailer
going at one point..

Kegan, Alex and I played Seven Wonders and Diplomacy 
while the kids played in the afternoon

Dinner was with tri-tip and tater tots.  Kegan sous vide the tri-tip and it came out perfect medium rare!  Sunday we all got back together and had a pancake breakfast with bacon and strawberries before I took the kids to church.  The moms got back right as we returned and there were many hugs :)

Pancake breakfast!

I have to say that we did quite well for ourselves with only one moment of lost temper over the weekend.  Still something I have to work on.  Maybe consider walking away when the situation gets too frustrating or angry.  We all have something to work on.

Yesterday was Lunar New Year.  We celebrated with dinner at Amy's parent's on Sunday but heard some obligatory fireworks on Tuesday night.

Happy New Year from Jad!

This kid is such a ham.. I don't know
where he gets these poses from

Amy and I also had a day date Tuesday while the kids were in school.  We went to see a movie, Spider-Man: No Way Home, something we hadn't done since before the pandemic started.  The movie was pretty good, some funny moments mixed with some poignant moments and good cameos.  

Nearly empty theater

Lastly, plans continue to be made to visit my mom.  It's complicated because of COVID as we have to have our itinerary laid out with plane tickets and hotel reservations (including COVID tests on days 1 and 5) then we have to apply via the Thai Consulate for the Test and Go program.  That and arrange for COVID tests 72 hours before departure (and hope we get results before we leave).  On my mom's end, she trialed a nursing home while my dad was away for a few days and Joe was sick.  It was ok but not ideal and I think Joe is going to try to find a helper who can come into their condo instead.  Hopefully, that will work out with my dad, who is also have more trouble as he gets older.  What can we do but keep on going the best we can.

I'm putting a picture of my mom here from the nursing home.  I don't think she's actually happy but they did catch her when she was smiling.  She's back home now with my dad and Joe.

Til next time, everyone!