Trinhity Xuan Clark

You Are Part of Me

2011-12-06T21:14:00.001-06:00

Been awhile again, my bad. But I've got a musical piece for you today, an original composed by T3 herself. Here are the lyrics, verbatim as scrawled in red crayon on a piece of scratch paper with a few scattered musical notes and red hearts:

You are part of me
I em part of you
Love is all it tacks to be with you
I love you
You love me
Were a happy family
You part of my hart
I em part of you

Her dedication? Her brother, naturally.

Swan Lake

2011-08-26T09:50:00.000-05:00

Trinh has been into ballet for awhile now -- without having taking a single lesson, mind you. I think one of the origins of this trend was watching the Barbie rendition of Swan Lake. I have to admit, it was actually pretty well-told, and I enjoyed it. Yes, this is the Daddy writing. I do hereby freely and publicly admit that I have been rather surprisedly forced to admit that the Barbie movies are actually pretty good. The music is solid, the morals are fine; the animation isn't all that thrilling, but the package really isn't bad.

Anyway, she knows Swan Lake exclusively from the Barbie thing, plus me telling her a little bit about Tchaikovsky. I used to play a couple sections from The Pathetique when I was walking the floors to put her to sleep as a baby, and she says she remembers it. Last night we were watching some diving videos on YouTube on the iPod Touch just before bedtime, and T3 requested ballet. I found this: Swan Lake from the Kirov.

We were both enthralled, and the last bit is particularly riveting -- no, amazing. We watched the whole thing twice. We watched that last part three times.

The first time through, Trinh kept mapping her knowledge of Swan Lake from the Barbie movie into this 'real' ballet. She was able to infer the scene from the costumes and the characters present, and she knows all their names. I was impressed.

But this was the best part: about two minutes into it, she said, "Daddy! They even got the music right!"

It's good to know that the Kirov 'got the music right'. I love it.

Zen Gospel Singing

2011-07-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

We spent a couple nights with friends up in Dallas last weekend, and while I was putting the kids to sleep on one of the nights I sang Zen Gospel Singing as one of their 14 lullabies.

The song has always amused me. I learned the Bryan Bowers version, but it's got the same lyrics as the Limeliters'.

Good fun, great harmonies...but a big mistake as a lullaby. Trinh asked, "Daddy, what's a Buddhist? Are we Buddhist?"

"No, dear, not this week."

"Then are the people we're staying with Buddhist?"

"No, dear, I think they're Hindu."

"Then why do they have a Buddha in their house?"

Uff-dah. Excellent questions, of course, but man....that's a tough talk to have with a 6-year old at 10PM...

BACK-BLOGGING: Kindergarten

2011-06-14T16:14:00.005-05:00

Trinhity completed the kindergarten program at The Woods Private School this year. We went and toured some other schools in the neighborhood and decided to keep her at The Woods for first grade. Why? Because we simply love the program. We know we will need to move her... soon... but for now, we think it is the right place for our family. Taison will be joining her at school next year in the preschool program.

Here is her kindergarten school photo.. taken back in the fall. I know, I know... but we just scanned it a few weeks ago. And while I'm at it, we actually just uploaded photos from our camera a few weeks ago too.... hence the photo back log....

How is it that our beautiful daughter always manages to look so... weird in these school photos??

Field trip to the Houston Museum of Science in April...

Easter party....

Best friends

Music class...

Trinh's Kindergarten class (after the Easter Egg hunt)

Trinh's Kindergarten teacher

Field day in May

All the kids got trophies...

The elementary classes had a spring program entitled "When I Grow Up". It was really precious. Trinhity's class were plumbers. They were given plungers on stage as props. It was hilarious because Trinhity's kept sticking to the stage. She's been begging for a plunger to play with.... don't think we are going to indulge her on that wish though.

All the kids went up to introduce themselves and say what they wanted to be when they grow up. In the car, Trinhity said she wanted to be a cheerleader. But onstage, she said she wanted to be a designer. Who says she can't be both??

Of course, Ong Ba came....

During the last week of school, the kids with summer birthdays had a party. Of the 18 students, 10 had summer birthdays! Trinh was thrilled to finally have a birthday crown!!

BACK-BLOGGING: Galveston

2011-06-14T16:08:00.002-05:00

Mother's Day beach weekend....

We felt a bit guilty about allowing Trinh to skip school on Friday to go to the beach. But only a little bit. We practically had the beach to ourselves.

Daddy brought the kayak. The whole family took a ride... a short, sunset ride around the back bay.

BACK-BLOGGING: Zoo & Hermann Park

2011-06-14T15:56:00.002-05:00

In March during Spring Break, we took a midweek trip to Hermann Park with Ong Ba.

Ba Ba wanted to ride the trains....

In April, we all went to the Houston Zoo.

BACK-BLOGGING: Spring Festival

2011-06-13T23:24:00.002-05:00

April. The annual neighborhood Spring Festival. Again, I know it is June but well, the photos have only recently been uploaded. Seriously.

This year, they had to hunt for eggs at different spots. They divide out the egg hunt into age groups to make it fair for the little ones. Notice anything about Taison's basket?? The eggs are all yellow....

There was a rather rambunctious goat in the petting pen... it frightened the kiddos.

Love how they are always together....

We rode the ponies about a dozen times. Seriously. In between rides, while we were waiting, Trinhity was stooped down checking out the ponies'... [ahem]... equipment. She was informing her brother about which ones were boys and which ones were girls so that they could choose the right ponies to ride. Ironically, all of them were boys. Yeah, think on that for a bit...

BACK-BLOGGING: Mayfest at Gymnastics

2011-06-13T23:10:00.004-05:00

Finally. We finally convinced her to return to the gymnastics program this year. She was a bit shy and she is a very cautious little gymnast but she really loves the program. She takes gymnastics at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics. They've got a pretty serious program here... like, there are Olympic medalists training at this facility kind of serious. In May, they had Mayfest which was kind of like a "recital" for the little gymnasts. They got to show off all they learned throughout the fall & spring and family members got to join them on the gym floor and watch.

Her absolute favorite thing is the bars.

She also loves the vault.

The little gymnasts getting their trophies...

Good Bye Colorado

2011-06-13T22:50:00.001-05:00

On our way to the airport, we stopped off at one of the nature centers in town and had a little picnic.

The weather in Colorado was beautiful. We were not looking forward to the Houston heat. But we needed to get home because we had only 3 days to turn our house into a rock star haven.

She turned 6 on June 5. How did she get so big?

Deer

2011-06-13T22:49:00.001-05:00

Daddy rented a cabin for us at the base of Pike's Peak for the remainder of our short stay in Colorado Springs.

There were deer in the front yard one afternoon and Trinh tried to sneak up on it!

Daddy's Girl

2011-06-13T22:48:00.001-05:00

There is just something special about daddies & daughters....

They caught a stone fly and were trying to decide who was going to eat it! It's on the tip of Daddy's finger.

Garden of the Gods

2011-06-13T22:44:00.001-05:00

We visited the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

She climbed up a rock face and was a bit nervous about being too high and getting stuck...

How did she get so long???

Cousin Rachel's Graduation

2011-06-13T22:31:00.001-05:00

Trinhity's last day of school was May 27. We had a flight out that night to head to Colorado Springs for her cousin Rachel's highschool graduation. We landed at 8:30 and didn't arrive to Uncle Scott & Aunt Tina's house until 9:30PM. They are on mountain time which is an hour behind us. The kids were wired and ended up staying up past midnight. Needless to say, Trinh had an awesome start to her summer vacation!!

Trinhity & cousin Rachel

Grandpa Clark

The Clark Cousins

One of the highlights of the weekend.... frogs!!

Thanks Uncle Scott & Aunt Tina for hosting us!!!

Rock on

2011-06-13T22:12:00.000-05:00

This is still up a week after the party. It looks much better at night....

The After Party

2011-06-13T21:55:00.002-05:00

Trinh & her BFF rocking out...

GIRL POWER!!@!

After party snack of seaweed & rice...

Rockin' with the GIRLZ

2011-06-13T21:52:00.002-05:00

What do you do at a rock star party?

First, we had our pink glitter makeup & neon rocker hair session...

Then we had a jam session. Did you know that 6 year old girls know all the lyrics to Taylor Swift's "You Belong to Me"??

Rock Stars having pizza & fruit....

Guess who made a guest appearance and taught the girls how to play electric guitar??

...air guitar free jam. It was righteous. Totally.

Intense game of hot pink guitar to the tune of "I Love Rock n Roll" by Joan Jett.

The VIP Rocker and her personal body guard...

I Wanna B A ROCKSTAR

2011-06-13T21:46:00.001-05:00

Trinhity wanted a Rock Star party this year for her 6th birthday. We were hoping to hold on to the innocence of princesses, mermaids, & fairies for a bit longer... but no. She was particular about the decorations and preferred cheetah print to zebra print. Did you know that they sell hot pink zebra print duct tape??

So since she wanted rock star, we gave her rock star....

The chair of honor....

Been a long time...

2011-06-13T21:40:00.001-05:00

When your mother who lives 2 miles from you and sees the kiddos almost everyday comments on the fact that you are slacking on the blog posts... well, that means you are REALLY slacking on the blog posts. We've been crazy busy and there just never seems to be enough time to sit & post. So again, I will do my best to get caught up... at least with the photos.

Rock Star Birthday Quotation

2011-06-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

Daddy: "Trinh, you look fabulous!"
T3: "Aw, Daddy....is that what always happens to rockstars?"
Daddy: "Er, what's that?"
T3: "People always telling them how great they look."
Daddy: "Oh. Yeah, probably."
T3: "Wow! I could really get used to being a rock star!"

Rock Star Birthday

2011-06-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

We're all set: T3's Rock Star birthday party is about to begin! We're backstage at the moment preparing snacks, frosting cupcakes, touching up our makeup, fixing our hair...you know, rock star stuff.

I slipped out to the stage for a couple minutes to snap some quick pictures...

That's the stage. And below you'll find the post-concert rock star banquet table where the diva will eat her pizza and cupcakes with her rockers....

More proper shots coming later....

Leonardo's Cancer Cells

2011-03-03T22:37:00.002-06:00

Tonight T3 had a bunch of questions about cancer, some of them fairly insightful. It was interesting, but I was afraid she'd get a bit morbid about it, so I tried to shift things a bit by reciting a snippet of an old poem I've always liked, The Cancer Cells by Richard Eberhart:

Today I saw a picture of the cancer cells
Sinister shapes with menacing attitudes

We looked at a few pictures of cancer cells on the internet, and those inspired this:

We surfed a bit more, then wandered back to the ending of the poem, my favorite part:

I think Leonardo would have in his disinterest
Enjoyed them precisely with a sharp pencil

That naturally led to a Google foray for da Vinci sketches and paintings. I explained that the Mona Lisa was perhaps the world's most famous painting, and that nobody quite knows why she's smiling. She liked that idea and immediately started trying to draw it from the on-screen photograph. It didn't quite work. She's only 5, after all....give her time.

We went back to the main gallery, and she took a fancy to Vitruvian Man:

LOVE the frown.

December

2011-02-24T10:07:00.003-06:00

We took Trinh to the Houston Ballet to see the Nutcracker....

[editor's note: oops. found this forgotten post in the draft folder...]

Planting

2011-02-19T17:25:00.001-06:00

Trinh decided to plant some berry seeds today....

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Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-13T21:25:00.001-06:00

Trinhity is terribly, hopelessly romantic.
She was just born that way.

She says that she is going to marry Taison. She gets very upset, cries real tears kind of upset, when her brother chooses Mommy instead of her. You see, Mommy already has Daddy. So if Taison doesn't choose her, she has no idea who she will marry and she just has to marry somebody.

At this age, it's sweet. Her friends at school have already told her that she can't marry her brother. Although it bothers her, she still wants to marry him because he is the only boy she loves. He is her "true love" she says. Sweet. Innocent.

They will not always be so sweet and innocent. But for now, it is a blessing be to be reminded on a daily basis of that innocence and love.

Happy Valentine's Day.

The Daddy Daughter Dance 2011

2011-02-07T12:23:00.011-06:00

Trinhity and her BFF has been planning this event for weeks and months. The girls talked about their outfits and where they would go and what they would do. We think they intentionally tried to match each other. They are FIVE. Who gets a prom experience starting at such a young age???

First, they waited on a red carpet in front of the venue for their horse and carriage.
The Princesses:

Their Daddy Princes:

The carriage took them around the parking lot and they got off with their dates at the back of Lifetime Fitness.

The red carpet entrance to the dance....

Moms were strictly not allowed into the dance. So the Mamas went to dinner (at Redfish, of course). Then the Mamas came back to wait for everyone. As another set of mothers were getting kicked out of the dance, we decided to sneak in the other door... with cameras in hand!

The gym is the size of two full basketball courts. On one court, they had tables and a buffet. The tables were nicely decorated and there were colored lanterns and balloons hanging on the ceiling.

We kept a low profile, sorta, and didn't feel the least bit guilty snapping away as our daughters and husbands enjoyed the last few minutes of the dance. In fact, we were a bit envious since there are no Mother/Daughter or Mother/Son dances.

The DJ was from the Fred Astaire Dance Company and we were told that they had ballroom dancing demonstrations as well as mini-lessons at the event. Trinhity's Daddy of course, was an old pro.

Trinhity danced the night away with her Daddy:

When Daddy wasn't using her to sweep the dance floor, she was crawling around the gym floor with her friend looking for rose petals.

Here she is with a collection of rose petals gathered in her skirt:

The last dance of the evening was a conga-line thing led by one of the dance instructors.

It was neat to see that ALL of the Daddies got in line and participated with their Daughters. Trinhity & Daddy are just behind the second balloon pillar in the back.

There was a raffle as the night ended.

Here is Trinhity's expression as they called the number just before hers!!

Posing with her date:

The group shot:

The girls saying good night:

We had planned to do dessert together but it was 8:30PM and Trinhity was still a little under the weather so we called it a night.

[editor's note: and yet another post forgotten in the draft folder...]

Daddy Daughter Dance

2011-02-07T12:22:00.008-06:00

The annual Daddy Daughter Dance was this past weekend. Trinhity has been looking forward to this event all year. Daddy had a cold so she was worried she wouldn't be able to attend. Then she came home with the flu on Wednesday. She was not 100%, but she was well enough to attend.

She insisted on wearing her flower girl dress. Yup, the one she wore two years ago to Cousin Jeff's & Amy's wedding. It's a size 2, but it still fits! She was also very specific about having her nails painted blue to match her dress. Her hair had to be curled but only a little bit and she wanted a "bump it" hairstyle.

She also picked out Daddy's shirt and tie for the event. We decided that something bright would make him easier to find in the sea of Daddies wearing white shirts and black coats. She also had an opinion about his facial hair. She told him to shave, but leave the goatee.

The difference bewteen Trinhity at almost 3 years old and at 5 years old is staggering....

2010 Colorado Camping: COTW

2011-02-06T16:00:00.001-06:00

On our last day we sprinted across Colorado Springs to hit Cave of the Winds before our flight back to Texas, and the lines for the tours were too long. So instead we paid an exorbitant fee for dirt and the opportunity to sluice it.

It wasn't just dirt, of course. They were selling pre-packaged bags laced with fossils, gemstones, arrowheads, etc. We got a couple bags...

...and voila! She found stuff in the muck!

2010 Colorado Camping: the 4-wheeler

2011-02-06T15:00:00.001-06:00

Pretty much self-explanatory here. She LOVED this. And she digs Cousin Rachel.

2010 Colorado Camping: Tiny Town

2011-02-06T14:00:00.000-06:00

We rolled down Turkey Creek Canyon on the way to Denver, stopped off at Tiny Town...

She didn't do so well with the twists and turns of the canyons. Let's just say it's a good thing Daddy packs for numerous possible eventualities. Also, because I felt bad she was able to talk me into buying her this silly cheap-o little stuffed kitty thing...

...so I put her in jail.

Just kidding! This was completely posed. No children's feelings were hurt in the making of this photograph.

2010 Colorado Camping: town, etc.

2011-02-06T13:00:00.003-06:00

Unbeknownest to me (while I was cooking dinner in the rain) she dug that shirt out of her pack, draped it over the steering wheel and took a couple pictures. Awww.

The shots below were from Buena Vista, and this might actually have been my favorite part of the whole trip -- ironic to have a town episode stand out on a camping trip, but whatever. We'd stopped by a cafe for lunch after driving down from the lake, and she noticed the free-for-all games. We started with this pile-the-blocks thing and had a hilarious time...

...then moved onto a full-blown game of Pictionary. She wasn't able to read yet then, so we got creative with the rules. It ended up being me reading AND drawing, then her trying to guess what I was drawing, and we'd only move our game piece if she got it right. Another storm blew through, so we weren't in a big hurry, and I was very surprised at how long her attention span lasted. We must've played for an hour or more, laughing ourselves silly. GOOD times.

A couple more shots that she took with she was running wild with the little camera....

That last one is from Scott & Tina's, but I slipped it into this series anyway. Heard the bear story about the Three Ponies? Uh, never mind....

2010 Colorado Camping: backdrop

2011-02-06T11:00:00.003-06:00

We found a big rock...

...with a very cool backdrop...

...just right for some silliness...

...and some sassiness.

2010 Colorado Camping: backcountry

2011-02-06T10:00:00.003-06:00

I know, I know...I promised to post more pictures from the camping trip that Trinh & I took last August, and here it is in February...almost 7 months later. PUTHetic.

Better late than never, so deal. This series captures most of the better shots we took in the backcountry, and it'll be followed by a few others. We landed in the Springs, drove up to Buena Vista and camped over night, then camped another night on our way to Denver.

She took this blue sky shot, as well as the...er, not sure what to call that (below).

This was the stream above the beaver ponds at our first camp spot. It was T3's first proper trouting adventure, and she actually rose a fish (to an #16 EHC, naturally) here completely unassisted by me (except for typical guiding services like knot-tying and pointing out likely spots). I was terribly proud. She hooked another on a soft hackle, but we didn't land any.

I think she would have had a deluge not ripped down the valley and sent us sprinting back up the hill to the truck. It was the first time she'd ever really tried to run at altitude, and it scared her! She couldn't figure out why her lungs were burning. I was dyin' too, but knowing why didn't make it any less depressing. Still doesn't.

The creek was blown out by the rains, so we dropped by the lake the next morning. Success!

She hooked and played that fish like it was her 100th instead of her 1st. I netted it, nothing else.

Yes, she touched it. And yes, she released it. We caught a couple more, too.

Minor philosophical digression: I fished pretty hard for a couple decades, especially when I was single, mostly in full awareness that it was a largely hedonistic endeavor. That realization came early one delightful summer morning in the mid-90s in Northern California. I'd spent 7 or 8 weeks wandering six states and two provinces in a near-frantic search for trout and steelhead, and I'd had a dreadful night's sleep because I'd pitched camp about 3m from a railroad track. I'd driven 4 hours and fished for 12 the day before, and it must've been around 10 PM when I got off the water -- then got turned around in the dark and spent a couple inglorious hours hiking out and looking for my Jeep. I was exhausted and ravenous. I rolled into the first open patch I could find, threw up the tent in the headlights, stuffed my face with junk food and crashed hard. It wasn't until the longest, loudest freight train on earth came rumbling by a few minutes later that I realized my mistake. The trains ran all night long, but I was too wasted to consider moving.

I awoke to a splendid morning, but I didn't feel like fishing. It had suddenly crystallized that the whole thing was a chasing after the wind, and that my sorry ass was doing pitiably little for humanity laying around the mountains in a tattered tent and tossing feathers and fur at various scaly species.

Irony #1: I didn't go home. I kept fishing, but with a new sense of awareness -- both of self and of the surrounding nature. I fished fewer hours but caught more fish, noticed more wildlife, and generally lived more deliberately, more deeply. I've talked with other hardcore fishheads about this, and some of them have experienced similar epiphanies. Hmmm.

Irony #2, fast forward 15 years: I reside in suburban Houston, surely one of the most ungratifying places on earth for a trout bum from Colorado to live. I have two wonderful children, and there's nothing on earth I enjoy more than spending time with my family. Even fishing.

Irony #3, realized on this trip with Trinh: heresy though it might be to some, I've occasionally wondered whether those years of Standing in a River Waving a Stick were selfishly sown, time that might somehow have been better spent. I suspect that most responsible, maturing fish heads have at least crossed swords (rods?) with that notion. But being awoken in a tent on this trip by my precious daughter, eager to explore the wilderness outside, I realized that my backcountry time had not been wasted: I'd been honing useful skills that my kids need to learn, gaining an appreciation of nature from which they'll benefit, and scouting places to take them.

My camping spot in a pullout 3m from a railroad track won't be one of the places we stop. But this place was, and I've got a hundred more spots in mind that they might like...

We hauled outta there (yes, she rode shotgun on most of the dirt roads -- something she doesn't get to do in Houston, and an only partially successful precaution against car sickness) and went here:

No fish, but we didn't get rained out.

Seaweed and rice, naturally. Me, I ate venison (not pictured).

Dinner was followed by a short night hike. I thought she'd be spooked by wandering around in the dark, but she wasn't. Happy Trinh Trinh....Happy Daddy.

Fire!

2011-02-03T18:53:00.002-06:00

It's been relatively cold here, so we've finally re-shuffled the living room furniture and un-barricaded the fireplace. It's been nice to have it lit, even though it's just a weak gas log that puts out previous little heat. We've also obviously imposed some rules about fire safety.

The Mama-san has a less than stellar track record of playing with fire, but that's a story for a different day. Today she was going to light the fire when Trinhity said, "Uh, Mama...er, I think you should have Daddy do that." Mama chuckled and said, "Oh, I think I've got this."

So she turned on the gas....then lit the match. You see where this is going -- know that beautiful sound when a pocket of gas ignites? WhoooooooOOOOOSHHHUUUMP. Love it. I didn't hear the ignition, but I did hear the screech.

Trinh said, "Um, yeah. That's why I thought you should have waited for Daddy."

Friends

2011-01-04T00:50:00.002-06:00

Yesterday Trinhity & I ran a few errands, and she picked up a small Cinderella doll in a bin near the checkout at Target. She's usually pretty good about not wanting too many things, and I'm usually pretty good about remaining adamant that she's got plenty of toys and doesn't need more. It's not that I never indulge those spontaneous wants, and I don't say she can't ask -- but I've been careful to ensure that she doesn't expect to get actually get anything. Especially if it isn't on sale.

This one wasn't, and she didn't get it. She was a bit grumpy as I loaded her and our stuff into the car, but she was also tired. I wasn't sure if she was just running low on energy or was moping about not having gotten the toy.

A few minutes later she asked what I thought was a complete nonsequitur: "Daddy, do you have lots of friends?"

I said yes, I'd like to think I have a few good friends, and I'm thankful for them. She replied, "Do you have more than 1 or 2 really best bestest friends?" I demurred slightly, but generally agreed that yes, I have more than a 2 really good friends.

"Daddy, if you only had 1 or 2 friends and no other friends in the whole world, would you be sad?"

I started to get nervous. I still couldn't tell where this was going, but a warning light flickered that maybe this wasn't idle kindergartner chit-chat. I tried to hedge: "Well, I'd be thankful that I had those 1 or 2 friends. Better than none!"

The curve: "Hmm. But isn't it better to have more than 1 or 2 bestest friends to make you happy?" Couldn't deny that one. "Sure, dear. It's always good to have more friends."

The slider: "That's what I thought too. See, I'm worried about Ariel and Jasmine being sad because they only have each other. That's why I wanted to buy the Cinderella doll, so they could have more friends and they'd all be happy! But now they'll just have to be lonely..."

Current Age: 5.5 years. I'm already outta my league.

Masterpiece

2011-01-02T19:55:00.001-06:00

Pictures like this always make me smile. Every day of the year is Christmas when I'm given artwork like this.

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The Lonely Side

2010-12-27T22:21:00.003-06:00

The morning before last Trinhity awoke early, as she usually does, before her brother and me. She planted a kiss on my cheek, which she often does, and it's very sweet....but this time I was also very asleep. Apparently I didn't respond warmly enough, and she got a bit miffed. She eventually abandoned the big bed for the little bed, where she did bundled under the covers and sulked. I stirred a few minutes later when I heard her scrambling about, and she showed me this:
She's been sounding out words lately and trying to write them. It's supposed to say "Side of Lonely", and I wouldn't be surprised if she reversed the "S" just for effect. In other words, my lack of attention forced her out of the warm, snuggly place and into a cold wasteland. Bad (sleepy) Daddy....

Ambi

2010-12-18T20:09:00.001-06:00

One of Daddy's not entirely secret vanities is his ambidextrous chopstick prowess. There are cultural reasons why such skills are a rarity, especially in Asia, but it's occasionally convenient at cramped tables. It's also a fun egotrip to mess with the "Do you need a fork, sir?" types. Call it an egg's homage to Westley and Inigo.

So it gave me great pleasure tonight at dinner to note that Trinh was eating her phở with chopsticks in her left hand. She wasn't doing too badly, but she was having more trouble than usual.

We both cracked up when she looked up in frustration and said, "Do you think I forgot how to do this?" She switched hands and blew through the rest of her noodles...

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Welcome Back

2010-12-13T19:08:00.001-06:00

I spent most of yesterday laid up in bed with a nasty one-day flu-like bug. Trinh made me this picture and message as a 'Welcome Back from Being Sick' party. It's good to be the Daddy.

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Jillianna

2010-12-04T11:09:00.001-06:00

Trinhity saw this car today in the parking lot at gymnastics and decided she's in love with it. She wants one. She's going to name it "Jillianna".

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Pilgrim Pride

2010-11-17T22:20:00.003-06:00

One of the mom's from Trinhity's school volunteered to sew the pilgrim outfits and embroider each child's name on their outfit. Wow! The kids looked really cute for their Thanksgiving feast....

Here is our little pilgrim back in her classroom eating dessert...

For some reason she decided that she was too shy to take pictures with daddy...

I took her to school today and the Thanksgiving decorations were all put away and the Christmas decorations are all up. We adore the parents who decorated the classroom but we can't help but disagree on displaying Christmas at school before the Thanksgiving holidays are even here!! The kids are excited of course for the change but some of the children were confused since the calendar is still set on November. There is still two more days until the children break for the Thanksgiving holiday, couldn't it have waited?? Oh well.

One of the life lessons of parenthood: pick your battles. I am choosing to fight less and less these days.

Where's the Turkey?

2010-11-17T09:56:00.002-06:00

We drive by a 59 Diner restaurant on our way home from school. There was a huge inflatable turkey on top of the restaurant earlier this month. But this week, it has been replaced by a huge Santa inflatable. It's annoying since Thanksgiving is not until next week, and they have already bypassed the holiday for Christmas. So much for the season of giving thanks.... and onto the season of gifts and 'gimme more'...

The first time I noticed that the turkey had been replaced, I asked the kids, "Hey, what happened to the big turkey?" Trinh replies, "Santa ate him!" This cracked us all up. So now, when we pass the big Santa, Trinh tells a new story about how the turkey disappeared and got replaced by Santa. Today, she says, "Santa beat up the turkey and took it's place!" And you know what? I think that's exactly what happened...

Daddy doesn't...

2010-11-06T17:37:00.002-05:00

Mama's finally taking a well-deserved vacation next week, a girls' weekend with her Cali crew. Me, I'm psyched. I've been looking forward to some dedicated Daddy Time for weeks. It's gonna be great.

So tonight while running some errands I asked Trinhity how she felt about Mommy leaving. She looked out the window and said, "Well, I guess it just means we'll have to spend the whole week at BaBa's house....because DADDY DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO WIPE MY BUTT."

She said it with a completely straight face, but her eyes were twinkling. I processed that for a second, then said, "Hey, are you messing with me?" She still played it straight and gave me a withering look. "No, Daddy," she said. Still twinkling.

Finally she lost it and busted up laughing. I asked again, "Are you messing with me?" She goes, "OH Yeah....baaaaby."

Bat Family Halloween

2010-10-31T21:34:00.000-05:00

A Holiday

2010-10-31T00:55:00.003-05:00

Trinh asked some big questions tonight: "Daddy, when the world explodes and everyone dies, then what will happen?" We worked on that for awhile, and it led to other questions. We covered the Biblical creation story, the Fall, sin, justice, brushed up against damnation, then wrapped up with a heavenly flourish. Along the way we had this exchange:

Daddy: "Yes, that's right. Christians are people who believe in Jesus Christ. Not everyone believes in Jesus, of course. We do. Other people believe in a God called "Allah", and they have a different belief about Jesus. Still other people believe in something like heaven, but not in God or Allah or Jesus. Some of those 'other' people have literally saved my life, several times. What do we call God?"

T3: "God."

Daddy: "Yes, exactly! And God's son is named..."

T3: "Jesus."

Daddy: "Righteous! And Jesus was born on...."

T3: "Christmas!!"

Daddy: "Yep. And he died on a cross on..."

T3: [brow furrows, pauses for reflection] "...a holiday?"

BATGIRL

2010-10-30T15:56:00.000-05:00

...and her Batty Family.

Actually, Trinhity had originally wanted to be a mermaid for Halloween. Taison wanted to be BATMAN. When Trinh saw the Batgirl costume, well, she thought it was super cool. So, we are all going as superheros this year. More pictures tomorrow...

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-13T19:39:00.000-05:00

Reading Book

2010-09-27T13:44:00.003-05:00

Trinhity got her first reading book this weekend! She was so proud. WE were so proud! She's been in Kindergarten for a little over a month and she's already reading. How crazy is that? The story she read to us was called Max. Max is a cat. Max sat and sat and sat. There was a bad rat. Max is mad at the bad rat. Max nabs the bad rat with a pan and a fat ham. This story was much more fun than the Dick & Jane books that I remember reading as a child.

Why did you have kids??

2010-09-27T13:31:00.002-05:00

Mama was feeling a bit stressed out one day and went into "Mommy Monster" mode. The house was a mess, there were toys everywhere, the kids were screaming & running around, and life for the moment was utter chaos. So Mama yelled, and she got mad, and she tried to reduce the entropy in her little world.

Trinh states very matter of factly: Mommy, why did you have kids? You KNEW it would be like this!

[stunned silence]

Dinner

2010-09-18T13:01:00.000-05:00

Somewhere over the rainbow...

2010-09-18T12:19:00.001-05:00

Sassy, Fierce, Stubborn, Loving

2010-09-18T12:16:00.003-05:00

kindergarten

2010-09-18T12:12:00.001-05:00

Princess started kindergarten last month. Unbelievable. The transition was actually not that painful since we continued her at the little private school that she had been attending since she was three. She knew the school, the staff, and most importantly the kids. The most difficult transition for her was the fact that she had to attend EVERY DAY and that her days were longer. But all in all, it was a smooth transition and she has been enjoying school for the most part. No tears, no drama, and lots of smiles!

The parents though, had quite a bit of drama before kindergarten even started. You see, the school tested their students to see what class level the kids belonged in. There are four different kindergarten classes. FOUR. Trinhity's test results and the fact that she was a young five (June birthday) placed her in the third level class. The first level class is actually a pre-first grade and the students here are already reading. We knew she didn't belong there but we felt that she did belong in the second level class. Her fours teacher agreed. So after two discussions with the teacher who administered the test and three discussions with the owner of the school, we finally got her into what we feel is the correct classroom. We were not expecting this type of drama and stress for kindergarten placement.... really.

I don't remember trying to learn how to read in kindergarten. Trinhity, after a month of school, is already starting to try to read three and four letter words. This is significant in that before school, she had absolutely no interest in phonics or learning how to read. Interesting to us how much the kindergarten curriculum has changed in the past 20 years. She has Spanish class two days a week and they having cooking activities several times a month.

BTW, she's been obsessed with Beyonce's "Single Ladies". She's doing the "single ladies" dance in these photos. :-)

Netptune v. Daddy

2010-08-08T08:27:00.002-05:00

Trinh was on a roll yesterday. We hit a garage sale on our way to run some errands, and she scored a King Neptune action figure from The Little Mermaid. His scepter was broken, which we hadn't noticed at the time, but he had the long white beard and bulging muscles.

She was playing with it at lunch, and Mommy asked, "Trinh, does King Neptune look like Daddy?" She said, "Noooo. King Neptune doesn't have all that hair! And Daddy has muscles...but his muscles are invisible...."
[sigh]

It's Over

2010-08-07T15:36:00.001-05:00

Another family bed episode from today, this time with all of us wrestling:
Daddy: "OK, OK...that's enough, I give up! It's over when somebody gets licked in the eyeball..."
Trinh: "No, Daddy...it's not over until somebody gets peed on!!!"

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UnHairy Eyeballs

2010-08-07T09:23:00.001-05:00

Silly morning conversation in the family bed:

Daddy: "Trinh, who has more hair -- Mommy or Daddy?"
Trinh: "Daddy!"
Mommy: "Trinh, what part of Daddy *doesn't* have hair?"
Trinh: "His eyeballs!"

Colorado Camping: T3's Take

2010-08-03T01:19:00.007-05:00

Got back late tonight from five days of (mostly) camping in Colorado with Trinhity. It was, for me, priceless. Or, as she put it when someone asked how it was going, "Daddy thinks it's like a magic dream!" Well, yes, something like that.

I took a bunch of pix with the DSLR that we'll post later, but I also turned Trinh loose with the old Sony pocket-sized camera. It was her first time playing with an 'adult' camera for an extended period of time, and she loved it. I gave her only three rules:

Don't drop it.
Stop trying to take close-up pictures of people emerging from public toilets.
Stop taking pictures of my ass.

Otherwise, no holds barred. I've been really excited to see what she captured. There's a lot less junk than I expected, and I found enough quirky and amusing shots to be worth a posting. Here's an abridged but otherwise completely unaltered glimpse into a backcountry adventure through the lens of a roving five year old princess...

Summer

2010-07-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

Fourth of July

2010-07-24T22:05:00.000-05:00

We got only little, kid-friendly fireworks to set off this year. And yes, in Texas, fire and explosives can be made kid-friendly.... right?? Trinhity thought it was great fun. But Taison found the fireworks to be too loud and too scary.

Vu Family

2010-07-24T21:12:00.001-05:00

Di Van & Uncle Trevor

2010-07-24T20:58:00.002-05:00

Uncle Trevor and Di Van drove down from Manchester, New Hampshire to visit us in early July. Trinh was ecstatic to have time to play with her aunt & uncle. We try to get a photo of them with the kids every time we see them.

Getting two kids in one photo can be quite a task...

Di Trang...

2010-07-24T20:45:00.001-05:00

... is one of Trinh's most favorite people in the whole world!!

Headache

2010-06-25T12:03:00.003-05:00

So this morning, Trinh & Mama had a war... it was the battle of bad breath. Seaweed vs. Coffee. After 5minutes of war which resulted in peals of laughter & giggles Trinh gets dramatic and says that she has a headache. Apparently, Mama's coffee breath gave her a headache.

Seaweed Kisses

2010-06-23T12:39:00.003-05:00

As many of you know, Trinhity loves to eat seaweed with rice. She eats it everyday. If she had her way, she would eat it for breakfast, lunch, & dinner. If you couldn't already guess, seaweed has a distinct odor. Some would say it stinks. It can be especially foul on a young princess's breath. Hence, it has recently been a delight for her to give "seaweed kisses". BLECH!

Happy Daddy's Day!

2010-06-20T00:00:00.001-05:00

I love you Daddy! Thank you for being both my prince AND my pony. Thank you for sleeping with me at nights; it makes me feel safe and I love sleeping on the Daddy pillow. Thank you for coming home from work early despite your meetings and production problems so that you can give me and my brother a bath and put us to sleep at night. Thank you for reading stories to me. Thank you for playing my favorite game, "Daddy Monster," even though sometimes I know you don't really want to run around being chased and beaten up by little kids. Thank you for doing the Single Ladies dance with me. Thank you for making me a priority. Thank you for playing with me and letting me know that you love me. Thank you for being the best Daddy in the whole world! I love you. Happy Daddy's Day!

Fun in the park with my BFF

2010-06-15T15:01:00.001-05:00

Pretty Me

2010-06-15T14:59:00.000-05:00

We went to a wedding this week. A Houston garden wedding in June can be hot. But as a kid, it's totally acceptable to dunk your head in the ice bucket of drinks to cool off. And if you are Trinhity, you can still come out looking cute.

Family...

2010-06-15T14:54:00.000-05:00

Daddy's Guitar Lessons

2010-06-08T20:10:00.004-05:00

Some of you may have seen that Daddy has been teaching Tai Tai how to play guitar. You may have also noticed that he is working very hard to perfect his guitar face.

Trinh says that this is her focusing face. It is not her guitar face. She says she doesn't have a guitar face.

Some of us are just too cute to have a guitar face.

FIVE!!

2010-06-07T20:26:00.014-05:00

Princess turned FIVE on Saturday!!
OMG, how did that happen?!!!??

Mama asked her a couple of months ago what kind of party she wanted for her birthday. Her response was a MERMAID party. So a mermaid party she got!!

[click on any of the images below for a larger view]

Mama likes the Oriental Trading Company...a lot. Per Trinh's request, our living room was transformed into an underwater birthday haven with roughly 50 inflatable fish and almost 500ft of streamers. She was a huge help in the planning and execution of this fete. She blew up fish, taped up streamers, and even cut out the crab & starfish "place mats" above. When we went to Galveston last month, she personally selected each seashell and rejected the ones that just weren't up to her mermaid standards.

Her BFF had a pinata at her birthday last month so Trinh decided she needed a pinata too. She wanted a unicorn... no princess... no unicorn... pinata. But Mama reminded her of her mermaid birthday theme so we decided that a fish would be good. Trinhity decided that she would like to make her pinata. Mama, not thinking too clearly at the time, said Yes. Thank God for the internet!!

Trinhity drew this picture during the planning stages and decided that this was how the pinata would look:

That's her on the left and her brother on the right. The other two girls were her friends from school. It had to be a rainbow fish that was mostly pink and sparkly and had to have eyelashes because girls have eyelashes and Trinhity likes all things girly.

This was her pinata:

She designed the eyes & mouth and glued more than half of the scales on the body. :-)

It was almost 100 degrees out so we did everything inside. Here are the little mermaids trying to catch the fish:

The birthday girl taking a swing at the pinata:

We made mermaid tails for all of her little girlfriends. Trinhity designed those as well :-). Mama took her to the fabric store and she went up and down the aisles fingering the fabrics. She had definite ideas about the material and rejected all of Mama's suggestions. She chose a glittering blue satin and she wanted it to be a dress, not just a tail. Again, we are amazed at how decisive this child is. She rarely wavers nor is easily persuaded once her mind is set.

The aftermath:

A HUGE thanks to Pirate Captain Robert for helping the little mermaids by dealing the final blows (blind no less) to the pinata...

...and for leading them on their scavenger hunt in search of hidden treasures.

The little mermaids making beaded seashell necklaces:

The birthday cake:

Sadly, Taison missed the majority of the party because he was napping. Trinhity was sad and kept asking for him. He was staying over at Ba Ba's and took an unusually long nap (that, and there was some miscommunication about the time the party started... oops!). But, he arrived in time for the cake and he ran into the house and seated himself promptly next to his sister!

Daddy had to hold back Tai Tai because he wanted to blow out the candles.
(Anyone notice anything different about Pirate Daddy??)

Taison cried when we took the cake away to cut it.
He made everyone laugh because he was putting fist-fulls of cake in his mouth.

Happy Birthday Princess Mermaid Trinhity. We love you dearly... you are our beloved precious daughter. We know you won't possibly remember these times, but we will, and we love creating these memories for both you and for us.

Big Girl Bike

2010-06-07T20:09:00.003-05:00

Trinhity got a big girl Hello Kitty 16" bike with training wheels for her birthday... the exact one that her BFF has! She was quite happy about her bike!

Though today we didn't ride the bike due to the pending rain, we played instead, inside the bike box. Some things never change....

Pinnochio Daddy

2010-05-30T20:40:00.001-05:00

Tonight I was consoling Trinhity after she'd accidentally conked her
little brother's head with a toy. It was an accident that should have
been avoided, and I fussed at her about doing something dangerous. She
went overboard with the self-flaggelation, sobbing about how she's a
terrible big sister and the like.

Awhile later after she'd calmed down, we were talking about how
sometimes she takes too much blame for things that aren't her fault.

Out of the blue she says, "Yes, Daddy. You have that problem with
Mommy, and I have that problem with Tai Tai. We both need to work on
that."

The child is FOUR. Well, almost five. But I didn't have that clarity
until my mid-30s, and I'm still struggling with it. Good LORD.

Later she told me that my nose was getting longer when I tried to
defend myself about a similarly deep psychological topic. She's SO her
mother's daughter in some ways.

Didn't you JUST eat??

2010-05-25T15:50:00.002-05:00

It's 3:50PM. Mama has been trying to eat a sandwich now for over an hour. There have been three bites taken out of it this far between reading a story, tending to snotty noses, helping with a craft, etc. This is not a snack. This is lunch.

Trinh: "Mama, can you help me?" (she is continuing with her crafts)

Mama: "Mama needs to eat lunch. Mama's hungry."

Trinh: "Didn't you eat cereal already?"

[sigh] Cereal was consumed at 9:30AM for breakfast. Mama is hungry....

The Spring Show

2010-05-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

Trinh had her Spring Show back in May. The kids belted out Disney tunes for their families to enjoy. She even had lines she had to memorize and recite. It was really cute to hear 4 year olds sing "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"!

Mama & Princess at the cookies and punch reception afterwards.

More Galveston

2010-05-18T21:37:00.002-05:00

Check out pix of Tai Tai on his blog...

QUIZ: which one is mine?

2010-05-16T10:34:00.002-05:00

Daddy here, somewhat depressed. If you'd have told me 10 years ago that today I'd be coloring a My Little Pony, much less in the presence of a guest, I'd have thought you insane.

However, if you'd also have told me that my finished My Little Pony crayola masterpiece would be almost indistinguishable from that of my 4-year old daughter, I'd have at least been skeptical.

Reality bites. One of these three My Little Ponies is mine. Which one? Leave your answer as a comment.

Feed the birds....

2010-05-13T15:39:00.001-05:00

...tuppence a bag....

We shamelessly fed the seagulls stale cereal & bread in hopes of getting some shots with the kids.

By the time we got the camera, they lost interest in chasing the birds....

The next generation

2010-05-13T15:17:00.000-05:00

When I was little, I talked to my friends on the telephone. My daughter, at 4, is using Google Video to chat with her BFF.

They talk about what they are doing. They show each other their toys. They giggle. They had lunch together... virtually. They show each other their tongues and eyeballs and feet. And when they run out of silly things to giggle about, they draw faces on their feet and show those to the laptop. And yes, both girls are on laptops. Trinhity is on Mama's Macbook... her BFF has one-upped her and is chatting from her very own netbook complete with hot pink Hello Kitty skin and case. Yes, these girls are 4 & 5.

We can only wonder what they will be doing as teenagers and how they will use technology in their lives.

Hopefully, though, they will still retain some of the silly little girlishness that is so fun at this age...

Galveston 2010

2010-05-13T14:18:00.000-05:00

Art

2010-04-26T14:23:00.003-05:00

Ballerinas on stage

Our family from L-R: Tai, Trinh, Mama, Daddy
She drew this and cut out the images herself.

This one was from school and was part of her assessment done back in January. She was given half of a girl and she filled in the other half.

This one was also a part of her assessment at school. Her teacher gave everyone a blank page and gave oral instructions on what to draw. For example, the children were told to draw a blue square in the center of the page, put an "X" on the corners, draw a red heart in the middle of the square, etc. The only thing she did incorrectly was to place the orange rectangle and the purple oval in opposite places. She still is struggling with distinguishing left and right (her Mama still has problems with this as well). Of the 12 kids in her class, only three of the pictures looked somewhat like what they were supposed to while most of the others ranged from scribbles to having only about half of the elements present in the drawing.

A picture she drew for Tai Tai at school during her free time:

A few months back she had a slight obsession with the movie Wall-E. This is a survey she created with some spelling help from Daddy.

Ants marching:

Decorations for our house that she made and hung up herself. These were up in our house for about 3 months.

Cowgirl

2010-04-26T14:00:00.001-05:00

She went to a western themed birthday party for her bestest friend from school. Our cowgirl of course decided that all cowgirls wear boots and thus donned her rainboots for the event. Very cowgirl-chic, no?

Here she is beating the hell out of the pinata. All sound and fury.... she made Daddy proud. (Click on the image below to get a larger image for the full effect)

Zoo field trip

2010-04-26T13:58:00.000-05:00

Class field trip to the Houston Zoo.

Just For Fun

2010-04-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

Spring projects

2010-04-26T12:14:00.002-05:00

Trinhity's been helping to get the garden prepped this Spring. She didn't like the way Mama trimmed up the Japanese boxwood so she gave her some creative suggestions as to how to improve the general landscaping of the yard. Initially, she wanted a rabbit, or a bird. Mama convinced her that this would be within the realm of possibility:

We had a colder winter this year so the frost killed off a lot of the plants in our yard. We've been busy planting flowers and vines to lure butterflies to our yard. We have milkweed which is a host plant for the monarch butterfly. Below is a small caterpillar which has probably already gone off to create a chrysalis and is well on it's way to becoming a monarch butterfly by now.

Although the kids love having the butterfly garden, Taison is a bit rough with the plants and "pets" and tends to stomp on all things growing and creeping. Darwinism at it's finest.... played out right here in our backyard!

One of our projects this year -- the new patio and pergola:

Trinhity loves her new "roof" and all the colorful pebbles that we had put in. And what does a kid do with rocks? She stacks, paints, and draws on them of course.

Spring Festival & Easter Breakfast

2010-04-26T12:09:00.000-05:00

We attended the annual Spring festival in our subdivision again this year. There is always an egg hunt for the children. This year, Trinhity decided she wanted to use her Halloween ghost bag instead of her Easter basket. Ok.

As usual, there were games, moonwalks, pony rides, and a petting zoo.

She had her first taste of cotton candy this year. She liked the first few bites and then decided it was enough. Taison didn't care for it.

On Easter morning, we had a mini Easter basket hunt in the house and the kids got to eat their chocolate bunnies for breakfast.

Art: Sculptures

2010-04-26T12:02:00.000-05:00

Trinh has been very busy creating pictures and materpieces.

Here is an ant that she created from a K'nex building set that Daddy picked up from a yard sale. We were floored when she showed this to us. She created this all on her owns. There were no pictures of anything resembling what she created. Her ant is even anatomically correct. It has 6 legs, antennae, and the body is divided into three sections. Amazing!

Here is a dragon she made with simple wooden blocks. Again, there were no pictures to guide her... only her imagination.

Totally Random

2010-04-26T11:50:00.000-05:00

From the Rodeo Round Up party at school in March:

Her mouse ears from Country Mouse/City Mouse Day at school:

Static:

Proof that we have been to the establishment where a kid can be a kid:

Been too long again...

2010-04-26T11:45:00.000-05:00

Sage Travel Advice

2010-04-16T18:40:00.002-05:00

I'm currently stuck in the Budget Terminal at Changi Airport in Singapore because I missed my 06:25 flight to Kuala Lumpur because the transit hotel was in Terminal 1 and my bags were in Terminal 2 and the trains weren't running at o'dark early and....well, never mind.

Point is, I've got a couple hours to kill and they've got free wireless in the terminal. Just did a video Skype with the kids, and Trinh gave me a couple of really sage pieces of travel advice:

"Daddy, listen to me. Never ever ever stick your head outside the window of the airplane. You have to promise me, OK?!? Oh...and also, don't drink the toilet water. "

Does it get better than that?

Sheets & Clouds

2010-04-01T12:36:00.003-05:00

Before the kids came the not-yet Mama-san made a minor sanctuary of our bed: 300+ count sheets, down duvet, everything white. We called it The Cloud.

Recently we've been encouraging Trinhity to sleep in "her" bed as she showed some interest in laying claim to the nearly-unused toddler bed (which uses the mattress from the nearly-unused crib) which has been sitting idle in a corner of the kids' room for YEARS.

To move this along we offered to get her some sheets that she'd like. Princesses, that's what she wanted. We still haven't given in completely to the commercialized stuff, so we eschewed the Disney princess themed bedset and talked her into a nice, colorful set with funky flowers.

She slept in it for almost a week, but she's been sick the last few nights and wanted to sleep with me instead. The first night she claimed that her bed was too lonely, but last night she started a new refrain: "Daddy, your bed is just so soft! It's like a feather. My bed is soooo scratchy."

I didn't know what the thread count on sheets meant until at least my early 30s, and I still don't really notice when the sheets are scratchy. I can't help but think that the Mama-san has played some role in our daughter's newfound high-brow taste in sheets.

But after that came my favorite part: "Daddy, your bed is like sleeping on a pillow! But it's soooo boring. Don't they make soft sheets like that with actual COLORS?"

And now I've found myself actually surfing for 300+ count sheets for a toddler bed. Never thought I'd see the day.

Bad Neighbors

2010-03-10T20:14:00.002-06:00

Today while the kids were playing in the front yard, the slightly older girls (6.5) from across the street came to join the fun. Trinh was just about to get onto her scooter when Comet (not her real name) swiped it, pushed Trinhity away and took off down the sidewalk.

The Mama-san caught the last bit of that episode and saw Trinh's long face. She asked what happened, and Trinh replied, "Mommy, she took my scooter. I was playing with it and she just took it. She didn't ask or anything."

The Mama-san called after the little hoodlum, who blatantly ignored her. The girls' father was standing next to Trinhity in our driveway, mere feet from the scene of the crime; he said nothing. Finally, after the Mama-san yelled several times, Comet reluctantly came back...but not before completing her loop. She didn't bring the scooter to Trinhity; she drove it past Trinhity.

Trinh politely said, "Thank you." These are the things that make you proud of your children's fine character.

Then, seconds later when Trinhity finally laid hands on her scooter again, she turned around and declared to the father, "And that's why my Daddy doesn't like these kids!"

These are the things that make you...uh...er....

from out of the mouth of babes

2010-03-09T16:45:00.001-06:00

Today at one point the Mama-san asked Trinh if she was OK, if she was having fun. She replied, "I always have fun, Mommy."

"You are just like your Daddy."

"I'm just like Mommy too. I can get out of hard conversations!"

The Twinkle

2010-03-07T22:47:00.002-06:00

Last Friday Trinhity took her first placement test at school, and she got an 86.5%. We were pleased, but the question about which level of kindergarten (yes, there are several) she should enter still generated considerable discussion.

Several of those conversations were held in her presence. She's all ears, no matter what she's doing, so we're always very careful to ensure that she's either directly included in any of those discussions or at least that we don't say anything around her that we know will give her cause to fret. Perhaps not all kids are so completely tuned in, but it's clear that not all adults are attuned to this dynamic.

At least, that's what I suspect triggered her teary confession tonight where, after several other melodramatic episodes, she sobbed that she was afraid she wasn't smart enough.

"Oh baby," I said, "most of us are afraid that we aren't smart enough, and anyone who thinks they are probably isn't."

"Daddy, who do you know thinks they're smart but isn't?" Oh boy.

I tried to dodge that one by saying, "Well, I can think of a few people, but I know that you're very, very intelligent. Do you know how I know? Because when I caught you as you came out of your Mama's belly and looked into your eyes, you looked right back at me. You looked deep inside me, and in your eyes I saw a wise soul, a person with depth and sparkling intelligence, someone who was already processing the world and making connections...even in your first few seconds of life."

All of that is true, btw. She replied, "Daddy, when I looked deep inside you, what did I see?"

Aw, hell. Wasn't ready for that one. "Uh, you saw my inner child." NICE. "Daddy, what's an inner child? Does that mean I'm your outer child?" Oh geez.

A couple minutes later after trying valiantly to explain "young at heart" and "old soul" in terms understandable by a 4.5 year old, I got back to telling her she was smart. "And do you know what I see? I see a twinkle in your eyes, a bright sparkle that tells me how intelligent you are."

At this point she's staring into my eyes, almost back to being silly and playful, when she says quite seriously, "Daddy...I'm looking into your eyes, but I don't see any sparkles."

Fercrissakes. Then, to top it off: "No, wait! I do see something! Oh...that's just the reflection from the light in the bathroom. It's nothing."

I know you won't believe this, but...

2010-03-07T22:46:00.003-06:00

At breakfast this morning: "Daddy, I know you won't believe this, but I actually think you're an amazing cook."

I'm left to wonder what the Mama-san must say about my cooking when I'm not here...

Five minutes later: "Daddy, even though you're silly most of the time, I think I still like you."

Great. Interesting. I wonder what else the day has in store...

The Face

2010-03-02T23:04:00.005-06:00

Tonight the Mama-san told me that earlier in the week Trinhity asked her, "Mommy, what does God look like?" It's a grand question, of course. I'd like to know myself.

"Mommy, is God a boy or a girl?" Again, something I've wondered myself. Mama answered, "Well, God is probably both a boy and a girl, but also neither." A worthy answer, and ironic: it's a dichotomy that perhaps only a child would truly be able to grasp.

Trinh replied, "OK. But I think He's a boy." She went on, "I'm going to draw a picture of him. But Mommy, all my pictures of boys look the same. Except for Tai Tai because his hair goes up. But all the other boys, their hair goes down. I'll have to draw God so He looks like all the other boys."

Me, all I could think of was Borges:

...Mankind has lost a face, an irretrievable face, and all have longed to be that pilgrim — imagined in the Empyrean, beneath the Rose — who in Rome sees the Veronica and murmurs in faith, “Lord Jesus, my God, true God, is this then what Thy face was like?”

...If we truly knew what it was like, the key to the parables would be ours and we would know whether the son of the carpenter was also the Son of God.

...Perhaps a feature of the crucified face lurks in every mirror; perhaps the face died, was erased, so that God may be all of us.

Who knows but that tonight we may see it in the labyrinth of dreams, and tomorrow not know we saw it.

[shamefully excerpted from Paradiso, XXXI, 108 by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Mildred Boyer, from the compilation in Dreamtigers. The full text, which you really should read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, and which I probably should never have dared abstract, is here.]

WANTED:

2010-02-28T12:03:00.004-06:00

$10,000 REWARD
paid in gold coin for the apprehension of

TRINH TRINH the kid

wanted in 6 counties for
kid nappings and cereal killings
suspect will be armed, legged and dangerous

Daddy

2010-02-17T20:58:00.004-06:00

Making gluten-free cookies with Daddy at a beach-house we rented back in August:

Singing, whilst partaking in chocolate fondue.
We sing a lot here in the Clark house.

Ong

2010-02-17T20:58:00.001-06:00

Valentines

2010-02-17T20:55:00.002-06:00

We made Valentines for her class this year.

Trinhity loves the idea of making Valentines, she's a bit of a hopeless romantic. She's been making Valentines almost everyday for the past few weeks. It's pretty sweet. Maybe you will see one of her special creations in the mail....

Artwork

2010-02-17T20:54:00.002-06:00

These random drawings were all done in late 2009.

Her coloring last year had a calico-esque quality to them.
She has now taken on a stained-glass look in her drawings.

You can see that some of her pictures are influenced by the things that she watches. There were many drawings of Stitch a few months ago. Her latest influence is Wall-E.

This isn't a drawing per se, but it's a gem and we forgot to post it at Christmas. It's too cute not to share.

The Year of the Tiger

2010-02-17T20:51:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day was also Tết, the lunar new year. We didn't have a big celebration this year, but we did have dinner with Ong Ba.