Happy 3rd Birthday Nicholas

My boy turned three years old. He is such a boy. I know I've blogged in the past about how different he is from his sister but it still amazes me almost every day. They still manage to play together for hours with little to no fighting. The fighting has increased though and when it happens my own childhood memories come flooding back to me about the all the times my brother and I fought and how agitated it would make my dad. So I guess it's my turn. Nicholas at 3 loves to run, read books, play soccer and play hockey. He talks in short sentences often mixing up his French and English. I can still cuddle with him and give him kisses in the morning. I'm dreading the day where I'll be dad and he'll be a punk kid and the hugs will be non-existent let alone a civil conversation so I'll try and get my fill in while he's young. The B-day party was a bit of a non-event so I won't bother writing about it here but Nicholas was having too much fun to notice the lack of participants. I wish I could blog a bit more but with a family trip that will involve three kids 5 and under travelling 5+ hours for week long family vacation, plus our move to a new house one week after we get back and a new job for me that starts the week after I move on top of having Sophie take up more of my attention than the other two kids combined I have very little time to think about something interesting to write let alone write it down. As always if there is someone out there who has a story to add about my kids send it to me and I'll post it.

Wing Yee

Sophie had her 1-month birthday celebration recently. She is so lucky to have such a diverse set of cultures with such rich traditions. Especially when the centerpiece of those traditions usually involve amazing Chinese and Cambodian food. At the event, which took place at the outlaws house, the entire family (both mine and my wife's) showed up to take pictures with the new baby, present her with gold or red envelopes stuffed with cash, burn incense while showing respect to their ancestors and burn money (fake that can be bought in Chinatown). Some of the dishes include an entire roasted pig, shrimp and ground pork spring rolls with fish sauce, beef tripe salad, pickled (sour) vegetables, rice and other dishes that I can't remember right now. Of course to wash it all down there was your regular assortment of drinks along with some high-end cognac. I so look forward to these events which happen at least 5 to 8 times per year. The house is always packed full of people and it's a chance to sit and chat with family members or just play with their kids. Sophie slept through all the manhandling and picture taking. As part of the ceremony the outlaws give her a Chinese name. Sophie's name is Wing Yee which means something good but I'll have to do more research to figure out what that something is. Now all three kids have a Chinese name (Juliette is Wing Kay and Nicholas is Mun Ming). I'm the only one in the family without a Chinese name (or not one they'll translate for me). That's fine, as I always say, you can call me whatever you want just don't call me late for dinner.

A big fall and a exasperated 5 year old

First the fall. Nicholas has recently taken up organized soccer at a local community center. He seems to love it even though he's a few months short of the age of participation (3 and 4 year olds). I remember trying to do something similar with Juliette but she never was all that interested. Nicholas on the other hand can't get enough of it. Now whenever we're outside we play soccer regardless of where we are. Last Sunday we were playing on a quiet residential street when he fell hard on the pavement and scratched his knee. I thought to myself, well I guess that's the end of soccer for a while but in true WWE Wrestling style the boy got up, brushed off the dust and began playing again. I was amazed! If that had been Juliette she would have burst into tears and I would have had to carry her home and nurse her back to health. Nicholas was more interested in getting back to playing than crying. He fell a few more times and got up right away. Finally he fell so hard that his chin hit the ground. This time he cried for 2 minutes then shook it off and when I suggested (again) that we play on the grass he agreed.

Now for the exasperated 5 year old. I made some homemade B-day invitations for Nicholas' birthday party. We've been asking the boy for a while if he wants a Bob the Builder or Spiderman theme. He can't seem to make up his mind. So on his invitation I put them both. Juliette was around while I was showing a prototype to mom and was impressed. So I told her the next version would have the two of them fighting. Bob would pull out a hammer and Spiderman would spin his web. Then I even started acting out the fight sequence a la Street Fighter II (Juliette and Nicholas play this fighting game once in a while) with simulated fireballs and everything. Juliette just looked at me with an exasperated look and just shook her head from side to side. Mark this day on your calendar. June 1, 2005 Juliette for the first time looked at her father with the thought of, this guy is being awfully silly. It's the same look I get from my wife every day and it will be the same look that I'll get from Juliette especially when she's a teenager and she has a friend over to the house while her dad is trying to be his entertaining self.