Sunday Morning

After making sure Terrence was well fed, Julie and I loaded up the car for the ride up to my parent's Dana Point home to accomplish three specific task. In my dad's words: "We have three things to do if you're not too busy to drive up Sunday. 1. Susan wants to see Terrence. 2. We need to eat your mom's Bun Bo Hue. And 3. you can help me put on the base molding." Of course, my order would have been to eat my mom's Bun Bo Hue first and foremost and if the other two task gets accomplish, it's only gravy from there. ;)

I am so glad that my parents now have a house in Dana Point. I am glad not because the house is beautiful and with a great view, nor is it because it's in a nice beach community. Rather, I am just glad that the drive from San Diego to Dana Point takes only 50 minutes and you don't have to deal with any part of the LA traffic since that part really occurs shortly after the Dana Point area. The long ride, the traffic, things like that are left for us "adult" to worry about. As far as Terrence is concern, he gets a nice nap so he can prepare to play with his grandparents, aunt and uncles, or whoever may be over at the house. Problem is, he's always so stimulated by everyone that he forgets to take his usual nap in between meals. He loves to talk to new people and I hope that friendly and sociable trait continue to stay with him as his grows up.

One of the cool thing about this visit was that my Dad's old partner and friend brought over some fruits he picked from his tree but was totally foreign to me. My sister tells me it's a Fig fruit so I'll have to take her word for it. The inside of the fruit with the reddish seeds does remind me of the center of a Fig Newton so she may be right. Either way, I have never seen, nor had a fresh Fig fruit before. The way you eat it is you peel the outer skin and eat only the center. On a ripe fruit, the outer skin peels away pretty easily. The taste was sweet, but not overly so, and is soft with the seed being slightly crunchy. By the looks of the Fig fruit, I originally thought it was some exotic tropical fruit that originated from the Asian country. There are some many fruits around the world and I hope to get to try them all one day.

Below are picture of the fruity inside of the Fig fruit and a few of Terrence, taking advantage of my parents ornate furnitures. My sister hinted that she doesn't have any pictures with Terrence so I had to comply. Enjoy...

Inside of a Fig Fruit...my first time eating one

My sister Susan holding Terrence after her trip to asia

Terrence loves to suck on his hands nowadays...sometimes he goes for two as seen here

Found memories

You know, as one aspire to become a good photographer, one learn to seek out opportunities to practice the craft. During family functions like this one at Julie's baby shower, there's always plenty of willing subject. Especially willing parents hoping to get a good picture of them with their kids. I remember having fun trying to use a reflector to capture the last light of the day so that my friend Denny could get a good photo of Julie's uncle and aunt, each holding their youngest daughter, Diana. Julie's uncle is super hard working and ambitious, so that takes him away from his family. So pictures like these are capture of slices in time and serve to remind us of how quickly our kids grow up each time we view the photo. I am glad I found these memories as I sorted through the digital pictures on my computer.

I am going to get some prints done so that Julie could put them in a frame and give it to her uncle and aunt. I hope they like it.

Lovely wife and camera shy son

Julie brought Terrence over in the nude for me to witness how chubby he is. He's like a mini Sumo wrestler according to Julie. I had my camera handy so I took a couple of pictures for reference later.

Sumo Terrence

I never thought my son would have man boobs

Julie put on some clothes for Terrence and brought him over to say hello to me. They both look so cute together so, you guessed it...I had to take a couple of more shots. It's so hard to get Terrence to look at the camera. I guess he's camera shy like his dad. Mom is looking lovelier each day. I guess the joy of being a mom is radiating through.

Mommy and son, adorable duo

Julie looks so pretty

At home today

I was wondering if I should head into work or not this morning. Decided on the latter and glad I did. Got to spend some time with Terrence. He was talking up a storm as usual and yelling at the fish on his bouncer. He was so funny and made me laugh so much, I took a couple of quick snapshot. He was telling me all sorts of things. It was so adorable that was talking to me so much already at his age. Then mommy came over and finds out that he what Terrence was really telling me was that he poo'ed and needed his diapers changed. Hey, how was daddy suppose to know that he was uncomfortable when he looks so adorable at it.

Father's day 2007

Sunday was a day we collectively celebrated father's day in America, and collectively is how we begun the day. All my dad's siblings met up at Rose Hill Memorial to remember my grandfather, who is a man I looked up to and have fond memories of. I only wished he was still alive to hold his first great grandson. The first picture show some of my little cousins paying their respect to my grandfather.

Then we all went our separate ways since everyone had father day celebration of their own to get to. We left to eat some Kim Ky Hu Tieu noodles for lunch. My favorite noodle shop and I haven't found any other that makes noodles quite like they do. After lunch, we went to go look at some tiles my parents had picked out and wanted our opinion on and then off to Dana Point where my sister made reservations at Cannons, a restaurant overlooking Dana Point Harbor.

The view from Cannons was amazing. Come for coffee or dessert and take in the view. I wouldn't recommend the food unless you want to pick up something for your dogs. I'll leave it at that. After dinner, we all headed back to my parents new Dana Point home to relax, be together and enjoy the rest of the evening.

We open up gifts to my dad and gave him a couple of cards which he thoroughly enjoyed. One of the card, my lovely wife had my friend Nena translate to Vietnamese which in my opinion just convey special meanings which is amiss via English sometimes. My Mom made a special, savory and health fresh abalone soup that help to fill our unsatisfied tummies.

This year, I get to experience a lot of first because of my son. Father's day is one of those and like my dad said after reading the words written on the cards he received. A parents' love to their kids is like water in a river going downstream. There's always more abundance at the source and often times, us kids don't fully grasp how abundant that source is until our parents are no longer here with us or until we become a parent of our own. I just hope that as I grow to become the very best of dads, that my father will see that the my own abundance source of love for my own children is because I recognize and received all the love that have flowed down from him. Happy Father's Day dad. You're the best.

More picture after the link: http://dhphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/3022546/1/164212391

My little cousins showing their respects to their grandfather

My dear father

Mmmmm...tasty mudpie

My sister, dad and mom with Terrence

Laughing at the card

Julie found the show color that I wasn't able to get a hold of

Uncle Walton and Aunt Nancy brought back a gift from NY for Terrence

Oink...oink

As a father, you worry about giving your kids any kind of complex that would affect them negatively in their life. Call me a bad father, because I love to call Terrence my little piggie. He was born in the Chinese year of the pig, a golden pig that is, and like a pig, golden or not...he loves to eat. Can't you tell by the extra double chins?

Ham and his, now wife, Karin bought Terrence a 6mo-sized outfit with an embroidered pig on it. Being the fat pig that Terrence is, not even 3mo old yet and he already fits into it perfectly. Now wonder his pediatrician said he's in the 100 percentile for his weight.

Here he is wearing the outfit for the first time and it's just so fitting and cute that I had to take a few snapshots of him in it. I just hope he doesn't get a complex from his father calling him a pig all the time. Or perhaps, I should instead worry about the complex he'll no doubt develop being constantly subjected to having his picture taken by the man with the one large, black round eye?!? hehee

A shot of the embroidered pig

Terrence always likes to talk to you

My little piggie

Waking up to play with daddy

In the past few weeks, Julie and I have been implementing wake schedules and sleep schedules for Terrence. This ensure predictability and reinforces patterns that keeps mommy, daddy as well as baby happy. Unless Terrence is overly stimulated by the presence of too many grandparents, aunties and uncles joyously playing with him, he follows the schedule pretty well.

After work, around 7:30PM or so, I get the privilege of waking up the little piggie. He gets to play a little before his diaper change and then final feeding before hitting the sack at about 8:30PM. I love finding creative ways to wake him up out of his deep slumber. Today, I tried stimulating all his senses by speaking to him as well as lightly prodding him all over his body. I think all the tactile sensation makes him focus and alert, trying to figure out what's going on. And some parts just down right tickles his funny bones. He quickly became wide awake and was laughing a giggling up a storm with his daddy. I couldn't run and get my camera out any faster. Enjoy all the many faces of this adorable devil of a son I am proud to call my own.

The many faces he gave to me

Little Terrence waking up, rubbing his eyes

Giggling and playing with his daddy while mommy was preparing dinner

A glance at what daddy is up to with the big black camera pointing at his face