Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Taking it WAY back

On November 3, 1996, an 18 yr old kid made his NBA basketball debut. At the time, he was the youngest player ever to play in the NBA. Although he first wore #8, later in his career, he wore #24 for the Los Angeles Lakers. But back to that first game on 11-3-1996. He missed his only shot, committed a turnover and committed a foul; he went scoreless. Fast forward to 2014. That kid, Kobe Bryant, still plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. He has scored 31,700 points in his career to date, good enough for fourth all-time. Did I mention he has won 5 championships, league MVP, 15 time all-star, blah, blah, blah...?



Last week, another #24 made his basketball debut for the Lakers. (YMCA Jr. Lakers, that is). At 3 yrs, 5 months, Sydney Bing Xian Wang played his first basketball game. Like that Kobe Bryant guy, he went scoreless in the game. It appears these two players have a few other things in common. Both appear to be emotional players. Sydney managed to cry and play at the same time. He was running up and down the court.. all while crying. Both appear to be dedicated. Although he was crying, Sydney stuck to it. Many players would have just ran to the sidelines, to Mom and/or Dad. But not Sydney; he stuck it out. His expressive nature did make for some good photos though...

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Something is Missing

Another blog post and video dedicated to Sydney bike riding. But look closely... Notice something missing?? NO TRAINING WHEELS!!! That's right. Sydney has ditched his training wheels, gained his sense of balance and is now off and riding. Going straight, he does great. Turning and operating the coaster brake are going to need a little practice. In other words, he's ready to be a velodrome rider right now! Be sure to check out Da Boys "Oh Yeah celebration"... Personally, I think this dance is going to be bigger than "Gangnam Style"...

Ready to ride


MVI 8731 from p wang on Vimeo.



" OH YEAH! Celebration

MVI 8740 from p wang on Vimeo.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Road Trip 2014

We took a family roadtrip to the valley of the sun... AKA Phoenix, Arizona. Yup, Arizona, in July. Yup, we knew what the temperatures were like in Arizona, in July, before we left Southern California. Yup, we took the trip willingly. Because, we had two destinations; both had pools. We launched on Saturday morning, and made it to the Cali/ Az border before stopping for lunch. We let Da Boys loose in a McDonalds Play Place (What a brilliant marketing idea) to burn off some energy. Mommy and Daddy passed on the McDonalds food (HA, we outsmarted the marketers) and got takeout from the BBQ place next door and brought it over to eat while watching Da Boys. We then stopped for some pix commorating Da Boys first inter-state trip.

We arrived at our first destination (The Roberts family hotel and resort) in about 6.25 hours. Here Da Boys enjoyed the pool, complete with water toys (re: water guns!!!), inflatable basketball hoop and various floatation devices.

The hosts threw a party in our honor, and even shaped the menu to my liking; Carne Asada and Pollo Asado tacos. And for dessert, they served Smores over an open fire pit. Yup, open fire pit, with real flames, in July, in Arizona... Yup, the smores were my request, and nope, I didn't think that one through... Fire in the Arizona summer, not very smart decision by me.


On Sunday, we went to destination #2... Arizona Grande Resort and Spa. The main attraction here was the "Oasis" water park. It had a lazy river, a wave pool, a kiddy pool with splash pad.. and giant water slides.


Da Boys initially enjoyed all the aforementioned features, except for the water slide. There was a minimum height requirement of 48"... And Casey is currently about 47.95" tall. But, above and beyond that, he was scared of the water slide, and didn't want to try it. Apparently, he forgot about the summer of 2012, when he last bombed down a water slide...Rewind back to the summer of 2012.

So, we did what all responsible, loving parents do... We bribed him... to try it once. And that once is all it took. After that initial ride, Casey wanted to ride that darn slide... Over and over again. And so, being loving parents, we rode that slide with him... over and over again... for the next day and a half!!!

Arizona Grande Waterslide from p wang on Vimeo.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Getting Edumacated

We have been pretty consistent about reading to Da Boys. The default is three books/ stories a night. Periodically, Da Boys 'read' the stories to us. They had me fooled, but apparently, they arent truly reading, they recognize the pictures, and memorized some of the words. But now, Casey is practicing actual reading.

Learning to Read from p wang on Vimeo.