Father/ Son Olympics

Casey and I participated in the Father/Son Olympics held by the YMCA. The minimum age requirement was 5 years old. We decided not to go the route of the Chinese gymnastics federation and enter Sydney under a false age. Sydney attended, and assisted, but was not a fully participating member. Casey and Daddy represented the ummmm 'country' of San Diego. Our first task was to construct our flag. Casey was the chief flag designer, and he included an ocean, a gorilla, a tiger ( in honor of the SD Zoo and Wild Animal Park), and portraits of Nai-Nai and Ye-Ye ( residents of the 'country' of San Diego) on the flag.

There were 8 events.

The Paper Airplane Design and Toss: Daddy was the head airplane designer. I tried to incorporate as much of my graduate level fluid dynamics engineering education in my airplane design and construction... And I failed miserably. We took turns flying the plane, and the longest recorded flight was a whopping 5 feet! I'm pretty sure we set a new Olympic record for futility.

The Potato Sack Race: We each had to hop in separate Potato sacks; then Daddy had to drive Casey the wheelbarrow; and the last leg was a three-legged hop, with one of each of our legs tied together. The race went relatively smoothly with the exception of Daddy landing rather hard on his tailbone when trying to 'exit' the potato sack.

Photo is a little blurry, but I LOVE Casey's expression. Warms my heart!

Rock Wall Climb. Each father and son climbed the rock wall separately and recorded the cumlative time. Casey went first, and after he made it to the top of the wall, Daddy had to man up and climb to the top too. Fortunately, I didn't injure myself and, eventually, I made it to the top.

The Memory Challenge: There were playing cards turned upside down, with one heart card in each row. The task was to find, and remember the path of hearts. Sydney helped his older bro and Daddy, and together we completed the event. It was apparent that all the matching games we play around the house helped both boys. They were pretty good at remembering the location of cards.

Casey's concentration face!

Ping Pong Ball Toss: Think beer pong, minus the beer. Casey and Daddy each contributed one made 'basket' in this event.

Block Building: Essentially Jenga. The goal was to stack the building blocks as high as you could without the block falling. Again, I attempted to use my Engineering skills. I designed, and Casey and Sydney built the tower. Apparently, I should have been a civil engineer, because my building design skills were better than my airplane design skills.

Team effort!

Ring Toss: The goal was to toss hula hoops around traffic cones. With one round of practice, both Casey and I went a perfect 3-3; and as a team, we scored the max of 6 pts.

Action Shot!

Bean Bag Toss: Throwing bean bags thru holes in a target board. Getting strategic, I noticed all the holes were the same diameter, but were assigned different point values. So, we aimed for the holes with the highest point value, and both Casey and Daddy scored well. Sydney got in on the fun, and moved closer to the target. That handicap aside, he managed to throw 3 bean bags through the holes as well.

After the events were completed, lunch was served followed by closing ceremonies. It was a fun event, and cool to see the development of Da Boys.

The scores that are circled denote the highest score in the event!!

A day to remember

This one is more for me than anyone else. No cool pictures, no funny stories. Just documenting Sunday, Aug. 10th 2014. Casey and I went to El Retiro park, where there is an 8 foot basketball rim. I taught my little man how to play around-the-world, h-o-r-s-e and p-i-g. He wanted to play chicken and cow! He then suggested we play one-on-one. He was the dinosaurs and I was the sharks. It was a hot day, and I played shirtless. Casey said, " I want to take my shirt off too". There he was, a mini version of Daddy, playin ball. Then, I taught him the concept of 'shirts and skins', so when he gets older and plays pickup basketball he'll know he'll either be on the shirts team, or the skins team.

I've played a lot of basketball in my life; and this day, the first day of playing bball games with Casey ranks at the top of my list. It was a day to remember!

Small Gesture, Big Heart

Sydney wanted to play Candyland with me. He had the board all set up and the game pieces all picked out. He told me that he is green (his absolute FAVORITE color) and he picked red for me. He said green was going to go first, and red was going to go second. Just to see what his response would be, I told him that I wanted to be green. Without hesitation, he said, "OK Daddy, you are green, and you can go first". I was so touched... However, in reality, I didnt really care what color I was. So, I then decided, " I want to be yellow today". He gladly reclaimed green, but he did let me go first!

I just thought it was a sweet, thoughtful act by my little man!

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...

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.

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.

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.