Bill Simmons

I’m a reader of Bill Simmon’s articles on ESPN (not a listener of the podcasts though), and I finally started catching up on his article(s) from last week.  Here’s a quote relevant to raising kids (as he has 2 of his own).  I can relate.

(Important note: Being a parent of young kids sucks. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. About six months ago, I wanted to start a Twitter account of quotes my wife screamed in the heat of those my-kids-are-driving-me-crazy-moments such as these: "If you don’t stop crying, I am going to stick you in the microwave!!!!" and "Fine, climb up the stairs again; I hope you fall down, I really do!" She wouldn’t let me because she thought child services would arrest us. The truth is, every parent snaps from time to time. We can’t help it. Our kids’ job is to suck all forms of life from us, frighten us, embarrass us in public and prevent us from sleeping until they turn 4. We pretend it’s not so bad when, really, it’s mostly horrible and even somewhat indefensible. But — and this is a big but — they parcel out just enough, "Wow, I’m so glad I had kids" moments to make it all worth it. And that’s what Halloween is: an entire "Wow, I’m so glad I had kids" day. At least until they eat too much chocolate and wake us up at 5 the next morning because they’re Exorcist vomiting. But I digress.)

Video Time!!

Now that I have the DS-3 up in the office, I should be able to upload many more videos than I have been.  Here are some recent ones.

Emily Lam, the last two videos are just for you (and the rest of you who complained about poop).  Enjoy!

Kiddie Kandids, 2009-08-10

So we’ve been taking Caleb & Caris to Kiddie Kandids at Babies R Us for their major pictures.  It just so happened that we got Caleb’s 2 year pictures, and Caris’ 6 month pictures done at the same time.  So we have to take pictures with them as well.  Color & picture coordinated, here they are.

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Day Late, Dollar Short: Happy Birthday, Mommy

Happy 31st birthday, Yvonne!  Yes, her real name.

A day late, and a dollar short, but it’s still here.  Yvonne’s birthday gift was a break from the kiddos.  At the day spa of course.  I think getting away from the kids might have been enough, but I might as well send her away to something she’ll enjoy as well.

While she was over there, Caleb, Caris & I were scheming things at home.  A surprise for when Mommy comes back.

Here’s the setup.  Letters.

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If you’re interested in watching a 11+ minute video, here it is of me and Caleb finishing up the rest.

(Video coming soon after it finishes uploading.  Only 4+ hours.  I need FiOS)

Here’s the finished product.

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G.H.E.T.T.O. Part II

For the uninitiated, the title is a reference to this song.  As for the initiated, we all know that part 2 is better for than part 1.  This post may not be better than than part I, but it aspires to be.

I hate fireworks.  Yes, I do.  I hate fireworks.  How ‘bout you?

Since Tuesday or Wednesday night, we have been hearing fireworks booming away.  For some reason, people are lighting them fireworks up even when it’s not the 4th of July yet.  People!  Stop the stupidity already.  Yes, I know there are a lot of pyromaniacs, but please the save the noise pollution, garbage pollution and hand burns for the actual Independence Day.  You make my blood boil.  You scare my son.  You make me so angry.  Stop before I pop a cap in you (after I do the wind).

Ghetto inhabitants = Ghetto City.

It’s time to write a letter to the city (after I write to them about getting FIOS in the city) about this ridiculous and dangerous tradition with allowing fireworks in the hands of people who have no business handling fire.  We were at one of the mom’s group’s house celebrating July 4th, and do you know how many airborne (i.e. illegal) fireworks we saw fly up in the air in that small area while we were there?  Within a block, there was at least 3 house doing their own airborne fireworks show.  I’m sure the fools firing them off had fun, while risking their limbs and their neighbor’s house.  But who cares about that when I can get a little pathetic boom in the sky.

Ask Caleb what he thinks about fireworks?  “Scared,” as he pats himself.  I had a son who wanted to be “bao bao” much of the time cause of “fun” fireworks. 

It’s past midnight, and the booms still ring out in the background.  I hate fireworks.  I really do.

Now Scared?

It’s seems that Caleb is now scared of his crib. After months and months of good nights putting him to bed, last night all of the sudden he started wailing and crying when we put him in the crib. He wouldn’t/couldn’t tell us what was wrong, so I eventually just left him there to cry. I didn’t know what he wanted, but he fell asleep after a few minutes of wailing.

Fast forward to tonight, and he does it again. Only this time after leaving, we hear a big thump. Yes, that was Caleb climbing and falling out of the crib. He had a bloody nose and he cut his tongue. We know about these fears sometimes that suddenly occur in toddlers. But what do we do?

When all I can think about is pray, that’s where I’ll start. But someone has to have some idea and wisdom in this area. I certainly don’t. I just don’t want Caleb to die falling out of his crib while we find out what to do.

Yvonne’s sleeping with him now. This can’t become a habit. Caleb needs to figure out how to sleep on his own. Fears go away.

My Son is Big

I was looking at my Facebook profile picture, and I’m noticing how small he was in that picture.  He was walking at that time, but he’s small. And not only is he small, he’s got no hair too (not that he has a lot of hair now).  He still looks the same though.

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Google, Google, Google

Dear Google search engine,

You truly disappoint me.  I can understand putting some Caleb Wong’s with web presence ahead of my son, but there is no one out there famous with the name Caleb Wong.  I mean not yet at least until my son finds the cure for cancer.  But until then my son should remain near or at the top of the search results.  At least on the first page.  Is it because I changed the title of the blog to “Caleb and Caris Wong”?  Searching for Caris will land me the front page, but certainly being 19 months older and many more posts about him should put Caleb up there.

Google search engine, I believe you have made a mistake in your algorithm in determining my son to only be fifth page worthy on your results.  Please rectify this situation quickly.  Otherwise I must assume something is seriously broken on your end.

Sincerely,
Chris Wong

On the Road Again

We’re out in Louisville, KY!  This was Caris’ first plane flight ever.  She was great on the flight here.  She fed at take off.  And she fell asleep.  And she slept.  And slept and slept some more.  She finally woke up when we landed almost 4 hours later.

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Caleb was good on the plane as well.  He didn’t sleep the 4 hours like Caris did.  But he was good nonetheless.  He only got his 25 minute nap, but he tried to push on.  He had good company with him though to keep him entertained.

He had is pacifier

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He had Leakless

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He had Chick Hicks

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And he had his media player with Cars on it.

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We got our rental car.  A Ford Edge.  Not a bad car.  Caris seems to like it as well.  At least in the front seat.

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We originally booked a suite from the Galt House since they had special convention rates while we were here.  After traveling with Caleb, we found that staying in a suite is so much better than staying in the same room.  So the suite would have been nice, except we didn’t get one. We got an apartment instead.  You read that correctly.  An apartment.  So initially when Yvonne told me they upgraded us for free to an apartment, I was thinking maybe we get an extra room or something.  Something just a little bigger.  Oh gosh.  Check out this video.

The place has 2 furnished bedrooms, and plus another unfurnished room and “work” room.  That’s 4 rooms we have available to us.  We stuck Caleb in one room with no windows.  It looks like a closet.  And could very well be used for a closet.  But it works well nonetheless.  He sleeps well in there.

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Caris on the other hand isn’t so lucky.  We could have stuffed her in the other room, but we only brought one monitor with us.  We were planning on staying in the same room with her so we didn’t think we’d need a monitor for her.  So no separate room for Caris.  Yup.  It’s not Caleb who gets stuck in the closet, but Caris.  It is a big closet by the way.

We have beautiful view of the waterfront.  Caleb likes the boats.  He greatly enjoys looking out there even when his diapers are barely hanging on.

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General Council (C&MA convention) has been going well.  It just started officially tonight.  We’re all still on LA time zone so that means waking up at 10/11 AM and going to sleep at 11PM.  It works out fine until we’re looking for places open for dinner at 10PM.  Or when I have my 7AM Friday morning breakfast.  Or even tomorrow’s 9AM session.  Not going to be easy getting up in the morning. 

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But it might be easy since Caris’ hasn’t been sleeping that well since we got here.  She’s constantly waking up in the middle of the night and taking short naps during the day.  She must know something isn’t right.  And the crib we got is so dang low it’s hard to put her down in.  Every time we lean over to put her down she’s up wide awake!  So we did the only thing we thought we could do.  Go to Walmart and buy her a bassinet and sleep nest.  It seems to work better, but she’s still not sleeping well.  I think tonight has been her best night of sleeping so far, but it’s only been 2 hours.  Keep sleeping, girl!

We did some vacation stuff.  We went to the zoo today.  Caleb liked it a lot.  It definitely seems more entertaining and kid friendly than the LA zoo.  It’s got a water park where Caleb ran around and I got soaked.

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It’s got monkeys (or gorillas if you want to call them that) who pose at you.

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And it’s got none of the exotic animals kids don’t care about.  It’s perfect.

We got Caleb a backpack before the trip so he can help carry stuff.  It’s cute.  He walked funny without it before.  It just gets even more funny.

Closet Dweller

We’re going to Louisville in May for General Council. We booked a suite for the week, and it was assumed by both Yvonne and I that Caleb would be getting the bedroom and we would be sleeping in the living room.

But why does it have to be that way? Yes, Caleb is a very light sleeper and he is easily disturb. We can’t go walking around in his area of sleep after he’s down. We don’t want to be stuck where we are at (bedroom) after he’s asleep with no access to the bathroom or exit.

Question is… can Caleb sleep in the closet?

Now at first thought, that’s absurd, right? What parents in their right mind would put their son to sleep in the closet? But he gets his dark sleeping area. He won’t get disturbed by light, sounds and movement. He’s much smaller than us, but he still gets his own room. I mean we’ll lose some storage area, but that closet would be put to good use!

So, you choose.

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