Three going on Thirteen

Yesterday I had Griffin and he seemed to have a comeback for everything I said. I asked him to go get a paper towel to clean up his mess. He told me that he couldn't. I told him how big boys can get paper towels and clean up after themselves. He smirked and replied," But Dad, I'm just a little baby" and skipped off.

Sure enough later when he sees me drinking soda, he asks me for some. I told him that soda is only for big people. And he says," Dad I'm already bigger." The boy is already trying to play me. They start so young. I don't even remember ever trying that with my parents until maybe I was in high school. And even then, I was scared the whole time.

Hmong, what?

Some of my friends are aware that I am Hmong. Most often people ask me, what is a Hmong? It's a long story so I won't tell you now. However, I decided to post some pictures of some traditional Hmong clothes for your viewing.

With the Hmong, the style of your clothing depends on what region and clan you come from. The clothing for men are pretty much uniform, baggy black pants and white or black top. It is the clothing of the women that really distinguishes the different groups of Hmong people. There are two main groups of Hmong people, the White and the Green. For the most part, the White Hmong women wear white dresses or black pants. The Green Hmong women wear colorful dresses. I am a Green Hmong. My family comes from an area called Mong Peng. The women wear colorful dresses and a black and white turban. Please take a look and see the diversity and beauty of my culture.

How Fast Times Flies By

In about a month, I will turn thirty. What have I done in thirty years? It seems like such a long time and yet I feel like it wasn't too long ago that I was in kindergarten. I know that there is still a long time ahead of me. There are still so many things I want to do. The most important thing I want to do is be a great father for my son.

I got to thinking of how quickly time does fly by. It feels like just last week that Michele and I were at the hospital and our boy was on his way. It truly was the best day of my life when I saw my son come into this world. As a guy, it's hard to believe you are having a kid during the pregnancy period. We don't have the connection that women have. I think women have a parent-child connection very early on. For me personally, it didn't feel real until that moment when my son and I saw each other. In that moment, I knew he was mine and no one was fooling me. He was really here.

Griffin has grown up so fast. He is already three years old and being more and more like an adult. I took Griffin to the zoo a few months ago. We stopped by the Baboon exhibit and I told Griffin how funny the "monkey" looked. Griffin turn and gave me this serious look and said, " That's not a monkey. It's a Baboon!" I felt so proud that my son was so smart, but felt a bit ridiculous that a two year old-going on three, corrected me. It does scare me a bit that he is growing up so fast. I do look forward to being able to do more activities with my son. However,I already know how my parents felt like when we all left home.

My friend Ben has an adorable little six month old daughter named Hannah. Seeing Hannah makes me miss Griffin at that age. It also makes me want to pinch her. She's so cute! Hannah is learning lots of new things. Babies learn and grow so fast in the first year. Even though I experienced Griffin learning all the things Hannah is learning now, that whole process still amazes me and probably always will. I know that Ben and Julie will cherish all the memories of Hannah's childhood as I have with Griffin.

My Past, Present, and Future

Last night I got a call from one of my brothers from California. We talked a little about something that we might be doing for my father. I won't go into details. It's nothing bad, but just made me think about the circle of life.

We are all born helpless little babies and needed help from our parents or others to survive. With each year, we grow a little bigger physically and a bit more mature in attitude and thinking. And someday, we are fortunate to be considered a wise adult. We hopefully are blessed to have children of our own. Then somehow we get to a stage in our lives where we go back and almost start where we came from. I got sad thinking about it, but realized that it really is just part of the circle of life. Our parents took care of us, we grew up, had our own kids, and eventually we will take care of our parents. And someday, our children will have our grandchildren, and hopefully our children will take care of us too.

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day. I am happy that we are off of work for a day. However, if I am serious about the day, I have a lot to be thankful. If it weren't for people such as Martin Luther King Jr., I may not have the life I do today. He helped pave the way for the world to be more understanding.

A century ago, there was no such thing as racial equality in this country. Even though the civil war had been fought and slavery was abolished, there was still deep-rooted poor treatment of minorities. Brave people such as Martin Luther King Jr. were still fighting for their rights a century after slavery was abolished. The great thing about all of this is that the world is a new place. We have come a long way.

Even for me, I can see the difference of how the world has changed on the issue of race. I grew up in an age where we were one of the few Asians in the neighborhood. There was so much blatant racism everywhere we went. And now, even though it is not perfect yet, the world is so much more tolerable. If just in my lifetime, I can see the progress that has taken place, it gives me hope that my son will hopefully witness a day when there is no such thing as a racial issue. Afterall, my son comes from a muticultural background. Hopefully his generation will see that we should not fear people's cultural differences but we should embrace what is is to be human.

Icy Day

I had lunch plans today with my friends Brian, Brent, and Ben. However, we got a lot of ice and I realized that I needed to go get my son from Lee's Summit as soon as possible. So I had to cancel unfortunately.

I am so thankful that I am home now and safe with my son. On the drive to Lee's Summit from Overland park, I skidded down a hill. Another car behind me was doing the same thing. Thankfully, he stopped in enough time to not crash into me. And this was just the start of my 2 hour ordeal.

I was on pins and needles the whole drive. In all I counted 22 cars and a big rig truck that were involved in some type of accident. I was just praying to get to Lee's Summit, pick up my son, and get back to Olathe safely. I was so releived once I got home. I never felt better to be home. With the weather forecast for the weekend, I think that I will just stay home and enjoy my son's company.

Just Added Pictures

I have added pictures!

I went to Maui this past August and had a wonderful time with my brothers and their wives. Although it looks like there were many of us, only four out of 10 siblings were on this trip. You can imagine what it would be like if my whole family came. We would need a big tour bus.

The one thing that was so beautiful about Hawaii, besides the scenary and people, was its laid-back lifestyle. Not only are you surrounded by beauty everywhere, there does not seem to be as much stress as we put on ourselves over here. I seriously thought about moving to Hawaii. If money was not an issue, I think that I would. Take a look at the paradise island of Maui in my pictures section.

I also added a small album of Griffin with our pets. He loves animals just like his Daddy and Mommy. People are amazed especially when they see the pictures of him with the parrots. It's so funny becuase the African Grey can talk just like me. Griffin thinks that is hilarious, as you can tell from the pictures.

And finally I added an album for my best friend, Kang. We have been friends for about 15 years, pretty much half of my life. The photos in the album are from Feb 2006 when she flew all the way from California to celebrate my 29th birthday with me. By far, that has been the best birthday I have ever had. It meant so much to me that someone would do that.

Catching Up

Last night I had happy hour or should I say happy hours with a wonderful friend, Courtney. It was nice to just talk about what is going on with our lives. We also got the chance to plan new activities that neither of us have done, but thought would be nice to do together. I can't wait. We're going to have so much fun.

Today, I had lunch with another friend, Rhonda, who I have not seen in a while. Again, it was great to talk about our jobs, our kids, and just funny stories. The last time a group of us got together was last summer. Rhonda and I hosted a barbeque for our friends, Ben, Julie, Brent, and Sara. We've all got to get together again.

I was very happy to hear that Rhonda's playground project has broken ground. She has been working on a project for the last several years, raising money to build a community playground in Lee's Summit. It is being built in honor of a friend who passed away. I think she is a wondeful person for doing such a nice deed. It is not something that she has to do, she just wants to. I am so lucky to have such a great person as a friend.

I have Griffin today. He was so happy to see me when I picked him up at daycare. He had lost his Lightening McQueen car somewhere. Anyhow, he showed me that he found it at daycare. He was so happy.

The first thing he said when we got in the car was,"Daddy when we get home, can I listen to " To the left, to the left." I busted out laughing. He was referring to Beyonce's "Irreplaceable." He remembers everything.

First Post

So I decided to create a blog after much convincing from my friend Ben. What will you see here everyday? I am not quite sure yet. It will probably be random stories about what happened that day in my life and in my son, Griffin's, life. Until something exciting happens...ciao!