Emilia:
2020 has been a very exciting year. I'm... dealing with 2020 and Covid-19 by drawing, Zooming with my friends ( although for some reason, I always seem to get kicked out of Zooms by ZOOM itself, ) and trying out some new hobbies and recipes. Hobbywise, I have a lot more interest in climbing and cooking. My climbing has gotten way better, and I can now climb v 0-1s. As for cooking, I've made a lot more new recipes, such as bite - sized apple tarts, which are simple and yummy. Also, I am about to turn 11, and in honour of that, I get to bake my own cake! I'm really excited! But overall, this year was a really fun year for me!
Liam:
aahh. 2020 the year of covid. It's been a rough year. although to me its just a normal year of schoolwork, reading, drawing, creating, and...sleeping until 8:00. (well... at least I try to sleep until 8:00.) hopefully the vaccine will come out soon, but for now, good bye 2020 and hello 2021!
"Kamishibai (Japanese: 紙芝居?, "paper play") is a form of Japanese street theatre and storytelling that was popular during the Depression of the 1930s and the post-war period in Japan until the advent of television during the twentieth century. Kamishibai was told by a kamishibaiya (kamishibai narrator) who traveled to street corners with sets of illustrated boards that he or she placed in a miniature stage-like device and narrated the story by changing each image." (reference from Wikipedia)
Emilia's class had an art exhibition of Kamishibai stories. Here's the kiddo.
And that's a wrap to this school year!! It's officially SUMMER!!
Kiddo is improving significantly on her technique now that climbing is a regular thing. Actually, both kids have improved a lot, and it's been really fun seeing them progress in skill, strength, and confidence.
We left Yosemite bright and early at 6am so that we could make it back to a friend's surprise birthday party. Kids still in PJs... we made it just in time to the evening affair and a celebratory "Surprise!". Well, at this party, they had hired a live band to play in their backyard. Next thing I know, Liam was announcing the next gig over the microphone and Emilia, well... she joined the band!
The kid played with the band for the rest of the night, ~1.5 hours, as a little backup stick drummer. In between sets, I heard her ask "How much break time til the next set?" She was committed to her part of drumming away. The drummer even gave Emilia a set of drumsticks for her to keep and practice at home... which of course, the next day, both kids did their own version of rock band to their stuffed friends in our living room.
The kids literally know the ropes now. A milestone of sorts, as the kids are displaying knowledge and skills of climbing independence! (Of course there is still adult supervision.) They know their figure 8 knots, the double fisherman knot, standard climbing commands and communication, safety checks, etc. Emilia even provides beta!
Kids have been learning and developing their climbing skills. Here Emilia climbs an easy 5.5 and her techniques are starting to show. She's been learning dynamic movement, backstepping, flagging, smearing, heel hook.
Check out Emilia's dynamic movements at the start of this climb. Here's a re-play, slow-mo of her two double hand releases and grabs!
A week before the big 7, she lost her 2nd front tooth. Signs of the times... she's turning into a full-fledged kid.
While I definitely miss their cute, little baby and toddler stages, this age also has some perks. Like for instance, when I decided to make a cake for Emilia's cake decorating play date, the kiddos re-confirmed that I have no need to purchase an additional kitchen gadget, such as a Cuisinart Stand Mixer. The kids are saving me $300+.
Now, why can't the kids be this enthused to help me out normally in other areas (aka cleaning up, getting dining table ready for dinner, etc).
Emilia's BFF came over and the kids had a birthday play date where the theme was cake decorating. There were two all-white cakes from a local bakery, and I made an additional four 1-layer vegan chocolate cakes for the younger siblings & others to decorate. It was also for Liam to eat, since you know, he's still allergic to eggs.
The younger siblings.
The kids decorated with homemade buttercream frosting of 5 various colors, frosting gels, sprinkles, and gummy bears... apparently the gummy bears on cake was a big hit. Liam got to it first before the other kids, so his cake is loaded with minimal frosting, but lots of gummy bears.
Emilia's 7th...
This bday play date turned out great. It was all about having a special day with a close friend and doing special activities. She didn't, and hasn't, asked once about presents. Okay, she did ask for cake... and she got lots of it. Anyhow, at 7 years old, I'm quite happy at the little person she's become.
My computer has gone kaplutz... since November. So, posts are now sporadic, along with life just being life and busy. However, a recent highlight is that this girl is now belay certified! See that green card that is attached to her harness? That's her belay certification card. Anyone need a belay?
And here's another video of Liam climbing from back in September..
One of the last summer camps of the season... none other than rock climbing camp, of course! E rocked it! Her comfort level increased tremendously even from day 1 of camp. By the end of the week, she was top roping 5.8 and bouldering up and down V0s and trying V1s. The social butterfly also knew more folks at the gym than I did. On the last day of camp, it seemed as if everyone in the gym, adults and kids, were saying "Hi" and "Bye" to her!
A few of the older girls in the camp also took to Emilia like big sisters. It was cute to see the encouragement E got from them as they cheered her on with her climbing.
Here's E climbing a tricky 5.8. She had been working this route for a few days and completed it earlier in the day. She wanted to show me her climb, but after a week's worth of climbing.. and near the end of the day, her arms were giving out at the 90 degree portion which require dialing in the technique and having some strength left!
I'm still impressed. You can tell how she's working different feet and/or hand positions when she gets to a stuck position. That's what climbing is about.. trying to figure out how to make moves.
And summer is coming to an end... I don't think we even made it to the beach, not even once, this summer. To kick off back to school, here's a backtrack to last school year --> I looked through all the papers, projects, etc that the parents received at the end of the school year and came across this gem of a notebook. Emilia's first science research notebook!
It's Summer! Summer! Summer! And camps galore time. One of the camps Emilia participated in was an Intensive Musical Theater program where the kids learned to sing & dance (and whatever else goes on behind the scenes) and put on a kids version of "Winnie the Pooh".
She was casted as a cute little bee.
E's first musical debut starts at 0:40.
Ryan took video from a closer, side angle.
She had 4 short bee scenes. They were quick though, but I managed to film one of them just in time.
It was about 30+ minutes production. Costumes were cute, kids were cute, and the songs were catchy. Here's the grand finale.
Not sure if she has a future in show business. Emilia was not very diligent in practicing at home after camp even though we would nudge her to. Of course, now that the camp and production is over, Emilia and Liam! have been singing the opening Winnie the Pooh song together all the time!! So much, that in fact, Liam knows most of the words.
In competition, there will be a winner and a loser, but there is no losing (unless you quit), only learning. This was a lesson from a recently kids library book that we picked up and read. The simple point of the story followed the emotions and thoughts of two young siblings' journey into competitive sports as they joined a soccer team. It went through the ups and downs of emotions, thoughts, insecurities, and struggles of the siblings as they learned about perseverance, to work hard to develop in skill, and to understand a bigger, personal concept of competition and winning through the game of soccer. They were guided by their dad to view each challenge and loss as an opportunity to learn, and that true winning is about what you can gain through attitude and perspective. Great simple kid story that was so direct with the message.
When my kids struggle, whether they are frustrated with not being able to do something right, or they want to give up, I remind them that there is no losing, just learning and to find what they can learn from the situation to become better.
The story we read coincidentally came at a great time, a few weeks before Emilia's first jiujitsu competition!!
Let's start at the beginning. Our dojo hosted a local jiujitsu competition and encouraged the kids to participate. It would be good experience in a kid-friendly format and have more kids from our own dojo attend. I thought it was a great short term goal for Emilia to keep focused on as we encouraged her to practice and learn in her BJJ classes.
One of the moms at the dojo made signs for all the kids.
Competition experience is so different than regular practice at the dojo. When we walked into the gymnasium, there were so many people there - People in the stands, kids in their Gis warming up or playing on the 6 competition mat areas, people going about with a purpose, getting ready for the competitions... the referees, the coaches, photographers, nervous kids, parents, etc. The feeling in the air was that of excitement and nervous anticipation. I could see my kids looking around and observing, taking it all in.
Emilia was simply being Emilia.. which I love! I tried to get her to warm-up, maybe spar with some of the kids that she knows, but she was really just taking in the surroundings, eating some snacks, and practicing her version of "cartwheels". Competition environment? It didn't change how she goes about things.
Emilia's version of "Cartwheels"
The competition was soon starting, and the kids were lined up and sat on the edge of the mat where they would be competing on. Emilia's bracket was the TODDLER DIVISION, AGES 4-5. We did not sign up Liam for this because even though he qualifies in age, Liam just doesn't have the base concept down yet. However, he wanted his Gi on and wanted to be a part of this too.. so we let him sit with the rest of the kids.
Emilia's first match was the 2nd one on the mat. The first match were two kids from her dojo, Henry and Cohen. This is representative of what I expected from kids in the TODDLER division. Well.. okay.. maybe not as much spinning around...
Henry and Cohen's Match
Then Emilia was up. Her match was with an unknown kid, not from our dojo. I had watched the kid during pre-comp practice and was already nervous because the kid seemed more serious and aggressive than the kids Emilia is usually paired up with in class. I was hoping that it would be a good learning experience that would drive her to understand why she goes to practice and learns these skills.
E's Match
The match, actually most of it, turned out to be quite unexpected. Emilia impressed me as I can see her focused determination. Kudos for trying! However, at the end of this video, I stopped filming because I could her her little voice crying. It was just loud enough where I could hear how hurt she was.. combined with gasps of breath in between, I also knew she was trying so hard not to cry. What happened was the boy did an arm bar maneuver on her and the referee did not stop it in time. The arm went into full extension, and hyper-extended the elbow joint. Actually, even when the ref did stop the match, the boy didn't let go. The ref had to pry the kid's hands off of Emilia's arm. I have never had an arm bar done to me before, but from what I hear, it is pretty painful.
Luckily Ryan was there to help check on Emilia. That particular sound of Emilia's cry, one that she rarely ever makes, hits a deep mama instinct. In fact, the mama next to me put her arm around me. No parent wants to see their kid hurt.
At TODDLER bracket, I thought it was ridiculous that someone teaches a kid that's only learned bladder control for 1-2 years, how to do a highly skilled and potentially harmful move, and to use in competition. Emilia has not learned the arm bar move nor how to defend it or how to get out of it.
I was beyond mad and upset, not because she lost, but because she was hurt in such an unprepared and unfair way. I could hear the other kid's dad in the background yelling "Arm bar! Arm bar!" while my brain was processing "Wait... kids do arm bars at this age? Emilia doesn't know arm bar!".
However, Emilia amazed me. This is PROUD MAMA MOMENT... she obviously didn't win, in fact, she was utterly crushed...(had to forfeit her 2nd match). But after we iced her elbow, filled her with the best medicine - candy, and gave into her every request the rest of the day, I asked her what she thought of the day's event and how she felt. She said to me "My arm hurt a lot. I really tried my best, but I didn't know the arm bar. I'll need to learn more and maybe next time I can win a gold necklace. Can we go to the beach?" (Note: She wants the gold medal because it is a pretty necklace!)
That's it. She didn't blame me, nor her instructors, nor the boy, nor the unfair match-up, nor the boy's parents that kept yelling for the arm bar during the match (and again at the sandbagger's 2nd match!), nor the judge (who felt really bad), AND she didn't blame herself (unlike me with lots of guilt). She was happy with her effort, and the rest of the situation, she accepted it as "it just is" and moved on to enjoy a beautiful sunny beach day.
As for mama, I learned as well. I spent the next week researching the culture of jiujitsu, learning about the different dojos and their teaching philosophies. Many dojos, non-Gracie affiliated, are geared towards sport jiujitsu, which is winning competitions versus a more practical nature of self defense in a nurturing environment. The dojo we go to is more focused on character development, which is why Emilia has not learned arm bars and chokes yet. This puts the kids at a disadvantage for competitions. That should have been stressed and made aware to the parents! However, apparently the topic of teaching young kids technical and potentially dangerous moves of joint locks and choke holds are highly debated, even though it is common in sport jiujitsu.
My kid's journey and experiences will be her own, no matter how much I try to control the situation and protect her, life is life. It will be unfair and unexpected. Situations like this only help prepare her better to face the unknown future. Somewhere, somehow... my little girl already inherently has the right attitude and perspective. She takes a loss as an opportunity to learn. In fact, she was mimicking the arm bar move at home the other day, solely learned from watching and observing because again, she hasn't been taught. Her heart, her mentality, her attitude.. is pure gold. She doesn't need to win one. She knows how to approach life, at 6 years of age, more than most people. Way to go baby girl!
Okay, I am making feeble attempts to catch up with the blog. So continuing from where I left off in May.
One of the things I like about my work is that everyone puts in great effort to make "Bring Your Kid to Work Day" a pretty fun and learning experience for the kids. This year was Emilia's first year that she was old enough to attend. Even so, the lessons were still beyond her comprehension, but nonetheless, a good start and exposure to the fun world of engineering. This was the first year I also got to tour around with Emilia and check out all the different presentations from the various labs and groups.
The first stop was with my group, in the electronics lab, which started with a brief introduction on what the group does with examples of different components and stages of a product test cycle.
Note the things on the table. Kids got to touch it and relate to it pretty much as the insides of a fancy computer.
The demonstration was focused on sound waves, showing how different tones/pitches of sound could be converted to an electrical frequency and quantified on an oscilloscope. Then kids got the chance to play around with using a mic and watching their voice conversions. Our group was pretty mellow.. but I heard the later groups, with the older kids, were just taking turns screaming and laughing into the mic.
Sound Waves
Next stop was a visit to the Optics Lab, where some engineers from the Fiber Optics team put on a demo and discussion about light spectrum and diffraction.
I thought this demo was pretty fun. They started off discussing the concept of light and how our eyes interpret what we see based on the light and the medium the light passes through. They also had different shaped prisms, convex, concave, etc and laser beams, where kids had to figure out which way the laser beam would bend base on the shape of the prism they were using.
They ended with an interactive experiment where the kids had to look above the water and try to "spear" a fish (aka a coin) at the bottom of the water tank. The idea was that the light through the medium of water distorts the perceived location of our fishing rod (aka stick) and the location of the fish.
Light Diffraction Through Water
Next up was the Physics Lab. Here a group that works on failure analysis of boards and materials gave a demonstration about a specific instrument that measures spectral density of objects. They had a few items of "white powder"... sugar, corn starch, salt, etc. .. and without touching or smelling, just by looking, the kids were to try to find the one that was sugar. Kids tried to guess, and the engineers would put the white powder on the instrument and measure the spectral density to determine what it was.
Throughout most of these demos, Emilia was the silent one... sometimes doodling on her notebook instead of paying attention.
To provide incentive, I said I would give her a piece of candy every time she asked or answered a question. Low and behold, her hand started going up!
Second half of the FA group's demo, was Bob talking about another instrument, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), that scans a focused electron beam over a board surface area to create an image of surface topography and composition which helps with board failure analysis and debug.
That's already quite a bit of demos.. but there are two more. Next one is still part of the FA/Mechanical group. Here the kids got a preview of a very specific instrument called the Romer Arm and basic idea of how it works. The instrument itself is pretty neat. Once coordinates are provided, you move a laser scanner of the arm over an object, and it translates the topographical image based on recorded distance away from initial calibrated position. You can do it again from a different angle, and the software can combine the various scans so one can have a dimensional image that can be rotated, flipped, etc.
And last of the engineering demos, was provided by the the Cryptography team about password safety and hacking algorithms. Kids got a chance to learn how to create harder to break passwords and then they had to create a password based on the concepts they learned from the demo, and then the Cryptography team was going to attempt to break it. If any passwords were left unbroken in 2 weeks, the kid would win a prize. We thought Emilia had a good chance.. she came up with an AWESOME password. But alas, she did not win.
Total of 5 different demos from various engineer groups. Pretty awesome for the engineers and teams to set aside some time to do this for the kids. Not only were there demos, there as also simply fun engineering experiments for the kids to witness.
Behold... the liquid nitrogen rolling out...
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
And concurrently, someone had a great idea to do an experiment of the liquid nitrogen smoke bomb. In fact, the engineers here spent the week prior refining the quantities of liquid nitrogen to scalding, hot water to create just the right about of explosion and smoke for a giant smoke bomb effect. It concluded the "Bring Your Kid To Work Day" with a giant bang! =)
Nitrogen Smoke Bomb
Where was Emilia in all of this kid chaos? She decided not to be one of the kids to run in and try to put their hands on liquid nitrogen with hot water.. instead she stayed by the ice cream table, patiently waiting for the perfect liquid nitrogen ice cream.
And she was rewarded with a yummy giant scoop! That's my girl!
Backtracking... this was back in early March. Emilia's kindergarten class put on a performance of "The Three Piggy Opera" for the parents and family. Emilia's part was one out of three narrators of the story.
Emilia's narration at 0:21, 1:10, 2:12, and 2:56 in the video clip below.
Ryan practiced with Emilia the weeks prior to the play. They would sing the songs during dinner time and Emilia would practice reading her narration part. It helps too, that E, though in Kindergarten, is one of the more proficient readers in the class, and reading at 2nd grade level. (Yes, proud mom boasting moment!!) The fact that Emilia is reading books on her own now also influences Liam. He tries to read books on his own and is also one of the top readers in his pre-school class.
End of "The Three Piggy Opera".
Yup. Pretty cute. Her first play and she hammed it up!
E had the opportunity to participate in a special kids ninja warrior workshop with the pros. Yup! She got to learn ninja skills from Kacy Catanzaro, Brent Steffensen, and Flip Rodriguez! Of course, Kacy is E's favorite.
E was just short of the minimum age requirement by a month, so the gym made an exception and let her enroll for the workshop. The spots were filling fast so I signed her up, though I wasn't sure if she *could* hang with the bigger kids.
Smallest kid on the block.
The workshop started off with 4 main stations that focused on training a few specific obstacles. The kids were broken down into groups of 12 (12 kids per station), which then were broken down into smaller groups depending on the obstacles at that station. E tended to be last or close to last in line for most of the training. I was the helicopter mom that hovered around as much as I could just in case the instructors were not watching closely and/or if E needed help on the obstacles.
Her first station was with Flip Rodriguez and his crew of instructors. Skills learned were climbing up structures, down short walls, rope climbing, and fireman pole slide.
Actually, E's rope skills were not too shabby at all. Not completely assistance free, but definitely she had enough confidence to try it on her own.
This station also had training for the mini-Warp wall. They did a few drills for the kids to get comfortable with forward climbing, backwards climbing on the warp wall. Then moved on to practicing running up and sliding down.
Single file line and on to the next station, with Brent Steffensen.
Station "2" had a version of the Quintuple steps, cliffhanger traverse, and climbing/jumping over barriers. E initially got tripped up on the Quintuple steps, but the 2nd time through, Brent gave her some tips that helped her out.
Station "3" was with Kacy Catanzaro & crew. This had a bar traverse, balance obstacles, and a rope traverse.
Station "4" was trampoline practice and rope swing into a foam pit.
Ryan and Liam show up to watch E ninja.
After the stations were all done, the kids had a break while the instructors set up 2 obstacles course for the kids to line up and try. Kids getting a course briefing.
E's run on the first obstacle course.
E was 2nd to last in line, so she get's lots of spectators and cheering for her finish.
E almost missed running the 2nd obstacle. Of course, she was last in line again. Time was up and the instructors did not realize she didn't get to do the 2nd obstacle course. As they started ushering the kids, good ol' helicopter mom stepped in. Kacy made sure E got her 2nd obstacle course and cheered her along the way.
Super fun event for E and I. She had a great time doing obstacles with the ninja warriors. I loved watching her try the obstacles, figure things out, and really hold her own. That grip strength is definitely coming along!
Ryan's super proud of her too. Happy smiles all around this day (except when we all got pelted with windy rain storm after lunch!).
I grew up as an only child, and my parents taught me that in my culture, cousins are just like brothers and sisters, and family always is fa...
About
Ryan and Connie officially began our journey in life together (wedded bliss) on August 1, 2009. This blog chronicles our journey through whatever life throws at us.
On February 27, 2010, we welcomed a new addition to the family: Emilia Ying-Zhi. She tipped the scales at 7 lbs 2 oz, and measured in at 19-3/4".
Liam Noboru joined the family on October 20, 2011. His fighting weight is 7 lbs 4 oz with a length of 19-1/2".
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