Back to School

Summer unofficially came to an end at our house on Thursday, with the new school year starting. This was a big deal for us, because Ry finally started Kindergarten. We’ve been trying to get him excited about the whole thing, especially when it comes to familiarizing him with letters and numbers.

His take on the whole thing has been let’s say, less than enthusiastic. He’s a little kid, and this is a big change for him, because a) it takes him out of his comfort zone and b) he doesn’t have the free reign that he did when he was in pre-school. I get all of that, so I have to be a little more patient with his transition.

Meeting Mrs Uchiyama

The sad thing is this is the only year both Ry and Karsyn will be attendingthe same school.

From what I remember about Karsyn, she was a little more in to the whole school thing when she started Kindergarten, but there was a little transition for her as well. I think Ry will do fine with the whole thing, but he’s been able to charm his way through life up to know. School is about getting out wheat you put in, so charm alone won’t get you very far.

Karsyn on the other hand is an old hand at school. For her, she’s the big fish on campus, because her school only goes up to 5th grade. She seems excited about her teacher, and her classmates. We don’t know much about her new teacher, other than she was born in Korea.

As soon as I heard that, I was instructing Karsyn how to say hello in Korean. It never hurts to grease the situation! What better way to establish a rapport with someone than to call out your similarities. Most people have no clue that she has Korean in her, so it always comes as a surprise. Spring “hello” on another Korean in their native tongue, and you’ve just created an ice breaker.

5th Graders!

This is the launching pad to junior high school, which is the spring board to high school, which is the predecessor to college. That means that this is the year that her future really begins to establish itself. She did a great job in 4th grade, by taking more initiative in her studies. For that I was really proud.

She mentioned to me the other day that she was disappointed that she didn’t score in the highest ranking for math on the state proficiency testing (she was one group below), so I told her that rather than fret about what she didn’t accomplish, she now has a target set on an area she can improve on.

Her attitude is what I’m most proud of. I just hope her brother picks up the same trait. She’s becoming more competitive about her grades, which is a good thing, because the competition is stacked.

In any case, it’s the start of another school year, which is always fun. Some old faces, some new faces, and plenty of opportunity. Almost makes me wish I was back in school.

Thank Ya Very Much

The King stopped by for a visit to the Lee house tonight...

We Been There Dad!

From the “kids say the damndest things” file…

We’re driving down University Avenue in Palo Alto on Saturday afternoon, and hang a left onto El Camino Real, right in front of the front gate to Stanford University.

“The one dream I have in life is to have my children go to Stanford someday,” I say as I drive past the twin columns that guard the front of the school.

“We been there dad!” bellows Ryan innocently.

Sonya starts laughing, turns to me and says, “dream fulfilled!”

Nothing. Absolutely Nothing

It’s pretty customary for me to ask the kids how they’re day went while we’re all eating dinner. On school days, I’ll also ask how school was. Last week, I run the question by Ryan.

“How was school?” I ask.

“Fine,” Ryan responds.

“What did you do today?”

“Well, we made…”, he begins to respond before throwing his hand over his mouth in a clear demonstration that he almost spilled the beans on something important. His eyes are as big as saucers, thinking he's already said too much. From the sound of it, perhaps a Christmas present for mom & dad?

“Why are you covering your mouth?” I ask.

“Cough, cough, cough,” is his reply. “I have a cough.”

Sonya and I look at each other in amusement. I’m more amazed that he was able to conjure up the coughing excuse as quickly as he did.

“What was that you said you did at school today?” I probe.

“Nothing,” he says with unconvincing conviction. “Absolutely nothing. We did nothing at school today.”

“Oh,” I respond. “OK.

Soccer!

Soccer season hasn't really ended with Sonya coaching Karsyn's competetive U10 Girls team, but things officially kicked off this weekend. Karsyn's Fall league season started as did Ry Ry's foray into the game.

He started U6 soccer, which is played by both boys & girls. Sonya loves coaching Karsyn so much that she's taken on Ry Ry's team as well.

We started Saturday by running over to the newly re-opened Sunnyvale Soccer Complex to catch the U9 Girls Comp Team play. A couple of Karsyn's school mates play on that team, and is actually the age group that she should be playing in, but we have her playing up. The game started at 9 am, and it was already a toasty 80+ degress at the opening whistle.

After that, we trekked over to Serra Park for Ryan's first official soccer game. This is "swarm of bees" soccer at its finest. They play 3-on-3 with no goalie, so most of the time the ball is simply moving from one end of the field to another. Ryan scored two goals in the game. After his first goal, he ran over to mom (er coach), and lept into her arms to celebrate. It was so him.

He likes to, let's say, celebrate after he or his team scores. With both fists pumping over his head, he lets out a "YEAH!" every time the goal hits the back of the net. On one play, a little girl from the opposing team accidentally knocked teh ball into her own goal. Ryan pointed this out to her (innocently I'm sure), but she didn't take kindly to his stating of the obvious. She grabbed him by the arm and started to dig her nails into him, before the referee intervened.

His look was like, "hey, thanks for scoring that goal for us!", even though she was digging her talons into him. There is no score keeping at this level, so nobody wins or loses, but it was fun to be there to see Ry play competetive sports for the first time.

The most amusing part of the game, was teh post game handshake. The coaches had all teh kids lined up facing each other in two lines. Typically, the kids start walking toward each other, so that they can high-5 each other as they pass in opposing directions. The kids however had no idea they were supposed to do this, so they ended up having the worlds largest group handshake as they all crashed into each other. Good stuff.

Photos | Slideshow available here

Three hours later, we were back at the Sunnyvale Soccer Complex for Karsyn's first game of the season. K's team, the SASC Devils 98, would win 5-2 starting the season on a high note. This is a set team that keeps their roster consistent over the life of the club. They were formed last February, and are starting their 2nd season together. The roster is assembled by the coaching staff after a series of tryouts were held last Winter.

I maintain the Devils Team blog, so you can read a recap of that game here.

Squeeze the Buttocks!

Ryan has taken up pilates. He's apparently focusing on one part of his anatomy...

Ry Ry Learns to Read

So my dad sends the kids a thank you card for the birthday present they got him earlier this month (some glof shirts and golf balls). This is Ryan "reading" the card to me. His sister read it to us first, so he decided to take a crack at it.

"Harabugi" is Korean for grandfather. It's what the kids call him. "Halmoni" is grandmother. Apparently we also got him some "golf sticks" and a "golf bag"...the airport reference has to do with the fact that we were taking him and Halmoni to the airport the next morning. That also appears to have magically found its way into the card. Must be in special secret invisible Harabugi ink, that only Ryan can read.

The Holidays Officially Begin

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We did the family tour, having dinner at Sonya's parent's house, then at my dad's house. I tried to be good, limiting myself to reasonable helpings at each stop :)

We actually got off out butts and did something productive with the kids on Saturday, trekking into San Francisco to checkout Union Square. We took BART, which was Ry & Karsyn's first time taking the train into the city. I think Ry enjoyed it more. It was a train after all.

Checkout the video:

A jock's weekend

It was a sports oriented weekend for the Lee’s. Saturday started with Karsyn’s third basketball game of the season. It was also the first win of the year after three tries. The girls looked great, pounding the ball inside for a 22-4 victory. The score would have been much worse, but I told our two best players they had to pass the ball rather than shoot.

Even after that, we still scored at will. It was nice to get over the victory hump, but it was also important for the kids to learn how to win with some class. They did what they were told, so we got to work on spreading the ball around the floor and running an offense. It was very cool.

Super Bowl Sunday began with a trip to the ice rink. Sonya took the kids last Monday and Ryan was immediately hooked. He loves hockey already, and the roller blades he received for Christmas are probably his favorite possession.

I wasn’t expecting much. How much could a 2-year-old kid do with two metal blades strapped to his feet. To my surprise, he could move pretty good on skates. He puttered around the rink at a constant 2 mph, with a movement that looks a lot like he’s running in place.

The one annoying thing that has come with this new passion, is a love to dive on the ice. He’ll skate for about 1 feet, then intentionally skid across the ice. I tried telling him that diving in hockey is a penalty (it actually is), but that didn’t sway him. We know he can skate, because we challenged him to a time-trial from one end of the rink to the other. He can make it dive free if he chooses.

He wore his favorite Sharks jersey to the rink, so it dawned on me as we were leaving that if he kept up his pension for head first swan dives across the ice, he was going to ruin his jersey. I told him this as I was strapping him into his car seat for the ride home, so I’m not exactly sure if it hit home or not.

I guess we’ll see the next time we hit the ice. Karsyn is getting the figure skating bug. She spent the better part of the skating session in the middle of the rink with all the other figure skaters (these people are the devil to anyone who plays hockey…toe-picks leave craters in the ice).

Sonya tried to show me her “one figure skating move”, which ended in a nice case of whiplash and my wife’s butt planted on the ice. I pointed out that she had “no figure skating moves” at this point, to which I received a nod.

Oh, and the rest of the afternoon was spent parked in front of the tube, watching the Super Bowl. I said it was a sports oriented weekend, not a completely active one!

Here's a video of me teaching Ry some hockey fundamentals...