Category Archives: Father’s Day
Happy Father’s Day Khoa!
Happy Father’s Day to Khoa!! Here’s how his day was from his words:
Oh my did I have the best father’s day weekend ever. Friday night Jackie suggested we let my mom watch Lily so we can have a nice peaceful dinner out. I said sure, I’ll give her a quick call. She politely declined and said she would call. Turns out, she never called her because my mom was in on some secret and already knew she’d be watching Lily! Sneaky sneaky. We had our dinner and when we got home, I was getting ready to relax when the doorbell rang. It was An… strange because usually I know when he’s going to pay us a visit. He had this look on his face like… I don’t know what I’m supposed to say here… lol. Then Jackie hands me a piece of paper and says “Surprise!” Turns out a while back, she bought me tickets to this show, Hollywood Babble-On. I’ve listened to over 100 episodes of that popcast so I was super excited to finally be able to see it in person. It features Kevin Smith, writer/director of Jay and Silent Bob, Clerks, Mallrats, etc…, and Ralph Garmin, part of the Kevin and Bean show at KROQ. The show was even better in person, and I thank Jackie for sitting through it because I know it’s not her cup of tea. Also thanks to Steve Le for also sitting through it since it’s not really his thing either. An… enjoyed it so no thanks needed there! Hah jk, thanks An for being there. It was a small venue so afterwards, Ralph was just hanging out (thanks An for pointing that out) and I actually got a picture with him. As Jennifer and Alvina pointed out, I was so happy and star-struck lol. As if the night wasn’t great enough, Steve “proposed” for me to be his Best Man!
Saturday started out with Father’s Day for my and Jackie’s dad and then a 1 year old Birthday Party. Afterwards, Jackie just told me to drive and gave me step by step directions as we went. Finally we pulled up to a Men’s Warehouse! Apparently they are having a BOGO free sale! She’s so sweet; she knows I have been wearing the same two suits for over 5 years and getting a new one is way past due. I chose two, in my opinion, really nice suits that will fit many occasions. I’m really excited to put them on and flaunt their awesomeness around town.
Come Sunday morning, Jackie had another surprise for me! Again she gave me step by step directions on where to go and we finally ended up at the Discovery Science Center where they just started their Mythbusters exhibit! My baby knows me and my nerdy side so well. They had a stage show that was pretty cool; they shot a paintball gun at a target and asked if we all thought it was possible for a person to dodge it or not. The whole premise was to explain the Scientific Method and how there are so many variables that you have to have very deliberate and controllable tests. The variables they decided to experiment with is a person’s reaction time and the distance (simulated by delay) of the gun. Long story short, they had someone up there with a riot shield and they eventually dodged the paintball given a 1 sec delay. The rest of the exhibits were pretty cool; some notable ones were a “blind driving test” where you just have a wheel and pedals in front of you and someone else is looking at a screen trying to give you directions. I was really bad at that. Another one where you can see if you can pull a tablecloth off a table without pulling all of the glassware with it (in this case it was plasticware). There were many others; I would highly recommend anyone to check it out.
After the Discovery Science Center, we went to eat for my Grandpa’s father’s day celebration. After that, my mom took Lily and Jackie said we can do whatever I felt like. A movie seemed like the perfect way to close out this weekend. We went to the theatre expecting to watch Godzilla but it was sold out. We went to our 2nd choice which was a million days to die in the west. It was really funny, but I don’t think the movie (as a whole) was as good as Ted, which was Seth Macfarlane’s last movie. It was pretty cool that Ralph Garmin had a few lines in the movie though since we just met him in person on Friday! There was definitely some memorable lines that I see Jackie and me repeating to each other from time to time.
Finally for dinner, we decided to go to the Anaheim Packing House. It is a new, hip place 10 minutes walking distance from our house. We went on Saturday night too and saw that there was a Shabu Shabu place so we decided to come back on Sunday to try it. It was pretty darn good, but the only thing is they don’t have traditional Ponzu or Goma because they consider themselves a “hot pot” restaurant. After eating there and seeing their offerings, I really would consider them a Shabu place rather than a Hot Pot place. Either way, it was good eats. After that we got some really good popsicles that were dipped in our choice of chocolate and toppings. We tried to go there on Saturday but the line was out the door. We had much better luck on Sunday night. I’m really excited that the Anaheim Packing District opened up but am a bit scared at how close it is to our house. There are so many good food choices there that I may go broke and fat pretty quickly.
The night ended with Game of Thrones, as we both were pretty excited to watch the Finale. Jackie had one last surprise for me; an official Game of Thrones beer. It turns out I actually had some at the b-day party on Saturday but it was still a really nice surprise! You’re the best honey! I know she went through a lot of trouble finding it and hiding it from me so I appreciate that very much!
Thanks again for the awesome Father’s Day honey! You really went all out and I really appreciate it! I love you my sun and stars, forever and a half.
One last shout out to the reason I am a father to begin with. Lily, you are one of the biggest and best things that has ever happened to me. I am so honored to call you my daughter and to be called your “dada”. You force me to be a better version of myself and I love you for that. I am constantly filled with happiness every time you smile or run to give me a hug. I love it when you surprise me by doing something amazing that I didn’t know you could. I am really excited knowing that you will always be growing and learning new things and making me the proudest father alive. Today is Father’s day, but to me, every day is Lily day. Oh and how can I forget, thank you for making this for me at school 🙂
Thank you to my wonderful family: Jackie and Lily. You light up my life!
Happy Father’s Day Khoa!
Happy Father’s Day Khoa!! Everyone knows that I (Jacqueline) write pretty much everything on this blog/website. So I wanted to change things up for this post, and have Khoa write it, and reflect on his 1st year as a daddy! =) That being said, I do want to say that I cannot be more lucky to have such a wonderful, amazing and loving husband, best friend, and father to Lily. The rest of this post, is written by Khoa, enjoy! =)
The following is a letter to Lily with Khoa’s perspective around her 1st birthday.
To my precious baby Lily,
I know that even before beginning to write this, it will be tough to express how I feel using words. From the moment that I found out you were on the way, to the emotion-filled second that you entered this world, I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was finally going to have a tiny baby version of myself! A lot of people were surprised to find out that I have and will always love babies. Hopefully with the way I have nurtured and cared for you, people will no longer find that surprising. I never knew I could be as nervous as I was when mommy and I were waiting for the size percentiles from your ultrasounds or when mommy wasn’t feeling too well, since I know that mommy’s health affects her and you. You couldn’t imagine the relief I felt when you came kicking and screaming into this world as a healthy, beautiful baby girl. There’s a video around here somewhere and if you ever watch it, listen for my voice. I said your name twice when you finally arrived and if you listen closely enough, you can hear my voice crack the 2nd time because I was so overwhelmed with joy that you were finally here!
From that moment until now, you have brought mommy and me through a wild rollercoaster of memories. Everyone says babies get sick all the time and it really isn’t that big a deal unless the fever is extremely high. Of course hearing that and experiencing it is much, much different. I remembered trying to resist taking your temperature every 10 minutes to look for any signs of improvement and really trying hard to resist calling Dr. Wang since I knew the answer would be, “call back if the fever goes above XXXX or if the fever continues for 2-3 days.” Deep down inside, I think I knew you would eventually be fine but you will see what I mean one day when I say that doesn’t help how panicked I was at the time. I remember the night you couldn’t sleep because of your stuffy nose; I read online that if we laid your head up just a little bit, the nose would clear up enough for you to sleep comfortably. No matter how I tried to prop your head up with a pillow, you would just roll over and start crying since your nose would stuff right back up. So that night I just had you sleep next to me on the couch with your head propped up against my arm. I remembered watching you sleep peacefully after crying most of the night and thinking my staying up is such a small price compared to the prize of knowing I am helping you relax and get the rest that you as a baby desperately needed. I realized at that moment that my feelings of happiness, sadness, excitement, disappointment etc… were forever tied to and dependent upon you. The Mastercard commercials (I don’t know if they’re still airing them by the time you read this) are so cheesy but they are completely accurate. Most of the things in this world cost money, but the things that truly matter and the things that bring you the most joy are priceless. Your first smile, your first laugh, your first roll, your first steps and I’m sure your first everything are moments that I could never put any type of value on since they were and will always be priceless.
Love, Daddy Khoa
Lily’s Father’s Day Gift for her Daddy!
My first celebrated father’s day.
This was actually my 2nd father’s day but Lily was only a week old last year so we didn’t get a chance to celebrate. Now that Lily is a whole year older, it is much easier for us to go out and enjoy ourselves with and without her. Jackie surprised me both mornings by waking up to feed Lily like a ninja; I didn’t even wake up until much much later. On Saturday morning, we took Lily to her music class (which is always really fun to watch) and then headed over to my aunt’s house to celebrate my grandfather’s father’s day. Jackie made an arrangement earlier on with my parents to watch Lily so we could go celebrate a bit without Lily. Jackie gave me a choice between shooting and watching a movie. This past year with Lily has taught me many things but one of the biggest lessons is how much I undervalued relaxing, so I opted with the less exhilarating but more relaxing movie-watching. We watched the Internship (I originally wanted Man of Steel but didn’t want to wait in line); it was a nice light-hearted comedy which was perfect. No need watching a movie that required my brain to do any thinking! After that we went back to my Aunt’s house where we just relaxed until evening. They have a very nice backyard made to look like a beach getaway complete with tiki torches, lounge chairs, and of course a pool. It really is the perfect place to just lay down and waste a whole afternoon doing nothing. When we got home, Jackie had the idea that I wasn’t completely happy with the movie choice so she let me choose another movie to watch at home. I chose Django Unchained. I know it came out a while ago but it’s really tough to watch a movie with a baby… people don’t like it when a screaming child ruins their movie going experience. Just kidding, we haven’t brought Lily to the theatres, yet….. Anyways, Django is a really good movie but I wouldn’t recommend it for the kids! The only thing is that the movie was 2 hrs 40 mins so we were pretty tired by the time it was over. We knocked out pretty fast and I didn’t wake up until Jackie’s parents were almost over for their weekly Sunday morning visit. We went out to eat at P.F. Changs for Jackie’s Father’s day (and mines too I guess since I got to choose the place). Afterwards Jackie’s parents hung out for a little bit and then left. We had some more time to kill before church and Lily was fast asleep so we watched another movie that my co-worker recommended: Pitch Perfect. It was another lighthearted comedy but it also included some pretty decent acapella music. The movie was pretty funny and even though I tend to hate these kinds of movies, I thought it wasn’t bad. This is where Jackie would chime in and say “Pshh, you’re such a movie snob.” Anyways, after church Jackie had a surprised dinner planned at “The Vintage Steakhouse” in San Juan Capistrano. She purchased a deal but unfortunately the deal isn’t good on holidays. I never thought Father’s Day was considered a holiday but oh well. We just decided to come back another time and went to eat at a Shabu Shabu place we really like in Fullerton. We both had work the next morning so by the time we got home we decided to call it a weekend and knocked out. We already planned out when we are going back to the Vintage so this Father’s Day is to be continued…
I have the feeling Jackie feels like we didn’t do enough for father’s day but I keep trying to convince her that for me, and I think for many guys, sometimes all I want to do is sit down, relax and not do anything. The fact that I got to “do nothing” with my wife and beautiful daughter is a super added bonus and it made my father’s day celebration more than I could have asked for. Thank you Jackie for planning out what I call the perfect father’s day weekend.
