This blog has taken an uncharacteristic child-friendly turn lately. Okay, this is the last one for a bit, and I’ll post photos about vacation next. It just seems that every time I’m at home where the vacation photos are, I’m doing something else. Take this past long weekend, for example.
Saturday was my niece Nikki’s birthday party. (She officially turns 9 today.)
The day started off disastrously when 2 hours before checking in to their $850/night pre-paid Princess Suite at Disneyland Hotel for their daughter Nikki’s birthday celebration, my cousin Olivia and her husband Eric found that the hotel had booked them for AUGUST, not Saturday. The girls’ father was on the phone with Disney Resorts much of the morning asking if there’s anything they could do, but the hotel said it was the parents’ fault for not checking that the room was booked for the correct month (despite the reservation having been made on the phone so clearly the Disney clerk made the error; why would the father tell her August instead of May?), that the hotel was booked solid, and there was no banquet room or other venue they could give out for the party in lieu of the Princess Suite. The father and I spent another frantic hour or two calling hotels local to Disneyland that had suites available at this short notice. Most places had no vacancy due to the long weekend. Olivia had started receiving calls from parents of guests who’d arrived at Downtown Disney wondering where the party was. Finally, a two-master-bedroom condo suite with full living room (w/fireplace!), kitchen and breakfast nook was booked across the street from Disneyland. That worked out more perfectly than Disneyland Hotel, I thought. The suite was bigger, wasn’t as overcrowded as Disney, and the suites were arranged in separated bungalows with ample parking. Soon I was in a sea of kidlets.
The kids burned out their sugar highs by swimming in the resort pool, then came back and split into groups. One did cookie-decorating in the living room (before a TV playing Hannah Montana or some other such show), another living room group beaded bracelets with the assistance of another parent, a younger group sat in one master bedroom watching Spongebob Squarepants, some fathers gathered in the second master bedroom watching the Lakers game, and I ran BeautySalon in the breakfast nook at the table with Olivia. Girls came by the Salon one at a time; Olivia polished their little nails as I took facepainting requests. The girls weren’t very daring; I painted probably 12-15 flowers (I tried to vary them by putting different gemstone stickers in the centers of flowers, and asking them to pick different colors for their petals), one butterfly, one heart, and one star.
After the party, Nikki said to me that the locket (which she wore immediately upon opening) was her favorite present. I choose to believe that it’s true. 🙂
I helped my cousins do cleanup duty, then as the family left for dinner, I drove off to Party #2: Mr. W’s best friend’s wife’s 40th birthday luau. I even changed to fit the luau theme complete with a plumeria pinning up my hair and a hemp ankle bracelet I’d gotten in Oahu. The two parties were obviously contrasting in every way. These are adult wine-loving people and I think I may have been the youngest adult there, with exception to the host’s children. I was also the only Asian there that I could recall, whereas at the kid party, I was the most Americanized Asian there with exception to the parent helping the kids bead bracelets.
Mr. W’s daughter performed a few songs on her new Fender electric acoustic guitar, which Mr. W bought for her Saturday as an early graduation present. They’d been out guitar shopping while I was on the phone kissing hotel ass trying to move the party venue. Despite my getting to Party #2 three hours late, it didn’t look like I’d missed much. Mr. W was there on time without me and said they mostly watched the Lakers game, drank alcohol, and ate. It was a very nice catered affair, however. I came in shortly before the birthday song, cake, and Daughter’s performance. I grabbed a few bites of food and an hour and a half later, we left.
Sunday, I invited my parents plus cousin Olivia and family over for barbecue and Lake fun. As the parents sat shivering under the shade of a tree in the grass (it was warmer in the sun, but they’re so paranoid of tanning), I played with Nikki and Erin in the water. They dug a hole in the sand, collected grass and other random things to throw in it, added lakewater, and Erin stirred the mess with a stick, claiming to be making vegetable soup. They later decided to test out the water. Nikki pranced in ahead of her younger sister, confident from her swimming lessons. Erin reached up to me with a tiny open hand. “Can you hold my hand? I’m scared I’m going to drown if I go in too far and the sand suddenly goes down.” Here’s a 6-year-old who knows what makes her uncomfortable, why she’s uncomfortable, what to do to cure it, and how to express it perfectly to an adult. That’s pretty cool. I held her hand and we went only as far as she was comfortable, which was mid-thigh. She learned a new word: thigh. I enjoyed that quality time with my nieces, just me and the two of them.
After we got the girls out of the water, we rented three kayaks. Daughter one-manned her own, I put Erin in the front of my two-man kayak, and Mr. W put Nikki in the front of his two-man. We paddled half a mile down the lake to another more private beach, where the girls melted sand clumps in the water, pointed out fish, made more sand-seaweed soup, and told stories about fish-bricks. An hour later, we paddled back. Erin asked questions from the front of the kayak the entire way out and the entire way back. Again, I answered everything I could (which thankfully was everything). Some questions were easy: “Is this the ocean? What’s that green stuff on the bottom? Is that one house? Do you want to live in a big house like that? How come they’re so much faster than us?” Some were less easy: “Where does the water come from? What makes you wet? How do you dry up?What’s ‘evaporate’? How come the lake doesn’t evaporate?”
Soon everyone returned to our house for dinner. Mr. W barbecued carne asada, salmon burgers and vegetable skewers, we put out five-grain chips and guacamole and salsa, set the table with drinks and fruit as Daughter entertained on her new guitar. After food was the surprise dessert: the girls were gonna make their first chocolate-dipped strawberries and cherries!
Daughter got a kick out of their interactions as she helped them. Nikki would take charge sometimes, saying to Erin, “Don’t hold it like that! Look, you’re getting your hand in the chocolate!” Erin would reply good naturedly, licking her arm, “Okay, boss.”
Nikki called dibs on the prettiest and largest strawberries.
But of course it was the little one who figured out first that she has TWO hands…
Monday was all about Daughter coming over and Mr. W buying her more recording equipment including a very nifty professional microphone stand and pop guard, plus professional cables. She recorded three more songs yesterday; we’re getting close to registering another album for copyrighting.
