Race with Bac Cun

Derek is lucky to have his a good playmate/aunt. Bac Cun often takes Derek to the park and runs around with him. I got a snippet of them racing together.

Cousin Selfies

 

I let Derek and Elliot use my phone for some photos, and here is the ensuing madness of selfies that happened. These two are love getting together, and this was a happy confluence of events as they met up at Outback Steakhouse for some quality time together.

Firefighter in Training

 

It was Fire Prevention Week, so we stopped by at our local firehouse to take a spin in the fire engine. It was a week I was on furlough, so I had some time to take Derek to a few story times with the same theme. I don't think he fully understands emergencies or 911, but soon we'll get him there...

 

Superheroes!

Ta da... being superheroes at Conor's 4th Birthday party. Dek and Conor share a joint love of superheroes (what little man doesn't) and here they are all ready to fight the bad guys in their capes!  Dek regularly tells us that he and Conor are the good guys, who go after the bad guys - but he's also picked all this weird violent stuff. E.g. last week he was saying "I like shooting" - which though probably harmless is a bit alarming. We tried to redirect the convo to how that's strange since Derek is a good guy and good guys don't shoot. He agreed and we're off the shooting topic (for now), though it seems these days that kids are getting suspended from school from making shooting gestures on playgrounds.

Quality Time with Tito Emil

 

 

Mike and I had to spend the weekend away from Derek for a wedding and he got some quality time in with Tito Emil. Derek loves hanging out with his uncle, as the case with other relatives, he gets spoiled by eating french friends and going to the carousel. Looks like they had a good time getting out and and about.

Farm Boy

 

 

 

During the 2 weeks of furlough, Dek and I had some extra time to go on adventures. We made it out to Cox Farm's Fall Festival on a weekday to enjoy the haystacks. The place was teeming with school aged kids which was a bit intimidating for Derek, as he had to fight his way through lines with the big kids at the slides. I was kind of shocked of the rough and tumble that happens when everyone is trying to get to the top - no order, teachers/parents are pushy and the staff is not helpful in enforcing the first come, first serve model. I felt a bit helicopter parent-like hovering with Derek to make sure he didn't keep getting pushed down or just shoved over. All and all though, it was a great sunny day and we even got Tita Wuiping to join us. Dek certainly enjoyed the pumpkins, animals and slides.

Tet Trung Thu

 

 

Dek and Mercy, age 2, celebrate the annual mid-Autumn Moon Festival (Tet Trung Thu). In Vietnam, the festival is geared towards children and as aptly titled to honor the lovely full moon. Kids typically dress up, have snacks and enjoy parading around the town with lanterns especially those shaped like animals like swans, butterflies and stars.  There are some kid-centric celebrations in the VA area that I dragged Derek to, but here he's just enjoying Tet Trung Thu with Cousin Mercy.  I also tortured him/Mike by teaching him a traditional song about the holiday which we sang for weeks at a time and almost made Mike go off that deep end hearing about Tet Trung Thu.

First Day of "School"

Derek returns to rule the school as one of the big kids - though he's turning 3 in November, he wasn't 3 in time for official preschool so he's starting in the 2 year old class where he towers over most of his counterparts. That's ok though, he's potty trained and able to express lots of thoughts (compared to just crying and screaming when we dropped him off last year).  His favorite things about school, it seems, are going outside to the playground and having turkey sandwich for lunch. Sometimes turkey sandwich and banana chips are all we can talk about sometimes.  Though school is only two days a week, he often asks me to "pack his lunch" every single night and makes turkey sandwich is part of that deal.

Bros

 

Dek with bestie Conor (kidding, I don't think preschoolers use the word bestie). These little dudes do have a good time together and were reuniting at Baltimore Comic Con for the first time in awhile. 

Encounter with Spidey

Dek and buddies Conor and Everett check out Balitmore Comic Con with Spider-Man! (One of many spideys there I might add). Derek was very star struck to see the long parade of super hero folks walking about.