Aloha To Dylan's Infant Years

I can't believe that Dylan has passed the 1 year mark. He is walking and talking...kind of...but for sure he is not the new born I used to hold in my arms. He is a little person with desires and opinions and not afraid to voice his wants. Instead of a more traditional Korean or Chinese style party...Nancy and her sister Catherine came up with the idea of a Hawaiian Luau for Dylan's 1st Birthday. We thought it would be more fun. Again, I want to thank everyone who was able to attend and thank the ones who have participated in our son's life. Yes...food and water help our son to grow physically, but it is the love from everybody that allows him to grow emotionally and mentally. Most importantly, I have to thank God for blessing Dylan and for giving us another healthy child. I pray that God continually gives Nancy and I the wisdom to raise him that is pleasing in his eyes. Here is Dylan in his Hawaiian shirt.Here is Justin wearing a matching Hawaiian shirt as Dylan.I have to say that hosting a party of this size was a lot more work than anticipated. I knew it would be a challenge trying to spend quality time with all of our guests and I honestly feel that I kind of failed at it. Plus, I had to do a lot of little last minute details that I had not anticipated. Originally, we had a guest count of around 35, but at the last minute it jumped to around 50. I just hope everybody enjoyed themselves. Nancy put a lot of thought into making this a mommy and kid friendly party. I think at least everybody left with full stomachs. We had ordered all the food from L&L Hawaiian. My Mom prepared a Korean dish called chap che and Nancy's oldest sister, Catherine prepared her special salmon dish and salad. Gerald who is one of our church friends had mentioned about helping out by taking any left overs, but he never did...I wish he did. In fact I wish everybody took a little something home. There was a lot of left overs and I'm sure a lot went to waste because it was impossible to consume everything in a timely manner. The Pak Brothers doing their thang. Here is my father playing with Justin and Dylan.This a picture of my college buddy Chuck and his wife Eun Shil.We got a Sponge Bob Square Pants jumper for all the kids. Here is Dylan trying it out. It was a real shame that it was not utilized by the kids that much. We had the jumper for about 7 hours, but I think it was only used at most for about an hour or two if at that.Here is Justin taking a crack at the jumper. I think Justin had more fun than his brother did. Justin is very familiar with a jumper because at his pre-school during the summer they would have a jumper every Friday.Here is Justin being silly and pretending to eat a bunch of fake cookies. Justin is such a joker.Dylan and Nancy sharing a tender Mommy and Son moment.Here is Dylan and my sister. All these pictures were taken by my sister Susan and my brother in law Albert.Here is another pic of my college friend Chuck. For any of you folks who love to eat...he has a great website about eating and restaurants around California called http://www.feedmytummy.com/. I hope you don't mind me plugging in your website Chuck. I just think it's a great site and service to folks who want a candid view and opinion about restaurants.Our boys being the mamma's boys that there are.

My father and Dylan enjoying each. My father loves being a grandfather. It's so not fair how my parents allow and do things for their grandchildren that my sister and I could never imagined for ourselves. I think it really is their way of getting back at us. I can't wait to do the same thing to my kids...puhahahaha.Here is my sister and and my sister in law Catherine setting up some of the food. Catherine and her husband generously offered their home to host Dylan's party. Even though there home was a bit far for most of our guests we were very grateful that it did not deter our friends from sharing this special day. There house turned out to be perfect to host the party. Thank you William, Catherine, and Benjamin for opening your home for Dylan's 1st Birthday. It really is times like this that you are grateful for having family to rely on. Did I mention that my Father, Mother, Sister, and Brother-In-Law drove all the way from the Bay Area the night before to be at Dylan's Birthday. Here is a family photo of us of that day. My Father and son moment with Dylan. I love both my boys soooo much and I realize that I have my own individual relationship with each them. I do have to say raising Dylan for the past 9 month and being a stay at home Dad in the daytime has been a very good experience. I'm am grateful that Nancy and I were fortunate enough to work schedules that allowed this. Here is my Mom checking out the festivities. My Mom taking a minute to take a break and enjoy her grandchildren. Here is Dylan checking out his 1st Birthday cake. It was a Curious George cake. Here we are blowing out Dylan's candle as a family.Another shot of Nancy and Dylan smiling for the camera. This is Jean and Jenny and their daughter Amy. They are friends from church. Here is genuine hula girl...just kidding...but doesn't she look adorable in her outfit. Her name is Avery...she is Ben and Nicole's daughter. They are also church friends. Here is Avery's Dad Ben with Jean and his two other daughters Amy and Caitlyn.

Here is Nancy and Dylan with her co-worker Helen. Here is Catherine putting on a Chinese gold necklace for good luck and prosperity. Dylan also got one of these. Here is Albert helping out by washing the plastic chairs that our guests would sit on. One of the traditional things we did was the grab the item and your future is told thing...which is basically we place Dylan in front of multiple objects whatever he grabs will determine his future. We had things like a stethoscope, abacus, money, tools, and some other random things. He ended grabbing money first and then the abacus. I guess it means he will do accounting and make a lot of money. Here is what we really actually wanted Dylan to grab. We wanted him to grab the stethoscope because we would like to have one doctor. Wishful thinking...hahahaha. Here is Justin and Avery playing near the pool. Here is Dylan dressed up in a traditional 1st Year yang bok outfit. Unfortunately, we did not have a Chinese one to put on as well. Here is Nancy's friend Tu and Dylan. He is expecting a girl with his wife Kim this year. Congratulation you guys!!! We got a pinata for all the kids. The only problem was that the pinata was almost indestructible. I think even if the adults tried to crack it open it would have taken some time. I think even if every kid took a crack at and remember most of these kids range from 2-4...it would have been all day. Justin did most of the hitting since he was the best at it. Here are the kids taking their cracks at the pinata. As you can tell Justin really got into it. He started do karate kicks because he wanted to take that pinata down. We wanted to be responsible healthy parents, but when it came time to figure out what to stuff the pinata with...we had to go with candy. You can't have a pinata with organic vegetables...it's just not the same. Though I did feel guilty so I went out and bought some fruit snacks to balance out the candy. Here is Albert with Dylan. He was pretty tired from driving down to Los Angeles the night before. My sister and Albert left San Francisco around 9pm after work. He is a good husband, brother, and son-in-law. We are truly lucky to have him as a part of our family. Here is Caitlyn posing for the camera. We will finish off with Jerold and Trisha's youngest daughter Hannah. Both Jerold and his wife are originally from Hawaii. Jerold gave me the thumb of approval for our Hawaiian party. I hope all of you felt like you were at Dylan's party after reading this. Hmmm...I wonder what theme kind of party we will plan for one of our boys' next party. Thank you all again for those who attended and thanks for those who would have been there in spirit.