ji's five!

Well, after many (many, many) months of anticipation, Ji Hong is now officially five years old. Pull out the unfiltered Camels and the Jack Daniel's and give a cheer -- oh, wait, that's for twenty five, right? Sorry. Grab a Fun Dip and some Kool Aid and kick back with a little Rollie Poly Olie!

We had a marvellous weekend in Toronto. We flewwwww down from the countryside on Thursday. Ji skipped school cause Uncle Sing was coming into town. We left the house in a tizzy at 8 am and were cruising along Lakeshore Boulevard by 11:15 am to the amazing sound of Teenage Wasteland, with a gorgeous wintry sun gleaming over Lake Ontario. It was weird because the drive down had been very foggy. Up to Orangeville, actually, it was nice, clear, and frosty, and then we drove into the deepest darkest fog known to man. And then my windshield wiper fluid ran out. I didn't think that was a big deal for the first 15-20 minutes or so until I couldn't see the signs at the side of the road and then realized that I couldn't really see the road either. A diaper wipe didn't really do the job so we were forced to stop at a gas station and buy a bottle of wiper fluid. I don't really like "stopping" because usually it makes my darling baby wake up and demand non-driving attention. I raced into the gas station, but no one was there who actually worked in the gas section, just the cashier. So I had to ask a kind lady driver to help me put the fluid in. I couldn't even get the hood open. Jeez. But somehow, amazingly, I dumped the fluid in funnel-less, and we zoomed away without waking up Princess, and made it to Pape in time for lunch. We rule!

That night Ji had fun attacking Uncle Sing and yapping endlessly with Auntie Emma over sukiyaki at the aunts'. The next day was errand-o-matic. Ran to the passport office by 8:20, then to the birth certificate office, then to Mum's office, then to Mum and Dad's, then back to Mum's office, to the bank, back to the birth certificate office, and then downtown for lunch with Charlotte and Nicole at the lovely Red Tea Box shoppe and restaurant, and then (phew!) back up to Mum and Dad's. Then aunts came by and took Ji shopping for some camo clothes. I conked out at 7:30 with Seung Yi.

On Sunday we had Ji awesome birthday party. We woke up and started cake baking - aunts were already up getting the food ready for the party. Aunt turned my pre-heated oven off, then put it back on for me AT BROIL. So, five minutes after the cake went in, it was burning on top. I scraped the top layer off, threw it back in at 350 and hoped for the best. Ji later told me it tasted fine, so that was lucky. He had a great time decorating (thank you for the sprinkles, Bulk Barn) and getting ready for the party. Then, at 11, we went to pick up Adam and Emma and we all got ready to go to the Science Centre. The Marvel exhibit was aiight; cool, but not that big, and very expensive at $25 per person. Zoiks! We mowed down a huge amount of food at the aunts' afterwards and had a fun time opening all the great gifts. Gramma Sayo had invited about 20 of her friends and they stuffed Ji's pockets with lucky money and then went to gamble in the basement. By the time things wound up around 8, we were all sticky with sugar, stuffed with pork, and overwhelmed by gifts. What a great party!

Check out the party pics, and a few from our week up in the countryside.

PS: What colour do you think Seung Yi's eyes will turn out to be?

[Ji Hong-29-November-2006]