Sunday, January 30, 2011

Tony cries when he sees a Dora DVD

Tony loves watching Dora, a cartoon show, on DVD these days.
 
The extent of his love for the show was made evident to his parents as he threw a fit at a restaurant, Sunday evening, when he saw another child carrying a recently-bought DVD copy of the Dora show.  Tony may have thought that the boy had taken the DVD, or that only he was entitled to have a DVD -- Tony had tried to grab the Dora DVD from the other little boy.
 
To placate Tony, his father took him to the closest DVD shop.  There were no Dora DVDs but Tony was silenced with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD.  Tony took the Mickey Mouse DVD to the front of the store and threw it on the desk to initiate the purchasing process.
 
Back at the restaurant, Tony put the DVD in his father's backpack.
 
Back home, Tony told his mother to take it out of the backpack.
 

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Wuxi Tony sings, dances, does tai chi, does kung fu, and says Happy New ...

Tony on the last Saturday evening of the Chinese Old Year

  • The Kaulins family went to the Baoli Carrefour on Saturday evening.  Tony's mother said this was because Tony wanted to go downtown to see Daddy!
  • Tony was interested in the live fish at Carrefour.
  • Tony can say Happy New Year in English and Chinese.
  • Tony 会说中文的和英文的“新年快乐”
  • Once home from shopping on Saturday evening, Tony was very affectionate and clingy.  At bedtime, he didn't want to be left alone in bed.  He had to have either his mother or his father with him.  And he was happy to fall asleep in either his father's or his mother's arm.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Wuxi Tony Update #268: Chinese New Year in the Chinese Countryside.


Tony during a CNY, two years ago.

Tony and his father wrestle

  • It is a wrestling match every night at bedtime between TKIC and AKIC.  AKIC wants to go to sleep, but TKIC wants to jump up and down on his father.
  • TKIC, in AKIC's opinion, spends too much time watching television during the day.
  • This is the latest TKIC video on www.youku.com.
  • Tony reports to his mom that his father hurt him.  Father is assumed guilty without a trial.
  • TKIC can go into a kitchen drawer and find the chocolate which JKIC has hidden from AKIC.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Tony's Spring Festival holiday begins

  • Friday is the first day of Tony's Spring Festival Holiday.  He won't go back to kindergarten till March.  What plans does he have?  None that his father knows of.  Tony currently lives for the moment.
  • Thursday evening bedtime, Tony wouldn't lie still and sleep -- he was jumping on and pinching his father who was trying to sleep. 
  • Thursday evening, Tony's father arrives home from work.  Tony meets him at the door with his train in his hand.  Tony shakes the train because he wants his father to fix it.
  • Tony is best in his English class but worst in his Chinese class.  The good English comes from living with his father of course.  The poor Chinese can be attributed to his being the youngest in his class.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Uggh!!

Tony wets the bed.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Tony before Chinese New Year 2011

Tony and his mother




Tony and his father


Tony makes a face




Tony is off to School!

Despite his reluctance to get up, Tony was put in the van that takes him to kindergarten Monday to Friday.
 
Down the apartment stairs, Tony and Andis went.
 
Then down the apartment lane, They walked.
 
They then turned by the guard shack at the apartment entrance.  All the guards said "hello!" to Tony
 
Past the guard shack they saw the van from the kindergarten awaited them.  The friendly girl opened the van door.  The girl and the driver said "Good Morning Tony!"

Monday, January 24, 2011

Tony missing a piece of track from his train set?

Andis spent ten minutes looking for a "missing" piece of track for Tony's train set.  He looked everywhere.  He looked under the sofa.  He looked in Tony's four buckets of Toys.  He looked under the bed.  He even asked Tony where the piece could be.
 
After looking here and there, up and down, hither and dither, thater and therer, Andis was ready to give up.
 
But then he saw the box that Tony's train set had come in.  Andis saw that he had configured the tracks the wrong way.  Putting the tracks together properly again, he saw that there were no missing tracks at all.
 
And they all lived happily ever after.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Big New York Mafia Bust Nickname List has three Anthonys and an Anthino.

When I saw the link to the list, I had to see if it had any Tonys on it. Italians are often called Tony, and they always seem to be saying "Hey Tony!" in movies. (It should be noted that Tony's nickname was inspired by the great goalie of Italian heritage Tony Esposito.)

Four Tonys made the top twenty Mafia Bust nickname list:

  • ANTHONY CAVEZZA, also known as "Tony Bagels"
  • ANTHINO RUSSO, also known as "Hootie"
  • ANTHONY DURSO, also known as "Baby Fat Larry" and "BFL"
  • ANTHONY LICATA, also known as "Cheeks," "Anthony Firehawk," "Anthony Nighthawk," "Nighthawk" and "Firehawk"


Let's try these nicknames on Anthony Arnis Peng Kaulins:

  • Tony "Bagels" Kaulins
  • Tony "Hootie" Kaulins
  • Baby Fat Larry Kaulins. BFL Kaulins. (There is something to be said for that nickname. If you look at recent photos of AAPK, he has a little chubbiness.)
  • Tony "Cheeks" Kaulins
  • Anthony "Firehawk" Kaulins
  • Anthony "Nighthawk" Kaulins

Happy Dance!

The cool thing that 41 month old Tony can do now is the Happy Dance.  He shouts "Happy Dance!", and then dances happily, bouncing left and right on the balls of his feet.  I should take a video of this.  He has learned the dance from watching this learn English cartoon DVD.  The character that does the Happy Dance is nude. but has a lot of facial and body hair.

Wuxi Tony Update #144

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Tony is 41!


It is the 23rd of the month, which means it is time to count how many months it has been since Tony's birth. As of January 23, 2011, he is 41.
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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Notes about Tony on a Friday

  • Tony went to Kindergarten today.  There was no overnight dump of slush so it was a mighty fine day for kindergartening.
  • Tony can clap, in time, when his father sings the song "If you're happy and you know it..."
  • Dad and Mom cannot yet get Tony to say "I'm a good boy!"
  • Tony likes cheese.  In fact, he will grab his father by hand, and take him to the fridge to get the cheese which is in a high compartment.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tony gets a Snow Day

Tony's father looked out the window to see the biggest accumulation of snow in Wuxi, China since 2008.  He decided that it was best Tony stay home.

Tony's mother said Tony would only watch television all day.  Tony's father responded that it was so messy outside that it wasn't worth the bother to get him to the school.

Tony's mother reluctantly agreed.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Wuxi Tony Update #300: On the steps of a Big Buddha.


Tony in March 2009.

It is snowing in Wuxi, so Tony wears blue boots

He didn't want to wear the boots.  He in fact cried at being made to put them on.
 
Then when he was taken outside, he looked at the snow and asked "what's this?"

Monday, January 17, 2011

Tony has fever. He won't go to school

Tony is feverish, and yet he is happy he won't go to school Tuesday.

Great Tonys: St. Anthony the Abbot

His Feast Day is January 17.  You can find out about him here.

Dora!Dora? Oh!

Tony said "Dora!"
 
Dad said "What?"
 
Tony again said "Dora!"
 
Dad looked up to see the menu screen for Tony's Dora DVD.   Dad then said "oh!"

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Vehement like a banshee

Tony very much didn't want to get up Monday Morning to go to school.
 
He was loud.  He used repitition techniques.  He said "BU YAO!  BU YAO!  BU YAO!  BU YAO!  BU YAO!" and "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Saturday, January 15, 2011

2011 HyLite English Chinese New Year Dinner Video

Tony at the 2011 CNY Dinner

Tony plays with a gift he had received at the dinner.

Tony behaves historically and exemplarily well at his father's school's 2011 Chinese New Year Dinner

Tony's behavior at Saturday Evening's 2011 HyLite School Spring Festival Dinner was the stuff of legend.  He was very well-behaved unlike the 2010 Dinner where he wouldn't sit still and tried to run away from the event.  He sat and watched the affair, without a need to rush the stage or play with musical instruments.  He wasn't loud or rowdy, instead maintaining a shy and dignified reticence that made him seem all the more charming and cute to onlookers.  His covering and plugging his ears was his mature way of dealing with the the loudness and poor quality singing that the affair unfortunately had accompany it -- it gave all offenders pause for reflection.  At the end of evening, he most graciously held his father's gloves as his father was putting on his jacket, and then handed the gloves to his father.

If eternity could give out awards for saintly behavior, Tony would have deserved to have gotten one last night.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Wuxi Tony Update #261: Tony at HyLite Language School.


This video was taken two years ago in January 2009.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Tony! Get out of that box!

Wuxi Tony Update #521: 2010 HyLite Chinese New Year Dinner.


This video was taken almost a year ago. Tony will be going to the 2011 Dinner this Saturday night.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Tony watches the Roadrunner and...

  • He said Beep!  Beep!
  • Tony likes his mother in the evening; and he likes his father in the morning.  It is all about who he can cling to -- in the evening, he and his mom are huggy-huggy.  In the morning, he likes his father because his mother makes him wash.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Tony shakes and shakes and shakes

Daddy! What are you doing?

Wednesday morning, I was to take Tony to the kindergarten van pickup spot.
 
I got dressed and had my shoes on before Tony, and so I waited at the entrance of the apartment for him as Jenny dressed him.  Tony looked at me, and said "What are you doing?" 
 
I didn't know why he was asking me this, but then my wife figured out that Tony was wondering why I wasn't bringing my backpack with me.  Usually, I would bring it with me but today I wasn't going to school right away.
 
Interesting it is to see the things that Tony picks up on.
 

Tony Kaulins watches Bruce Lee

I put the old Bruce Lee DVD into the DVD machine, and what was the result? 
 
Tony laughed and got into a fighting mood.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Tony Kaulins has a Chinese mother and why it is a good thing for him.

Because Chinese mothers are superior.

No Fuss.

With no fussing, Tony is sent off to kindergarten Monday Morning
 
He might have been too sleepy to protest.
 
Having sent Tony off, Tony's father returns to the computer to monitor what is happening in the NFL playoffs.

Friday, January 7, 2011

没有点了! Mei You Dian Le!

Tony said this as he showed one of his toy trains to his father.  It took a few seconds for it to register in Andis's head that Tony was saying that his toy train needed batteries, or to be exact, had no electric power.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Good Eyes!

  • Dad took Tony to the kindergarten van pickup spot Friday morning.  Tony suddenly said "lai le" which in Chinese means "here it comes!".  Dad had to strain his eyes to spot the van but eventually, he saw it in the distance.  Dad was impressed with Tony's eyesight: "Good eyes!  Tony!"
  • Tony looked at a picture of himself, Mom, Dad, and Dad's parents taken in Canada.  He pointed to his Dad's mom, and said "that's Grandma!".
  • Funny how it is that Tony loves his mother at night, and his father in the morning.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Notes about the Tony Boy

  • Tony can say:  "Hello Daddy!" , "I love you Mommy", "Bao-Bao ai Mama!" , "Whatcha doing Daddy?", colors, numbers, "If you are happy and you know it", and so on.
  • Tony opened the door to let  in his father who was coming home from work.  He said "Hello Daddy!" as he did so.  Daddy loved this.
  • Tony has, in the last week, developed a nasty habit of dumping the contents of his toy pail on the floor.  As Andis said in a Youtube video, he is a master of chaos.
  • Tony don't like wearing hats.
  • Tony put a favorite toy of his in his mother's purse.  His parents couldn't find this particular toy for two weeks as Tony had put the toy in a small change purse and then put it in his mom's purse.  His mom actually witnessed Tony putting the coin purse  in her purse, but she never thought that Tony was being sneaky -- she didn't know the toy was in the coin purse.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Tony will never be a great ping-pong player

Tony, his father has discovered, is the youngest student in his class.  It explains why he was not as well-behaved as the other students in his class when they did a class show recently.  Maturity levels can differ greatly over a period of months for toddlers.  Tony was born August 23.  If he was born a week later on September 1, he would have been the oldest member of his class, instead of being the youngest and least mature.

Tony's father was born December 24. In Canada, the cut-off birthday is January 1 so Andis spent his life being the youngest in his class.

Like father, like son!

Tony's father remembers reading somewhere on the Internet that  in Canada, all the good hockey players are usually born in January or February because of a cut-off date for levels being again January 1.  January or February born hockey players having greater physical maturity have more success which means more ice-time and other training advantages that their later-born-in-the-year teammates and opponents lack.

Tony will have the same problems, his father assumes, with becoming a great ping-pong player.


Tony and some toy blocks




Getting Tony to School.

  • He was grumpy when he awoke, but he didn't cry as he and his father waited for the kindergarten van.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Tony still asleep at 945 a.m.

AKIC can't blame the boy. It is cold outside and inside in the K family's Wuxi, China apartment.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

AKIC's first video of 2011 features TKIC


The first AKIC video of 2011 features you-know-who!

TKIC throws AKIC off.

TKIC said he wanted to go to bed.  This didn't register in AKIC's brain.  AKIC thought that TKIC wanted to do something else like watch a DVD or play with a train set.

It was only after TKIC said that he wanted to go to bed, five times, that it finally registered in AKIC's brain.  This wanting to go to bed was out of character for a boy who normally would protest passionately when told it was bedtime.

Wuxi Tony says Happy New Year!

2011's first Tony photo.


Tony plays with farm implements in a Wuxi, China Culture Centre

An AKIC&TKIC January 1 narrative.

As AKIC writes this, he wears a toque and a housecoat.
 
  • New Year's Eve, the family K was in bed by 1130 pm.  Midnight passed without incident.  AKIC had done his New Year's countdown and rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" at about 745 pm with students at an English Corner -- he worked till nine pm.   Before lights out, Andis read some David Warren columns -- a divine way to end the year.
  • Andis told the English Corner that the highlight of 2010 was watching Tony grow and develop.  He also told them of the sadness he felt on the death of is Aunt Ritma and a man named Barry Botteril -- both unflappable characters.
  • The K family slept in on January 1.  AKIC had no hangover.  His first conscious moments of 2011 saw him wrestle with Tony who entered 2011 in a combative mood.  TKIC probably didn't like being kissed by his father who had a day's growth.  Later AKIC and TKIC sang while in bed.  TKIC can sing "If you're happy and you know it!".
  • JKIC decided it was a good day to move furniture.  It nearly resulted in a divorce.  AKIC found JKIC's directives confusing which roused J's ire.
  • All the while, Andis was able to do some surfing on the Internet.  He was able to download the latest Radio Derb podcast.
  • Tony said something about wanting to go outside.  Jenny told him that he would have to wait till after lunch (noodles it was).  Funny how after lunch, Tony changed his mind about going out.  But J wanted the K boys out.  She told AKIC to get some pineapple beer.  AKIC agreed even though he was happy with the cache of Tsingtao beer that was already in Casa K.
  • Exiting Casa K, AKIC formulated a plan to take the 610 bus to Qianzhou, buy a cola for Tony, and return to Yanqiao on the first available 610 bus.  However, the wait for the 610 was long and when it did arrive, it was crowded.  AKIC got on the bus but quickly decided to get off after one stop, mystifying the locals.  AKIC reasoned that once a plan was determined to be bad, the best thing to do is to abandon the plan quickly as possible -- damn the gracelessness of doing so.
  • The K boys got off at a stop near the Wu Culture Park which they decided to visit.  They saw what had become the same old what-not:  statues and supposed peasant farm implements.    AKIC took three videos -- the first of the 2011 video-making year.  Tony said the exact words "Happy New Year" during the videos.  Andis said "Xin Nian Kuai Le" and "Shin Ninny Cole Slaw".
  • The K boys then walked to downtown Yanqiao which was thankfully not so far away.  (It should be said that Andis carried Tony to downtown Yanqiao).  Along the way, they were cut-off by an ignorant driver make a quick turn with his SUV while not giving a damn for pedestrians.  Andis pointed a middle-finger in the general direction of the SUV.  So much for any thought of Christian forbearance in the face of rude behavior.  Also, AKIC could only frown as a trio of locals said "hello" to the K boys.  The trio followed the custom of saying "hello" to "laowai" in false stiletto "hello your foreign monkey" voices -- so much for AKIC's resolution of not thinking hostile thoughts and forgiving them because "they know not what they do!".
  • To a supermarket, that JKIC regularly goes to, AKIC and TKIC went.  The rationale for the trip there was for Andis to buy pineapple beer, and the plan was to then take a three-wheeled taxi back home.  First, Andis and Tony played some games.  Tony played some one-rmb toddler games and rode some one-rmb toddler rides; Andis shot baskets on another one-rmb machine -- Andis managed to get to the second level of the basketball game.  Andis wondered if he would do better if he wasn't  always was trying to make baskets with high-arced shots.  Finished playing, the K boys found no pineapple beer.
  • Adopt, Adapt, Improve.  AKIC, finding no beer at the supermarket, decided to go to downtown Yanqiao's other supermarket to see if any could be acquired.  Before going there, the K boys walked through the downtown where it was busy.  Andis couldn't determine if this was because it was Saturday or because it was January 1.  The goods to be acquired in the downtown, Andis noticed, were quite cheap and tawdry looking -- stuff for "country jakes", and would never be found in a "progressive's" neighborhood.  AKIC, while carrying TKIC, was able to take some photos and video of the crowded Yanqiao open air market.  He was stared at by a "country jake".  He bought TKIC some cheap "Thomas" train toys.  He saw and took photos of some "I fart in your general direction" sweat pants -- kids sized.
  • At the second supermarket, AKIC found four cans of pineapple beer.  However, Tony got into a snit because Andis wouldn't let him go to the the playground in the store.  Andis and Tony fought over a bag of potato chips which Tony wanted to throw on the ground because of his snitfulness.  Andis found that pretending to throw Tony to the ground was a good behavior modifier.
  • Andis then was cheated when he bought some cooked sweet and sour chicken, and shrimp for supper back at Casa K.  While this purchase was being made, Tony decided he had to pee.  He dropped his pants near the counter, and peed with a long arch that blocked the path in front of the counter.  All sorts of people then stepped in the resulting puddle of piss.
  • Andis recalled how the morning of December 31st, on the way to school, one of the passengers was so sick that she vomited into the bus bucket for five minutes.
  • After the being overcharged (while Tony peed a shaft of golden green) for food, Andis could at least rest assured that the three-wheeled taxi cab ride back to Casa K wasn't a scam -- five rmb and Andis had the pleasure of Tony falling asleep on his lap.  Arriving at the entrance to building 52, Tony said he wanted to go to sleep -- an amazing admission from a guy whose first sentence was "bu yao qi chuang le".
There you go!  Blogging or Typing?  What do you think?