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I’m walking through our complex with Elisa to our local market where I plan to buy Elisa an ice cream and my weekly lunch supplies. Lydia is in the playground, holding court. I ask her if she wants and ice cream which wasn’t meant as a rhetorical question but of course was. She says yes and asks if her best friend Naomi can have one too. I say sure and she asks if her other friends can. I say sure. 10 minutes later Lydia is streaming back into the playground, eight ice creams bundled in her arms. She is the hero of the moment. ...

The droplets started slow, barely noticeable but landing with a thud as if condensation from a street light. Soon the players on the next tennis court over were jogging to shelter which seemed like an overreaction. A minute later we were drenched, the storm coming in from the west. We made our way to the pro shop and waited out the lighting storm. An hour later Yang was back on the court warming up for her first match of the day. It was 4pm when we learned her opponent had left when the rain began and Yang won by forfeit. ...

I once read somewhere that when kids dream a lot of the time they dream of animals. I’m not sure if that’s what leads to us fathers walking around carrying animal balloons and making monkey faces or not. Or perhaps it is the other way around. In any case, on Dragon Boat festival day yesterday Yang and I took the kids to the Beijing Zoo. It was Aidan’s and Lydia’s second trip and Elisa’s first. ...

Aidan wakes me up at 6:15am and I am a bit groggy but not as groggy as some mornings. He wants to read me his English homework. Good morning class. Today I want to tell you about father. He is my father. His name is Vince Allio. He is a writer. He writes books. He goes to work by taxi. My father is tall and strong. He has short hair. He can play football and basketball. I love my father. Thank you. ...

It is Saturday morning, early, and I am sitting on the coach because the kids always get up early. I hear the piddle paddle of little feat as Elisa is running from the back bedroom into the living room. She emerges, wide awake, with a huge smile on her face. In her hand is Aidan’s old toy again which she is relentlessly firing apparently practicing for the Al Zawahiri kill. She is giddy as she points the gun and hears the toy gun’s fire and then sees me pretend to be shot. She runs out of the room looking for more victims and after dispatching the rest of the household returns to the living room to make sure I’m dead dead. Apparently watching CNN doesn’t count as dead enough so she fires some more shots and I splay across the coach. ...

When I got Aidan a bike last fall Yang questioned my intelligence. She also questioned whether I should have gotten Aidan a bike. It was a bit too big for him and he after a few valiant attempts he wasn’t able to master it. Then winter came and the bike sat in the hallway month after month, a constant reminder of my judgment. With spring warming up to summer temperatures it was time to try the bike and Aidan pairing again. Aidan was eager to learn and I was pleased the bike didn’t seem too big for him anymore. At first Aidan found many excuses about why he could not ride the bike, my favorite was that the screw holding in the left hand brake was sticking out too far. I kept reminding him that he could do it and he had to keep working at it. And then I did what all good fathers do, I left him alone to figure it out on his own. ...

I’m sitting courtside with Aidan watching Yang play the finals of the Side Park woman’s tennis championship when Aidan asks me if I think “mommy will win”. Yang’s opponent, a tall and strong Canadian was about to go up 2-0 and in convincing fashion. My unedited response was “no, she’s getting blown off the court” but I edited it for Aidan’s consumption to “mom’s opponent is really strong so far but your mom competes really well”. ...

Yang asks Elisa if she wants to go to America with me. Elisa says yes because her baba will miss her. Then Elisa begins to pack her little backpack. A little bit later in the morning I’m sitting at Starbucks with Yang before heading to the airport and after a few minutes, Cui ayi arrives Elisa sitting in her stroller. She is looking sad, I want to say forlorn but I don’t really know what forlorn means. I ask her for a good-bye kiss not expecting one since she in general is pretty resistant to it. This time she puckers up and pecks me on the cheek. ...

I’m up at 6AM and driving to the Oakland airport, boarding a Southwest flight to Burbank airport. I was told to fly there because its and easy airport to get in and out of. This turns out to be true as the plane front and rear doors both open and the plane empties out quickly. Car pickup is fast and I’m off driving to the first of three (or was it four) customers’ sites that day. ...

Two weeks ago the devastating earthquake stuck Japan and CNN reported that it could be felt as far away as Beijing. Not that we felt anything or know anyone who did. At least directly. Elisa’s best friend is a Japanese girl of the same age named Weili. Every morning and afternoon for the past year they play together. When I used to come home from work Elisa would come running up to me happily yelling “baba, baba”. Weili started to run up to be saying “aisha baba, aisha baba” for “aisha” is how you would say Elisa’s Chinese name. Then Weili just dropped the “aisha” part. ...