Letter to Tooh Fairy

Window of opportunity

Chatting w/ Noriko in the kitchen. Noriko said - JJ and I had an interesting conversation a few days ago.

It goes like this:

Noriko - We live in stevenson ranch. its nice so a lot of people like to live here.
JJ - Was our house expensive?
N - No, it was cheap
JJ - So, not too many people wanted it, right?
JJ - You know, if a lot of people had wanted it, it would have been expensive (explaining to his mom in a professorial kinda way).
JJ- This is called the "Window of Opportunity" !

So, back to the kitchen, Noriko asked - Did you talk to JJ about that?
My reply - Yes, a few times. This is parental satisfaction in the best possible way!!!

Nov 6th dual recital in Burbank

It's Nov recital again @ Brand Library in Burbank. THis year, JJ did two instruments - German Dance (Piano) and Staccato March (Violin).
According to JJ, he was a little nervous but he did great. Unlike previous recitals at Brand where minor mistakes were made, he did not make any mistakes at all this time. Fantastic job!

JJ was pleased that he was the only kid who did 2 instruments. There were some pretty impressive violinists too. One kid around 10 or so (Jondre Hwang) played a long and tough piece. Lots of great techniques. Very impressive. He was JJ's favorite!

Why does she love you?

Olivia (Pinecrest 1st grade classmate) said to Jay " I like you but I don't love you. Why does Ashley (another clasmate) love you?
JJ replied - I don't know. Why do you ask Ashley?
Christopher Kim (another classmate standing next to JJ) immmediately started making fun of JJ.

First tournamnet

JJ had his first TKD tournament at his school (ATA in Stevenson Ranch) last Fri. He did his form really well and was tied for 3rd place in the first round. They had a runoff and he lost so he was fourth in a group of 7 kids. The girl who won during the runoff (chosen by majority of 3 judges) did just half the form ( up to knive hand strike of the blue belt form).Not sure why she was able to get away with it. ACcording to official ATA rules, she should have gotten the lowest score of 9.0. Oh well.

in sparring, JJ went up against Mako(a red belt tournamant kid with many tournament wins under his belt) and got shut out (0-5). Mako was good and Jay did his best. No complaints. Mako also shut out Marcus (another brown belt). This kid was good and had had lots of training. Well deserved and easy victory for Mako.


I was very pround of JJ's performance even though he did not place. As I had told him before the event - Doesn't matter if you win or not as long as you did your best. The best he did. The most important thing is that he wants to go to more tournaments because had a good time. I was impressed by his strength in handling disappointment. I wish I could be as strong.

As for the issue with the 3rd place kid for Form competition, I decided not to push it since JJ did not seem to be affected by it too much even though he was disappointed.

All in all, a good experience for JJ!

An older woman ???

Picked up JJ from school. Talking on our way back home. JJ said - A lot of people love me at school. I don't know what to do. A girl from 3rd grade said she loved me today.
Dad asked - who was that girl?
JJ replied - I don't know her but she is the sister of one of the girls in my first grade class