Daredevils, or Creature of Habit 6

For the second Independence Day in a row, we celebrated by having a mini-Liu family reunion. My brother Leon and his wife Claire flew in from their new home in Kansas City to join me, Vince, Benjamin, and my mom, who was already in town from China.

Benjamin kicked off the holiday by asserting his own independence - on the playground. Until recently, he would go down the slide only while sitting on Mommy or Daddy's lap. In the spirit of the holiday, though, he decided that it was time for him to brave the slide on his own. He was, however, still willing to sit with Daddy on another, more dangerous ride - a downhill slalom on his new Plasma Car.

His new daredevil antics all but gave poor Hao Po a near heart attack! The irony was that she was the one who had bought him his new red car. I think she was kicking herself over that!

Thankfully, Benjamin balanced out his outdoor stunts with quieter, less life-threatening activities. Whenever we were indoors, he enjoyed sitting and reading with Hao Po.

On the evening of July 4th, Vince, Leon, Claire, and I tapped into our own inner daredevils by climbing up onto our rooftop to watch fireworks. From our precarious vantage point, we were able to see sparks in Culver City, Manhattan Beach, and Malibu.

And though my father was the only Liu family member who wasn't able to make it to our reunion, he made sure that he wasn't forgotten. In fact, his might have been the most daring act of all: he asked my very cranky, very crowd-averse mother to go to the circus that is Costco to him his precious Charmin. The look on my Mom's face while she was schlepping the Charmin was enough to send me cowering behind my shopping cart and thanking the heavens that I wasn't my dad at that moment. Talk about risky behavior!