Celebrating Mom's Birthday

We went to a teppanyaki restaurant last night to celebrate my wife's birthday. We have been to all of the teppanyaki restaurants in the area, but like Tsukasa of Tokyo the best.

Not only is the food good, but the chefs there are particularly skilled at entertaining you while preparing your meal. It is the one restaurant we can go to where Kai does not make a fuss about using his phone as the chefs are always doing something interesting.

One of the most difficult tricks that our chef performed was tossing a raw egg up in the air with his spatula, catching it with the spatula, and repeating many times before finally cracking the egg in half onto the griddle as it came down for the final time.

A staple at these types of restaurants is tossing small pieces of food, broccoli in this case, at the patrons to catch with their mouths.

Kai came close to catching it a couple of times, while my wife got hers on the first try!

Another favorite is lighting the stack of onions on fire...

And then turning it into a steam engine and having everyone go "Choo Choo" as the chef pushes it across the griddle.

Of course, no matter how entertaining a place is, it wouldn't be worthwhile if the food wasn't good. We all had steak combos - I had it with scallops, Kai had it with shrimp, and my wife had lobster. All of it was very tasty!

All in all, we really enjoyed it!

We came home to complete the evening with birthday cake.

And to give Mom her cards and presents. Kai loves to draw and made a card with many characters.

He also gave Mom a present that he bought with money he had saved from his allowance and from what he received as gifts. Giving gifts is not yet something that comes naturally to Kai so I had to prompt him to do so and help him select the present.

Last weekend, he and I went onto Amazon to shop for something he could give to Mom.

He started out by typing "gifts under $10." I suggested that he should think of something that Mom would like rather than to search based on how much he wanted to spend.

Next he searched for "dog gifts." That was a step in the right direction but the search resulted in items for dogs, not people, and I didn't think my wife needed any more of those.

I prompted Kai to think of other aspects of his mother.

"Well, she's always stressed out." Ah, now we're getting somewhere. I suggested he search "stress relief."

Eventually we came upon a selection of aromatherapy sleep masks which I thought my wife would like as she has been having difficulty sleeping. There was a nice one for around $18.

It was more than Kai wanted to spend.

He wanted to get the $9 one which wasn't as nice.

I reminded him of how much Mom does for him. I encouraged him to be generous. I spoke to him about how generous others in our family are to him and how much money he has saved up as a result.

Okay, I goaded him.

And eventually he agreed to buy the more expensive one.

Later in the day, he came to me and said, "Dad, I need to be more generous. I'll try to work on that."

When my wife opened the present, she loved the gift and expressed great joy.

I know Kai saw how happy he had made his mother. Hopefully that made him feel happy, too.

Belated Anniversary Celebration at Izakaya Sankyu

It was our anniversary a little over a week ago, but with everyone not feeling well, we decided to hold off on going out to dinner to celebrate until today.

We went to one of our favorite Japanese restaurants, Izakaya Sankyu, where we first went last year for Mother's Day.

The fun part of going to an izakaya is ordering a variety of food. Kai loves gyoza (pan-fried dumplings) so we had to order that. We also ordered fried oysters, mushrooms, yakitori (skewered chicken), karaage (Japanese fried chicken), chicken wings, kalbi beef, and tako yaki (ball-shape snack made with batter and filled with octopus), among others.

We could tell that Kai was feeling better as his appetite returned. We had to fight him off for the gyoza, mushrooms, oysters, and beef, especially.

We filled up, but had a little room left for dessert: green tea ice cream with kinako mochi.

Everything was yummy!

Hard to believe that we have been a family for 11 years now... my how time flies!

Birthday Celebration at Tsukasa

It was my birthday yesterday. My wife and Kai took me out to a teppan-yaki restaurant that we had never been to before. Teppan-yaki is the Japanese cuisine where they use a hot iron griddle to prepare the food right at the table in front of you. Benihana is the most famous of these places and is a national chain; we went to a place called Tsukasa of Tokyo, which is local to our area.

Kai and I started out with shrimp tempura.

And then it was time for the chef to start cooking. They always start by setting off a huge flame. Kai always gets scared at the thought of it.

This time I saw a smile on his face so I think he enjoyed it, though he still wanted to cling to Mom.

One of the nice things about this type of restaurant is that it's easier to get Kai to stop using the iPad or phone while we are there as the chef is quite entertaining. Our chef seemed particularly adept. The chefs all wear different color chef hats. We saw chefs with green, red, brown, and black hats. Our chef had a black hat which meant that he was a master chef, the top level. He demonstrated his skill by flipping pieces of broccoli into the mouths of each patron at the table. Here is the broccoli headed toward my wife's mouth as Kai gapes in amazement.

We all had combo platters with steak; my wife and I had it with scallops, Kai had his with shrimp.

The food was very delicious. We all thought that this was the best teppan-yaki restaurant we had been to.

Even the pineapple dessert was both delicious and artistic.

Afterward, we sat out by the koi pond.

And then went back home to finish off the celebration with an ice cream cake.

It was definitely a very happy birthday!

A Happy Mother’s Day

We started out Mother’s Day with our usual weekend run first thing in the morning. Then we gave Mom our cards and a present.

After breakfast, Kai and I washed her car.

Though I think Kai soaked himself with the bucket of soapy water more than he soaked the car.

Ha, I guess he still has sensory issues. It reminded us that when Kai was much younger, we used let him rub shaving cream all over his body and he enjoyed sliding around on the floor.

After that we went out for lunch at one of our favorite hot dog/Mexican joints. Then, while Kai went to his exercise group, my wife and I took in a flea market.

For dinner, we had tentatively planned on taking Kai to his first Greek restaurant, but we were still feeling heavy from lunch so we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant instead.

Kai had his favorites – miso soup, shrimp tempura, and pieces of shrimp and octopus sushi. My wife and I each had the miso soup, gomae (spinach with sesame dressing), and sashimi plate.

When we got home, Kai whined just a bit when I asked him to play piano.

“But, Dad, it’s Mother’s Day>”

Yes, that’s right. It is not Kid’s Day, it’s Mother’s Day, so you should play extra nice for Mom.

He grumbled a bit more, but he played.

And overall he did very little grumbling.

It really was a very happy Mother’s Day.

Hope yours was nice, too.

Who is the Picky Eater Now?

We went out to a Japanese restaurant last night to celebrate our anniversary.

My wife ordered amaebi (sweet shrimp sushi), which Kai and I had never had before. The body of the shrimp is served as onigiri, wrapped with a ball of rice. Our server, the Japanese owner of the restaurant, asked my wife if she would like the heads of the shrimp as well, which she did. The entire head of the shrimp is deep fried in a light batter.

Kai did not like the sushi as we forgot to order it without wasabi, the Japanese horseradish that Kai does not like.

However, he was eager to try the shrimp head. He asked what the two small black things were and we told him they were the eyes. I was not sure I wanted to eat the shrimp head myself, but Kai happily gobbled his down and said it was good.

So, I tried it, too, and was surprised how tasty it was. The whole thing was very crispy and easy to eat.

My wife and I ordered a large platter of sushi for ourselves, only some of which is pictured here.

For Kai, we always get regular shrimp sushi and he ate them after my wife scrapped off the wasabi.

This time, though, he also wanted to try octopus. My wife and I do not like to eat octopus, being too chewy for our tastes. We warned Kai that he might not like it, but he still wanted to try it.

We were very surprised when he said he liked it. In fact, he liked it so much that he wanted us to order a couple more pieces for him.

So, the little boy who once was such a picky eater is growing up to have an adventurous palate, surpassing even his parents in some respects.

Good for him.

And it will be good for us, too, as we expect to be spending quite a bit of time in Japanese restaurants later this year.

Mother’s Day and Other Weekend Activities

It was another busy weekend.

I brought my dad over for another visit. Kai made it his mission to bring him up to speed on his latest collection, Trash Pack cards.



Of course it was Mother’s Day yesterday. Kai presented Mom with a hat and shirt that he had painted.



The three of us walked three dogs. I had the biggest dog, the Border Collie, Emi. Mom had the next biggest, the Cavalier King Charles, Momo. And, Kai had the smallest one, the Chihuahua, Shandy.



This weekend was the ice show that Kai and his special needs class has been practicing for. He ended up skating in three performances. Kai is in the purple shirt in the center.



The group performed a routine to the song We Are Family, and every member of the group wore a shirt that proclaimed a different member of the family. Some of the girls were Sister or Aunt. Some of the other boys were Brother, Uncle or Father. A few of the buddy skaters were Cousin.

Kai? He was Mother. Which I thought was odd, at first. I think whoever assigned the shirts didn’t realize that he was a boy. But given that it was Mother’s Day, I thought it was a nice tribute to Mom.



My sister and brother-in-law returned from their trip in time to join us for a Mother’s Day dinner at a teppanyaki restaurant. That is one of those Japanese steakhouses where the chef prepares the meal for you right at the table.

We had gone there once before, a couple years ago, and Kai’s lasting memory of that occasion was when the chef creates a huge flame at the table before cooking the meat. It’s intended to be exciting, but for my boy who is anxious about everything, all it did was get him scared. From the time the order taker first came to the table, he asked everyone, several times each, when the fire was going to happen.

And when it was finally time, he ran into Mom’s arms for safety.



But once that was over with, he enjoyed his meal.



I hope your weekend was just as nice!

The Haircut Revisited, and Eating Out

It has been three weeks since The Haircut, so Kai’s hair had grown out enough to give it another cut.

For those who did not read what happened last time, my wife accidentally cropped one swatch of Kai’s hair down to the scalp when she was still drowsy after waking up from a nap.

This time, Kai asked her, “Mom, did you get enough sleep?”

She assured him that she was wide-awake this time. But, he still did not want Mom coming close to his head with the clippers. And he wanted me to go first. I asked him to keep a close eye on Mom while she cut my hair.

She did a great job on my hair, and then it was Kai’s turn.

He was a bit nervous, but less than he is when it starts to rain.

And though he was not particularly happy, he cooperated nicely.



Though he had gotten some nice comments about the stylish haircut I gave him last time, I decided to go back to his standard look this time. I think he was happy about that.

Afterward, we all went out to dinner to celebrate our anniversary.

We were to have gone a week ago, but the restaurant where we had reservations had a power outage and was shut down. On that day, we went to a hot dog joint instead.

So this weekend we tried again.

We went to a yakiniku restaurant, which is a Japanese-style of barbecue where diners can cook meat, seafood, and vegetables at their table.

These days when we go to a restaurant, Kai likes to look at the menu.

“This place is expensive!”

The prices were two or three times that of the places we usually go to with him. I told him it was a special occasion. I think he was thinking of how big a Lego set we could have gotten with the amount we were spending at this place.

Up until recently, the only non-fast food restaurants we liked going to with Kai were Mexican restaurants because they brought chips and salsa out right away, meaning that Kai did not have to wait for food to be served.

We recently figured out that we can go to Japanese restaurants and get a bowl of edamame pretty quickly, and that works just as well.

Kai ate a lot of edamame and finished his miso soup quickly.

And then they brought out a large plate of the items to be grilled.

We started grilling the vegetables first. Kai loves grilled mushroom, onion, and pepper, and gobbled those up quickly.

And he loves shrimp, so we grilled that before the meats.

By the time we started on the meats, he had already eaten a lot. I was wondering if he would eat more.



The meats included sirloin, filet mignon, kalbi (boneless short rib), harami (skirt steak) and thinly sliced beef tongue.

I was surprised when Kai tried all of them, including the tongue. He liked them all, and asked for more of each including the tongue.

My wife and I did not think the flavor of the food was particularly special.

But we were very happy that Kai really enjoyed it, both the food and the atmosphere. It wasn’t long ago that we never would have thought to come to an expensive restaurant with him.

That we were able to, and have a great time, made this a very special evening.

Pickles: The Best Reward

We are always trying to find ways to motivate our son to do well in school. And lately it has been a challenge. He has either been uninterested in any possible reward, or perhaps just unable to control his behavior in school.

But this past week, we found something that he was motivated by: pickles.

Kai’s favorite restaurant right now is Fuddruckers. Fuddruckers is a fast-casual, hamburger restaurant. It is more expensive than McDonald’s, with grilled-to-order burgers and fresh-baked buns. But what sets it apart in my son’s eyes is the fresh produce bar.

The restaurant offers a wide selection of choose-your-own fixins to top your burger. These include fresh tomatoes, onions, and lettuce, as well as more unusual toppings such as cheese sauce, honey or spicy mustard, and even pico de gallo.

But Kai doesn’t care about any of that. He just loves the pickles.

At McDonald’s, he will pick off the two pickles on the McDouble burger and eat them first before he touches the beef or the fries.

And at Fuddruckers, he can have as many pickles as he wants (or at least as many as Mom and Dad let him have). And that makes it his favorite place to go right now.

A few weeks ago, we had told him that if he had a safe week at school, we would go to Fuddruckers. Alas, he has hardly been able to stay safe for one day, let alone for a whole week, so we have not gone to Fuddruckers in a while. My wife and I even stopped telling him about the possibility of going, as we didn’t think he could accomplish the goal.

But on Friday afternoon, he came home from school, announced that he had stayed safe all week, and wondered if we could go to Fuddruckers. It was a holiday-shortened week, and his overall performance at school was just so-so, but he did stay safe. And we wanted to reward that. So, we went to Fuddruckers that evening.

Because the burgers are made to order, there is always a wait for the food. It is not as long as the wait at sit-down restaurants, but it is longer than at McDonald’s. And that wait is still difficult for Kai.

To fill the time, we try to get him to use the iPad, but he never wants to. Instead, we walk around the restaurant and see the numerous sports memorabilia. We get our drinks. And hope that our buzzer goes off quickly.

When our order is finally called, Kai is a happy kid. He can’t wait to go up to get the food with me. And then we head over to the produce bar to load up on the pickles.

It was a nice way to kick off the weekend.

The key to happiness is pickles! Now you know. :)

* * * * *

Our snow from Friday morning did not last long. Warm temperatures yesterday melted much of what had fallen. But it was around long enough on Saturday to go sledding and have a snowball fight.

With the way our winter has gone, it might be the last snow of the season. So, we really enjoyed it.

Las Palmas Offers More Than A Good Meal

This week’s column in the Patch is about our experiences eating in restaurants with Kai. Click here for the full story.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Having a child with autism, we are sometimes apprehensive about trying new things. Like going to a restaurant other than the one our son is familiar with. But it was a special occasion this weekend, so we took the plunge.

It was my birthday, and my wife wanted to celebrate by taking us all out to eat. We have gotten somewhat comfortable dining at our local Mexican restaurant. Its casual atmosphere and the quick arrival of chips and salsa to our table make it the ideal place to go with a boy who hates to wait and can’t sit still for long.

But, while Kai does well there, we haven’t felt all that comfortable about taking him to other restaurants.

For my birthday, however, my wife thought the occasion called for more than enchiladas and tacos. And, we wanted to go out as a family. So, she came up the idea to try one of those Japanese steakhouses where the chef cooks the meal at the table.

We thought that all of the chopping, slicing and dicing, and cooking right in front of us would sufficiently entertain Kai.

We were off to a good start when the restaurant that we went to had an indoor Japanese garden that fascinated Kai. He seemed soothed by the little faux creek running through it, along with all the green plants, coins in the water, and the bridge that we crossed to get to the dining area.

We were seated together with another family of three. We knew that it was likely that we would have to share a table, and that was a concern in choosing this place, but it was a risk we had decided to take. We hoped that Kai would behave well enough not to disturb the others and embarrass us.

Over at a neighboring table, the chef set off a big flame as he heated up their cooking surface. Its part of the show they make of preparing the meal and we thought that would really interest Kai. But all it did was frighten him. We saw his anxiety rise as he asked if there would be a fire at our table, too.

When it came time to begin cooking at our table, and our chef made a huge flame, Kai was in Mom’s lap with his head turned away from the table. When the fire went out, it took a little while to coax Kai back into his seat.

He spoke up to ask the chef, “Excuse me, will there be any more fire?”

The chef assured him that there would be no more fire at our table.

Kai seemed to enjoy watching the chef in action. And he asked him several more questions.

“Excuse me,” he said. “What are you going to cook?”

“Excuse me,” he said. “How long are you cooking?”

“Excuse me,” he said. “What table are you going to next?”

Of course, when you have a child with autism, you are thrilled anytime they want to socialize with anyone else. So, you don’t want to discourage them from doing so. But each time Kai started to speak up, I was afraid of what he might ask. But his questions were pretty appropriate and the chef was a good sport about all the questioning.

When we got to the actual eating, we all enjoyed our steaks.

Kai he did get a bit restless before my wife and I were done eating. He had some trouble staying in his seat. Fortunately, we were seated in a corner of the restaurant and he was able to move to a spare seat they had in the corner and read his element book long enough for us to finish our meals.

So, all in all, we had a very pleasant evening out.

Good steaks – nice!

An evening out with my wife and son – great!

Seeing Kai converse with the chef and successfully tolerate a new setting – the best birthday present I could ever have.

Seeing Progress in a Giant Taco

With all of my son’s behavior issues in school lately, I’m trying to keep perspective that not everything is going to pieces.

This past weekend, with his grandparents in town, they took the whole family out for dinner on Sunday evening. Fourteen of us, including aunts, an uncle, and cousins met at Kai’s favorite Mexican restaurant.

On the way to the restaurant, we tried to prep him. This will be a little different than when we go by ourselves, we told him. Everyone will want to talk and we will be at the restaurant a long time. We will take our time and not rush to leave.

Still, we were nervous. It was only recently that we’ve started to feel more comfortable in going out to eat with him. But that’s just with going out by ourselves. Going to a restaurant with others was still uncommon, and we were not sure how long Kai would tolerate our socializing before he would want to leave.

It didn’t help that the service, which had always been good when we went there before, was incredibly slow on this night. As the wait for our meals extended over an hour, we all were getting restless. Kai’s cousins had their heads down on the table. The adults had concerned looks on their faces. I was feeling hungry and impatient.

And yet, through it all, Kai seemed remarkably unfazed. He asked when his taco would come, but not any more often than the other kids did, and certainly far less often than I was asking the same question in my head.

To pass the time, he started talking about a Giant Taco falling from the sky and landing on everyone. His cousins thought that was funny and added on to the story. With all the laughing, we were able to last until the food arrived without a major incident. On my part, I mean.

I don’t know why Kai is having so much trouble at school this month. But, I do know that despite those issues, he is showing amazing progress in so many other ways. If you don’t believe me, just ask the Giant Taco.