Rollin'

That's me...And that's my sweet ride.

タイトル：ローリン

これは、僕。そして後ろに見えるのが僕の愛車だよ。

Captain Taiyo

The Captain returns to the docks after a long morning catching crab. We are prepping Taiyo for the day he can join the Captain Santa crew.

朝から蟹をたくさん捕まえて、船長は波止場に戻ってきました。
パパとママは、タイヨウがキャプテンサンタの仲間に入れるように準備しているところです。

ママ記：パパ的冗談なので、通じる人にしか通じないです・・・。

New Friends, Peninsula Life

Taiyo is not yet to the point where he actively plays by himself or really imagines characters. He's still dealing with getting to understand the concept of the self and the external. This takes the form of him gazing as his own hand, gently rubbing my arm to explore texture, looking away with a shy expression when someone smiles at him.

But we are encouraging him to conceptualize other things, and he's started to take an interest in both his bear, and his blanket. This is surely just the start of a long relationship with inanimate objects, which he will breathe life into.

We finally didn't spend the whole weekend packing or unpacking. Instead we spent it outside in the sunshine of the Peninsula.

First was a great hike up around the Stanford Dish on Saturday morning.I've been doing this walk for a few years now but had never taken Yoshiko (or Taiyo) before. We had a great time on the 5 mile loop, catching up with a friend. Taiyo strapped into the backpack and off we went.

Sunday we got together with some fellow parents in San Mateo's Central Park. It is too bad that the Japanese Gardens are closed during Cherry Blossom season but we look forward to their re-opening later in the year. Although Taiyo is still a little young for swings and slides, I like getting out there and anticipating the adventures to come.

Happy 4 months!

４ヶ月おめでとう！

Taiyo just hit four moths this past week. He's grabbing and holding things around, and we are adjusting our habits, such as keeping food out of reach at the dinner table.

He lives for direct human interaction and loves making eye contact with everyone around him. He plays shy now and then and likes to pretend he won't look at you if you hold him.

He really enjoys trying to stand up when you hold him over a surface he can put his feet on.

We're working on "tummy time" to encourage him to try rolling over or starting crawling movements but we haven't done enough with him there yet.

New Home

We're still in the process of putting life back together again but we have moved. Please drop us an email for the new address and we'll be sending out an update to everyone.

Taiyo is looking forward to climbing these stairs and Yoshiko is looking forward to locking them down.

Time flies

We've been away a while. I'm very sorry about that. A few things have been happening that has kept me away from posting updates. One is that we are preparing to move. That is consuming a big chunk of our free time and I'm wiped out when the next piece is complete each evening. Second is that I've taken a few business trips (and another this coming week) so I've been away from Taiyo.

Two main points to drive home here as Taiyo hits 3 1/2 months and keeps on trucking. The first is that he's finally and fully discovered his thumb for sucking. We've held back on a pacifier for a number of reasons, but we always knew that it would mean less satisfaction. Luckily he's completely got the concept down on how he can deliver on that need without anyone else and we're very happy to see the idea taking root in his mind.

The second is that he's really enjoying trying to stand up. We often pull him up by his hands and his legs kick into a new gear. He takes little baby steps and pounds the floor with his feet. His expression is one of determination and cueriosity and he tries very hard to do....whatever this new thing is.

He's now tipping the scales at 16 1/2 pounds, which means he is not long for his current car seat or sets of clothes. We know he'll slide back into the average weight class at some point but for the moment he continues to grow.