Discovering how to slide

WHOOSH - One moment your at the top and the next your flying towards the ground at a rather sharp angle. This doesn't appear to be fun the first time, but Taiyo quickly starting seeing the positives.

I'm too scared to let go of his hands yet...

New Angle

Momma got a new camera for her birthday. Now it is up to us to live up to possibilities it offers.

We stopped by the park in San Mateo today as the setting sun was casting warm light over a rose garden. Here's some examples of our first trials with the camera.

Happy eleven months!

At eleven months I'm noticing that he is getting better at milestones he's reach in the past couple of months- things like:

• feeding himself
• crawling faster
• walking with better balance
• improving in coordination and general dexterity
• waving "bye-bye"

Taiyo, I will try to enjoy and be thankful for every day this final month before your birthday as I think back with pride over all that you have accomplished in one short year.

You fill me with joy.

Our new TV

We got this awesome replacement for our TV when we moved into our new place earlier this year. It has become part of our daily lives and we really are glad we upgraded.

Closing the Cabin and first snow

We made one final trip to the Cabin for this year in order to close everything up. We were not expecting the snow that we found, but it made for a fun introduction to the cold wet stuff for Taiyo.

We held it out for him to touch and poke at and he wasn't at all sure that he liked it.

I like to swing

Taiyo goes to the playground every week now. He can't walk yet, but he can slide and he can swing. He's enjoying both more and more. Soon he'll figure out he can kick and pull with his arms to up the speed.

Facing Forward

When you first go into the car seat as a newborn, it doesn't mean very much to you. Things are still way too bright and nothing feels normal and you still don't have any idea what is going on.

But over the next few months, you start to gain awareness. At some point, you realize that you keep getting stuffed into the same seat in the same surroundings and then one day, POOF, awareness dawns and you get that you are in a car...facing backwards.

From watching Taiyo go through this, I get the feeling that this starts to suck. You can't see much although you know there is a lot of action out the window. You crane your next to try to see but it just doesn't work out.

And then one day, as if answering your prayers, those wacky parents decide to start putting you face first in the car, and an entire world unfolds before your eyes.

Enjoy the view, Taiyo.

Happy ten months!

We celebrated four years of marriage and ten months of Taiyo last weekend. Fall colors with starting to show at our cabin in the sierras. It was a wonderful quiet weekend with just the river and rocks to keep us company.

The cabin is a spiritual place for me - one I've grown up with since I was Taiyo's age. I love watching him watch the world.

On the move

Taiyo regularly crawls down the hall and around corners to greet me when I return home. He has begun to finally master the physical skills of crawling, which is opening up a whole new mental challenge for him - how to conceptualize physical space.

He's long been able to figure out that when I hide behind something, I'm still "there" and that only his vision is blocked. But now he is thinking about the concept of corners, rooms, vertical height and all the complexities that brings as he experiments with moving through space.

It is really amazing to watch him grasp the layout of the house and quite stunning to see him crawling off to favorite places.

So that's what these opposable thumbs are for!

Just as Taiyo was learning to crawl, he was also paying attention to the stuff we keep shoving in his mouth day after day. Some babies seem to set about feeding themselves early, wanting nothing more than to be left in piece with a nice piece of bread.

Taiyo's journey into feeding the hunger has been slower. He took a long time to really associate anything we gave him as food he could put in his own mouth.

But the power of the banana overwhelmed in him the end it seems. Now he is enjoying learning to munch on crackers, bread, broccoli, various fruit, and on and on.

As part of this new found empowerment, we are moving from two to three solid food meals a day from tomorrow.

Scale the Mountain

I am one of many things Taiyo has set about climbing. As I mentioned in the previous post, he seeks it as a personal test to figure out what it takes to scale any peak. How high he will go is still anyone's guess.

Riding High

Taiyo can sit and stand and crawl and (almost) walk. He loves nothing more than physically interacting with the things around him.

Usually he does this by pulling himself up and over barriers or even banging his head against the wall just to see what happens.

The world reacts is something he really gets. Now he is bent on figuring out just how it will react. He will test and push the limits for years and years to come.

A shaking sea-horse is no match for this cowboy.

Back!

We're back! It was a long trip but we are safe and sound back home again. Taiyo has changed so much in 1 1/2 months. But the biggest change has to be that he is now crawling!!!

We are busy re-arranging the house as life as we know it once again takes a big turn in the road.

Taiyo celebrated his ninth month in August. To mark the occasion he knocked back a cold frosty beverage.



We will now return to regularly scheduled Taiyo updates.

Traveling

We are all going to be away for a few weeks. Updates will resume after returning.

First Cabin Trip

Taiyo has made his first trip to our cabin. I looked forward to this day for a long time and was happy that it happened about the first time I experienced the cabin as a child. We got into so many important elements of what makes the cabin special.

It is important to me that Taiyo get a lot of exposure to the outdoors. It seems like there are many traps to fall into that would deprive him of a connection and relationship to nature. I don't want to let that happen. I want Taiyo to understand what it means to be part of the system of life around him and I want him to grow feel at ease and hopefully love the beauty and excitement of the natural world. Our cabin is a fantastic outlet for that - one I cherish and look forward to sharing with him during our entire life together.

Summer in the Pool

I will say this for San Mateo - having it be warm enough in the summer to go swimming outdoors is pretty nice.

We started Taiyo in a swim class recently. The first couple of days, he was not very happy. Whenever he got splashed or when we dunked him under the water, he gasped and sputtered and cried. But give a baby a couple days of something new and they adjust.

Since the first few trials, it has been smooth sailing and now he kicks and splashes and laughs and has a great time.

Someone told me that you better get your kid in the water and learning to swim sooner rather than later because if you don't, they won't know what to do when the required "falling into the water" goes down.

Life Continues

As we mourn a passing of a life, we can't help but feel joy at the bright new one right in front of us.

Taiyo has been a great light, banishing away all shadows that might keep me down. This isn't to say he's stopped me from feeling the loss of my Grandfather - not at all. Instead, he's simply helped me see things through a more positive prism.

I'm ready to continue here now.

I've been meaning to point out just how amazing baby clothes are in Japan. We have routinely found things we love for less than 5 dollars. The best part has been how easy it is to find good quality creative clothes. This has really contrasted with the the frustrating experience of having to really dig for creative and interesting clothes here in the states.

Here he is wearing one of my current favorites.

Richard Lee 1917-2007

Today's post is dedicated to Taiyo's great grandfather, Richard Lee. Being able to spend seven months of life together filled both them, and us, with incredible joy.

He lives on in our hearts forever.

Flowing with the current

A great example of the brilliance with which my wife lives each day was just recently exposed.

For almost a month now, Taiyo has been eating real foods. As with many babies I'm sure, he is apt to grab at just about anything, especially colorful spoons filled with colorful liquids.

Some might think to fight the baby for control of the spoon, trying to instill reason or forcing baby's hands down.

Yoshiko on the other hand has simply adapted to the situation, adding spoons as required.

Cycles

This is the very same pillow case I used when I was a child. How many of us have a few things from our childhood stashed away somewhere? I have a few things that still get use, and as Taiyo gets older there will be others still that I pull from storage.

Although generally I don't think of myself as being very item attached - I really enjoy things that connect me to a similar time to what Taiyo is now experiencing.