A Play Date with Juli-chan

On this seriously hot and sweaty Thursday, we drove all the way to have a playdate with Juli-chan and Saiko.

We visited a park near their house, which has some water features as well as lots of apparatus for kids. The place was full of kids!

A great place for kids - not necessarily for mothers especially when you are the size of a whale.

Kai enjoying his lunch after a swimming/paddling session.

After lunch, we moved to the playground area, where Kai demonstrated his monkey skills quite impressively.

A pretty good climber, really.

"This is easy!"

Now, it's time to play with sand...(by this time, I was about to have a heat stroke.)

It's really nice to see these two together - he really likes her and is so sweet to her generally. Here, he is guiding her, like a big brother.

Our Very Own Bread Maker

Starting this month, G has been getting into making his own sandwitches for lunches and this Saturday, he decided to make his own brown bread, just to be a perfectionist.

Luckily, we have our own bread maker - Kai, who is already an expert when it comes to making pizza dough.

"No worries, Daddy, I got it.''

His favourite part is kneading, obviously.

...and throwing.

He is even good at cleaning after himself.

While letting the dough rest, we went out to a park to kick some balls.

A very competitive pair.

An oddly blurry shot in which Kai looks like he is handling the ball in a quite good manner.

I don't remember the exact conversation here, but I suspect Kai was challenging G.

One sweaty boy.

Housewife Kai

Today was just way too hot and humid for a pregnant person to go out. Of course, there is this tiny bit of an issue for me to stay inside - how to convince Kai, who exclaims "what are we doing today? (or I am hungry!)" upon waking up every morning.

So, we decided to play "house" today.

First thing first, some cleaning.

"Oh, where did this crayon stain come from?"

Then, we baked some brownies.

Kai was very keen on helping me, so I assigned him as a "binning person" which worked very well.

Testing the end result.

"Very tasty!"

A little funny episode from Yesterday.

I took him out to Ikspiari (Disney-themed shopping mall - I know, scary, yet) and Kai wandered into the Rain Forest Cafe where they have those very realistic fake jungle animals like hippos and crocs. There was this gigantic hippo in the fake pond and it kept growling, and Kai got seriously scared, basically frozen there and saying "A scary bad hippo! I am scared!" and so on.

Later in the evening, when G came home, he asked Kai what he did during the day, and Kai's response was "I saw a hippo. It was scared. It thought Kai was going to eat it!" He said it very proudly, too! Already a little revisionist in the making...(and we don't need another one in this household!)

Yet Another Day with (Water) Accidents

Oh, what a traumatic day we had today.

Today, Kai had a playdate with one of his girlfriends at the near-by park - we got there early, so we were taking a walk around a little pond inside the park.

This is the "before" picture, obviously.

There were a couple of older boys playing around the pond, throwing pebbles into it, and naturally Kai wanted to join them. And yep, you guessed it right - he slipped into the pond. The pond was quite small and shallow, but he kept slipping and struggling inside, making himself soaking wet.

For a very obvious reason, I don't have a picture of Kai actually inside the pond.

But here are some shots when he was drying himself in the sun.

"It feels nice."

"I am chilling out."

Then when he finally got all dressed in the new nice dry clothes, he decided to walk into the fountain, once again making himself soaking wet.

This is him, getting dried once again.

Oh well, at least he had a good time...

"But it was an accident!"

I was happily reading a book when G screamed from the living room "Can you come here for a sec?"

So, there I went to the site of an accident.

Oh-oh.

The primary witness and the site of the accident.

Apparently (according to the witness G), Kai was playing around and accidentally kicked the glass door and it shattered.

"Kai had an accident."

"ACCIDENT, it was!"

Oh no. I am in a big trouble...

Kid Yoga

Whenever G exercises, Kai loves to help his Daddy in whatever way possible.

"Let me climb over you..."

"Oh this is fun!"

"What if I stand on your foot..."

"Kai loves working out with Daddy!"

This evening, we had a local fireworks event.

Kai was so excited whenever fireworks exploded in the night sky - we had a great time.

When we got back home, Kai's underpants were a bit wet. So G asked him "when did you wet your pants Kai?" and Kai's answer was: "ALL THE TIME." Go figure.

An Adventure with Animals...

Finally, a hot, clear summer day!

So can you guess what we did?

Hint #1:

Yes, we went to visit a zoo with Kai's Japanese grandparents.

I thought it would be fun for him and also kind of expected walking around the zoo would tire him out nicely...

However:

This cheeky little monkey had a different idea.

"I am not walking! Push me! Faster!"

We had to lure him out of the buggy with some riceballs.

"Yummy!"

"Yes, I am cheeky and happy. More riceballs please.''

After lunch, we visited a children's zoo bit.

Where you can touch and feel cows and horses.

"I need to check these horns."

Chilling out among sheeps and goats.

He had no idea some of the goats were eyeing the brochure he was holding rather intensely.

And suddenly, one of them just snatched it away from him and ate it.

One upset boy, surrounded by goats who want more.

To calm him down, we had to take him inside the building where you can pet bit more easy-to-handle animals.

Kai and a mouse.

"Is this Pinky or Brain?"

After such an exciting day, he passed out the moment after he got into the car.

He had such a great day, while Mummy got at least 6 mosquito bites.

Picnic Fun

G has finally come home! Yay!

He has brought some gifts for Kai - a Bob the Builder book and a finger paint set - and Kai obviously had to try the paint set right away.

"Let me see..."

No worries, it's one of those paints that only colours the particular types of papers.

Kai really loved the painting session with Daddy. After the painting course, we headed out to Odaiba, where G's company was having a summer picnic.

Without doubt, Kai had the most fun. There were so many activities for kids, and he could have some of the foods that are generally forbidden. Needless to say, he got completely excited and sugared up and hyper.

Bouncing bouncing...

Bubbles bubbles...

Kai's very first crepe experience...

He could even drive an old pink cadillac...

Having too much fun!

We stayed there until around 8 p.m. - our record so far! It was great to see all those familiar faces for me as well (and catching up with the office gossips).

Overnight Trip to Sea!

While Daddy is away on business, we decided to take an overnight trip to a local ocean resort (well, sort of) with my parents.

The beach was completely deserted...

except for some small crabs.

A super excited kiddo with so many crabs!

A bit scared, but with a supporting hand (literally), Kai touches a wild crab for the first time in his life!

Now, hunting for bigger ones.

Instead, they found a mountain of seaweed (yuck).

Still, a happy kiddo.

A little bit later, at the hotel. Dressed properly in a traditional Ryokan-style kimono here.

Needless to say, the poking finger is Kai's...

Next day.

A super happy kiddo with a bit of icecream in his hand.

The Gigantic Dinosaur Expo 2006

A seriously hot and humid saturday - you step outside and think you are in a sauna! It's too hot to go out, but we have a 2-year-old who needs to get seriously entertained in some manner.

So we decided to go see a dinosaur exhibition.

At the entrance.

Inside the exhibition hall was too dark to take any good picture...

"Hmmmm...."

Okay, so we have a proof that Kai is at least smaller than a footprint of one of those big dinosaurs. Great.

After the exhibition, we treated ourselves some icecream - I am sad to report that was probably the highlight of Kai's day.

"Okay, just a little bit, Daddy..."

Yet sadder to report that Kai collapsed onto the floor and rolled around after G finished the last bit of the icecream - he had a major paddy. Not very impressing.