Superstylin'

It's been a busy and fun month as we enjoyed the summer heat - except when the heat was too unbearable to enjoy! It's actually been a pretty mild summer compared with the last few years that I've been here.

Joshua now has his first teeth! They started showing about a week ago and now he has two sharp little chompers at the bottom. We're still waiting to see him crawl, but for now he seems content to get around using his rolling and sliding technique. His most recent check-up at the doctor saw him weighing in at 7.77kg and 70.3 cm long.....almost 5kg and over 20 cm bigger than his birth!

A little blurry, but can just see teeth - hard to take new teeth pics!; Josh likes mummys new hair; playing with Shinosuke-kun; jamming on the G-tar; health check

We started the month with a BBQ for all my workmates. It was nice to get everyone together outside of work and enjoy a feed and drinks.

We then went to stay a night in Hakone with Aki's mum. The first day we went to the Hakone Open-Air Museum - a big park like place with lot's of intersting sculptures, including a building dedicated to Picasso. It was actually more enjoyable than I thought, with many interesting and crazy pieces to see. We enjoyed a nice meal and hot bath at the ryokan and planned to play golf the next day. Unfortunately, a typhoon decided to interrupt those plans so we just headed home instead.

Aki and Joshua went away the following week to stay in Yamanashi with her family. They had a lot of fun as they could enjoy the cooler temperatures outside.

We got the pool out again, and this time Joshua enjoyed it a lot more. He was happy to splash around and be dragged through the water.



As part of our training days at work, we went to our company president's beach house near Zushi. After about an hour of talking business we were free.to enjoy the rest of the day, which meant BBQ, swimming, lot's of alcohol and a jacuzzi. Aki and Joshua also joined us in the afternoon. It was an awesome day, with one of the highlights being in the jacuzzi, with a glass of champagne, watching the sun set over Mt. Fuji. Truely Beautiful! I also saw some stingray while swimming and got my first real tan of the summer.....just hope it wasn't too much coz I hate to peel! Hopefully Shachou will tell us where he leaves the keys, so we can go back some time soon.

The Politically Incorrect Blog

Actually, there's nothing very "un-PC" here, but I just watched the first episode of TVNZ's "Politically Incorrect Parenting Show" and got a good laugh out of it - especially as I'm dealing with parents everday and I can definitely see the twisted extremes that some parents go to. Having said that, I hope I can stay nice and relaxed with Joshua!

I didn't realise a whole month had gone by without updating here. We haven't been too busy, but I guess I like to spend my free time playing with Joshua more and more as he keeps growing. It's so fun to watch him slowly develop, but also realise how much he's changed in his first seven months! He is now eating two meals a day, and has a wide range of foods in his diet. Fruits are easily his favourite, but he has no problems eating vegetables, bread, fish and rice as well. Joshua is now sitting a little better by himself. His personal best is about 20 seconds before toppling over! He's still not crawling, but he can move around quite a bit by sliding on his belly - a bit like a seal. Now we have to keep a closer eye on him - as evidenced by his recent discovery of an airplane ticket that he found, ripped and chewed on! His coordination is also getting much better as he plays with toys and throws them around.

It's hard to remember everything we've done in the last month without checking our photo's.... We spent one afternoon at the beach. Tokyo area beaches are not exactly beautiful, but it wasn't too bad. Joshua wasn't too sure about the water, especially when the sand buried his feet in the shallow surf. It'll be a lot more fun next year when he can run and play in the water by himself.

Brad and Colleen stopped over for a couple of days on their way to Thailand. It was much too short a time but we still managed to gorge ourselves on sushi, play XBOX360, have a BBQ and drink a lot of booze.

Lively Up Yourself

Already halfway through the year, and it just dawned on me there's only six months left in the decade......Wow, doesn't seem like that long ago we were celebrating the millenium!

The last two weeks have been a mix of rainy and cloudy days, but we did have one great sunny day last weekend, so it was off to the shop to buy a kids pool. When we got home I gave our grass it's first haircut (using a weed wacker), then got to pumping up the pool and filling it with water. We had to put a few jugs of boiling water in to warm it up for Joshua, but eventually it was okay and he went for his first "swim". It was still a bit cold for his liking, but he still splashed around for a bit. After Josh had finished, word had spred, and Ryo and Nagi had come over for a splash. We had a lot of fun playfighting, splashing and relaxing, while Joshua looked on grumpily, probably wondering why we were having so much fun while he just thought it was too cold and wanted to get out!

Looking forward to more days like this. Big enough for two adults and two kids!

We also went to our neighbourhood matsuri last week. It was not as good as our old neighbourhood festival, being much smaller, but it's still fun, and for me it really signifies that summer has arrived.

Festival fun; Ryo brings a new style to the shooting game; Eating takoyaki (fried octopus balls)

Joshua is eating more different food every day. Along with rice and carrots, he has now tried tofu/carrot (didn't like), potato (liked), onion soup (liked) & tomato/cucumber (really strange face at first, but then liked). He has become very interested in exploring his body - touching his ears and hair, and playing with his hands a lot. He's still not rolling much, but can do it when he tries. He also loves reading books before bedtime, listening quietly and touching the pictures.

Getting bigger every day - now over 7kg and getting a bit chubbier.

This month we're looking forward to having Brad and Colleen over for a couple of days as they stop over on the way to Thailand. And of course, I can't wait for the Tri-Nations to start. I'm one of the few that is happy to see the All Blacks slightly humbled in the last few games, giving the new players some much needed experience. Expect to see them dominate once again when all our big guns are back......"Hurry up DC!" Also looking very forward to getting my ticket for the Bledisloe in Tokyo. It'll be my first time to see the All Blacks live in a BIG game and it's gonna be crazy with about 60,000 people packing the stadium!

Wetness

So, I guess the Chiefs weren't quite ready for the final. I'll leave it at that. I had a big night out that night and woke up with a massive hangover. I was supposed to play basketball that afternoon, but I could barely move! In the end, I managed to drag myself to the game, feeling very dodgy indeed. Somehow, I managed to play the best game of my life, scoring about 30 points (I lost count and didn't check the scoresheet) including six or seven 3-pointers! It cured my hangover, but I suffered a slight concussion at the end of the game, so I still had a headache after the game! (Don't worry Mum, I'm fine now :)

It's rainy season again. But we've had heaps of nice days too and have been keeping busy every weekend. Last weekend we went to Ryo's and Nagi's sportsday, and Liam's sportsday. Both days were good fun, we ate good food and all the kids did well.

Ryo (in black socks) enjoys kibasen; Liam running; Lunchbreak relaxing; Anthony anchors the tug o'war

Today is my first Father's Day! We had a special event at my school for all the dads yesterday, and Joshua was a big star among all the kids. They were so excited to see him and were surprised how big he's gotten since they last saw him in March.

It's usually this time of year that we go to Okinawa for a summer break, but Joshua's too small to take there now, so we won't be able to enjoy the beach this year. Bit gutted about that, but maybe we'll take an extra long holiday sometime later when he's ready to travel.

Dreaming about the beach

Joshua has now started eating food - mushy rice and mushy carrot. He really loves eating so I'm looking forward to seeing what foods he likes and doesn't like. He's also getting good at moving on his belly, but can only go round in circles - no forward or back movement yet.

Shirtless is becoming more common in the hot days; Reading one of his favourite books from Mike and Claire; Eating carrot mush; Nice messy face!

Go the Chiefs!!

As I write this it's less than 10 hours until the Super 14 Final! I'll be goin hard for the Chiefs but no matter what happens, it's been a bloody great season! I've been talking up the Chiefs from the start, even though they lost those first three games, they showed lots of promise and now it's down to this last game....Awesome!!! I'll be headin into Tokyo with Anthony to watch the final, so it's gonna be a huge night (kickoff at 12:30am Japan time).

At home, we finished the vegetable garden and have planted tomatoes, pumpkins, eggplants, cucumbers and potatoes. It was a bit of a rushed job because we needed to get the plants in quick. Hopefully we'll have a bit of tucker in a couple of months that will inspire me to make a bigger and better vege garden for next year!

Looking kind of sad right now - but I counted 3 tomatoes growing!

Joshua is doing awesome. He has just started rolling from his back to stomach, so really have to keep an eye on him now. He loves putting anything he can get his hands on into his mouth. His hand eye coordination is also much better as he can grab things easily and turn them in his hands.

Trying to change himself; Another Marist rugby player in the fam; Can you see me?

Summer=Cute hat time!; Helping me on the BBQ

We have nothing special happening in June. It's the start of the rainy season so it's gonna be wet and getting hot and humid. Luckily, I copped the new Fat Freddy's Drop album to crank throughout the summer. I also want to buy a paddling pool for Joshua (and me!) soon, so we can enjoy playing in the water on the hot days ahead.

We found our first lizard at the new house!