The Evolution of Joshua

Just like our ape-like ancestors did all those years ago, Joshua has now found he can be mobile on his own two feet. While he is not yet walking more than a few steps by himself, he is very happy to walk while holding someone's hand (including a walk to our nearest playground in which he walked/jumped/slipped down about 70 stairs!) or while pushing his buggy (very fun to watch as he gets some speed up!). He also has a great love for crawlng up stairs recently, so it's been very busy outside as we enjoy the warmer weather.

It's also been a big change for Joshua the last few days as Aki stopped breastfeeding him. To achieve this, I've been sleeping with him for the last couple of nights, because he's so used to having Aki there for midnight snacks. The first night he slept really well and went back to slep easily when he woke up. Unfortunately I wasn't so good as I lay awake half the night listening the the big storm that shook the house and worrying about falling asleep and not hearing him wake up or something.....the second night I had no problems getting to sleep, but Joshua had a tough night, waking up twice with diarrhoea (probably from the change in diet). In the end we both slept okay, so hopefully tonight will get easier. He's also sleeping for longer stretches, so he should be able to go all night once he adjusts to not waking for milk.

Little Mozart                                                                              Joshua and Keizo (6 months)

In the garden, we prepared this years vege plot and it looks a lot better than last years quick job. Looking forward to a bumper crop of stawberries, brocolli, spring onions, cucumbers, potatoes and tomatoes! Hajime also came round to make a bbq area......sounds nice right, but acually it's just a small patio with just enough space for the bbq to sit on, the reason being that the grass had died in that patch from a constant lack of sun. I'll post a picture once the garden looks greener!

We'll be going to Yamanashi the weekend after next for a little spring break, and hopefully we'll have plans for a summer vacation soon......and next week will be our second anniversary! Unbelievable how fast time flies with a little one to take care of!!!

Get Up, Stand Up

After a cold few weeks and a couple of small snowfalls, it looks like the weather is getting warmer, which means Joshua can finally play outside again! He got to play in the snow one morning last week before I left for work. It wasn't too cold and he had fun kicking over the snowman I made for him. Today he enjoyed playing outside in the warm weather. Hajime helped me do some landscaping a couple of weeks back, so Josh loves playing in the pebbles. He also got very dirty crawling up and sliding down the mountain of dirt that will be this year's vege garden.
Joshua has shown us that he can stand up by himself now, but he's only done it about 5 times and falls down after a few seconds (so no photos yet). I'm guessing he'll be walking sometime in March - perfect timing for the spring walks to the park.
Not much else happening, but here's plenty of cool pics of Joshua from the last month.....

Joshua's first time to see the snow; I was the Oni (Demon) for Setsubun. Joshua and Aki hrew beans at me to cast out the bad luck and bring in the good luck for this year.

Joshua is starting to feed himself (but it's not as easy as this pic might suggest!); Playing in our new pebble garden.....it used to be dirt and weeds.

Joshua enjoyed this cheap train toy we bought 2nd hand.....but it broke down after a day of play so we had to take it back :(

Joshua touches snow (very cautiously!) for the first time; After a while he got comfortable with the white stuff.

Trying out his Elephant clothes for playing outside; Trying to become a dirty elephant!

Joshua's 1st B'Day

Happy 2010 to you all! It was a very cold and quiet New Year holiday over here, as we mostly stayed indoors.
Joshua turned the big "1" on the 11th! We celebrated with all his relatives over here and he got very spoiled for presents. He really enjoys his new toys and has figured out how to push the buttons to make lots of noise! Joshua still doesn't seem interested in standing up or walking, but he has no problems climbing up onto anything (and sometimes falling down!). He is also coming up with new sounds all the time, so I think he'll be talking more in the not so distant future. Right now Joshua has his first bout with illness,as he caught the chicken pox. He's doing fine, not scratching, so hopefully it clears up for him in a few days, then we don't have to worry about him catching it again.
Other than that we're just hibernating from the cold (nice sunny days, but still really cold....no snow yet), and I'm playing my XBox 360 that I bought in the holidays (NBA 2K10, Assassins Creed II & GTAIV). Hurry up spring!!

Happy Holidays!

Aki, Joshua and myself wish you all a very happy New Year and hope you had a great Christmas!
We've just finished our christmas celebrations, once again doing it Japanese style, having to work on the 25th, so we had a big feed today. At least next year it falls on a Saturday so we can do it on the right day for once! Joshua didn't have a clue what was going on, but I think he enjoyed seeing all his family in Japan and has been playing wth some new toys.
I have a week's holiday coming up, but we have no plans to go anywhere.....it's too cold! Just hoping we can enjoy a decent snowfall this year.
The last couple of months have been very busy for me at work, and we really haven't been doing a lot on weekends, except for enjoying time with Joshua. He is now crawling so fast, climbing onto the couch and walking with the aid of shelves, walls, chairs and anythging else he can hold on to. He is also making many more sounds and loves clapping his hands and waving bye-bye. It's hard to believe his first birthday is just around the corner - January 11th in case you wanted to get him a present ;)....just seems like a couple of months have passed since he was born!
Here's a few of the best shots from te last couple of months........

Blackout!

The wait was finally over as the All Blacks came to Tokyo! The whole game was everything I could've hoped for - nice weather, good seats, packed stadium & an ABz win! Aki also enjoyed it a lot, especially listening to us shout at anyone who came within earshot. The only kinda bad thing was the poor effort of the JRFU in trying to promote this game. They'll have to do a lot better when the World Cup comes to town. Anyway, here's a few picks of the occassion -

We also had our halloween party at school. Joshua came and joined us, looking extra cute as a dalmation. Me, I was just out for laughs!

Aotearoa '09 - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good......

One of our biggest fears about coming home was how Joshua would be on the plane. Turned out that we had nothing to worry about. Apart from a 10 minute screaming session as we waited for the plane to take off from Tokyo, he was great! He slept off and on all night and was bright and happy when we arrived (unlike us!). His other plane trips (to and from Wellington, and back to Japan) were also very stress free as he enjoyed playing with his toys, feeding and sleeping.

Of course it was so great to see all the family. Joshua has now met all his relatives and formed quite a bond with some of them. This was the main reason to come back home, so everyone could see Joshua while he's still a baby. We got to do many things with the family that hadn't been done for years. Mike's 40th and Jack's birthday were fun affairs, as were our trip to the zoo, our (unsuccessful) fishing trip, and late nights playing cards.

It was also great to catch up with friends, although this was a bit limited in time. At least we managed to get everyone together for a BBQ at the same time. Hopefully some of you guys will come over here sometime for another catchup!

Joshua's christening was a great day. Although it's not legally official (and probably won't be for a while), his name is now Joshua Takashi Trotter. It was so nice to see the aunties and uncle that made the trip and spend the afternoon catching up.

Didn't think I'd talk to three All Blacks on my holiday, but I did! The first was Richard Kahui in the hospitality box at Waikato Stadium, where we were invited by Brian and Clare to watch Waikato v. Nth. Harbour (good game too). Aki was wondering why I didn't introduce her to my "friend", only finding out later that he was a rugby player. A couple of days later I was shopping in the Frankton markets and came across Liam Meesam selling T-shirts. Ended up buying one from him too! And then, on the plane trip back to Japan, lo and behold, who should be sitting across the aisle from me - none other than ex-All Black captain Reuben Thorne! He's currently playing rugby in Japan and in case you were wondering, he won't be making it to the Tokyo test, as he'll be back in NZ at that time.

The Bad........

Maybe I've been in Japan for too long, but the service received in some places were shocking. I won't go into details, but buying a new computer gave me a customer experience similar to being walked over by a cow with diarrhea - in both Dick Smith and Bond & Bond, I was treated like shit - and here was me handing over a grand for the service! Anyway, won't be shopping in either of those places again. A few other shops offered similar services - no smiles, no offers to help and barely a grunt out of them when you buy something. Quite different to Japan where some places actually have people bow to you when you leave the store and they stay there until you're out of sight!

We'd just bought a new camera about three months ago, after our other one died. Apparently, expensive digital cameras don't like us, as our new one decided to die just after we arrived in Wellington, five days into our trip. Steve came to the rescue as he lent us his camera for the rest of our trip, but apparently the jinx has continued, as his memory card was somehow corrupted, so the majority of our photo's seem to have been lost! When we returned the camera in Japan they gave us a brand new one on the spot, and so far it hasn't died.......yet!

& The Ugly........

"The weather's been absolutely beautiful", "It's been so warm lately", "Looks like summers coming" - these were the various things we heard about the weather before coming to NZ. In retrospect, it seems like someone was playing a cruel joke, as it rained all but 2 or 3 days while we were home. Unfortunately, it was just bad timing, but it did really put a dampener on the trip as we were limited to what we could do being stuck inside for most of the time. Now Aki has experienced an NZ winter (albeit in Spring), to go along with the autumn and spring she had previously seen. I'm thinking a January/February trip is on the cards for next time......