Uncle Kazunori and Auntie Sachie

Thankyou Sachie and Non non for coming to visit us. Huge thanks to Non non (the professional photographer on his day off) for lugging his equipment all the way to Toride and being very patient with a little Diva (he knows who he is)

Fashion Show

Hiroki would like to say a big "Agaloo" (the word that he seems to gurgle with great vigour) to Auntie Issy and Uncle Adam for his lovely Next sweater and England pants.










































...and another big "Agaloo wa wa" to Ronan and Maedhbh for their wonderful ROBOT shirt - something that Dad also really gets a kick out of. I will make a Star Wars baby of him yet...

Happy Holidays!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!!
Hiroki's first Christmas was a lot of fun. The tree, the presents, the lights - he tried to eat them all. Clever boy!!
Alex worked on the 25th (Humbug) so we had Christmas dinner and more importantly - PRESENTS on Christmas Eve : the Japanese way. Next year we will wait til the big day when Hiroki can understand it all a bit better.

How was your Christmas? Please drop us a line. We hope to see you soon

All best wishes for 2006 - The Year of the Dog -

Alex, Chiyo & Hiroki

New Toys

Thanks to my new video to data converter and the Google Video Upload site, I can finally post our wedding video from November 2003. Happy Memories.

Clever Boy!!

Hiro can now amuse himself for hours now that he has discovered his hands. Things to grip and fingers to suck - there just isn't enough time in the day.






































Not sure about the Marilyn Monroe impression though.......

Hiro is 3 Months Old Today!!

Time really flies. We can't believe it has been 3 months since he came along.

Already we can see how he has changed: he is much more talky these days, he uses his hands more, his neck is way stronger as you can see and he can recognise us or at least know that we are friendly shapes. Click HERE to see the video.

Atishoo Atishoo, We All Fall Down

We haven't been feeling well this week - some kind of flu bug thing which knocked the three of us sideways.
At about the same time, we got a CD of British Nursery Rhymes. All very nice except when you are delirious with fever all night and "Oranges and Lemons" is floating round and round and round your head backwards and forwards.
On closer inspection it seems that these songs and chants have rather more macabre origins than I had noticed as a tot.
"Ring a ring a roses" is all about The Black Death where "a pocket full of posies" will hide the stench of decaying bodies.
"Mary Mary Quite Contrary" is about Mary Tudor whose "garden grow(s)" because the number of executions means the graveyards are growing and those "Pretty Maids" are infact instruments of torture "all in a row" to effieciently dispatch enemies of the King.
Of course there is also "Remember Remember the Fifth of November" to commemorate the thwarting of terrorist Guy Fawkes' attempt to blow up The Houses of Parliament in 1605. Now every year we make an effigy of Mr Fawkes, sling him on a bonfire and burn him to death. That's healthy but I expect it is cheaper than carting him off to Guantanamo Bay (or even Botany Bay for that matter).

I was trying to remember if there had been any more modern day rhymes which had a similarly dark angle to them. Perhaps the only examples which spring to mind are the playground ditties which I remember and cherish: the one about Hitler and the Albert Hall (you know what I am talking about), the world famous "Milk, milk, lemonade, round the back's where fudge is made" and let's face it - every limerick which kept us informed on the lives of the inhabitants of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

I am looking forward to hearing mothers cooing poems over their babies about Joy Riding, Glue sniffing, Saddam or The Ebola Virus. It's a grand thing, Tradition.

Goodnight children, wherever you are...

Ee-i-ee-i-o

We went online to find a CD of Nursery Rhymes with British pronunciation and lyrics (One does the "Hokey cokey" rather than the "Hokey Pokey" M'dear)

Here is our (re)arrangement of "Old Macdonald had a farm" Click HERE

A Word from our Sponsor

Hiro would like to say afew words. I hope that you are also fluent in gobbledygook.

Click HERE to hear him tell it like it is.

Now that we Have discovered the GOOGLE Video Upload site, we have gone back and peppered this Blog with video clips of Hiro doing things which are enchanting to us and probably fairly humdrum to others - Hah Suffer!! Just click where you see RED text.

Suited and Booted

Look at Hiroki standing up in his first pair of Nikes from Chiyo's friends. He's all ready to go out with Mummy and Daddy tomorrow.

What a Big Boy!!

Hiro is now almost 3 months old. He can smile, hold his head up and recite Pi up to 27 decimal places.

Click HERE to view VIDEO

Chiyo's friends visited

Hiroki was very happy to see Chiyo's friends.
Thank you for coming!

今日は来てくれてうれしかったです！
大輝もみんなに抱っこしてもらってご機嫌でした。
また遊びに来てくださいね♪

Back in Starbucks

This is the blue fleece which Chiyo bought 5 (yes , I said "5") years ago in America!! (no pressure there, Alex) and now he is finally wearing it.


The best bit about going out with Hiro is courting adoring comments from passers by. The difficult part is negotiating which of the two of us get to push the pram as we make our big entrance for the benefit of the regular customers.

Our Second Wedding Anniversary (Part II)

This is us freezing at Rockerfeller Centre in
March 2004. We stayed in New York City after
visiting Chiyo's Au Pair family in Richmond, Virginia.











Here we are in August 2005.
Spot the basketball.







We went to see Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze play solo in Kichijoji in August 2005















The 3 Bears









Our last trips to Disney Sea before Hiroki's arrival.

Our Second Wedding Anniversary (Part I)

Our Wedding in Oahu, Hawaii and Kimono photo call
Click HERE








We were married at the Aloha Ke Akua Chapel just near the beach














































Chiyo's Kimono, wig and make up took two hours to put on. I was so happy that for once I could pretend I was a Jedi.

Time for a change of diet

Click HERE to see Hiro's first taste of tangerine when he didn't like it...






....and click HERE to see the second time when he did.

Starbucks Boy

Hiro went to Starbucks in style today: wearing the clothes from Uncle Adam and Auntie Issy and travelling there in the sling from Uncle Kazunori's mother

Hiro is 2 Months old today

and already and wearing clothes for 3 to 6-month-olds

Happy Halloween

Well,

Halloween is here and we decided to dress up: Chiyo as Darth Vader (no prizes for guessing where she got the clobber), Hiro as a Pirate and Daddy apparently as a vampire zombie but in fact much closer to some sort of office manager's cry for help in the sticky tape cupboard... pretty scary either way.