While not ready for commercial release, Kai is making great progress on doing the rollover on his own (which I discovered a few days ago when I turned around and he was practically on his belly). I expect full completion sometime this week (not putting any pressure on Kai, but he has a good track record).
Every day Kai seems to evolve more. We’ve been putting him on the playmat for probably 2 months now, but his engagement required one of us performing a puppet show. Tonight Chika made a lovely steak dinner, and we thought just maybe if we put him down on the mat he would give us at least 5 minutes to enjoy eating together. What surprised us tonight was how he started playing with the toys all on his own — reaching out and grabbing them. Not just one, but multiple. And he was completely engaged by the experience.
Not only did we get to enjoy the majority of the dinner, a present in itself, but Kai is already making us proud parents. I can’t believe he actually grabbed the giraffe. It might have been the “blind squirrel that stumbled across the acorn”, but it didn’t matter to us. We are happy to believe all the smart things Kai does are on purpose.
It turns out that standing at Kai’s age isn’t good for development (bones are still to soft) so we’ve had to kill that activity. In fact, there is a whole specific development process that babies go through from rollover, to crawling, to walking and basically over ambitious parents shouldn’t mess with mother nature. So now to get ready for rollover phase, we are working on tummy time. It hasn’t been Kai’s favorite, but Chika’s happy voice keeps him in good spirits.
Kai @ 3 Months
It’s been a while since the last posting. The early life of a parent revolves around sleep, and when that isn’t working, the whole center of gravity goes off balance. Kai has been having a bout of dry skin, which leads to scratching at night, which means either he is waking up or waking us up. So less time for posting. In any case, Kai doesn’t seem too much worse for the wear — his good humor continues. As for the parents, it’s a good thing there is lots of love, patience, and every now and then a joke that keeps us going.
So rollover wasn’t and still isn’t Kai’s favorite. But first he loved to stand. Then he started walking with his left foot. And then one day (after multiple practices on top of our feet) he finally ventured into lifting his right foot too. It was amazing to watch how excited he got when he did it the first time, and then kept going. Now he is a real pro, and someday when he is stable enough he’ll be too fast for mommy and daddy to keep up. For now, we will enjoy being the only mobile bodies in the house.
It was our first weekend after Japan — a long week of work and jetlag. But now we were back into our routine cruising Berlin on a Saturday afternoon. We had decided on following up on a lead for a good burger, which believe it or not was built in a converted public toilet under the U-Bahn in Kreuzberg. Usually packed with people, this cool afternoon was fairly empty. The experience was good overall, tasty well proportioned BBQ burgers and cheese fries. That was until about 20 minutes later on the metro when my stomach started roiling and continued for the next 24 hours… I survived (barely) thanks to my patient and loving wife Chika. Arigato baby!
It’s amazing how the perception of travel has changed. Previously, a trip traveling back from Japan was something to look forward to. Duty free shopping. Snacks and drinks in the lounge. Watching new releases and old favorite movies. Reading magazines and books. Having a beer or cocktail in the middle of the day just because you didn’t have any responsibilities.
No responsibilities… How that has changed. We were worried about our experience on the flight over to Tokyo. The screwed up seat assignment. The breakdown halfway through the long flight… But fate shone upon us. First, we got upgraded to business class seats (although not the food — somehow Finnair still likes to separate the cattle from the front of the plane). This even included the bassinet — so Kai could have napped. That is if he hadn’t fallen asleep at take-off, and then slept for 4+ hours. A good thing yes, but Chika’s left arm was unfortunately trapped under Kai. But we made it through the long 10 hour flight + 1 hour delay relatively unscathed.
The second shorter flight was a bit harder. It basically took off at midnight Tokyo time, meaning we were all quite tired. Kai started getting fussier as well. But at last we made it, and how good it felt to be back in our own place. It wasn’t long before the 3 of us were happily asleep in bed.
I love getting together with long-time friends in Japan. And there is no one more long time than my friends Anri and Yass. I think I met Anri around 1994 or so on a plane ride returning from Tokyo (basically I passed out for the first 12 hours, and then we chatted for the last 2 hours before landing). Every since then its been good times both state side and in Tokyo. Last night was no exception. Yass picked a fantastic fugu (a.k.a poisonous blowfish) restaurant in Ueno park — Innsyoutei. Everything was excellent — the ambience, service, and the food (from first course to dessert). Highly recommend it.