Eugene Oregon

Toured Eugene by bicycle. Fifth Street Public Market, Alton Baker Park, U of O campus, Downtown. It's still a wonderful city.











"Buw-die!" West of Skinner's Butte Park.













Visited some old friends (and a new one). It's amazing how, once you start talking, it can seem like 20 years hadn't passed.

























Akari learned this "finger pointing dance" and she still does it when she's feeling really happy.












"OMG get those feet off of the clean blankets."
"It will wake her up."
"Well...O.K....Yeah...it would, wouldn't it. I guess it's O.K. just this time."

Seaside Oregon

First day on the Oregon coast was foggy and cold.













Foggy and cold, but in a nice Oregon way.













Akari had a great time swinging.

















The locals did not seem to share her joy.
Or she could have been getting the creepy Kuato vibe which I got when I looked at this picture.

*Kuato was the psychic, mutant, rebel leader growing out of his brother's abdomen in Philip K. Dick's Total Recall.







Back at the hotel. Could anything be more fun than wearing a really big pair of shoes.
















The second day warmed up.































The Oregon coast.













An absolutely beautiful day.













We very nearly had the beach to ourselves.













Totem



























Group picture of the Seaside crew.

Portland Oregon Zoo with Shasta (13 mos.)

While we were in America, we took a trip to the zoo with Akari's cousin Shasta.


























Shasta is a tom-boy! We were told in no uncertain terms that this is how we were to refer to her. The shirt we got for her turned out to be perfect. Translation: otemba-musume = tom-boy.














Akari was liking the zoo a whole lot.

















That is a sea otter without a speck of humility, believe me.












I'm guessing 5% of our trip was spent like this--loading or unloading the car.

After a hard day at the zoo, Akari crashes.

10 months

As long as the weather permits, we go on hikes each weekend. A neighbor caught us as we were returning last week and sent us the picture he took.

Somewhere around 9 months

This pretty much speaks for itself.

9 Months or so.

She just keeps getting cuter and cuter.

















The laundry hanger is loads of fun. Why didn't I think of this earlier.
















Quick! Let's get some work done. We may have an entire hour. She could possibly is dreaming about having a little brother or sister.











A few of Akari's early influences. To be fair, a picture taken entirely out of context. Seriously, it was only fair that I cropped out the context.












Need to wake someone up? Put two wooden balls in her hands and sit her next to their door.
















Another early influence, Akari's AuPair. She also codes Java, configures a home network that mixes Linux, Apple and Windows, and goes directly to the command line after booting up.













Captions welcome.













Did I mention that her left hand is the size of a full grown adult's hand?














Just kidding.

It was a bit too quiet...

...so I turned around to see what she was doing. I found her sitting up on this shelf. My camera was right next to the computer and she seemed quite stable, so I took a picture. (I was ready to catch her if she needed it.) She stayed up there for about five more minutes relishing her mountaineering victory before she started making sounds like she wanted help getting down.






Well, the top of the shelf is no longer a safe place to put things. I found her on top of the kitchen table the other day. She has also pushed a chair up to the barrier gate we have to keep her out of the kitchen. She was using it to climb over the gate when I caught her.

We are definitely not letting her anywhere near the balcony.

March Trip to Okinawa (Just turned 8 months)

On the way to Okinawa. We had six seats all to ourselves. Like always, Akari was in heaven to have both of our undivided attention for hours.











Sporting her new Okinawan shirt.

















In the hotel room. There was a big mirror that she spent a large amount of time in front of. We will spare her the embarrassment of showing the pictures where she is making out with her image in the mirror.























This baby backpack made the trip a whole lot better than it would have been if we had only brought a stroller. We could pretty much go anywhere we wanted.















In the glass-bottomed boat. She enjoyed it a lot.













She would crawl up to these windows, use them to stand up, her hands would slip on the sweaty glass and she'd smash her face into it. The view was so attractive, that she repeated this over and over.









I don't know how many times I heard people say, "The baby's holding the umbrella. How cute." Even in languages I couldn't understand, I could tell they were saying it.

A big day

Akari had two interesting breakthroughs today. She is about six and a half months old now.

She was eating baby food from a jar, or I should say, not eating baby food from a jar in spite of Mama's coaxing. She was however interested in grabbing the spoon, which Mama let her do. She grabbed the spoon and immediately shoveled the baby food into her mouth. It seems that if she gets to feed herself, even store-bought baby food is good enough to eat.






Her aim needs some work, but she is quick to give the spoon back so Mama can refill it.












This one gives an idea of how proud she is of herself.












Her second breakthrough today was pulling herself to standing without any assistance.

Picture E and F, if they existed, would have shown her falling into and then crumpled up inside the toy box. However, I dropped the camera when I saw her toppling over.

With her newfound ability to sit up, she finds new terrain to explore.












She got those little fingers surprisingly deep into my nose. She also decided that my nose needed to be bitten. Those two little teeth she has are quite sharp. Her mother, who is breastfeeding now, enjoyed watching that a whole lot.














Visitors brought her this beautiful set of orchids.













She did appreciate the flowers. "Flower pretty...want to eat pretty flower..."












"Papa" is making bright light again--gotta check that out.