Make Use of That Passport

Now that Izumi is six months old and it's been a year since we were last in Tokyo, the time seemed right for a trip to introduce her to the family there and make use of her (American) passport. So here we are on our usual flight, AA153.

What you see here is the way both of the kids looked for the most of the flight, as in, NOT ASLEEP. I didn't expect much different since our flight left at 11 a.m. but I was naive enough to think that Izumi would sleep for longer than two hours total (out of 13). Silly me!

Good thing Aogu got in this practice holding Koji up. Koji did actually go to sleep...once we landed at Narita. I'm serious! The wheels touched the ground and at the same moment, he nodded off. Speaking of wheels, if only we could have attached some to his shoes, we would have been in a good place!

Exciting start to our trip. If you need advice on how to travel with kids, I don't know that I actually have any. I'd probably only leave you with practical gems like, "it's OK to allow your three-year-old to watch The Ant Bully three times in a row; you're just doing what you have to in order to maintain peace."

Six Months Old!

Can you believe it's already been six months since Izumi was born? I don't want to sound like some granny when talking about my own child, but the speed of life since she was born has accelerated! She's accelerated as well. Take a look at what she can do:

Uncontested Title

Don't even try to challenge Izumi for the title of "Strongest Forehead". She will whup you every time.

Photo taken at today Kohl Children's Museum with Mariella on a much-praised quilt (when I say "much-praised," I mean that everyone who saw it had complimentary words!) made by my talented sister Laurie.

364 More Days of 50s and I Don't Mean the Weather

A Very Happy Birthday to Dad (right) and Gary (left)!!






Sending prayers for a special year and all our love,
Jamie, Aogu, Koji and Izumi (also known as JAKI)

Not So Special

Just the other day I was thinking that I must be the only person in the world with my name. But I guess I was wrong....looks like I'm one of two?

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

This is courtesy of Emily.

My Revvin' Is Chicago's Revenue

Some time ago, I read somewhere (how's that for vague) that the City of Chicago was putting up a large number of traffic cameras. Seems that was controversial for invasion of privacy or the amount of tax dollars the project consumed or both?

At any rate, though I still don't remember it clearly, according to an astonishly clear photo/ticket we received today, I ran a red light on October 3rd at 6:15 p.m. Yikes! And there aren't any warnings. The Camera has no mercy; it's just, we caught you red-handed (red-lighted?) and now you owe us NINETY BUCKS.

They've probably already paid the cameras off by now.

Consanant Confusion

Koji's English has improved rapidly in the last few months, so much so that I can hardly believe he's the same little guy we brought back from Tokyo a year ago. That small one (he's still small though he looks huge to us compared to Izumi) now daily comes out with full sentences like, "We can play this game now, OK Mama?," which are perfect English with the exception of the placement of "can" and "we".

However, he still can't always hear or reproduce the difference between certain English vowels. That's how it is that when Izumi spits up some part of her last meal, he reports,

"Mama! Izumi spilled!"

Halloween Report

I still don't know what to think about Halloween because I'm not a fan of the evil, scary side of it. However, ever since I realized it's pretty much the only day that a person can ring neighbors' doorbells (and then be rewarded for doing so with candy)...and not to mention that I think costumes are really fun... I can't just dismiss/ban it altogether. So here's how things came out for us. These photos are from my cell phone. I took scads more at Koji's school but we all know by now how it goes when I'm faced with transferring photos from the camera to this blog. Yeah. I don't want to be responsible for your death, so please don't hold your breath!
She HAD to be a pumpkin, it's a good look for her, I think. The fact that I picked this costume up for a dollar at a garage sale had nothing to do with my choice...
This photo doesn't quite do justice to the staggering amount of candy we collected today! We might be staggering if we eat any significant portion of it any time soon. Koji probably won't be since I hid it from him. I might be in trouble though.
Are they both going after the "severed ear" chocolate, which was by far the most interesting/disgusting item we collected while trick or treating?