Easter Egg Hunt

I never really pay attention to how kids celebrate Easter, but this year I am suddenly aware of what they do...






I guess I've never had a real Easter Egg Hunt growing up in a densely populated metropolitan city... The only times were during kindergarten years (3-5 years old) when our teachers would hide little toy chicks and tiny Cadbury chocolate eggs around the classroom, and we'd use the paper baskets we made during art class to collect them. That's about it.

Here, parents and neighbors organize elaborate outdoor Easter Egg Hunts. Small gifts are hidden inside the eggs or given in exchange for the eggs collected. Some fancier parties also provide the basket, a hand drawn map, face painting, snack+refreshments and pictures with "Mr. Bunny" (someone in a full bunny costume). It all seems like a lot of FUN! I can't wait to organize my own little Easter Egg Hunt game for my daughter next year when she can walk and talk!

未来写真館

A silly Future Photo website: http://en.miraino.jp/ just for fun.

Enter your name and a random photo with an arrow pointing to someone or something will be generated. I post it because I quite like this picture.

パスポート写真

It's so hard to do a passport picture yourself, let alone doing it for a baby who can't even sit on her own! I have tried like 50 shots and according to my husband, who did the final measurements, none of them pass. :-(
I thought the one above is good enough but he said, "No, you need to zoom out more, Marmie." I wonder if I can just add more white space around the head to make it pass? Arghhhh....

This one should work! :-)

アヒルのワルツ

We will be getting our 3rd and 4th iPod from work as a 10th year anniversary gift for both my husband and myself. It's rather pathetic if you think about it. I mean our career ambitions, working for the same company for a DECADE! (Yeah, and the token of appreciation really lacks creativity.) We are just two very complacent people, I guess. Anyway, I think I will use my husband's gift to put songs for our daughter and mine dedicated for listening to Japanese conversations and maybe my favorite Japanese movies.

I like 「アヒルのワルツ」 by マユミーヌ a lot and I'm sure it will be on both iPods. The lyrics can be found here.

モデル

I need to buy a booster seat and saw this picture along with the product reviews. Aren't they the best models (and actual users) you can find to sell the product? I am so buying it first thing tomorrow after lunch! :)

Updates: Looks like these booster chairs are really popular! They are out of stock everywhere!! Even at stores that said "Stock available" online has nothing available when I got there! What gives?

100日誕生日

We are not Koreans but we do think 100 days birthday is definitely a sensible time to celebrate! So we did by taking family portraits (not shown here).

Traditional Chinese celebrate on baby's first month with red egg ginger party. But I think the baby is still too young to meet so many people in a restaurant. Plus, the baby will usually sleep through the whole event without ever opening the eyes. But at 3 months, babies are more alert and stay awake longer. They can recognize faces, make googoogaga noises, start playing with their hands and things in front of them, pay attention to music and TV. For my daughter, she now stares at the TV when ever it's on. (bad parenting).

Today, I took her to the supermarket for the first time. For some reason, she got the attention of a lot of older folks shopping there. They asked about her gender, her age, and were making the "Ahh" expressions.

New baby milestone achieved: (1) Learned how to laugh now. Before it's always just smile and big smile with no sound. Today, it's actually a real laugh. (2) Learned how to get my attention without crying by just shouting "Ay, ay" "Ay, ay". (3) She will add some fake coughings when we are in the same room but ignore her crying. (Bad parenting again! But I think both my sister and I used to do that too, when we were kids waking up in the middle of the night to get my parents attention!)

I'm now finally able to enjoy the whole timeoff with my baby. I guess the sun, the warmer temperature and the weaning all contributed to the improvement of my mood. If timing the birth of the baby is possible, I think the best time to give birth would be between April and August. :-P