Ren--already ready for spring training--and the future of arashi

Howdy all, I know it's been forever, but that forever has not been wasted. I just noticed the other day that Kirk has taken me off his "Bloggin' Buddies" list. Ouch. On top of that, my parents finally got access to the internet, and they've been on my case about updating my site. My parents finally get interent, and the first thing they tell me is I need to update my site more, wtf? Well, I guess I should update more, eh?

So, a couple weeks ago, Yoshiko, Ren, and I were in Park City at the outlet shopping center making the rounds (no pun intended--you've had to have gone there to understand) and while we were in the Nike store, Ren comes up to me with this

It was one of the funniest things ever. I guess I have to teach Ren baseball now. My dad would be so proud! I actually love baseball, almost as much as I love soccer.

Ren is getting so big! I look at older pics that I have, and I cannot believe how much he has grown. A few weeks ago, we were up at a good friend's house in Fruit Heights, and while Yoshiko and Yuriko were talking, Yuri's husband and I taught Ren how to play Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt--talk about retro. The greatest, and probably one of the funniest, thing was when Ren almost got to the end of the first level on Mario. Not even 3 and can almost beat Mario! Sheesh, I was almost 6 or 7, albeit that's when it came out. I don't have a pic of him playing Mario, but here's Duck Hunt.

Just as an added bonus, I'm going to post a pic of Yoshiko and Ren. Tons of people tell me that Ren looks just like me, I think he looks more like his mom. Maybe he looks like an Asian version of me... Nah! This pic was taken a couple days after the last time I posted. Right now, Ren's hair is quite a bit longer. People started calling him a girl again. I think he needs a haircut (lol).

Well, as of next Wednesday, I am officially a semi-bachelor again. My wife and son are leaving me to go visit the country of short people, neon lights, cool cars, onsens, and good food. I have to stay here for the 4 weeks they're gone. I think I am going to go nuts. Maybe. I guess I still have school. Maybe I'll actually get some of my turbo project done while she's gone. Here's a couple pics of what will be going on my car:

I have already hooked up the turbo timer. Right now, it's only just a glorified volt meter. It's actually a bit of a weird feeling to walk away from your car with it still running. Here's a pic of the inside at night with all the gauges on (the orange light on the right of the steering wheel is the timer):

As for this blog, I'll do my best to try to think about posting. After Yoshiko and Ren leave, I'll really have nothing to post. Maybe I will. We'll see if I can actually catch up on all my school work and have time to start blogging again.

KIRK, you should add me to your bloggin buddies again ;). Oh, and next time you decide to grace Utah with your presence, make sure to call me back when I return your call.

Momo-san

Here is a picture of Momo-san getting ready for bed. This is Ren's most favorite thing in the whole wide world. Up until Momo-san, Ren didn't care much for stuffed animals. One day while shopping with Yoshiko, Ren would not stop crying. He saw Momo-san, grabbed him, and would not let him go. Because Momo-san didn't have a tag, they ended up selling him to us for a buck. Ren loves to take care of Momo-san (i.e. putting him to bed as in the above pic). All I have to say is that purple cows are the bomb!

Ren update

Ren is seriously super smart. He does things every day that totally amaze me. I know that they say that kids are amazing, but you really don't know how much until you have some of your own.

On thing that really stood out to me happened Sunday morning. Ren grabbed Yoshiko's cell phone and flipped it open. On her main screen, there is a picture of Ren and I sleeping. Ren starts laughing and says, "Papa!" So Yoshiko and I were like, "Yeah that's papa and Ren." And Ren looks a little perturbed and says, "No, papa!" So I point to Ren in the picture and say, "and Ren." He then points to me and says, "Papa!" I then pointed to him and said, "And Ren." He then grabbed my finger and pointed to me and said, "Papa!" Yoshiko and I were laughing so hard, we may have scared Ren.

Teaching a child two languages is a challenge. Some days I feel sorry for the little bugger. But he really seems to be catching on to both languages really well now. Today, for example, Yoshiko was giving Ren some apple. He knows the English word, but not the Japanese. Yoshiko kept repeating it to him in Japanese before she gave it to him. Now he says both. He does this for lots of other words too. When Ren needs to say "thank you" for something, Yoshiko will say, "domo ha?" And Ren will, depending on who he's talking to, will either say "thank you" in English or Japanese. Yoshiko is the primary Japanese teacher, but one of these days, I have to keep my promise to the Hirano family and teach him Osaka dialect (coolest dialect in Japan).

Lately, Ren has taken to Sesame Street. He loves Elmo. About a month ago, we bought the Elmo movie. He watches it every day. It's so funny to see him get so excited about parts that he knows are coming up in the movie. Kids are awesome. I can't wait to see what he does next. I also can't wait to have more kids like him ;P

Ren the monkey

Like father like son they say. Ren has absolutely no fear. I didn't know fear until he was born. Here's a vid of him climbing the monkey bars.




Crazy!! Anyway, here's a couple more pics of him on his birthday. Too cute.

Ren and Children's Day

Children's day in Japan (May 5 or 5/5) actually started out as boys' day to be the opposite of the Hina Matsuri (also known as girls' day) on March 3 (3/3). It is also the last holiday of a three-day holiday period known as Golden week. On Children's day, boys in the family are supposed to dress up and hang 3 insanely large cloth Koi (large goldfish) wind socks representing family. While I was on my mission in Japan, I was given two small Koi, and just found out this year that I am missing the father koi. So we scratched the Koi Nobori (raising the Koi) idea. Ren did get to don the great samurai hat though. See, I told y'all he's the cutest kid in the world.

Seriously the cutest kid in the world

I'm not joking, my son is seriously the cutest kid around. As time goes, I'll be posting more and more of him. This is a pic of him watching his favorite cartoon of the morning, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. After these pics were taken, he decided to go play basket ball with his hoop that we just bought in a yard sale. It was hilarious. Being half Japanese, Ren is not too tall. Still not short, but short enough that he can't quite reach the rim of his hoop. Because he knows he has no aim yet, he used his little brain, found something to stand on and was slam dunking all morning. Too smart, this one is.

On a side note, Ren seems to be representing the St Louis Cards. I don't know where that pajama came from being that I'm a Braves fan, but I know both my grandpa's would be proud.