all things d@vidb
I just call em how I see em.
Kiko really liked the following picture. Despite the fact that our baby is huge, he is still small. (That sounds more deeperer in Japanese.)
“I thought this website was called DAVIDandKIKO.com, how come you only post Noa pictures noa?”
“shut up.”
A few days ago we were very lucky to have a little bit of Matt and Graham action.
Kiko, Noa and I went to lunch with two of my very good friends. It had been a long time since we have all hung out, so it was absolutely amazing to see them both and for them to finally get a chance to meet Noa.
Matt has a website and Graham is thinking about putting one up, so if it is ok, how bout we adds some links? let me know!
In the meantime here are a few photos from that day. There were more but I don’t think that Graham nor Matt would appreciate them being put up as they didn’t come out so great…. (not blaming anyone, ahem kiko ahem) … I’m just joking. We all know that any bad photos on our site belong to Lee. (who is in Japan, but thats besides the point) 😉
Matt, Graham, thanks for lunch! As always great to see you and Noa loved meeting you both. He told me with his words.
(nice hair by the way noa. i blame that on kiko’s people.)
After our relaxing vacation in Korea, we have spent the last few days readjusting to Canadian life.
We have been fortunate enough to see a few good friends (with many left still to see!) and spend a lot of time with our family. Noa is having a great time. We are taking him to a swim class and local activities run by the city. He is also enjoying the time he gets to spend with his Aunt, his Uncles and his gradma.
Kiko and I are doing well. Busy with Noa, and I am neglecting our work. We are still looking for a place to live in Tokyo, so keep an eye out for that!
In the meantime, here are a few photos from the trip so far…
What’s that?? What? Excuse me? Do I recall someone doubting Noa’s standing and crawling abilities?? Is that Noa standing??? I think so… bruck! (bruck?)
After Noa exercising his independence through standing, we decide to knock him back down with some super frightening bubbles from Kiko’s vicious bubble gun.
We then follow that up with forcing him through a long red tunnel (which he actually enjoyed more than we hoped expected.)
We are good parents are our baby is cute.
That is all. (don’t hate us because we are beautiful.)
This was supposed to be a post about our time in Canada (see tomorrow’s post!), but instead we have some breaking news…
Dagger Has a Friend. Twin Dagger (I wish I had taken pictures, but we took him to a little play place and he proceeded to destory the other children with his regular assortment of punches and hair pulling. He then realized that dagger could be used as a weapon and proceeded to bite some kids face. nice.)
Now that Noa has a range of weapons and special attacks, I realized it was time to impart some fatherly wisdom.
Noa, with great power, comes great responsiblity. Use dagger wisely.
(… you don’t like the advice? My original course of action involved:
That is all.
On our way back to Canada, we had a mini-vacation-type 3 day 2 night stopover in Korea. Although we ended up spending the majority of our time relaxing in our very nice hotel, we did eat some amazing korean bbq and Noa had his first swimming pool experience.
Here are a few pictures from our Korea adventure.
(Noa thought he would ride with us until I shoved him in the suitcase.)
‘Help me’ he said. I said “no.” ‘Get back in your suitcase.”
No Korean adventure is complete without public protests,
Korean flags flown everywhere accordians,
and Shane Jeans.
As I mentioned above, Noa had his first pool experience. He absolutely loved it. He loved it (and I’m being serious) right up until I dunked him underneath the water to see what would happen. I had read somewhere that babies automagically hold their breath when they are pushed underwater.
They don’t. Who knew? (actually, Kiko knew. She tried to prevent me.)
jesus christ my legs are hairy. and you love it.
Finally, when Noa climbed out of the suitcase we let the gigantic korean baby eating bear after him.
Noa’s only weapon (currently) is getting bigger. Fear him.
(Kiko has also asked me to inform you that we clean dagger to prevent the destruction that is my set of teeth.)
Along with his rigourous ninja training, we also train Noa to do more mundane things.
…like using dagger to destroy a plum (his first!)…
An even better showcase of Noa’s brillance is him responding to his own name. Here is some video of Kiko calling out his name (“Bennett Noa-kun!” [Japanese name order and -kun, a Japanese honorific] and Noa respoding by raising his hand and saying “Hai!” [yes!]. My baby can kick your baby’s ass. Even if your baby doesn’t even exist yet.
We have arrived safely in Canada!! Suffice it to say, we are extremely jet lagged.
unfortunately, after arriving in Canada I realized I forgot to bring my usb cable to get our pictures off of the Camera(s). I will figure something out… don’t fret. In the meantime, now that we have Lee’s permission, we would like to share some of our favourite pictures from Lee Gribbon’s amazing family photo shoot.
The full shoot is available here.
That is all. (He’s amazing! THANK YOU SO MUCH LEE!!!) 😮
That’s right… our two year stint in Chunan (now: Manno) in Kagawa Prefecture is coming to a close. We leave on Tuesday morning but still have a ton of packing to do. Here are a few photos that we have taken over the past few days that we thought you might enjoy.
This first photo is actually a scan of an article that appeared in the Shikoku Shinbun (the big paper in our area.) The article is a thank you to me and saying goodbye to our family.
My liberal translation:
Thank you, David! David Bennett (26) who has been working and living in Chunan Town (now Manno Town) since August of 2004 as an international relations co-ordinator will be leaving us. As a student, David spent two years on exchange in Yokohama and Tokyo. In his current role David was very active around the community through numerous events, school visits, and English classes. He also brought internationalization to the local community groups through his visits. David came to Chunan with his wife, Kiko. Their first son, Noa, was born last year in November. (That pretty much covers it. I rushed the translation, so if you think you could do a better job… do it.) 😮
At least 3 times a month Jim and I ate at the local kaiten (conveyor belt) sushi place. It was fantastic. (Especially the oinky bits [read: meat susghi] and the salmon!) Definitely will miss the sushi… and possibly Jim.
And finally, Noa took me for a drive the other day.
That is all.
I actually have a ton of things to write about. Between preparing for our move to Tokyo, our trips to Canada and Korea, and all of the goodbye stuff that is going on here, we have been quite busy.We hope to post about it in the next few days.
In the meantime, we had to share with you this amazing picture of Noa that our good friend Lee Gribbon took. We will be posting the entire shoot over the next few days (once he says cool, cool?)
