noa – Page 66 – d@vidb dot net

Children’s Day (Boy’s Festival)

May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan (kodomo no hi). Just to summarize, apparently it is a day to celebrate children’s personalities and their happiness… whatever that means. In a nutshell, families with little boys put up really large poles with carp “kites” (called koinobori) [on May 5th, traditionally known as boy’s day] to represent the boy’s strength and virility. Families with girls put up really nice dolls (hinamatsuri) [on May 3rd, tradtionally known as girl’s day] epresenting the Heian Court from aproximately 1000 years ago.

Now back in Kagawa we had some little tiny koinobori (carp flags… are you paying attention!?) (tiny because we have no where to put them!). After packing up and heading to Tanegashima (Kiko’s island) for the holiday, Kiko’s parents surprised us (noa) with some very big koinobori. And I mean very big… I spent an afternoon standing up a big huge pole right outside of Kiko’s parent’s house. It was definitely a nice way to celebrate. Noa seemed to really enjoy them too… (this coming from the baby who loves plastic shopping bags).

While on Tanegashima Noa gets to spend time with his cousions, Hina, Kana, and Shuichiro and gets to ride an airplane for like the 80th time in his life. Enjoy!

That is all. We are scheduled to be on the island from April 28th to May 7th. emoticon

Noa likes Juice

Noa also likes his (scruffy) Dad.

(ps. he is laughing… not crying. i think. … umm… I hope.)

Noa is Canadian!

You heard it here first.

Noa: An April Update

People have been complaining for more pictures. Kiko has been harassing me to put her pictures up. People think that we only put up the best looking pictures of Noa (and that he is not as 100% adorable as we make him out to be.) Someone… SOMEONE (i will name no names) accused Noa of having a unibrow…

so without any further delay… here are some pictures of Noa from the month of April! enjoy. emoticon

Some nice pictures…

These are a few of my favourite Noa pictures that haven’t made it in to our earlier posts.

The first is of my sister Tray, Noa and myself.

The other is of Noa in front of a nice looking (plum? cherry blossom?) tree. Kiko is convinced she took the picture, but I believe it might actually be me…

That is all.

Noa is Canadian!

We just heard some great news from Tracy! (Thanks Tracy! emoticon )

Noa is now officially Canadian. Yeah! The same day we found this out, a very surprising package arrived in the mail from China. Thank you Elizabeth!! As you can see, it fit well with the good citizenship news!

Seriously, Liz, everyone, thank you so much for all of your gifts. They mean so much to both of us (and possibly Noa) emoticon

and finally… since you all want to marvel at how good looking Noa is…

(look at those boobies)

Just so we’re clear…

This is where I put Noa when he is bad.

Just so we’re clear…

…I am a photographic genius.

It’s that time of year again in Japan… Cherry Blossom (sakura) time… Yeah!!! emoticon

In the coming days expect a whole bunch of new photo albums with lots of pictures of David, Kiko, and Noa (.com). (and some cherry blossoms as well)

Also expect some interesting stories like the time Noa was kidnapped by a waitress at a Tonkatsu restaurant!!!

Here are some samples to re-assert just how brilliant of a photographer I am. (thanks matt, greg, and lee!)

Vaccinations in Japan

Well, it’s a little late, but this is a pretty important post.

Noa had his first in a series of shots to vaccinate him from the various diseases. I wish I could be a little more specific, but since everything is written in Kanji I can only make a guess at the BCG and Japanese influenza shots.

Now, i don’t know if you have ever met any real live Japanese people, but if you have you may have seen some funny little bumps on their arms. Two square boxes on their shoulder with a series of 10 circles in each box. When I was a high school student on exchange here in Japan I thought it was weird that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY FRIENDS has markings from those shots still visible on their arms.

As of today Noa has officially joined their ranks. Although he showed a little bit of discomfort, he was quite strong and didn’t freak out. The doctor warned us that most babies spazz out but Noa gave the doctor a big smile and only cried a little after receiving the vaccination. Everyone thought it was weird when I took pictures, but here goes:

We also had another very interesting develoment today. Noa decide that he enjoys sneezing. Yeah… what’s up with that? No idea. But Noa absolutely spazzes if you pretend to sneeze at him. He thinks its great and gives a full-out laugh. It is actually pretty cute so I caught it on video. Have a look!

NOA’S LAUGHING VIDEO

That is all. emoticon