Archive for the 'Parenthood' Category

Posts relating to parenthood

Amazing Snow at the Heian Shrine

Today was one of those "Why I Hate Living in Kyoto" days.

We awoke to a touch of fresh snow this morning, so Anthony and I headed out to play in it for an hour before he had to go to school. His play involved knocking snow off of anything that held it, and mine involved a Nikon D200 and a 17-55 f/2.8 zoom.

I took 249 pictures, of which 228 avoided the cutting room floor (including the iffy crow and snow shot I posted earlier). Of those that survived, there must be about 50 that are – to me [...]


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My Tryout For the United States Secret Service

(This post's title is one of the "cute" titles that, as I wrote yesterday, I normally try to avoid; now you know why I try to avoid them.)

As I wrote last week, Anthony has learned to ride a bike. Today we went out for a ride on the sidewalks around town, and he rode for extended periods without my direct help. I wanted to be right there, so I trotted/ran alongside him like a Secret Service agent running alongside the President's car. It was quite a workout.

Nearing home, we stopped by a park with a big oval walkway, [...]


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Anthony Can Ride a Bike

It's been almost two years since Anthony got a bicycle, but although he enjoyed it a few times at first, he didn't have all that much interest again until lately, so when we went out for a ride today, it was perhaps the half-dozenth time we'd been out. However, I have a feeling he'll really be wanting to do it more, because today – for the first time – he was able to ride unassisted for fairly long stretches.

I'd used Carlos' great advice on teaching a kid to ride a bike a month or so ago, which perhaps sparked [...]


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Setsubun and Mamemaki: Driving out the Demons

The Heian Shrine (a huge shrine in eastern Kyoto) had Setsubun events today (Wikipedia on "Setsubun"). The main event associated with Setsubun is mamemaki – 豆撒き, literally "bean scattering" – which involves throwing dried beans at demons while yelling "demons out! Good fortune in!"

As you might expect of any event that involves the throwing of beans, kids love it.

Kids love it unless they think the demons are real...

The demons eventually headed up toward the main building of the shrine, where unbeknownst to them, beans awaited.

The parent in me was surprised at how few children attended the [...]


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Anthony is Thankful

I feel slightly less pathetic today because we finally got our Christmas tree put away. Also helping is that last week I finally got around to sending the "thank you" notes Anthony wrote for his presents.

In preparing for Anthony to write them, I wrote "Thank you / Love, Anthony" on a separate piece of paper, then suggested that after copying it, he fill the rest of the paper with whatever he wanted in order to express his thanks for the gifts, or his love, or whatever he wanted. When I returned, these are the notes he had written.

In [...]


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