In the process of turning Grandma and Grandpa's house into a disaster zone, Anthony finds the Sit 'n Spin™ that his Aunt Marci bought for her little Josh when they visit.

For whatever reason, amid his joy of discovering this fun toy, he stopped to instruct me to take pictures that we could send to Mommy (who remains in Kyoto for the summer).

At $4.87 for the toy golf set, I couldn't pass it up, so Anthony tried a bit of golf today.

Eventually, golf transitioned into baseball....

Living in the country has certain benefits for kids. Yesterday's post was about a toy backhoe. Today, Grandma had to drop something off at a friend's place, and since they had a few animals, Anthony and I tagged along. They had chickens, a bunny, a dog, a baby raccoon, three cats, and two horses.

Pretty much the first thing Anthony said the first morning we were here was that he wanted to play in the sand, remembering the sand pile and toys from when we were here last year.

When trying it for the first time this trip, he was so excited about everything that he even waved to the camera (something he's not normally prone to do).

Being quite a bit older now, he can interact with the play backhoe quite a bit more than before. It's a joy for him to play with and discover, and a joy for us to watch...

As I mentioned in my previous post, Anthony and I just arrived at my folks' place in Ohio for the summer. Besides just visiting family, it's good for his English. Fumie has things to attend to in Kyoto during the summer, but felt it's important enough for his English that she'll part with us for a month. One thing that makes it easier is that it's essentially free for us to call between Japan and America, thanks to the most excellent magic of our Vonage American phone number in Kyoto.

Anthony was very well behaved on the flights (Kansai [...]