I do a lot of stupid things, but it's been a long time since I've been as shocked with myself as I was last night when I read the comment by Sam on the post about Anthony's new bike. Sam suggested we consider getting him a helmet. Prior to his comment, I hadn't even thought of it this time. (We had a couple of years ago.)

Thanks Sam. We got a helmet today.

This is the tracklog for his second bike trip, yesterday.

He was much more adventurous than the first time, and enjoyed using the bike [...]

Fumie's folks have been wanting for some to get Anthony his first bicycle as a present for his starting preschool (which is a "big boy" milestone). Fumie's Dad was in town (from Malaysia, where he's stationed for work), so today was the day.

We went to the store, and Anthony picked out his present. He had a choice of silver, yellow, and red, and had not a moment's hesitation when picking red.

We went to a park near the house, and gave it a try. The seat came a bit too low. It was much easier for [...]

Starting preschool is a big deal in Japan. It's a "big kid" step, and as such can be a mix of excitement and stress for the kid, Anthony included. It puts parents in a difficult situation, because while you want to play up the excitement, you do so at the risk of playing up the stress. He gets, for example, the excitement of a new backpack and thermos, but then has then has the stress of having to carry them. Of course, just going can be stressful in and of itself.

One big difference to Anthony between daycare and [...]

The sun rose at 4:49 this morning here in Kyoto. Ugh.

It was the first time so far this year that the sun rose before 5:00am. Unfortunately, it won't be the last -- the sunrise gets steadily earlier until it hits 4:42am and stays there for most of June. It won't rise during the 5:00 hour again until late July.

The picture to the right is from my GPS unit, which can compute the theoretical sunrise/sunset data for any point on earth. The point in question today is my apartment.

All this early sunrise stuff is [...]

After Anthony woke up from his afternoon nap, he wanted to do some cooking play with me. He had something specific in mind, suggesting:

(Jouzu is 上手, Japanese for "skillful")

It was so precious (and, for that matter, on target) that I immediately took a moment to write it down just as he said it.

(In the end, I think my pretend food was pretty pretend tasty... after all, what good is an imagination if you can't use it to better yourself 🙂