Go left, no go right, right?

Jan has been teasing Jolon with this play on words for awhile recently and he said that Jolon looked up the other day with a big smile. He got it. This morning as we were walking to school all I heard was: "You said turn left, right?" "No right." "Right?" "Right. Turn left." "Ok, left, right?" etc. etc.

I went out to dinner with my friend, John, last night while Jan kept the boys. He fed and bathed them and then they starting watching the original Peter Pan movie. About halfway through, Kellan got tired and as Jan got up to put him to bed, Jolon got scared. It was a scene with the bad pirates and he was starting to cry. Jan leaned down and whispered, "Don't worry, Peter Pan is going to win. He'll beat the pirates and he's going to win." Jolon calmed down and waved goodbye to them with a big smile on his face.

Erin's Wedding

Jolon did great. He was a super star. I still can't believe he pulled it off. Poor thing, he was so nervous by the time it all started.....people said he looked terrified walking down the aisle. Suzie said his eyes were bugging out of his head. He walked all the way down holding Sarah's hand and they both came and sat with me and Keiko, Sarah's Mom. Actually he tried to give the ring box to the Priest when he got to the end of the aisle, but the priest pointed to me, so he came and sat down with me. Then Jolon had to wait until the priest called for the rings and go up a big set of stairs. He almost wouldn't let go of my hand, but I gave him a gentle push and he somehow managed to go. He went right to the priest and then KK, Erin's sister, gave him a lollypop and Erin gave him a kiss, and he came right back to me. It was so sweet, but he was so nervous that by the time he got back to me, I thought he was going to burst into tears. The lollypop helped.

I managed to get Kellan to sleep that morning from 10:45 until 12:15, woke him up and fed him quickly, got us all dressed and into a taxi at 12:50. Because of the nap, Kellan was able to really enjoy the party. He danced and ate tons of good food. (During the ceremony, Mrs. Fujimoto and her youngest daughter, Mako, watched him at the back of the church and he never cried for me.) Erin had set up a kid's table at the party, complete with crayons, puzzles, and LOADS of candy. Jolon was in heaven. People were so nice to help us keep an eye on Jolon, as he walked around freely between the two party rooms with some of the older flower girls. Setsuko (good friend) would occasionally give me hand signals that Jolon was doing ok on the other side of the room. Jan and I took them home around 7:00, had them asleep by 8:30 and then Hiromi watched them while we went back to the party until nearly 12. They didn't wake up once while we were gone. Beautiful wedding, fun day out with the kids, great night out with Jan.

The first two pictures are of Jolon wearing his new Carp shirt signed by the mascot, Slyly. The second is a close up of a little stuffed Slyly that waves a fan when you pull a string out of his back. Both presents from Erin and Peter to Jolon for being in the wedding. Jolon sleeps with the doll every night and would sleep in the shirt too if we let him.

Cute baby

Erin's wedding rehearsal

Well, the practice went great. Jolon listened carefully to the instructions, walked properly, even smiled as he walked down the LONG aisle with Sarah. Fingers crossed for next Sat.

Kellan latest 9/26/08

Kellan has recently started changed from saying, "Jo Jo," to "Jolon."

He is saying things in Japanese such as "Mommy no," which means "This is Mommy's." In other words, he can show possession. "Kellan no." It's mine. "Jolon no." It's Jolon's.

He's also showing that he understands when we are asking him a question by our tone of voice. So he'll often nod or shake his head when we ask him a question if even if he doesn't understand it.

If Jan and I are talking and we happen to mention shoes, Kellan will sometimes go to the door to find his. Or if I say something about getting in the bath, he'll start taking his clothes off.

He knows not to come into the house with his shoes on and has been really working at and getting better at getting his shoes off and on by himself.

His teachers told us that he said, "Joji, wake up," (in Japanese) the other day after nap time when it was time to get up. They seem very impressed that he's making two word sentences.

One of his favorite words is "oishii," (delicious). So funny to watch him take a sip of tea and then nod and say, "oishii."

Nose in Eye and The fall

Jolon saw some sleep in Kellan's eye this morning and said, "Kellan has some nose in his eye." Guess he thought thought the sleep looked like snot or other nose gunk.

The other night Nobu and Sachi dropped Yui and Mei chan off so they could go to dinner and a concert. Keeping 4 kids was quite a handful but by 8:00 Jan and I were doing fine and feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Dinner went well and the kids were playing happily while we kept switching between washing up and playing with them. Recently Kellan has been pulling his diaper off at random times, occasionally sitting on his pottie and doing something, but more often than not just pulling it off because he can. In the midst of the chaos, neither Jan nor I noticed that he'd managed to get it off. All of a sudden we heard Jolon yell, "UNCHI GA DETA" which means "He pooed." Jan ran to the kitchen to get a cloth to clean it up before any one of them decided to grab it or try and clean it up themselves. On his way back to their room, I heard an extremely loud crash. Apparently Kellan had also peed on the floor (unbeknownst to us), and Jan slipped on the pee, tripped over the pottie (useless though it had been) which was in the middle of the floor and landed flat on his face. He did really bang his toe, but I could offer no sympathy as I was doubled over on the floor myself laughing hysterically.

Happy Birthday, Allie!

Dear Allie,

I wish I could have been at your party and sung, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you and helped you eat the cake. I miss you lots.

love, Jolon