Here is a short video from yesterday.

And…
Baba’s (grandma) car is a Honda ‘Fit.’
For the past month or so, whenever Makoto sees another Honda Fit on the road, he shouts out, “Baba’s car!”
He never makes a mistake. I don’t know how he does it, but with a mere glance he knows–and he is right. I can’t [...]

Megumi Jo Boutwell

Megumi was born July 15th, 2008. Makoto is officially a big brother now.
The morning started at 6AM with Makoto asking, “Mama doko?” “At the hospital,” I replied sleepily. Makoto said, “Hosptl iku.” “After we eat and have a shower” was the final word repeated many times to the final command [...]

Yumi checked into the hospital earlier today for the c-section tomorrow. Leaving the hospital room was pretty easy. All we had to do was to tell Makoto, “Drive! Car!” However, in the parking lot, Makoto realized mommy wasn’t with us. “Mama wa?” “Mama doko?”
We managed to get home with a [...]

Makoto had a pretty high fever about two weeks ago. It was only really bad two days, but one of those evenings as I put Makoto to bed, he, in a fit of fever, shouted, “telephone repair truck!”
It had to be important because the way he said, “telephone repair truck” sounded like it was  Pheidippides [...]

Just a few minutes ago I heard Yumi scream. She had found a few hairs left from me trimming my beard the other day. She didn’t appreciate the fact I used her dressing table to catch the trimmings.
Yumi told Makoto this was “papa no hige” (Papa’s beard). Then she asked Makoto,
まこちゃんのひげはどこ？
mako-chan no hige [...]

Last night (July 5th), Makoto experienced his first 花火 hanabi, fireworks.

Yes, we were off a day, but if John Adams could have gotten it wrong surely we can cut Makoto some slack?!
John Adams to his wife:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt [...]

This morning we awoke to Makoto prodding Yumi with an:
あけて！あけて！Akete! Akete!
We were puzzled what he meant. 開けて！ of course means ‘open (up)!,’ but open what? The door?
しばらくしたら・・・ After a little while…
After a little while, Yumi realized Makoto meant:
おきて！おきて！ Okite! Okite! (Get up; wake up!)
This made more sense.
This reminded me of going to summer [...]

We were driving home from buying Makoto some new toy cars.  Yumi’s mother was driving and Yumi was ‘backseat driving’ in the front passenger seat.
Seeing the upcoming light turn yellow and sensing her mother’s intention to make a run for it, Yumi yelled out, “kiiro!” (Yellow).  Yumi’s mother hearing the panic in Yumi’s voice slamed [...]

We all know Makoto to be a child prodigy. There is a Japanese saying to help back up the obvious.
十で神童十五で才子二十歳過ぎては只の人
At ten, a child prodigy; at fifteen, quick witted; at twenty, just a plain ole everyday person.
Let’s break it down:
十 too ten (the more common pronunciation is じゅう, but とお is used in this saying)
十で [...]

I think this picture was at the Tokyo station before getting on the Shinkansen.  It turns out Makoto really likes escalators. After going on a few of them, he started pulling us toward any escalator in sight. Unfortunately, we couldn’t simply use the escalator to get to Maebara…

This morning we went to a department store [...]