and… One other ‘P’ word I can’t think of at the moment.
This morning we had a family outing. It was very nice. Basically the ‘mission’ was to pick up Megumi’s Japanese passport; she had to be present. But after that was done we enjoyed Pizza and Spaghetti at an Italian restaurant. [...]

We left this morning at 5:30AM to go to the American consulate in Osaka to apply for Megumi’s American passport. (We do want to take her back with us, you know.) We arrived shortly after 9AM and was first in line.  It took all of twenty minutes to fill out the form and wait [...]

I got a few (read more than one but less than five) hours of off and on sleep last night but Yumi got virtually none. It seems Megumi has caught a cold. She has a runny nose and an occasional cough. She seems to be fine, but she was very restless last [...]

We just came back from the hospital.  Makoto was happy to see Mommy and Megumi (whom he calls Megu-chan) leave the hospital with us.

Makoto *almost* stayed long enough for the shot, but oh well–We’ll get a family photo later.

Megumi Update: She is still sleeping.
Megumi (and mother) are doing well. We will go to the hospital in a few minutes, but this is from yesterday.

She seemed very contemplative with her hands (before this photo) in a ‘thinker’ pose. Perhaps she has solved life’s greatest mysteries (e.g. How can vending machines in the [...]

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 [...]