Junya has developed a few new skills over the last weeks. For instance, he has started to grab one hand with the other, in particular he grabs the fingers on the other hand. He also studies his fingers intensely sometimes. He also often picks up a toy (when it is placed in front of him) and bangs it into the other hand. Sometimes even into his own head! This is an interesting new development which I have decided shows that he is learning to use things as tools!

He now weighs at least 8 kg. We weighed him with clothes on and he wighed about 8.3 kg, but we will soon get the exact figures because he is going to measured again soon when we go to the lovel health center.

He still gets some exterme laughing fits, when he is in a good mood and is being tickled or just spoken to in an especially funny voice! When in a bad mood, it often helps to sing for him, but not every song works. In particular he likes (when I sing) the Dansih alphabet song, which goes like “A, B, C, D…” to the melody of either Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or Tordenskjold!

Finally, he has started “talking” a lot now. It seems that whenever he is awake, and is not too tired, he tries to talk to us. Of course we don’t understand what he is saying, and it probably doesn’t mean anything except: Hey, I am here, don’t forget me!

Anyway here is a little video clip where you can see and hear him talk!

http://nafai.org/media/video/junya/dv20090105-talking.avi

Junya er begyndt at sige nye lyde. For en par uger siden begyndte han at graede paa en ny maade. Hvor hans graad foer var typisk et hoejt pludseligt vrael efterfulgt af kortere hulk og snoeft, er hans nye vrael et meget laengere typisk barnevrael, saadan som man forestiller sig en 2-aarig siger hvis den ikke faar sin ret og bliver sur!

Det er det ene, det andet er et pludselig meget hoejt skrig/piv, typisk naar der sker noget spaendende. Det er det sidste nye som han begyndte at sige for faa dage siden. Sjovt nok staar der i vores japanske babybog at han netop begynder paa den slags skrig naar han er fire maaneder, saa det passer helt perfekt. Junya fylder nemlig fire maaneder i morgen!

Og som tiden dog gaar. Det er ikke meget vi har faaet naaet paa de maaneder. Men vi har faaet vaeret sammen med ham meget mere end mange andre foraeldre har kunnet haft mulighed for, og det er skoent. Alle de billeder vi begge har faaet taget vidner om det.

I dag har vi ogsaa haft hovedrengoering - dog kun i eet af vaerelserne: stuen. Jeg tog mig af de hoeje steder (lofter, lister, hoeje vinduer og den slags) og de ikke saa stoevbefaengte omraader saa som vinduer. Det var ganske sjovt men stoppede lidt pludseligt da Takakos foraeldre skulle ud til noget familie. Det er typisk japansk at lave hovedrengoering en af de sidste dage i det gamle aar. Jeg tror det har lidt religioes betydning, det med at man gaar rene ind i det nye aar. Vi saa ellers en udsendelse i fjernsynet der sagde at det bedste tidspunkt for hovedrengoering er om foraaret. Det har noget med mug og sporer at goere.

Vi har ogsaa lavet jordbaeris igen i dag, og den staar nu i fryseren. Jeg viste Takakos mor hvordan man gjorde. Hun er vist ret imponeret over at jeg er saa god til at lave kager og desserter.

I morgen er det shogatsu og saa kommer familien paa besoeg og der skal spises og drikkes og besoeges tempel. Det skriver jeg meget mere om i morgen.

Her lige et billede af Junya lige efter han har vaeret i bad hvor han ligger paa en pude paa gulvet og faar toej paa. Junya er begyndt at blive meget mere klar over sine egne haender og fingre. Specielt roerer han nu ofte sin hoejre haand med sin venstre eller omvendt. Eller som paa billedet, holder haenderne op foran sig og beundrer dem.

En ganske normal, men meget hyggelig jule-nytaars-dag. Stod lidt sent op og legede med Junya om morgenen ind til han skulle have sin morgenlur. Jeg fik ogsaa arbejdet lidt ved PCen, men ved frokost tid koerte jeg ned og handlede i Lion D’Or. Vi skulle bla. have fyldt lageret af bageingredienser op, for vi bager en del for tiden! Broed og kager, sandkager, smaakager, roulader osv. Rigtig sjovt, og der er jo et utal af mulige varianter. Specielt sjovt er det at bruge japanske ingedienser, som fx soed groen boennemasse i rouladen!

Paa vejen tilbage koerte jeg forbi Ooyama Drive-In og hentede vores frokost som vi havde bestilt. Sauce-katsu til mig og friturestegte kyllingeklumper til Takako! Jeg legede lidt mere med Junya, men om eftermiddagen kom Yuuta paa besoeg. Dvs. han var blevet “jaget ud” hjemmefra, sikkert fordi hans far havde syntes han var blevet lidt for irriterende!

Yuuta og jeg lavede smaa kryds-og-tvaerser til hinanden, og senere gik vi ovenpaa og lavede jordbaeris. Takakos mor fik jo en ismaskine i julegave af os, men lige nu er det mig der bruger den. Lavede bananis den anden dag (stor succes) og idag ville vi saa lave jordbaeris med frosne jordbaer fra i sommers.

[Rest in English...]

Before dinner and before Junya’s bath, Takako, Yuuta and I went to the Lotas Inn hot spa close to where we live and had a nice warm bath for about 45 minutes. We then hurried home where Junya was waiting for us with his grandparents acting as babysitters! He had been a good boy and had only started crying a few minutes before we arrived.

After dinner (which Yuuta cooked), we went up to the office where I have set up the karaoke system and Yuuta and I practiced our favorite songs. His were きせき by GReeen and 羞恥心 the theme song for the Japanese comedy troupe by the same name.

Takako finished her first t-shirt for Junya. She made it from an adult-size t-shirt which she disassembled and then pieced together again in Junya’s size. It is SO cute and very well made!! Here is a photo:

If Junya wears it tomorrow I will post a photo of him again!

A couple of new albums with photos of Junya! This time we took him out in the garden and took some photos of him wearing his new smart clothes

• http://photos.nafai.org/album/780
• http://photos.nafai.org/album/779

En hektisk juleaften der startede med spisning kl 17:30 og endte brat kl. 20:00 da alle gaesterne skulle hjem, er nu forbi! Det lykkedes mig at faa lavet en rigtig god ris a l’amande som alle synes var rigtig god. Lavet i mikroboelgeovn naturligvis. Der var ogsaa julegaver til alle, og naturligvis mandelgave. Mandelgaven fik Takakos tante, Miyane, og det var en laekker pose Dumle karameller. Da en af boernene saa den proklamerede han resolut at, “Den skulle han i hvert fald ikke smage, for han spiste ikke ting hvor der stod noget paa engelsk paa”. Han ved ikke hvad han gaar glip af!

Julegaverne var et kaempe hit, og det lykkedes mig faktisk naesten at faa folk til at aabne de rigtige pakker. Jeg behoever vel ikke naevne at julegaver med navnekort paa ikke er en tradition man normalt bruger her

De billeder jeg naaede at tage mellem at jeg skulle varme kirsebaersauce til ris a l’amanden og lege med lego med boernene, kan ses her:

http://photos.nafai.org/album/769

Junya viste os i gaar at han nu har laert bogstavet “B”. I hvert fald er han begyndt at sige lyde der starter med B. Fx ordet “Bfuuuh”, som desvaerre ikke staar i min ordbog saa jeg har ingen ide om hvad det betyder! Han er ogsaa begyndt at tage ting op som vi laegger foran ham. Han har laenge kunnet holde om ting, men det er foerst nu han begynder at identificere ting og tage dem. Han er naturligvis stadig lidt klodset, men det er et godt fremskridt!

I dag var vi henne paa Yuutas skole og undervise nogle af de lidt aeldre elever. Vi havde lavet en fin PowerPoint quiz med 10 spoergsmaal, og det var en stor success. Eleverne var inddelt i 5 grupper med ca. 6 i hver gruppe, og de konkurrerede saa om at faa flest point. Ikke alle spoergsmaal gav lige mange point. Vinderholdet fik en fin 2-krone med guldsnor, samt retten til foerst at vaelge blandt de medbragte Haribo-vingummier, smaakager og fine danske noegleringe!!

For en uges tid siden underviste vi de mindste elever, og her var det bagning af smaakager samt julehjerteklip. Det var naesten endnu sjovere fordi vi havde mere tid, og fordi det er noget sjovere at rende rundt i et koekken og bage end at staa ved et whiteboard og skulle lyde intelligent!

A little video of Junya kicking the table with his frog socks on!

dv20081216-frog-kicking.avi

Today we went to Aizu Wakamatsu to get a free trial lesson at the International Swimming School. We joined the baby swimming class which you can do when your child is 2 weeks or older! Of course, when they are that small they can’t do much, but it is believed that even at that time, swimming with them will make them more comfortable with water later in life.

Junya is now 3.5 months old, and still too small to really enjoy a swimming pool. But we still had some 30 minutes swimming fun with the other kids. The youngerst I think was about 1 year, and he could already swim a little and seemed to enjoy the class. Junya was just floating, sometimes kicking, but mostly just floating. The teacher showed various ways we could “swim” with him, but after about 15 minutes he got tired. He didn’t cry, but became a little sulky. It helped when Takako held him on her shoulder.

Later we went shopping for Christmas presents with Noriko. Here are a few photos from today’s adventures:

At home, Junya sat in his favorite chair and did his favorite leg exercise: Pushing the table with both feet (while wearing frog socks) thereby making his chair bounce up and down!

Heeey

Today Junya turned 100 days!

On this day many Japanese families go to a professional photoshop and have a photo taken of the baby. We did the same, so we got up early to make sure that everything was ready before leaving the house at around 10:30. We wanted to leave early before Junya would start to get “grumpy”.

The photoshop is called Photo Studio Hara and is located in Aizu Bange, about 30 minutes drive from where we live. When we got there everything was ready and we only needed to decide what clothes Junya should wear. We had already decided that we wanted one photo with Junya alone and one with the family (that is, me and Takako and Takako’s parents).

We decided that Junya would wear a kimono on the photo where he sits by himself, and a white baby dress on the one where he is with us. The photographer and his assistants were very professional and managed to make Junya smile on almost all the photos! But it didn’t start out that easy. After wearing the kimono, Junya suddenly started to cry. Takako gave him some milk, and after 10 minutes we were ready to try again. This time he didn’t complain when we dressed him in the kimono, and the photographers managed to get 7-8 shots before Junya got tired again

We took him out again and played a little with him, and he got happy again. This time he would have to wear the white dress and the rest of us would stand or sit around him while he sat by himself. This time we were close to him, so the photo shoot went a bit easier, but suddenly he decided that it was enough, and started crying and after that he didn’t want to sitby himself - only Takako’s shoulder would do!

We had a cup of coffee and tea while we waited for the negatives to be developed. It only took about 10 minutes and we could then previews them on a small TV. (they had a camera which they used to film the negatives which also inverted the signal so the photos looked correct!)

After that we did some shopping for tonight’s dinner and drove home. Junya was quite happy the rest of the afternoon - probably because he was so excited about his first real meal!

Because on the 100th day, according to Japanese tradition, you can start feeding the baby a little bit of real food in addition to the breast milk. Of course, today, you don’t give them real food until they are 5-6 months, but the ceremony still includes serving him a delicious and auspicious meal!

Junya’s first dinner consisted of: sekihan (red rice), clam soup, red rockfish, various boiled vegetables including kombu (a type of seaweed) and daifuku (a Japanese confectionary made mostly from pounded rice). We took several photos of Katsushi and Taiko pretending to feed Junya, but in reality he didn’t eat anything.

Red is a “lucky” color in Japan, which is why the rice is colored red. We use red beans added to the rice before boiling it to give it its special color. The fish was also red and the kombu seaweed is served because “kombu” sounds like “kobu” which is the last part of the word “yorokobu” which means “to be happy”. We also bought a cake in the shape of a red snapper, in Japanese called a tai. “Tai” is also the ending of the word “medetai” which means “happy” or “congratulate”.

The spoon we used to feed him with was a silver spoon he received from his great grandparents in Denmark (farmor og farfar). According to the tradition it is the oldest member of the family present who is the first to feed Junya. We told Katsushi that it is not the oldest but the most respected person who does it - and then he happily volunteered!

After that Taiko also gave hime some soup and a little bit of grapefruit juice (which he actually seemed to like!) Takako took photos and I video filmed. Finally we could all sit down and eat, and it was very delicious!