A big, big week

As the title denotes, it was a big week around the Jaspersen household. While Dan was crazy busy at work (and fighting off the cold that Andi and Kai passed on to him), Andi was busy playing with Kai, who had arguably the biggest week of all three of us.

Thankfully Andi and Kai got over the cold to rule all colds at the beginning of the week. Unfortunately this also coincided with the painful experience of Kai upgrading from one tooth to three teeth! He also developed a knack for sprinting around the room by holding on to the furniture, legs, and anything that will hold his weight. He danced to music this morning (hence the soundtrack to the video... Kai picked it out). But the big news of the week was his crawling! That's right, Kai started scooting his little body around in a forward direction! If only he would figure out how to get back into a sitting position, we'd all be happy. :o)

This week also marked Kai's first Halloween. All three of us sported some rockin' costumes and headed to the community Halloween party for the kids here in Misato. Japanese people don't really "get" Halloween, it is more of an international event for them, but these parties get better and better every year. They actually handed out candy this year (instead of Japanese "snacks" like in previous years--yuck).

Dan threw together a little video to give you a sense of what that was all about. Make sure not to miss the cameo by Tio Luis ("Crazy Sound Effects Uncle" from Kai's Bag of Tricks). His costume was amazing!


The Jack-o-Lantern was carved by Dan, inspired by Kai... note the wisp of hair and the three tiny teeth, bulging cheeks, and uber-cuteness of it all... Mommy had to get a picture of the artist and model by the masterpiece (I couldn't help it!)

Unfortunately Kai was so interested in the pumpkin, he isn't really showing off is Tigger costume (a gift from Tio Luis, actually), but you can get a good look at Dan's Charlie Chaplin get-up, as well as Andi's SUPER AWESOME Luigi costume (from Super Mario Brothers video game). It was really fun to hear all the kids whisper, "Luigi!"

Anyway, that is a bit about our big, big week... more of them to come, I'm sure.

Until next time,
DAndiKai

Special interview with Kaizilla

Life at the Jaspersens' : Eat'n Time

Eat'n time for Kai

Life at the Jaspersens' : TOYS

Kai and his TOYS

Boy cannot live on Cherrios alone...

... but he sure tries hard! We have delved farther into the world of parenthood since you last heard from this distant outpost. Thanks to a MUCH APPRECIATED package from Kai's Nonna (Andi's mom), Kai has discovered the wonderful world of Cherrios. Unfortunately for his Mommy and Daddy, that meant a revolt against anything besides finger-foods for a few days. He seems to be relenting in his strike, but not without much cajoling and pleading on behalf of the big people of the house. Rice cereal is still a no-go, but we have yet to try the oatmeal cereal. I hear some babies like that better. We'll see. At the rate Kai's going, he might just skip ahead to steak!

However, with the dawn of finger-foods, comes much more interesting meal times. Kai has taken to eating broccoli and potatoes, osenbe (rice crackers), and of course, lots and lots of Cherrios. Good thing we come home in 6 weeks to stock up on the glorious miniature donuts (I'd better keep him out of our turtle Tora's food-- his food is little donuts too. Yuck!)

Anyway, as you will see in this video Dan put together, Mommy's hours of playing with Kai have not been wasteful. Here he is with his latest tricks...

An Error from which to Benefit

Ok, so I have NO idea why Dan's magic video got posted to this blog instead of his blog. But we're all about the lovin' here, so I'll pass along Dan's blog site if you'd like to see more: juggleratplay.blogspot.com

And I promise to try and post some more stuff soon... being a mommy is hard work and by the end of the day, I just don't have it in me to sit down and write. You have no idea how many pictures and video are taken with the blog in mind. It just never makes it on here. And who wants to read about stuff that happened 2 1/2 months ago? (Well, maybe you do. Comments, please.)

Until next time, good night.

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