It's A Clark's Life

BOOK TIME!

Dylan woke up and wanted Cheerios.  So I gave him a bowl of dry cereal and he took it, walked into the bedroom, grabbed a few books, climbed into bed and started eating and reading while Mommy took a shower.  I came out of the shower and here these two monkeys were hanging out still reading and eating.

I love you Daddy.

So tonight I get home from work, and I'm quickly met by the usual greeting by Dylan, which is almost always followed by the undeniable question/invitation, "Come play trains, Daddy?"  I gladly jump in and start playing and laying out a new track.  Within seconds we're choo-chooing, singing and having a good ol' time.  During a lull in our music and an intense focus on the train track building Dylan quietly shuffles over to me, buries head into my shoulder, puts his arms as far around me as he can get them, and for the first time ever offers an unsolicited, "I love you, Daddy."  I think at that moment I saw a set of wings on him.  How can one even for a moment begin to thank God for such an amazing gift?

Zusso Kids

Greg usually does the haircuts for Dylan but every once in awhile I take Dylan to Zusso Kids to get his haircut done by a professional.  I pay WAY too much but he looks oh so cute afterwards!  His little friend Sean came with us this time and both boys behaved so well!

Sayonora Party

Dylan has his first Sayonora Party for his friend, Thomas.  Thomas and Clare are moving back to the UK on Sunday.  We got to know Thomas and Clare from the Tuesday afternoon playgroup.  Good-bye Thomas, we will miss your sweet smile!  

For Brian and Kimberly

Surfing in numbers.  Notice all the surfers trying to catch a wave...in the 7 hours we were there, I only saw one surfer catch a wave.

Enoshima Beach

Mother's Day was well, interesting.  A day at the beach sounds perfect, doesn't it?  Not so much.  It was a cold, rainy Sunday in which Greg's company had a "Clean up the Beach Day".  So we also had to pick up other people's trash.  It doesn't sound like the best day planned but it actually turned out to be a fun day.  Dylan got to play with his best buddies, Madeline and Jack.  Max got to run and swim in the ocean.  And Mom was just pleased as could be that her whole family was happy. 

Ome Festival Time

This weekend we had a unique and wonderful opportunity to go visit the family of one of Greg's friends, Yoshino-san, from work.  We were invited to join his family at their home and have the most wonderful Japanese lunch prepared by his mother.  His mother is an outstanding chef, and does an incredible job of preparing seasonal dishes, like bamboo rice.  It was a feast fit for an emperor and we were the lucky ones to enjoy it.

After lunch we went into to town for the festival, in which Yoshino-san's family was participating.  It was a really cool festival.  There are twelve different "floats" that represent different parts of town.   The floats are pulled around by long ropes by the towns people, and they play competing music to the other floats from around town.  So each time the float that is being pulled around comes across a float from another part of town, the music gets really load and the two floats play competing music with competing rhythms in a mock musical battle to which people in masks dance and make threatening gestures to the other floats masked beast.  It's really quite something to watch.  So we had the pleasure of pulling one of the floats, and a rather excited man insisted on Dylan riding the float.  That didn't go over so well, but they became friends none the less.


After the festival we said our goodbyes and hopped the train back to Tokyo.  We're anxious to make a return trip to Ome, and hope that we can again spend some time in the mountain home of our friends the Yoshino-sans.

Here are some pictures of Dylan's play date with Alex yesterday.