Golden Week

I always felt that in the U.S. I got ripped off for not having enough national holidays...real national holidays...not like Columbus Day. We don't even get one a month there. It seems as if everyone else in the developed world gets far more days off. And it's true. In Japan, on top of getting about one national holiday a month, there are two times a year when there is basically a week's worth of holidays right in a row. One happens over the new year and one happens in the last week of April / first week of May. It's called Golden Week. This isn't to imply I don't like working. But I just like having time off more.

Our Golden Week was a bit early and a bit short, since our baby girl is hopefully due any day now. Shelley's Mom is en route and we have a backstop date to induce Shelley in case it gets to that point. So the end is near. Stay tuned, we'll post pictures and let everyone know when Ella arrives.

Anyway, we spent the time off doing things locally - zoo's and parks. In retrospect, a very animal-centric long weekend. You can see pictures by clicking here. My favorite of these pictures is of Anthon trying to feed the goat and the goat getting too hungry and nipping at Anthon's fingers. The look on Anthon's face is priceless.



In other updates...
I've uploaded a few more videos from recent outings - mostly of Anthon during cherry blossom season.

It's a Girl!

Shelley and I found out today that we're having a girl. Shelley asked me, "What kind of proof was there that we're having a girl?" I replied, "I think finding no proof that it was a boy was proof enough that it's a girl." I could be wrong on this, however.

This came as a big surprise to Shelley, who was sure she was a "boy Mom." We're thinking about naming this little girl Ella Nadine, after my Grandmother and Shelley's Fairy Godmother. You can ask her about that.

In other news, wish us luck as we leave for Tokyo tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can find our future home during our house-hunting trip.

Baby News

Big news for our family - Shelley is pregnant with our second child. She is due in May. And yes, that means she'll be having the baby in Japan. So that's very exciting. Having the baby outside of our comfort zone certainly isn't ideal, but Japan is a first world country. It has the third lowest infant mortality rates in the world...half that of the U.S. even. But I'm sure the biggest struggle will be to find English speaking doctors that we're comfortable with. If you've experienced child birth in Japan, drop us a line, please!

Shelley and I laugh that maybe the biggest downside to having this child born outside of the U.S. is the fact that we may not be able to tell our child in good faith that he or she can become anything they want - even President of the United States. According to Wikipedia, there is a debate as to whether children who are born NOT on U.S. soil to U.S. citizens are natural-born citizens or naturalized citizens. The latter can't become President of the United States. Let's hope they get that resolved.

We've approached Anthon with this news and he seems to take it in stride, though I'm sure he doesn't fully understand the ramifications of the event. He'll point to Shelley's stomach when asked, "Where's the tiny baby?" He even seems to have a preference as to the sex of the child. When asked if he wants a "brother or a sister" he responds "brother." To be sure of his answer, we'll reverse the order and ask again if he wants a "sister or a brother" and he'll consistently answers "brother." So, count Anthon firmly in the "boy" camp. At this point Shelley thinks we're having a boy and I really have no clue one way or the other. If I had to venture a guess I'd say it's a girl simply because this pregnancy has been totally different than when Shelley as pregnant with Anthon. Stay tuned...