Ella can count

Poor Ella. Because she is the middle child, we barely notice her developmental milestones. For example, because we play "hide and go seek" a lot, Ella has memorized how to count from 1 to 10. And I think she has known how to do it for a while now, but we're just sort of realizing that she can do it. Nevertheless, it is really cute as this girl is exploding in terms of the volume of words she can speak. And might I add she is exploding in terms of the actual decibel volume of her voice, too. Man can she scream.

Here's a brief video of Ella showing off her counting skills. She just woke up, so her hair is everywhere.

Getting Quinn to Smile

Quinn is starting to be more interactive, which is making him infinitely more fun. If he can see you, and he recognizes you, you'll likely get a big smile.

More than that, he wants to interact. I think he's happier when the commotion of the family is around him and he's eager to communicate...at least we're projecting that desire upon him. His eyes and shifty eyebrows are so expressive and he is trying desperately, it seems, to talk back to you. If you say something to him, he'll usually try to eek out a back-of-the-throat proclamation as he moves his lips into various circular like shapes.

Somersaults and Eyes

This post is just to highlight a quick video I took of Ella and Anthon doing somersaults. More fun on our flooring. Not as much fun as "kicking the kids" but fun nevertheless.

As I was taking the video, however, I was struck by how blue Ella's eyes are...and how nice and green Anthon's eyes are. Maybe it was the sun.

Kicking the Kids

Ever feel like punting your kids across the room? I happened upon a game with my kids as one of them was lying on the floor crying. Don't ask me how I thought of it, but I flung her across the floor with my foot and she stopped crying and started to laugh and wanted me to continue to fling her around the floor. That lasted about 15 minutes.

Now both my kids love to be "kicked" across the floor. Oddly enough, I feel much more relaxed and composed.

Fun with Fall Foliage

I took Anthon and Ella to the park for a few hours on Saturday and they promptly began to bombard me with leaves. Anthon led and Ella followed. Fall is such a wonderful time of year.

It would have been perfect had Shelley and Quinn joined us. Shelley was fighting with the roll dough she had made, but had turned into "the blob" in our refrigerator. The yeast was acting so powerfully, that it had expanded far beyond the mixing bowl it was placed in. It had spilled out and had enveloped the salsa, the container of leftover peas and was moving towards the condiments. It had to be stopped.

Anthon and Ella on the Train

The day before Quinn was born, Shelley, the kids, Shelley's parents and I spent the day in and around Shinjuku - going to parks, lunch and what not. We took the train. On the train, Anthon decided he would have a little vocabulary lesson with Ella. This is the result. Hang in there till the end:





While I'm not the biggest fan of Anthon using some terms so liberally...I do have to laugh that Ella seems to know the difference in placement between the bum bum and the penis.

More importantly, I love the kindness that he's showing to his sister. I'm glad that I caught this on tape, so it can remind me that my kids do love each other...even when it doesn't seem like it at times!

Ella is talking...a lot

Ella is growing up and becoming quite the talker. Shelley and I have always talked about how great Anthon's was verbally growing up, but Ella is starting to really ramp up her words and sounds. We took a video when Anthon was 18 months old and quizzed him on certain words. Now that Ella is days away from being 18 months, Shelley took a quick video of Ella talking and making noises.

On a personal note, it's been within the last month, month and a half that I've been able to develop this nice father-daughter relationship with Ella. She is quite a charming little girl and I am smitten. She wants me to sing songs to her at night and will try to sing along with her favorite ones. When she wants to give you a kiss she'll place her hands on my cheeks and guide my face to hers so she can kiss me. She loves giving tight squeezes around my neck and will grunt like she's squeezing so hard. She loves reading books. At night when I come home I can hear her yelling "dada, dada, dada" as her little feet are running towards the door. She can't quite beat Anthon to the door. He's pretty swift. But Ella isn't far behind. She's so polite. She says thank you for everything. She'll fold her arms and listen patiently through the prayer, even long ones and give out a very enthusiastic "AMEN!" at the end.

We're amazed at what new things she is saying, learning and doing from one day to the next.

Ella Loves Ice Cream

It's been hot and humid here in Tokyo the last week. It's definitely ice cream weather. But you have to eat it quickly, or else it will melt all over you. The great thing about being a kid is that you don't care that your ice cream cone gets all over you. And really, I think the greater the mess, the higher the level of enjoyment for the child. Watching Ella eat this ice cream cone makes me think she really, really enjoyed it.

All girl: Ella in High Heels

Sometimes you look at what your kids do and think that they were born with that disposition. Ella is showing an affinity for all things girly. She likes to preen in the mirror when you tell her she's pretty. She loves her toenails painted and she now has a fascination with Shelley's high heels. Ella will go straight for the closet and put one or more on and clog around the apartment. I'm sure it creates quite the distraction for our neighbors downstairs, but it is pure entertainment watching her act all grown up with her feet that fill barely a quarter of Shelley's high heel shoes.

7th Inning Stretch

We went to the Dodgers game the other night and brought the kids. Shelley and I are big fans of taking our kids to sporting events. We brought Anthon to a USC / Nebraska football game when he was 10 months old and while he freaked out at the enormity of the crowd, he got used to it.

The game becomes that much more fun for me because we're sitting there as a family eating our hot dogs, nachos and cotton candy while we're talking about the game, the players and what is going on. All they see is the game. They hit, they run, we cheer. They don't see the money or the steroids or anything that detracts. And it's cute when he internalizes that into his own play at home. When we're home playing in the back yard Anthon will want to be his favorite Dodger - Hiroki Kuroda - the lone Dodger from Japan. So cute. We also get really awkward questions, like "Why aren't there any women on the Dodgers?" The answer I came up with on the spot was, 'Well, most women prefer to play softball." and left it at that. I was tempted to be a bit more sarcastic with my response, but I was afraid Anthon would repeat it.

But for all of the reasons to take your kids to a game, this has to be THE main reason - to see them singing "take me out to the ball game."

My Weekend in Kobe and Kyoto

The Wedding I spent my last weekend without family in Kobe and Kyoto for the wedding of the daughter of the family I lived with as a home-stay student 16 years ago. This was my first trip to Japan. Who knew then it would turn out like this? Anyway, I turned the wedding into a long weekend in some of my favorite areas of Japan.

The wedding was a traditional Shinto wedding, a first for me. There is a part in the wedding where the bride and groom will drink what looked like ritual water poured by the priestesses. Then each member of the wedding party, as a symbol of I guess unity, partakes of the ritual beverage. Now, if you know me, you know that I don't drink alcohol. Let me tell you, that was NOT water I drank. Can I just marvel at how such a small thimble full of sake can generate so much heat in the mouth and throat? Wow.

Geisha / Maiko Oddly enough I had many opportunities to interact with geisha and maiko (who are apprentice geisha). The father of the bride is a patron of a geisha house and has access, which is extremely uncommon. So throughout the weekend we had geisha and maiko attend and perform at the wedding, dinner the next night and at an after-party at a local cabaret. Not to mention I did my fair share of stalking them with my camera on the streets in the districts of town where one can find the geisha houses. I wasn't the only one. There were a lot of tourists, like me, and other fan-boys whose main hobby it is to hang out in these districts to take these girls' picture. Seeing that was almost equally as interesting as the girls themselves.

Here is my take on the whole geisha thing. It's incredibly interesting. These are young teenage girls who choose to move away from home to learn a very traditional way of life. Their access to friends and family is limited. They learn traditional forms of dance, music and singing. They learn a high form of etiquette. To me, I find these girls beautiful in the way I find a statue beautiful. Everything about their appearance is a work of art. It takes them about an hour to get dressed, 30 minutes just to put on the facial make up and their hair takes so long that they only have it done once or twice a week. The clothes they wear costs thousands of dollars. Even their mannerisms and attitude are trained to be mature, docile and agreeable. It's not necessarily who these girls are, it's who they're being made up to be. And they're being made into a work of art. It's a really interesting world. A funny example of this training came at a dinner the night after the wedding. I was sitting next to one maiko at dinner, translating for the group, and she would not eat any of the food until she was invited to do so. I didn't know this and she just sat there until the father of the bride told me to let her eat.

So it was one of those really cool and rare experiences to get so much time interacting with these girls. This isn't a normal thing, even for Japanese...many of whom have never seen one in person let alone talked to one.

Akashi Kaikyo Bridge Ask my wife, and she'll tell you that I'm a sucker for heights and panoramic views. So, I decided that I would take a tour of the world's largest and tallest suspension bridge. It may not sound interesting, but the climax of the tour was an elevator ride up to the top of the main gate, 300m above the 4km long bridge. You emerge from the elevator and you're outside with nothing but a chest high wall keeping you safe. You have unobstructed views of the world around and below. For my metrically challenged friends of the U.S. (I used to be one of them!), 300 meters is about To give you perspective on the height of 300 meters, for my metrically challenged friends that's just under 1000 feet, or about 90 - 100 story building.

Kyoto Other highlights of the weekend included the trip to my favorite shrine in all of Japan, Fushimi Inari Shrine. This is a mountain shrine that has many kilometers of steep pathways up and down the mountains that are enclosed by giant red torii gates packed in one after the other. These are gates that are purchased by companies and donated to the shrine as an offering for prosperity for that particular company. There our thousands of these gates of all sizes lined up one after the other.

Bamboo forests, river cruises, zen rock gardens. It was a very traditional Japanese tourist weekend and I loved it. I was only sad that I couldn't have shared it with the family.

So, definitely check out the pictures by clicking on any of the photos in this post. I took hundreds of pictures, but I picked the best ones and put them into one gallery. There are some really cool shots of the maiko as well as some panoramic shots from on top of the bridge. Definitely check out the video below.

Father's day...a bit early

It is the expat tradition in Tokyo for many wives and children to flee Tokyo soon after school gets out for the summer. What remains is a lonely fraternity of bachelors who loosely assemble during the week to keep from missing their families too much. I've joined that fraternity for the first time as Shelley and the kids flew home to LA, and then to Evansville last week. I am nearing the end of week 1 (5 weeks total) of being "home alone."

Consequently, we celebrated Father's Day a week and a day early. Anthon has been preparing to celebrate Father's Day for weeks, and has been really excited about it. One time, upon overhearing Shelley and I talk about one of my gifts that I stumbled across (a case of Dad's root beer) Anthon thought it was important that he gets himself out of bed, walk into the kitchen, climb up on my lap and say that he had something very important to tell me. He proceeded to whisper in my ear what my present was - a laminated necktie he made in school with his picture on it. Anthon really has owned this year's Father's Day - overruling Shelley on the style of umbrella they were giving me and insisting that he hide the gift himself. His reasoning is that it's Father's Day and I'm HIS father...not Shelley's. You can't help but be flattered.

And to top it all off, I got two songs sung to me...the best presents of all.

Ella is starting to walk

Right before the family left for the U.S., Ella began to take some steps on her own. So while we'll be away from each for the next month, I'm full anticipating seeing Ella make the transition to walking full time.

Up until the day they left, she never would walked for me. Whenever we tried to get her to walk, she would end up walking on her knees with her arms outstretched and grunting - looking a lot like baby Frankenstein.

But here she is walking around and enjoying the laving praise we pour on her.

The Great Wall of China at Mutianyu

It's hard to know where to start in describing our experience with the Great Wall. One can get caught up in the data points - like the fact that it stretches the same distance as a flight spanning the Pacific Ocean from Los Angeles to Tokyo (5,500 miles). It took centuries, plus the lives of millions of laborers, to build this wall. At its height, more than 1 million soldiers were used to guard the Wall. The construction is even more impressive when you realize that the wall basically lines the contours of these rugged mountains, no matter how steep. And at times there was some very steep hiking.

We started out our hike among a throng of other hikers, which at times can be really frustrating. But luckily the more you hike, the more solitude you find, which I think is the best way to experience the Great Wall. It's worth it to see the empty walkways and cool, dark guard towers in relative peace and quiet. Off the beaten path, you can see the wall in its original, unrestored state, being overrun by nature. Trees, shrubs and plants have busted through the Wall, leaving behind only small hiking paths in its slowly crumbling state. It was nature taking over one of man's most amazing creations - which makes for an interesting parable when you stop and think about it.

The biggest worry was the kids...specifically Anthon. He can be very sensitive about walking too much. But we found out on this trip that so long as you tell him stories, he'll do anything. He'll go anywhere...and there will be no complaining. He walked 70% of the way there and back...that's a lot of up and down for a 3 year old. A total champ. Poor Shelley, though, had to tell the same three or four stories probably 20 times each. Ella had it easy. She was in the backpack and took a number of naps along the way. Our guide, Flame, carried her a good chunk of the way. I had it relatively easy too. I was charged with taking pictures and video. I took over 400 pictures over the course of the day. Don't worry, if you click on these pictures it will take you to a gallery of shots from that day that have been winnowed down to something below 40 shots.

As always, I took some video and have it uploaded to Youtube below.

Anthon has a good memory

One thing we know about Anthon is that he has a really, really good memory. Almost too good. After reading him a story a few times he can pretty much recite the whole story for memory. If you purposefully mess up on a word, 7 times out of 10 he'll be able to correct you.

So harnessing that, Shelley has been helping Anthon memorize scripture verses. And Anthon has really taken to it. Here's the first one he memorized, Doctrine & Covenants 109:8. He has these cute little hand motions too that go along with it to help him remember.





We may try to do a series of these memorized scriptures. As many of you know, I teach seminary (early morning, daily Bible study for LDS high school kids). Our course for the year just ended...but it looks like I'll be teaching it again in the Fall. Every year there is a set of scriptures that the students are asked to memorize. Maybe if we can get Anthon to memorize the set of 25 scriptures this year, that will motivate the kids to memorize theirs. Nothing like a little competition from a 3 year old.

The Summer Palace

If you spend any time in Beijing and read about its history, one thing becomes abundantly clear - the imperial family didn't spend much time out and about with the common folk. I'm sure that's the case with most royal families. But there are large tracks of land that was dedicated solely for the use of the emperor and empress, the summer palace being one of them. To further my point, a lot of the landscaping done around the palace, from its large lake to its Venice-like canals, were made as replications of existing famous Chinese sites. My point? I don't know how much the royal family, or their handlers, got around much. One has to chuckle knowing that after the original palace grounds were ransacked, the money to rebuild the grounds was taken from the money that would have gone into building a navy.

There are three things that make this a must see in Beijing. First is that this is every bit as much as gathering spot for locals as it is a tourist spot for foreigners and tourist groups. Locals can buy a month or year long pass to enter at the price it costs for us to get in for a day. You'll see these people in large groups Chinese line dancing. We're talking a hundred people all lined up dancing away. Others are doing group jump rope, kicking Chinese hacky sacks, which looks like a cross between a western hacky sack with a badminton shuttle cock, or by doing some rhythmic exercises with a ball and paddle.

The second interesting thing about The Summer Palace is seeing how this place was ransacked in the early part of the 20th century. Western powers trying to quelch a nationalistic uprising ransacked much of the palace, even destroying walls adorned with Buddhist statues. You could see heads of these statues lopped off. The higher you got, however, the more the heads were spared. I guess even marauders have certain height limitations.

Finally, I think the best part about being at The Summer Palace was renting a boat and floating around the lake seeing the entirety of the estate. During this time of year the many willow trees were drooping down into the water and their cottony blossoms were wafting in the air creating a really dreamlike state of serenity. It was really quite a nice feeling as we were floating calmly along the canals and lakes of The Summer Palace.

We spent our first full day here and it was a wonderful introduction to the city. Click on the pictures to see more from the gallery. The video captures nicely, I think, the three great things about this place: the people, the lake and the Buddhist statues. At the end you can see a pretty funny video of people gathering around like paparazzi taking pictures of Ella and how Anthon responds to being grabbed.

Ella loves the washing machine

I've not actually seen this in person - I had to steal this video off of Shelley's camera - but evidently Ella really loves the washing machine. When it's on and she's awake, she loves to stand up and look inside at the clothes, water and bubbles sloshing around.

Kill the Wabbit

Shelley has brought many things into our marriage, and I think one of the funniest things is the traditional Easter bunny cake that she makes. It's a carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting and coconut shavings that shaped into a bunny. Chocolate chips for the eyes and a red gummy bear for the nose. She also dyes coconut shavings green to make the grass and to top it all off, even lays out raisins to represent the bunny poop.

Anthon helped Shelley make the traditional Easter bunny cake and evidently developed a close bond with the bunny because when it came time to eat the cake, Anthon got very protective of his friend. He wouldn't even eat the Peeps, no doubt part of the bunny-cake's entourage. Being the loving,sensitive and caring parents that we are, we broke out into Elmer Fudd's "Kill the Wabbit," which only got Anthon more riled up...of course we thought it was funny.


This was a nice Easter. Anthon has caught the vision of the Easter egg hunt and cleaned house. Ella, sensing the presence of food and candy seemed to have a knack for crawling after the occasional forgotten egg. Though I think she was more interested in eating the plastic egg than she was with finding the goodies inside. Click on any of the pictures to see a small gallery of Easter-season shots.

Ella and her walker

Anthon likes to climb up on the counter in the kitchen to help Shelley with the cooking. He's quite a good mixer. He uses one of our kitchen table chairs to climb up. Ella, who freely crawls around and pulls herself up on things, especially the kitchen chairs, realized one day when Anthon was on the counter, that the chair is light enough to push it around while standing, yet strong enough to support her.

She can't quite steer the chair, so she'll walk until she runs it into something. Then she does these little leg squats to complete the work out. She is quite pleased with herself, as you can see in the video below.

Ella and the donut

I haven't posted anything new on the family for a while. I captured this little video of Ella showing off the other morning during breakfast.



Ella is 11 months old now and becoming this total character. she seems less and less like our tiny baby and more and more like our little girl. She can clap her hands to "Patty Cakes" and will 'throw it in the oven' by raising her arms up high. She's waving hello and goodbye. She's really good at feeding herself with her hands and is showing interest in using spoons and forks. She loves food and can't get enough. If she's sitting on your lap and you're eating food, she will reach for the arm holding the utensil, grab the arm with both hands, pull it towards her and forcefully guide the utensil with the food into her mouth. She's very determined. Ella is pulling herself up on almost anything and enjoys standing. She's crawling everywhere and just has a lot of confidence in herself.

Anthon versus the monkeys

While visiting the historical mountain village of Nikko, we got up close and personal with wild monkeys that were hanging out by the lake. There were three of them, two parents and a baby, and they were getting harassed by onlookers who were jokingly trying to pick fights with the monkeys. Naturally, when the monkeys tried to fight back, the onlookers ran away like sissies.

I was of course filming some of this, hoping to catch something funny - like some dude getting pelted by monkey feces. After a few minutes, Anthon and I retreated back to where the rest of our family was, and we took out some bread and sembei (rice crackers) to eat. One monkey, about 40 yards away, charged towards us, resulting in our quick retreat. He ate our bread and then made a deliberate march towards Anthon, who was holding a sembei. Shelley screamed for Anthon to get rid of the sembei, so being the closest to him, I grabbed it out of Anthon's hands and threw it at the monkey who happily backed off to eat the loot. Anthon wasn't too happy - his sembei was stolen by the monkey. Later, Anthon offered tough words about the next time he came across the monkey - he was going to "kill him by slicing him with his sword"...my little samurai.

Here's a quick little video of the monkeys and the aftermath of their taking Anthon's sembei.



It's interesting to note that the two people that the monkeys proactively stalked and went after were little kids. They vigorously defended themselves (and their young) when adults came too closely, but they made two unprovoked advances on children their own size. I guess the primates take to heart the belief that you should only "pick on someone your own size."

Multiplying and Replenishing Japan

I can't take credit for finding this article and video done by CNN, but I think it's nevertheless funny and insightful.

With a work culture used to 12 hour days (sometimes more), I find it an interesting sociological tidbit that Canon has to forcibly turn off the lights to get people to leave. When I was working in LA, if you were told by the company that you could leave early, you left early...and oftentimes skipped lunch so you could leave even earlier. Here, leaving early, even when the company tells you that it's OK, is not such an easy task. I mean, I'm surprised that turning off the lights was such an easy fix. Some people in my office would need the power cut, the office tear-gassed, and then to be carried away by commandos before they would leave.

Then there's the whole "big brother" aspect of your company telling you to go forth and procreate. It just takes the whole romance out of it when "it" becomes your civic and corporate duty, right?

But I have to hand it to Canon, with work hours as they are, at least they resisted the urge to take a page out of the US prison system by going the conjugal visit route!

It's time for some sumo

Shelley and I recently attended the year's first Grand Sumo Tournament here in Tokyo. I'm sure you caught highlights on SportsCenter, right? On the surface, sumo wrestling looks like a bunch of fat Asian guys in ornate g-strings pushing and slapping each other inside a ring. But it's so much more than that.

Sumo wrestling has deep roots in the Shinto religion, and started literally as a symbolic wrestling match against the kami, or local God of the shrine. Today, every aspect of the sport is embedded in the Shinto religion from the construction of a shinto temple roof over the ring, to the coordinated rituals that are done before and after matches. One interesting one is done by the Grand Champion(s) (called the yokozuna) who enters the ring, and purifies it by driving away evil spirits by doing the big leg stomp. Certainly a site to behold...on a number of levels that I don't think I need to go into.

Sumo wrestling is going through an interesting time. Because while it is quintessentially Japanese, it is being more and more dominated by foreign wrestlers from Polynesia, Mongolia and Eastern Europe. Four of the last six grand champions were foreign born and the many of the top wrestlers are foreigners. How do officials of this very traditional Japanese sport deal with it? They place limitations on the number of foreigners that can participate, of course. But that's beside the point.

The point is, seeing it live is awesome. I'd seen it on TV a number of times, but you don't get a feel for how strong these guys are, and how much real technique there is. While the guiding principles of the sport underscore a need for little emotion, seeing it live you pick up on intense competition and bitter rivalries that percolate underneath the surface. Plus, as one of my friends put it, it's a great opportunity to remind your wife that she should be glad us husbands don't look like that.

We enjoyed ourselves so much so that we're hoping to head back in May when the tournament comes back to Tokyo. Anyone care to join us?

Click on the pictures above to see a small gallery of photos taken from our nose bleed seats. There is also the video below that we shot of a few rituals and matches. Be careful, they contain images of large, scantily clad Asian, Polynesian and Eastern European men pushing each other around. Best not seen within 30 minutes of eating.

Crew or Butterfly?

Ella has this little motion when she gets excited where she waves her arms in a circular motion. Shelley and I can't decide whether we should be putting her into swimming classes to be do the butterfly stroke? Or perhaps put her in a row boat to have her do crew? Thoughts?

As you can see, she takes quite the face plant towards the end of the video, but seemingly cheers up when she starts waving her arms again.

Mamamama

Ella has started to say "mama." Shelley is rejoicing. I kid you not, this girl is exploding in confidence and curiosity. She's everywhere, into everything, saying new sounds and for good measure finds being awake so much more fun than falling asleep. We're not as big a fan of the latter development.

Holiday Recap...

I don't feel it's too late to make a quick holiday recap since at the Cannon household Anthon won't let us take down the stockings and Christmas tree. Luckily it's fake.

Christmas - great day, but did I really have to take a vacation day to celebrate Christmas? Yes. Doesn't quite seem fair until you remember that in Japan you basically get the entire week off the following week. More to the point, growing up Christian in the U.S. you really don't know what life is like as a religious minority - but while we're in Japan we're definitely the minority here. It was weird to see life carry on as usual on Christmas day when things basically shut down for the day in the U.S.

We were asked all the time if we were heading home for Christmas and while we would have liked to spend time with family, Shelley and I were excited to forge some of our traditions for our family. So what traditions did we create for ourselves? Well, food wise we ordered hamburgers via delivery...and that night we made shabu shabu at home for dinner. While it might seem more like what Ralphie's family would have done after the neighborhood dogs ate their dinner, but we're open minded people and the food was really good. Christmas was one of those all time great days where from top to bottom it was filled with happiness. Oh and yes, Santa (by way of the local FedEx) delivered our new plasma TV.

New Year's - Most of our activities can best be read on Shelley's blog. I don't have too much to add other than to say how gross my feet must be to have been the main attraction for the Turkish Dr. Fish. They literally attacked me and wouldn't leave my feet alone. I made sure to add that onto my list of things to accomplish this year.

Finally, it was a rarity to see Mt. Fuji with such clarity up so close. For someone who is a sucker for vistas and expansive views, it was really, really cool. If it hadn't been so cold I think I could have stayed up there all day. Anyway, read Shelley's blog and you can get all the low down on the day - here is a short video from Fuji and then the next day at Meiji Shrine. Also, click on any picture to go to the gallery of shots over the holidays.

Ella Attacks Her Mobile

So now that Ella can crawl she suddenly is terrorizing everything in her sights. Shelley wrote on her blog that Anthon had to trap Ella under her toy basket, like a bear, because she was going after the toys he was playing with (no need to mention that it was her toys in her room).

She was supposed to be napping, but I caught Ella crawling up to the side of her crib and going after the animals in her mobile. She successfully, though quite accidentally, stopped the music and therefore the rotation of the mobile itself, which allowed her to prey on the innocent, multicolored elephant.


This is reminiscent of a video Shelley shot of Anthon at about Ella's age. He was transfixed on grabbing and shaking his mobile animals before falling asleep.

Ella is crawling

After a few weeks of looking like she wants to crawl, Ella has finally put it all together and is crawling. Shelley and I readily admit that our apartment is not ready for Ella to start crawling. I can't tell you how many times she has instinctively gone for the very things we're trying to keep her from - wall sockets, television cords, etc. Ella crawled over to Anthon's shelves and pulled down his camera...the old heavy one that missed her noggin by inches. Good times ahead.


I know the quality of these videos may not be better than what I've posted in the past. Youtube does allow you to watch uploaded videos in "higher quality." If you're interested in seeing that, click on this link to take you there.

Ella's Movements

Shelley took this video of Ella copying my movements. I would put my hand up and she would put her hand up. I would put my hand down and she would put her hand down. She was so tired, but thought that this little developmental milestone was so funny.

She's been shaking her a lot, as if to say no. She teases her Dad at the 45 second mark by shaking her head "no" when asked if she could indulge me by saying "Dada!" She's a tease!



I know the quality of these videos may not be better than what I've posted in the past. Youtube does allow you to watch uploaded videos in "higher quality." If you're interested in seeing that, click on this link to take you there.

Anthon's Christmas Concert

Anthon has been in school for a few months and to top off his very first semester at school, they had a brief Christmas concert. It was very cute. The kids had practiced "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for the better part of a month.

I'm toying with the idea of hosting these videos on Youtube. Let me know what you think.

A Special Visit from Santa Claus

Anthon had a big Christmas Eve - receiving not only a phone call from Santa en route to Japan from the North Pole, but also getting a chance to see Santa deliver his gifts.

My Dad tried out his best "Santa" voice and waited up till midnight, his time, to call Anthon on our Christmas Eve. Anthon was surprised to hear Santa on the phone, but didn't hesitate to tell Santa that he wanted a Buzz Lightyear. He was so concerned that Santa might forget what he wanted, that he took the opportunity to tell Santa about three more times in the short conversation. So cute.

Then, our upstairs neighbor, Walt Ames, offered to dress up as Santa and deliver Anthon's presents. After Anthon went to bed, Santa snuck into our front room and began to lay down the gifts. Shelley ran to get Anthon, who was still awake and looking out the window for Santa's sleigh. Though Anthon was told to be so quiet and not make any noise, he couldn't keep his excitement in and said, "hi Santa!" Walt played it cool and pretended not to hear him. He laid out all of the gifts while Anthon watched and whispered his hopes for a Buzz Lightyear. Santa then took the cookies and carrots Anthon left for him and his reindeer.

Naturally, Anthon had to see what Santa left him. Luckily, the local toy store had one more English Buzz Lightyear or else I would have been the Christmas goat. Anthon played with Buzz for a few minutes before taking him to bed and eventually falling asleep. Of course, I have video.


Shelley and I felt so happy seeing the sheer joy and excitement coming from Anthon's face talking to and peeking in on Santa. Naturally, we feel so grateful that Anthon has a grandfather and a surrogate grandfather who sacrificed sleep and time with their own family to create a memory that I think Anthon will remember for the rest of his life. I still remember when I got to talk to Santa on the phone. So, thanks Dad and Walt. You guys are the best!

A hodge podge of updates

Yokohama Triennial 2008

The family spent the day in Yokohama a while back, and I reaffirmed my belief that me and modern art aren't really that good friends. Every three years the city hosts the Yokohama Triennial, where modern artists from around the world show off their creations. My personal "favorites" include a wall of print outs of emails and newspaper articles talking about "NoMo phobia" or the fear of having no mobile phone. Another had a saddle ridden by a Vietnamese Catholic bishop just lying in the corner with the rental agreement tacked to the wall. Are these artists really trying? Where's the art in all of that? I really don't get it, and at this point don't care if I do. And don't get me started on the short videos. What happened to the whimsical and fantastical side of modern art? Why does everything have to be so dark and cynical? Well, at least I took a cute shot of Ella.

Fall Colors at Shinjuku Gyoen Park

Growing up in Southern California, it's well understood that there are really only two seasons, spring and summer. Winter is really two weeks of Autumn, and anything cold or wet would be treated as massive newsworthy events, not seasons - like when it rains the news is always on "Weather Watch!" for hours. So while I'm not complaining, I am stating as fact that I never knew the simple joy of making a pile of fall leaves and jumping into them. We had a large liquid amber that dropped a lot of pretty leaves, but twice as many of those really prickly balls. If you jumped into a pile of that, you'd come out looking like you'd been a victim of really poorly done acupuncture. So, at a local park Anthon and I gathered up as many leaves as we could, and he had fun jumping into them, as well as picking up arm fulls and throwing them at me.

Setting up the Christmas Tree

And finally, here is the video of our setting up the Christmas tree in mid November. It's a bit long and the video size is a bit big. So have some patience with it while it downloads.

Utah vs. BYU 2008

The annual football game between the University of Utah and Brigham Young University (BYU), dubbed the "holy war" took place this weekend with my Utes doubling up on BYU 48-24. This is an extremely intense rivalry as both institutions have deep roots in the LDS church, and each fan base has a mutual dislike for the other. Ironically, these same fans have much more in common, demographically, with each other than their differences. Maybe that's why it is so heated.

The rivalry in Japan is a slightly different experience. Being 16 hours ahead of Utah time, we had to enjoy this game during the daytime of the following day...or Sunday, right during church with loyal fans of each team in attendance. What was clear was the sudden emergence of iPhones and Blackberrys that were fixated on ESPN.com to get updates on the game, while still being able to listen to the talks and lessons being given.

I think the fact that I married a beautiful BYU coed is evidence of my ability to transcend the pettiness of the rivalry. Nevertheless, I still bleed red and therefore choose to post this great Ute-centric highlight video of the game for those that didn't get to see the game. Go Utes.

Ella the lip smacker

Ella is starting to exert more control over the movements of her face and mouth. She's starting to mimic a few of the facial expressions that we make. For example, she's discovered she likes the kissing sound we make when we smooch on her. She has learned to smack her lips, kind of, and does it over and over and over. Click on the picture to see a short video. You'll also see how close she is to crawling. She's about to get those legs underneath her, but hasn't quite put it all together.

She's also learned how to shake her head from side to side as if to say "no, no, no." We haven't been able to capture that, however.

Dad's Visit to Tokyo

We've truly been blessed to have so many visitors to see us in Tokyo these first 10 months. Last month my father came to visit for 10 days, something we've been looking forward to for a long time.

Anthon and my Dad have a special relationship. And right now that relationship is based on watching Snow White together which started over the summer when my Dad began showing movies outside. Anthon is obsessed with Snow White, now, especially the character of the "old heg"...not hag, he pronounces it "heg". Don't ask us where he got it. We don't know. In the hours and minutes leading up to my Dad's arrival from the airport, Anthon was literally bouncing off of the walls. He couldn't contain his excitement. (As a side note, I think any comprehensive energy policy by our future governments should include research into the inner motors of young children. If there is a way to tap into that seemingly unending source of energy we would all be better off!)

But I digress. The reason for my Dad's trip was to watch the LA Philharmonic play at Suntory Hall. Some of your may not know this, but the acoustics at Suntory Hall were done by the same guy who did the acoustics at LA's Disney Hall where the LA Phil plays now. Consequently, Suntory Hall, while bigger than Disney Hall, has an eerily similar look to it.

But I digress yet again. We saw the Phil play both nights, and they brought the house down. I've never seen such adulation thrown at an orchestra and its conductor. Each night, we're talking 2-3 encores and 8 curtain calls before Esa-Pekka Salonen, the soon to retire conductor, led the concertmaster off stage, both nights, signalling the end. Even as the Phil disassembled, the crowd cheered and Esa-Pekka came out once more for a final curtain call. Crowds of people gathered up front to snap one last shot with their cell phones - girls calling him "so cool!" as they ran off. We met the maestro back stage and upon leaving saw a line of 100+ people waiting to meet Esa-Pekka and get his autograph. Truly an awesome experience.

We spent one day in Hakone - visiting the Open Air Museum. This is a contemporary art museum with lawns filled with sculptures for the adults and some interactive art/play-structures for the kids. You certainly can't miss the Chia Head that's one of the first things you see. Interestingly enough, there's also a permanent exhibit of Picasso's pottery - something he took up late in life. There's also a hot spring foot bath, and a lot more.

And of course, it wouldn't truly be time spent in Japan without spending time eating at good restaurants. We focused our time on local eateries that we hadn't tried before and came away finding new favorites. All in all, it was a wonderful time to have my Dad around. But good things come to an end and literally Anthon was in a funk for about a week after his Papa left. MAJOR FUNK.

As with everything in the Cannon family, there is some video documentation. Click on the picture below for the brief video:

Good Day

Last Saturday was one of those days where you just are grateful to be alive - and for no other reason than you spent fun time with family doing really nothing at all. Fall is here and the leaves are starting to change colors. The air is crisp. There was a slight breeze which caused the fountains to spray us - leaving a beautiful rainbow...as you can see from the picture below. Anthon and I ran around playing hide and seek, hitting plastic golf balls and throwing rocks into the pond.



We met up with Shelley and Ella at our favorite burger joint, Arms. It's here that we realized that Ella loves strawberry milk shakes. Click on the video below for a quick video.



For those of you in the Tokyo area that know, and love, Arms...we hear they're opening a new takeout and delivery only restaurant near Yoyogi Hachiman - good news indeed.

And it wouldn't be fall without gathering up leaves and throwing them at each other. If you click on the picture below, you'll see a short video of Anthon trying to throw leaves on everyone.



It's easy to appreciate these great days...especially now that I'm typing this in bed, sick.

Ella Says Dada...I Think

Our cute Ella is 6 months old and continues to be a sweetheart. She's eating rice cereal, apples and pears. She's getting close to scooting around which should add another dimension to her life.

The other day I caught Ella on video talking in her soft voice - saying the beautiful word that is "dada." I'm try hard to convince myself that 1)she actually said it; and 2)she has associated that first formation of words to me. Click on the picture below to see the video and decide for yourself.

Camping at Lake Kizakiko and Matsumoto Castle

Fall is here in Japan and a few weeks ago we escaped into the mountains with some friends to do some camping. Here are a few thoughts:

Not only were we getting out of the city, but we were doing it by car that were actually driving. This was the first time in my four plus years of living in Japan that I've driven. And for all my attempts to play it cool, I turned on my headlights by turning on the back windshield wipers, and signaled my intention to turn left by flipping on the front windshield wipers. The Californian-Car-Dependence gene inside me kicked in and became more and more convinced we needed a car.

I remember when I would camp as a Boy Scout and I could carry on my back everything I needed for a week's worth of camping in the High Sierras. But on this trip we filled the car full of odds and ends from hot plates and sauce pans to coolers full of food and pillows.

Japan is an incredibly beautiful country when you're actually in nature and for as densely populated as Tokyo can be, rural areas can be equally as remote. It was a great time to photograph nature.

I think Anthon found his first camp girlfriend, a daughter of a family we just met. He sat next to this girl who's his age and she reached across the camp chair and was tickling his knee. For about a minute they stared at each other giggling. It was really cute. The whole rest of the day they couldn't be separated playing hide and seek, building airplanes with logs and just being the best of friends.

Bonfires, hiking, fire-jumping and even a quick trip to Matsumoto Castle - the second time in two weeks for me - were also highlights of the trip. Click on the pictures above for more pictures, or on the picture below to see a short video.

Anthon sings karaoke

Being a classically trained karaoke artist, it was important for me to get Anthon off on the right foot as a kid. Armed with his kiddie karaoke microphone, Anthon showed off his impressive repertoire of songs. If there are any unintelligible words it's because Anthon is 'speaking Japanese;' which in reality is nothing like Japanese, but Anthon thinks it is. It's cute, so we go with it. Anthon even sings a song all in this form of 'Japanese.'

It's fun to see Anthon get so excited about these videos. I know there will come a day when he doesn't think it's cute or cool to ham it up for Dad, let alone make it available for public consumption. All I have to say is thank goodness I didn't grow up in this digital age.

Click on the picture below to see the video.

Ella finds her hands

Ella has found her hands and is learning that if she wants them to move, they move...and if she wants to grab, they grab. She will sit there and stare at them for long stretches of time as she moves her hands around - opening and closing her fists. She looks at her hands with such dreamy-wonder and fascination in her eyes, it's almost as if she's on hallucinogenics and is seeing "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Click on the picture below to see a brief video.

Ella is a talker

Ella is finding her vocal ability...and we're finding out that she can jabber on quite loudly! During these first four months of life Ella has actually been a fairly quiet child. She's certainly more active and VERY LOUD. It shouldn't come as a surprise, as I'm sure with Shelley and I as her parents she was definitely coming into this world hard wired for talking. Just as there are families who have to fight for food around the dinner table, we have to fight to get our time to talk.

Click on the picture below to see a a video of Ella talking about something - probably politics, or maybe her thoughts on the current financial crisis.

Weezer and my first rock concert in Japan

I first heard of Weezer in 1993 when I was a freshman at the University of Utah. My friend at the time told us a story of the girl he was dating at the time and how while they were making out one night she had a bad asthma attack and she had to be rushed home and hooked up to a big breathing machine. On the way home because of the constricted airways into her lungs she was wheezing quite a bit. She was henceforth called, you guessed it, Weezer. It wasn't until a few years later that I actually knew Weezer for their music.

I had the chance to see Weezer play at a venue two train stops away, or literally a brisk 20 minute walk, from our apartment. I mean, you have to go right? I have to agree with my wife when she says that she is the best wife a guy could have. She not only told me about the concert, but she stayed home with the kids allowing me the chance to see Weezer, whose music I've re-discovered of late with their new album. I bought tickets blindly on an online Japanese auction site, below face value, and I ended up with 12th row seats on the floor. Being head and shoulders taller than everyone in front of me I had an unobstructed view to Weezer...or said differently, Weezer had an unobstructed view of my head.



Concerts in Japan have some interesting differences to concerts in the States. Namely, when a concert is said to start at 6:00 PM, the concert begins promptly at 6:00 PM. There's none of this starting late BS. When a song ends, people cheer, sometimes loudly, but then the crowd of 20k+ gets really quiet. It's almost an invitation for loud Americans to shout something...which happened quite often...but only sometimes by me. And finally, when the concert was over, thousands of Japanese sat there until their section was excused by the faceless PA guy. I kid you not. It was reminiscent of church in my youth when our teacher would only excuse the rows of kids who were quiet and behaving well. No way this flies in the U.S. I of course didn't notice most people sitting until I was well on my way out the door. Come on, I'm from Los Angeles. Weezer is lucky I didn't leave before the encore was over to beat the rush! :)

Both opening acts were local Japanese rocks bands. One of the bands had a guy who seemed to be a J-Rock version of Flava Flav. His job was to sometimes play the electric piano, the kind you sling over your shoulder that looks like a guitar...remember those? And clearly his bandmates were humoring him because he only got to play every third song or so. During the rest of the set, the guy did a lot of fist pumping, a fair amount of mini-trampoline jumping and even tore off his white t-shirt to a less than excited crowd. If this band were the TV show Survivor, shirtless-wonder would be the nice old lady who had fought cancer but was a total liability to her team on any of the physical challenges. He was that guy. Except this time, his cancer zapped him of any and all musical ability.



Knowing I would have only slight interest in the warm up bands, I brought along my Blackberry and let my corporate side mingle with my anti-establishment alt rock side. I was engrossed in some great Washington Post articles about the Lehman bankruptcy, Merrill acquisition and the domestic surveillance controversy. I highly recommend checking them out - even if you're not waiting for Weezer to come on stage.

So, finally to the main event, Weezer. They do something pretty cool before their concert - called a Hootenany. The band gets together with some fans who play a wide variety of instruments and jam on some of Weezer's songs. Even the shirtless / talentless guy was part of the group, fist-pumping to Island in the Sun. All in all, Weezer rocked. They played 20+ songs in their set, even did a cover of Radiohead's Creep. Astonishingly, Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer, spoke most of the night in basic but quite good Japanese. Good energy, sound was good. They rocked. Fun night.

Here's a bootleg video I shot of the concert.

I am Tiger Woods

Last week Anthon's cousins gave him his first set of golf clubs, thus marking Anthon's first real step towards supporting his parents' lavish lifestyle through playing professional sports. They were Charlie Brown golf clubs (one wood, one iron and one putter), three plastic golf balls and a golf bag. Talk about setting up children for success.

Like the overly-annoying "little league Dad" I fully intend on becoming, I definitely am projecting my lack of sporting success onto my son. :) I see nothing but dollar signs (or yen signs, if we happen to still live in Japan when he turns pro!) in my his future. We went out back to practice. Anthon seemed quite fond of the one-handed stroke. A little unconventional, yes, but unconventional did work for Happy Gilmore.

But as any over-zealous father/manager will tell you, it's best to start the hype machine early for your kids. You know, create a little buzz and get the world ready for the golf phenom that will be Anthon Cannon. So, in that vein we created a little video that we hope will put Tiger Woods on notice that he better win all the golf titles he can in the next 18 years, because after that it will be Anthon's turn.



Here's the original "I am Tiger Woods" commercial hyping the future has-been.

Family Trip to Florida, 2008

We recently got back from a Daetwyler family vacation to Florida. This is an annual event in the Daetwyler home. Much to our delight, at the last minute every eligible member of the family was able to make it. I say eligible, because Elder Mike, the missionary in Spain, could not make it...for obvious reasons.

Anthon recently had a scary experience with water, so he was reluctant to get anywhere near the pool or the ocean. He was so anti-beach and anti-pool that Shelley and I really began to question our future beach/resort vacations possibilities. I mean, he hated the beach. Hated the sand, hated the waves, hated the pool, hated everything. He only wanted to be inside. Over time, and thanks to a huge blow up Shamu toy given to him by his Aunt Diana and Uncle Danny, Anthon ventured into the pool and ventured into the ocean and eventually had a lot of fun - diving and swimming and braving the waves. It saved our vacation...and perhaps future ones as well.

Click on the picture below to see a number of photos taken by me, Shelley or Shelley's father, Ed.



Or...click on the picture below to see a short video of Anthon dumping sea water on my head, jumping into the pool, swimming and driving a boat...all in one family vacation.

Off 'Da Hook

It's always nice to get a little reinforcement from your kids so that you know you're doing the right things, and that they appreciate what you're doing for them.

In that vein, Anthon articulates his appreciation in his own, uh, special way.

If you chance to meet a frown...

For those of you who are hitting the dog days of summer and are feeling down or sad...my son has a pick-me-up song dedicated to you.



The second half of the video, with Anthon singing to Ella, is something that Anthon likes to do lately when Ella cries. He says to us, "We have to get Ella to stop crying!" and he'll quickly volunteer to sing "Child of God." After shooting this little video Ella started to cry and Anthon replied, "Ohhh, Ella didn't like my singing."

Ella Rolls Over

Ella rolled over twice the other day...certainly the first time I've ever seen her do that. She was quickly frustrated with tummy time and promptly pushed herself over. Trying to do it a third time proved to be too much, however. She pushed and pushed but got too frustrated and cried. Click on the link below to see a quick video of one of her successful rollover attempts.

Daytrip to Odaiba

Before jumping into this post, first some background. a few months ago, Anthon choked on a chocolate covered ice cream bon bon. The babysitter knew the Heimlich maneuvre and got him to cough it up...thankfully. Anthon's love for this babysitter has reached saint-like status. Every Sunday at church Anthon, without fail, will go up to her and say something along the lines of, "I was chocking and you saved my life." It's really cute.

Anthon had another brush with danger this weekend at Odaiba - a beach and resort area in the Tokyo Bay. He was stripped down to his diaper, throwing rocks, shells and wet sand into the water, while walking among dead jellyfish and sand crabs. As he walked into the water to wash himself off, he went in a bit too far, lost his footing and tumbled into deeper water. Had he realized it, he could have stood up and been fine, but the water kept him off balance and he struggled to keep his head above water. We were right there and it took a second for both my and Shelley's brain to register that what we were seeing was our boy drowning. He was no more than a few feet from me so I walked into the water and pulled him out. So now at home Anthon will come up to me from time to time and say, "I couldn't get out of the water and Dad saved my life!"

So if Anthon were a cat, 2 of his 9 lives would be gone by the time he's 3 years old. Here's a video.





I've done this once before with my Dog, Lexie. She was hounding my little niece who was walking with a plate of french bread outside. One piece fell off and the dog choked on the french bread. One of you (not naming names or anything) mocked my dog for not knowing how to chew. But I did the doggie heimlich and out popped the french bread.

Anyway, Odaiba is kind of a cool place. It's built on reclaimed land, so you're pretty sure where it's going to end up when the big one hits Tokyo (read: underwater). But in the mean time, there's a replica Statue of Liberty, a giant Ferris Wheel, lots of restaurants, shopping and even a Toyota store where you can test drive cars around the showroom. We took the family there, including Shelley's sister, Rachel, and spent a nice afternoon. Click on the picture below for more pictures.

Ella hums...

Shelley and Ella share something in common - they both hum when they breathe in their sleep. This isn't an everyday occurence with Shelley, but Ella seems to be a noisy sleeper and hums quite a bit.

Ella Smiles...

Ella is almost two months old. As Shelley noted in her blog, Ella is a few weeks away from travelling back home to see the rest of the family, including her two namesakes.

Ella is growing quickly and is starting to give us some smiles. We've taken some video of Ella starting to smile...click on the picture below to check it out.

Etymology of Ella Nadine

A few of you have asked, so I thought I would explain how we got the name Ella Nadine. Family names, and names of personal significance, have always been important to me and Shelley. When it came time to think about a name for our first little girl, this was the first name that was on our list.

Ella is my grandmother's name. She turns 91 this year and is one of the most beautiful and classiest women I know. She lives on her own in Northern California with a busier social life than I ever had as a single person! As an aside whenever Shelley and I wanted to drive up to see her, we had to book her weeks and sometimes months in advance because her days would fill up with bridge parties, lunches or dinners out, etc. She has a beautiful singing voice and sang with my Mom in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. More than anything she has had to endure a lot of personal pain and trials - losing two husbands. One of my favorite gifts is a personal account of her life written in her own words and handwriting. I plan to share some of those stories to little Ella to let her know of her heritage...class and grace despite significant personal trials.

Nadine is a very special person in Shelley's life. She is often referred to as Shelley's "Fairy Godmother" - a name that I think really fits. Nadine was a good family friend, and former patient of her father's, who was so grateful of the care her father gave her, that she unofficially adopted Shelley (and subsequently her siblings) and would spoil her with jewelry or the latest fashion when Shelley was a teenager. With no close family of her own, Nadine became an important part of Shelley's life. Nadine is a naturally generous person - giving up her time to volunteer at the hospital to help relieve the suffering of the patients there.

Both of these women are important people in both of our lives and while we know that Ella Nadine has come with her own set of personality characteristics, we feel excited to teach her about the heritage that comes with her name. To that end, here is a quick little video of Shelly starting that "training" - telling Ella Nadine about both Ella and Nadine.

Ella Etymology

Here's Ella...

It's been a fast few days. Shelley checked out of the hospital today after a very U.S.-like stay of only two nights. Usually they like to keep you for 5 days. But I think she was ready to go. We are glad to have her back.

I've leave the details of the delivery to Shelley. But I can tell already that you're a different parent with number two than you are with number one. After Anthon was born we strapped him into the car seat we had purchased months before and Shelley was wheelchaired out of the hospital and we drove a good ten miles under the speed limit for the two mile drive. We were very careful. With Ella, we couldn't get out of the hospital soon enough and we hailed a cab, no car seat, and just hoped for a safe ride home. I'm sure Ella will be juggling knives in no time.

But she is certainly a sweet baby. She's a good sleeper and eater and best of all she's a snuggler...which Shelley really likes. (Who am I kidding, no one is reading this...you've already clicked on the links below to pictures and a two-minute video).

Pictures

Video

Anthon has a mind like a steel trap

Shelley likes to say that she has a mind like a steel trap and while I'd like to contend with her on that assertion, I myself rarely remember any time that I could prove her wrong. Not that there aren't any, but my mind is definitely more porous...which is a shame because I can't blame it on drugs or hitting my head somewhere. I guess I am just that way.

So it comes at great relief to me, and no surprise to Shelley, that our son has a really good memory. He'll bring back obscure details of things that happened months ago...things that seemed really insignificant like who played tennis and who swam at the Tri-State Athletic Club in Evansville, Indiana during Christmas; or that he got upset when one of his babysitters took off his favorite pair of jeans to put his PJs on. This sort of thing comes up daily.

So what does this have to do with anything? Thankfully, Anthon has his mother's steel-trap for a mind and this allows him to memorize his favorite stories. He'll obsess over one or two stories for a month-long period and usually by about two weeks into it he'll have most of the words or phrases memorized such that if you were you to stop reading, he could tell you the next word or phrase.

He'll even pick up one of his favorite books and "read" it from cover to cover to you, knowing what to say only by what pictures are on the page. He'll skip a page and his story telling will skip with it. He's two, so it's not like he's James Earl Jones reading an audio book to you. So don't get too excited. But it is cute to see that a)he loves books; and b)he has a good mind.

Here's a video of Anthon reading his current favorite book supplied to him by my Mom. It's about a mouse, a bear and a red, ripe strawberry.



By the way, speaking as a father, I can honestly say that there isn't anything more fun that sitting on my son's bed and reading with him. He's not much a snuggler, but Shelley and I can usually bribe him to rest his head against us if we're going to read him a few books. We'll ride that pony as long as we can.

Anthon is kawaiiiiiiiii

Since moving here to Tokyo, Anthon has received his fair share of attention from people we randomly meet on the street. Invariably, they'll all the same thing about Anthon, that he's "kawaii," or cute. I've found that the level of cuteness that Anthon has at that moment is directly proportional to the length of the last sylable "ii" that's spoken. There was the dignified grandmother who was biking towards us - almost running into us by the way - and made a polite gesture towards Anthon, keeping her "kawaii" comment the way it was meant to be said.

That was topped a few days later when Anthon and I went to Mister Donuts, a donut chain in Japan. While we were eating our donuts the teenage girl next to us let out an elongated "kawaiiiiii" adding, "He's so cute, it makes me want to cry."

But that was topped yet again as Anthon was playing with an interactive movie that would sense his body movements and let him kick balls and grab fish. a small crowd of about 10 lunch-goers stopped to watch Anthon and many in unison let out multiple kawaiiiiii's.

I don't know where it goes from here. But Anthon certainly has been able to charm a lot of people. Now I'm not saying that my son is any cuter than other kids. It's just that, naturally, he doesn't look like most of the kids running around Tokyo. So he gets a lot of attention based on that. And because is a ham, he eats it up and likes to perform.

On a side note
I'm finally getting around to updating the video archive. I've added three new videos, please do check them out if you have the time.

Potty Training...

I'm writing this in hopes of coaxing Shelley into sharing her experiences so far with potty training Anthon. We're well into our second week and I am regailed daily with stories of not just soiled pants but also slow and steady progress towards potty training. Here are a few thoughts and stories:

1. I came home one night and noticed Anthon didn't have any pants on - only his Little Einstein underpants. I came to find out that he had blown through all of his pants. He had no more pants to wear. One word comes to mind: prolific.

2. Anthon likes to cry wolf. He thinks it's funny. Well, one of these days we will all be sorry.

3. As a reward he gets 1 M&M for a #1 and 2 M&Ms for a #2. Those double if we're away from home. I'm thinking, why hasn't the maker of M&Ms come out with M&Ms for potty training kids? You know, yellow and brown M&Ms???

< sarcasm >
4. We're not without support. Thank goodness for Japanese educational videos that are helping our son become a "pants man" in our new home.


< /sarcasm >

Shelley deserves all the credit for this. This I'm sure has to take a lot of patience and a dulled sense of smell. And what I know of pregnant-Shelley - she doesn't have a dulled sense of smell. And I guess I should be grateful to Anthon for not enjoying living in his own...well...you know.

Calling from Tokyo

I thought I'd share a little video that was taken last month while I was away to Tokyo on business.

Let me preface this by saying that for the longest time whenever Anthon would pick up a toy phone he would pretend to be talking to his Dad. Even if I'm working late, going to school late or on the road for work - I try to call home and get some interaction with Shelley and Anthon. But for a while it seemed like that was the only source of interaction we had. When we first used to talk on the phone, Anthon could really only repeat things that Shelley would whisper in his ear. Now he can go off on all sorts of random things - the zoo, a song, food he's eaten, friends he's seen, his stuffed animals...aynthing.

This little video captures one such conversation. Anthon was in a really good mood and was singing "Old McDonald" and wanted me to kiss his ouchy finger through the phone.

So, We're Parents of an Axe Murderer?

File this story under the "wait and see" category because we can't be sure what path Anthon will travel down in his life. He can be a doctor or lawyer, or anything he wants to be. A sword wielding limb dismemberer can't be ruled out quite yet, either. We didn't know Anthon had channeled King Arthur from Monty Python's Holy Grail, but he seems to take a keen liking to using his foam USC Trojan sword, donated by the man sitting next to us at the USC vs. Oregon State game, to hack at our friends Jono and Jill.

On our way to church the next day, after a fun weekend with Jill and Jono had come to an end, a visibly sad Anthon clutched to his foam sword in the car and kept saying in a very sad voice, "Jill, Jono, slice."

We'll have to keep an eye on Anthon to see if he displays any more of this child-like glee over de-limbing people. Just as a precaution, however, Shelley and I are making sure the Cutco knives aren't anywhere within grabbing distance!

Click on the picture below to see Anthon play Hack-a-Jono with a foam Trojan sword.

I Am A Child of God...

For first-time parents, there are a lot of easy examples of how you could be better parents. I've written about a few of them here and here.

But every once in a while Shelley and I will get a little confirmation from our son that let's us know that we're at least doing a few things right. Take this weekend, for example. We figured out that Anthon not only likes listening to the CD of Primary children singing songs, but he also knows all the words to "I Am a Child of God." And he loves singing it. We had Family Home Evening tonight and while Anthon was most excited for the 'family home evening treat' of rice krispy treats, we got him on camera singing for us. And to top it all off, Anthon points to the children animated Book of Mormon reader and says, "Nephi!"

So, we're obviously thrilled...and we think it's cute when he sings. We don't know where it all came from, though. But we're glad that he's doing it. At least in this respect we feel like we're doing something right. Though, those of you who attend our ward and hear how loud he can be in church meeting sometimes might beg to differ.

Please click on the picture to be see his video.

Anthon and his Grandpa Daetwyler

While we were in Indiana, Anthon's Grandpa Daetwyler treated him to a lot fun activities: catching worms, fishing, playing in the water and hanging out with the horses. It was good bonding time.

Click on the thumbnail to the right for a funny video that you won't want to miss. Halfway through the video, there is a minute-long segment that involves Anthon a hose, water, increasing water pressure and screaming.

From 1 Mile to a 5K...

On the 4th of July, Shelley did something she's never done before, run a 5K. Shelley never really liked running, but she's warming up to it. She hated running when all she knew of it was the treadmill at our local 24 Hour Fitness. But she ran a mile race in May and she thought that it wasn't so bad. So she decided to work her way up to a 5K. She did it by running with Megan Marriot and other friends a few times a week.

Anthon really liked it when Shelley trained. She would put him in a jog stroller and Anthon would feel the wind in his face and say, "Running! Fast!" After Shelley would run a mile or two, and was really tired and out of breath, Anthon would pat his fingers together and say, "more more running." It actually inspired Anthon so much he's been doing a lot more running around the house. He's running laps around our kitchen, and running back and forth in his crib...he just loves to run fast like his Mom now.

Anyway Shelley and Megan ran a 5K in Redondo Beach and they did it in good time. The weather was overcast and cool. Perfect running weather. I was totally proud to see Shelley accomplish what I think will be the first of many races. My only fear is that she will want to somehow ring me into the running thing. I'll have to start coming up with a reserve of excuses!

Click on the thumbnail to the left to see the pictures from the run. The thumb on the right is of a short video I took. I tried to get some video of Shelley and Megan running, but they ran by me too fast. So most of the video is of Anthon running after the runners and cheering them on, screaming "Go! Go!!!" at the top of his lungs. That's pretty amusing.

5K Photos

5K Video

A Trip to Disneyland, or "Why Shelley and I aren't 'Parents of the Year.'"

We recently took Anthon to Disneyland for the first time. The night before, Shelley and I were thinking we were "parents of the year," because who else would be so kind and loving as to take their 19 month old to Disneyland?

Flash forward to Saturday. I took Anthon on the Jungle Cruise and he was fine. For all you frequent guests of Disneyland or season pass holders...what legendary ride is next to the Jungle Cruise? Yes, Pirates of the Caribbean. Shelley and I thought, "You know, it's a little dark, and there ARE pirates, but who thinks Captain Jack is scary?"

Reality set in after it became pitch black and we took our first drop in the boat. Anthon started to wave his hands furiously, indicating to us that he was "all done." Then there was the crying. Instead of winning parents of the year, I'm glad our child wasn't taken away by child services, because who would be so cruel as to take their 19 month old on a scary ride?

We rebounded and did a double shot of Small World, which Anthon loved. After some food Anthon got used to the routine of getting into boats or cars that led you into dark rooms with loud noises. So all in all, we had a great day. He REALLY liked Minnie Mouse and talks about her all the time.

Click on one of the thumbnails below. The one on the left takes you to a small group of photos, while the one on the right takes you to a home video shot at Disneyland...no crying including, however!

Disneyland Photo Album

Disneyland Home Video

New Video: Our Trip to India

Though we've been back for a month, Shelley and I still think about our trip to India often. In fact, on Saturday we went to go see The Namesake, a great little movie about balancing a family's adopted culture (USA) with that of their home (India).

To that end, I finally had some time to go through the video that I took from our trip. I've uploaded a short video to the archive. You can click on the thumbnail to take you to the video archive.

Anthon sings the classics

I think I'm turning into one of those Dads who has to talk about everything that their kid is doing. And I really try not to be that way. I'd like to think I have other things to contribute to conversations other than, "Ok, but did I tell you that Anthon did..." But looking over the last three posts on this website and I find that they're all about our boy.

So, because I can't deny it any longer, I might as well feed the fire, right? Here's Anthon singing along (kind of) to Dad's horrible rendition of the old Mormon classic, "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree." It was taken on Easter at my parents' house.

Ben Folds...watch out!

So, I captured this little video last week. Anthon loves to sit on the piano bench and play the piano. I'd like to think that he gets it from his Dad who really likes listening to guys like Ben Folds who are amazing pianists. But more than likely, Anthon just likes to mimic what he sees his Mom doing. So, he'll sit there and hit the keys a little bit, then push some buttons on the control panel and then turn the pages on the sheet music before doing it all over again. It's really cute.

While he's still raw, the talent and the showmanship is there...for sure.

A Good Friday, Indeed!

My work schedule is linked to the financial markets, which never seem to take (m)any official holidays. But on Good Friday, the market was closed and that allowed me and my family to spend some quality time together this day. And there's nothing like going to the beach!

Ok, so the weather was cloudy, somewhat breezy and rather chilly. Our son had to wear his fleece jacket the whole time! But it was worth being a bit chilly to see Anthon fill a bucket of sand with his shovel and play in the water. Anthon, who was deathly afraid of the oncoming tide 8 months ago in Hawaii, couldn't get enough of the freezing water rushing over his little legs. He kept turning back and heading towards the "wa wa" for some more fun. He certainly doesn't get the love of running around in cold water from his Dad.

I had fun video taping this whole outing. Click on the picture below to go to our video archive. Along with Anthon playing in the sand and surf, you'll get a chance to hear Anthon showing off his vocabulary. You Utah fans might catch a glimpse of his emerging loyalties in the heated rivalry.

Announcing a new video archive

The video archive is up and running, finally. Here you'll find short video clips of our family - mostly of Anthon, probably. You'll need Apple's Quicktime software to view the files. If you don't have it, download it for free by clicking the link. Or you can click on any of the pictures below to go to the video archive.

Anthon gets a haircut

Ahead of Anthon's big photo shoot in Utah at Busath, Shelley and I wanted our friend Erika to give Anthon a haircut. I was surprised to see that not only did he not cry, but he also sat relatively still.

Anthon turns one!

Anthon recently turned one years old. He devoured the defenseless piece of cake and had a great time smearing the frosting all over his face.