The Cannon Family Homepage

Ella can count

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:00:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:44:00 +0000

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.

Bangkok: Grand Palace

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:47:00 +0000

As we made our way back home from Pattaya to Tokyo we spent a day in Bangkok and figured with our kids we could do one cultural site and that was it. We chose to visit the Grand Palace. What an amazing place!

Unfortunately for Shelley and me, we've finally become honest with ourselves and admitted that we're just not in the stage of life where we can wear those headsets and get an audio tour. As much as it pains me to admit it, we probably have to do our scouting and studying up of the sites we visit ahead of time. You just can't do the headset thing AND keep track of three kids. You either keep the kids in line and lose the explanation or you hear the explanation and lose a kid.

The other thing that we learned is that Anthon will likely become a pretty good street photographer. He had no qualms taking pictures of random people sitting around...many of them girls.

It's hard to describe the Grand Palace. It's huge, but it's packed together tightly. It's a series of temples and palaces - probably the most famous of which being the Emerald Buddha...a statue dating back to the 14th century. It's pretty impressive and the reverence that people show to it is pretty cool. There's not picture taking allowed inside the temple itself, though people snap shots through the doorway. Upon entering the hall, you sit down and basically end up staring at the glowing jade buddha. Pretty darn cool.

The buildings and the grounds date back to the 1700's and are intricately designed from the building architecture down to the glass mirrors and semi-precious stones that make up the outside of the walls of many of the structures. It gives off a perpetual radiant glow which adds to its mystique.

The Sanctuary of Truth

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:50:00 +0000

We spent a pleasant afternoon visiting the Sanctuary of Truth - truly something we didn't know anything about. In a nutshell, the Sanctuary of Truth is a work of art in progress. Started in 1981, the goal of its patron is to create an all wooden, hand carved structure that embodies traditional Thai (and other local and regional - Cambodian, Vietnamese, etc.) religious, cultural and architectural principles into one building. It's interesting that this project has gone on for almost three decades.

It's a giant, airy structure. We had to don hardhats upon our entrance and I was floored at the balance between the enormity of the structure and the attention to the detail of the various image and figures carved into the various wooden beams and walls. It's pretty impressive.

Click on either of the pictures to see a small gallery. If you're in Pattaya, I would say this is a must see.

Dreaming of a White (Sand) Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:34:00 +0000

I know everyone should be dreaming of a white Christmas during the holidays, snow, wool sweaters...the whole bit. But I certainly didn't grow up that way. I remember heading outside to play tennis with my Dad after we opened presents. But that cultural imagery is strong for a kid born and raised in the US even though I never experienced that myself first hand. Compound that with the fact that Shelley and I are sort of searching for our own family Christmas traditions. It's kind of silly to say, but we an ever-so0-slight tinge of guilt over our plans to spend Christmas in tropical Pattaya, Thailand.

Pattaya's beaches stretch for miles, and where we were staying were largely devoid of any tourists. This allowed us to have lots of fun at the beach - as you'll see in the photos.

Having the beach basically to ourselves allowed us to have some of the the best sunsets I've ever seen. And in doing so, I learned something about Shelley I hadn't known before. To me the sunset is the actual sun setting...the time before the sun actually dips below the horizon. Once it's gone...it's basically over for me. For Shelley, the sunset is the sun once it has set...the afterglow if you will. I never knew that before.

Anyway, these were probably the most tranquil parts of our days. We enjoyed the sunset, while our kids played in the mild surf, collected sea shells and climbed around rocks at the head of the beach. Quinton usually slept. Afterward, we would eat dinner at an open air restaurant - which usually had tables set up on the sidewalks overlooking the beach and surf below. Dessert was usually provided by a local cart which served up a banana and cream pastry-like dish. As hot and humid as the days got in Pattaya, the nights were perfect.

It was at these times when we were feeling pretty good about our white (sand) Christmas. The slight pangs of guilt we felt about turning our collective backs on the whole US centric Christmas tradition may in an of itself turned into a new family tradition of our own.

Sri Racha Tiger Zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:05:00 +0000

I think one of the best things about Pattaya for families has to be the Tiger Zoo in Sri Racha. This is the kind of zoo that people want to go to, but for better or worse wouldn't last a day in the States because of the outcry of animals rights groups.

The attitude of the zoo is to give people a chance to get close to some of the animals and to interact with them in different ways. So, do you want to pet and play with baby tigers? Sure, $5, please. We did and it was amazing. We played with three baby tiger cubs for about 20 minutes. They were so cute. They were playful and like any other cat, liked to be held and pet. They certainly didn't mew like a cat. They gave out a raspy and high pitched roar when they were displeased with something. But it was so cool to interact with what will become fairly large and strong cats. Anthon loved it, Ella was more into the rabbits.

It's that way throughout the whole zoo. Want to feed the tigers milk? $1. Why not buy some bananas and feed the elephants and take pictures with them? You can feed the crocodiles...or have one sit on your lap (luckily with their mouths taped shut). There was an orangutan who was there posing for pictures with people.

Then there were the requisite shows - the tiger circus show where circus masters had tigers doing tricks - like jumping through fire and standing up and walking. The best was the crocodile show, mostly because these crocodile workers were putting their hands in the crocs mouth and sticking their heads in. As you'll see in the video below one of the crocs struck back and got a guy's hand.

Anyway, this is a wonderful zoo. If you're ever in Pattaya with the family this is definitely a place to check out.

Check out the video below or click on a picture to be taken to a small gallery of photos from the day.

Renting a car in Thailand

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:05:00 +0000

I've driven in only two countries, the United States and Japan and have long had a fear of driving in South East Asia. While I feel like I'm a pretty competent driver, my biggest beef with driving in SE Asia is the hordes of motorbikes that swarm cars like flies. And then there's the whole propensity to treat lanes of the street as mere suggestions or guidelines...so you end up with four or five rows of vehicles across three lanes.

We decided to rent a car in Pattaya for our week long vacation. You know how after you've done the paper work you walk around with the agent to inspect the car for dents and damages? This is what we came up with:

Why not color the whole thing in blue...and thanks for the reminder at the bottom to have a safe journey! The best part about this experience is that when we walked around the car the guy casually told me that when the car was returned this morning, the driver's side mirror had been whacked off somehow. And since they only had this car to rent me, and didn't have time to get it properly fixed that they had duck taped on a small bicycle mirror instead.

It was at that point I made sure to ask the guy for the comprehensive insurance option.

Cannon Family Christmas Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:55:00 +0000

Happy New Year from the Cannons. Sorry we're not on the ball enough to actually send something out. I can assure you that we had the very best of intentions. I even got out the camera and tripod and tried to orchestrate a family picture. I was so bound and determined to get a picture of my smiling, happy family, that I was willing to bring literally everyone to tears doing so.

Not 30 minutes before the above photo was taken we were asking, pleading, persuading, cajoling, arm twisting and finally threatening the kids to act properly for the family photo. It's at times like these that I think my parents must laugh with glee. Because I remember ruining numerous family photos because I, and sometimes my sisters, would enjoy foiling my Dad's best efforts and at capturing a normal, happy family. And of course the most ironic of all phrases which has been uttered in my home by my parents, later my sisters and now by me, "Will you please stop crying and smile for the camera for one second?" Consequently, too many of our photos ended up like the one below.

Nevertheless, we at least wanted to say to you all that we wish you a happy and safe 2010. As for us we ended the year spending Christmas in Thailand and ringing in the new year by actually staying up till midnight...barely. We're talking seconds or a minute tops.

And about that Christmas card we undoubtedly owe many of you...we promise sending out a card in 2010 is high on our list of new years resolutions.

Somersaults and Eyes

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:52:00 +0000

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.

Quinn at One Month

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Our little boy Quinn is one month old today. He's quite the charming little guy. He brings out the best in our kids. They love this little guy and are constantly wanting to hold him, kiss him and talk to him. But kids are kids and Quinn is as defenseless as they come. He's almost been stepped on a number of times. We've rescued him from having he and his blanket pulled off the bed. And he's had a light yet large basket of Christmas decorations fall around his body.

He's growing, we can tell that. He's finally putting on a little fat. He's a great eater. But he still has those really well defined features. His eyes are turning blue on the periphery of his irises. I think I may win out, yet again! Who says the blue eyes are recessive! He's still sleeping a lot, and thankfully likes to be tightly swaddled and given a pacifier. That tends to calm him down really well.

We love this little guy. I've uploaded a number of pictures for you to see if you're interested. click on a picture to be taken to the gallery of shots.

Fun with Fall Foliage

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:00:00 +0000

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.

Like Father, Like Son

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Anthon and I shared our own "like father, like son" moment at church one Sunday when he donned his new gray suit.

Anthon wore it for the yearly program where the youth of the congregation get up and sing and give talks. Shelley had been working with Anthon for months to memorize the songs, etc. Right before he and the other kids went up to the stand, we gave him some gum to chew. Anthon has about a two minute tolerance for gum before he swallws it up. But on that day, almost sensing the imminent horror by his parents, Anthon proudly chewed his gum like a cow chewing its cud...all the while singing songs about Christ, families, etc. Our best pantomiming efforts to tell him to swallow his gum were conveniently not understood and he kept on his brazen display of gum chewing. We can laugh about it now.

The singing and the suit made it worth it.

The Annual Utah / BYU Football Game

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:36:00 +0000

My Utes lost in overtime to BYU and this morning I received these two pictures of my children in my email inbox from our BYU-loving former neighbor here in Tokyo - truly a great gotcha.

I'm not quite sure if Ella is sad because Utah lost or because BYU Quarterback Max Hall called her classless. Ella is a sensitive sort.

All in all, I'm not too upset at the loss. Only braggging rights were on the line and I can swallow my pride for a year. Besides, our freshmen quarterback barely lost in OT to the winningest quarterback in BYU history. Bodes well for the Utes future.

If any of you in AZ are looking for a good photographer for family portraits or whatever, check out Ryan Young's website. Just make sure that if you're a Utah fan, you keep that to yourself...because it might come back to haunt you.

Like Mother, Like Daugther

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Shelley has been working on a project to make a "flirty apron." If you don't know what a flirty apron is, see the picture above. Anyway, as she was finishing it up, she decided that there was enough fabric and ample motivation to make a matching apron for Ella. As you can see by the smile from ear to ear, Ella was very pleased.

The apron will get its first use this weekend when we belatedly prepare for and celebrate Thanksgiving here in Tokyo. As I write this, it's technically Thanksgiving Thursday. But on certain important American holidays there's more than a 16 hour time difference between LA and Tokyo...it's more like a two days difference. We have to wait until the weekend to celebrate. But alas, we will at least have turkey and stuffing and everything that goes along with that. Thank you Costco and friends that have military base access.

Quinn's smile

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:14:00 +0000

I snapped this shot of Quinn as he slept. The smile was fleeting, but in that moment I wondered what he was dreaming about. Milk?

Halloween, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Halloween has come and gone. This year it got lost in all the preparation for Quinn's birth.

This was Ella's first true Halloween experience. And she got into it. We traveled with a larger group of older kids and Ella loved following along. She ran as fast as her little legs would take her and you could hear her just yelling as she ran down the street. She was happy. If it involves candy, she's in...even if it means dressing up in a silly lion outfit. It's a means to an end.

Anthon was finally looking forward to Halloween. After last year's debacle, Anthon dressed up as Spiderman - one of four Spiderman costumes in his class. Spiderman has been a bit of an obsession for Anthon of late. His Grandma Daetwyler only feed the fire by buying his this costume for his birthday. And yes, Anthon goes around shooting webs from his wrists at us.

My only complaint about Halloween in Japan is that some people don't quite grasp that you hand out sweets. I understand when, say, a dentist would hand out tooth brush kits to kids on Halloween. It's in their nature. Kids don't like it, but we understand it. In Japan some people were handing out these curry flavored puffed rice sticks. Trust me when I say that it creates an unnecessarily difficult smell to eliminate from your kids' skin.

Anthon and Ella on the Train

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:00:00 +0000

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!

Quinton Edward Cannon is Born

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Quinton Edward Cannon was born on November 4, 2009 at 12:50 PM. Both Quinn and Shelley are doing very well.

Speaking as someone who really had nothing to do with the birth other than to support Shelley, I realize how I would describe the birth might be totally without base. But it seemed like the birth was relatively uneventful. We had a bit of a fright when the doctor couldn't get the epidural quite right. We thought we were in for another surprise drug-free, max-pain delivery. Thankfully that was not the case.

All told, we checked in to the hospital and were the labor/delivery room and hooked up to the IV by 9:30 and Shelley began pushing by 12:35. The baby was out 15 minutes later. Again, from my totally unexperienced view of things, a relatively uneventful delivery.

So what do we know about Quinn so far? He was 7lbs 1oz and came in at about 20 inches in length. He came decked with a lot of dark hair. The Japanese don't wash the baby at all for the first day - not even the hair. The second day they'll wash the hair, but the body I guess isn't supposed to be washed until after a week. That's why in the pictures it looks like he has junk in his hair...it's because he still does.

Anyway, back to Quinn. We're not quite sure who he looks like. Both Ella and Anthon looked so much like each other. Quinn has a rounded nose and gigantic eyes. He's eating and pooping and sleeping quite well.

When Anthon and Ella met Quinn I think they were excited. Ella was a bit scared and while she was curious she refused any attempt to touch him or hold him. She warmed up after a few minutes, but I think she's still very confused as to who Quinn is and why he's here and what this might mean. You hear stories of children regressing a bit when a new child is born. And we might be seeing the first stages of this. Ella, who has never once taken a pacifier and stifled any and all attempts by us to put one in her mouth, picked up Quinn's pacifier and began sucking on it for about 20 minutes tonight. Uh oh.

Anthon on the other hand is a vet when it comes to welcoming new babies in the family. He held Quinn, sang to him, talking to him and held him.

We're very excited to have Quinn in our family. I've taken some photos and video from the first 24+ hours. Please click on any picture to go to the gallery. The video is posted below on youtube.

A.D.D. and the Japanese consumer

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Japan has a reputation for being a country of savers. In fact, one knock on Japan's economy is that the consumer doesn't exert the kind of muscle that, say, its American counterpart does. In a country that is perceived as being thrifty, conservative and mono-cultural - you'd expect consumer tastes to be fairly stagnant. The reality is that the Japanese consumer has ADD and is incredibly finicky.

There is no better case study than with the Kit Kat. I am a big fan of the Kit Kat. When I was single living in Japan, I would treat myself to a 100 yen ($1) Kit Kat just about every day. That's where the habit began. In the US the Kit Kat comes in one, maybe two or three flavors. In Japan I can't count how many flavors of Kit Kat there are. That's because every month there is a new flavor of Kit Kat that comes out. Over the last year alone I've had chocolate, strawberry, orange, kiwi, caramel pudding, mango, dark chocolate, apple, red bean, and soybean cake. As you can see from the picture, I recently consumed a ginger ale Kit Kat. These flavors don't last long. They in stores for about a month and then a new flavor hits the shelves.

No doubt this is pull marketing at its best. The Japanese consumer is conditioned to act now to try a new flavor or lose out forever. This conditioning has developed a natural belief that new is better...and if it's not new, then it's not worth buying. You see new consumer products all the time in candy, drinks, automobiles...anything. In the soft drink market, over 1,000 new drinks are launched each year into a 7,000 product market. Like the various flavors of Kit Kat, many of these drinks don't last longer than a year.

To garner further buzz, many candies and drinks will incorporate local flavors and be sold only in that locale. So, on our family vacation to Kyushu last month, we saw a flavor of our favorite candy - Haichu (a soft, Starburst-like candy) - which was only sold in Kyushu. The flavor was a locally grown mandarin orange. Not only did we see this at convenience stores, but also at tourist trinket shops wrapped like it was in a cardboard suitcase. Of course, we bought some.

As a consumer, it has its pluses and minuses. You certainly don't get bored as a consumer here in Japan. But you better not get too attached to something you like, because it might be gone in a few weeks/months. As a marketing guy myself, I respect the genius behind the product development strategy. You try to protect your turf by constantly innovating to keep the consumer's interest.

Nevertheless, I'll be honest, this consumer mindset wrecks havoc in my field of employment. The Japanese are notoriously short-term oriented investors. This has frustrated us to no end since we are fairly conservative when it comes to new product launches. It makes for difficult going when investors are looking for something new to invest in every three months.

Ella is talking...a lot

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

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.

Anthon as a budding photographer

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

When I was younger I remember distinctly lining up my stuffed animals and sticker books outside on the brick wall of the front yard and taking pictures of them. I even wanted to dress up my dogs in hats and baseball jerseys and take pictures of them to use as "baseball cards"...for dogs. I guess at an early age I really liked photography.

In a similar vein my son has been bitten with the photography bug. And as parents we've found an incredibly HUGE carrot to dangle in front of my son to behave. And thankfully, with digital technology we don't have to develop anything...all we have to worry about is Anthon not breaking the camera and deleting most (all?) of them.

I won't lie, he's making progress with his photo-taking skills. At first he struggled with getting the subject in the picture. Hence you'll see pictures of my stomach. Then he struggled with putting his finger over the flash. So we had a bout of really dark shots. Now we're working on keeping the camera still when shooting. I think you'll find he's pretty good at the self portraits.

Nothing is more lame, I know, than looking at someone's else's pictures. And I'm sure it's worse to look through some 4 year old's pictures. I include these pictures for the humor. If you know my son then you might be able to channel the joy he takes in shooting for fun of it.

Click on the picture to see the gallery.

Mt. Fuji Sunrise

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:00:00 +0000

I took this picture on our recent camping trip to Lake Motosu. This is obviously a Mt. Fuji sunrise. I was up at 5:00 AM with my fellow photo enthusiast friend Ryan, and were lucky to have such a clear morning. We thought we were being pretty sneaky being the early worm, but when we arrived at our perch we realized we were late to the party. About 20 other photographers were there with their expensive cameras and tripods lined up in the 'good spots.' One guy drove 4 hours from his home, arriving just after midnight, whereupon he set up his tripod and camera, then ducked back into his car to wait in the warmth for hours before sunrise. The dedication of some of these Japanese photographers!

Some looked like serious hobbyists. The one thing I know about the Japanese is that if they have a hobby, no matter what it is or how good they are at it (or want to become) they go all out and buy the best gear. It's a "go strong or go home" mentality...which I think is good.

Back to the photo. This is somewhat of a famous vantage point. On the back of the 1000 yen note (roughly $10) there's a picture of Fuji and it's from the Lake Motosu vantage point.

Download the full photograph by clicking on the image below.

Camping at Lake Motosu

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A few weekends ago we went camping with about 10 other families in the Fuji 5 Lakes region at Lake Motosu. In only about a 90 minute drive from the center of city we felt like we had completely escaped the city sprawl of Tokyo. It was a wonderful long weekend away.

Shelley and I aren't quite sure we're camping people - or at least in the camping stage of our lives. People were pretty amazed that an 8+ month pregnant woman was choosing to go camping. Hey, I didn't force her to go folks! We like camping, but don't do it often...maybe once a year. But our kids were Jekyll and Hyde this weekend. For as bad as it was on Saturday and for as much as we wanted to pack it in and go home, Sunday was its equal in fun and relaxation. May I present the evidence.

We were camping by a lake, so we decided to take a walk around. The really easy, paved and flat walk around the lake turned into two hours of parental torture. For some reason Anthon has an extreme aversion to walking as a means of transporting himself. In his mind that's what cars, trains, strollers and a parent's arms/shoulders are for. If his attitude were a song lyric, it would be "Walking in LA, only a nobody walks in LA" from "Walking in LA" by Missing Persons. Talk about a meltdown. Crying, whining, yelling, everything. We had incident after incident. And mind you, this is flat, paved road.

Contrast that with Sunday. We rolled the dice again and took Anthon on an off-road, steep, slippery hike up a mountain. He must have viewed this as fun, because this hike was tiring, even for me, and much more difficult. Yet we didn't hear one peep. Not a single complaint. He was talking, he was joking around. He was having fun. So I guess we've learned that walking on pavement = functional and boring. Walking on dirt = fun and enjoyable. Good to know. Maybe we need to bring dirt everywhere we go and sprinkle it in his walking path so that he thinks he's hiking instead of walking from point A to point B.

The aforementioned hike was beautiful. There were two intermediate "peaks" before reaching the top. Each stop had its own view of Mt. Fuji. But for the last 2/3 of the hike you had completely unobstructed views of Fuji and the valley below as it sloped up and formed this most famous of views. I don't think I've ever seen Mt. Fuji so right in my face like this.

So I think Sunday made up for Saturday. We left Monday morning thinking we had a good time overall. Maybe we just need to be smarter campers. But soon with three kids 4 and under, I wonder how much more camping we can do for a while.

Anthon turns 4

noreply@blogger.com (Tony Cannon) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Anthon turned four years old last week. I know everybody says it, but it's hard to believe that he's getting to be such a big kiddo. And despite it being only four years, I can't remember my life without him in it.

We had a family celebration where Anthon got to choose his birthday dinner - shabu shabu. For any of you who know Anthon this shouldn't be a big surprise. More than burgers, more than pizza, more than any thing you'd think a kid would love, Anthon's favorite food is shabu shabu. If you don't know what it is, google it. He got tons of presents - including a Spiderman costume for Halloween...with built in muscles and everything.

We also had a birthday party for Anthon and some of his friends from school and church. This is the first party we've thrown for our kids. Anthon had a very specific theme to his birthday party - Spiderman...of course. Everything was Spiderman: cups, napkins, party favors everything. He even requested a Spiderman cake. Now, they don't do kids cakes in Japan like they do in the US. So any special request cake had to be made by hand. And if you can see in one of the pictures posted, Shelley made from scratch a Spiderman cake. Talk about love! And it was really cute to see how much she doted and worried about the shape of the face, the eyes, the color of the frosting, etc.

We had the party at a park locally and rented bicycles with training wheels and ordered pizza and let the kids run around how they wanted. We strung up the pinata and gave kids a go at hitting it. They were far too kind in their first go-around. But once they saw candy fall out of the burro, the hits became more and more fierce. He didn't last too much longer.

Now being four years old comes with some new responsibilities. Anthon now has a list of chores that he has to complete everyday in order to get his full allowance - 200 yen per week (about $2). This includes things like making his bed, practicing his reading, setting the dinner table, and picking up his toys at night. He no longer gets to ride in a stroller - something we instituted when we learned that #3 was coming soon. He did get a scooter for his birthday, however, which has lessened the pain somewhat. He's scootering everywhere now and in a matter of days Shelley is having to run to keep up with his quick pace to school on the scooter. On his birthday Anthon told us that he didn't feel like he was four years old...which is kind of a grown up response, and probably the first step in realizing that birthdays aren't that big a deal! But after all of the new rights and responsibilities of being four years old in the Cannon family kicked, he admitted that he felt four and liked it better than being three.