Benjamin's 2nd Birthday

Benjamin turned two on the 17th of April.
We had a little birthday party with Benjamin's friends and their families in one of his favorite parks in the neighborhood.

He loved having all of his favorite friends at one time and playing/running around the big park with them. And he loved the birthday song and birthday cake too, of course, even though he looked a little bit perplexed at first to see everyone singing the song for him, looking at him!

When he was asked, "How old are you, Benjamin?", he answered, "Two!" with just ONE finger up (;-) and made people laugh and smile.

Here are some photographs taken on the day, but you can check out all the photos here and here.
You can also see a video clip of birthday song and Benjamin's candle blowing here.

New Year Greetings

Giggling Benjamin on Christmas Day

Going for a walk with his brand-new winter jacket and hat, Christmas gifts from his grandparents in Japan, and new mittens from his Nanny

Walking in the snow

Hope you all had a happy Christmas day.

We had a great Christmas here, with Amar's Mom (AND Benjamin's Nanny) visiting us over Christmas.

Here is one short video clip from our Christmas Day - Benjamin playing "Inai Inai Ba" (= Japanese version of "Peek-a-boo") game with his Daddy and his favorite cuddly toy "Baa Baa Sheep".

Enjoy!




Some Christmas Photos...

Christmas Day Breakfast - Michiko's Sourdough Pancakes

Christmas Dinner - Roasted Chicken stuffed with ham, hazelnuts and herbs

Amar and Christine (Amar's Mom) did most of the cooking - umm, what a lucky wife I am!

New Trike, which turned out to become his best favorite Christmas gift (from Nanny)

Christmas gift from us parents was this Wooden Train Blocks (below). He loved this toy too!
(Look at his serious face :-)

The black object in front (in the photo above) is a Wooden miniature toy of London Taxi, from Grandad Colin and Grandma Kerry. Benjamin loved this AS WELL!!! Thank you!!

video clip of "Nanny Feeds Benjamin"

One of the video clips I recorded while Christine - Benjamin's Nanny - was staying with us for about two weeks just before the Christmas.

I believe this makes a nice Chirstmas present for Christine --- enjoy!

Brunch at Birdhouse Restaurant (in the McCormicks Creek State Park)

Last Sunday (Dec. 7th) we drove up north to the McCormicks Creek State Park, the oldest state park in Indiana, and had a brunch at the "Birdhouse Restaurant" in Canyon Inn, one of the bed & breakfasts in the park.

The outlook of Canyon Inn

The Birdhouse Restaurant is so called because there are a lot of birdfeeders are hung around the restaurant and you can see many different kinds of birds coming to feed from the feeders through the windows.


Benjamin looks so small compared to the big table of the restaurant! And he also looks like a tiny bird perching on the table --- just like those birds around the restaurant! :-)








At the end of the brunch, Benjamin got a priveledge of being held by Daddy so that he could look out at the landscape through the window. He seemed to be enjoying it a lot.

It had snowed quite a bit the day before, so we (especially Christine and Benjamin) got to enjoy the wintery, snowy landscapes, as well as the birds and the state park itself. I must say, Christine has been quite lucky with the weather during her stay!

Stay at Story Inn

Last week, we made a small family trip to celebrate Benjamin's 3-month old birthday (July 17th). We went to Story Inn and stayed there overnight in one of their several cottage houses.

(Please click here for more pictures.  (User Name: guest, Password: shootingstar).  You can also jump to other pages such as Summer Solstice Party, Benjamin's First Play Date,  and Benjamin's 100th day birthday, from there for more photos that I recently added.)

The cottage we chose, the "Carriage House", had a huge hot tub indoor, and we thoroughly enjoyed soaking ourselves in the big hot tub in the night.  (But the only turn off was the smell of chlorine which was used in the tub.  Maybe next time we choose the house with an outdoor tub...  but in any case, the treat of the hot tub bath was certainly worth while of putting up with the smell, after all!)

  Another nice feature of the Carriage House was this swing in front of the house.  We enjoyed swinging together --- all three of us together.  

Benjamin apparently liked it very much.  Look at his smile here ^^ 

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　The cutest sailor man-style clothes he is wearing is a gift from Sonia, a friend of mine who lives in Paris.  Thank you, Sonia!  We love this pair of clothes on Benjamin very much ^^