The A Report

We had a fun & relaxing weekend sightseeing with our Japanese friends, the Okanos.  Ariel really likes all aspects of travel: riding the bus and train, hotel rooms, new scenery, people, and foods.  We visited the Tokyo Edo Museum (history of Tokyo), rode across a river in a small boat called "Yagiri no watasi", and visited Shibamata neighborhood (a famous movie setting with shops, foods, a temple, old house with garden and tea service.)  It was great to see our friends again.  We even watched some Doraemon cartoon together.  Photos coming soon.  I finally figured out how to increase resolution on my camera.

Here's what's new with Ariel:

• fascinated by numbers, working on learning them and just likes looking at them (license plates, phones, number books)
• also fascinated by learning shapes
• can do sign language for "shoes"
• laughing a lot spontaneously
• ate part of a whole apple while holding it (first time to try it besides apple sauce and apple juice)
• had her first "big girl" meal at Jonathan's (a family style restaurant) - pumpkin, seasoned rice, french fries & ketchup, chicken, carrot & fruit juice
• also had quite a bit of my sushi meal (don't worry, I gave her mostly cooked egg & salmon)
• likes to brush her own teeth now - prefers an adult-size toothbrush, but likes Orajel baby toothpaste with Elmo on the tube

Today we visited Yokota friends who are leaving soon.  They are another China-adoptive family.  I went to the wrong floor of their tower, and ran into a new China-adoptive family!