Tooth!

On Friday morning, we noticed that Lottie's gum was white where her first tooth was almost poking through. By Friday evening, the tooth was out! She now has a tiny bit of very sharp tooth sticking out on left bottom side. You can just barely see it in this picture. She's now armed and dangerous!

Lalaport

We headed for Lalaport, a huge mall in Yokohama after our visit to the Triennale. We let Adam have some fun at Namco Land. He got to ride a Thomas train,

and a giant panda.

Lottie had fun with Mom and Dad.

They also had two cool ball/play areas for young toddlers and older kids. Adam wasn't tall enough for the big kid area, but we shelled out the 300 yen for 20 minutes in the baby ball pits. He went crazy for 20 minutes, then threw a giant fit when we had to leave. But he recovered when Daddy played Whack-A-Mole with him.

Yokohama Triennale

So we actually went to Yokohama to see the Triennale, a contemporary arts festival that Yokohama puts on every three years. Here's the Ring Dome that was installed by the information booth.

The exhibits were all over the Yokohama waterfront area. We only went to two buildings, this red brick warehouse and a pier.

This is the view from the park by the warehouse.

Here's Adam enjoying the open spaces in the exhibit. He really liked the art. Contemporary installations are a good bet for toddlers, since most of them can be walked through and/or around.

Our arty family portrait.

Oktoberfest, Japanese Style

We were on our way to an art festival (post to follow), when we got sidetracked by the Yokohama Oktoberfest. It was lunch, so we stopped for some Japanese German food and beer. Here's some of the most authentic "German" food. Japanese apparently think that German food is meat. Any kind of meat. Also, wurst wrapped in rice and seaweed. Yum?

Here's the stage. We were too early for the entertainment (I can only imagine), but you can see the Japanese woman in the dirndl.

Here's our food - wurst, sauerkraut, some weird non-German bread, and potato pancakes that were decidedly also non-German. The wurst and the beer were delicious.

Here are some Japanese, eating German wurst with CHOPSTICKS.

Adam desperately wanted to try Daddy's beer. As you can see, he thought it was delicious! He didn't ask again.

Lottie enjoyed Oktoberfest too.

The Germans working the Spaten beer taps had decorated with gingerbread hearts. I loved those growing up, so I made Chris ask them if they had gotten them here. He asked in German, and they laughed at him, and told him that they had brought them from Germany. Guess they needed a laugh, so they gave him a free beer. We're pretty sure they think Chris is German. They also gave Adam a German flag.

Yokohama

On Friday, Chris had a day off, so we daytripped to Yokohama. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan, although it is so close to Tokyo; you could liken it to Dallas-Fort Worth or Minneapolis-St. Paul. Here's Yokohama's Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan, and part of boardwalk area.

Adam was ready to go!

Big Chair

We both fit in the big chair, yay!

Lyrics by Adam

Adam's been having a great time at Joy School. This week I'm his teacher, so we'll be overrun with 2 and 3 year olds. We'll see how I do with 7 kids under the age of 4 (including Lottie). Yikes.

Adam's favorite song at Joy School is "I've Got Joy," which begins, "Oh boy, I've got joy." Adam sometimes sings it, "Oh DEAR, I've got joy." Like joy is a cough or the flu. Oh dear.

Polish Genes

A conversation with Adam from a few weeks ago:

"Adam, what would you like for lunch? Mac and cheese, a sandwich, noodles..."

"Hmmm. I wish a beer."

First Feeding

We finally started Lottie on rice cereal. It's mostly breast milk, but apparently still tastes gross to her. Nice face, Lottie.

Lottie's Second Haircut

Before.

And after!