Where in the world is Ash?

Gone, long gone, back to Japan, and I missed telling so many of you. I did intend to send condolences, thanks, congradulations, and greetings, respectively - you know who you are - to each of you individually.

My visa was processed, and the boys and I joined their father in Japan in May. It has been a wound up, crazy life since then. Just the plane ride was a doozy. We've been to several festivals, the zoo, ridden trains, buses; we've tried all kinds of new and interesting foods. And, as you can see, we learned how to drive. Well, mommy still wont let daddy drive with us in the car.

The boys just love books. They prance around while we clean up the play room, pull out our futons, and put on our pjs because they know theres books coming up. They love turning the pages themselves, and get a kick out of flaps, tabs, sounds, rolly-eyes, and anything else they think to stick on books these days. Consequentially, they send books to be taped up every week, and have turned Goodnight Moon into a three-part series. Thank you, Lynn, for all that experience in Technical Services, learning how to doctor up books.

They also love helping clean, shop, and anything else they can get their paws into. Because gas stoves are just so much fun! They want to be just like the big people they see around them, though the half-big ones are pretty interesting, too. I can tell they just can't wait to get big-boy bikes.

They haven't gained much weight since we got here, but they're taller, so it's as if they stretched out. They look and act more like "kids" than "babies," but until they reach their "no" phase, they'll still be babies to me.

And yes, their first word was...."ice." Second word was "ba-ba" for book, and we're still waiting for the third one.