Sunday Sam Snap Week 41 - Groggy Christmas

Happy Christmas!
Everyone else is out at Church and I've just put him down to sleep - yesterday he started to get a temperature and now is miserable. Here's a photo of him with the squeaky samurai sword Santa got from Kansai airport:

Here's the slideshow of Sam's Groggy Christmas:

Sunday Sam Snap Week 40 - Landed in the UK

Playing with Great Great Auntie Maggie:

Here are some more fun snaps from the week here so far:

Pat-a-Cake with Great Great Aunt Maggie

We just arrived back to a snowy UK for Christmas. As usual we popped in to see Auntie Angela on the way from Glasgow airport, and to say hi and Merry Christmas to Great-Great Aunt Maggie. Here are the kids learning pat-a-cake with her:

Anya's Message from Santa

This is brilliant - a personal message to Anya from Santa!


I filmed her reaction here:


Now I need to polish my iMovie skillz and get the reaction video in the bottom corner. Soemthing to do when we have some downtime...

Another idea totally stolen from Julie Lemley. Keep 'em coming!

Sunday Sam Snap Week 39

A cold weekend!

Here's this week's Sam Snap: dressed up for the Polar Express party - the kids went from house to house and did different activities. At the final stop there was a special guest, but Hesty has better photos from the real camera, so she can post those up.

Week 39 - in my Christmas pajamas for the Polar Express party!

Tim Minchin's Christmas Song

It would be brilliant if this was Christmas No. 1 instead of some X-Factor rubbish. A bit lower-key than his normal comedy songs, and really touching.


In case you didn't know, he has written the songs for Roald Dahl's Matilda stage musical, which is supposed to be really good fun:


But this one's more in keeping with his style...

Sam Snap Week 38

Late again, but this is a funny one at the supermarket today. He was pulling faces while I was looking for potatoes for a Biology lab.

Week 38 - Can you see me, Daddy?

 This was a funny week. Super busy,  starting to think about Christmas and had a couple of days in Tokyo for a school thing. Luckily the mo' came off without a zit-tastic trail of destruction in its wake.

Daddy's Home!

I really don't like being away from them.

Anya and Sam play very well together now, though Anya does sometimes try to tell him off. Here they are in some of their better moments:

And this one can't be passed up - it was almost the Sunday Sam Snap. This is the hooligan coming to Nana and Grandad's for Christmas!

Sam wants to put Free Willy in the DVD player (except that's not a DVD player and we don't have the Free Willy DVD)

Sam's Big Blether

I tried to catch him saying "Dada" and waving, but he just wanted to blether.



This is my favourite baby age, where some words start to form and the personality really comes through. He's fenced in the living room now, but uses Anya's chair as a walker.

Sunday Sam Snap Week 37 - Samudra at Sumadera

This week we had another long weekend. Friday evening there was a Thanksgiving dinner with the neighbours and friends, which was really nice. The welcome here has been great. We didn't get any snaps, though!

We've also been trying to winter-and-Sam-proof the house, which is fun. The Christmas tree's up and there is a barrier blocking him in the living room! Yesterday we took the train out to Sumadera temple and to the Rikyu Park, which is really cool.

Here's the Sunday Sam Snap - Anya was holding him on the bouncy toy.

Week 37 on the bouncy rider. Samudra at Sumadera

The park is modeled on a stately home, by the looks of things. Lots of gardens and birds flying around, and a really cool slide  - it goes fullscreen:


Hesty got a bunch of photos, which are in this album. You can see how nice winter is here:

..........o0O0o..........

One Meeeelion views!

Work's been busy as ever, but starting to get on top of things and the i-Biology blog passed a million views this week, which is cool. Still trying to get some more Movember donations!

I'm off to Tokyo Thursday and Friday this week, which should be an interesting trip for Middle Years stuff.

Sunday Sam Snap Week 36 - Movember Special

Mo yeah!

Sam's got a mo for Movember!

It's moember, and Daddy's moustache is coming on nicely. Sam joined in, with a high-quality face-paint mo. You can sponsor me by making a donation here. Please! Read more about Movember on the post I wrote for my Biology website.

More photos of the Movember efforts on my Facebook profile:

Anya's Art and Fancy Nancy

This is her really good self-portrait. She is lucky to have two great teachers this year who can build on Mrs Brata's wonderful work last year - Mrs Thomas and Mrs Otsuki.

And here she is as Fancy Nancy for the book characters day parade:

With Alex

Hiroshima and Kobe Harborland

Stephen was out at Hiroshima and Miyajima on a school trip this week, which was pretty cool. We shot down on the Shinkansen bullet train and back in a day, and the kids were pretty good. The Hiroshima Peace museum is pretty hard-hitting and I'm glad we didn't try to bring Anya. Maybe when she's older.

Hiroshima Genbaku Dome

Yesterday was a lovely day in Kobe, so we headed over to Harborland. We'd never been before, but it was a nice day. As you can see, Daddy's Movember mo is coming along horribly.

Sunday Sam Snap Week 35

Week 35

He's standing strong now, and trying to walk along the sofa and climb up everything. It's a good job we got the baby gates in when we did. Don't let the cutey smile deceive - he has been screeching up a storm at night this week, with more teeth coming through. The nights are a bit colder, too, so we've got a heated carpet for his room to see if it will make a difference.  It might only make a difference to the electricity bill...

Sunday Sam Snap Week 34 - Standing Up!

He's pulling up onto his feet and now trying to walk along the sofa. All this today. He's been a bit groggy this last few days. Snot factory and two teeth through.

Here's a clip, made with a free app called Splice for the iPhone:

Sunday Sam Snap Week 33

Here he is, dressed as a bee, giving out trick-or-treat outside the playhouse.

Week 33: Backyard Halloween Fun

A nice week off, with plenty of playtime with the kids and Hesty. Now back to the grind...
Here are some more photos from Halloween.

Bib from Nana

Daddy had a chance to see Anya's swimming lesson too- though I missed the beginning of her jump:

Daddy's Birthday in Kyoto!

There is nothing better than waking up to a little girl so excited to get you out of bed to see the birthday cake she has decorated with Mummy...

... except for that morning to be a Monday morning off and for the cake to be breakfast!

Here is the cake-y masterpiece.  Hesty baked it, Anya decorated and Sam stuck his hand right in as we remembered (at the end of the first round of 'Happy Birthday'), that the candles were still in the drawer.

She wrote this all by herself as the World Cup final was on.

Today's trip was to Kyoto. We hopped on the train and went up to check out the shrines at Inari and have a wander about the city. By random chance we bumped into some of Hesty's gang of Indonesian ladies and then had dinner at the falafel place on the island.

"Sutiban wa san-ju-ichi saidesu" (Sutiban is 31 years old) From Google Translate.

 I have a lot to be thankful for.

Sunday Sam Snap Week 32

Week 32 - At Osaka Castle

We had a lovely day out at Osaka Castle today. Although we didn't go inside, we went all around the grounds and felt the Sunday buzz about the place. Lots of families out, musicians practicing, stalls set up and dogs.

In front of the castle. Photo by random passerby.

Sam wondering where his food is.

Cheese!

It's half-term ("fall break") here, so we're planning a few day trips. Daddy needs to get caught up on the relentless piles of work too.

It's water under there, so the whole things sloshes around.

All fun and games 'til another kid jumps on.

Yesterday we headed out to play in the local soft play area. The plan was to let Anya play by herself, but Sam got very excited so we brought him in too. He's clearly saying "A-ya" now, and had a go at "panda" and "koala" after learning this song in his swimming lesson.

Clearly he was exhausted, as he fell asleep in the bike seat:

Sunday Sam Snap Week 31

Week 31 on the school playing field

Hesty took him for his first swimming lesson this week, which was fun!

Cool boardies from Aunty Louise

He's been making some recognisable sounds too: "Dada", "A-a" (Anya), and sometimes "Hug". He is very funny at kissing right now - big wide-mouthed cheek slobberers.


We had a very funny night this week. Anya is trying to read, and Sam find it very funny. Here's a clip from "Happy Halloween, Biscuit."





It was Sports Dat at school this week, too. A lot of fun, and an exhausting day for Anya. Here she is with her class and Freddy the Falcon.

 There are more photos in a private album.

Anya's Bike-Riding Video

On Saturday morning we took the training wheels off and practiced for a little while. She was nervous at first, and wouldn't let me let her go. After a short while, she was able to a few rotations before I needed to catch her.

Yesterday, after a little bit of practice, she refused to let me hold her and away she went.

This video is from today, after sports day at school, which was fun but exhausting. She still had the energy to ride the bike when Daddy got home, and here she is. She can do speedbumps, stop with her brakes, adjust her balance (a bit) and is learning to turn already. Yay!

Nana and Grandad, get a better quality video by clicking on the '360p' at the bottom and changing it to '720p' and then make it fullscreen.




Then this evening, just to prove herself more, she decided to read the story herself - and she really is recognising some of the words from their letters. About half an hour ago, when she should have been in bed, she came into me with a sheet of paper. She wanted to know how to write 11-upwards. She'd already written out 1-10, and once I showed her the system for 11, 12 and 13, she worked out the rest.

Can Mummy and Daddy keep up?

Sunday Sam Snap Week 30

Sam is loving the new bike seat...

Anya took off her training wheels and rode by herself this week!

Check out the new ride

Awesome!