birthday boyLast week we visited Kyoto to see Yoko’s parents. We spent a total of 5 days in the ancient capital, enjoying the splashes of pink around the city of the sakura cherry blossoms and catching up with old friends. The main purpose of our visit however was to celebrate Syd’s 1st birthday with his adoring grandparents.
party!It’s amazing to think that’s it already been one year since brave Yoko went under the surgeon’s knife for her second caesarian section. Baby Syd has certainly come a long way since April 3, 2007. His development has been rapid, no doubt partly inspired by the presence of his older brother, Reni. It may also be attributable to his headstrong character which often reflects the ‘Chinese’ year he was born in, the wild boar. People constantly remark how healthy Syd appears (though he has a cold presently, poor little bloke) and are amazed at how well he can walk already.
dig in!Syd’s speech is developing quickly too. In this land of many manga cartoon characters it is perhaps not surprising that one of the first words Syd uttered was ‘Anpanman’, the red bean filled bun superhero, who also happens to be one of Reni’s favourite characters presently. Other ‘words’ he has mastered include: Mama, Dada, manma (a baby term for food), Reni (kind of), go and car. He’s also got a firm grasp of ‘kore‘ (this) and ‘un‘ (yes). Talk about bilingual fluency!
yummy!To celebrate the completion of Syd’s first year on this mad planet we had a dinner party together at the Kohara’s house. For the main course we had ‘hamburg steak’ (meat patties) with salad and a creamy vegetable stew. The choice of menu suited all of us well. These dishes are among Reni’s favourites and they’re reasonably soft too, making it easy for Syd to digest.
I’m happy!The highlight of the meal however was dessert. Yoko made a small cream sponge cake for Syd topped with one of his favourite fruits, strawberries. After Reni blew out the candle on Syd’s behalf the real fun began. To start with Syd tackled the cake no hands - just face first into it! Once he realised that this was an inefficient method of stuffing as much as possible into his gob, Syd opted to use his hands. He proceeded to make quite a mess as he devoured the cake, smearing it all over the table and his chair and anything else within his reach. Not much really went to waste however and before long he’d eaten it all.
O-Tanjoubi omedetou = Happy Birthday, Syd!
