Busy weekend with visitors…
Sarah, Ryohei, Sakura & Nay came to stay this weekend so that Sarah could organize Sakura`s American passport. It was a busy busy weekend with guests arriving Friday and the last of them leaving today just after lunch. Not only did I have visitors this weekend, we had 8 adults and two kids for lunch on Sunday in our apartment and on Saturday night I had a group of friends birthday bash at an izakaya (was supposed to be an outside BBQ in a beer garden but a torrential downpour 15 minutes before it was due to start meant the venue closed- we were lucky to find another place on a Saturday night that would fit 34 people!)
Have lots of cute photos of the babies and kids from the weekend- especially Sakura as she was here for 3 full days!
This is Shun trying to get Sakura to smile while she is in the bouncer
Sakura copying me
Sakura having a bit of a sit with Auntie Lulu
On Saturday we went towards Kanagawa-ken to visit Khea and her 3 week old daughter Missha at Starbucks. Was amazing to see the difference between a six week old and a three week old. Missha slept most of the time while we enjoyed our coffees and snacks and Sakura napped also.
Two sleeping beauties
Me holding 3 week old Missha
New mummies- Sarah & Khea with their beautiful daughters.
Nay having a cuddle
On Saturday night I left Sarah & Nay at home and headed to Yurakucho with Shun for Catherine, James, Erika & Tomoko`s joint birthday party- these are all friends from my days as university student at Seikei. James & Catherine have a joint birthday every year but this year Erika and Tomoko joined in as their birthdays also fall in September. It was a September birthday bash! I don`t see a lot of my old uni friends very often so they were all very enamored with the growing bump…especially my friend Hiro! So cute to see a Japanese guy have his hands on the bump going in Japanese “did he kick? Did he kick yet? Was that him?”…None of them had ever touched a pregnant belly before.
Shun & I- Shun was been silly!
Sumi, Hiro & I
James, Gary, Cat & I (plus bump)
Very small part of the birthday party group!
Sunday, Melanie, Taka, Cassie, Gaku & Nanami came for lunch to meet up with Sarah & Nay- this was the first time they were all meeting up.
The girls
The bumps- Melanie is 34 weeks and I am 27 weeks in this shot. My bump is HUGE in comparison as it sticks out so much.
Shun & Nana playing and having fun
Nana, not at all camera shy
There are many more photos over at my flickr.
Was interesting having a near new born in the house over the weekend and watching Shun react. He held Sakura a couple of times but rarely for more than a minute or two. He would hand her back saying “I think she is going to cry” – well yeah honey, babies cry. Silly boy! He liked looking at her though and asking questions and when she was happy and sitting in the bouncer he would try to make her laugh or smile. When I asked him about why he didn`t like to hold her though he said because he was afraid to break her but that I shouldn`t worry because when it is goma-chan he won`t worry about breaking him. Not sure if that should concern me or not?! HAHA.
He is definitely much better with older kids and spent most of Sunday playing with Cassie & Gaku`s daughter Nanami who he had met just once before- before they arrived he asked me “Do you think she will remember me?”. Hard to know since she is such a social little thing and likes EVERYONE but she is only 18 months old so she might not have remembered Shun from the time they met before. They had fun playing together though!!! Melanie`s husband Taka was also a magical worker with Sakura getting her down to sleep while he held her at lunch time! Good thing too as his own daughter will be here soon!!! I am sure he enjoyed the practice and I know Sarah enjoyed having so many people around to hold Sakura on Sunday- she could eat lunch WITHOUT holding a baby at the same time!
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It sounds like you had a good time. I’m glad Sarah is able to get out to do these kinds of things, especially after having to stay with her MIL for so long!
My husband was freaked out to hold babies, too. A lot of our friends had babies before we did so I made him practice so he was a little bit more confident but when Emi was born I could tell he was trying to overcome his fears each time he held her. Now he’s an old pro and he watches the kids for me all day on Tuesday, making dinner and putting them to bed. I just kept making him do it even if he did things differently than I did I just kept encouraging him. Shun will get the hang of it, just let him try as often as I could.
I was going to ask you if Shun ever ended up having a go at holding Sakura. Hmmm….not sure if you should be worried or not that he isn`t afraid of breaking or hurting Goma-chan.
Can`t wait to meet up again, we had lots of fun, hard to believe the next time I`ll have a little one and more than likely you will too!!
Hi, I`m a lurker, living up in Sapporo, I envy all of you being such good friends and having kids so close in age together, sounds like you had a great weekend.. I`m an Aussie with 2 kids 9 and 11, you are making me clucky with all these beautiful pics, I wish you all the best for the rest of your pregnancy..
What a busy weekend for you, but it looks like you all had a lot of fun!
I’m sure Shun will be less apprehensive with his own kid — there’s a big difference between other people’s kids and your own, no matter how close you are with the kid’s parents. Shoot, I’m not even a guy and I’m still a bit nervous about handling newborns that aren’t my own, because they’re so little and fragile and, most of all, you don’t want to be the one responsible for starting them crying and causing a hassle for the mom and dad! With your own kids you don’t really have a choice in the matter, if you don’t hold them who else will? And I think, even for men, instinct takes over in a way and they are much more comfortable with their own baby. I’d take it as a good sign that Shun says he won’t worry about breaking Goma-chan — apparently he’s gonna be a natural!
Wanted to re-re-thank you for coming all the way out to see us on Saturday! I had a lot of fun, and I loved the gifts for Missha. I’m so glad you managed to get so many cute shots too.. I’ll have to print them out next batch and stick them in a album =)
Glad you all had fun on Sunday as well… I hope to meet Melanie and Cassie sometime too =) This time next year we’ll ALL have little ones.. We might have to rent a hall just to be able to all meet up in the same room haha. So exciting.
What a full on but fun weekend!
We got the cool blanket for Ryu – thank you so so much. He’ll have covered it in slobber in no time. He has just started really sucking his hands and his fingers so not long till he wants to put ‘things’ in there too.
Oh wow- what a weekend! K was another one who was terrified of holding new borns- if they’re not crying leave them alone, if they *are* crying obviously they want their mums! Now he’s a contender for dad of the year, even as the girls get older, cheekier and the bathtime questioning gets decidedly more embarrassing! I’m sure you’ll both be fine.
What a fun and fabulous weekend!!!!! You look absolutely fantastic, everyone does!!!
Ooh, babies everywhere! You’re looking fabulous – absolutely glowing!
Babies babies everywhere! so beautiful.
Also, the photo of you and Shun is adorable!