I am such a parent now. I have this game with Isabelle, which I started to call 'Japanese Smack Down.' Here's the gist of it, one day I was carrying Isabelle, and I came over to the couch, leaned over, grunted, and dropped her down. Well, she enjoyed that immensely, and ran right back with her arms up. So I plopped her down on the couch again. But this time I didn't grunt, as I held her a little more carefully. After she landed, she looked at me and grunted. So I grunted back, and next time I picked her up for a drop onto the couch, I gave an exaggerated grunt. As this went on, I eventually started to perform a few Sumo moves, i.e. clapping my hands, bowing, and slapping each hand on the corresponding knee.

So after another 10 drops to the couch, I added some Japanese words. I really don't know many, but that didn't matter to Isabelle, as long as I said them with the appropriate Sumo wrestler accented voice. Most of the words I know are for sushi, and konnichiwa, domo arigato, and itashimashite. So as I was exclaiming these fish in Japanese, Isabelle would just giggle, and ask me to "do again! do again!"

The next day, she comes up to me with her arms up, and asks, "Hamachi?" So that is what the game is now called. Yellow Tail Tuna in Japanese, "Hamachi"

The other day Isabelle was climbing up on the arm of the couch, and falling onto the cushions, and exclaiming to herself, "Hamachi!" And here is where the parent part comes back into it. She was having a great time, since she can do this just about any time. But what was I thinking? She's gonna miss the couch and crack her head open on the floor.

David went to the doctor for his 6 month wellness check. He's doing great. Still growing, up to 18.5 lbs (8.4 kilo), and 27.5 inches (70 cm). He had to get 4 more shot though, so he was a little grumpy for a day afterwards. We also started him on his fisrt solid food. Strained Sweet Peas, that old baby standby. He doesn't really like peas too much. Squash and pears are winners though.

David also has his first tooth! He's been very grumpy the last few days, and needs to be held a lot, which we remembered with Isabelle ment teeth or cold. Gladly, David has a little tooth coming up, front center, lower jaw.