Lauren

Lauren loves to play some anpanman music from a toy she got. There are around 20 different songs to choose from and she always chooses anpanman. It’s driving us a bit crazy actually…

Lauren loves to do the Anpanman puzzle and she’s gotten very good at it. She’ll complete it in record time these days. I think she’s memorised where all the parts go.

Lauren was giving Nicole lots of kisses and Lauren said:

“I’ve got lots of kisses in my mouth!”

Lauren was playing with her little stone turtle and Nicole asked:

“Is that a girl turtle?”

“Lyeah!”

“How do you know?”

“Boobies! Turtle boobies!”

“I like my Daddy and Baikinman”.

“My favourite”

We were watching Anpanman tonight and this conversation erupted:

Me: Hey, there’s Anpanman. And Baikinman!

Evan: I don’t like Baikinman.

Lauren: I like Baikinman!

Me: Really Lauren? You like Baikinman?

Lauren: Lyeah. I like Baikinman! I like Baikinman!

There’s a celebration here in Japan when kids are in their 7th (shichi), 5th (go) or 3rd (san) year, where they get dressed up in kimonos and visit the temple and are given sweets. Since Evan is in his 5th year (he’s 4 years old) and Lauren is in her 3rd year (she’s 2), this fit very well, with both of the kids celebrating.

Well we decided to get some photos done of the kids, and since we don’t own kimono, we found a photography place that lets them wear one (they’re quite common actually – these photography places). We had been “training” the kids on the experience for a while, since the last thing we wanted was Evan stubbornly refusing to wear the outfit. We spoke to him about how he was going to get a nice costume like the samurai used to wear and if he was good, he could hold the sword (he loves swords).

Well when we went to the studio, all went pretty well. The kids got dressed by the people in the studio and Evan looked so handsome! He really was sweet. He had the kimono on and got to hold a fan and for a picture, he was able to hold a sword! Then Lauren came out and she was gorgeous. They gave her a bit of lipstick which I thought was really gross (little kids shouldn’t wear lipstick – see here on why I really don’t like it on children) and slicked her hair a bit which wasn’t so nice, but she was so cute in the kimono.

Anyways, the photo-taking was only around 30 minutes or so – long enough for Evan to start to get really bothersome and naughty. We promised him he could have a toy after the shoot if he was good and he was naughty enough to lose the toy, which made him cry so much afterwards.

We should be getting the photos back in around 2 weeks. We’ve also heard that after 1 year, we should get the negatives for free. Nice!

Lauren got a blue lollie from Yoshie today and it made her mouth a gross blue colour. Like aliens had taken over our little daughter. Here is a shot of it:

Lauren likes to play “I spy” as well, but she always choses words that start with “p”. The word is usually pot or picture.

I rung home tonight and Nicole put Lauren on the phone and the first thing she said was:

“Hello! I’m Lolo!”