Start of Spring

The past few weeks have been pretty awesome. Toshi is starting to take that step forward in crawling and it's evident that he is getting stronger. I must admit though ... I miss the early stages of life when I could hold him in my arms and he wouldn't mind haha. Now, he doesn't want to be swaddled or cuddled :'( oh wells ...

First off it was Dawn's birthday (April 13th for those that don't know). I threw her a ... somewhat ... surprise birthday party. I decided to make short ribs and Dawn made Mac-n-Cheese (which was really good btw) and we had our friends come over.

Thanks to Nari and Ria for the amazing cheesecakes, which is Dawn's favorite dessert.

We also had a birthday dinner at Sakura with the family. We topped off the night with dessert at mama and papa's house:

Toshi's first experience with birthday candles haha. Now we know what he'll do when he has his first birthday cake.

Kevin and his family, Dawn's cousin, was in town from Australia so the family decided to celebrate Easter one week early. As usual it was filled with great food and good company:

This is one of my favorite pics!

Toshi's first Easter egg hunt. Luckily he was able to find a bright pink one haha. I should have told him to grab the one with money in it!!! hahaha. Next time :P

This is a sample of what the kids got for Easter O_O

Even though we celebrated Easter early we still wanted to get together as a family and celebrate Easter on Easter Sunday. We went to Captain Kids on Redondo Beach Pier and man ... we ate like KINGS!!! Great seafood Brunch :D

As Dawn would say ... it's never too early to start haha. Dawn goes through these flashcards during the week with Toshi. 

One weekend we had a special guest come over haha. Rick was more than happy to read Toshi a bed time story and sing songs to put Toshi to sleep.

Teeth!

About a week or two ago mama noticed that Toshi had a tooth emerging from his lower gum line. At first glance you couldn't really tell but until you ran a finger over it that's when you notice it. Now, it's starting to show more as the days progress. He hasn't been terribly fussy but then again I don't have him all day, everyday, like mama and papa. Not the greatest photo (phone camera) but you can see two little teeth sticking out.

Dawn had a chance to visit her friend, Naomi, who recently gave birth to her son, Genzo. He's only 4 months old but looks older than Toshi haha.

 Toshi found some time to play with his toys while at Naomi's house. As always ... he explores by taste first haha.

While all of us are working hard someone has to be sleeping on the job:

Kekoa has warmed up to Toshi a bit more these days. He doesn't see him as some little alien anymore but he is still reserved, as he should be. Kekoa still doesn't like it when Toshi is on him since his ears go back but it's getting better as the months pass by.

Got food?

This past weekend Dawn's cousin, Kevin, and his family were visiting from Australia. It was awesome to see them but as I reflect back on Sunday we were only there for about 3 hours!!! I remember, pre-Toshi, that we would get there by 1130 or so and leave by 400-ish.  Not anymore haha.

As soon as we got there Toshi wanted to take a picture with Mama and her sisters:

It was already difficult to get Toshi to clap on demand but he wanted to clap at this very moment!! So needless to say it was rather difficult getting a smooth picture of everyone. Oh wells ... this was the best picture that I was able to get out of the 15 shots I took haha.

When we got there it was already time to eat and this was the only shot I was able to take! I couldn't believe time flew by so quickly trying to catch up with everyone and I didn't take any other picture =/.

Whether you're a kid or an adult we all know that you can't get cheeks like this if you don't eat ... here is his "oh face" and I imagined him saying, "Oh snap .. what you lookin' at??"