静香:今年の4月には家を建て替えてしまうということで、これが朝陽（さや）にとって最初で最後の家の前での記念撮影となりました。

Chris: And this is Shizuka's parents saying goodbye before we left Japan. Actually, this is a but misleading, there was another few hours of Japanese traffic getting to the airport before they really said goodbye, but this was the better picture, taken in front of their house.

This is also the last we will see of the Natsuume house. they will be tearing it down and building a new one in April, before we go back to Japan. It will be sad to see it go away. It was a really nice house.

静香:車で１５分ほどのところにあるカーキーク公園です。そんなに大きくも無く、私の好きな公園の一つです。

Chris: The shore at Carkeek park, looking out over the Puget Sound. Would you believe this is about 2:00 in the afternoon? Furthermore, would you believe we were discussing what a nice, beautiful sunny day it was? God bless Seattle.

静香:朝陽（さや）の新しいカーシート。クリスのご両親が買ってくれました。でも、本当はこれ1歳以上の子供が使うものなのですが、今まで使用していた赤ちゃん用のカーシートは小さくなってしまったので、ちょっと早いのですが使っています。

Chris: This is Saya in her new car seat. Finally she gets to see where she is going. Officially, she's not supposed to be in it until next month, but she's not really supposed to be running around the house, either. The problem is she has gotten way too big for her old car seat, and her head was flopping around. Something had to be done. And we're all about breaking rules.

Course, when I was a kid, mom just let me roam around the cargo area of her Toyota Celica. But we were barbarians in those dark ages of child safety. I mean, they still sold wood burning sets, bottle rockets and lawn darts then. It's amazing any of us survived.

Also - thanks for the car seat, Dad and Val!

欲しいものリスト
Wishlist Page Added

静香:少し気が早いのですが、朝陽（さや）の誕生日に向けて欲しいものリストを作ってみました。と言っても、これはクリスの判断で書いたものなので、主にクリスの親戚用。私は面倒くさいのでリストの訳は省きます。

Chris: For the new year - a new page! People keep asking what they can get for Saya, what her size is, etc. So, we have made a new page, called "Buy Saya Stuff." This is where you can always check to see what Saya needs. And I might remind you - Feb 4th is her very first birthday!

動物園に行きました
The Zoo

静香:こちらに来てからお友達になったひろこさんと動物園へ行ってきました。この日はとても寒い日で外を歩くにはちょっと寒すぎたかも知れません。朝陽（さや）が風邪を引かなくて良かった。

Chris: Lions. I think this rock is heated, because it was hella cold out there, and last I checked, these guys live in like Zaire or Nairobi, and they don't get a lot of freezing rain or snow there.

静香:小象の銅像と一緒に。数年前にこの動物園で小象が生まれたそうです。

Chris: Saya spent most of the day bundled up in her big astronaut suit in the stroller. As I said - it was way cold. Of course, Shizuka and I both forgot gloves, so we took turns pushing the stroller while the other one warmed their hands up in their pockets. Saya (also without gloves) didn't seem to care so much. We all perked up, however in the rainforest exhibit. We were like snakes in front of the heatlamps.

静香:カワウソが泳いでいるところをこうやってガラスの内側から見ることが出来ます。朝陽（さや）も不思議そうに眺めていました。

Chris: This was very cool - they had a little bunker dug into the hill between the otter cage and the bear cage, and you could see the otters swimming and then getting out and romping around on the rocks. They looked like they were having a good time, but it still seemed a little small.

That's the thing with zoos - you never know how to feel about them. I know zoos have changed, and they are all about saving animals and conservation and stuff now, but the wolf cage sorta got to me. I mean, wolves range over like hundreds of miles, and these guys had a two-acre pen to romp around in. Admittedly, it was a nice 2 acres, with trees and rocks and stuff, but it was still a cage.

But how else are we going to show Saya an otter?

色々な可愛い写真
Random Cute Pictures

静香:私が朝陽（さや）の本を一人で読んでいると、いつの間にか朝陽（さや）も一人で本箱の前に座って色々な本を引き出しては中を見たりして、あっという間に本に埋もれてしまいました。

Chris: There is no story to these pictures, we were just laying around playing with Saya on a Sunday, and we thought she was particularly cute, so we took some pictures.

In this one, you can see her love of books. We keep all of her books on the lower shelf, and let her play with them whenever she wants.

This picture represents, believe it or not, an improvement over her earlier style of play. Note that she:
1) Opened all the books (she used to just pull them out and leave them unopened on the floor)
2) Is turning the pages (opposed to ripping them out)
3) Isn't chewing on any of them.
4) Has spent a few minutes flipping through each of them.

We'll make a scholar of her yet.

静香:朝陽（さや）の笑顔。

Chris: I can never catch this smile on film. This is her normal happy smile - she looks like this a lot of the time. Note the cunning twinge of evil in that grin. She will be trouble soon. I can feel it...