Who's Number One!!??

Rhianna's number one. Today, May 27th, is her first birthday. One year ago today at 3:15 p.m., she was born at Eiju General Hospital, in Ueno, Tokyo. It's sure hard to believe a year has gone by!! Unfortunately, dad will have to spend most of this week on business trips, so Rhianna's birthday will be celebrated this coming weekend.

Recently, Rhianna has become a big walker. She loves to walk around the house. On top of that, she loves to carry things--especially bags. Check out the video I've posted of her wandering around the mall with her Startbucks bag. She also loves to drag my work bag around the house. My bag is pretty heavy, so she spends most of her time putting all of her energy into pulling...it's pretty funny.

She has been very talkative as usual, and we are pretty sure she says mama and dada, but we're still not exactly sure. She also still loves to wave her hands and smile at pretty anybody she sees on the street. She continues to be Miss Popularity.

Recent foods she likes include tapiocca, mongolian beef barbecue, natto (fermented soy beans), rice, and pasta. She also loves the little cookie/cracker balls that mom gives her to keep her busy at restaurants.

Im including several videos and pictures, including her riding her horse, walking around, eating an apple, and many other things.

Oh! A local festival happened to walk past our apartment the other day too--I'll post a video of that, too.

More soon!

Rhianna Runs!!

Mommy!!

On the bench

Walking by dad's office

Area around Dad's office (Tokyo's Little Italy)

Dad's office building

Where's my dinner!?!

Waiting at the mall

Playing on the grass

Playing on the grass

Walking at the mall with her favorite bag!

Going shopping

Having lunch in Ginza at dad's favorite place (Quizno's)


Walking through Ueno Train Station

Rhianna modelling

More modelling

Standing by the Sumida River near our home

In front of new French restaurant near our home

Videos

Rhianna Eating an Apple

Rhianna about to ride the train

Local Festival

Local Festival

Horse Riding

Walking

Walking

Golden Week in Tokyo

We're in the middle of our Golden Week Holiday in Japan. Golden Week is a string of holidays right at the beginning of May, and one of the extended holidays that Japanese people take every year (along with New Year). It's almost impossible to actually go anywhere, however, because the entire nation is trying to get out of Tokyo (I read today that more than 10% of the population of Japan actually lives in Tokyo) and out to their hometowns, and that means terrible congestion on the roads and trains. Every year, television stations broadcast the incredible amounts of times it takes to get from here to there on the expressways, and it makes me glad we dont have to go anywhere. So...we dont! For our Golden Week, which included last Tuesday, this weekend and Monday and Tuesday, we are doing almost nothing. That's nice, though, because these relaxing days come at a very good time.

We're all doing fine. Rhianna has become even more active, and loves to stand and now can walk several steps on her own before sitting down to get to crawling at high speed to her next destination. It's pretty funny to watch her stand, though, because she seems extremely satisfied to get up and stand for several minutes at a time, and then sit back down on the ground. She also loves to watch Sesame Street videos. We purchased several at the local Babys R Us, and she cant get enough of them. I had a business trip to Los Angeles last week, and as a souvenir for Rhianna I had to make sure that I brought back some dolls she would be sure to love--Grover, The Count, Ernie, and Elmo (who I dont believe was a character when I was growing up).

Shinako's online business is going extremely well, and she really loves doing it. Her company's homepage is really amazing, and she updates it frequently, so please check it out. As usual, Rhianna is her main model, so Shinako takes lots of pictures of Rhianna wearing the websites fashions. I'll include a few modelling shots in this blog. This is the month of Rhianna's first birthday! We're excited for that, and can't believe it's here. It has been an incredible past year with tons of new developments and changes (for all of us). Can't wait to see what happens during Rhianna's second year of life! More soon!

Saturday Afternoon at the Nihonbashi Starbucks

Rhianna and Dad in Nihonbashi

Greetings from the Burger Queen!

Rhianna, the Burger Queen, and her loyal subject

Having lunch at the mall

Watching the people below

Rhianna modelling for mom's website

More modelling

More modelling

Rhianna loves to read

More reading (Rhianna is very skilled and can read upside down)

Rhianna sleeping while folded in half

Waiting for lunch (ramen!)

Sitting on mom

Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom

The cherry blossoms bloomed a bit earlier than expected this year, but as the first day of full bloom was on Saturday of this weekend, it was great timing for everyone to get out and enjoy the flowers. To top it off, the weather was extremely pleasant, which allowed us to get our for our first family picnic, enjoying Rhianna's first Cherry Blossom Festival.

We bought sandwiches at Viron (Shinachan's favorite French bakery that we spoke about in a previous blog) and sat on the steps across from the Yasukuni Shrine, not far from the Emperor's palace. During the Cherry Blossom Festival, it's more common to actually sit under the cherry blossoms and enjoy them with family or coworkers while having a picnic, but there were far too many people crowding under the trees just to walk under them to accomodate us sitting under them, so we improvised by sitting across the street and watching the crowds enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms.

Rhianna has been a very active crawler recently, and is testing her balance limits by trying to stand as much as possible under her own power. Her days of walking are clearly right around the corner. She can now get on and off both the bed and the sofa by herself, and she enjoys sitting on her wooden rocking horse and making it move.

She also enjoys getting her books out and "reading"--particularly Pat the Bunny and Guess How Much I Love You, which she received from her great-grandma and grandparents in the U.S.

I'm including some pictures taken over the past several weeks. We're looking forward to a wonderful Spring as we get closer to Rhianna's first birthday.

More Soon!

The Crowded Yasukuni Shrine

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Rhianna and Dad

Rhianna and mom

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Klumpp Family First Picnic / Cherry Blossom Festival

Rhianna and horse

Rhianna at home

Rhianna and horse

Rhianna at home

Hina Doll Festival

March 3rd is the Hina Doll Festival in Japan. Homes with daughters (like ours) display dolls of an emperor and empress from the Heian Period ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hina_Matsuri) . In homes with more room (and with more of a budget for Hina dolls), the display collection can extend to members of the royal court as well.

It occurred to us the other day that we had still not gotten our Hina dolls, so we drove over to Asakusa-bashi, a traditional area of Tokyo, to buy our dolls from one of the shops there that specializes in the dolls (a store called Shuugetsu http://www.shugetsu-doll.co.jp/). We're really happy with the dolls we bought, and we hope Rhianna will like them as well when she gets old enough to appreciate them. Usually homes will display their Hina dolls until the day of the festival, which is tomorrow, and then take them down immediately, which is supposed to ensure that the daughter will be able to get married in the future. There is also a children's (boy's) festival in May in which homes display little samurai helmets and fly colorful flags decorated like carp.

Rhianna and the rest of us have been doing well recently. Rhianna has been enjoying standing up walking around the table in our room, and loves to crawl all over the apartment. She had her health checkup on Friday, and is healthy and fine. She's very tall (in the 95th percentile ) and light (25th percentile) for her age, and the doctor thinks she's doing well. Recently she likes to clap her hands (taught by mom) and is learning how to wave goodbye (we're still working on this now).

I will post some pictures from the past few weeks.

Pictures
Rhianna likes her new hair decoration

Standing up on the sofa

The Empress

Empress Pt. 2

Emperor

Royal Family

Our Hina Doll Set

Painting a commemorative board with Rhianna's name and Date of Birth

Commemorative Board

Modelling for mom's company

Modelling for mom's company

Modelling for mom's company

Modelling for mom's company

Out to eat with mom and dad

Out to eat with mom and dad

Out to eat with mom and dad

Sitting with dad at lunch

Shopping with mom and dad

Eating foot

More soon!