An L-Kun Time-lapse in Baby J-Fashion

May 2007 - April 2008 - Well, it's been a bit hard to decided what to show, and what not to show on my blog... as a parent I want to tell you all about our experiences raising our son, L-kun... but it's not really in keeping with this blog's theme... which is about our time in Japan. Anyhow, I suspect that you'll all be seeing more than your fair share of L-kun in the coming posts. So to cut, as they say in the not-so-classics, a long story short... we had a very hectic first year - which also saw us buy a new house (after a marathon house-hunting effort).

I thought I'd just do one last indulgence before we head back to Japan... and that's review a few Japanese baby fashions. Anyone that has travelled to Japan with young children, or have gone looking for clothes for young children know that Japan is a gushy mother's consumer paradise. All that pent up extravagance whilst pregnant can be released in an orgy of clothes buying. At least that was T-chan's excuse to by some sugoi kawaii (super cute) clothes for L-kun. And not only T-chan, but also her mother who sent quite a few of these outfits over as well.

And just in case you wanted to know what it was like to raise farm animals... there's always ushi cosplay...cow costumes.

2 months old

Nothing says baby as much as a big ol bottle of milk (well, actually, L-kun hardly used the bottle at all, and perhaps this may explain why).

3 months old

  

Or perhaps a pengin (penguin) to bring a shy smile to your face...

4.5 months

 Now Mikihouse is a great brand of childrens wear in Japan... And as for that hat, well that's a mummy-made hat. It may be hard to tell from all of these photos, but L-kun wasn't exactly going to win any competitions for hair growth. Definitely more tortoise than the hare (pardon the bad pun)... Anyhow, hats were his thing, and in  that he took after his father who had a hat fetish as a young lad.

5 months old

And of course there's always the bee-look... always a winner in the playgrounds. I really don't know why these clothes are only for babies? I wouldn't mind turning up to work sporting one of these babies to just see the reaction (then again, being taken away in a padded van may not quite be the reaction I'd appreciate). 

5 months old

And would it be a fashion parade without a showing from the quintessential publicity freak himself.... Mickey Mouse? Hmm - I wonder if I need to pay royalties for this photo? 

6 months old

A chipmunk?...Hmmm at 6 months of age, L-kun is reaching the end of his "dress-me-up-in-cute-clothes" phase. He's now a big boy, starting to eat solids, but still happy to largely crawl his way around.... that and be waited on hand and foot. 

6 months old

It's that time... Christmas in Adelaide... And here's one of Santa's helpers.

7 months old

 With Summer, L-kun starts exploring the those funny arm-like things sticking inconveniently out of his bottom. Silly method of transport really. Hmm - I see Mummy's hat is still getting some mileage. Hats really are essential in Australia these days. What with the hole in the ozone layer (really, we take it for granted down here these days) children are required to wear hats. And I mean that literally... pretty well all children that go to school these days have to wear hats when they go outside. Unlike in Japan where you can run around without giving much thought to sun-cream even, 30 minutes under the Australian sun can give you some pretty serious sunburn.

8 months old

Our two boys, L-kun and T-kun... one of them looks like he might have just dumped a load, but I'm not sure which one. This one of the last photos from our old place...and we'd finally be moving to a newer, bigger house that we could really call our family home.

8.5 months old

Ah - L-kun survived his first Adelaide Summer... along with it's 40 - 45 degree summer days (well, at least a few of them). And with the cooler weather, it meant spending more time outside during the day. And playing in the park. Actually, this around the time we moved into our new house. And no sooner had we moved in (about 2 months) than we were packing our suitcases again to go back on our fifth trip to Japan...

10 months old... doing some leg extensions

And with that we can once again resume normal programming... sort of. Thanks for indulging us!