Our Sunday was pretty lazy and, although we didn't indulge ourselves on Mr Pibb and Red Vines while watching the Chronic *WHAT* cles of Narnia, we really enjoyed just being at the apartment and spending time with Taka-chan. 

This seems to be Taka's favorite position for sleeping. Not sure that it is all that comfortable but it does look like a pretty good technique for sky diving. 

Yes...cute little fingers. 

Taka is starting to give more facial expressions and really notice things. Here he is with that ever so slight grin. 

Even though Sunday was low key, Mindy's host family came to visit from Gunma prefecture. We had a great visit and it was nice for me to meet the family, as well.  David, in the back, is a high school exchange student who arrived last week.  He is staying with the Fusegawas for a few months before heading to another host family.  Sachiko, their younger daughter, is in New York for a year and Atsuko (behind Mindy) is studying here in Tokyo.  They are such a wonderful family and we were so happy they came. 

After our guests left I made spaghetti while Mindy put Taka to bed. It was great to have a quiet dinner together and a glass of wine. 

Saturday plans included heading to the famous Miyazaki clock in Shiodome and a stationary store in Ginza.  These are places I wanted to take my students to in June but we ran out of time.  So, after hanging with Taka, skyping with Eric's dad (papa) and my sister and Nathan, we got everything ready and headed out!

In Shiodome, we visited the Anpanman store for Takahiro.  I have a couple Anpanman videos I show my classes and they like him.  I hope Taka does, too.

The Miyazaki clock in honor of Howl's Moving Castle was bigger than I expected.  It moves only 4 times a day and we missed it by 30 minutes.  What a bummer.  But, I was still so happy to have seen it.

This is the beautiful Dentsu building.

And, here is a picture taken next to the Miyazaki clock.  See the bullet train (shinkansen) going by?  Sweet!

Donki, or Don Quijote, is a big, cheap store.  I wanted to visit but we only bought a bottle of water.

GINZA!  The streets of Ginza are closed off to cars on the weekend.  How wonderful!  This street felt so much like Michigan Avenue in Chicago or NYC.  It was really fun.  Our mission was a stationary store called Ito-ya.  It was an amazing store.  Ten floors of stationary, stamps, albums, all things awesome.  We didn't take any pictures, though.  Taka woke up, had a dirty diaper and wasn't very happy.  We didn't get to stay very long.

Back at home, it's bath time!

Taka is so fun during bath time.  He never stops staring at himself in the mirror.  

I think he's thinking, "Man, I am so cute!"

Friday was yet another big day and another doctor visit. We started off with Taka being a little grumpy but we got him in the Bjorn and he started calming down. We took the train to East Tokyo with the full crew: Ogawa-san, Hagiwara-san, Otsuki-san and our Canadian friends. 

We stopped for lunch first. Mindy had miso ramen and I had katsudon. Both were great but I think Mindy "won".

Takahiro and Iori both slept while we had lunch. Once crib buddies - always crib buddies. 

After lunch, we took a walk through a couple of shrines. At the shrine behind Mindy we got to see a service which was pretty cool. Here are a few more shrine photos:

After the shrines we continued our walk to the doctor's office. 

It was pretty hot but we did catch Darth Vadar on this roof top. Can't imagine being in all black in this heat...but I guess he does have the force. 

We finally arrived at the doctor's office which really felt more like an apartment. 

Upon arrival we met Nanami, Takahiro and Iori's other crib mate. Nanami and Taka were born on the same day but there is a little size difference!  The doctor's office was packed with all of us and Nanami's grandparents, the doctor, a mid-wife and a birth mother.

The visit started off different than we had expected. The three couples and the doctor sat around the table where he outlined how the day would go, asked us all different questions and also had us speak to why we chose adoption and why adoption from Japan. This part was actually pretty hard for all of us; reliving our painful experiences was pretty emotional. Good thing for Taka to keep things light - he was "tooting" the whole time. ;)

After our sit down with the doctor each couple had to take their baby to get checked out by the doctor and mid-wife. Here is Mindy pretending to be deep in thought.

Taka's turn was last...we got him stripped down to his birthday suit and the check up began. I've edited one of the photographs for his privacy. :-)

At 4.940 Kilos, Taka had even grown from the day before!

Of course I was taking pictures the whole time and Ogawa-san thought it was funny! 

After all the check ups, we received our letter of approval from the doctor. The experience was a lot more formal than we had expected but we passed - sweet!

Here is the full group...

Mothers...

Fathers...

and families ;)

It was kind of a long day and we needed a pick-me-up so Ogawa-san took us to a department store/mall where we hit the food court and got ramune ice cream and shaved ice...

...and donuts! The Looneys have a sweet tooth. 

We headed back to the apartment and celebrated Taka's 1 month birthday with our donuts. 

Can you guess which one Taka had?

As with each day, we were exhausted but with this one, even more so. Let it be known that Taka fell asleep first.