Mio had been sleeping in her “big girl bed” for naps for the past few months, but she always wants to sleep in her crib at night. (These days, she doesn’t even nap most days unless we’re in the car, so her toddler bed had been untouched for weeks.) Dan and I haven’t really been pushing her to move to the big girl bed, but since we do want to eventually move Mirei from her bassinet to the crib at around 3 months old, we have been encouraging Mio to say goodbye to the crib on her own instead of us having to evict her later on.
I recently fell in love with this balloon-themed bedding set from The Land of Nod’s spring collection, and ordered it for Mio as part early birthday present, part incentive to sleep in her toddler bed. It was during their bedding sale and I got to use a Crate&Barrel gift card I’d been sitting on for years, but it was still a bit of a splurge… so I really hoped it would work. My prayers were answered, and she LOVED it!
Crawling into her new balloon quilt. She was so excited!
She of course wanted to bring Nemo into bed with her.
Bedtime stories in Mio’s bed. Mio has been really into Japanese folk tales lately (special thanks to Jackie for the book!), and here she’s pointing at which one she wants me to read. Her current favorites are Momotaro and Issun-bÅshi.
Daddy usually handles bedtime stories and putting Mio to bed, but Mio likes to have Mama read to her once in a while, too.
Mio has been sleeping in her big girl bed since last week and she’s actually eager to crawl into it every night! She excitedly says “Balloon bed! Big girl bed!” It’s another bittersweet part of our little girl growing up, but I’m so glad that we could make the transition smooth and fun for her. 🙂
Earlier this month, we got some hinamatsuri/early shichi-go-san photos taken by Atelier Kanawa at The Japan-America Society of Washington DC.
From Wikipedia: Shichi-Go-San is a Japanese celebration of the passage of children into the older years of childhood. The ages 3, 5 and 7 are considered lucky numbers in East Asian numerology, as they are odd numbers. In the tradition, boys who are aged three or five and girls who are aged three or seven are dressed in kimono — many for the first time — for visits to shrines. Three-year-old girls usually wear hifu (a type of padded vest) with their kimono. A more modern practice is photography, and this day is well known as a day to take pictures of children.
Shichi-Go-San is held in mid-November (usually on the 15th and observed on the nearest weekend), but I figured that I’d kill two birds with one stone by getting some early (or late, if you go by the traditional kazoedoshi or age reckoning) Shichi-Go-San pictures taken during this Hinamatsuri (Girls’ Day) photo session opportunity, since the kimono garb is exactly the same for both occasions.
With hina-ningyo for Hinamatsuri
Posing with a Chitose-Ame bag as is the tradition with Shichi-Go-San.
As you can see from a lot of these photos, the photographer had a hard time getting Mio to smile. She asked for Dan and I to help get a smile out of her, so we asked her what flavor of ice cream she wanted, and that did the trick:
Mio’s answer: “CHOCOLATE!” Unfortunately, she broke out of her pose…
Love our little Japanese doll!
Some behind-the-scenes snapshots I took with my phone:
The original photos we received from the photoshoot came back very yellow due to the lighting, so Dan had to do some color correcting to return them to a more accurate color (which is what you see above), but we’re pretty pleased with the end result. I myself never had the opportunity to wear a kimono as a child, let alone have photos taken in one, so I’m really happy that we could do this for Mio. I can’t wait to send these over to Mio’s great-grandparents and other relatives in Japan! 🙂
On Sunday, we went as a family to our very first Maker Faire! Dan’s hobby drone group was participating and attending, and he took us along to join in all the geeky fun! Maker Faires are part science fair, part craft fair, and showcases creations by designers and engineers of all ages, and the purpose is to inspire more creations within the community. I remember when we were living back in the Bay Area, we had considered going to the Bay Area Maker Faire in San Mateo (which is of course much larger, as it is where the Maker Faire started in 2006 and is one of the flagship faires) a couple times but always somehow couldn’t make it due to scheduling conflicts. This year was Northern Virginia’s first official Mini Maker Faire, and was held at South Lakes High School and Langston Hughes School in Reston. Despite being a “Mini” Maker Faire, it attracted 5,000 attendees that preregistered, and they estimated about 3,000 more registered at the door — it was really crowded! We’re really glad we went to check it out this year – it’s so valuable to expose children to creativity and science from a young age, and show them all the ways people are harnessing technology and their creative minds in exciting and fun new projects.
Mirei slept most of the time we were at the Faire, making it easy for us to walk around and check out all the exhibits. We’re sure she’ll have plenty of opportunities in the future to take part in the fun!
Mio checking out the entropy gym
Operating remote control vehicles.
This boy very patiently explained to Mio how to build things with these “Strawbees.”
A very interested Mio.
Building with the Strawbees.
There were also a lot of booths with craft activities available for younger children. Mio and I spent a lot of time at them while Dan walked around with Mirei checking out the booths with more serious exhibits.
Mio and I at a craft booth, beading spiders.
Stringing beads onto the pipecleaner legs of the spiders.
Mio also got to decorate and make a mask…
…and a kite!
Showing off her completed spider.
Checking out more booths with Daddy
“How does this work exactly…?”
Coloring with Mama
Making homemade silly putty.
Mio enjoying a lollipop she got at one of the booths.
There were some food trucks at the event, so that people could grab food to eat while at the Faire.
Mio hugging Mirei during our lunch break.
Waiting for the shuttle back to our car. Mio fell asleep after experiencing all the excitement!
The Maker Faire was interesting and educational fun for everyone! (Well, maybe with the exception of Mirei, who was sleeping the whole time.) We might make it an annual tradition to go, since it’s enjoyable for the whole family and the girls will probably enjoy it more and more as they grow older.
It seems that Mio’s vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds the past couple months, and it’s really fun to hear what she’s saying while she’s playing by herself or with us, or even with Mirei. Here are some videos we took of her recently.
“Quack! Quack!”
The other day, I found her chatting with Mirei while I left them alone for a moment. When I started recording, though, Mio clammed up.
Today, I found Mio playing with her toy banjo and singing — she sang “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” the alphabet song, and then “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on her own, without me saying anything. I thought it was really interesting that she happened to pick those three particular songs and sang them consecutively, one after another. Could it be that she’s figured out that they all share the same melody?
