Mayumi on the Move

All I want for Easter is my....

And for the visually impaired...

The DC Metro Area

We keep busy here in the DC Metro Area (I like to include Herndon so as to still feel a part of things). The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts puts on an annual cultural exhibition and this year it featured the cultures of the Middle East. Mayumi is posed here in front of the exhibit "The Brides of the Arab World."

In keeping with our literary and cultural ambitions for Mayumi, Nate and I continue to read to her several times daily. I just picked up a new book called "The Best Friends Book" for her yesterday at a cute little book shop in Adams Morgan (D.C.), next to The Shawarma King (1600s block Columbia Road, but although the company of good friends was enjoyable, the food wasn't outstanding...I make far better shawarmas).

Although we hope she'll be an avid reader, Mayumi currently demonstrates the most interest in playing. Especially if it means she can poke, wiggle, giggle, or munch (with her new teeth). Here she is incorporating several of her favorite pasttimes:

The Invalid

Our computer was down for a while, but that didn't stop us from taking millions of pictures and videos. Ah, the digital age...

So we are in catch-up mode here. We hope you enjoy.

During this period of time, Mayumi caught her first flu virus. Considering how much she eats, I shouldn't have been surprised by how much could come out of her, and yet I was startled, even frightened at first. Alas, one large bottle of Pedialyte and seven days later she regained her appetite and keeps it all down.

Something else keeping her up at nights are her TEETH!! Yes, she has two little razor sharp teeth on her bottom gums. Our friend Rachel spotted them first, as you can see from this video:

We promise she's feeling better, in spite of how strung-out she looks in this photo:

Actually, we took this picture at a popular 'dive' on the main drag of our town. We decided to check it out and have confirmed that it lives up to its reputation: absolutely and wretchedly disgusting.

Easily amused

Mayumi is easy entertained. Don't get me wrong; she is just as easily dismayed, discouraged, and...yes, devastated. But when she laughes, it is memorable.

Baby Yumi still cannot crawl, and so relies heavily upon whatever items we put on front of her for entertainment (I know, if we didn't put anything in front of her she might go seek it and THEN start to crawl). I keep a couple of baskets full of random things (the more un-toylike, the better) with which she can play.

Hop on Pop

The Mariana Trench

As I mentioned in a previous post, a glacier developed between our home and our neighbors' house. This is the due to the fact that (apparantly) a spring resides under our houses. Ah. I suppose this explains why our sump pump is constantly working, regardless of whether or not is has rained in the last two weeks.

We have worried about the implications of this...what if our pump broke? How unsafe is this glacier? How ugly the area will be in the spring when it gets swampy? Fortunately, Nate is brilliant.

He devised a "French Drain" and installed it last Saturday.