This morning it was my turn to take baby Kenny to daycare. Like always, I left him in the living room to watch "Oswald" on the Noggin Channel while I take a quick shower.  He usually plays really nicely and doesn't cause trouble when "Oswald" is on. Today I got my surprise.  When I stepped out of the shower, Kenny was there splashing in the toilet.  He had also pulled a lot of the toilet paper off of the roll.  (He was so quiet!  I didn't even know that h...

Baby Kenny had his first birthday party today.  Great-grandma, Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Andy, and Aunt Chialing all came to visit to help Kenny celebrate. Kenny received lots of nice presents, we had yummy food (curry rice), and cakes.  Kenny's mom did a really good job preparing everything. Before we all ate, Kenny opened his presents and played with some of them.  He really liked a drum that Grandma and Grandpa bought him. Here is Kenny, getting ready to c...

Last year at this time, my wife and I had the chance to welcome baby Kenny into the world.  He is one year-old today. Happy Birthday Kenny. Tomorrow we will have a small birthday party for him.  Just grandma and grandpa, great grandma, and my friend Andy and his wife.  It seems that the theme will be "Elmo," as he really seems to have an affinity for Elmo. We got some cool birthday presents for Kenny too.  Daddy got him a Sit-and-Spin.  Mommy and Daddy got him a Ho...

There are a few blog topics rolling around in my mind, and I will hopefully be able to put them into writing within the next few days.  I want to write about a Bob Newhard performance that I saw over the weekend (really funny!)  I also wanted to compare the body of work and public persona of two well-known actors.  I was also thinking of writing about the appeal of the "Madden's..." football game for the Play Station.  (It is the most interesting and playable video ...

Usually at our house, my wife cooks dinner.  She always does a good job, and her food is enjoyed by all. Every once-in-a-while I cook dinner too.  This evening I tried my hand at cooking grilled tandoori chicken.  I was really happy with how it turned out!  It was one of the best things that I have cooked in a long time.  The next time that I want to cook something "special" I may do that again! Here are the skewers on the grill.  It is interesting how th...

Sadly it is the end of my four-day weekend.  After a busy few days, my wife and I finished it up by raking the leaves in our yard. There were a lot of leaves out there!  We have a lot of trees.  But we've got the first bunch of them up, and now we have to wait for more of them to fall before we can finish up for the year.  Hopefully, most of the leaves that are going to fall have already fallen.  Raking is hard work! We made a few piles in the yard on both sides of...

When I was thinking of a good title for this weblog entry, I thought that I would write something like "Dancing Baby."  Then after a bit of thought, I remembered that there was a "dancing baby" fad a few years ago.  (The fad made it as far as the Allie McBeal show, where it represented Allie's maternal instincts.) My dancing baby has to do with us giving little Kenny a spin on our "Dance Dance Revolution" mat.  He didn't necessarily play the game so well, but it made fo...

Hey there.  I hope that all of you are having a happy Monday. This will probably be a good week for me because after Wednesday I will be enjoying a four-day weekend.  (Thanks to the Minnesota Education Association convention.)  My family's biggest plan over the holiday is to take our baby swimming.  I also will try to "take down" my garden. Like my headline announces: some friends and I spent yesterday playing paintball with a group in Hinckley, Minnesota.&nbs...

Anpanman is a much-loved Japanese super hero.  His target audience is children under the age of five.  In Japan, one can find all sorts of consumer goods featuring his image.  Due to the number of goods, I'd bet that Anpanman products are the number one-selling licensed childrens' merchandise in Japan.  (Anpanman is up there with Doraemon and Hello Kitty.) Our son Kenny has: Anpanman clothes, dishes, cutlery, cups, stuffed toys, rubber toys, DVDs, a calendar (a...

Ever since my wife and I moved back to Minnesota in 2001, we have made a point of it to make an annual visit to Sever's Corn Maze in Shakopee, MN.  We always enjoy our time there. Besides autumn-themed food, people can enjoy: a petting zoo, a pumpkin launcher, piglet races, and a trip through a big maze in a corn field.  It is really a lot of fun! A new attraction this year was giant "sandboxes" filled with dry feed-corn.  (I hopped in and sank up to my knees.)  I rea...

Hi there!  This may be one of my more limited-audience blogs for a long time.  (At least the first part...) My friend Rob from Saint Paul has himself his own Joe User blog.  Why don't you go over there to check it out!  Rob's blog. ******************************************************************* Tonight is Game one of the American League Division Series.  Mike Mussina and the New York Yankees face Johan Santana and the Minnesota Twins in game o...

My cousin (Janders in the JUniverse) sent baby Kenny a cute set of pajamas.  When he wears them, he looks like the Monopoly guy (Pennybags) when he gets sent to jail on the "Community Chest" card.      

My wife and I moved to Minnesota in 2001.  Since then we have visited the Renaissance festival here each year.  It is one of our happier times each year. Last year when we went, Kazuko was pregnant with baby Kenny.  This year we brought Kentaro with us.  How cool! Kenny seemed to have a really good time there. The only downer of the trip was the traffic getting down there.  We were stuck in a two-hour traffic jam on our way down to the festival.  Thi...

Yesterday I was "testing" our ten month-old baby Kenny. I started out by asking him, "How big are you?" (He showed us.)   Then I sang "Pat-a-cake," and he clapped along. Then I said, "What does the cow say?" Kenny said, "Mmmmmmm." Then I said, "What does the sheep say?" Baby answered, "Baa!" I thought that was really cool.  Besides "Mama," and "Dada," and "Duh" (for bird), baby says "Mmmm" and "Baa." I am looking forward to communicating mo...

Just the other day I wrote a weblog entry about removing bushes from in front of my house . Yesterday, that story got a bit more interesting.  While I was at work, my wife decided to start digging around the area where the bushes used to be.  Once the bushes had been removed, we were able to see about a six inch section of what appeared to have once been a wall that we had thought had been removed. Anyway, my wife started digging, and she uncovered a nice little stone...