One month Older

Happy 5 month birthday Ashlyn! The sign reads in Japanese: "one month older - 5 - an angel baby".

The Only Way "Tummy Time" is happy time

Ashlyn is not a fan of tummy time, so to make it enjoyable, I started propping her up on my Boppy and she loves it! She'll stay like this for up to 30 minutes some days, just playing with her animals and staring at herself in the mirror.

Fun in the snow with monkeys

At the conclusion of our ski weekend in Nagano, we trekked through a mile of snow in search of the macaques - and we found them! Yes, Ashlyn really is only about 6 inches from that old monkey and it looks like she's trying to imitate his face! 

The New Puffy Jacket

Ashlyn needed a warm jacket so we got her one that she could wear for a while; it's a bit big but it did it's job!

Spike

This is the hair we get after a bath - nice and fluffy spike :)

My little helper

Ashlyn was kind enough to help me fold the laundry!

Emperor's Greeting

On January 2, we traveled to Tokyo to join the herds who wished to receive a New  Year's Greeting from the Emperor and be able to wave the Japanese flag to the royal family (even Ashlyn got into this). It was not what we expected - long lines,  masses of people, lots of waiting, and a quick and efficient 1-minute greeting by the man himself. It was an adventure nonetheless. And yes, that is a nursing picture - I'm getting pretty good at the secretive meal times! 

Happy New Year!

On New Year's Day, we drove out the gate about 15 minutes to this great park that we discovered and spent the afternoon exploring the duck pond, bird-watching huts, and native plants (it was an interpretive trail, but of course all the signs were in Kanji). It got quite cold, so Hunter decided to tote A around in his jacket, like a little kangaroo!