18 month doctor's check up is tomorrow

Happy 4th of July, belatedly!  Will be seeing our share of fireworks in a couple of weeks here in T. city.  I won't be teaching any English classes on that day, because we will have guests over and we will eat nigiri sushi and shredded ice with syrup for the enjoyment of the older kids.  And then after dinner, the firework display begins.  Summer is officially here.  Haven't heard the cicadas buzzing around quite yet.  It's in the upper 90s today with not a cloud in the sky.  Stellan Shosei has already been taking a nap for nearly 2 hours!  Is that normal??  Maybe it is for someone who woke up at 5:30 am and ate breakfast at 7am and then played for 2 hours inside and then got sweaty, so we went out on the balcony and he played in the recently purchased wading pool and then went shopping with his Mommy, who pedaled the new mommy bicycle with Shosei sitting in front, in a child seat, in between the handle bars.  And of course, it must be the heat. 

Last week, the 3 of us had a nice one night stay in the foothills of Mt. Fuji.  The surrounding green forest makes this place a wonderful and refreshing place to relax and inhale the fresh scent of nature.
I especially like the scent of pine needles in the forest.  Reminds me of my childhood, spending a lot of the summers in the mountains, hiking with my family.

We spent the night in a cute and spacious cottage, fit for a big family, and much too spacious for just ourselves.  In the afternoon after we got there, we had a nice Italian lunch which Shosei took the opportunity to bathe his face in tomato sauce while we ate.  In the late afternoon, after a quick cat nap, we hopped on our bikes and explored the roads around the resort which we stayed at.  It was raining lightly and a cool breeze swam between our legs as we sped downhill.  And then on the way back, the uphill grind was tough on our muscles, but the lush green of the trees was a welcoming refreshment for the eyes and mind.

The next day, we had a simple breakfast buffet with a nice morning view of Mt. Fuji.  The clouds were rolling in and out, but we were able to catch a few photos of Shosei with Fuji in the background.  We left the cottage to go peach picking.  After parking the car under a lime-green canopy of grape bunches, we sat down on the tatami floor and helped ourselves to an all-you-can eat peach fest.  I think I counted about 9 pits on the plate after we finished and patted our tummies filled with much peachy delight.