Hello, and a Happy Spring to you!  The cherry blossoms have bloomed beautifully and attracted many picnic goers and drinkers to sit under their canopy of pink.  But now in the first week of April, the petals have just about fallen and the green buds have started to push their way out to form the lush green leaves.
At 2 years and 3 months, Shosei is an active and gentle boy.  He still loves to take naps.  He likes to play on the slides in the park.  He loves Yakitori chicken, just as much as his Mommy.  His favorite foods are mushrooms and fish and natto and rice and noodles.  Recently, he discovered fine taste in fish roe such as Ikura and Sujiko.  He often says, 'Sujiko, please' at the dinner table.  He still loves strawberries and other fruits.  He likes to eat Grandpa's dried pears.  It's so chewy and sweet, he practically drools.
Mommy started toilet training in the late winter.  Her daily routine is to get Shosei to sit down at the toilet at least once a day.  It used to be trying to get Shosei to go to the bathroom, but nowadays, he says 'pee pee, please' and then I help him sit on the toilet.  But I realized he doesn't understand any of this toilet concept yet.  I figured out that he pees in his diaper first and then he asks to go to the bathroom.  I have yet to get him to pee in that toilet BEFORE he pees into those handy diapers of his.
Thankfully, Shosei doesn't have any of those screaming moments anymore.  He must have left it on the plane when he had the last screaming fit that lasted 4 hours on the plane ride back to Tokyo. 
But, he is definitely picking up on vocabulary that he hears from his parents, other adults, the TV, and from words that he hears when we read books together.  He still likes to read books and he can now sit down and read books by himself.  It is quite an amazing thing.