Mema and Pepa's Visit

November was a very busy month for us. Kai met his Mema and Pepa for the first time. It was wonderful to see him smiling and laughing with my parents. He's really an amazing little guy. For the most part he was very agreeable to whatever was going on. He was taken to the shrine for Omiyamairi, baptized at a Catholic church and was generally shuffled all over Japan.

Omiyamairi

This was taken after the Omiyamairi ceremony, outside Meiji Shrine. He had a bit of a hard time during the ceremony (which we weren't allowed to photograph) mostly because of the sounds. He seemed to get very frightened every time the large gong was hit.

As always we were running late but were lucky enough to be the last ceremony of the day. Unfortunately, by the time the service had ended it was nearly dark out and the shrine was about to close so we really had to hurry along our photos.

Kai had pretty much had it by the time he was handed off to me for the final photos. I love the way his little lower lip quivers when he cries. Even when he's upset he's still so cute.

The babies are traditionally held by their grandmothers (usually the husband's mother) during the ceremony.

Kai's baby kimono is absolutely gorgeous. Since his name means an open frontier, my mother-in-law chose a ship sailing the open seas. She wanted the sailboat to represent the beginning of his journey into this world. The symbols on the top are the Ikeda family emblem. If Kai had been a girl then the emblems would have been Naoto's mother's maiden name. When we were married the kimono my mother-in-law bought me had her family emblem on it. I love this tradition. It's just such a special notion.