Kai's 4th Birthday

Kai's makeshift birthday. You would think a fabulous vacation and lots of cool presents from London would have been enough for this kid but a birthday just isn't a birthday without some cake, balloons and apparently an extremely large machine gun.

We got back into Tokyo super late on his actual birthday, so everything was kind of thrown together the next day. He was pretty funny, he actually directed us on what we needed to do: "balloons, a cake and some presents and to sing happy birthday with candles," then his birthday would be complete.

Although I did have some backup gifts stashed away for him, the gun, which he picked out while we were having his balloons inflated, took center stage. I'm really hoping this phase will end rather quickly.  Apparently though, giving little boys enormous guns to play with is not something new in my family.  Just as I was feeling I've lost all control over this gun toting tot, Naoto reminded me of this little gem. There's my brother smiling below with what looks to be the exact same gun Kai is holding.  I took a small amount of comfort in the fact that my brother was three in this photo and clearly my mothering skills are far superior since my child is four.

Noah always looking for an opportunity.

My 4 year-old