Presidents' Day! At 1:30am monday morning I'm truly appreciating that I have extra day off today. It's much needed and deserved holiday for me. After this I have cooking classes every week through April, which make 6-day work weeks. Mentally/emotionally I've been feeling like on the verge of burning out for a while, but it really takes a lot to burn me out. And clearly Taiyo got my genes. At 11pm when we close up the shop, he would literally run around each of my employees a bunch times, then he runs to hug that tree, then runs to the other direction to shake that tree. In his pajamas. It's the cutest thing.

We lunched at Jin on Grand Street yesterday. Upon entry, a waitress asked me if I could fold the stroller, although the place was fairly empty and there were lots of empty corners to park it. Then she tried to squeeze us to a little table right next to a couple dining, although the place was pretty empty- only three other tables were occupied. Taiyo ignored her and settled at a big round table, so I shrugged and followed his lead. Then although the place was rather empty, and Taiyo was chanting for "Sushi and Gyoza!" we were left unattended for quite a long time, until I asked the bus boy to send someone for our order. So the impression in the first 20 minutes was pretty bad. We had gyoza, sushi delux, and an eel/avocado roll. This place was not Japanese owned, which I could tell from menu, decor, and the fact that there was no wasabi on sushi (they served only on the side). Well, which usually makes the food mediocre, which was this place. And with absence of good service, I would never return to this joint. Taiyo did enjoy the food, despite of the funny expression in the photo above. He ate all the skin off the gyoza, eel/avocado roll, and some more rice from not-so-delux plate of sushi. Happy hour special helped, but otherwise this place is totally overpriced for the food.

Today we caught another show at New Victory Theater, "Brazil! Brazil!" It was so totally cool and much more enjoyable for me than last week's Bubble Show. Filled with great music, dance and acrobatics, they could've easily have a good run outside of children's theater. The films they had from Brazilian cities reminded me of Cuba, and I thought it would be a great place to visit one day- with Taiyo. He seemed to really enjoy the show, although he got restless sitting on my lap after 30 minutes (he refused to sit on his seat even though they give you a handy booster at this theater). We survived another theater experience. Everything's great about this theater, but they seriously need more bathroom. It's impossible to go to bathroom after the show.

We escaped the crowd at Times Square and went to have lunch at Tabata Ramen at 9th Avenue and 40th street. I've heard of the place and was meaning to check it out for a while, but we rarely travel that direction. Today we were as close as we'd get. And it was perfectly quiet at the restaurant, too. We were directed to a comfy corner with a bench. Of course Taiyo was already chanting for gyoza when he got to the table. So I ordered gyoza, fried chicken, and miso ramen. They promptly brought him a water glass with straw, cute plastic bowl and kids utencils, giving them high points for a kid-friendly restaurant. And food was wonderful, too. Especially the ramen was so tasty, and had lots of veggies, too. Extremely satisfying kind of ramen. This place became the best ramen place in town for me. Highly recommended. Since the waitress was so nice to Taiyo, he took so many pictures of her, one of which is this.

On the last day of Off-Broadway week, we went to see The Gazillion Bubble Show at New World Stages. They were running Rent in the other theater, where Taiyo posed for a photo in front of a cool mural. The theater at the Bubble show was full of little people, and although I purchased a seat for him, Taiyo wanted to sit on my lap. Artistically the set and music was so tacky and cheesy, but Deni Yang did some interesting things with bubbles that I've never seen. There were some really cute bits with kids pulled out from the audience, and overall it was quite enchanting and entertaining. It is something you'd never think of seeing without a small kid, and I'm happy to experience something like this because of Taiyo. He also really enjoyed the show; he behaved very well, mostly sitting on my lap. He wanted run up the isle at one point during the show, but I told him not to and he listened.

After the show, Taiyo was over-stimulated and tired, and insisted for gyoza as he often does when he's exhausted. We wondered around and stumbled upon Rio & You on 45th Street. It was a nice little authentic Japanese restaurant with an old Japanese chef at the sushi counter. There was another older man on the floor, perhaps the proprietor, along with a Japanese waitress. It was not busy for Sunday lunch, and a few other tables had mostly Japanese patrons. Taiyo immediately picked a small table in the middle, although the waitress suggested a larger table for four with more room. She probably wanted us a bit away from other customers, too. Taiyo stood on the bench, and started chanting for gyoza. They brought him a glass of water with a very long straw- it was too tall for him seated. I had to hold the glass every time he tried to sip from the straw. We had gyoza and sashimi lunch set, which had beautifully arranged plate of sashimi, fried fish, kinpira gobo, salad, rice and soup. It was a great deal for $18, and food was very nice. Taiyo ate all the gyoza skins, and some of the fish. He didn't care for any of sashimi, which was fine with me. However, the waitress seemed bothered by Taiyo's behavior. She kept telling him to sit down when he was standing on the bench, and also told him to stop running around the restaurant. He only ran to the back when I asked him to get our check, and to bring the money to her, then maybe one more time for no reason. It made me uncomfortable to stay there too long, so for the service I don't recommend it for dining with a child.

Last week, Taiyo discovered a smearing technique by dubbing wet hands over drawing in the window. I swear the actual art work on the door at SOY is more interesting than this picture. You probably know some people who think their kids' art works are ones by a genius. Oh, yes, I'm one of those.

Taiyo can sing ABCs to the end, so we sing it about 50 times a day, often when we are walking around outside.

When we went back to Cafe Petisco on East Broadway, which is one of Taiyo's favorite places, he headed right to the side table to look for some reading material, sat down next to the lamp where he could get a good light, opened the newspaper and read. For a long time. He kept making some ruffling noise with the paper also. He looked really serious. The first section he was 'reading' was The Dining section, of course. Oh, yes, the girl next to us thought it was the cutest thing. It was.

Last sunday was Karin's 3rd Birthday party which we couldn't miss. We hadn't seen her for over two months, and when Taiyo stormed into their apartment he stood right in front of her face to face, and uttered, "Karin doko da (where's Karin)?" He also had never seen her so dolled up. Taiyo then tried to hug her but she was a bit shy this time. Later in front of her baby sized cakes he stood next to her like an old man with his hands behind him. And the party was so cute and caotic and wonderful, with 8 small people jumping, running, screaming, fighting over the toys, laughing and staff. Maybe it's good that he doesn't have too many friends his age, because we don't have to do too many of these crazy parties.