So there was Festivus, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year. Then in this new year 2017 two weeks have passed in about two seconds. Seriously. Life sometimes feels like a Kurt Vonnegut novel. Comical and sad. Absurd and complex. Time travels. And so on.

Anyway, for Taiyo the new year began with this super rich deep fried brioche french toast with fruits and bacon. For many years my new year's resolution was to blog every week, or just little bit more. Of course this was never achieved so lately I would not set any goal I cannot make. Besides, how could I dramatize and recite my life in public space when my actual life feels like just so full of it? Non-responsive o,p, and l keys on my laptop were also to be blamed. And it's all because of Donald Trump anyway. It's like Mercury retrograde- we've got someone to blame everything on for the next 4 years (maybe.)

Indeed time flies when you are having fun. Here's recap of some of our fun moments this summer.


He did lots of great project, such as this one: King Potato. I tried to get King Potato to sprout afterwards, but he sort of melted in the heat instead. Here's another fantastic thing he built.

He not only learned to swim but to float on water.


and to wrangle some birds.

His favorite Dragon ride at Renaissance Faire:


Close encounter with a bear at Central Park- fortunately there was a sheet of glass between them.

Corpse flower was a stink of town, although it wasn't stinky when we got there, fortunately. I wonder if it was as bad as ginkgo nuts.
And there were many food adventures, of course.




Some pasta place in East Village

Lombardi's. I took him there since it's one of NYC's icons. But personally I think it's so over-rated. If it's pizza, he doesn't need assistance.



No pictures please while I have my mango!

And fun will continue with my high school friend from Tokyo.

Taiyo is doing "Restaurant camp" this year at SOY and he's already making spicy tuna bowls! Oh yes, he's been quite helpful these days. As soon as we walk in the restaurant he'd ask, "Mommy, can I have a snack?" "After you help me set up." "Then you will give me a snack?" "Yes, I will give you a snack." So then he would help with taking down the chairs (at least half,) wiping the tables, and sweeping the sidewalk. This of course puts smile on faces of people passing by. I look at him sweeping in some funny motion and feel so good that it's finally beginning to pay off. Oh, motherhood.

But seriously, we've been having great summer fun. I've been running to the East River with Taiyo leading me on his bike. Boy, how he makes me run! We've already started a Friday summer tradition of bringing breakfast sandwiches from the corner deli and having a breakfast picnic by the river. We visited Brooklyn Museum, par Taiyo's request over the weekend. It was wonderfully quiet there, perhaps because it was such a sunny outdoorsy summer holiday weekend and Taiyo got to ran around a bit (quite a bit) in the beautfil Beau-Arts court. We made it out to the fireworks but couldn't get to the best view area- we couldn't access FDR drive from Houston street!

Then we even hit the beach! We spent all day on Coney Island on Wednesday. It was like a perfect mini vacation. Ocean breeze was wonderfully soothing. Ocean was calm and surprisingly clean. We went up on the ferris wheel, then I had oysters and he had a cone dog on boardwalk. Only a 45-minute subway ride. Why don't we do this more often?

And of course we've been having lots of ice cream. This one was Van Leeuwen on East 7th Street. Flavors were wonderful but I thought it was too sweet. But life is never too sweet!

Month of July in the country went fast. But time in City goes definitely faster. We zapped through August. Since we were never gone that long, recovery took longer than expected. But once I was back to work, it was non-stop cycle again. I was quickly reminded why I badly needed some time off. But I had to surrender and get caught up with the city life again. We also had lots of fun. Here's some stuff we did in August.

Enormous Hello Kitty Time Capsule- he put some of his baby toys inside.


I think this was my favorite pizza of the month. At Ogliastro in Prospect Heights.

Just checking teeth at Mr. Brainwash pop-up gallery.

Dining at Bubby's after nice stroll on High Line.

Look how happy he is to be buried in sand at Jones Beach.

It was $5. At least it had to be big.

"A moon over Playland," a photo by Taiyo.

He ate the whole plate of pancakes because I told him he can get a donut if he finished his food. I hope he's not going to turn into a Homer Simpson.

Puppet show in Central Park-always a great place to hang out. They got the bestest playgrounds!

Yes, we made it there, to Japan. It was our longest, biggest, most expensive trip so far. After spent all my adult life here in New York, a trip back home has been always a big culture shock. And this time, I was going there after six and a half years, and first time with my son. It was a big deal for both Taiyo and myself. We survived! And we survived well. So again, it was like, I can't believe I grew up there! and I don't think I can ever live there, or OMG, OMG, soooo cuuute!! Tokyo's subway and train system was ever so complicated. There were so many signs and instructions and slogans and posters and reminders and all the other rants everywhere but streets have no names. And streets are ugly in pretty much the same way everywhere. So if you don't have a cell phone or GPS, you get lost. And I did because I had neither. It's also hard to rind WiFi, so my tablet was useless. (Later my friend told me Starbucks has WiFi, and it was everywhere.) It was also grey and rainy during most of our stay. So yes, my impression was mixed, but of course food was great to amazing most of the time. Hot spring totally revived me. Then some serious shopping. And of course all the family stuff.... Yes, it was quite intense, but Taiyo asked me a few days ago, "Mommy, can we go to Japan again the next Spring vacation?" So I'm sure he had a blast. I'm glad.

After "Festivus Hot Pot Dinner" with some Jewish friends on Christmas Day, we escaped NYC to spend a week by the Shawangunk Mountains. We're here in New Paltz, staying in a cottage at a horse farm. We've fed their donkeys and horses, chased geese and deers in our backyard, had a little hike in the woods, and walked around historic New Paltz. To unwind, I finished 1000-piece puzzle, and Taiyo worked on more LEGOs. We are quickly adjusting to sleeping late with bright morning sun shining on our faces. Days are still short and our week is going fast. Even with the bright moon in mid-sky, there are so many more stars visible around here. We love the country life!

This blog is turning into "Traveling with Taiyo" this year. For Columbus Day weekend, we explored our neighboring "Garden State" New Jersey. In the last minute trip planning, I came across Diggerland and I really had to go there. It's a construction themed adventure park, where you can ride and operate real construction vehicles and machines!

It was simply brilliant. The place was real and simple. Lots of dirt. It was a riot.
Taiyo, at age 5, was operating a mini digger. It was just so awesome. But the place became twice absurd when Orthodox Jewish families arrived by a bus load and filled the park. They seem to be so out of the place, but they were having just as much fun as other kids. It was also fun to see some grandmas having fun operating big diggers and such. I could not believe no one told me about this place. Taiyo wished for Diggerland all the way home the following day.

On the way home, we visited Terhune Orchards in Princeton. There were many more things to do where we stayed, Mt. Laurel, which is right outside of Philadelphia, but I thought open space would be good for Taiyo. I think it was. There was a fall harvest festival going on, and the farm was full of little kids! We picked out pumpkins, rode on a wagon, got lost in a corn maze, and Taiyo even got a pony ride. The apples we bought at the farm were so fresh and delicious. We found some serious fun in New Jersey on this trip.