The other big thing going on this month is Tomoko’s family who have come to visit and help us while we adjust to having another little person in the house. Tomoko’s mother Yoshiko and her sister Akiko came about a week after Hiro was born. Akiko stayed for a week then had to go back for work. Then Tomoko’s father Atsushi came on last week (March 8th) and he and Yoshiko will go back together tomorrow. Much respect to Tomoko’s father and sister for doing two 20-hour flights and braving a 14-hour time difference for a one-week visit. It’s been a huge help having them around, and it’s been great to see Kaito and Taka with their grandparents whom they haven’t seen for almost two years. Almost every day they spend several hours together playing in the front room with Transformers and Japanese action figures. The boys are loving all the attention they’re getting and loving spending time with “ba-chan” and “ji-chan”.

The visit hasn’t been without some frustrations though – unfortunately Kaito and Taka don’t speak fluent Japanese yet (Kaito is getting there, but still has trouble expressing anything other than basic statements) so communication between grandparents and grandkids is difficult when Tomoko is not around to translate. I wonder if she realized she would become a full-time translator any time her family was around when she married me? In any case, it’s a bit sad knowing that the boys can’t really talk to their grandparents, so we’ll be putting more effort into their Japanese language education. Kaito has been going to “Himawari” (sunflower) Japanese school in Oakville once a week and he’ll keep that up next year. Taka will start there in September too. Hopefully all the boys will have a chance to do a student exchange to Japan once they’re older.

We’ll miss all the help we’ve been getting, but I think the boys will miss their grandparents even more.