way back in february, when yoshi's parents brought the boy's day display, they also brought this little walking toy, called 'katakata' in japanese. it's been languishing away in our house waiting for hiro to start walking. well, hiro can walk, as long as he's holding on to a table or some other stationary object (though he does try to stand grabbing on to my legs, but i'm not always stationary and he gets mad at me...) anyway, reading about andrea's beautiful daughter's enjoyment of her katakata made me remember it. so, i got it out of the store room.

katakata

isn't it lovely? i think it was yoshi's and/or his brother's. it looks so old-fashioned to me (i would love to see a pic of JiXiang's)

anyway, the first time i let hiro use it, i didn't know how it worked and didn't 'lock' it. of course, hiro fell down and got hurt, and now he doesn't want to use the katakata. i got kind of mad at my MIL over the weekend, because we brought the katakata to their house on sunday and she kept trying to force hiro to use it even though he would arch his back and make high-pitched sqrealing noises. *sigh* i have to take it nice and slow...i hope he likes it, though. his legs are tiny and need some strengthening...

here is the birthday boy with presents from watanabe clinic and his parents:

huh?