Land of No

Ok, so Savannah has definitely learned to say no here in Tokyo. It pretty much started when she turned three and is getting more and more. It is no with attitude with the head shaking, pigtails bopping, and full movement. There is no, no, no, Nooooow (like, no duh) with a smile. There is ohhhh, noooo (like no way, not like uh,oh) and sometimes there is no and then a pause and then a thank you. Her language is exploding here with lots of new words and combining. We don't know if it is the baby, the experience, hearing other languages, or just her natural progression. We are very proud of her though and of course with more language comes independence, decisions, and expression of what you want and don't want. Seth has his share of "no" too. He is NOcturnal, which allows for no sleep (at night). He is also Noisy when he sleeps. He is so active and is always making sounds and moving. He would also say no diaper change, no changing my clothes, no bath, no wiping my face, no sleeping on my back and no putting me down, if he could. Tokyo is also the place of NO elevators. Usually we are very active and like to take the steps, but most of the time we are out for hours and take the stroller. So luckily Rich is very strong and can carry her up and down the steps. I feel terrible for anyone handicapped in this city. No ADA here. At least we can take Savannah out, she can walk, or one of us can carry her and we can fold up the stroller. Someone in a wheelchair would have great difficulty in this city. Rich would tell you there is no healthy food, but that isn't true. There are lots of fruits and veggies, they are just in small packages and very expensive. When you eat out, eating healthy is difficult though and dessert and bakeries are very popular here. There is no Splenda here. They don't really use artificial sweetners. Mostly sugar. Very few No Smoking sections here. People still smoke a lot. Hard to get used to. That is why we spend a lot of time in Starbucks. No smoking there at all. There are more Starbucks here per quarter mile than anywhere I have ever seen. We can walk to five different Starbucks is less than five minutes (without the stroller). They are really nice too and they are mostly multi-level. No chai tea though. Surprisingly, from what we have seen coffee is more popular in Tokyo than tea. Also, the Starbucks here in Roppongi is open until 3 a.m. See, you can't foil us baby boy. If we need coffee at your 2 a.m. feeding, we've got it. LOL! No lack of coffee--thank goodness! We are enjoying our time here in Tokyo so much. NO lack of things to do and see. This is such a gift to all be here together and form our forever family. Just some fun for today. These are Rich's iphone photos. Most of them are from his morning rave runs around the city. Lots of scenery and self portraits. I don't know what most of it is, becasue I wasn't there, so No captions today either. Some cute ones of the kids mixed in. It is the 5 a.m. feeding, so back to sleep for me.