family time, harada style.

last night we arrived at the lovely new jersey home of our friends jenny and mark where they live with their two little ones, lukas and naomi. it's pretty fun to watch the kids grow with annual check-ins. on our first big craft tour, lukas was only two and the whole family was living in columbus, ohio. i was really excited because he learned to say my name during that visit. now he says all kinds of stuff and hides his face behind toast when we doesn't want his picture taken. he also plays a mean game of zuma.



naomi was just a bump on jenny's belly on that tour. now she is an ambulatory 16 month old who is astoundingly able to get around and figure things out. for instance, here is a picture she took of me:



not bad for just over a year old. i was actually kind of blown away by her cognitive abilities.

here is a picture of naomi with strut strut kitty, a new friend that jenny made and sent us on our travelling way with.



jenny is an amazing plush artist whom i met via the internet a few years back and since fell in love with. with her own little plushies running around the house now, she isn't doing as many craft fairs (too bad for you) but is rather focusing on doing one or two bigger art projects a year. keep an eye out for her work; it's really quite fantastic.

after the kids passed out last night, we went for some walks down to the shore of the hudson to look at new york and chatted about things like geodesic domes until we, too, passed out. now, the little kitty, the reverend and i have moved on and arrived in philadelphia for visits with another family. but that's a story for another day...