Kouryou-chan's costume

Fairy Princess!

Omaha must have spent fifteen hours putting together this costume, doing the wings, putting in the fleece lining because Kouryou-chan was always cold in previous years. Originally, she wanted to be a Fairy Princess Pegasus Unicorn Mermaid, but Omaha convinced her to cut it down to just two.

We had a blast. We walked around the neighborhood and Kouryou-chan got great candy from all the houses we passed that had lights and inviting decorations. We passed many of the neighboring kids and made small-talk. It was really nice. Kouryou-chan was completely freaked out when, while at someone's house, what she thought was just a decorative stuffed dummy by the door reached out and grabbed her ankle.

Anyway, Omaha wanted to make sure I got a picture of the costume for posterity. I should have taken a picture of her, too; while working on the wings she got glitter all over her face.

Competition suits Kouryou-chan just fine

Bicycle!

So, check this out. The little girl next door just had her birthday party and she turned seven, and one of the things she decided to do after turning seven was learn to ride a bicycle without training wheels.

Well, Kouryou-chan, who's going to turn eight very soon, couldn't possibly let this challenge go by. So this afternoon she comes to me and says, "Daddy, could you take the training wheels off my bike?" After getting her assurance that it's what she wants, I indeed take the wheels off her bike. And it's just like magic: she gets on and after two or three false starts she begins to ride. She keeps veering left and driving right into the grass of the back yard. But she's getting it. Fifteen minutes later she's mastered the turn, and her balance, and almost has the brakes down perfect. An hour after taking them off, we're riding around the neighborhood.

Omaha and I could not be happier. For us, as kids, the bicycle was our tickets to freedom and independence, our route to getting out of the house on a regular basis.

Now if only we could get Yamaraashi-chan to do the same thing...