Rainbow Rainbow

Early this morning, we were greeted by some rain falling on the rooftop. Looking outside, we saw a rainbow -- or rather a "rain arc". It was a "double" rainbow. Note that the colors of the secondary arc go in reverse order from the primary arc...

Works of Art

Here are a couple works of art by Hikaru at age 3 years old. The first painting is of "Mommy". The depiction is somewhat abstract, so we were not exactly sure which way to orient this painting...



The second drawing is "Rainbow". Hikaru only had a blue and green felt marker, but this is his rainbow (at least that's what he says)...

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.

- Pablo Picasso

Reaching for the Stars

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" has been one of Hikaru's favorite songs ever since he was baby. Before going to bed at night, we always go outside to "see stars". On this day, Hikaru was very excited because Uncle Paul asked us out on a star date at the Griffith Observatory.



Hikaru points and says that the "moon is broken", and this informative exhibit shows how the moon gets "fixed" every month.



We arrived just in time to catch the planetarium show. This is the first time we've been inside, since it was renovated in 2006. The photo below is of the $7 million Zeiss Mark IX Universarium star projector.



There were comfortable seats that leaned way back, and what a great show! Hikaru still talks about seeing the "stars". The show was about water here on Earth, and we also "traveled" to other planets. It was interesting to learn that Jupiter's moon Europa has oceans of liquid water underneath its icy crust!



The photo below is the observatory's dome. There's a solar telescope, and a 12 inch Zeiss refracting telescope.



On the ceiling of the Observatory's Central Rotunda is a mural depicting the gods and the advancement of science.



And hanging down from the ceiling is the Foucault Pendulum that demonstrates that the Earth does indeed rotate.



Hikaru had a fun time checking out the various exhibits, and pushed every button on every exhibit he could find.



Here he takes a quick peek through a small telescope.



And this is a larger 12 inch refracting telescope on the observatory roof.



Hikaru explores the various planets of our solar system. Then he activates some controls on the warp drive before making a jump to hyperspace.



You never know who you might meet at places like this. Hikaru sits down with Dr. Albert Einstein.

Happy Birthday Boy

Well, Hikaru is three years old! Three years seems like a very long time, but time just flew by. For our hard three years (and nine months), we should at least get graduate degrees in life or something... like putting initials M.D. (Mommy and Daddy) after our names.

We held Hikaru's birthday party at a neighborhood park. Relatives and friends dropped by to help celebrate. Hikaru was mostly doing his own thing, and we're still not sure if he realized that the party was for him.



Hikaru had a "huge" cake. The person at the bakery convinced us to buy the bigger one. We were just about to light the candles on the cake, and then realized that no one had a match. We borrowed a lighter from the party next to us.

We sang the happy birthday song. This is one of Hikaru's all time favorite songs. But then the wind blew out the candles before Hikaru could do it. After a couple failed attempts to re-light the candles, we decided it was futile to fight nature. Oh well.



It's incredible to think that three years ago, Hikaru was only a tiny sleeping newborn blob in a blanket. Now he's an active walking running talking and singing guy who can't sit still -- especially after eating too much birthday cake.



After we got home, we performed a birthday "re-take" with Hikaru's leftover cake. He enjoyed singing "Happy Birthday" -- and this time blowing out the candles by himself!



Here Hikaru smiles for the camera. Happy Birthday!

Where Did We Go?

We didn't go anywhere, but things were really "busy" this summer (family visitations, incidents, work, in addition to Hikaru-care), so we didn't post much on the blog lately... But hope to post a few photos soon, and Hikaru is three years old now!