As promised, here are some pics from Akari's first shrine visit. :)

Omiyamairi is supposed to occur on the 32nd day of a baby girl's life (and 31st for a boy- dunno why there is a difference) but we went a bit later to coincide with the days off my husband got for the overseas mission. It's one of the big milestone picture ops in Japan, so we went to the studio and got some professional pictures done. As a bonus, they let you borrow the baby kimono for the rest of the day after the shoot so you can go to the shrine all dressed up. Renting these kimonos costs quite a bit (from 5000 to 30000 yen), so it's actually quite a good deal.


All dressed up at the studio. She was actually really sleepy during the shoot, so the photographers kept calling her name and waving noisemaking toys to try to keep her awake.


At Meiji Jingu, waiting to get into the inner part of the shrine. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside, but I had my hands full with her during the ceremony anyway. All was fine and dandy --she was drowsing peacefully away-- until the junior priest started off the ceremony with a rousing rumble at the huge taiko drum. DX Then she wailed through the rest of the ceremony, all through the waving of paper wands, singsong blessings of the priests and the bowing and drinking a bit of sake. The other pic is outside under one of the torii. The ones at Meiji Jingu are just so majestic- I think they're made from cedar.

Anyway, she's still growing like crazy- more than 5 kilos now (10 lbs) and she's almost too big for the newborn size diapers. She's also hitting developmental milestones like cooing, social smiling and posing for pictures:


Her hair is filling in a bit, and she makes great eye contact- especially when she's upset and demanding something! But it's gotten a little bit easier since my last post- I've discovered that I can put her down for short naps during the day now. She turns all red and scrunches up her face to cry at first... and then relaxes. :D She also self-soothes with her thumb more often:

Even now she's slurping occasionally as she drowses in the highchair/bed thingy across the room from me, letting me spend time on the computer! (2nd pic) :)

All this is great because I've developed tendonitis in my wrists. D: The doctor said it's a combination of hormones and overusage of my wrists. It's downright painful to pick her up at times, and I've been relying on the carrier more during the day even though it gives me stiff shoulders. Unfortunately, she also seems to be increasingly attached to me- she refuses to be soothed by my husband now, and screams bloody murder when he takes over while I try to shower or cook dinner. I had no idea babies were capable of separation anxiety so soon, although I'd read that they could recognize their mothers by smell almost from birth. We're just trying to get her used to him anyway, although the neighbours are probably wondering why we're letting her cry like that! She cried for a solid couple of hours when I went to watch the new Terminator movie last week while he watched her. (We watched it in turns.) We were so prepared: I'd pumped milk just in case (although I fed her just before going out) and she was sleepy when I left. But she wasn't happy about the change!

Uh-oh. Starting to fuss (she needs a change and feed every two hours during the day, almost like clockwork), so I'm going to cut and post this!