9 Months Old and Already Making Boys Cry

It's been nine months since we were blessed with the arrival of Maika, and each day we have with her is a gift from God.
The aftershocks continue but will less frequency. We had a good sized one last Saturday, but it has thankfully been pretty quiet since then.
Yoko keeps plenty busy taking care of Maika and making sure Erik is well fed. She continues to work her way through the cook books we mentioned on Feb 15th.
Erik started a new school year (it begins in April in Japan) and has been busy with his new class schedule.
Maika made a boy cry for the first time. The other day Yoko and Maika met a lady who has a boy that is 10 months old. He is very mellow and is content to just sit in one place and play with whatever is in front of him. Maika scooted quickly over to him and in her boisterous voice said "Aaaah". All of that was just too much for the little fellow, and he started to cry. Needless to say, Erik is one proud daddy.
Winter is on its way out, but I need to keep warm when I go out in the evening.

Do I want to be a ballerina? I don't know yet.

Sporting some of the latest Spring fashion.

A day in the park.

I miss Aunt Sarah (she returned to the States on April 8th).

Mommy's the best! I love her!

Doing exercise in the park. 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2

Daddy says I am pretty like these cherry blossoms.

I can put anything in my mouth.

Several New Milestones

It's been a little while since our last post, and as a result, we have several things to share. Concerning life here after the March 11th earthquake, we are still having occasional aftershocks; the 7.1 the night of the 7th gave us a good jolt. We are able to get pretty much everything in terms of food that we used to buy, and we have not been affected by the rolling blackouts. Our building is being fixed as the pictures show.
Actually, we don't know when they are planning of repairing the damage.
We had Sarah with us for little over a week before she returned to the States on the 8th. Her contract had ended, and we are glad we were able to have her visit. We will miss having her close by.
Maika has been one busy little girl lately. She experienced grass and dirt for the first time and enjoyed the dirt much more than the grass. The morning of the 8th, she pulled herself up into a standing position in her crib for the first time. The same day, her first tooth showed itself. Today, the 9th, she is getting herself up on her hands and knees into the proper crawling position. We are continually amazed by her and that the Lord would bless us with a child such as her.
One other thing that seems to have happened, although we cannot officially verify it, is that Maika got into a fight. The event was captured below, although a punch actually being thrown could not be verified.
We don't know what set it off, but something was going on between Maika and Annie.

With her hand in a fist and her arm cocked, it looks as if Maika is ready to give Annie a knuckle sandwich.

Annie on her back, and Maika acting like nothing happened.

Maika upon being confronted about this, exclaimed that Annie fell over all by herself.