The first cousin we ran into was at Little Girl M's birthday party on Sunday. Her party was held at a My Gym, where little kids go to burn off some energy by jumping on and off gym equipment, and mommy and daddy pay money for them to do so. It was a cute party led by some high energy college-aged girls. When we went in, there was a guy who looked really familiar and he kept looking at us. It turned out to be Stuart. His little girl was invited to Little Girl M's party. He and his family attend the same church that Little Girl M's family attends. It was a nice surprise. We spent some time catching up while we ran after Emi-chan.
The second cousin was Masatoshi M. He is Rick's mom's cousin...I guess technically he's a second cousin. He called us to let us know he received the Christmas card we sent him and he really appreciated it. I had a really nice chat with him. He's such a nice man.
The third cousin was my cousin Keigo, a.k.a. Cornelius. He's a musician in Japan and he was in San Francisco for a concert. He had a couple of days off before he had to fly to Chicago so he called my mom to see if we could get together. Rick and I took Emi-chan, Gran Gran and Unca Jeff on Monday night up to J-Town in San Francisco to see him. I hadn't seen him in about 20 years, so I was a little nervous. After we met him at a hotel, we went to a Korean restaurant and had a nice dinner, and caught up with him. Emi-chan was not having a good time, though, and Rick and I spent a lot of time trying to calm her down. Hopefully we can keep in touch more often in the future.
On a not so fun note, Rick and Emi-chan are finally over the stomach flu. They got better right before the cousin rush. Just in time. Otherwise, they all might have been very uncomfortable and messy affairs. I never imagined babies held so much vomit.
1/25: I forgot to add this story earlier. Over dinner with my cousin, Keigo, we reminisced about when we first met. It was my first trip to Japan with my family. I was 4 years old, Keigo was 3 years old. I have a lot of memories of that trip, but Keigo said he didn't remember much about that visit. What he remembered was that I taught him his first English phrases. He remembers I was standing at the top of the stairs of his home, and I was yelling at him to, "Come here!!! Come up here!!!" Rick thought this was funny. He said, "Even way back then, you were so bossy!" I said, "Who you calling bossy? Huh? Who? Answer me!!!"
