In my last post, I wrote that I would like to look for more books for babies. A few days later, I received a thoughtful gift for my son from a friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen for half a year. It was this cute sensory book printed in black, white and a touch of yellow only. What a nice choice! She wasn’t reading my blog, but she knew what I was looking for! On the cover, it was written that “stimoli visivi in bianco e nero (visual stimuli in black and white).” I was curious why, especially because I’d remember reading an article that vivid colours would usually be used for toys and books for toddlers. This is because it takes several months for new-borns to start recognizing different colours, and pastel colours are the last to be recognized.   However, I discovered that this book was actually suitable for new-borns who still don’t even see colours. According to another article I found today, illustrations in black and white have high contrast and thus can be recognized by new-borns.

Today, May 5th, we celebrate the annual boys' festival (traditionally it was, but lately it's known as the children's day) in Japan. In short, it’s a day to appreciate and pray for your little one’s sound growth and happiness to come.  This morning, I made these origami kabuto (helmet for Japanese warriors) , irises, and carp, to celebrate our son's first festival of the Japanese tradition. They are iconic items for this day in my homeland. It’s incredible how every single day makes a difference to a baby. Say, how much he speaks and squeaks now compared to just a week ago. I don’t remember exactly since when, but it’s been at least for a couple of weeks that my son started babbling something almost sounds like words. Da da, aba ba, ubbbb, cha, ta… It's irresistibly cute. His “vocabulary” increases each week, in proportion to the variation of his body movements. By the time he turned four months old, he’d already learned how to turn his body to his left (always left