Anyone tired of hearing me say that yet?
He was born on 建国記念の日 (National Foundation Day - the day celebrating the foundation of Japan and the accession of its first Emperor) which is a public holiday. Nice planning on Kio's part, arriving a week early - he'll always have a day off on his birthday!
We have decided to take advantage of friends and family being off for the day, and throw Kio a little birthday party. Around the time that Shin and I were talking about invites and decorations, we lost a very important member of our family.
Literally we lost him.
Literally we lost him.
Poor, poor Mushi-san.
Mushi-san joined us last May and was one of the presents we bought Kio for Children's Day. On that occasion Shin picked out some new duds for Kio and I bought him a copy of one of my all time favourite children's books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Mushi-san.
Mushi-san is the Swiss Army Knife of stroller toys. He comes equipped with everything a baby on the go needs: a teether, crinkle material, a handle for when the urge to wildly shake things takes over, and of course a mirror. The mirror is especially important to Kio as he just can't get enough of himself - a wee narcissist in the making. And to make it even better, Mushi-san is all of those fabulous features wrapped together with the cuteness of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Aww, so cute. And he was Kio's bestest friend.
I'm not sure at what point we stopped calling him The Hungry Caterpillar, and started calling him Mushi-san (Japanese for Mr. Bug) but the affectionate nickname obviously denotes his importance to the family.
He went everywhere with Kio and kept him happily occupied on afternoons out at the shops, dreaded car rides (that was before Kio decided that being in the car isn't a form of torture), and he even made it all the way to Canada - and back!
Although Kio has other stroller toys, he faithfully went for Mushi-san every time. So much so, that he sucked off all of the silver from the material on the antennae, and no matter how many times I cleaned him, Mushi-san had become pretty nasty looking.
After all of Mushi-san's adventures out and about with Kio, one day he didn't make it home. We don't know if he was knocked off while we were loading the stroller into the car. Or maybe he got hooked on something as we were cruising around town. Either way, Mushi-san is no longer with us.
So in memory of good ole' Mushi-san, we've decided on a Hungry Caterpillar theme for Kio's birthday party.
Only six days to go!
Mushi-san and Kio, keeping cool in the summer heat.
Mushi-san and Kio, on the flight to Korea.
Mushi-san and Kio, hat modeling.
We wish you all the best Mushi-san, wherever you may be - you are missed.
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