suitengu

Yesterday we took the whole family, including jiji and baba, to Suitengu, to do the traditional one-month celebratory thing.
After doing a little offering and namu-namu at the shrine, we went upstairs to get a nice family portrait taken...only Chikage was having none of it. She went into a foul mood as soon as we went into the photo studio and then started crying and having a fit. Riku was totally chill. We tried hanging out and relaxing for a bit to see if Ton would calm down, but she was having none of it.
Finally we just went for the Riku photo. They strapped him into a chair (being one-month old he can't keep his head up let alone sit), wrapped the kimono on him, straightened his celebratory bib and hat, and then began to clap, sing, rattle, bounce, shake, poke, and flash bright lights in an attempt to wake him up. None of it worked. He sat happy as a clam, snoozing away whilst a team of professionals attempted to get him to at least open his eyes long enough to take a photo.
Amazingly, after several minutes of borderline child abuse, he opened his eyes and looked ahead long enough to snap off a few shots.
We shall see how the photos turn out!
After the excitement he got fed and promptly passed out, so we headed down the street to the Royal Park Hotel and feasted at their thoroughly impressive buffet lunch. Fried softshell crabs, a soft-ice machine, pasta, salad bar, fried bananas (!), and a host of other delicious goodies.
The adults and Ton stuffed themselves as babyMo slept the entire time, wedging himself deep into the booth seat.