Second camping trip: Sagami Lake

The first weekend of October we went on a second camping trip! Considering that it had been a few years since we first went camping together this was a big development. It was spurred by our first trip actually. Two of Shimon's buddies decided that they wanted to go camping too and so the trip developed.

This time it was way more low key! We didn't even bring the big backpack for Touma. We booked a camp site at a camp ground that Shimon and I had camped out several years ago. It is on a lake and there's a tiny waterfall hike and you can kayak or rent a boat out, but the main goal is to relax. Also, unlike our earlier camping trip, we could cook over a campfire. That meant s'mores. And hot dog-like sausages. And "boys" playing with fire. It was a good time.

Once again Touma was a total trooper! He actually spent a large part of the evening in a carrier asleep. When he was awake he was pretty happy.

Heading out!

I have to admit that after not having had a car for nearly 6 years of living in the Tokyo area, it is really nice to have a car. Not for everyday things - I still take public transportation for play groups and meeting friends - but for the weekend fun! We can get out and get away from areas where you can't go easily by train. 

The group in front of the waterfall.

 Shimon set up his camera to take a series of 5 (I think) pictures of the group. Each one we ended up posing differently. You will notice that the guys have some funny poses!

Crazy tree... or crazy rock!?

 This tree wrapped around a rock or rock pushed up into the tree was really cool... and good for a picture op. I kind of wish that Shimon had zoomed in a little bit, but it would have probably lost the effect.

Setting up camp!

Getting the tents sorted.

Another great part of this camp was that we had new sleeping bags. After not having proper sleeping bags the last camping trip, Shimon did some research and found some reasonably priced (for down sleeping bags) mummy bags for us. These will last us for quite awhile! But they sure were cozy. The only problem with sharing a mummy bag with a baby? Zipping up! We didn't get to zip up all the way. It wasn't really very cold, but we're going to have to invest in a Touma-sized sleeping bag when he gets a little older.

Sunday at the park

There is a very nice park not too far from our house. Lately, on Sundays, we've been having lunch there and we generally take some fun pictures too. This past Sunday was gorgeous (calm before the typhoon whipped in that evening), so we took advantage of the weather and had some nice family time.

The grass is definitely worth some investigating...

Maybe I should eat whatever is in my hand. :-)

Touma's favorite new toy: plastic drink bottles!

Now gimme that bottle, Dad!!

Oze National Park

(We are skipping ahead to more recent news since summer vacation seems like a LONG time ago!)

Over a long weekend in September (17-18-19), we took a mini-vacation up to Oze National Park in Gunma prefecture and did a little camping and some trekking. Now, I call it trekking for two reasons: 1) that's what Japanese people call it and 2) it was definitely not hiking.

Oze is actually in the area of Gunma, Fukushima (very far from the nuclear reactor), and Niigata Prefecture. It is mountainous, but the really interesting part are the marshes that are surrounded by mountains. It was amazing and a perfect excursion to take a baby on. The majority of the walking was completely flat.

One thing about Oze that was astonishing was the wind. It was incredibly windy the entire day while we did our trekking. It made for really amazing pictures when we set out - the clouds were practically racing across the sky! But after a few hours, the wind also made it more exhausting to carry around Touma. That job fell mostly on Shimon, but the last hour I took over. I love having a backpack for the little guy, but we really need to only carry him in it! He's heavy enough without adding any little weight.

We took lots of pictures, but I'll just post a few so you can see what our adventure was like!

The evening before our trekking, we took a short walk. Papa and Touma had fun!

Heading out for the day. Camera bag and baby

Feeling energetic enough to strike a pose!

Slowly getting more tired as the day wore on... but the weather stayed beautiful ALL day!

Family portrait

This coming weekend we're heading out for a family and friends (a couple of Shimon's friends are going to join in the fun!) campout. It's going to be much more low key this weekend. Head to a campsite on a lake, make a campfire, enjoy said camp fire and relax. Should be good fun.

Summer Vacation Pics: The iPhone Edition

So, I have given up trying to get all the summer vacation photos onto one blog post. There's just too many and it's too time consuming! Instead I will do the photos in installments. My iPhone got used for some pictures while we were away. Too bad I took way more pictures on my mom's iPhone than on my own! I guess it's alright though, I get to see Touma everyday and this way she has a whole bunch she can look at and remember the fun vacation!

The vacation was actually really nice. There were some bumpy moments when I was just DONE with being away from home and being around family non-stop (the problem with not actually going home to Fairbanks!). Other than that, we all had a pretty good time.


 And now for the pictures...

Touma taking a kitchen sink bath... as you can see, he loved it!!

Touma had never taken a bath in a massive American bathtub (ours in Japan are really quite different). So instead of having him do that right away, I decided to try the kitchen sink first. Well, since he loved it so much, I didn't bother with the bathtub and just continued to bathe him in the sink the whole time we were in Colorado. It worked out great!

Touma with Grandma on his first full day in Colorado!

My mom and dad had so much fun with Touma and I had extra arms to hold him. Win-win!!

Touma and Great-Grandma!

One main reason for our trip was to see my grandparents that live in Denver. I think my dad's camera has the picture of Touma and grandpa... :-(

Touma falls asleep

 Touma almost never falls asleep while being held (without me trying to get him to sleep), this time he was so tuckered out from the flight over and time change that he just stopped going.

Baby wearing grandpa!

My dad really liked wearing Touma in this carrier. His weight was distributed nicely and he wasn't able to try to escape with all of his wiggling!

I'm gonna get you!

And so the crawling begins...

Grandpa and the sprinkler

 My dad loved sticking Touma's feet in the sprinklers... Touma didn't seem to mind either!

Touma and Uncle Brendan

Brendan did good letting Touma sleep on his shoulder the morning we left. It allowed me to get the last bit of packing done before heading off to the airport.

These are just a very small sampler of the pictures we took. As soon as I get more time I'll post some of the others!

Summer Vacation

We got back from our jaunt to the US on August 2nd. Why am I so late in getting off my bum and posting anything you may ask? Yeah... jetlag, playdates, Shimon went out of town for a bit... yes, I have valid excuses this time!

I promise to get some summary posts up! I have to also try to get my pictures organized (from my phone, my mom's phone[don't see that one happening quickly!], and the ones from the camera) and then post. We'll how see that goes.

Just wanted to post a little something to let people know we're still here and alive and kicking!

Big Adventure Ahead

I don't think it is an exaggeration to call getting on a 10 hour flight with a 5-month old an adventure. Yet, that is only the tip of the iceberg!

We leave tonight to head to Denver via San Fransisco. We have some luck in our favor to make our flights (if all goes as planned) nicer. We are flying out of the new international wing of Tokyo-Haneda Airport. This probably means very little to people not in Japan, but I'll try to explain. Haneda is about 30 minutes from home and the flight leaves at night. Narita (the other international airport) is nearly 2 hours away and the flights leave mid-afternoon. It's hard enough traveling with a baby, but starting the trip by throwing a wrench in Touma's normal routine didn't sound like much fun.

We are also lucky to be meeting my mom in San Fransisco, so if things are going badly at that time I have an extra pair of hands to help.

The last bonus is the carrier. We are flying Japan Airlines. That translates to "we're flying an airline where the flight attendants are friendly and helpful and will most likely not balk at the idea of watching Touma for 5 minutes if I have to use the toilet."

The rest of our adventure is of course seeing friends and family that I haven't seen in awhile. Particularly friends! I get to see some of my former teammates from college who I haven't seen in 10 years!! It hardly seems possible that it's been that long.

I will attempt to keep posting while we're on the road, but can't promise anything as I have no idea what kind of internet access we'll have.　Either way... wish us luck!

5 months old

I know I haven't posted many pictures lately, but there's just so much going on that half the time I forget to take pictures. I have to get better at that.

Touma is 5 months old! I can't believe it!?!? When did my tiny little baby get so big. He's nearly 17 pounds! (Holy cow!!) Our main mode of transportation (for him) is still babywearing. I'm trying to improve my core strength, but it's not going all that well. Luckily I have good carriers that last several hours before my back starts to get tired.

The big adventure we're working towards is going out on the train using the stroller. Our stroller is not that small (it's a jogging stroller), but it does fold nicely to store at home. We have to go on the train tomorrow using the stroller. Our station has an elevator, but I've been searching everywhere to see if the station where we are getting off has one. Very stressful and haven't found anything yet. (Boo!) I guess we'll just least early and figure it out when we get there. (Why are we using the stroller? Because my hair salon is baby friendly and I can take Touma, have him sit in the stroller AND get my hair done! Otherwise it would be carrier all the way.)

So, what does 5 months mean for our little man? It means he is rockin' and rollin' - literally! He can get up on his little knees and rock back and forth. He can also roll back to front and front to back easily. He also tries to get in a plank-like position and see how strong he is. It doesn't last long, but it's pretty funny. He's also a huge fan of his Johnny Jump Up! We listen to music and he bounces around. :-)

He went through a rough time with his night time sleep pattern, but he's starting to get back in the swing of things (and so is mommy!). I think we may start being early risers because he seems to really like getting up at 7, but then goes down for a nap around 9ish. That is something I can deal with.

Next week we leave for Denver to visit family and friends. I'm a little worried about flying alone with Touma, but we're flying on Japan Airlines and they are meant to be quite good. We are also leaving in the evening, which I'm hoping allows for both of us to be nice and tired that we can get some sleep on the way over.

And now, I'll leave you with one picture.

Playing with hats the other day.... doesn't quite fit!

Sleep regression

So last week, when we tried and failed at sleep training I thought Touma's waking up more was because I screwed with the schedule. Nope! It turns out that it wasn't my fault afterall. It's the 4 month sleep regression. To be fair, it's not been so bad. He wakes up 2-3 times now, when it was one (or sometimes none!). It's only horrible because I haven't been making myself go to sleep early enough.

Touma will fall asleep around 8:30 or 9 and I relish the freedom... so I stay up until 11:30 or 12 just fiddling around. I do a little reading and a little searching on the internet. Just silly stuff. I also usually do the dishes if Shimon worked late.

To get us out of this sleep regression, I've been reading lots of books and think I have a plan of attack. A) Start our bedtime routine earlier (we have been doing bathtime at 8pm). B) Get to bed myself as soon as Touma is nicely settled. I can read or whatever, maybe do some yoga, but my ultimate goal is more sleep. So this is the new plan. We'll see if it works!

Sleep Training Fail

Last week, after having read a number of articles and book sections about it, I tried a tiny bit of "sleep training" or at least scheduling. Yeah, that SO didn't work!

My idea wasn't all that strict. It wasn't like I wanted Touma to sleep right at 10:30am or that I wanted him in bed right after bath time at 8:30pm. Nope, I thought that getting him down between 10:30am and 11:00am or so would be fine. For his second nap, sometime between 3pm and 4pm would be fine. And then bed time whenever he fell asleep after his bath. Pretty flexible sounding, right?

I think that the moment I decided to try scheduling, Touma knew it and foiled my attempts. Last week he woke up more than he had in weeks! Going from sleeping through the night on occasion to waking two or even three times a night. Not good for mommy's sleep that's for sure.

So, I gave up. Sleep scheduling or training isn't right for us now. Will it be sometime?? Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that I need a certain amount of sleep to function and I did not get it last week.

Parenting is all about trial and error, right?

Sleep schedule, day 1

So, I've read a lot about trying to schedule sleep for little ones. Until recently we've had a great sleep pattern... Mostly sleeping through the night or one night feeding. Well, last week we went back to waking twice a night. Now I realize this doesn't sound like much to those moms who have difficult sleepers, but it's taking it's toll on me.

Last night I decided that I'd try to have Touma nap on a schedule. My loose idea was to have him go down between 10:30 and 11 and let him sleep for up to two hours. Then have him nap from 3:30 or 4 for bout the same amount of time. Funny how, the moment I decide to try a schedule, things get in the way.

Touma was just about down for a nap when my family called on Skype. I would have ignored it  except the volume was loud and I thought that it might wake him up. As I go up to get it, Touma woke up so I took him with me. I thought that we'd talk a bit and then Touma would go down again semi-easily. Ha!!!

He was awake for the next hour and I gave up and decided to run errands. And that was when he decided to fall asleep.

We got  home after errands (he finally fell back asleep again on the walk home!) and I gently laid him down to try to have him get more sleep. No go! He woke up and didn't go back down again until 5:40 or so  (we got home around 3). He then slept until about 7:30 or so.

Now we're at 9pm and so far our post-bath routine has gone like normal (bath, play, nurse...), but all my plans for the day went completely awry! Here's to hoping tomorrow goes better!

Teething has begun!

10 Signs that Touma is Teething:

1) His mouth has become a drool faucet.
2) He chews on his hands relentlessly.
3) He grabs any finger within reach, pulls it to his mouth and chews on it with a vengeance.
4) He doesn't suck his thumb, he chews it.
5) Likes his new teething ring, even when it's just out of the freezer.
6) He chews and pulls when nursing. (OUCH!!)
7) He's unusually fussy and sometimes even nursing doesn't help.
8) He has tried chewing on his snail toy (not a chewable toy at all!).
9) His napping has become more irregular than usual.
10)  Soon he will be chewing his newly discovered toes!

Now that Touma is 4 months, I figure that in a month or a little more he should be getting some teeth. My mom tells me that I got my first tooth around 5 months. Not sure if Touma will follow suit, but I won't be surprised if he gets his first tooth around the same time frame.

Lately we've been on a less normal sleeping schedule than we were at 3 months. We've had more nights with 2 wakings in the last week than we had during most of his third month. *Sigh* Momma's tired. So, I think that starting tomorrow I will be trying to keep track of nap times and not let them get too long and also tried to wear him out when he is awake. Also, I will be sure to nurse him good before I put him down for the night. We'll see how that plan works for the upcoming week. :-)

Photo Book

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The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

Magic on the Train

Japan is a country with lots of trains. Japanese people are often known to be very polite. However, these two facts do not always coincide. Often the rudest moments of a Japanese person's day occur on the train. I have witnessed this fact many times, especially while I was pregnant.

This little story is not about rudeness though, it is about the kindness of a stranger and how gaijin (foreigner) look after each other. After having lunch and visiting with a friend and her little girl yesterday, I began the trek home from Tokyo. I changed trains at Shibuya at about the time when lots of school kids were heading home. I quickly scanned the train for seats and made eye contact with another foreign guy, nodded in acknowledgment (this is a typical "greeting" between foreigners in Japan), and found my place to stand as there were no seats. Touma was being a superstar so it wasn't so bad to stand.

At one of the stops soon after, a seat opened up and I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the foreign guy, who had blocked off the seat so that Touma and I could sit. An older Japanese gentleman noticed the seat and made a move toward it and this guy blocked the seat from the gentleman saying "there's a baby" and we were able to sit down.

After having so many experiences of people ignoring the pregnant lady, pretending to sleep, "reading" the newspaper, etc. in hopes of avoiding giving up their seat while I was pregnant, I was touched that someone I'd never met would help us out like that. I know there will be many times when people won't give up a seat in the future, but yesterday it really touched me that a total stranger would help us out. 

Touma 4 months

My goodness does time fly! I can hardly believe how fast the past four months have gone. Touma has gone from a tiny little newborn to an active infant over night. He's just such a joy to watch grow. He's full of smiles and giggles and lots of drool! I wish I were better at updating my blog. I'm trying, but I realize that I forget to take pictures of a lot of the activities we do each week.

Last week we had two play dates and a mom and baby lunch! Busy week.

What I am amazed by is how much he can do now. He can scoot around on his belly (not in a controlled way, but still...), he loves to screech and talk, he can hold onto toys now (major accomplishment!), and he's getting good at entertaining himself on occasion. At four months, he also already loves to try to stand up while mom holds him and he definitely likes sitting. It's both exciting and sad how fast babies grow.

Without further adieu, here are some recent pictures.

With the other babies at the mom/baby lunch. From the right: Mana, 3 weeks; Luca, 6 weeks; Aria, 2 months; and Touma, 4 months. The size difference is amazing!

Side shot, same babies!

Being four months old sure is tiring!

DTaP and IPV

Today was Touma's 3 month check (he's really 3.5 months, but that's ok). He's now 7.35 kg (16.2 pounds)! He's also talking up a storm, rolling over and scooting around. Babies are amazing! He did so good through the whole check he smiled lots and talked up a storm.

He did especially well with the shots. With the IPV (inactivated polio) he looked a little startled, but didn't cry. Then came DTaP. He definitely cried then, but also stopped much quicker than last time. We also went and nursed a bit and he was fine. He even fell asleep on the way home.

I have a question that I was mulling over with a friend. Why do some vaccines hurt worse than others? Is it because they contain vaccines for more than one illness? Or does that have anything to do with it. Just curious if anyone knows the answer. I've seen the results, but I don't exactly understand the causes.

I'm also happy to report that I was less upset this time than I was the first time we did the vaccines. Not that it doesn't hurt to see him so sad and startled, but somehow it gets easier. I guess that's motherhood for ya. :-)

3 month pictures!

So, this blog's going to be a picture dump! Enjoy!!

Tummy time!

First teething toy... are we ready for teeth??

Joy.

Riding in the car. Not so bad.

Swinging. Finally liking the swing! Success!!

First outing in Em's beautiful mei tai! I love it!! It's so comfy!

My boys. Aren't they sweet!?

14 weeks 3 days!

I can't believe how time is flying! Last week we took our first family "vacation." Vacation is in quotes because we went to visit my mother-in-law, which isn't quite a full on vacation where Shimon and I had to do everything with regards to Touma. We had a lot of help! I love being back home, but I do have to say that I do miss the other arms that we had to hold Touma during mealtimes and such. It's amazing how quickly I forgot how difficult juggling eating and Touma can be!

In the process of being gone and while we were away we had lots of "firsts." To name a few: first ride on a bullet train, first car/car seat ride, first stay in a hotel, first time sleeping kawamoji style (in Japan parents and kids often sleep in the shape of the Chinese character for river, which looks like this 川 and is read kawa), first shrine visit, first official pictures, and first time flying on an airplane. :-) Some of the firsts were bigger than others like first bullet train (5 hours of entertaining Touma for mom and dad - Shimon usually sleeps 4 out of 5 hours on that trip!) and first plane ride (and I was alone with him! he did really well and smiled at the pretty cabin attendants!).

While we were away, Touma officially rolled over for the first time. And the second time he did it, I was filming! He was a little surprised that he did it, but wasn't annoyed or scared or anything. The short video is on my facebook page if you haven't seen it already,

Next week we have our three month check and possibly more immunizations to look forward to. Also, my friend Chika had her baby so we'll have to get over to see her as well. Lots to do!! (pictures to follow when I get the time, baby's waking up now!!)

Back to school

So in the fall I decided that in order to make a career of teaching I needed to take the next step: get certified in TESOL. There are various ways in which I could do that. There are many short certificate programs and online programs, but I decided that I should go for a full masters (#2 for anyone interested).

Luckily the program I found is entirely online, so wherever I am I can keep working on it. Also, I can take up to 6 years to finish. With any luck I can finish in less time than that, but we'll just have to see. I'll be starting with one class in the Fall at Shenandoah University in Virginia. I'm still in the beginning phases of figuring out which course I'll take and all that, but it should be interesting. I'm just hoping that I can get all the work done and still manage my mommy duties. At least this way I'll have to practice good time management again!! :-)

Touma 10 weeks！

10 weeks!?! How did we get here so quickly?

Touma is such a little bug. He is definitely a morning person (not like dad!!). He wakes up around 6 most mornings and  giggles and smiles up a storm. After that we usually sleep a bit more before starting our day.

At the moment our days consist of lots of eating, floor time (tummy time, singing, reading books, etc.), swinging (he finally doesn't hate the swing!!), and miscellaneous other activities. We get out of the house most days and usually once a week we go on a longer outing. This week we went to visit my friend Ashley in Shibuya. She's giving birth tomorrow!!

Today Touma had his first immunizations. We decided to do rotavirus, Hib, and PCV this time around. Two shots!! It's so hard to watch him cry because he doesn't know why he hurts. I cried a little too! :(

Now for some pictures...

Tummy time!! He's doing pretty good I'd say!

Slightly fuzzy... but it's Touma digging his swing. Notice the lack of crying.

Funny face... he was halfway asleep.

When he finally fell asleep, Touma was propped up on my leg and a pillow!

Who woke me up??

 

Smiles

Touma is now officially 2 months! How did we get here so fast? It's incredible to think that it's been 2 months!! He's getting to be such a smiley sweet little guy. I'm fairly lucky with how well he sleeps (knock on wood!), he generally wakes up only once or twice at night after he goes down after his final feeding (he usually sleeps from 9-11 and then goes down for a longer stretch from 11:30 or 12).

The newest thing he's been doing is getting up in the morning and being super smiley. Means he takes after me and not Daddy (Shimon is REALLY hard to wake up in the morning!!). Maybe he's in early training for morning practices... ;-)

Here are some of the smiles that he gave me this morning!

Just warming up...

for the main event!

He was smiling and wiggling in this one, which is why he's a bit off center.