Snow!!

Monday was a holiday. So, in theory Shimon should have been off of work. Unfortunately for us, he had a big pile-up of work to do and was leaving on a business trip on Tuesday. Thus, no holiday for him. :-( It was actually ok, since it snowed - a LOT!! Things would have been even more messy if it had been a regular work day (as it was Tuesday was a bit of a mess with transportation anyway!).

This is what the snow started out like... yay, it's actually sticking!!

Overlooking the neighbors garden

 Within a few hours, it was looking like this.

The roof across from our living room!

The one thing that you cannot see is the horrible wind that went along with this snow. Due to the wind and the fact that Shimon wasn't home, we waited until Tuesday to go explore the snow. Which was both a good and bad decision. Good, because it was finished snowing and there was no wind. Bad, because the snow was all crusty and no fun to play with. :-( Though... we did explore it a little.

Curious about this white frozen stuff

Just a cute picture!

Trying to walk in his new shoes...

Mom and Touma

 I'm still hoping we get some more snow this year. Next time it snows I'm definitely going to try to get out in it sooner. Also, I'll layer up Touma's legs so he can crawl around in it! Either way, here's to hoping we at least get one or two more snow days this year!!

Holiday Roundup!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Since I haven't posted in awhile, I thought I would start with that greeting first. Geesh! The holidays flew by this year. There are two things I'd like to see invented: 1) Star Trek-style "beam me up, Scotty" teleportation technology and 2) a way to make time slow down just a little bit! It hardly seems possible that we're halfway through the month of January.

Our Christmas was busy, but really nice. We went to a few Christmas parties, had Christmas Eve lunch with friends, and had a relatively relaxed evening of church and dinner afterward. This year Christmas Eve was a day off for Shimon, so we didn't have to worry about how to work around his work schedule. Next year will be different I'm sure!

So, here are some highlights from the festivities!

On December 22nd, we went to my friend Lauren's place for a Christmas party. There was lots of nice food and drink and the little ones exchanged presents! (Exchanged, in that they both opened and ostensibly the present was given by the other!)

Eating yummy butter roll!

Touma ripping into the box, while Gwen looks on...

Gwen enjoying her ladybug backpack (with baby leash function)!

We did most of our Christmas celebrating on Christmas Eve this year. First we went to my friend Robin's place for a potluck lunch. The kids played a lot and parents got to relax a bit (especially the moms!). Shimon got to see what Touma may be like in the future as Robin's little boy, Oscar, is nearly 4! And what a lot of energy he has!!

Almost everyone made it in the picture... minus Shimon!

Touma enjoying a big boy toy - Spiderman!!

But he's not so big that he doesn't enjoy the bouncer still. :-)

That evening, after church, we came home and opened presents. Since Touma is still young, we kind of just flew by the seat of our pants on this one. Next year, we'll really have to figure things out and make it all a bigger deal!

Opening his first ever Christmas present, with mom's help.

Yum! Shoes!!

Box 2 - Touma did the thing he's best at and tried to rip the paper with his teeth. 

He really liked this shaker from Daddy.

New Years was pretty quiet this year. Since Touma is still small we didn't stay up really late. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, we went to our favorite park (Negishi Forrest Park) and tried out Touma's new shoes and just enjoyed the afternoon. We headed there quite late and stayed until the sun was setting. Brrr... it was cold once the sun went down!

New shoes!

Touma was highly distracted by his new shoes and tried to eat them a few times...

Changing into easier shoes...

We actually got a lot of pictures, but most of them were not of Touma walking. Since the ground at the park was a little bit bumpy he got tired of walking pretty quickly and reverted to crawling.

Nice pic, Papa!

As the sun was setting, we got a family portrait in.

Happy 2013!

Miscellaneous Oddities (better known as "Life")

This week has been a fairly standard week for us in Yokohama, which is saying a lot when you're t-minus 5 days from Christmas. There have been some happenings though and I thought I'd share! (Sorry, this will be a pictureless blog post!)

Monday - My friend Lauren takes her little girl to the library fairly frequently, so we decided to join them. This is a great idea! We can borrow books in Japanese and in English and get out of the house. I did not choose my shoes very wisely. I chose some kind of old shoes from when I was teaching. On our way there, which entails climbing a pretty steep hill with a jogging stroller, I realize my shoe feels loose. I look down and the strap is nearly busted. I walk gingerly on it for a bit until it does completely bust! Yay! Boo! :-( I pop in to a 100yen shop and get some tape. I hobbled around until we headed home. When I realized there was no good fix, I just wrapped take around my shoe until we made it home. It was ghetto-fabulous. And now I have an excuse to buy a new pair of shoes!

Tuesday - Decided to make a short Costco run. Yeah, that doesn't sound right, SHORT and Costo don't really coexist in the same universe. However, since I went last week, I could totally pull of a shorter run. Got baby in the car. No crying! (score!) Go out of the parking space. Got nearly around the corner and.. CRUNCH! Dang! I crunched the front right side of the car on a pole. BOO! I couldn't believe it. I hadn't ever come that close before and now I'd crunched the nose. Well, that put me off my A-game and made me pretty grumpy. Especially when I arrived at Costco and encountered the tons of people who don't know how to drive a cart! (Yeah, carts get stashed everywhere and are always in the way. AND they have food samples during the week too!) But, I did manage to get all the things I wanted AND get Shimon's Christmas present at the outlets and get back home in one piece.

Wednesday - Finished Christmas shopping! Yay! Found out that smaller stroller is great for getting around Yokohama station area. Must use smaller stroller when possible.

Thursday - Went to play group. Found that Touma refused all food that I prepared in favor of udon noodles. Which was fine because I was willing to share! Went to find out how much it will cost to fix the light (it busted in the encounter with the pole!) on the car. Luckily, it is far cheaper than expected (about $100!) Also, found out that the baby will eat apples. As long as they are not served up to him looking anything like an apple. Tiny, bitten off pieces of mommies apple will do fine thank you! At least I know he doesn't hate them anymore, but I'm not sure I can always feed him apples that way.

And the rest of our week is bound to be exciting... with a fun play group tomorrow, Christmas party on Saturday, and then Christmas Eve potluck lunch followed by candlelight service at church! What more fun could be in store!! :-)

Merry Christmas everyone!!

How did we get here? (an overdue catch-up)

The last thing I remember is it being November... and now we're nearly 2 weeks into December. How the heck did that happen? Ack! There's so much to do and so little time to do it!

This past month has been very busy. In November, we went and visited my mother-in-law in Shimonoseki. The trip was really nice and Touma got to be spoiled a lot! He also got to try a lot of new foods including udon (noodles) and shirasu (little tiny fish!). They are both long and skinny so he enjoyed slurping them down. We also went to a hot spring with Grandma and Auntie Chikako. It was right on the ocean, so we took Touma down to the beach to feel the sand. Not sure what he thought of that...

Looking unsure of the sand.

A little while after taking this picture, Touma decided that two feet in the sand was just too much. SO he changed it up!

One baby foot in the sand was plenty!

After getting back, it started getting pretty cold here in Yokohama and it definitely started to feel like the holidays were upon us. We got our tree... it is a total Charlie Brown tree, but it's still our first REAL tree in Japan.

Touma and our tree - pre-decorating!

Everyone knows that a tree always improves with lights and decorations! And luckily that was totally true of our little tree.

The finished product. Even though it's not nearly as full as trees back home, it's our tree and I love it!

Last week I got to meet up with a friend that I haven't seen in over 5 years. We were both studying Japanese at Waseda when I first came back to Japan in 2006. After that one year program finished, she went back to Taiwan and I stayed on in Japan. It was really nice to see her and meet her husband. I have a feeling that we'll have to take a family trip to Taiwan one of these days...

In front of the Christmas tree at Akarenga. It is huge, but we couldn't get the whole thing in!

That catches us up to this week. We are officially in winter. Overnight lows hover around or just below 0C and it's too cold to really have play group outside. Since that is the case, it's actually nice to do a bit of shopping. We met up with Lauren and her little girl Gwen on Tuesday and did a bit of shopping. And at one point we let the kids run around near the big Christmas tree. But did I get a picture of the tree? No! Just the kids. :-)

Touma is working on his standing, while Gwen lurks in the background!

So, no promises about many more posts before we ring in the new year. Here's to a great 2013 and maybe even more blogging!

Fall cleaning?

The last few weeks have been a bit difficult around our place.

First, we had to send back the crib that we had rented for Touma. This crib had a good amount of storage underneath and when it went back it left us with a storage deficit. Because of this deficit we were left with piles of things in our dining room for a few weeks.

Shimon had been hatching a plan to reorganize our living room with large shelves and some other furnishings from Ikea. So in a mad fit about two weeks ago he bought all of the essentials and brought them home for the set up.

The new set up is wonderful, but it took time to get things sorted. It also took time to get rid of some of the stuff lying around our house. In Japan, unlike the US or other countries, there is no goodwill or other second hand store that takes in donations of clothes that can still be used. Instead most things get thrown away. However, a little while back a friend told me about tokyofreecycle, which is a website where you can post and give things away. I would rather do that than let things go to waste.

One thing that has kept the house from being as organized and clean as Shimon would like would be the fact that some days are harder than others when you spend your time with a 8-9 month old. This is something that has been incredibly hard for my husband to understand. Despite being home all day, chasing after the boy is exhausting. Going out, which is a bit more fun sometimes, is also a lot of work (work that he often calls "asobi" or "play"). What my husband sometimes misses is that when Touma is awake I can't get very much done. I can get things done in very small bursts, but overall it is not that easy.

We are finally nearly done with the cleaning and organizing process. My husband, I think, got to see a glimpse of what an average day with Touma is like when we went to a friend's place for lunch. Every 5 minutes (or less) I was up readjusting where he could go (this friend doesn't have kids, so the place wasn't fully baby proof!) and trying to keep him happy.

Anyway, this is a very disjointed entry. I'm just sharing what has been going on lately around here...

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!