Thursday, December 20, 2012

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!!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

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...

Saturday, October 27, 2012

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.

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

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.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

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!







Friday, August 24, 2012

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!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

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!

Thursday, July 05, 2012

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!

Friday, June 29, 2012

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!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

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?

Monday, June 11, 2012

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!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

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. :-)

Friday, June 08, 2012

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

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

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

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. 


Monday, June 04, 2012

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!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

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. :-)

Sunday, May 13, 2012

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!?

Friday, May 11, 2012

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!!)

Monday, April 23, 2012

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!! :-)

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

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??
 

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

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.

Friday, March 16, 2012

6 weeks!

This week Touma is six weeks old. How did the time fly?? He's already looking so different from when we first brought him home from the hospital. I can't believe how quickly he's growing and how different he is with each passing day. I am starting to understand why people keep saying to enjoy this time because it's over too quickly. :-)

Touma already has some favorite things... he loves his bath, likes to be on the move as much as possible (mostly strapped to Shimon or me), he likes napping somewhere other than his crib (with mom in bed or on top of mom's chest), he likes music (especially the Stephen Colbert rendition of "Friday" and Motown)... I could go on, but there's too much to list up properly.

One thing I'm grateful for is that Touma doesn't like a messy diaper... I'm hoping that this means that he'll have less diaper rash. So far (knock on wood!) we've been really lucky!

Last week we started cloth diapering full time. There's still some things that I need to figure out and I still have to buy a few more diapers, but all and all it's been a pretty easy transition. I am mostly using all in ones and ones that require a cover (I'm still not totally up on the lingo), but on occasion I throw him in a prefold with a cover as well. Prefolds are great during the week when we're at home just the two of us! Dad would probably not want to mess with prefolds, but for me it's no biggie and they're really good for when he just wets.

Now for some pictures...

This was taken at about 3 weeks... he's making his fishy face!

This was taken at about 5 weeks... very serious boy we have.
He's not always serious... he is definitely a smiley guy.
We had a very good time while my mom was here. This was a typical naptime for Touma when she was here.
He also likes sleeping with Daddy too!
I've been bad at keeping up with my blog, but I'm pretty sure that everyone understands. I'll try to find more time to at least add pictures. It's also good for me to keep a record of how things are changing. :-)