Thursday, June 23, 2011

Daddy's Shoes








Putting on Daddy's shoes is hard work. I have to sit on my little chair to help me. But once I do it, I am stylin'.

Tasty Thursday, back for one day...









So, my tasty Thursday lunch buddy is moving back to the US and I am so so sad she is leaving. I will miss her terribly. However, today we enjoyed one last Tasty Thursday before she ventures back to "home." In reality, I think we only did like 3 or 4 Tasty Thursdays due to the earthquake and both of us leaving Japan, but we had very good intentions. For today, our Japanese teacher treated us to a fabulous Japanese lunch in Ginza. We had our own private booth for the first and second course behind closed doors, and then moved to an open room for the dessert buffet, of which we had exactly 45 minutes to eat as many cute little desserts that we could stuff in our mouths. The presentation of the food was beautiful, and the company was even better. Our first course consisted of several small dishes with items like tofu, okra, a radish salad, sweet egg, meat balls, and a spinach salad. My friend and teacher enjoyed the sushi plate for their main course, and I sampled a few myself. I had a miso flavored fish with rice for my main course. For dessert, we sampled a little bit of everything. Kei came along for the luncheon while Miyako stayed with Nena. I am glad I left Miyako at home - she would have been all over our little private booth and probably would have turned over the dessert table in efforts to try one. Kei was super - he just laid in the booth and looked around and slept both on the bus ride to Ginza and back. Even though I had one child with me, it was a nice little respite for me with some good adult conversation before my friend leaves.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

She's Beginning to Look A Lot Like a Big Girl...








Every where you turn, Miyako is beginning to look a lot like a big girl. Last weekend she took a trip with Daddy to Ikea to buy her big girl bed. She wanted some Valentine sheets, but Kan thought they were a bit much, so he convinced her to get these cute animal sheets that will look better with Kei's blue crib once they share a room (which she says she is not doing, but she is not the boss). She even helped daddy put together the big girl bed while Mama and Kei went to a baby shower. However, the big girl bed sat in our living room for a week. This past Sunday, we acted as if we were on HGTV, and moved furniture around so that her big girl bed could actually fit in her room. How did we do this with a two year old and a 6 week old? Thankfully the 6 week old actually took a nap in his bed for about a hour and Miyako sat in her crib with lots of books to read while Mama and Daddy worked. Kan also put together a new shelf/toy organizer and we moved most of the toys to the office so that we could make room for two beds and not just one. After all of this hard work, where did she sleep Sunday night? In her crib! However, last night she slept in her big girl bed and did fabulous! We explained that she has to ask for mama or Daddy to get out of bed and she just cannot get out whenever she wants to. When Kan went to retrieve her this morning I heard her on the monitor say, "May I get out now?" Tonight though, we are back to the crib. Not sure when you are supposed to make them stay in the big girl bed. Any parenting thoughts out there in cyberspace on that one? The Little Man is still sleeping in a pack and play in the hall way and will not share a room until he can sleep through the night without disturbing his sister.

Miyako is also making great steps in the potty department. Some have asked what I have done, and to be honest, not much of anything. For about 6 months now we have been reading potty books and I would ask her if she wanted to use the potty and she would always say no. I never forced her. But, we read potty books ALL THE TIME! Shortly before we had Kei, she decided she wanted to use the potty. I thought to myself, "Great...like I have time for this right now." But she still was not aware of when she needed to go. She would literally sit on her potty for about 30 minutes and never go, so I just let her play with it. She went once or twice before we had Kei and got a treat. Well, the treats are motivating factors right now. Last night she actually told us she needed to go potty, so we rushed her to the potty and she went. In fact, she went four times last night. Tonight, it was the same thing. She is able to tell us when she needs to go, but she chooses to do it more at night than during the day. Again, this is fine with me as I really do not have the time to really "train" her when I spend half of my hours breastfeeding, burping or trying to get Little Man to take a nap. If she has to go poopie while on the potty, she wants her diaper put on. I am trying to be relaxed with it as I do not want to stress myself out more right now. Maybe we could tackle it in a week of staying home and doing nothing else, but for now, this will have to do. I am so proud of her. She is growing up so quickly.

I spend a lot of my days, in my mind at least, complaining to myself "why can't he nap in his bed? why does she talk back to me already at age 2.5? why can't I go to the bathroom by myself? will I ever get time to myself again?" And then I get a second email from a second friend today whose sweet little boy has been diagnosed with leukemia and God really grabs my heart. You read that correctly - within the past month, two of my friends have had children diagnosed with leukemia. It breaks my heart. And then I really get upset with myself when I think about how frustrated I can get with my kids during the day. Children really are a blessing from the Lord. And not everyone can have kids or they are going through much more difficult circumstances than I am. I pray I can be mindful of this and count my blessings even in the most "frustrating" of days and remember to pray for those who are suffering much more than I am and fighting for their kids.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

June 11, 2011



Every time I now do a scrapbook post, at least for this year since I picked the 11th day of each month, I will always think back to March 11, 2011 and what happened here in Japan. A friend of ours works here as a journalist from a foreign country and has been up north several times post earthquake to report on what is going on. We were speaking with him today and he was saying how he wants to keep going up to do reports on the progress, or maybe lack of, but the rebuilding efforts is no longer "news worthy" according to the news. Isn't it sad...the most devastating earthquake in Japan's history is no longer news worthy even though people still go without food, electricity, water, homes, jobs, etc. I admit, I also forget and I LIVE here. I go about my daily life and it is back to normal, so to speak, and I forget that not far away people are really suffering and they will be for quite some time. I am thankful we have found a church here who is active in the rebuilding efforts and relief work. And I am glad that by God's grace, I chose to scrapbook on the 11th of each month, and I can remember and pray for the people here in Japan who are still struggling so much. Please take time to do so today.

We had a fun day today. It is the rainy season and we woke up to rain and humidity. No need to dry my hair this summer as it just frizzes the minute I walk out the door. We were supposed to go to a picnic with friends, but due to the rain we obviously would not be spending the morning at Shinjuku Gyoen. Instead, a dear friend offered to host us at her place, and we had a lot of fun. Two of us had recently had children. They are the cute babes you see in the pictures. Kei and Mr. D are only 3 days apart. Their older siblings are exactly one month apart. And their parents have been married about the same amount of time. I was excited we gave birth so close together because Mr. D's family will be here for about 2 more years or so, which means depending on when we make it back to the US, they can become little friends/playmates. The kids pretty much destroyed my friends' living room today, but they all had fun playing together and the adults had fun conversing. We also toasted the new babies to a nice glass of champagne. Yum. It was nice for our husbands to get together as well. I sometimes feel bad for Kan because his main interaction with other guys is with co-workers, and who wants to "hang out" with co-workers...typically you do not want to, unless you are a social worker like I was and loved your colleagues (I hope you are reading this ladies). But for Kan it is a bit different with Japanese co-workers, so he had fun today as well just hanging out with the guys.

After the "picnic" I came home with the kiddos and Kan headed to Ikea and Costco, where he currently still is. We bought a new shelf last weekend when we took Miyako to get her big girl bed, which is still sitting in our living room floor and why you have not seen a post about it yet. Anyways, we bought the shelf in neutral color but decided we wanted black, so Kan borrowed a van and returned it today. I know he is exhausted. When I was up at 2 to feed Kei, Kan was still up at his computer for work...even on a Friday night...but he is so good to us and in his weariness, making these trips to Ikea and Costco for us. Such a good man, fabulous husband and wonderful father. And no I am not kissing up because I very much doubt he has the time to read our blog. :)

Now, I need to find something for dinner as it is after 8 and I am starving. Happy weekend everyone!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

At a Loss





I am at a blog loss - a loss of words that is - as it is 8:15PM, both kiddos are asleep, and I have been up since before 6. I went for my first run post baby today. I pushed myself a bit too much as Kei is still waking up twice a night to feed, but I needed some sort of stress release. So after I fed him at 5:30, I put on those jogging shoes and headed out the door. I had a date with Steven Tyler (yes, I love him and love him as a judge on AI), Black Eyed Peas, OAR, Bruce Springsteen and Beastie Boys this morning. It was a fun date but I am out of shape people! I exercised through my entire pregnancy with Miyako, but with Kei, I just was so tired after chasing Miyako all day. I would set my alarm to exercise but come February I started to give up on it. Then we had the big earthquake in March and after that, I really gave up on it. So, the run this morning was good but I have a lot of work to do to get back to where I was before Miyako! But, the challenge is before me, and I must say, the fresh air by myself along the river with good tunes really did the mind some good this morning. However, here comes 8:15, and I actually have a bit of silence in the house and a chance to actually blog, and I am at a loss for words due to sheer exhaustion. Kan is still at work and it really is a bummer when he has to work late. The hardest part of the day right now is between 6-8 PM. Kei is fussy, Miyako is tired, Mama is tired, and we all know it is not pretty when fatigue sets in. I am convinced that fatigue brings out the worst in me. And perhaps my daughter as she was put in bed 45 minutes earlier than usual due to her attitude at the dinner table. I guess she comes by it honestly, but I made the right call because within ten minutes she was sound asleep.

I took Kei to the pediatrician on Saturday for his check up. The boy is big! At 5 weeks old he is 11 pounds and 21 inches...he has gained 2.5 pounds since birth and one inch! He went with me to a baby shower for a friend on Sunday. I finally got a picture of me and my boy - usually with Miyako around it is hard to get a picture with him. :) So, enjoy the pic of me and Sweet Kei. Of course there was lots of yummy food we made for the baby shower. Aren't the little duck treats adorable?

There is so much more I want to say, but when I type it out, it does not come out right, so I think it is time for me to settle in with Jerry, Elaine, Kramer and George and vegetate for a bit before I call it a night. I do not want to miss my date in the morning with Tony Horton and P90X. Good night.