Friday, May 25, 2012

Summer Fun - Odaiba, Anpanman museum, and bike rides

Summer is here and we are having fun! Last weekend we did the touristy thing and took the boat to Odaiba with friends. We met this family through yochien and really enjoy their company. They moved back to Japan from Raleigh, NC and both speak great English and have spent lots of time in the US. They are a Japanese/Irish family. Miss M loves their little boy and tried to hold his hand at Odaiba but he played hard to get. :) We also went to the Anpanman museum as daddy is using up some vacation time. Of course the kids had fun there. How can you not? And today, I ventured out on the bike with both kids since we got the K Man his helmet. I must admit, he looks pretty cute in the helmet. Enjoy the pictures. We are having a lot of fun enjoying this beautiful weather before the full heat and humidity kick in.

Monday, May 14, 2012

May 12, 2012 Scrapbook Day

Scrapbook day for May fell on a Saturday. We love Saturdays in this house because it means quality family time. Daddy spent the morning at the gym as he is trying to get back into a routine with exercise. In the afternoon, Mama got some quiet time while the K Man napped and daddy and Miss M went to the park. We enjoyed dinner Saturday night in Ikebukuro with some new friends who moved here from Seattle. I met the wife through BSF and they invited us over for dinner. Miss M loved it because it meant loads of new toys to play with. We really enjoyed their family and look forward to spending more time with them in the future. I also saw a Cafe du Monde in Ikebukuro that I plan to visit. I had no idea they had a cafe here in Tokyo. Once the kids went to bed, we stayed up way too late watching the show "White Collar." It is on USA and a friend recommended it to us. It is addictive. We watched 3 seasons in about 3 weeks, staying up until 1 in the morning watching it and forcing myself to go to bed because I knew my kids would be up at 7. The acting is pretty cheesy in the beginning, but after about 5 episodes you get hooked. It is about a white collar criminal who gets to work with the FBI as part of his sentence and help them solve cases while wearing an anklet. I highly recommend it. Many of you may also be wondering what happened with the heart murmur I mentioned for the K Man on his birthday post. I took him last week to the Red Cross hospital and the EKG confirmed that it is an "innocent" murmur. I am very thankful for a healthy baby boy and glad to have that EKG over with. Pretty boring scrapbook day, but those are some of the best kind of days. :)

Disneyland

Friday we convinced Daddy to take off work and head to Disneyland, or Mickey and Minnie's House. We told Miss M she had to expand her horizons and ride two new rides. She rode the train, but did not like it when it went through the tunnel because it was too dark. She also rode Dumbo, which she LOVED, and we went back on it for a second time. And of course, we stuck to our old faithfuls - The Boat Ride (you may know it as "Small World"), the merry-go-round, and the Tea Cups. We always have such a fun time at Disney. They still had Easter decorations up so we were able to watch the Easter parade. You know you have been to Disney one too many times when you just do not take that many pictures there. We are spoiled by living so close to it. You will notice that Kan zoomed in on me and Miss M on the Dumbo picture - he wanted a close up of Miss M giving the peace sign. She truly is half Japanese when she gives the peace sign in pictures. I just hope she does not do it when she is like 20.

Golden Week

Japanese companies recently had a holiday during the end of April, first week of May, so we had daddy around a bit more and enjoyed some fun things around the city. We had a pizza night with friends and amazingly enjoyed it with the 6 children getting along fabulously. We gave a baby shower for one of daddy's co-workers and they brought the K Man a special birthday cake. We also went to a cool park outside the city. We rode paddle boats shaped like swans, enjoyed some street food, and watched lots of eclectic artists performing in the park. It was a fun week off.

The Pink Bike

We finally got a bike...and it is PINK! As you can probably guess, Miss M picked the color. My husband is definitely confident in his manhood when he rides around on the pink bike. It is our new set of wheels. It is electric so I have some help going up hills with my precious cargo of 55 pounds. We still need to get the K Man a helmet, so we have mostly taken it with just Miss M by herself. She loves it. She thinks it is fun, and loves the pink.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Happy First Birthday K Man

On the K Man's actual birthday we went to a plarail exhibit in Chiba with a friend and her son. It was mass chaos but the kids still had fun. Our birthday dinner was nothing special - leftovers - but he is turning one, so he will not remember. And it was fun to watch Big Sis help K Man open his gifts, although she was a bit disappointed when she learned she could not sleep with the Mickey Mouse he received from Grandma. I have confessed on here before my desire to want to scrapbook for my kids and my family, but I simply do not do it. I am too tired at night and would rather read a book or watch TV. But I do blog and hope one day these can be books for the kids. I would like to finish a one year book for M (I am on month 9) and a one year book for the K Man, but other than that this is the best I can do. I decided to keep a journal for each child and write in it at random times, but try to at least write in it for each birthday. Here is my entry I wrote yesterday for the K Man and a few pictures from his actual birthday. My dear sweet Kei-Kun, You have some nicknames - "The K Man," "Snoop T," "Snoopy," "Buddy," but we mostly call you Kei-kun. Today was your first birthday. Where does the time go? A year ago today at 3:26PM you entered this world, at a whopping 8.5 pounds. You were born at Seibo hospital in Tokyo, Japan. To say you stuck out is a bit of an understatement - you were so much bigger than all the other Japanese babies in the nursery. That's okay. You looked like your Papaw Hill - still do. He would say, "That doesn't make you all bad." Your birth was fairly easy, for labor that is. I was 4cm. dilated by the time the taxi pulled into the hospital around 10AM (thankfully no taxi birth because the contractions in the back seat of the cab with Miyako next to me were not fun). By the time Dr. Sakamoto broke my water, we were half way. Then your Mama got the drugs. Sorry buddy, I just couldn't do it naturally and I didn't really want to. We made it to 10 and Dr. S said we would start pushing at 3PM and have our baby by 3:30. Three big pushes later and there you were at 3:26PM, with four minutes to spare. We were excited to have a boy, especially since Miyako had been praying for a baby brother for 9 months. And we knew you were our "Kei" from the moment we saw you - the "Kyo" from Kyoto. Your first year has been like your birth - fairly easy relatively speaking. You nursed well straight from the womb. You gave Mama longer stretches of sleep by 12 weeks. You weened so easily, in like 4 days, and at 1 year old you sleep 11-12 hours each night with 2 naps a day. You are the textbook perfect baby. Your personality shines. You are a lot like your daddy. You flirt with the old women on the train, and you always give the cutest grins when you are doing something you shouldn't be doing. You laugh, a lot, and are very laid back. Our friends in Tokyo like to hear you cry because they begin to wonder if you ever do. You are so happy. I hope this disposition stays with you because it attracts people. You are social and love to watch your Big Sister. You are such a sweet little boy. At your one year check up you were 20.4 pounds in weight, 28.3 inches in height, 17.51 inches in chest circumference, and 18.4 inches in head circumference. The doctor is slightly concerned about your percentages because you dropped significantly from your 6th month check up to now. She also heard a heart murmur so we are going to see a pediatric cardiologist next week. From what I have been told, this is very typical. But it has scared your mama just a bit. You are so happy and genki. And i am reminded you do not really belong to me, but to the Lord, and He will watch over you. He has ordained all of your days so we will get these things checked, do our part, and trust Him for the rest. You still do not stand up on your own but you want to really bad. You crawl both army style and on all fours. You will walk soon enough. I do not want to rush it or you - could be part of your laid back/easy going nature. You just are not in too big of a hurry, again, like your daddy. When I knew I was pregnant with you, I had wondered how I could love another baby as much as I loved your big sister. It is amazing really because I can! You hold such a special place in my heart. There is plenty of love God has given me for my sweet baby boy. You didn't have this huge 1st birthday party like your sister when we lived in the U.S. We celebrated with Baby D and his family, and the two of you had a lot of fun. You are curry for the first time and enjoyed and savored each and every bite of your birthday cupcake. The party was special because we celebrated YOU, our sweet Kei-kun. I love you baby boy. Happy First Birthday. I look forward to celebrating many many more. All my love, Mama

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The K Man's Birthday Party

The K Man will be a year old tomorrow (another post dedicated to him will follow with a little more from my heart) and we had a small celebration for him on Saturday with another family. They also have a little boy who turned one this week and we decided rather than doing a big party for the boys, we would just have a simple dinner with our families. Our kids get along extremely well as the older siblings are just a month a part, and my friend had been wanting me to show her how to fix Japanese curry for quite some time now. So, the K Man and baby D celebrated their birthdays with Japanese curry, which they both ate, and these adorable animal cupcakes my friend made. Baby D dug right in his cupcake and was more interested in meshing his hands in it than actually eating it. The K Man, on the other hand, graciously ate each bit and savored it. He was very interested in eating it, so much so that when I took it away about half way through he started screaming and bouncing in his seat so hard that I thought the entire table would fall apart. I broke a little more off and gave it to him, then quickly dispersed of the rest so he did not see it anymore. Out of sight, out of mind so they say. Big sis also enjoyed her "pink" piggie cupcake. I do not think the K Man's future wife has to worry about him messing up the cake on their wedding day...he will not give up his cake that easily and would much rather eat it than smash it in her face. It is hard to believe a year has gone by. I have so much more to say about that in my next post, but for now I will leave you with these photos. It sure does not look the same as M's first birthday party with lots of grandparents and friends of ours in attendance, but it has just as much meaning and was just as much fun. We are so grateful for really good friends we have made here in Tokyo.