Merry Christmas!

Hope you all had a wonderful day.

Christmas Field Trip

A couple of weeks ago, Emi-chan's school took a field trip the Christmas in the Park in San Jose. We rode the light rail, which made Emi-chan a little scared and mama a little queasy.


Then at the park, we visited the Christmas tree the preschool sponsored, and walked around enjoying the displays. Actually, Emi-chan didn't like looking at the displays very much and didn't care to walk around very much, either, but she did better than the pumpkin patch. She had only 2 tantrums, compared to 10.

See how she's enjoying the display?

The only display she really liked,
a strange animatronic frog jug band.

Emi-chan climbing on the giant piece of p-
oh, I mean the statue of Quetzalcoatl,
the snake god of the Aztecs.

Busy, Busy

This has been a very busy weekend. Yesterday, was my annual Ornament Tea Party. We just celebrated out 11th year of getting together for crafts, food, and fellowship. This year, we decided not to make ornaments (although, you could if you felt like it), but to buy or make something for each person with "red" as our theme. It was fun to see and receive awesome gifts from each woman there. We also ate until our stomaches hurt, and laughed until our faces and sides ached. The tea party was supposed to end around 3 or 4 PM, but we didn't leave until 6 PM. I hope we meet for another 11 more years.

Beautiful crafts

Wonderful food

Awesome women

Today was supposed to be a day of rest, but it ended up not being so restful. The medical clinic we go to received a batch of H1N1 vaccines, but they were reserved for high-risk children and their caregivers. Well, apparently, there was a small turn out, so at 12:30 PM, they opened the clinic up to all children and their caregivers. I woke Rick up, dressed Emi-chan up, and we all headed out to the clinic. We got there about 1:30 PM and there was already a super long line for the shots. We waited about 40 minutes our shots. Good thing we got there early.

Waiting, waiting...

Waiting some more...

Later in the evening, we went out to dinner at Sonoma Chicken Coop with some friends. It was Lisa S.'s birthday. We had fun eating and laughing (at each other).

Happy Birthday, Lisa!
You're still a baby!

Mmm. Cake.


Nathan with Kancho* cookies.

*What is Kancho? It means enema in Japan. Kancho is a game where you sneak up on a poor unsuspecting soul and poke them in the b*ng hole. I found these cookies at a Korean market. I have no idea what it means in Korean. For some reason, whenever I talk to Nathan, he mentions kancho somewhere in the conversation. So that's why I got him a box of these cookies. I wonder what these cookies are like...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I spent a few minutes trying to get Emi-chan interested in making some turkeys. She just looked at me like I was crazy and kept watching her videos.

Rick, Emi-chan and I were supposed to have Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, but it didn't work out, so we had dinner with my Bro' Jeff.

We hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everybody (everyone?) had a good Halloween and got lots of treats and no tricks. (A little side note: Rick helped out a lady at the supermarket who had her car egged :().

Emi-chan was supposed to be a pirate this year for Halloween. She spent weeks pretending to be a pirate, growling, "Arrgh!" whenever she could, and watching pirate videos on YouTube every night. So, I bought her a little girl pirate costume (it was actually hard to find a decent little girl pirate costume. Most were very "wenchy" looking). Pirate had, sword, an eye patch, and a hook. Emi-chan tried it on once and said, "No!" and refused to wear it again. I did force her to wear it to school, but she wasn't very happy about it. Apparently, she wanted to be a ladybug, not a pirate. Silly mama. I assumed since she kept acting like a pirate, she wanted to be a pirate. If she wanted to be a ladybug, she should have acted like one. Anyways, she ended up not being either a pirate or a ladybug. She went as a Japanese girl.

Emi-chan with Little Girl M as Mulan

We went trick-or-treating with the So and the Yamashita families. It was fun running around with the kids and looking at the costume they wore. Unfortunately, Emi-chan was a little freaked out by the darkness, the costumes, and the strange houses we were visiting, so we had to cut our trick-or-treating a little short. It wasn't that she was screaming or crying, it was that Rick and I had to carry her the whole time. For 7 blocks. We took turns carrying her. For over an hour. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if she was light as a feather. Unfortunately, she weighs 35 + pounds. Our arms, shoulders, backs, and legs were so sore later on.

Trick-or-Treating with Mama

Hitching a ride with Papa

The only time Emi-chan felt comfortable with Trick-or-Treating was whenever we went to a house with a dog. Then, she would just walk right in and make herself at home.

The kids weren't the only ones with awesome costumes. The Castillo Family went as a Jedi Family.

If Master Mace Windu had a beautiful wife and a cute daughter, maybe he wouldn't be so grouchy looking.

Pumpkin Patch

Last week, Emi-chan and I went on a field trip with her pre-school to a pumpkin patch called Spina Farms. It was a cute pumpkin patch with a little train you could ride in, for a small fee. Emi-chan had fun about 75% of the time. She absolutely refuse to wear shoes or her boots, so we had an ongoing battle about whether she would wear them or not. I told her if she didn't wear either, we'd have to go home, and she would answer, "NO! NO! NO!!!!! WAAAAHHH!" and so on. She also would run out on to the train tracks periodically, which didn't go over well with the people running the train.

You may have won the battle, Mama, but not the war...

We had fun riding on the train. She loved it. So did I. Emi-chan wasn't crying...until we got off, and another tantrum ensued when I told her she couldn't go around one more time.

A happy moment

We did have one major victory: Emi-chan sat down and ate her snack! At the table! With other kids! And she didn't try to steal their apple juice! She's becoming civilized! Yeah!

Yummy!

Despite the fall down in the mud, hay kicking, throwing self in front of an oncoming train, screaming tantrums, it was a nice visit.

I'll be back next year, punkins!

Mommy's Little Helper

I've fallen way behind in posting. A lot has happened...unfortunately I can't remember most of it. But here are a couple of videos of Emi-chan learning to "help" around the house:

One of Emi-chan's favorite activities is to mop the floor.

...and here she mixing cookie dough.

Although she wants to help out more and more often, I end up cleaning up after Emi-chan helps.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had a pretty good birthday today! I had some beautiful flowers to enjoy from my good friend No-ah.

We went to church and Emi-chan didn't freak out in the nursery like she usually does, and the service was good. We saw some friends we haven't seen in awhile (mostly because we haven't been there XD).

In the evening, my friend Michelle babysat Emi-chan so Rick and I could go out for dinner. We went to Left Bank, a French brasserie, and pigged out on some very good food. We went early so we could beat the dinner rush. This was our dessert:

Profiterole with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce

It's been a great, blessed day.

Happy Birthday, Oh Papa!

You're now 4_ years of age.


I'm sorry I couldn't get your favorite chocolate cake for your birthday because you can't have any dairy this month. So, have some vegan apple pie instead. Yummy!

Here Papa, let me help!

A Little Trip Down South

Rick, Emi-chan, Grandma and Grandpa, and I flew down to LA-LA Land for Mi-chan's belated birthday and dedication. Most of our friends (the So clan, Nate and Selena, and Vince) also joined the us down there.

We stayed at the Radisson, which was CRAZY busy because of a body builder's convention and the cable show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was being filmed there, and something else was going on there. I would have been more impressed if it wasn't so STINKING CRAZY trying to get into the FREAKING hotel!!! But once we got in, it was alright.


The next day, the ladies took Yumiko out for a quick brunch and left the kids with the dads and the single men. I think they had fun :) The ladies went out to a eatery called the M Cafe. It was a macrobiotic cafe. Everything was healthy, mostly vegetarian, only fish and fake meat. The men would have starved to death there. The place was very light, airy and the food was good (more on the food blog). Most of all, the mommies were glad to have a little break from the kids and hubbies.

Isn't macrobiotic food wonderful?

After we went back to the hotel for refreshing and a nap, we all went to King's Hawaiian Bakery and Restaurant to make-up for the healthy choices the ladies made earlier in the day. We were able to get into a little room for the 15 (or was it 18) of us. We gorged on good, stick to your ribs food. Carbs and protein rule!

Macadamia Chicken Bowl

Then, we had guava cake to celebrate Mi-chan's birthday. She was a trooper.

On the other hand, Emi-chan was not.

Emi-chan was much better once she found Uncle Vince's earphones and iPod.

Ted and Mi-chan (I think Ted's
ready for another nap)

The next day, we went to Ted and Yumiko's church to see Mi-chan dedicated to the LORD. It was a sweet service. I had to watch most of it from the cry room upstairs because Emi-chan spent the service, well, crying. Actually, she didn't cry much in the beginning. She spent most of it singing songs from Sesame Street and the Totoro movie. She cried when she whacked her head against the pew. I left with her when people began to give us the stink-eye.

After the service, we went out to lunch at the Soup Plantation (like a Fresh Choice).

Emi-chan hanging with Uncle Craig

At least most of us did. Rick, his parents, Vince, and Julie ate at an outdoor cafe because Grandpa couldn't make the walk to the restaurant :( After lunch, the friends left to go back North, and we headed back to the hotel to rest up. In the evening, we spent time with Ted, Yumiko, and Mi-chan. We left for the North the next day. It was sad we couldn't see them again in the morning.

It was a busy, hectic trip, but we wouldn't have missed seeing Mi-chan for the world. And, oh yeah, it was good to see Ted and Yumiko, too.

Last Day of Summer School

Last week...or was it the week before?...I can't remember...was Emi-chan's last day at summer school. It was a 3 week program, two times a day, 2 1/2 hours a day. It was at the school she went for the Parent-And-Me class. It was a lot of work (it's a parent co-op school), but loads of fun.

Emi-chan cried A LOT when she couldn't find me at school. Plus, she couldn't foloow most of the directions, like sit down during circle time, share, etc, but on the last day, she had no problem. Of course, she would finally get the rules on the last day. Oh well. Maybe she'll remember some when school starts again.

Usually, Emi-chan hates making craft items, but she actually made a few items:

An ocean of stickers


A whale
(The original version looked like a whale.
Emi-chan's doesn't)

A fish
Kind of reminds me of
The Simpsons fish

The three weeks went by really fast, although both Emi-chan and I were exhausted on the days we went. I'm actually looking forward to the school year (we'll see how long that lasts).

Happy Fourth of July!

...two days late. We had a good time. The family went down to Monterey to help out a friend and hang out. It turned out that we were pretty late to help out with some manual labor (darn!). We redeemed ourselves by making an offering of food stuffs. The rest of time, we hung out, played with the kids, ate, and goofed off.

Emi-chan and Rick had fun playing dress up with Uncle Vince's "pimp" hats.


Right before we left, Rock Band was brought out and Rick and the boys had a blast playing a few songs on the game.

Notice, Nathan is the only one cleaning up. Everyone else is playing Rock Band, or lazing around. Good man, Nathan.

Hot, Hot, Hot

This past weekend was HOT by NorCal standards. I think it was 106F at one point or another. On Saturday, when we got home from helping my Bro Jeff, we found out that the power had gone out. NOOOO! Our garage door won't open! No air conditioning! No TV! The ice cream in the freezer is melting! What do we do? It's amazing how you can take somethings for granted. Like electricity. I'm a total wimp. Fortunately, the power was out only for about half an hour. I was so embarrassed by my overreaction. Good thing I was screaming only in my head and not out loud. While the power was out, we got the garage door opened, got the hose out and squirted Emi-chan with water, and met some of our neighbors. It's funny. I've been here for over 4 years, and hadn't met most of the people around me until now. I guess that was one good thing that came out the the power outage. We were forced to interact with people.

On Sunday, after church and our naps, we took Emi-chan to the pool and let her play in the water. We thought she might be shy about going into the pool, but she kept wanting to jump in. We were happy that she wasn't afraid, but worried because she didn't want to be held while in the water. A couple of times, she went under for a second or two. But she wasn't fazed by it. What a trooper. She liked it when Rick held her so she could "swim".

Swim, swim, swim

Emi-chan made a friend

Sesame Street Live!

I'm way behind in posting. Hopefully, I'll be caught up by next week.

Last weekend, we took Emi-chan to Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Green Thumb. She had no idea where we were taking her, despite the fact that Rick and I kept telling her we were going to go see Elmo, Big Bird, Abby, and etc. She was ECSTATIC when we walked into the lobby and saw the Sesame Street souvenir stand PACKED with overpriced Sesame Street items (...at least I thought they were overpriced...and guess who bought a bunch of stuff for her little girl).

Emi-chan had fun looking at her overpriced...I mean precious show program and running up and down the aisle to look at the stage.

Hmmm...very interesting

How can they dance in those costumes?

Once the show started, she was mesmerized. I thought she would be scared with the lights out, crazy lights flashing around, loud music, and seeing her friends not on TV, but live. Rick and I thought it would be too overwhelming for her, but she loved it...at first. She was so excited that she peed on me (I wasn't very excited about that).

Bravo!

By intermission time, she had had it. She missed her nap time, and I think the show was a little too overwhelming for her. She had a tantrum. Good thing the music was so loud, no one could hear her scream. We left about 20 minutes early. I noticed we weren't the only ones leaving with weeping children.

Although we had to leave early, I think Emi-chan had fun and we'll probably try again next time they come around. This time, I bring an extra change of clothes for me!

The Birds

During one of my fevered moments, I called my Bro Jeff to check in on him. He was his usual chipper self (I am being sarcastic). During the conversation, he mentioned he was attacked by birds in the garage. I said something brilliant like, "Eh?" I wasn't quite sure if I had heard him correctly. Birds in the garage? Attacking Jeff while he did the laundry? Where they crows? No. Seagulls? No. Sparrows? No. So what were they? Doves. I told him that maybe they were hiding in the garage because it was windy (at least I think that's what I said) and hung up. I still wasn't sure if I heard him correctly and that night, I had visions of Jeff being pecked at, a la Hitchcock.



A couple of days later, when I was less fevered, I spoke to Jeff over the phone again, hoping the doves were gone, but nope. They were still there, and they attacked him again. Poor Jeff! The birds were constantly in the garage, and periodically he would hear scratching on the walls. I told him that once we were better, Rick and I would help figure out what was going on. I told Rick what was happening and he was afraid that not only did Jeff have unwanted birds, he also had rats. Great.

The following Saturday, we went up to check up on Jeff and his squatters, and didn't find any rats (whew!) but we found this on one of the shelves:


Jeff is going to be a landlord to a family of doves!

A few days, later, I found one of his "tenants":


She/he flew at me while I was taking pictures, as if to say, "No paparazzi!"

Still Sick...

In my feverish state, I forgot these video gems...



This song is embedded in our brains. I think Emi-chan has a crush on one of the puppets.



Emi-chan loves this video. The funny thing is Emi-chan still can't speak more than 1 1/2 words at a time, but she can quote this video verbatim. Scary...

Sick...

Emi-chan was sick most of last week, and now Rick and I are down with the flu. Until we're up and running again, please enjoy these videos:



Currently, this is Emi-chan's favorite video. The poor folks who had to sing and dance in this kids' video. It's about a dolphin (iruka) and a squid (ika) and how their names are similar, but they're different species.




This is Rick's favorite video. So cute. So simple.





This is my favorite video. The words mean absolutely nothing. The beat and the blocks are mesmerizing. I love it.

Mother's Day

I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day. Mine was a little weird. It's been 2 months since my mom passed away, and it was the 16th anniversary since my dad died. He died on Mother's Day. On the flip side, I loved the fact that this day was really for me.

Rick asked if I wanted anything special. Jewelry? Books? Flowers? I said I wanted pancakes for breakfast. So the dear guy made some for me. The first time he's ever made pancakes.


He did alright :)

He's also a mind reader. I wanted a pizza for dinner, but didn't say anything. He went out and got me a pizza. What a guy.