Girl's Day

I'm a little late in posting this, but March 3rd was Girl's Day in Japan. After last year's fiasco (see March 3, 2008) with the dolls, I decided not to put out our Girl's Day dolls, but instead we went to my friend's church that was having a Girl's Day celebration.


Although it was cold and rainy, I dressed Emi-chan in a new jimbei (she's out grown most of her other ones). Usually one wears a jimbei during the summer months, but since she/mom doesn't have a chance to show off all the nice Japanese items people have given Emi-chan, she gets to wear them (mom gets to show off) when ever possible.

At the celebration, we sang some cute songs, danced around, ate snacks, and basicallly socialized for a couple of hours. Then we went home.


It didn't feel right not having the dolls out, so I gave in and let Emi-chan play with the least fragile dolls I had: a Hello Kitty Emperor and Empress set. They're sealed in a plastic box so that should deter Emi-chan for about a week or so.


I also tried dressing Emi-chan up in a cute yukata I found at a children's clothing swap. It was cute, but Emi-chan didn't like it at all. I wish I had the yukata I wore when I was a toddler, but NO. I found out earlier this year, my mom gave away all of our (me and my bro) baby and toddler yukatas years ago. I guess she thought no reason to hang onto them when there's no grandbabies who can wear them. I'm so hurt. I think I'll go drown my sorrows with puffed sugar rice and See's chocolates.

A funny story about my Girl's Day dolls. According to ancient legends, once Girl's Day is over, you have to put the dolls away right away, or your daughter(s) will not get married. My mom kept the dolls out for decades, because she didn't believe in the superstition (we live in the US. Japanese supersitions shouldn't apply to us here, right?) and it's a pain to unpack and pack the dolls up just for one day of the year. So, what happens? I never really dated or had a boyfriend. Finally, after about 20 years or so, she decided she's going to put the dolls away because she was tired of looking at them. Within a couple of months, I meet Rick, and the rest is history. I guess there's some truth to the legend...

Birthday Parties!

I realized yesterday, that I posted Emi-chan's birthday one day late. Oops! Oh, well. She won't mind.

She had 2 little parties to celebrate her birthday. The first one was at her Parent-And-Me class. Both she and another little girl turned 2 years old a day or two apart, so I made some mini-cupcakes to celebrate (see the other blog for the trials and tribulations of making these cupcakes).

It was a nice relaxed day. We had a visitor who brought in a lizard and a parrot for the kids to see. At first, the kids, except for Emi-chan, flocked to look at the animals. Then they kinda wandered away (toddlers have a short attention span - so do some adults). When the young man was getting ready to go, then Emi-chan started showing interest in the animals.


The cupcakes went over well with the kids, except for Emi-chan, of course.


Then it was recess outside. The teacher tried to take a picture of the kids and moms, but Emi-chan wouldn't (couldn't) co-operate. She was more interested in being a firefighter. Why, oh why, does my little one have to do things differently than the other kids?


On Saturday, we had a family birthday party for Emi-chan. Grandma and Grandpa came up and we had dinner at Gran-Gran's place. Emi-chan had 1) temper tantrum and then 2) had a good time ordering everybody around. She did a good job blowing out the candles on her cupcakes (I knew she'd learn something useful from the Elmo DVDs).


We had a good time eating and socializing, and watching Emi-chan opening her presents. It was a busy weekend.

Happy Birthday!

Emi-chan is 2 years old today! How time flies.

Outing

Last Friday, Rick and I took Emi-chan to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. It's a hands on museum for kids. After nearly getting run over by an earth mover and getting lost for a few minutes, we finally got to the museum (I was reading the map wrong. Oops). We were greeted by a enormous purple building and a giant rubber ducky on the roof. We got there late, so we had only a couple of hours to see the museum. From the outside, the place looked a little small, so I thought we could cover the place in that amount of time, but I was wrong. When we got in, the first thing I noticed were the happy, hyper kids having fun, and the dazed, glassy-eyed parents stumbling after them.

Initially, we didn't know where to start, so we just started wandering around and found some really cool exhibits. Emi-chan didn't want to try anything out at first, but she quickly got the hang of the place. In fact, there were a few exhibits we had to drag her from so we can check out another one. Here are some highlights:


The Merry-Go-Round room. One of Emi-chan's favorite sections.

Waterways: she cried when we left (i.e.dragged her screaming).

This contraption shows how bubbles move through liquid. Mathematians and scientists use this to study bubbles. The only thing I could think of when we were playing with this thing is, "Is that what it looks like when you have gas in the bath."

Firefighter Emi-chan!

Finally, Emi-chan's favorite display, the ducky on the roof.

Happy Valentine's Day

Art by Emi-chan, with help from Teacher Kris and Mama

Date With Emi-chan

A few days ago, after feeling a little claustrophobic cooped up in the house for days, I decided that Emi-chan and I need to go on a "date" and get out of the house for awhile.

Since we hadn't had lunch, we went to Burger King (I know, I'm a horrible mom - feeding my precious child junk). I got her a BK meal with mac-n-cheese, french fries, and apple juice. I had a Jr. Whopper, fries, and iced tea. I wolfed down my whole meal and wished I had more. Emi-chan daintily ate her fries one by one, and spilled most of her apple juice on herself.


Then, I took her to a new park. I think she was a little spooked. There were a bunch of men playing soccer, which was fine, but also there were a couple of shady looking men watching the soccer players...then us. Eeew.

Once at the playground, Emi-chan and I loosened up a little bit and had fun climbing on the play structures and digging in the sand. I was chasing Emi-chan around when she stepped in some dog doo. I saw it a tenth of a second before her foot went in. Yuck! (No photo. Didn't think you wanted to see that). I picked her up and put her in a swing to try to clean some of the poo off her shoe. Couldn't get most off, so decided that was the end of the visit to the park. Emi-chan decided she wanted to be carried to the car. Great. I'm hauling a 30-lb toddler in my arms, and she's kicking me with her pooey shoe.

After we got home, I cleaned her up, cleaned myself up, and then had to clean her shoe and wash my clothes. After Emi-chan got up from her nap, I thought it might be fun to do a craft. I gave her some stickers and her favorite can and showed her how to put the stickers on the can. The stickers ended up on her. A quiet ending to our date.

Chuck E. Cheese

Today, Emi-chan went to a birthday party for Little Girl M at Chuck E. Cheese. I was a little worried. I wasn't sure how she would react to the lack of sleep (the party was during her regular nap time), the noise, lights, lame pizza, and creepy rats. Actually, I wasn't sure how I would react to the same things. To my surprise, she did really well.


Emi-chan ate her first piece of pizza! I was shocked! Happily shocked! Usually she takes a bite then spits it out, or licks it then refuses to open her mouth to try a bite. She devoured the slice I got her. Then she tried my pink lemonade and spat that out.

Emi-chan was fascinated by the animatronic animal, things that were on stage.

The animals sang and played instruments (a little out of sync) with some kids music videos the place was playing on a TV. Frankly, I found them a little creepy, but she loved them, especially the female duck/chicken character.

We played a few games and won 54 tickets, which we exchanged for a plastic comb and some stickers. She liked watching the other kids playing games and she tried to jump in and play too, but unfortunately, most of the kids didn't want a "baby" getting in the way :( Oh well. Life is hard already.

Finally, a live Chuck E. Cheese showed up and did a little dance and song for the birthday girl. Emi-chan was so excited! You think President Obama showed up with Branjelina and a pony the way she reacted. When it came time to take pictures, she was the first one up to sit by him. Someone sat her on the stage next to CEC and she looked pretty happy.

Eventually, a bunch of kids started crowding around to have their pictures taken with him. After awhile, Emi-chan decided to jump or slide off the stage (or was she pushed...hmm). Boom! She went down. There were gasps and screams from some of the moms. The look of horror on the CEC worker's face. She looked like, "Oh no! Lawsuit!" Emi-chan was fine. She stood up and ran up to hug me. Then, she laughed. I was a little dizzy for a moment.

We had a blast at the party. CEC is a pretty fun place. For kids, of course. Maybe we'll have to go back. To use up the extra tokens. For Emi-chan, of course.

Awesome

I was going to write about how inspired by President Obama's inauguration yesterday. I was touched by the beauty of all the people celebrating this event. I was going to watch his speech, the parade, the interviews of the common people, etc. on line to get motivated, but I ended up watching this:



And this:




So inspiring. So beautiful. Both videos are from a kid's show in Japan called Pitagora Suicchi (Pythagoras Switch).

Mama Tried...

Lately, I've noticed that Emi-chan's bangs were getting pretty long. Usually, I'd wait until we're able to see Grandma and ask her to trim her hair, but some of the moms at the Parent-And-Me class mentioned that maybe Emi-chan might have some trouble seeing because her bangs were so long. I observed Emi-chan for a day or so and did notice her tilting her head back to get a clearer view of things. So, I mustered up some courage tonight and attempted to trim the little girl's bangs.

The first thing I realized was that I didn't have the right tools. I didn't have scissors for cutting hair. I did have craft scissors, though. Unfortunately, they were covered in glue (I didn't realize this until I stared cutting). I didn't have hair clips for Emi-chan's hair. I had to scrounge for a comb. I did have a squirt bottle to wet her hair, though. At least I had that. I started trimming/hacking away at her hair. I had no idea what to do. I thought I had learned something while watching Grandma cut Emi-chan's hair, but no way. I was lost. Chop, chop here. Chop, chop there. Here a chop, there a chop. Everywhere a chop, chop. Poor Emi-chan.She was so patient with Mama. Finally, I was "done." It didn't come out too bad. What do you think?

Before...

After...

What do you think, Emi-chan?


Err, I guess she isn't so keen about her haircut...

New Blog!

Although I have a problem keeping up with updating this blog, I decided to team up with a few other women to collaborate on a new blog. It's called 4FoodTourists. The other contributors are: JoAnn of Nevada, Lynn of Washington, and Chris of Japan. What drew us together is our love of eating good food and sharing the joy of food to others. JoAnn planted the idea and we'll see how far it goes. I'm pretty excited about this new adventure! I can't wait to see what the others will post. Oh yeah, I have to post, too. I guess that means I gotta go out and eat!

Experiment #1 (Part 2)

Well, Rick and I survived the night. We had no gastrointestinal distress, except I had a little bloating , but I think it's because I had 2 burritos and a bowl of strawberry yogurt with granola, rather than the fault of the cookies. Rick, the control subject, didn't have 2 burritos and yogurt with granola and was fine. We didn't break out in hives. No heaving. No little wormies in our...well, you get the idea. One box of cookies down. Thin Mints are next! What we do for science.

Experiment #1 (Part 1)

Yeah! It's Girl Scout Cookies time! It's almost as good as Christmas! We've been waiting all year for our new batch of cookies. We've already placed orders for some cookies with 2 Girl Scouts we know, and can't wait for the little girls to start showing up in front of grocery stores hawking their wares.

Now for the experiment part. Yesterday, I was digging around in one of the cabinets and found 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. And rooting around in the freezer, I found another. 2 boxes of Thin Mints and 1 box of Caramel Delights (aka Samoas). All 3 bought 1 year ago. Rick and I contemplated tossing the cookies, but the scientist in Rick and the curious part in me decided we're going to eat the cookies. So we opened up the Caramel Delights, took 1 cookie out, and broke it in half. We didn't see and discoloration or bugs wiggling in the cookie or in the caramel, so we each took a couple of cookies each and ate them. Now, we're waiting to see if we get totally sick. Stay tuned...

(Sorry no pictures today. Too lazy to get the camera.)

Busy Christmas

Finally, things are calming down at the Yoshida Shire. Phew! It was a busy, but fun, Christmas season. It started off with opening presents on Christmas morning. Emi-chan didn't quite get the idea of opening presents, and why there were so many decorations, but she liked playing with Rick's toys.

Your toys are better than mine!

Ted, Yumiko, and Baby Mi-chan drove up to Grandma and Grandpa's place on Christmas day. We went down for the day. It was a little hectic, helping with last minute cleaning, but we had a good time hanging out and eating, a lot.

Grandpa and Mi-chan

The next day, we went back down to Uncle Vince's place to hang out with some friends.. Vince's sister and her family were in town and it was a very nice visit.

A following day, Ted and his clan came up and stayed with us. We went to the Friends' Christmas party and had a blast. Emi-chan was a little cranky. But she did make a new friend...

Emi-chan and Chandler the Cat

Ted and Yumiko gave Vince a Nacho Libre wrestling mask as a Christmas present, and we had fun taking turns being wrestlers.

Nacho Vince!

Nacho Ricky!

Nacho Mi-chan!

Playing a gift exchange game - I hope I get something good!

Then, the day after that, we rushed over to the mall and had the babies' (yeah, I know Emi-chan isn't technically a baby, but she still is to me) pictures taken. Mi-chan did fine. She was so cute and co-operative. Emi-chan, on the other hand, threw a fit and wouldn't sit, stand, lie, or hang still. The photographer finally got a few cute shots of the grumpy girl.

It was a hectic few days. Emi-chan's sleep is still a little off. It was a good week.

Happy New Year!

Emi-chan is asleep despite a stuffy nose. Rick is playing Guitar Hero. I'm updating my blog, Facebook, and MySpace accounts. I didn't make toshikoshi soba, but had spaghetti instead. We toasted in the New Year with sparkling cider and potato chips. I still haven't finished sending out Holiday cards. I'm not done with Christmas shopping. The house is a disaster. But for a moment, all is well.

Merry Christmas

Have a joy-filled day!

Christmas Ornament Tea Party

Recently, some of my girlfriends (Betsy, Calina, Cindy, Dina, Karen, and Lily) and I got together for our annual Ornament Tea Party. I can't believe it. This was our 11th year of getting together! That's a lot of ornaments. Let see...there are 7 of us girls, times 11, equals...a lot of ornaments (I don't do math after 8 PM)!

For the first few years, we just made a Christmas ornament for each woman. What ever inspiration hit us, that's what we made. The past 4 years or so, we decided to choose a theme and make an ornament for each woman based around that theme. For example, one year was fairy tales. Another was fashion. This year was recycling. We all made ornaments out of either recycled items and/or items we had around the home. We were allowed to purchase one item.


We got together at Betsy's home and had a wonderful time. We ate, and ate, and laughed, and laughed, and ate some more.

Then, finally we got around to exchanging our ornaments. I can't believe how talented these women are! I was pretty impressed.

Try to guess who made what

Next year we're trying something a little different. We don't have to make an ornament, but we have to make something for each woman with red as a theme.

Calina and Lily

Betsy and Karen


Missing, Dina and Cindy, and Me (I'm taking the picts)

Eating Beauty

Emi-chan was sick on and off since before Thanksgiving. It's been miserable. Not only for her, but for Mama and Papa, too. She was waking up every couple of hours because she couldn't breathe. She wouldn't eat. Yellow-green snot hanging from her nose (sorry for the gross imagery) and all clinging on us (we're clean now). Whining. Crying. Yaargh! Finally, she's better, and Rick and I are exhausted.

Now that she's better, Emi-chan's appetite has come back - with a vengeance. She's eating us out of house and home! She's even waking up in the wee hours of the morning because she's HUNGRY. Emi-chan's been demanding 2 eggs every morning. Plus she's eating things she's never tried or liked before. Oatmeal, pork spare ribs, chicken stew, ice cream, cheeseburgers, b-b-q chicken, just to name a few. Oh! And she's eating bread!!! Lordy! We thought she would never, ever try it! She does have a few quirks, though. She likes wheat bread with hummus, and for white bread, she likes mostly the crust.


She also tried an apple today. A big, unexpected surprise. I've been trying to get her to try apples for months, with no luck. I've been peeling them, pureeing them, slicing them, making cute little apple bunnies with them. All ejected. Recently, Emi-chan's became obsessed with apples on TV and in her books, so today when we went to Safeway, I bought a couple for her to look at. Before I knew it, she was gnawing on one, and seemed to enjoy it. Yeah!

Now, if she would try to eat veggies...

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope your day is filled loving family, wonderful friends, good food, and much fun.

Dina' B-day

How embarassing! I forgot to post about Dina's birthday a couple of weeks back. I've been a little preoccupied with Emi-chan's cold and temper tanturums.

It was a fun party. It was an adults only party (No. Not THAT kind of party). No kids, unless you couldn't get babysitting. Fortunately, Grandma and Grandpa were able to come up and take care of Emi-chan so Rick and I had a free night. Yeah!

After making an emergency trip to Home Depot to buy a dryer (ours finally died), we made our way to Rich and Dina's place. There were a lot of good friends and, of course, good food. We also played Scrabble. Just to let you know, Rick had never played Scrabble, and I haven't played since...I guess...5th or 6th grade. So this game was a bit of a challenge for the both of us. It's kind of funny to think that 2 people, Rick who doesn't know many long words, and me who can't spell playing this game. Needless to say, we didn't win. That's okay. We had fun.



We hope Dina has a wonderfully blessed year!

We Love LA

Recently, we took a quick trip down South to visit Ted, Yumiko, and Mizuki. This was the first time for me and Emi-chan to see Mizuki-chan. I was so excited! Emi-chan had no idea what was going on, despite Rick and I talking to her about riding a plane to visit her cousin and showing her videos of plane crashes on YouTube. Vince went down with us, and we were grateful that he was with us. He was a great help and a wonderful comedy relief.

Emi-chan freaked out on the plane. We decided not to use a car seat for her. Instead, we decided to use a CARES harness. The concept is great. Just use the harness and the seat belt on the airplane seat to buckle the child in instead of the bulky car seat. The website has pictures of smiling, happy children in their harness. Emi-chan was not one of them. She freaked out and screamed. And screamed. And screamed. She tried to tear the harness off. The people sitting around us kept glaring. But who cares about them! I'm dealing with a inconsolable toddler. Finally, she fell asleep and the rest of the flight was pretty quiet. I still like the idea of the harness. I think I should have prepped Emi-chan better.

Eventually, we got to Ted and Yumiko's apartment and saw Mizuki-chan. She's so cute! And smiley! And light (compared to a 30-lb. toddler)! Everybody loved her hair. It stood up like a little bush, and the tips looked like they were tinted reddish-brown. So cool.

The reason why the two aren't looking at the camera is because of ELMO.

The next day, we went to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It's a fun shopping area. So many stores, so little time. And tons of street performers. Some were very good. Some were so-so. A few were pretty bad. TONS of people milling around. All kinds of people. Rich and poor. It's a great place to shop and people watch. We ate lunch at Hooters.

It was a belated birthday lunch for Vince from Ted and Yumiko. It wasn't my choice. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were quite a few families and tourists. And a lot of men. And cute, tiny, long haired girl-women waitresses in tight t-shirts. The food was okay. It was fun, though. The waitresses kept coming to our table to look at Mizuki-chan and Emi-chan snagged a key holder from one of the waitresses. A free souvenir. Happy belated b-day, Vince.

Later on, we Vince, Yumiko, and I went to see the promised land: Pinkberry. I wasn't sure what to expect. Just that it's the most sought after frozen yogurt on the planet. I got my order (green tea and chocolate), I was shocked. It was tart. It was sweet. It was SOUR. It was good. Rick HATED it. I see why so many women hunger after it. It satiates a certain craving women have that just sweet doesn't satisfy (especially during that time of the month).

Yumm-o

The next day, we drove over to Little Tokyo to have lunch with No-ah. It was good to see her. We ate at a place called Oiwake. It had a $7.50 buffet and pretty kid friendly. The food was decent and there was plenty of room to move around. Emi-chan had a hard time. Little sleep. Weird food. Hot Santa Ana winds. New people. She had a break down later on. Poor baby.

Rick and Vince ended the trip with a round of Guitar Hero.


On the way home, Emi-chan did better with the harness. It helped that I kept her medicated with chocolates.

Hopefully, we can take another trip down South to visit Ted, Yumiko, and Mizuki-chan again.

Happy Halloween!

Emi-chan went trick-or-treating for the first time tonight. I don't think she understood what was going on, but she had fun running around in her Abby Cadabby costume. And we had fun getting candy she can't eat, but we can.


So, okay, Emi-chan doesn't look like she's having fun, but trust me, she did.

A New Hobby

A few months ago, Rick started a new hobby. No, it isn't hang gliding at night dressed like Batman, or building the Millenium Falcon out of toothpicks. It is (drum roll please)...composting! Yes, the Yoshidas are going green. Or at least Rick has. I still toss plastics out in the regular trash and Emi-chan doesn't care either way, yet.

About 6 months ago, he noticed that the avocado plants he was babying were looking a little pale and weak. He began collecting used coffee grounds and left over salad in a container and once a week or so, he buries the pile in one of the planters in our "garden." He keeps the container in the fridge, so I have to be careful that I don't grab the compost container instead of the chocolate pudding container when I'm reaching for a snack. In the beginning, the front area of our home STANK. I wonder if that was the reason why in the newsletter the homeowners association sends out, one of the articles was on how we need to keep our patio areas pleasant for others. Oh well. The smell didn't bother me. I just kept the windows closed. Now, we have rich, black soil which nourishes our precious avocado plants...and the squirrels which periodically dig up the pile to get to the veggies.

A couple of months ago, Rick noticed a vine growing out of the compost pile. It turned out to be a tomato plant. We became organic farmers by accident.


Eventually, we had a handful of tiny tomatoes which were very yummy in our dinner salad.

Alive...

...and mostly kicking. We're down with colds and just plain tired. Here are some videos we enjoy. Hope you like them, too.



I don't know why, but I love this video.




I know, everybody's seen this one, but we love it.



This is Emi-chan's favorite video