Yeah!

Some good news! I'm an auntie now! And Rick is an uncle and Emi-chan has a cousin! Ted and Yumiko had their baby a couple of nights ago. Her name is Mizuki Kylie (I hope I spelled her name right) and she's so cute. We saw her on a web cam (not of the birth, but a few hours after). No photos, yet (HINT, HINT). We hope to see her in person soon,

A Mind Going in Circles

Gran-Gran is laid up with a broken hip. Emi-chan is teething - again. Unca Jeff is depressed. I keep losing my wallet, car keys, and cell phone. The air quality sucks because of the wild fires. Gas prices are worse. How do I help Gran-Gran when she gets back home? What do I cook for dinner tomorrow? What stores have the cheapest prices for groceries? Where did Emi-chan's shoes go? When is Rick going to buy new shoes? Can I afford to buy another pair of shoes? This is just the tip of the iceberg of the things that have been on my mind. No wonder I can't sleep. Oh, to be a toddler and have no real worries. But then again, she might have some worries I can't see.

Happy Father's Day

I'm late! But I hope all the father's out there had a good day today. Hopefully it was full of fun, laughter, and no bad attitude.

Fun Times

It's been a busy last few weeks at the Yoshida Shire. Where do I start? First, Rick, Emi-chan and I were totally rooting for Larissa on Jeopardy and was totally bummed when she lost after 7 days. She was awesome! We thought she was going to be the next Ken Jennings. After a little lull, we watched Sameer Mishra win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Yeah Sameer! We were on the edge of our seats. Then, there was a 10 millionth showing of the Deadliest Catch marathon. Every time it's on, we have to watch it. (Discovery Channel must have a Deadliest Catch marathon on every other week. On the off weeks, it's either Mythbusters or Dirty Jobs...don't they have any other shows?) Will Captain Sig and the Northwestern catch their quota of opilio crab? Will Blake get a chance to captain the Maverick? Are these men insane to fish during ice storms? Yes, yes, and yes. Emi-chan gets so excited when she sees kids, we let her watch the Jon and Kate Plus Eight marathon. She loves the show. This show has made us thankful that we do not have more than one. Now, Sci-Fi channel is showing more Star Trek! Star Trek: The Next Generation is on Monday nights, and on Tuesday nights, Star Trek: Enterprise is on. Oh boy! More Klingons! More Borg! More fake science! Good thing TNT wasn't showing a Lord of the Rings marathon, or we would never get anything done.

By now, you're probably thinking, do the Yoshida's do things other than watch TV? Do they go outside? And the answer is: Yes and yes...sometimes...when the pollen count is low, and the sun isn't out. Only kidding. We do go out to get food and toilet paper and stuff.

This past Memorial Day, Rick and I thought it might be fun to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and visit Uncle Vince. So, with guest passes in hand (thanks D and Uncle Rich!) we made our way down and hung out with Vince, Nathan and Selena. After lunch, Rick took a nap and we the rest of us hung out. Then we realized the aquarium was going to close in 2 or 3 hours, so we got ready and woke Rick up and headed to the aquarium. Once we got in, we were hit by a wall of people. Holy cow, I thought, there's more people here than fish! We couldn't take our time to look at most of the displays, but what we saw were awesome. They did a great job updating the Splash Zone. Emi-chan was intimidated by the crowds so she really didn't try out the exhibits, but she enjoyed being held and watching the fish and sea otters up close.

Checking out the sea otters

Hanging out with Uncle Vince

Ohh. Jellies

We are family...at least 2 of us are having fun

On June 1st, we went to Calina's 30-something birthday party. Ken, her hubby, actually said it was a party to celebrate the last year of her 30ies, but 30-something sounds better. It was a fun night catching up with friends we haven't seen in awhile. We found out Emi-chan likes udon noodles. Rick caught her sticking her fist into Daniel's bowl and eating out of it. Daniel was in a bit of a shock. I don't know if he finished eating out of that bowl.

Happy Birthday, Calina!

So, as you can see, we do get out sometimes. Now, back to My Name is Earl reruns...

Busy Weekend Part 3

Sunday was the final party. It was a friends luau themed baby shower at Kenny and Lisa's home. Rick and I went a little later (the shower started around noon) because Grandma and Grandpa were packing up to leave, and we wanted to see if Emi-chan would nap. Ted and Yumiko went to the party on time.

After lunch, Rick and I left for the party (Emi-chan wouldn't nap) and got there around 3 PM. People were playing a game where each person receives a bowl full of uncooked rice with little tiny safety pins mixed in. The object of the game is to try to pick out the safety pins out of the rice with your eyes closed within a minute. Sounds simple? No it isn't! It's hard to feel the pins. They're almost the same size as the grains of rice and slippery. Some people were pretty good at the game. Others weren't. I was one of the worst ones. I think I only got one safety pin.

A fun but messy game

Then, Ted and Yumiko opened their gifts. It was fun to see what they received. We gave them a Pikachu pillow, a Miffy doll and DVD, and a cute little baby outfit.

Miffy vs. Pikachu: Who Will Win?

There was tons of Hawaiian food at the party, although looking at this picture, you'd think there was only cake, but they were all good.

Emi-chan did fine at the party. She ate all the rice on a Spam musubi (she didn't like the Spam) and played nicely with Hannah (for once, we didn't have to worry about her gouging some other child's eyes out).


Ted and Yumiko stayed until Monday morning and drove home. It was a busy, crazy, and hectic weekend, but it was so much fun and it was wonderful to celebrate with so many people the life of Ted and Yumiko's baby.

Busy Weekend Part 2

After the last post, Rick asked me if I was doing okay. He said it was a little dark and sarcastic. I think I was still recovering from Emi-chan's illness and was a little snarky. Sorry if I offended anybody. We all had a blast that day. Anyways, on to the next post...

On Saturday, we had the official family shower for Yumiko and Ted. It held at Tomokazu Japanese Restaurant in Cupertino. With only a few gaffes (the helium tank for the balloons was empty; Starbuck's coffee lost my order for coffee for the party - grrr!), the party was a success. One happy surprise was that the cakes showed up on time! I had some problems with the bakery, so I was a little nervous that they wouldn't arrive.

About 60 - 65 people came. There were Yoshida's, Hanaki's, Nagatoishi's, and Texiera's. They came as far as Sacramento (or somewhere near Sacto) and Los Angeles area (sorry. I can't quite remember where people came from). Grandma's Auntie Lily, who was visiting her daughter Brenda, was able to come. She's from Hilo, Hawaii (I remembered one place :D). It was nice to see people we haven't seen in a long time. One of the aunties I haven't seen since our wedding. Actually, there were a lot of relatives I haven't seen since our wedding so it was nice to see them again. Good thing Auntie Susie had us wear name tags. I couldn't remember a few people's names and how we're related.

Since Yumiko and Ted didn't have a cake to cut at their wedding, we made them cut the cake like at a wedding reception.

Aren't they cute?

Aww. Very cute.

It felt like we spent hours and hours eating and chatting. After the party, the Hanaki side of the family went out to eat, again. This time to China Stix restaurant. This was only an hour or two after the first party ended. We thought no one would eat because we were so full, but no one had any problem eating. I think it was the good food enhanced by the good company.

Even after we ate at China Stix, we still
hung out a little bit longer

We were pooped!

Busy Weekend Part 1

Finally I'm getting around to writing about Ted and Yumiko's Baby Shower weekend. It's been a hectic couple of weeks. When Rick and I thought we were finally rested and back on our feet, Emi-chan got sick and we all had a miserable time. She's finally on the mend, and so are we.

On Friday, most of the Hanaki side of the family (Grandma's family) were in town, so it was decided for the people who could make it, to get together for dim sum on Friday. We were told to meet at the Koi Palace in Daly City, near Serramonte Mall. Unfortunately, we got our directions mixed up and ended up at the wrong side of the mall. Oops. After a few frantic phone calls, Rick's cousin, Kim, got us on the right tract (I want to know, whose bright idea was it was to build a bunch of restaurants around a dinky parking lot behind an office complex? Huh? But I digress from the main story).

Koi Palace was PACKED. And NOISY. Emi-chan didn't like the place at all (Why are all the good dim sum places PACKED? And NOISY? I guess they wouldn't be if it wasn't any good. Another digression). We had a little trouble trying to figure out how to order items (Where are the carts with the bamboo baskets? We have to fill out what? Why do the servers keep asking us if we wanted food if we didn't order it? What's that? What are we eating?). I think the servers were annoyed with us, but who cares. The food was good (I loved the sesame seed balls!) and we all had a good time, except, of course, Emi-chan.

After we ate and squeezed our way out of the restaurant, the clan moved on to Golden Gate Park, specifically to a section called the Koret Children's Quarter. It's an awesome kid's playground! So much to see and do. The carousel was close by, so a we took Emi-chan on her first ride (thanks Kim!). The carousel is beautifully restored and I was really excited to ride it. Of course, Emi-chan loved it.

Here is her look of sheer delight and joy.

Actually, she HATED it and tried to climb off a couple of times. A sad thing. A child hating her first carousel ride. A sadder thing is both Rick and I got really, really sick riding the darn thing. I thought I was going to hurl, pass out, or both. Both Rick and I were so sick, we had a hard time walking after we got off. So sad. I used to have no problems on fun rides, like roller coasters, but now I can't even handle a carousel. But here are some pictures of people who had fun:

Here is cutie pie Ellis and his cute mama, Kim

Yahoo, Uncle Ken!

When we felt better, we made our way to the park and Emi-chan had a great time there (another digression: the people who run the park need to put in better restrooms). She was fascinated by these funny little seats that you sit in, and using your body weight, it spins around and around. She refused to get on, but loved it when other kids were on. She cackled the whole time while she watched.


Emi-chan and I had fun climbing around the toddler-sized play structures and going down the slide (I didn't get stuck! Yeah!).

Okay, so I had fun on the play structures and going down the slide.

Here's Emi-chan checking out her competition, Molly and Connor

After an hour or so of hanging out with the kids, and catching up with some of the cousins, we all had to leave. Getting out of the park was a little tricky (whose great idea was it to put a parking lot on a freaking cracked, slanted driveway with a big old freaking tree in the middle of it? Why didn't they chop down the tree, or better yet, find a better place for a parking lot where disabled people and baby carriages won't roll down the stupid hill? But I digress yet again).

It was a busy but fun day. Now, onto the next day...

Happy Mother's Day

The tea roses are blooming in our "garden." Rick is making dinner. Emi-chan is napping. I ate a brownie, 3 pieces of chocolate, a bowl of ice cream, and meat loaf and mashed potatoes, in that order. So far, so good.

Burnt Out

This past weekend Ted and Yumiko's baby shower, belated wedding reception, and family reunion. Plus there was a couple of family get togethers and another baby shower for them. I'll be posting about them soon, but right now, I'm pooped. Plus Emi-chan's molars are coming in and she's pretty miserable, and in turn, is making mama and papa miserable, too.

Until I'm able to post again, please enjoy these videos (the things I find while looking around in YouTube):

A Little Praise

No photo this time around. I've been too tired and distracted to take any pictures. There was a breakthrough, though. Emi-chan began eating solids again! But very, very tentatively. Still, it's a praise! She still won't eat bread or rice, but she'll pick at penne pasta (but not elbow macaroni). Right now, she can't stand mac and cheese. She's developed a taste for tofu, but only if it's cooked in miso soup, and only miso soup. She'll also eat some of the wakame in miso soup. She likes strawberries. An odd habit she's developed is that she'll suck the meat out of blueberries and leave the skins. Emi-chan now no longer likes beef, but sometimes will eat a little bit of chicken. If she could eat eggs 3 - 4 times a day, she would, but I won't let her. The funny thing is, Emi-chan is still pretty adventurous. She'll usually try what ever we give her, although it comes right back at us, although today she did eat a piece of oshinko maki and seemed to like it. I guess, we just have to keep on trying.

Dark Force

Emi-chan stopped eating solid foods about 2 weeks ago. No bread. No rice. No chicken. No little bits of veggies. No pancakes. Nothing harder than custard. Plus, what ever she ate or drank couldn't be too hot or too cold, but couldn't be room temperature, either. Couldn't be too grainy, or too gooey, or too sticky. Some items she wanted to feed herself, others I had to feed her. The rules changed frequently and randomly. All she wanted to eat were bananas, yogurt (at least she let me put wheat germ in the yogurt), gourmet organic pureed baby food, and lots and lots of milk and formula. Because she wasn't eating any solids, she would get hungry quite quickly. So that meant instead of usually feeding her 4 times a day, I had to feed her 6 or 7 times a day. Including 2 AM and sometimes 5 AM. It felt like we returned to the days when she was a wee infant and had to be fed constantly, except she doesn't stay in one place. She now runs around, screaming and crying that she's hungry, bored, or both.

Now, she's starting to eat some solids again, like tempura and scrambled eggs, but she still won't eat bread or rice. Some people suggested that she's probably teething. Maybe her molars are starting to come in and eating solids bother her. Rick has another theory:

I Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for ice cream! Except for Emi-chan. A couple of days ago, I had an ice cream craving, so I went to Cold Stone Creamery and got myself a little treat (okay, so it wasn't so little). I thought Emi-chan might like some ice cream, too so I tried to give her a little taste, but she spat it out, gave me a dirty look, stuck her fist in the cup, stole my spoon and ran off. I had to run after her, leaving my ice cream on the bench.


Once I got her, I had to eat the ice cream with my fingers because Emi-chan had dragged the spoon along the pavement and I didn't want to waste a $5 cup of ice cream. I guess I could have gotten another spoon, but I was too lazy to go back to get one. I didn't think the mixings I chose were that bad. Just chocolate chips and crushed graham crackers.


We also got a curious visitor. I gave him some of Emi-chan's cracker and the duck followed us until a couple of kids chased him down the path.

A Baby Gourmand

We're quickly finding out that Emi-chan will try (so far) anything we give her to eat. She might reject something because of texture or taste, but she's fearless when it comes to food. So far, some things she's tried are: baked sushi with wasabi (liked), fried rice (didn't like), eggs Florentine (liked), grilled cheese sandwich (didn't like), lettuce (not sure).

Last week, I got a phone call from an old friend I hadn't spoken to in over a year, Lisa TS. While we were catching up, Emi-chan was playing with her toys, "reading" her books, watching TV, hitting the TV, yelling at the TV, and making lolli-lolli and blah-blah-blah noises. After awhile, I realized Emi-chan wasn't with her toys, books, or the TV and I couldn't hear her anymore. While still on the phone, I went looking for her. Soon, I found her under the dining table, eating Rick's chocolate. I'm not sure how she got to the chocolate since it was on the table out of her reach, although I suspect she pulled down a couple of my books and used them as a step stool to get to the chocolates. In any case, she looked like she was really enjoying the bittersweet chocolate truffle dipped in dark chocolate. When she realized she was in trouble, Emi-chan took off, leaving a chocolate trail behind her. Sorry I hung up on you, Lisa TS.


A few days later, while I was making a dinner salad, Emi-chan came over and sat down at my feet not to adore me, but to try to open the cabinets we recently locked up. I dropped accidentally dropped a Campari tomato, and before I could get it, Emi-chan got it and began to play with it. Soon, I heard a soft squish. Emi-chan had smashed the tomato between her fingers and began to smear it on the kitchen floor. Then, she began to eat it. Good thing I had just finished washing and cleaning the floors about a hour earlier, otherwise it would have been a grosser story.

Happy Girl's Day

I thought it might be cute to set up my mini-Ohina-sama dolls and take some pictures with Emi-chan, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.


As soon as I set up the dolls, Emi-chan attacked them like Godzilla attacked Tokyo. The screen and the lanterns went flying through the air. The empress was thrown to the ground. Emi-chan gnawed on the emperor's head. Good thing I didn't set up my good doll set. Oh well, maybe in a couple of years I'll try again.


So instead, we ate some sugared puffed rice and went to the park where Emi-chan ate some sand.

Happy Birthday, Emi-chan!

Today is Emi-chan's birthday! She turned one years old. I can't believe this past year has flown by so quickly. It seems like yesterday (well, maybe not yesterday...more like a couple of months ago) that she was just a wee little one just laying in our arms, bleating in a little voice. Now she's a little powerhouse who's always on the go, go, go.

This past Saturday, we had a birthday party for her at a local park. Grandma and Grandpa came up from Watsonville, Uncle Ted and Auntie Yumiko flew in from the South. We picked up Gran-Gran and Unca Jeff from San Carlos. Rick and I were a little stressed. Of all days, it rained! We were a little mad, but it was fine. We had reserved a rec room, at the park just in case this happened. There was a lot of rushing around trying to get there on time to set up. Fortunately, a few friends came a early to help out.

Although a few people couldn't come because of illnesses, about 35 people in total came to celebrate, most of them kids. Because of a miscalculation and paranoia that we didn't have enough food, we had way, way, WAY too much meat, but it was good meat. We had Takahashi Market cater most of the food, along with ribs from Armadillo Willy's, pizza from Little Caesar's...


and yummy food brought by some good friends.


Lily made a cute Jello plate for Emi-chan and some awesome cookies. I ordered a cake from Sugar Butter Flour, not really knowing what kind of cake I ordered.


It turned out to be one beautiful cake. A mighty beautiful, rich and yummy cake.

Emi-chan wore herself out trying to watch everybody, crawling around exploring, and trying new foods, like yakisoba and Jello (she liked the yakisoba, but not the Jello).
She also tried chocolate cake. She really liked that. It was a busy and tiring, but joyful day.

Emi-chan and some friends

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everybody has a wonderful V-day full of hearts...


...and chocolates (these aren't turds. They're homemade chocolate truffles. They look awful, but taste so good).

Sick Days

We haven't posted lately because we've all been sick, sick, sick. It started off with the stomach flu for Emi-chan and Rick. Just as they got over the flu, the three of us came down with colds we can't seem to shake. It's getting pretty old. There's a lot of runny noses and coughing here at the Yoshida Shire. Hopefully, we'll get back to normal soon.

A Cousin Weekend

I hope everyone had a good MLK weekend, relaxing with family and friends, celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., or doing both. For Rick and myself, it was a weekend full of cousins.

The first cousin we ran into was at Little Girl M's birthday party on Sunday. Her party was held at a My Gym, where little kids go to burn off some energy by jumping on and off gym equipment, and mommy and daddy pay money for them to do so. It was a cute party led by some high energy college-aged girls. When we went in, there was a guy who looked really familiar and he kept looking at us. It turned out to be Stuart. His little girl was invited to Little Girl M's party. He and his family attend the same church that Little Girl M's family attends. It was a nice surprise. We spent some time catching up while we ran after Emi-chan.

The second cousin was Masatoshi M. He is Rick's mom's cousin...I guess technically he's a second cousin. He called us to let us know he received the Christmas card we sent him and he really appreciated it. I had a really nice chat with him. He's such a nice man.

The third cousin was my cousin Keigo, a.k.a. Cornelius. He's a musician in Japan and he was in San Francisco for a concert. He had a couple of days off before he had to fly to Chicago so he called my mom to see if we could get together. Rick and I took Emi-chan, Gran Gran and Unca Jeff on Monday night up to J-Town in San Francisco to see him. I hadn't seen him in about 20 years, so I was a little nervous. After we met him at a hotel, we went to a Korean restaurant and had a nice dinner, and caught up with him. Emi-chan was not having a good time, though, and Rick and I spent a lot of time trying to calm her down. Hopefully we can keep in touch more often in the future.


On a not so fun note, Rick and Emi-chan are finally over the stomach flu. They got better right before the cousin rush. Just in time. Otherwise, they all might have been very uncomfortable and messy affairs. I never imagined babies held so much vomit.

1/25: I forgot to add this story earlier. Over dinner with my cousin, Keigo, we reminisced about when we first met. It was my first trip to Japan with my family. I was 4 years old, Keigo was 3 years old. I have a lot of memories of that trip, but Keigo said he didn't remember much about that visit. What he remembered was that I taught him his first English phrases. He remembers I was standing at the top of the stairs of his home, and I was yelling at him to, "Come here!!! Come up here!!!" Rick thought this was funny. He said, "Even way back then, you were so bossy!" I said, "Who you calling bossy? Huh? Who? Answer me!!!"

A New Style

Happy New Year! We're finally blogging again. It's been a busy month and a half. It feels good now that our schedules are calming down again.

Since most people like to start off the new year with a fresh start, Emi-chan has been trying out some new looks. Here are a few:

We call this "The Unicorn"

This one is "The Triceratops"

This one is "Drunk Sorority Girl"

Which one should she choose?

Happy New Year!

Shinnen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu. Have a wonderful year!