We drove Daddy across town this evening for a rehersal time with some musicians he is playing with, and on the way home Hana and Mommy decided to treat ourselves to some Mcy-D's for dinner! We happily made our way over to the restaurant and with giggles and smiles like two little girlfriends on a "ladies night out". We entered the establishment ready to FEAST! Hana ventured out of her normal menu rut and decided to have a Hamburger Happy Meal Set, instead of her normal Chicken McNuggets (way to go Hana-baby!). Mommy ordered her usual Chicken Sandwhich, Salad set. We secured a favorite high chair with Ronald smiling ever so enthusiastically at us, and headed with our feast to a table with a view! We girlies were having fun.
Now, Mommy knows Hana has a tendency to decide she needs to go tee-tee during the meal so I asked her specifically when we entered the restaurant if she'd like to get that little event out of the way, and she adamently said she did NOT need to go. TWICE! So Mommy believed her.
We had just settled in for our scrumptious meal, Hana had her whole spread on the high chair tray in front of her and she was sampling her first bite of Happy Meal Hamburger when suddenly she says, "Mommy, teetee!" Go figure.
So Mommy is on her own right? We have all our food spread out in front of us and there is no way I am going to make her wait until the end of the meal. I decide there is no choice but to just go, and leave our food there. I scoop up my purse and begin getting her out of the high chair when Hana-baby jerks her knees up and POP - off flies the high chair tray, making a 180 degree flip and splat, on the floor goes all Hana's food. All the while Hana-baby is more adamently reminding me that she needs to hit the John, LIKE, NOW MOMMY! Mommy is almost in a panic, what do I do with the mess while I take her? I quickly reported the incident to a staff member and headed to the potty, when we returned, the mess was still on the floor, every patron in the whole restaurant was watching milk slowly make a stream across the entire restaurant with a "poor foreigner" expression on their face, and I was blushing furiously! Finally a staff member appeared with a mop, the mess disappeared, and get this, THEY BROUGHT US A WHOLE NEW MEAL!
OK, most embarrasing moment for Spring '07, out of the way!
By the way, Hana thoroughly enjoyed her new Happy Meal menu. She ate the WHOLE burger. But she so totally takes after Mommy, we had to remove the pickles! Daddy would have laughed, you see Daddy receives a bonus couple of pickles every time we eat hamburgers in our family, FROM MOMMY! Now, he's gonna enjoy even more. We hope Daddy doesn't turn into a pickle!!! Nahhh, we don't eat hamburgers that often, I THINK!?
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
It's empty!
After dinner this evening I took Hana to the potty. Potty time is a bit difficult to judge these days, sometimes she's done in a sec and wants to go back to play and sometimes she'd like to stay put for a while and play with some books. Mommy sometimes gets frustrated at the unpredictability of such visits, so instead of just leaving her there this evening only to be called back just as I get my hands in my dish gloves, I decided to ask her if she was going to be staying for a while. So I said, "Hana, are you all done or do you need to poopy?" and she goes...
"uuuuummmmphhhhhhhhhh" (a long grunt) and then looks up at me and says "Nope, it's empty!"
and she was all done! She cracks me up!
"uuuuummmmphhhhhhhhhh" (a long grunt) and then looks up at me and says "Nope, it's empty!"
and she was all done! She cracks me up!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
What a memory!
You will NOT believe this. Hana has an incredible memory (I knew it but she demonstrated something amazing yesterday).
At the breakfast table yesterday morning Daddy was looking at an advertisement. Hana suddenly started saying, "Eiji, Shoko" the names of some friends of ours in Tokyo. We talk about them off and on and have mentioned them recently, plus Rocky has their picture in his cell phone and she regulary makes him go through all his cell phone pictures so she can identify all the people. So Daddy asked her, "Do you want to go see Eiji and Shoko?" and she says, "Yea, Eiji, Shoko!" And we told her that we will get to see them this summer. Then she points to the add he is looking at and repeats, "Eiji Shoko, Eiji Shoko!" Rocky and I looked at the add and there are no pictures of any people on the add, so Rocky asked her, "Where are Eiji and Shoko?" and she just sort of furrowed her brow at him and then pointed again to the paper and said their names. Rocky and I were both confused and we asked if she could see Eiji and Shoko on the paper. She said no, and pointed specifically to some Sushi and said "Eiji, Shoko! Eiji, Shoko!" and Rocky says "OH MY GOSH, do you remember going to eat sushi with Eiji and Shoko?" And Hana says yea, and points and again and says their names. Rocky showed her a picture of them to be sure this is who she was talking about. She said, "yea, eata, Eiji Shoko!" eata = eat
We looked it up and she was only 14 months old when we went to visit them and went out to have sushi together. But she clearly remembers it! I know that she has an incredible memory, she demonstrates that all the time. but I didn't know that children this young had developed a long term memory yet. But she clearly remembers eating sushi with them because there is no way it was a coincidence that she associates them with the sushi she was seeing in the ad by chance. She is now 2 years and 9 months so that means that it was about a year and 7 months ago that this happened!
She has also demonstrated that she sort of remembers some things from our last trip to America but I always thought that was from the pictures that she remebers it and can talk about it. But now that I think about it, she remebers the names of people that we haven't seen for a long time, she remembers the names of stores or locations we haven't been to in a while when she sees them again. She also remembers things that happened months ago and sometimes talks about them. So I should be so amazed. but I thought that surely more than a years time with NO mention or reminder of something would certainly mean it has left her memory. Not in this case.
WOW, I wonder if it is just her or if this is common in children???
At the breakfast table yesterday morning Daddy was looking at an advertisement. Hana suddenly started saying, "Eiji, Shoko" the names of some friends of ours in Tokyo. We talk about them off and on and have mentioned them recently, plus Rocky has their picture in his cell phone and she regulary makes him go through all his cell phone pictures so she can identify all the people. So Daddy asked her, "Do you want to go see Eiji and Shoko?" and she says, "Yea, Eiji, Shoko!" And we told her that we will get to see them this summer. Then she points to the add he is looking at and repeats, "Eiji Shoko, Eiji Shoko!" Rocky and I looked at the add and there are no pictures of any people on the add, so Rocky asked her, "Where are Eiji and Shoko?" and she just sort of furrowed her brow at him and then pointed again to the paper and said their names. Rocky and I were both confused and we asked if she could see Eiji and Shoko on the paper. She said no, and pointed specifically to some Sushi and said "Eiji, Shoko! Eiji, Shoko!" and Rocky says "OH MY GOSH, do you remember going to eat sushi with Eiji and Shoko?" And Hana says yea, and points and again and says their names. Rocky showed her a picture of them to be sure this is who she was talking about. She said, "yea, eata, Eiji Shoko!" eata = eat
We looked it up and she was only 14 months old when we went to visit them and went out to have sushi together. But she clearly remembers it! I know that she has an incredible memory, she demonstrates that all the time. but I didn't know that children this young had developed a long term memory yet. But she clearly remembers eating sushi with them because there is no way it was a coincidence that she associates them with the sushi she was seeing in the ad by chance. She is now 2 years and 9 months so that means that it was about a year and 7 months ago that this happened!
She has also demonstrated that she sort of remembers some things from our last trip to America but I always thought that was from the pictures that she remebers it and can talk about it. But now that I think about it, she remebers the names of people that we haven't seen for a long time, she remembers the names of stores or locations we haven't been to in a while when she sees them again. She also remembers things that happened months ago and sometimes talks about them. So I should be so amazed. but I thought that surely more than a years time with NO mention or reminder of something would certainly mean it has left her memory. Not in this case.
WOW, I wonder if it is just her or if this is common in children???
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
How come?
This is her cutest new little expression... "Mommy, how come?" It is so cute to hear such a matter of fact perfect statement come out of that little mouth. And then when we answer her, the response is always, "Oh." or "Oh, I see." So cute!
She is speaking in such long sentences these days to. Today she said to me, "Mommy, what that thing, over there, that blue one?"
She is doing so well with preschool! She is still sad in the morning and doesn't want to go, but she comes home SOOOOOO happy and has such a great time playing. We won't be leaving her all day everyday for the most part but right now, until she gets used to it, we are leaving her until nap time is over. She still doesn't want to sleep there, but for the past two days has napped a little. She comes home everyday chattering about what she did, and it is so fun to see her so happy. It has definitely brought on increased Japanese usage, but she is doing well with switching back to English. And Rocky and I have time to get things done while she's at school, so when she comes home we can interact and play with her more than before! I am glad we made the choice to go ahead and put her in now, instead of wait till later. And I think we made the right choice of which school too!
She's growing up way too fast though. I can't believe how big she is. I'll post pictures soon.
She is speaking in such long sentences these days to. Today she said to me, "Mommy, what that thing, over there, that blue one?"
She is doing so well with preschool! She is still sad in the morning and doesn't want to go, but she comes home SOOOOOO happy and has such a great time playing. We won't be leaving her all day everyday for the most part but right now, until she gets used to it, we are leaving her until nap time is over. She still doesn't want to sleep there, but for the past two days has napped a little. She comes home everyday chattering about what she did, and it is so fun to see her so happy. It has definitely brought on increased Japanese usage, but she is doing well with switching back to English. And Rocky and I have time to get things done while she's at school, so when she comes home we can interact and play with her more than before! I am glad we made the choice to go ahead and put her in now, instead of wait till later. And I think we made the right choice of which school too!
She's growing up way too fast though. I can't believe how big she is. I'll post pictures soon.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Little Hudini...
Our escape artist! I didn't know we had one, but we do. I was doing some work on the computer this afternoon and Rocky was washing the lunch dishes when I heard him go look out in the garage and say, "Hana, what are you doing?" Let me preface this by saying Hana can't and shouldn't go outside alone where we live. Our front door litterally steps INTO a street, and cars and bicycle riders are not looking for little kids to come popping out there. Well I realized a few minutes later that Rocky had disappeared, and so I went to look for them. They were out in front of the house and Hana was pushing one of her babies around in her stroller. I asked Rocky what they were doing and he said he'd found her outside by herself pushing her baby around! Evidently she went and got her own shoes, put them on and escaped through the screen door into the garage. The weather is beautiful right now so we are keeping doors and windows open. NOW I KNOW that I have to watch her really closely with the doors open. I never dreamed she'd decide to go outside without saying something to either one of us. Little Hudini Hana!
Hana started preschool this week. Two hours in the mornings for now, till she gets used to it. It is a Christian preschool just about a ten minute walk from here, and actually Daddy is a graduate of this preschool as well, so you know it is GOOD!!! The first day she SCREAMED and CRIED when her teacher took her from me. It was so hard for me to hold back the tears but I did well. Rocky went with me to drop her off, how'd he know Mommy needed the moral support!? We were speaking at a Christian college chapel service that morning so we headed off to work, and sometime during chapel they called to say Hana had a fever. Poor dear, Mommy and Daddy abandoned her on a day she doesn't feel well! We rushed back to get her and she fell apart when she saw us again. They said she'd played pretty well while we were gone though, even though she had a fever.
Yesterday her fever was down by morning so she went again, and didn't do so well. On the way over she wouldn't ride in her stroller and I felt compelled to spoil her a little so I carried her THE WHOLE mile walk over there (needless to say my arms are sore today). The closer we got to the school the tighter she clung to me and the higher she climbed. But the time we walked through the gates she was practically clinging to my head with her legs wrapped around my chest! I left her in the arms of her teacher, one UNHAPPY little girl. They said when I left, she discovered the church pastor (the school is attached to a church) and she knows and loves him so she sweet talked him into holding her all morning (imagine that, she has this power over sweet Christian men!) and she cried hard again when we arrived to pick her up.
But today was a little better. She cried when I left her, but when I got back they said she'd been playing happily and she didn't cry when she saw me, she was waving and smiling and chatting about her morning playing outside. So maybe things are getting better already!
Mommy on the other hand wonders if I can handle preschool. There are so many things to remember! I also have to always keep in her backpack or at the school two changes of clothing, a hand towel, a wash cloth, a bib (that I had to make according to instructions), shoes, a back pack, two record books, and more! I have to write down how she's been doing eating, sleeping etc in a booklet. I have to write or iron on her name in or on EVERYTHING she takes to school (all the washclothes, underwear, towels, socks, EVERYTHING!). It's going to be quite a chore making sure her name is all her clothes, writing all that down IN JAPANESE all the time and keeping up with what's at school, what needs to be taken, what needs to be washed, etc! All you veteran moms out there are chuckling at me right now saying, "girl it is just the beginning" aren't ya?! Just wait till sport uniforms, text books and club activities are thrown into the mix right!? OH BOY, being a Mommy sure is a blessing but sometimes it comes with surprises and more than I bargained for! Especially doing this in another country. I was scared to death I wasn't putting her name in the right places on her clothes or that I'd get reprimanded for what type of towels I bought or something! I've heard horror stories of preschool from other international Moms! But so far I guess I'm being a good girl. I wonder if I get a grade at the end of the semester?!
I'll have to try to get some pictures of Hana at preschool once she is happy about going. Her backpack is the CUTEST!
Hana started preschool this week. Two hours in the mornings for now, till she gets used to it. It is a Christian preschool just about a ten minute walk from here, and actually Daddy is a graduate of this preschool as well, so you know it is GOOD!!! The first day she SCREAMED and CRIED when her teacher took her from me. It was so hard for me to hold back the tears but I did well. Rocky went with me to drop her off, how'd he know Mommy needed the moral support!? We were speaking at a Christian college chapel service that morning so we headed off to work, and sometime during chapel they called to say Hana had a fever. Poor dear, Mommy and Daddy abandoned her on a day she doesn't feel well! We rushed back to get her and she fell apart when she saw us again. They said she'd played pretty well while we were gone though, even though she had a fever.
Yesterday her fever was down by morning so she went again, and didn't do so well. On the way over she wouldn't ride in her stroller and I felt compelled to spoil her a little so I carried her THE WHOLE mile walk over there (needless to say my arms are sore today). The closer we got to the school the tighter she clung to me and the higher she climbed. But the time we walked through the gates she was practically clinging to my head with her legs wrapped around my chest! I left her in the arms of her teacher, one UNHAPPY little girl. They said when I left, she discovered the church pastor (the school is attached to a church) and she knows and loves him so she sweet talked him into holding her all morning (imagine that, she has this power over sweet Christian men!) and she cried hard again when we arrived to pick her up.
But today was a little better. She cried when I left her, but when I got back they said she'd been playing happily and she didn't cry when she saw me, she was waving and smiling and chatting about her morning playing outside. So maybe things are getting better already!
Mommy on the other hand wonders if I can handle preschool. There are so many things to remember! I also have to always keep in her backpack or at the school two changes of clothing, a hand towel, a wash cloth, a bib (that I had to make according to instructions), shoes, a back pack, two record books, and more! I have to write down how she's been doing eating, sleeping etc in a booklet. I have to write or iron on her name in or on EVERYTHING she takes to school (all the washclothes, underwear, towels, socks, EVERYTHING!). It's going to be quite a chore making sure her name is all her clothes, writing all that down IN JAPANESE all the time and keeping up with what's at school, what needs to be taken, what needs to be washed, etc! All you veteran moms out there are chuckling at me right now saying, "girl it is just the beginning" aren't ya?! Just wait till sport uniforms, text books and club activities are thrown into the mix right!? OH BOY, being a Mommy sure is a blessing but sometimes it comes with surprises and more than I bargained for! Especially doing this in another country. I was scared to death I wasn't putting her name in the right places on her clothes or that I'd get reprimanded for what type of towels I bought or something! I've heard horror stories of preschool from other international Moms! But so far I guess I'm being a good girl. I wonder if I get a grade at the end of the semester?!
I'll have to try to get some pictures of Hana at preschool once she is happy about going. Her backpack is the CUTEST!
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Golden Week...
The first week in May is a long holiday, and we always get a chance to take some time for family during this week. Hana's cousins always come from Osaka to visit and she LOVES it!
Here are some pics!!!
There were some kangaroos at one park we went to and Hana just LOVED them. She was especially excited about the Momma kangaroos with babies in their pockets!
This is little Tomoki (who is not so little anymore). He's 1 1/2 and weighs MORE than Hana does! He's a happy guy!
We got to do a pony carriage ride too!
One more time around with Daddy too!
Here I am with my big cousin Daiki! We were worn out from the long day at the park.
Here are some pics!!!
There were some kangaroos at one park we went to and Hana just LOVED them. She was especially excited about the Momma kangaroos with babies in their pockets!
This is little Tomoki (who is not so little anymore). He's 1 1/2 and weighs MORE than Hana does! He's a happy guy!
We got to do a pony carriage ride too!
One more time around with Daddy too!
Here I am with my big cousin Daiki! We were worn out from the long day at the park.
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