Livin' on the edge

I have a new keyboard thanks to an awesome husband. Unfortunately BK is going through the non-sleeping phase, so i don't get much chance to use it. Here is one place I got him to sleep for longer than 5 min. No worries, I hovered over him like a hawk until he woke up.

Crazy parents

We were crawling into bed tonight when Edamame says
"I want to lay down like a normal person!"

Hmm maybe I need to say something else to get him to lay down.

Sent from my iPhone

Birthday cake anyone

My birthday isn't for another six weeks or so, but I think I've found
the cake I want to make. What do you think?

Dear Azucar

I love cars...kinda. I was way into them in college, but really don't
know much right now. Nevertheless I want to share my car ideas even
though I am pretty sure you don't read my blog. I have to do this
from the phone since my keyboard is kaput. I'm weird I know.

My DREAM car would be a supped up subaru imprezza wagon. Beat all the
other moms out of a light, hands down (we are talking stick here).
Plus the whole foreign cars get rockin' gas mileage.

My real suggestion would be a Saturn. They are safe, reliable, cheap,
and well made. It's probably what we'll buy when we move back. That
or a Prius. Gotta show the Japanese some love.

Thanks for letting me share.

Sent from my iPhone

copy/paste

http://www.kaimori.com/Shell_Forest/Blog.html

Hello

Yep, I'm cute!

Permanent resident

I got my permanent resident visa today. It's a cross between a green
card and citizenship. No more schlepping kids all over the place
every three years! Yes, we will still move back to the States, this
just makes life easier while we are here.

survived

ISurvivedButISpiltMilk(CerealMilkNOTMine)OnMyKeyboardAndNowMySpaceBarNoLongerWorks.
HaveFunReading,IWillPostSomePicturesLater.
OhAndIVacuumedAndMadeGranola,TakeThatMarthaStewart!!!

tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first day with just me...woo hoo!

Mommy, I'm a lady!

Yep, he busts out his toy box, starts pushing it and says
"I'm a lady"

it took me awhile to figure out what this was referencing when he finally said
"I'm at the hospital"
then said
"it's time for yunch"

Ohhhhhhhh, he was pretending to be the lunch lady at the hospital. I swear dinner was his favorite part about visiting me, and it obviously made an impression.

We also like our tomatoes.


I gave them to him and he said "Thank you, my love"
Oh, listening to me talk to daddy, I see.

A few other choice phrases
"Mommy, sing the enchilada song" (He meant Llama, from Emporer's New Groove, but it seems enchilada is easier to say than llama)

"I say prayers in English!"

So many more, but I'll wait until I can remember the good ones.

What would a post be without an appearance by BK

His stinkface in all its glory!

Oh the humanity!

Well Brass Knuckles decided to finally try his newborn super power of not sleeping. He was up until almost 1 last night, and then again every three hours(but that part is normal, they need to eat). We were all able to sleep in, but NO ONE took a nap. Between Grandma and I, we finally got Brass Knuckles to sleep a bit. Edamame on the other hand became a nutcase.


He was learning how to do headstands, flips and summersaults on the couch.


He of course crashed, and both of them were asleep before 7. I'm just waiting for 007 to get home and I'll crash too.

Also, a big HUGE thank you to Grandma for helping out for the last month! You've made life wonderful, and helped a lot with sleep training too! It'll be nice to be on our own again, but we will definitely miss you Grandma.



Oh and because I know no one wants to leave here without seeing at least one picture of the new guy.


...and Big Brother trying to be like mommy by slinging Pooh(slinging poo?)



Plus we got a little play time in yesterday.


Edamame is a good big brother. During our rough day today he held BK while I ran to get the pacifier(they were both laying down), and BK quieted down. Same thing when I had to throw Edamame's poop filled diaper away and wash my hands, he patted the screaming BK's head and sang him and song, and he was quiet by the time I got back...ohh and I RAN back. Just so you know I don't trust a toddler that much.

It's a crappy time of day

For the last three days the boys have pooped together. Yep same time. Change one, change the other. At least Edamame is very cooperative about it because he's doing it like little brother. I told 007 it must just be a crappy time of day.

Oh and nap at the same time too! They tricked me today though, BK woke up 30 min into the nap, and Edamame woke up 20 min after I got BK to sleep. I think they'll make a good team.

oh...and

The link to use for the blog to look cool is
http://www.kaimori.com/Blog.html otherwise it just looks plain.

The choice is up to you.

p.s. BK a.k.a. sir pukes a lot needs to be semi upright to sleep....oy vey!

New Website

As soybean mentioned on her last post, we made complete changes to our website. It is simpler and we should be able to update more frequently this time. This blog is part of the website, along with more pictures and videos. It is now up and running so if you haven't checked it out, go to www.kaimori.com and let us hear your thought, suggestions.

Changes

As you can see we've made some changes. There are overriding changes to the whole website, so while I lose some personal creativity we gain unity as a website/couple(blah blah blah). The last issue I'll have to resolve is where to put a link to the archives. Any suggestions? sidebar left? right? not at all?

Anyway I've been noticing things about BK, so I thought I'd share. First off, he has dimples on both sides. His eyes are a brownish hazel, and he has a lighter complexion than his brother. He is the spit up KING. I'm talking projectile all over me, 007 having to dodge it, kind of projectile spitting up. It isn't all the time, but since Edamame only spat up 4 times(yes I counted...it was only 4), this is quite different. We had an awesome explosion this morning that filled one leg of his PJ's. He digs the pacifier but isn't addicted. He's a champ nurser, sleeps well, and so far is a good baby(or maybe I'm just a little bit less anal of a mother).

Edamame is adjusting. He's having a harder time with not being able to be held/carried by mommy than with anything else. He's also being great with going to sleep on his own. I'm VERY impressed with that.

Oh and in case you understand Chinese characters, his Japanese name. hehe I feel tricky, even though I'm not.

Life is phototastic!

Time for some long awaited photos.

The very excited lady who held in/caught Brass Knuckles.


Me and the babe


A few personal shots of the little martial artist




Our first day home


While Edamame is still adjusting, he doesn't seem to hold any animosity towards Brass Knuckles, and tends to want to include him in things.


Here they are playing the game 'oh it's dark' with BK



...and a comparison
Edamame the baby


Brass Knuckles the baby


Ok, time to rest my sore self =)....ciao

p.s. Thank you to whoever invented soothees....you saved me.

Pics

Here are a few from the camera...

our first family photo

A pic that Edamame took

I'll get some more pics of Brass Knuckles up once I download them from the 'nice' camera...give me another day or so.

FREEEEEEEEDOM!

Ok, so it was actually nice to relax in the hospital, but it is so very very nice to be home.  Edamame of course had a melt down because of the huge mass of emotions of having mommy come home, but he is doing well, and hopefully napping.  A great side benefit of this whole thing may be that I no longer have to sit and wait for him to fall asleep...lets see if Grandma's awesomeness has paid off for me too.  After nap we're having a birthday party for Brass Knuckles(hey what better way to get a 2 year old to like a new sibling then to bribe him with cake?)  Edamame was super cute in the car, Brass Knuckles was crying and he said 'It's ok BK we're almost home' it was the sweetest thing.

Now the part you are looking forward to, the birth stories.  Picture will follow once I feel organized again.

Soooo it all started the day 007 was set to leave.  At about 4:30 I started feeling what I knew were real contractions, but they stayed weak and were 8-9 min apart.  We headed to the hospital, but nothing was really happening, so we went home to spend some time together before 007 had to leave.  I of course broke into tears after we got home from dropping him off and doing our test run to the hospital with grandma driving.  I was still in pain, but after MANY false starts I was getting frustrated, and lonely, etc.  Well after calming down and playing we had dinner(oh and Obaachan had come over too).  Obaachan started to notice that hey my downtime for pain was coming more frequently, so we decided to start timing them.  I soaked in the tub with Edamame and grandma helped keep track(I'd yell lap, she'd lap it on my stop watch/iphone).  By the time Edamame was asleep I was totally ready to go to the hospital.  We headed over and I was a stinking 2cm!!!!! Let me tell you I was 1.5ish at 7 that morning.  All that pain and 15 hrs later and I was only a stinking 2!! Nevertheless they checked me in because I was a second timer, and mom got sent home.  This was about 10:30pm, so I just laid in bed and dealt with it.  At the shift change the new midwife came in said hello, and I squeeked out a hi in between contractions.  Then I noticed pushing at the end of two of them.  So I rang the nurse call and let her know.  She was super nice and rubbed my back and then WHAM!  My body started REALLY pushing.  She of course said it wasn't time yet, but despite the efforts on my part, my body said 'No way sistah!' and BK was crowning within about 2 min.  At this point the nurse/midwife is freaking out too and slamming the nurse call button and calling out for more people to help.  Eventually she and another nurse get me up and walk/carry me to the delivery room where once I'm set up out pops BK.  While I was totally frustrated that I was made to wait, the whole process lasted no longer than 15 min.  He was so fast that they didn't even get the IV in me until he was out.  I needed the sugar water to help me stop shaking, but it was pretty funny I thought.

I liked how fast he came out, I didn't like that I didn't feel like I had the breathing tools to slow it down when I wanted to.  At least the midwife has an awesome story now(she was still stoked about it two days later!), and I know I've inherited my mother/grandmother/sister's mad skills for pushing babies out fast.

Ok Edamame is still awake, time for cake.

Stats

Ok, since stats are easy, here they are.

3168 grams
50.4 cm

For those of you who don't do metric that's about 7lbs and
19.something inches. He's already up to 7.3ish lbs.

Just 2 more days to discharge! Woo hoo!

Sent from my iPhone

Contraband

Yep, we got contraband in the hospital, and guess what? BK loves it!
I'm not worried 'cause the kid has been gaining weight for the last
three days! Take that Drs who want him in the hospital for a week!
At least I got a free back massage out the whole deal. Then again,
that may just make up for the non dissolving stitches, ouch!

Back to sleep!

Japan coolio

Here is one of the benefits of having a baby in Japan...Japanese food.
Yum!

Oh and fresh sushi from Grandpa :)

Btw the birth story comes when I'm back at a computer and not my iPhone.

Happy Birthday, BK!

So I totally missed out on the second baby's birth. I just started my annual US business trip and I was still standing in line for Immigrations at LAX when Soybeanlover gave him a birth. My final destination was Las Vegas and didn't hear the message until 13 hours later (I had poor reception on my iPhone and had some trouble connecting internet at the hotel). When I heard the news, I was happy but felt extremely sorry for Soybean and BK for not being there. I hear they are both doing well.
So after I checked in, my boss and I dropped off our stuff at our rooms, went out for dinner and check out the local Costco. I did some shopping there and asked my boss to drop me off at Target on the way back, shopped there and walked back 3 miles to the hotel. By the time I checked in, my phone's juice was out so I left it at the hotel to get it charged, and when I came back 5 hours later, there were several missed calls from Soybean. I tried to call her back but my phone wasn't getting enough reception, so I went to 7-11 nearby, picked up an international calling card, and after several tries, finally got through and was able to talk to her.
Edamame was there and he seemed really happy about Connor. When I talked to him, I said,
"so you are big brother now!"
Edamame: "Big Brother!"
007: "and you have a little brother now!"
Edamame:"He's BK(we've already picked a name for him, and Edamame picked it last week from 2 options that we had), it's his birthday." and started singing Happy Birthday song. It was really cute.
I feel horrible for not being there for them but am also feel very happy to finally see BK (on a photo for now). Good job, Soybean! I love you.

Brass Knuckles

1/8. That means JA is the winner. Crazy story next week.

Status report

No pictures today, but for my English speaking readers, a little report.

I am having killer round ligament pain compounded by BK's desire to
grind his head into my back while I have braxton hicks contractions.
Translation: I'm very uncomfortable and waddle.

On the plus side my doc is going to wait until 007 is back to induce.
While the crunchy granola part of me abhors the idea, I am very
relieved that I may get my husband by my side. I just have to cross
my legs real tight for a week. I never thought I'd say this, but
please pray for a late baby.

Not much else, I think I'm going to get some garlic bread now. Thank
you grandma!

Do you want play-doh with that?

As we were cooking dinner tonight we weren't paying enough attention to Edamame and he decided to help....

by putting play-doh in the eggs for the omelette.  He just wanted to help, all of us of course busted up laughing.  Poor kid.

Ok a couples of funny phrases coming from him:

'margles' = marbles

'bunny cookies' = Lebkuchen(the almonds look like bunnies)

Plus some pictures from daddy's iPhone

watching TV


eating at the golden arches.

No news, except for a bunch of false starts including a trip to the hospital this morning.  Still nothing.

I LOVE PINK

Ok, so I don't, but I know someone who does!

We took grandma to Costco today, to see what it looks like with a Japanese flavor to it.  While there she and Edamame discovered this.  Can you tell he's excited to be sitting in it?

other than that, just sitting tight, we're going to be doing a test drive to the hospital on Tuesday, so that Grandma knows how to get there too.

Hope everyone is having a splendid New Year!