Everyone's feeling SUPER inventive!

Yep, we've been doing a lot of creative thinking here, coming up with ice cube tray skating(or sock skating when the trays are hiding),




Learning monkey style kung-fu(video is up and coming),

Making fun shaped dipping pancakes, or carrots which turns out Edamame loves with ketchup,

*bragging rights to anyone who can name that character*

Recovering kitchen chairs with vinyl(I had spilled PB all over one and it was GROSS),



and of course the normal cooking, cleaning, pirate adventures, etc.


Now for the SUPER part...

Things I've learned

We've been getting ready for our trip to the Embassy on Friday. After much pain, we've finally got BK's passport pictures printed to the right specifications(oh and in case you are wondering, I finally had to have 007 take the picture). I was doing the last check to make sure we have everything we need for our trip, and I discovered this little gem of Japanese law regarding dual nationals. Pay attention to the fourth point.

*For Japanese citizens who became dual nationals before January 1, 1985 (i.e., before the change in Nationality Law was enacted):
*If you were less than 20 years old on January 1, 1985, choose by your 22nd birthday;
*If you were 20 years old or older on January 1, 1985, choose by December 31, 1986;
*If you did not choose your nationality within these periods, it is assumed that you chose Japanese nationality.

Now this doesn't concern most of you, but I know there has to be one or two people that find this interesting. Oddly enough, if you were born after 1985, it is the exact opposite. You'll likely be stripped of your Japanese citizenship.

Speaking of which, after this US hulabaloo, time to get BK's Japanese passport.

Are you bored? Think this is totally uninteresting? Ok, well I'll give you something fun.

Tell me, what is a furog?

Koinobori

The cultural posts are going to increase for the next two weeks. From April 29th to about May 6th is Golden Week here and one of the holidays in that week is Children's Day, or as it used to be known Boy's day. I happen to have two boys under my charge, so it is a big deal around these parts. Edamame is totally obsessed with koinobori. This was fueled further when we saw a fairly sizable koinobori at one of the houses near church. He just stared and asked questions about it until 007 and BK picked us up. He even made his own this morning with all of his ties.




We will soon be purchasing another 'fish' for the koinobori because we had another boy. You get one for each boy. Wikipedia will fill you in on it, but what I've been told(which is different, but both versions are probably right) is that the Black carp is for the dad, red for the mom, blue for the first son, and then add more for each additional boy. Don't worry girls, you got Hinamatsuri/Girl's Day back in March, so there is balance.

This year is BK's Hassuzekku, or first Boy's Day. It's a pretty big deal, so we'll likely have a nice little family party when we're visiting Obaachan and Ojiichan in Chiba.

In prep for golden week I tried taking passport pictures again. If you're not keeping count, this is the third time I've tried. Still too many wacky shadows. Like I told 007, I SUCK!

Weather Talismans and more!

Edamame is an avid reader and really loves this ABC book that we got from someone. I HATE it because it has so many mistakes in it I cringe that he might learn "Engrish". One of the good things he learned though was about 'teru teru bozu'.


I thought they were ghosts, but nope, they are there to ward off bad weather and rain. Kids put them up the day before field trips, etc. for nice weather. I'm excited to make this a little tradition in the house. I'm starting to pick the stuff we want to pick up, and toss the stuff we don't want. I'm still up in the air about what to do on Easter(I'm not a fan of commercialize Christian holidays, but how much of it is culture?). Anyway, fun to hang in windows, umbrellas. Tissue ghosts aren't just for Halloween anymore.


Oh, and 'cause I know you want to see me first thing in the morning.

Praying Mantis

April 7, 2009, Tuesday
When Clark and daddy were “fighting” a couple of nights ago, daddy used praying mantis style kung fu against Clark’s pirate sword. A couple of nights later, Clark was fighting mommy with the praying mantis kung fu.

For those who don't know what "praying mantis style kung fu" is, here is a clip.

kicks and grins

I saw this cookie and instantly though 'pre-civilized fertility figure'. It tasted dang good too, butter flavored bear cookies...yum, thank you primary president for picking awesome treats!

spicing things up

Normal bathtime is so boring...lets make it more like snorkeling!

For Amy

This is how I get so much done..neglect laundry. It looks extra bad
because I'm going through baby clothes now too.

Blue Pride

007 lusts after a blue-ray player(like any good tech loving man should). He heard about this 'trick' where a man wanted a blue-ray player so he got his wife her favorite movie on blue-ray. "Opps, we can't play it?? Let's go out and get a blue-ray player. " After he heard that he kept joking about getting Pride and Prejudice for me on Blue-ray. It finally happened...and he showed me this site. While I still don't feel the NEED to get a blue-ray player, I'm pretty sure I know what I'll get when we do get one.

sigh, maybe I'll need to bust out this movie next time 007 has to stay late at work.

Mo' tie dye

We did some more tie dye. Edamame will no longer have to wear the same shirt for 4 days, but will have 4 pink shirts to choose from.



He was so excited and had to do it as soon as BK went down for his morning nap.


Good times

My HUGE baby

So BK is beefing up really well. I'm slowly starting to put him in some of our 6 month clothes. I decided to take some contrast pictures, this is BK at 3 months and a week.


This is Edamame at 5 mos and some.


It's so interesting to see the different body types. I was a skiiiiiiiny baby, and that seems to be what Edamame is doing. 007 and his brother on the other hand were little fatties. So even though BK looks more like me, his baby body type is more like his daddy. All I can say is yeah for good boob juice!

Oh speaking of skinny, Edamame's skinny little waist can BARELY(and I do mean barely) keep a pair of 18mos shorts on.

Morning Smiles

BK is ALWAYS happy, even when he wakes up. A big difference from the other three people who usually wake up a little bleary eyed. I got some very cute smiles today. Sorry about the poor iPhone quality.






He's a little tanker too! He's starting to grow out of some of his 3-6 mos clothes already...eek! His brother on the other hand will be 3 in a few months and is just barely starting to hint at fitting his 2T shirts( the 2T pants will NEVER fit, especially now that the diaper is gone...just have to use the Japanese small butt sizes for him).

I think he's growing out of his BYU onsie, it was near impossible to get over his wide shoulders this morning. At least he'll get to wear his UCSD onsie soon! woo hoo!


Oh, and besides not being tolerant of me eating any beans other than the refried variety, which means more Mexican food for us, he seems to have a second allergy. I'm thinking either chocolate or peanut butter. We'll see what happens in two weeks when I reintroduce one of them into my diet. I almost hope it is chocolate, because peanut allergies are WAY bad. Oh wait, Edamame had a PB allergy until he was about 2 though...hmmm.

Prayers

We're a bilingual household, and so we do our prayers every night in Japanese to make sure the boys and I can pray in Japanese...lately though, we've had to say our prayers in Pirate Japanese to get them done.


Ahhh the joys of almost three year olds.

I'm kind of sad though he now pronounces banana and onigiri correctly. They were banas and onigini.

Oh and why is he going through the pulling all the toilet paper off phase now???

Website Update

We updated our website. 3 new video clips, "Balloon," "Pirate Song," and "Girl Voice" are uploaded, both in small size and 720p HD. March album is also updated with downloadable pictures. Go to kaimori.com

Happy Easter

Forethought: Yet another reason why I love my mother...the cool emails.




"Apparently the Easter Bunny was killed in a tragic accident at a Peep factory and he donated his body to science. Finally, an answer to mystery of the origins of Easter eggs!"

For Pam

...see my house is dirty too.

Tickets!

We just purchased three out of four of our plane tickets(I have to call to get BK's ticket). EEK! It was scary.

Can I just say how glad I am that there is now a DIRECT flight to Salt Lake??? I no longer have to deal with the horrible break down, jet lagged, over tired emotions that accompany a small child during a lay over.

We'll be there in time for Pioneer Day! If you want exact dates either email me or hit me up on facebook.

I'm even more excited about this than 'zoo'. I've needed a break all week, this isn't a break but it is hope =).

Oh mommy! The humanity!

Guess who is getting washed before BK starts the chewing phase?

Zoo

First sight word

Zoo


done TWICE today.


I'm extremely excited.

Mantis Style

007 and Edamame having been "fighting" recently, and 007 likes to use praying mantis style kung fu. Tonight, Edamame decided he'd fight mommy and use praying mantis style. It was pretty cool to see.




If you hadn't noticed, he's wearing his pink tie-dye shirt and dinosaur pajama bottoms. This could well be his favorite outfit. I will be making a few more tie-dye shirts because that is all he wants to wear right now. Not even Wall-E, a shark, Lightening McQueen or Dinosaurs can go over these shirts. See how much he loves it.


...and a cute shot.



Also I don't want to leave BK out. I tried taking passport pics again, he looked surprised throughout the whole thing(maybe because I had the ceiling fan on).



I liked this one 'cause of his pudge.



p.s. This is for you Sarah!
http://www.kaimori.com/Shell_Forest/Blog.html
p.p.s. Here is an example of mantis style

The Forbidden Kingdom- Praying Mantis

p.p.p.s. We found this awesome Kung fu montage set to "Do the Hustle" unfortunately embedding was disabled, but if you are up for it search for Kung Fu Hustle Old Skool.

BTW

sorry if I'm totally jacking up your Reader. I'm putting all my old posts into blogger, easy access, all in one place, maybe I'll publish it one day...you know the normal excuses to cause a problem. Enjoy the blasts from the past...either that or just head 'mark as read'

"I'm making cake!"

Edamame has decided to become an imaginary baker. He's been making imaginary cakes for the last few days. Yesterday he hung out with the next door neighbor and made cake...it was extraordinarily cute. This is the same nice lady who let him water her plants like a crazy man a few years ago.




...and the final result! What a lovely cake.


He LOVES her, tells me to go home so that he can play with her, and wants to go next door all the time. We missed her last summer because her daughter in law was on bed rest a lot, and she was going over to help a lot. Now that the baby has been born, she can spend a bit more time at her own home again. Edamame is going to have a lot of fun.

Insert Witty Title here

We had our Primary Easter party today and instead of dying eggs, we did shirts instead. It was my suggestion(yeah I know playing up the CA stereotype, but hey I like to do it, it's fun...I want to make it an Easter tradition), and seemed to go off well. Edamame was excited because he loves his green tie-dye shirt, but was even more excited to get a PINK one.




He was a little excited about it, can you tell?

While BK was sleeping off the morning's activities, 007 and Edamame got to go out and see the cherry blossoms(I'm SUPER jealous, but hey I got a break from an over tired almost three year old, so not that jealous). 007 is always great with the camera and snapped these photos.





Time to travel back in time a few days, or as Edamame would say "last year"(no concept of time, everything is last year), when we were taking an emergency bath after peeing on himself and the floor upstairs and he asked for the snorkel and mask from grandpa. Sorry the lense fogged up, but hey it looked like he was having fun.



Lucky for me though, when I was nursing BK upstairs to put him to bed one night I heard "Pee pee mommy!!!" so I shouted down "Run to the shower, take your pants off and go in there". I waited a bit and heard thumping, so I was worried...turns out he was down there using BK's baby bath water to wash himself off after a successful potty break. He then proceeded to get himself soaked and play(and eat most of my salad). It was a fun evening.

BK is still eating like a champ...and exploding all over him BYU onsie. No matter what he's so happy though, he wakes up, sees me or 007, or Edamame for that matter and just smiles and growls. It is so funny. I love my boys.

Dear Baby

Brass Knuckles,

Thank you for sleeping until 4a.m. I appreciate it a LOT. Sorry about the tempura and raviolli though. Please forgive me until I get back into the swing of 'no eggs' again.

love

mommy

Suck on this!

I'll title this picture 'multi-tasking'



Oh and for the record, this one is allergic to eggs too. I've cut the eggs out since after breakfast on Saturday and the redness in the various baby fat creases has all but disappeared, his residual baby acne is clearning up fast, and the cut above his ear is healing nicely as well. At least I have some good recipes under my belt now.

Including a grand eggless dinner tonight of Spice Black Bean Burgers a la cjane, with homemade English muffins for buns and I even tried my hand at oven baked french fries. I really liked it.