Changing again

Ok, so I promise to stop changing all of this blog stuff around. This will be the last time for a while. I may tweak the design of this site a bit, but, I'll stay at this URL. It is
http://nicole.kaimori.com/blog/

I was just annoyed with the lack of customizability of the iWeb program. So as much as I am loathe to not use something made by Apple, I'm making the switch to blogger. Also, this will hopefully allow me to post while away from home, which will be especially useful as I'll be giving my laptop away at Christmas time!




Anyway, not much to report(I think of 5 million things and then go blank once I start to type), other than Clark has become super duper mobile. Three weeks of crawling, 1 week of climbing and now he can get into almost everything. He has also been able to feed himself a bit with a spoon. Most of the time he misses, but it is the few hits that make it all worth it.




He has also waved bye bye a few times, and is starting to dance. It looks more like he is shaking his head 'no' but since we don't typically do that, and his head shaking often coincides with music, we're pretty sure it is dancing. Masaki and I are, of course, thrilled, especially since we are both dance enthusiasts.



Last, but not least, I want to show off what I made Masaki for Father's Day. Yes, it is a shirt, but I plan to put new hand prints every year, and more as we have more kids, so it is a long term present, and I don't need to think of anything for a long time now. Plus it only took like 5 minutes (including running downstairs to wash Clark's hand before he could eat the paint).



Ok, time for bed, I just wanted to share real quick. Oh and any suggestions on design, font, etc. let me know...things like 'I can't read it the font is too dang blasted small!'

Test baby, test baby

1,2,3,4!

Unofficial Winner

Ok, so first and foremost the unofficial winner is PAMELA! The reason she is unofficial is because she got her second guess in on July 1st, a day after the due date. Now I don't want to be mean, but I can't break rules for family, so that is why she is the unofficial winner, because her second date of the 11th was post due. The stats on the little guy are as follows

C Y K
born: July 11th, 2006 @ 4:57am
size 3094 grams and 49.2 cm or
6 lbs 13.3 oz and 19.3 inches

Black hair and black/blue eyes(seriously not a brownish black, but a blueish black/dark grey)

we've discovered he likes to chew on his shirt and he likes to have his hand held when he cries. He eats a ton and doesn't seem to have mongolian spots(blue butt). Dad(007) says he is extremely cute, which I second. Here have a look!

The birth story

Ok Masaki posted a half post for me, so I'll make a condensed version of the labor story. So I end up getting back pain with my contractions around 5pm ish and call Masaki around 5:30 to tell him to leave work a few minutes early. I also eat since I figure that it might be the last time for a while. So after that I hopped in the bath to help ease the pain. Afterwards I rest for a bit, but the contracts are pretty frequent so about 9 pm I start having Masaki time them, and it finally got too bad around 10:45 and I made him call the hospital. They told us yes definitely come in, since contractions were about 6 minutes apart then, and I couldn't talk very well anymore. So we got here on one of the most painful car rides of my LIFE and checked in. This time I let them wheel me up to the maternity ward in a wheel chair. I lay down there and deal with stuff the 'hypnobirthing' way for a while, which started to not work as well as it got worse. Ohh yeah I was only 3 cm when I got here too, which I wasn't too happy about, but oh well I can wish for more, right? Well time actually passed pretty quickly, but painful. I was begging Masaki for some drugs. All I gotta say is why choose natural when you can have an epidural? Well we didn't have the choice, so natural it was.
Masaki says no pain no gain. I'd hit him if he wasn't holding the baby. Anyway back to the story. After throwing up ALL OVER the place, and getting another shower, I didn't even bother standing anymore. I was shaking too bad. The other lady was taken to delivery and I was able to calm down a bit with less distraction. It still hurt, but I could focus better. Though I started noticing my body was starting to push, which I thought was odd. I tried to resist it but after a while it was just too strong, so we called the nurse over and asked her what was going on, and she said not to worry the baby was just dropping, and so she left to tend to the other lady who'd just delivered, and not a minute later my water broke, so we called her back and she checked me out and said the baby was coming. I had like 5 minutes of strong contractions, and that is when hypnobirthing went out the window and what the lady was telling me made more sense, so I followed her lead in the delivery room. We weren't there for even a whole hour when he finally made his entrance into the world. I was doing as ok as can be expected, but I thought Masaki was going to pass out. His hands were turning white(not from me), and he was shaking. It was a mixture of a freaky, fast experience, fatigue and cold he says that made him shake. We all got a nap after a few minutes of staring at the baby. We just slept on the delivery table. We finally had to part at 7 when dad got to go home and take a nap and so did I, but a lot shorter one. So that is the story of Clark and his entrance.

A wedding! my kingdom for a wedding

Ok so the title isn't all that interesting, and it's been over a week since the wedding, but I need to do something on here, and my life is rather boring(other than the dreams about work). Anyway, the wedding was lovely. It was a lot of fun to see a lot of friends again and to be in sunny San Diego. I was really glad to come back home to Japan, but man I miss the atmosphere out there, and the cake....look!!!


I tell you this is the best cake EVER! It comes from a place called Extraordinary Desserts. It is the best ever....yes, better than mine. It was also fun to watch the bride and groom do salsa dancing for their first dance....look an action shot!


They are skilled. We'd all go dancing together, and they'd always kick my butt. Last of all, was an awesome pinata. The bride got the first shot, now it looks like she is smacking her husband but he clears out before she heads for the princess.



All in all a fun day, I got to see a lot of friends there, though not everyone. We stocked up on American stuff and now it feels ok to be back in Japan, I'm just not excited to leave the house at 7 am tomorrow. Oh well, my honey is well worth it. As for the typhoon, it is passing us as we speak, so it is just windy here, the rain is finished, luckily. Plus we are blessed with only a category 1....phew. Stay safe!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Ok so it's a little early, but I want to make sure this is up and posted, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY mom!!! We love you very very much. By the way I got the package. ;). So my mom has spoiled me from the day I was born, and is still doing it today! I choose to live far far away and she still sends me food, presents for my husband, and visits me. Thank you for everything you do!

In other news, it keeps raining. I guess the rainy season is in full swing. It has rained every day this week and with very little sign on stopping. We had a terrific thunderstorm the other day, and Masaki actually got stuck at the train station with a huge downpour! The sounds was really good too. I barely made it home in time to pull our futon (a.k.a. bed) in so that it didn't get wet. See you are supposed to air them out about once a week if you can. Other than that not much...we have some interviews this coming week, our first BBQ is postponed because of rain, and Masaki is teaching me to dance some folk dance, it is way fun! Everyone should give it a try, good exercise too. We did a dance from India (interestingly enough we also watched Bride and Prejudice tonight, a Bollywood/Hollywood collaborative effort remaking Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, a true favorite of mine...please see it and support Bollywood).

Happy 4th of July

Well since it is the end of the 4th over here and just the beginning of it over in the States, I'm here to wish you all a happy 4th of July. We had the day off(because we have every day off), and I made potato salad and corn on the cob to help us feel at home. We haven't bought the grill yet but that purchase will be made some time this week. We'll be real 'mericans out her' in J'pan. Notice the nice western accent. =) Anyway, not much going on, other than I'm a blog slacker. I got a job, and a new calling at church. I'm going to be an assistant teacher for the 10 year old girls in Sunday School. Masaki has two interviews, so that is a very possitive thing, and I'm going to start giving English lessons to my next door neighbor. So all in all life is good. Plus it is the rainy season so when we did fireworks tonight(sparklers....we'll bust out the big boys for Pioneer Day) we didn't have to worry about fire hazard because everything is very very wet. Just so you know also, my first potato salad EVER came out very nicely, and I got to give Masaki a little American history lesson(even though he doesn't like history, but I'll try to find a way to make it interesting).