Happy Holidays!

It was a fun Christmas Eve for Shosei this year and for his parents as well.  We celebrated with a nice homemade Eve dinner of fish meuniere with a topping of cooked bell peppers and capers, fresh green salad, onion soup, bread, large oven roasted shrimp, roasted asparagus, and some cheese and olives as appetizers.  Oh, and we opened a bottle of sparkling wine that was a complimentary gift from the resort we stayed in when we went to Gunma. Fortunate for us, we have a view of the still under construction tall radio tower from our balcony and it was lit up in a splendid silvery illumination around Christmas.  Shosei was excited to see the Christmas tree lit up on our balcony.  He was also happy to receive a cool book from Grandpa in Seattle.  It was a special book which you can record your own voice and the reader can follow the story by listening to the recording.  Note:  Hallmark sells this kind of cool book.

New Years Day is fast approaching!  A new year, a new day, another new resolution!  My resolution for this year is to keep the resolution from 2011 and get better at it.

Happy 12 months!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, dear Shosei, Happy Birthday to you.

 December 20, 2011

Bath time

At exactly 8 pm, I always run the bath and get Shosei ready for his evening bath.  Now that he can stand up, supported by a wall or by putting his arms around my neck and shoulders, it is so easy to undress him.  He knows it's a routine and enjoys having his bath.  Recently, I started incorporating teeth brushing into the routine.  He has 8 teeth.  4 on top, 4 on the bottom.  Routine is good for a baby.  Routine is good for me.  I live by routines.  I tend to get out of whack when something out of the ordinary happens during the day.  But I've gotten better. 
When I was a child, I would stay in the bath and get completely warmed up before bravely stepping out into the cold rooms of my house during the winter months.  I used to count to twenty in 3 languages.  Japanese, English and in Spanish. 

Now, for my son, I count to ten in 4 languages!  The latter, plus in Chinese.  He is always so content, warm, and sleepy and ready for his evening bottle of warm milk. 

11 months

Life is good

10 months old

Shosei can stand up so well, using the edge of the couch and he glows with satisfaction when he sees me smile at him and praise him for a job well done.  In the past 2 days, he has been practicing sitting down from a standing position.  He slowly squats and reaches down to the floor with one hand while the other still grips the edge of the couch.  Sometimes he ends up just doing a couple of squats instead of sitting down on the floor completely.  All that many squats must be giving him major muscle strain his chubby thighs!

Following me

Shosei has turned 10 months now.  He can kind of crawl and move across the floor faster than you think.  One minute he is in the far corner of the living room, and then the next minute, his wailing is happening right next to my ear. 
These days, he wails and starts to cry and whimper when he doesn't see me nearby.  I call to him from the kitchen to let him know where I am and then soon, I realize he has dragged himself into the kitchen, and is nuzzling his nose into my jeans.  He looks up at me with teary eyes and a runny nose( if he had been crying a lot) and begs for me to pick him up and hold him in my arms for however long he wishes.  I grant his wish for 5 minutes before I go back to the kitchen to finish washing the dishes and I put him down on the floor.  He cries again and the whole thing starts all over again.  He follows me into the kitchen and I try to distract him by giving him some household items to play with.  Lately, he likes to play with all the drawers by opening and closing them.  More than once, he has gotten his fingers caught.  He used to cry out when that happened, but now, he knows what he has done so instead of a shocked cry, he says, ' whaaa...' in a helpless tone.

Until tonight, I was starting to get annoyed with his frantic chase after me into the kitchen or other rooms, but after reading on the internet about this baby trait (happens around 8~9 months), I just reminded myself that Shosei has developed a certain kind of attachment towards his mother.  He likes the attention and finds comfort when I hold him.  So that's a good thing.  It won't last forever.  When he grows old, I would call his name and he might totally ignore me.  I would be the one 'chasing' him and expecting a nice reaction, but he might point his attention elsewhere.  I should cherish these moments now. 

The fun has started

The cradle will rock....zzzz....

I am slowly getting Shosei used to sleeping in his crib.  Before, he was accustomed to being put down for a nap in the master bed and I would lie down next to him and sing a lullaby until he fell asleep.  He now knows that the song, 'Rock-a-bye baby' is when it is time to sleep.  He usually can fall asleep for a nap in about 10 minutes or less.  When he is too sleepy, he can't fall asleep so well.  If he has a hard time falling asleep, then I say, 'Shhh, shhh' rhythmically.  And if that doesn't work, I just take him out into the living room and try something else. 
When he naps, it is my free time to surf the web, write letters and emails, write this blog, read a magazine, jot down my errand notes, or finish a sewing project.  Or I take a nap with Shosei.

Almost 9 months

Shosei will be 9 months next Tuesday.  Let's see what he can do now and what his likes and dislikes are.

He can sit up straight without support for a long time and plays with toys on the floor contently for some time.  But when he gets angry or fussy, he sometimes just slams his body backwards, down into the cushion that surrounds him while he sits.  Unfortunately, he had to experience the pain of 'no cushion' because most of time now, he can pivot his buttocks to the floor but move his body around and reach for new toys from around the mat.  He can't crawl yet, but he can move from one point of the mat to different areas while keeping his butt on the ground.  He reaches for a toy, then sits back down in a different area than where he was originally sitting. 

He just recently discovered a drawer in the coffee table can slide out and boy, was he happy about his discovery!  He instantly put things that don't belong in his mouth up to his lips. 

When I sing him a song that includes actions such as clapping, he can now open his fists wide and flat and he can put his hands together to form a 'phlat, phlat' sound with my help.  He likes making noise with hard toys.  He likes to drop things on the floor and hear them clang and bang and then he picks them up again and drops it some more.  I have taken away the hard toys and replaced them with soft ones, because I'm afraid the noise is heard in the room below us in our condo.  :(

When he eats baby food that he enjoys, he goes 'Aaaah-Mmmmm, aaaahhh-mmmmm' while he chews.  Recently, he likes to eat tofu and taro root miso soup, cucumber mush, and of course he can't get enough of the bananas and milk.  I hope to start him up finally on eating meals 3 times a day now.  Eating more meals will help him eventually wean off his milk consumption! 

Shosei still likes his nightly baths that Daddy gives him.  He recently found out that splashing with his legs produces water droplets to fall onto his face.  He likes playing with household items such as the remote control, magazines, the curtains(especially on a windy day), the diaper tissue box, and towels.  I use one clean towel every day and he loves to rub his face in it and smell it.  He seems to find comfort when he falls asleep  with a towel or a blanket on his nose and mouth.  Funny that is the way his Daddy likes to fall sleep.  He doesn't like to sleep by himself in his crib and rather 'sleeps like a baby' if I let him sleep next to me on the big bed.

I hope and pray that he keeps on growing happily and in good health.  I thank my friends and family for all their support.  It has been an eye opening, crazy, and wonderful 9 months of parenthood. 

First overnight trip

Shosei experienced his first trip in a hotel this last weekend in Izu.  He experienced his first overnight, a hotel bed, a brief stop at the beach, his first waves, and his first restaurant.

We hadn't taken him to a restaurant at all since he was born last December.  It was a first for all of us.  Had he not drank his share of bottled milk, we wouldn't have finished, let alone, enjoyed a bit of lunch in the Chinese restaurant that we went to.  It seems like we prefer to sit on the floor with a low table, rather than sit in chairs at a booth or a table.  I haven't gotten to the point where I'm comfortable letting him drink water from the restaurant or even give him a sip of a watered down soup.  I don't know where the drinking water is from and I don't know where the vegetable are bought from.  They could be from the radiation-infested Touhoku area of Japan.

The stay at the hotel was nice.  It wasn't extravagant or luxurious by far, but it was still nice because of the friendly support of the staff.  My husband and I enjoyed 2 rounds of relaxing body massage.  And we relaxed in the huge hot spring bath, too.

On the way back in the car, Shosei was howling and crying because....I don't really know why....but it could have been because he was bored sitting in the car for 2 hours, or because he had pooped a little(but I couldn't see it at the time because it was dead center, rather than near the folds of the diaper).

I was able to sidetrack his mood with his favorite book and some crackers with apple juice.

I wouldn't mind going to the mountains next time.  The next trip to the beach will be saved until next year. 

Lunch time

Lately, Shosei has been disliking eating lunch.  It has been a month and a half since I started him on baby food.  On the very first day of baby food, he seemed so happy to eat from a spoon and eagerly opened his mouth every single time.  After observing him carefully, he seems to like bananas and anything fruity and sweet.  I don't add any extra sugar, of course.  It is just the natural sweetness that he tastes.  And also, he still loves his warm bottle of milk.  Every time I say, 'Milk time, Shosei!', his face lights up and he gives me a broad, toothy smile.  Before milk time, I feed him the usual baby food helping of mashed rice, some fish or tofu, and something fruity or a vegetable.  Today's menu is rice, fish and tomato sauce.  But I'm afraid after only a few bites from each plate, he will explode in fury and bury his face on the high chair table and give a small tantrum.  Before, I tried to feed him a little more even after his little blow out, but now, I can't tolerate it much with a pitiful smile, so I just clean up the plates and throw out the food that is only half eaten or not eaten much at all.  And then he just sits there on his high chair watching me clean up the mess he left on the table and waits for his milk to cool down.

I wonder what it is that I'm doing wrong.  I wish that he would eat more and eat the amount that most babies his age would eat.  I don't think he is eating enough and is drinking too much milk instead.  I know I shouldn't worry and every baby is different and they all act differently every day.  But I can't help thinking what could be triggering these refusals to eat after only a few spoonfuls.  As a new mom, it is so frustrating.  Should I just give it time? 

Something to laugh about

Shosei has a contagious laugh.  Maybe it's a baby thing that all babies have and make others around them laugh right along with them.  It is such a cute laugh and gives us a good enough excuse to just scoop up the bundle of laughter and kiss him all over his pudgy cheeks. 
Recently, Shosei sneezed while chewing on some food and he spewed out a bunch of stuff.   I thought it was funny and then he thought it was funny and we both ended up laughing hysterically. 

I imitated his sneeze by saying, 'Aaaaa-ck-chooo!' and for the rest of the day, he laughed out loud whenever I would say it!  In the past, I would always say, 'Bless you' whenever he'd sneeze and he would always giving me a knowing smile after my remark.  But now, after he sneezes, I imitate him and then he just bursts out laughing.  I know that sooner or later, he won't laugh about it anymore and turn his attention to something else that might press his laughter button.  The photos are of the time he still remembered about the whole 'sneeze-while-chewing-food' moment and I had kept saying, 'Aaaa-ck-chooo!'

Sour face

Shosei is eating more variety these days.  Today, I fed him cooked tofu and onion soup.  He likes vegetables.  He likes bananas a lot, so I thought I'd feed him an orange next.  It was a really sweet orange, and I thought he would like it.  But apparently, the citrus flavor was a sour surprise for him.

Zucchini!

Shosei is almost 8 months and I think I have been taking the baby food process really slowly.  So far, he has eaten rice porridge, udon noodles, broccoli, potato, carrots, bananas, and sweet potato.  He has had one Japanese baby cracker to taste and tried to drink hot water, apple juice, and barley tea, besides the usual bottled milk and breast milk.  After careful observation, he seems to like rice, broccoli, carrots, bananas, and sweet potato. 

Today, he ate zucchini for the first time.  And he loved it!  I added a little dashi stock for taste and he just about devoured it.  After he swallows down his spoon serving, he is ready for more with an open mouth.  He follows the spoon with an eager, open mouth.  It's so cute
I must say that frozen vegetables just don't taste right to use as baby food.  We have to make a choice whether to buy fresh vegetables that happen to grow near the Fukushima plant, or buy frozen ones from overseas.  Fresh vs. frozen.  Tainted vs. all natural.  It's sometimes hard to make a decision. 
Soon, I will be feeding Shosei twice a day and I will keep adding more variety to his diet. 

Sleep

Aaah, sleeping in Mommy's arms.

I can sleep in any position,

on the floor,

sideways,

I can even sleep soundly with a towel on my face.

Potato potage and carrot mush

Not so sure.

This week, Shosei started a new menu of baby food.  I made potato potage and mashed carrots.  The carrots are from a frozen product, picked in New Zealand and the potatoes are from Hokkaido, Japan.  These days, we have to know where the produce is from, to avoid the potential hazards of produce near and around Fukushima.  Sometimes, there just seems no way to avoid it all together.  I find myself looking at the green vegetables and root vegetables, wondering whether to believe the written names of places where these produces were grown.  It must be even harder for those people living in Fukushima.
Shosei seems to not like the carrot mush so much.  When I tasted it, it tasted too much like plastic, as if it had been stored in the bag it came in for far too long.  Frozen food just doesn't taste right.  I long to feed Shosei real, fresh vegetables from my parents' all around organic garden.  I flavored the potato potage with a little bit of Katsuo dashi stock.  Shosei also had a taste of unflavored rice crackers for babies 7 months and older.  He played around with it and then eventually, he rammed it into his mouth and let a few pieces melt in his mouth.  It easily melts in the mouth.  It's edible for babies with no teeth.

Broccoli

This week, I added broccoli to his rice porridge diet.  Apart from the possibility that broccoli makes babies have more gas, Shosei seems to like it and eats broccoli porridge very well with the spoon in his mouth.  He goes, ' Ah-mmmm' every time he swallows it down.  He finally drank barley tea today without playing around and yesterday, he drank apple juice for the first time, too.  Next week, I am thinking of changing his rice diet to Japanese somen noodles and have some apple sauce for the first time.  I'm sure he will like something sweet.  Maybe some pumpkin, too. 

First times

Yummy big toe

Sitting up with no help

Sleeping on my side and praying?! at the same time

First bottom tooth

Falling asleep while playing

First time

Today, Shosei had his first taste of real food.  I made rice porridge called Okayu.
It is made of simple white rice, boiled in plenty of water and I mashed the rice into a thick, watery and sticky substance.  No added salt or flavorings.  As I mixed it into the right texture, Shosei sat in his high chair, waiting eagerly and sat at the edge of his chair, extending his arms towards his bowl.  Of course, as the matter of course, he flipped over the large white spoon, sending bits of sticky, wet rice all over the dining table and onto the floor.  I thought he wouldn't like the feeling of a spoon in his mouth, and not swallow so well, but no, he acted like he knew what he was doing from the start.  He let me glide the spoon into his mouth, between his lips, and he easily swallowed his first spoonful.  We were so surprised!  Maybe he had really been observing how we were eating at the table during each meal time.  My husband fed him, too, as I snapped a few photos.  After his first 'meal', Shosei was reluctant to let go of his rice bowl, and expressed it with a few whines, but he was quickly satisfied as I finished off with a bottle of warm milk.  I'm sure he is already looking forward to his next bowl of rice tomorrow.  Maybe he is dreaming of it as he soundly takes an afternoon nap. 

He wanted to eat the bowl, too.

Too hot

Shosei has been sleeping so much these days.  Instead of having 20 to 30 minute naps, he is having 1 and a half hour naps!  Is this a growth spurt sign?  Or does he just like to sleep, like his mom does?

I caught him fallen asleep with his burp towel in his mouth.  He was sucking it so much, I could hear the saliva go through his mouth.  After he fell asleep, I had to take a picture. 

Summer time

Shosei with his barley tea and fan--getting ready for summer heat.

Shosei had his first taste of barley tea last week.  (Mugi-cha) Too bad he can't drink it iced yet.  That is how one might drink barley tea on a hot summer day in Japan.  At first, he was wondering what this brown liquid was doing in his bottle, but after a while, he got used to the bitter taste and got to drinking down about 20 ml.  Instead of giving him the whole bottle, I thought it was better to have him get used to the taste.

Cherries!

Yamagata cherries

Today, we had a lovely sandwich party with my good friend and her boyfriend.  Her parents gave us a very nice gift of Japanese cherries Yamagata prefecture.  Yamagata prefecture is well known for their cherries this time of the year. 

6 months

Yesterday, June 20th, Shosei turned 6 months old.  Last week, he did his first roll over and now does it proudly.  He like to roll from his back to his right side onto his tummy.  At 6 months, he conveys so much character and it is a real delight for us to see his growth everyday. 

Likes:  He likes it when we blow in his face, he likes to be held, he likes it when we thrill him by lifting him up high.  He likes his stroller rides, he likes it when we clap our hands, he likes toys that play music. 
Dislikes: He doesn't like to be left alone in the room, he doesn't like to play by himself very much( for a long time), he doesn't like to be spooked(even when we don't mean to)

 What puts him to sleep: Watching me hang the laundry outside or watching me fold the laundry inside, chanting in a low voice while rocking him. 

Things he is interested in: our cellphones, the tv remote control

Talents: Giggling out loud and making us laugh even more.

Happy 6 months, Shosei! Let's start on baby food soon! Rice porridge first! 

birth mark

I have a small, oval shaped birth mark on my right elbow.  It's not perfectly oval.   I've stared at it, wondering what it looks like, like how you might stare at white clouds in the sky and day dream what the clouds look like.  If I pinch at the skin to make the mark appear smaller, it kind of looks like pac-man with a very small mouth.  If I stretch the skin, it looks like a simple speech bubble. 

After Shosei was born, we discovered a fascinating shaped birth mark on the underside of his left thigh.  At first glance, I thought it looked like a crab.  Then after staring at it from different angles, it looked like various things.  The last thought I had this morning was that it looked like as if someone stamped Shosei's skin with a dense brush with light brown ink and also left a sprinkling on top it. 

The photo is not the best, but what does it look like to you? 

Hospital

I took Shosei to the hospital, one block away from our home and got him checked by a pediatrician who also specializes in allergies.  Shosei developed some sort of red rashes and spots on his tummy and arms some weeks ago and I have been applying him with some prescribed creams to reduce the redness and dryness as well.  It's cleared up pretty good.  The doctor suggested I get his blood taken to see if he has any food allergies before I start him up on his baby food. 

After the nurse called our name, the nurse came out and told me she would have to take Shosei in, without me.  I was thinking, "What? Why?" She explained while the baby is getting their blood drawn, it's possible that the baby will move away from the needle and stretch towards mom and that could be dangerous for the baby.  But I insisted I watch and they let me in.  Like I was the expert, I explained to her that Shosei doesn't yet have that awareness which Mommy is a safe haven.  He let himself be bundled up tightly in a towel, and one nurse got on the bed with him and secured him with her arms and upper body weight.  The other nurse securely fastened the tourniquet around his upper arm and tapped his blood vein to get it to pop up a bit under the skin.  Now, I've worked briefly as phlebotomist(blood drawer) and I was practically brainwashed over and over on the importance of wearing latex gloves before working on a patient.  Doctors and nurses, whoever that draws your blood do not habitually wear latex gloves or any kind of protection in most Japanese hospitals.  I was taken aback when I got my blood drawn for the first time in Japan several years ago.  I was practically grossed out.  If your skin on your hands or fingers is cracked or injured and has some sort of opening in your skin, and then you make contact with the opening on the patient's arm or hand, well, duh, blood is exchanged, right?  That's the end of the story. 
I watched my son writhe and cry and scream and sweat profusely as the doctors and nurses surrounded him with their somewhat soothing voices(but a little annoying to me) and heavy arms and that tiny needle.  Oh, but the worst was when the nurse would take the needle out half way and just like a 'saw', she would saw it out, in and out, in and out, trying to pinpoint the vein under the skin.  Shosei's arm is chubby and his vein is so small and it bounces around under the skin, making it so difficult for the needle to tap into the vein.  I swear the 'in and out' seemed to be so painful for Shosei.  It would be for any adult, too!  'In and out'. 'In and out' The poor skin cells in Shosei's arm is getting sawed up!  'Stop, for crying out loud!' I wanted to say!  'This isn't how I learned to draw blood!' 'Wear your gloves, at least!'

But I kept my mouth shut and let them do the work.  They had let me in to watch them anyway.  I felt like I had to stay out of the way.  After 6 pokes total, 2 times in both arms and once in both hands, and a sweat drenched baby, they gave up and said to come back next week.  

'Not!' 'No way!', was what I immediately thought.  But I really wanted to know if he had any food allergies and this seemed to be the only way, so I went one week later and they got the blood on the 3rd try.  I also have to add another note.  I thought I learned not to poke your arm at the same time for the second try.  Shosei was poked twice in both arms!  He had a purple spot in one arm for one week, not for one day, which the doctor initially said he would have.  Oh, the pain he had to endure!  I held him a lot and cooed him and soothed him as much as I could that day.

Roll over, roll over!

Smiling at the camera before the deed

Ooof!

Umph, ungh, sigh-

My right arm is stuck, Mommy!, but I think I rolled over pretty good!

Today, Shosei demonstrated his first roll over from his back to his tummy!  Amazing!  He is currently 4 days short from being 6 months.  I was so happy, I was patting him from head to toe and expressing my happiness with my voice, my smile, and my eye contact.  He knew he had done something great and did it 2 more times after I put him onto his back.  I kept on repeating 'Roll over, roll over!', like a chant and prior to this day, I had been saying that whenever we would practice rolling over from his back to his side with my help.  Somehow, the excess weight he was lugging on his butt and thighs let him roll over today for the first time!  Babies' first times are so precious and memorable, aren't they?