First Update of 2011

Super fast update:

Mirei's a little person now.  She's always been a good communicator, blabbing on the phone and asking for food.  She still likes to blab on the phone and ask for food.  Now, she'll stick her finger in food and taste it, and then ask for more.  We have to try to get it on film.  It's funny.  Tonight, after she finished her own dinner, she stuck her finger in mama's taco soup, and decided she wanted some.  She then proceeded to out-eat Taisei.  She insists on feeding herself.  Wami stuck skewed pieces of Japanese hamburger (hambaagu), also part of tonight's dinner, on a fork, and she was happy to eat a lot in that fashion. 

When Taisei whoops and hollers (as boys constantly do), Mirei tries to follow along.  She screams when he screams.  She runs around when he runs around.  It's fun to see the two of them play together.

By the way, ever since Mirei went kamikaze out of her crib, she's been sleeping on the "big girl's bed."  Now, she doesn't freak out if she wakes in the night, the way she did in the crib.  It's been less stressful and although she'll fuss and not go to sleep sometimes, she'll always eventually return to the bed and sleep on it.  Only once did we find her sleeping on the floor next to the door with carpet pattern embedded on her face.  haha. So it's working out.  And a record should be noted: Last night, Mirei slept 11 straight hours.  8 pm to 7:30 am. 

Taisei's been kind of going through a phase where he's pushing our limits.  It's obvious that he wants our attention more as Mirei grows into a little person.  When she's held, he wants to be held.  When she's getting attention, he wants attention.  Maybe I made the mistake of purposely giving him extra while Mirei was still young, and now he's not liking to share time.  He's gotten into a habit of ignoring us.  Whether it's on purpose or not, we're not sure.  He can easily not hear us talking to him, especially if he's preoccupied.  And he always seems to be preoccupied.  I'm not sure how to grab back his attention.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

It's probably time to start Taisei on piano, violin, gymnastics, karate, and soccer.  That should occupy his time a little better.  He's slowing learning to read both English and Japanese hiragana.  His Japanese speaking is still very good.  He's also hooked on TV and iPhone games.  :(  Bad.  Recently, he stopped enjoying going to football and basketball games with me.  Probably a little too long for a young kid.  I'll have to find ways to make it fun again.  In his spare time, he loves crafts the most, whether it's drawing, cutting, or taping.  He also like his legos and various other building toys.   He absolutely can not stand going shopping - especially Costco.  Most of the time, he would rather stay home.  It's pretty funny.  I thought most kids like to go out, but it really depends what it is with Taisei.

Anyway, both kids are growing fast!  More to come...

Just prior to the break:

Credit to JustHimandHer.com

Crib Woes

A few days ago, Mirei gained the confidence to start walking.  Unfortunately, she might have gained too much confidence.  Last night, she climbed out of her crib, and as far as we could tell, face-planted from about four feet above the ground.  Yikes.

Mirei's worse than Taisei about sleeping.  Maybe it's her parents' fault for being inconsistent. She doesn't go to sleep very well, and some nights wakes up often.  In the past few days, she's started grabbing the top of the crib and attempting to climb up.  We didn't think she could to it, but unfortunately, she did it.  She just barely started walking, so landing the jump would have been impossible.  Luckily, it seems like she wasn't hurt in the fall.

However, we now need to think of some way to keep her in.  I was thinking about shining up her crib with wood polish.  Wami suggested candle wax.  Maybe we could put socks over the bottom of her PJs to cover up the grippy stuff.  Any ideas anyone?

Mirei's First Steps

Mirei took her first steps this week.  Prior to this week, she has had the balance and motor skills to walk, but it freaked her out.  She's able to push around various wheeled toys on our wood floor that, if she didn't have the ability to move her feet fast enough and keep her balance, she would have face-planted long ago.  She gets around with those toys and even stops, stands up, picks up the toy, and turns them to face the direction she wants to go.  But she's a chicken about not having the crutch.  :)  I remember the first time I watched her take a step with nothing in hand, she started screaming and hooting after she did it.  It frightened her.

This week, I saw her take a couple of those steps again, but this time, she seemed to be processing it in her mind.  Yesterday, she started taking a whole bunch of steps in the kitchen.  Probably four or five.  She had the same delighted squeal and joyous face that Taisei had when he did it.  It's one of the precious moments that you never forget.  :)

Happy Birthday, Mirei!

Today is Mirei's first birthday.  Happy birthday Mirei!

Wami made a monkey cake and Mirei dug in.

It's been a fun first year.  The kids have grown so much.  In the last post, Mirei got her first tooth.  Within the next two weeks, she got 3 more for a total of 2 on top and 2 on the bottom.  Since then, nothing.  But the ones she has are getting amusingly big.

In addition to the growth of her teeth, there's been lots of physical and mental growth as well.  She started standing when Ye-ye and Na-na visited back in early October.  Then a few weeks later, she stopped until just a few days ago.  No walking yet.  She's just more interested in crawling still, I guess.  She still loves food.  Anything we're eating, she wants to know what it tastes like.

The real growth for Mirei has been the mental growth.  Compared to Taisei, she seems closer to him at 18 months.  She understands what's going on and has no problem letting us know her displeasure.  She copies everything Taisei does, to the point that's he's starting to get irritated by it already, particularly when he's engrossed in one of his crafts.  After showers, both kids get a coating of lotion applied.  Now, Mirei likes to get a little squirt on her hand and then proceed to apply it to Taisei's legs and body.  She likes to climb up on a seat by herself, have us push her in, and sit at the kid's table opposite of Taisei.  She'll then pretend to feed herself if she can get a hold of some utensils.  She also like to sit on her big brother's booster seat.  She'll sit there for several minutes just amusing herself.  Funny stuff.

Here are random other things about Mirei's first year that I don't want to forget.

With Mirei, I found that I, papa(!!), have the ability to get her to sleep.  She does this endearing thing where she hugs me as tight as she can with all four limbs and puts her head down on my shoulder.  When she's tired, she'll just stay in the position until she falls asleep and I can just put her in the crib.  Often, it's usually not that simple, but I feel like this little thing has been a little father and daughter bonding thing that I didn't have with Taisei, since he always needed a human pacifier - Mama.

Mirei's also not shy with strangers the way Taisei was.  At about 8 months, he wouldn't let anyone hold him but Mama, Papa, and a few select family members.  Ever since, Taisei's been slow to warm up to most people.  Mirei, although she recognizes and probably prefers her mama and papa, she doesn't object to very many people holding her.  She's friendly and smiles for people unless she missed a nap or something.

Right now she's a handful and it's hard to eat out and things like that, especially since she's so interested in food, but it's such a cute age that I wish we could freeze time and just enjoy her at this age for a few more years before she grows up and starts asking us to how to drive (like Taisei has on several occasions)!

Mirei's First Tooth

Mirei's first tooth finally popped out today.  She's already started chewing things up since it popped out in the morning.  As usual, we didn't notice that she was sick or any of that stuff.  Lucky.

It seems ironic that a girl who loves food as much as she does had to wait so late for her teeth.  Today, I came home a little late from work and everyone else had eaten.  Mirei was already getting ready for bed, so I tried to sneak in my dinner while helping Wami without disturbing Mirei.  One time, I moved the plate and she heard the fork bump the plate.  Immediately, she wanted to know what was going.  Yes, she knew there might be food in the room.  After that, she wasn't interested in anything else that was going on in the room.  She just wanted to get a taste of whatever was on that plate.  Silly girl.

Four and Ten Months

Quick update on the kids.

Mirei LOVES food and now even drink.  Whenever either is around, she wants some.  It doesn't matter who has it either - mom, dad, brother, stranger... and even, as seen in the following, furry friends.  If she sees something that looks like a bowl/plate, or your mouth is moving, she wants to know what she's missing.

She's a happy and smiley baby, just like Taisei was early on.  Both make people (and especially their parents) happy with their liberal smiles.  Mirei hasn't decided to turn shy yet, like Taisei did around 8 or 9 months.  Mirei's now 10 days from hitting the 10 month mark and she's still as happy and go-lucky as before.  Now, she definitely recognizes her family.  She beams when I come home from work and immediately crawls to my feet so I can pick her up.  Ah, pure bliss for a father.  It's funny to see her chase me around in the mornings when I'm trying to get ready for work.  If I walk away too quickly or fail to pick her up in a timely manner when she's at my feel, she'll fuss and scream.

Sleep has been going well for both kids.  Taisei just needs a book and a prayer, and sometimes Hiro.  Once he's satisfied, he'll just lie down in the dark and go to bed.  And about two weeks ago, he started sleeping in the same room as Mirei.  Somehow, he sleeps through Mirei's fussing once or twice a night.  It's been so great for the entire main floor to open back up for Wami and I again.  It was a pain tiptoeing around both upstairs and downstairs.  Something we've figured out how to do with Mirei that we couldn't do with Taisei is have someone other than mama put her to sleep.  She's definitely not as dependent on the human pacifier (mama's tatas) as Taisei was.  Maybe that's partially because she likes food so much that she actually fills up on solids (not smooth baby food, which she detests).  All this really opens up the possibility for Wami and I to get babysitters and go on dates again.

Since the last time I mentioned it, we haven't seen another tantrum from Taisei.  Phew.  I hope that was just a passing phase that's now completely gone.  Just two and no more would be just fine with me.

For his age, Taisei's getting pretty good at origami.  He loves doing little, meticulous tasks with his hands.  [Video upload failed.  Will try again later...]

Last couple of thing coming to mind.  Taisei had his first official dentist appointment last week.  He did great.  He let them floss and gloss (remove plaque from) his teeth.  Quite an improvement from previous "happy visits" where he would barely open his mouth.  The dentist and dental assistant were great and Taisei was very comfortable.  Lastly, Taisei just started his second year of English Preschool, his, what 3rd year (??) of Japanese preschool, and next week will start an actually Japanese school with the Kurogis.  He'll actually be learning Hiragana, Katakana etc in a school-like environment.  I'm curious to see how that goes.

Ok, that's all for now.  See you next time!

Poor Mirei

There's a reason they say younger siblings are tough.  They get abused by their older siblings!  Taisei has gotten Mirei real good on two occasions now.  The saving grace is that we could tell Taisei felt really bad both times.

The first time, when Mirei was only a month or two old (ie really really small).  She was in her bouncer and mama was in the kitchen.  Taisei wanted to be a big brother pushing his sister in a makeshift stroller (which was really the bouncer at a 45 degree angle).  You can see where this is going.  All we know is when Wami ran back to find out why the hysterical crying, Mirei was face-down on the wood floor.  Yep, she fell straight forward and out of the bouncer onto her face.  Ouch.  Taisei was no where to be seen.  He ran off and was hiding in a corner.  I guess he got a little bit of a break for being 3 at the time.

Taisei's a rough-and-tumble kind of kid.  Definitely a boy-boy.  Some other parents can't stand it and probably think we're bad parents.  He definitely plays better with bigger, older BOYS.  Girls can't stand him when he gets into his boy mode.  (He's smart enough to do origami or draw with the girls.)  Yesterday, Taisei was running wild through the house with a 4" long, die-cast metal toy semi-truck in his hand.  We're still not sure how it happened, but we know he was running towards her and either he swung it and it went loose, or he threw it.  It hit Mirei right in the face.  When I got home from work, she had several large welts on her face.  Needless to say, I was not happy.  I'll just leave it at that, but I think he's learned his lesson on playing rough around Mirei, ...until he forgets again, that is.

In general, Mirei makes a big deal about some things, but not about getting knocked around.  Taisei will sit on her, fall on her, mess with her, and often times, she laughs!  It's amazing, and definitely not like most of the girls that Taisei is friends with (all of whom are oldest siblings).  We'll see if Mirei turns into a Barbie girl, or a tom boy in a few more years.