Summer Fun 2011

When we woke up and checked on Taisei this morning, to our surprise, he was sleeping in bed with his pajama tops, but nothing on below that!  We immediately assumed that he must have leaked and decided to strip his wet pants off.  But they weren't wet, nor even smelly.  Huh?  When we was finally awake enough to answer questions, he told us that he couldn't find them in the dark so he just went to sleep without them.  Silly boy!  When Taisei really needs to go, he has a habit of stripping off the pants immediately and then making his way to the bathroom.  I'm not sure why, except that on several occasions, he's stopped to relieve himself before he made it to the bathroom.  >:-(  Arg.  He hasn't really had any accidents except for during the last trip to Japan (where, believe it or not, jet lag even can affect your bladder!  :)

Mirei had her first haircut today.  Check it out.  Before.

After. 

Not the greatest picture.  She was tired because we started so late.  I knew I had to go with the boyish cut since the top was so long and wispy, while the layer underneath seemed to just be barely starting to grow.  I matched it all up and hopefully the next one we'll be able to do a bob or something more girly.


Taisei was the one that really needed it, so he went first.  Mirei watched carefully and wanted one too, so why not.  Perfect timing.

For Taisei, this is turning out to be a fun summer.

Soccer:
We gave Taisei the choice to sign up for soccer or T-ball this summer.  At first, he didn't want to do either one.  He always says in Japanese, "Mary-sensei is good enough."  In other words, he doesn't want to do much more than his regular class with Mary at the CFDC (U of U).  Although we really do like that program a lot, we really wanted to get him getting used to doing new things, especially since Kindergarten is starting in the fall.  Plus, it would be a shame not to start teaching him some skills with his seemingly high level of motor skills.  After some encouragement, watching YouTube videos and talking to him, he agreed to sign up for Soccer.  Then, he eventually decided he wanted to do T-ball as well, but unfortunately that filled up already.

So, soccer.  After the second week, it seemed to be successful beyond our hopes and expectations.  Each week, they have practice (20 min) then a game (20 min).  Right off, he happened to get a very nice coach who he really likes.  The coach happens to be from China, but I'm not sure if that has to do with it).  He's good with the kids and tries to get them even playing time.

Game 1 - all the kids were timid.  One boy wouldn't even play.  Most of the kids just watched as the ball bounced right by.  On the other hand, the team we played must have been hand-picked by the coach.  Every kid could dribble and shoot.  Every time they got the ball, they took off and left Orange (Taisei's team) in the dust.  When Orange got the ball, you couldn't even tell for sure which way the ball would be kicked - usually out of bounds or backwards... right back to the other team.  Even though you're not supposed to keep score, it ended 4-2, Yellow. 

The best thing - Taisei looooved it!  Now he understood why I was telling him that shooting it and dribbling it were different.  So after game 1, we went and bought a proper sized ball.  We went to the park and practiced dribbling, running, passing and shooting.  He kicks the ball a little too late sometimes, but still very good timing.  He can kick it without stopping it and it often comes right back to me.

Game 2 - Taisei went right after it.  He connected solidly with the ball several times.  On one occasion, he and another boy kicked the ball so hard at the same time that both went down.  It drew a collective gasp from the crowd.  Our parents couldn't believe how much better our team became in just one week.  This time, the other team had two kids that were pretty good.  But suddenly, Taisei and two of his teammates were really good too.  The three of them were aggressive in going after the ball and had it in their red zone (do you call it that in soccer) quite a bit.  Taisei had several great fast breaks, two of which he scored on.  They were beautiful shots too, from a good 10-15 feet out, if I do say so myself.  ;)  One other teammate had the other two shots and they were beauties as well.  Orange could never score on the red-zone scrums because the opposing coach was smart.  He had taught all of his players to go stand right in from of the goal if the ball was ever in the vicinity!  Three kids blocking a goal that was probably 4 feet wide.  Nothing you can do there.  haha.  In the end, score was 4-4, with Taisei scoring two and Cambria scoring two.  I'm afraid I got way too into the game, although I encouraged all the kids from both teams.  I'll have to tone it down a bit next time.  ;)  If I can get it on, I'll post Taisei's two scoring drives.

Karate.
I looked and looked for a place.  I wanted something where he could let out his craziness in a more controlled manner.  Perhaps get some discipline while he's at it as well.  Just as I was about to buy a Groupon for a place in Bountiful, I found out that one of my friends from work, a known blackbelt and very hardward and successful employee at that, teaches right by our place in the Avenues!  Perfect timing.  Plus, another coworker's son, a friend of Taisei's was also just about to start.  We took Taisei right away for a tryout.


I was worried during the first practice.  He was reluctant and didn't understand all the terminology and the customs.  He was very surprised that all the Caucasian were speaking some Japanese.  Taisei wouldn't talk about it afterward so I was afraid that he didn't like it.  But then when he was running around punching, kicking, and doing the things he learned his first day, we realized that he loved it.  Phew!  But at the moment, he's on a break from Karate.That's because his soccer games are on Tuesdays and now swimming are 4 days a week at the same times.


Swimming:
This one, we really worried about.  Taisei's scared of the water and didn't enjoy his last swimming class much.  To our delight, he loves the teachers!  They do a great job of singing songs and playing games to teach the kids.  It's perfect.  He's even singing the songs at home sometimes.  Before the class, he wouldn't put his face in the water or let go of my neck in the water.  Now, he can wear a life jacket and paddle on his own for a limited time.  He can put his face underwater and kick with a kick board.  It's been great!  We're so happy for the good teachers that are helping him develop these critical survival skills in the water.

Bowling:
We got family passes to bowl two games daily the entire summer for 25$. What an incredible bargain!  Of course, we tell many of our friends about it and they just shrug.  I guess bowling's just not the entertainment it used to be.  And that must be the only reason they're selling these family passes for so cheap.  Taisei's had fun bowling, and even Mirei's been able to use the ramp to do it herself.  It's been a fun activity to take the family to go do often.

Mirei:
As for little sister Mirei - thanks to watching Taisei do all kinds of things, she's afraid of nothing.  When they're out playing around, she's the one touching the bugs while Taisei's egging her on but afraid to do it himself.  :)

Mirei's coming into her own this year.  She's definitely Ms. Colorful.  If she doesn't get what she wants, big time whine.  If she likes what she eats, big smile and lots of commentary.  Of course, we thing she's the cutest thing ever except when she has her attitude, which happens all the time.

Compared to Taisei at this age, she can understand basically everything we say.  When we ask her questions, we can always expect a Japanese grunt in the affirmative, "un," or a distinctive English "no."  She likes to say people's names.  She seems quick at memorizing phrases, nouns and names.  Today, we were playing with whimpy fireworks in the backyard and we kept saying "That's it?"  For the rest of the night, she kept saying "That's it?!"  Her two favorite made-up words are "chun-chun" and "chi-chi" (basically any animal, particularly birds).  All bugs are "ari, ari!"  She loves seeing animals, birds and bugs. 

Mire's so smart - this is how she holds the book up.  haha

She has always wanted to do everything herself, partially because she has to copy everything that Taisei does.  That means we can't feed her, we can't put her clothes on for her, and other things.

Mirei likes to sing the zooo-san song in Japanese, especially when she sees elephants.


She likes to lie down with Taisei often and pretend that they're sleeping.  She'll snore and make all kinds of funny sounds to try to show us that she's sleeping.  That's kind of funny because as far as I know, no one in our family snores.  :)  She's been sleeping in the same room as Taisei about 2 months ago.  It's been great.  She tends to sleep through the night now that Taisei's in there.

Mirei's vice is sweets.  It's seriously an addiction.  We literally have to hide any candy-like object from her or she goes crazy.  Once she tastes something sweet, she'll make the biggest deal until she gets more.  For a long time, gummy vitamins were a huge problem.  She's finally figured out that we're only going to give her one no matter what.  But still, out of the blue, she'll start asking for candy "a-me?  Mama, a-me?"  (Japanese, of course.)  The only bright side is that she also does like fruits... if they're sweet, of course.

Here she is only eating the jam.  And that's good bread too.  :(

Lastly, Mirei has not stopped doing her funny leg thing that I mentioned last time.  Let's call it "planking," the teenage phenomenon that LaReen alerted me to.  She does it every moment she gets a chance.  She balances on her pelvic bone and lifts both legs as high as she can.  We can't figure out what's going on - if the pressure helps her feel better, or what.  Whenever she becomes quiet, she's usually planking.  Really, this deserves its own post.  I'll do that.  Check up next time for pictures of Mirei planking.

Miscellaneous stuff from this summer:

We did our annual Taisei-and-Friends hike to Donut Falls.  Unfortunately, there was so much water this year, we couldn't cross the raging river to get to the falls.

We cleaned out and painted our office.  It's much spacier now.

You know how on TV, bubble baths seem to have WAY more bubbles than you ever get at home?  We finally figured out how they do it on TV.  While we were away from the bathroom, Taisei and Mirei used about 1/3 of a giant bottle of Burt's Bees bubble bath.  We had just bought it too.  :|  All private parts are covered, just like they always do on TV with the bubbles.  ;)

Ok, that's it for now.  Just wanted to get something down on paper while I had a few moments.  Keep checking back!  :)

5.2 and 1.5

One time, I posted about Taisei being a little walking disaster.  I obviously didn't have anything to compare to.  Taisei's troublemaking would be like getting slapped in the face once or twice, and Mirei's would be like getting punched in the gut over and over and over again until you have to finally give up.  At random times during meals, for the last several weeks, Mirei will just swipe everything onto the ground.  This can be miso soup, drinks, spaghetti, whatever.  It happens in restaurants and at home.  On the same day, she blew up her lunch and dinner, got into a jar of Vaseline and scooped out half of it while we weren't paying attention, and sent a stool crashing down the stairs into all the picture frames we had sitting there ready to hang.  In general, it seems like she finds ways to cause as much trouble as she possibly can and it scares the heck out of us.  Still not sure how much of it is intentional.

We're really racking our brains hard to understand why she's misbehaving and reacting so differently from Taisei.  For one thing, we do know that she understand far more than Taisei did at this same age.  He was probably 2 and a half - a full year older - before he could understand and talk like Mirei does.  But despite the mental development, she's way less mature than a 2.5 year old, obviously, so the reasoning and discipline has be approached differently from our side. She's still grasping at actions and consequences.  More than likely, they just have totally different personalities.

So it seems like we're going though dramatic stages with her.  For a while, she was seriously injury prone.  She would fall or find some other way to smack her head 2-3 times a day.  I was afraid to let her out of my sight.  Now she's naughty prone, generally wreaking havoc wherever she goes, intentionally.  We're afraid to let her handle things.  I have to add that even though she's such a hand full, she's still the cutest thing ever to us.  Just extremely 調皮.  I sure hope we're about to get a less stressful phase soon.

Mirei still loves food.  That's still the way we get her to quiet down when she's fussing.  She's not as good of an eater now though.  She insists on eating herself, but you never know if that food is going to come flying back at your face or off the side of the table, where Hiro is ever patiently waiting.

She loooves birds.  She's always looking for them, and exclaims "chi-chi" when she sees them.

She talks a whole bunch.  We're amazed that we can pretty much explain to her what she should do, and, if properly incentivized (food), always seems to know what we're saying.  She'll often repeat the proper responses back most of the time.

She does this thing where anytime she's on her chest and belly, she'll lift her legs up in the air.  No matter what time and place, she'll do it.  She's into working her back muscles?  Who knows.  But it cracks us up.

She has to do everything Taisei does.  But because of this, she has no fear.  If he goes down a giant slide, she has to go.  If he jumps off of something, she has to jump.  We have to constantly remind Taisei not to let her see him do certain things.

*********

Taisei's doing well.  He's sloooowly growing out of his childhood shyness.  He now enjoys saying thank you and other polite words to strangers.  He'll talk to adults now all the time, where he would never do this when he was a little younger.  We're going to start signing him up for lessons and sports.  In particular, I want him to learn how to swim while he's still young.  Ironically, he hates swimming, whereas I loved it when I was his age.  Now, I don't enjoy it much.  I wonder if I negatively influenced him.  He's signed up for soccer in the summer.  I'm guessing he'll be not-too-big, but quick and agile like his dad one day, so sports like gymnastics and martial arts might be good for the long run.  I'm sure he'll never get fat, with the way he's so incredibly picky about food still.

One great piece of news.  He likes sashimi now!!  Here he is with his own meal.

He's developed an allergy towards guinea pigs.  As far as we can tell, it's just that animal.  He's played with rabbits, chicks, cats and dogs with no problems.  The reaction has happened now happened 3 times.  It's too bad cuz he loves those animals.

Uh oh...

Rash already developing on his face.  Check out Mirei.

Immediately following.

Time to get home.  He couldn't open his eyes eventually.  Luckily, Wami was carrying some Benedryl, which alleviated it almost immediately at this point.

On some occasions, Taisei has allergic reactions towards seafood too.  It seems to be either shrimp or crab, but we haven't isolated it for sure.  And it definitely doesn't happen every time.  The great thing is that he loves seafood too much to give it up because of some mild hives.  Last Christmas in San Jose, he insisted on eating crab for the third night in a row, once time even while he had some hives on his body.  Luckily, he's only had one mild reactions since and we're still eating seafood all the time, including shrimp and crab.

Taisei and Shinkansen (Thunderbird)

*********

We had checkups yesterday for the kids.  Taisei's less of a little guy than before.  38.0 lbs is 50%.  43.4" tall is also 50%.  Mirei, on the other hand, seems to be getting proportionally smaller at 18 months:  20.1 lbs is 10%, 30" tall is 25%, and 47.0" head circumference is also 25%.  I wonder if any of these stats have any bearing on the future.  I'm guessing probably not much.

5 and 1.4

Taisei had his 5th birthday.  You can see the pictures and details on the daytime blog.  Random notes:

• Although at home he doesn't pay a lot of attention to Mirei, when we're out, he's more comfortable to have her around.  When he wouldn't go to preschool in Japan, the teachers had to show him that his sister was there in another class.  Only then would he stay the whole day.
• He still loves the same things - drawing, crafts, playing sports, riding his bike at the park.  Now I guess there's more - he loves watching the animated Avatar (Airbender) series, playing Plants vs Zombies, and card games such as Uno.
• Recently, he's started to develop allergies that he never had when he was younger.  There was the seafood at New Years in SF - don't know if that was shrimp, crab, clams, or scallops.  But a few days later, we narrowed it down to either shrimp or crab.  Then in Salt Lake, he had the reaction again with either shrimp or crab.  Luckily, he doesn't care.  He's still happy to eat the food.  Also, on a school field trip where he touched guinea pigs and baby chicks, he came home early with puffy, itchy eyes and a rash.  Just recently, he got the rash and puffy eyes again after touching guinea pigs and rabbits.  In all cases, the reaction was a mild case of itchy hives.  Too bad.  I was hoping he would be totally allergy-free, unlike his dad.  I have a lot of allergies myself - cats and rats and other animals, hay fever / pollen / grass, and probably other stuff.  Luckily with the miracle drugs these days, it's easy to keep under control.  Not so lucky when I was a kid.
• Already at this age, he reminds me of me.  Is that because he's like me, or because I'm like my dad?  When I try to talk to him about something serious, he goes "I know, I know, Baba."  In other words, we don't need to talk about it anymore.  I did that too.  :O

In the grand scheme of things, 5 is just barely getting started.  But as we watch him grow, learn, and develop in so many ways, it feels like his life is flying by so quickly.  Sometimes it's tiring to have him begging to be picked up every time Mirei's being held, but I have to remind myself that we're more than half way to the point where he's never going to want that again.  It's one more reminder to resist the temptation to look towards the future.  Enjoy every moment.  That's what I hope I'm doing.

Mirei now has 10 teeth, two of them upper molars in the back.  The two opposite molars on the bottom are there, breaking through now as well.  So twelve teeth before 1 and a half years old.  Did Taisei have that many?  If I only had a sample of two, then I would say that the desire to chew and eat causes your molars to come out.  I'm pretty sure there's no scientific fact backing there, but it sure does suit her desire to always be chewing on something. Other stuff:

• She still LOVES eating.  When Taisei got grumpy as a baby, it was clear - he needs a nap.  When Mirei gets grumpy, it's a different strategy - she's hungry.
• Miso soup is one of her favorites - and ours too.  Every time she sips from the bowl, she says "Oishi."  Siiiip.  "Oishi." 
• She loves to be outside.  Whenever she thinks she can, she brings us her shoes and tries to get us to take her outside.  Pretty funny how opinionated she is at this early age.
• Mirei's completely injury prone.  Especially her head.  She can whack her head on walls, tables, the floor several times in one day.  Of course, it hurts every time, but does it stop her?  No.  I feel like we need a helmet for her.  Unlike Taisei, she doesn't learn quickly from her mistakes and, instead, continues to do the same thing.  Maybe she's stubborn that way?  I'd have to say that this is probably more like me, and Taisei's carefulness is probably more like mom.
• Mirei's discovered the biting elicits a reaction.  When she's mad at her brother - and this is not a rare thing - she goes for his arm and bites him.  Luckily, Taisei's a pretty good sport about it, although he has shed a tear or two before.  The other day, she climbed onto Wami's back, which is just something she likes to do sometimes, but then she bit Wami's neck!  Wami was shocked and scolded her, but she seemed to think it was amusing.  Yikes.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now.  Enjoy a few pictures.

Food and Shy-ness

Quick update on the kids.

Mirei said Taisei's name for the first time last weekend.  Now she says "ma-ma", "ba-ba", and "Taisei."  Every morning, the first thing she says in the morning is "Ba-ba?"  She yells it at the top of her lungs, so it's a fun way for me to wake up.  She also yells it when Wami's phone rings, or when I get home from work.  If she can get out of her room in the morning, then she'll come bang on my door and yell "Ba-ba?!"

A few weeks ago, she started to shake her head.  Now, she really makes it clear what she wants to eat.  She no longer wants to just everything.  Unfortunately, anything that's wrapped (as in processed foods), she always wants to open and taste.  Sadly, she's pretty much looking for candy and sweets.  She's definitely a lot more into garbage foods than Taisei at this age.  It's a mystery to us whether it's because we were a little less strict, or because she's got different (more American) taste buds.  Hopefully she'll grow out of it.  :|

Taisei, on the other hand, is eating good foods.  He still doesn't eat much and is mostly skin and bones, but at least he likes good food, and doesn't like sugary stuff.  For his age, he has pretty good eating habits, and very highly differentiating taste buds.  Generally, he would rather have fruit than candy.  To name some other things, he likes salad, pasta, Japanese ramen, and ice cream.  I would say he's picky, but in a good way.  He'll pretty much try anything, and, if it's good, he'll eat it.  But often times, this means he won't eat things that aren't good, even in restaurants and other places.  He has never take more than a bite or two of food at McDonalds (yay!), except for the fries.  On the other hand, he does like Smashburgers.  I tried to get him Wendy's once when he wanted Smashburgers, and he wouldn't take more than one bite.  Oh well.

Mirei doing her favorite thing - eating.  Sometimes she's joined by her big bro.  But usually not.

She always has to eat herself.  Especially if it's something she really wants to eat.  She has a big fuss if we don't let her.

Last week, Taisei surprised us by writing us letters at preschool, and then hiding them in our bedsheets such that we didn't find them until after we went to bed.  He pulled it off perfectly.  He wrote one for Wami, me, and Mirei.  Wami was very touched when she discovered the letter. 

Mirei's starting to become a little shy, whereas Taisei's finally starting to grow out of it.  At church, Mirei will now only let people who she's familiar with hold her. Some of her favorite carriers there are Braden, Annie F, Holly and George.  Taisei now will go to primary on his own and just have fun with the other kids.  He's CRAZY out-of-control when he plays with Amy G.  Taisei's deal is funny.  He seems like a leader in most of his circles - at Mary's preschool, amongst his Japanese friends, and his primary friends - but he's still totally wimpy about getting up in front of people to speak or sing.  The other kids all try to encourage him, but he usually opts out of those kinds of performances.  He did volunteer to get up and share one of the Articles of Faith one day a few months back.  That was a bit of a milestone for him.

One last thing.  Mirei's always been one to wear her emotions on her sleeve.  Lately she's been expressing anger in new ways.  We're going to have to check her into an anger management place.  She's started to resort to biting when she doesn't like something Taisei's doing - often it's blocking her from food.  This was the first big bite.  Since then, we've caught her attempting a few more bites.  Yikes!  Not good.

Happy Chinese New Year!  (Not sure why, but I can't find any of Taisei in his outfit.)