Our First Trip to Central Park

Last week, we had one nice day where it wasn't too hot and humid and not raining. We also didn't have any appointments for apartment hunting, so we took advantage of the time and took Mia out to the park for the first time. This was a lot of fun since not only was it her first time in the park, but it was our first time to Central Park (well mine...not sure about Ten...maybe he went when he was in New York before?)

We found a nice shady spot and let Mia lay on a plastic sheet in the grass.

Despite what this picture shows, the park was crawling with people biking, eating, and playing with little kids.

Mia loved looking around at the leaves and trees...even more so than paying attention to Ten...hahaha.

Me and Ten enjoyed hanging out in the grass too. We rarely got to touch grass in Tokyo. I think I've gotten to less than 5 times in 5 years, so we had a really nice time.

In all honesty, we only walked about 2 or 3 minutes into the park before we found a spot. It was still really sunny out, and the park is just so huge...we didn't bring diapers or anything...so we needed to be able to make a quick exit. Hopefully the next time we get some nice, cool weather we can go exploring a bit more.

Mondays with Mia

It has been a while since I could post one of these, but we have been so busy! Anyway, this past week we've had so much fun together.


Over the last week, we have been working very hard at tummy time...well kind of...Mia still isn't a huge fan. She would much rather be looking at what is going on around her.

We also got all dressed up to go look at houses...She didn't last long in this outfit...she got so messy...but it is really cute....thank you Emily and Dustin.

Mia is so in love with her daddy. His voice alone will perk her right up. I love this Totoro bib by the way...Thank you Kahori.

Also, the other night Mia was just cranky and tired, so Ten decided to give her a bath...result...sleeping baby...She was out for the rest of the night! Even when I put her diaper on...this was too funny not to share.

Anyway, I hope that all of you will have as much fun this coming week as we have been having!

Our First Costco Purchase

Wow! I thought groceries were expensive in Tokyo, but they are ridiculously expensive where we are right now. It makes me want to faint just thinking about how much I spent on peanut butter the other day at the "cheaper" supermarket. So, Ten did some research and found out that we can order from Costco online and have it delivered through a third party. Now, I have been told that Costco isn't actually the cheapest, but in this case it really was. We sat down with all of our grocery receipts and calculated per pound what was cheaper where and then placed our order...so it was money saved for us.


So, here is what we bought....

Bulk Diapers and 30 rolls of toilet paper for almost the same price as 12 near our apartment.

14 pounds of ground turkey (not all pictured) and some pickles (love pickles).

Mushrooms, plums, red onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and Greek yogurt (love Greek yogurt).

Tons of turkey bacon, two giant bottles of ranch dressing, almonds, minced garlic, seasoning salt, pico  de gallo.

Four double sized boxes of Cheerios and 2 packs of English muffins (whole grain).

Tons of peaches, green beans, hot sauce, and trash bags. There are also 3 jars of marinara sauce back there.

Chickpeas, black beans, kidney beans, and oatmeal.

As you can see, nothing really fancy. We almost never buy pre-made frozen meals or anything like that. We would much rather cook as many of our meals as possible...and it becomes all too easy to pop those in the microwave...so better not to keep a bunch on hand. Though...I can see a few here and there in our future....just the way it goes.

Hmm...so I'm wondering...what is on your weekly grocery list?

We've Made It

We are finally getting settled in here, so I now have a chance to post about our last night in Tokyo and first days in NY. So, on Friday night we decided to stay at the ANA Intercontinental in Akasaka. It is very near Ten's (former) office, and they have a bus directly to the airport so it made sense. I will say I was not impressed with the rooms...at all...and the bathrooms were so tiny...kind of disappointing. However, this was the first place that I came to when I first visited Japan and the last place we were before we left...kind of poetic. 

Mia handled her new surroundings like a pro and had no problems sleeping in the crib...for whatever reason blogger keeps flipping this photo...so sorry.

My very good friend Kahori came over and we had dinner together. She also brought Mia a ton of Japanese music CDs for kids! That was so thoughtful of her since we were a bit worried about how she will learn Japanese now that we have moved...but Ten is speaking to her more and more in Japanese every day, so I'm confident it will be okay. Anyway, Kahori and Mia had a great time playing together and Mia was all smiles...she loved the attention. Also, one of my former students came to visit us at the hotel as well, so we had a nice time catching up with each other.

The next morning we headed to the airport and then hung out in the lounge until our flight left. Here is Mia playing on the couch in the lounge...oh she is such a chunker...

Since we have arrived in NY, things have been very busy. I finally finished unpacking all of our suitcases yesterday. We have also had to make several trips to Whole Foods (I'm in love) and other stores to buy the daily things that we need (laundry detergent, etc). Ten has been busy dealing with real estate agents and bankers, and we've also had to get some things fixed in our temporary apartment (shower drains, phone, etc). We are also dealing with a very jet lagged baby...so that has been no fun...though I'm thinking after today she should be okay. So, the only thing we have really gotten to do so far was visit Riverside Park...which I didn't get any pictures of...but definitely will next time. Anyway, I guess this is just an update to say that we have arrived and have been busy getting things settled...so hopefully I will have more interesting things to post about soon! 

With that, I will leave you with the views from our temporary apartment...they really are quite amazing!

View of the Hudson River

View of Central Park

View of the City

3 Months Old!!

Dear Mia,

You are now 3 months old, and this is the last month that you will be living in your hometown. We are packing up and moving to the U.S.

Over the past month, your little personality has been coming out more and more. You are very independent and love looking around at the world. You love to be sitting up right so you have a view of everything that is going on around you, and you are starting to explore your surroundings by chewing on everything in sight! Just yesterday you tried to attack a grapefruit that your daddy was eating..twice...so he had to move away from you to finish it...hahaha. With that being said, you now weigh a bit over 14 pounds but are still only in the 5th percentile for height...a little porker.

You are getting a lot better about sleeping through the night. You go straight to bed after your bath and usually wake up around 2 am or so and then will sleep again until 6 or 7 when you decide to start your day.

You are usually all smiles, but you were having no part of the camera when I did these pictures. Your stork bite turns bright red when you get mad, but it's cute all the same.

Your all time favorite thing to do this past month has been to suck on your thumb, hand, or arm...whichever you can get into your mouth. We can hear loud sucks from your bed whenever you wake up so we know to come and get you.

We are so excited to be taking you to America this weekend where you will start your childhood after your baby days are over! We have so many fun things planned for you...but most of all we hope you are happy and healthy.


Love, Your Mom and Dad

Tickets are Booked!

As far as I know (because it seems like during these relocations things can change at the very last minute), we will be flying out of Japan this Saturday! The movers will be here on Friday morning, and then we will be off to a hotel for the night (which is still not booked so not sure where we will be staying), but it seems to be all coming together. Ten has already went to the ward office and informed them that we are leaving. So, now all we have to do is turn off the utilities, the internet, our cellphones, finish packing, fill out our customs forms etc, finalize our serviced apartment, and a few other small things...yeah...maybe it's kind of a lot...but I guess at this point we have no choice but to get it done. We are also still not sure if we should get Mia her own seat or have her ride in a bassinet....I'm leaning more towards the bassinet so she can stretch out and lay down....but we will see.

Anyway, I will be so excited to escape this:

Yes, it definitely feels like we are living like squaters...like the laundry in the window?...we can't hang it outside because the boxes are blocking the door...and we moved our bikes onto the balcony....but only a few more short days until we are out of here! Yay!

Also, here is a glance at what we have been up to when not dealing with the move:

Mia and Ten

Mia, Ten and his mom during her last visit Tokyo

Mia's first visit to the Shrine

Much more interested in sucking her hand than the gods welcoming her to the community...haha

Anyway, tomorrow I hope to get Mia's 3 month pictures up since we have a doctor's appointment then...so stay tuned :)

A Case of the Malevolent Purples

Yeah that's right, yesterday I woke up with a serious case of the malevolent purples. The blues didn't quite describe it and neither did the mean reds, so I had to come up with something of my own.

So, what are the malevolent purples? It's that feeling that you have when you wake up in the morning and want to punch someone in the face...or maybe you just want to smash something...but either way you get the idea. Ugh, so Ten's mom left after spending two days (but less than 24 hours) with us. It was a bit chaotic considering the fact that it was her first time to see Mia out of the NICU and we are in the thick of this whole move thing.

So, why did I have the malevolent purples or great need to injure someone...The apartment was a disaster!! I mean words cannot describe it. There is something like the Great Exodus going on in Tokyo right now, so for three days in a row we had people drop stuff off at our apartment that they were getting rid of before they said goodbye to Japan. A lot of this was things they didn't need for their kids anymore (so much appreciated) and others were things that would be going with us to NY for storage. So, walking space was limited. 

Also, with company over for the weekend...no cleaning got done, so we had piles of stuff everywhere....there was also no food in the apartment...and we are in the process of trying to get pre-approval for a mortgage (who knew you needed to go into debt to get a loan...not logical)...visa paperwork...surveying companies...and more....plus taking care of small human...so, yeah I was feeling violent.

So, what did I do.....

Source

I literally had this phrase pop into my mind, and I'm lucky I did. So, I just started tearing through the apartment one room at a time. I actually got to throw away a few bags of stuff and put more baby clothes in boxes, etc....so I felt a lot better. The malevolent purples slowly slipped away which is great because if you let them they can stick around for a whole day and make everyone miserable.

Source

Hopefully I can get through the rest of this process without another case of the malevolent purples.

P.S. Pictures of Mia's visit to the shrine coming soon...and temple...but will wait until we go to both to post!

Vaccination Anxiety

When Mia turned two months old, we came across the vaccination dilemma...and yes...it was a dilemma. There are so many scary stories out there about vaccinations causing autism, making babies have seizures, and in rare cases giving the kid the actual disease (and I actually know someone this happened to), so needless to say we were stressed to the max.

I decided to put all of these fears behind me though and go ahead with vaccinations on a regular schedule...and then I saw the regular schedule. The first vaccination up was BCG. What is BCG you may be asking...it is a tuberculosis vaccine given in Japan that is not on the recommended list in the US. It is a nine needle jab in the arm....it looks like this...

See Source

Painful looking huh? ... and what's even better...it leave a permanent scar...talk about scary. Looking more into the Japanese schedule there are several other differences. Japan does not vaccinate for Hep B, Hib, PCV, or Rotavirus...which these are all standard vaccines for an infant in the US. Also, you know the MMR? They don't do that in Japan either. Instead they give an MR for measles and rubella. Where are mumps you might ask...well you catch that in childhood like a case of the chickenpox. Also, the US doesn't vaccinate against encephalitis but Japan does.

Now given those differences, I would venture to say that Japanese children are no more likely to catch some disease and die from it. So, why the big differences in the vaccines given? I'm still not sure about that, but I know that all of the differences made my head spin.

The next big worry for us was that a lot of these vaccines say DO NOT GIVE TO BABIES UNDER 6 WEEKS OLD. Now, we have been told to treat Mia as 6 weeks behind in everything....as she was born six weeks early...except for when it comes to vaccines. So, should I give a 2 month old baby (adjusted would be 2 weeks old) vaccines that aren't suitable for her age? Doctors say yes...my brain doesn't quite process that one.

So, in the end we had to make a decision...and the more we looked into it...I still believe there is no "right" decision to make. So, here is what we did/found out:

1. After much research, we learned that indeed vaccines do not have mercury in them as some people believe...so safe in that regard.

2. I've never been one to believe that vaccines cause autism...so say what you will about that one....but I wasn't too worried about it.

3. Thinking about endangering large populations of younger babies or catching one of the life threatening diseases really seems unacceptable even considering the risks (which are quite small) of vaccines.

4. We skipped the BCG vaccine. It looks really painful and unnecessary considering it isn't that effective anyway. 

5. We decided to vaccinate her for everything on the US schedule except for Rotavirus...however, after to talking with the doctor...we went ahead with the Rotavirus as well...It was an oral vaccine...so not an extra needle. That being said...the doctor did say that this was actually an okay one to skip if you wanted to...Rotavirus usually just might put your baby in the hospital with an IV...and those chances are actually small. But for us, Mia spent the first 2 weeks of her life in the hospital, so we decided better safe than sorry.

5. We delayed the vaccines a bit. Not by like a hugely long amount of time, but just by a couple of weeks so that she could put a little bit more weight on.

Results: Everything has turned out fine. She did spike a fever of 101 but it came right down with some baby tylenol (will definitely give her some immediately after her next round of vaccines), and her legs were pretty sore for a day (see pic above). Other than that...as happy as can be.

So, I'm wondering...what do other people think about vaccinations these days?

First Real Day Out With Mia -- Farewell to Tokyo

Ten is off at the gym right now for one of his final personal training sessions, and I am trying to get Mia to sleep for the night (she isn't having it might I add), so I figure it is a good time to type up what we did over the weekend. 

First, the weekend started and ended with gifts! Yay! It is always so much fun to get unexpected gifts...not going to lie.

On Friday we got a package from Australia, and we opened it to find a pair of little red Uggs. Really cute...did you know Uggs were invented in Australia? Well that's what we were told. These were from Ten's coworker for Mia for the New York winters. How thoughtful!... especially since we have never even met him! Also, the necklace below was given to Ten on Sunday night as a gift for me. This came from the most unexpected person....our dry cleaner as a gift for having Mia. Really sweet of her. Once she found out that I could speak English (odd story in itself there), we started having small talk when I went to pick up Ten's clothes. Must get a thank you note for her!

On Saturday, Ten made us lunch reservations at Gonpachi in Azabu. It is an American/Japanese fusion restaurant...and famous for being the inspiration for a huge fight scene in Kill Bill.

Lots of famous people have eaten here like George Bush and Stevie Wonder...and best of all...

...Johnny Depp...my sister's celebrity obsession...though I will admit he is mighty fine!

Anyway, we chose this restaurant because I had never been...and didn't want to miss out before we left...Also, we called beforehand and were told that it was baby friendly and was non-smoking throughout. When we arrived, the staff actually carried our stroller up all of the steps for us...so I definitely agree...baby friendly in that sense.

Here is a pic of me and Mia...and that pink thing hanging off of me is my super hero cape (aka nursing cover).

We had a lot of really nice food. I ordered the lunch course and Ten had the oyakodon set plus he ordered some yakitori. 

Starting with a salad...tasted better than the picture looks.

Sweet and sour and spicy shrimp dumpling...I loved this thing...and the best part is they accidentally brought Ten one too...and when we told them that we didn't order it...they told us to keep it...so I ate two of them...I know...bad since the top part is all fried...but couldn't help it.

Cold tofu with baby anchovies...I just can't stomach the baby fish looking at me...so I had to pass this one over to Ten.

Ten's food. He has been on a strict diet...like really strict...so he devoured this...plus some yakitori...

We also had more yakitori, grilled fish, and tempura with sea salt (I am a convert to tempura with salt). I thought I took pics but I guess not....and finally dessert...vanilla ice cream with brown sugar.

And finally, a few pics of the restaurant...very empty since we got there right when it opened to avoid a crowd.

And Mia...she did really well. She was all smiles when we walked in and was checking everything out...So it has definitely boosted our confidence for more outings.