Thursday, June 27, 2013

Getting Ready for Disney

A little less than a month from now, we will be on a plane to Orlando for our first official family vacation. We need a vacation so bad...and we thought that since Disney is the happiest place on Earth...then that is where we should go. 

I booked 100% of our trip through the Disney travel agents. They even took care of the flight...and no....they don't charge additional for the flight. I checked and the flight was the same exact price as if I would have booked it through Expedia or something like that myself. It was the easiest trip booking ever...usually I have to deal with a million hotels, restaurants, flights, etc...but this was all done for me. Love Disney already!

So, we are heading out on the 23rd of July and returning on the 30th (flying on my birthday as usual...oh well). I decided to go with Jet Blue since we get to check our luggage without an additional charge, are provided with refreshments, and have screens on our seats to watch TV....this is vacation....so I didn't want to be dying of thirst on the plane once my $5 bottle of airport water is all gone.

Anyway, so we will be staying a the Animal Kingdom Lodge which I am super excited about. It is supposed to be amazing! 

The other day we received a few items in the mail for our trip. 
Disney luggage tags, tags to put on our bags for the Magical Express, a book of maps and things like that, and a book containing our vouchers, flight numbers, etc


I am also so relieved that Disney will actually pick our bags up for us at the airport and then have them delivered to our room! One less hassle with a toddler for sure.

So, right now I am starting to organize for the trip in terms of our packing list...and I'm really most anxious about Mia on the plane. She has been on a plane a grand total of three time so far...but she was so much smaller. I have seen toddler meltdowns in the air...and it can be terrible...terrible for the toddler, terrible for the parents, and terrible for the other passengers.

With all that being said, I did some research and found some ideas on different websites. Here are a few of the things that we will be packing on the plane with us....or at least what my ideas are for the moment and what I have ordered...this may change slightly before we go.

DK Ocean Book (for the pictures--however, not as many pictures as I would have liked...so will save this for another occasion), a lift the flap book with 40 flaps...should keep her busy, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar which is new to Mia.

Lots of stickers...not only for the plane but also for restaurants too.

Travel Magna Doodlge, a cool mist fan (for the parks), some ABC/picture flash cards, and a Teach Me Elmo

A Toddler busy box called Lauri Toys Toddler Tote...lots of things for her to play with...don't know why Blogger keeps flipping this picture.

These are some of the things that I'm hoping will distract her for the nearly 3 hour plane ride....if you have any other ideas...please let me know.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Another Weekend

We had another pretty typical weekend. I wonder what everyone else does with their families all weekend long, but this is pretty normal for us.

We started with Friday evening going to a "Friday Fun for Everyone" program at New York Kids Club. It was a two hour long event where the kids got to play on the rock wall, balance beam, uneven bars, and trampoline. They also had the mats set up in an obstacle course. Mia spent about 45 minutes just running back and forth on the trampoline. She was having a great time!


After a while in the gym, we went over to the craft room and made monsters out of foam shapes. Mia's was so cute, but she ripped all of its body parts off before we could get a pic. This followed with a sing-a-long and then more gym time. Ten was able to show up for the last 45 minutes of the party, so we played in the gym some more and then had snacks and pizza.



Next weekend they are having a USA themed event. It sounds like a lot of fun, so we went ahead and signed up for that too.

On Saturday morning, we were all awake a little bit before 6:00. Ten was like....let's go for a walk...and that sounded like a good idea. We were walking up towards Morning Side Heights when he said that there was a really good bagel shop that we should try. We ended up walking a short 12 blocks to get to the bagel shop when we found out that they didn't take debit cards. Oh well, another time then....so we headed to Starbucks for a quick breakfast. 

Checking out the store.

Mia saw a dog outside, so she had to go check him out too. She loves dogs!

Eating an apple fritter with juice. We all shared this since it was so big. Really good.

Ten and I each ordered Iced Coffees. He got caramel syrup and I got vanilla....they were really just so-so. We actually make it better at home.
I was so sad that there were no seasonal summer drinks at Starbucks. They had some chocolate something or another special drink, but I didn't feel that it was all that summery.

After going home, Mia and Ten took naps while I cleaned up and started getting things prepped for dinner later (chicken wraps and stuffed mushrooms...so good). 

We all ate lunch when they woke up and decided to go to the park to play in the water. I told Ten about a really fun park called River Run, so we walked down to 83rd. This park has a fountain as well as a little canal for the water to run down in....lots of fun.



On Sunday morning, we headed to Hippo Park at like 7 am. Can you tell that we hit up lots of parks on the weekend? There are just so many options to choose from!


At 11:30 we went to swim class and after did some shopping at Michael's, Modell's, and Whole Foods. We actually went to Whole Foods to just pick up milk but then got some mac and cheese, soda, and canned raviolis because they were cheaper at Whole Foods and "organic".

Here are some of the things we picked up:

Something to hang on the door for 4th of July
Flags (Mia loves playing with these) along with this cute USA piece that Mia and Ten picked out.

A soccer ball for Mia (apparently Ten promised her he would get her one the other day), some star shaped cookie cutters for Tanabata, and multivitamins.


Finally, we played on the soccer fields near our apartment (which are astro turf) until about 8:30 pm after dinner and then came home and all had baths.
Blurry....but you get the idea.
Our plans for today include mainly just gymnastics and art/music/story time since the weather is supposed to be terribly hot! Also, I'm hoping to finish up the second season of Big Love....maybe...and making an herb grilled chicken for dinner with corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. Easy day ahead of us.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Japanese Books We are Reading

Okay, so a while ago we ordered some new Japanese books for Mia...and for us (our sanity was being tested reading the same things over and over again).

We bought them through Amazon Japan, and the shipping was actually not too terrible. I think it was actually cheaper to do it this way rather than buy them from the Japanese bookstores here.


In one of the books below, it is a story about a goldfish who jumps out of a bowl and you have to find him in the different pictures. It is so cute. One of my favorite children's books ever.



A set of 4 baby sized books that are basically just words and pictures, a  book of sounds, and the cat book is a famous character.

A set of books about rice, veggies, and fruit...very cute.

Different themed books in a set of 4. 

Similar to the above...a book on carrots...a book on a girl with crazy hair, you get the idea from the pics

These books I wasn't super impressed with when I was choosing them online. The pictures are just so plain, but they are one of the popular kids books....so I went ahead and ordered them. Mia seems to like them, and I think she will like them even more as she gets older.

We also ordered her a set of these three Darumasan books. I knew that she loved these, and it was definitely a good choice. As soon as we got them out, she was all smiles. 

She loves the rocking motions that we do with Darumasan.

Followed by some sort of action....this one is falling on your side. Do we have a similar book in English? If so, please let me know because she would love it!

Finally, we bought her this DVD...and we have already watched it countless times. It is cute to see her dancing along with it, and she was even singing the other day. Should have gotten a few more maybe? Oh well, Christmas will be here in a few months.


Anyway, that is what we bought. I basically just went through Amazon Japan and found picture books for babies as well as the best seller lists and chose from them. Some of the books I knew that she liked and other we took a gamble with. Overall, she likes all of the books...whew!

P.S. Hydrangea are in bloom here. This is my favorite flower! They make me happy :)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Father's Day Weekend / Ten's Birthday

This post is a little overdue, but my Internet is not cooperating...so I bring you this blog from my TV....yes, I am typing it via my TV which is the most uncomfortable way to blog...I am sure of this.

Anyway, so over the weekend my mom and her husband came to visit with us. We had lofty plans, and we achieved maybe 5% of what we wanted to....so I call that a success.

When they arrived, Mia had just woken up from her nap....and she was having none of the strangers that had entered her home.

I have never seen her this serious before!
We then headed over to Times Square to grab some lunch at Red Lobster. We had gift cards that we could use, so it made it even better. I have never been to a Red Lobster that was this...shall I dare to say....fancy. I mean the staff even had ear pieces to communicate with each other. The decor was nice, and it was very clean.

By this time Mia was actually warming up to her grandparents...though you can't tell here.
We all decided to do the 4 course lunch since it was priced about the same as the other meals and it gave you more bang for your buck. The food was actually really good and we had so much left over that it took care of dinner later that night too. Here is what my mom, Ten, and I ordered....we got the same thing.

New England Clam Chowder 

Garden Salad...Ten had a Caesar Salad but also ate half of mine. 

Baskets of Cheddar Biscuits


Coconut and pineapple shrimp served with rice. We also chose mashed potatoes...though my mom went for the baked potato.
For dessert we had Brownies a la Mode....so good...and no pic unfortunately....I forgot.

After that we headed over to Time Square and looked around a little bit. By that time it was nearly 3 pm, so we went back to the apartment so that Ten could make a phone call.

For the rest of the night we just hung out and also made a quick trip to the park.

The next day we packed a picnic and went to Sheep's Meadow. This is probably one of my most favorite places in Manhattan. It makes you feel like you aren't living in a concrete jungle.


Yumm! Berries!

When we got back home, Mia and I went down for a nap. Ten and Gary went to visit St. John the Divine...and I have no idea what my mom did...haha. We then did some shopping. My mom bought Mia the cutest pop up book based on the story The Very Busy Bee. Loved it.

The next morning we gave Gary and Ten their Father's Day presents. I actually have more pictures on my camera, but didn't want to overload the blog post...so I just chose two. The others will be put in the photo book I hope to make.


It is really too bad we live so far away from both of our families, but at least we have little visits like these.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Toddler Lessons, Future Babies, and Playdate

Okay...so Tuesday was a busy day. Around noon Ten came home early so that I could go to my doctor's appointment....to find out where we stand.

As you may or may not know, I had one miscarriage in 2011 and then had pProm at 33 weeks in 2012. With that being said...I figured it was best to get some advice before we embark on any more baby making. In Japan, I was simply told to wait for more than a year before trying again...but that everything would be handled normally after that. To them...it was probably just some sort of infection that caused it.

Fast forward to the U.S....First, when I was explaining my history...they were shocked that I wasn't induced at 33 weeks when my water broke. In my mind, I was kind of terrified that that is standard practice here. Moving on to the future...yes, it was confirmed that I will be considered a high risk pregnancy (I guessed that) and that I would have additional checkups in the future. The additional checkups just kind of fall in line with what you generally receive in Japan anyway, so no big deal. I was also told to expect some form of bed rest and that I would have to get progesterone shots starting around 23 weeks. Finally, Mia must not be nursing AT ALL from around 20 weeks or it may cause me to go into labor. Yikes!!

Big difference with what I was told in Japan, so I am just confused over all with what my chances are. After talking with Ten...we are most likely going to try again after I lose a substantial amount of weight (making progress on that though...down 2 kg)...as for all of that other stuff...we will just deal with it when the time comes I guess. We will be a lot more careful this time around....though it may/may not help. I'm generally optimistic though....after a Dr. Google consultation late last night.

Now, on to a lighter topic. After I got home, Mia went down for a nap...and then right before dinner we headed to a trial music lesson. It was free, so we were like heck yeah...we are in.


Checking everything out.

Time to get our shakers on.
Watching the puppets from a distance.
Getting a bit braver.

Finishing off with dancing to Single Ladies and pom poms.

Now, I am a sucker for anything that involves pom poms...and Ten loves Mia in music lessons (partly so he can practice his mad xylophone skills)....so we signed up for 12 weeks of classes. 

So, what are we doing right now totally: gymnastics, swimming, story/art/music class, and a music only class. We also go to lots of other free events and may start baby yoga story time...which is free too! Finally, we do Mother Goose Time at home and are planning on starting Kodomo Charenji very soon too. You might think that this is bordering on shall I say...crazy...and I thought so too at first, but now I don't think so. I mean if we didn't have classes for her...what would we do all day?? We play with toys and go to the park every day...but we still have a lot of down time. I mean we can't sit at the park for 12 hours a day. I don't think that is best for little kids anyway....just my opinion though. I want to expose her to just a little bit more than that.

Just as proof...that we actually do more than just go to lessons...here are some pics of Mia at her play date today. I wish I could have gotten all three kids together...but with water features in a park...near impossible!







After three hours outside...she slept like a rock during her nap!

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