"Silence"--An Illusion

So you might consider me "silent," since I haven't been doing well with posting lately.

I wish.

Let me clarify; I've been relatively silent. It's my kids who don't get the concept, and Izumi especially. Who knew that such a small body could make such loud noises, and by noises, I mean SCREAMS...

Therefore, I am giving myself a new title and putting some letters in after my name since I don't know if I'll survive this small kids phase of my life and move on to something easier like grad school. Let my new title be "Jamie, M.O.I.B."

It would be kind of amusing to have you guess what this means. But I'm too impatient to wait to hear from you so I'll just tell you that it is

Mother Of Insomniac Baby

I love my new baby dearly, she is sweet and precious and a gift from God, and I feel these sentiments much more strongly during the 10 minutes or so per day that she is awake and not crying.

At the moment, I'm breaking my own rule, which is "no sleeping in the car seat in the house (unless we just came in from the car)" because that's how desperate I am to break this bout of insomnia. I'm pretty sure that she's pretty much been awake since 11 oclock this morning with just the occasional catnap, nothing longer than an hour for sure.

I don't mean to complain. These are the facts about my life right now. I'll keep you "posted" (haha, see how poor my humor is after I've been worn down to my last nerve?) on the status of my new title. Better go drink something, my only hope now is to nurse Miss Izumi into a stupor, make that a stupor of deep sleep please God...

Doing the Right Thing

So according to this article from today's New York Times, I'm doing the right thing several times a day (and more at night) when I breastfeed Izumi. It's reassuring to hear that scientists and doctors are backing me up on this. Not that I was thinking of quitting, especially now that we are more or less over the rough start we got off to when Izumi had to spend the first 30+ hours of her life in the ISCU (Infant Special Care Unit) and away from me. But, since it's not always easy to stop what I'm doing so I can sit and feed her, it's good to know that the time and effort is well worth it. Besides, how can I resist this face (even if she is losing the hair off the top of her head at an alarming rate...)?!

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, Rachael Ray visited my hometown sometime recently. Who knew that one of the biggest art museums in Oregon is right there or that anyone can eat in Willamette's cefeteria? Schedule your visit soon, and let me know so I can go with you!

Sodor in Our Backyard

Koji's birthday party was exactly one month ago. It was also exactly a week before Izumi was born, so I'll just go ahead and let that be the reason I didn't post these pictures earlier.


Here's the cake. More views of the cake and a short story of why it looks this way can be found on my other blog, which is where I speak when I have something to say about food.


Our backyard mid-party, in this shot, looks deceivingly idyllic. In fact, we had some 30 adults and what seemed like nearly that many kids here. Yes, I invited all those friends of mine (I mean, Koji's), and yes, once they showed up, though I was happy to have them I was a little overwhelmed!


The chaos was somewhat tempered by MUCH help from two lovely Megans (not pictured) and Jim (pictured here), a fabulous and versatile hamburger/hot dog/barbeque chicken chef. In case I haven't said so already, thank you so much!

Koji might never have made it through that mountain of gifts without the help of his cute assistant, Ashleigh. That's not true, actually; though he is now enjoying ALL of the gifts, on party day he was all about opening and opening. As soon as he had seen one gift, he would say, "'Nother one!".

All in all, it was a fun party for us and for Koji, too, I hope. Now that we had a Miffy theme for his first birthday, sports theme for his second and Thomas for his third, I'm already wondering what we'll do for his fourth. I better cross that bridge when we come to it; he's already growing up too fast!

Must Be Getting Old

because today is my best sister's 31st birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!



Sorry I don't have any pictures of her and/or her party right on hand (but here's something funny that happened during the party). So instead I present what may have been my sister's best present from the past year, a healthy and happy Eli, pictured here with Grandpa Craig. I wonder what blessings God will pour on you this year, Laurs?

TMI re: First Bath

Here's the requisite photo of Izumi taking her first bath. You're so good at math, that's right, Izumi is already three weeks old here. And just now having her first bath?! Eeww...

Japanese friends are particularly appalled when they hear of Izumi's bathing schedule, I mean, lack thereof. When Japanese babies are born, they and their mothers stay in the hospital for nearly a week, and nurses bathe them every day. Once they're home, their mother (or more likely grandmother) takes up the bathing duties and executes them faithfully and usually daily, it seems.

But here we are in the good old U.S.A., where nothing but a sponge bath is recommended until the umbilical cord stump falls off. Now, what is the difference between a sponge bath and a little rub-down with a wet tissue as a sideshow to a diaper change? Not a whole lot, in my mind.

So as I was saying, the above photo is of Izumi in her first bath. What you can't see, as I've cleverly cropped it out, is the part of the bath that has newborn poo floating in it. Eeww again. But no problem, we just dumped that water, rinsed out the bath and started again. We're not terribly clever with reading Izumi's facial expressions yet, but it seems to me she enjoyed round two of her bath a bit more than round one.

Bonus photo, left: Koji, and Izumi accesorized with Aogu's finger, which she needed to remain calm for this photo shoot. Thank God, I am so grateful that to date, Koji is very loving and gentle with Izumi. May this trend continue for the rest of their lives!

First Foursome Attempt

What you see pictured is us on the occasion of our first outing to the mall, which we were only able to accomplish with lots of help from Grandpa Craig and Grandma Jane. Maybe the reason we can't all look at the camera at once is we're too full of good food from Maggiano's. Dad went so far as to say that filet mignon was the best (or at least one of the best) he's had in his life?! This picture also confirms what I've long suspected: clothing with collars and tiny babies are not compatible.

As I've been hinting, I don't think this is the best family picture we can do. But I do like it, because it's the only one we have for now. Thanks, Mom!