Last Day of First Grade

There's a time stamp on this post somewhere, but for posterity:

It's Monday, March 24, 2014, 8:02 am and Izumi is off to her last day of first grade. I'm feeling all those motherly emotions-- "where did the time go?" "what happened to my baby?" etc. 

A year ago today, we were frantically packing our house in Skokie, IL for our impending move here.  Seems like yesterday and a hundred years ago.  

Koji isn't attending his last day of fourth grade. He's at a soccer camp in Okutama. I had no trouble allowing him to miss school today.  Is it really school when the kids get ready, march over there, have a ceremony that indicates school is over for this year, and then come right back home?  I'm trying to get over being offended by this schedule, but looks like I'm not over it yet.  

LA LA LA Day 3, 4, 5

On Wednesday we stopped by at Jim & Cindi's new house to say hello and wash our clothes (thanks very much, Cindi, that was a lifesaver). There are many, many wonderful things about their new house, but this may be the one I like the best: it's a tatami room with a built-in kotatsu over a recessed floor. Maybe someday, if we don't ever move to Japan, and we have a lot of money that we don't know what to do with, we can build a room like this too?!


Izumi and I next to the fish tank built into the wall between the living room and Jim's office. It's a very cool tank with interesting, exotic fish in it, but you can't really see it here so you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm mostly inserting this picture so you'll know that I really was on this trip!


After our laundry was done, we went to spend a little time with Alex, Kristen Joy and Olivia. We had some take-out from El Pollo Loco (yum!) at their house, and then went for a walk to a park. Here's Izumi in mid-crawl in the foreground, with the rest of the gang behind.


There was no question "if" the kids would all end up climbing on Alex, it was a matter of "when"...


Next stop, Alex & KJ's favorite frozen yogurt shop; a necessity on a hot summer day!


Next up was dinner with Cat & Darren but they weren't quite ready to meet us so I took the kids on a quick trip to M & L Fabrics in Anaheim. I was transported back to the day Clehrence (Clarice) and I went there and ended up with some green fur that she made into a stunning jacket. On the other hand, I bought some quilted silver fabric and turned it into a hideous jacket; you can't win 'em all. Anyway, it was just as stuffed with fabric as I remembered, though it was a bit limiting to try and navigate the place with two little kids in tow (I say, as if there are many other places that aren't that way). In fact, I didn't even approach the flat fold stacks, which were much taller than me. I was afraid that I would find some fabric to love at knee-level and never get it out, or worse yet, start a fabric avalanche and crush my children. Fortunately, I discovered the bargain basement back room. Watch this space to see what that fabric will become! Getting to the subject of this photo, we met Cat & Darren at Niko Niko Sushi, which certainly wasn't super authentic but did give us an enormous bowl of edamame for three bucks, and had a really delicious carrot-miso dressing for the salad (note to self: try to make that dressing).


Then Cat & Darren took Koji swimming, and even invited Darren's nephew Dyson along for the fun. Izumi and I played poolside; it was a little chilly for her since she had a runny nose.


Here's Koji and Dyson, and the end of Day Three!


Day Four, we met Cat & Darren again; we went to a park in Brea to play with Dyson and then back to their place for lunch but I didn't take any pictures. Cat did, so maybe someday I'll backpost something, maybe. Then they had to get to a beach party, so we went back to Jim & Cindi's for a swim and dinner.


Jim, Cindi and Chibi, our great friends and wonderful hosts, too!


This was Koji's gang while we were at Jim & Cindi's: Jamee, who's five, Koji, who's four, and Joy, who's three. It worked out very nicely.


Day Five, we just couldn't get enough of Jim & Cindi so we went back to their house again! For hours, Koji and his posse, as introduced above, jumped in the pool and then climbed back out to jump in again.

Back in the day when I used to work for Cindi, Ali was still in high school but now she's a tennis coach AND good with babies, too. Thanks for giving me a break, Ali!

Izumi Marie is One Year Old Today...

...not only that, but we also had her dedicated at church and it's Mother's Day to boot! Talk about a three for the price of one package. Add to that the presence of my sister, parents, and nephews and you've got a very special day!

To imply, or even allow you to infer, that it was a day without incident would be misleading. There was the point where I pulled Koji and Ollie out of Sunday School, thinking it would be so special to have them in the sanctuary with us for Izumi's dedication. Except that as I was rushing them back Koji kept tripping over his rarely-worn "dress shoes"...and I swept us in there only to find that everyone else was already in place. That was close!

Speaking of close, you may know that I am a procrastinator, but this takes the cake (ha!): the night before the dedication/lunch party, which I had been planning for weeks, I went out to buy all the food for the party. I arrived at Costco at 6:05 pm. Too bad Costco closes at 6 on Saturdays. Therefore, we had to sprint out of church without chatting, which felt very rude on a day when we wanted to show gratitude to the church body for their support of our family, and make a run to Costco. Izumi doesn't look like she minds, right?

Pretty in Poo

Following is a true story: those easily offended by graphic details regarding bodily waste are warned to read no further.

Koji was feverish over the weekend and complained of pain in his throat and mouth. Complained is probably too mild a word, actually. He's been literally screaming from the agony that waking up and swallowing or trying to eat produces. So this morning we were off to the doctor's office to see what walk-in hours were like.

Before we left, I changed Izumi's diaper. Therein were a couple of chunks of poo that I wanted to flush down the toilet. So I put the package of diaper and poo on top of the Diaper Genie and hauled Izumi off to her car seat. I then proceeded to forget about disposing of the diaper properly in my rush to get us off to the doctor.

When we arrived at the doctor, we found chaos and mayhem. Rather than wait to see how long it would take for the doctor to work her way through an entire page of names to get to us, I signed us up for an afternoon appointment and we left (much to Koji's dismay! I'm not sure why he was so bent on seeing the doctor right then? Maybe he still doesn't understand the difference between "later" and "tomorrow").

We got home just in time for Izumi's morning nap. I put her down and then got Koji settled with some Caillou. The moments of peace and quiet that ensued were so rare and precious, I should have known they were too good to be true. Instead, I ignorantly proceeded with cleaning the kitchen, working on the laundry and even making progress on some Bible Study.

At some point, I thought I heard a noise through Izumi's monitor, but I ignored it, hoping she would go back to sleep. Finally, two hours after I put her down, I went upstairs to check on her.

To my complete horror, I found that she had apparently woken up much earlier. She looked around for something to play with and found the formerly mentioned loosely wrapped diaper and poo package sitting easily within her reach. I'll never know exactly what happened next. But I do know that there was poo all over her sheets, the bars of her crib, her clothes, and most horrifyingly, her face. That's right, she ate her poo. Or at least sampled it.

Are you laughing or crying? I was crying, I felt so horrible for leaving her poo within reach. She doesn't know that poo isn't for eating! I shouldn't have given her a chance to sample it. Bad mama! Bad! Or so I said to myself, and the more so when I realized that she was feverish to boot.

I wondered if I would ever tell this story to anyone. I went to great lengths to hide the clean-up process from Koji so he wouldn't be inclined to repeat the incriminating story at a moment I least expected. How would Aogu react when he found out I poisoned our daughter with her own feces?

God is good, even in disgusting moments like these. He had my sister call. Of course I couldn't not tell her what had just happened, though I tried to keep it to myself. She just laughed and said that she's heard plenty of stories of babies learning to get their diapers off and then smearing poo all around and yes, even sampling it.

So that made me feel slightly less like Irresponsible Mama of the Year. Then I took the kids off to the doctor, and when I sheepishly told the doctor what had happened, she hardly let me me finish the story for insisting that possible poo ingestion and fevers were most definitely not related.

Finally, I told Aogu, and he cracked up and said, "You better put that on the blog". I'm almost ready to accept that this is a pretty funny story, but I think I'm still glad that I didn't take a picture. Please don't think less of my sweet little daughter...or me...this has been a true story, LIVE from Skokie...

Six Months Old!

Can you believe it's already been six months since Izumi was born? I don't want to sound like some granny when talking about my own child, but the speed of life since she was born has accelerated! She's accelerated as well. Take a look at what she can do: