Thank You Mom!

Today, Brian and I were roaming the property looking for something to do when we found a large package waiting for us at the front door! Quickly, I carried it back to my room and opened it with Brian on my lap. We were both so excited!

Thanks Mom for sending these wonderful things which will be used to the maximum! The toys are so cute and colorful! He already enjoys sitting in the bouncer which is sooo good! Clothes and floor mat will be used and appreciated very soon! ARIGATO!

Here's photos for you to enjoy!

"Thank you, Grandma!"

He put it on his arm by himself.

Already good buddies!

"Now how do I take you off?"

Now That's Funny!

A joke that I pulled out of the Grapevine. You may remember reading it way back then.

A young man wanted to purchase a gift for his new sweetheart's birthday, and as they had not been dating very long, after careful consideration, he decided a pair of gloves would strike the right note: romantic, but not too personal. Accompanied by his sweetheart's younger sister, he went to Nordstrom (mall) and bought a pair of white gloves. The sister purchased a pair of panties for herself. During the wrapping, the clerk mixed up the items and the sister got the gloves and the sweetheart got the panties. Without checking the contents the young man sealed the package and sent it to his sweetheart with the following note:
"These are a delicate shade, but the lady I bought them from showed me the pair she had been wearing for the past three weeks and they were hardly soiled. I had her try yours on for me and she looked really smart.
"I wish I was there to put them on for you the first time, as no doubt other hands will come in contact with them before I have a chance to see you again.
"When you take them off, remember to blow in them before putting them away as they will naturally be a little damp from wearing.
"Just think how many times I will kiss them during the coming year. I hope you will wear them for me on Friday night.
"All my life.

"PS: The latest style is to wear them folded down with a little fur showing."

Some Photos

:) Yay! Photo time!

"Hello there!" I love this angle of his face!

Toy time. I pulled out a bunch of toys but all he really wanted was the small towel that Lils gave us! "Nice and soft to touch and easy to grab."

"All clean!"

"I'm a bumble beeeee!!"

"Grabbing my feet!"

"I love you and want to visit you!"

Reforming#2: Insulation

I'm still catching up with reforming info...
Insulation day: Day to insulate the ceilings so we can be a bit warmer in the winter...and to keep some noise out?? :) Sorry, I'm sure if a guy was posting about this it'd be much more detailed! I don't know much about insulation. Boring, nasty stuff! NOT a fun job from the looks of it.

Insulation, which we didn't have to buy! Hurray!

Aiki, passing insulation up to Shiro.

I spend my time mothering boobins, and teaching him what not to do... Don't be a creepy pervert who takes photos of others asses. Haha! Being foolish and watching the men work helps me fight boredom.

We hired Shiro for a day because he's small in stature so he could crawl around up in the ceiling. Shiro was a very sweet worker. Poor guy got all itchy from the insulation.

Our view from the front window. (Matt is usually not there... :p)

I spent most of this day outdoors to stay away from the insulation and dust. -Not good for me or Boobins.

Reforming#1: Demolition

Alright, so, here's the scoop of what's happening to what is currently known as "Building B".
It WAS a 9 room dorm type of thing on the 2nd floor. 1st floor is studios and storage area.
It's really just a prefab house that is quite old.
A few months ago this man started coming over every weekend to work on strengthening the building by putting metal beams up around the outside of the building. Also, "the boys" meaning Aiki, Isamu, and Josh have started working on reforming the upstairs.

Future plan: Josh and I, along with Aiki and Mary's family (3 kids), and Isamu (Josh's brother), and Sho (Tabitha's oldest son), have decided to "rent" that building and "move out" of the "Main building" and out of the "Home". We will be our own little entity.

So, because these men are the men that they are, with wonderful building skills, they've decided to make this prefab of a building into a decent looking home. :) Basically, set up a proper dining room, living room, kitchen area. Fix up the shower and toilets. Etc. etc.

I will mainly just post photos of their progress as they make it. :) They are hoping to finish everything and move in by the end of this year. I'm really hoping everything will be settled before Christmas so we can really enjoy Christmas together as one big happy family! :) We already got a nice Christmas Tree that is just waiting for some professional artsy person (maybe Isamu) to decorate it! But who knows, maybe it'll end up being a kids project and turning out to be...well, not too beautiful to the eye. Ha!

Okay, getting a little off track here. Back to the matter at hand... REFORMING!

So, first step: Demolishing!! They broke down some walls that made up two rooms. :)

Wall Photo 1
(See the holes? Punching practice before they started.)

Wall Photo 2

Wall Photo 3

Men at work!

BROKEN HAMMER!

Josh's "wall fan".

Kitchen Wall 1

Kitchen Wall 2

Firewood for winter from those walls!

End of main demolishing job.
Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Panorama 3

Panorama 4

At the end of the noisy day I think, "What a wonderful life and family I've got!"

Grabbing Boobins

Gosh, there hasn't been much to post about this last week. Not much has happened. Same old, same old. Brian is such a good boy. He's learning how to grab these days. He stares at people eating food. Maybe he'll enjoy eating solid food...but then again, I'm no cook, so he better enjoy breastmilk while it lasts! Ha.

I haven't taken many photos of Brian this last month. To me, he looks the same, does the same thing every day, and wears the same clothes. So...I feel like I've run out of photography ideas. Maybe now with the weather getting colder, he'll wear different clothes, and maybe do different things during his day...for example...I don't know. We'll see. I'll try and post a few photos of him soon.

For a while the guys stopped working on the building, but have started up these last two days. Which reminds me...I haven't posted about the reforming work that's happening on our building. Kay, well...maybe I'll post about that. :)

Stay tuned.

Compare!

Ak! I can't seem to make this any bigger! Originals...please help!!






There are other photos that I need to look into, but basically...I think Brian looks more like me than Josh. Don't get me wrong! He does look like Josh! He just looks MORE like me THAN Josh. :)
Brian has my close set eyes, small ears, croked pinkies, crazy hair, and...possibly the nose.
Brian's thin mouth apparently comes from Josh's dad, Gideon.

I may post more photos for you to compare later on. :)

There are still people coming up to me and saying Brian looks EXACTLY like Josh! Those are usually the people who don't know me or my familiy. So, I just smile and say, "Yes, he looks like Josh." Heh heh...

My Cutie Boy!

Brian's 3 Month Report

These monthly reports are written mainly for me. But for your interest. :) Also if you have any tried and proven tricks for some of my difficulties, I'd love to hear them.

Brian’s 3 Month Report

By Joanna –September 7, 2011

Height: 60cm (last month: 56cm)

Weight: 5.2kilos (last month: 4400g)

Brian has been following his own schedule of waking up pretty faithfully at 7:00~8:00AM, taking two long naps (1 hour, if lucky then 2 hours) in the day, and going down for the night at around 8:30~9:30PM. Since this last week, he’s been sleeping a lot longer in the day, and staying up a bit later at night. I assume he’s going through a growth spurt of some sort, which I hear is common in the 3^rd month, 6^th month, 1 year, etc.

He’s a very light sleeper in the day and will wake up with most noises, but once he’s down for the night he’s sound asleep. He’ll wake up approx. every 2 hours at night to nurse. In the day, if I put him down on the bed or on a flat surface he’ll wake up, so I’ve been putting him down in the car seat, and he’ll sleep there for about 1 hour. At night, he likes to sleep on his side while nursing. Then from that position he may roll over onto his back. He doesn’t like sleeping on his stomach much.

Cloth Diapers: I stopped using cloth diapers for a while because he was getting a heat rash from them. I guess they are a bit too thick for THIS hot and humid summer. Our washing machine broke down, and I’ve had to wash laundry at the other “Main” building, which is across the road, so that’s another reason why I’ve put cloth diapers on hold. Maybe once the whether cools down a bit, I’ll start it up again. Oh, and I’ll need to buy “S” size diaper covers, because this last week he’s moved on from using “Newborn” diapers to “S” size diapers.

Feeding: He still nurses every 1 or 1 ½ hours. Rarely can I stretch it out to 2 hours. He nurses for about 15~30 minutes on both sides. He prefers the left breast over the right, which is a problem for me. I’ve been trying to nurse him on the right breast first, and then the left. Sometimes after he’s done feeding on both breasts, but still wants to suck, I’ll put him back on the right breast. This doesn’t always work out the way I hope. One cute thing he does that I want to write down here for remembrance sake is how when he’s nursing he’ll, very gently, caress my chest and breast with his hands. It’s so sweet and definitely one of those things that bonds the mother together with her child. If I’m wearing a necklace, he’ll grab a hold of it or play with it gently while nursing.

His first taste of solid food was a nice slice of なし (nashi) -September 3^rd. He seemed to really enjoy sucking on it. A few weeks before this, Josh tried giving him a lick of ice-cream, but when his lips touched the frozen food, he screamed out in shock! Poor Josh felt bad, but we had a good laugh. I don’t count that as “tasting food”. (Today we let him taste a slice of peach, and he started gobbling it down. Later he had a tummy ache. So, no more fruits for a little while.)

He’s been really sucking, chewing, and biting down hard on his fists. Sometimes I’ll give him my finger to gnaw at. One mother mentioned to me that all her kids started teething at 3 to 4 months, and that Brian could be teething. I haven’t yet read up on teething, but will look into whether or not he is for sure teething at this young age. He may just be learning and exploring his fists.

He also has become much more interested in toys, colorful things, sounds, etc. He attempts to grab his clothes, blankets, the toys in front of him, etc. but can’t grasp the item for too long before dropping it and trying again. He becomes very serious and he really focuses on what he’s trying to do. It’s so cute. (Note: Thank you Mike and Joanie for this mobile! He can pull on the handle to make the song play, and can hit the other two.)

Social and Language Skills: Brian is a very good communicator. He has lots of face expressions. He smiles, gurgles, blows bubbles, coos, and goos when you talk with him. We’re going through the TV series “24”, and he’ll sit and watch it with us. When Jack Bauer’s face is filmed up close, Brian smiles really big. I’m guessing that Brian thinks Bauer is talking to him, or that maybe Bauers fast and confident way of talking is funny.

One day while Josh was playing with him, Josh started making these bubbling noises with his mouth. Brian just stared at him for a long while before trying it himself. Now Josh and Brian go back and forth, sticking out their tongues, and making these noises. Sometimes when I’m talking to Brian and trying to get him to interact and smile at me, he starts smiling and making those bubbling noises. Then he waits for me to make them, but I can’t. Ha!

Brian is generally content when he’s being carried by others, as long as he’s not tired or hungry. In the late afternoon or evenings he only wants Mommy or Daddy. He really loves attention.

Behavior: He’s super well behaved and rarely cries. He’ll wait very patiently in the car seat while I cook or do other things. He’ll hold off from crying till the last moment. がまんする。He generally only fusses when he’s tired, hungry, or uncomfortable.

First time in walker-September 4^th: I pulled out the walker and set it up for Brian. I figured, if he loves being carried around over my shoulder, and standing on my lap, he’d definitely enjoy the walker. And…he really does! Of course, I cushion around him as he’s still too small, and I’ll take him out before he gets tired and fussy. He really enjoys having the toys right in front of him so he can practice touching and grabbing.

First small accident: I had a very high fever and Josh had to go to work that day. When I was putting Brian into the car seat, he fell forward instead of backwards and he hit his face on my knee. It wasn’t so hard, but he was definitely shocked and cried for a little bit. I wouldn’t really count it as a “First accident” because it really was a small thing. But, if Daddy Josh counts it as one then so it shall be.

Baths: For a short while he didn’t like baths and would cry while I washed his hair. I realize, though, that during those times he was also hungry and not in the greatest moods. So, that could be the cause of his dislike for bathing. –He wanted to be doing something else. Since I started nursing him before hand, and making sure the time is right before bathing him, he has been enjoying his baths and really kicks and splashes a lot. It’s hard to keep him from slipping out of my hands. He’s also moved on from using the bathtubs for newborns (the kind with the bump in the middle to support their bottom) and into another larger one that Daddy Josh bought.

This month we’ve been visited by Gabe and Mia and Brian’s 3 cousins; Sam and Leika and Brian’s 3 more cousins; Mike and Joanie; Akemi –Brian’s great aunt; Gideon –Brian’s grandpa; and Sherry and Shebs –Brian’s aunts. We visited, Meg and Ty, Dan and Tearz (and their 5 kids and 1 new born baby girl!)

This month has gone by OH so fast. Brian seems to have grown so big. Just yesterday Josh excitedly exclaimed, “Oohhh, we have a baby! I still can’t believe it! And he’s soo big!!” J … Yup, we have a baby, -a son, and I’m truly blessed.

Side Comment: I just want to throw in, that my appetite is just gigantic! I feel like a black hole. I haven’t felt full since being pregnant, although I do become satisfied. I eat more than Josh, and sadly for me, I’ve gained one more kilo since having Brian. I thought nursing would slim me out, but…the amount that I eat really…well, is really too much. It’s hard to cut down because my body is craving it. So, I figure…for now I’ll just follow my body, and if I gain more, well…then I know I’m eating too much and I’ll cut down on rice.