Friday, October 30, 2009

Ema's first outings

We took Ema out to my favorite restaurant in Kamakura. Here she is and she slept the whole time!
What I love here isn't the soba noodle, but the yummie gobo tempura.
You can see that you have to wait in line to even enter this popular place. We had about a 30 minute wait to get a table and then another 30 minutes until the food came.
Above is a terrible photo of Ema, but I wanted to show the x in her forehead wrinkles. Below is her first outing over to Chiba to visit her great grandparents.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Charity Donation Raffle

My foreign wives of Japanese club, AFWJ, is having a convention in January and Jack is donating 2 works for a raffle to be drawn at the convention. The winner can chose one of these great works.
These plates are about as large as a tissue box...except round!
If a tissue box was standing with them it would be the height of the white one in the back.

Misc. stuff

Tiny precious foot.
Son's shirt. Just needs a mouse in front of the cat!
These are huge Japanese Pear's that are the best we've ever eaten. But cost is 10 dollars each!
I stopped in Sogo's pet shop to watch the puppies play. It was funny since they had a cat the same size in the same pen. She would jump up on the table to watch for the opportunity to jump down on the back of one of the pups and then jump back up where the pups couldn't get back at her.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Jack's Dosokai

In the fellowship room of the church the old graduates of the old Saniku Gakuin campus met for lunch after their business meeting.
It is funny that now we see people who are the parents of our son's classmates. The man on the left is one of Andy's classmates father. And the lady in black had 3 sons one just ahead and one just behind Koji. Below the lady in the middle on the left is the mother of one of Koji's classmates from first grade through high school.


Here we pose in the church. I did not graduate from the school but I did teach there almost 2 years when some of these were students. These dosokai meetings are not for just one year but cover all the years of the old campus.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Truck for Chuuk

Chuuk needed a little gas saving 4WD truck for hauling garbage. We decided to make it look better by painting it. Of course my job is the masking.
Jack's job is the spraying. Since it was raining we had to do it in the garage and he had to move his air compressor out there. At least the wind was down and the bugs didn't bother us as in the past paint jobs.

Here Jack is leaving for the port to put it on the ship for Chuuk.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

bath time for Ema

Oh, this feels so good.
Oops soap in the face and eyes, but she doesn't mind.
Stretching out and then rinsing.
But I don't like getting dried.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Ema's scowl

One thing even Andy noticed was his baby has his scowl. Those strong eyebrows that pucker up to let you know she is serious.



Sunday, October 18, 2009

Navy Hospital/ last day

Ema was born on Tuesday and here it is Thursday and they will be leaving at 4:00p.m.
Waka had a private room where the baby was with her constantly. Takes two to change the diaper and make sure the belly button was okay.

Waka couldn't believe the size of her lunch! Then when she checked the list that Andy had turned in for her lunch she saw he had checked everything! So she had a meal for a sumo wrestler!
Here you can see she has just a few blue spots that Japanese babies often have. Andy had a very small one as a baby and his younger brother had none. But Nami has lots.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Happiest Baby on the Block

By the way Peanut now has a name, but not sure of the spelling and we're arguing over the pronunciation...so for today's blog she will remain Peanut.

Yesterday, Jack and I visited the kids in the hospital. Here they are watching "The Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD which was one of the 2 videos they had to watch before they could leave the hospital. We watched with them and I sure wish I had been able to watch it 32 years ago before giving birth to my sons. Dr. Harvey Karp, MD came up with the 5S's. He believes the first 3 months after birth should be called the 4th trimester and should continue the same atmosphere as possible to keep the baby calm.
First S is to swaddle the baby. Wrapping her up in a receiving blanket with her arms down by her side so she feels the security of having that tight feeling. When babies are left free (like mine were) their flinging their arms and legs will startle and frighten them and make them fussy. They had little room for movement inside the tummy and they need to be given this freedom slowly. When you first start the wrap they might cry, but by the time you finish they are calm and happy. (I did it with Peanut and it worked!)
Second S is Side or Stomach position is more pleasing to them for calming them down. They should sleep on their backs but be held like a reverse nursing position. Or like catching a football with face out.
Third S is Shushing, or making noise! We were always told to be quiet the baby is sleeping. However the baby had 9 months of noise in the tummy. They had a mic put up into the tummy and found the sound inside is similar to a vacuum cleaner or a hair dryer. Often just shushing loudly near the baby will make it stop crying. Of course loud shrieks or sudden noises are upsetting but calm shushing or just turning on the vacuum is music for the infant!
Fourth S is swinging. Babies inside the tummy are not kept still. When the mother was walking steps or moving around the baby was being swung and enjoyed that movement. So why do you think the rocking chair was invented? Or the backpacks for the Indian and Japanese babies--not just so the mother could work, but the baby is much happier being moved around. Today they have wonderful swings for infants and some babies actually sleep better if the swing is set on the fast motion.

Fifth and last was if all the above fail to calm a baby, let it SUCK. Nursing babies are usually so happy. That was the only one of the 5 S's that I did with my two boys. But if I had known the other 4 they might have slept longer than 15 to 20 minutes! My boys never slept all night until after 2 years old and no longer nursing! Peanut slept for 3 hours straight when we first got there. She was swaddled, held or rocked on her side and we were talking, laughing and watching the video and nothing seemed to disturb her....finally Andy changed her and she cried as he had to wipe of a lot of black poopie.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Still Peanut

Two more poses of our Peanut. Wonder if we should call her Rakasara? (peanut in Japanese) Well I'm sure her parents will come up with a wonderful name and we'll probably change to that, but for now she is still our precious peanut.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

More Peanut


Grammy here bragging about this new doll. Tomorrow we get to go visit, but for today I'll share with you what has come through the wires.
Proud Daddy. He asked his father if his baby is really cute or is he thinking that because it is his? Oh, she is cute!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Peanut is here!

Here is my 2nd granddaughter....no name yet as this photo is only 30 minutes after birth.
She was 3.05 kilo and look at those long fingers. She'll make an excellent surgeon! Mom is doing great too.

camp continued

More pizza photos


This camp had lots of sings to wash up for the tenters.
A few swings for the kids.
Trying to get the BQ working just right.