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A few weeks back, while shopping at the mall with E, we encounted these 2 bears at some store with lots of cute things for sale.  I asked E if she wanted one and she reached out for one when I held him up to her.  I bought the bigger one and then a few weeks later, we returned to the mall with Jason and bought the smaller one. So here they are….the 3 stooges… The big bear is named “Kuma-san” and the little one is “Mike-san” (pronounced mee-kay) and E is in between the two. This is the pecking order between the 3 ofRead More →

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In: Parenthood, Reflections

I had wanted to share the post labor story since it’s different how they handle it here in Tokyo than in the US.  Sorry it took so long to get it out. So….in Japan, almost all hospitals let you stay for a week after you give birth.  I think a lot of it has to do with preparing you for motherhood as well as letting you rest and recover from the birthing experience.  Plus they can do all the checkups and whatnots with the baby.  In theory, that’s a great idea since you can rest and enjoy your baby with the nurses helping you beforeRead More →

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In: Japan, Parenthood

Living in Japan, we’re bound to experience a few tremors here and there. Tonight, we had a semi big one. It’s Ellie’s first earthquake experience. How do I define semi-big, you ask? When the tremors last more than 10 seconds and it is shaking hard enough that the sliding doors are banging together and making loud noises.  Besides, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, it was a 6.9 magnitude earthquake out in the ocean just south of Tokyo. We had one tiny one when I was still pregnant and it just made the sliding doors shake a little but nothing major. Tonight, the shaking actuallyRead More →

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My parents visited us last week and they stayed at a nice hotel in downtown Tokyo.  Why did they choose to stay at a fancy hotel?  So we can take E on her first dip in the pool! Actually, in Tokyo, most of the public pools require that the baby be potty trained first before they can use the pool.  I guess they don’t like having diapers in the pool for sanitary reasons?  Anyway, my parents hotel didn’t seem to mind so on Saturday, we took E to the pool. I was hesitant at first about taking her into the pool.  She’s never been inRead More →

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In: Reflections

The following morning, the nurse came in at 9am to check on us.   She found that the foley catheter had worked and I was about 5 cm dilated.   It was then time to move me into the delivery room where I would spend most of my time until the delivery. The delivery room wasn’t too far from where my room was.  So it was a short walk down the hallway, which was nice since I was tired. I wasn’t allowed to eat all day but I was allowed to have something to drink to keep me hydrated.  I think it was to preventRead More →

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In: Parenthood

Poor Ellie…. She caught her first cold last weekend.  At first we thought it was teething because she was coughing a little bit.  We had read that sometimes teething has cold-like symptoms and since she was extra cranky that weekend, we had assumed it was because of a tooth.  I even took her to the doctor (not her usual pediatrician but a GP) who couldn’t find anything wrong with her. Then on Thursday morning, she slept in really late and was still coughing except this time with the sound of phlegm.  This is what I ended up waking up to and spending the day with.Read More →

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Ellie HAS to be teething. It’s the only reason we can think of as to why she is drooling sooooo much. Just look at all the dribbling she is doing! (you can’t see it as clearly in this picture but her chin is covered in drool) And to make matters more fun, she loves to stick her hands in her mouth, then rub it all over mommy’s shoulder, neck and chest.  Guess she’s just sharing the love…. And just because she can, she will blow bubbles at you.Read More →

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In: Japan

I don’t recall if I ever wrote about tanabata (七夕) when we first moved to Japan. Since I’m practically seeing a lot of things in Japan with new eyes these days, I guess we should revisit old holidays and celebration! Ellie’s first tanabata festival! Tanabata is on July 7th every year. It’s a star festival that originated from Chinese folklore. It’s actually a very tragic story…. According to the story (at least from the way I remember my dad telling it to me when I was little), there was an ox herder who, while out with his faithful old ox, caught a glimpse of theRead More →