The Aimoto's

Kairi's Blessing

2010-10-12T23:13:00.000-06:00

My parents came up from Washington State this last weekend for our little Kairi's blessing. It was such a wonderful visit! Mom made Kairi's dress and it is amazing! Dad blessed Kairi and I don't think I've ever heard a more beautiful baby blessing. While they were here, we decided to have a birthday party weekend for Kenji and I, and boy, did we get spoiled! Here are some of the pictures of our super fun weekend!

Where's Kenji?

2010-08-12T18:57:00.004-06:00

Kenji: I go read stories in Kenji's room

Me: Do you want me to come read you stories?
Kenji: No thanks much

After 20 minutes of silence, I went and found this: Can you find the sleeping Kenji?

My name is...

2010-08-12T10:34:00.002-06:00

I Like to MOVE IT!

2010-07-29T09:09:00.003-06:00

Kenji LOVES to dance. Only his form of dancing is running circles around the kitchen. I run with him all day long (can you believe I still haven't lost any weight- I'm working on it though as I joined curves a couple of weeks ago). A few nights ago it was Daddy's turn to dance. I got a new iPhone and I'm so glad I did because I was able to take a video without having to search for my camera and I think it turned out pretty good. They are dancing to "I Like to Move It" but it's hard to hear the music, although it's pretty easy to hear Kenji's feet on the floor and he sang along a bit too.

We are all doing well. Our little princess Kairi can now roll over from her back to her tummy, but can't figure out how to get back onto her back and hates being on her tummy, so we've had fun rolling her back over so that she can start all over again. She has gotten to the point where everything that Kenji does is funny and she laughs the most when he's around. And she gives her very biggest smiles to her Daddy! I love that when she sees me first thing in the morning, she giggles like I just told her a funny little joke or something.

Kenji is full of life and energy! He doesn't walk anywhere, he runs. Two nights ago, he had his blanket over his head and his head was down so he could see the floor and was running around. He ended up running, full speed, into the side of my unsuspecting head and I think he might have given me a concussion. He seems fine, but I still have a killer headache. He also got a "new" bike from our wonderful friend Tabby, so we went to the store yesterday and picked out a new helmet and a horn for his bike. Now he just needs to figure out how to peddle.

New pics

2010-07-15T18:51:00.000-06:00

This first group of pictures were done by Canadian Baby Photographers. They are just too cute in my opinion.

Happy Boy!

"talking" on the phone to Grampy Keyo

Kairi just loves her swing!

And her Jolly Jumper!

Kenji was misbehaving and so he got a time out but wouldn't stay put so, out of frustration, I told him to put his nose in the corner. So he did. It was so cute and melted away some of my frustration.

I did a picture like this of Kenji at 10 weeks old so I had to do this one to compare.

"Look Mommy! I'm THIS big now!"

I think we might have a pianist in the family

This is my current favorite smile that Kairi pulls! Almost a shy smile.

New earrings

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!

Kenji decided that Mommy's purse is for cars, not wallets, keys, cell phones, coupons, pens and who knows what else I had stuffed in there. I guess he was telling me it was time to clean out my purse. If only he hadn't done this on a day that I was running way behind schedule and had to run around to find everything that he took out of my purse...

Tin foil hat!

I see you!

Waiting in line to meet Thomas the Train

Kenji was in awe of Thomas and didn't want to look away for a picture

After about 2 minutes, we finally got it

Trying on a helmet while waiting for a balloon at the Calgary Stampede Kid's day

Kairi's Stampede outfit.

April and May pictures

2010-06-07T00:19:00.002-06:00

I haven't been quite as good at updating the blog as I thought I would be. I had no idea how much energy it takes to look after 2 kids!!! Even though they are a handful most of the time, I wouldn't change a second of it. I feel so blessed to have been given these children to raise and take care of. To guide through this crazy life. I have the best family ever!

One of THOSE days

2010-04-29T20:49:00.005-06:00

Do you ever just have one of those days? Days where you didn't sleep very well the night before because your 4 week old baby kept making funny noises (she was sleeping of course but you had to get up to make sure she was ok) all night? Days where there is a winter (in the spring) storm warning with up to 25cms (10 inches) of snow forecast to fall in your area? Days where the winds are gusting up to 100kms (65 miles) per hour? Days where the high temperature is 2 degrees C (35 F) and that was reached at 3am? Days where the power goes out at 7:45am and you are glad that your husband already woke up because there is no longer an alarm clock? Days where the power stays out for about 4 hours? Days were you are freezing because you have no power and therefore no heat for 4 hours but are thankful that you have a newborn baby that you have to cuddle with to keep warm? Days where you are sitting in your living room with your newborn and your toddler at 10 am, when you would have otherwise been loading your children into the van had you not canceled your newborn's 1 month check up because of the storm, and you hear a loud crash outside? Days where you step out your front door to see this?Days when your landlord comes over to assess the damage and is more concerned about where the branch fell from than who is going to pay for the damage? Days where your landlord cannot accept that the so called branch that is sitting in your van window is really not a branch at all and is the top of the tree that was swaying like crazy in those crazy winds? If not, well then, welcome to my day. And all of this was before noon!

All in all we are extremely lucky! Last night the winds were so strong that the tree branches were scraping our bedroom window (second floor right above the living room). Had they come through the window, they would have landed on our bed which is right below the window and could have potentially taken out Kairi's bassinet which sits right next to our bed. Or it could have come through the front window where Kenji was playing on the couch. I had a doctors appointment scheduled for Kairi for this morning and just had a really bad feeling about it. And here I was thinking it was because the roads were really bad that I didn't feel safe going... had I not canceled it, I would have been loading kids in the van when this happened, and as you can see from the pictures, Kairi sits next to the window that the tree came in through. I shudder to think of what could have happened had I been outside with either, or both of the kids. We are also very lucky that the tree didn't fall while Jason was outside this morning clearing the snow off of the car as he got ready to leave for work, and that the tree didn't land on the little car as it would have probably done WAY more damage.

The damage to the van is minimal. The door is dented right where the tree hit and of course the window is completely smashed out, but the frame of the van, and even the door other than the dent was not damaged at all! We only have PLPD on our van so the damage is not covered by our insurance, and seeing as we just recently moved, we haven't gotten renters insurance set up here yet. Although, when I talked to my insurance agent today, she said that most likely renter's insurance would not have covered the damage and that it would have gone to the home owner's insurance that the home owner (a company in Toronto) is required to have. When I mentioned to my land lord that the damage wasn't covered by our insurance and that I didn't know what we were going to do he said "don't worry about that just yet." So I don't know if he is planning on covering the damage or if he was just trying to keep me calm.

Admittedly this has really upset me today and there have been several times that I just sat in the living room and looked out the window and cried. Heavenly Father was really watching out for me today! And of course, he sent me Kairi to cuddle with and Kenji, who kept running over to me saying, "Look Mommy! Look! The tree crashed on the van!" Thanks kiddo! It was good for a little laugh on an otherwise really bad day! I guess this is the motivation I needed to get the van cleaned out.

Like Mother, like daughter

2010-04-26T20:43:00.003-06:00

I was looking at my baby picture last night, and I must say that Kairi looks an awful lot like me! It's really not possible to think poorly of yourself and your looks when you have a beautiful baby that looks so much like you!

Welcome to the world Kairi Alice Aimoto

2010-04-24T21:41:00.009-06:00

I'm a bit late in this update (although most people already know), but our baby girl is here! Kairi Alice Aimoto was born on Friday, April 2, 2010 at 4:30 am. She weighed in at 6lbs, 10oz, and is 18 1/2 inches long. She is such a little bitty thing!

I won't go into details about the labor and delivery here (if you want details, let me know and I will give them to you, but we'll spare those who don't want to know), so let's just say that it was a long (1 week in early labor- just like with Kenji) but quick (1 /12 minutes of pushing for her to come out) labor and delivery.

I am so glad to have my Kairi here, and now she is 3 weeks old! I just can't believe it! Now I just need to work on taking more pictures and updating the blog more often.

Here are the pictures that I have taken since my last post in no particular order at all.

Long and long overdue update

2010-01-14T00:16:00.003-07:00

WOW! I can't believe how long it's been and how much has happened since I last updated the blog!

I know that you came to see the pictures, so we'll get those on here first. ;)

I do have some videos but can't get them to upload, so you'll have to look at them on facebook (add me as a friend if I'm not already and then you can see them- if you don't have facebook, you should get it so you can see the videos LOL!).

And last but not least, updates.

Jason is doing well. He's still working at Shaw and is now the only person in his once 2 person department. This is a good and bad thing. The bad is that he has to do the work of 2 people with only the time of one person. The good is that he's on a regular schedule, which is something of a rarity when you work at Shaw. He now works Mon-Fri, 9:30 to 6:00. This means that he doesn't have to deal with rush hour, and is home in the evenings and on weekends, which is my favorite part! He's discovered some games that he likes to play on his computer and between that, keeping up with Kenji, and helping me out (which he is a HUGE help!!!) he's got his hand full.

When people ask me how I'm doing, my answer these days is usually that I'm surviving. This pregnancy has been especially hard for me and I'm struggling to stay positive about the whole thing. The light at the end of the tunnel is going to be our little girl, who I pray is born healthy and happy. During the first trimester, I was really, really sick. So sick that I lost just over 30 pounds. My doctor put me on some medication and that helped a bit. Then one day all of a sudden, it was the 2nd trimester and I wasn't sick anymore!!! I quickly gained back the weight that I had lost and thankfully not too much more. My doctor was happy with the way things were going and we both felt like the hard stretch was over. Then, about a month ago, I started to notice that if I did too much, I would get really strong Braxton Hicks contractions. I didn't think too much of it, because I've heard that you often feel them much stronger in your second pregnancy than you did in your first and I felt them all throughout my pregnancy with Kenji. I decided it was best to ask my doctor about it though, just to see what she thought. She said that the contractions are my body's way of letting me know that I need to take it easier. She recommended reducing my activity and limiting what I lift to nothing heavier than 10 to 15 pounds. (Easier said than done when you have a 2 year old) My doctor also said that if I feel like I'm getting a lot of contractions then I should lay down and track how often they are coming. She said that if they don't stop after about 45 minutes, to go into the hospital so that they can monitor me there. That was on a Monday morning 5 weeks ago. The next night, I was working and had just dealt with a particularly stressful caller. After I got off the phone with this customer, I had a really strong contraction, so, not being able to lie down as I was working, I leaned back in my chair, wrote down the time and took my next call. Alarm bells started going off for me when I counted 8 contractions in an hour. I called into work and said that I was going to take the rest of the night off to see if we couldn't get the contractions to stop. Then I called the 24 hour nurses line to see what they thought. The nurse was very friendly and supportive and asked me a whole series of questions that I hadn't really thought of, like do you have any numbness or tingling? Yes, now that you mention it, I'm noticing the bottom of my feet are numb. How many bowel movements have you had in the last 24 hours (more details than anyone needs on the number so we'll leave it blank) and is that more than you would normally have in a 24 hour period? Yes. Do you have any swelling? Yes, my face, hands and feet, but that's normal in this pregnancy (I look like a puffed up marshmallow). Then she asked specific questions about the contractions and their length and intensity. After about 15, maybe 20 minutes of questions, she reviewed everything we had discussed and recommended that I go into the hospital that night to be monitored and have some stress testing done. I was scared and nervous and a whole lot of other emotions, but I tried to calmly call Jason (of course I dissolved into a baby as soon as I heard his voice), who was just getting off work to let him know what was going on. He was just about to day care to pick Kenji up and we talked for a minute and decided that he should get Kenji, come home and then we'd decide what we were doing from there. I lay down at that point and waited for Jason to come home. I called and talked to my Mom and my sister, Trisha while I waited and that helped out a lot! My contractions were still coming with regularity, but the intensity had died down. We waited at home for quite a while and then I felt like I was going to be ok, and that we didn't need to make a trip to the hospital. At 11:00, I got up off the couch where I had been planted since 8:30 and decided to go have a shower and go to bed. Well, that plan was foiled. As soon as I got into the shower, the contractions came back with a vengeance! So, we packed up and headed for the hospital. John (who is renting our basement from us) was able to listen for Kenji as he was already in bed and asleep, so we didn't have to get him up and bundled to go sit at the hospital. Our hospital visit was, in a word, interesting... but that's another post all together. Long story, short, we got there, they rushed us up to the maternity ward. Started monitoring and then everything stopped. I only had one contraction that they were able to see on their monitor. Around 2 in the morning, they said we were ok to go home. They talked to my doctor, who said that I needed to stop working and go see her the next week. What a relief to know that everything was ok. The scariest part for me was knowing that we were only 23 weeks along at that point and our baby girl wasn't considered "viable" until 25 weeks, which means that the chance of survival outside the womb is so small, that they will not take any actions to save the life of a baby before the viable date.

So, here I am. It's been 5 weeks since that awful night and we are 28 weeks today!!! I've stopped working, which means that Kenji doesn't need to go to daycare anymore. I'm really taking things slower these days, which is evident by the state of our house, but we can live with a mess for a while if it means that it increases the chances of having a full term baby instead of a premie. I saw my doctor last week and she still feels that I shouldn't work at all until after my maternity leave. She also reduced my activity even more. I can't stand for very long anymore and can't lift anything heavier than 5 pounds (how exactly does one do this? I still haven't figured it out) I still get the contractions lots, but have learned to lay down right away and they usually go away. If they don't, a warm bath usually does the trick. My doctor says that our goal is to make it to 36 weeks, which is March 10th and then she would feel comfortable delivering any time after that. That's only 8 weeks from now! She said that IF I make it past that, depending on how things are going and how our baby is doing, she will probably induce me at around 38 or 39 weeks. Yesterday I got the results from my most recent blood work. My glucose levels were normal so that means no gestational diabetes, but my hemoglobin levels were really low, so now I'm on an iron supplement which sadly has the side effect of making me feel REALLY sick to my stomach. Hopefully it will only last a few days while my body adjusts to the new levels of iron. I want to say a huge thank you to all of our family and friends who have been praying for us over the last few weeks!

One last update on me and then we'll get to the person that I know everyone really wants to hear about. Back in May, I started breaking out into hives, every single night, for no reason at all. I've never had a problem with allergies, but I know that they can develop as you get older. After a few weeks, and making several changes to my diet and environment, I went in to see my family doctor. He felt that it was a skin allergy of some sort and referred me to a dermatologist. That was June... I finally got to see the dermatologist at the end of November. The dermatologist looked at my skin, make a checker board pattern on my arm with the sharp end of a stick and said that I don't have a skin allergy. I have what's called Dermographism (I've attached a link if you want more info on this) or Dermotagraphism. There is no known cause or cure. I've done lots of research online and have discovered what can trigger an outbreak, every website I've looked at has a list of possible triggers, like sweat, stress, friction, heat, cold and "energetic kissing" LOL (that's my favorite and is listed that way on all of the websites). So, I try to avoid most things that cause break outs and control it that way (everything except of course kissing... can't take all the fun out of my life LOL).

Ok, enough about me. We have decided on a name for our baby girl. She will be Kairi Alice Aimoto. Kairi means "Ocean Village" in Japanese, and some translations add the word "peaceful" to that. We debated a bit about the name, mostly because my cousin Gary named his little girl Kyri, and we didn't know if it would be cool to have the same name (Gary, I hope you and Mauri don't mind our daughters sharing a name). In the end we decided that we really love the name. The proper Japanese pronunciation is more like Kylee, but we'll pronounce it the American way which is Kyree. Alice was my great grandma that passed away when my grandma little. I've always felt a connection to her, like maybe we were best friends up in heaven or something like that. I've told all my sisters that they can't name their daughter's Alice because that was the name I had already "claimed" for my daughter. Of course, I wouldn't have stopped them if they had chosen the name for one of their daughters, but I really appreciate that they left it for me! Our Kairi is already very active and she hasn't even been born yet! She moves all over the place and kicks, it seems like, all the time. We can't wait (but will wait) for her to get her. I just can't wait to meet this new spirit that's coming to join our family!

Kenji is... well... Kenji. He's growing like a weed! He talks all the time and we are starting to understand a good portion of what he is saying, although sometimes he has to repeat himself to be understood. I'm so glad that we have taught him sign language because he can show me what he is trying to say. I don't know if he fully grasps that we are having a baby, but he talks about taking care of his "sisser" and changing her "bum" and putting her "nigh-nigh." He gives my belly kisses and snuggles and Kairi will usually kick in response. Kenji got the movie Cars for his birthday and ever since if he could watch it over and over again every single day, he would. He loves Lightning McQueen, but his favorite is Mater (he says "memor" and at first I though he was saying Nemo, as in the fish). He learned how to jump and get both feet off the floor at the same time and is so proud of that trick. He dances all the time too and it cracks us all up watching him.

So, all in all, we are doing well. We are going to be moving to a bigger place at the end of February (so if anyone's available to help us out, please let us know because I won't be able to help at all) and we are excited about that. Otherwise, we are just enjoying watching Kenji grow and learn new things all the time and watching my belly get bigger and bigger all the time. I'm not going to promise more updates over the next little while because it's really hard for me to sit at my computer to type anymore, but I'll try to at least update some pictures and stuff more often if I can.

It's a girl!

2009-11-09T11:28:00.004-07:00

October Pictures

2009-11-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

I didn't take many pics in October, but here is what I did take.

If you can't say something nice then don't say nothing at all

2009-10-12T20:26:00.002-06:00

If you can't say something nice, then don't say nothing at all... at least that's my excuse for not updating the blog lately. I have been so sick and so exhausted with this pregnancy that I've been really negative about just about everything in life. Not holding food down for 3 months straight will do that to a person. So, I figured, since I wasn't feeling very positive, I didn't have anything positive to say, so I just wasn't going to say anything at all. In total I lost 30 pounds. Not that I can't afford to loose a bit, but this is NOT the way I recommend loosing weight!

Other than me being sick, we've been busy, busy, busy. I've gone back to work full time so that I can take a year off for maternity leave. I can't believe how big my tummy has gotten already. People ask me when I am due, and I say April, and they look at me and usually say "I'm sorry"! It's really funny to see people's reactions. I've been asked several times if it's twins... nope, only one in there! We will be 15 weeks on Friday, and I'm starting to feel subtle movements from our newest addition. It feels like baby is in there doing somersaults or something, and I can feel what I think are hiccups too. Jason finally got moved into a new department at work (he's been working over there for months now, but they just made it official and gave him a set schedule) and he really seems to enjoy what he's doing now. As for Kenji... well, what hasn't he been up to? or into? I was getting ready to log into work one day and had put Kenji down for his nap as I normally do, and no more than 2 minutes later he started screaming from his room. It wasn't his normal scream, so I ran in to see what was wrong. He was standing next to his bed with blood gushing from his forehead! It took me 45 minutes to get the bleeding to stop! The only thing I can guess that he did, was fall onto his open dresser drawer. I ended up not working that day because I was so worried about him. He was a bit off balanced the rest of the day, but otherwise was fine. He had a good sized bump for about 2 days, and then just a small scab, and once the scab fell off, nothing! A few days before this happened, he was going down the stairs in the morning, and the cat ran under his feet and he ended up kart-wheeling all the way from the 2nd from the top step to the bottom. Sometimes I wonder if he's going to make it to childhood!

Kenji has been starting to talk almost non-stop lately and it's so funny! Every car that he sees is "daddy's car" and every minivan that he sees is "Mommy's car". When Jason leaves for work, Kenji stands at the back door and says "Bye-bye Daddy" over and over again until he sees Jason drive away. We went grocery shopping one day, and in the bakery they give cookies out to the kids. The lady working in there asked Kenji if he wanted one and he got a big grin on his face and said "pease!!!" and then he even said "takes" (thanks) after she handed it to him. Now, every time we go into that particular store, every worker he sees he smiles at and says "cookie pease".
He really likes blowing kisses to the cashiers at the store as well. They all love to see him. Kenji is really good to say please and thanks, but thinks just because he says please, he gets what he wants, so we've had some battles over that, but overall he's doing pretty good. He has a wonderful temperament, and a spectacular temper when he wants! Welcome to the terrible two's! He's pretty well behaved most of the time and even the tantrums that he does have are pretty small compared to what I've seen other kids have. He LOVES to talk on the phone and has really enjoyed talking to Grandma on speakerphone lately! He brings me the phone several times a day and says "call!" I'll ask him who he wants to call and he'll say someone. Lately he's been saying that he wants to call Riley. We have a picture of Kristy's family that she sent us on the fridge and he likes to ask "who dat?" I point to each person and say their names. Every time we get to Riley, he says "call wiwee. Call wiwee now mommy" So, Kristy, one of these days I'll have to give you a call so Kenji can talk to wiwee.

Kenji likes to tell me everything that's happening, like if we are putting his socks or shoes on, he says "socks on" or "shoes on" or of course then when they come off, it's "socks off" "shoes off". He's figuring out that things belong to people, like Mommy's toes (which he thinks are funny to tickle), Kenji's books, Daddy's "puter", Daddy's blanket, Daddy's "troller" (the controller for the X-Box), but just because something belongs to someone else, doesn't mean that it's off limits for Kenji to play with. He still loves playing on Daddy's "puter" or sitting on the couch with Daddy's blanket and Daddy's controller and Mommy's phone and "playing" a game (even though there are no games on). He will push the buttons on the controller for a minute than throw his hands in the air and shout "I WIN!!!" (I taught him that and think it's so funny). We sing "if you're happy and you know it" and no matter what you tell him to do during the song he punches one fist in the air and shouts "Hurray!" He is also learning to sing "itsy-bitsy spider" and can make the spider crawl up his arm. He's got the funniest little personality ever! He's also started putting things to bed. He'll get some of his stuffed animals and put them in his bed and close the door and say "nigh-nigh" to whatever it is that's in there. Or, he'll try to put us to bed. He'll say "nigh-nigh Mommy" and lead me by the hand into his room and then tries to shut the door. He still can't open his bedroom door, thank goodness, but did figure out yesterday how to open his closet door (that has a lock on it to which we don't have a key) and lock himself in the closet. So, off came the closet door (I had to take the hinges off the door to get him out), and now the headboard from his crib is making a great gate to keep him out of the closet now.

With him cutting open his head on his dresser, we decided that it's time to put the crib/toddler bed away until the new baby comes and get him a big boy bed. We got him a twin sized mattress and box spring and he is so excited to sleep in his big boy bed, and even more excited to jump on his big boy bed. He loves to jump and dance and really loves to sing! We listen to him through the baby monitor and he's up in his room just singing away, sometimes it fast upbeat tunes, and then other times it sounds like he's singing lullabies to himself.

Kenji is doing way more than all of that, but I'm having a bad case of Mom-nesia mixed with prego brain, so I can't think of anything else to add.

With all my negativity, I really haven't taken a ton of pictures lately (at least for me it wasn't that many- I usually average 160 a month and I only have 99 for the last 3 months combined!). Here are some of the pictures I've taken since mid July...

Hopefully now that I'm feeling a bit better, I will do better at not only posting but also at taking more pictures... We'll see how things go... (and sorry about the horrible picture of me, I was really sick and I'm still not sure why I decided I needed a picture right at that moment...)

April 7, 2010

2009-08-25T15:50:00.002-06:00

I was able to go for my dating ultrasound today, sorry no pictures, but, we found out that we are actually not as far along as even my doctor thought. We are actually due April 7, which puts us at 7 weeks 6 days. Considering how big I am already, I'm worried about how big I'll be when baby is actually born... One of these days I will put belly pictures up, I still just haven't gotten a very good one.

No baby here!

2009-08-17T23:05:00.000-06:00

Tonight on my break from work, I went into Kenji's room to sit with him for a few minutes. He was awake so we sat and talked for quite a while. After a minute Kenji started saying baby over and over again. I asked him where the baby is and he pulled up his shirt, pointed to his belly, laughed and said "No baby here!" Then he started rubbing my belly and said "my baby." I don't know if he fully gets that we are going to have a new baby, but I think he's starting to understand. He's going to be such a great big brother.

I have my doctors appointment on Friday, so hopefully they will be able to book an ultrasound to find out exactly how far along I am. Right now I'm thinking that I might be even further along than 11 weeks, because I either have really weird gas bubbles that are popping in my tummy... all the time... or I'm feeling baby's first movements. I'm anxious for the appointment because I want to know that everything is ok with the baby. I was on a lot of medications, including pain killers and benadryl around what I think was the start of the pregnancy, which caused several negative pregnancy tests. But, given how big I already am... I'm wondering how far along I really am. I'm huge! We found out we were pregnant at 11:30 pm on August 4th (Aug 5 was our anniversary. What a present!) and when I woke up on the 7th, my belly had already popped out! It's crazy! I'll add pictures one day... not today though. I have to get a good belly picture first.

Kenji's new shirt

2009-08-08T17:57:00.001-06:00

Kenji wanted to show everyone his new shirt!

Where does the time go?

2009-07-16T23:07:00.002-06:00

Can you believe it's been over a month since I blogged??? Where has the time gone? Really, we've been extremely busy trying to keep up with Kenji, and work, and keeping the house somewhat clean... or at least that's my excuse. And, to top it all off, I haven't even had time to think about taking pictures of Kenji... in June I only took 44 total pictures and videos... pretty sad when you think that I normally take 150+. I've tried to do better in July and already have 39, so maybe by the end of the month I'll have lots of pictures.

Things going on in the last month or so... well, our big news is that Kenji is no longer sleeping in his crib. One night about a week ago, I was trying to work and he kept climbing out of his crib. It was the first time he'd ever even tried to get out, so it took me a bit by surprise. I was ok with just putting him back in his crib, until he gave himself a bloody nose. Well, of course I was in the basement working so I didn't have time to do anything about the crib right then, so I made it so that he could climb underneath the railing (the mattress was on the floor because he jumped so much that he had worked all the screws loose). The first thing I did the next morning was convert his crib into a toddler bed. It only took a couple of nights for him to get used to it, and now he sleeps on it... most of the time. Although the last few nights he'll sit up in his room and play and then fall asleep on the floor. It's all good until he's right behind the door and I wack him with it when I try to open the door to check on him... he didn't like that too much. He's still not a big fan of napping in his bed, so for the first couple of days we went for a long walk at nap time and he was able to sleep in the stroller while I got some excersise.

Our next piece of big news is that we are going to start potty training on Monday! For a long time now, Kenji will let me know if he needs to go potty and usually wakes up from his naps dry. He'll sit on the potty and sometimes goes, and is really, really, really good at taking off his diapers. I went and bought him some big boy underwear the other day and he's been having fun putting them on and taking them off. In fact, this morning when I went in his room, he had taken off his pj pants and put his underwear on backwards over the top of his diaper. He always pulls his pants down when it's time for a diaper change and back up when we're done. I keep putting off potty training because I don't think that I'm ready, but he seems to think he is. I finally decided that I can't put it off anymore. Wish me luck! We are going to have a "Potty Party" on Monday and spend the entire day working on it. I'm going to make a Potty chart and so he'll get a sticker every time he uses the potty, and of course we'll do the "Potty dance"!

Kenji is starting to enter the Terrible two's and has been throwing some pretty amazing temper tandroms lately. When I talked to Stacy today, she recommended throwing a tantrum right along with him, so I did. He started hitting the side of his bed, so I hit the side of his bed. He threw himself onto me, so I "threw" myself onto him. He laid on the floor and kicked his legs, so I did too. After a minute or so, I just couldn't contain myself and I started laughing hysterically. Kenji gave me the oddest look and then started laughing too! Tantrum over!!! Thank you Stacy for that WONDERFUL idea! Maybe now we can better manage his tantrums and get some good laughter in while we are at it.

What else has Kenji been up to? Well, we are working on maners and sharing right now, and I think he's starting to understand the concept. He can say and sign please (peas) and thank you (takes) and when I tell him that it's Mommy's turn to do something, he'll usually cooperate and gets really excited when I tell him it's Kenji's turn. Kenji went to nursrey for the first time a couple of weeks ago and did really good. They had a lesson about praying so we've been working on folding our arms and bowing our heads and closing our eyes for the prayer. He's really cute because he will fold his arms and bow his head but won't close his eyes. He trys to copy what I'm saying and I think it's adorable. I can hear him through the baby monitor at night and it sounds like he is saying something along the lines of "Heavenly Father, Amen!" (E-nee fada, MEN) I'm amazed at how quickly he caught onto the concept of prayer. We didn't make it to nursery this past week due to a 3 hour long tantrum, so hopefully this week we'll be able to go.

Well, I know you didn't read through all this for the words... you were waiting for the pictures... Here they are, with a very beautiful song that I found. Hopefully this works to have music with our slideshow.

Videos

2009-06-07T22:48:00.005-06:00

I figure it's about time I added some videos to the blog.

(Sorry for the nudity in the bath video)

We've given Kenji more freedom now that he can climb up and down the stairs really good. He was up playing in his room and I was in the living room when I saw a diaper come zooming down the stairs... He was "helping"...

And this picture is for my Mom... This is the towel bag I made Kenji for his books and stuff. I think it turned out super cute and was really easy to make. I am thinking about making one for each of my nieces and nephews for christmas. Hey, Kristy, Stacy and Trisha, what are your kids 2 favorite colors and 1 favorite animal?

May Pictures

2009-06-07T22:39:00.000-06:00

Does he remember?

2009-05-26T10:23:00.003-06:00

This morning Kenji was playing with his toys and I was sitting at my computer. I was just sitting here watching Kenji and my screen saver kicked in. My screen saver is a slide show of all the pictures on my computer. Kenji climbed up on my lap and we watched the slide show together for about 30 minutes (he's 19 months old, he doesn't hold still for 30 minutes at a time unless he's sleeping, so that was a miracle in and of itself). Every time a picture of Jason came on the screen, Kenji would sign "Daddy". Then we came to the picture of Jason holding Kenji just after he was born. It's one of my favorite pictures. Kenji got really quiet and leaned forward and kissed the picture of Jason. Then he signed "daddy" and "Baby" and laughed. It was a laugh like he was remembering what it was like to meet his daddy for the first time. It makes me wonder if he can still remember what it was like when he was first born? It was such a precious moment! After a minute, I told Kenji that Daddy's day off is tomorrow so he gets to spend the whole day with us, and Kenji started clapping and dancing around! I just love my little boy so much! I'm so greatfull that I am blessed to be his mommy!

Vancouver Trip

2009-05-19T22:28:00.002-06:00

As you have already seen by the pictures, we went out to Vancouver for Mother's Day. It was a wonderful trip! We drove out on Friday with Jason's Dad, Keyo and dropped him off at Aunt Mary's house. After a wonderful dinner, we went over to our hotel and waited for my parents and brother to arrive from Olympia. They didn't get there until midnight, but that was ok because Kenji was still awake at that point. He was so good the entire trip!!! We are so lucky to have such a patient little boy. On Saturday, we spent the entire day with my family. We went to the Vancouver aquarium and Kenji loved it!!! His favorite part was the Seals and Sea Lions. The Sea Lions (both girls) kept making a noise that was a cross between a burp and a fart and Kenji laughed when he heard it, and when he saw the seals he kept signing and saying "baby." I think he thought that the seals were the sea lions babies because they were in the same enclosure. They had a really fun little play area that we let Kenji run around in. It had a little tunnel that was really a fish tank and the floor lit up. It was nice for him to get some of his energy out and for everyone else to sit down and rest for a few minutes. After a quick (and expensive) lunch we watched a few short shows including the baluga whales and the seals and sea lions. They had Jelly Fish that were very cool and fun tanks that you could climb under and stick your head in a bubble in the tank so it looked like you were in the tank. Mom brought "Flat Stanley" with everywhere we went and took some pictures. Flat Stanley is a little boy that got flattened and sent in an envelope from my nephew Davin to my Mom so she could take pictures of his adventures before sending him back. (This was for a school project I believe). We embarrased my poor little brother, Jeff, by all of the flat Stanley pictures that we took at the aquarium. After the aquarium, we went to the beach. Kenji put his feet in the ocean and was overjoyed by the waves. Nobody else put their feet in, but Kenji and I had a blast and were both covered in water and sand, but we collected some sea shells and had a great time. That night we had some pizza in mom and dad's hotel room and then went "swimming" The pool in the hotel was really really cold and the hot tub was only slightly warmer. Oh well, we had a fun visit anyway. We even found time to watch some hockey Saturday night. On Sunday morning, Kenji spent some time in Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Jeff's hotel room while Jason and I got ready to go out and got the room cleaned up. I don't think he even noticed that I left the room. We went to a resturant for a very yummy mother's day brunch and had a waiter named Kenji. Then it was time to say goodbye. It was so great seeing my family and spending time with them. Especially Jeff. I haven't had a chance to visit with Jeff since 2004!!! I saw him at my wedding, but lets be honest... I didn't have a chance to talk to him then. I don't know when he grew, but he towers over me now... not that it's that hard to do that. LOL. After saying goodbye we went back to our hotel and Kenji had a 2 hour nap! Then we went back over to Aunt Mary's house and had a Salmon dinner and Jason was able to reconnect with his cousin Michelle, who he hasn't seen since he was 12 or 13. Kenji spent some time with Great Grandma and we had a very special and touching moment when she got out of bed to come and play with Kenji! He loved her canes and she came out and was teasing him with them. Great Grandma has cancer and is going through treatments for that so she doesn't get out of bed very often. She is also 93(? or 92 can't remember) years old, so she had earned the right to stay in bed if she wants to. She doesn't speak very much english and I speak no Japanese so there was a bit of a language barrier. When we left Sunday night, everyone when into Great Grandma's room to tell her good night and when Jason, Kenji and I said good night, she had a tear in her eye. There might have been tears in a few eyes. Jason hasn't seen his grandma for a lot of years so it was wonderful to be able to spend some time with her. Monday morning we went and had Dimsum with Michelle and her husband Mark and had a wonderful time. I even ate eel! It was actually really good. Then it was time to go home. We discovered that Jason and I both have GPS on our phones so we were able to get great directions out of Vancouver, which is the craziest city I have ever seen. Kenji fell asleep for just under an hour but woke up when we got to abbotsford where we stopped for gas and booster juice, so yummy. He was awake until we got to Salmon Arm where he litterally driffted off to sleep as we pulled into the Wendy's parking lot to get some dinner so we had to wake him up. Then he was awake all the way until Banff (that's about 9 hours total from Abbotsford in case you were wondering). He was really tired and cranky for about 20 minutes until we pulled over and jason let him "drive" up a little side road. We put him back in his car seat and he promptly knocked out for the last 1 1/2 hours of the trip.

Now we've been home for just over a week and I still have yet to finish unloading the car or do the laundry from the trip... I suppose I should do that one of these days.

Vancouver 2009 pictures

2009-05-12T13:06:00.001-06:00

Here are the pictures that I took on our Mother's day weekend trip to Vancouver. I'll blog about the experience later, but I'm way too tired just now.

"Acy, Acy! All"

2009-05-01T09:10:00.003-06:00

I've been trying to get Kenji to say the names of the people in our family, now that he's talking a bit and I can kind of understand what he's saying. This morning he brought me the phone (not his toy phone but the real phone) and said "Acy, Acy! All" I translated this to mean "Stacy, Stacy! Call!" I think he wanted me to call Aunt Stacy. He talked to Addisyn on the phone one day and thought that was pretty great, so Stacy we'll give you a call later this morning. I figured calling at 7am like he wanted to was a bit early. So far this is what I've gotten for names: (I'm asking him as I write)

Grandpa: "ah, ah"
Grandma: "maaaamaaaa"
Kristy: "tee"
Mario:
Davin: "Dada" (he might have been confused)
Ella: "Elllls"
Ryley: "Ball" (um... ok)
Stacy: "Acy, Acy"
Ben: "en"
Addisyn:
Jaylynn: "inin"
Trisha: "ah hu"
Aaron: "no"
Aiden:
Makayla: "K"
Terry: "errrrry mammamamma"
Len: "ah oh"

He wouldn't say anything for anyone else but I think he might be getting tired. I'll try to get a good video of him talking, but the problem is, he stops talking as soon as he sees the camera.

It's been one of those days!!

2009-04-24T09:04:00.002-06:00

This is how I've felt for the last 3 months now. Ever day feels like "one of those" days. I know you know what I'm talking about because I believe that everyone has had "one of those" days. If you've been following our blog, you already know that I've gone back to work. I had to do 7 1/2 weeks of in office training(longer because of holidays- was supposed to just be 7 weeks) and those weeks were the longest weeks of my life. Before I started my training, I was feeling a bit run down, and well, to make a really long story short, between having bronchitis, the stomach flu and now Advance Viral Bronchitis that could easily become pneumonia, we'll just say that I've been sick for a very long time. Now that the training is done, I'm working from home which is wonderful! I work from 6-10 at night, and it's so nice because Kenji now goes to bed at 5:30 so I don't have to pay for a babysitter. So, I get to spend all day with Kenji and I have weekends off. I'm trying my hardest to get lots of rest and try to get better, but that's not really all that easy when you have an 18 month old who keeps you on your toes all the time. Someday I'll get my dishes done, the garbage taken out, the laundry washed, folded and put away... ok, so my house looks like there was an explosion and I have no energy to do anything about it. Anyone want to come be my maid? I only wish!

Onto a much happier topic... Jason found out on Wednesday that he's being moved to a new area at work! It's not a pay raise or anything like that, but only a very select few get into this area and he can have a static shift so he'll get one weekend day off and have set hours! Basically what he is doing is monitoring digital phone usage and contacting customers that are going over the "acceptable usage" (the dept is the acceptable use dept so that makes sense). I don't really know what else the job entails, but I'm extremely proud of him! We don't know what his shifts are going to be like yet, but we should find out next week some time.

As for our little Kenji bug, he is now over the trauma of his first day care experience. I am so glad and mortified at the same time that Jason saw what he did so we were able to get Kenji out of there. I have completely stopped any and all contact with the person that at one point of my life I considered my best friend. I know now that she was not a friend in the true sense of the word. I'm not going to get into all of that right now, but will probably put a full explanation on my other blog one of these days (if you want to read my other blog, let me know and I'll send an invite because it's private, but I'll warn you, it's kind of my place to vent so some of the stuff I say on there is not very nice, but sometimes you just have to get things off your chest). I feel so guilty for putting Kenji through all of that, and if she would treat him so badly in front of Jason, how was she treating him when we weren't there. Thankfully we found Tabby, who Kenji loved and he went back to his normal self again. Kenji and I have started going to the playgroup that some of the sisters in our ward have organized. He's not too sure about all of the kids, but he loved having so much space to run and play. They do the playgroup in the gym at the church and have some of the nursery toys in there, and everyone brings a bike or ride on toy for the kids to play with. I need to find Kenji one of those little toy kitchens because he loves them! He loves anything with buttons and doors and just loves to make things work and move and change. He talks more and more every day and I'm starting to understand what he is saying and it's really fun! We are getting really excited about our upcoming trip to Vancouver over the mother's day weekend. Not only is Grampy Keyo coming with us, but Kenji gets to meet his great grandma (Keyo's mom) and see Grandma and Grandpa (my parents)! We are so excited that they are going to meet us there!

Now I guess I'll show you what you really came here to see... here are the pictures I've taken over the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Picture update for the last 2 1/2 months

2009-03-22T21:21:00.001-06:00

I'm a bit behind on pictures... ready or not, here they come!

Happy Birthday Auntie Terry!

2009-03-22T21:20:00.001-06:00

Our absolute favorite Auntie in Saskatoon had a birthday today!

Happy Birthday Terry! We love and miss you! Can't wait to see you again!

It's WAY too early to potty train

2009-03-18T22:28:00.003-06:00

It's been a very long time since I've put anything on the blog, but I've been so sick and tired lately, and don't feel like I've had any time at all with as much as I've been working, that I haven't really given the blog much thought, and I didn't really feel like I've had anything positive to post about. Admittedly I've been a bit down lately, and I'm sure it has a lot to do with going back to work and not feeling like I'm there for Kenji like a mommy should be. But, that being said, tonight I have something very positive to write about!

Kenji used the potty for the first time tonight!!!!!

I can't believe it! It was really funny actually. He's been learning some basic sign language (no, he doesn't have a hearing problem or anything- a lot of people ask then when I tell them- it just helps with frustration of not being able to understand what he's trying to say to me. Now he can show me what he wants). One of the signs he's learned is "Potty". Every night when we get home I put on his Baby Signing Time videos. Just as the first one (the one with the "Diaper Dance" that he absolutely loves) was coming to an end he came up to me and signed potty. I clapped and cheered because he signed potty like they do on the show. Well, he kept signing it over and over and over and was getting more and more frustrated. Finally I clued in! He was trying to tell me that he wanted to go potty. I asked him if he needed to go and he got kind of excited and started dancing around like he needed to. So I sat him on the potty and he went! I don't think I've ever been so excited to see someone pee in my entire life!!! When he was done, he very casually turned and pulled on the handle to flush the toilet, and had this attitude like it wasn't a big deal, people go potty every day. He kept looking at me like he couldn't figure out what I was so excited about! So, to celebrate, we went to McDonald's for dinner, where he naturally flirted with the 2 lady's at the next table over. Then we went to Zellar's and bought him his own special potty seat to go on our toilet. I let him pick which one he wanted and the winner was Diego. Then he got to ride on the car outside the store. Those things used to cost a quarter! I couldn't believe it was a dollar for about 1 1/2 minutes of ride!!! Crazy! Anyway, we got home and I let Kenji try out his new seat. He didn't go again, but his diaper was wet so he had probably just gone. I figure I'm not going to push him because he is still really young to be potty training, but I'm not going to stop him if he wants to try going. I have the worlds most amazing kid ever!!! It amazes me how smart he is.

I will post some recent pictures soon-ish, I just have to get to bed tonight. 5 am comes really early when you are up until almost 11... sometimes later. 3 more weeks of training and then I can work from home, part time, hopefully in the evenings... horray!

Oh, and before I forget again... I want to wish my Mom a very happy belated birthday yesterday! I hope you had a wonderful day and I'm glad that you liked the flowers we sent you. We all love and miss you very much!

First week back to work My rant

2009-02-21T16:32:00.005-07:00

For those of you who already read my post... sorry for my ranting and raging... Like I said, I was in a bad mood. The post I had originally put on here was moved to my private blog. It's probably safer for it to be over there.

For those of you who did not read my original post... be glad... I was in a bad mood...

Birthdays, birthdays and more birthdays!

2009-02-12T14:59:00.002-07:00

Today is now a double birthday day! Stacy had her new baby girl this morning at 5:39 am. Little Jaylynn Dawn weighed in at 7 lbs, 9 oz and is 20" long (I hope I got that right). Stacy says that she has cute red hair! Congratulations Stacy, Ben Addisyn and now Jaylynn! Can't wait to see you all.

Today is also Makayla's birthday. Makayla is Trisha's little girl and I still haven't met her. Hopefully we can figure out a way to see you this spring or summer.

Happy 2nd birthday Makayla!!!

Saturday is Aiden's birthday. Aiden is Makayla's big brother and will be 4 on his birthday!

Happy 4th birthday (on Saturday) Aiden!!!

Maybe someday I will do a post that isn't about a birthday...

Happy Birthday Kristy!!!

2009-02-09T08:10:00.002-07:00

I never realized how many birthdays we celebrate until I started doing posts for each one... well, this month is just going to get worse. Kristy's birthday is today (don't worry Kristy, I won't tell everyone how old you are, just that you are 2 years older than me... we'll just say 29 and holding), Stacy is due to have her baby girl any time now, Makayla is on Thursday and Aiden is on Friday. I missed 3 birthdays last week... Grandma Butcher on the 2nd, my Mother-in Law and the 6th and Grandpa Allen on the 7th. Happy Belated birthdays all of you! I think we need to make an effort in the future to not have anymore February birthdays!

Anyway, Happy birthday Kristy!!! I hope you have an awesome day! We love and miss you very much!

It's official!

2009-02-06T19:02:00.002-07:00

It's finally official! I have a new job! I love being home with Kenji, so this job is perfect! I will be working for Roger's Communications as a "Work From Home Customer Care Consultant!"!!! I have 7 weeks of training, and then I'm home all the time except for maybe once a month or so when I have to go into the office. Jason and I decided that if we hadn't been able to find any more kids to babysit by the end of December, that I would start looking for work. The funny thing is, I applied to go back to Shaw part time on Dec 26th and still haven't heard anything. I applied to Rogers exactly a week ago, and got my official offer letter today. So, I only have one more week of babysitting and then Kenji gets to go and play at someone's house. We are not 100% sure of who is going to watch Kenji just yet. Sarah offered, but she's watching her sisters 2 kids, plus she has Cecilia so with Kenji that would be 4 under 4. I talked to my visiting teacher today, and she said that she could help out a couple days a week, and figured that there are enough sisters in the ward to help that it shouldn't be a problem. Ideally I'd like someone who can come to our house, mainly because Kenji doesn't sleep ANYWHERE except his crib. Not even the playpen unless he's extremely tired, and then he has to cry himself to sleep. I hate the thought of not being the one to put him down for his naps and stuff. At least on Jason's days off, he'll stay home with Kenji so that should help out a lot and make me feel a little bit less like I'm abandoning my baby boy. I really admire women who have the strength to work full time, I'm having a hard time adjusting to the idea of not being here for every little moment of Kenji's life for the next 7 weeks. At least it's not permanent and I can work from home soon. Then hopefully things will turn around for us financially and we can start to work on a brother or sister for Kenji.

"Mr. Funny Face" at his best

2009-02-05T23:40:00.002-07:00

I was eating an orange for breakfast one morning and had given Kenji some slices. He wouldn't eat the slices, but kept trying to get the orange peel off the table, so I got him his own orange out of the fridge just to see what he would do with it... The rest of the pictures are various other funny faces that he pulls, and the ones at the end... He stole my Jelly doughnut off the table while I was in the bathroom... I only got one bite of it, and he ate the rest.

Kenji should have some very funny faces for the next few days... he was running today and did a face plant into the kitchen floor! It took about 20 minutes to get his nose and lip to stop bleeding, but other than a fat lip and some blood on his clothes, he seems just fine. Now he in enjoying sucking on his fat lip... in his sleep... who needs a pacifier... give him a lip and he's quite happy. One things for sure... he's a crazy silly bug.

A long overdue update

2009-02-04T07:49:00.002-07:00

I've been trying for a VERY long time to get more videos to upload to the blog, but have had no success. The only conclusion I can come up with is that the video files are simply too big, because I used my new camera to take the videos and the camera does HD. So I guess from now on, I'll have to do some video clips with my old digital camera so that I can put them on the blog. As soon as I have a new DVD burner (should get in a couple of months) I will put all the videos on a DVD slide show so you'll just have to come and visit me if you want to see the cute videos! Don't worry Mom, I'll still send you a copy of the DVD, but you should still come visit anyway! We love it when you and Dad come to see us!

Other than the frustration of trying to get videos on the blog, we are doing well. I applied to go back to work at Shaw WAY back in December, and still haven't heard anything. When I went in and talked to them about 3 weeks ago, they said that there was a hiring freeze and so they couldn't do anything at that time. So, I've been waiting. Sadly we can't really afford to wait much longer. January ended up being a bad month for us financially (if you want an explanation, you'll have to call me for it) and then on Thursday, we added insult to injury when we received a $430 utilities bill!!! That's double from last month!!! I just about died. So, now I don't have any choice, I need a job and I need a job fast. So on Thursday I got my resume all pretty and everything, then first thing Friday morning I went online and applied for a "Customer Service Work from Home" job with Rogers Communications. Then after printing out my resume a whole bunch of times, I went over to the little mall by our house and put in applications at most of the little stores. I was just about to head home, when Jason called and asked if the girl from Roger's had gotten a hold of me. I said no, but I hadn't heard my phone vibrate. So, when I got home, I gave her a call back and she set up an interview for Saturday. The "interview" (really it was step 1 and 2 of a 7 step hiring process) included an info session and a resume review. Then she set up a phone interview which happened at 9:00 Monday morning (and only lasted 5 minutes) then she set up a face to face interview for yesterday morning. I don't ever remember being so nervous for an interview in my life! That interview included a computer test (which I was sure that I failed because I was so nervous... I read the instructions about 5 times, and still couldn't remember what I was supposed to do.) Scenario type questions and listening to a pre-recorded phone call and saying what you thought of the call, what you would have done differently etc. After we were done with all that, they guy doing my interview said that from what he saw there he wanted to "move me on to the next step" meaning training, but couldn't say that officially without approval. So, now I wait. He said I would hear one way or the other within a few days.

If I get the job, the training (fully paid) would start on the 17th of February and would be for 7 weeks full time so Kenji has to be in Day Care for that time, but after the 7 weeks, then I will get set up and work from home. It's still like any other job, in that you have to be in the "office" and working at set times and you have set times to take your breaks, but you don't have to deal with traffic and can have more time to spend with your family. We might just look into hiring a babysitter to come here on the overlapping times that Jason and I both have to work, but I'll only be working part time, so hopefully it won't be very often.

Kenji is doing wonderful! He has learned a TON of sign language from the "Baby Signing Time" movies that Grandma sent him. He's become a little monkey lately trying to climb onto EVERYTHING!!! And, the incident that wins me the "Worst Mommy of the Day" award... I had Kenji in his high chair, strapped in as always, sitting in the kitchen near the table eating. We had Mel (Kenji's God-Mother) coming over for dinner, and we were getting ready to go and pick her up at the train station. I had to put the car seat back in the car, so I was outside doing that while Kenji was snacking in the kitchen. I had a clear view of him from where I was, but had to turn my back to him while I tightened the car seat in the car. I got a sudden feeling that I needed to check on Kenji. When I turned and looked at him, he had somehow undone the straps in the highchair, pulled himself, highchair included closer to the table where the phone was sitting, and was halfway out of the chair and onto the table! My heart stopped as I raced (on the ice) back to the kitchen where I missed catching him by a fraction of a second. His head hit the floor so hard that it echoed! He's ok of course and only cried for a few minutes. He doesn't even have a bump on his head (at least not from that fall)! And of course when he landed he still had the phone in his tiny little hand and got mad at me when I took it from him! Our crazy little bug also figured out how to climb onto the back of the couch, which was in front of the window, so we had to re-arrange our living room so that he wouldn't end up falling behind the couch. In the process of our re-arranging, I somehow managed to pull apart the cord that hooks our Digital Phone Terminal into the phone lines of the house, so now we only have one working phone and are waiting for a Shaw tech to come and fix what I did. We can't finish the living room until after he comes, because we have a tall (and heavy) cabinet that goes right in front of where the tech needs to be working. The nice thing about all this re-arranging (and it was for more reason's than just because Kenji could climb on the couch but I can't really get into that here) is now both my computer and treadmill are in the living room, so maybe I'll update the blog more often and maybe get more exercise. The computer was in the basement, and so I never went down there during the day, and the treadmill was in my bedroom, so I couldn't use it while the little boy I baby sit was here because he naps in the playpen in my room. The other thing we did was moved the X-box into the living room, so Jason can play Final Fantasy XI in here and his computer is in our bedroom, so if I'm laying in bed reading or something, then we can still sit and visit while he is on the computer.

New videos from my new camera- still working on adding more so please keep checking back...

2009-01-23T21:57:00.003-07:00

Happy Belated Birthday Trisha!!! (No surprise here... I forgot to post on her birthday)

2009-01-19T13:07:00.001-07:00

What can we say about Trisha? Trisha is my youngest sister and is still only 12 or 13 in my eyes, but in reality, she turned 22 on Saturday, January 17th!

TRISHA!!!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!!

The month after Christmas

2009-01-13T10:39:00.004-07:00

I got this e-mail from a friend and it was too funny not to share.

'Twas the month after Christmas, and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd taste
All the holiday goodies have gone to my waist.
When I got on the scales there arose such a number!
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber),
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared.
The chocolates and rum balls, the bread and the cheese,
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."
As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt,
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt--
I said to myself, as I only can,
"You can't spend a winter disguised as a man!"

So, away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.
Every last bit of food that I like must be banished,
'till all the additional ounces have vanished.
I won't have a cookie, not even a lick.
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie.
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm craving, and this food is a bore!
But isn't that what January is for?
Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet!

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

2009-01-12T10:24:00.002-07:00

Can anyone believe it? I'm doing a birthday post ON someone's birthday!

My "baby" brother, Jeff is turning 20 today! Wow, that makes me feel old! Jeff was always my buddy when we were younger, and I have many fond (and some not so fond) memories of the times we spent together. I love you Jeff! Have a great birthday! P.S. Kenji can't wait to meet his Uncle Jeff!

Lost and Found

2009-01-10T13:01:00.002-07:00

I have been feeling terrible all week because ever since Monday, I haven't been able to find my brand new video camera that my mom gave me for Christmas... My plan was to tear to house apart today to look for it. I looked every where I could think of, but no luck. So, last night before I went to bed, I told Jason that we HAD to find my camera. I went into the kitchen to get my wedding ring, which I had put on top of the microwave while I did dishes earlier, and guess what I found? My camera... sitting right there... in plain sight. I was so upset about having lost my camera that when I found it, all I could do was laugh. The silly thing had been sitting on top of the microwave all week, which I now remember putting it there so I would remember where I put it. I think I'm loosing my mind! That's almost as bad as putting a ribbon on your finger so you would remember something, but not being able to remember what it is that you are supposed to remember. Or it's like my lists... I've posted before about how dependent I've become on my lists... well, if I can't find my list, or haven't made one that day then nothing gets done! It's so bad that I finally typed up my list of things I do daily, every other day, weekly and monthly, and taped it to the wall in my kitchen. Let's see if I can loose that too! Maybe someday, some really smart doctor will find a cure for my terrible case of "mom"nesia!

Happy very belated 2nd birthday to Riley

2009-01-07T22:52:00.003-07:00

I'm horrible and completely forgot to put a post on here for my nephew Riley's 2nd birthday on the 5th of January. I still haven't met Riley, but hopefully sometime this year!

Happy Birthday Riley!!
We love you kiddo!

Christmas pictures

2008-12-28T22:15:00.002-07:00

We took a TON of Christmas pictures... 104 to be exact! So, it could take a while to look at all of them, but at least I'm putting them on as a slide show instead of one at a time. I'm not putting all of them on here though... some of them didn't turn out very good.

Happy Belated Birthday Addisyn!!!

2008-12-26T19:42:00.003-07:00

My niece Addisyn gets to celebrate her birthday for Christmas... poor girl. LOL! Happy 3rd birthday yesterday Addisyn! We can't wait until we can come and see you again, hopefully either in the spring after your Mommy has your new little sister or maybe in the summer when Davin gets baptized. Keep smiling cutie!

P.S. I will post Christmas pictures soon. I'm just being too lazy to do it right now.

We have a budding artist!

2008-12-24T13:42:00.003-07:00

This is Kenji's first masterpiece! He got some Crayola Beginnings paint from Mel for Christmas and made this for Daddy! (I said, "Do you want to make a picture for Daddy?" and he smiled, so it's for Daddy) The only thing I did was the smiley face to show him how to move the marker.

Our funny sleeping bug

2008-12-20T15:33:00.003-07:00

I haven't gotten any good pictures of Kenji sleeping lately, but he's been upstairs napping since 1:00 and it's now 3:30 so I went in to check on him. The pictures don't really do justice for how precious he looks, but it's a start.

Thank you Secret Santa!

2008-12-19T20:31:00.005-07:00

We had a "Secret Santa Family" stop by our house the other night. Kenji and I were waiting for Jason to come home from work and I usually sit with the curtains open so Kenji can see out, but for some strange reason, I decided to close the curtains. Not more than 2 minutes after I shut the curtains, the doorbell rang. I opened the curtains to see who it was, but all I could see was a dark van parked down the street. I went to the door and no one was there but there were 2 packages sitting on our step. The smaller one said "To baby, from Santa" and the big one said "to the Imoto family from your Secret Santa Family. Open this box upon delivery." I decided to wait to open them until Jason got home about 20 minutes later. I assumed that the big one had food or something in it which is why we needed to open it right away. Well, when Jason got home we sat and opened our presents. Kenji got a new pair of P.J.'s that fit him perfectly! We opened the big package to find a beautiful Resin and Cedar nativity set. I was marveling at the nativity (that is easily worth over $50 and I'm sure came fromBeehive Books) when Jason noticed a card that had fallen out of the box. He opened the card and started counting... "20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200! Someone just gave us $200 cash!" We were both so incredibly touched! Never has a gift meant so much to me! I sat and cried tears of joy for a long time, probably most of the night. I almost cry every time I think about it. The timing couldn't have been better, as one of our bills ended up being about $100 more than we had expected, and we were able to get a couple of extra presents for Kenji. The only thing we know about our Secret Santa Family is, they know us well enough to know around what size Kenji wears, but not well enough to know Kenji's name or how to spell our last name. They also must have known that we were really tight on money this month. The only people I can think of (and they all swear it wasn't them) are Sarah, Barrett and Tasha, The Bishop, our home teacher or my visiting teachers. I wonder if maybe they didn't put Kenji's name and misspelled our last name to throw us off... Anyway, here is my beautiful new nativity.

Thank you Secret Santa, whoever you are! You have given us a gift that we will never forget, but someday will repay by passing it forward.

December Pictures - This is a VERY long post- sorry!

2008-12-19T19:53:00.017-07:00

Yep! I'm cute!

I'm really behind on posting pictures this month, and thought I better get them on here before it's time to put up Christmas pictures (I can't believe that Christmas is less than a week away! Where did this year go?). Sorry there are so many. I was going to do them in a slide show, but some of them need some explanations.

Let's just start with all the pictures of Kenji eating (sadly, I didn't put them all on here... he is soooooooo funny when he eats, so I take tons of pictures)

First time with sauce on his spaghetti! Please note the fork... he must have his fork in order to eat most of the time, but he never uses it... just holds it in one hand and eats with the other. He knows how to use it (kind of) but just chooses not to. Anyone want a kiss?

"Got my milk, got my breadstick. What more could a kid need?"

Our home teacher brought us Christmas sugar cookies! Kenji loved them! He's getting so good at sharing!

We made mini banana bread loaves... would you believe that he ate the whole thing? He tried to wear his baker's hat while he ate his bread, but it didn't last very long.

Snow, snow and more snow! We've got about a foot, maybe more, of snow on the ground. It's snowed almost every day for the past week and a half. The first couple of days were still warm enough that we were able to take Kenji outside to play in the snow for the first time. He's not such a huge fan of his snow suit... he couldn't move.

"Ummm... Mommy... Daddy... I can't move..."

"I told you I couldn't move!"

"IT'S NOT FUNNY!!!"

"I'm ok now. I got my Daddy."

"And now I got my Mommy!"

Back inside after playing in the snow... all nice and warm.

A few days later I took these pictures, looking out our living room window during the heaviest part of the storm. It was around noon, but looks like it's much later than that. In the picture, you can only see to the row of trees, what you can't see, is behind that row of trees is a hill (we live in the valley) with a row of houses on it.

"Oh Christmas tree!" I was trying to decide what to do about our Christmas tree this year with Kenji, plus Keith, the little boy I babysit, and their grabby little 13 month old hands. We thought about setting it up in the basement where our computers are, but I don't really spend any time in the basement during the day unless Jason is home, so I didn't really want to do that. Then I thought about just making a large paper tree and putting it on the wall with paper ornaments, but wasn't super crazy about that idea either. So, I came up with the brilliant idea of putting the tree in the playpen. At first I just set the tree on the floor of the playpen, but that was too low and allowed the kids to still reach most of the tree. Then I got the next brilliant idea of putting the tree on the end table and the end table in the playpen. This has worked out wonderfully!!! The boys can only reach the bottom rows of the tree so I didn't put any ornaments there. The other nice thing, is all the presents sit in the bottom of the playpen and the boys can't reach them either! Sometimes my brains amaze me!

Kenji is such a silly little boy. He found a new use for the "snot sucker outer thingy" (that's the technical name for it). Doesn't look very appetizing to me...

That's much better... suck on your plastic sheep...

"Our little helper"

During nap time (on the odd occasions that the boys actually sleep at the same time) I try to get as much done as possible, so on this day, I sat and folded about 5 baskets full of laundry. I brought the boys downstairs when they woke up from their nap, and then ran the baskets one at a time up stairs. I was coming back down to grab the last basket, full of towels and baby blankets, and this is what I found... Looks like they are having fun, doesn't it? They didn't even seem to care that I got after them, but that's probably because I was trying so hard not to laugh that I don't think I sounded very serious. Somehow, they did this in about 30 seconds... The speed of toddlers amazes me! There was only 1 small face cloth still folded at the bottom of the pile...

Kenji loves to "help" us in the kitchen. His favorite thing to do is take the mop, broom or carpet flick and bang them as loud as he can on the floor. I got him the apron and hat at the store that's just down the road from us. I paid $1 for it! I'm such a bargain shopper!

"Hey Daddy, let's cook dinner for Mommy tonight ok. I'll tell you how to do it."

"It's HOT!!! Blow on it Daddy"

So there you have it. My crazy long post! I'm going to stop typing now before it gets any longer.

Kenji and Santa

2008-12-14T20:19:00.003-07:00

Look how much Kenji has grown in the last year! It's crazy! Santa's changed a bit too...

When we went to see Santa this year, Kenji wasn't too sure what to think about him at first... But he sat on Santa's lap without any fuss. Then Santa said "Ho ho ho!" and Kenji was ecstatic! They took the picture and then I went to get Kenji off of Santa's lap and he did something I've only see him do with Jason and I... He turned and gave Santa a huge hug! It was great! What a funny little bug we have.

Cute videos

2008-12-03T19:13:00.009-07:00

Here are some cute video clips of Kenji that I took after his lunch one day a couple weeks ago. Enjoy!

Sick, sick, sick

2008-11-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

I DO NOT LIKE BEING SICK!!!!

Ok, now that I've got that out of the way (I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to being sick)... We have all been really sick here at our house for the last 3 or 4 days. Keith came over not feeling very well on Monday last week, and then stayed home on Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Thursday was back and was sick. Well, on Thursday Kenji started throwing up and had bad diarrhea and I started feeling really sick to my stomach. Kenji and I went and saw Dr. Barr on Friday and he said that we have a very bad case of the stomach flu! It sounds like it's an outbreak that's been going around with babies and little kids here in Calgary. Poor Kenji has been so tired and lethargic it's really sad. Jason tried so hard not to get sick, but he did anyway. Sadly he had to miss the late thanksgiving dinner at his mom's house on Saturday. Kenji and I went, but I felt bad because Kenji just wasn't quite himself. Thankfully Jason and I are feeling much better, just tired and achy. Kenji isn't throwing up anymore and his appetite seems to be back, but he still has pretty bad diarrhea. Hopefully he will feel better really soon. As much as I don't like being sick, I absolutely hate seeing my baby sick. It's just heartbreaking because he's too young to understand what's going on.

On a side note; two of my cousins, Jimmy and Tyler got married just recently. Congratulations to both of you! I really wish that I could have gone down to see you guys. Can't wait to see all of our family again! And Stacy, it was so great to talk to you today! I miss our daily chats!

Mommy's Little Helper

2008-11-26T15:24:00.003-07:00

Wow!!! I had no idea how busy and worn out I was going to get from babysitting! And I'm still only watching one kid.

Kenji has been really into trying to do everything that I do. It makes me laugh. He's started picking up toys (although putting them away where they belong is a different story), he tries to sweep and today he even tried to help with the dishes! I didn't realize that I clap my hands to get the kids attention until the other day but now Kenji has now started clapping his hands to get Keith's (the little boy I watch) attention.

I'm going to start a new blog soon I think that will be private and will be more like a journal, so I don't think I'm going to invite many people to read it, no offense to anyone. Sometimes I feel like I can't say what I really want to say on this blog because I don't know who is reading it. If you want to read it let me know, but please don't be offended if I don't invite you, I will probably only invite family depending on what I decide to write on it.

Happy Halloween!!!

2008-10-31T20:33:00.005-06:00

Happy Belated Birthday Ella!

2008-10-29T20:29:00.005-06:00

With all the excitement over Kenji's birthday, babysitting, and trying to get rid of a cold that seems to have taken up residence in my lungs, I haven't had a chance to post a little note wishing my niece Ella a very happy birthday!!! I wish I could see you more often! We all love and miss you very much!

Happy Birthday Kenji!!! (On October 26th)

2008-10-28T08:45:00.004-06:00

Sorry I didn't post Kenji's birthday pictures yesterday... I'm sick. That's really the only excuse that I have. We had so much fun on his birthday! It was a blast!

Busy little bees

2008-10-02T21:51:00.006-06:00

I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted anything! WOW! How time fly's when you're busy. Since I last posted, Jason made it home from Saskatoon on the 16th! Kenji and I were so glad to have him back with us. That was the longest 2 weeks of my life! I can't believe how much I missed him. Thank goodness for webcams and cell phones! Otherwise, I don't know if I would have made it through as well as I did.

Jason is still job hunting although he's had several good leads and we are waiting to hear back from a few of them. It's looking like I'm most likely not going back to work. I'm going to babysit from home (so if anyone knows of anyone who needs a sitter for their kids during the day in the SE of Calgary... let me know)

We've had lots of company and are excited to be able to visit with all of our friends again. Richard, Kristy and Riley have come over a few times to play and we went out for Sushi and Tempura the other night. It was yummy yummy. We went to brunch with Barrett and Natasha. Kenji and I went to the zoo with Sarah, Cecilia, Lilly and Adeline. Cy came to visit before Jason got back to town. Kenji just loves his God-Father! We enjoyed a very fun night at Bubble-Mania with lots of great friends sorry, I can't remember the names of everyone who was there- but we were so excited to see Kenji's God-Mother, Mel! I know I'm missing people and I'm sorry, but it has been so busy and my mom-nesia is giving me grief lately. If you haven't seen our new home yet, what are you waiting for? Give us a call and come on over! If you are not close enough to stop by... well, I guess I'll forgive you, but just this once. I'll post pictures of our new place in the next week or so, after I've gotten it cleaned all the way and boxes are unpacked a bit better. If you need our new address or phone number, let me know and I'll e-mail it to you.

Here are some pictures of the last couple of weeks.

And some videos of our bug who can walk good now

Swimming in the Kitchen

2008-09-12T17:51:00.002-06:00

Since Kenji and I have been in Calgary by ourselves with no car, we've been having lots of fun exploring our new neighborhood. We walked over to the bank yesterday and discovered that there is a dollar store right there. Of course, I couldn't pass up a dollar store! As we were walking around I found in the far back corner these little baby swimming pools for $3! Well, I just couldn't resist! We got it and came home but it was a bit windy and cool so I inflated the pool and filled it in the middle of the kitchen floor (Jason's idea!). Kenji had a blast!!! He spent about 45 minutes splashing around in his little pool and was very thrilled to find out that he could climb out! It was very funny! There are a couple of videos on Photobucket so be sure to check them out too! Needless to say, my kitchen floor got mopped last night after the swim... it probably needed it!

Photobucket Pictures

2008-09-10T14:50:00.003-06:00

It has become a pain lately to get all of our pictures and videos up onto the blog because for some reason it is taking forever, so I have decided that I am going to put all of our pictures and videos onto a new website.

http://photobucket.com/theaimotos

I will be putting all of our family pictures on there in the next few weeks so be sure to check it often. I will still put some pictures on the blog from time to time, but probably not videos as I have to shut down my anti-virus software to add video to blogspot for some reason and I don't want to get a virus or anything on my computer.

Everyone could use a good laugh sometimes

2008-09-04T20:09:00.003-06:00

New pics and videos- Click on the image and it should take you to the Photobucket website

2008-09-03T09:36:00.002-06:00

Photobucket Album

We made it! and Kenji took his first steps!!!

2008-09-01T19:54:00.003-06:00

We finally made it to Calgary!!! It's so great to be back. We have already had lots of visitors. Jason is back in Saskatoon for 2 weeks and I miss him soooooo much already. I really hope the next 2 weeks go by fast. Thanks so much for everyone who helped us with the move! We couldn't have done it without you! Physically I'm doing okay, although I've probably done more than I should have today trying to get some boxes unpacked and such. Once I've got things set up a bit better, I will take some pictures and post them.

The move itself was fairly uneventful. (maybe being crazy organized is a good thing. LOL) But it's been nothing but excitement since we've been back. Starting with Kenji's first 2 steps on Sunday morning!!! He walked to Jason!!! I was so excited but scared all at the same time. Then yesterday Kenji got his first fat lip. Poor baby! He was in the living room and fell onto the metal part of Jason's desk. He's okay, but cut his bottom lip inside and out, his eyes are just a little bit black tonight and he has a small cut on his upper gums... the advantage to this... those pesky teeth that we've been waiting on cut through last night! (we should have had him hit his face much sooner- I'm totally joking!!! I feel horible for him but he's doing okay now.) We can actually see and feel enamel now! YAY!!! We have stairs in our new house and Kenji has gone all the way up them about 10 times today! Now, if only we could figure out that you don't go down the stairs head first... could someone get this kid a helmet or maybe bumper pads? LOL!

I knew there was a reaon I don't like living in apartments...

2008-08-26T11:36:00.003-06:00

Last night when Jason came home from work, he said; "Did you see all the commotion going on outside?" I said no and he said that the building just south of us in our complex had 2 propane tanks explode on balconies. (can you believe that I didn't hear anything?!) It sounds like 2 things contributed to the explosion, 1) the propane tank on the 3rd floor balcony was sitting in the direct sunlight on one of the hottest days of the summer yesterday and 2) the police speculate that the connections to the BBQ were not very tight (connections should be tightened and check EVERY time you use your BBQ).
Around 7pm last night, the propane tank on the 3rd floor balcony exploded and shot down through the balcony to the 2nd floor balcony causing the propane tank there to explode. Both propane tanks then shot down to the ground. As you can see from the pictures, the damage was pretty bad. When I went out this morning to take the pictures, I talked to one of the guys working on cleaning up and he said that there was a lot of damage to both apartments on the inside. Thankfully nobody was hurt! I'll be so glad to get into our new place where we have neighbors on both sides, but none above or below. There is always a chance that one neighbor can cause a lot of damage if they are careless, but it's nice to know that I don't have to worry about as many neighbors anymore.

Happy Birthday Grandma Allen!

2008-08-25T20:40:00.003-06:00

For some strange reason I can't call certain numbers in the US from my phone here in Saskatoon (although sometimes I can... It's really weird). Unfortunately, my grandma is one of them... so, Grandma if you are reading this...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

We all love and miss you very much! And Kenji can't wait to meet his "Grandma Great!"

Pretty wig grandma!

Fillmore Cemetery at my Grandma Great's grave (Grandma is in the middle of all the kids)

My wedding in 2006!

Highly organized pile of boxes

2008-08-24T21:55:00.003-06:00

I said I'd post pictures...About 1/2 way done packing. All the red tags are the detailed lists of what is in each box. There is also a sticker on the top of each box to say what room it goes into in the new place.
Kenji's "wall" to keep him out of the computers and stuff
Boxes today... about 3/4 done... maybe a bit more than that.
And this is just cute... Kenji is sleeping like this right now! Awwwww!

"Mommy's Lists"

2008-08-24T10:53:00.004-06:00

Today marks the last Sunday that we will spend living in Saskatoon. I'm admittedly really stressed out feeling like I've got a lot left to do, but I'm really close to being done. This is the most organized move that I've ever seen. I'm really quite proud of myself actually. I've started to live by lists. I have lists for every aspect of my day (let's see... drop Jason off at work, check. Put Kenji down for a nap, check. Clean out the hall closets, check. Update the blog, check. You get the idea- and yes, update the blog really is on my list of things to do today). I have developed a horrible case of "Mom-nesia" since Kenji was born and I can't remember anything unless it's written down. One of many fringe benefits of lists is that I'm insanely organized, and anyone who knew me before Kenji, knows that I'm not an organized person. The bad part about lists is trying to remember which list I am working on at the time and where I put the list. If I loose a list... I'm lost! Also, Kenji thinks the lists are great... to eat. I'll post some pictures later of my organizational accomplishments. Just wait until you see the pile of boxes and how organized they are, right down to a detailed list of what's inside each box (and I mean detailed- nothing goes in a box, unless it's on the list for that box) and which room it goes into in the new house! Lists are great! I have fallen in love with making lists! Now, if only I could find my list of what I'm doing next today! LOL! Oh, here it is... Lunch with Len and Terry. On our way!

Sears Pics Taken July 31st 2008

2008-08-22T14:24:00.004-06:00

We love to eat! and more august pictures

2008-08-18T22:00:00.003-06:00

I know... I know... I haven't updated much lately, but with only 12 days left finish getting ready to move, I haven't had much time to do anything but pack. Today I decided that Kenji needed some extra special fun so we had a "living room picnic" for breakfast, featuring pancakes and pear juice. Kenji took a 3 hour nap (WOW!!!) and then we went over to the little wadding pool that's by our apartment. We only stayed for about 20 minutes because Kenji decided he wanted to drink the water. That was all good until he stuck his entire head in the water and then started to freak out. When we got back home, we played "hide-and-seek" in the hall. I crawl around the corner and he comes and "finds" me, then he crawls away, only to come and "find" me again. He laughed and laughed, and I enjoyed not having to move anywhere. After his last nap he had a diner of macaroni noodles, followed by some frozen strawberries and raspberries. They help with teething and he was cranky so I figured he would enjoy them... and he did!

And here are some random pictures that I've taken over the past few days

Happy Birthday Stacy!!!

2008-08-13T10:13:00.003-06:00

Today is my little sister's birthday! I put this little slideshow together just for her.

Happy Birthday Stacy! I hope you have a great day! (And I'm going to keep calling you all day until you answer the phone, so you may as well answer early!)

Love you tons!

Long Time no update- Pics and videos at bottom of post.!

2008-08-12T15:15:00.007-06:00

This post has the potential to be very long... My apologies. We have been so super busy here I haven't hardly had time to sit down and look at the blog, let alone think about posting something.

The countdown is on until moving day!!! 18 days to go until we load up the U-haul. I've got lots of stuff packed already, but still have lots more. I want to have everything that I can packed before the 25th so that I can have some time to clean. Of course, Kenji is trying his hardest to "help" pack... I have to try to pack as much as I can while he is napping and then have no "evidence" visible when he wakes up. There is just magically less stuff out and more boxes stacked up.

Kenji is doing good. He's trying his hardest to learn how to walk. We bought him a push toy and Auntie Terry bought him a Hippo push toy and he loves both of them! He cruises up and down the hall, and the push toys don't necessarily have to be on their wheels to be pushed. He has also become a little monkey and discovered that if he "parks" the push toys next to any given piece of furniture, he can then climb from the push toy, onto whatever it is he is trying to get to! When Kenji had his 9 month check up, the doctor was concerned about his weight and didn't think he was gaining fast enough, so we've had to go in once a week for the last few weeks to have his weight checked. Today when we went in Kenji was 9.34 Kilograms (just over 20 pounds). The doctor wants to check his weight one more time but thinks that my milk just didn't have all the nutritional value that Kenji needed. It's now been about 3 weeks since Kenji has even wanted to nurse and I'm so grateful that I don't have to worry about trying to make him stop nursing when he's older!

Jason is being a real trooper and working a ton of overtime so that we can afford to move! I'll be so glad when we are in Calgary and settled and Jason has a new job. Then we can stop stressing! I'm hoping that they decide to close the Saskatoon office early so that Jason wouldn't have to come back out to Saskatoon for 2 weeks. I'm going to miss him so much while we are apart!

I'm still going to therapy every couple of weeks. I go this Thursday and I think that I will probably just go once more after that. There has been lots of progress and the numbness I was dealing with for so long is pretty much gone now. I was doing way better with pain as well until Saturday. I was taking the garbage out and walking down the front steps of the building. It felt like all of the muscles in my back just seized up and I fell. I landed square on my rump (good thing I have so much padding back there). Ever since I have been in a lot of pain and my knees and ankles are giving me grief as well. We'll see what the therapist says when I see her this week. I saw the doctor today about my weight. I know I'm not doing perfect, but I am trying to lose weight. My weight just keeps going up though. The doctor sent me for blood work to test my thyroid and other things and I'll see him next week when I take Kenji back in to get the test results. He said that sometimes with pregnancy, the body can get messed up and can't stop your body from producing fat cells that you would need for the baby. If that's the case then there are things that I can take for it, but he didn't want to put me on anything just yet. I'm frustrated because everyone keeps saying, "you have to lose weight to allow your back to heal properly," but at the same I can't do a lot of exercises as I could injure my back more! It's a vicious cycle and I'm ready for it to stop. I lost 40 pounds right after Kenji was born... well, as of today, I've gained almost 30 of it back. Grrrr.

Anyway, here are some pictures and videos we've taken lately. Sorry for such a long post.

2 years already!

2008-08-05T15:48:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that Jason and I have now been married for 2 years! It seems like yesterday, but at the same time, it feels like we've been married forever. Jason and I like to joke that we are still in the "honeymoon" stage of our marriage, because we are so in love with each other. Every day I fall more and more in love with Jason! I am so thankful that I have a husband who is so wonderful. He shows his love for me every day in everything that he does. Right now we haven't seen a ton of each other because he's been working so much over time to make it possible for us to move at the end of the month and I really miss him when he's not here, but I'm really grateful that he is willing to sacrifice his time and energy to support our little family.

I love you so much Jason! Happy Anniversary!

Oh, and Mom, now that it's been 2 years, can I have a copy of my wedding video? I'd really like to see it!

Pretty flower

2008-08-04T20:53:00.004-06:00

Let's play a Trip Down Memory Lane

2008-07-25T23:35:00.001-06:00

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see what memories people leave about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

And just to go with my comment on Kristy's blog (it's private so you won't be able to see her's but, I put that I remember "playing dress up" when she came home to visit from school) here are pictures of my memory...

Happy Belated Birthday Davin!!!

2008-07-21T09:25:00.006-06:00

With the craziness of last week, I didn't get a chance to call my very cute nephew for his 7th birthday on July 16th!

Happy birthday Davin! I hope you had a great day. We miss you very very much! Hopefully we'll be able to see you again soon!

WE LOVE YOU!

A very busy week

2008-07-21T08:32:00.008-06:00

I have a really good excuse for not posting anything in over a week... I promise. Last week was extremely busy for us! I've been trying to go through closets and boxes and get rid of all the stuff we don't need to move with us... again. It's not that easy with an 8 month old and I don't feel like I'm getting very far with it. On Wednesday, Jason sent me a text message from work telling me look at a listing for a property on homerent.ca for a 2 bedroom townhouse in Calgary. I looked it up and it is perfect. We called the guy about it and he said that he would be showing it on Saturday. We tried to get in touch with a few friends whose taste we trust and opinions we value to see if anyone could go and look at it for us. We couldn't reach anyone (Okay so we didn't try all THAT hard) so Jason said, "Let's just go ourselves". This started a mad dash to try and get everything ready to go.

We left early Friday morning and got home Saturday night. Kenji was such an angel just about the whole time. The only problems we had with him were that he didn't want to sleep in his playpen so I think we got about 2 hours of sleep Friday night. We were able to go and visit with TC and her baby Keith for a little while on Friday, and then after a nap at the hotel went up to the Bubblemania Cafe. We met up with Mel (Kenji's Godmother), Nicki, Nicki's friend that I can't remember his name, and Romar. I don't think I've laughed so hard in months! We had a blast! The best part was when Kenji was in the highchair at the head of the table and the waitress came up and stood beside him to take our orders. Kenji reached out and hooked his little index finger in her pocket. It was priceless and I wish that I had gotten a picture of it!

Saturday morning we went and had breakfast with Cy (Kenji's Godfather) at Denny's where Kenji ate about 1/2 of a huge pancake! Then we went and looked at the townhouse. I absolutely love it! It will be perfect for us and at the lower end of our price range! The guy said that as far as he was concerned it is ours, but we had to fill out the paperwork just to cement things. So, we filled out the application and Jason is faxing it to the guy today. Hopefully it will all work out so that we can call this place home. After looking at the property, we met up with Cy's Mom, Barry, Gwen, Barrett and Tasha at the little resturant in Zellars. Cy and his mom had to leave before everyone else so it ended up with the 3 couples and Kenji. It was so much fun to have the group of us back together again, and to hang out with other married couples! We had so much fun, but had to leave way to early, because we were going to Rosemary to see Jason's family and wanted to be there early enough to let everyone play with Kenji before we had to head home. Kenji had a blast playing with Uncle Mike and the PSP. He even let a "Gaa-maa-maa" slip out! Grandma Lorraine was thrilled! We wish we could have seen Grampy Keyo, but he was out in B.C. with his mom.

All that time in the car was really hard on my back, so yesterday I "took the day off" and didn't do any housework. Today, well, I guess I better start cleaning because it looks like a bomb went off in our apartment. I can't wait until Kenji is old enough to start doing chores!

ABC's, other videos and newest pics

2008-07-12T12:18:00.008-06:00

Playing with my very large friends

"I'm silly"
Trying to get a better look (look at his feet...)

Handsome smile!

The many faces of Kenji

2008-07-07T15:30:00.004-06:00

Our little bug has started pulling some of the funniest faces! This little video shows some of them. I love having an 8 month old! He is so much fun now, way better than when he didn't do anything all day long!

Trying to crawl backwards under the ottoman (think he's having fun?)

Peek-a-boo!
Look at my teeth!
Funny face

The ring was on his head... couldn't quite get the picture fast enough

M'Lisa, the Hypocrite

2008-07-04T21:47:00.007-06:00

I decided today that I'm a huge hypocrite... I always complain that nobody else updates their blogs often enough, and here I am with my last post on the 26th of June... What's wrong with me?!? LOL!!! So, an update;

Kenji is as cute as ever (but I think we all knew that). He stands up to EVERYTHING and can walk along the edge of furniture now. Just a matter of time until he learns to walk unassisted. He started pulling the funniest faces now too. He loves the camera, but smiles after the flash so I haven't really gotten any good faces... yet... I'll get them eventually.

Sound asleep... notice the foot...

Home after our trip to the "paddling pool" near our apartment.
Kenji is such a cool kid!
Making funny faces for the camera

Aunt Terry and Uncle Len had us over for a Canada Day BBQ. Kenji sure loves his Uncle Len!
Well... that was clean laundry.

Hi Mommy!

Jason is still sick after almost 2 months. He's been on 4 or 5 different antibiotics, but his symptoms just keep coming back. I think that once he is finished with his current prescription we'll go back to the doctor and maybe see if he can be referred to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist. I don't think that the antibiotics are doing anything anymore. Otherwise, Jason is working tons of overtime (as always) so we can have enough money to move to Calgary with. He will be going out to Calgary at the end of the month to confirm a place for us to live and a job. Jason also shaved his head today! I love it when he does that! I think it looks so good on him that way!

As for me, I had my second physical therapy appointment today. The therapist was very pleased to hear that we have just about gotten the numbness under control with the stretches that she had me doing. The problem that we ran into is that the stretches caused an almost unbearable amount of pain. So, she told me to stop with one of the stretches that caused the most problems and introduced a few more stretches. She wants me to start off doing them all laying down on my back so there is no gravity working against me for now. She showed me a few positions that I can lie in and that seems to relieve the pain. I am very pleased to report that tonight is the first time in a very long time that I'm not in a huge amount of pain! The other thing that she wants me to do is increase the length of time that I walk for each day. I was walking for 10 to 15 minutes, so now she wants me to increase it to 20 to 25 minutes each day. She also mentioned that it is very important not to use the stroller for support and to make sure that I push it with my arms and not my back. There was a lot to remember, but I feel really good about the progress that we are making already!

8 Months old today!

2008-06-26T22:14:00.005-06:00

Our baby boy is 8 months old today! Here are some pictures of his antics today.

"Wait... I wasn't ready"
"Hi Mommy!"
Super cute
Funny faces
"Peek-a-boo"
"Mommy locked me in the hallway... someone get me out of here!"
"I keep trying to eat the TV remote, so Mommy and Daddy found me one that I can chew on without batteries"
"What a smart idea!"
"Yummy"
"And it's green... "
"...like my frogs"
"... and my outfit!"
Rolling on the floor
"Mommy went camera happy today I think..."
"Ouch! I dropped it on my head... silly baby"
Strike a pose!
"I wonder if I can see the TV better if I stand up?"
"I'm trying to stand... this is hard..."
"I did it!!!"
"Don't worry Mommy, my fingerprints are still so small that they will be easy to clean off the TV."
"Hey! This is my highchair!"
"I've done it! I mastered the couch!"
"I'm so cute!"

Birthday cake, Laundry and physical therapy

2008-06-24T19:36:00.006-06:00

I realized that I never let everyone know what happened with Jason's birthday cake... Terry was supper sweet and picked up an ice cream cake on Jason's birthday. The problem... it got left in her car longer than it should have been and by the time it got to our apartment, it was ice cream soup. We stuck it in the freezer and ate it later that night once it froze again. It was yummy but I didn't take any pictures of it. The next day I made a cake for him... a cake decorator I am not! But, I did take pictures of that cake. Jason didn't want all 36 candles on the cake so I just put 9 candles on... 3 on the top row and 6 on the bottom... close enough to 36.
Today, Kenji decided to "help" with the laundry... (The video starts with pics of him eating). Side note: I usually spell really well, but after posting this video, I realized that I made several spelling mistakes... I guess that's what happens when you are really tired.

And last but not least, I had my first appointment with the physical therapist this morning. It was nice to be validated. She was super nice and looked me straight in the eyes and really listened. I'm in an incredible amount of pain today, but I'm sure that it's just because she had to do a lot of tests and such. She had my stand, sit and lay in a lot of different positions to see what aggravated my back and what helped. We discovered that when I lean forward, it makes things much worse, but when I lean back things are much better. She recommended that I try to lay down instead of sitting, or staying standing. Siting seems to aggravate things as well. I go back next week when we will be starting to work on toning the core muscles that were stretched and relaxed with the pregnancy. This week she wants me to start walking short distances every day and she showed me a position that I can lay in to completely take the pressure off my back and relieve the numbness in my legs, so I'm supposed to lay in that position 4 or 5 times a day, as well, she wants me to lay on my side and have Jason push down on my hip to help relieve the pressure as well (it felt so good when she did that!!!). So, because I'm not supposed to spend as much time sitting, I may not update the blog as often. Keep checking it though because I'm going to try to update as much as I can.

Standing up

2008-06-22T21:01:00.002-06:00

Kenji has figured out how to stand up by himself! My baby is growing up way too fast! He can now sit all the way up as well.

This week we really haven't done very much. We are working on convincing Kenji that he doesn't need to eat every 3 hours, but he seems to believe otherwise. So, as a result, I've only had about 6 hours sleep in the last 2 or 3 days. I'm a bit tired.

We are still moving forward with our plans to move to Calgary. I will be moving out there September 1st with Kenji, and Jason will follow on Sept 15th. He has to work until then to get the severance package that's offered by his company because they are shutting down. We'll be moving out all of our stuff on the first so we will be calling on all of our friends who are available to help unload the U-Haul. We'll probably order some pizza's or something like that for all who help out. Let me know if you are available, please and thank you in advance.

I have my first appointment with the physical therapist on Tuesday morning, so hopefully I can finally find some exercises that won't hurt my back and then I can work on loosing weight. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T21:47:00.003-06:00

Happy Father's day to the many wonderful fathers in my life.

First to my Husband, who I love more than words can say and is the best Daddy I could have ever asked for to help me raise our baby boy.

Second to my Dad, whose patience, understanding and discipline helped mold me into the person I am today.

Third to my Father-in-Law, whose kindness and humor made me feel welcome and loved from the very first time I met him.

There are many more men in my life who deserve a salute today. My brother, my Grandpa, my many uncles, and so many friends. I love you all!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Birthday Jason!!!

2008-06-14T17:27:00.005-06:00

Today is Jason's 36th birthday! Happy birthday sweetheart! We have had such a fun day today. Kenji and I started off the day by trying to let Jason sleep in, but when Kenji saw what I had done to Jason's desk, he was so excited that I was fighting to try to keep him out of it... We had to wake Jason up to see...

I have to thank Stacy for the idea on this. She told me on Ben's birthday she had put balloons all over the floor for him. I figured that Kenji is a bit too young to let balloons be everywhere, so I just trapped them in Jason's corner by his desk. Inside each balloon was one reason why I love him, so he had to pop each one to get the full message. And, he couldn't get to his chair until he popped all the balloons (he called me a brat... I think I might have deserved it this time. Hehehe) This is what his letter said:

Dear Jason,

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…”

I love you for…

1- Your smile

2- Your eyes

3- Your lips

4- Your hands

5- Your toes

6- Your brains

7- Your brawn

8- Your bum

9- Your heart

10- Your hugs

11- Your kisses

12- Your dedication to me

13- Your dedication to Kenji

14- Your hard work

15- Your sense of humor

16- They way you want the best for our family

17- The way you take care of Kenji and I

18- The way you look

19- The way you look at me

20- The way you hold me when I’m upset

21- The way you can always calm me down when I’m upset

22- The way you love me

23- The smile that seems to be reserved just for me

24- The way you trust me

25- The way you tried so hard not to cry when Kenji was born

26- The way you look at Kenji

27- The way you play with Kenji

28- The way you love Kenji

29- The way you rubbed my belly when I was pregnant

30- The way you kiss me

31- The way your heart connects with mine

32- The way your eyes dance when you are happy

33- The way you love everyone around you

34- The way you try so hard to help other people

35- The way you seem to be able to make friends wherever you go

36- The way you constantly compliment me (I’m so in love with the “compliment guy”)

I love you for all of these reason and so very many more! I know I say it all the time, but you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m so thankful we found each other. Enjoy your birthday babe! You deserve to have the best day ever.

HAPPY 36^TH BIRTHDAY!!!

I love you forever and always,

M’Lisa

So, I'm a bit of a sap, what can I say? I love Jason more than I ever thought possible, and fall more and more in love with him every day. (oh, and the bum thing... We always tease each other about our bums... Maybe we are a little weird) Anyway, after letting him read his "letter" I made breakfast. We had German pancakes (a.k.a. the climbing pancakes) with maple syrup. Yummy!

After breakfast we hung out and played with Kenji for a while, then we went to the Western Development Museum (I know we were there not long ago) and had our picture taken in old fashioned clothes. They didn't have anything that would fit Kenji so we just took his shirt off him and put a blanket over his legs. Then the lady taking the picture found a bonnet. It was too funny for words so here's the picture!

Huge thanks to Len and Terry for the gift certificate to get the picture done! We had so much fun... and they gave Jason a gun! Kenji loved my hat, but wasn't so crazy about the bonnet which is why I was holding his arms down. (If you want this picture and can't download the picture here, let me know and I'll e-mail it too you in full size. I've been having trouble lately with pictures I've put on the blog, that can't be downloaded later.)

After pictures, we went to eat at Denny's, which is one of Jason's favorite places to eat. Kenji was able to sit in a high chair up to the table and I let him have some mashed potatoes. He thought he was pretty smart. Jason and I were going to go out to a movie tonight and Terry was going to watch Kenji for us, but it's pouring rain right now, so Terry is on her way over with a birthday ice cream cake for Jason and we are going to have a Harry Potterathon. I will post pictures of his cake later either tonight or tomorrow. This post is already long enough without more pictures. Jason says thanks to everyone who has sent birthday wishes.

2008-06-09T23:58:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Toys!!!

2008-06-04T15:17:00.005-06:00

Western Development Museum- Saskatoon

2008-06-03T09:59:00.007-06:00

Saskatoon has a wonderful museum that we discovered! The Western Development Museum features an indoor "street" that you would swear takes you right back to 1910. We took Kenji this weekend and we all had such a good time. The only place that I've seen that even comes close to comparing with the WDM is Three Valley Gap in Revelstoke, BC. Jason and I both love museums and are excited to share that love with Kenji.

Let's get this show on the road!

Up on the balcony outside the Dentists office (Forgive me if I have no desire to have my teeth worked on in THAT office- they used scary tools). "Hi Daddy"
The dentists office"... ummm... Mommy, Why are we in here?"
"Help!!!"
"Well... at least the door is open this time..."
Hanging out waiting for Daddy to put me on the train."Choo Choo! I'm driving the train"
Helping Daddy drive the old car
Now time to help Mommy drive.
All worn out after a long fun day

I don't know how this is comfortable.

Let me know if you want to see any pictures of the artifacts from the museum. We have TONS of pictures. One of the coolest exhibits (I think) was a temporary exhibit donated from the TV show The Reinventors. They had some amazing displays which included a floatation suitcase invented by John Edlund of Claresholm, Alberta. I was very impressed!
Side note: in case you couldn't tell, I've discovered how to create links in my posts... I hope all the links work. If they do, then you may start seeing links more often.

Cheerios

2008-05-29T13:34:00.004-06:00

One of the major disadvantages to living in Canada is the health care system. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I don't have to pay for health care (having Kenji cost us a whole $40 for the private room) but there are some distinct disadvantages. For example, I don't get a pediatrician like all of my sisters in the states have. I'm constantly calling my sisters and they tell me what their doctor said to do in certain situations. When Kenji had his 6 month check up, I asked the doc about solid foods and the answer I got was, "yeah, he's ready." Okay... so, what do I give him, how often, how much? "Yeah, he's ready". THANK YOU!

So, the other day I was talking to my Mom and she asked if Kenji eats Cheerios yet, and I said no, I didn't think he was old enough yet, but then I was wondering when he would be old enough. Mom said that he was old enough, so the other day we tried them. They were a huge success. I did find that I have to give them to Kenji one at a time, otherwise he has them all in his mouth and then he tries to choke.

New outfits and grass

2008-05-23T06:46:00.003-06:00

Kenji got a new, very cute, outfit, so I just had to take pictures. He wasn't really cooperating but I thought I'd share them anyway.
And then he had his first experience with grass. He first tried to put the grass in his mouth but the wind kept blowing the little bits that he had away. It was really funny to watch his reaction.
Enjoy!