To the Land of the Rising Sun

This is very delayed, but it took us awhile to upload and sort through our pictures from our trip to Japan. Better late than never, right?


(Here's T in his car seat and Snap 'N Go ready to conquer the flight.)

On May 29th Tyler experienced his first international flight to visit his Japanese side of the family in Tamana, Japan. Tamana is a small town in the southern island of Kyushu. It's part of Kumamoto prefecture (state) and isn't known for very much except their hot spring baths and ramen. This is the town that Mommy was born in and where Obachama and Jiji (maternal grandparents) and Mamachan and Jijipapa (maternal great grandparents) live.

It was quite a journey. First we had to fly to Narita (Tokyo) from San Francisco which took about 11 hours. On the way to Narita, we were fortunate to get the bassinet seat (we didn't have it on the way back). It served as a place for T to sleep as well as for us to put all sorts of stuff. He actually seemed quite comfortable, even though he was strapped in.




Once we got to Narita, we had about a 4 hour layover before our flight to Fukuoka. And, once we got to Fukuoka, Jiji picked us up and we had a 1 hour car ride to Tamana. It was quite a trip, but T was a champ the whole way.

Our time in Japan was relaxing. We didn't do much except hang out with the family since everyone couldn't get enough of T. Mamachan, who in the past year had broken her back, insisted she was fine and wanted to carry around the little guy. Jijipapa, who hasn't carried a baby since Uncle Hide was born, also wanted to hold T as much as possible. Everyone was pretty much fighting over him. =)

There was a lot of drinking, at least between Daddy and Jijipapa. T has started to already show his interest in alcohol too (like parents, like son?). He still has many years to go, but here he is wanting Jijipapa's sake.



Even though we didn't do much besides relax, it seems that hanging out with the family is exhausting for all (Don't T and Uncle Hide look alike here?). =)




The one big thing that we did do was "omiyamairi" or "shrine visit." This is a traditional Shinto practice of taking one's baby to the shrine to have the priest pray for the baby's health and happiness. Obachama and Jiji bought T his first kimono (which is wrapped around the adult carrying him) and we went to the shrine that Mommy went to for her omiyamairi many, many years ago.

Here's T cleaning his hands with the Shrine water.



And the priest doing his thing...



While we watch.



This is us, as a family of three.



And this is T with his Japanese family (minus Suechan (his great aunt) and Gonchan (his great uncle)).



Aside from doing the omiyamairi, we also stopped by the Iris Festival to see the pretty flowers. Here's what it looked like.



That's about it. It was a quick trip there and back. The travel back home was another journey, but it was uneventful. We didn't have the bassinet so T had to sleep in Mommy or Daddy's arms the whole time. But, he was well behaved and slept a lot.

Here are some random photos from our trip.

Crazy hair


Japanese Summer Outfit (Jimbei)


Meeting Obachama's cousin's family


Meeting Suechan



Laughing at Mamachan's cousin

Laughing at Daddy

Lap Nap

Just a quick post. We had lunch today at Mission Beach Cafe with Tita Len and her friends. After being a fun, little guy, Tyler decided he needed a nap so he fell asleep in Tita Len's lap in his "thinker" (Buddha belly) pose. Daddy does this pose too (minus Buddha belly)... One day we'll do a side by side photo. =)

Sleep Torture

For several nights after Tyler was over his jet lag, our evenings went something like this. Tyler would get a bath, put in PJs, read to, fed, fall asleep feeding, and placed in his crib. Then, 30 minutes or so later, he'd wake up crying and Daddy or I would spend the next 30 minutes or more trying to get him back to sleep, only to have him wake up again about 30 minutes later. It was a vicious cycle that we needed to stop. So, we talked about sleep training, watched the "Sleep Easy Solution" DVD (Daddy fell asleep watching it), and dove right in.

Basically, the DVD, like many other methods said babies don't know how to put themselves to sleep and need to learn. To do this parents must establish a sleep routine so the baby knows bedtime is coming and then put the baby in the crib awake and let them cry and figure it out. Ouch. The differences in the methods seem to be how much attention you pay the baby while they are crying. This method said to go in at 5 minutes, reassure the baby from a distance for less than 30 seconds, wait another 10 minutes, reassure the baby again, and then go in every 15 minutes until the baby falls asleep.

OK, we can do this. It's for T's own good. He needs to learn to self sooth and sleep. And, the women on the DVD said "sleep nutrition" is essential.

Night One: We decided our bedtime routine would be bath, jammies, feed (making sure he doesn't fall asleep while feeding), read, sleep. The feeding and not sleeping was hard. Tyler kept dozing off and the poor guy had us doing whatever we could to keep him awake. Then, we read a short book knowing he was tired, kissed him lots and lots, and put him into the crib and walked out of his room. The crying promptly began. We did as we were told. Daddy went in first at 5 minutes. Then Mommy 10 minutes later. Daddy thought that T howled a lot louder when Mommy tried to sooth him. When Daddy went in 15 minutes later, Mommy thought the same. So, we decided we should let him be. As we approached the hour marker (yup, that's right, ONE HOUR of non-stop whaling), we discussed giving up. But, then it seemed awful that we had already let T cry for so long so we decided to go 15 more minutes. At one hour and twelve minutes, he gave up crying and fell asleep with really loud hiccups and didn't wake up for almost 7 hours, before needing a feed. Not bad.

Night Two: We dreaded having to do this all over again. We contemplated quitting, but then decided that would be mean since we already made him cry the night before. So, we did the same routine again, but with no check ins. 39 minutes later, he was asleep, again with really loud hiccups. This time he slept for only 5 hours before waking for a feed, but that's OK. I actually think he might have not eaten enough during the day.

Night Three (tonight): Sleep training works. We did our routine and after many kisses, into his crib T went. After only 8 minutes of some tame crying, he fell asleep. Seriously? Could it be?

I've been told that at this point (5 months and over 15 lbs), T should be able to sleep through the night. That is, that he should be able to sleep a full 11-12 hour stretch. Honestly, though, I don't mind having to wake up once a night. He nurses in less than 10 minutes and is back asleep in no time. I have to get up anyway to go to the bathroom. If anything, I need to sleep train myself to stop doing that first. =)

Now that it seems we have the night time sleep sorted out, the question is, do we work on his naps... I quite enjoy taking a nap with him a day when possible and letting him take naps whenever he falls asleep, but apparently, good naps equals good night time sleep. Ugh.

Oh, How You've Grown

For over a month, T's swing had become a basket for all of his small toys. But, today, I decided to try it again (which didn't last long as he decided to grab one of the sheep above making the motor rattle). Check him out in his swing the first week he was home and look at him today. He's really grown quite a bit! He doesn't look like the same baby...





Excuse the bag of dirty diapers in the older picture. We were shocked at how often a baby could pee and poop. Now, he just pees a lot. His pooping is on a strange schedule... apparently, this is normal for babies. I'm sure when T starts to read this blog he's going to love that I like to share stories about his poo. =)

Which we do have a little story about from Japan. But, I'm going to save that for the Japan post. I still haven't gotten around to uploading pictures from our week away as we've been dealing with T's massive jet lag all week. Still, his jet lag was worth the trip to introduce him to his Japanese family (who, of course, adored him =P).

Hope everyone has a happy weekend!

Fun with Video Editing

We've made it to Japan. The flight was uneventful and the Japanese family has been obsessing over T. A proper post will be coming soon. But, in the meantime, this is what Daddy's been doing with his time here. Enjoy!

Afternoon with Daddy

One of the perks of Daddy's job is that he gets Monday afternoons off. This is especially nice when he's coming off a long, busy weekend on call. Yesterday was one of those Monday's and Mommy took advantage by running errands so that the boys could hang.

The afternoon started with the boys taking a nap.



After they were both well rested, the real fun began. Daddy decided to test out our new point and shoot camera (as well as our SLR) and do a photo session putting Tyler in a couple of different outfits. Here are some of the shots taken.





Notice Tyler grabbing his feet. It's one of his new favorite things to do.

Daddy then worked with Tyler on his tummy time (he still hasn't figured out how to roll from his tummy to his back) and test out the new mirror Mommy bought (Mommy has been buying all sorts of stuff for "enrichment," but more on that later). It seems that Tyler is in love with himself. Or, rather, the good looking guy he sees in the mirror since he doesn't know it's him yet.



It seems some other things went on during Mommy's absence (a big diaper blowout), but by the time she got home both boys were happily watching the Celtics vs. Magic basketball game. Yes, our little guy loves basketball and the TV. As hard as we try not to be, we are a TV watching family.



In other news... as mentioned above, Mommy has been buying all sorts of stuff to entertain Tyler during the day. Not that it wasn't expected, but our living space has completely been overtaken by Tyler's stuff. Check it out.



And, developmentally, aside from trying to get Tyler to roll from his tummy to his back, we're also working on sitting. He's learning.



He's also taught himself to scoot around on his belly to reach for things. We'll have to try and get a video of it. Stay tuned.

Four Months Old

Time is flying by... our "Little" T has now passed the four month marker. We tried to take his four month photo on the 14th, but like his three month photos, he was not a willing participant. It probably didn't help that we tried to take them before bed when he was tired. Here he is looking at the sign, wondering what's going on.



Today we went to his four month check up. He weighed 16.56 lbs (about 75th percentile, 3.25 lbs more than 2 months ago) and 26.5 inches (about 90th percentile, 1.5 inches more than 2 months ago). He's a tall one and hopefully he stays that way and takes after Daddy and not Mommy.

While we were waiting for the Doctor, T occupied himself by eating the paper on the exam table. Everything is going into his mouth nowadays.



Clearly, he had no idea what was in store for him - 2 shots! Ouch. He started off a champ, then sort of lost if for a second, but then regained his composure quickly. Mommy, on the other hand, felt bad for him and almost cried.



Being tough, though, must be exhausting since he clonked out while we were checking out of the Doctor's office.



In other news, he now really dislikes riding in the car. Daddy and I think it's because he's lonely by himself. This is how much he hates it. Hopefully, it's just a phase.



Lastly, to close this post, here's a family picture from our Mother's Day brunch at Moss Beach Distillery. We don't have many family photos since both Mommy and Daddy are too busy taking pictures of T, but hopefully we'll start to take more.