Jeff and Mariko's blog

Lots happened

2010-09-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Lots happened in the past month and a half. I can't believe that it has been that long since last time I wrote a post.

We took Ethan to the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend. It was Ethan's first zoo trip, and I think he enjoyed it. He was pointing at animals with smiles.

Then we went camping two weekends in a row; once without Ethan and once with Ethan. We went to the Potato Creek state park with our friends over our anniversary and the following week was the church camping at the Chain o' Lakes state park. We had a lot of fun both weekends, and Ethan did amazing at his first camping! He woke up a little earlier both morning, but did great overall (and I guess waking up at 6:45 isn't that much earlier than his usual 7:15).

Over the labor day our friends from college, Jason and Lisa, came in town. We were able to visit with them which made me realize how much I miss them. I get to see Lisa and other girl friends in October for our annual girls' get together, which is really nice to have something to look forward to. But I don't mind if my girls friends came back in Goshen :-)

I worked more in the early September as September 15 is another busy time for us public accountants. Thankfully Grandma Claassen was flexible and watched Ethan 4 days a week. It is nice to have loving grandparents who are willing to watch Ethan (and also a child who loves his grandparents so much)!

We were able to fit in another camping trip with our small group at the Dunes. I had been wanting to go to the Dunes with Ethan, so it was a treat. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and rained until Saturday evening (we did not go up until Saturday late morning due to Jeff's studying and the weather). It was miserable. It was fun to be around friends, but sure is not fun to camp in rain. At night it got cold enough that it woke Ethan up. We tried to wrap him up in a blanket but it only made him curious (because he had never seen a blanket) that it didn't work. We ended up putting him in our sleeping bag and he slept well in it. We kept saying that we'd never let Ethan sleep in our bed, so I don't know if this broke that attempt...

Last weekend we were planning to go up to Michigan City for the outlet mall, but our little guy woke up with a fever. He had 100-102 degrees for three to four days, but other than fever and being tired, he was fine. He was getting 5 teeth (2 of them being molars) so we thought maybe it was related to that... but as soon as his fever went down on Tuesday, his face started getting some spots. Luckily I had read in Japanese magazines for young mothers that there is a thing called "roseola" and is very common (I think something like 90% of Japanese get this). So I looked it up and it sure did sound like Ethan had roseola. It is not harmful other than the high fever possibly triggering seizures, and once the spots appear it is almost done and not too contagious (and it mainly affects kids). It gives a life time immunity, so we are thankful that Ethan had a very mild case of it (his spots were gone already by Thursday).

This weekend we went to the relief sale both on Saturday and Sunday. It was fun walking around with Ethan :-) They had an elephant ride and a pony ride, but we opted out yet. Maybe next year. We had a haystacks dinner, pancake and sausage breakfast, some eggrolls, soft served ice cream, donuts, apple fritters, cheese, and tamales. We missed the pulled pork sandwich this year though. I think this was the first time I've missed it :-( I also think this was the first relief sale I've been where there was no rain! It sure was a lot of fun visiting with friends and families there. We bought a toy from the ten thousand villages for Ethan that was a hit! It is a wire framed person riding a bicycle and the tires spin when you push it around. Ethan fell in love with it there, and managed to drive the bicycle in front of him everywhere we went after that.

Pfew, I think this is all the update for the past few weeks. I do need to try to keep it up a little better than this next time!

Jeff's birthday

2010-08-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, July 31, was Jeff's 28th birthday. To celebrate, we went to Shedd Aquarium and IKEA in Chicago. Sadly I forgot to take our camera with us, so no pictures. But we had such a wonderful time! Shedd was very busy and we waited about half an hour in a line to get in. Since we took the stroller with us we went through the handicap entrance, and I think the line for the actual entrance was about an hour.

It was really hard to maneuver the stroller in a packed, dark aquarium with bunch of kids running around, but we managed to show Ethan most of the exhibits. He loved the dolphins and pointed at them every time they came closer to us. It was fun showing him the fish and dolphins now that he is reacting to what he sees! We are hoping to go to the zoo yet this summer.

Two weekends ago we went to Buffalo, NY, for a graduation party for Jeff's cousins, Rachel and Brice. Although it does seem like a long time after the graduation to the people in Indiana, their schools went until the end of June so it hasn't been that long since they graduated. And it is always fun to see the family! Ethan has a second cousin, Maddie, that he gets to play with only a few times a year, but they played really well together... well, compared to the last time they saw each other which was last Thanksgiving. On the way to Buffalo we stopped at the Niagara Falls in Canada (we drove through Canada to get there this time). It was beautiful! I've been to the falls a few times but never on Canadian side, and it was a lot better! Ethan seemed to enjoy it too. And he's such a world traveler, isn't he :-)

Ethan liked the American side fall better than the horse shoe one

At Jeff's uncle's dairy farm

Ethan and his second cousin, Maddie

They have the same curls

Our basement is finally finished! Well, sort of! We still have a few things we need to paint and a few more rooms to finish, but we are done with the family room! It has been very nice to have a big room for Ethan to run around without too many things to worry about him touching. We took our sectional couch and the entertainment center downstairs, so the upstairs looked like we were robbed. Thankfully we had a TV that I won at my company's christmas party a few years ago and we picked up a TV stand at IKEA this weekend, so it's looking very nice upstairs also. Here are a few pictures of freshly finished basement. I will take a few more pictures once we have it decorated.

Guest bedroom

Basement bathroom

I finally gave Ethan a first haircut... it did not go too well. He has so little hair that I don't know how to cut the bangs without making it straight or obviously uneven. So I picked uneven over straight. But there is one spot that's clearly too short. However his hair is always messy and never straight down, it is not very noticeable... or maybe I'm just used to it now. But I may take him to one of my friends who is a hair stylist and see if she can do her magic next time!

Before

During

After... and it is not as bad as it looks here...

Already mid July

2010-07-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already mid July! It is amazing how fast time passes.

In the past month Ethan started walking. Jeff and I had a bet going on when he would start walking, and I had mid June and he had July 4. Ethan started walking at the end of June. For the past few weeks it was more like taking a few steps and fall or dive into our arms, but the past weekend we realized that he suddenly started taking lots of steps without falling, picking up his toys on the floor and getting back up, and today I saw him turning around without holding onto a furniture. I think the only time he crawls now is to get to something to get back up. We will finally get our basement done (partially) so it will be nice to have a bigger space for him to practice walking/ running.

Oreo and Ethan are getting along better now also. Ethan plays fetch with Oreo (even though he can't slow the ball too far and Oreo does not think he needs to get the ball), pets him nicely, and cuddles up with him when Oreo is laying by me. I think Oreo likes the attention he gets from Ethan also. Oreo sure loves Ethan during a meal time because Ethan tends to throw food off of his plate/ tray if he does not like it. He used to do this whenever he was full, but we taught him "all done!" sign and he shows that he is done pretty well.

It has been fun teaching Ethan signs and seeing him communicating with us using signs. He can do milk, more, all done, and up so far. I'm trying to teach him thank you and please but we'll see how quickly he picks these up. Verbally he is still working on saying mommy and daddy. Some days he is good at it, but some days he calls everything daddy. He sure is a chatter box though. Only if we understand his language!

This weekend we will be headed to Buffalo, NY again for Jeff's cousins', Rachel and Brice's, graduation party. It will be fun to see everyone especially Maddie, Ethan's second cousin who is 3 weeks younger than Ethan. Last time they saw each other was at Thanksgiving when they were only 5 months old. Ethan started interacting with his church friends, so I'm excited to see him play with his second cousin!

Oh, and here are pictures of him playing with his buddies, Lacy and Carson. They are about 6 months older than Ethan. Now that Ethan can finally walk he was excited to follow them around (or try to follow but fall far behind).

Ethan's favorite toys right now are baseball caps. He wears an adult size Buffalo Bisons' cap and an infant size Nebraska Huskers' cap. He also loves drinking out of/ playing with a cup (not a sippy, cup!). I sure am glad that it's summer now so he could be without a shirt and drinking out of a cup without getting cold.

Ethan is 1 now!

2010-06-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

Ethan turned 1 on Sunday, May 30. I can't believe it has been one year since he was born! This past year went so fast and he has grown so much in one year. He is not quite walking yet but working hard at it. He loves pulling up on anything and walks holding on to furnitures or our fingers. I thought he'd be walking by mid June, but I think it'd be a little longer yet. Jeff thought by July 4th. We'll see.

I took Ethan to the Portrait Innovation, a professional photo studio a few days before his birthday. We've never taken him to a studio, and it will be the only one he'll get before his senior pictures :-) They turned out really good though! The photographer was so nice and fun, made him smile and laugh as she took pictures. I bought a CD of all the pictures she took, which has over 80 pictures! These are the few.

On Sunday we had a few family over for Ethan's birthday; Mel and Lorna, Bert and Regina and Grandma Yoder (Ethan's Great Grandma!). I made the "hungry caterpillar" cake which was easy and cute. We've been feeding him some yogurt and milk now and it seems like his tolerance to dairy has increased yet not completely allergy-free so I made a non-dairy cupcakes with non-dairy frosting. He did not care for the cake but loved the frosting! After licking off his frosting he offered to trade with my cupcake that I hadn't started eating yet.

On Monday then we had our friends over for the Memorial day cook out/ Ethan's birthday. Unfortunately it rained so we couldn't be outside but we had a great time playing some games inside. A few of them enjoyed playing with Ethan's birthday gifts too :-) For Monday I baked a batch of cupcakes again and added onto my caterpillar from the day before (we kept the head). So it was an economical cake also :-)

Ethan's 1st year check up was last Friday, and he is now at the middle of the pack. I think his weight is still on the lighter side, but his height is at the middle. He had grown 3 inches in the past 3 months! I wish I had that kind of a growthspart. Next check up is at 18 months, which was too far ahead to schedule. Wow, finally we can take a little break from going to the doctors!

We continue to work on our basement. Jeff had some help painting over the past few weeks and it looks so nice now! We went out and picked out our carpet too, so we only need to put some trims up before putting the carpet down! Then it's all done! ... for now! We still have a room unfinished which we'd love to finish in the next year or so. Then it'll all be done! Ethan is starting to be more mobile each day so a big family room in the basement will be really nice. If everything goes well the family room should be done by the end of the month. I will post some pictures when it's finished!

Trip to Japan

2010-05-28T03:34:00.000-07:00

Lots happened in the past month. We went to Japan for two weeks, had a mother's day and my birthday, now we are getting ready for Ethan's birthday!

The trip to Japan was a lot of fun. It started out with an accident though... A flight from South Bend was delayed for an hour because the oxygen tank needed to be filled (when was it used? I don't know...). So we timed Ethan's snack time to be when we take off so he could have a bottle and it'd be good for his ears... that didn't work. But he had no problem with his ears.

As we approached to Atlanta (we went through Atlanta on the way to Japan because the tickets were cheaper), the pilot announced that there was a severe storm in Atlanta and sooner we get there was better. Of course as we got closer the weather got worse and we flew over Virginia for a while to see if there is any window for us to land there. The fuel was getting low and there was no sign of the weather clearing up, so we ended up landing in South Carolina. We were not even connected to the airport there, we had to wait 2-3 hours in the plane. Ethan was starting to fuss a little due to a dirty diaper and being tired, so we changed his diaper (on our laps because there was no changing table in the bathroom, suggested by the flight attendant) and tried to put him to sleep.

So by the time we got to Atlanta our flight to Japan was long gone. Luckily they recognized this as a "maintenance issue" rather than a "weather issue" because had we left on time we would have made it, so they paid for our food and lodging. It worked out ok except that this was right after the Europe problem with the volcano, so the airport was a little hectic and getting to the ticket counter took an hour and going through the security took another hour. But at least we made the flight this time.

This time in Tokyo we rented a monthly apartment for two weeks in downtown Tokyo. It was only 10 minutes from my mom's place so we either went there or she stopped by every day. And it was nice to be in downtown so we could go see a few things, come back for a nap, and then go out again. Jeff and Ethan went out by themselves a few times also.

Lot of highlights for me; showing Ethan off to my family, eating great food, new haircut, shopping with my mom, etc. Definitely the hardest thing hands down was adjusting to Japan time. You can not force a baby to stay awake or sleep! It took Ethan 2 weeks to adjust to Japan time, and when we came back, it took him a week. That was the hardest week! Jeff and I both went to work that week with just a few hours of sleep. We were woken up once or twice (although each time we were up for 1-2 hrs). I can not imagine doing that for a year or something. Thank goodness Ethan started sleeping through the night at 4 weeks, as soon as we started letting him.

Here are a few pictures from the trip. I will write more if I remember what I want to write about...

This is how they slept the entire way over there... good job Jeff!

And when he woke up he was always sweaty

We happened to be in Japn on the "boys' day" and this is one of the displays.

Yes, we put our son in the closet to sleep...

On our balcony on the 24th floor

This was another display for the boys' day. They were all over the country!

My Grandpa and Ethan

My too excited Grandma and Ethan

My aunt who wanted to hold him so bad but Ethan was not sure

My uncle. Ethan looks like when my uncle was little

At the park near my mom's

Many restaurants hada high chair and brought utencils and a menu out for Ethan

My tradition: with a panda

Packing

Ethan loved playing hide an seek (he says it in Japanese) and it was the "boo!" face

Another picture from our balcony. You can see the Mt. Fuji (the white triangle at the back)

Jetlagged child at home

Busy season, cousins' visit and exams

2010-04-22T13:08:00.001-07:00

April 15 came and went. Now I am back to 3 times a week. At the end I was putting 55 hours a week, which was getting too much. I kept the Mondays off just until the final week (although I worked at home for a few hours). And I saw Ethan every day!

Even though the busy season is over, I still had two exams to take this week so I couldn't really relax yet. And I had to go into work on Monday this week as I had a lot of things I needed to finish at work before we leave to Japan. So I took one exam Tuesday morning and another one this morning. Now I can relax and enjoy the time with Ethan! I highly doubt that I passed those exams (it's kind of hard to work 55 hrs a week and study enough for exams...) but at least they are done for now!

Now it's time to pack for Japan. I really wonder if we can fit everything we need for two weeks in four luggages plus carry ons. We are hoping to buy some food and diaper there, which would help, but we have to take more than a can of formula since he still is allergic to milk (and also under 1 year old). And how many set of clothes to pack in our carry on? Too much to think about. On top of that I'm starting to worry about him transitioning to Japan time (and back at the Eastern Standard Time). And he is working on his top tooth now, so I really hope that he doesn't get another ear infection! But he has been wearing the bibs again, which we were so happy to get rid of for the past few months :-( Now that he army crawls everywhere, the bibs get in his way so he takes them off very quickly. And amazing thing is that the bibs usually get super soaked within 10 minutes that it's time to change to a new one anyways!

Last weekend Jeff's cousins, Rachel and Beth, and Uncle Ron came from Buffalo. They have two 1-week spring breaks, and it happened to be their second spring break. They got in early Sunday morning and left Monday mid day to go upto Michigan, so it was a short visit but was a lot of fun. Ethan loved the girls and Ron, too! He could not smiling and giggling at them. They had last seen Ethan at Thanksgiving, so it was good to show how cool of a baby we have again :-)

Tonight we are meeting a few of our Sunday School friends at Mad Anthony's. I love their salads! I'm sure their beers are great too but I really can't like the taste of them. So I'm sure I'll stick to their food. Since it's walking distance from my office, I've gone there for lunches many times but it's my first time for dinner. It is an adult's night out, so Ethan will be at Grandpa and Grandma Yoder's. I'm sure he'll have fun too :-)

We let Ethan feed himself some Japanese noodles...

But he kept "feeding" Oreo so I said no, and this is what I got

Believe it or not, he loves bananas

His friend, Landon, giving him a kiss

He's loving cruising holding on to the sectional couch

Ethan with Rachel and Beth

Still loves his bath time!

Not crawling yet (according to me)

2010-04-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ethan's army crawling is getting faster every day. But he is not on his four (even though his butt is somewhat up) so I don't think he is crawling yet :-) He has been getting better at standing too, and sometimes he cruise just a little bit (more like rotating standing up holding on to something). I can't believe that he will be one in less than two months!

A few days after his first tooth he got his second one, but none at the top yet. It feels different feeding him now! I can feel something hard against spoons or fingers now. His smiles are still cute even though it's not gummy anymore.

He continues to be a good eater. We started feeding him bigger chunks of vegetables and some cut up Japanese noodles, and it seems like he has no problem eating chunks instead of ground up smooth food like stage 2 jars of baby food. We do a mix of home cooked baby food and jars of baby food. So far he hasn't rejected either one and has no problem switching one to the other. I would be ready to feed him off of our plates except that I feel like many nights we have food with cheese or other dairy in it. About a month ago Ethan was playing with a spoon Jeff had eaten yogurt with (Jeff had licked off clean), and a few minutes later he had a spot or two of red bumps. So I am waiting for a few more months to try dairy again on him.

He opens his mouth and waits for food like a little bird

Yes, broccoli + daddy feeding = messy

I started working more like 50-53 the past few weeks, and it's tiring. I still want to see Ethan every day, so I try to go in earlier if I know I will have to get done a lot. So that means I go in somewhere between 5:30 to 6:30 usually. I still have been able to leave between 6-6:30 though. But I sure get tired pretty quickly unless I go to bed at 9. I've been trying to study for my exams too, which isn't too much fun. I still do get Mondays off, but I also bring a lot of work home for the weekend... I sure am ready for this to be over! Less than 2 weeks to go!

Jeff, Ethan and I are looking forward to going to Japan in three weeks. We'll be there for two weeks, one week in a weekly apartment and a week at my mom's. With Ethan being somewhat mobile, we thought it may be ok for us to stay at a weekly apartment for a week. My mom's taking a week off the second week, so we'll stay there. We are planning to visit my grandparents, great aunts and uncles, my mom's students and friends. It sounds like everyone is looking forward to meeting Ethan, and I can not wait to show Ethan where I grew up. He would not remember any of it, but hopefully it'll still be a good experience for him.

Oreo and Ethan with matching pose

He was playing with the cars, took socks off, and took off...

My three boys

Cheerios and puffs are his two favorite snacks

Nice hair

2010-03-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Ethan had a doctor's check up today for his ear infection and it was cleared :-) He didn't have an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, so that was great, also.

Before the doctor's appointment, I got to clean, cook, finish one load of laundry and play with Ethan. I love when I feel like I was productive! Today I decided not to work at all (well, I checked my e-mails a few times but that's all) so it was nice not to worry about work too. It feels like working 45 hours a week this busy season has been working really good. It sure is nice that I have a whole day with Ethan every week. This makes up for seeing him only for an hour Tuesday to Friday.

Grandpa and Grandma Claassen are in Malaysia for the next 10 days, so Ethan goes to a daycare this week and a part of next week. Last time when they were gone for a week Ethan was so excited to see them when they were back that he almost fell out of our arms. It's so much fun to see him being affectionate because I don't see him being attached to anything else yet. I guess grandpa and grandma are very special to him :-)

We thought we lost his first tooth already (either it wasn't a tooth or it went back under the gum...?) but I guess we were wrong. Today it sure is out and can be seen pretty good. But he loves feeling it with his tongue so it's a challenge to really see it. Looks like the bottom right is thinking of coming out soon too. I wonder if he gets like 6 in a few weeks?

Jeff and I are starting a bet on when he starts crawling. Every day he makes progress on this and his heart is definitely there. He gets so frustrated that he can't do it though. But today I bribed him with a cheerio and he army crawled (forward!) a bit to get to it. I think it'd still be a month, but maybe Jeff's 2 weeks will win...

Ethan has two cowlicks that push the hair up together, and he sometimes has amazing hair styles. His normal do is a full hawk, but sometimes it's more than that :-) The other day Jeff took a few pictures of his "great hair" (please don't mind him wearing a yellow shirt with pastel green pants with red socks... that's how daddy dresses him!)

He's so proud of his tooth too that he sticks out his tongue a lot now to feel it.

My little man is not so little anymore!

2010-03-10T17:14:00.001-08:00

Yesterday (March 9), Ethan finally got his first tooth! It's still a tiny dot, but it definitely is through his gum! Yay! It actually is bitter sweet since it took him so long to get a tooth. Now I can't see his gummy smile anymore :-( And I have to worry about cavities and brushing teeth and him chewing on things. But it is a big milestone and I sure am excited to see his growth! Jeff was in Chicago for a conference for his work yesterday, so we didn't get to celebrate it together. Good thing it didn't disappear over night :-)

This evening we were playing on the floor and Ethan suddenly started playing his trumpet! I had a little trumpet growing up so when he turned 6 months I ordered one from Japan. You just blow in it and it makes a noise (I've never seen one in the States). He always drooled in it or chewed on it, but tonight he suddenly started blowing in it and made noise! We quickly got our digital camera and took some videos. I don't know how to put a video on yet, so I'll post it once I figure that out.

But oh boy, he is growing! He loves standing up and just the other day he started pulling up on his knees, and grandma thinks she saw Ethan getting up to a sitting position from his tummy today, too. It is always all of a sudden he starts doing things. We still don't have his crib mattress at the lowest position yet, and I really am hoping that I don't find him falling over the crib one day... Now that he's starting to pull up on things, we'll need to lower the crib as low as possible this weekend!

Oh, another thing. We finally bought tickets to Japan! We are leaving on April 24 and come back on May 8. We are already scared of our travel (13 hr flights with him on our laps), but who knows, he may surprise us as he always does! We, along with Grandma Kiyomi, are all excited for our trip :-) We received his passport a few weeks ago in the mail, so we are as ready as we can be!

Spoke too early... or jinxed myself :-(

2010-03-01T17:26:00.001-08:00

So... Ethan got his first ear infection today :-( Last night he was woke up a few times and went back to sleep on his own, so I thought maybe his teeth were hurting him. But this morning a little after 5:30 he was crying pretty loud so I decided to go check on him. When I picked him up to get him out of the crib, he felt pretty warm to me, so I took the temperature quick. Sure enough, he had his first fever! It was 102.3 under arm, which is pretty high. So we gave him a Tylenol and hoped that it would go down some so we could wait until the morning to call the doctor's office.

He finally went back to sleep around 7:30, and I called the doctor at 8:40. We couldn't get in until 1:30, and he was waking up on and off again, so I gave him some Motrin and kept him up for a while. I think he did some 30-45 minute cycles of waking up and falling asleep. And when he was awake he wasn't too happy most of the time. He ate ok though.

So at 1:30 we went in to the doctor's office, and of course she said that he had an ear infection! I was honestly surprised that he lasted this long without one though. I used to get them all the time when I was little. She prescribed him an antibiotic, so hopefully he's not allergic to that. So now we've been giving him Tylenol and Motrin staggered, and it seems like Motrin definitely works a lot better than Tylenol. His temp seems to be lower and he has gotten some of his spunk back. We'll see how tonight goes...

I'm definitely kicking myself for jinxing though!

When is Ethan's 9 months birthday?

2010-02-28T17:32:00.001-08:00

So, February having only 28 days and Ethan's birthday being on 30th, we don't quite know when Ethan's 9 month birthday falls... Well, funny thing is that Jeff mentioned about it last week being some what concerned. So I reminded him that his birthday is on the 31st so he missed more monthly birthdays than Ethan would.

Olympics has been keeping me up a lot later than usual. It has been a lot of fun though! Sadly Japan did not get any gold medal, but I am proud of all their performances. I have to proudly point out the fact that many short track speed skaters and womens' figure skaters are Asians, even Americans :-) I was really looking forward to the womens' figure skates, and they sure didn't let me down! I knew Mao, Japanese silver medalist, was good, but I had never seen Kim, Korean gold medalist, so it was great that I could finally see her perform. She really was the best! I was sad that Mao didn't win gold, but Kim sure was awesome. And the American skater, Mirai Nagasu, was such a cutie and I am looking forward to see her grow (she is only 16).

Ethan still has no teeth, but doing really well. He had his 9 month check up last Monday, and he still is a small guy but very healthy. I have to say that we are quite happy that our household hasn't had any major sickness yet. He has had a few runny noses but never had real cold or ear infections. It helps when he only goes to Grandma's for a daycare.

Ethan experienced his first day care visit last Thursday. Mel and Lorna are in Florida until this Wednesday, so Ethan goes to Audrey Oosland's, a friend from our church. It sounds like he did great. I was excited to hear that he interacted with other kids well and still stuck with his routine.

My work has gotten busier, and now I am really feeling that I made a right choice by going part time. My hours are capped around 45 hours a week (it's been more like 46-47, but I also didn't have 45 hours a week in January for a few weeks). I still love what I do, and every year I get more responsibilities and I really enjoy the feeling that they are "my clients".

Lately his favorite thing to do is standing up and drinking milk on his belly. He can't quite pull up to stand on his own yet, but we'll see how long that lasts. He can pull up to his knees already, so it shouldn't be too long before he gets up by himself. Him drinking milk while he is on his belly is a little tricky because then he doesn't get much milk. He gets 2 sippy cups a day now, so he loves drinking sitting up also. He also started army crawling backwards occasionally. He still doesn't like being on his belly too much, but I think he enjoys being able to look around better when he is doing it. So he is rolly-polly most of the time.

I am attaching a few pictures from the past 2 weeks. We just got a new camera (Canon S90) so we have been taking a lot more pictures now!

Happy Valentine's!

2010-02-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

My work has picked up some as it is mid February. Only 2 more months to go! Since Ethan was born, I became part time at work, so even during the busy season I work 45 hours a week. So far it has been manageable. I take Mondays off, work 7 am - 6pm for four days, and work 5-6 hours on Saturday. I sometimes bring work home so I can put an hour or two on Monday, so I can leave before 6pm a few times a week. It is nice that I could go part time as some work would not give the flexibility. I do feel like I don't get enough time with Ethan Tuesday to Friday, but now I make sure to have some quality time when I am home instead.

For Valentine's, Paul and Anita kindly watched Ethan in the evening on Saturday so Jeff and I could go watch a movie and out for a dinner... except the movie was sold out! I wanted to watch the Valentine's Day, but I guess so did every other ladies in town. So we decided to go out for a nice dinner instead. We walked in to Kelly Jae's, a Tapas restaurant in downtown, and it looked pretty empty as it was only a few minutes passed 5. But apparently they were all full with reservations and the earliest we could get in was at 7:45. We said no thank you and walked over to Il Forno, a pizza place. I think their pizza is the best one in the world, so even though it was not as romantic as I hoped, it worked out fine. Then we went to Target, Meijer and Wal-Mart, and went back to pick Ethan up. It was nice to be able to walk around the store without a child trying to reach for something, or run into stores without carrying a huge baby carrier. Oh, I forgot to mention that Jeff sent me flowers at work on Thursday, too! I don't know exactly what they are, but I think they are some kind of lilies.

Ethan just last week started to reach for things farther and put one foot behind him. So it looks like he's trying to go on his four but his arms aren't the strongest so he ends up on his face. But it is exciting to see him trying, finally! He continues to hate being on his tumy, but at least now he rolls over onto his tummy for a second or two. He still doesn't have his teeth yet though. A few weeks ago he kind of stopped drooling for a week or two, but now his drool is back again. We bought a few more bibs last night in hope of the drooling to stop just in time for some new bibs. (You know, kind of like not raining if you have an umbrella...)

So, no medals yet for Japan... hoping for one for the women's figure skate!

Spontaneous & Gravity

2010-01-31T16:48:00.000-08:00

It's a new year, and I'm going to do something new. Since this is my blog, along with Mariko, here's my first blog post.

My how time flies. I can't believe it's February already. We had a great time with Kiyomi here over New Year's. It was great to see that Ethan could spend time with another Grandma. It's also good for him to hear Japanese, since I don't speak very well. While she was here, she and Mariko did some shopping, and we ate lots of good Japanese food.

Last weekend, before church Mariko asked me "Do you want to go to Chicago today? Take some time to think about it, I know you're not a fan of spontaneous events." Well, Ethan and I were already dressed for church, and it would mean missing the Colt's game, but I Chicago sounded fun, and I didn't think there'd be a better time, so off we went. It didn't take much to convince me.

In Chicago, we did our usual. A stop at Ikea, and load up on Japanese groceries at Mitsuwa. However, this was the first time that we had Ethan along for a day trip. What can I say, the little guy's amazing! He slept nearly all the way to Ikea, then ate his lunch with us in the food court. He even enjoyed riding around in the shopping cart, and just looked around at all the sights and sounds.

His other achievement this month is discovering gravity. Unfortunately, this means if we give him toys in his high chair, in know time they're on the floor, with him leaning over looking at them. This is fine when we're at home, but in public the floor isn't the best place for his toys. So we pick them up, wipe them off, and down they go again. It's quite a fun game!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T19:26:00.001-08:00

It was a lot of fun celebrating Christmas with Ethan this year! He continues to amaze us by being such a great baby. On Christmas Eve, we got together with Mel and Lorna and had a Christmas dinner. He was great there, and enjoyed the activity table/walker he got from his Grandpa and Grandma. Then we went to Bert and Regina's to have a Christmas fondue dinner with my host family. He got to meet Byard, Judy, Jeremy and Jonathan who came from PA, and also Adrienne who flew in from Seattle for the first time. Fondue always take quite a while to eat, but Ethan sat in a high chair and played with his toys, occasionally smiling at everyone.

Christmas morning we opened gifts with Ethan, had him take a nap, and went to Paul and Anita's for lunch for a Christmas dinner. Again he did amazing there and even let us stay until 10:30 to finish watching a movie (he fell asleep around 7:30 and stayed asleep until we woke him up). He was as happy as he could be most of the day.

It was great being able to see family from distance, and this coming Tuesday my mom is coming for 10 days! My mom hasn't seen him since early June, so it will be great to have her here (not to mention I'll have a built-in baby sitter!). I am sure she'll enjoy seeing him again.

Coldest day of Ethan's life!

2009-12-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

Today was so bitter cold outside that I felt very fortunate to stay at home with Ethan all day. Usually I work on Thursdays but this week I had a meeting on Monday so I worked Monday to Wednesday instead. Yay for a 5 day weekend!

So lots happened in the past few weeks. We went to New York for Thanksgiving, Ethan turned 6 months old, I had a scrapbooking retreat last weekend, and Ethan suddenly started sitting up tonight! He has been very close for a while, but he seemed not too interested in it. I asked the doctor at his 6 months check up, and we both decided that Ethan was just too content to try something new. He is always happy and smily, and it's been a lot of fun hanging out with him. But I did want him to try sitting up or roll over more often, so this afternoon I decided to put him on a sitting up position and put a ring stacking toy in front of him, hoping that he would at least prop against the toy. He not only sat up by himself, but tried to balance when he was half falling off! I guess something clicked and he got a hang of it. He was sitting up on my lap for the past few weeks, but never did it on the floor. So it was great to see him sitting up and playing. But he likes standing up or jumping in the jumperoo a lot better, so it may take a while until it gets more stable.

Already mid-November?!

2009-11-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, time flies. It's already mid-November! We've been keeping pretty busy recently, which is normal as year end approaches (yeah, sad that we are already thinking the end of the year...).

I had the 4th annual KUS/Hospital house reunion last weekend. I have 9 girls friends from college that get together every year. In the past we've gotten together in Chicago, Vegas and Phoenix. This year since I had Ethan just 5 months ago I had a privilege of gathering my friends to Goshen. We mainly walked around Goshen and hung out at my house, but it was really good to catch up with them again. We live in 6 different states, so I don't get to see them too often. I hope this tradition continues for a long time!

Sadly I didn't take any pictures on my camera but hoping that they would e-mail them to me shortly. It was really good that Ethan could meet my dear friends though. He enjoyed the attention he got from them, and so did Oreo. Two of them, Alyssa and Rachel, stayed at my house so Oreo got 24/7 attention from them.

This past week we had a baby shower for Chrissy in our small group. It was just four of us, and we had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue. It was a lot of fun to have a girls' night and to celebrate for baby Kauffmann! It would be fun to have another boy in the small group in less than a month!

I think we'll have a little slower week this week having a plan only on Friday. That's ok as I should be studying for my CPA exam which is in 10 days! I haven't studied nearly as much as I should be, and I am really not ready for it. I guess that's what happens when there is a child in the house! We'll see how much I can cram in during the next 10 days...

Ethan's first halloween

2009-11-01T16:36:00.001-08:00

This past week, I was in Indianapolis on a business trip for four days. Jeff and Ethan came along with me on Sunday, spent a night and left Monday morning as I went to work. I missed them a lot while I was down there, but at the same time it was nice that I could spend time for myself. I went to the mall for the first time after Ethan was born, got a haircut (first once since January), went to see The Couples' Retreat, and ate at nice restaurants every night. It was nice that I could do all things I couldn't do well with a baby along. Jeff and Ethan did well without me too. But when I got back home on Thursday, Ethan's face lit up as soon as he saw me. I missed his smiles.

We bought a costume at once upon a child, children's' resale store, for Ethan's first Halloween. He was a Tigger :-) We took him over to Grandpa and Grandma Claassen's, Grandpa and Grandma Yoder's, and Kate and Will's before we went to our freinds' house for an evening of fun. He was so soft and cuddly. Since it is a tiger year next year in Japan, I may make a new year's cards with pictures of him in this costume again :-)

Lots happened this past few days...

2009-10-18T13:48:00.001-07:00

Pfew, it's already sunday night. I feel like a lot happened in the past few days and Thursday seems so long ago.

Thursday night, we fed Ethan some rice cereal as usual, but mixed it with formula. We had never given him any formula until now, and it was only for a convenience (because if you make rice cereal with breast milk, the milk breaks down something in the cereal that it gets runny as you feed him). I should have known better, and feed him only one spoon full and waited. But I didn't. So he finished his 2 oz formula mixed with 1/4 cup rice cereal like he usually does. As soon as he was done eating, I noticed that his cheeks and chins had little red bumps. He had gotten those twice before, and as soon as I wipe his face really good, they usually go away. So we knew that he had a little contact allergy to cereal. But it didn't go away. In fact, it got worse. All his chins and cheeks were so red and puffy, and his nose was runny and was a lot droolier than usual. I knew immediately that it was allergic reaction, so I called the nurse on call at the hospital. The nurse asked me if his breathing was ok, so I said he was breathing a little heavier and it looked harder to breath. She asked if his tong was swollen, so I checked it, and it sure was a little swollen. She recommended calling 911 instead of taking him to the hospital by ourselves. We called 911 and EMS came, but by then his face was getting better. He had thrown up once while we waited for the ambulance, which they said helped. So we rejected the transportation and decided to watch carefully at home.

About half an hour after the EMS left, the area around his eyes started puffy. It kept getting worse, and this time it was spreading all over his body, so we decided to drive down to the hospital. By the time we were able to be treated, all his joints like elbows and knees, and under his arm were all red, covered with hives. His eyes were completely shut with puffiness. But his lungs were clear and they were not too worried. They gave him some benedryl and waited to see if it got better. It seemed to help a little bit, and he didn't have any allergic reaction to the medicine, so they sent us home at 11pm. I woke up a few times through the night and checked on him, but he slept so good and by the morning his face was pretty cleared up.

We think that he is allergic to the cow's milk protein in formula, and the reaction came in two waves; contacts and then system. Now we know to be careful with food when we give him for the first time, and what to do if something happen again. It scared all of us (mostly Jeff and I) though, and I hope we won't have to go through this again.

We had Kate and Will over on Friday. It was the first time we hung out with them after their wedding. It was fun as usual. We played 30 minutes of "Friends" Scene it, then a game of the Settlers. I didn't remember that the Settlers took a long time (apparently the board was pretty pathetic this time), so I don't know if it was a fair trade of some "chick game" to "guy game", but I actually enjoyed playing both. It helped that it was my second or third time playing the Settlers and I started to understand a little bit. We then sat in the hot tub.

Saturday night we had our sunday school's second annual theme party. This year the theme was "the biggest sports fan". Unfortunately it was a smaller crowd this year and the plan had to change. Originally we were planning to go to Jeff's parents' back yard and have some lawn games and bonfire. But as cold as it has been, I switched it to our house at the last minute. So we had a Wii bowling tournament instead. Well, I am a good Wii bowler, so I did get the first place. It was very close though. And afterwards we played the game called Encore, which gives you a word and you have to come up with songs with the word in it. I had never played it, but it was a fun, and a little frustrating game! There were many times I was like "I know this song has a word "girl" in it, but I don't remember where!"

We are having a relaxing day today after church. This week I am taking Wednesday off, as I have 4 days of training the following week (in Indy!). I am a little nervous to leave Ethan home with Jeff for four days, but at the same time I am looking forward to eating good food in Indy :-) My coworker, Amy, and I are planning to go get a haircut there, too. We'll see how it goes.

Solid food is going well!

2009-10-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ethan had his first bowl of rice cereal last Wednesday. He did amazing despite the fact that he was so hungry and sleepy. So on Thursday, I fed him milk a little bit before we fed him the cereal. We were a little worried on Wednesday because he got a little rash under his chin after his cereal, which disappeared a few minutes after I wiped his face really good. But no rash has come back since. He does have some eczema on his left cheek, but it's been there since before we started solids (which I don't know what to do other than keeping it clean, keep his nails short, and put some lotion on). I've gradually made the cereal thicker, and he seems to like it thicker better. We'll stay on the rice cereal for a while, and will move on to vegetables in a few weeks.

He was not too sure about the bib which was as big as him.

Other than that, there isn't much new. Ethan continues to amaze us how quickly he is growing. He doesn't nap too well on Sundays, mainly because his monring nap is not too restful because it's during the church. So he is too grumpy to fall asleep in the afternoon. So he slept a lot today, which made my day very productive. I got to clean the stove top too!

He still loves his butterflies on the play gym the best. The other day I got a picture of his two favorite toys; butterflies and his toes :-) He is getting more interested in toys every week, but these two are his all time favorites. I've tried playing like he does the other day, and I got quite a workout! It's not easy keeping your legs up in the air that much!

Long and skinny boy

2009-09-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

At 2 months check up, Ethan was chubby and short. But now he is long and skinny! He only gained a little over a pound in the past two months, but grew 4 inches! The doctor saw him looking around left and right and said that this slow weight gain may be because he is so observing and can't stop looking around (and also that most energy went for the height than weight). He sure is always turning his head around. They are not too concerned about the weight gain, but want us back again next month just to make sure everything is ok. He did amazing with the shots too. He cried when the nurse was rubbing his legs with alcohol, cried through the shots, but stopped as soon as the bandaids were on. I guess it was not as bad as he anticipated.

We had amazing time at Kate and Will's wedding last night. It's always fun to attend a good mennonite wedding :-) We got to play some mennonite games with bunch of people there, which always amazes me how much connection we can find with one person!

Ethan is turning 4 months old officially on Wednesday. Unfortunately I have something going on at 7pm, but if we can find some time between our work and the evening activity, we may try feeding him some rice cereal. I hope he'll like it so we can pack some weight back on him. I know people tell me not to worry about his weight but I do feel responsible. We'll see what will happen in the next month!

4 months check up!

2009-09-25T06:05:00.000-07:00

Today is Ethan's 4 months check up! I can't believe he's already 4 months old. This summer was the shortest summer for Jeff and I. He sure is getting more in control of his body every week. His new things have been rolling over and playing with his feet. He can grab things and pull pretty hard now that he loves sitting in his bouncer and playing with the dangling toys in front of him.

Ethan's dedication and my membership speach went well on Sunday. He did amazing up on the stage, held by our pastor, Tina! I'm so proud of him. And I am also proud of myself for going up there and speak! Last weekend was packed, but a lot of fun. We sure miss Grandpa and Grandma Snyder.

This weekend is packed with fun too! Tonight is the start of the relief sale. We are meeting up with our small group for a haystack dinner. Yumm! I'll have to buy pulled pork sandwiches and apple fritters in honor of my girl friends. I'm sure we'll make it to the pancake breakfast tomorrow morning too!

And tomorrow also is the day for Kate and Will's wedding! I've heard most about the wedding, but can't wait to actually see everything coming together. They are really good for each other, and I can't wait to hang out with them as "married couples" :-)

It'll be a busy weekend!

2009-09-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

So, even though the streak was broken, it was only for two days that he woke up before when we wake him up at 7 am. He went back to his usual schedule of going to bed by 8:30 and waking up around 7 in the morning (or 8:30, if we let him sleep). Although he had a few cranky days during the day here and there. We think he's teething on and off because he drooles like a faucet and chews on his fingers and bottom lip. I hope he doesn't have to go through it longer than he needs to!

Tomorrow is a day off for me, so I get to pick up a little bit and hopefully get a nap in :-) We'll have a girls' night in with my sunday school ladies friday night and have our high school friends over for a potluck on Saturday (we miss you, Jon and Julie!). I'm excited about some quality time with ladies and good food.

This Sunday is Ethan's baby dedication (and me becoming a member at our church, after 8 years of attending...). Grandpa and Grandma Snyders (or Great grandpa and Great grandma... we never know whoes grandparents we are taking about) are coming from New York for this. They haven't seen Ethan since Caleb's wedding in July, so I'm sure they'll be surprised to see how big he is now! His neck is completely set and he's becoming in control of his body more. He rolled over on his back to tummy a few weeks ago too! I don't think he liked it much and he hasn't done it since, but he goes side to side a lot, and does 180 in his crib quite often.

We'll have his 4 month check up coming up next week already. I can't believe that he's already 1/3 year old! I'm sure he'll be one in no time, which would be fun, but at the same time is a bitter sweet feeling. People tell me to cherish the moment, but I really need to enjoy his baby stage more!

I am starting to prepare him for winter. I bought him a winter coat already, and trying to get a few pair of pants from moms of older kids. If you have some long pants and sweatshirts for 6-9 months, send them my way!

Streak is broken

2009-09-06T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ethan had been sleeping 10-11 hours a night until two nights ago. Both Saturday and Sunday mornings he woke up at 5 am, after 8-9 hours of sleep :-( Jeff changed his diaper and tried to put him back to sleep but it didn't work and I ended up feeding him both mornings. He had woken up before but he could usually went back to sleep after a little bit of fussing before we even went to his room, so it's been a little rough for us (I know we were spoiled). I think it's because he has a runny nose that's usually stuffed up then and gets harder to breath. Or maybe he's growing a lot and gets hungry more often. Jeff thinks he's teething, but it seems too early for that... Either way, I'm hoping that it'll pass and he'll go back to his old routine.

He is showing his personality more and more each week. He reacts to his toys more, which makes a lot more fun to play with him. Now he has been batting and grabbing his butterflies on the play mats, and he loves the toys on his jumperoo. He still doesn't squeal often, but I think it's getting there. Now that I work three days a week, I feel like I'm missing out on his development. Usually when I'm home he sleeps most of the day! Grandma must wears him out during those three days! So it's a treat when he decides to stay awake happily for a few hours and plays with me.

This is the face he makes when he is really excited...

He wasn't too excited to play with the jumperoo that day.

Finally, a decent smile. It's so hard to take a good smily pictures now because he's usually so excited or so sad!

We have set Ethan's baby dedication day on September 20. We'll have Grandpa and Grandma Snyder coming out for that, so we are looking forward to the weekend very much. We all are trying to convince them to stay for a whole week so they can go to the Relief Sale with us the following weekend. I love the Relief Sale :-) (I miss you, Lisa!)

First full week of work

2009-08-28T11:57:00.001-07:00

I managed to go through a first full week of work (which is only from Tuesday to Thursday). I do enjoy working and having my own time and career, but I do miss having Ethan by my side all day long. But I did miss facing tax returns and tax regulations. When I came home after the first day back, I thought "oh boy, I hadn't used my brain much for the past three months!" It's a nice change of pace to think hard again :-)

Ethan did well at Grandma's, as far as I know. It is getting better every day, and he started to take naps for her. I hope it'll keep getting better for them as they establish a routine together. He continues to go to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until we wake him up around 7:15. It is great that he sleeps well at night, but it also means that I only get to see him for a little over 3 hours on the days I work :-( So I appreciate my days off much more now. Today (Friday), he has been doing great so far; took one 1.5 hour nap in the morning and is now on a nap that's going to be at least 1.5 hour, possibly 2. Today he has been napping in his crib, which is also a development for him. He used to hate taking naps anywhere but in my arms. I enjoy my free time at home, but at the same time it's a little bitter sweet to see him becoming independent.

We set up a jumperoo for him the other day. I think he likes being in it. He still is a little short for this, so we put two pizza boxes underneath. (He grew a lot this week and now he only needs one pizza box.) I'm sure he'll really love it in a few weeks, once he can touch the floor and his legs get a little more strength.

Chris, Jeff's cousin, is coming to Goshen tonight. He'll be attending Goshen College starting this fall. We are very excited to have more family around here :-)

Anniversary Trip

2009-08-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

We had a great time in Chicago on our anniversary trip. First of all, I can't believe that it's already been 5 years since we got married. I have been in the states for 10 years now, so half of that I've been married. Wow.

We went up to Chicago on Friday, checked in at the hotel on Michigan Avenue by the river, walked to the Millennium Park, picked up Giordano's pizza for supper and ate in the hotel room. Ethan had a little hard time falling asleep, but did ok for the most part.

On Saturday, we walked along the river in the morning, then went up on the Willis Tower (former Sears Tower) and enjoyed the glass floor and looked down the 103 floors below. It was cool! Ethan was asleep on the way up, but cried a little bit coming down in the elevator. My ears were hurting too, so I'm sure he was confused why his ears were hurting!

Then we went out to IKEA, then Mitsuwa, Japanese supermarket, which is our usual stops when we come to Chicago. I was a little nervous taking Ethan, but he did amazing. Seems like he was exhausted after the trip, and he took good naps both on Sunday and today!

A week until I go back to work

2009-08-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

So I only have a week left until I go back to work. I think now I'm more excited than sad. This week has been a little rough for me, which may be why I'm more excited to go back to work. Ethan was crying a lot more a few days ago, and yesterday and today he's been on a growth spurt (which may be why he was crying more? I don't know...) He was eating every 3.5 to 4 hours before, but now it's back to every 2.5 -3 hours between feedings. However he continues to sleep until we wake him up every morning (which means 10-11 hours of sleep for him), so I still can't complain.

Yesterday we went to Jen and Lamont's house for a cook out. We hadn't seen Jen for a while, and Lamont forever, so it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so we don't have any pictures (unless Allison sees this and send me some pics). Ethan did well until 8 or so, which is his usual bed time. It's good that he goes to bed early, but it sure makes outing a little difficult!

He started smiling a lot more often, and every time he gives us a smile, he drools like a fountain! We have to keep a bib on him now. But his huge smiles make everything easier and it's so rewarding!

Tomorrow is our 5th anniversary :-) I'm excited for our little trip! I hope his growth spurt wouldn't make it too difficult, but we are prepared to be flexible.

Counting down to the end of the maternity leave...

2009-08-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have only one full week left of maternity leave. I go back to work on August 20 for a day, then back three days a week starting the following week. I am excited to have some adult interaction again, but also sad that I have to leave Ethan. He smiles more and more every week, and it's been fun to play with him. I'm thinking that going back to work part time would be a good balance of my career and my family. I hope I'll find it that way once it actually starts.

Next Friday is Jeff and my fifth anniversary. Three of us are going to Chicago to celebrate! We'll see how Ethan'll do in a big city. We'd like to go up on the old Sears Tower (I can never remember what it's called now) and stroll around the Millenium park, but I don't know how much walking Ethan can take, and the weather has to co-operate, too. We'll see. We are also passing on eating at my favorite restaurant, Maggiano's, as it's not so kids friendly :-( I'm sure IKEA's food court would be just fine...

Ethan continues to be a great sleepe at night, but hates his naps! He sleeps 10-12 hours at night, which is great, but he doesn't fall asleep during the day even though he is so tired and needs nap so bad! My mom says I wasn't much of a napper either, but I hope he'll learn to take a few naps soon. It's not fun to deal with a crancky baby!

Happy 2 months birthday!

2009-07-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

Ethan turned 2 months old today. I had been feeling sick with a cold for the past few days but thankfully felt pretty good today so I was able to deal with him while he decided to celebrate his 2 month birthday by staying up almost all day. How do other moms take care of kids when they are sick? I was lucky that Jeff could come home a bit earlier one day and Grandma could watch Ethan for the afternoon another day. i just didn't have enough energy to bounce him up and down when he fussed to fall asleep. Oh, and he started sucking on his thumb recently instead of pacifier. I don't necessary know if this is a good habit to pick up, but it sure is nice that he can sooth without us sticking a pacifier back in his mouth. And he looks so cute with his thumb in his mouth!

Today we went out for lunch with Kate, went out to Target to pick up a borthday card for Jeff's birthday tomorrow (and shopped around some, too), and went to my "cousin", Rchelle's house for dinner. My dear friend Laura is back from Texas for a few days so her and her sister, Tina were there, too. It was good to see Laura!

We are planning our fourth annual reunion for my girl friends, and it will be in Goshen this year, since I can't travel without Ethan (or I don't want to). It amazes me that it's been four years since we are out of college, and also makes me happy that we are still getting together every year. All of us live pretty far away, I think 10 of us are spread in 7 states now. So it is very special that we make an effort every year to see each other for an extended weekend. First one was in Chicago, then Vegas, last year was in Phoenix so we could meet Gretchen's little boy, Owen. Vegas was definitely a lot of fun, but it was also nice when we were in Phoenix where Darla and Gretchen lived, so they could show us around the area. I miss all my girls, and now that I hardly see them, I realized how much fun it was to have all of them around all the time in college. I loved and miss my college life.

Anyways, tomorrow is Jeff's birthday. He said he doesn't want anything, so it'd be a low key, but good family time together :-) It'd be nice because Jeff didn't get to see too much of Ethan (or I) today.

2 months check up and Friday night activity

2009-07-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

Ethan had his 2 months check up on Thursday, even though he's only 7 weeks old. He had 3 shots, during which he did amazing. He didn't even cry after the first shot, and he cried after the second one, but stopped crying as soon as I picked him up after all the shots. He's such an amazing baby!

He's still right on track on the growth. He is 55 percentile on height and 75 percentile on weight. He continues to sleep well, especially at night. It has been very nice to get good night's sleep :-) He started entertaining himself on the gym for a while, which makes my life a lot easier. Since he is so fascinated with the butterflies on his gym, we decided to buy a mobile for him too, which has been a big hit! He loves looking and giggling at it.

We had Will and Kate over tonight. It was nice to have some adult time while Ethan was nicely held by his "Auntie Kate". He did well most of the evening. He started fussing a little bit at the end but as soon as I put him in the moby wrap, he fell asleep :-) We played Acquire, which is a strategy game where you buy stocks of some companies and go through margers and what not, which was fun. Of course Jeff won, but we all put up a good fight.

Fun weekend!

2009-07-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

We got back from New York early evening on Sunday. It was fun to show off our little one :-)

The driving part went surprisingly well. We were in the car for 25-26 hours total over the 4 days, and we think that he cried about half an hour of it. It was nice that I didn't have to drive and could take care of him whenever he needed me.

But there were two struggling things over the weekend. Because Ethan was in his car seat so long and we couldn't burp him much, he got gassy again. On top of that, it was a warm, humid weekend and many buildings in that part of New York (both Buffalo and Saratoga area) don't have ACs. So with tummy pain and being hot, he was a little fussier than usual. And too bad that I missed the ceremony because I had to go to the van and turned the air on for him to cool off... he started screaming when the bridal party was walking in! Luckily we planned well and sat at the very back so we could sneak out. But it was the reason why we went...

The reception situation wad not the most ideal either for our little guy. It was assigned seating, and our table was right by the one and only speaker. The DJ was nice enough to move the speaker to the other side of his table so we were not right by it, but a few of the songs hurt Ethan's ears a bit and we had to go outside. But the music was loud enough that no one else could hear him scream... But a little bit I got to see were very beautiful, and most important thing is that Caleb and Kim looked really happy together. Welcome to the family, Kim!

It was a short trip, but we got to spend some time with the family, which was a lot of fun! I got to hold little Madeline, Jeff's cousin, Miriam, and her husband, Abel,'s baby girl. She is about 3 weeks younger than Ethan and is so little! Ok, maybe Ethan is just bigger than normal, but she felt so little and light to me. It was nice that Ethan could meet his second cousin :-)

Ethan's schedule is getting back to normal. He is still sleeping more than usual (maybe he's still recovering from the overwhelming weekend), but looks rested more when he's awake. Now he started squealing and giggling, which is soooo cute! And I think he told me "no!" with an attitude once, when I tried to give him a pacifier and he didn't want it. We felt like he was depending on his paci more this weekend, but not as much since we've been home. I guess he felt insecure with all the traveling, meeting (and held by) new people and loud music. It's a good thing that we are back to our old, boring routines :-)

How can we say no to this?

2009-07-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Oh, I'm in trouble. Ethan had been smiling occasionally, but he really started to more this week! He was going through some tummy trouble and then a growth spurt, so he was not a happy camper. But I think his tummy is getting better (or maybe we know how to deal with it better now) and his growth spurt lasted only a few days, and now he is a happier baby. Today he was smiling a lot more, and I was able to take some pictures! His smile melt my heart and it would be really difficult to tell him "no" if he comes to me and ask for something with the smile, once he starts talking.

We will be traveling with him this week to New York for Jeff's cousin's wedding. We'll drive to Buffalo (8hrs) in one day, then another 4 hours to Albany area the next day. Since we've only driven to South Bend with him, we took a longer drive today to Fort Wayne. He drove most of the way there and back, of course. We only hope that he won't sleep the entire 8 hour car ride on Thursday and stay up all night!

Tummy trouble

2009-07-06T04:35:00.001-07:00

Ethan turned 1 month old last week! I can't believe it's already been a month. The past month has gone so fast (and slow at times).

Ethan has been having a tummy pain :-( It started last Wednesday night he woke up screaming about an hour after I fed him and put him in bed. At first I thought it was his usual whine when he's falling asleep, but it kept getting louder, so we went to check on him. He usually stops crying when I pick him up, but he kept going, and very loud. I kept rocking and comforting him, and after a few burps (and half an hour) later, he went back to sleep. This happened again the next morning after the feeding, so I called the doctor. She told me to get the anti-gas drop and cut dairy on my diet.

He still has pain after some feedings, but I think it's getting a little better. According to some research (ok, I did A LOT of research because I don't want to see my son in pain!), babies' bowl movements change around 6-8 weeks, and they also start to notice the bowl movements, so they are irritable. We did definitely notice that he has been having only one dirty diaper a day (sometimes none) for the past few days. So I'm really hoping that this is just a stage for him to go through and he would be able to burp/ deal with tummy ache better soon. Meanwhile I'll be drinking lactose free fat free milk.

We ended up buying a moby wrap a few weeks ago, because Jeff's co-worker could not find hers anymore. It's been great! It's a little warm sometimes (because this is just a super long material wrapped around you) but it works great, and Ethan loves it and falls asleep in it.

Speaking of sleep, he somehow manages to shift himself down in his sleep positioner. I guess we are ok as long as he is comfortable and sleeps well. He continues to sleep 6-8 hr stretch at night, then 3-4 hr nap in the morning. Actually he is still sleeping now, going over 9 hr stretch!

Our little one is growing so fast!

2009-06-28T14:27:00.000-07:00

Ethan turned 4 weeks old yesterday. I can't believe that he'll be a month old on Tuesday already! Looking at the pictures, he sure has grown a lot compared to his first day pictures.

We weighed him last night and he was 10 lbs 12 oz. Almost 11 lbs! And we had been talking about letting him sleep as long as he would for a while, so we tried that on Friday night. (We had been waking him up every 4-5 hrs to feed at night before Friday.) We fed him at 11pm like usual, and we all went to bed. I woke up around 4am because I was uncomfortable, so I had to pump. But no sign of Ethan waking up. Finally at 7am he woke up! He slept 8 hours straight! Then I fed him and he went back to sleep until 10:30. Last night (saturday night) didn't go as well, but he slept 6+ hours straight too.

Saturday we left Ethan with Grandpa and Grandma Claassen and Jeff and I had our first date night after Ethan was born. We went out for a dinner, ran errands, and came home and sat in the hot tub. I was not allowed to sit in a hot tub during the pregnancy, so it was so nice to get back in it! I didn't like being at home without our little guy much, so maybe we need to go out next time. It was nice to catch up with Jeff without holding Ethan or thinking "oh, he needs to eat soon".

We moved Ethan from his bassinet to his crib last night also. Considering that he slept 6 hours straight, he doesn't mind sleeping in the crib. He was getting kind of big for his bassinet so it was time to move him to the crib, but now he looks so little in it! We have a sleeping positioner so it kept him from moving all over the crib, and I'm sure he felt cozy and familiar on the positioner.

Next week I'll need to start cooking (thanks to our sunday school friends, I didn't have to cook for the last two weeks, and my mom was here before that). I may cook curry tonight while Jeff plays with Ethan and eat that for the rest of the week...

Happy 3 weeks birthday!

2009-06-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

Ethan is 3 weeks old now. I feel like he has grown a lot this week. We weighed him today at home (not too precise of a scale but is close enough) and is 10 lbs now. No wonder why my arm gets sore when I'm feeding him! He looks like he is more looking at things now, and is very alert. He continues to hate taking naps during the day but sleeps very well at night.

Today was Jeff's first Saturday without my mom here. Jeff got to experience how Ethan is during the day (not sleeping). And Jeff was kind enough to let me sleep in the morning while he held Ethan. Yes, Ethan sleeps well if you hold him. But then you don't get much done... So I feel pretty rested today :-)

We bought a cheaper version of Baby Bjorn imitation from Jeep. I would say it's as easy as Baby Bjorn to put him in and out, and is pretty comfortable. I tried it on Friday afternoon because Ethan was being fussy every time I put him in his bassinett, and he fell asleep pretty quickly and stayed asleep for over an hour! We did buy Baby Bjorn too, but I guess we'll return that one. Jeff's co-worker offered us a Moby Wrap, so we'll try that next week too. Yey for hand me downs! If you have some, feel free to send them my way :-)

2 week check up

2009-06-11T11:21:00.001-07:00

Ethan had his first doctor's appointment today; two week check up. He is a little shy of 2 weeks old, though. He weighs 9 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long. We are pretty proud of his weight gain, considering that he was down to 7 lbs 11 oz 8 days ago. He sure has been eating a lot! But he did amazing at the doctor's office. He fell asleep as soon as we put him in the car, did not cry at all while the nurse and the doctor poked him around and weighed him and such, and was very content looking outside on the way home (although I don't think he can see much yet).

He has been sleeping well except for the afternoons. At night, he usually eats at 11pm, at 3am, and at 7am. And in the morning he usually does ok, but in the afternoon, he is up most of the time wanting to eat. Today has been a little better and he is up but a little happier. What do I play with 12 days old though? I've been reading whatever I'm reading to him out loud and making up songs. But it would be a lot easier once he is able to see better.

My mom is leaving on Saturday, so the true challenge will start next week for me. We are thinking of getting a Baby Bjorn baby carrier so I can carry him around. We bought a carrier from Infantino at a garage sale, but it is not very easy for me to put him in it by myself. And I have heard good things about Baby Bjorn... it's a bit pricy, but if this can spare my sanity, it's worth it! If you have other recommendations, let me know!

Happy 1 week birthday!

2009-06-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Ethan is 1 week old today. This past week flew by so fast. We got home on Monday and we had a semi rough start but we are getting the hang of it.

Ethan lost 13% of birth weight by the time home care nurse came on Wednesday. I think my milk came in a little later (maybe because of c-section?) and was not producing enough for him. We fed 18 times within 24 hrs before we went to see a lactation specialist on Thursday, and he had gained 2 oz back! This was very tiring for all three of us.

Since yesterday, he has been sleeping 2-3 hours and much more content. Yey for a happy baby with a full tummy! We are finally catching up with our sleep (ok, somehow two 2-hr sessions feel like a good night's sleep now). I hope it will continue.

Below links are Ethan's pictures on Picasa, but I made an album for each day, so we have a few links. Enjoy!

May 31
June 1
June 2
June 3

Welcome Ethan James Claassen!

2009-06-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

After a long labor, Ethan James Claassen was born on Saturday, May 30, at 9:40 am. He was 8lbs 14.5oz and 19.75 inches long.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday to have a non-stress test. The test showed that I was having some contractions but not many, and he was healthy. We scheduled for induction on Saturday at 8am, but we sure were hoping that he would come out before Saturday.

I started having contractions 10-15 minutes apart that night. Since I was bleeding a little, I called the doctor on thursday morning and she recommended me to go to the hospital. At the hospital, the nurse checked and said "your contraction is 7 minutes apart and you are 3 cm dilated, but not yet. I can feel the baby's hairy head though." We walked around the hospital for about an hour but there was not much progress. So we went home.

Friday morning, my contractions went down to 5 minutes apart, but each contraction lasted about 2 minutes with some horrible back pain. We went to the hospital again, hoping that it was it. Same nurse checked me again and said "it's only 3-3.5 cm dilated. Your contractions vary between 4-6 minutes. I'm surprised how slow it's progressing!" The water was bulging so she did not check too much. We were sent home again.

I kept having contractions about 4-6 minutes apart all day long, pain of about 7-9 on scale of 1-10 (yes, I know I don't tolerate much pain). Around midnight, we decided "ok, we won't be sleeping tonight, and we'll be back at the hospital again in 8 hours anyway, so let's call the doctor and see what options we have". The doctor agreed with us that we should get some sleep since we hadn't slept for two nights at that point. We went to the hospital at 1:30 am, got the epidural at 4 am and I slept for 3 hrs. Oh, that was the best sleep I'd ever gotten! My water broke at 7 am, and the doctor checked me for the last time. Then he said "well... it doesn't feel like a head". He quickly did an ultrasound and sure enough, the baby was breech! We quickly shifted our plan from induction to c-section. The surgery started at 9:35 and he was out at 9:40!

Looking back now, it makes sense that my labor went forever long and I had a horrible back pain. Our guess is that he flipped sometime on Thursday after we came back from the hospital. Even though it was not how we planned to have him, I was glad that I had a c-section considering how big he is. All the doctors and nurses were good, too, that I have nothing to complain about.

We've been home for over 24 hours now, and all three of us are still adjusting to this new life. I feel like Jeff and I have learned so much already! It has been a lot of fun hanging out with Ethan. Oreo is adjusting to Ethan ok, too. Ethan sure has been more awake and crying a lot more than when we were at the hospital, but he is only three days old. We'll see how our next few weeks will go :-)

How many more days?

2009-05-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

3 days until the due date, but really wondering how many more days we have to wait until we get to meet him... all of us, including Oreo, are eager to meet our little one.

We finished decorating his room this weekend, and Jeff is working on "finishing" the guest room. Whether or not he comes right now or in a week, we will need the guest room on Wednesday. My mom is flying in on Wednesday to be with us for about a month! We really wanted him to be born before she came, but I guess it's ok if I have a few days with her before he is born, too. We finished painting the room yesterday, and Jeff just bought some closet shelves to install today. Then we'll put the closet doors up, get the bed moved in, and it'll be ready for her. We will need to wait to install the carpet, as the rest of the basement is not ready to be carpetted.

The white box is where his name is...

The wall hanging was made by Jeff's mom, or "Grandma Claassen" for him.

We had a date night on Saturday and went out to eat, shop, and went to see a movie. We watched the Angels and Demons, and it was pretty good. Before we went we checked the rottentomatoes.com and it only had 35%, but I liked it. We didn't make any plans for the weekend thinking this may be "the weekend". So it turned out that he is still in my belly, but it was nice to have a relaxing and productive weekend.

5 more days...

2009-05-15T07:21:00.001-07:00

I know I still have 5 more days until the due date, and many people tell me that first baby usually is late. But I have to say, I was expecting him to come out yesterday. Yesterday was my 27th birthday, and it would have been amazing to hold my son in my arms as a birthday gift. But he decided to let me keep my birthday to me, and is picking a better day. Since mine is on the 14th, Adrienne's is on the 18th and Landon's is on the 19th, it would be fun to have his birthday in between mine and Adrienne.

However at my doctor's appointment yesterday, she said that I was 1cm dilated! She also did tell me that it could still take weeks, but hey, at least it's started!

Thanks to all our friends and family, his room is ready and we feel very prepared to welcome him. We will focus on thank you notes and the basement this weekend :-)

11 more days until the due date

2009-05-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Less than 2 weeks left (until the due date). It can be anytime, or it can be in a month. I sure have been more uncomfortable now, but enjoying every moment of it.

Today we had a work day with our sunday school. Some people came over to our house at 8am, ate breakfast, and worked for an hour and a half. Then we moved to another house, and a house after that. I got pretty tired after our house so I stayed home (I will contribute more once I'm more physically able!) but we got a lot done! The guest room in the basement is painted, flower beds have been cleaned up and planted, cut out some grass and more flower beds, replaced a few dead trees, filled two hanging flower baskets with annuals and cleaned some windows. It's amazing to see how much can be done when 9 adults get together!

Now I'm off to another baby shower :-) Kate and Kara are throwing me a shower with a few of my friends. We are very thankful for the supports we have been receiving.

Garage sale

2009-05-03T04:10:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we went to a garage sale in Granger with Kate, Will and Jen. We were hoping to find some good deals on nice things just because it was in Granger, but oh boy, it was PACKED! There were a few neighborhood garage sales going on, but when we got there at 9 am, it was already hard to find a parking spot on a curve! I had never seen that many shoppers at a garage sale before.

Here are our garage sale winnings :-) We bought wall shelves (3 for $10!), Little Tikes building things, and a few books (including the classic Winnie the Pooh!). There were a lot more things we could bought, but they were for older kids, so maybe next year...

We also bought a baby carrier last fall at a garage sale. We tried that on with Oreo the other night... I was surprised how content Oreo was in that!

Less than 1 month to go!

2009-04-25T06:07:00.001-07:00

Only 3.5 more weeks to go! I know he may be late, and in that case I still have over a month left... but it's amazing that I'm already 36 weeks. When I found out that I was pregnant, I bought a book that showed what'd happen week by week, and was thinking that it'd take forever to get to 40. But I can see the end now! It actually is a bitter sweet feeling now that I won't have too long left. I love feeling him kicking from inside or feeling his hiccups. At the same time, it's exciting to finally get to meet him, and I don't have to go to bathroom this often anymore!

Last weekend Jeff and I went up to Chicago and went to the Japanese supermarket and IKEA. There is this huge Japanese supermarket that I can buy most everything I need to cook Japanese meals. We decided that it may be a while until the next time we come up here, so we stocked up on many things. Then we drove to IKEA to find some things for our baby's room. We found a wall shelf that matches the changing table, some organizing toy bins, and pelican! They had this wall hanging pelican with a big beak that you can put toys in. Since we don't have a hamper for him yet, we'll use this as a hamper for now.

Oh, we decided to paint the walls yellow. It's a very happy, cheerful color. Now we have to find something to cover the window better. I really liked this curtain, but it's thin and it gets really bright in his room during the day... maybe a shade or I should put another curtain behind this one? Any ideas??

End of busy season!

2009-04-16T05:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the last day for filing tax returns, which means my life will be back to normal now! YEY! This year was a lot slower than past years, partially because of pomotion and partially because of people being nice to me and not overloading me. But, it still was a little rough at the end. It sure feels really good to have my 5th busy season completed :-) And on top of that, I'm taking today off, which looks like to be a gorgeous day!

Many things have happened in the past few weeks (like we finished painting our baby's room!) so I'll slowly update those pictures. But today I have a doctor's appointment, go out to lunch with Adrienne and Grandma Rheinheimer, and go down to Fort Wayne with Adrienne. It sure is nice to have a day off and have energy to do fun things.

Another shower

2009-04-03T14:40:00.000-07:00

I had a shower with my sunday school last Sunday. Again, I feel really blessed to have a support group like sunday school. Julie, Chrissy and Andrea did amazing job throwing me the shower too! We had bread, cheese, vegetables, dips, and chocolate fondue! Oh, it was sooooo good. It's always excited to think that our son can grow up feeling like he has "aunts" and "uncles" in our small group (and "brothers" Conner and Carson :-) ).

I feel more ready now that his room is filling up. We have cleaned out the closet in his room and took all the furniture that we had in there out. We can hopefully paint his room sometime this week and put the furniture in where they are supposed to be. My busy season is wrapping up quickly and then I'll have all sorts of time to decorate his room and wash his clothes and beddings :-D

Baby Shower and Retreat

2009-03-23T18:02:00.001-07:00

Kate and another co-worker threw me and two another prego girls a baby shower on Saturday. They had really cute cakes, ice cream and punch as well as lots of gifts ready for us. Some people contributed to a fund, and some people gave us individual gifts. I got a pack-and -play, diaper champ, swing, stroller, lots of clothes, diapers, wipes, toys, cups and spoons. I feel like we are ready for our baby already :-) I feel very fortunate to have friends and co-workers who are excited for our baby.

Our sunday school had a retreat from Saturday to Sunday. As long as I know, it was the first retreat without kids. We went to the Camp Friedenswald and had a few sessions, lots of relaxing, playing games and chatting time. Saturday night some of the ladies gave me lots of good tips for pregnancy, labor, etc. I love getting lots of info because we are so clueless. It is a good feeling to know that I have a lot of friends who I can go for advices when we need them. Every time I go on over night activities, I feel like I get to know the people in our sunday school more. And Camp Friedenswald was very close from our house, so it was nice that I could just get over there after work on Saturday. Not having any kids felt very different too, and it was good to interact with people when they were not in their mommy and daddy roles.

Already March 15

2009-03-15T14:10:00.001-07:00

I can not believe that it's already mid March! First deadline is done at my work. This passed week was more like a normal busy season for me. I went in about 7-7:30 every day and left around 9:30-10... I have to say, my body can not do too many weeks like this anymore. But I am not working today at all, so I have a day to recover and get ready for another week.

We have done a lot in the past few weeks. Last Friday was our and Carson Golden's first debuet at the First Fridays at down town Goshen (his parents, Jason and Andrea were there too). Luckily it was a warmer evening for an early March. We went in and out of many stores in down town, bought some drinks at the Electric Brew, and sat around and people-watched a little bit. It was a lot of fun.

Then on Saturday, we were invited to Dan and Richelle's place. They have a little cock-a-poo, Mollie. Oreo and Mollie played well, for the most part. I don't think Oreo likes playing with girls as much usually, but since they are pretty much the same size (and Mollie, who is only a puppy, loves to play and chase Oreo) it worked out well.

I had my doctor's appointment on Thursday. Everything is going well. I had the gestational diabetes test, so I got to drink a very sugarly half-flat orange pop. Oh boy, did our baby love that drink. He was kicking non stop all day long after the doctor's visit. On Friday I got a call from the doctor's office saying that the test result showed "high end of normal". So I didn't have to go through a 3-hour session second test. Yey! I know I've been craving pasta and other high in carb food, so it makes sense that it was a little high. I'll be careful...

Hurray!

2009-02-25T16:57:00.000-08:00

So, after a month of wait, I finally found out my score from the third exam... and I PASSED! It's the one that stopped working in the middle of it, so I am extra excited! On top of that, it was perfect; just right amount to pass. Hey, pass is a pass, right? I will find out about the one I took on Monday in a month, and if I pass that one too, I only have to re-take one section after our baby comes :-)

Studying week

2009-02-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

This past week was a hard week for me. I procrastinated studying so I was stuck with too much to learn and too little time to study. I worked 55+ hrs and studied 2-3 hrs every night. Good thing it'll be over tomorrow! Jeff started working on his exam too this week, and even our dog, Oreo, turned into a studious one...

With me working longer hours and then studying, Jeff has been working on our basement too (I think he'd rather work on the basement than studying...). The bedroom's frame is done, common area's wiring is done (I think), and raising floor is almost done. He bought some drywall and started putting them up in the closet. Too bad I can't help him holding them up while he screw them in. There are lots that need to be done before our baby comes, and I can not be much of a help :-( It is nice to have friends and family that we can count on.

My uncle in Japan is having a surgery this week. The end of last year we found out that he had a a bladder cancer. So this week the doctor will remove his bladder and other cancerous areas (apparently there is some umbilical cord-related thing that most people don't have that he has, that was the cause of this cancer), and he will get a little pouch hanging out that'll work as a bladder (is my understanding, at least). My mom and grandparents told me that it's not life threatening surgery, but they sometimes don't tell me everything, or at least try to be more optimistic around me, so I really don't know how things are over there. But please keep him and my aunt in your prayer, as well as my grandparents and my mom.

Surf and turf dinner on Valentine's

2009-02-14T15:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's! We just celebrated our 8th valentine's together. After work today I went grocery shopping and bought lobster tails and steaks. So we had "surf and turf" dinner :-) It was my first time cooking lobster tails, but it turned out good... I don't know how you can mess it up, if it's just putting them in a boiling water with some seasoning :-) And I also made Jeff's favorite mashed potatoes (with cream cheese and sour cream!) and asparagus. We will have ice cream and strawberries later.

We had a nice time at Josh and Vicky's last night with our high school friends. We had our annual fondue party. I don't know exactly when we usually have them, but I'm sure it's about "annual" by now. Too bad Jeff forgot to take camera. We had one side of a table with married couples and the other side with Kevin, Kyle and Seth together (we missed you, Sarah!). By the end of the oil fondue, the men's side started the "men's cooking". They put mushrooms, onions, chicken, pork and shrimp all in the batter and pour it in the oil. They were too lazy to use forks and wait for it to cook... it turned out alright, but sure was messy!

I had my doctor's visit on Thursday. Everything is going well. I am 26 weeks now. At the small group that evening, everyone was trying to get the baby's name out of Jeff... good luck with that ;-) I think he's pretty set on not telling people the name of our baby until he's born. And he can keep poker face. I'm sure people will start trying on me now, since I just can't keep straight face! At work my friend, Kate, is starting to plan a baby shower for me (combined with two other pregnant ladies). I am looking forward to it. I can't believe it's almost time for showers! I hope the rest of the pregnancy goes as quick as it has been.

It's Monday already

2009-02-09T18:31:00.001-08:00

Wow, it's already been a week since my last post. Time flies when you are busy. I like being in public accounting for this reason. Winter goes by so fast and it's spring in no time! Actually it hasn't been too busy at work yet. It's been nice to be home by 7:30 every day so I have some time to study for my next exam.

Our baby's movement has been more noticeable. It's been fun to feel him kick, and I feel like he responds to what's going on outside by kicking. For example, when Oreo barks, he usually kicks. When I eat chocolate, he kicks (that may be because of high in sugar and caffeine). He also kicks in the middle of a night when he is not comfortable when I finally found a comfortable position to sleep. Yesterday we stopped by at Mel & Lorna's place and tried to hear his heart beat with stethescope. We have been trying this for a while, but we still can't find the heart beat. I guess we don't know what we are trying to listen to. But when Jeff was trying our little guy kicked, and Jeff was able to hear that. Jeff described the sound as "it's like tapping on the stethescope".

My appetite has increased significantly in the past few days. I feel like I can eat 5 big meals a day and am always hungry. I need to start watching what I eat, if I have to eat that much!

Fun and relaxing weekend

2009-02-02T03:52:00.000-08:00

Since I am taking another exam at the end of February, my intent was to start studying right after this past exam... but instead, I took this week off. It was nice to be able to do whatever I wanted to do.

On Friday, we went to Kevin's house and celebrated his 27th birthday and played some Rock Band.

I went into work for a few hours on Saturday, and Jeff and I went to Mishawaka. We went to kids' second-hand store there that one of my co-worker told me about. It was packed full of moms, dads, and tons of kids! It was nice to know that we had an option to buy used items at a decent price. We went to Papa Vino's for a dinner, which is my favorite Italian around here, and then to BabiesRus. That store is a lot of fun to walk around. We bought two potential "going home outfits" there. I don't know what qualifies as "going home outfits", so we just picked some sleepers that we thought were cute.

We played hookie from church on Sunday since I haven't been sleeping well. It's a combination of tossing and turning, and something that I may now think is a heartburn. But I hadn't been sleeping much at night, so we decided to take it easy. We watched the Australian Open Men's Final that we had taped from the night before (or morening, since it started at 3am). It was amazing. I really like both Federer and Nadal, so it was hard to cheer at times. Since Sarah hasn't finished watching the game, I should not say more about it :-)

Then Superbowl... yeah... It's just not as much fun when two teams that you don't care as much are playing. I loved it two years ago. But I thought there were some good commercials last night, and it is always fun to hang out with our friends from high school. I was thinking last night looking around the room "wow, we have been hanging out almost 10 years together..." Who knew we would still be friends! It is exciting to think that our son can get to know them as aunts and uncles.

Exam and Busy Season

2009-01-29T16:28:00.000-08:00

It's already at the end of January! I can't believe how fast time passes. My busy season at work has started, yet it has not been too busy yet. It may partially be because of me being more of a "reviewer" position instead of preparing returns. But I think main reason is that we haven't gotten information in yet for many of our clients... which means we'll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off around March 15 and April 15. I hope I don't have to work as many hours as I did last year. But it could be my last busy season as a full time worker, so I do want to put everything to it.

I had my third part of the CPA exam. I didn't pass my second part, Audit, which was not a surprise. And with work beginning to pick up, I didn't put as much time as I should into this exam either. The exam has three sections of multiple choices and two sections of simulations. And after each section of multiple choices, you get to either take a break or keep going. After my third section, I clicked a button to pass on taking a break. And suddenly a window pops up saying "your network connection is terminated. Please leave this window and talk to the test location assistant". I'd had heard of people having to re-take exams because the internet connection got bad or system lost the exam while they were taking it, but I just couldn't believe that it happened to ME! Long story short, I had to wait outside for half an hour for them to call the special number and locate my exam, bring it back up and have me sign on again. Luckily nothing was lost, so I was able to continue from where I left off. But I sure couldn't focus on the exam after that. I don't know how I did on the exam, but if I get low 70's (you need 75 to pass), I may petition to see if they would give me some grace or if I can re-take the exam for free... we'll see.

My belly continue to grow and his kicks are getting stronger. It's fun feeling him kick except when I want to focus at work. I ordered more maternity clothes online because I'm finally growing out of my normal clothes. It's so convenient that I can shop at Old Navy and Gap, and return the clothes for free! (Because there aren't too many maternity stores around, they come with returning labels.) It's been fun talking to him, but it is really hard to not mention his name while I'm around others! We are used to talking to him at home using the name we picked already, so I have actually spilled the beans once... luckily no one heard, but I'm not too confident that I can keep it secret for 3.5 more months.

Buy one get one free

2009-01-25T06:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went recliner shopping and actually bought two recliners. It was buy one get one free, and was just a little more expensive than a recliner we were loooking at. We are also getting one from Mel and Lorna, so we can put one in the living room, one in the nursery, and one in the basement when it's done.

We thought of being adventurous and get something that's not baige, but we could not... so now in the living room we have a baige sectional, baige couch, and two baige recliners... (and they are all in different shades of baige.) I know it's boring, but the green ones we thought about seemed to outdate quickly. I'll try to jazz them up with some pillows or blankets.

These recliners are soooo comfortable though. They swivel (it was important for Jeff) and recline pretty far. Hopefully the basement will be done soon so we can move some of the furniture downstairs!

Green or Yellow?

2009-01-21T19:21:00.001-08:00

On Saturday we bought two sample size paints; green and yellow. We have picked out green crib bedding, so we took the bedding to Lowe's to pick a shade of green that'd go with the bedding... but we bought yellow just in case if it'd be "too green".

So, what do you think? We are leaning towards yellow more now, but any opinions will be appreciated! (I know the picture didn't show the colors too good.)

Am I showing yet?

2009-01-17T15:35:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago when I asked Jeff if I looked like I was pregnant, he said "eh, border line. You could pass as being fat"... what a wonderfully supportive husband I have.

In the past few weeks I THINK it started to pop out even more (I decided that I would not ask Jeff anymore about it). I made a same comment to my doctor when I was in her office last week, and she said that now that baby's at the belly button, it was natural to show more. I was a little worried if it's too early to start growing this much, but apparently I am measuring normal too. Yey for healthy, normal pregnancy!

Last night Jeff and I had Kate, Will, Jen and Allison over. It is always nice for me to have a fix of a girls' time. We ate lasagna, salad, garlic bread and fruit pizza, and played rock band, scattergories and some wii. Jeff and Will were sad to be out numbered at neumerous occasions through out the night; voting for answers during scattergories and to decide if we play a game of "acquire"... if anyone is interested in playing "acquire", you should let Jeff know.

Brrrr

2009-01-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

According to the TV it's minus 12 degrees outside right now! How cold can it get?! I like white snow covering everything and making it look so bright and beautiful, but I don't like sliding on the road tailed by people just because you are going 30 miles an hour. Luckly I get to park under the building at work when it's snowy and icy out instead of walking across the main street and go down the slipperly stairs with everyone else.

My work has picked up this week. I will start working on saturdays this week. Hopefully it'll just be a half day. It is kind of good that I start working longer hours so Jeff will have lots of time to work on the basement... maybe we'll get to move the guest room down stairs and we get to start decorating the nursery!

New Year, New Hair Cut, New News

2009-01-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone.

Thanks to Gretchen who kept pushing me to start a blog as soon as she found out that I was pregnant, I am finally convinced to start a blog. It's new year, I got a haircut (11 inches! Of course I donated my hair :-) ) and we have a new news (as "Mariko's pregnant!" being the old news), I thought it's a good time to start.

So, we had an ultrasound on Thursday. The baby is healthy and is right on track. And... we are having a boy! And apparently the baby's foot is almost two inches big! No wonder why I can feel the movement more clearly now.

It's been fun being pregnant so far. Now that we know we are having a son, it's been more real to us that we will be parents in four months. We can not wait to meet our little one!

Love,

Mariko