Taisei Buffet

Moving On

2010-06-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Taisei's now had his own personal blog for four years now. It's been fun, but it's time for us to include all the kids. I know everyone hates updating their links... but in this case, are there really any readers? Maybe not, but that's OK. Here will be the new address for any of you interested.

http://abajoo.blogspot.com

See you there!

Belated Birthday Notes

2010-06-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Happy belated birthday to Taisei!

Just the same as any other parent out there, we can't believe how fast our boy is growing up. We constantly have to remind ourselves that Taisei's not a baby anymore. Maybe to us, he'll always be our baby. But everyone else sees a rambunctious, high-energy, but very shy boy.

Three years down the road, we can easily step back and see what we have emphasized as parents, and what we could probably work on more. What we really have learned is that your kids grow so fast that you really do have to constantly adapt as parents. There is always something new to teach and something new to learn.

For our own memories I thought I'd record the things we feel we have emphasized and things we need to do better.

Physical development:

Body control is good.
Foot, hand-eye coordination is good.
He loves to draw and do crafts.

Do better:

Swimming is non-existent
Basketball - he can't even make layups consistently ;)
He won't sing much. Musical talent... unsure if they exist yet.
Lower-case Alphabet - he's just not interested
Numbers - only up to 10 consistently. He's spotty up to 20.

Personality things. It seems that there are things we can't do anything about. Taisei is still shy, until he warms up to someone. After several years in a Japanese playgroup with the same group of children, he still has his favorites. This was apparent at his birthday party where he was willing to give hugs and kisses only to the ones that he felt more comfortable with. For certain kids, he wouldn't budge.

Overall, he seems more comfortable in Japan. He appears to actually enjoy going to primary and pre-school over there. I'm not sure if it's a language or culture thing or because there's so much family around there, but he eats better there and just seems to act a lot more loose when he's over there.

Just Say "NO" to Training Wheels

2010-04-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Taisei's grandparents 爺爺奶奶 gave him a bike for his birthday on Friday. I took off the training wheels immediately. haha! (I made it clear to him that we would be doing that from the get go.) I spent 5 minutes pushing him around and teaching him how to use coaster brakes, then I let go. I originally expected to need a day or two at least. Here it is, right after we got home from Walmart.

This is the next day at Liberty Park, in between conference sessions. Dramatic improvement from day 1 to day 2.

Turns:

Straightaway:

I believe the key was his balance bike (for balance) and his tricycle (pedaling). I also believe that training wheels are a crutch. He wanted them at first, but told him you could go faster without them so he let me take them off. Later, when he still wanted them, I put them back on and he realized that they did slow him down and also made it harder to maneuver, so he wanted them back off. The key was to let him know that he could do it first, then be flexible enough to put them back on.

Now he likes to ride his bike to the dog park every day, except today he took his sled instead since we had a crazy snowstorm last night!

2009 Note to Taisei

2010-01-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Taisei,

2009 has been a big year for you.

You were away from your 爸爸for 2 months and stayed with お母さん, An-chan and Mi-chan in Japan. You made new friends and went to 保育園(preschool) while there. By the time you came back, you had to completely relearn English to talk to 爸爸 again, but you did it in just a few weeks.

You have learned many new things. You now your 1,2,3's and almost all of your A-B-C's too. Along with your Japanese 腕白school with Chieko-sensei, you started a big-boy's preschool now with Mary-sensei. You wake up early each day to go and meet lots of new friends. Also, you've moved from nursery to primary at church, where you get to sing songs and go to class with new teachers to learn about Jesus Christ. Each of these things was hard for you, but you were very brave.

Your biggest accomplishment this year is becoming a new big brother. You waited all year for it. You have taken good care of your sister and care about her very much. Please keep loving her and she will love you back.

Thank you for being such a good boy this year. We are so proud of you!

Love,

Mama and Papa

Work is Fun!

2009-09-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

Lately, we've been trying to move up Taisei's bedtime (b/c of pre-shool at CDFC) and he obviously doesn't like it. Tonight when we told him it's shower time, he resisted big time. Eventually, I lured him into the shower by offering to let him use one of the old toothbrushes to clean the shower. He went right in. Ha! He loves to clean! Sucka!!

(Shhh... don't tell him that some people thing work is no fun.)

Dinosaurs and English

2009-03-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

Wami's fear has come true sooner than she thought. For the first time yesterday, Taisei corrected his mama's English. It occurred at bedtime, when I was away taking care of Boy Scouts. Taisei had had a big "Dinosaur-day." They read dinosaur books at the library for story time, so he checked out several dinosaur books for bedtime. Here's the conversation:

Mama: "Dino-pets..." (title of the book)
Taisei: "No, mama. It's Di-no-saaaaur!"
Mama: "Ok. Di-no-so-ah, ne."
Taisei: "Mama, Di-No-saoR." (attempting to enunciate)

Probably as Taisei's English gets better and better, which will be faster than it was for me, since my parents primarily spoke Mandarin at home when I was this age, Taisei will probably give his mama a harder and harder time. Poor Mama. :) The funny thing is - so far, Taisei himself has a Japanese accent sometimes.

Sneak Peak at Night

2009-02-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday night, Taisei pulled his little trick again. He waited until bedtime to do his number two. There was so little this time, it was like two deer pellets. Then, he kept making excuses and wouldn't go to bed. Finally, he must have gotten tired and fallen asleep. At midnight, we went in to check on him. Here's what we found.

He had pulled the pillows off, nicely made the bed, and then he must have fallen asleep in the "prayer" position that you see him in. Only Hiro was using the bed!

I put the blanket on Taisei to keep him warm, but inevitably, he will kick it off and sleep without one. That's why we always check on him. We're so worried about our boy freezing at night!

p.s. No accident this day. Phew.

Tri-cycle action

2009-02-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was full of small accomplishments for Taisei.

I thought that this hand-me-down tri-cycle from our neighbors was too rusted and stiff to work at all, but Taisei finally decided to try the pedals. At first attempt on Saturday morning, it was a stroke forward and a stroke back. Then he got a couple in a row. About thirty minutes later, he was showing off to everyone who walked by. That was also a trait that we haven't seen: showing off. Not at all humble like his father. When someone would smile and ask him about his tri-cycle, he would look at them and then start pedaling like mad. He spent so much time on the tri-cycle that morning that I think he wore himself out and took a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. And that was after a 12-hour straight night of sleep.

In the afternoon, we went to target (actually, Wami went to Target while I studied in the car with a sleeping Taisei). When I finally got too bored, (2 and a half hours later) I woke Taisei up and took him in to meet mama. In the toy section, he discovered yet another tri-cycle. He rode it all over the store and figured out how to steer, which he couldn't do at home because he basically went back and forth on a straight sidewalk.

Sunday after church, we took Hiro for a walk and Taisei rode the tri-cycle to the dogpark and back. That's from I Street to M Street and back, almost 5 blocks either way. Uphill. Through the snow, wind and lightening. j/k It was a very nice day, actually.

Potty update: Oops. Taisei had his first accident yesterday since he started going regularly in the toilet. That was a pretty good run, but I hope this isn't the beginning of a bad habit of waiting too long. That's what he essentially did yesterday. He waited too long, and by the time it was time to go, he couldn't hold it anymore. He's had several close calls. In fact, Saturday was the closest. He was riding his tri-cycle and suddenly had to go. Since I wasn't close by, he pulled his pants down and peed on our driveway!! I couldn't believe my eyes.

I believe our inadvertent secret to success (assuming it is that), is that Taisei wore his underwear for at least a few hours a few days a week for a very long time. I'm talking several seasons, probably. That was all thanks to his super patient pre-school teacher. This didn't potty train him, but it did teach him to hold it for those few hours. So we ended up with a boy with super holding power. I think he can hold it pretty well now. Once he says he has to go, he's never "spilled" on the way to the toilet. It remains to be seen if what I'm saying is true. But I think that's the main reason why he's been pretty successful ever since he decided that the toilet is his friend.

Update: Yep, he had another accident the next day too. What's going on!?

Sense of Direction

2009-01-28T22:39:00.000-08:00

Every parent is allowed to think that their own children are the bomb. And even blog about it. So that's what I'm about to do. Please allow me to indulge.

One time we blogged about Taisei's ability to find his way out of a confusing hospital. I think it's been reconfirmed to us that Taisei really does have a good sense of direction. As Wami and Taisei were returning from a shopping trip to the Gateway Mall, Taisei pointed out the Energy Solutions Arena (former Delta Center) on the other side of the intersection.

Taisei: ママー、ここ来たことあるねー。
(Mama, we have be here before, haven't we?)
Wami: そうねー（驚）ババとママと大成で来たねー。何見たっけ？
(That's right. [surprised!] Dad and mom and Taisei came here, huh? What did we watch?
Taisei: バスケットボール。
(Basketball!)
Wami: そうねー！！
(That's right!!)

He remembered that we went to watch the BYU/Utah State game there back on Dec. 6th with my San Jose buddy, Michael. Taisei loved the intense atmosphere and also enjoyed walking up and down the steep stairs (since mama had to sit on the 20th row and Mike hooked me up with 5th row seats!). Wow, Taisei really got his mom's sense of direction and nearly photographic memory! I have a pretty good sense of direction, but Wami's is nearly photographic. I must indulge further here. On preschool days, when Wami deviates from her regular path way home from Taisei's preschool, he always knows. He'll ask "今日違うねー。" = "Mom, we're going a different way today, huh?" It's somewhat of a comfort to know that we at least won't have to worry about him getting lost too easily.

Taisei definitely has his weaknesses and we acknowledge those as well, although, like 99% of parents out there, we normally drool over his accomplishments. For example, he's got pretty particular taste buds and doesn't enjoy eating that much. He's getting better and does eat more and more things. He's pretty shy until he gets comfortable and then gets totally hyper. We'll see if this changes in the future. He doesn't like to sit down to have chats with his parents. He's just like I was when I was a teenager! Anyway, I'm a firm believer that labeling can have negative psychological effects. So lets just say I'm capturing how he is at present day. One day, I'm sure he'll eat anything, be the most outgoing person in the world, and love talking to his parents. :)

Potty Log - Stardate 01.28.09

2009-01-28T12:29:00.000-08:00

Taisei went cold turkey on daytime diapers. Since his first accident free day on Stardate 01.05.09, he has not had an accident. OK, I'll cut it out with the Star Trek nerdiness. I loved the original show. Anyway, no accidents for... what's that... 23 days now. Once he gained familiarity with the toilet, his previously acquired ability to "hold it" began to pay off.

On the other hand, he has begun to acquire the ability to "let go" as well. For the past couple of days, we knew he had been needing to go #2. We were tired of staying up late, waiting for him to go in his diapers. I made him go to bed instead of playing around for hours. I'll post about how we finally did that another time. We knew he wouldn't be able to hold it all day for many more days. Yesterday was one day beyond his customary every-other-day routine. We knew he had to go, so we kept encouraging him. He tried going on the kid's potty and on the real potty probably 4 or 5 times. He would try and then give up. Finally, I reminded him that he would get something special if he could do it. I never tell him what that is, so that I don't have to figure it out until I really have to figure it out. After I told him that, he sat and pushed and pushed. Success! He was quite happy about his success. And so far, I've found that once I bribe him to do something the first time, I don't have to bribe him again. I even tell him that the special treat is only for the first time. I gave him a bath toy (a hand-me-down toy from our neighbor) which was perfect for getting him into the bath, since he's been dodging the bath routine lately. Yesterday, he went to bed at his [relatively more] normal 9 pm last night. I'm seeing signs of our lives returning to normalcy! Hopefully from now on, he can have his successful #2s on the toilet every two days.

Update 01.28.09: Tonight, he came out of his room at 9:30 and then 9:50 reporting "mama, unchi shita." He went 2 in his diapers. :( We didn't expect that he would have to go the next day. Looks like we still have work to do.

Potty Log

2009-01-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

[warning: the post contains lots of gory details about potty training!]

No, not a log in the potty, mind you. ;) This is about Taisei's road to becoming an adult. At least in the potty department. I'm so glad it wasn't as gross of a process as I had originally feared.

San Jose:
For the first part of our Christmas trip back home, I was too chicken to support Wami in her potty training with Taisei. So we put diapers on when we went places. But Wami persisted, and finally we decided to go for one whole day. His biggest obstacle for most of the trip was that he didn't feel comfortable using unfamiliar toilets, especially in the public. The first day, we took off his diaper in the morning at 10 o'clock. He refused to go to the bathroom all day. We didn't put on a diaper until bedtime and he never had an accident. This means he held it the entire day! Does that count as potty training? Probably not. The good news is that when we got home and finally got ready for bed, he used the toilet! So technically, it was a day without an accident.

The next day, we kept with the routine. This time, he went number 2 in the toilet. Woohoo - first time! (and it was a big sucker too!) He was so excited about it, he ran around telling everyone "unchi shita!" (I pooed!)

The third day, he went to the potty standing up all by himself while he was being watched by Aaron and Emily (on the Temple trip day). The standing up part was a first (and a last to this day). We wouldn't have known he had gone except that Adele saw him going and reported it to her daddy. He even moved the stool from the toilet to the sink and washed his hands afterward. Unfortunately, he did have an accident shortly afterward. We wouldn't have noticed that either, had Aaron not heard Taisei whisper "uh oh."

Sunday, he almost held it all day again until he had an accident at the Adaniya's place (sorry!). But he made up afterward by copying Nathan and going no. 1 while standing. Woohoo!

Monday, he had one accident at the beach, while the rest of us were kayaking. Luckily, my mom really is a super grandma and doesn't mind dealing with that kind of stuff. Later that evening, he went no. 1 (sitting) at Ariake Sushi.

During the trip, we had tons of progress. The biggest thing was getting him in the mindset that diapers are a thing of the past. It helps that he loves his cartoon underwear. The other big skill he learned was to hold it. And I mean, hold it for HOURS.

Salt Lake City:
New year's day was a big mess. We had a party at the Jone's house, where all the kids drank tons of Capri Sun. He's not used to drinking that much and ended up having about 4 accidents before we left. The root of the problem was that he was refusing to use the toilet. Partly he was having too much fun, but mostly he just didn't like to pull his pants down and use the toilet. We were patient and kept persisting in the following week.

This past week has been wildly successful. So far, he has not had an accident for five straight days. In order to maintain that streak, there was one day during a dog walk to the park where he needed to go and ended up going on a tree outside. But the important thing is that he told us and he didn't have an accident! Yesterday, he actually told us that he had to go and led us to the bathroom. Today, he went by himself without telling us. As he's pulling up his underwear and pointing into the toilet, he said　“ママ！おしっこ出た～！見てー。黄色！” (Translated: "Mamaaa! Osshiko deta! Mite - kiiro” = "Mom! I peed! Look - it's yellow!")

Todo:
He's so close!! We still have just a few more hurdles to get past. His no. 2's take time, so sometimes he prefers to wait til he has on his bedtime diaper to do it. This ends up keeping him up at night until he's done, pushing his bedtime further back than we'd like. Secondly, we're too scared to not put on a diaper for bedtime. I know we'll have to do it eventually. But when he's sleeping nearly 12 hours a night sometimes, I don't know if there's any real hope that he can make it all night.

Disneyland again?

2008-11-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

Taisei seems to be a reasonable person, except when he gets frustrated. Two times this week, I was able to resolve a simple conflict like this:

Two nights ago at bedtime, I was afraid to mess up our ritual of turning off the light and immediately putting him to bed.

Me: Taisei, we don't need to have all the lights in the room on to read a book. Can you turn the light back off?
Taisei: No.
Me: We don't want to waste electricity, ok?
Taisei: No.
Me: Yes!
Taisei: Noooooo!
Me: Yeeeeees!
Taisei: OK.

And he went and turned off the light. It was amusing. And it happened twice this week! The other time was something about his water bottle. Oh, that they could stay so innocent and so simple forever.

____

Taisei is pretty spoiled. Thanks to the perfect circumstances, he's been to Disneyland 5 times this year. He was arguably too young the first time, but this time, he thoroughly enjoyed himself. He got to ride on a bunch more rides this time because he exceeded the 32" limit that he just barely missed back in the summer. In fact, he made the 35" limit for Disneyland's very first roller-coaster, the Matterhorn Bobsleds. I was too chicken to go on this ride for at least the first decade of my life. I figured we'd take him before he knew the difference. He loved it... except he found the abominable snowman inside the mountain scary - "Monster kowaii!" Besides the Matterhorn, he wanted to see Mickey Mouse, ride the Astro Orbitor and Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters (again), the carousel (over and over), the haunted mansion (which they totally re-vamped with a Nightmare-before-Christmas-theme, dumbo, Flik's Flyers, Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, Bumper Buggies, autopia, Tarzan's treehouse and many others. Taisei's favorite uncle Seth took him on the Pooh ride and the jungle cruise so mommy and daddy could go on the grown-up rides, like Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain. Thanks Seth! We had a great time. After we left, we told him that he got to go to the beach now! But he kept asking "Kowaii monster doko?" which translated means "Why aren't we going to Disneyland today? I want to ride the Matterhorn." Luckily, he hasn't thrown any tantrums yet, because this - if it were me anyway - might have been worthy of one.

Taisei scores only a little less than his mama :)

Chillin' at Home

2008-10-28T22:39:00.001-07:00

I just discovered this video taken a few weeks ago. We thought we'd share.

I enjoyed this too, from a fatherly point of view. ;)

Sleep and Scissors

2008-10-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

Taisei has a pretty set routine for getting ready for bed:

Normally, we have a shower or bath.
We dry him off and put lotion on him.
We put on his diaper.
We put on his PJs.
We give him his gummy bear vitamin.
We brush his teeth.
We go to his room and lie down on the futon to read a book.
Then we turn off the lights and baba (me) says a prayer.
Then mama picks him up, gives him one last drink of water. I give him a kiss and mama puts him in the crib.
Lastly, I cover him with blankets and we leave the room.

The last part has always been non-negotiable. I pray, and mom puts him to put. In the past few months, here is how things have evolved:

We have a shower or bath. Now he washes himself with soap.
We wrap a towel around him and he dries off his own hair with his favorite Totoro towel.
He takes off naked and runs around til we catch him. Then we put on his diaper.
We try to put on lotion, but he usually wants to do it himself.
He grabs his favorite flavor of gummy bear.
He brushes his own teeth and sometimes will let us help.
He then proceeds to run around, jump off the bed, and stall bedtime as much as possible.
We finally get him into his room and he continues to run around.
I threaten to skip the book by turning off the lights and he finally lies down.
We finish one book and turn off the lights before he can protest.
I pray.
Mom picks him up and lets him have one last drink of water. Tonight was the first night he ever let me pick him up and put him in the crib.
We kiss him goodnight and leave the room.

It's slightly more time, but still not too bad. Once the book reading starts, he's in his crib within 5 or 10 minutes, depending how generous we are with the book reading. Usually, bedtime has been around 8-8:30. Once he's in bed, we finally have our free time!! woohoo!

A random picture at Snowbird

In other news, things that Taisei's been up to:

He likes to pretend read. He'll grab something and start going "blee-blah-poo-ka-ka"
He has a concept of numbers, but the concept isn't quite right. It usually goes like this: One, three, five, ex, seven, EIGHT! Sometimes he'll throw a two and a four in there, but usually not.
He hasn't been behaving well in nursery lately, but has been totally fine in his pre-school class. I think it's partly because of an unstructured nursery combined with little to no consistency in leadership or discipline. The bad thing is that Taisei is misbehaves the most out of all the kids. Part of that is probably our fault. We haven't found a punishment that truly works in teaching him yet. (Any good ideas? We've tried taking away favorite toys, time out, etc. He doesn't seem to care.) He pushes and takes things from other kids. The other parents don't like it and the nursery leaders complain (although they don't exercise any discipline). I don't want to be in there even though I'm one of the leaders because I don't want Taisei to be dependent on me. But on the other hand, it doesn't seem like anyone knows how to deal with him, nor run the nursery in general. When can we move on to primary??
If he sees a monster or spiderman or something on TV, even if it's a commercial, we have to endure crazy Taisei pretending to be a monster or spiderman until he forgets about it, which sometimes is not until the next day. One time he saw a power ranger commercial and he was jumping around, posing in ninja positions, throwing punches for days. From ONE commercial!?! I don't know why these things stick in his brain so well, except that he's a boy.
He has been so interesting in cutting things with scissors that we finally bought him a pair of his own. I thought it would be a little safer. He LOVES them, especially in this Halloween season. Every time we need to open a snack or something something, he runs to get his scissors. With all the Halloween costume ads showing up in the mail, he always insists on cutting out the scary ones. I have to say that he's fairly adept with his scissors, although he hasn't yet figured out that he can turn the paper to guide the scissors, instead of trying to turn his body and the scissors. :)

We kept looking for a new Halloween costume, but in the end decided to just use his monkey again from last year. He's thrilled to wear it and it still fits. So what the heck. He's already used it twice. Once at the Gardner's Village Witch Week. And twice today, at our ward Halloween party, and then Trick-Or-Treating at Hogle Zoo. Wami said they had a really great time at all the parties. I had to be in class for all the fun. :( Next year, Wami wants to have me babysit while she goes with some of the girls to the Gardner's Village Witch Week. Apparently, it's kind of a girl's night out where they all dress up as witches.

Officially Two and a Half

2008-10-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

We've been casually trying to potty train Taisei since the beginning of the summer. We would wear training pants (underwear with lining) but would never tell us when he had to go, until after the fact. We still kept diligently putting him on the toilet at all the right times, even at times when we knew he had to go. But he would actually hold it! Sometimes, just 10 minutes later, he would have an accident. Yesterday, he went no. 1 in the toilet for the first time! AND, later in the day, he went for the second time! He was very excited about it and actually called me over to watch before his second success for the day. Yay - a big milestone, hopefully. :)

Yesterday, I had my most in-depth conversation with him so far:
Dad:

"Taisei, were you cold last night?" (He doesn't like to use his blanket)
Taisei: "Yeah."
Dad: "Did you use your blanket like I told you to?"
Taisei: "No - sampo." (No, I was cold when we took a walk.)
Dad: "Oh, you were cold at Chieko-sensei's house?" (I knew they took a walk at pre-school today)
Taisei: "No, Hiro's park. O sampo." (No, I was cold at Hiro's park.)
Dad: "Oh, you were cold when you took Hiro for a walk?"
Taisei: "Yeah."

Cool huh? I thought it was cool.

Last night, he let us weigh him and measure his height.

He's 35.25 inches (around 40%) and weighs 26.5 lbs (?%)

In the past couple of months, Taisei suddenly started to talk a lot. Now that he's so much more vocal, it's become clear that his Japanese ability is far beyond his English ability. Maybe because of that, we notice his English phrases more. Taisei's common English phrases:

"What are you doing?"
"Did you see that?"
"Oh, cool!"
"Watch this!"

Here's what Taisei seems to be learning these days:

Thanks to a great teacher (former kindergarten teacher in Japan) in his "Wanpaku pre-school", he learned to:

eat on his own and finish meals
share with other kids and ask nicely if he wants something
wear undies and at least learn to "hold it"
wear clothes by himself, especially socks, shoes and pants
stand up for and soothe the younger kids when older kids pick on them

In nursery at church, he learned to:

hm... I can't think of much from here, unfortunately... obviously an under-utilized teaching opportunity
play ring-around-rosie

At home:

so far, he has thrown one fit of utter frustration (because we didn't want him to wear his underwear to bed)
loves to hold newborns and sooth them when they cry. Sometimes it freaks out the baby's moms though.
stacks and removes the plates after dinner
always has to "help" with everything, and sometimes he actually does help
has been refusing baths before bedtime
has insisted on using scissors to cut things, so we bought him some kiddie scissors. not he runs around cutting up everything, particularly cutting out all the "scary monsters" out of the Halloween ads that we've been getting in the mail
likes to draw "Totoro" and rockets

Taisei seems to have calmed down a little from his earlier days when he always fought back when other kids picked on him or took his toys. Now, he seems to really favor the underdog. He seems to have compassion, especially when other kids are crying. One time, he gave up his light-saber to his older friend S. when S. was crying over not having one (of the four). Another time, Wami was babysitting Taisei's friend L. L was crying because his mommy was not there and Taisei comforted him by saying "L, daijobu. Mama kuru." (L, it's ok. Mama's coming.) Interestingly, ever since that day, L and Taisei have been closer than ever.

ps. Of course, our boy is probably no different from the average boy out there, but because we are oyabaka, everything he does is amazing to us. :)

Two and a Half, almost

2008-09-03T12:14:00.000-07:00

Updating the Taisei Buffet has been getting harder and harder. There would be so many items at the buffet table that no one would be able to try everything. There's no way to keep track of all the new things toddlers learn, say and do. But it has to be one of the most fun, and funniest, stages of kid development.

So, just a few random thoughts here to give an idea of where he's at. Taisei seems to be a "helper." This is probably very common with the first kid, who doesn't have playmates at home. He just wants to do everything we do. Sometimes, it's very convenient. Yesterday night, after I finished dinner, he collected all the plates, cups and utensils in one pile and brought it to mommy in the kitchen. In our house, the kitchen is at the other end of the house from where we eat, so it was a little scary, but he made it. At the same dinner yesterday, I noticed that he's gotten very good at using his training chopsticks. He LOVES tofu and uses his chopsticks to pick out all the tofu from his stir-fry and his miso soup. He also tries to help by wiping the floor, feeding Hiro, or putting on his own clothes.

Wami and I noticed that when we hear him speaking to the other parent, there's always new things that we didn't realize he could say. The reason we don't realize them when he's talking to us is because he now speaks only one language to each of us. In other words, he speaks Japanese all the time to mommy and English all the time to pappa. Somewhere along the line, he abandoned the Chinese "ba-ba" for the Japanese "pa-pa." Oh well. I lost that battle. :) I still think his Japanese is probably better than his English. When he talks to other kids outside of his Japanese playgroup, inevitably we here something to the effect of "What's Taisei saying?" Apparently, even with me, he'll mix in a lot of Japanese.

One of the recent miracles is that he is finally ok with babysitting. He can take him to nursery, pre-school or the gym, and he's a little uneasy at first, but no tears! But that's only when mama drops him off. If I drop him off, then there are tears. What a weird phenomenon. Only mama is allowed to go do other stuff. If my papa's around, then I get all attention and definitely shouldn't need babysitters. That seems to be what he thinks.

By the way, last Sunday he drew his first happy face - an oblong circle with two eyes way at the bottom and a nose. He told me what he had drawn and then promptly scribbled it all out, or else I would taken a picture of it.

Nursemaid's Elbow

2008-07-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

Maybe this is all very obvious to the more experienced (or more cautious) parent, but it can be very bad to pick up your toddler by his hands - especially by one of his hands, in my case. Taisei is such a skinny-bone that I never thought his weight would cause much injury, but I was wrong.

Saturday night at the annual SLC Obon Festival, we were clowning around on the grass. I was talking to someone and Taisei was climbing all around my legs. I can't remember why, but I picked up Taisei by one wrist, and then by the hand. He twisted in a slightly weird angle and so I let go. It all took place within 3 seconds or so. A few seconds after I let go, Taisei started to whimper in pain and I could tell something was wrong. I let him go about playing with his buddies for a while, but I could tell he was still in a great deal of pain when he moved his left arm. He would laugh and shout, and then the next second, cry out in pain. His friends didn't know what to make of it, so they would just come and go. But Taisei never fully started crying, so our doctor-friend who was with us didn't think that there was anything really wrong. It didn't help that I had him look at the wrist and not the elbow. For the rest of the evening, Taisei dangled his left arm limply at his side. That's the part that really worried me. He wouldn't lift it and he wouldn't let us move it. On the way home, when I gave him the GPS to play with in the car, he rested it in his lap and only used his right arm to play with it. I was getting more and more worried, but I thought I would let him try to sleep it off. Plus, the IHC Instacare was already closed and I knew that the service you get there around closing time is basically crap - particularly the assistants at the front desk. Yes, I'm a regular there.

The next morning, no change. He kept it limp, next to his left hip. He would cry when he knew we were about to touch it, such as when we went to put on his church clothes, or went to put him in his car seat. He was obviously in a lot of pain when the arm moved in a certain way. The hard part was that he's still a little too young to tell us where the pain was. Maybe he didn't really know. We decided to take him to IHC Instacare as soon as we finished our church meeting, where I was the organist for that Sunday.

At the Instacare, the doctor instantly knew what it was - something nicknamed "Nursemaid's Elbow." Apparently, adults have some kind of bridge that keep the radius (one of the bones in the forearm) from popping out, whereas toddlers to not. Dangling kids by their arms can cause this bone to pop out. That's exactly what happened to Taisei. They said it was very common (and I was afraid they were going to think there was child-abuse going on, but they didn't. Phew! :) Our doctor was a resident (and I think he didn't want to be the one who fixed it) so he got the more experienced doctor to fix it. She gently lifted Taisei's arm straight in front of him, warned him that it would hurt, turned Taisei's palms upwards, and then bent his forearm at the elbow all the way until it touched the bicep of his upper arm.

At that moment, Taisei looked like he was in so much pain - his mouth was wide open, but no sound coming out of it. Only tears streamed out of his tightly shut eyes. I felt so bad for the pain that I felt like I had inflicted on my baby!

Taisei never actually made much noise. Here's the amazing part. The doctor held a lollipop in front of Taisei for him to reach out and grab. He kept trying to get it with his right hand, but the doctor would only let him to get it with his left. Just as the doctor predicted, after about five minutes he grew confident enough to reach up and grab it with his left. He needed a few minutes to be convinced that his left arm was no longer in pain. Five minutes later, he was back to his normal self, running wild all over the Instacare, using BOTH arms to push tables and chairs all over the lobby. I was so relieved and grateful to the two good doctors, Dr. Baar and Dr. Westermann, at the Sugarhouse IHC Instacare.

Yesterday, when we went out for a walk and Taisei wanted to swing by his arms, Wami and I said NO WAY. :)

24-27 Months

2008-07-03T16:31:00.000-07:00

As anticipated, keeping up with Taisei's development would eventually prove to be way too much to document. It's been a flood of new things in the past 3 months. I'm guessing that any parent who tries to blog their kid's development will give up trying to thorough around this time (maybe earlier for girls). There's too much to explain.

For example, he expresses disappointment now. I don't just mean "Oh, I don't want babysitters!" The first time I noticed, I told Taisei that I would take him downstairs to watch Lilo and Stitch. He was very excited, but I wanted him to do something (small and silly) first and he wouldn't do it. I can't even remember what it was. So, jokingly, I told him that I would go watch myself and he should stay upstairs with mom. I really thought he would just ignore me and come anyway. Instead, he turned around, walked back over to mom, and started wailing! I felt so bad! I promised to never disappointment him like that again, if I could help it.

He's always listening to our conversations. I know, I know - all kids eventually surprise you with this. Nevertheless, it's extremely surprising when they repeat something back to you in a conversation you really did not expect them to be paying attention to. Wami thought of one example. One day, we were talking about how cool it would be to see the Grand Canyon from the air. Wami said it would be scarier to see it in a helicopter and would rather ride a Cessna. I said I would be more scared in a Cessna and would rather be in the helicopter. Several minutes after the conversation had ended and moved on to something else, Taisei asked: "Mama, hikouki kowaii?" Which means "Mama, are you scared of airplanes?"

In many situations, Taisei's considered very difficult to understand. He speaks probably 50% Japanese, 40% English and 10% Chinese. Most of the Chinese is just nouns - like frog or airplane - but his Japanese is WAY beyond mine. Mom can say all this stuff to him... and I'm like, huh? It's quite amazing. But the bad thing is that people will give up trying to communicate with him sometimes. How is it that adults almost seem to be less confident about learning something new than a small child?

Taisei's still small, but is finally quickly growing out of shoes and clothing. I'm not sure about percentages anymore since appointments are few and far in between. I'm hoping he's having a growth spurt. Since our visit to Frank's, Taisei has started to enjoy meat. He also drinks more milk now. I'm hoping for a big growth spurt. :)

Taisei's able to be babysat sometimes! This is a HUGE one. He goes to a twice-a-week 2-hour pre-school with other Japanese kids. He usually cries when we drop him off but is happy when we pick him up. Also, he successfully went to the "Kid's club" at 24-hour fitness yesterday. He was pretty distraught about being dropped off, but wasn't crying when we picked him up. He still can't handle nursery at church for some reason, unless mom is the one to drop him off. By the way, 12$ a month for a gym membership that includes free babysitting (Utah only) is a KILLER deal! Go to Costco.com and get it while it lasts!

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

2008-06-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Disneyland was great on a Monday - hardly any lines. We got to go on rides over and over. The only ride with a super long line that we didn't get to go on was the Submarine ride. I loved that ride when I was kid. They completely updated it, complete with Nemo to boot. Too bad they didn't include it in Disneyland's "Fastpass" system.

The first time we went on the new Buzz Lightyear ride, Taisei was sleeping. Bummer!
But we got to go on it several more times using Fastpasses. :) He got 4,500 on his first run. haha! On his second run, he was more interested in controlling the car with the joystick. That's why you can only see the top of his head here.
Emily's husband, Aaron, had some kind of weird knack for the game. On his second try, he made the list as second all-time high scorer for the day. Notice I have around 100,000 points. He was well over 1.5 million - over 10 times my score. What the...!?!? I never figured out what he was doing differently from me.

Afterwards, we got Taisei a little Astro Blaster key chain. He walks around blasting even people he doesn't know.

No diapers!

2008-05-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

...for a few hours, anyway.

Potty contemplation: For the first time, Taisei went without diapers. This is somewhat of a milestone and the fruition of one of my most feared days - potty training... which equals poop and pee everywhere! Taisei wore what they call training pants imported from Japan - underwear that have lining for easier cleaning and slightly less leakage. On his first day this past Tuesday, on a whim he decided he wanted to wear them. So that was it, no more diapers for several hours. In a matter of hours, he burned through all 4 pairs. But it was obvious that it helped him become aware of the mess he was making. He also pointed it out each time... albeit a little too late. Then, when we did make it to the toilet on time, he wouldn't go. Oh well. It's a start. :)

I've noticed that from this early of an age, people start to form opinions and categorize even the little people. And the funny thing is that Taisei has different reputations with different people.
At Chinese nursery: Taisei is a little aggressive and more likely to fight with the one other boy than are all the other girls. But he is almost always nice to the girls. He's a big cry-baby if his mom and dad aren't around. He's in his own world most of the time, but he's good when there's singing and dancing. Personally, I don't think the nursery crowd has a good idea of who Taisei really is because he's simply not himself in there.
At Japanese playgroup: Taisei is considered athletic and always thinking. He doesn't speak much, but is always observing. One time he quietly grabbed a chair when the pinata seemed too far out of reach for everyone swinging their bats. He tends to do his own thing but always loves going outside (which he's unfortunately just learned to do on his own at home). He's most happy when he's playing with older kids and especially his buddies, Rachel and Shun. This is definitely more of the Taisei I know. It seems that he's more comfortable in his Japanese playgroup environment than Chinese nursery for some reason or another.

At a wedding of all places, Taisei got to play on a trampoline. He didn't know what to do at first. Now even at home, he's jumping on the bed whenever we're not looking.

The latest:
About two or three months ago, we noticed that he started to play by himself. Hallelujah! It was nice not to have to be by his side all the time. It was also quite fascinating to see his imagination at work. Often when he's quiet though, he's up to no good. He's taken apart a lot of things, from a clock to several of his toys - it seems like anything that has moving parts. He also likes to draw on everything. Ugh. At least he hasn't gone for the walls yet.

Within the last month or so, he seems to have started using sound effects in his play. He grunts, roars and zooms with his dinosaurs, cars and planes. It's cute. He also started coloring very violently. He used to just draw a line here or there and then call it good. Now, it's hard and heavy coloring that cannot be missed.

One of Taisei's most favorite big friends, his cousin Brooke, who we saw this last weekend in Vegas.

When you skip your nap...

2008-05-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

Taisei has been fighting his naps lately. This was the result yesterday.Wami couldn't believe her eyes. He normally won't sleep anywhere but his room or in the car. Here, he slept on the kitchen tile floor for over an hour and a half.
It's amazing to watch a toddler grow up seemingly right before your eyes. He's not talking as well as all of his girlfriends. He doesn't have any guy friends his age, so we have no way to compare. But all his girlfriends speak so well at the same age. He still can communicate effectively and has been connecting more and more words in Japanese or English. All the autism news lately got me a little worried since he's slower to speak than the girls around him and generally not very social. But just a little observation changed my mind in a hurry. It's obvious that he is soaking up the world around him at an incredible rate.

There's so much more that he's done lately, I can't remember everything. Here are some more pictures instead. We went to the Children's Museum at the Gateway last weekend.

He was paying attention when I was putting all the Ikea furniture together!

Second Birthday

2008-03-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

Shortly after our return from Japan, Wami had the energy to stage a big birthday bash for Taisei. We invited all his local friends. All of them spoke Japanese except for one Chinese speaker and two Utahn neighbors. Auntie Esther came up too. Everyone had a great time eating cake and opening Taisei's presents. We didn't expect it to be such an event, but we should have expected it, with so many kids screaming and running around.

Cake - the (Japanese) kids were enthralled with Wami's creation. This is Taisei's favorite kiddie-cartoon character, Anpanman (tranlation: red-bean bread man). Maybe the Japanese equivalent of Thomas or something like that. The collective devouring of this cake was the only moment of silence during the party.

Once she saw the cake, R. could not stop repeating "anpanman" the whole time. It was so cute. To all the non-Japanese speakers, apparently it sounded like "obama." :)

Thanks to all his great friends and family for coming and bringing all the nice presents!

Pockets

2008-02-27T19:25:00.001-08:00

This is the day I taught Taisei about pockets.

Here's Taisei with his latest girlfriend, R. She's a cutie. We approve.

Sleepy Boy

2008-02-02T09:51:00.000-08:00

For three nights in a row this week, Taisei slept 14 straight hours without even a peep. Our quick trip to Vegas last week must have totally wiped him out. The last night there, he went to bed at 9:30 pm and woke after 11 am. The night we got back, he went to bed around 8 and got up after 10 am. Then he did that several nights in a row! And, he's still taking 2 and 3 hour naps in the day. Lately, the boy can SLEEP. Yes, we feel glad that he knows how to sleep. But it wasn't luck, mind you. We consciously tried to be patient and consistent with teaching him to sleep. (Partly, that's because I don't sleep well and I don't want Taisei to have to deal with that.) Of course, not all kids will sleep this much, but this guy is definitely always happier when he gets enough sleep. Lately, he's getting enough.

During this period of "super-sleep," there is no crying or whining for mama when he wakes. He is ready to play. You can hear a calm "mama?" He starts singing if we don't get him right away. It's beautiful! If he's not that tired at bedtime, he sings the same song to put himself to sleep too. Oh yeah - Wami just reminded me that we have a clip of it. I'll attach it. There's really nothing to visually see, so turn on your speakers. This really should be a podcast, but oh well. If you listen closely, you'll notice that there are only 3 lyrics: "mama," "hiro," and "baba"

**Hopefully you found this as entertaining has his "oyabaka" parents found it.

First Key: The Up Arrow

2008-01-31T22:47:00.002-08:00

Today Taisei discovered the up arrow key on the keyboard. He's always liked to push buttons to pretend like he's us, but today he figured out that the up button can move web pages up and down. He was delighted with his discovery.

Can you believe I just blogged about our son discovering his first key on the keyboard? Yeah. We're "oyabaka" just like every other first parent. In case you don't speak Japanese, this is a word that doesn't exist in English, but should.

oya = parent
baka = idiot

So someone labeled "oya-baka" is basically a parent that thinks his/her child is "da bomb." Every little development needs to be announced to the world because it is amazing. An oyabaka parent's child is indisputably the cutest child in the world, not to mention smartest, fastest, and most coordinated.

It's ok to be oyabaka because otherwise, there's something wrong with you. I get a kick out of reading other people's blogs on their children. The oyabaka-ness doesn't bother me one bit. It's just another reminder of the wondrous love that miraculously develops in every parent. If you don't have a kid, you will know what this word means when you have your first. And equally important, you'll find that all those other oyabaka parents will no longer seem annoying anymore. Seeing that blind love actually becomes quite a thing of beauty.

Ham for New Years

2008-01-03T21:27:00.000-08:00

Lately, Taisei has been a real ham for the camera. He apparently hasn't inherited his father's serious disposition yet.

In other news, he still hasn't gained much weight. The good news is that he has started liking milk just as much as any beverage. This should help the weight. I've considered upgrading to heavy cream or something for added fat. His brain capacity is increasing, unlike his weight. He's finally outgrowing some of his 3-month and 6-month clothes too - more good news. There are even some 2T clothes that he can wear.

Taisei appears to have developed quickly in the physical coordination arena. I've done heavy training with toy basketballs, soccerballs, pull-ups, and other physical regimen. He has uncanny balance, enjoys somersaults, jumping from couches, and throwing his toys when he's not supposed to.

Only recently did I realize that his cousin was almost speaking full sentences at this age. We moved our focus to language abilities and coincidentally he's having an explosion of vocabulary. We've long since realized that he understands way more than baby talk. Now he will repeat back almost anything we try to teach him. The cutest is "ah-ba-joo," which came from his grandfather trying to teach him "I love you." I realized about 3 or 4 months ago that his Japanese had somehow surpassed mine already. It was around the same time that we realized he knew what we were saying to him. The language acquisition seems almost instantaneous. Yesterday, I briefly taught him spoon and fork. We then went and played around elsewhere. When dinnertime came 20 minutes later, he correctly names each utensil. Oh, what geniuses we could all be if our memories stayed like that all our lives.

When he's interested, he'll put his head down for prayer and say "Amen!" right on cue. But that's more of a novelty to him than a routine.

He still is a major Mama's boy, with Baba a close second. He will NOT go to nursery without us and he's only been calmly babysat one time. It's our fault and we need to just let him out of our sight with some strangers (that don't promptly bring him back to us) for a while.

Ok, that's enough Taisei trivia for now. I'll save some for the next post. Peace out, my homies.

Corn, corn, corn!

2007-12-23T17:19:00.001-08:00

Taisei's a vegetarian. That's a premature assessment, but he definitely tends to prefer vegetables over the meat we provide him at mealtime, especially corn and broccoli. Here is proof.

Corn:

Broccoli:

Phone Calls Home

2007-12-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Written 2007.12.12 (I could never get the video to work.)

Lately, whenever I call home, phone calls take longer than I expect. Taisei doesn't just know what the phone is for, he has to have long conversations with "Ba-ba" everytime he calls. It's really cute and I love to just sit and have conversations with him. Sometimes, it's not that convenient when I'm at work, sitting in a cube, surrounded by a bunch of other engineers, talking "baby-talk" at the top of my lungs. "Hi Baby! What did you do today? Were you a good boy?" etc. He definitely knows when I'm asking a yes/no question versus a "please explain" question because the answer is always an appropriate "Un!" for yes in Japanese, or a long and incoherent rambling of cute baby babble. Hopefully I can get a clip of it on here.

His favorite word lately is "ototo." He'll yell it over and over again. It means little brother. Wami asks him if he wants a brother or sister and the answer is always a resounding "ototo!" Maybe it's a sign of things to come. (No, that's not a hint - just speculation!)

Here's Taisei having fun:

Growing Up Together

2007-11-27T20:23:00.001-08:00

Mr. Sensitive
Animals are understandably frightened by fireworks and Hiro's no exception. We probably unknowingly traumatized him further by taking him to see the works when he was a puppy.

Today, some neighborhood bum lit some up in the early evening. Without fail, Hiro got a big scare and then became very needy for the rest of the night. He jumped up onto Wami's lap where Taisei was already sitting on the other leg. Wami told Taisei that Hiro was scared. Taisei immediately leaned over, gave Hiro a kiss, and gently patted him on the back. What a sweetie! Where do kids learn this stuff. We didn't think he even knew what "scared" meant.

Magical Understanding
A few months back, we noticed that Taisei was just about at the same level of intelligence as Hiro, who is supposedly a smart breed and can understand 200+ words. That lasted probably only a week before Taisei totally surpassed Hiro. (Although Hiro is still by far more obedient.)

We're constantly amazed what he can understand. By the way, I'm sure it's just a normal part of toddler progression - we're not saying Taisei's smarter than other babies. It's just amazing. (One nursery leader - no kids yet - accused us of confusing him and making him dumber by using too many languages. Oh, the ignorance. Anyway, I digress. When Taisei doesn't obey, we try (we seriously rack our brains) to give him choices. When he would rather wander around the bedroom than go to bed, I ask him in English "Do you want to finish this book or do you want to go to bed right away?" He comes right to bed. Oh yes, he understands. Tonight Wami asked him in Japanese "Do you want to read and pray together, or do you want to go to bed yourself." Believe you me - he came running. How do these language skills develop? It's truly magical.

Help us!
By the way, does anyone else have good techniques for getting your kids to brush?
How about an effective discipline/lesson for not biting other kids?

Monkey Boy

2007-10-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when Wami's trying to cook.

Monkey Boy from jerinyu on Vimeo.

Update:
Taisei's babbling like crazy now. The alarming thing is that he'll now spontaneously respond to questions: an English "no" for negative and the classic Japanese "unn" grunt with emphatic nodding for affirmative. Whenever he does it, we eye him carefully to see if he's truly answering us. In almost every case, it appears that he is.

Taisei, do you want broccoli? "nn" *nod**nod**nod*
Taisei, do you want to change clothes? "no, no, no!"

It's hard to ignore him when he wakes at night now because he nicely asks from his crib: "Mama? Mama?? Mama!? Mama!!" We still ignore him if possible, but it's just a lot harder.

Words he likes to say:

"apple" - self explanatory, but sometimes it means he wants juice.
"atta" - Japanese, hard to explain in English. I admit that Taisei's Japanese abilities have already surpassed mine.
"ko-ko" - Japanese, for airplane. Technically, it's "hikouki"
"ji-ji" - Chinese for airplane. Technically, it's "fei-ji"
"ai-ai" - Japanese slang for monkey. But really, it means "Mom, sing my favorite song!"
"elmo" - Taisei for "Nemo." It also means Elmo, as in Sesame Street. But really, it means "I want to watch Nemo!"

New tricks:

Tackling Hiro. Now that Taisei's older, Hiro seems to enjoy playing with him.
Open and closing doors, using the doorknob. He can't quite turn it yet, but he's pushing and pulling the door and definitely knows that he has to turn the knob.
He suddenly loves playgrounds. A LOT. He always didn't mind, but now when we walk Hiro, he has to go and play on the swings and slide. It seems like he'll ride the slide like a lab will chase a stick - all DAY.

Scaaaary

2007-09-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

A scary bug! What do you do, Taisei?

Updates:
Taisei now moves our tall barstools to the other side of the kitchen and crawls onto our counters. He then stands on the counters so that he can pull things out of the cabinets. Thank you for taking everything out today, Taisei. He went for the spices today. We're going to have to figure out where to put the knives.

New words

"peach"
"cheese" - actually, it's more Japanese, as in "chee-zu"

First Dance

2007-09-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

At first it was just Taisei. Shawn joined next. And then the one he had been waiting for. A girl named Virginia.

Taisei in September

2007-09-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

Tricks:

Scared face: This one's super cute. He does this every time he sees a bug. He also did it once when we let him suck on a lemon slice. He made a very sour face, followed immediately by the scared face.

Climbing: Couches and stairs. Changing table. High stools and onto our bar table. Piano. Today he climbed on top of the toilet so he could reach the light switch. The thing we're most afraid of him successfully climbing - the crib.

Jumping: He loves trying to get off the ground. Unfortunately, this one combined with the climbing thing is not so great. He likes to climb to the top of couches and jump onto the seat. We went from climbing to jumping off couches in about 10 days time.

Naps & bedtime: Indicates when he's ready for a nap by taking Mama's hand and pointing upstairs. Unfortunately he never does this when Baba's home to play with him. When he's ready for bedtime, he says bye-bye to Baba and eventually covers Mama with her own shirt.

Laundry: He doesn't do it by himself yet, but he loves watching the clothes tumble. Then, when it's done, he helps Mama take it out to load in the dryer.

Words:

"an-man" = Anpan-man, a popular Japanese children's cartoon character. We never taught him this. In fact, the only anpan-man we have in our house is on a kid's plate that he eats off of. How does toddler osmosis work!?

"mao" = cat in Chinese. Apparently, he is listening when I repeatedly speak Chinese at him.

"ai-ai" = monkey in Japanese play-talk. It's from a Japanese children's song.

"ka" = car. Don't know if that's a Japanese accent or just an American baby who can't pronounce R's yet.

Hm. I can't think of much more to put. He's really changed and grown so much already since the last time we posted. Really, he's just older and wiser now. Although he's still our little baby, nobody would consider him a baby anymore. We're forced to acknowledge that he's a full-blown toddler now.

First Injury

2007-08-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

I wrote this back on 8/2/07:
Taisei sustained his first facial injury yesterday. Probably because it was past his bedtime, he was hyperactive. After a yummy dinner with Lisa, we went for a walk next to the water in Seattle. Taisei absolutely refused to be carried or even to hold our hand (finger, actually). It was bound to happen and we were all afraid of it. He finally tripped over his shoe and hit the asphalt face-first. Actually, I think he hit his lip/nose and then skipped onto his forehead.

Let me tell you - as a parent, even though you tell yourself it's not your fault, you feel absolutely terrible. I found myself thinking irrational thought like "maybe it was a bad idea to have gone for a walk late (8:30 pm) at night." In reality, it wasn't that late and the sun wasn't even down yet. Plus, it's not like we can sit around in the hotel room to avoid accidents. I just hope Taisei's not scarred for life (literally).

At least we now have this blogged so that 15 years later, he can see exactly when he got that little scar on his nose and lip. Taisei, we want you to know that we still think you're as cute as ever!

Update:
For the rest of the trip, Taisei has a big scab on his nose and lip. But incredibly, it was completely healed up in exactly one week. Now, only if you look really carefully you can see that there is some discoloration under his left nostril. I think everything is going to be OK and life can go on again. ;)

If Taisei can eat it, So can you

2007-08-07T22:19:00.001-07:00

Look what Taisei's eating! I'm such a proud father. If you're not Taiwanese (or Chinese too, perhaps) you probably won't be able to tell what it is.

In mandarin, it's called "pi dan" (1st tone, 4th tone). In English, we call it "thousand year old egg." We have more if you're interested. Come over and have some anytime!

Taisei's so cool. haha!

Remote Controls and Swamp Coolers

2007-07-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

In the last two days, we've noticed two interesting observations made by Taisei.

1. Remote Controls
In recent days, we noticed that Taisei would say "wan-wan" (which means doggie) and hand us the DVD remote control. Could he really be asking for us to turn on the TV? We knew already that he would take the X11 remote light switch control and correctly point it at the lights. He would also take the TV and DVD remote controls and point them at the TV. But did he really know what everything was for?

Sure enough, that's what he wanted. He would hand us the TV remote control first, followed by the DVD remote control. He knew what he wanted! Today Wami put on some home-made DVDs, since he seems to enjoy looking at himself in the camcorder. When he saw those, he pushed the DVD remote towards her again and wanted her to do something. This was not what he wanted? Ok, fine. So we put on his regular show: Baby Einstein. We had never even noticed that the logo for the Baby Einstein company F.H.E. is a little doggie! Now, Taisei was happy. He recognized "his show" immediately.

He's watched this particular episode so many times, he can "quote" the babies that are in the show. Quote means he says "baabaabaa" at the same time the little girl does.

With this observation also came a realization that Taisei likes to watch TV! We are immediately going to limit his TV hours per day. So far, he watches an episode or two a day. Yikes. Any parents with TV advice?

2. Swamp Coolers
Every day, when it starts warming up in the morning, Wami goes to turn on the swamp cooler. Google it if you don't know what that is. They're popular in Utah. Well, this swamp cooler has it's own water source that we turn on and off every day so that we don't accidentally waste water. The routine is that Wami goes upstairs, reaches under the sink to turn the little knob, and the properly measures and deposits a cup below the know, since it has a small leak.

Today, put his head under the sink, just like Wami does. He reached for the knob and pretended to fiddle with it. Then he picked up the cup, measured straight down from the knob, deposited the cup in exactly the right position, and walked away. Hilarious! Maybe you have to be there to appreciate it. ;) Here it is for you to visualize.

New Words:

Hiro - points at Hiro and says it.
Mama - whenever mama walks away
Baba - sadly, this is very random and occasional
Baby - whenever he sees a baby, which is funny cuz isn't he a baby too?
No-no-no - uh-oh for us
Uh oh! - he overuses this, although it's a cute one

Foods of the week:

Kiwi
Blueberries
Corn on the cob!
Gyoza/Potstickers

Fifteen Month Check Up

2007-07-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

Weight: 19.1 lbs - he has fallen off the weight chart, i.e. He's negative %!
Height: 31 inches - he's shot up to 50%. Is that really correct? He did hold still for the nurse to measure.
Head: 46.2 cm - 25%. Hopefully that means his brain is growing too?

Questions for the Doc:

What should we do about his poor eating habits? Well, he doesn't exactly have fat parents. Don't worry about it. He'll eat when he wants to. Just don't fill him up with junk food.
Should we supplement with vitamins or iron? You don't need to, but you can give him vitamin supplements if you want.
His weight gain is so slow, but he's hanging out of his car seat and the should straps barely are almost too low now. What do you say? Yes, move him to a forward facing car seat now.
He gets patches of itchy skin - eczema, probably? Try to avoid having to use steroids, especially on the face, by generously applying Cetaphil moisturizer to his whole body.
We tried the Benedryl trick for the plane flight, but was the dosage not enough? Next time, try Dramamine. That'll knock him out.
Can we use sunscreen now? Yes, any decent sunscreen should be OK at this point. Make sure you use it.
What should we watch out for at this age? The two greatest dangers are water and burns. He won't purposely get near a heat source, but he may accidentally trip into a BBQ or a campfire. Get him a wading pool, but make sure to watch him. Babies drown far too often around here and it only takes 2 inches of water.
Anything else? Taisei should be having his teeth brushed regularly now. It should be at least a couple times a day. And don't give him the bottle before bedtime or it will rot his teeth out.
Lastly, establish order and structure in the home. Taisei is at the stage where he is constantly testing you, pushing your limits and seeing how far he can go.

New words: Duck, Na-na (grandma), Doctor (maybe just a one-time copy-cat word), ball. This "new words" section is probably about to end because he's already copying several new words a day. I'm guessing that means a "word explosion" is imminent and there will be no keeping up with the new words of the day anymore.

New trick:

Gives kisses on demand, always with a loud "smack." We don't know how he learned this. Yesterday Na-na asked him for a kiss, and he just did it! I don't feel like we ever used the word "kiss" much. Amazing synapses action.

Fun in the 14th Month

2007-06-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

Taisei's still a lightweight, currently at 19.5 pounds. He's only gained a few pounds since he was 9 months old. It doesn't help that he doesn't ever act like he's hungry. Sometime I wonder if his hunger hormones are kicking in at all. The good thing is that he's still getting taller. He's no longer able to stand up under our kitchen table. Maybe he'll catch up to his cousin Adele soon. :)

Taisei and Esperanza playing with TJ.

It's nice to be back home and have Taisei on somewhat of a schedule:

Awake sometime between 7 and 8:30. Luckily, the jetlag from Asia didn't last that long.
Monday is Japanese playgroup. For summertime, it's moved from the Sugarhouse library to Big Cottonwood Park where the city provides free lunch for children every day. Cool, huh? All the moms are Japanese, but, not surprisingly, there isn't a single baby who's 100% Japanese. Taisei's the only one who's even fully Asian, I think. In other words, no father is fully Japanese. It's more fun now that Taisei's able to run around with the other kids.
Wednesday morning is baby story time at the Sweet Library on 9th and F. Sometimes Taisei will be good and at least observe the other kids. Other times, Taisei will just run around in the library.
Thursday afternoon is CSA veggie pickup day - a walk to 6th and C.
The rest of the days, walk Hiro to Memory Grove/City Creek in the mornings.
Daddy comes home at 5 or 6. Taisei sometimes will beam really big. Sometimes he just wants Daddy to pick him up. That's dad's most common role in his life - provider of transportation and a better view of the world.
Bedtime these days is around 8. Sometimes he struggles now. Even when he can't keep his eyes open anymore, he'll still try to look at books and play. It's really kind of cute, actually.

Funny things he does:

He wants us to squirt soap and lotion on his hands so he can rub them together like Mommy does.
He always has to push the buttons in the elevator.
He likes to wear one of daddy's socks, even though it goes all the way up his leg.
He likes to wear one shoe and walk around the house.
He can sing along (like one little phrase) with two of his Japanese children's songs. He perks up when he hears them playing.
He sings along with this Sweet Dreams Pablo toy that he got from Auntie Esther. This one is hilarious.
He loves going down slides by himself. It scares the dickens out of us, but he really doesn't want us to ride together with him.
He likes to flush the toilet. Ugh. This habit we need to curb somehow.

He talks! Kind of. But what's amazing is that he's definitely aware of what he's saying. His screams of frustration were at a peak a month ago and seem to be on the decline now. This morning, Wami amazed me by demonstrating that Taisei can pick the fish and the dog out of his animal picture book. I've also found that he understands more Japanese than English. :O Oh no! I'm slacking on the Chinese!

Words he can say:

'sh (Fish, in English. He points to the fish)
Ball
Ba-ba (bye-bye, accompanied with a wave)
Wan-wan (Dog, in japanese. He can point to the dog in his animal book)

Foods he'll eat lately:

Cheddar Cheese
Broccoli with cheese (finally, some greens!)
Cereal - mini-frosted wheats, cheerios
Tofu - this kind only. Dou4 Fu3 Gan1. He discovered this in Taiwan and hasn't given it up since.
Banana & grapes
Goldfish crackers
Onigiri - Japanese rice balls

More 1st Year Tricks

2007-06-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

When I rough-house with Taisei - lift him up in the air and throw him down on pile of blankets - I always say "ahhhhhh - DONG!" You know, like a sound effect. Sometimes I say "BONG!" too. He's caught on:

Here's Taisei playing his first wind instrument. (He's already attempted the piano and guitar.) This pretty much summarizes his success so far - no record labels knocking just yet:

New Tricks

2007-06-06T07:31:00.000-07:00

Taisei walked almost all of Concourse B in the SLC airport. Then in Taiwan, he walked from the gate all the way to customs by himself. He wouldn't let us pick him up, so we let him keep going. For the most part, people thought it was amusing, although one passing flight staff glared at us and seemed to say "How could you force your young baby to walk so far on his own?" Whatever, ok? Mind your own beeswax. You prefer a screaming baby being held against his will? Huh? Huh? Anyway, check him out. If it wasn't for a huge group of sighing women distracting him, he would've continued going straight!

Suddenly, we have to watch what we do because Taisei will immediately try to do it himself. Yesterday, after I took a DVD out of the computer, he proceeded to grab it out of my hand, walk back over to the computer, push the DVD drive's open button, and put it back in. :O We were in awe. I wish we got that one on video too.

Don't try this at home - or worse yet, on a moving train. I didn't realize a baby could hold his own weight. This was successful attempt number 2. After that, I think he was too pooped. Behold, Taisei doing gymnastics in a Japanese subway train.

Taisei's Favorite Treat

2007-05-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Taisei's still not a great eater. He gets bored of food before we think he's full. Then it's off to the races. Or maybe he just always has something he'd rather do than eat.

But there's one thing that he'll drop everything to come eat. I first noticed this when I took him to a church meeting where the teacher passed these asian treats out to the boys - he was screaming for me to open it. Mommy must have introduced these to him and he knew what it was.

Taisei's First Trick

2007-05-09T07:12:00.000-07:00

Taisei's in the I-wanna-be-like-mommy stage. He sees what we do and tries to copy it. It's scary how fast he's learning nowadays. For example, he knows how to unbuckle his carseat - luckily the button's too hard for him to push. He likes to use adult toothbrushes to brush his teeth. It's funny to see him try to do what we do.

This trick was the first obvious indication he was copying us. The biggest clue is that he doesn't stick the dog treat in his mouth.

Note that he then goes back to installing the drivers for our new webcam.
That's a trick he learned from daddy. ;)

A Walking Taisei

2007-04-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Although Taisei's physically had the ability, his intellectual curiousity has taken priority over physical development. In other words, he's always thought it was faster to crawl than bumble around on his feet. So he's continued to crawl for almost two months after his first steps. In an overnight transformation about a week ago, he's almost completely stopped crawling.

By request, we bring you Taisei in full motion color video.

A Walking Taisei on Vimeo recorded April 12, 2007.

Happy 1st Birthday Taisei!

2007-03-29T22:15:00.000-07:00

We made it through the first year relatively incident free. No major accidents or setbacks. Our only problem with him is that he doesn't eat. Taisei has been a happy baby. Whenever he's not, then it's nap time. Maybe that's taught him that he'd better stay happy or else. heheh

Taisei's such a spoiled boy. He got to have two birthday parties, with gifts, cake and everything. Bev and company surprised us by having a big bash in DC the weekend before his birthday. There ended up being 18 people, all from our BYU days, at his party including 5 of his own little-people friends - Andersen, Elias, Evan, Brennan and Clayton. Although we had planned to get a baby-friendly, not-too-much-sugar cake, we didn't know we had to pre-order and eventually had to settle for a Costco cake. Wami and I were in shock. After an entire year of discipline and careful feeding, here's Taisei with his first cake - with heaps of frosting and sugar.

Quick, blow it out the candle before he grabs it!
Shock and disbelief for the two on the right.Intense enjoyment for the little one.The final result.

We had such a fun time at this party.

Thanks again to everyone who came!

For Taisei's actual birthday, we had to do something again, of course. Wami made this awesome cake loosely based off a Martha Stewart recipe. This one was baby friendly. For example, the frosting was replaced with yogurt cream. The scary thing is, I think he liked the real frosting better.

We were very touched that our only immediate family in town, Esther and John, made the trek all the way up to Salt Lake for his birthday. Thanks for coming up, guys!

Breakthrough Number Three!

2007-03-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

The first two broke through the bottom gums and the latest is breaking through the top gums. We saw it on his eleven month birthday. Yes, a new tooth. We're excited because he might be able to chew things soon. He's tired of his baby food, rejecting most of the stuff we make for him and consequently not gaining any weight at all. In fact, he's so skinny, he looks like he has muscles. Babies are not supposed to look muscle-ey.

At least we don't have to worry about his development. His development is clearly taking place, although it's not always in the form of a new trick. When my parents came for a visit, we all watched him crawl backwards down the steps. When he made it all the way from the upstairs to the downstairs, we all clapped and cheered. He was so happy and started to clap himself. By the next day, Wami and I had forgotten about that and let him climb down the stairs by himself again. When he got to the bottom, he got really excited and started clapping again. We didn't ever realize what was going on at first. He was re-celebrating the moment and we quickly joined in. Taisei has a better memory than I do already! Oh no!

He's cautious about taking steps (not yet walking - he's taken about 4 accidental ones) but he's not cautious about standing. He refuses to sit in his high chair and stands up instead. He also stands in many other dangerous places, such as in the bathtub, on tables, on airplanes when they're taking off and banking, or on uneven surfaces. One day you're going to fall down, baby!

How Rude

2007-02-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

Here are Taisei's latest tricks. (Maybe it wasn't so good to teach this to him.)

Here's a more well-mannered trick.

Cocoa Beach, Florida

2007-02-19T18:15:00.001-08:00

Taisei seemed to prefer the Atlantic Ocean over the Pacific Ocean. Or maybe he likes Florida more than California? It could be just that he's a little older this trip.

Enjoy some of the pictures we snapped.

Oh no. Go home?

Food Update

2007-02-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

Favorite drink: Prune Juice!! -the only thing he'll consistently drink.
Favorite baby food: Prune!
Favorite food: Bread
Favorite homemade food: Rice porridge with dashi (fish flakes)

Taisei the Treasure Hunter

2007-02-02T23:23:00.000-08:00

It seems like when Taisei makes some kind of mental breakthrough, he gets so involved that he would rather skip his naps. It's not always clear to us what the breakthrough is, but it's clear that it happened. And he won't sleep, even though he's tired.

Taisei seems to have passed Hiro on the problem-solving arena. Lately, he likes to check under pillows to see if Mom has hidden her cell phone there. That's where Wami keeps her cell phone when she's feeding Taisei. The funniest thing is his face when he finds it. His face just beams.

Taisei also figured out how to dismantle his humidifier so he can stick his hand in the water. Whenever he accomplishes his goal, it's apparent because he gets a big grin on his face.

He's now determined and less distracted. Once he decides that he wants to do something, he won't give up. Just a few weeks ago, you just had to put a treat or new toy in front of his face and he'd merrily go his way. Now, if you try to distract him, he just gets mad and wants you out of his way. It's hard for me to believe that development can really occur this fast. Makes me feel dumb that I haven't learned much over the past few days... or years.

"Let us out!""Can I buy chapstick, Mommy?"

Slim Shady Doing His Thing

2007-01-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

Look what Taisei did yesterday!

Ok, it's a little hard to tell from that picture. He stood up on his own! He did it several times until he smacked his face against his humidifier. Then, today he did it again several times. Each time, it's about 3-5 seconds, so getting a picture has been pretty hard. He seems to be practicing because he just stands there and doesn't move a muscle. He just looks straight ahead, or at the ground. Yes, the end of our sanity is near.

And look what else Taisei did today!

Wami informs me that he was panting as he went for it too. OK, it's probably not something to be overly proud of. But Hiro's food bowl has become his primary destination for weeks now. Finally, he caught mommy off guard and got to it. Since he can't chew food yet, we didn't let him finish it. ;)

And one more for kicks.
Here's how good of an eater he's become.

It's actually opposite of what I said in the last posting. He has now grown tired of peas, carrots, and applesauce. We're not sure if he's picky or what. But he seems to like bread and mashed potatoes. That's really all we're sure of at the moment. Oh, and prune juice for his constipation! haha!

Actually, because he suddenly started rejecting solid foods and living off mama's milk again, his #2 has returned back to a really stinky liquid consistency again. Is that normal, moms out there?

Big Brother

2006-12-21T07:17:00.000-08:00

Taisei's just like his big brother, Hiro. Taisei communicates by panting. When he wants something, he pants. When he's scared, he pants. When he's happy, he pants. Taisei also likes to check things out the same way Hiro does - by tasting it. If he can't reach it and pull it to his mouth, then he'll lean over and lick it or put his mouth on it.

Hiro still hasn't totally warmed up to new little brother yet, but he's starting to. He'll tolerate Taisei crawling towards him as fast as he can and trying to pet him. I guess the whole family's beginning to gel. ;)

I've been procastinating an update on Taisei. The truth is I can't keep track of all the new stuff that's going on. It seems like development has increased exponentially each week. Within the last two weeks, he's evolved from a happy mellow baby who can sit still to almost wildly out of control. Yes, it's probably only just the beginning of the end. He'll now lift up his arms and squirm to get out of your hands if he doesn't want to be held, arch his back and scream if he doesn't want to be in the car seat, and crawl at a furious pace to try to follow you out of the room. He loves his apple sauce, mashed carrots and green peas, but won't eat 2 bites of broccoli.

Also, we had his 9 month appointment yesterday. Wami got to the appointment early, and they took them in early, so I missed the appointment. Apparently, he's shrinking. He's only 16.5 pounds and ?? inches long. That puts him somewhere around the 5% range. But he eats a LOT, so I guess we're doing all we can. Dr. Lindsay still assures us that he's doing just fine and not to worry about it. I got to the appointment just in time to see Taisei get a flu shot and blood test. Amazingly, he didn't cry at all for either. Besides the shots, I did catch a few tidbits at the end of the appointment:

Be extra careful to avoid sick people because baby lungs are particularly sensitive and fragile. Avoid crowded areas, including church.
Feed him whenever you feed yourself. So three meals a day if that's what you do.
Go ahead and let him try some of your meal, if he's interested. And I'm sure he will be.
His episode of eczema will probably come back in an environment like Utah. Just put on the steroids again.

A Crawl Nearer

2006-11-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

Last week was a big week for Taisei and probably life changing for his parents. He figured out how to sustain a consistent crawl. That means he eyes something and then goes for it. Before, he would use one knee once and then the other. Then he would use both feet to push his bum high in the air and end up in a sitting position. He never got very far doing that, so we didn't have to watch him so carefully. Now, he's going for the remote controls, power cords and all those other things we don't want him to get into. Maggie's right though. He's much less frustrated now that he can move around and not be stuck in a chair or exersaucer.

He also figured out how to pull himself into a standing position. But he can't let himself back down nicely, so usually when he goes up, he comes down hard too. Too bad it's a hardwood floor. A few more bumped heads and he'll figure it out. :)

Bully Baby

2006-11-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

Bully Loa while you can, Taisei. Because even though you're 3 months older right now and a little bit taller, he already weighs more than you do! Next year, he'll just have to sit on you. :O

Thanks for the pics, Kazumi!

Return From Japan - Mama's Boy

2006-11-10T21:09:00.001-08:00

All is well in the Universe again. Taisei's already starting to warm up to his daddy again. I may have partially misunderstood some of the change that he's undergone. Although he definitely tends to want his mommy over his daddy these days, it's not totally because he doesn't remember his daddy. It's partly because he's recently become more of a mama's boy. I guess babies go through stages where the only person they want is mama. And since he was tired and grumpy yesterday, he wanted mama. It was hard for me to understand because before he left for Japan (when he wasn't jet-lagged), he had such a set sleeping schedule that we always knew when he would be happy and when he would be sleepy. So his moods were predictable and understandable. But now he's still adjusting. And so is his daddy. Unpredictable moods and you never know when he'll want mama. At this moment, Wami's trying to get him to go back to bed. Good night Taisei!

____________________________________

Hm... this guy in the green - he seems alright.

He tastes alright.

Yeah - I think I like him!
____________________________________

And oh, additions to the new list of things he does:

Pincer grasp ability - using thumb and forefingers to pick things up.
The transfer of objects from one hand to the other.
The ability to continue grasping objects while moving from the tummy into the sit position.

Return From Japan - First Impressions

2006-11-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

They back! I can't believe how much older Taisei looks. To me, instead of a baby-baby, he now looks like a toddler-baby. I don't know how you can explain the age different between 7 weeks, but a parent can tell.

Taisei has been grumpy probably because of the time change. Everyone was wiped out, including me. I had some bad lasagna yesterday and ended up missing work this morning. So we all slept a good part of the afternoon.

I didn't think it was possible, but I think Taisei really has forgotten who I am. When I took him from Wami the first time at the airport, he made a big frown and started to cry. Then when I went in to get him from his nap, he also started to cry. He needs his mommy for comfort nowadays. At the end of the day, he started to smile at me and let me hold him, but I think it's going to take a little time. I'm not worried about it, but it's a little sad, you know what I mean?

Some things he does now that didn't he didn't do before:

He semi-crawls by pushing with his feet, not his knees.
He sits up to admire the scenery.
He whines when he wants something.
He eats food!
He wants mommy (and doesn't know who daddy is yet)
New faces - scrunched up happy face, big huge frowny face
New sounds - grunting, squealing, high-pitched happy sounds, whining

Well, it's only been a few hours. Hopefully it will click in his mind who I am. I wish I didn't have to go to work for the next week. Wish me luck!

Here's Taisei and Grandma Micchan.

Seeing The World Right Side Up

2006-10-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

No new screen captures to give you this time, but I did finally get a phone call from Wami. She told me that yesterday Taisei decided to sit up. Yay! :) Just after the 7 month mark. He was kinda slow on that one. Now he just sits whenever he feels like it. Funny boy. There goes another milestone* I missed. To get around, he's still traveling "commando style" - on his stomach. Maybe he'll wait until he's home with daddy before he decides to start crawling - definitely before walking. Or maybe like the rest of the Yu kids (and now one Severson kid too), he'll never crawl. We'll see. 10 more days - woohooo! That reminds me - I'd better get back to baby-proofing! Please give us any pointers on this if you have any.

*By the way, to us these milestones are just for fun. As long as the baby seems reasonably healthy, we truly believe there is little merit to the 3 month milestones, 5 month milestones, etc. Taisei's been ahead on some and behind on some, but we don't care. The only thing checking off those boxes will do is stress out the poor 1st time parents. So don't compare and don't stress!

Taisei Goes To Japan

2006-10-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some screen captures from dvds that Wami sent me. Please excuse the horrible quality. They're all I have at the moment and so these videos are near and dear to me. Don't make fun of them! :)

Wami and Taisei flew into Osaka and immediately went to the Kitano's, her family when she was at college and first baptized. Naomi gives Taisei his first drink of non-mother's-milk, mugicha, after a hot Japanese bath.

Here's Taisei playing with Ryu, Yuya and Elika. Elika's going to come spend Christmas with us and then go attend english school at BYU's ELC in December.

Finally, the motherland Takaoka! Here's Grandpa, or An-chan, as he has named himself for Taisei. Wami's still trying to sneak a picture of Grandma.

Taisei and Great-grandpa! To the right is Wami's cousin, Mari, and her baby, Konon.

Bugs Bunny Look

2006-10-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

An update from Japan! At 6:30 am this morning - 9:30 pm in Japan - Wami gave me a call to tell me that Taisei's teething. He has the two middle teeth coming in from the top! He hasn't been particularly grumpy yet. Wami said maybe that's why he woke up crying once or twice at night. Hopefully he can continue to get sleep. For me, I almost felt sad to hear the news. Not because I want Taisei to never be able to chew food, or because I want him to stay a baby forever. I guess I just felt disappointed that I'm missing some growing moments in his life. And maybe it's a sign of transition from his baby-baby stage to mobile-baby stage. I know. It's not even that big of a deal. I'll see him soon again. (And he'll have two big teeth when he smiles at me.)

Six Month Check Up

2006-09-22T10:54:00.000-07:00

Taisei had his 6 month check up a little early because he won't be available in another week. Today, he had 3 shots - the same as last time minus the polio. Taisei was a good boy for the doctor and nurse. So far, strangers don't scare him or make him cry. In fact, to Taisei, everyone's finger is fair game for sucking. Hopefully he doesn't become too shy in the next few stages of his babyhood.

Stats: 25.75 inches (25%), 14 lbs 9 oz (10%), head circumference 42 cm. Uh oh! He's shrinking! Dr. Lindsay says there's nothing to worry about because baby growth is not actually a smooth curve and he's probably just at a slow point. I hope that's true! Plus, according to my calculations (as seen on the graph below), he's actually about 38% height . Phew! :D Mental development is right on target. Good thing they don't give you percentages for that. :)

Here were Wami's questions for the day:

Is he teething? There's a lot of drool and hard biting.
Not necessarily. We thought our son was about to teeth at 6 months because of that same reason and he teethed at 11 months. You think it hurts now? Wait until some teeth come out.

When he teeths, should we give him anything?
The teething toys should be helpful enough. If not, you can give him baby tylenol. For my family, baby orajel didn't help that much.

Should we feed him solids?
Yes, it's time to slowly get started. This is my prefered method. Introduce each item slowly and give it to him for three days before you introduce the next. Start with cereal, then veggies, then fruits and lastly meat. It's ok for him to try some of the things you're eating for dinner. Feed him the solids before you breastfeed him. If you breastfeed first, he may not want to eat. Also, due to allergy risks and other things, avoid the following four: peanut butter, milk, honey and egg whites.

He's becoming mobile - what should we do?
Here are the four rules for baby proofing the home:
1. Keep poisons and other toxic chemicals high and out of reach
2. Keep small objects that could choke out of reach
3. Prevent shocks and burns by securing electrical outlets and cords

Emotion

2006-09-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

In the span of about three weeks, Taisei seems to have taken great strides in development. I haven't been able to quite put my finger on it. I think it's emotion. When babies are young, you say they are "mad" when they cry really hard. But they are really just crying because they need something - milk or a diaper change. It's nothing cognitive. Just intuitive. But now, when Taisei is happy or mad, he's laughing or he's screaming. When he wants something, he really wants something. Right now, he particularly likes to suck on cold drinks that mommy and daddy are drinking, someone to hold him at all times, and not to be left in the car seat any longer than necessary anymore. Besides mental growth, he's definitely goes after things he wants. He's threatening to crawl any day now. To get places now, he's dragging himself around with just his arms (no legs yet).

Even though he may not remember a thing, we've concentrated the last week just taking Taisei around to places he's never been. Here's a picture of him with Grandpa at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Taisei's first beach trip. This is Sunset Beach - one of our family favorites.

BYU Baby - woohoo! Cool shirt.
(Thanks Kevin & Becky!)

A moment of peace. Mommy and baby looking out the window.

Squirmy Boy

2006-09-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

Taisei's has two marked behaviorial developments lately. 1. He grasps anything within reach and sticks it in his mouth. 2. He won't hold still for diaper changes anymore. It used to be that I could hold his two feet up and that would prevent him from flipping over. Now, he starts screaming and grabs onto the edge of the changing table for his dear life. He'll arch his back and twist until he's on his belly. That's ok if I'm still wiping, but I probably have to flip him over about 4 or 5 times to get the diaper properly velcroed. It doesn't make diaper changing very fun. Especially now that his poop is really starting to stink!

Taisei's starting to pay attention to different things. He played with his knee for about 15 minutes one day. He'll sit in an ExerSaucer and watch one episode of Baby Einstein. (Note: We probably won't let Taisei watch much TV as he gets older, but if we're gonna leave him in the ExerSaucer, we might as well have some mental stimulation for him as well.) We found out he can suck on his toes.

And he can read too. His pronunciation doesn't seem to be that good yet.

Taisei seems to love taking walks in the baby bjorn. When we take him by stroller, he just zones out and doesn't make any sounds or movement. It's kind of weird. But by baby bjorn, he's generally kicking his legs, and flapping his arms with glee.

Finally, a candidate for Taisei's eventual marriage arrangement. (Almost all of Taisei's other buddies are boys.) We're working on the paperwork now. Introducing a 3 week old Virginia Scharkowski and new mother, Amber.

South Mountain

2006-08-27T22:55:00.000-07:00

What's a weekend without the outdoors? This time, we took the Young Men and Women, along with our kids (Taisei & Hiro) and hiked the Corner Canyon Trail down in Draper. Hiro had a blast running around on the trail. Taisei most enjoyed sucking on my hand as we walked up the trail.

Here's Taisei chillin' on our bed. Check out his cool shirt, created by Michelle Kaneyuki over in Hawaii. We want to try Taisei Ramen the next time we're in Oahu. By the way, Congratulations Jason and Michelle! Taisei's excited to meet Elias.

Taisei having fun sitting in the boppy pillow.

Wipe out! That's what you get for not holding still, little man! He was trying to escape from the sleeping pad. He made it... by face-planting into the carpet. But he enjoyed it and continues to work on his escape artist skills. Hiro is unfazed by the commotion.

Japanese Babies at Liberty Park

2006-08-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, Japanese mothers will meet each other at the park so the babies can socialize and the mommies can talk their mommy-talk. At least, that's the perception of one outsider Taiwanese-American husband. Wami got together with Masami, Sayuri and Kazumi at Liberty Park.

In this picture, you can see Masami's boy on top, her twins on the left, Taisei, Sayuri's baby and Kazumi's baby. They had such a great time, they stayed there all afternoon.

Four Month Check-Up

2006-08-09T14:47:00.000-07:00

We just had Taisei's 4 month appointment with Dr. Lindsay* today. Taisei's still growing. He's around 50th percentile height and weight and 25th percentile head circumference. Who would've known he had a proportionally small head. Looks alright to me. :) He measures 13 lbs 9 oz, 25 inches tall and 16 inches around the head. What cute proportions! Just kidding.

He got 4 more vaccination shots, 2 on each thigh, that quickly changed his cheery disposition to a ouch-ouch-what-the-heck-happened disposition. But as soon as the shots were done, he seemed to be ok again and his teary face soon either dried up or was smeared on my t-shirt. A successful trip to the doctor's! By the way, here are Dr. Lindsay's answers to Wami's list of questions. Admittedly, different doctors probably have different opinions.

Any advice about taking Taisei to Japan?
Make sure to breastfeed him on take-offs and landings. No drugs necessary until 6 months. He's young enough not to need Dramamine or Benadryl. Bring toys to keep him entertained.

When can he use sunscreen or deet?
Avoid the use of deet and sunscreen until at least 6 months. Try Avon's SkinSoSoft to repel bugs - it works! As for the sun, keep him out of it.

He always rolls onto his belly to sleep - is that ok?
Let's avoid it. He is still at an age where risk of SIDS is high. Try to turn him over after he falls asleep. Make sure there is nothing in the crib - no blankets, pillows, toys, etc.

What's this new rash on his neck?
It's probably from drool or milk on his neck. Nothing to be alarmed about. You can apply vaseline, diaper rash cream or do nothing at all unless things get worse.

Is it time to start solid foods yet?
No, there is no benefit until about six months of age. We'll cover that at your next appointment. For now, continue breastfeeding. It's more beneficial at this point.

How much longer should we breastfeed?
It's very important for the first year. So please try to continue until then if you can. After one year, the benefits begin to wane.

* By the way, Dr. Lindsay is Sunny Chen's fiance Jonathan Beutler's pediatrician ever since he was a baby. Jonathan's grandma also lived 4 doors down from us before she recently passed away. Funny, huh? Jonathan highly recommended Dr. Lindsay - perfect since the office is only a few blocks away. After this initial recommendation, he was also highly recommended to us from our OB and two more friends who are pediatricians themselves, Dr. Hildebrand and Dr. Elizabeth.

Baby Mix 'n Match

2006-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here are baby pictures of our whole family, with a few extra Yus. See if you can find the matches. :) (Best viewed in Firefox. Stop using Internet Exploder!)

1. Jerin

2. Wami

3. Taisei

4. Hiro

5. Adele

6. Esther

7. Emily

Froggie

2006-07-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

Before, getting a day off work or coming home early meant going out for a drive, shopping or having a special meal out. Now, it's "Did Taisei take a nap yet?", "Let's play with him while he's awake and alert", or "Oh, he's sleeping now - better not wake him up." And he goes to bed around 7:30 now. You would think that that would help us to get to bed earlier... :| The good thing is that playing with him sure saves us money over leaving the house. (Costco - automatic $50+, Walmart - always something to buy, Home Depot - oh yeah, gotta fix that too, Beto's carnitas-yum!, etc.)

Lately, not only does he refuse to sleep on his back, he insists on this froggy position.

There appears to be a distinct awareness of others - maybe even of mommy and daddy. He prefers to play with us instead of solo these days.

The first attempt, he didn't like his Johnny Jumper. This second attempt, he seems to be enjoying himself... especially sucking on the fabric. :|

Pioneer Day

2006-07-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Pioneer Day! This Utah holiday celebrates the day in 1847 when Brigham Young arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and declared "This is the place." But I believe this holiday is significant not only to those who's ancestors walked across the plains to Utah 150 years ago. Each of us can be a pioneer in our own rights. Afterall, this is the United States - the land of pioneers. There are very few of us that can trace our heritage to more than a few generations back without following it to another country. If we work hard, we can be pioneers in our fields, in our religions or in our families. Wami's just had the first Nitta baby outside of Japan. Go Nitta baby! :)

Here is Taisei pioneering the baby-in-a-sleeping-bag look (bear lake, 7/7):

Here, he continues to hone his techniques in stroller-yoga (7/20).

Taisei's decided to bring back the sleeping on the tummy trend. He just won't sleep on the back anymore.

Taisei pioneers the way for his buddies. "Please meet my pal, Kouki "Loa" Sing!"

Welcome!

2006-07-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Taisei's blog!

In order not to bore the casual iseeyu.com readers with a lot of personal family blog entries, we've started this for the family members, people with tons of extra time, stalkers (actually, you're not really welcome) and friends interested in just seeing Taisei's progress.

At this moment, Taisei is 3 months, 3 weeks, 3 days and 3 hours old. According to our calculations, he weighs 13 lbs and measures 24 inches long.

His biggest recent milestone has been his ability to now scream loudly and entertain himself with toys.