Suzuki Family

The Suzukis came and visited us in Long Beach this time around. They actually stayed with us in our teeny tiny house. It was a tight squeeze but it was so much fun. On Sunday, we went to Griffith Park to see the Hollywood sign and the sunset. Then we went to the Santa Monica pier. The kids got to play in the sand and froze they're tusshies off! We went to Disneyland on Monday and the Long Beach Aquarium on Tuesday. The kids loved feeding the Lorikeets and petting the sharks. Tesshin gets a little more comfortable petting the sharks each time we go. The sting rays get so close to Tesshin. He must smell real good to them. They left today. Here are a few pics

Christmas Eve

It's starting to become a tradition to go to Tessho's cousin's house for Christmas Eve. I really enjoy going to see the whole family and Tessho's got a good size extended family. It's rare when we can all get together like that. There's always someone missing from our family events. Our family will increase by one next year in May. That's when Tessho's cousin is getting married. Ha ha! Did you think I was pregnant?!?! Just to clarify, no I'm not pregnant. Just thought I'd play a little joke. Anyway, back to Chistmas Eve, Tesshin is getting older so he's able to interact with his cousins Jacob and Joshua. It's fun to watch them together. Jacob and Joshua watch over him and include him in whatever game they're playing. They were really into the Disney DVD Bingo. We could hear Tesshin's little voice competing with the other 2 boys. But for the most part, Tesshin was their echo. We left around 9-ish so the boys could get to bed and wait for Santa. My little one is sound asleep. Doh...we forgot to sprinkle the reindeer food! Oh well. Merry Christmas!

Family Day 2009

Tessho and Tesshin came to my company's Family Day again this year. Most of my co-workers only get to see him once a year on this day so they were really happy to see him and commented on how much he's grown. He was able to do more activities than last year. I realized that my favorite activity is making reindeer food. I'm sure Tesshin could care less about the activities. He just likes running down the hallways. We took a family photo with Santa. He was a much better looking Santa than the one at the mall.

Catch up

Has it been 2 months since my last post?! Yikes. Well, to sum it all up, Tesshin is doing great. He is a very active 2 year old. We went in for a height/weight check (since he's still below the 1 percentile range) a few weeks ago. He weighs 21 pounds and is 32 inches tall. Yay! Finally some growth. He's been 18 pounds since he was 1. October kinda flew by, especially since we've been going back and forth to San Diego to help my mom. We were able to stick around for Halloween. Tessho and Tesshin went to the pumpkin patch with the Fu's earlier in the month and then on Halloween day we went back to Kidspace with the Fu's for their annual celebration. That is a really cool place to take kids. Later that day, we went over to the Huegle's for dinner and trick-or-treating. Tesshin dressed up as Thomas the Tank Engine. He didn't like the costume at first but he got used to it. He put on the engineer hat for a few pictures and immediately tore it off. He really got into the "Halloween" thing once he got the concept of getting candy after saying Trick-or-Treat. Too bad he never got to eat any of his candy. There's plenty of years for that.

His latest obsession is Monsters Inc and Toy Story 2 is not far behind. Can you believe he's watching these movies from the VCR, not DVD? At least they're getting some use instead of collecting dust. It's nice that he can sit through an entire movie without fuss or getting bored. I think he's watched it at least over 100 times already (Sometimes he'll watch it 3 times in one day). He's watched it so much he can follow along and say certain lines in the movie. We went to Disneyland on Nov 11 (Veteran's Day). Tessho and I had the day off so we took Tesshin for his first time. We hadn't been there in about 10 years. I know it's been that long since DCA is celebrating 10 years and we haven't gone since it's been open. Geez, what have I been doing? Anyway, they have a Monsters Inc ride. While we were waiting in line, we kept passing the Monsters Inc trash bins and he would point to the bin and he'd say "Monsters Inc eye". All in all it was a great first day at Disneyland. We're excited to have annual passes, too. We can't wait to go back and see all of the Holiday decorations.

Conversations with Tesshin

I can't believe we were once worried that Tesshin couldn't hear. Along with that, came the fear that he would have delayed speech or no speech at all. Nowadays, we can't get him to be quiet. After Tessho went back to school, I've taken on thh duty of taking him to daycare and picking him up. We have great conversations in the car. Here's a sample of what we talked about yesterday:

On the way to daycare:
Me (M) - Are you ready to go to Maggie's house?
Tesshin (T) - No
M - But you're going to see all of your friends
T - See friends
M - That's right. Who's your buddy?
T - Mommy buddy

At the daycare (end of the day):
T - MOMMY!!!
M - Hi buddy.
T - Bye Maggie...thank you. Mommy...project.
M - Oh, you have a project outside?
T - Yes, heart
M - Oh it's a heart and a key. Do I hold the key to your heart?
T - Yes.
M - Thank you Tesshin
T - You're welcome Mommy

On the way home:
T - Go home (I couldn't tell if that was a statement or question)
M - Yes, we're going home now and we'll see Daddy
T - Daddy buddy
M - Is Daddy your buddy?
T - Yes. BAPES!!!! (Bapes = Grapes) SNACK!!! DADDY!!!
M - Do you want Daddy to get you a snack? Some grapes?
T - YES!!!
M - Ok, but you don't have to shout.
T - Sorry...sorry mommy.
M - That's ok.
T - Love you mommy.
M - Love you too Tesshin

Nisei Week Tourney

Tessho played in the Nisei Week Basketball Tournament this weekend. Tessho's second game on Saturday was against Willis so we got to see Debbie and Austin. Although we don't get to see each other as often as we would like, our boys seem to get along like no time had passed since the last time they got together. They ran around, passed the ball to each other, acted silly, ran around some more, and eventually got to watch the last few minutes of the game. We let the boys hang out in the back of our car and that seemed to entertain them for a while.
These boys look like they should be part of the game. "Put me in Coach!"






This picture is when they were in the car. They kept jumping up and knocking their heads on the ceiling.






This picture is one of a few rare moments when they sat still. I "borrowed" these pics from Debbie's blog. She's the mommy that's always prepared




Tessho's team did make it through to the finals and they pulled off a win on Sunday. It sure was a nail biter though. Uncle D sustained an injury but oulled though to make MVP. Way to go BayIILA!

My little helper

Tesshin has been become quite the little helper. He likes to help me wash the dishes, load the dryer and even wipes down the table after meals. He's always been good about putting things away. He learned that early on at daycare. He loves to vacuum with Tessho too. We usually end up vacuuming the rug (without him) and then when we're done we'll let him hold on and then go in circles, since he doesn't like going in reverse. I'm learning a lot of patience too. I'm guilty for "running the show" my way and on my time when it comes to chores around the house. But when Tesshin wants to help it usually takes twice as long and sometimes twice the effort since I'm cleaning up his mess, but it's worth it. I'm glad he's taking interest in helping around the house because in a few years, he won't have a choice. Hee hee hee :o)

Another crazy weekend

Saturday we spent a few hours at the Orange County Swap Meet. That was my first time there. It was huge! I'm happy to say that I still walked away with money in my purse. I got Tesshin a pair of sunglasses (which he won't wear) and another hat (that he also won't wear). It was such a hot day that I didn't want him to pass out from a heat stroke but he just wasn't feeling the hat. I also got some grapes. Tesshin calls them "bapes". He just loves grapes. I can't leave the produce aisle without a bag of them. Unfortunately since they're purchased by weight I have to pick them up last, put them first on the belt and then give him some while the cashier rings up the rest of the stuff. If I go to the produce aisle first, forget it, it's an all out cry fest. So anyway, during the day we did OCSM and then after that we had BBQ ribs for dinner. So yummy!


On Sunday morning, we had to go to LAX and pick up my dad. He was returning home from a 2 week trip to Japan (I'm so jealous!). We got there early but got mixed up about which airline he flew so we waited at the International Terminal for 30 minutes. All the while, he was waiting for us at the United Airlines terminal. Whoops...sorry Dad. He pretty much got over how mad he was at me because Tesshin kept smiling and saying "Jiichan". At one point, we were driving back to San Diego and my dad was telling me stories about his trip and Tesshin screams "QUIET!!!!!". He even put his finger to his lips and shushed us. What a brat!We got stuck in some traffic and my backseat driver says "Oh no". He cracked us up the whole way home. We got into San Diego at around 2:30, stopped at Carl's Jr for lunch and then Tessho did me a HUGE favor by picking up my mom and brother from the San Diego Airport. They were coming back from Denver. We have Chinese food that night since neither my mom nor I wanted to cook. We have fun that night rummaging through my dad's suitcase, going through all of the "omiage" that he brought back.

We left San Diego early that morning to avoid the holiday traffic and Tessho wanted to get home to mow the lawn before the trash guys came by the house. We were so pooped that we ended up napping with Tesshin in the afternoon. Or at least, I did.

Sing along

It's been a slow progression but Tesshin is starting to say more and more words lately. His first real sentence was "I got it" and "I got the ball". He still has a hard time distinguishing between "Mommy" and "Daddy". We got our first musical concert this past weekend. He started out singing Old McDonald Had a Farm. He can say "Ol' McDonald nanono E-I-E-I-O". Then he goes straight into "anna moo moo moo anna moo moo moo E-I-E-I-O. (Translation = With a Moo Moo here and a Moo Moo there...." Then he'll clap his hands and say "YAY!!!" All weekend long it was "anna moo moo moo anna moo moo moo...YAY!!!" His second song was the ABC song. He'll get some of the letters. His favorite part is the end where they say "Now I know my A-B-Cs, next time won't you sing with me" Tesshin's version "Now nigh know nigh A-B-Cs, (fill in any kind of babble 'cause I have no idea what he says here".

Happy Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day in San Diego. My older brother, Mark, flew in from Colorado on Saturday and we were treated to homemade gyoza that night. On Sunday morning Mark, Tessho and I treated my mom to a pancake breakfast at home. It was so good. We had panckaes, sausage links, bacon, fresh strawberry topping and whipped cream. I realized we forgot to cook eggs that night. Oh well, it was still all really good. But most of all, it was nice to be with family and now that I'm a mom I really do appreciate my own mother. I actually had fun picking out Mother's Day cards for my mom, Tessho's mom and Tessho's grandma. I couldn't believe that they had a "Great-Grandma" card. It was cute so I had to buy it. It had a brown bear holding a shiny red heart. I'm so happy that Tesshin is fortunate to have 2 sets of grandparents and even a great grandma. It's these special days that reminds me how lucky he is. It's also nice that he's starting to say "Baachan" and "Jiichan". I'm sure it's confusing for him because he's got just one "Mommy" and "Daddy" but he's got to remember 3 Baachan's and 2 Jiichans. Father's Day will be here in no time. I have to start thinking of what to do for Tessho.