Guess this animal...

Okay, it's time for some reader feedback via the comments section.

Can you guess what type of stuffed animal this is suppose to be?

(I knew what it was, but someone who shall remain nameless at this time thought it was something completely different)

Thugster…

It’s hard to look like a thug with a girlie looking Easter rabbit shirt but I liked Jack’s small mouth and ‘mean’ look when he was 21 weeks old.

 

I guess Stacy wanted to copy Jacks “thug appeal” and she had to do her small mouth mean pose.

Wii Resort…

It all started with the Leapster video game, then it migrated to the PSP and now Jack is playing Wii.  I bought Jack Wii Resort for Christmas and Jack really enjoys playing some of the games…more specifically Sword Fighting!

Jack plays the games by himself but he always wants either Aya or I to watch him play.   I just tune him out and read and pretend like I am watching him play so I have no idea what is going on.  All I know is that it looks easy.  One day Jack was having problems and asked if I would help him.  I figured how hard could it be?? 

Umm, let me say it is harder than it looks.  At first I didn’t want to look stupid by standing and playing so I just sat and flicked my wrist around trying to be cool.  Nope…I got destroyed.  I started to stand and get into it, but I still sucked.    Jack usually challenges Aya and I to a swordfight duel but it is pure torture because he beats us so quick.  I have no idea how he does it either.

I sometimes ‘practice’ when he is in school or when he goes to sleep but I just can’t beat him.  Luckily, I am not his only victim.   Jack has been challenging people who come to the house and I know they think the game is easy AND how hard could it be to beat a 4 year old.   Ha!  Joke’s on them when Jack beats them:

Uncle Susu getting beat down!

Aaron didn’t want to play but couldn’t say, “No” to Jack and Jack easily beat his cousin.

Bryan tried my tactic and just sat down trying to be cool until Jack beat Bryan in record time!

 

Aunty Dawn gave it a go but she came up empty handed as well.

Word of the wise, when Jack challenges you to a game of Swordfight be prepared to play!!

Weekend Conversations...

This weekend Aya and I were changing one of Stacy's diaper and I happened to notice a smudge on Aya's sleeve.

Miles: Is that poop on your arm?
Aya: Where?
Miles: Right there on your sleeve.
Aya: Hmm, I dunno.
Miles: Smell it.

Aya then raises her arm sleeve to her face.

Miles: Eww, dude! I said smell it, NOT lick it!!

I dunno what made Aya taste her sleeve but it was nasty!

-----

On Sunday, I was getting ready to take Jack to the park for a play date. I was debating if I should do a load of laundry because I knew I could start it before I left but it wouldn't be done before I left.

Miles: I am going to start the laundry. Can you put the clothes in the dryer when it is done?
Aya: Yes.
Miles: Are you sure?
Aya: Yes.
Miles: You won't forget will you?
Aya: Yes, I will not forget.
Miles: Okay, cya in an a few hours.

After Jack and I go to the park, we went to the mall to return one of Stacy's outfit and then we went to get lunch for Aya. As we sit down to eat, it dawned on me:

Miles: Did you finish the laundry.
Aya: Oh no! I forgot.
Miles: One thing. You only had one lousy thing to do. I knew it. I knew better to ask you for help.

And that in a nut shell is why I will probably die early.

Stacy and the cricket…

Why did we pick the name Stacy?  For some reason Jack’s name came very easy for us but we had such a hard time thinking of a girls name once we found out Aya was having a girl this time around.   We searched social security for the top names of the past few years.  We didn’t like any of the ‘popular’ names.   Naturally I was still rooting for the name Jill but that wasn’t going to happen.

Since Stacy’s due date was 1/4 and my Mom’s birthday was 1/5 and my mother in-laws birthday was 1/6, Aya and I decided to try to think of a name that used both the first letter of both our moms first name…S for Susan and Y for Yoko.  We thought, Stacy.   We weren’t 100% sure we would go with that name.  We thought about Shirley, Sally and Shelly…but those for mostly after thoughts for other names with S and Y.

As you all know, Stacy was not born on her 1/4 due date.   We did get another ‘visitor’…a cricket.  I hate crickets and for the past 6-7 months we have had a ton of crickets around our house.  They get into the garage and sometimes the house and it just drives me crazy.  This time a cricket got behind the dishwasher and behind the cabinet so there was no way for me to kill it.  I figured I would be tortured one night but it would move along the next night and I would kill it.

The next night the cricket was the in the EXACT same spot making the annoying cricket noise again!  Grr.  I tried to ‘scare’ the cricket out but since I wasn’t 100% sure where the cricket was I was just blindly poking around.  No luck.  Crap bag.

The next night the cricket was there…AGAIN.  I mean this cricket doesn’t go anywhere during the day and doesn’t make any noise until I go downstairs to watch tv from at night.  Stupid, stupid cricket.  I finally went online to check for cricket poison, cricket traps and then I saw two urban legends related to crickets:

1. Crickets in the house brings good luck

2. For a cricket to choose to come into your home signifies something good is on the way. Sometimes it's a child, a monetary gain, good news of some sort. And to kill it is not good! It will leave on its own shortly before the good news

I happened to mention this to Aya and then Aya told me not to kill the cricket because Stacy was due any day now so why ‘jinx’ any of our chances.   Ugh.

For 2 more nights the cricket chirped away but it got less annoying.  I still wanted to buy cricket poison but I decided to ‘test’ the cricket myth. 

After Aya gave birth I came home one night to take a shower and no cricket noise.  Since we have been home no cricket noise either.   Aya had a super easy delivery (relative to Jack’s delivery) and Stacy is a-ok.  No jaundice like Jack, no ailments thus far and Stacy sleeps A LOT.   So maybe, just maybe the cricket was good luck for us!

Stacy Emiko Yoshioka Part 3…

Welcome home!!   Stacy finally got to meet Grandma and Jack:

Jack was neither here nor there about Stacy being home but he was very sweet with her.

First family photo:

  

We have more pictures but this was actually our best one…except for Jack making his ‘mean’ face. 

I suppose this one was a better but I like the mean face better.

Stacy Emiko Yoshioka Part 2…

Stacy’s first visitors to the hospital was Uncle and Obachan:

Aunty Dawn and Brian:

 

Grandpa.  (Grandma was a little sick so she was in the car with Jack since Jack couldn’t visit)

 

Jeff & Melanie:

Jenny:

SaMANtha:

Stacy Emiko Yoshioka Part 1…

We came home from the hospital yesterday and I think all the adrenaline wore off as we were both tired when we got home so I didn’t download any pictures until today.

Unfortunately St. John’s doesn’t allow any children under the age of 18(due to H1N1) so Jack was unable to see his baby sister in the hospital.  Before we headed to the hospital we dropped Jack off at Grandpa and Grandma’s house:

Stacy all cleaned up:

Family photo:

 

Father and daughter.

Welcome that newest addition to our family...

Sorry, no pictures to post as I left my camera at the hospital. I just came home to take a quick shower and grab some clothes.

Stacy Emiko Yoshioka joined our family on January 16, 2010 at 10:08 pm. Stacy was 6 lbs and 13 oz. 19.5 inches long. Both Aya and the baby are doing just fine.

Stacy has a full head of hair...and furry shoulders too. =( Unfortunately she really isn't smiling a whole heck of a lot but she is sleeping. In the past 14 hours she was up about 45 minutes total. The rest of the time was sleeping so maybe that trend will continue when we get home.

Aya's delivery went smooth. We scheduled an inducement at 6 pm on 1/16 and we thought we would deliver around midnight. We wanted a 1/17 delivery because we realized, everyone in our family was born on odd days, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 19, 21, 23 and 25. I guess Stacy didn't want to be odd like us.

Stacy didn't want to come out on her due date but she sure wanted to come out when we started the inducement procedure. Once Aya requested the epidural, she had a contraction and before the epidural drip could go in and 3 pushes and 5-8 minutes later, Stacy was out!

We will be home tomorrow afternoon so pics will be posted soon.

Jack’s Picture…

Jack wanted to use my camera so Aya and I posed for a picture for Jack.

Grandma’s Birthday…

We celebrated Grandma’s birthday last week with dinner at our house and Paradise cake from King’s.

 

I think Jack liked the cake more than Grandma.

Baby’s Room…

In case you are all wondering, there is no baby news to report.  The baby is still comfy cozy inside Aya and she hasn’t made any attempts on coming out to join the family.

Thanks for the generosity of family and friends, Jack’s baby sister has a fully stocked closet until she is 2 years old!

We moved all of Jack’s baby furniture in the baby’s room:

 

Same crib…just girlie sheets now.

Bed and books.

Chocolate Face…

What better way to mess up your clean nice teeth than eating chocolate frosted brownie!   How this kid gets brownie frosting all over his face I have no idea.

Would it be wrong to dress up Jack as Hitler for Halloween??

Dentist…

We headed off to visit the friendly local dentist last week for Jack’s teeth cleaning. Surprisingly, Jack doesn’t mind going to the dentist. I think he likes the doctor’s office more, even though he gets a shot there but he is pretty good about going to the dentist as well. I think we go to the doctor’s office a lot more than the dentist office so Jack is just more comfortable going to see the doctor.

First a little dye to see the plaque:

Next a little cleaning:

Finally a clean. bright smile as everything was a-ok!

Is that Kobe?

For Christmas Jack got the Lakers Sunday white jersey and a black Kobe jersey.  Ever since then Jack has been wearing his Kobe jersey’s day and night.  He even puts it on over his pajama’s when he goes to sleep.

New Years Day…

We all headed to my parents house New Years day for our traditional New Years lunch.   There is always lots and lots of food but this year I must have been super hungry because it seemed like I was eating my entire time at my parents house.  I think the only time I didn’t have food in my hand was when I took these pictures.

The ladies:

The guys:

 

The Irie’s:

Lucy:

Maggie:

  The football watchers:

 

Vivian:

New Years…

Happy 2010 to everyone!!  I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year’s celebration.  I don’t know if it was because Aya is on maternity leave or if she finally wanted to act her age but Aya managed to stay up until midnight to ring in the New Year!

A few days before New Years eve, Aya and I saw this alcohol free champagne.   I know, who wants alcohol free anything, but since Aya is pregnant we decided to give it a try:

Actually it was not too bad.   It looked, smelled and tasted like champagne.   We also tried the merlot but that just tasted like punch.  Hopefully we won’t be trying anymore alcohol free drinks!

Jack actually wanted to start the new year with a mohawk.  He asked for it himself.  Normally he doesn’t even want to comb his hair but on New Years he kept saying, “Mohawk!”

Of course with a mohawk we also need our ‘mean’ faces!!