Ogi-Chan...

Jenny had nothing to update on her website but requested Saori and I update our websites. Yes, I have been away. Some bad news to report.

Monday morning we received a call informing us that Aya's father passed away in Chicago. Aya, her mom and I all left that morning for Chicago to identify the body and bring him back to Los Angeles.

Aya's father had been in Chicago for the past 4.5 years and they needed some closure and wanted to say goodbye so we set up a wake service Tuesday night. We then flew back to LA and we have finalized the funeral service for Los Angeles.

It has been a rough few days for us but Aya and her mom are doing well under the circumstances. Luckily we were all able to get together over the Thanksgiving weekend:

JT and ogi-chan playing:

Here is the press release issued by Lyndex Nikken:

MUNDELEIN, Ill – Gen Irie, the vice-chairman of Lyndex-Nikken, died Dec. 4, 2006 of
an apparent heart attack near his Schaumburg, Ill. home at the age of 59, according to
company officials.

"It is hard to put into words how important he was to our company," said Jun Hayashi,
Lyndex-Nikken President.

"Through his strong leadership, focus on providing a quality product, marketing knowhow
and organizational skills, he built Lyndex-Nikken into the company that it is today,"
Hayashi said.

Born in Osaka, Japan, Irie emigrated to the United States shortly after turning 18 years
old and began his lifelong career in the manufacturing industry as a warehouse employee
at Yamazen, Inc. He quickly ascended through several positions in the company to
become one of Yamazen, Inc.’s top salesmen. While serving as district sales manager,
Irie was credited with pioneering Yamazen, Inc.’s West Coast distribution network for its
Mori Seiki product line.

In 1978, Irie left Yamazen, Inc. to start his own machine tool distribution company,
Machinex Corporation. Built from the ground up, Irie turned the small company into the
world’s top selling distributor of Hitachi Seiki machine tools before selling the company
in early 2002.

After a brief retirement, Irie moved from California to Illinois to take on the role of
president of Lyndex-Nikken, Inc. As the company’s head, he helped complete the U.S.
tool holder distributor’s merger with Japanese tool manufacturing giant Nikken
Kosakusho Works, Ltd. Over a four year period, he more than doubled Lyndex-Nikken,
Inc. sales.

On Dec. 1, 2006, Irie assumed the role of company vice-chairman, handing over
responsibilities of president to Jun Hayashi.

"He will be missed on both a professional and personal level," Hayashi said. "His
teachings will be with us in our hearts and minds forever."

Irie is survived by his wife of 38 years, Yoko, his son Susumu, a daughter Ayako, son-inlaw
Miles and a grandson Jack.

Funeral services are scheduled begin at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 9 at the Marriot
Downtown Los Angeles, 333 S. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90071. For further
information, contact Fukui Mortuary at (213) 626-0441. The family asks that no flowers
or donations be presented.

Lyndex-Nikken is North America’s leading supplier of Machine Tool Accessories, and a
wholly owned subsidiary of Nikken Kosakusho Works, Ltd. Japan.

Ninja...

For a FOBBER, Aya is the worst NINJA ever!! My definition of ninja is too be quiet and stealthy. You obviously need those skills to sneak up and kill someone.

At home I refer to "Being Ninja" as being quiet. Aya stinks. In the middle of the night, if Aya wakes up to use the bathroom you would think she would, 'be ninja'. Nope. Turns the light on. Opens the door loudly. Steps on the floor to make it creak loud. Those are all ways to NOT be ninja and wake me up.

The other night, Aya had the simple task of 'being ninja' to go into JT's room and turn off the humidifier. After 5 minutes I forgot what she was doing and noticed she wasn't back yet. Sure enough, I hear JT start to cry. It took 5 minutes for Aya to 'be ninja' and even then she couldn't sneak up on a 1 year old baby and turn the humidifier one click to the left!

Anyone know of a ninja class where I can sign up Aya??

1 Year checkup...

Aya and I took JT to his 1 year checkup. He is growing! He is slowly making his way up the height and weight chart and is now in the 75-percentile.

The bad news is that JT may have a heart murmur. We have to make an appointment to see a children's heart specialist to verify if JT has a murmur and what we need to too. Right now, nothing really to worry about. We are just erring on the side of caution. Hopefully it doesn't pan out to be anything. The doctor never heard the murmur before and JT is sick and was squirmy so maybe that led to a false reading. In any case, not the best checkup.

Here is JT in his UCLA shirt that Aunty Dawn bought for his birthday.

Happy Birthday Ron...

Just wanted to wish Ron a happy birthday. I know he isn't happy about his picture:

It is kinda small but it is basically my score of 156 to Ron's score of 139 in fantasy football! The student is better than the master this season!

JT's Birthday!!

What a weekend! Thanksgiving is a big family event. To top that off it was JT's first birthday!! Can you believe it??? One years old already. Where has all the time gone?

At times the year has gone by slow and at other times it has gone by too quickly. I can still remember the sleepless nights. Actually, it is quite easy to remember that as JT has been sick for a week and wakes up several times a night because he is congested and can't breathe. So back to his birthday.

JT had his first birthday celebration with the family on Thanksgiving:

The next day we were off to Ogi-chan and Oba-chan house to celebrate his birthday:

Then on his actual birthday we celebrated it with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunty Dawn and Eric:

Yes, we went from two nice big cakes to one cupcake for his actual birthday celebration.

What can I say? I was cheap. I didn't want to buy ANOTHER cake for his THRID first birthday. Aya and I didn't even get JT a present for his birthday. Thanks to everyone out there and due to his age he doesn't know who gave him presents so "THANK YOU" everyone because JT thinks Aya and I gave him all the presents!! hahahaha!

Actually, JT is just to young to have a party. I still HATE going to kids parties so I am not sure how well I would have faired hosting a kids party. I told Aya that I would not be partaking in planning any of his birthdays until he turns 3. Pretty much, next year will be a repeat.

A lot more pictures of JTs birthday to follow. I will try to work on it this week and post it. Like I said it was a very busy weekend for the 3 of us. I think every Thanksgiving weekend is going to be busy like this for the next 15-16 years.

Thanksgiving!!

My favorite holiday!! Who doesn't like turkey, mashed potato's, gravy, cremed corn and pumpkin pie? Plus, my birthday is usually the week before so it is like I get my own holiday to celebrate my birthday. I suppose JT gets to share the holiday as well as his bday is closer to turkey day.

We went to my Aunts house for Thanksgiving. The usual suspects all came:

It was JT's first Thanksgiving and first time he tried turkey.

He loved everything!! Aya and I were driving home that night thinking this was one of the best Thanksgivings. We realized it was one of the first time since we met that we didn't have to 'share' the day. Normally, we go to my familys and then Aya's family. You can't say, "No" to one or the other so we usually trek to both locations...and it changes every year.

The amount of time is the same...we are out all day. It was just easier to relax by staying at one family's house and not dining and dashing to go some place else.

Year in review - Part 2

Another memorable moment for me since my last birthday was the birth of JT. From the very beginning I was against being at the hospital. I wanted to by like my father inlaw. Just call me when the delivery is over and I will come in the morning.

I managed to go to the classes and I think I went to all but one doctor's appointment. Even before JT was born I was thinking let me do everything I can in case I only have 1 child.

Relunctly I told Aya that I will be in the delivery room...but I am only standing by her head. I am not watching the delivery. Giving birth over Thanksgiving you realize the hospital is under staffed.

When Aya went into labor, the nurse asked me to hold one leg, while I hold the other. Um, this is going to require me to go south of the equator. Naturally curiosity takes over and I take a peek. Since seeing a baby born in real life was a first time for me, me peeks started to be long stares. Part of my brain is thinking cool...but then the other part is thinking, MY EYES, MY EYES, look away!!

I will skip the gory details. I will say two things. Natural childbirth is pretty amazing. Slow but amazing. Babies don't look like tv babies either. At least not JT. Man, he was ugly! Head was all smashed and all blue.

The second thing....the smell. No one tells you about the delivery. Everyone says, "It is so cool. You gotta see it." You really don't have too...but if you do...there is a weird smell. I dunno if it was just me but I wanted to ask someone, "Do you smell that??" Sadly the nurse and OB were women and Aya probably wasn't in the mood for one of my dumb questions.

Year in review...

I like to spend my birthdays alone. Even though I have fun times in a group of people or with several friends...deep down I like to be a hermit. Being a 'dad' and losing my personal free time is still a very big adjustment for me. I can't go 36 years of being selfish to not selfish over night.
Why do I like to be alone on my bday? Simple...most people look at their life and make resolutions on new years. I do it on my birthday.

Normally I like to sit back on my birthday and evaluate my short term goals, long terms goals, ways to accomplish those goals and take stock of my life. Am I where I want to be? Is this what I envisioned my life to be at 36. Am I happy? Why or why not. No, you won't see those answers posted as that is G-14.

Looking back in the past year, it was a year of change and compromise. A new little person wreaking havoc on my world. One of the funnier events happened a few weeks ago. Some time ago Barber Shirley emailed me some videos of babies projectile vomitting and dads throwing up when changing a babies diaper. I always thought they were lame and phony.

One Sunday morning after breakfast JT took a crap. Aya and I went to change his diaper. Nothing really out of the ordinary...but for some reason the stink just got to me. My stomach started to get queasy...my throat tighten up...I managed to take one deep breathe and hold it all together. Sadly, JT's diaper pail was full, so I had to take the trash out. I opened the pail and like Hurricane Katrina the smell of all JTs diaper hit me.

YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

Yup, I lost it...gagged in a second...turned to run to the bathroom. My fractured foot ran into the wall so I feel in pain and then barfed on myself. Through my watering eyes and gagging, I could see Aya standing there changing JT on the changing table and just laughing at me.

After 5 minutes to compose myself, I noticed Aya just left the dirty diaper bag in JTs room for me to throw away. So sad...but true. I could have been one of those barfing dads on the video.

Yes, baby poop really does smell that bad. He is a little guy with adult stink bombs!

Week in review...

I am alive and well! Sorry for the lack of posts last week. It must have been a slow week for some of you as my daily hit count was pretty high. In any case, I am back and I will should have postings all week.

So what happened last week? A first. Aya got ill Monday night. Some sort of stomach virus as Aya was throwing up for 2 days straight. Tuesday morning, my mom called and she had the same thing. My dad goes to work at 2 pm, so Tuesday and Wednesday I came home from work early to watch JT. After I put JT to bed, I had to log into work and finish up things that I missed. Needless to say it was a long week for everyone. Luckily JT was unaffected and didn't come down with anything.

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In addition, Aya and I almost put an offer down on a house. We saw a nice little place that we both really liked. Unfortunately it is just under a million bucks and it wasn't perfect. After debating the pros and cons we decided to wait it out and not make an offer. Thanks to Thomas for giving us some additional numbers that really helped us make our decision.

We are still looking but we are in no rush. We are happy where we are at, but just thought JT might enjoy a nice backyard to run and play. If it wasn't for him, I don't think we would even be looking and taking on a higher mortgage.
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Thanks for everyone who sent me birthday well wishes. Yup, I am officially old now. I am on the downward slide towards 40 now. Can you believe it? 36 years old. I don't know where all the time has gone? It was 10 years ago when I met Aya. I was 26 and she was 21. The past 10 years has certainly gone by quickly. JT is no help making me feel young as he is already going to be 1.....and he is just a bundle of energy.

A year ago my birthday was pretty low key and relaxing as Aya was super preggo's and due to deliver at anytime. This year's birthday was low key but not relaxing as it was hard to rest with a 1 year old running around squawking like a bird. With that said, I wouldn't trade it for the world...as the prior 35 years I just celebrated my birthday. This year, I got to celebrate it as a, "DAD".

I still find the job title of DAD the hardest thing I have done to date. I am consistently challenged to be patient, giving and thoughful. On top of that, I am still trying to learn from Aya how to be, "Nice".

36 years old and I was able to have family dinner with Aya, JT and my mom and dad. I wonder if I will survive to see JT's 36's birthday? Hopefully those 36 years won't zoom by as quickly as this past year.

Family Weekend...

My cousin Sheri came to the Mainland for vacation. We had family breakfast, lunch and dinner for the past two weekends. There was a lot of EATING and food coma. Rylee is about 5-6 months older than JT.

It was interesting to see Rylee and JT interact. JT is kind of a bully and this was his first time being around someone for an extended period sharing *his* toys and *grandparents*. At first it was a little tough as JT took all the toys and grabbed Rylee's hair. Luckily, Rylee fought back and gave JT some of his own medicine.

In the end, JT wasn't as rough...but was still selfish. At least by the end they could play peacefully together.

We went to the Long Beach Aquarium to check out the fishies. We have found out JT doesn't do well with people in costume's. JT was scared of Oscar in his Nacho Libre outfit. Mild mannered Stewart scared JT wearing a wrestling mask. Luckily today JT was okay with the dorky whale (not Aya...the whale in between Aya and I).

Here is JT with the swarm of anchovies.

Sunday was spent with JT's other set of cousins. Unfortunately, I left the camera in the car so here ia picture from the last visit. Can you guess which one is JT?

Yes, they really are cousins...including JT. JT is the only one that isn't 1/4 Japanese.

Me and my buddy...

Aya went to Boston and Chicago for business this week so it has just been JT and I holding down the fort. When people see JT they think he looks like me. I don't think so. I think he looks like Aya. We do have several things in common. He has dried up green boogers on his nose and I have a zit on my nose. He has messy morning hair and I have messy morning hair. I think that's about it.


Two superhero's hanging out. Batman and Superman!

Just another day at the park...

Most kids like to go to the park...laugh, play and be happy. I think at 11 months half the kids don't like the slide or the swings. JT likes the tallest slides and on the swing he likes to go pretty high. I think most kids just like being on swing, feeling the breeze in their face...not my boy...BORED when going slow:

I don't know where he gets this either. He fake sleeps on the swing:

Then he looks down and pretends he is SUPER snoozing. You know how ackward it looks pushing a kid fake sleeping??

Genius. I sure am glad he got his mom's good looks.

Fracture...

I went to see the foot specialist on Thursday. Two things, one he was pretty rude and not that informative. Two, he was old and ugly.

The main point was I have a slight fracture in my foot. I have a lot of soft tissue damage that will take longer to heal than the actual fracture. I am suppose to stay off my feet as much as possible for 6-8 weeks. Of course, this weekend was spent doing chores and other things where I didn't stay off my feet.

Going back to the doctor, I was rather amazed my doctor was so pretty. Being a nerd, I googled her. This is what I found:

My family doctor posed for Playboy...the college edition and not the main Playboy issue.

Then a few years later she was a temptress on Temptation Island!

She doesn't really look like the Playboy model picture in her white lab coat but her face still looks the same as the picture in the lower left hand corner.

To top it all off, we have the same birthday...except she is a year younger. I gotta say, normally having an HMO sucks...but can you say SCORE!! I used to hate going to the doctor but now I am going to go more often!!

Dancing machine...

We always played music when Aya was pregnant. Not the classical music to make a kid smart...but any kind of music. MTV...BET...yes, that was the music of choice. Ever since JT was born certain songs make him really happy. Lately we discovered that he tries to dance when he hears musical tunes:

He has moves like me!!

Halloween Part II

I guess I did these two postings out of order. About a week ago, Aya and I got a pumpkin for Halloween. I figure we should at least have a pumpkin for JT's 1st Halloween. Monday night I remembered that I actually *had* to carve the pumpkin.

When was the last time you carved a pumpkin?? I had not carved a pumpkin in a LONG time. As I was doing it, I couldn't remember the last time...not in the last 10 years since I have known Aya. I would say maybe 15 years ago was the last time I carved one? Maybe. As you can see my pumpkin carving skills aren't too hot...but I was trying to carve the pumpkin to look like JT:

JT had more fun taking the pumpkin top off and rolling the pumpkin. Then he beat on the pumpkin. So rough-n-stuff.