Tokyo Housewife

Moving

2014-03-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have set up a new blog! Yay! I no longer have to look at these terrible orange and blue colors every time I publish something. You can now find me here:

http://creatingourownhappiness.wordpress.com/

Thanks for being patient with my long, long break from blogging.

Randoms

2014-01-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

We have had two massive failures in the kitchen within the course of a week. I attempted a crockpot curry and Ten concocted a healthy mayonnaise. They both were terrible. Lessons learned: Don't trust a recipe created by someone who has only eaten the food once and then made up their own version. Don't think you can make a healthy mayo that tastes like the original.
We are now officially members of the Children's Museum of Manhattan. Mia gets to play with sand tables, kid sized trucks to crawl in and out of, and more. It will be our new playground once we have a second baby.
I have 7 more 17p shots to go. It has not been a pleasant experience physically or financially. I think we should have a celebration after the last one.
I am on my way to finishing reading a book. It isn't the most interesting book, but I'm actually making progress.
We are once again trying to improve our living space. We have new bedding and a host of organizational things on their way to us. It is a never ending project but helps a lot.
I recently read this blog about creating momentum in your day, and it has really been working for me. I'm also breaking projects down into set time slots (thanks Michelle Duggar) so I feel like and actually do get more done each day. For instance instead of trying to fold all of the laundry, I just try to fold as much as possible in 15 minutes. It keeps me sane and helps me get a variety of things done over the course of a week.
I am finally watching the 5th season of Big Love. I'm glad it only lasted 5 seasons because I'm losing interest, but overall it was a good show.

Anyway, happy midweek everyone.

New Year's 2014

2014-01-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

We are now in the second week of the New Year, so I hope everyone is still going strong with those resolutions. We had a really low key celebration at home. We decided to just eat a lot of the traditional Japanese foods and hang out inside. It was snowing and cold...story of our lives recently....and Ten only had one day off, so we just relaxed.

Here are some of the pics of what we devoured over the holiday.

New Year's Eve Dinner: mikan, tomato and cucumber salad, fried ham cutlets (trying to get rid of Christmas leftovers), and soba (cold because easier for Mia).

On New Year's Day we had osechi, and you know what...it is not nearly as bad as what Ten said it was. Seriously 90% of it was quite enjoyable.

Ozoni that I made that morning. Mochi, naruto, carrots, spinach, and chicken in a nice broth. This is easily our favorite part of New Year food.

Yum.

Mia unwrapping the osechi.

Lots of really good food...and some that wasn't so good. Mia especially loved the fish eggs. She called them "snacks."

In other news, I've decided that this year I wouldn't be making any specific resolutions. Don't get me wrong. I have a big list of things that I would like to get done by the end of the year, but they aren't necessarily resolutions. They are things like finish Mia's baby book and register our second baby at the Japanese embassy. Things like that.

I have, however, decided to pick a theme word for my year. This seems like a pretty popular thing to do, and I like the idea that you can choose a word that you can use to improve all aspects of your year.

Anyway, so I was thinking hard and kicking words around like "happiness," "focus," and "self-discipline." However, none of them felt right. They weren't what I exactly wanted to achieve this year. Then while I was up way too late last night, I finally came up with my word.

It is "simplicity." I love the simple life, and I think that that is something that we have gotten away from here. We are gaining clutter, we were eating quite unhealthy, and spending a little bit too much. I mean if I look at Mia's toys alone, she has toys that are basically the same thing but just different versions. If I look in my closet, we have DVDs that we don't watch. We own 5 cutting boards. All of these are symptoms of a life that needs to be simplified.

So, that is what I want to focus on this year. I hope to report back in a few days with the first part of my project to simplify things.

Anyway, Happy New Year!

Christmas Day 2013

2014-01-07T12:49:00.001-08:00

This post has a lot of pictures. I just couldn't choose which ones I wanted to share from the huge amount I took, so I'm just throwing a whole lot of them together.

On Christmas Eve, Ten got home a little earlier than usual, so we spent the afternoon getting ready for Christmas. I think Ten and Mia watched "The Grinch" and "Frosty" while I got dinner ready. We also went to the park and quickly realized it was just way too cold and almost came straight home. Seriously, our coats weren't helping...and Ten was only wearing sandals and a hoodie...no idea why he thought that that would be a good idea.

Anyway, after our failed park attempt we came home and started getting our Santa cookies ready. We decided to go with the pre-made gingerbread men, so we could just enjoy getting to decorate them.

First cookie out of the bag...he didn't last very long.

Ten icing a cookie for Mia so that she could add her candy.

Going much better than the gingerbread house!

Our finished products...Mia's is on the top and by far the best. Ten's has two green gloves, and I'm not sure what is going on with mine. Sorry this picture didn't rotate properly.

After Mia went to bed, we tore down the train track and reorganized the apartment a little bit so that we could fit everything under the tree and still have space to move in the morning.

Like I mentioned before, everything was wrapped and ready to put under the tree. Saved us a bunch of time.

Ten did have to stay up pretty late putting together Mia's table and chairs along with this kitchen though. I don't think he got to bed until 2:00 a.m.

Mia's Minnie table and chairs.

Mia ran in first thing in the morning and went straight to Totoro. We knew this would be a big hit with her.

Followed by a rush over to her new kitchen. This things keeps her so busy, and she is picking up so many words from it. We all love this toy. Once again....sorry this didn't flip when I added it to Blogger.

Treats in her stocking from a good friend in Japan. Thank you so, so, so much.

The beginning of the unwrapping marathon.

Deciding to have a tea party with Totoro in her new socks....midway through unwrapping.

After we unwrapped a good amount of presents, we took a break for breakfast. We had this really good casserole, and you can find the recipe here. I decided to make something sweet because I thought we may have a better chance for Mia to eat some.

Of course, Mia wanted us to all eat at her new Minnie table.

Mia in her first outfit of the day. She seriously had to put on every article of new clothing that she opened.

It just isn't Christmas without a toy drum.

....Mia enjoying her afternoon tea with her new tea set.

After all of the unwrapping and cleaning, naps were much needed. We then got up and ate a really late Christmas lunch. I honestly didn't have the time to make everything that I wanted too, but it all turned out pretty good.

Tossed spinach salad, deviled eggs, rolls, spiral ham, green bean casserole, and an apple pie. Notice that we actually had serving dishes this year. Thanks Ten for the Christmas presents...and thanks mom for the matching dish set!!

My plate...so full we had to skip the pie. We also had baked potatoes, and I love putting salsa on mine. Not very traditional for Christmas, but very good.

So, that is a glimpse of our Christmas morning. I was so exhausted once the 26th rolled around. Anyway, now just to get the New Year's post up!

Lead Up to Christmas

2013-12-31T10:20:00.002-08:00

I started this blog post on Christmas Eve, and I'm just now getting the time to sit down to finish it. We had a great Christmas and week or so leading up to Christmas. I got to watch my all time favorite Christmas movie (A Smoky Mountain Christmas), the presents were wrapped well in advance, and we decided to keep Christmas dinner simple. There really wasn't a whole lot to worry about leading up to the big day. Now, from the 25th on....things have been crazy...trying to reassemble the apartment and figure out how we will survive with the limited space that we have. As I tell Ten, we will make it work because we have to.

Anyway, here is what we have been doing leading up to Christmas.

Mia got a couple of new pairs of pajamas. She has refused to sleep in them in the past, but now she loves PJs. Here she is in her Christmas PJs, my shoes, and a butterfly wand. Outfit coordinated by her.

Also, Mia hasn't really been interested in food recently unless we connect it to something that she loves. For example, she loves broccoli because it is a Totoro tree. So, I decided to try my hand at my first bento for her. This took me seriously like all of 5 minutes, so it obviously could have been a little bit better. However, I knew she wouldn't care if it wasn't perfect.

Mikan, grapes, steamed broccoli, popcorn chicken, and Anpanman made from nori, carrots, cheese, and ketchup.

In more Christmasy related news, on the 22nd we took Mia to see Yo Gabba Gabba! It was a holiday themed version, and we had a great time. I think Mia was slightly confused because Muno was there on stage...dancing...in person. The adults especially loved when Biz Markie came out and sang pieces from "Just a Friend." Biz Markie definitely looks pretty old in real life, but it was really fun.

DJ Lance Rock and the Yo Gabba Gabba cast.

Christmas background while singing a lot of their typical songs from the show.

Mia and Ten dancing along to the songs.

Group picture...okay here Mia is definitely looking like she is having a good time. I'm glad we got the chance to take her.

Mia snacking on a sucker during intermission. I'm not going to lie....we brought in snacks and some juice boxes for Mia...and I'm glad we did because $12 for popcorn was a ridiculous amount of money to pay.

After the show, we went straight home and started to cook some spaghetti. It was only 7:00, but we were so tired. Yo Gabba Gabba was kind of like being in a crazy toddler rave where the DJ is constantly telling you to dance, wiggle, stop, etc....lots of work....haha

In other news, Ten came home one night after work with two little cakes for me and Mia. Very cute and thoughtful of him...even though I am trying super hard to watch my weight...sigh....never ending battle right there.

Me and Mia actually split one of these and the other she has been eating a little bit after lunch each day...and I mean a very little bit. We don't want her to have too many sweets.

Finally, Mia had been feeling a little bit under the weather a few days before Christmas, so we we had to cancel all play dates. We didn't want to get any other kids sick over the holidays...and we didn't want her to get any worse before Christmas. We were getting a little stir crazy, so one day we went out and got things to make a gingerbread house. Wow, it was a lot of work....and I'm surprised any candy actually remained on the house. Mia was eating the icing off of it faster than I was replacing it....haha. However, here are some of the photos of the event.

Getting ready to decorate.

Looking at the icing and deciding if she should taste test it.

After the taste testing...I'm guessing it was heavenly.

Looking proud of the house and mess that we made.

Finally, pictures of our house in all of its glory. I hope to have our Christmas Day pictures up sometime this week. I'm not going to worry about rushing to get all done before New Year's.

Catching Up

2013-12-17T08:26:00.002-08:00

I've decided to do a post of a hodge podge of things. I just wanted to get caught up with a few little things that we have been up to so that I can start blogging a bit more regularly.

First off, Mia got invited to her first birthday party, and she had a wonderful time. The theme was Sesame Street, and the parents did a great job of decorating the park house as well as having a lot of nice appetizers and breakfast choices for both the parents and kids. In all honesty, we were hoping to leave about an hour into the party because we had a swim class after, but it was pretty clear after about 15 minutes that it would be better to stay. We also ADORE the birthday girl, so we wanted to be there to help her celebrate.

Eating some fruit at the sticker/coloring table. Mia chose to wear a Cookie Monster hat and Ten couldn't resist putting on an Elmo.

The parents also hired the music teachers from Mia's school to perform at the event. They sang some Sesame Street songs as well as the birthday girl's favorites. Mia was on the makeshift dance floor having a great time.

The party was a really good time, and they also got great little gift bags to take home. The parents did a really excellent job! It got me to thinking about what we should do for Mia's second birthday. In all honesty, she will still be at the age where she doesn't need a party with lots of people and friends....and her birthday is only a week after Baby #2's due date....decisions.

In other news, Ten made two trips to Target/Aldi over the weekend. This is a big deal for us because we don't get to shop at the cheaper big box places....like rarely ever. Ten took advantage of his 4 day weekend and made two runs over to East Harlem to pick up some things.

Children's vitamins for Mia, an Elmo toothbrush for her stocking, some baking pans for Christmas, dental floss, and a Rapunzel towel. Mia loves all of the bigger girl's towels at swim class and is always pointing out the different princesses she sees so I'm sure she will love this....also being saved for Christmas.

We bought a few bottles of the Mott's Tots juices, some fruit snacks, two boxes of Bisquick, and some movie theater butter popcorn for movie nights.

More juice, vitamins, MiraLax for Mia's tummy, popcorn seasoning, and more...We got so much more, but I'll stop sharing here.

Let's see. Mia and Ten like to play a new game which makes me super nervous....but they seem to think it is a lot of fun. Mia will walk along the back of the couch saying "ichi, ni, ichi, ni." She will usually say "dada" and point for Ten to come up too....and he does. I should get a pic of both of them practicing the balance beam.

Lastly, we finally got some snow! I have been waiting and waiting for it to finally get to us, and last Saturday it snowed all day and into the night. So, Sunday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and got dressed to go play in our backyard (known to others as Riverside Park).

Having a much better time than last year. Mia really enjoyed it, and so did we.

Carrying around snowballs and then throwing them on the ground.

Mia decided she wanted to walk down the snowy hill, so Ten went with her while I pushed the stroller down the walkway. Very cute picture.

Finally, Mia wanted to play in the park. She had a great time swinging and was pretty upset when we decided to head home. However, she was sitting in a big pile of water and freezing...so we had to call it a day.

Anyway, this is basically how we spent our last two weekends. We've celebrated a birthday, played in the snow, got some shopping done, did our swim lessons, wrapped Christmas presents, and much more.

Thanksgiving/Christmas Mash Up

2013-12-13T06:53:00.002-08:00

I know that this post is almost a month too late, but I still wanted to get some of our pictures up from Thanksgiving. Things here have been going at a slow pace, but my seriously tired out computer needs to be replaced...so little blogging gets to happen.

Anyway, we had a great Thanksgiving. We just spent a quiet day at home. First thing in the morning, we all woke up and wanted something quick to eat. I wasn't wanting to make anything too big for breakfast, so I had grabbed a box of donuts the night before. I think Mia decided on a chocolate, Ten had the kind with the cinnamon and powdered sugar, and I had a frosted doughnut. Yummm....Very high calorie, but hey...these are the holidays after all.

Thanksgiving Breakfast: This is the first time we have eaten donuts all year...so it was a nice little morning treat.

Ten and Mia decided that they would head to the park for a little while after breakfast so that I could work on dinner/lunch in peace. They actually ended up going to the playroom in our building because it was just way too cold outside. As soon as they came inside, they were both wanting to eat. I kind of expected this, so I had laid out a nice little snack platter. Most of this was prepared the night before, so all I had to do was unwrap it and put it on the table. Nice and easy.

Thanksgiving snacks to hold everyone over until lunchtime. We had lots of veggies, pickles, olives, cheese, crackers, homemade dill dip, pumpernickel bread, feta hummus, and crackers. Of course all of the leftovers were thrown into salads and things throughout the week, so though it look like a lot...nothing went to waste.

For the rest of the morning, we sat around and played with toys while the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade played in the background. I was seriously having the best day. It has been like 6 years since I was able to watch the parade, so I was super excited to see all of the floats and performers. Mia was pretty happy to see the Sesame Street float, and it was Ten's first time really watching the parade.

Later in the afternoon, maybe around 2:00, we decided to have Thanksgiving dinner. Mia had just woken up from her nap, and we don't like to eat that much food....quantity wise...at night...so we decided it was time. Here is a pic of the food....btw...Mia was done eating after about 15 minutes....so hours of cooking....for 15 minutes...hahaha. It was good though.

Our dinner. Let's see we had oven toasted Hawaiian rolls, cranberry sauce, homemade green bean casserole, homemade sweet potatoes, the turkey of course, homemade mashed potatoes, corn, homemade stuffing, turkey gravy, and homemade pumpkin pie. The pie turned out really good this year, and Mia helped make it...which was a lot of fun...and definitely a lot more work.

My plate....Ten really loaded it up...haha. Needless to say I was beyond done after this.

Needless to say, we had lots of leftovers. No problem though because we had lots of sandwiches, a turkey quiche one day, potato pancakes for breakfast, stuffed mushrooms, and more. We basically used every last bit of the food. We did have to throw out a little bit of turkey, but we sure did try to use up as much as we could.

That night, Ten and I stayed up for hours and got out all of the Christmas decorations. We first cleaned the apartment really well and then put together the tree, tested the lights, put on the decorations, set up our Christmas train, and got the Advent calendar ready to go....seriously it took us like 4 hours to do everything. We wanted it to look special for Mia when she woke up though, so it was all worth it.

Our Christmas tree with the Advent books underneath.

A close up of the basket and books.

Also, in case you are curious, here are the books that we chose to use for the Advent Calendar. We tried to get a good mix of fun, Christmas spirit, books that Mia will grow into, and things that she is interested in right now. So, far it has been a big success. She calls these her Ho Ho books and looks forward to opening one each morning.

Sorry that it didn't rotate properly...I don't know why that happens sometimes.

...and again. Dream Snow by Eric Carle has turned out to be our favorite book so far. It is such a cute and simple story.

Here are also a few glimpses of things that we put up in our apartment. It is hard to decorate when you use every inch of living space that you have, but we did our best that is for sure.

Santa, Yankee Candle that smells like a Christmas tree, and some pine cones and cinnamon sticks.

Santa #2 with our little nativity scene....and our bread in the background.

Mia's stocking and our Santa picture....a little plain...but will do for this year.

Our ginormous train going around the Christmas tree.

Mia opening her first book.

Finally, I leave you with a family picture. We are all wearing red by accident...fyi...haha.

Weekend Update: Trip to Grand Central

2013-11-25T13:18:00.001-08:00

Happy Monday!

I am in a super good mood. It probably has to do with the combination of a nice weekend combined with the upcoming holiday.

Let's see. Ten had a whole 3.5 days off, so I got a major break. He shuttled Mia to 5 different classes and gave me a much needed break. That is right. On Thursday afternoon he took her to gym class followed by a slot I had booked at the indoor playground. On Friday, he took her to a party for two hours. Saturday, he was out the door at 8:00 to take her to another session at the indoor playground, and then Sunday he took her to swimming class. Talk about a lot of quiet and peace that I got to experience. I am lucky to have a guy who is so willing to take Mia out...and he loves it. It is a huge win-win for everyone.

We also had lots of time to spend together. We went to breakfast with some good friends where we had good conversation and overpriced pancakes (seriously need a new breakfast place). We also decided to take Mia to the holiday train show at Grand Central Station. She had a great time watching the choo-choo cars as she calls them. It was also my very first time to Grand Central, and it is beautiful. I will admit that I have been pretty disappointed by most sites here (sorry Lady Liberty and Times Square), but this was a really beautiful place.

Here are some of the photos of the train exhibit we saw.

Mia loved watching the trains go by.

I seriously could not get a good picture of the main terminal. I think you need to go during the day actually. I did get this lovely picture of these two though.

Let's see in other news....we are well into Christmas shopping. I seriously hope I can knock everything out within the next week or so. I'm pretty sure I can if I stay on top of it all. I am also in the process of interviewing doulas as well as trying to figure out how we can do a better job of celebrating New Year's. We kind of failed last year, and we both want to do a lot better this year.

In some disturbing news, I am pretty sure that my doctor's office ran genetic tests on me without my permission. I have actually refused all testing, but got a letter in the mail the other day from a lab talking about said tests that were ordered by my doctors. I am one unhappy patient....let me tell you....wonder what they will have to say.

Randoms

2013-11-15T09:09:00.001-08:00

Hi friends!

I'd like to say that I have been so busy, so I wasn't able to blog...but that wasn't the case. Instead, I have been cutting things out of my day. I've only been making time for things that I actually feel like doing and things that are actually worth spending time doing. So, what does this mean? It means I've been taking care of Mia, meeting friends, trying out new programs, resting, and having lots of conversation with Ten....and let me tell you....this has given me a lot of space to just breathe. Anyway, here are some odds and ends.

We took Mia to her first circus, and I definitely have a post almost ready to go for that. I want to make sure I get it published soon so that we don't forget the details of that day.
I have been doing a lot of rethinking of things. I'm reconsidering the way I spend my time through books and social media and TV. I've started deleting people off of my Facebook who I don't really know or are extremely negative. I've started reading books that are only uplifting, and I'm even considering stopping watching anything that is rated R. Why? Are these things worth my time? How do they make me feel? Do I want our children exposed to such things? I think the answer to all of these questions is quite clear, so this is where I am with this at the moment.
Other things I've been pondering....where will we be next year? We hope to move.....at least definitely out of this apartment. Do we move out of the city? Out of the state? Will something come up where we leave the country again? All things we are wondering.
We enter the crazy holiday madness that goes from October through May...and adding Mia's birthday to that as well as the arrival of our new baby girl. You know what? We are doing awesome. Halloween was pretty stress free. We are almost fully stocked for Thanksgiving...and Christmas shopping and prep will be done by the first weak of December...yay me!
Anyone know how to get a toddler to eat? I mean we are not just talking picking....recently we are talking about the fact that Mia is just not interested in food...at all. It is a challenge right now, but I know once we come out of it...we will feel like mission accomplished...yay she is eating!
That is all I have time to type....my awesome laptop battery is going to die....any second now.

Halloween Part 2

2013-11-05T09:09:00.003-08:00

I swear we got tons of use out of Mia's Halloween costume this year. I think we got to wear it to a total of 6 different events, so I'm glad we chose something that was simple and basically a dress. This meant that she actually kept it on. In fact, she loved it so much that it is now in hiding.

Let's see....to continue....Mia dressed up for her music class.

Mia popping bubbles in music. Do you see the baby dressed as a prisoner? Funny.

Dancing with scarves....maybe one of her favorite activities.

On the way home I stopped and picked up some Peeps. I don't like them and quickly learned that neither does Mia nor does the marshmallow addict Ten....go figure.

Later in the week, we went to Mia's gym class. She loved all of the Dr. Seuss decorations they had up for Halloween. I was glad they
decorated without making it creepy. Perfectly chosen theme if you
ask me....Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to snap any pictures.

Mia on the trampoline. Sometimes she will spend half an hour running back and forth on it.

Her favorite teacher was dressed up as the Lorax.

The Grinch in the background.

On Halloween, we decided to take Mia trick or treating. This was actually kind of by accident or rather last minute I should say. I missed the deadline to sign up to hand out candy, so at the last minute we decided to take her to the apartments in the building.

One of maybe the 20 or so apartments we visited. We spent a total of 45 minutes trick or treating and we were all beat afterwards. She loved knocking on the doors, picking out her candy, and then telling everyone bye.

Enjoying her lollipop. She guards these with her life...haha.

Some of her Halloween loot.

On Friday, we had our final and biggest Halloween event. We went to her school for the party that they had there. They sang songs, played in the gym, made crafts, had their pictures taken, decorated cupcakes, had a parade (which Mia thought was super funny), and ate pizza. It was a jam packed 2 hours and lots of fun.

By the end of the night....she was Halloweened out.

Goody bag which included bubbles, a cookie, stickers, sunglasses, a ball, some small toys, and a smoothie and bath bomb from LUSH for the moms. Thank you school! That bath was much needed after all of the planning and escorting of our little ones around town!

Mia's picture frame. She did a really good job making sure the eyes and nose got put where they belong. Also, she called the stem his "hat." I thought...yeah...I can totally see how you would think that...hahaha. Great job!

That concludes our Halloween festivities. We were really busy and had a lot of fun. In all honesty, I ripped down our decoration on Saturday and Sunday. I was ready to have a little bit of a holiday break before Thanksgiving and Christmas. Like I said, lots of fun but didn't want to get burnt out on the festivities.

Halloween Part 1

2013-10-31T09:08:00.002-07:00

We have been in desperate need of a decluttering/reorganizing of our apartment. I think I have mentioned it several times. So, I called in emergency backup last week. My mom and her husband came and helped me rip through the apartment. In about a day we were able to reorganize all of the closets, the entire kitchen, and the entire bedroom. This leaves only the dining/kitchen area left for me and Ten to work on. Finally, we have some order in the madness.

We also were able to have a bit of fun while they were here.

We celebrated a birthday.

The gorgeous cheesecake that Ten picked up on his way home. I would say it was enough for 12 people. We had cheesecake for days.

On Saturday, we went over to the Pumpkin Fest at Central Park. A pumpkin patch in the middle of the city. We got there right when the event began, so we barely had any wait time at all.

Our little bumble bee deciding which pumpkins would be going home with us.

Family photo with one of our pumpkins.

Heading over to the other stations. They had lots of games and even a haunted house....all for free I might add...even the pumpkins....really nice event.

Making the pumpkin all pretty to take home.

Mini area for fall photos.

After looking around at some of the booths, we decided it was time to go grab lunch. Also, it was getting so crowded at the park that we wanted to escape before it just got too tiring. We decided to pop over to a restaurant called Dallas BBQ. The serving sizes were absolutely huge and the BBQ itself was pretty good, but some things were below average....I doubt (or pretty much can guarantee) that we won't be coming here again.

Mia and her pipe cleaner spider checking out the decor.

An onion loaf....which was pretty much tasteless!! I had to dump tons of salt on mine to make it edible. That is saying a lot from people that don't salt anything.

Honey roasted chicken (really good), baby back ribs, corn bread, and very, very tasteless fries.

Free Halloween cupcakes to end the meal...I think Mia was pretty excited to get to eat the icing off of it without anyone stopping her. Such a pretty smile.

When we got home it was around 2:00, and so we were all pretty tired. Ten and Mia napped while the rest of us watched a bit of TV. Around 4:00 we headed back out to a Halloween party for kids at a nearby church. They had lots of little activities for little ones.

Playing with chalk.

This was the first time Mia got to play with hula hoops, and I'm pretty sure she thought they were the coolest things.

She also got to play in her very first bouncy house. We usually have to skip these because there are just too many big kids, but the church did a great job of grouping kids by age.

On Sunday, my mom headed back home. We also got a phone call saying our swimming class was cancelled because the teacher was sick. I was secretly doing back flips in my mind because that meant we had a whole day to ourselves to just hang out at home.

Roseola does not make for a carefree weekend.

2013-10-21T18:43:00.001-07:00

Kudos to those people that have their weekend blog posts ready to go first thing in the morning. Seriously, how do you find the time? I am genuinely impressed my friends.

So, there was once a nice family who lived on the Upper West Side. They did fun things like go to the park together, attend play groups, and watch the occasional Disney movie while eating ice cream. They were such a happy family. One day, the youngest of the clan got a fever. A fever that was to last 4 days long. This fever would then be followed by a rash, and the great medicine woman diagnosed said illness as Roseola.

Yes, my friends....that little intro is what we have been dealing with for the past week....and let me tell you...it is not fun. Not one bit. This made Mia's ear infection seem like a trip to Hawaii. She has been miserable to the tenth degree, but we have been assured that it will all end soon....here is to hoping!

Anyway, while battling her virus....we did decide to get out and do a few things over the weekend. The doctor said that she was no longer contagious, and I seriously had to escape the nightmare that we had been living...even if it was just for a little bit.

Proof of said nightmare: Cream stew for dinner on Friday night....none of us like it much....but it was the fastest thing that could be made so I could get back to nurse duties.....sad night.

Anyway, on Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the Rutgers Presbyterian Church to attend a performance of Stomp, Clap, and Make Bangs. It was a puppet/musical show put on by Theatre Arts Japan, so we decided to take advantage.

Ten and I are still debating what this animal was supposed to be. In the end, I think it was part mouse, part bear, part raccoon. Yes, that must be it.

Mia stayed entertained for most of it though, so winner.

Off she goes to check out what is behind the scenes.

After a really confusing show about Boo and her forest friends, we decided to stop at a diner for lunch. After our cream stew dinner....we were wanting something with a bit more substance I guess you could say....so we had gigantic burgers.

Mia enjoyed some tots. Can't you tell how thrilled she was to be out after the show. Notice the spots on her face?

Moving on to Sunday. Ten went to Trader Joe's and picked up this lovely cinnamon whisk. At the same time, I bought this Yankee Candle in cinnamon stick.....hahaha. I guess we both thought cinnamon would be the perfect scent for the apartment. So, random.

We decided to brave the world again and see if Mia would like to go to her swim lesson. She was doing a great job for about 90% of it, but she got cranky at the end.

shot of the whole class

On the way home, Mia did have quite the meltdown. We put her straight to bed, and then Ten decided to use her nap time to go to the pumpkin patch (aka Trader Joe's) and he picked some beauties I might say.

Mia deciding that the pumpkins needed to be stacked.

....and then that 4 pumpkins was totally too many for a family of 3. She promptly put one pumpkin in the bottom of her stroller to dispose of at a later time.

On the agenda this week: decorate lovely pumpkins, slay the evil dragon of Roseola for good, and welcome out of town family (the only kind we have) here for a busy 4 days. Have a great week all!

My Second post in October....shame on me.

2013-10-18T06:27:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to blog for so long now. We have had so much going on though that I just haven't gotten the time to sit down....alone...and think...and type. Anyway, so here is the list.

Mia has had a fever for the last 4 days. It peaked at 102 and kind of hung around 100....four days of taking care of her and being stuck inside. I am going stir crazy. We made a rather unsuccessful trip to the park this morning. Mia sat down in some water and made a rather sad attempt to go down the slide....All in all...it ended up in a meltdown, and I had to carry her back to the apartment where I promptly put her to bed and she fell asleep. I tell you it is tough being a toddler.
On that note, I'm sure part of her crankiness is from the fact that she is getting 4 top teeth at once. Two of those are molars, so that can't be fun at all.
I'm thinking to have a Halloween dinner. I know that that isn't really a traditional kind of thing to do, but I imagine that it will be a grand tradition to start.
Speaking of Halloween, I've been making French toast for breakfast in the mornings. Mia has been my assistant and using Halloween cookie cutters to cut it in to shapes. Her favorite shape is the pumpkin. I made Ten a ghost one morning, and he was totally confused....but then admitted that he liked it.
I have been going through the apartment drawer by drawer, cabinet by cabinet to declutter. It has been a really slow process, and I'm not all that sure that I'm making that much progress....but it is a start.
I have started working on our advent calendar. You may be thinking...what?! One of those crazies that is celebrating Christmas in October. No, not all. This calendar is just a lot of work and planning. I am doing 24 books counting up to Christmas. So, we had exactly 1 Christmas book. This means I had to look up the best books and then order them all. I started about three weeks ago, and I think I will get the rest of my books in the next two weeks. Then I can wrap them all up and have them ready for the end of November. I'm actually so happy that I'm planning ahead to make the holidays a lot less busy.

Anyway, here are some of the things we have been doing. I really do have a strong desire to make this blog better, but in the meantime life is kind of happening.

Welcome October

2013-10-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yay for October! The start of holiday madness. Is it possible not to get burnt out on the holidays? From now until Easter we have a string of 9 holidays (Japanese and US) followed by Mia's birthday. I'm determined to enjoy each one as they come, but I'm not sure if that will be possible. Hear is to hoping.

Anyway, we have been busy in these parts. I've had a grand total of 3 doctors appointments and a consultation within the past month. Ten is joining a new team temporarily at work which has been causing him to get home a lot later than usual...and Mia is always busy with something. So, the blog (along with cleaning and cooking) hasn't gotten the proper attention that is deserved.

Anyway, here is a bit of a recap of what we did over the weekend. On Saturday I asked Ten to please run to Kinokuniya to pick up a pregnancy/child healthcare checkup book for Baby 2. I'm not really sure how to describe this, but it is basically the baby's ID in Japan until they are 8 years old.

I love that I have one place to record all of my health information during pregnancy as well as everything about baby #2 for years to come.

Ten also came home with all of this:

Two puzzles (Mia's baby puzzles are too easy for her), some flash cards, and three Kumon books. We have been doing a few minutes of Kumon every day since we got these....building that muscle memory.

Ten also brought home lots of yummy food for us. I swear I cannot go long without tsukemono....I have a love for all pickles. He even brought us back lunch, and we all ate...and ate....and ate....until we were so full that we couldn't move, but really happy in our gorged states.

My lunchbox. Ten had fried chicken which I didn't get a pic of.

We also shared this huge portion of yakisoba....heaven.

Mia is a rice kind of gal, but she was enjoying the noodles all the same. I mean how can you not.

You know what else I got over the weekend....my first (and probably last) Pumpkin Spice Latte. Ten brought it home for me because he is just that kind of a guy. He NEVER goes to Starbucks, so he got quite the shock when they said the price was almost $6. I do love me some seasonal drinks....but seriously...I won't be paying that twice....at least not until Christmas stuff comes out :)

We also started decorating for the Halloween. Here is a little glimpse. We also have a glittery skeleton on the door, and I have a few more things that I need to put up in the apartment...off to a good start though.

I love the little stack of Jack o Lanterns on the table. Ten picked those out, and I'm glad he did. He always goes for more classic looking things.

Anyway, we have lots to do this month. We are going to a Japanese music program for kids, a Halloween party at a church, the Pumpkin Festival in Central Park, a parade at Hippo Park, and I think that will be all for this month...don't want to over do it.

Happy October!

Odds and Ends

2013-09-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that September is almost over. It has flown by! Here is the old bullet point list.

We have finally gotten rid of the stomach bug, and I hope that we won't be getting it again anytime soon.
Ten took Mia on her first trip to the zoo! They had a great time. She loved looking at the fish and monkeys. He snapped a few pics of their day out together, and it seemed to me like she was most interested in her plum (which she calls an app...for apple). Meanwhile I stayed at home and just enjoyed a quiet afternoon to myself.

Love these two.

Mia is obsessed with two things right now....socks and princesses. This combination together just thrills her. She wants to prance around the apartment with her princess socks on all of the time. She wants them on first thing in the morning.

Mia is actually wearing three socks here. One pair of pink ones, and then she found the Ariel sock and had to have that one on too.

I am finally getting my energy back. This means I cooked...actual food....two days in a row. Ten was shocked. The first night it was just a simple chicken, onion, and pepper stir fry with steamed rice and miso soup. The second night I whipped up an awesome lasagna and side salad. One the menu tonight is leek, potato, and bacon soup with fresh bread from the bakery. Yum!
I ordered a ton of holiday books for Mia. I may have went overboard just a tad, but who doesn't love a good Christmas or Halloween story.

Norovirus. I Loathe Thee.

2013-09-19T05:13:00.002-07:00

We have been out of commission here since Saturday. Oh it has been such a long, long week. Mia woke up with a weird look on her face Saturday afternoon and then got sick all over the bed. Repeat later on the couch. Repeat later on the play mats, and repeat again on the couch. Yes, it wasn't a fun day.

However, she got over it in less than 24 hours, so I didn't think much about it until I woke up not feeling well on Monday. Oh, it was a long Monday....and a long Tuesday. 6 pounds lost by Wednesday and I was ready to brave the world. My first stop was Walgreens.

Cleaning supplies and new toothbrushes. Toothbrushes are a must after getting sick.

What is driving me most crazy about this though is that this is the second time in two months that I have caught this thing! How is this possible? We are the hand washingest people you ever did meet. I just can't wrap my mind around it. However, I have gotten invites to hang out with people who have sick kids this week. Crazies. I am blaming it all on you. For the love of humankind, keep your sick kids at home.

So, I am trying to avoid the urge to become hermits for the fall/winter. It is so, so tempting. I'm totally over puking my brains out every day.

Anyway, so that is life here lately.

On the agenda today, trying to find a yukata for Mia with 24 hours notice....thanks a lot play group who knew a week ago!

Green Card Interview is Behind Us

2013-09-13T05:09:00.001-07:00

This is what September looks like:

Sorry for the bad pic....but it's from my phone.

Yes, we are out of the apartment basically every day. We have weekly play dates, swimming classes, music classes, and gymnastics classes. Sprinkle in a few Japanese classes and kids parties (I think 3 or 4 this month)....and you can see that we are always on the go. I honestly don't mind though because it is much better to get out than sit at home all day.

Anyway, blogging has taken the back burner this month because we have also had some other really important things going on. We had our GREEN CARD INTERVIEW! I prepared for weeks getting all of the necessary papers together, memorizing answers to questions, and putting together photos for our album. On Tuesday we arrived at the federal office (ten minutes late....oops) and met a woman who talked like she had been locked in a room with dementors... I think the interview went fine, but the sad part was that she didn't ask for 90% of what I had been told to prepare!! Either way it is a huge weight off of our shoulders. Now, all we have to do is to get the card in the mail :)

In other news, we made a big announcement on Facebook. In case you aren't my facebook friend....

That is right. We are expecting Baby #2 at the beginning of April! I'm sure Mia hopes the baby will be born in March....because who wants to share a birthday party. I have had two appointments so far and everything looks good. Heartbeat is strong and baby is measuring right on schedule. The plan for this baby includes biweekly appointments starting at 16 weeks and weekly progesterone shots. If all goes well, then this will be the extent of it. If I start to show signs of going into early labor, then it will get more complicated. Also, let's hope we can work it out so a home health nurse can come to me instead of me having to go there for shots....because seriously....who has time for that.

In other news....the doctor's wanted to test me for all sorts of genetic diseases. What the F! I was never asked to do these things in Japan. I was getting told...well how about we test for this and that....I mean there is a 1 in 8,000 chance for some of these problems. I can see already that birth in NYC is much more clinical than what I am used to. I have already told the doctors no to several things....so I'm sure they are loving me.

The Weekend That Wasn't

2013-09-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Our Labor Day weekend was what you would call unremarkable. Gloomy rain clouds were hanging over the city all weekend long, so we weren't really sure if we should venture out or not. We were so indecisive about it that it ended up being not.

We did normal things this weekend. We went grocery shopping.
We watched the Lion King. Mia forced us to dance to the Disney station on Pandora. I whipped up some s'mores in the microwave... using marshmallows that could have possibly been from Thanksgiving last year. We played with sidewalk chalk. We got Mia her first real pair of tennis shoes. You know all of those kinds of things. We did none of the spectacular things that we thought we should have been doing, but it was all okay.

I guess one down side of living here is that there is always something going on, so you feel like you should be out having life experiences....whatever that means.

In other news, I guess it is unofficially fall now. Ten had to wear a tie to work today, so that means summer is over. I'm looking forward to less humid days and holidays. I can't wait for lots of pumpkin and apple and then snowflakes.

Tonight, I am throwing a little end of summer/beginning of fall dinner. We will do summery foods followed by a nice fall dessert. It only seems right to say goodbye and hello at the same time.

Now, I leave you with an unrelated picture. I didn't snap a picture of this weekend, so this will have to do. Mia has officially figured out how to open her finger paints. This makes for interesting mornings.

Weekend

2013-08-26T07:37:00.002-07:00

Here is the usual "what we did this weekend post." It doesn't have pictures because I'm not exactly sure where my camera is. I hope I just didn't look hard enough for it rather than Mia hiding it....because let me tell you....she is the best hider of things I know.

Anyway, here we go.

Friday: I got the following email: "You may have Hepatitis A." Okay, so not exactly....but it was along those lines. Our grocery store had an outbreak of it, and we were urged to go get a vaccine. Ten decided to head down to where they were giving out the vaccine on his own...and he had to wait over an hour in a line with a whole lot of angry people. He said it was good times, and we got to see Ten on the news. I'm so proud that my husband had his 15 minutes of fame because of a Hep A scare....ahhh New York.

Saturday: We started off with an early morning at the park followed by "brunch" at Big Daddy's with another lovely family. I'm officially calling it breakfast though because it was 9:00 a.m.! New Yorkers seem to be obsessed with calling everything brunch on the weekends when they eat out during daylight hours. Anyway, we ordered pancakes for $14. They were just pancakes....nothing with it. Sooo overpriced, but they were super good.

After brunchfast, we spent the rest of the day napping and playing. Also, Ten brought home some Japanese food for dinner....but it didn't taste fresh at all. Kind of disappointed Sunrise Mart :(

Sunday: We did a whole lot of nothing. We went to the park. We did swim class....where Mia is doing awesome but still hates floating on her back. Ten bought us Snickers ice cream....and for dinner we had falafels in pitas with sweet potato fries. Ten was like....what is with this vegetarian stuff? I was like....it tastes good.....and he was like....hmmm, it does. Exciting conversation, I know.

In other weekend news, I found out that I ~~need~~ should change my address on my drivers license for our green card interview. I'm sorry dear lawyer, but I don't have the time to take a five hour safety course, read the manual/take the written exam, and then wait hours at the DMV in general. We don't use babysitters, so no way Mia is going to want to sit through all of that! Keep your fingers crossed that our interview goes well!

September Looks Promising

2013-08-21T08:19:00.000-07:00

This is what I did before Mia's music class today.

Yep, I made a list. These are all of the things that I want to do in September. These are not goals or projects....just things that I would like to take the time to do for myself. Selfish I know.

What are the little things that you want to work into your month that are simply for you?

Fire Island

2013-08-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we decided that we wanted to take Mia to the beach. I was all like....hey, let's go to Coney Island.....it costs like $5 round trip and the sand castle competition is going on. Ten was all like....hey, it's Coney Island....I don't want to watch trashy people in thongs make out on the beach. Fair enough.

Luckily, we have a third person in the house that makes good decisions for us....

Mia was like...hey, I have an idea. I'm on the phone with someone that says we can stay at their beach house on Fire Island...why don't we do that?

So, we packed up our beach gear and food and headed over to Fire Island. We took the subway to Penn Station...and then we took the Long Island Railroad to Babylon...and then we changed trains to Bay Shore...and then there was a shuttle bus ride...and finally a ferry ride. Yes, it wasn't that easy to get too.

Mia on the first leg of the trip eating her baby jerky (otherwise known as strips of rotisserie chicken).

Fire Island was great. We slept a lot. We ate a lot of food. We played in the sand. We swam....well Ten swam. Mia was terrified of the ocean at first, and I got in for about 5 minutes before I realized that I didn't like salt water and sand and waves all attacking me at the same time.

We had the beach almost completely to ourselves.

Mia was wondering why we were forcing her to walk in all of this sand...was it a form of cruel exercise? She wanted to be carried...A LOT.

Mia: "Guys why aren't we checking out that cool moon up there instead of this silly camera?"

"Uh-oh" Every time the waves came crashing in.

We also decided to try to hunt for some of our food....but lacked the appropriate weaponry. Darn.

The next morning we checked out the town a little bit before going back to the beach to say our goodbyes.

"I want to fly this thing home, and then keep it in our living room to hang out in."

Mia chewing on a leaf stem...that she fashioned herself....proud of our little Huckleberry.

Heading back to the house to pack our bags and then make the 3 hour trip home. My pictures did not do this place justice at all. It was the cutest little beach town. Either way it was nice to be able to get away from the city before summer ends.

Catch Up

2013-08-14T07:26:00.001-07:00

This is just a quick note to say that we are still here. The weather has cooled off drastically since we got back to the city from our Disney trip. I think we can officially say goodbye to summer. Did we fully take advantage of our summer? I'm not sure. I think we could have planned more things to do on the weekends. We have been busy though with just daily life, so I hope that we can do a little bit better in the fall. We may possibly try to make it out to the beach this weekend, but I think its going to be too cool. The temp is likely to be in the high 70s for most of the day, so we may have to rethink that plan and maybe spend a nice day picnicking. We haven't done much of that this summer either.

So, what else has been going on? Ten has been super busy working on a project (not work related) which keeps him up until the wee hours of the morning. We also received our letter for our green card interview...you know...the one to make sure we aren't lying or anything like that. We were shocked to see that the interview was at 7:30 in the morning! I wonder how our lawyer will also feel about getting up at that time.

We also have Mia's schedule set for September, and it is busier than I would like it to be. We have cut out one class, but she still has something going on nearly every single day! There are just too many options here, and it's hard to just sit at home with so much going on.

Anyway, hopefully I will bust out my camera soon to capture a bit more of our daily life. I have been a big slacker...I know.

Random thoughts here...

2013-08-07T09:43:00.003-07:00

I went to bed last night very frustrated....because of the New York Public Library. They sent me an email saying that I had a book that was OVERDUE. If you know me, then you know that that is not true. This wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't handed me a copy machine card rather than my library card the last time that I went there...and then claimed that I had "lost" my card...so it would be waiting for me in the lost and found. They called me and told me this two days later...when I'm sure the librarian immediately noticed her mistake, but she was just too lazy/indifferent to do anything about it.
Moving on...I was not looking forward to the huge amount (like 4) of phone calls that I had to make today. In the end I called the dentist (to make an appointment for November!), the doctor, the library (got that straightened out), and Mia's swim school (very rude), and the candlestick maker (not really) and got everything all worked out.
This week and for the next two weeks, we are having what I like to call "rush week." Basically, I am cutting back on the play dates that we have and going for quality rather than quantity. So, this week Mia has a total of 3 play dates followed by 3 more next week...and then we are making cuts. We are going to narrow it down to maybe 3 moms and babies to hang with regularly. We are just getting too bogged down with all of the scheduled play dates...we need time to breathe.
Have you tried MASH? I absolutely love it. I am drinking Ripe Mango/ Blood Orange today, and it is so good. I have one more in the fridge, but I will try to save it for tomorrow.
Mia is obsessed with chasing and being chased. She loves it and finds it to be hilarious. At 15 months old, a lot of other babies aren't quite interested in playing with other kids yet. So, Mia's solution has been to run up to them and start pushing them with all of her might to make them run....I think some parents think she is a little bully, but really she is just trying to involve them in her games.
I have stumbled across Dance Moms. Yes, I am behind...I know it...but does anyone else find these people to be...just flat out idiotic. I mean jeez. Also, how is this 300 + pound woman teaching dance. I am not saying anything against the big boned...I just honestly, truly, really don't understand how she does it.
Finally, I am in a black whole of organization. I am at a point where I am indifferent to Mia losing bits of toys and games here and there. I know that it exists somewhere in the apartment, and I know that I am going to have to do a huge organization/ cleaning of this place soon...it has been on my mind for a few months now...so I'm just being really lax until I get started on it.

Disney 2013

2013-08-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

We are back from our 8 day vacation to Disney, and it only took me a day and a half to unpack everything and get our apartment back in order! Yay me!

Anyway, Disney was an experience to say the least. I have been to Disney World twice before and Tokyo Disney countless times, but I had never done the whole eat, breath, and sleep Disney. Here is a little recap of our trip. We were terrible at taking pictures. At some point, you have to put the camera down and enjoy actual life, so that is what we tried to do on this trip.

The days before our trip, we did a lot of eating out so we didn't have to buy more food that could go to waste. One night, we went to Whole Foods and the pics of Mia were cute...so I am deciding to share them.

Yes, I agree that that was very random...Now, on to Disney. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, and it was a great place to be. A little far from the other parks, but Mia loved waking up to the animals every day. She would immediately sit up in bed and point at the sliding doors to go see what was outside. Enjoy the pics and captions. We just did way too much to share without turning this into a Disney blog.

I think there were about four zebra roaming around and the same amount of giraffe. Also, a few other animals that I couldn't name for the life of me. BTW Disney gave us a free upgrade on our room so that we could have a Savannah view...and we are so happy that they did.

Us at our hotel buffet...I think everyone gained a bit of weight from this trip...Mia included...look at her go to town on the kids buffet.

We spent a lot of time at the Animal Kingdom. The other parks were absolutely great, but Mia loves her animals and it was closest.

Riding on a safari

Checking out all of the fish. This may have been her favorite part of the trip (excluding Festival of the Lion King -- she was so excited during the show I thought she was going to crawl up on the stage and start dancing).

We also made sure to book a lot of character dining so that we could meet the different characters without having to wait in long lines.

Mia absolutely loved all of the characters...no tears here.

Mia and me at DinoLand...where we rode the dinosaur version of Dumbo

Ten and Mia at Epcot after the Nemo ride.

Good morning animals.

At the sci-fi drive in for lunch.

Watching Disney Junior Live at Hollywood Studios.

...and what every night looked like...lots of good sleep

Not a lot of pictures...but a snippet of our trip. Now, I will say that we had a really nice time at Disney. I mean who doesn't like vacation in general, but we just aren't the type of family to take a week off and go every year. Once in a while is fine, but there is so much more that we would like Mia to see and do....that goes for all of us for that matter. There is so much more to experience outside of the Disney resort, but like I said we did have a good time.

2013-07-16T19:11:00.002-07:00

Mia is getting bigger, and that means that her toys are getting a bit boring for her. Also, when we went to several play dates the past couple of weeks, I got a lot of great ideas on things that she would like...and other kids would like when they came over to our place. Now, I know it seems like we are shopping maniacs, but really we aren't. We bought everything here for half the price that it was selling for...so we are always looking for a discount on things that we want/need.

Anyway, just to give others an idea of things that we like right now.

New playmats for the floor. We rearranged our apartment a bit, and this meant that we wanted to put something over the hard floors to make it more comfortable. So, we found these and pieced them all together to give us some more cushion.

...and this is what happened. These playmats double as puzzles so Mia is constantly ripping them apart. I'm not complaining though because it keeps her busy for quite a while.

A slightly better picture of the mats before Mia took them all apart.

A Leap Frog toy where you touch the picture and it says the word or makes a sound (we have a similar Japanese toy, so I decided to get her an English one too), a felt taco/burrito set which she loves playing with, and a little caterpillar made up of gears. Two Melissa & Doug toys.

A Pocoyo track with little racing car, some Sesame Street coloring/sticker books, and animal magnets from Melissa & Doug. We were debating weather or not to get this Pocoyo toy, but we saw that it was Bandai...and figured it may be something different for her to play with. We do not regret getting this toy at all as she loves chasing the little car around the apartment (though it goes really slowly...and Mia sometimes yells at it...she may have anger issues...haha)

We are constantly throwing out moldy bath toys....our bathroom is a mold trap. So, we got this cute camping bath toy as well as a bunch of new squirt toys. We will save the squirting toys for when her other ones are unusable...basically back ups. We also got this stupidly expensive penguin toy...which does nothing...all because this is the only toy that Mia picked out. She calls all penguins Ping, and when we tried to put the toy back on the shelf she kept saying Ping! Ping! So, yeah we went ahead and got it...and she insisted on carrying it around for the rest of the night. We also picked up these Minnie ears for our trip. I'm sure much cheaper than at the parks.

We also bit the bullet and got this new Samsonite suitcase. I did a bit of research on the best suitcases and this one popped up on a few lists. I was so happy to find it at TJ Maxx for a lot cheaper than what it usually sells for...granted Ten wasn't too excited about the color...but I like it and it was the only one they had.

In other non-shopping related news, Mia had her 15 month checkup today and she is the picture of health. The doctor said that she is absolutely perfect on the growth chart, and she is still in like the 90th percentile for her age. We also had to get two shots today which wasn't too bad. She only cried for a few seconds and then the doctor handed Mia a Minnie Mouse sticker, so they were like best friends after that.

When we got home Mia insisted on wearing her sunglasses. So, she sat on the couch munching a Popsicle watching a bit of TV while I worked on dinner. I should have gotten a picture of that, but you can get the idea from this.

Thanks grandma for the Minnie shades!

I also got two really great things in the mail today. I know that this is super exciting for you to read about, but you know loyalty points? I actually saved up enough through Huggies to get this book/bear gift set. I submitted my points like a week ago and was super surprised to get it in the mail today. Mia wasn't too impressed with this book when we checked it out once from the library (a bit too old for her), so I'm tucking it away for Christmas.

Also, I got this in the mail from Dunkin Donuts. I get a free drink for my birthday. I honestly don't like Dunkin Donuts...way too sugary for my taste...but free is free folks...so I will be stopping by here this weekend.