Marisa is ONE

This entry is long overdue. Marisa turned one on Oct 7.

It's amazing how quickly her first year went by (with the packing, moving, traveling, adapting, etc.). Still, watching her achieve her milestones has been and is still extremely fascinating. It never gets old, even when we've seen it before.

Marisa started walking at 11.5 months old. Now at 13 months, she's running. Once the passive one, she now knows how to exert her will, sometimes a little too loudly (thanks to the example shown by her older sister *sigh!*). Just several days ago, she unexpectedly said "real" words, like "apple" or "Elmo" and stunned us all! Like I said, it never gets old.

Dancing seems to be a passion at this stage. Her favorite tunes are in the Mary Poppins soundtrack, and more recently in tourism TV commercials of exotic places like Montenegro, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. I think she likes the ethnic drum rhythms. This morning, she did some fancy footwork that looked like salsa to a South African commercial on CNN! I rolled on the floor laughing when I should have grabbed my videocam instead!

It's amazing... the places she's been before she turned one. Berlin is a good example. More on that in another entry!

Extreme make-over!

BEFORE

• 40+ year house that was passed down from one generation to another
• a favorite parking spot for cyclists who needed to hop onto trains at the nearby station but didn't want to pay for parking
• the piece of land received many unreasonably good offers during the bubble economy in Japan but no one in the family had the heart to sell it
• daddy used to say: "we're just waiting for the earthquake or typhoon to bring it down," but the house withstood almost everything, so they had to do something before somebody got hurt!
  

AFTER

Several days ago, my dear friend (and a wonderful photographer and cook!) Hani took this picture of her family at that same spot. The place has transformed into something worthy of visit from someone living all the way in Yokohama! It is now a 6-floor apartment with a cozy little cafe on the 1st floor.

* Hani, thanks for letting me use this photo! I love it... your boys intently looking at one direction (presumably at something that interests only boys) while Aimee-chan is just happily sleeping in her stroller!

BEFORE (2002)

There were always persimmons in the house. The persimmon trees that grew in the garden had the sweetest fruit. This one was over-ripe, but still good!

AFTER (2008)

We'll be seeing less of persimmons now and more of coffee... and tea and rare cream cheese cake and pudding and walnuts. Kurumed Cafe ("kurumi" is Japanese for walnut) opened on October 1, 2008 to serve up specialty coffee. Owned by my brother-in-law, this place, I was told, features a fancy interior and a cozy environment for families with children. Hani said that her family enjoyed themselves!

BEFORE (2002)

AFTER (2008)

That person in the 'Before' photo still bums around the place like this... some things you just can't make over.

New blogger format, Obama, etc.

Gosh I really need to get used to this new Blogger format.  I thought I have made several new entries and now I'm not sure to where they have gone.

We've been closely following the American presidential race and the fact that Minori can say and recognize Obama and HClinton even before she even turned 3 proves it (is it too early to tell that she's a non-American Democrat?).  With Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, a candidate's wife that looks like Barbie, an ex-beauty queen running mate thrown in, it's just so full of drama and fun.  At least more so than the political scenes from our countries.  Besides there's no underestimating how much impact the American president (and First Lady) can have on the rest of the world.  Was it an ex-French premier who said that the foreign community should also have a say as to who the next American President should be?

Yesterday while cleaning up after breakfast I casually asked DH who he'd vote for if he were an American, and he replied "Obama" without any hesitation.  This is coming from someone who 90% of the time either tries to sound tactful by not taking sides or to refuse giving an answer.

In our household we vote for integrity.  And even a preschooler knows who has it.

In memory of our beach time...

Summer has officially ended :(. Actually with daily lows of below 10 degrees, it's starting to feel like winter.

Here are a few pics we took over summer of Warnemunde, a touristy beach town about 20 minutes by train from where we live. It overlooks the Baltic Sea right across Sweden and Denmark. We were there practically every weekend that was not rained out.



There's more to Warnemunde than surf, sand and sea...

You can tell just by looking at her face that her heart skipped a beat as she came down this long and steep slide! 

How to talk

I'm almost done with what some book critics call the "parenting bible." I'm usually a little skeptical with books that claim to be a bible of some sort but this one came so highly recommended by "real" people that I just had to give it a shot.

It's a thumbs up.

I particularly like the authors' style of asking the reader (presumably a parent, or nanny which brings me to another review later on the book I'm currently attempting to read called The Nanny Diaries) to put him/herself in the child's shoes to understand what the child could potentially feel if spoken to in a certain way.

Also, apparently there is a correct way to praise, and it is not "good boy/girl" or "that was brilliant" etc...

Another surprise: Saying "I'm proud of you!" doesn't necessarily make the child feel good about him/herself!

Imitating everything she sees

If you are a Disney fan, you'll probably know Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Disney's animation of Alice in Wonderland.

These are the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in our family.

Mary Poppins and robin singing "Just a Spoonful of Sugar."

Our own "Mary Poppins" and little sister's plush chicken singing "Just a Spoonful of Sugar."

Playing the big sister

The older sister acts like one.
The little sister is thrilled!


(video taken on 30 June 2008)

10 months old

In a blink of an eye, Marisa turns 10 months old. She started to stand for a few seconds at a time today, without support.

Marisa is fast becoming a little chatterbox like her older sister ("papa," "mama," "ayee" @that's how she addresses her older sister, "bye bye," "paipai" @oppai in japanese meaning she wants to be breastfed, etc), and already knows how to play passing games and to make gestures (waving, clapping, tapping on her head, etc). A favorite past time is opening the kitchen cabinets to pull out the sieve or dance to her reflection on the oven window.

Daddy's dancer girl!

A dress and a bouquet (who cares if it's just parsley!).

Daddy was to complete the picture. Maybe she's been watching too much of that Anastasia animation on DVD where Anastasia dances with her father, the Tsar, in a scene.

As you can see far from being Tsar-like, daddy, still a bit dazed in pajamas, had no idea what hit him when Minori grabbed his hand and said, "daddy, let's dance like this!"

Apartment tour: Girls' room

Thanks to our lovely landlady Hanna, Minori and Marisa have a room in our rented apartment decorated just for them! It looks quite bare because the girls play out in the living room usually.



After bringing home a parsley plant from the supermarket, Minori took it, changed into a dress, and started dancing with it like it were a bouquet of flowers! Girls will be girls!