Neighbors

Ugh, I do not like the neighbors above us. They are compulsive hammerers. Who knows what they can find to hammer so often, but here they go ago - hammering away at 10:20 pm. Come on! Plus, they know the room they hammer over is right above the baby's room and they don't care. I can NOT wait until we no longer live in this apartment or they move out. Maybe if I can just make Andrew cry enough, often enough, they will finally move away! Just kidding.

Growing Up

I'm too lazy to upload pictures, but Andrew is sure growing up. He is definitely a walker. He still has to hold onto furniture or such to stand up, but once he's up, he's walking everywhere. It really only took about a week from first step to walking everywhere, which astounds me. When he falls down, he still crawls, but he is a lot less wobbly than he used to be. His eating has gotten SO much better this last week, too. He is eating most things and only spitting out about 25%. His favorite foods are yogurt, those evil cheeto-like things, and nori (Japanese seaweed). It's so funny to me that he loves nori so much. It's a bit expensive here since it's imported, but it's pretty healthy.

We went to a cute neighborhood (but not our neighborhood) parade yesterday and walked in the parade at the end and then went hiking at a local state park. Andrew was good and slept off and on in the backpack on the hike and only got fussy at the very end - not bad for a 5.1 mile hike.

Katsu had fun in Japan the weekend before, but it was such a short trip. He still came back with lots of souvenirs, though. We enjoyed using the takoyaki maker on Sunday. Yum! (but thankfully, without the octupus inside!). He is now in a conference in Indianapolis. He is gone about half the time this month, it seems. :-(

Crazy Andrew

Today, Andrew was taking a bath. Now typically, he spends about 75% of his bath standing up. Ever since he learned to pull up, he has about 0 interest in sitting down. He used to hold on to the side, but now that he has discovered this independent standing thing, he just stands in the middle of the tub, not holding on to anything. And yesterday, he even tried walking his little zombie walk in the tub. Crazy kid. Well, today, he is taking his bath and I guess he decided that he was done, because next thing I know he is doing a head-first dive out of the tub. Gratefully, it was a slow dive and I kind of caught him as he was doing it, so he only bumped his head some. And then, of course, he wanted right back in. But I decided he was done with that bath. He sure wears me out!

Learning to Walk

Well, I think I can officially say Andrew is learning to walk. I hadn't done anything up till now since he learned to crawl kind of late and I like him crawling. And I figured he would learn on his own time frame. Anyways, Andrew has never been interested in walking around while we hold his hands (well, not since he could crawl anyways). But he is all over the place with his push toy, or anything he can push, for that matter (the laundry, a box, any toy, even a book). But the last day or two I have stood him up and tried to get him to walk to me. Well, he has decided this is great fun and likes to stand up by some furniture, put his hands straight out in front of him zombie style and walk several steps. He can already walk half way across his room, even with toys in his hand. I guess it's like his crawling - one day, he can only sit up, the next day he is crawling all on his own. Andrew just does things like that.

In other news, he went to the doctor this week and basically has gained next to no weight in the last 2-3 months. His growth curve is now even slower than the 5th percentile one except he started out so big! He is almost average in weight now (60%). Amazing. Their was a lot of controversy about his height with the nurses and doctor measuring it 3 times because they were worried he had shrunk. Since, you know those height measurements are oh so accurate. So, depending on who you trust he is anywhere from 40-80% for height. Interesting.

No pictures because Katsu has both of the cameras with him in Japan for the weekend.

Niagara Falls, Canada

Thursday night after I did my poster presentation at ISMRM, we drove to Niagara Falls. After negotiating some Toronto traffic, we finally made it to our hotel. The reviews on hotel.com weren't very good, so we weren't expecting much, but it actually was really nice. We could see part of the Falls from our hotel room and we had a mini suite. Andrew was SO excited when we got there. He kept smiling and laughing and crawling everywhere. After getting settled in, we walked around a bit and down to see the Falls for the first time (well, at least the first time for Andrew). Then, we had some delicious pizza for dinner.



And back home. Andrew got to go in a swimming pool for his first time - a little scary but a lot of fun.

Niagara Falls, Canada is like night and day to Niagara Falls, US. We went there almost five years ago and there are some pretty parks where you walk up to the falls and that is about it. Niagara Falls, Canada on the other hand, is kind of like a mini-Las Vegas wannabe. There are a couple casinos plus tons of wax museums, Ripleys Believe-It-Or-Not, and silly haunted houses. It looks like a big fun house. Plus, there are all kinds of Falls-related activities. Katsu was mesmerized and wanted to do it all. We limited ourselves to a few tokens at the arcade, but gawked at it all.

On Friday, we walked down to the Falls and enjoyed their beauty. Andrew was mesmerized. Then, we took a Maid of the Mists boat tour.



Andrew was not thrilled about the poncho.



Nor was he thrilled when we were right below the Horseshoe Falls and getting pretty wet.



He did love looking at the Falls though and was sad when we left Niagara Falls. After our boat tour, Andrew was totally worn out and fell asleep.



He woke up in time for a photo shoot in the beautiful gardens there.





We also stopped to see the whirlpool down river as well as the flower clock.



We drove through Niagara-on-the-Lake on the way home for some picturesque moments, and then we drove home. Andrew slept most of the way, but 15 minutes from home, he started crying inconsolably. Not bad for a little boy on a road trip.

Toronto: Andrew & Katsu

Or Subtitle: Andrew's brown face and my plastic feet

I didn't bring my pair of tennis shoes to this trip. That pair has a little tear on the tip of my right big toe, and I figured I shouldn't take a chance when they forecasted rain when we were there. I thought we would just sort of chill between Andrew's feeding time while we await a break during Amanda's conference sessions.

What Amanda didn't tell you when she said we walked 30 miles in 5 days, is that, well it was more than 30 miles total and we did most of those in first three days. I just drew a rough map of our first three days of walk in Toronto. A rough estimate is about 26 miles and that of course doesn't include the distance from walking within sites. Consider pushing a stroller that is just below your habitual stance level and you have a recipe of hunchback concrete hiking in the lovely city of Toronto.

The red line indicate our path on May 5th, green indicate the May 6th and blue indicate the May 7th. Blue asterisk indicate our apartment and yellow asterisk indicate the convention center. On May 5th, we walked to ROM as Amanda said and after looking for Spadina subway stop we rode it to conference center. After registration Andrew and I went to a stroll to a music garden where I was severely disappointed with its lack of musicality. It was a nice garden alright, and I guess I did enjoy a quiet breeze from the ocean while Andrew rested on the stroller and I thought about my research, but I don't think it's worth your visit unless you are a serious music theory buff. We met a gentleman and his two children from Houston there who also was waiting for his wife to get out of ISMRM conference session so we talked/walked out for quite a bit. Except, that I didn't ask his name, so next time I see him, I will be like "Hey!!! you...!! from.. that conference at Toronto....music garden...yea..." Then we met up with Amanda, and walked through chinatown and little italy back while Amanda attended another session at the center. We also walked to the west of little italy to grab a glazed chicken from portuguese churrascaria recommended by our apartment owner. It was by far the best chicken we ever had.

On 6th, we started out late and went to convention center to met up with Amanda, then we went to Eaton center, city hall, bunch of other important theatres in entertainment district (not much to share there). Walked home through chinatown and cooked dinner and brought it back to convention center and went to the Blue Jays game (because it was only $2 per person) against Devil Rays. It was Andrew's first baseball game but he was frightened every time there was a roar so we stayed until the end of 4th inning and took the street car home.

On 7th, my feet started to hurt so we took a street car instead (but you will read that we didn't do any less walking this day, either), which stopped before our destination, so we had to walk to the convention center. From there Amanda wanted to go to the distillery district on east side, so we walked all the way (oh we stopped by at St. Lawrence market and had a best sandwich in Toronto from a friend of Emeril or some cooking show star) there and had a "drink of the Gods" which is not an alcoholic beverage but an intense shot of chocolate. In the evening Amanda's second boss had a lab dinner planned so we walked there in rain through underground PATH including the Eaton center (again) and found ourselves in a party of over 30 people without any indication to order food around 8:30p, so we left early and walked home. So we might have actually walked the most this day. In addition we actually ordered Thai food which was recommended by our apartment owner (again), so I walked another mile or so there.

By this time the sole of my feet had no feelings. We had sun lotion pasted on Andrew on some occasions but not all, so his face was tanned like a monkey. Wow, we have a monkey in our house. Did we mention we walked on the fourth day there and at Niagara Falls, too? We got another best sandwich in Toronto from the "California Sandwiches" (how many best sandwiches are there?) which had the longest line for a lunch sandwich place that I have ever been to.

Well we had fun, I won't change anything about it. Well, actually just a higher stroller perhaps.

Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

Monday morning we all went to the ROM together. We took a lovely walk there past the University of Toronto and then played for a bit in front of the museum before it opened. This museum has a very interesting and beautiful architectural design - especially the new part. I loved the non-square-box feel of the museum and feel like they did a gorgeous job integrating the exhibits into the museum.

The exhibits were national history - stuffed birds and animals, mummies, totem poles, Native American artifacts, furniture through different time periods. While the stuff in the museum was pretty typical (think like the British Museum), the displays were very new and BEAUTIFUL. This is the prettiest museum I have seen. Most of the displays were almost completely in very clear glass so you felt like you were exquisitely close to everything. The bird displays were gorgeous with the birds flying all around the exhibit and even, in some parts, over you. They had a bat cave and other fun exhibits. It was a lot of fun.

Toronto: Casa Loma

I LOVED this castle when I was a kid, so we had to go. We were worried we wouldn't make it in time. A five hour car drive always turns a little longer with a one-year old. Plus, we were having some issues trying to get money (the first place we stopped at wouldn't take VISA at all! How annoying! Especially because in Japan they won't take Mastercard. How many ATM cards do we need?). But, we finally got there.

The castle is pretty cool and the views from the top are fun. Andrew was even patient while we listened to our audio guides. I was nervous having Katsu carry Andrew up winding stairs up the tower to see the view, but we all survived. There was a wedding going on, so the wedding party was all over and the bride was doing all these photo shoots, while we are walking by with our audio guide and screaming toddler. I didn't know who to feel more sorry for ... just kidding. We had lots of fun, even when we lost our parking ticket and had to pay the max rate. Oh, well.

Toronto

I (Amanda) had a conference this week in Toronto - ISMRM (International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine) or something like that. So, we ALL went. It was fun. I was in meetings most of the day while Katsu and Andrew roamed the streets. Katsu calculated that he walked about 30 miles in 5 days. Wow! We stayed in a great apartment that we found off our favorite vacation rental site. We had two bedrooms for only $75/night and the couple who rented it were amazing! They made us lemon-poppyseed bread, left us milk and fruit, and even brought toys for Andrew. They also gave him cupcakes and a present for his birthday! We felt like we were treated like royalty and it was the best deal in town! If anyone is going to Toronto and wants a recommendation, we can give it. We used the same site in Paris and also had a really good experience. Way better than a plain-jane hotel.

We also spent a day in Niagara Falls, which was great. So ... let the pictures begin.

Domino's Petting Farm

There is a petting farm in Ann Arbor and a couple of weeks ago, we went with our friends (and their free ticket!). It was a lot of fun, though Andrew was a bit hesitant after his little friend Jonas got bitten by the goat (or some other barnyard animal). Outside, though, Andrew was more interested in watching the trucks go by on the highway. Of course.

Andrew is 1 year old!

Today is Andrew's first birthday. YEAH!!! We made it!!! And here is the obligatory post.

This has been a great month with Andrew. He is starting to grow up and it is so fun. He has finally started sleeping really well!!!! And it was so easy. We had tried letting him cry (but peeking in every so often) before, but it never worked well. Andrew has some amazing abilities to cry for hours straight (which our baby-sitter unfortunately found out first hand many months ago). But we decided to try it again, and this time Andrew seemed finally ready for it. Even the first night was a piece of cake, for the most part, and Andrew now goes to bed within a few minutes. Even last night when we didn't get home from Toronto until like 10 and his schedule has been EVERYWHERE for the last week, he still went to sleep and slept through the night really well. So, YEAH, good job Andrew. So now we just need at least another year to catch up on the last year's lost sleep and then we're good to go. (So, yeah, no plans for another baby anytime soon for all those people who ask - we need to sleep!).

Andrew has also been so much better at eating, especially the last few weeks. He still spits out quite a bit of food (maybe 40%), but he does awesome with the little Gerber toddler's food. We hadn't anticipated feeding him all these snack-y foods (I mean, they bear an uncanny resemblance to Cheetos), but I guess when you have a kid like Andrew you do what you have to do. That said, he will try to eat anything and everything. Just this week, he's had chicken, bacon, french toast, pizza, cheese, chocolate, and of course, all his regulars.

Andrew is quite the expert crawler and loves to climb into cabinets now. He took his first step (maybe) today, but still prefers crawling. But he is always on the move. He knows how to turn on and off the TV, change the channels and volume and does it all on purpose - looking over at us and laughing. We went to a party a few weeks ago and Andrew figured out on the spot how to crawl up the stairs of their house. We don't have any stairs here, so I had no idea kids could figure it out so fast. He also is always crawling into rooms and closing the door and then cries until you open it. He is really trying to play peek-a-boo.

He is babbling ALL the time. He says Daddy at least one hundred times a day - it is by far his favorite word (and his favorite person). He says Mommy maybe 10 times a day and usually when he wants to eat. He has little conversations with us all the time. Last night when we got home he babbled on and on to Joe presumably about all his adventures in Toronto (of course, half the words were Daddy).

His gesturing skills have finally emerged! He can now point and likes to point out whatever is interesting. He also is learning to make choices by pointing to what he wants. He has clapped maybe a couple times and has waved a few times, but he still prefers not to do so.

Andrew loves to play and dance and talk and explore. He likes to give kisses and hugs and generally cuddle. He is always smiling and laughs a ton! He loves to go on adventures and new places. His favorite toys are his push-walker toy (he does some gorgeous three-point turns I am envious of), pots and pans and lotion samples (yum! lotion soup), his shape sorter (a pro at putting in the circle, but working on the others), the telephone (he is always trying to call Daddy and crawls to the phone whenever it rings saying Dad, Dad, Dad), remotes, and the cat Joe.

We are so glad we have Andrew in our lives. He is our happy little boy and we love him so much!!!!