Some videos from last month

As Amanda rests from her creme cheese gastro-attack, I volunteered to post videos for our family viewings. Editing of these video took about an hour, so it's been a while and I unfortunately don't quite remember which clips are from what events. Suffice it to say that these are of Andrew's out and abouts for the last several weeks. Enjoy.

The First Present

We opened the first present this weekend - a new outfit for Andrew from Grandma and Grandpa so he could wear it to church. He looked smashing, of course. We had a fun weekend. We had a free night in the local Hampton Inn that was going to expire, so we went last night to enjoy ourselves. The king bed was SO comfortable and sitting and watching TV was a blast (we don't get any reception in our apartment and are too cheap to pay for cable - well, we do get a fuzzy Animal Planet). They also had a really good breakfast with hot eggs and sausage even. But now, I have a horrible stomachache and feel SO sick - I wonder if it was from breakfast. ICK.

Snow

Yeah!!! The semester is done!!! I finished with my poster presentation yesterday - from 3:30-7:30 - four whole hours! I am so glad to be done and am taking off until we get back from Japan when I really need to buckle down and get a lot of research done.

Anyways, we had a BIG snowstorm on Saturday / Sunday. Biggest one we had in a long time. Thankfully, Katsu went to the grocery store in his pajamas on Saturday evening before it got too bad to pick up a gallon of Pumpkin Pie ice cream. Andrew and I both had colds, so we were planning on staying home from church anyways, but almost a foot of snow later, church was canceled. Katsu did go outside some to shovel and also to throw snowballs at our patio door while Andrew watched. We mostly just watched Gilmore Girls all weekend, which of course, is the perfect way to spend the weekend.

Early Christmas

Katsu got his Christmas present a little early - yesterday. We are both excited about it.

(Sorry the pictures is dark - that's what Michigan in the winter makes our apartment - dark).

Or you can see it here.

Andrew is 7 months old!

It's taken me a few days to get the post up, but Andrew is now seven months old. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. This was another challenging month for us. Andrew has become very stubborn and basically stopped taking naps for me, except after nursing or in the car. And if I am lucky enough to get him to nap in his crib, it's for 30-45 minutes tops. He arches his back if I try to calm him before putting him in the crib, but if I just place him in the crib, he cries and cries and does not go to sleep. As you can tell by this diatribe - it's very frustrating for me, especially as another month has gone by without research done.

Anyways, after a month and some of trying, he has finally seemed to get how a sippy cup works, well, for at least one sip a day, though the rest of the time he just bites it. He also eats maybe three tiny spoonfuls of food a day. We just have to let him hold the spoon and essentially feed himself. Messy, to say the least. Still not a fan of solids, what can we say.

He has been kind of fussy this month from teething and we can finally see the top of one of the teeth. And the last few days he has been sleeping much better, so we are all grateful. Very grateful. Very very very very grateful. We've been a tired lot.

Andrew loves to sit still and hates hates his tummy, though he is ending up there more and more as he is more ambitious trying to reach things. Maybe it will eventually lead to creeping or crawling. Occassionally, he seems to kind of creep backwards, so maybe there is hope for his future crawling.

On the other hand, he LOVES to stand. And just this last week, he has figured out how to pull himself up on the crib or with our fingers or clothes. He is SO proud when he does this and laughs and smiles from ear to ear.

For pictures, just a few. A family picture we had a friend take for our newsletter which we will eventually get out. Christmas things are happening a little slowly this year. Also, a picture of Andrew's favorite game - the "Andrew bed" - where I sit him on the bed and make the bed around him, usually with the cat Joe jumping in and playing too. Andrew laughs and laughs and laughs and thinks its the funnest thing ever! Also, some pictures of Andrew standing. Sleeping gave him a cute Bam Bam hair through his helmet.

Andrew & Santa

We went to a local garden / variety store and took a picture of Andrew with Santa. He seemed to quite enjoy it, plus there were snacks for us to eat - chestnuts and freshly smoked duck. Yum! We also stopped by a local home built back before the Civil War all decked out for Christmas and enjoyed some cookies. It was not too bad of a day!

Some Pictures

We had to get new batteries for our camera, so it's been a while since I posted about stuff ...

So, here are some new pictures of Andrew.

Andrew is getting into EVERYTHING. And he's not even mobile left. He loves to get into his "toybox" - aka the laundry basket and pick out toys and dump them on the floor. He also goes for any piece of paper he can find to rip it up. And he seems to have a special affinity for electrical cords.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We went to my (Amanda's) advisors house. There was lots of people and good food. Andrew fell asleep during the dinner. Afterwards, everyone was jamming - singing, playing on the guitar, vibraphone, piano. Katsu gave a try on the drums and sounded really good - and he's never played them before. Definately interesting to see a different side of my advisor.

The day after Thanksgiving, we hit all the sales. Ever since Katsu learned about Black Friday, he has loved the idea, so it's the one day, I really let him shop, shop, shop till he drops. We went to 10 different stores!!!

Then, on Saturday, we cooked our own turkey. Katsu got a huge 19 pounder because he loves turkey and especially turkey leftovers (Which we will have FOREVER). We did the whole dinner - mashed potatoes, yams, gravy, cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing. So, Andrew already had his first two thanksgiving dinners - although he didn't really eat anything.

We put up all our decorations on Wednesday because Katsu had a really bad day at work. And it was really fun and cheered us all up. We love Christmas.

6 Month Visit

Andrew had his 6 month checkup yesterday. He is only 90% now (20 lbs 5 oz) for weight and still 85% for height. His head circumference has gone down, but probably because of the helmet, I would guess. The doctor proclaimed the reason(s) he is not sleeping - his helmet looks like it is bothering him (um, yes), he has fluid in his ear, and he is teething. What a great combination!!! The poor kid got his shots even with his cold. Poor kid. And then he had a relatively high fever of 102.6 last night and was very hot and had a hard time sleeping. So, hopefully, he gets better soon! Sick babies are so sad looking.

A video of sweet potato

6 months

Andrew turned six months old yesterday. This has been a bit of a hard month because of having the helmet. The first two weeks were like having a newborn with him waking up every hour or two. It got better ... but this week is worse with him up 3-4 times a night again. IN the beginning, he also always swatted at his helmet, so much so that he got a blister on his finger, poor kid. He also figured out how to wriggle out of it at night, but he hasn't done that since the first week. Although today I caught him trying to lift the thing off (and he almost accomplished it!), the sneaky thing.

Other than sleep and helmet, it was a good month. Andrew is fabulous at sitting up which is SOOO nice. He sits and plays most of the day. Refuses to do tummy time now and just rolls over immediately, but oh, well. It has made it much easier for us so we don't have to carry the heavy boy all the time. He loves playing with blocks, cups.

He has become really aware and has a really big personality. If he wants to play with a toy, he stares at it and then you and then the toy until you take him over there. He also is very talkative and makes these little high pitched "Hi!" and "Hey" sounds all the time. He also started giving us kisses on our cheeks, which I thought was really cute since we didn't teach it to him at all.

One other bad / good note - our babysitter quit which has made things a bit more difficult but was probably better since he cried the whole time he was there. We tried another friend to see if it was the babysitter or Andrew - it was definitely Andrew. He cried at her house the whole time. Even after I comforted him, as soon as he saw her he would burst into tears. He is somewhat better if he is at our house. He definitely has preferences for people, even strangers. Some he goes straight into conversation with and others he just eyes skeptically.

We are starting to give him solids a bit for the next week, but not much interest, so we'll have to keep going on it.

We're having fun, even though its been a really hard month. Happy 6 months baby!

Newer Videos

Techno baby!

Old Videos

Some old videos, because grandparents live on this sorta thing

July 1st



August 29th

Michigan State and Halloween

Last weekend we took a little road trip to Lansing and went to Michigan State and walked around and enjoyed the beautiful fall day. We also saw their cute little museum. Then, we had lunch at PF Chang's and then drove by the state capitol - there was lots of construction so we couldn't actually park and take pictures.

We made lots of Halloween cookies - shared some and ate a lot. It was fun to decorate them.

We went to the ward halloween party and we all dressed up like soccer players for Chelsea, Katsu's favorite team. We had the cutest outfit for Andrew thanks to his uncle Kiyo. Not too bad for a outfit that was 2T (I was convinced it wouldn't even stay on at all).

Enjoy the cute pictures of our chubby little boy.

Memory Monday

I am posting pictures of our best friends from our Boston days, after they all graduated in May 2004 (I didn't graduate for another semester and Katsu graduated a semester before but was still at BU working on his masters). Our friend Trevor just had his first baby a few weeks ago, our friend Jessica just got married a few weeks ago, and Veronica is living the high life in Vegas. We don't really keep in touch with Armineh anymore, but she sounds like she's doing well and got to visit London again. This is us at the Public Garden and wandering around Boston. (Unfortunately, Katsu took all these pictures, so there are none of him)

Over the rainbow

Today, I (Katsu) woke up and my back hurts. Right now, I am at work, and I am having hard time loading gels because my back hurts. Motivated by pain, I decided to research the cause of this ailment.

First, I thought of how hard my intramural soccer has been this semester. Yes, we don't have a team for the first time since I have arrived to Ann Arbor. We just didn't have enough people in our ward civil enough to be wanting to be associated with this magnificient sport. This had caused much pain, but I cannot remember hurting my back from it, so it must be from something else.

Second, I thought of how Chelsea's head coach Jose Mourinho has been let go, not much after my favorite player in Chelsea Arjen Robben left the club. This had caused much pain, but I think the pain was in my heart, and not back, so it must be from something else.

Third, I thought of how England national team has almost assuredly been disqualified from EURO 2008, this pained my back, because I was laughing so hard. Though I think I recovered from that few minutes after the news, so it must be from something else.

Alas, this cannot be! It must be that new soccer player in our household! The gigantus Andrew I. Funai's growth rate has been extraordinary. His uncle Kiyo bought him Chelsea jerseys couple of weeks back, and although the jersey is for 12-24mos old, he is going to be wearing it for the Halloween party this weekend. Yes, it must be his gigantis weight that has caused my my back pain. So I looked up what is called "Baby growth chart" shown above, and lo and behold his weight (shown in red star) was over the rainbow! I don't even know what that means! He will be a great sweeper, but I wanted him to be a winger. Maybe he can be like Ruud Gullit, the great gigantic Chelsea striker from 95-98.

Invasion of the Home Snatchers

Our home has been invaded ... by a baby. I swear, our living room is baby paradise. We have an unbelievable amount of baby stuff. (Note - this does not include the crib or our two strollers or our two baby carriers or our baby backpack thing). This is what happens when you live in a ward full of people with small apartments who want to lend out their baby stuff as soon as their baby outgrows it. Andrew loves it, but it sure takes up a lot of room.

Helmet Head

So, now, Andrew has his helmet. He got in on Thursday. At first, he was pretty good because you start with only 2 hoyrs the first day and then 6 the next. But since Saturday morning he has been wearing it fulltime (except one hour a day) and he hates it! During the day he is good for awhile and plays, but after like 20 minutes he gets really fussy and keeps rubbing his face and moving his head back and forth and arching his back trying to get it off. At night, he sleeps till about 11 or 12 and then he is waking up every hour or two and very hard to put back to sleep. Needless to say, we are not getting much sleep around here. We went back to the orthotist today to get the helmet adjusted, so I'm hoping it will make him a little happier. They say kids get used to it within a week - I sure hope so!

Memory Monday - Summer 2005

Taking a cue from my friend Sarah who does a Flashback Friday every week, I decided to try a Memory Monday so I can share some of our favorite memories (and pictures). Right now, it will probably be mostly from the last four years until I can find scanned or digital pictures from longer ago.

So, I am going to go back in time two years, the summer 2005 before we moved here to Michigan. As a graduation present to ourselves, we took a three week vacation to Europe and started in Paris. These pictures are from the first day in Paris, where we started our trip and are of Notre Dame.

Paris is expensive and we spent quite awhile trying to find a good hotel in a decent price range. Luckily for us, while searching vacation rentals, we found an apartment in Paris that was all rented out except during the days we were going to be there, so we got a great discount. The apartment was great. We went to a local grocery store and bought food to make dinner and breakfast most days. For lunch, we ate baguettes sandwiches - mostly cheese and a bit of meat - plus some fruit.

And the best part of our apartment was that is was a five minute walk from Notre Dame. We walked by the church every day we were in Paris and I always got excited seeing it. It is so beautiful!!! Sometimes, I get real envy for these beautiful cathedrals after being in our boring meetinghouses. Churches are definitely one of my favorite things to see when I am site seeing.

5 Months Tomorrow

Andrew will be 5 months old tomorrow, but I probably won't have time to update then, so here's his update.

Andrew is big as always. He weighs almost 20 lbs now, I think. My back has started hurting some lately, so I guess I have to be careful how and how much I carry him. Easy to say for a 5 mo. old, but oh, well. As I mentioned before, Andrew's head is very flat, so he has to get a helmet. We went to the doctor person for that and that was an interesting appointment. First, they measured Andrew's head. The way to show how flat it is is by measuring the diagonals. On a round head, they would be the same or only a couple millimeters off. Severe flattening is at least 12 mm difference. Andrew's was a whole 2 cm (or 20 mm) so it is pretty severe. Then, they put this panty hose / sock like thing over his head, stuck little stickers all over it, and used a big red laser to take a picture of his head. Andrew, needless to say, did not like the sock thing. But he found the bright red light fascinating. So, he gets his helmet on Thursday. He has to wear it 23 hrs a day for several months ... probably like 4 or 5. Thankfully, we only have to pay a $15 copay. Otherwise, these helmets normally cost $2-4k, which would be a bit much for us "poor" students to handle. Otherwise, he is pretty healthy. He did have a small cold this month (his first sickness), but nothing too bad.

We did try out some rice cereal this month to see if it helped out with his spitting up. Not much - he still spits up all of the time! It's amazing, really, and gross, but oh, well. Although if he spits up for the next 18 years, I assured him he would be an only child. He does really like eating though. I am sure he'll be excited when we start it up next month. We finally got a high chair (from a friend) so he sits in that while we eat dinner and really envies our food.

Andrew has started to really grab everything. He loves his little cups, blocks, and rings - anything he can pull and grab and throw. He spent most of the month, sitting up and being completely doubled over trying to reach something. Thus, all the spit up. The last few days he has really started to sit better on his own which he really likes. He can sit for at least a minute or so without falling over. If he wasn't constantly trying to reach for things far away, I am sure he could do much longer. He also has found his feet and toes now and likes to hold them and watch them.

Still no interest in rolling. Oh, well. He is pretty good with tummy time, though he likes sitting and standing better. He tries to move around a lot, so crawling should eventually come.

Andrew started going to his babysitter this month - which he does not like. He goes 4-6 hours a week usually. I would like him to go more like 8-10 hours a week so I can get a little more research done, but right now 4 is the bare minimum so I can go to class. He was crying the entire time I was gone. If I left him for four hours, he would cry for four hours. And this went on for weeks! He wouldn't cry (or at least as much) if he was outside, but that was about it. Yesterday was an improvement. He didn't cry for the first 2 hours and then only cried for 15 minutes until I got back. I am amazed at how stubbornly this boy hates babysitters. I really thought I wouldn't run into as many problems with him starting at 4 months, but I guess I was wrong. We'll see how the semester goes and then look at things and decide if this PhD program is worth it.

Andrews also hates bottles. He will take one from us, but he won't actually suck it unless he is starving. He just rolls it around in his mouth because he knows milk will just come out. He wouldn't take it at all from his babysitter at first, but he will drink an ounce or two from her now as long as she doesn't look at him. Stubborn boy.

Andrew sleeps really well at night. He goes to bed at 7 every night really easily. He wakes up once or twice at night - when he was sick he woke up more like 2-3 times, but before that it was just once. He even slept all the way through once. Then, he wakes up very predictably around 7 am. His naps on the other hand are more frustrating. He never sleeps more than an hour, and 95% of the time, his naps are 45 minutes. I have tried everything to try & lengthen his naps to no avail - putting to sleep as soon as looks tired, hold him out till he's REALLY tired, schedule him, white noise, music, total darkness, letting him cry for a bit to see if he goes back to sleep, etc. I give up! Hopefully his naps will lengthen as he gets older - doing research in 30 minute chunks (and only 3 of them) is difficult and he often still seems tired when he wakes up.

Andrew loves our cat Joe and is always trying to pet him. Surprisingly, Joe is really good and doesn't mind even when Andrew pulls his fur, which is very often. Andrew also loves being outside or looking outside. And he loves to laugh. I was reading a book to him (Moo Baa La La La) and he started laughing while I was reading it because he thought a horse saying Neigh was funny. He really likes music, especially when we sing to him. Jesus Wants Me For a SunBeam is a real hit! We really have tons of fun with Andrew and are so glad he is here!

Andrew fussiness & playing





General Conference weekend

Apple Picking Last Weekend

We went to Wiard's Orchard with friends last weekend. Unfortunately, there weren't really any apples for picking, but we had fun on the corn maze, the hay ride, and guzzling down apple cider. It was a nice break after a busy week at school taking my qualifying exams!!! And we even found all of the special hole punches in the maze, though it took at least half an hour!

video testing ... a video of andrew from a few weeks ago

Baby Sumo

Andrew went to his 4 month doctor appt on Tuesday. The doctor enters the room ...

"Oh, my goodness! He is huge!!! He looks like a 9 month old ... this is all breastfed? You have enough milk to feed triplets!"

Hmm ... I guess that might be useful information in the case that I ever have triplets ...

So, yes, he is big. Officially, 18 lbs 4 oz big (96%) and 66 cm tall (82%), which as my mother says makes him undertall. Wears both his 6-9 and his 9-12 month clothes, though the latter are still a bit big. And his head is flat - which means a visit to a specialist for possible fitting of a helmet. Which I am so not thrilled about.

But otherwise, he's doing really well. Wants to look at everything. Loves being outside. Loves grabbing things. Loves playing with Daddy. Slept the entire night (12 hours!) without eating the night before my presentation at school (good boy!) though last night was up twice (not as fun). He even enjoyed being at the babysitter yesterday and took a bottle. But the improvement was probably because she took him shopping. He loves going out and going shopping.

So, that's our sumo shopper.

Some More Andrew Pictures

5 More Things

This week I am grateful for ...

1. My Sister-in-law - who read this blog and, due to the ever-increasing size of Andrew, mailed out some 12 month clothes, which he will fit into all too soon! I guess my brother receives credit, too. How fun is it to get an unexpected package!!!

2. Birthday money - my grandparents sent me a check for my birthday on Saturday and I decided to treat myself at Target to a few of my favorite things - fancy body wash (which I normally don't buy since soap is so much cheaper), a big dark chocolate bar, and a huge container of yummy yummy trail mix. And I still have $10 left just waiting to be spent on a new book. Aren't the simple pleasures the best!?!

3. And speaking of which, Body Wash, especially the really creamy lovely aroma stuff. Today's shower (while baby Andrew was awake!) was divine.

4. Talking to friends on the phone ... a favorite past time.

5. By small and simple things .... finishing my quals report draft over the last two weeks. I really am amazed how much work I have been able to get done between naps and evenings and weekends!

I guess 5 is enough, but I have tons more. A good and tiring week so far!

5 Things

We had a great high council talk about gratitude yesterday that really got me thinking. Especially now when I am under a lot of stress, I think taking some time everyday to count my blessings is just what I need spiritually. So here are 5 things ...

1 - Sunday, a day I can relax and not have to work on research.

2 - The baby fussing whenever I sit down during Sunday School, so I have to walk the halls and socialize with people (maybe it's bad, but I really like getting some adult conversation packed in on Sundays)

3 - Meeting new people - at least 15 families have moved in in the last 2 weeks in our ward, so there are tons. A little overwhelming, but lots of possibilities.

4 - Laughter - who knew that Beyond Balderdash could bring so much fun with the couple of new families who came to our house last night. Between sniddle and knowing why "Ladies Crave Excitement", we had LOTS of laughs

5 - Plums - I had my first plum of the year yesterday and it was divine. One of God's greatest gifts, really.

100 Days Old

Andrew is 100 days old ... or was, yesterday. We celebrated the Japanese way, by serving him up his first real meal. Traditionally, the meal is supposed to wish the baby good luck that they will always have plenty of food - a kind of protection against starvation, I suppose. So, you feed the baby a bit of rice, then a bit of miso soup (tofu, miso, and seaweed), then a bit of rice, then a bit of fish, then a bit of this sweet rice and bean dessert that Katsu made. Andrew was a little perplexed, but seemed to find the tofu and the sweet rice and beans "oishii" or tasty.

And on another note, since Andrew is big and already wearing 6-9 months clothes, he gets to wear this cute outfit from the ojiisan and obaasan (Funai grandparents) for the next little while on Sunday. Isn't he cute? We are having lots of fun with him! Katsu takes great care of him in the evenings and Saturday morning/afternoon, so I can work on my research. Here is a picture of Andrew playing with his toys in the morning with Katsu. And hopefully, hearing all that Japanese will pay off with a bilingual baby!

Book Reviews

I want to start keeping track of the books I read and share a few thoughts about them. I don't get as much reading time as I used to ... so it might be short.

So far this month, I've read:

The Tao of Pooh - a really fast read and an interesting, though bit odd, introduction to Taoism, the Chinese philosophy. I liked the passages from the Pooh books, but having the author talk to Pooh as he went didn't turn out as well, IMO. I especially like the idea of knowing who you are. going with the flow, and not being a busy backsoon (or however Christopher Robin spelt it). THe ideas are useful to me as I am getting stressed out about my upcoming qualifying exams and balancing school, baby, family, and me.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - a fascinating tale of two friends during China's footbinding past. The story of friendship really makes me think about my past and current friendships. But I was mostly supremely saddened to think about the suffering women have gone through due to past patriarchal societies. It really strengthens my feminist tendencies. Anyway, I highly recommend this book.

Three months old

Andrew is three months old today and lots of fun! As you can see from the pictures, Andrew is huge. The outfit he is wearing there is a 3/6 month, but it is too small, so it will probably be the last day for that one. He has basically already outgrown all his 3/6 mo clothes and is wearing 6/9 mo clothes. He sure goes through clothes really fast. I don't know how tall he is, but guessing from the bathroom scale, he must be about 16 lbs! Hopefully, the scale is wrong ... no wonder my back is starting to hurt.

Other than that, we are having lots of fun with him. He smiles and laughs all the time. He loves when you sing songs with hand motions and move his hands along (like the Wise Man and the Foolish Man and the Eensy Weensy Spider). He likes to knock block towers over and grab links and is starting to hold things with both hands and to put things in his mouth all the time. He likes to talk, especially in the morning when he wakes up. Yesterday, he seemed to learn to roll from his stomach to his back and did it at least ten times, but wouldn't do it once Daddy came home (of course). He also got to spend a week touring the finer parts of the area (Henry Ford Museum, Bronner's Christmas store, Frankenmuth, Ann Arbor, and the Toledo Zoo) with his Crookston grandparents and Aunt Sarah.

I am starting to write my report for my qualifying exams in the evenings and nap times, so I guess the care free days of the summer are really ending ... school will be starting before I know it.

What Hair

Everyone comments on Andrew's hair. Today, while he was nursing and his hair was still wet from his bath, I curled it with my fingers a bit. Here's the do.