a trip to tokyo

It's a challenge taking a baby all the way across town and into tokyo. The train stations are full of stairs and miscellaneous pathways going up and down through the building. Shibuya is always packed with people, going in all different direction. Today, we made a trip to Kichijoji, about an hour from Yokohama. The reason for the trip was to visit a spiritual man to consult about Terran's health. Although I always thought that my baby was healthy, my mom was concerned that he is not growing as he should. So she suggested we go see this spiritual man just to make sure everything is OK.

We met him at his office, which also doubles as his work place where he is, coincidently, an architect. His office was tiny, probably the size of a normal American walk-in closet. It had a nice smell, a bit of Japanese incense. One side was lined with books of all types. The other side was lined with desks, with computer, copier, plotter, and miscellaneous stuff. He was a middle aged man, with very kind eyes. He put his hands near Terran to send his powers. I am not sure if Terran was still sleepy, but he quietly rested his head on my shoulder and seemed very comfortable. After about 5 minutes, Terran became a little irritable and bored so he stopped. As I predicted, the spiritual man told us that Terran seems very healthy and growing just fine. He said that Terran is probably pretty tired from traveling and having a hard time adjusting to the new environment. All this I knew. For the next 30 minutes or so, he sent his powers to my mom because she was having problems with her legs. After my mom, he repeated the process with Terran. This time, Terran was more alert and knew what was going on. Everytime the spiritual man puts his hands near Terran to send him powers, Terran would whimper. Sometimes, Terran would take his hand and pushes him away. It seems like Terran feels the powers that is being sent to various parts of his body.

Anyway, it was a long day and it made my mom feel better by getting a confirmation that Terran is just fine. I told her that before but she wouldn't believe me until the spiritual man said the exact same thing as I did. The spiritual man also told me that Terran is a really nice name. We named him so of course I thought so too. Then, later on in the train, my mom asked me where his name came from. So I explained and she was impressed. She never asked me that before....

Again, we went through the crowded train station and came back to Yokohama. Good thing I had my Ergo Baby Carrier. I knew that there were going to be lots of stairs so we didn't bother taking his stroller. I held him on my back using the Ergo and Terran fell asleep comfortably.

Oh, one more thing. We stopped by a bakery on the way home to get some bread for tomorrow. There are so many bakeries in Japan and the bread and pastries there are excellent. The pastry didn't last til tomorrow. I ate it as soon as we got home. hehe :)

just photos

Messing around with grandma:s cell phone.



Photo of Terran with Yokohama:s famous "Akai-kutsu-no-onnanoko" (girl with red shoes). For some reason, all the Japanese children know this song.

Playing with mom at 3am

Looking outside at the morning view of Yokohama.








Finally morning arrives in Yokohama after a long night (around 5am)

sleepless in japan

It is hard to be with a jet lagged baby. He just doesn:t know how to deal with his sleeplessness and ends up sleeping many hours less than usual.

Terran and I are back in Japan for a month. We flew out of Newark on a 13 hour air journey. After a hellish flight of dealing with an excited baby, we landed in Narita and were greeted by my parents. It is the first time for papa to meet Terran and he is just doing anything silly to please the baby. It is really exciting to see how happy he is to have a grandson. A boy is an added bonus after having 3 daughters....

Despite our sleeplessness, we go out for a walk every morning. Unlike our home in Lawrenceville, where there is nothing but trees, squirls, and empty streets, there:s so much to see, hear, and smell in Yokohama. We walk down to Yamashita park and watch the dogs and pigeons having their morning. We walk around the streets and Terran is amazed by cars and buses and trucks whizzing by. We walk around Motomachi shopping area and see what has changed my highschool days (my favorite gelato store was gone...). We walk through Chinatown to see the tourists and the steaming buns being sold on the streets. Terran usually does not like being in the stroller but here in Yokohama, he is so busy capturing his surrounding with all his senses that he is quite happy sitting in his stroller.

We are slowly getting back to our normal sleep pattern and I cannot wait to go for another walk with him.

All about Terran

Here are some recent photos of all of us. That's me and Terran on a nice sunny day. Terran loves the camera and he know to smile in front of it. When he's tired, he will even fake it just to show his sign of recognition.


And here's Pat with Terran on another nice sunny day. We took a drive to Lambertville and Pat carried him on his back in our Ergo Baby Carrier. I love carrying my baby around but as he got heavier, I started having back pains. So I recently bought Ergo which is so great. It's my third carrier that I own and it's definitely the very best. I can carry him in 3 different positions, front, hip, and back, and I can carry him all day long and I don't feel a thing.

Terran has been sick the last few days with fever from his vaccination. This is the worst yet and it is lasting so long. I am so worried and tired but the carrier saves me. He's sick so he just wants to be carried during all his waking hours. So I just put him in the Ergo and go about my day, doing this and that. He even falls asleep in it while I do the dishes or eat my lunch.


Here's Terran today. He's sick but progressively got better. He didn't want to eat dinner but wanted to eat an orange, not little pieces but the big thing. So I peeled one for him and gave him the whole orange. He's eating on the countertop next to the microwave and the rice cooker. He doesn't usually get to sit there so when I let him, he cheers up.
Today was a pretty bad day. He's temperature was lower than yesterday but he was cranky and tired all day long. He couldn't keep his eyes open but would cry when I put him down in bed. And just like yesterday, he demanded to be held all day long. We went outside for just a minute and when we were admiring our tulips, he got bitten by a bug on his eyelids. So he had this red puffy eyes that he kept on scratching.... On top of that, he barely slept last night, so we're both exhausted.
Hope he's better tomorrow....

Month 9

This is Terran in March. Isn't he the most adorable guy? After a cold winter, we had a really warm spring day, so the three of us headed out to Princeton for lunch, then strolled along the canal a bit.

Just a couple of days ago, we went for a 9 month well baby check up at the pediatrician's. I found out that he had gained only about a pound in the last 3 months. In the baby scale, he is 3 percentile for both weight and height. He is 100% breastfed baby and I feel that I've got enough but now, I am not so sure anymore. Even though breastfeeding is known to be better than formula, his lack of growth makes me loose confidence. If we have another one, I may just do formula and do away with breast quickly. Terran got sick 3 times this winter, and I am not really seeing the advantage of breastfeeding too much....

Aside from his size, he is generally a happy baby, who loves the color yellow and loves music. He knows how to play with the tambourine and claps when he does a good job playing with an instrument. We absolutely adore him. And now, I better rush upstairs because he just woke up from his nap!!!