Sakura goes to the movies!

I was a bit worried about taking Sakura to the movies, but we went anyway. Sakura did really awesome, she is just 17 months old, and until about the last 20 or so minutes of the movie she sat quietly munching on her rice crackers and drinking her water (no popcorn for Sakura!). Here she is getting settled before the movie started. I am so proud of my baby girl for being so good! The movie was great (how could it not be when it had adoption in it?!). We all enjoyed it very much! I think Sakura would have sat through the whole thing had there not been about 20 minutes of movie trailers before it started.

Sakura and Daddy at the movies

Tea Time and more

Sakura always loves getting in the cabinets, I let her since there's not much (if anything) in them to harm her. Yesterday she found Ba-chan and Ji-chan's ocha (tea) pot. She had a blast playing with her little tea pot. She also put her shoe on by herself (look at her toes!). Sakura loves shoes!

Ocha anyone?

Since I've been off, I've been playing with the camera settings too (between black and white, color, blurred backgrounds, etc) - so below there are just a variety of shots I took of Sakura while she was hanging out with me and Katie. She has discovered the love of climbing on the back of the couch and sitting there, just to climb down and do it all over again. Doesn't take much to entertain Sakura!

Watching Inai Inai Baa

Watching from afar

Hanging out on the back of the couch

Playing Webkins with Katie
(Katie is earning lots of neat stuff for Sakura's little Webkins!)

Enjoying my days

I have to admit, I ♥ being home with Sakura without worrying about work. Here are just a few pictures from our weekend and the last few days. I will definitely be ready to go back to work once my 4 weeks at home are up, but for now I'm really enjoying my free time with Sakura. She makes me smile and laugh every single day and there's not much more to life than that :)

Katie taught Sakura this - you say "How pretty is Sakura" and she does this.

Then Katie says "SOOOOO Pretty". It's pretty darn cute!

Playing with Katie at lunch.

CHEESE for
Mommy!

Giggle-box

Making Mommy "SO Pretty" - LOL!

Sweet girl kisses for Momma

Sakura liked this mannequin, she'd look at his hands, look at his arms, pull his shirt and look for his "BeBo" (belly button) - we got a good laugh

Daddy has ruined Sakura with cereal - she no longer likes dry Cheerios, she won't eat them without milk now...which is messy. Sakura does really well with her spoon and will not let you help her, she is an "all by myself" kind of girl these days.

Chillin in her chair... (Hey Momoka, you gotta try this!) -

Sakura loves her chair, she goes right to it to watch any TV.

What Sakura doesn't like is SHARING her chair, here Katie was sitting in it, and Sakura kept saying "Git" as in "Git OUT".

Silly face - Sakura is a ham, she cracks us up!

Then you get the "CHEESE" (look at her gums - OUCH!).

Sakura gets her own Big Swirl -

she normally cries when we say there is no more or all gone, so I thought we'd try getting her own, which worked out a little better, she was still upset when we left, but not quite as bad.

Two spoons = more ice cream!

Chillaxin before nap.

I missed this face!

Last night was my very first night away from Sakura since going to Japan to get her. I had to have a hysterectomy which required an overnight stay in the hospital. Sakura was in good hands with Daddy and my niece Katie, I didn't worry about her at all, but knowing I would be away from her almost had me not do the surgery. I went through with it though. Sakura was fine as I knew she would be, but I didn't sleep - despite having anesthesia and medication that should help me sleep, I got about 2 hours after waking up in the recovery room. I couldn't wait to see my baby girl. I'm sure Sakura missed her Mommy too.

When I got wheeled down the next morning crying with anticipation, I was SO happy to see my precious baby girl (well toddler). Daddy had dressed her in her cherry blossom dress, she looked like a beautiful princess.

The hard part now is not being able to lift her and pick her up - I'm relying a lot on my awesome niece Katie who is here with us. She's so much help - despite Sakura telling her NO every time she needs to be put in the high chair, or in her crib. Katie is a trooper.

Sakura and Katie



I ♥ this little face!



Beautiful flowers from Linda, Mark, Jessamine and Stephanie.

Beach time

I ♥ the beach. I have so many great memories of growing up spending a couple of weeks every summer vacation on Mission Beach with my family and then when we got older we often brought a friend with us. Those were special times. I couldn't wait to take Sakura to the same Mission Beach where we spent so many summers hanging out, so today we headed over to the beach. When we first arrived in San Diego it was quite overcast and a nice brisk 68 degrees. Needless to say I didn't think Sakura would enjoy the cold air coupled with the cold water, so we first headed to a little japanese shopping area that my good friends Kelly Matsumoto and Bee Morishita told us about - Mitsuwa Marketplace.


The exterior of the building at Mitsuwa Marketplace, inside there is a japanese bookstore, a few places to eat and a fairly large market - you can get a variety of japanese items inside. Sakura ended up with LOTS of different rice crackers (she LOVES them!), some boro cookies, a couple of books...hmm that's all I can think of :)

It's quite funny to watch Sakura with her books now - here she is in the store "reading" - which means looking and saying things - don't know what she's saying as she is speaks her own language, but I'm sure it makes sense to her, then she turns the page and "reads" it too. So kawaii!!!

Lunch was OISHI says Sakura - Sakura had some rice with pork and shared our ramen!

Then we headed to the beach, it had warmed up a bit by the time we finished shopping.

(*warning there are a MILLION pics below - scaled down from the 2 million I took!)

Let's Go!

Sakura couldn't wait to get to the water - she LOVES water remember!

Um Mommy I'm not sure I like this water! Needing reassurance!

The CUTEST feet on the beach!

OK Daddy, let's go! I'm going to try this again............

I love water - but this is pretty cold and it splashes Dad!

COME ON - this stuff is COLD and it splashes - pick me up Daddy!!! I don't like waves!

The best view of the beach and water is from right here!

This is sticking to my hands... See....

But I like it - I like sand way better than this water!

OK let's try this one more time.....off to the waves!

Come On.......

Almost running to get to the water!

But not for long - I HATE waves!

Sakura kept saying "no, no, no" when we'd try to get her back down to the water....

definitely NOT a fan of the waves this year - maybe next year?

Happiest on the land in the sand :)

Look!

Yay for the beach - just not the water!

Maybe next time we will try the Mission BAY side where there aren't any waves?

Best spot at the beach is right beside my Daddy!

And playing in the sand

This shot is especially for Heather!

If you look closely you'll see a bit of sand above Sakura's lip, she tried just a small taste from the rake....I don't know if she liked the beach sand taste or not, but she didn't eat much!

Very sandy beach baby toes :)

I wanted a picture of Sakura by the pelican -

Sakura had other ideas she did not want to sit by the pelican as you can see!

Goodbye Mission Beach - we will be back next summer!