Watching Baby Einstein

Always such a good happy girl, playing with her toys!

Peyton Sakura loves to watch her Baby Einstein DVDs - she has quite a collection. Her very first one remains her favorite, it was from Auntie Becky and is Baby Mozart. She will watch the entire movie and 'fuss' or let us know when it is time for the credits. Most people have popcorn with their movie, Peyton's favorite snack is still the cloth kind...here she is eating her blanket that I had laid across her lap while she watched her movie.

Getting ready for her snack...checking for the right spot of fabric!

Y-U-M-M-Y!

Maybe this section tastes different....

Playing with Busy Bee

A Busy Little Bee....

A little history.....back when I was a Freshman in high school (yes that was a very long time ago - LOL!) my StepDad was active in the Rotary Club. We always enjoyed working the hamburger booth at the County Fair for the Rotary Club, but our favorite thing as kids were our Foreign Exchange students that came to stay with us.

Our very first Foreign Exchange student was Marian, she was from New Zealand, and she lived with us for several months. We had others that lived with us, as well as the "kids" that my StepDad was a counselor to, none share the same bond as Marian, Marian will always be my sister. We were fortunate that Marian liked our family and has always stayed in touch, visiting several times over the past (gag, choke) 27 years.

Marian was here visiting when Dean and I were building our house, called on our wedding day to wish us well and tell us that she wished she could be here with us, and then she was back again two years ago with her family (she has two boys, William and Jack) along with her husband Graham. We all enjoyed spending time together in Sedona at the cabin, Disneyland, etc., Graham and the boys enjoyed a first hand look at the Stryker, and a HMMWV, which was a big deal for them. I think our bond will always be strong and I hope that someday Sakura gets to meet her Auntie Marian in person and not only know her in pictures (sniff, sniff!).

Marian (as everyone else) was very excited to learn about us adopting a baby, albeit quiet and afraid that she might say the wrong thing - but once we came home with Sakura from Japan, Marian was one of the first to call and Congratulate us, and then send us this adorable little traditional New Zealand toy.

Tonight I was cleaning out Sakura's bed - she has started moving around a lot and I knew it needed to be done, but held off until tonight, I removed all of her stuffed animals from her crib. While I was clearing out all of the toys, I layed Sakura down on her blanket and put a few toys around her - Sakura chose the sweet little Busy Bee from Auntie Marian, Uncle Graham, and cousins William and Jack.

While I watched her very closely (I'm sure this in intended for older children, it has wings that move when you pull her behind you and a string), I sat quietly thinking of my family so far away. So this post is for my far away family - here is Sakura playing sweetly with her Busy Bee! We Love You and Miss You!





Rolled over holding her toes, and still holding the string to Busy Bee!

Sakura goes to the Movies....

Dean has been wanting to go and see The Hangover, but was reluctant since he hates crying kids in movie theaters. I think enough people told him to go and watch the movie and how funny it was, and I convinced him that Sakura would be fine - she was, she slept through about 98% of it! She was awake for the scary preview for Final Destination and another one, can't remember the name of right now, then about 5 minutes of the movie and fast asleep! Such a good girl :)

We then went to Wal*Mart to pick up a couple things and I got the STUPIDEST comment ever "Is she yours, or is she adopted?".....I won't go into what I was thinking, and don't know how I maintained control and didn't say something to her about being stupid, but I did maintain and just said "She's Mine and yes, she is adopted....you stupid ....." Oh I wasn't going to go there - LOL - I didn't say that to the woman, and I was even nice and chatted for a few minutes without walking away. Sometimes I surprise myself!

Memories from our week

Not a whole lot going on around here, it's too darn hot! Just a few pictures from our week.

This week we tried a couple of new foods - tonight was carrots (here's my first bite),

earlier in the week was pears and peaches. So far sweet potato is the very favorite of anything we have tried...peaches and pears are a toss up for fruit. This week we are going to give squash and avocado a shot! I'm not real sure how to make 'prunes' but saw those in the Stage 1 baby foods - I'll have to do some research.

My favorite position, whenever Mommy is changing me I pull my feet up and hold them, whenever I'm in bed and awake, I'm holding my feet...just about any time you see me and I can, I hold my feet!

Just Hanging Out being sweet

Mommy's Sweet Little Monkey

Holding on to my Daddy

Look close, you'll see a red tongue giving kisses!

I like my peaches

Mommy was trying to trick me into not pulling the binkie out of my mouth by putting one in each hand....didn't work though I knew that I didn't have a hold of the right binkie!

Thank You Auntie Misty and Cousin Kumiko for my shoes, me and Mommy (well Daddy too) LOVE them!

The day after I exercised with Daddy, Mommy took a turn with wearing me on her back trying to get things done....

Looking at my shoes, trying to figure out how I can eat them!

Lots of Giggles

Giggles for Yancha Bozu

Lots of Giggles when Peyton Sakura gets tired.

The other night we noticed that Peyton Sakura was cracking up at Yancha Bozu when he "fetched" his toy. Tonight Daddy grabbed the camera and we caught the giggles; Peyton Sakura was first cracking up at Yancha Bozu chewing on his bone (she was very tired here), then I grabbed his toy and started playing with him and she continued laughing.

The last few months have been totally amazing - our lives are so full with our sweet daughter, it's hard to even imagine what we did before we had her. Yesterday we celebrated 4 months since we were in our apartment in Roppongi Hills with Okada-san, Taz, and Manami receiving our beautiful baby girl. Life is truly amazing.

Sakura continues to try new foods, to date she has enjoyed Apples, Bananas, Peaches, Pears, Green Beans, Sweet Potato, and will try Carrots this weekend. She is a very good eater and definitely has her favorite food - Sweet Potato is by far her favorite of anything she has had, I would say Pears would be a close second.

"Hanging Out" with Daddy

Tonight while Daddy did his eliptical .... someone took a little 'ride'! It didn't last nearly long enough to get dinner cooked, but any time is better than nothing!

A few more hours with Katie and Kids!

This time Mommy remembered to bring the camera so we have pictures of Peyton spending time with Katie and her family.

Nicole and Peyton Sakura

Yesterday I had to go to work to receive an award that I missed earlier in the month --- unfortunately the Safety Meeting is held at o'dark-thirty in the morning (well 6:45 a.m.) --- so that meant getting up early, getting ready for work, getting the Princess up and over to Katie's all by 5:45 a.m.!

Nicole, Samantha and Princess P

All went well and here are a few pictures that Katie took while I was away - LUCKILY we got another good report from Katie - Katie even said that Sakura chan smiled at her hubby Mike, and she'd never met him before - I told Katie "She LOVES men!", and that really is true,
Sakura tends to smile at all of the engineers (most of them are men) at work before she smiles at the ladies.

The girls!

All tired out from playing with the kids!