caterpillars, spit up, and Japan

In my last post, I mentioned that Olivia likes to look at things dangling in front of her and is now smiling, although capturing the smile on camera is nearly impossible. By the time I get the camera out, she is making some other weird face. Well, here is a picture that shows her doing both (kind of). We got the stuffed "hungry little caterpillar" as a gift and once we discovered how much she liked looking at it, we attached to the mobile on her swing.

In other news, Olivia is getting heavier by the day. I weighed her myself the other day (you know - hopped on the scale, weighed myself, hopped back on with her) and according to that, she weighs 10.4 lbs. By now, she probably weighs even more. And, despite the fact that she likely has reflux according to her doctor (her fussiness, gassiness, little cough, hoarse cry, etc. is what led to that conclusion), she really hasn't been a very "spitty-uppy" baby...until now that is. I just experienced projectile spit up for the first time...gross!  All over my arm. I'm hoping this doesn't become a habit.

She has been doing pretty well at night now for a few weeks. Even though she wakes up to eat about every 2.5 to 3 hours, she goes back down pretty easily afterward. The daytime, however, is a different story. It seemed like she hardly napped at all yesterday, maybe half an hour here or there at the most. Even then, she only wanted to nap while one of us held her. She alternated between being happy and crying about every 10 minutes. It was an exhausting day. Today is going better so far. There seems to be a pattern of good day, bad day, good day, bad day.

Now, for the biggest news...we are going to Japan in January!  As exciting as that it is, I am a nervous wreck - thinking about every little thing that worries me from the flight there to the logistics of trying to feed her, change her, and get around with her in a country half-way across the world where I don't speak the language! I am still trying to come to terms with this news and tell myself it will be okay. We haven't been to Japan since 2003. We haven't seen Yusaku's grandmothers, aunts, uncles, or cousins since our wedding and not all of them could make it to that. It will be good for them to meet Olivia, especially Yusaku's aging grandmothers, because who knows the next time we'll make it back? So, it's a good thing, right? That's what I'm trying to tell myself.

I've decided that I'll need to get back to using the Rosetta Stone program I started over the Summer to try to learn Japanese. Since I'm not going back to work, I guess it will be good to have something intellectual to do..some goal to work on. It will be tricky finding the time to work on it in between feeding and holding Olivia and doing chores around here, but I'll make do. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I'd really like to be able to communicate with Yusaku's family, even if it's just a few words, when we go.We shall see! :)

Since Japan is on my mind, I thought I'd look back at some pictures from our last trip. Since it was seven years ago and back in the dark ages before I had a digital camera, I only have a few pictures to choose from that I had scanned from my hard copies to show my students.  Here are two. The first is Yusaku and I with our artwork, the old couple who owned the place, and Yusaku's family friend, Mrs. Araki. The other is us in a rickshaw with Yusaku's aunt and his great uncle (both from his mom's side). We should hopefully be seeing all of them when we go back.