Cox Arboretum

A few weeks ago, after lots of rain, we finally had a beautiful, warm, sunny Spring day. My cousin Leslee and I decided to take our kiddos to Cox Arboretum for a picnic, followed by a little walking around and enjoying the beautiful scenery.  Here are some pictures of Olivia and Quinn on the picnic blanket.  Aren't they adorable?

Quinn had enough of the photoshoot! Ha ha! Olivia wondered where he was going! :)

Cute turtles sunning themselves!

If you look really closely, you can see Leslee and I and the babies in the distance! :)

It was a lovely day! Can't wait to go back again!

Mother's Day

Me and my baby :)

I had a very nice first Mother's Day. The morning started off with a delicious breakfast that Yusaku cooked for me, along with a nice card and a new watch from Yusaku and Olivia. We went to church with my mom and then came home and had Yusaku's parents and my mom over for some brunch/lunch. I got a nice card and a copy of the book Bossypants (which is hilarious!) from my mom.  Here are some pictures from the day! Enjoy!

All the moms/grandmas with Olivia

Olivia with her Obaachan

Olivia with her Grandma

Our little family

The gift Olivia "made" for both grandmas

I was thinking about Mother's Day last year. I was about 5 months pregnant with Olivia then. What a difference a year makes.  Here's a picture from last year.

Video of Olivia crawling

As I mentioned, Olivia is crawling.  It's more of an army crawl, but it works.  She loves to try to get into things she's not supposed to so we've been having to do a little more babyproofing around here. Enjoy the video! :)

Easter

Olivia had a very nice first Easter! On Saturday, my parents came over and we dyed eggs. Olivia just watched, but maybe next year she can participate.  On Easter morning, she got dressed in her cute Easter dress, we went to church with my parents, and then later, Yusaku's parents and mine joined us for a lovely dinner at our house.

As you can see, Olivia was pretty excited about Easter! These days, she smiles so big that she scrunches up her whole face and closes her eyes!

The Easter Bunny brought her two Easter books, a bunny sippy cup (which she is trying out), a My First Easter bib, and a pink Beatles onesie.  Funnily enough, the Easter Bunny also left a basket for Olivia at my parent's house...hmmm, strange! ;)

The beautiful Easter table! :)

Olivia with her other grandparents! :)

Next up, Mother's Day!  We'll be having every one over to our house again for brunch on Sunday.  Can't wait to post pictures from that, especially of the gifts Olivia is "making" for her grandmas. :)

What's Been Going On the Past Two Months

Olivia seems to learn something new and get cuter every day. Around 5.5 months, Olivia started sitting up on her own, even if she was a little wobbly at first. She's a pro now.  Here's one of the first pictures I caught of her sitting up.

Also, around the same time, she had her first really bad cold. She had had one before around three months, but this was much worse.  We were told she likely had RSV but they didn't test her for it because they said it wouldn't change anything. There's not much you can do besides suction out their nose, raise the head of their mattress, and put a humidifier in their room.  It was sad and scary (at least for me), but after a few gunky weeks, she finally got over it.  Here's a pic of the sad, sick baby. :(

On Olivia's half-birthday, she got her first taste of solid food. I'm making her baby food, which as it turns out, is really easy. The first food she ate was sweet potatoes (check out pic below), but has since had butternut squash, carrots, peas, green beans, apples, pears, bananas, and plums. Notice that she likes to be independent and feed herself.

Olivia also had her first taste of water from a sippy cup.  I think she more enjoyed chewing on the cup than actually drinking any water, but that's okay.

About a month ago (a little over 6 months), Olivia got her bottom two teeth and started saying "da da" at about the same time.  Here's a video of her saying "da da."  Unfortuantely, I don't think I have a picture that shows her two cute little teeth. I'll work on that! :)

As the weather has gotten nicer (with the exception of the past few weeks of rain), Olivia has spent more time outside. She went on her first bike ride in our new Burley (see pic of her inside, chewing strap) and went swinging in the swings at the park a few times.

On St. Patrick's Day

Finally a warm day! :)

Just about a week ago, Olivia started "crawling." I say "crawling" because it's not a hand-and-knees kind of crawling like you would think. It's more of a drag-your-body-across-the-ground-as-fast-as-you-possibly-can kind of crawling.  I have a video of that too, but I think I will save that for next post. Instead, I'll show you some pictures of other things Olivia enjoys doing: "reading" and getting into trouble (opening her dresser drawers).

All the pictures I have of her lately are blurry because she's in constant motion!

I'll end this post with a picture of Olivia hanging out with some of her friends, who happen to be both older and boys. ;)

Olivia and Oliver

Olivia and Ben

It's been a LOOOOOONG time!!!

I guess my latest excuse for not updating the blog for so long (2 months and 4 days to be exact), besides chasing my now "crawling" 7 month old, is that I've been working on a new business venture:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/OliviaEmi.  I don't even know where to start. There's so much to catch up on that I think I will need to cover it over multiple posts.

I should probably start where I left off and finish up our trip to Japan first. It's hard to write about Japan though, without acknowledging all that has happened since our trip. I can't believe that the earthquake and tsunami hit just about 6 weeks after we left. If we had planned our trip for a different time, we may have been there during the earthquake.  I am so thankful that everyone we visited/all of Yusaku's family and friends are okay. It has been so sad to see all the devastation that was caused.

The last leg of our trip was to Kyoto. While we were there, we met up with the Kokabu's, took in some sights, and Yusaku's dad met up with his high school friends. It was a nice end to our vacation.

After checking into our hotel, which was super nice (see pic below), we headed to Kinkakuji (Golden Temple). Yusaku and I visited this same site nearly eight years ago on our last trip. (Too bad I didn't have a digital camera then or I could put up the old picture at the same place and compare it!)

Here's a few pictures from Kinkaju.

Yusaku found it easier to just carry Olivia than to try to push/drag her stroller up the bumpy, rocky stairs.  (Notice how she's looking at him).

 The view from the top.

After we left Kinkakuji, we headed to Nijo Castle, another place Yusaku and I had visited last time. We got there about an hour before closing time. Over the speakers, they were telling us in English that we needed to enter "right away." We thought this was funny! :)  Here are a few pictures from the outside. We weren't allowed to take any on the inside.

 On our second day in Kyoto, we went to Kiyomizudera (yet another site we had been to last time). I enjoyed checking out all the little shops that lined the street on our way up to the temple.  Here are a few pictures from that.

Yusaku has a picture of himself in this spot when he was little, we have a picture of the two of us in this spot 7.5 years ago, and now we have a picture of the three of us here...pretty cool!

Before heading to dinner with the Kokabu's, we walked around a bit. Here's Yusaku in front of the Heian Gate.

We had a wonderful dinner with the Kokabu's, eating in our special room reserved just for us. It was especially nice to talk to and visit with Naho (in English). I hope she'll come visit us sometime soon! :)  Here are some pics from dinner.

Naho with Olivia

Naho, Mr. and Mrs. Kokabu, Yusaku's parents on the top and the three of us on the bottom :)

The next morning before beginning the long trek to get back home, we walked around Kyoto a little more.  Here are the LAST pictures from Japan! I'm glad I finally finished blogging about Japan, even if took me a few months to do it.

We're finally going home!  Woo hoo! :)