Graduation and Lucky 7

Yay! Jordan graduated from his Family Medicine Residency!!! He has worked SO SO SOOOO hard for the last 3 years. The intern year was especially hard. He often had 30 hour shift and worked 80+ hours a week. He would come home sleep deprived and exhausted, but he still made sure that he bathed Yuki every night and spent as much time with him. He would help me with dinner and cleaning up as well. He didn't really have any time for himself. He is so unselfish and devoted to his family. He truly is an amazing person, father and husband, and I couldn't think of more perfect man than Jordan.The same day we celebrated his graduation from the residency, we celebrated our 7th anniversary. Jordan has always been in school/training for the last 7 years, but we sure had a lot of fun. During the 4 years in Arizona, we were able to strengthen our friendship with each other. The last 3 years in O! town, we were blessed to have our little angels and enjoyed parenting together. I'm very grateful that Jordan always tries his best to make me happy, and I feel so lucky to be married to such a thoughtful person!

Happy campers

When we first moved here, we lived in an apartment for 2 months. There, we had less than bear minimum to live-2 chairs, a card table, and a cot. I was 7 month pregnant and was sleeping on a little cot. So crazy! Fist couple of days, we didn't even have chairs and table, so we sat on the carpet using styrofoam box as our dinner table. I sometimes can't believe how insane we were...

Now, we are back to "camping out" in our place again. The mover came to pack our stuff last Tuesday. It hasn't been too bad. Jordan has been grilling Omaha Steak, cheese-stuffed hamburger, and other yummy meals for dinner. Yuki, even though we don't have much toys and books, has been adapting to this living situation pretty well. It'll be so nice to have a home and sleep in my own bed again!

So much to do with no time to do

I have been wanting to blog, but things have been so crazy lately. On Tuesday, the movers are coming to pack our stuff. Then a week after that, we'll be saying good-bye to "O! town". It's finally starting to sink in that I AM leaving soon and saying adios to friends and all the other things that have become so dear to me in this town. Last Wednesday, one of our good friends left to Utah. When we were saying good-bye, the last thing she told me was "love you." It meant so much to hear that from her. She is someone that I look up to and admire. She has the most tender heart, yet she is a strong woman. She tackles her trials with a smile and stays so positive. She is such a patient mom. I wish I had even half of her patience when dealing with my children. She is an amazing person, and so are many of girls that I met here. Each one of my good friends here is an amazing person with superb qualities. They inspire me to be a better person, and I feel so fortunate to have them as my friends and examples. I will surely miss them a lot.

I think Yuki will miss his friends as well. He used to be so shy, but he has opened up a lot. He loves to go outside and shout "De" to get his friends' attention. He loves running around with friends, riding in a push-car, and dancing around with friends. I love seeing his excited happy face when he sees his friends.

Yuki ASKED me to take this picture with S.

This is their new favorite place to play.

Yuki always says, "I want to play in bu-shes."

My princess is growing so much! She LOVES to eat! Tonight, I was feeding her baby food. She wasn't too excited about it, but when Jordan handed her some broccoli stems, she went to town with it. She was eating like a champ!!! I was so pround of her :)
She is ready to crawl. She gets on her four, and she does push-up move while wiggling her bum left to right. She scoots around quite a bit. I can't belive she is almost 9 months old. I'm sad that she is not a tiny little baby... She has been such a joy in my life. She is a sweetest girl with a cutest smile. I love her so much!

Potty training part 2

So, the second day of potty training went a lot more smooth.
He started out with a couple of accidents in the morning. When I found him with a wet underwear, I just exclaimed, "OH, NO....." and made a sad face. I was feeling pretty weary and stressed, so I cheated and put him in pull-ups. Within half hour, he had gone in the pull-ups. So, I made a sad face again, and said, "OH, NO....." Then 20 minutes later, he came up to me and told me, "Buddy doesn't go shee-shee." At first I thought he was simply telling me that he didn't need to go, but I realized he NEEDED to go when I saw him trying to pull down his undie. I guess the sad face and "oh, no" worked because next 3 hours, he stayed dry. Every 15 to 20 minutes, he would come and tell me, "Buddy doesn't go shee-shee." I was quite impressed that he got it so quickly.
Even though he did so well, he is back in his diaper today. I just couldn't do it any longer because I felt so overwhelmed. I had so many things I had to get it done, and I wasn't able to get hardly anything done while I was training him. I think I'll train him after we settle down in Japan and I think it'll work out much better for us. I'm so relieved that I don't have to run to the potty every 20 minutes!

Potty training

I could not wait to write/vent my day...
As I mentioned in my previous post, we sold the Civic. So, I don't have a car anymore. No more children's museum or Early Childhood Center for us. So, I thought, "why not potty train Yuki since I have nothing better to do!" I have been dreading this day. We purchased a potty about 3 months ago because Yuki was really interested in using a potty. He would use it here and there, but I was never mentally ready to start training him. I still wasn't ready to do it, but I felt that I should at least give it a try since we couldn't leave the house anyway. Boy, it was SO HARD!!!
First thing in the morning, I put a "big boy pants" on Yuki. He didn't seem too excited about it, but he agreed to wear it and to tell me if he had to go "shee-shee." My plan was to put him on a potty every half hour because that's what a lot of people told me to do. I set my timer. After 30 minutes, Yuki's big boy pants was already wet. So, I made him sit on the potty watching Elmo and Thomas. He sat there for almost an hour enjoying his show, and he finally went. Yay! I was so excited. I put a new underwear on him, and set my timer for 30 minutes. I was cleaning/packing when Yuki came running to tell me, "I wet." It had only been 15 minutes since the last "shee-shee." I put a new underwear on him again and asked him to tell me if he had to go. For the next hour or so, he used the potty every 15 minutes or so. Every time he went successfully, I jumped up and down, screaming "Yay!!! Good job!!!" He seemed to enjoy watching me so happy. I was thinking to myself, "He's going to get it by the end of the day. He'll easily be potty-trained in a next couple of days."
However, the next couple of hours, there were 3 more accidents. Ugh!!! oeajneidk*ewkn#kdn%keiwnd&kemd%kens (I'm not cussing. I'm just screaming...) After 4 hours of emptying and cleaning the potty(who knows how many times) and cleaning up the accidents while doing a couple of laundries, taking care of Aisa, eating/feeding lunch to 2 kids, cleaning the house and other chores, I was so done with this potty-training business. I couldn't wait to put him in a diaper and put him down for a nap. I was so drained mentally and physically. I think both Yuki and I were traumatized, and I'm so not up to doing this again tomorrow. But, I think I should try at least one more day and see how it goes.
Anyway, this blogging is quite therapeutic for me. I like it...

Miss you...

Last night, Jordan put our Civic on craigslist thinking it'll take a while to sell it. WRONG!!! So many people called today, and a handful of people came out to look at the car. Less than 24 hours after posting it on the craigslist, it's sold.

So the story goes, Jordan got in an accident in his Chevy pickup a day before our first date. He was okay, but the truck was totalled. On the first date, he came to pick me up in his sister's Civic. On the second date, he came to pick me up in his family's old beat-up Honda. On the third date, he showed up in the good looking silver Civic which we loved and enjoyed driving for the last 8 years. I learned to drive stick shift with it. We've gone to so many fun places with it-Grand Canyon, Sedona, California, Las Vegas, to name a few. I used to think Civic was such a greatest car. The car has gone through a couple of accidents and the back doors don't open from the outside. But still, Civic has been a great car for us, and Jordan is sad to depart with it. I'm a little bit sentimental too since it was our first car. This experience has reminded me that material things don't last.

While you were gone...

Jordan came home from his military training today! Yay!!! He was gone for a week, and I hope he'll share his experience on this blog. He had a really interesting experiences....sleeping on a cot, eating MREs, using communal bathroom, doing obstacle courses, etc. Before he left, I was dreading it and expecting the worst. To my surprise, it wasn't as bad as I expected. The hardest part in the whole week was when I saw Jordan off at the airport. It was hard because I didn't know what it would be like to take care of the children alone for 7 days. It was also hard because Yuki loves, loves, LOVES his Dada, and he didn't understand how long Jordan would be gone. During the week, I just tried to keep busy so Yuki and I won't have time to miss him.
So, here is what we did to keep ourselves busy while he was gone:

Children's museum

Girls night out for Aisa and me while Yuki had fun hanging out with his friends, Parlee and Cooper.

Sprinkler party with friends

Making a craft at Early Childhood Center-It was Yuki's first time making a craft and he was so proud of it. He loved wearing it around.

Move over Thomas!

For the last three months, Yuki was so obsessed with Thomas the Train. Every night and nap times, he wanted to me to read the same Thomas books. All day he would talk about Thomas, recite Thomas books, and play with Thomas.

Something has changed in last few days. He has a new passion/obsession now. He loves Alphabet. He loves ABC songs. He also loves this alphabet book called, "Chika Chika Boom Boom." He recites the book so many times a day. I'm so delighted that he is interested in alphabet and is learning to recognize them!