Zwaggle

This is the best idea ever!

I wish I could join in Japan!

words

Yep, he's kinda talking.

His favorite thing to do is to point to various things(usually the lights, fan or clock) and say zzzat! We'd like to think he's saying "What's that?" but I know I'm reading WAY too much into it. Though when he points to the pictures of Jesus he'll ususally say "issuss" or something that just has a lot of s sounds in it. He only otherwise can say dada and mean Masaki. He's said "bubu" once, which is baby talk for car in Japanese. Mama is nowhere to be heard.

I think he would say "denki" (Japanese word for light) if it weren't for the fact that at home we call it a light and out of the house it is denki. He looked so confused the first time I said 'light' instead of 'denki', but I think he is getting it now. He also definitely understands the word for fan. We pulled out a fan on a stand and when he asked what it was, Masaki said "that's a fan" and he looked up to try to find the ceiling fan, which is what he usually looks at.

So we are getting there.

Other than that, we are in nap limbo. It is driving me nuts, and putting our night schedule out of whack too. He doesn't need two, but one is not enough. OY!

Ok, I need to post some recipes.

...and all the boards did shrink...

For some reason I keep on thinking of the rhyme of the ancient mariner when I think of our accident yesterday.

We have a low cuboard, actually a TV stand that we use for extra storage. Well we have some cans of rootbeer there as well, and Clark likes to drop them on the floor, but it is such a short distance that it isn't that bad, I thought(though I did have this funny premonition...I bet he'll drop it and pop one open one of these days, oh well). Then I went into the kitchen while he was playing yesterday and I hear *BANG* *POP* Fzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and then a screaming baby. Lo and behold rootbeer was shooting everywhere.

Thus...Rootbeer, rootbeer everywhere and all the boards did shrink.

Ok, so nothing shrank, but I did need to clean rootbeer off of the walls and floor and the baby. Kind of a fun little adventure.

In other news, I finally got to finish Harry Potter 7 and Masaki got his wife back. I rather enjoyed the book, but only reading it at nap times was rough, so I took two evenings to pack it in faster. I'm a bit sad that it is over, but glad J.K. Rowling quit while she was ahead, and happy, generally, with the way it ended.

Now the most important bit of info of all is....da da da!!!
Masaki's Birthday! I'll let you guess how old he is now from the picture. We had a nice low key evening, with a marble cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and chili for dinner. He was happy with the dinner, the gifts(Star Wars Cook Book and a Wok). He totally doesn't seem as old as he is, but I guess I don't feel 28, so hey.




Happy Birthday Lover!

anyway, not much else..have a great weekend!

We're sick

Yep, feeling under the weather....but hey, have some pictures.




Bath time at Great Aunt Michiko's place. We went there for her birthday




Ohh! and I made a new blog for allergen free recipes...called, Let them eat eggless cake! check it out, and send people there, it'd also be nice to get some posters.

Who wants what I'm sellin'?

Ok, so I LOVE cooking. I've been thinking about making another blog with recipes for allergic kids, etc., but never did it because I thought it would be blog overkill. Then I stumbled across a sister of a friend of a friend, by the way yes I was trying to waste time, and saw that someone else also is searching on how to feed a child that can't eat anything. (I can't stinkin' use chicken bullion because it is made in a factory with eggs! AUGH). So this is another poll to the people. Should I make a allergic baby blog? Would you use it/suggest it to your friends? Is there a little space for it on the web? If so, what should the name be? Anyone else want to contribute? Would I be being unfaithful to Serrano Sisters Scintillating Savories?



I mean come on! I made up a recipe for birthday cake for this kid cause he can't eat flour, or eggs....I got the skills, but does anyone want what I'm giving away?

Anyone feel free to comment below.


**Clark news Frash** While he can make a mama and dada sound and sometimes mean us he repeated the word for car after my today. Well it is the Japanese baby word "bubu" and he said "bu". I was starting to wonder if he was just going to jabber forever, but this gives me a bit of hope.

Oh the Horror!

I was merrily cutting up the veggies and chicken for dinner, and I knew Clark was pulling the spices down, but didn't think much of it, until I turned my head and saw this!



It turns out that he had chanced upon the red food coloring. I was freaking out because I thought he was bleeding. I couldn't think of anything that was sharp there(I keep the kitchen as baby proof as possible), and was at a loss as to how he got cut and was still smiling. Guess it helps that it was dye instead of blood.

Why I love living here..

...summed up pretty well in this article. I especially like the last few points.

hint: We live in the Yokohama area.



Can you detect the sarcasm?

Church was called on account of rain!

Wow, Japan, the land of natural disasters. Yesterday we had 2 out of three hours of Church canceled because of a typhoon hitting the area, then this morning there was a large (6.8) earthquake in Niigata Prefecture. We are far enough away that we didn't even feel it, but it is really rough because that place was hit with bad quakes back in 2004. We'd been feeling more small quakes than usual for a few weeks, and they got the worst of it. We'll check in with Masaki's Aunt and Uncle next door to see if his cousin and her family are OK. She and her two kids are supposed to oget here on Saturday for a week long visit.

Other than that we sent off Grandma to the airport today, and she should just now be entering the friendly skies. We had a good time having her around, and once she got over jet lag and lack of sleep she was absolutely an angel around the house. Clark really enjoyed playing with her and I think he'll be in for a bit of a surprise when he discovers she isn't waiting for him in the living room anymore.

We had a fun Saturday shopping....because what do you do when it is pouring outside? You go to the mall of course!

So here is a sampling of what Grandma saw from her perspective(we got pictures from her camera)

I'm crafty...AND I get around

...Japan that is. (For those who don't know, that is a line from the Beastie Boys)

So we are going for our next big adventure tomorrow. We are going to the Enoshima Island aquarium. We were going to go to Hakone but since it is likely to be raining and yucky we are going to do something a bit less outside with our friend Yuko from church(speaks great English and she and mom totally hit it off). We've had two days to recover from our trip to Tachikawa, so our sleeping, or rather Clark's sleeping, is starting to look better.




That was the getting around part, now the crafty part. I made cake for mom's birthday, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It was well recieved. Instead of oil I used yogurt and it was a very complimentary taste. Today while my boys were sleeping(Masaki fell asleep when Clark went to bed) I got to do this little project I've been wanting to do.



oopp! Masaki's awake, poor guy, hope he can fall back asleep.

Uno, Ichi, Eins, One!

That's right! The munchkin turned one today! Happy day for Clarky. Daddy had a busy day, but was able to spend some time in the morning playing with Clark and watching him discover his presents. Then durring his nap two packages came, one from Great Aunt Michiko and one from Obaachan and Ojiichan. I must say everything he has recieved was a big hit. He loves it all. I'll let the pictures do the talking!


















Oh on more thing though. I made a cake without eggs from barley flour, pumpkin, apple sauce, milk, vanilla、honey and baking powder. I wasn't too keen on it, but he loved it! Also loved the frozen mango yogurt(no sugar added). Yea for baby!

DisneyLand!!

Grandma got into town on Thursday, so we of course had to go to the happiest Japanese place on earth to celebrate. We rode on Small World twice, Dumbo, The Haunted Mansion, TeaCups, and Snow White together. He really wanted to touch Dumbo, but wasn't as keen about riding on it. We did discover that Snow White is a BIG NO for him. It was way too scary. I guess next time Peter Pan will be worth the longer wait.













Today we are off to Tachikawa to visit Grandma's place of birth...it should be fun!


Oh and I got some of my cloth diaper covers in the mail! YEAH!

One more thing, look at this rad Mango! Go go mango leaves!



Ok, I lied, two more things, Sunday we got a package in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa Noyes. We were very surprised! We opened it up and Clark immediately fell in love with the Cookie Monster/Elmo cell phone. He'd seen a baby cell a few days earlier and I was starting to look for one for him, and viola! One came in the mail. Thanks for listening to the spirit Grandma and Grandpa!

On the Farm

Not much to report. My house is clean, thanks to the lovely sister missionaries. I fed them homemade pizza, they cleaned my shower for me (I can't do it while Clark sleeps or he'll wake up, everything else I can handle on my own). They also washed the lunch dishes, so I had time to pot the mango seed! YEAH! I'll take a picture in a few days after I know it has survived the transplant. In the mean time I'll show you how tropical this part of Japan is becoming. We are in the midst of rainy season so it is especially green and lush here(it finally started...thank goodness!), but I need to show off this.




I started this tree last year from an avocado seed. I love trying to get avocado seeds to grow. Usually they'll do ok, and I can have a bush for a few years, but NOTHING like this. This tree sprouted...only sprouted...shortly before Clark was born, and this is what it looks like now. It is freaking growing branches! Holy Snappers! I am stoked. Wish us luck.

Oh and hey, if anyone knows why all the flowers fell off of my zucchini plant...let me know...does anyone think it was bugs, or does that naturally happen sometime?