words later

I'll write words later...now enjoy pictures from the last week or so.





Christmas card reject

quick update

I'm going t bed, but just wanted to say we had a very fun Thanksgiving with a ton of people over, a lot of left overs, and some tired parents. Clark is still super cute, but what is even funnier is that earlier this week we had the baby monitor on and at about 9 pm we heard him cry, say 'dozo'(here you go) twice and then not a peep for the rest of the night. It was the funniest thing.

Sorry it'll be stop and go for the next month or so, gotta a lot of Christmas gifts to make and Christmas cards to make too.

I love photoshop!

ciao

World goods for worldly people...and other tales from Tokyo

guess who is totally like daddy?


I'm doing a combo 3-in-1 post for Japan Cool!, Clarkomatic update and a tale of our most recent venture to the Capital of Japan.

It all started because we were doing a primary activity at the JMTC where the kids got to learn about being a missionary. The JMTC is about 10 min by car(45 on foot) from Grandpa's hip pad in Tokyo, so we decided to stop in for a visit, make the whole thing a two day trip and take it easy, instead of a very yucky Saturday for all of us. It was nice, and Clark had a lot of fun toddling around the apartment and playing the the flying monkey toy Grandpa has. He even tried picking up the kettle bells, and succeeded on the 4 kg one! We also got a chance to introduce Kumi to pumpkin pie...muhahahaha. We also got to go to the international store(which has a lot of stuff from Costco....hmmm) and I saw a sign there that said 'National Market, world goods for worldly people'. I dunno if it is just my religious part, but worldly doesn't seem to have the best connotation. Oh well. On the way there though, dad and I got to talk a bit about electric cars, which is today's Japan Cool!



We were checking out hybrid cars on the interweb, because we'd like to own one one day. Turns out the Toyota Prius is the best, and Honda gets only slightly lower gas mileage. So we know what we'll get. What was disgusting was the American made hyrbids were boasting 28 in city/ 36-38 highway gas mileage. WHAT!?!?!?! I was getting that with my 2000 VW Passat. What is the point in owning a hybrid if you are getting crappy mileage like that? I mean I would hope that the eco-conscious American public isn't so easily duped when you put a hybrid sticker on a car and give it last decade's gas performance in Europe/Asia. I mean seriously people, that is just horrible. A hybrid SUV getting 12mpg...WHAT?!?!?! Anyway, I say buy Japanese....or use a bike.


Ok, enough complaining, lets talk about Clark. Like I said he can say stuff like cracker, apple, bubble and he has started saying amen(men, ah-men). He likes folding his arms at random times especially while eating or in the car and making me pray over and over and over again. I get inventive with the prayers. He also cut his lip for the first time at the playground today. WOW it bled a lot, but he got distracted by the pigeons relatively quickly. He now says bo(bird), and sometimes bo(boshi-hat), beh(bear), and a few others. Oh and lately, if he wants me to go to another room with him or go walking with him, he'll come to me say 'go, go', grab my hand and start walking.

I'm really tired, lets end now =)


Oh, but a quick shout-out to grandma! Thanks for the moccasins, they are sooooo wonderful! They keep his feet warm on our FREEZING cold floor. He loves wearing shoes inside the house, so he's a very happy kid.

Double syllable words!

Yep! He can make words that are not just baba or dada, but he has begun saying words with two different syllables. Yesterday he started saying bap pl(apple) and today instead of saying bah bah for bubble he said bah bl. I am so excited! He is also saying ga kko(dakko-pick me up). Woo hoo!

Also I made a wicked cool dessert in the crock pot tonight. It is called grunt. OH MY GOODNESS! It is to die for, I'll post a recipe in a day or two.

ciao

My 2nd Post - MacBook

So, this is my (Masaki) second post on this blog. I just wanted to tell you all that I bought my first Apple computer. I've been wanting to get one mostly just to edit and organize video clips we've filmed. iMovie software is the best movie editing software I've seen and used and there's no software that's even close to for Windows PC. Anyway, I got it about $250 off and it even came with new OS X Leopard software. I haven't really used it much yet but it's really nice. I just wish that hard disk was much bigger (My Windows desktop has 640GB and this MacBook is only 120GB). So I still have to use my desktop as main PC and use MacBook for video editing and for trips. Anyway, i'm excited about this new purchase.

three more things...

...I found this fun site, you can put your SAT words to work. It is called FreeRice, a game to help donate free rice!

...I like looking at, hearing about, seeing random people's wedding stuff. Why? It makes me nostalgic for mine and want to have another party. I LOVED my wedding, but I want a reason to dress up again and have a wicked good time, you know?

...I thought I was the only person who butchered their child's hair. I guess I was wrong! (And yes, isn't his hair growing back nicely now?)

I lied....four things...a blast from the past picture. This time, last year.

Christmas

Ok, so I've been thinking about something I learned on my mission. There was this super thrifty woman. She had a gorgeous house and everything, but most of it was from garage sales, consignment shops, etc. She was so cool that she'd even found a Build a Bear box and put a new looking Teddy Bear in it from another garage sale and was going to give those to her kids for Christmas. AWESOME! Why, the kids won't really know, she only paid like $7 for something that would've easily been $30+ and she was being environmentally friendly. Yep, that's right another environmental tip. Why, because I've been thinking about it. Like for this Christmas, the Noyes clan are going the homemade route, and it is a lot of fun, but hey lets also recycle too. I'm making grocery bags for Pam from old kimono(I'll post pictures after Christmas..I'll also take orders after Christmas if they turn out OK). So not only is it homemade, it is recycling. I was just thinking too...hey we could shell out a lot for toys, or maybe we should try to organize a relief society toy swap. Have the ladies get together and bring the toys their kids don't want/have grown out of/are too annoying, and just let the other ladies take and choose as they please. Kind of like Zwaggle or Craigslist. I think I'll talk to our RS 2nd tomorrow....I'm really excited. Let's all be honest too, what kid under 6 or 7ish really cares if a new toy is in a package, and if it looks old, make it a rainy day surprise instead.

So yeah it can be summed up in, do Christmas shopping at your friend's house, garage sales, and goodwill/DI, it is cheaper and friendlier to your planet, and what better gift to give a person than a healthier place to live?


Sorry...it sounds really cheesy but I am REALLY excited about this idea.

Night 7ish

I woke him up. The first time I thought the blanket was smothering him, and it woke him up, the second time, I moved my body and it must have been the right time 'cause he woke up at 6:10 and was NOT happy about it. I think though for the most part we are in the clear.

It has been awhile, so hey lets give a Clark update.

He knows SO MANY words. He can say ba(ball), bo(boshi-hat), nai nai(inai inai-not here...used in Japanese peek a boo), ga(gone), kaka(cracker), bubu(blueberry), dada(daddy....yeah! he can finally say it again), pupu(diaper...'cause we change his poo poo), go go(ikou ikou or let's go I can't tell but they mean the exact same thing)

He also will now yell at people when he is angry. He got pulled down by a bigger kid last week and when he was upset and crying he started talking. It sounded a lot like he was telling her off.

He is obsessed with balls, dogs, fish, and the animals in his books. He really enjoys How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, One Dark Night(thanks QS!!!), and Dog's Day(in Japanese).

Yep, so now I'm gonna clean while he is asleep...ciao

Editors note: I'd also like to include that he can use ha(hot) and coo(cold) accurately. Like today after his asparagus ice cream he was feeling cold and said coo.

Recipe for you Hatsuho!

I didn't post it here, but I did post it HERE. I was thinking about it, and tonjiru was one of the few things I could eat until I was full when I was first pregnant. We just had some last week because it is getting cold...oh it is so good. You could also ad konyaku to it too or aburage instead of tofu.

Ton jiru

I gotta say the wikipedia article says it all. It is a super yummy winter soup, and I LOVE it! I do leave out the alcohol though. If you have any miso(ha ha ha), this is a great way to use it.


I also love the crazy ice cream flavors...like, pumpkin, corn and asparagus. Not for me so much, but because for some odd reason I don't feel guilty feeding Clark asparagus ice cream.

Night 6 baby!

So we made it! Kinda....he lasted until almost 6am. He started tossing and turning about a quarter till and then when Masaki's phone started to vibrate at 5:55 he was awake. Not bad, though we've had a crappy nap day, but we made it at least twice this week. I find that to be a very good thing. I was worried he'd start getting hooked on the soy/cow milk and we'd have to wean him off of THAT( I was thinking the same thing Margo!), but luckily daddy's trick has worked at least for one day. If he keeps it up maybe I can start getting my butt out of bed early and doing my ballet video...because really I have no excuse anymore, I'm not sick and I'm eating that dang good crock pot chocolate cake a lot. Yeah for sleep! It makes me giddy! I'll let you know if we have a few more nights like this.

Another Convert

Yep, I made another convert.....Masaki bought a mac.

Not only that, he convinced his co-worker to buy one too! They both got the new MacBook, he's having too much fun playing with it =).

Though because of it I got Leopard.
sweeeeeet

Night 4 & 5

OK, I think I'll slow down on these posts, but last night he woke up as expected, but was up only 30-40 min, so that made a huge difference. He's sleeping in a baby sleeping bag now, so hopefully that will prevent any waking because of the cold. He was not exited to wear it though...it restricts his movement a bit too much, but luckily he was sleepy after nursing so it wasn't much of a problem. So far so good though.

I just thought I'd share yesterday's adventures in pizza making. Oh and he knows how to use the word cracker now...especially when demanding a graham cracker.




Oh and night 5, woke up at 3:30 or so, daddy gave him a bit of soymilk, but not as much as before, and he was out pretty fast. He actually wanted daddy! Poor Masaki woke up pretty tired though, he's not used to the sleeplessness like I am. We'll see how this keeps going.

Night 2 and Night 3

Thanks again for all the comments, suggestions, and good luck.
Here is the latest, he slept from 7:30-5:40 last night. He woke up, and tried to snuggle back to sleep, but I think he was just a bit too hungry to fall back asleep. This may be a fluke because he was TOTALLY exhausted from the day before. Let me tell you why.

Day 2 was horrific. We laid down and he woke up screaming, and it took about 30 min to calm him back down and to sleep. I was cranky and crying, and it was just the pits. Then at 3:30 he woke up, Masaki took him but brought him back(like I had stupidly suggested) and he was calm until he saw me. Oy, scream scream, then I rocked him and despite taking a LONG time before I put him down, he'd wake up every time. So finally Masaki gave it a try, gave him some milk, and he fell asleep at 5:30. So we got up for church around 8. He made it through church but was super cranky by the end and passed out in the car, but because he was overtired, couldn't put him down after taking him out, so eventually we gave up after he had had about a 30 min nap. Needless to say he was exhausted by the time we put him to bed, but he was so overtired it took him 30 min to fall asleep. After that he slept GREAT, until this morning. Waking up early probably had something with the washer on spin/dry cycle and the fact that he had kicked off all his blankets. He went down for his nap super early at 9:30, and I'll join him shortly, but hopefully tonight will be back to normal for putting him to sleep, and we'll see if the no waking up was a fluke or not. Wish us luck


Oh and our current game plan after two nights of experimenting. When he wakes up, Masaki takes him downstairs to get some milk, and I run and hide in the other bedroom and wait until Clark is asleep before I come back. We'll see how it goes =)

Thanks again!
Enjoy the picture show from how we've been rolling lately....with mittens and fish



oh and unlocking and opening the door by himself to go to church

...and of course on the walk to see if he'll try to fall back asleep...yeah. he didn't

Night 1

So we are going to try to night wean first and then take the days a bit slower. So far, we had about 30 min of wailing with daddy at abou 1(I think he might be teething...oh joy!). I wondered why I would hear him calm down for a bit and then start up again. Turned out daddy was giving him goldfish crackers...oy! Anyway, we calmed down and finally fell back asleep around 2, then woke up at 5:45 because our tummy was rumbling. Hey, when you are used to a midnight snack, so is your tummy. So we had some soy/cow milk and got rocked, but by 6:30 and no sleep it was time to eat some real food. We made it...but we had an early nap at 9...and a good breastfest. So it went well-ish, but we'll see how night 2 goes. Thanks for the encouragement and advice. If you think of anything else, let me know.

Oh, and daddy has been told goldfish is a bad idea.

weaning a wiener

Ok, so he isn't really a wiener, but I've been thinking about weaning him. Ok, so I don't mind the nursing for nap time and the part in our bedtime routine, but I want to get rid of at least the last 2 am feeding. My plan right now is to tough it out and just try to rock him and offer him water for a few days, which I'm sure will be horrific. So the question to you ladies(sorry guys, no boobs, you just don't understand) is, any suggestions to make it less traumatic? What about weaning in general? How do you make that less traumatic? I don't think I can last long enough to use self-led weaning. I'm ready I think, I swear in my mind every time he latches on, half the time it is a bad latch, and I can't figure out how to get him right. We'll fix the latch and it'll go bad again a few days later. Yeah, I need suggestions. I can't really get to a LLL meeting because the closest one is 1.5 hrs away by train, and right in the middle of nap time.

Ok, so here are some fun pictures....we've discovered fort building. We had a blast! We're also trying to get some good pictures in because we are going to enter him in the Gap Japan modeling contest. I know...start calling me a stage mom now. Oy! But seriously, with his dimples, killer smile and great personality, why wouldn't everyone love him? Let's get some cash for his college fund from his good looks.




He even did a self portrait, ok well I pushed the button for him.


REMEMBER....POST YOUR WEANING SUGGESTIONS

buses and river gods

Ok, Japan Cool! is now back and cooler than ever.

I'll keep it short since Clark is ripping apart a box with crackers in it(they are in bags, so we are ok).

I love the kindergarden buses here. Kindergarden is separate from Grade School, you graduate and then go to Elementary School. So the Kindergardens have their own buses. They are usually painted with fun characters, are bright colors, and little kid sized in general. We like to wave at them.
Here are some cute examples




The other fun thing, is when we go for walks, our friend tells her son not to throw rocks in the river because it will anger the river god, hows that for a detourant?