San Diego

While Mike was in Japan, Natalie and I went to visit my family in San Diego. This was my first trip alone with Natalie. She did really well on the way over, sleeping nearly the whole way. The flight back to Texas was a little more challenging since the flight was diverted to El Paso because of a medical emergency on board. The flight eventually took off again, but the unscheduled stop made the journey a little more challenging.

But we're back in Texas now, happily reunited with Mike. And now that Mike is playing with Natalie, I can share some San Diego highlights.

The best thing about being in San Diego was introducing Natalie to my grandmother.Of course, Natalie also met other new people. My friend Jen Em came down from Seattle for a short visit.We took advantage of Jen's visit to do some touristy things. First, we attended the holiday lights parade downtown - we "attended" in that we went to a nice restaurant on the water and ate lobster as the decorated boats sailed by.Later during Jen's visit, we continued our holiday lights experience with a trip to the San Diego Botanical Garden to see their holiday lights. This was a totally fun event, complete with a bonfire for roasting marshmallows and a Celtic band singing holiday songs in Spanish.Before we hit the holiday lights, we were joined by some good friends at my new favorite San Diego restaurant, Kaito Sushi. (I must confess to eating there again during my visit since SYL and I also went there to celebrate her birthday)Jen and I also took Natalie to the aquarium. Natalie also got to meet our good family friends:(for some dumb reason, I didn't get pictures of everyone, so we'll have to let the food pictures stand in for the missing folks!)Here's Natalie with SYL:And here's Natalie with her first kitty cat:She wasn't that interested in the cat, but later in the trip she saw a dog and laughed and laughed. A girl after her mother's heart!

We also did some holiday cooking. Here's uncle Eric with some plum pudding:And here are some cookies I baked:(not pictured: the delicious chocolate cake made mostly by Eric on Christmas Eve)

In typical San Diego fashion, we walked on the beach a lot, including one night with a lovely sunset.Also, after many years of talk and just under one year of knitting, I finally finished Eric's sweater vest:Here are just some random cute pictures from the visit:Okay, this post is already long enough, so I'm going to stop now. Look for posts coming soon about our trip to San Francisco as well as Natalie's five-months-old post.

Here's the whole San Diego album (available here):

Christmas in Tokyo

I am having a very good and productive trip to Tokyo. I have done six interviews so far for my research and I will do one more today. I have also been able to meet with some old friends. Our old friend Nagu now has a younger brother--To--and a younger sister--Tana. Here are some photos of their cute family:


Here are a few pictures of me with friends from my previous Japan travels (the second two pictures are taken outside of Kaneki, the sushi place where Kate and I ate once a week when we lived in Tsukuba):





Here is a picture of some guys who are running a full marathon around the Diet (Parliament) building every day to protest the bad treatment of the former members of the Japan Railways Union:


Here is a sign from the 100 yen store in Harajuku (the neighborhood in Tokyo that Gwen Stefani sings songs about):

That is it for now. I will leave you with the sentiment that was broadcast repeatedly, in English and Japanese, in the toy store where I shopped yesterday:

"There are moments in which new things will please you for today, and nurture your dreams for tomorrow"

Firsts

It's been an exciting week of firsts around here.

1. Natalie tried her first "solid" food. I think "solid" is a real misnomer for cereal that's mixed with breastmilk to the point that it is a super water-y slurry, but whatever. As you can see, her reaction was a little, um, mixed. It has grown on her a bit since these pictures/videos. I think once we start giving her other foods, and use those to emulsify the cereal, she might like it even more. I have realized - after several days of using cold milk - that she prefers it mixed with warm milk. Duh. That's all she's ever known; I feel silly for taking a couple of days for that to sink in. What can I say? I'm new at this!

2. Natalie had her first Chanukkah. She was also a little underwhelmed by that, having fallen asleep about ten minutes before we lit the candles. No matter! We lit the candles and enjoyed our traditional meal of home-made pad thai and pumpkin-praline pie.Later, Natalie woke up and was able to enjoy a bit of the evening.3. Natalie went to her first TCU women's basketball game. I was worried that the arena was too noisy and overstimulating for her, but Natalie promptly fell asleep and slept through most of the first half. It was a great game with a photo finish - TCU just squeaked by the evil A&M in the final seconds!Here are some other cute pics of late:

Playing catch-up

Things have been pretty exciting since we arrived back in Texas.

First, we had a snowy morning:Then, it was my birthday! I had a wonderful birthday, complete with strawberry-blackberry buttermilk pancakes for breakfast, a massage, a sushi lunch, and then some cake in the evening with friends. "Some cake" is a bit of an understatement, since what I actually had was a cake made by Mike that was home-made, made-from-scratch chocolate-deliciousness-from-another planet. He used this recipe. And I would so recommend it.I also received lots of lovely gifts from family and friends. Thanks to all of you! Turns out a one-armed birthday isn't so bad, after all!

Last, here are a few pictures that didn't make it into the Thanksgiving post. First, Natalie and Brody, each "enjoying" Thanksgiving dinner.Here's Natalie doing her latest trick of checking out her hands - she just rotates her wrist and turns them in front of her eyes and is transfixed.Here are a few other cute shots:And here's a video of Natalie laughing: