It's a Girl!!!

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Two Trips to SF and a New Red Sofa

With the due date just three weeks away, no one but Rose knows when she will be born, but whenever that is we are ready -- or at least our room is.

For the last few weeks Kyoko and I have been making our room ready for our new roommate, which has mostly involved moving out what we could of our stuff, organizing the rest, and moving baby stuff in. The biggest thing was getting our big futon out, which took up half the room. We replaced that with a big brown rug we brought from our apartment in Japan -- it took up half a suitcase, but after a few minutes rolling around on it you will understand how much it was worth it. We sleep on a fold-up futon that we can store during the day giving us lots of open play area on our favorite rug. After the futon left the bassinet came in and all that we needed was a little sofa for sitting.

Finding a sofa to fit our small space proved hard to do, but then came IKEA. Kyoko and I took a trip down to SF a few weekends ago to get out and do something fun. We stayed with my uncle Jack in Portrero Hill for two nights and had a great weekend. On Saturday we hung out with Jeff, who showed us around Japan Town. He works at the Kinokunia Bookstore in Japan Town and often eats lunch near there so he took us to a place that had good ramen. Jeff was recently accepted into a graduate program at Brown University. Congratulations Jeff!!

On Sunday my aunt Helen took us to the SF Zoo where she works in HR. It was a free day, so the place was packed with families, but we had a great time and walked around for hours. I haven't been to a zoo for quite some time and it was great to see the animals. The giraffes and the Meerkats were our favorites, but catching the glance of a gorilla was also an experience that will not soon be forgotten.

On the way home Monday we stopped by Emeryville for some shopping, mostly to go to Ikea. Neither of us had ever been and we were curious about what cool things we might find, maybe even a great little couch for not too much.......and that is exactly what we found within minutes of walking in the door. Perfect size, red, $99. Unfortunately, what we didn't do next was buy it. I thought that it wouldn't fit in my car, and after talking to an employee I was under the impression that we could get it sent to us. Both untrue. So, a couple of weeks later my friend Marc and I made plans to drive down on Saturday, get the sofa, stop by Ameoba Records in Berkeley, and be back home for dinner. The plan was foiled by the fuel pump of my Volvo, which gave out just as we were pulling up to the toll plaza at the Richmond Bridge. Things could have gotten real bad there, I was pretty sure that we would be in SF until Monday, but, as if there were invisible hands at work for us, an awesome CalTrans guy diagnosed the problem and gave us a free tow to the best mechanic in the world, Art Butradee of Auto Point Motor in Point Richmond. Art was almost done with work on a Saturday afternoon and though was able to look at my car, he couldn't get the part. However, he got up the next morning, a Sunday, went to the wreckers, got a part, put it on my car and had us on the road by 11 a.m. !! Art is the greatest. Marc and I are currently thinking of something to send to him in thanks.

We're at 32 weeks!!

Only 8 more weeks until our due date, and possibly less until we will welcome our baby into our lives. We went to the doctor for a checkup today and everything is looking good, although by the way Rose is kicking at mommy's insides these days we don't need a doctor to tell us that we have a healthy baby on our hands.

As we entered the third trimester little Rose began to get her glucose from Kyoko's diet, which has caused Kyoko to grow sweet tooth I have never imagined she could have. Lately she has been craving, making, and eating sweets. She even finished desert before I did at Grandma and Granpa Tipple's house last night! That may be a first.

We had a busy but enjoyable trip to Japan last month. The two weeks flew by, spending time with family, seeing friends, eating, shopping, etc. The main goals of our trip were accomplished, we were able to spend lots of time with Kyoko's neice, Hana. She is now 7 months old and is the cutest thing with feet (at least until Rose is born). We got to see her almost everyday. I got quite a bit of practice handling a baby.

Our shopping lists were long, and not everything we bought was able to fit into our luggage. Food stuffs, baby things, clothes, household goods, a carpet, we thought we had left plenty of room in our baggage on the way over........A lot of the baby things, however, were given or handed down to us, much more than we expected. Rose won't need any more clothes for her first few months at least.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Back to Nihon

Just a few more days until Kyoko and I go back to Japan for a couple of weeks. Our bags will be filled the obligatory omiyage, but they won't be as full as on the way home. We have been making a list ever since we got back here of things that we would like from Japan: food stuffs, baby things, household stuff, all kinds of things that it turns out we can't get here but would like to have. One thing I would love is a Japanese dehumidifier, but I imagine would have to ship that and that could expensive......

Kyoko started going to a pre-natal swim class at the community pool this week. She has a free pass to the class from being a patient at the clinic we go to for her doctor visits. My mom, Kyoko and I all went last Monday. I swam laps while they strapped on floating devices and did exercises in the deep end with the instructor. My mom went along to help Kyoko get the routine figured out, but she enjoyed it much that she might continue going with her every time. The instructor said that it is fine, so I guess it's cool. It seems like a perfect kind of exercise for pregnant women, low impact and a near-weightless environment. The people in the class attend right up until they give birth then bring their babies to the weekly pot-luck on Fridays.

My mom is having a piano recital for her students this Sunday. Three of my four students will also be playing. We picked the date a couple of months ago and though we tried to pick a weekend that didn't coincide with anything, we overlooked the biggest sports event of the year: the Superbowl. People attending the recital will miss the kickoff, but will home in time by the halftime show. I am guessing there will be even fewer dads in attendance than usual.....

It's a Girl! (We're pretty sure....)

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. Kyoko and I enjoyed the winter holidays together in CA for the first time. It was a special Christmas this year as it was the first time that Erik and Kim, Mom and Dad, the grandparents, and Kyoko and I all spent the holidays together. As per tradition, we had crab at Grandma Dedini's on Christmas Eve. It had been a while since I had eaten local Dungeness Crab and it was delicious!! Kyoko and I were the last ones to finish. On Christmas morning we went to Erik and Kim's new house for breakfast and presents. Kyoko and I got a new webcam for my laptop. If anyone reading this uses Skype, look us up! Our username is 'ndedini'.

Kyoko is now 22 weeks pregnant. In the past few weeks Kyoko has been able to feel Rose moving around a lot and as of last week I can feel her kicking too. She seems to be the most active when Kyoko is cooking or when we lay down to sleep. Yes, She! The day after Christmas we went in for a second sonogram where they checked to make sure that all her parts are accounted for and also to see whether we could determine the sex. If it's a boy, then there is usually little question that it's a boy, but as for girls, there is always always a little margin of error. The doctor said that she got a really good view and that she would be very surprised if she was wrong. We are both really happy to be having a girl, as that is what Kyoko was hoping for and what both of us had seen in our dreams.

There was even more big baby news in the last few weeks as Erik and Kim surprised everybody on Christmas with word that they are also expecting a baby. Their baby is due in late June and they are planning on coming up here for the summer and having the baby here which is really exciting. Rose will have a cousin of the same age to play with. Grandma was mentioning on Christmas Eve how quiet Christmas has been lately without any small children around. Next Christmas looks to be very special.

In other news, I will be turning in my application to the credential program in the next few weeks. Recently I have been observing in a 4th grade class taught by my former 6th grade teacher at the elementary school by our house every Monday. Tuesday through Saturday I work full-time at North Coast Laboratories, the environmental chemistry lab I worked at in college. Kyoko has been enjoying the fleeting days of being able to sleep in. She often goes places with my mom early in the day, then watches Japanese TV on YouTube until I get home from work.

We will be going back to Japan from February 5-19th. We aleady have a long list made up.......of things we want to EAT. There are so many that I know we won't get to have them all, but Koza-gawa unagi is high on the list. We Skype often with Kyoko's older sister and Hana-chan, Kyoko's five-month old neice. We were with her for the first three weeks of her life and Kyoko can't wait to hold, kiss her and touch her cheeks.

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks.

Honeymoon pictures

Just a few weeks shy of our one year anniversary (Nov. 24) Kyoko and I went to Paris on Nov. 6 for our honeymoon. We spent about 4 days in Paris before visiting relatives of mine just outside Paris. We also traveled to Brest, in Brittany, to visit Julie, a friend who I met while on JET. We had a great time, enjoying lots of relaxing and good food. Lots of food. But with all of the walking we did we somehow managed not to gain any weight. Kyoko went almost 10 days with no rice, which is quite a feat. I don't know if she has ever in her life gone for so long without it. Highlights of the trip include the Louvre, a concert at Saint Chapelle, a wonderful dinner at Le Coupe-Chou in the Quartier Latin, and a drive along the beautiful (but grey) Brittany coast.

Here are some pictures:

Tales from the Womb

Ba-bum...ba-bum...ba-bum...ba-bum...ba-bum...ba-bum...
I wouldn't have thought it would be a place well-suited for aerobic excercise, but I guess when you are only three inches tall the inside of a uterus can feel like being all alone in the swimming pool. We heard Rose's heartbeat for the first time today and I was surprised to hear what sounded like my target heart-rate from gym class. By the way, we haven't decided on any names yet, nor do we know the sex, but we use Rose instead of "him/her" or the all-too-common "it". The doctor said that babies hearts usually beat about 120-160 times per minute. If Rose is only three inches tall, imagine how small her heart must be! Beating away at a fever pitch all day and all night. Incredible. As for the due date we were told roughly May 13th, but we will be going on for an ultra-sound on Friday, which should give a more accurate guess. We were roughly thinking June or July, so May came as a surprise, but we are happy about it.

In other news, Kyoko recently finished knitting a hara-maki, or "belly-roll", for herself out of wool. Commonly worn by old men and pregnant women it is a tube that you wear around your belly to keep you and your insides nice and warm on cold October night like we have been having. I will have to take a picture of her modeling it. Next post.

We also went to English class for the first time tonight. There are free classes offered every day of the week through the adult school in Eureka. After meeting the teacher together I went back to the car in hopes that it would make her feel more comfortable speaking with others in English. After two hours I went back to get her. She said that it was alright, but that it was too easy. Too easy for Mrs. "I can't speak English." We might not be going back, or at least not to Wednesday nights at Lincoln Elementary, room 16, but I think that she got more out of the class than she thinks. She came with the realization that she Can speak English and hopefully that will make her more willing to keep speaking and practicing.