Christmas with all the family

We were fortunate this Christmas to celebrate with both sides of the family in Santa Rosa. We had a blast but too many presents. It was crazy!!

Isaac's fun love of reading

One night I was reading a book to Isaac, called Blue Hat, Green Hat. There is a funny chicken inside that does everything the wrong way and in a silly way. He got a big kick out of it!

Thanksgiving...

Well we were supposed to have Thanksgiving at our house with my brother and his family and my mom, but my niece got sick and so we took Thanksgiving to their house. It was a nice small gathering and Isaac had fun playing with his cousin Karli who is 6 months older. My mom enjoyed seeing Isaac and spending time with him. We took some pictures with my mom's camera but we will have to put up the photos later. A few weeks to go and Christmas will be upon us and Masa's family and my family will be joined together for Christmas this year. This will be the first time that his family has ever been here for Christmas.

Fun times...

I am amazed everyday at Isaac and his budding vocabulary. Words that I didn't think he knew pop up in his vocabulary. He is also is having fun with his friends and working on sharing. I try to take him someplace special every weekend, it might be the same place or sometimes we try something different. Every Saturday we continue with his swim lessons, which he started when he was 6 or 7 months. He is starting to kick, blow easily and jump off the side of the wall while being caught in the water. Then I like to take him to the park when it is nice and if it is raining, we go to some sort of play place in Oakland or at the play place in the mall in San Leandro. He is getting bigger everyday and my little baby is no longer a baby and now he is fully a preschooler. Isaac turns three soon and I can't believe it!

The month of September

We have had a busy month. I started my new school. Isaac started back into daycare and daddy started his new graduate program for Occupational Therapy. We did swim lessons all summer and we are still continuing to do swim lessons on our own by taking him to the pool every weekend to get practice. We have been having fun! Isaac's language has definitely increased over the last year. He now is asking questions, answering questions and engaging in imaginative play. We are excited because his gradparents and auntie and cousins from Japan will be visiting us for Christmas. We will be celebrating Christmas in America this year. Here are some pictures of Isaac over this past month.

A busy month of August...

Well we had the rest of the Japanese family join us at the end of July all the way until August 11th. So we did many things. We went to SF, Yosemite, Napa, Santa Rosa and Monterey. Then Jiji (grandpa in Japanese) stayed with us until August 24th. We went to Oregon to visit Masa's host family. So here are some pictures of our different adventures.

Monterey

Oregon Napa
Yosemite Santa Rosa

Isaac riding training wheel bike

So about a month ago we got Isaac a tricycle to ride and he has managed to ride it very well. He is able to steer pretty well. So today Masa and his family and Isaac went shopping, there happened to be bikes with training wheels. Isaac did very well. I guess a bike with training wheels will be his 3rd birthday present.

Isaac's drawing and a friend

So Isaac has another piece of artwork to display. It is a fish.

So we have some good neighbor friends that recently had a baby in March. The funny story is before we really knew of this couple, we realized that the husband was working at the same occupational facility that Masa did and so we also found out they were our neighbors down the street. Masa and him are also in the same Occupational Therapy School, so funny coincidences.:) Now they have a baby boy Chinese/White, but we joke that Isaac and him could be brothers. Here is a picture.

The Bike

We finally decided to get Isaac a little bike because he finally agreed to wear a helmet, which has been a hard thing for us to get him to do. He is a helmet size 5 +, unfortunately this child has the curse of the big heads from both sides of the family. My dad being he could never wear a one size fits all hat. Masa has a rather big circumference, I just chalk it up to Isaac having big brains:)

5+ Helmet size is typically for a 5 year old.

Our friend Stephanie visited us from San Diego on her way back from Seattle. Isaac had fun feeding her dog Brownie.

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Isaac swim lessons Summer 3

Isaac is going to swim lessons for this summer. He started when he was 6 months old, so this is about his 3rd time at swim lessons. So he is still timid but our goal is to continue swim lessons throughout the summer. He has started to try to kick which is the next step.

Our Budding Artist

Isaac loves to create things with his crayons, pen and loves the etch-a-sketch. So every morning he normally will climb into our bed with his etch-a-sketch. He will draw different things and ask us to draw of course. Below is a picture where he sat in Daddy's office and used a pen to draw his picture, which he likes to do every night with daddy. Here is our artist in the making, which by the way is definitely not from my side of the family:)

Memorial Day Extravaganza

So we decided to spend our Memorial Day weekend traveling to diffferent places to do different activities. First on Friday the 28th we celebrated Masa's 40th birthday!! Then Saturday we drove down towards Monterey but ended up in Watsonville picking Strawberries from Gidzich ranch. We also went to Moss landing for lunch and saw some Sea Lions which Isaac loves to imitiate. On Sunday we went to Aquarium of the bay in SF and of course a trip to Japantown. Then Monday off to the Oakland Zoo to see the elephants, camels and the many other animals Isaac loves to watch. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but tons of fun!

Spring Break in Japan

It was a whirlwind vacation to Japan, but we wanted to see the cherry blossoms. They were beautiful and tons of them lining the streets. He also had a great time with blowing bubbles, playing in the park and hanging out with his cousins.

Isaac at Kennedy Park

Oh it started to be beautiful weather and we decided to make a trip to a nice park in the nearby city or San Lorenzo. They have playgrounds, merry go round, picnic area, petting zoo and a train. Isaac loves the train and the slides. I wish Isaac was born in the sunny time of year because this would be a great park to have a birthday party.

Isaac is a big boy :)

So Isaac has shown us he can sleep pretty well on a futon, through the night. So we decided to take a big jump and move him into his toddler bed. The toddler bed of course was made by the resident carpenter, Masa. We just bought the mesh railing to add to the bed and of course the ELMO comforter, sheets and pillow case. We can't believe our baby is growing up!

Issac and his musical dayview

Isaac loves the Big Bird movie that I believe was done in the early 80's. It has some great songs that he loves to sing along with. He knows every song and lvoes to sing. Now granted they are not done all with correct annunciation, but you can get his rhythm.

Isaac playing as a 2 year old should :)

Isaac is having great fun sliding down slides. This is one of his favorite things to do in the park. And the bigger the slide the better!! Isaac is a growing little boy and learning new words everyday. He is definitely an active 2 year old!!

Nonie/Grandma Rest In Peace

We had some sad news. My grandma passed away on January 26th, just after Isaac's 2nd birthday. She was diagnosed with Lung Cancer a couple of months ago, but she had dementia for 7 years. I gave the eulogy for the rosary and the funeral. It was an honor to be able to represent my family and be able to give a piece of my Nonie to share with everyone. I am adding a clip of my cousin Desta singing a song for Nonie.

Happy Birthday Isaac!

It was a busy day yesterday. We celebrated Isaac turning 2. It was a wonderful birthday party. We celebrated with family and close friends, it was a great occasion. I can't believe my baby has turned 2!

Isaac and Junior (a.k.a June, June)

Isaac has been saying our bird's name but his way is June, June. He loves to watch and see Junior in his cage and around the house. He doesn't yet let Junior stay on him. He is still a little scared of that but it is okay to watch him. Here is a cute little video of how Junior and Isaac interact with each other.

Also Isaac is in love with Elmo so anything related to Elmo he loves it! Here he is singing and humming with Elmo.

Christmas in Japan

We made it to Japan this year to visit Isaac's grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle. We had fun going to the snow and spending time with the family. Although Isaac was a little bit more trouble this trip, I guess he is almost 2! Unfortunately no one took a picture of Isaac and my first time sledding. Isaac really liked the train and always when we were standing at the station said "Train, train!" He also managed to make the last day exciting as he locked himself upstairs in the grandparents house and we scrambled to get him out as he was saying calmly "opee, opee " which means Open. Masa was able to climb outside and through the screen door to get him. He was standing there saying open and knocking on the door. Leave it up to the toddler to find a way:)