apple-pie

Sitting up

2012-02-01T14:51:00.000+09:00

Nicola Sitting Up

Nicola is 7 months old now and she is sitting up on her own. She still hasn't started crawling but she sometimes gets up on two wobbly legs and gleefully pulls plates full of food off of the low table where we sit and have our meals. She is not crawling on all fours but she pulls herself across the floor with her arms at such astonishing speed that if you were to only just catch her doing it out of the corner of your eye, you would be hard pressed to say what it was that just went sliding across the floor. It might give you a startle.

This mobility is starting to disrupt our normal activities at home which isn't a bad thing. Her brothers and sisters are learning to keep their things picked up off of the floor. Otherwise their toys, clothes, cards, homework will get a good dose of baby drool. Do you think Noelle's teacher would believe her if she said that the baby ate her homework?

She has been such a joy to be around. However, recently she has not been sleeping so well. Which means that Mommy and Daddy haven't been sleeping so well. Mostly that means that Mommy hasn't been sleeping well because for the most part, Daddy sleeps right through any commotion she makes.

Below are three wonderful pictures that never made it to the blog when they were taken. I was obviously too busy to do so. These pictures were taken right after Nicola came to us. Here she is just eight days old. As a nifty little coincidence, today is also our eighth anniversary. Happy anniversary to us! Thank you Ryo for choosing life with me. I love you.

Getting a clean diaper before coming home for the first time from the hospital.

Noelle takes her turn holding Nicola for the first time at home.

Aspen holds Nicola for the first time too.

Shimobashira

2012-01-30T14:07:00.001+09:00

Shimobashira, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

Aspen stands on some "frost columns."

I never saw anything like this when I was growing up in the semi-arid Big Horn Basin. But here, starting in the fall and often in the spring too, we get these ice crystals forming under the topmost layer of grass or soil. Usually they seem to form in lawns and parks or on the sides of roads. I'm just observing them. I don't know how they come to be but I'm sure you can imagine them growing with the cold.

They are called shimobashira in Japanese and I had an unfortunate experience with them once a few years ago in the spring. I was running and my shins were sore. To lesson the impact of my pounding the asphalt, I ran along grass covered shoulder of the road. I stepped on a spot that had frost columns like these and they crushed under my foot and I twisted my ankle. I stay off the shoulder now.

These columns did not crush. Aspen, Hannah and I took a trip to the park behind our apartment. The park is built on a big hill and there is a small ski slope there too. Noelle and I used to go there all the time. We still went there after Aspen was born but less. It was hard to get a consensus and we usually gave in to the younger Aspen as it was easier and produced less stress for Noelle and I. I feel sorry for Noelle now. Then after Hannah was born we went there even less. I don't know how other people's kids are but my kids rarely agree on what they want to do and where they want to go.

On this day, Noelle must have been gone with her mother and Nicola. It was just Hannah, Aspen and I. We climbed all over the park and explored the broken down equipment, the trees, the grass, the sand boxes and these shimobashira.

It was a memorable day for me because days like this, when I can take the kids outside and get them away from their normal environment are getting to be far and few in between. These are the days when I get to lead, or at least herd them, into new adventures. It's my time to enjoy their discoveries and their challenges.

Baby rock

2012-01-30T13:24:00.001+09:00

Baby rock, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

Hannah adopted a rock. She said it fell asleep in her arms.

Ruby May Lane

2012-01-22T14:14:00.000+09:00

WORLAND – Ruby May Lane, 92-year-old Worland resident, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 21, 21012 at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center.

Ruby was born on April 24, 1919 to Thomas Charles Lawrence and Lydia Myrah “Croy” Lawrence in Wheatland. She graduated from Wheatland Grade School in 1934 and Wheatland High School in 1938.

Ruby married Harold F. Lane on Feb. 3, 1944 in Torrington. To this union two sons were born, Gary and Alan. Ruby worked at the Wheatland General Hospital for several years as a nurses aide.

Harold and Ruby operated Worland Cold Storage from 1958 until retiring in 1973.

Ruby and Harold divorced in later years.

Her hobbies included latch hook, sewing, gardening, camping and fishing. Ruby loved teaching her grandkids to bake many kinds of cookies and special apple pies, reading and how to count money and beading.

She was preceded in death by her parents; six brothers, Paul, Albert, Roaby, Freeman, Tommy and Cloyd; one great-granddaughter, Dawn Marie Lane; and one great-grandson, Coy Rutledge.

Ruby is survived by her sons, Gary Lane of Worland, Alan (Debbie) Lane of Virginia Beach, Va.; Marilyn Lane (Chad Jones) of Worland; grandkids, Heidi (Sean) Rutledge of Worland, Clinton (Ryo) Lane of Japan, Patrick Lane of Greensboro, N.C., Heather Lane of Kansas City, Mo., great-grandkids, Noelle, Aspen, Hannah, Nicola Lane and Rosslyn Rutledge.

Cremation has taken place. Private family graveside services will be held at a later date in Wheatland. Memorial donations may be made to “W.E.S.T.”, Wyoming Elks State Trust Program, a fund for needy children, in care of Worland Elks Lodge, P.O. Box 62, Worland, Wyo. 82401. Online condolences may be made at www.bryantfuneralhomeonline.com.

Bryant Funeral Home is assisting with arrangements.

Grandma's Suet Pudding

2012-01-20T14:21:00.000+09:00

SUET PUDDING

My Grandmother Wanda McClure’s recipe as she handed it down to me. It was always a favorite of mine during Christmas and the holidays. This recipe is faithful to the original and includes notes , alternatives and nutritional information that I have entered and gathered as I have worked to figure out how to make this recipe myself here in Japan where the cooking and eating culture is different and the ingredients and utensils are different as well. I use a US measuring cup to measure volume ingredients. Actually, it is the same measuring cup handed down to me by my other grandmother, Ruby Lane.

I'm not sure what happened but this is my second attempt at this blog post. I tried to post if from Google Docs where I am editing it but I wasn't able to figure out a satisfactory way to do it. So here it is, copy pasted for you to read and hopefully try and make yourself. The Goodle Docs version contains comments, notes and links and will be updated from time to time. This blog post might not be updated again so, as long as the link is still valid, you can get the most recent information on this old traditional Christmas time favorite by clicking on the very long link at the bottom of this post.

Living here in Japan I feel I have to work hard to hold on to the culture that I grew up in. I want to hold on to the best parts and share those with my children as we grow up together. Winter is a great time to get in a bit of food culture if I can find the time. A lot of my favorite foods were consumed almost exclusively during the holidays when I was growing up. This Christmas pudding is one of them.

Ingredients:

Pudding:

1 cup milk
2 beaten eggs
3 cups flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 large cup brown sugar
1 cup suet finely ground or chopped fine　
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 pound raisins　 (454ｇ)
(nuts and dates) if you like

Directions:

Mix together and steam....put in 1 lb coffee tins (greased). Cover the tins with cooking paper(waxed paper) and bind with rope. Steam in pressure pan 45 minutes. Would take about 2 hrs. in regular steamer. Could possibly use a rice cooker for a couple of hours.

Making the Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons corn starch　　
2 cups brown sugar　　　　
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
may add a little rum flavoring

Directions

Put in 2 cups of boiling water, cook until smooth and clear.

To Serve:

Place in small pudding bowls and serve hot covered with a generous portion of the sauce. Make sure the sauce is hot as well but not boiling.

Nutritional information

The above are the original instructions.

December 25, 2011, I tried making it in our new pressure cooker. I heated up the cooker till it started to steam and then let it cook on low heat for 45 minutes. Then turned off the heat and let it sit for another 45. It turned out just the same as the other times. Delicious but seemingly a bit dry. However, “a bit dry” is how I remember it and how my mother and aunts remember it. So I guess that’s fine as far as the recipe goes. However I would like to make it less dry in future. Next time my wife suggested I heat up the pressure cooker till it gets up to pressure and then turn off the heat and let it sit for 45 minutes and then see how it is. Now I am looking for the next opportunity to try it. The biggest obstacle is finding beef suet.

ALSO, make sure to get every bit of meat off of and out of your suet. I wasn’t too picky about that and my wife got a bite-full with meat that made it taste very beefy. Every other bite was delicious and didn’t taste beefy at all.

December 2001, I tried making it with the pressure cooker and it took an hour and a half and not 45 minutes. I also made it in a rice cooker on several occasions. It is faster in the rice cooker but the pudding turns out drier. The problem is finding something that will fit inside the rice cooker. You place the batter in a container and cover the opening with cooking paper. Fill the pressure cooker or rice cooker with water and then cook it that way. So you have to find something that will fit in the rice cooker. Automatic coffee maker pot with the handle removed once and used small metal pans the last time. They where doughnut shaped however, which is why I think the pudding was dry that time. I don’t know how it would turn out if you just cooked it straight in the rice cooker bowl. Maybe I’ll try that and see how it goes. You might need to add more milk to the mixture to keep it from getting dry.

Use a saucepan in the oven. Grandma says enjoy.

If you don’t know what suet is and are having a hard time finding it in Japan, go to the meat department of your local grocery store or go to a nikuya san and tell them you want gyu no abura. Ask them to grind it up fine (hiki niku mitaku, komagire ni shitekudasai,). This is a very rich and sweet pudding, so do not serve large portions of it. One batch makes enough for 10-16 people depending on the serving size. It goes well with coffee after a turkey dinner!

Grandma's Suet Pudding recipe on Google Docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kYMO0SyRKuC4GLwumsgpRNNvGBsaysPqNzkuchJyVn8/edit

Aspen and Noelle's Holiday Letter

2012-01-06T11:43:00.002+09:00

Eigo-chan the snake

So I guess since I went through all of the trouble to write one for Nicola and Hannah that I had better write one for Aspen and Noelle, less they feel unappreciated years from now when they read this.

Noelle is halfway through her first year at elementary school. It has been a rough start but she is learning much about how to behave in a group. She is in a large class but she is lucky enough to be at a good school I think. There are four teachers in the class. The main teacher, a team-teacher who assists the main teacher, and two teachers who help children that need extra attention. I have been able to speak with some of her teachers and have found that they are very passionate about their students. I don't know how effective they are from an academic performance point of view, but I am confident that they will help our oldest girl to learn appropriate social behavior while supporting her creativity and allowing her to excel. She is a little sponge as all little children are and reads voraciously. She learns a lot of things on her own which is a good skill to have but she also needs to learn the importance of learning from living breathing people and not just from words in books.

Noelle likes to draw and create things. If she thinks there might be a prize involved, she'll even sit down and draw something good. For example for the past couple of years she has entered into some local competitions and one prizes and even a trip to a dinner party the last two years in a row. Usually she is not very worried about the quality of her work though she often goes into great detail. One thing about her drawings is that they are almost always drawn to convey a message for for play. She doesn't often draw just to draw. So this is why she is not often worried about the quality of the work. She is primarily concerned with it's effectiveness in conveying a message or in it's use as a tool in play. Very creative she is. I love it! Her mother is very creative too, on of the many reasons I married her.

She is not doing in extra curricular activities but we take her swimming and to the skating rink. We have got the kids speed skates and I guess I might have to get a pair for myself and learn how to take care of them if we are going to continue to live here, the speed skating mecca of Japan.

Aspen is also learning how to skate. Here he is (in the middle) with two of his cousins. Aspen is just able to get up on his feet, which is more than he could do last year. I'm sure he'll be gliding around the rink before the season is over.

Aspen is in his second year of kindergarten and has one year left before he enters elementary school with Noelle. It has been surprising to me to see how much of a boy he is compared to his sisters. I'm sure he learns a lot of that behavior from the other boys at kindergarten but it was just so surprising the difference between boys and girls. He loves fighting and smashing things and seeing how fast he can go. He loves cars and competition. He likes being physical. But I suppose, like any four-year-old, even though he likes inflicting imaginary violence on the people around him, he can't handle it when it gets reflected back to him.

One more thing that he loves is he loves being praised. Keep giving him praise for his efforts and he'll keep on trying.

Hannah's Holiday Letter

2012-01-04T17:17:00.000+09:00

So now it is Hannah's turn to let you in on the last year of her life.

Hannah has always been the light of the family. Always bright and cheerful. Always smiling and happy. She turns three today. It seems to me as if she should already be older than that. Isn't that a strange thought to have? Usually people feel as if their children couldn't be as old as they are. She has been so smart and well behaved up until now that I was fooled into thinking that she was older. But recently, as she has neared her third birthday, we have been reminded that she was indeed only a two-year-old all along and that she would soon be three!

What has reminded us of this you may ask and it would be impolite not to answer after having taking you this far. Two things do. For one she had her interview for the local kindergarten recently and has gotten her acceptance letter. So she will be starting kindergarten in April where she will join her brother Aspen for mornings of fun and learning with the other munchkins of similar size.

The other thing is that her well-behaved smiling face has started to show signs of being a three-year-old. She wants to do things by herself but at the same time she wants to be treated like her baby sister. Well, perhaps all our kids are this way from time to time, from Hannah on up to the seven-year-old Noelle. She has become much more difficult with her new found streak of independence but we can't really expect Hannah, or any one of our kids to do what we adults want them to do all of the time. That would be eerie and would be cause for much concern about their future..

She has always had a very strong will and has never been one to back down. At the same time she is sweet, caring and sharing. Well, she has been a bit less willing to share recently but we know that part of her character will come back in time as she works out some balance with her new found need to do things herself.

Nicola's Holiday Letter

2012-01-01T16:57:00.000+09:00

I have been writing holiday letters. Yes, that's right, writing, as in by hand with a pen and some paper. No holiday cards. Sorry. They are hard to come by and I would just end up slipping a letter in there anyway. Well, maybe I'll send cards too. I'll have to think about it. Hand written letters are one thing that I miss. I never was much of a letter writer and never corresponded with anyone who was, but the occasional letter was much appreciated.

As typical holiday letters go, I will update you on status of the Lane Family in Japan.

The year twenty-eleven brought us our adorable little girl, the fourth child of the family, now six-month old Nicola Katie. You can see the birth announcement I posted on this blog here: Nicola . She is progressing along just as expected and there have been no problems other than the occasional cold or fever. She is holding her head up high and is getting really good at doing the Superman move. She uses her hands well to grab at things that she wants and she of course puts everything she can get a hold on into her mouth. Here you can see her special moves.

The Superman

Heads Up

Reach and Grab

She has another move that I haven't been able to capture yet and that is the getting-my-but-up-in-the-air move. She is not very good at it yet but I can imagine that before school starts up again at the end of January, that she'll be up on all-fours. Winter won't be over before she starts roaming around the apartment at will. The older kids are going to have to learn to pick their things up pretty quickly unless they want them covered with baby slime!

Halloween

2011-10-31T15:55:00.000+09:00

Today was Halloween.Ryo made a post about our Halloween over on the Japanese side. She might have enjoyed it even more than the kids did. But the kids had a great time this year. One thing for sure that Ryo enjoyed more than them was carving pumpkins.

Ryo's pumpkins are getting more and more elaborate every year. Taking a hint from one she saw on the Internet, this year she decided to make two-headed pumpkins. This one is eating a smaller one.

Noelle and Aspen made some Jack-o-lanterns too. Noelle's is the one with the scar on it's face. Aspen's is the cyclops. That night we had our Lane Family traditional Halloween Dinner.

A covered pumpkin pie! Very cute, don't you think?

This is another type of pumpkin, a small type of winter squash with pudding inside. It has a face as well.

Oh my god! This was freaky. Zombie hand omerice. Omerice is an omelet usually filled with ketchup flavored fried-rice. The zombie fingers were wieners if you wonder. AND, if you are wondering why the eggs are so white, it's because she used the yolks to make eggnog! Yum!

Usually every year we go to one house for trick-or-treating but this year we took a short drive to the next town over and trick-or-treated with about a dozen kids to all of their houses. Afterwards we went to one of the houses for chili-dogs and apple bobbing. It was the closest thing to an authentic Halloween experience that my kids have ever had.

Here is a picture of all the candy they got. Of course they wanted to eat it all that night but you know what dentists say. Ryo made the bags and I helped the kids with their costumes. Hannah was a butterfly, Aspen a jumbuck, and Noelle was a ghost. Hannah and Noelle ended up trick or treating without their costumes but Aspen was sheeping around the whole night.

So what did your family do for Halloween?

Jars full of autumn

2011-10-27T16:05:00.001+09:00

We got a bunch of apples so Ryo decided to make apple sauce.

She also made rhubarb and haskap berry jam and "canned" them into glass jars.

It must have been a lot of work to peel all those apples, twenty that she used, to make the sauce. It took her half a day to peel cook and can everything. But this means that we'll have some delicious home made jam to eat throughout the long winter. It will definitely be worth all the hard work.

d(^_^o)

Thoughts on Noelle

2011-10-11T14:45:00.000+09:00

There is a lot of information about our family that gets exchanged in the more private world of e-mail. However there are many times when I feel that I would like to post that information here, to the apple-pie blog, to act as an archive of our life.

Oftentimes those e-mails do get posted here but usually they don't. Who has the time? But I want to take the time when I can to put more of them up here, backdated to reflect where in the timeline of our lives these discussions occurred.

I know these things don't need to be public and my wife would probably disapprove but I like having the story saved here on the blog. When you read from the older posts on into the future, you can see the story unfold.

So here it goes. Another chapter in the story of our lives. This one is called "Thoughts on Noelle".

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 1:49 AM, someone wrote:
> Well, I am sorry that you are having a lot of problems with Noelle.
> What do the psychologists say about how you can work with her?

Well, they didn't give us a lot of help really.

One suggestion was keeping her on a well organized schedule, which is something you have said before. And that is something that we do. She has a schedule and it is actually written on the wall surrounding the clock on the wall with times by when she has to finish things or start things. Gradually she is beginning to remember what needs to be done when and in what order. But at 6 years old, she can't really tell time all the well just yet.

Also, she stops. We have a terrible time getting her to eat a meal in the same time as the rest of us do because she stops. It's like a toy with a low battery. You turn it on and it starts moving and then it stops. If you give it a little push it starts moving again and then stops. Just like that. If we send her into the other room to get her bag ready for school, she goes in and never comes back out. She goes into the bathroom and never comes out. She either gets distracted by something or by her own thoughts. At which point she then becomes what I like to refer to as "space cadet Noelle" because she stops moving and is just staring off into space, even with a mouthful of food or while getting ready for something..

Let me try to explain some more about Noelle.
We DO have a hard time with her but this is not a cry for help. We know we have to figure it out as we go along. We have ideas of what we want to do with her, it is just not always easy to follow through with them.

She has a bigger problem that you don't understand well about yet. And it is NOT what I would call a medical problem but it is likely a physiological problem that has something to do with her brain. It's just the way she was born. It is the genetics that she has received.

She is very good at language. She can read and write, speak and understand Japanese better than the other kids her age. Of course this just may be me being a doting father. But she reads Japanese very fast. Much faster than I can.

Here is a picture of her reading to Aspen and Hannah. Ryo asked her to read the book to them so that Ryo could get some work done. She always has her nose in a book and I could see her flipping the pages so fast that I didn't think she was actually reading it but just looking at the pictures. This was the first time that I had heard her read out loud and I was so surprised to see how FAST and fluently she could read.

Noelle reads a book to Hannah and Aspen

She has been given a couple of tests. One to determine if she had any "problems" and one was an IQ test. The important thing that we found out is that she doesn't have any definable problem like an ASD and from the IQ test we discovered a large discrepancy between one of the scores and the others.

The IQ test tested her in various different areas of ability and the test giver assigns scores to her based on her performance. She had one score, her FD score, that was much lower than all her other scores. Well, the guy explained it to us this way, and this was just him guessing, but he said that the difference in her own abilities might be what is causing her to have problems.

She is very clumsy. She can't throw a ball well, she can't catch a ball well. She can't ride a bike very well when compared to her younger brother Aspen or to other kids her age. She spills things constantly. She runs into people and things. She trips over things all the time. She is often trying to DO one thing while still focusing on SOMETHING ELSE. Like focusing her eyes on a book, a picture, outside, the TV while trying to walk around our small crowded apartment. Thus she falls down a lot. Aspen and Hannah can successfully navigate the room without tripping over things or people too often. You can also get their attention even when they are engaged in something else, like in looking at a book or playing with their toys. You call their name and they reply. Noelle doesn't.

She also has a very hard time sitting still, unless she is reading a book. Then she is motionless and you can't get her attention no matter what you do. She shuts everything out. Sometimes she can hear you and sometimes she can't. Sometimes I think she doesn't want to listen to us because she doesn't want to stop reading her book (or just doesn't want to listen to us). OR maybe sometimes she can't hear us at all.

She is afraid of going into a room by herself. She rarely can go to the bathroom without someone going with her. She says she is scared. But can't tell us what of or why she is scared.

She IS different. She is different from Hannah and Aspen and she IS different from her classmates. It is not because we don't give her enough discipline or structure. She is different and we all have to learn to deal with that. Wen I say "we all" I mean us as her parents, her brother and sisters, her cousins, her classmates and teachers, and her grandparents. We all have to realize that she is different and try not to come down too hard on her for being that way. She will learn to control herself in time as she gets older I believe.

She is getting better though and Ryo and I and her teachers, all believe that it is just a mater of her brain maturing. As she gets older and her brain matures more, her behavior will improve.

You know I was never fond of most sports because I just wasn't very good at them: baseball, basketball, soccer, football. I had a hard time playing on a team. I didn't like it. Noelle has a hard time with groups of people. She can't handle groups very well. Ryo thinks Aspen is the same but I'm not sure yet. She may be right. I don't like groups either. I hate talking in front of a group but I have learned to deal with it. I enjoyed wrestling and track-and-field because there were no balls for one, and my performance didn't rely on my interaction with a group (the team).

I don't think that all her problems can be worked out by discipline as many people have suggested. She has structure in her life. The structure that we and society (school) gives her. But her brain is such that she is going to have a hard time with it.

Another thing the man said was that perhaps things move at too slow a pace for her. She is far ahead of the other kids in language ability and right now, in first grade, most of what they do is studying Japanese and math. It is understandable that the math would be easy. It should be easy for everyone. But the problem is that she finishes the work or grasps the concept quickly and then is left with nothing to keep her attention.

Sound familiar? They sent me to the "resource center" or whatever they called it because my teacher thought I had problems and I was only in there for a day. The teachers there, who were specialists in child development and associated developmental problems, knew right away that I didn't have a learning disability.

And my parents worked hard to make sure I had teachers who could keep my interest. That is what Noelle needs too, but we can't get her another teacher.

We have found that getting too strict is unproductive. Also, I don't want to squash my little flower. I want her to grow and blossom. She is so creative!

I am so sad to see some students who needed extra attention, who needed extra structure but who only got a browbeating. Now those bright, outgoing and friendly students are quiet and "under control". They are no longer disrupting class or interrupting the teacher. But they are not happy. They have dark faces. They do not enjoy the lessons anymore. They do not care to learn what they are being taught. They just know that unless they want to be yelled at and humiliated in front of class by an overbearing teacher, that they had better be quite and do what is expected of them. I don't want that to happen to my little girl.

She is different. She disrupts class. She makes it difficult for those around her to pay attention. But she is a smart girl who needs to be encouraged, awarded and urged in the right direction, not beaten into submission. At the same time, we don't want to let her disrupt class or make it hard for other students to learn.

OK, so I think I got a little off of topic. Just something that was on my mind.

I know what you are thinking now. You are thinking that one can be strict without being overbearing. You can be strict without getting angry or being mean. Or that is what I'm thinking anyway. Sometimes when we are tired and it is so noisy from the kids it can be easy to just yell at them and wish they would fall in line like so many well trained soldiers. Which is not necessary and usually counterproductive. They don't respond well to displays of anger. They don't respond well to negativity and too much use of words like "no", "don't", and "stop". They respond very well to "you did a good job", "look how much you've grown", "thank you for helping Daddy". As a parent I often just want them to do what I want them to do. Do what I tell them to. But when I am away from them and have time to think about it I realize that I really want them to think for themselves and to make the right decisions. If I just expect them to do what I tell them to, then I am not expecting them to grow into thinking individuals who have their own opinions and thoughts.

I am trying to listen to their say. I am trying to help them find their voice. I am trying to help them learn to make their own decisions and choices and learn to deal with the consequences of those choices.

But unfortunately we don't always have time to let them have their say. We can't of course let them make all the decisions, because if we did, they'd eat nothing but candy and french fries and never take a bath, change their clothes, pick up their toys, brush their teeth or go to school because they'd rather play or watch TV.

We have to help them learn to make good and healthy choices, to respect other people's opinions, to learn to live in a society that doesn't revolve around their own personal whims.

Oh gosh, sorry so long.

I'll stop now.

A difference of perspective to brighten your day.

2011-10-03T09:17:00.001+09:00

It is definitely fall here in Northern Japan but the vestiges of summer a still hanging on.
It was 75F today and sunny. I took a walk during lunch and may have gotten a bit too much sun. I walked along the river and there were salmon trying to make it up stream and there were sea gulls, cormorants and hawks trying to take advantage of them.

Here is what I wanted to share with you. Ryo just sent this to me. So this is the type of picture she takes with her phone.

A difference of perspective to brighten your day., a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

[image: 20110927 Nicola Lane.JPG]

Cute, right?
And this is the type of picture I take with mine.

[image: 85b157e7.jpg]

She says it looks like a complete different person. Nicola is smiling and laughing and her "voice" is changing day by day. If you can get her attention and start talking to her, she starts babbling along with you like the low murmur of a lazy brook.

It is fun to just let yourself go and enjoy talking baby-talk to her. When else can you talk like that and not worry that other people will think you are crazy?

Peek-a-boo!

2011-09-14T17:15:00.000+09:00

The kids love to play with and try to get a reaction out of Nicola. We have to keep a wary eye out so they don't stick something in her mouth or sit on her. They all want to hold her and today, Hannah wanted to play peek-a-boo, or "inai inai ba" in Japanese. I don't think she was quite ready for it. But pretty soon she'll enjoy it for sure.


Babies like peekaboo.	Peek-a.....	Boo!

It's all in good fun. Isn't great having big brothers and sisters?

Look at those eyes!

2011-09-07T16:29:00.003+09:00

Look at Nicola's eyes! I don't remember any of the other kids having eyes like this. I do remember that their eyes were not the same color then as they are now but these are so gray. Isn't it exciting to see them grow and change? Wouldn't it be fun and exciting for her to have eyes that stayed this color and that weren't brown like the rest of the family? I guess this is just wishful thinking but right now we are keeping a close watch on those eyes. I check them daily. She doesn't enjoy it so much because I am always tilting her into brighter light so I can get a good look at them. Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist, not that I have any control over what her genes tell her eyes to do.

For a closer look at those eyes, click on the image and you should be able to zoom in to see more detail.

First tooth lost

2011-08-18T22:27:00.002+09:00

First tooth lost, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

Noelle lost her first baby tooth. She was so happy. She had been waiting for this to happen. And can you guess what was the first thing she did? She stuck a kernel of corn in there! I guess kids are the same whatever the generation.

Clint

Keeping in touch

2011-08-17T09:51:00.015+09:00

I think the best we can do is share with each other as much as we can about our day-to-day lives.

Noelle and Aspen went back to school and kindergarten today.

Aspen was sick last night.
He ate just a little bit of spaghetti for supper
and then he went to play.
A little while later, he started complaining that
he had a headache and a stomach ache.
It sounds like food poisoning to me,
but we all ate the same thing and he probably ate the least.
Must be something else.
He go sick and threw up too.
He is better this morning though.
He ate breakfast and went off to kindergarten, no problem.

Noelle is growing Morning Glories for school.
She likes to take care of things.
She likes to take care of plants and bugs.
I think Noelle and her mother water the plants too much though.
Just my opinion.

I took about a week off of work to help out with the kids.
We went to the river and spent all day playing in the rocks and the water.
The kids caught some minnows.
They sun-dried them and ate them!
Yuck! But they liked them.
We all got a nice dark tan.
Ryo's father brought us some Popsicles.

Noelle spent a day at a "experience the river" camp.
They weren't camping. They stayed in a building.
There were a bunch of kids about her same age.
None of her friends where there.
She wasn't worried about that.
She said "I'm good at making friends."
She had a good time learning about nature with the other kids.

I took her there. It is about an hour away and near the ocean.
Aspen and Hannah went with me.
After we dropped her off we went to a dairy farm called Handa Farm.
I have been there many times.
Mr. Handa is not a member of the local co-op.
He wants to have total control over his product.
He grows his own feed so that he can control the quality of the feed to
maximize the quality of the milk.
They make and sell cheese, ice cream and pizza right there on the farm.
They have some goats, donkeys, chickens and two St. Bernards too.
Aspen, Hannah and I spent some time there playing in the grass, kicking
a ball.
We checked out all the animals too.

The Handa family are all very friendly.
They always treat is so well when we go there.
One of the Handa girls let us hold the chicks.
One of them pooped on my hand.
Here Hannah is watching the chicks.

Re: Fwd: Nicola, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

Hannah watches some chicks at Handa Farm.

They have a lawn by a garden.
The ice cream and pizza are sold there at the edge of the grass.

Here Aspen is riding the swing.

Re: Fwd: Nicola, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

They have a sign that says "Handa Made Cheese". I love that.
It is a play on the phrase "hand made".

They have about 5 different types of raspberries planted there.
We tried them all.

I bought an ice cream in a cup and the three of us shared it.
It is much easier to share an ice cream with a two- and three-year-old
than to buy one for each of us.
The ice cream there is so good!
It reminds me of the ice cream that we made in the mountains with Gramps.

Before we left we went into the store/cafe and tried some cheeses.
I bought some cheese to bring home.
We left the farm just before lunch.
I wanted to stay there and have pizza but we had brought our lunch with us.

We went to a big park for lunch, the Donguri Koen in Sarabetsu.
We played there in the park for a little while.

They have a huge obstacle course made out of wood that goes in a big circle.
It is about half the size of a football field.
Aspen went around the course about 4 times.
He is loving doing physical things.
He is much better at these things than Noelle.
But Noelle has no fear. She will go anywhere.

After that we moved on to another "park".
It is called the Bijutsu Mura, what would be translated as "Art Village".
They have a forest there and in the forest are some art galleries and a
restaurant.

They also have a very large expanse of green grass.
There are many different types of unique chairs in the grass.
We tried some of the chairs and searched for cicadas.
Aspen wanted to catch cicadas.

Re: Fwd: Nicola, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

Hannah sits on a stone statue "chair" at Nakasatsunai Bijutsu Mura

I tried something new. I hope it was easy for you to read.
There is much more to tell you about but I have spent too much time on
this already.
Time to get to work.
Love,
Clint

Fun with Aspen and Hannah

2011-07-11T21:49:00.011+09:00

Sorry, not so many pics of Nicola. But she sleeps most Of the time anyway.

Having some fun with a photo app to adjust the colors of the photos. Plus the blue and orange of the slide is really nice as it keeps the photos from being too dark overall.

Most of the time we have this park to ourselves and the kids are left to their own imaginations on how to play.

They make me so jealous. You see, the playground equipment is not daddy sized.

Nicola

2011-07-08T13:10:00.005+09:00

Nicola, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

And now I would like to introduce the newest addition to our family, Nicola Lane.

Nicola was born on July 1, 2011 at the Kosei Hospital in Obihiro and weighed 3570 grams and was 50 cm long.

She was born at 6:15am. Ryo went into labor about 3am and woke me up at about 4. We called the hospital and they advised us to come in. At this point the labor pains were only about 2 minutes apart. We called Ryo's mother and she came to take care of the other kids while I took Ryo to the hospital. As soon as her mother arrived we left and got to the hospital at about 5:30 or so. I can remember looking at my watch for the first time when we got to the maternity ward and it said 5:43. In just a little over 30 minutes later, the baby was born. Quick and ... whoa. I almost said "easy." It wasn't even easy for me and I didn't have to do any of the hard work. When she came out she had the cord wrapped around her neck and was a bit purple in the face. I cut the cord and they took her away and put or on an oxygen monitoring machine. They had her there for what seemed like forever and didn't tell us what was happening. I was worried. Her oxygen levels where a little low. Finally, after consulting a pediatrician, they told us that she was OK and we were able to hold her and take some pictures.

It has now been a week since she was born. I brought Ryo and Nicola home from the hospital on the morning of Thursday July 7th. Everyone was excited. Noelle had decided that we needed to make a cake to celebrate the baby's birth, her first birthday. I had taken three days off of work so Noelle and I were able to make a cake on Wednesday after school. We live in Japan and I use an American cookbook. By my calculations, our pan was 30% smaller than the pan called for in the recipe. I have made this cake before and remember having left over batter. So this time I tried to adjust the amounts down 30%. Somewhere in between converting from ounces to grams and milliliters I messed something up. It didn't turn out right, more like a yellow brownie than a cake, but it was still delicious. We had a little mini party for dinner Thursday night and had the cake for desert.

Can you guess what these numbers are?

2011-07-08T08:15:00.007+09:00

Can you tell what these numbers are?

3570
3532
3594
2784

They are weights in grams. I have put them in order from most recent at the top to oldest at the bottom.

3570 is how much Nicola (7/1/2011) weighed at birth.
3532 is how much Hannah (1/4/2009) weighed,
3594 is how much Aspen (2/5/2007) weighed, and
2784 is how much Noelle (11/27/2004) weighed when she was born.

Noelle was the smallest and the first born. During her pregnancy the midwives were very strict with her about her weight gain. But from Aspen on, thinking on weight gain for pregnant women had changed and they were no longer as strict. Nicola was born almost two weeks before her "due" date and Noelle was born 10 days early, but Hannah and Aspen were born very close to their due dates. Other than Noelle, you can see that all their birth weights were very close to each other.

Oh, and if you can't figure out the conversion, 3570 grams is 7 pounds and 13.94 ounces.

http://instagrid.me/mr_caffeine/

Fourteen days until The Day

2011-06-29T14:26:00.008+09:00

Today is the beginning of the 38th week of our pregnancy. I say "our" pregnancy, but really I only just helped get it started. My wife has done all the hard work. Not that I haven't helped where I can. I mean I do dishes, laundry and dirty diapers. I shuttle our other three kids here and there when possible. But when it comes to the creative side of making a baby, there is only so much I can do. But really, there is only so much she can do too. Take good care of herself during the pregnancy is about it. Or is it? Ah we men are so ignorant. My wife has been planning and preparing for the event for months and months. Even before we knew the little one was coming. I can remember asking her one day, after she made me help her rearrange all the furniture in the house, if she was nesting. It was very shortly after that that we found out she was pregnant again. So funny! So there are now officially only 14 days left to the baby's due date, as you can see by the screen shot of my iPhone. That means the baby could very well be born TODAY?

Legs on the stairs.

2011-06-19T11:30:00.000+09:00

Hannah fell asleep at the top of the stairs when looking at a picture book. So cute!

Mother's day art

2011-05-24T11:28:00.002+09:00

Noelle likes to draw and color as I'm sure most all kids do but her mother thinks that she is especially talented. I remember my parents encouraged me to explore my interest in drawing and bought me a briefcase and filled it with drawing pads and special pencils. My wife is encouraging Noelle by entering her drawings into local contests. We don't have county fairs here like back home but the local newspapers and grocery stores etc put on drawing contests for things like Mother's Day or to promote something like Peko-chan.

This is a picture of Noelle's 2010 mother's day drawing for one of these local contests. She got an honorable mention.

What's in Aspen's lunch?

2011-05-23T15:09:00.002+09:00

What's in Aspen's lunch?, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

This was rice, covered with egg. The flower was made from rice topping, similar to bacon bits, and cucumber.

The other half of the bento had chicken nuggets, apples, edamame and other stuff.

I am continually amazed at how much care and creativity people put into making bento. I don't know when the bento craze outside of Japan began, but it is fascinating that people have taken this idea of creating a healthy and visually attractive "sack lunch", and just ran with it.

I live in Japan and bento are a fact of life, especially for young children and their mothers who put so much love into making these edible doodles. Before coming to Japan I wasn't that interested in her culture. I didn't start studying Japanese because I had an interest in Japanese manga or video games. I had a friend in Japan, a brother, who I wanted to write to in Japanese. That is why I started studying the language and I learned about the culture along the way. I never realized that there were so many people who were such avid consumers of Japanese pop culture, who don't also study the language.

Field of flowers bento

2011-05-20T15:29:00.005+09:00

Field of Flowers Bento, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

Field of Flowers Bento. My wife made this for our little first grader's first field trip.　今日は小学校の遠足だよ。お花畑とはちみつです。

Speaking of bento, here are some photos of ones that she's made in the past. My wife is so creative, I love her!
http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=bento+clintonlane

I feel almost guilty not having to worry about the radioactivity of my food or whether or not I'll ever be able to move back to my home or start working again. We are really so fortunate that we can continue to live our lives with almost no disruption or inconvenience even here in northern Japan.

If you want to do anything to help out with the thousands who have lost so much you can still give to the Japan Red Cross and find more resources on Google's crisis response page.

Here is a link to Resources related to the 2011 Japan Crisis
Give if you can.

Noelle's tea ceremony

2011-03-25T09:09:00.002+09:00

March 8, 2010 Hokkaido Newspaper "Just like a grown up!"

This clipping is a bit old. It's from March 8, 2011.

Noelle and the other girls from her kindergarten had a tea ceremony on Girl's Day which is celebrated on March 3rd here in Japan. Special dolls are put out on display in homes for a few weeks before and put away promptly after. It is a old Japanese custom. On this day they had a tea ceremony. Or would that be a tea party? Tea time? A few reporters came and Noelle got her picture in the paper three times for it. Once in one newspaper and twice in the other. I guess she sticks out a bit. She's always the one that sticks out and it's not because she looks different either. She's that so vibrant and full of energy that she glows. She can't sit still either!

The headline reads "Just like a grown up!" as drinking matcha, the strong green tea made from non fermented powdered tea leaves is usually and adult pass time.

20110308 doshin Noelle tea ceremony

No imminent danger

2011-03-24T12:04:00.004+09:00

Hello there.

Well we are still fine. No signs of any imminent danger. Radiation levels continue to remain at background levels unless you are pretty close to Fukushima. And then, unless you are really close, they are only slightly higher. We continue to monitor the situation and are continually working to improve our knowledge of all things related to this disaster including learning about the effects of and how to protect against radiation. You should too, just to ease your fears. Please make sure that you are getting your information from a reputable and trustworthy source before you believe it and go telling everyone about it. Considering the fact that most people never have to deal with the possibility of coming into contact with elevated levels of radiation, it is no surprise that there is so much ignorance about it.

If you want to contact me directly you can contact me via Twitter ~~or Facebook~~. You can see my Twitter account on the left sidebar of the blog and here is a link to ~~me on Facebook.~~

I will be heading to Australia on Saturday for a "study trip" with 17 students and two other adults. I will be back on the 5th. Ryo and the kids will stay at home and they plan on visiting her sister once. Noelle and Aspen are really looking forward to playing with their cousins. It will be during spring break so there won't be any kindergarten or school.

Noelle will start first grade at elementary school about April 11th or thereabouts. I don't remember exactly. She is very excited to start studying! Actually she is already studying Japanese and math on her own at home and I am TRYING to teach her how to read English but I guess I don't make it very interesting. We are not making any progress. If this were an audible blog you would hear me sigh right here. *sigh*

Love,
Clint, Ryo, Noelle, Aspen, Hannah and ???

Japan crisis 2011

2011-03-22T12:11:00.001+09:00

We are fine. It almost makes us feel bad for being so fortunate. I've been posting more frequently ~~on that facebook thingy~~ through that twitter thingy to help keep everyone up-to-date on our status.

If you want to do anything to help, go to your favorite Internet search engine and search about the tsunami or the "Japan crisis" and you will probably see the top hit be a link to how you can help.

We are fine here in Hokkaido but there are 318,000 people who are living in shelters without enough food or anything. So many people lost their lives and so many people lost their homes and their livelihoods.

It is hard to believe that such tragedy has occurred so close to home.

Thank you for thinking of us.

Clint and family.

Google's Resources related to the 2011 Japan crisis
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

Alive and well in Japan

2011-03-15T11:58:00.000+09:00

I'm not a micro blogger nor am I even a frequent blogger so forgive me if there have been few updates lately. Taking care of our ever growing family and changing responsibilities at work takes up pretty much all of our time. However I feel the need to make an update in light of the recent M9 earthquake and ensuing Tsunami and nuclear reactor problems.

As you already know by this post, we are alive and well. All five point five of us. We are even considering getting a bigger, less economic vehicle to carry all of The Lanes and their stuff around Hokkaido (we rarely venture off the island).

The earthquake occurred off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture. We experienced about M3 shock waves here where we live in Hokkaido. There were Tsunami waves as high as 2 meters. There is almost no damage here from the shock waves or from the Tsunami waves.

We still have to wait and see what will happen with the nuclear reactors in Fukushima. I know that it is possible for radiation to be carried thousands of miles but at the moment I don't think there is any danger for us here in Hokkaido.

Girls day bento!

2011-03-11T09:18:00.001+09:00

Girls Day Bento!, a photo by mr_caffeine74 on Flickr.

This is the bento, or boxed lunches that Ryo made for Noelle and Aspen on Girls Day. The rice balls are designed to look like dolls for Girls Day called Hinaningyo. The dolls represent the Emperor, Empress and ladies and gentlemen of the court from the Heian period of ancient Japan.

Girls Day is called Hinamatsuri in Japanese and would more literally be translated as "doll festival" and the dolls themselves are called Hinaningyo.

Read the wikipedia article on Hinamatsuri and Hinaningyo. It is very interesting and there is a picture of a large doll set. One thing about the dolls is that you are supposed to put them away immediately after Girls Day or your daughters will marry late, and nobody wants that, right?

Hinamatsuri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri

Hannah steals her first cookie

2010-12-22T16:22:00.002+09:00

Hannah Steals her first Cookie
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

The other day we made sugar cookies in Christmas shapes and while Noelle knows how yummy cookie dough can be, Aspen refuses to eat it because his Mommy told him it would hurt his stomach. However, Hannah doesn't know any better and before I could stop her, she had already grabbed the raw uncooked cookie that she had cut out. It was in a candy cane shape! I was lucky enough to capture a shot before she had eaten it all. Did you know you can still operate your iPhone with flour on your hands?

Whenever we make cookies it is hard to get a finished product because Noelle wants to "taste" the ingredients and the dough at every step. It's kind of like making rum cake. Which if I ever do, I'll have to make in the cover of night or we'll get a drunk 6 year old wobbling around the house.

Oh well, I suppose she must of thought that since she had cut it out it was hers to eat! ;-) Which it was!

Noelle by the riverside

2010-11-19T11:41:00.004+09:00

Noelle by the Riverside
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Noelle, Aspen and I went to the Tokachi river in the Otofuke area and watched the swans and the ducks. I took this picture with my iPhone and edited it with an application called Instagram.

My wife, Ryo was sick. The kids and I went out to eat for lunch at McDonald's and the three of us shared a large french fries and we each had a hamburger. We ate the fries first and then the sandwiches.

Aspen didn't want to eat his hamburger because it had katsup on it. He said he wanted more "potato chips." He started to cry loudly. He kept crying for what seemed like an eternity insisting that he was going to have more chips. By chips he means what his American daddy would call "french fries" of course.

He was very insistent and I was very insistent that he wasn't going to have a second helping of fries when he had a hamburger that was waiting to be eaten, katsup or no.

Noelle and I finished our sandwiches and we left him there crying while he sat on his knees on the floor of the McDonald's. The other customers pretended like we weren't there. Something that they may have been trying to do anyway because I was speaking English to the kids and they were, for the most part, answering in Japanese. I left him in there for about 30 seconds and then went back in and got him. I carried him to the car where I tried to explain that I wanted to get everyone ice cream for desert and told him we would if he would eat at least 3 bites of his hamburger. He was still crying and not making any sense.

We couldn't communicate with him for a while until he finally realized what "ice cream" meant. He had a "manly" bite of his hamburger. And then another. He eventually had 5 "manly bites" of his hamburger, complete with manly sound effects.

Noelle and I finished his hamburger and we went to Otofuke to see the swans. After that I stopped by a conbini and I got them some popsicles and I got an ice cream and we went to the Makubetsu side of the Tokachi Ecology park to see if we could see any salmon swimming upstream. We ate our desert in the parking lot. It was empty.

Noelle and I finished our frozen deserts first and started to kick a ball around the empty parking lot while we waited for Aspen to finish his popsicle. . Aspen laughed as he watched us. He dropped the last 1/4 of his popsicle on the pavement. It was a soda flavored Garigari Kun. He cried. He got over it.

We kicked the ball down to the fish ladder now called the toto road (ととロード).. There weren't any fish. We kicked the ball about a mile downstream and Aspen ran at least half of the way if not more kicking that ball.

We were adventurers. We traversed wild rapids. Aspen wet his pants.

We saw lots of little fish and some crawdads in a small stream made for smaller, weaker fish to bypass the Chiyoda Weir.

We finally made it to the riverside. There we saw lots of hawks, crows, sea gulls and other birds as well as the salmon they were feasting on! We saw lots of salmon, dead. We also saw plenty of salmon still trying to get upstream.

There were at least two new words for Noelle today: upstream and downstream.

Aspen's train set

2010-11-19T08:01:00.005+09:00

Aspen's Train Set
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

We got this purareiru (plastic rail) train set for Aspen for Christmas just before he turned three. We got him two sets; a basic Shinkansen starter set and another that just had extra track pieces. We also got a steam locomotive engine for it. Purareiru comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the loan words for "plastic" and "rail." the same company also makes "matchbox" cars and the rail parts and the cars are the same size. At the time when we got this set Aspen wasn't old enough to be able to really enjoy it and he is still a little young for it I think. But he is starting to enjoy it and today put together his first complete rail. Usually we have to help him. It isn't perfect but as you can see in the picture the SL is going around the track!

While you were out - Hannah Mary Lane

2010-11-17T23:30:00.005+09:00

While you were out - Hannah Mary Lane
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Dad,

I am finally getting photos off of Ryo's iPhone and found this cute　snapshot! Hope you like it. As a photo it may be low quality but it　is still a nice capture! This photo is from our trip back to Wyoming in December 2009. Hannah is just 10 months old here. Man I love this photo!

In this photo, Hannah pops up out of the toy box while Noelle and　Aspen are eating at the kitchen table in the background. Click here for a larger view.

-
Clint

IMG_0335.jpg

Tenacity

2010-11-02T17:29:00.003+09:00

Chaos Theory

At times life seems to be complete chaos at home. Oh how crazy things can be. We are not extremely busy with projects, events, sports or education. But with a very energetic, active, independent, dependent, stubborn, and many other applicable descriptors that we can use to describe our five year old, a terrible three year old, and a soon to be two year old, things can get a bit crazy. Just getting these three cleaned, dressed, fed, entertained and put to bed takes all of the energy, concentration, creativity and patience that Mommy and Daddy can muster. Recently we have agreed on another quality that we will need to survive: tenacity. It's like a marathon where we are contenders for the prize and we have to make calculated surges and attacks all the while keeping in mind that we have to keep enough in reserve to make it to the finish. And they say the course is getting longer these days and the finish line farther away. But that is a different topic.

この話を日本語で読むこともできます。次のリンクをクリックしてご覧になれます。持続力

Little Pumpkin

2010-10-31T08:50:00.016+09:00

Little Pumpkin
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Little Hannah Pumpkin!

Happy Halloween! I originally uploaded this from the phone and didn't have the time to tap out a message. It's Halloween, even here in Japan, and we are doing all our Halloween prep on the night before and the day of. We carved pumpkins and made a few decorations for the house. It is almost completely a Lane Family event because Halloween is not a part of Japanese tradition. However it is becoming more and more popular as English conversation schools, cram schools and even textbooks promote the event alongside their promotion of English education.

I carved just one little pumpkin this year with Aspen to help and again, Ryo carved most of the other pumpkins. She is really getting creative with her Jack-o-lanterns and is coming up with carving techniques that I have seen on the web but that she didn't know about before. I'm not giving her any advice either. She is developing these techniques out of her own creativity.

Happy Halloween!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Yes, I am married to a very creative individual. Here is a photo of one of the lovely jack-o-lanterns that she made this year.

We DID dress up in costume and go trick or treating this year, sort of. We made some bat wings for Noelle and she dressed in black. We had a sheep costume, actually a "jumbuck" costume that we put on Aspen and I made some bones and taped them on Hannah's arms and legs. She seemed to enjoy that and didn't fuss a bit while I was taping them on her with clear tape. I took them a few blocks over to the house of a friend of mine who I had called on the day before to make sure they would be there so we could drop by. We went there and rang the door bell and, while they were a bit shy, our kids did all manage to get out a weak "trick or treat" and they each got a little bag with assorted cookies and candies. All in all it is no where near the experience that they would be able to have back home in the States but still it was fun and hopefully something they will remember fondly.

Read this post in　日本語 here: リットル　ハンナ　パンプキン

Chocolate ice cream

2010-10-20T06:37:00.004+09:00

Chocolate Ice Cream
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

After receiving my chocolate ice cream, the shop keeper runs over to the slide to help a local.

We have lots of places that we could explore but Aspen always wants to go to the nearby park and play in the sand. He spends most of his time cooking. When I have the energy we build things in the sand. On this day I was physically and mentally drained and it was all I could do to simply eat my ice cream.

Aspen makes excellent ice cream by the way. He also specializes in various types of soups and coffees. His older sister, Noelle, specializes in cakes and coffees. Wouldn't you know that the child of Mr. Caffeine would have an interest in coffee. Or at least in pleasing their father, who does. In this picture Aspen has just run over to the slide after seeing his little sister Hannah sitting at the top, and not going down. She didn't need any help. She just liked to sit there. But Aspen wanted to make sure she got down alright. What a gentleman.

Read this in 日本語 at: チョコレートアイスクリーム

Photo of the day: Hannah and her spoon

2010-10-20T06:31:00.001+09:00

Photo of the Day: Hannah and her Spoon
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Hannah is really getting good at using a spoon.

Chestnuts and personal bests

2010-10-13T10:39:00.002+09:00

At the Sahoro Riverside Ekiden in Shintoku on Monday I ran my fastest 5k ever! During my leg of the event I ran 5.1km in 20:28 which was the second fastest time on my team behind our anchor by 3 seconds! I am very happy with my performance. That is all I can write now. I just had to get that up!
Oh, ichan sent me a picture so here it is! An "ekiden" by the way is a long distance relay race. Usually from Point A to Point B like the Pony Express but this ekiden just has everyone running the same 5.1k loop.

Ryo's mother was the fastest woman in the race and had the fastest women's time, of course, for the leg she ran.

Another photo. Hannah has the medal that my mother in law's medal got for having the fastest women's time in the 4th leg.

After the race, we went to visit Ryo's grandfather. He invited the kids over to harvest sweet potatoes from his garden. We stopped on the way and gathered chestnuts which I have been nibbling on ever since. Yummy but not so easy to eat. Up until I moved to Japan, chestnuts only existed in Christmas songs!

Pumpkin dango!

2010-10-12T20:32:00.002+09:00

Photo of the Day
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

We had a seasonal dinner. Pumpkin soup, pumpkin dango, turkey, eggnog, apples, sauteed green peppers and chestnuts! Except for the turkey, all were hand grown, handmade and hand picked. Feels good to eat food like that. Most of the food came from Ryo's grandfather and it was Ryo of course who whipped it up into something special and delicious! This picture shows the pumpkin dango. I don't know what you'd call these in English but it is cooked and mashed pumpkin mixed with potato starch and then cooked again. This time they were baked in the toaster oven. The pumpkin soup had carrots that we harvested ourselves and the butter for the saute I got for finishing the Betsukai Pilot Marathon on the 3rd.

Hannah on a horse

2010-10-03T06:04:00.002+09:00

Hannah on a Horse
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

We played at a nearby park at a camp site just across from the start and goal of the Betsukai Pilot Marathon.

This year over 1200 people will attempt to finish the 42.195km race held here in North Eastern Hokkaido. My mother in law and I have come to this race together for at least three years, along with my father in law and my wife and kids, so that the two of us could run our main event of the running season, a fall marathon.

Although the weather today was beautiful it is supposed to be cloudy and cool with a 60% chance of rain tomorrow on race day. Since I'm not a very fast runner, my wife will have to wait with our three little munchkins for close to 4 hours for my return. I don't know how or why she does this for me. She must be crazy.

Noelle close-up

2010-09-28T10:39:00.002+09:00

Noelle
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Noelle zooms in for a closeup while playing on a jungle gym at the NEEDS cheese shop in Makubetsu, Japan. Ryo and I are really enjoying their "Tokachi no Hoppe" cheese by the way. We had had a long weekend. We just tried to do too much. Noelle had gone to a ceremony where she was awarded for her art and we had planned on going to the Pea Cocks cake shop in Kamishihoro after lunch. To kill time we swung by Needs.

Hannah puts her bottoms on

2010-09-28T08:09:00.004+09:00

Photo of the Day
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Hannah was so happy that she had gotten her bottoms on this morning.

It was too bad that they were her PJ bottoms! Daddy was trying to get her dressed and had gotten her PJs off and her new shirt on but while Daddy was distracted, Hannah got her PJ bottoms back on. And boy was she so happy about it. She had to walk around and show everybody but she did NOT want to take them off and put on her clothes for the day. We had some black pants ready for her and maybe it was the color because when we brought out some pretty pink pants she happily put those on.

Recently life seems to be complete chaos at home. Oh how crazy things are. We are not extremely busy with projects, events, sports or education. But with a very energetic, active, independent, dependent, stubborn, and many other applicable descriptors that we can use to describe our five-year-old, a terrible three-year-old, and a soon to be two- year-old, things can get a bit crazy. Just getting these three cleaned, dressed, fed, entertained and put to bed takes all of the energy, concentration, creativity and patience that Mommy and Daddy can muster. Recently we have agreed on another quality that we will need to survive: tenacity. It's like a marathon where we are contenders for the prize and we have to make calculated surges and attacks all the while keeping in mind that we have to keep enough in reserve to make it to the finish. And they say the course is getting longer these days and the finish line farther away. But that is a different topic.

Homemade cinnamon rolls

2010-07-14T16:59:00.002+09:00

Home Made Cinnamon Rolls
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Cinnamon Rolls. What other than the warm sweet aroma of fresh baked cinnamon rolls to bring a smile to your face?

These were made by my lovely wife!

Yes, that is one of the things I like about autumn is that there are so many delicious things that you can put cinnamon into!

Rhubarb and strawberry? No, haskap.

2010-06-04T15:02:00.005+09:00

Fresh rhubarb from our garden.

A pot with a broken lid handle.

Add haskap berries and viola! Rhubarb and haskap jam!

Ok, I know I missed a lot of steps there but this was all that was left when I got home after work so I wasn't able to capture the other steps. I was able to capture the wonderful smell of rhubarb when I walked in. What a nice way to be greeted after work! We have still not made a rhubarb and strawberry pie, mainly because rhubarb comes before the strawberries and store bought strawberries are so expensive. Well, maybe that's not the main reason. We are pretty frugal and pies, while very tasty, are relatively expensive and short lived. Jam on the other hand can be stretched out for a long time and eaten again and again on toast, pancakes and in yogurt and the like. One berry though that does go very well with rhubarb is the equally tart haskap berry.

Noelle Harvests Rhubarb
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Haskap is native to Hokkaido and is being called other things in North America according to an article I read on the Home Orchard Society website (link later). When I had gone looking for an English name for haskap before, I couldn't find one but recently, when we were at a jam shop in Furano, (?) they had a sign up calling it honeyberry. I was skeptical and this jam here reminded me of my skepticism and I looked it up again. There were several hits this time, especially from Canadian websites. I agree with the Home Orchard Society when they say that the original name of Haskap should be used. Haskap is very tart and perhaps a bit bitter. It also is very red or purple and adding just a little to your rhubarb jam, not only enhances the flavor but more than that, gives it a nice red coloring. This is particularly nice if your rhubarb is not very red to begin with. For example we have two varieties. One that is mostly green and one that is red as you can see in the stalks in the photo above.

Haskap Arrives in North America
http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/article/42/

Do you want to learn more about this wonderful pie plant? I learned most of what I know from The Rhubarb Compendium.
Visit The Rhubarb Compendium at http://www.rhubarbinfo.com/.

Apple cake in an iron skillet

2010-02-13T06:10:00.003+09:00

I got this recipe from The Pioneer Woman blog and couldn't wait to get to the US so that I could try it out with my dad's iron cookery. Please ignore the fact that I made a mess of my dad's kitchen and focus just on the cake.

This is what it looked like after I flipped it out of the pan. I guess this kind of makes it an upside down cake. It is actually somewhere in between sticky buns, cake and apple pie. I really should get the link up here to Pioneer Woman's post and recipe about this. This was made for Christmas and was a big hit. I should have made two because I only got to have one helping! I think my wife took pictures of this too with her camera so maybe later I can post some better photos of this delicious desert. This cake looks a bit thicker than the one in The Pioneer Woman's photos and I'm not sure what hers tasted like but this one was devine. Of course, the photos of her cake look much better. Check out the Pioneer Woman's site on photography, cooking and more at The Pioneer Woman blog and website.

OK, here it is. The link to the Apple Cake in an Iron Skillet recipe and blog post. Enjoy.

Hannah gets holes

2010-02-10T15:23:00.001+09:00

How many times has our poor little girl been in the hospital already, and she is only 1!? This is a picture of Hannah in the hospital before we went on our last trip to Wyoming. All three of our kids get ear infections almost every time they get a cold. I'm afraid they get those poor genetics from their me. So, Hannah was in the hospital to have tubes put into her ears to help relieve the pressure of ear infections. Apparently it is better than letting them rupture. It is a cute picture though I'm sure she had a tough time of it. I know I for one was very worried about her because they had to use anesthesia for the surgery and that always scares me.

Airplane food

2009-12-16T17:04:00.000+09:00

OK, of course the last two are not airplane food. The second to last one is Hannah in the bassinet. And the last one is of Aspen, sleeping, instead of eating, on his mother's lap.

Noelle on electric guitar!

2009-11-24T22:35:00.002+09:00

Just found this video. Noelle is playing with a new toy guitar we got at an onsen one weekend. The guitar didn't last very long but she sure enjoyed it. Here she is really jammin out. She is singing her own song as she plays and Aspen enjoys watching her. This was taken two years ago in the summer of 2007 when Noelle was two years old and Aspen was about 7 months old..

Happy Halloween

2009-11-11T16:47:00.002+09:00

Apparently Ryo had to try several times before she got this picture.

She'd pile them up and they'd fall over again. She'd pile them up and Hannah would knock them down again, and again, and again....

You can see from the picture how little Hannah is getting ready to knock them down again.

Every year we try to do something for Halloween just because it is such a fun event. We carve pumpkins for sure even though they are hard to come by here in Japan.

A few years ago we took the kids to a neighbor's house to trick-or-treat. He didn't know we were coming but graciously provided us with some goodies anyway.

Last year we were unable to trick-or-treat and this year the kids had ear infections and I had to work and so trick-or-treating didn't get done this year as well. Last year Ryo made us a Halloween dinner. Yes, I know, there is no such thing as a "Halloween dinner" but don't tell her that. It was fun. She made about half a dozen dishes out of pumpkin. We have some Halloween cookie cutters that she used to cut shapes out of sandwich bread. She gave us white bread skulls dribbled with a homemade red jam. Gruesome!

From last year Ryo got into the jack-o-lantern making too and actually, kind of took over. She really got into it. The kids weren't so interested. This year was pretty much the same. The kids did help out more this year than last. I suppose it is hard to get their interest up when you are the only one in the community doing it. They started helping out but soon lost interest and just started playing with the cut out pieces and the water we had set out for hand washing.

Well, this year the kids didn't get to do much for Halloween but I think they enjoyed what little we could do. Here you can see the 5 jacks that we made. Or, I guess I should say, the one that I made and the 4 that Ryo made. Mine is the scary one.

We hope you had a Happy Halloween and that your Thanksgiving is delicious!

And, as a last word, you can also view this post in Japanese at Happy Halloween!
この記事を日本語で読むには次のリングをクリックしてください。Happy Halloween!

Yeah! No more training wheels!

2009-11-06T17:23:00.004+09:00

A 4 year and 10 month old Noelle.

She is finally riding her bike without training wheels. I guess this is nothing to get antsy about but we are happy to report her success here. She is not very good yet and she is afraid to take her bike out on the road as she can't go in a straight line, but she's riding, nonetheless.

Her mother wasn't really worried about it. I wasn't really worried about it. She kind of went from the tricycle to the bicycle a bit too fast actually, before she really had time to get the tricycle down. Before she really had time to enjoy the tricycle.

But, one day after lunch Noelle said to her mother "Take the little wheels off my bike." and mother obliged. That is something we are working at actually. Not saying "no" to every idea Noelle has. We have been entirely too negative.

Ryo figured that Noelle would just give up if she couldn't ride it well from the start. The is how she read Noelle's character but Noelle proved her wrong this time. Now matter how many times she fell over, she just got back up and back on the bike. That is a quality that I'm proud she has. Now if only we can develop that same quality with her little brother. But today's post is about Noelle so Aspen, you wait your turn!

We are very proud of her. Not only because she was able to ride her bike without training wheels, but also because she didn't give up. Yo go girl!

Mommy, thanks for all the hard work! I know it must have been hard pushing Aspen on his tricycle and carrying Hannah at the same time you were helping Noelle learn how to ride a bike.

Hi there, handsome

2009-10-11T15:59:00.006+09:00

Noelle and Aspen at Nakasatsunai

View this photo on Flickr at Hi there, Handsome

Having trouble viewing this? Make sure scripts are enabled for Seadragon and Zoom.it.

Fruits, trains and marathons in Yoichi

2009-09-28T06:57:00.006+09:00

On the last weekend in September is the Yoichi Mikaku Half Marathon. My sister-in-law and her family, along with my Ryo's parents and us all met there at Yoichi for a total of 12 family members.

"Mikaku" means "taste" and the Yoichi Mikaku Half Marathon is not only about running but about enjoying the good taste of the local produce. As you can see Yoichi is on the coast so they have ample sea food but what they are really famous for is fruit and whiskey!

The picture here is just across the street from the place where we stayed. The kids really enjoyed it. They could play there on the beach for hours on end and never get tired of it. And it was nice for the adults too. Watching the kids play and listening to the sound of the surf is can really help wash one's stress away.

Ryo really loves grapes! Here is what she bought and didn't tell me about until much later.

2kg of grapes
30 pears
a pack of prunes
1.5 dozen apples.

Actually, according to Ryo, she didn't really like grapes that much but after trying some of the

Yoichi grapes she fell in love. She bought, in total, 4kg of grapes and they were all eaten within two days after we got home! I think I had about 12 grapes myself. She and the kids ate them all while I was at work with Ryo having probably 60% of all the grapes herself!

I think if we go next year she'll probably by 6 or 8 kg of grapes.

Every year the Mikaku Festival is held on the same day as the Mikaku Half Marathon. This is great because who wants to sit around and wait for 2 hours for someone to go out and run a half marathon? (You don't have to wait that long when I run it.;-)) It is kind of an early harvest festival of sorts. At the festival and at the race you can buy lots of different fruits and other produce at special prices. Usually having the festival and the race at the same time is great for families or people who are waiting for their loved ones to finish their race but with our family, since our kids are still so little, the thought of chasing them around the festival grounds is a bit daunting. Luckily we had the beach with the sand and the waves and all the little creatures that you can find in the surf. As an added bonus, there is an old steam locomotive that takes off from the Yoichi Train Station shortly after the race starts. Ryo took the kids to the station to see the train. I have yet to see one in motion myself. I was able to hear the train whistle during the race however. Here in the picture you can see Noelle holding her ears before the train blows it's whistle. The station master actually motions to all those waiting on the platform to hold their ears before the whistle blows, it is that loud. I'd love to take a ride on one of those old trains some day.

It turns out that, like last year, the whistle of the train was so loud that it made all of our kids cry. I can only imagine all three of them crying there on the platform.

View Ryo's post about this in Japanese here [日本語]

Aspen reaches out

2009-09-25T13:58:00.002+09:00

Aspen Reaches Out
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

September 17, 2007. Aspen reaches out for his sister Noelle while mom snaps a picture. Here he is seated in his carseat in our car.

Wow! What a flash back. This post never made it to print. Now it is September 2009 and Aspen is almost 3 years old. Well, if you remember his birthday, you know that he'll turn three in February God willing. He sure was a cutie wasn't he? Oh, well, I suppose he is still pretty cute.

However he is a 2 year old who is almost three and as any parent can probably tell you, it is not without reason that we have a phrase for this period in English. You know it, the terrible twos? My friend told me once that she thinks her children had terrible threes, fours and fives. Aspen really isn't that bad though. He is a fairly good boy most of the time. Sometimes however, like this morning, he doesn't want to have anything to do with me. We was drawing on a dry erase board this morning and he was getting it on the carpet so I suggested he move to the table. Which he started to comply with amicably enough, however he still had the cap-less pen in his hand and was getting it all over the chair as he climbed. I thoughtlessly, took the pen from his hand with the intention of handing it to him after he had climbed all the way up into the chair. Well, that was the start of the storm and he threw himself down on the carpet and started crying and screaming and wouldn't listen to a word I had to say, even as I was frantically trying to give the pen back to him. He was protesting having his liberty taken way, if only for a second. He is very sensitive about that right now. He is at the stage where he wants to do everything "by myself!". Ah, I love my kids!

Hannah in the Garden

2009-09-25T13:09:00.005+09:00

Hannah in the Garden
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Hannah tries out a yellow mini tomato that she picked in the garden. Of course this was her first ever tomato harvest and first ever tomato.

I originally posted this to the blog using Pixelpipe on my iPhone but for some reason it always just showed up as the Quicktime logo and I often had trouble getting it to play. This time I posted it from Flickr. Note that the reason it is on Flickr too is because I used Pixelpipe from my iPhone. For some reason, I have not been able to send full resolution photos via e-mail from my iPhone over WiFi and you can be darn sure that I'm not going to pay to send it over the cell network. Not being able to send full resolution photos is a pain in the neck and I'm not sure what the problem is but I wonder that it might have something to do with my provider. It also might be my WiFi modem which is not working very well. It is time to get a new one but I don't think I'll be able to get a new one until next year. At any rate, here is the video of Hannah in the Garden again via Flickr. Enjoy.

Remarkable (Low Fat) Rhubarb Bites

2009-09-17T16:15:00.011+09:00

Remarkable (Low Fat) Rhubarb Bites
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

This is from a recipe that I found at the Rhubarb Compendium. It calls for shortening which we didn't have so I substituted our homegrown Caspian Sea yogurt for the fat. You are also supposed to top it with powdered sugar but I didn't want to make it any sweeter than it already was.

You cut it into squares like a brownie.

I made it again this year but used shortening instead of yogurt and it turned out very different. In this picture you can see that it looks like a cake. With the yogurt it was like a very moist cake. With the shortening it was like a cocoa free brownie, although not as rich. The top was a bit crispy like a cookie. I'm kicking myself because I don't think I took a picture of it this time. At least I didn't take a picture of it with my cameraphone. I will have to check the other cameras to see it I did indeed capture it for the record.

It turned out to be really sweet, I thought, but my mother-in-law really liked it.

In this year's version, I made it like it was meant to be made with shortening and it was much better I thought than the low fat yogurt version. One of the reason's I

remarkable rhubarb bite
Originally uploaded by asynja_goddess

made it with yogurt was because I was on a no butter baking spree due to the high price of butter and milk last year at this time. As you can imagine, the more the fat the better it is. Yum! We still got some in the freezer that needs, ahem, attending to before it gets too old.

I did find a nice photo of this same dish on Flickr posted by asynja_goddess. This one looks much better than mine. Actually, they don't look like the same dish at all, do they? You can see that asynja_goddess had green rhubarb in hers. This year I made it in the fall with some scraggly green rhubarb so it would have turned out something like this, without the powdered sugar on top.

The original photo on Flickr:
DSCF2869

The source of the recipe:
The Rhubarb Compendium

Birthday pants in the mud

2009-09-15T20:30:00.003+09:00

Noelle wears some old pants that were too small for some play in the mud. Her birthday pants show.

Hannah in the garden

2009-09-15T20:18:00.002+09:00

Take a leaf.

Eat a leaf.

Ah, it wasn't that good but it's nice being out in the grass!

Like father like daughter?

2009-09-15T15:22:00.000+09:00

Let me share a funny episode with you.

This is Noelle.

She grabbed my running shorts and hat out of the laundry and put them on and surprised Ryo with a "Mommy, look! How do I look?" Oh yes....."you look great!"....

Since they see me going out, or rather coming back from, runs and we are always going to races the kids are always playing "marathon" in and out of the house. They even set up finish lines and water stops!

It won't be too long before she'll be able to start running herself. When that happens I'm sure that Ryo will be cheering her on from the side of the road with a homemade flag like she has so often for me and her baba.

When that time comes, I'm sure we'll be able to convince her mommy to buy her some running gear her OWN size. ;-)

We went to Furano!

2009-08-01T13:31:00.002+09:00

Ryo and the kids went with their grandparents and great grandfather to Furano.
The 7 of them all loaded into our Nissan Selena and with laughs and the cries of the baby, enjoyed the road trip together.
They went on July 27th so the famous fields of lavender where had pretty much lost most of their luster.
As you can see in the picture the lavender has already past its peak for this year. Regardless of that, and perhaps it was because it was during summer vacation but Tomita farm was just bustling with people.

This summer has been the wettest summer ever but we were lucky to have no rain on this day and plenty of summer heat. Thanks to the good weather we lunch at a pic-nik table at Hi no De Park (日の出公園). Furano has many nice cafes and restaurants that it would have been just lovely to eat in but with three little kids it is best just to get something from the convenience store and eat outside.
Mommy says that when the kids get older she would like to travel around here and there and enjoy those fashionable cafes and beautiful gardens with Daddy. Mommy would also like to travel back to Otaru someday and walk around peaking into the glass workshops and curios that they have there. Daddy would like to enjoy the food.

Right now with the kids we can't enjoy things like that but we can enjoy things now that we can only enjoy with the kids as a family and those are the things that we want to enjoy now.
It won't belong before we ask the kids to go for a drive and they tell us that they already have a date with their friends and can't go so we had better enjoy them while they are still young enough to want to hang out with mom and dad.

Can You Tell They're Siblings?

2009-07-31T11:45:00.002+09:00

From top left: Aspen, Noelle, and Hannah at the bottom. These pictures where taken in commemoration of their first 100 days. It's a tradition to take pictures at this time for babies in Japan.
People always are telling us that they look alike. I think they all look like siblings, for sure but Hannah and Noelle probably look the most alike.

We had Hannah's photos taken at a studio the same studio that we had Aspen's 1st year birthday photos taken at, Fujita Studio in Obihiro. We have been very happy with his photography so far. In Japan it is most common for people who dress their kids up in little suits, kimono or costumes for these pictures but we didn't want any of that. We dressed Noelle up for her photos and you can see here that she has some wings on her back but we really didn't like that. We would much rather just have them in their everyday clothes or, as you see here, naked like the babies that they are.

Ryo found Fujita Studio on the web looking for places to get Aspen's pictures taken and was impressed with his work. She really thought that he had good sense when it comes to taking photos. After that, as she tells it, she decided to take up photography herself and we are not the proud owners of a DSLR. $$!

Well, just because you buy an expensive camera doesn't mean that you'll be able to take pictures like a pro but it sure does help. The photos that we get with the DSLR are much better than any other digital camera we have had. The fast shutter means that you can take the photo that you want to and not have to anticipate the shot with a slower digital camera.

If you want to check out Fujita Studio's work you can see it at their homepage here:
http://fujita-studio.com/index.html

Many faces sushi

2009-06-15T17:53:00.004+09:00

Many Faces
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

The other day Ryo and Noelle made Futomaki-zushi. They are kind of like California rolls.

There is a picture book that Ryo is always reading with Noelle that has some sushi rolls like this that she always wanted to try and make.
Nori -> rice -> Nozawana(eyebrows) ->rice -> pickled burdock root (eyes)->rice-> Nikama (mouth, I couldn't figure out what this is in English)->rice

Every time you put in another ingredient it gets thicker and thicker and you worry that it is not going to all fit but they got it all in, somehow as you can see in the picture.

They cut the sushi roll into eights and every time they cut it they got a different face! It may not look all that good but they were quite delicious, I can attest.

Ryo often makes pancakes and french toast because I love them so much and their are not so common here. Noelle now really loves helping out in the kitchen and whenever she hears Ryo mixing up the ingredients she drops whatever it is she is doing and comes running to see if mom will let her help. Recently Aspen (2 years old) wants to help too and so the kitchen floor ends up covered with flour and eggs. You should see the kids. Because of this Ryo likes to get up early and get started on pancakes quietly so as not to wake them up so she can make them in peace.

Simple French Toast

2009-06-10T15:36:00.005+09:00

Hmm, I LOVE French toast. I don't know why they call it that and I don't care but I love the stuff. This is a picture of my wife's recent version of this delectable dish. As you can see, it looks like a cake or a pie with a piece cut out of it. She takes bread ends and soaks them in her special sauce (raw eggs, cinnamon and maybe a splash of vanilla?) and then she puts all of them into a pan and cooks it on the burner. Simple as can be and delicious! It takes less time and energy and space to make it and we all love it. It looks pretty good on the plate too.

Little Bunnies

2009-06-09T16:01:00.000+09:00

These bunnies used to have faces. What you are looking at is a mobile, the type that you use to entertain babies. We had it on Hannah's crib, although it never entertained her. It was too high up. It was battery operated but Noelle and Aspen would play around with it so much that the batteries never lasted more than a day. They used to be cute little bunnies with faces and all but now, as you can see, there is only one bunny left with any facial features at all. It was Aspen's hobby to pick off the little noses and eyes. Now the crib is put away. Basically it's main purpose was to act as a diaper changing station. Aspen and Noelle played around on it too much. We are really lucky that it didn't get broken or Hannah didn't get pulled or pushed off of it. Now Hannah has a nice spot on the floor all to her own. Of course, it wont be long before the whole floor belongs to Hannah!

How does it look?

2009-06-02T17:17:00.011+09:00

Noelle loves to dress up and here she is just happy as can be wearing a kimono. This kimono is a special one. It is the kimono that her Grandmother Kyoko, now 60, wore when she was a little girl! This is the only kimono she has left from when she was little, it is really a special piece of clothing.

Her grandmother told her that after she and Hannah get to big to wear it that she hopes that she (Noelle) will let her little girl wear it.

By that time Noelle's grandmother will be 85 or 90 years old and will be known as Great Grandma Kyoko.

At the age of 60 she ran a 100km Ultra Marathon and finished (I know, I ran with her) and one of her many hobbies is swimming so it looks like there is a good chance she will live that long. And we hope she does.

Welcome Newlyweds!

2009-06-01T17:50:00.000+09:00

It's already been 4 years but Ryo and I were on a long running famous National Aired TV show in Japan called Shinkon-san Irasshai, translated as Welcome Newlyweds!

How did we get to be on this show in the first place? Ryo found an application form on the Internet and applied, not thinking that we'd get on. Then one day we got a call at home and I picked up the phone. After I drilled the guy on the phone to figure out who he was I said to Ryo "There's somebody from Shinkonsan Irasshai on the phone. Do you know what this is about?"
It was the producer of the show. The wanted to know if we could travel to Sapporo for an interview. So we traveled to Sapporo and had our first interview. We passed the first interview and had to stay to work out our initial outline of "our story". We worked for about 5 hours with a writer and the producer, then we traveled back home. After that we had to travel to Sapporo again for the recording. We again went over our story with the writer and producer and the coached us on how to make it interesting. Then make up and you're on the air!

They were recording two weeks worth of shows while we were there so we got to meet some other couples. One couple was also an International marriage of a Japanese guy and a Philippine woman. We became friends with them and now we still keep in touch with letters and meeting up about once a year.

On the show, you sit down with the talk show host and hostess, two very famous people in Japan. They also have read your story outline and so the talk goes pretty smoothly. The host is not a comedian but he is what you call a Ryakugo-ka, which is a special type of "sit down" comedian. He tries to make the show funny and it is your job as a guest to get him to make a big reaction to something you say. It was fun.

After they have a talk with you and another couple then there is a memory match game. You pick squares to turn over and try to find a matching square. You can see the memory match board in the background in the picture above. If you get a match, you get to take home what is on the square. The thing is, we did this in practice before the live recording and they didn't change the order of the items. You compete against the other couple. First you draw straws to decide who goes first. The other couple got the long straw and got to go first. He choose the first square and immediatly realised it was in the same position. He got that item and then made a mistake. Then it was our turn. We took home a Sony Location Free TV, a hard disc dvd recorder and a shredder. They also gave us a pair of expensive Hamilton his and hers watches and some other things for being on the show. It was great. Now the most expensive item on the board was a trip to Hawaii and, although is nit to have a HD DVD recorder, it would have been nice to go to Hawaii as a honeymoon!

Pop Quiz

2009-05-27T09:55:00.001+09:00

These are pictures of Hannah, Noelle and Aspen. Can you tell who is who?

Answer: From the left, Hannah, Noelle and Aspen!
When you line up their baby pictures like this you can really tell that they are siblings. Since Hannah was born people often tell us that she looks just like Noelle.

Ryo looked just like her sister when she was little and indeed still does. In my opinon, Ryo and her mother and her grandmother (RIP) all look alike. I always thought it was funny that my sister and I were often asked if we were twins when we were little. I wonder if we looked that much alike? We don't look that much alike now. I think my sister looks more like her father's side of the family and I looke more like our mother's side of the family. But then again, my sister I think has elements of both sides but her nose, that is definately from our father's side of the family!

Ryo says that she was always a bit embarrased to be told that she looked like her sister but that she was also happy at the tought as well.

Ryo says that she is going to try and find a picture of me when I was little. She thinks you'll get a laugh out of how much our kids look like I did when I was small.

As a side note, this is mostly a translation of a post Ryo made in Japanese on the Japanese side of our blog. She's gotten the blogging bug. I think you can look forward to more updates from the Lane's in Japan from now on.

Oh, by the way, my wife wrote this post first in Japanese. You can read it ( さて問題です) here.

Give me some room!

2009-05-26T15:23:00.000+09:00

It's always like this. Hey, don't you think you're a a little close!? Hannah doesn't look too pleased to be loved like this but Noelle just can't keep away. She loves her little sister. Noelle is always climbing into Hannah's bed to play with her. Hannah is now 4 months old at the time I write this. She'll be rolling over on her own soon. It won't be long before she's a little crawling monster, crawling around and finding toys of Noelle's to put in her mouth. Noelle, mommy and daddy hope you still love her when she turns into Hannah the Monster!

Our Little Princess

2009-05-20T12:18:00.001+09:00

It wasn't for a birthday or any special occasion but Ryo took Noelle down to a photo studio to get all dressed up and take her picture. She got to get dressed up as a princess. Noelle loves princesses right now. It is very interesting because we haven't told her any princess stories yet.

For a 4 year old Noelle, having her hair done and makeup put one was quite an experience. She had a great time. The cameraman was pretty good to and got her to give a pretty good smile. Ryo said she had a good time just watching.

They were doing a special campaign to find new children models for their advertisements. The thing included the dress, hair and makeup with the intention of making posters and putting them on display in a gallery. At the gallery people can choose their favorite models with the most popular models getting the opportunity to be the official cover models for the photo studio for a year.

So what do you think? Do you think she has a chance?

By the way, this blog post is a re-write of a post Ryo did on the Japanese side! Yes, we have finally gotten Ryo to help out with the family blog. I don't know how much time she'll have to make posts taking care of the kids but surely this means we'll have more updates from now on.

Goggly Eyes?

2009-04-08T17:36:00.002+09:00

I know I haven't been blogging much but you haven't been reading much either, have you?
This is the first video that I have ever tried to post to the blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Hannah

2009-01-12T09:42:00.003+09:00

Hannah in Noelle's hand-me-downs.

Hannah
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Hannah Mary

2009-01-06T11:02:00.004+09:00

Hannah Mary
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Hannah Mary Lane was born on January 4th 7:37 am at the Kosei Hospital in Obihiro Japan. She weighed 3532 grams (7.78lbs) at birth and was 48cm (18.9 inches) long. Hannah and her mother will come home from the hospital on January 8th to her brother and sister and father who are eagerly awaiting them.

Big eyes!

2008-10-31T11:37:00.005+09:00

Big eyes!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Ryo just got back from her check up at the doctor's and she sent me this picture of the baby.
You can see the baby has her eyes open!

We are hopeful that this one won't suck her thumb as much as Aspen does. We haven't seen her doing it in the ultrasounds but Aspen always had his thumb in his mouth. It's funny, but the doctor thinks he can tell what the baby will look like from the ultrasounds. He seems to think that the baby's facial features are more like mine than my wife's! Ryo always takes a snapshot of the ultrasounds with her cell phone and sends it to me wherever I am. It makes for something special to look forward to after work. As you can tell by the post, Ryo and the doctor think that the baby will have big round eyes. I don't know how you can tell that but I suppose it is part hope that lets them see such detail.

日本語はこちら。

Cheyenne Bush Squash

2008-10-02T09:04:00.003+09:00

Cheyenne Bush Squash
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Thought you might like a look. Want seeds for next year?
I bought these seeds online from Seed Savers Exchange online. I never expected them to get so big. I thought they'd be smaller. This one looks much better then the ones in the sample picture on the seed packet. We got about 14 squash out of about 4 mounds. The pumpkins didn't get a lot of sun and bugs for pollination this year. Along with the "halloween" squash I planted with seeds from the local seed shop, all together we got about 20 fruits. I'll have to wait until we harvest them and get them side by side before I can actually tell the difference. They look pretty much the same. The did look different while they were growing though. The Cheyennes were oblong until they got bigger. These were planted at an elementary school I visit.

Open the diaper!

2008-09-02T12:59:00.002+09:00

My son Aspen (19 months old) has started using the word "open" a lot.

He learned "open" from opening doors. Now he uses it for:
opening windows, doors and containers
"opening" belts, seatbelts
"opening" his diaper when he needs a change or wants to go to the toilet
"opening" a bottle of water

It really pleases me how he is applying the concept to so many situations. It also once again has reminded me how important many of the simplest words are when learning to speak a language.

He doesn't use very many words at all, not like his sister did and the words that he uses come in intense use for a while and then disappear. He used to say "here you go" and it was fairly understandable for us and he used it alot. Then he stopped using it and started saying "baba" instead. This has happened with several words where he was saying the word, or a close resemblance of the correct word, and then stopped for some other word of his own. He used to say "bababa" for "banana" but now says something like "blubulablabla". When he wants a drink he says "yeah, yeah". He was saying "p" when he wanted something and I figured it came from "please" but now he is just grunting and pointing at what he wants. One time he even made a sentence, "bluebulablabla p", or what I interpreted as "banana please" based on him pointing to where the bananas were while he said it. It is very interesting. He seems to be really experimenting with language.

Recently, when I am playing with Noelle and I introduce a new word to her she says in Japanese "I say japaneseword." And I don't know what to say to her. Yesterday I said to her, "Yes, but you also say "englishword". Her Japanese of course is light years ahead of her English in both understanding and speaking ability. *sigh* It makes me wonder about the state of English education here in Japan. If it is this difficult for the child of a native speaker of English to become fluent in the language, what hope does someone have of aquiring the language who is only getting exposed to it in formal lessons at schools?

Early Summer Strawberries

2008-06-25T21:52:00.000+09:00

This is part of what I call "daddying". Me doing what I can to make my kids happy. This has nothing to do with working and providing all the things that they need like shelter, food and security. This is about helping them to discover the joys of life. My strawberry bed is one of those things.

Kindergarten Stuff

2008-05-30T12:12:00.004+09:00

DSCF2785
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Japan is a busy place. Japanese people are busy people. Or could it be just that everything is so new to me that it seems that way. I mean, I haven't spent any of my "adult" life in the States and I haven't gone through the experience of raising a child and sending them off to kindergarten in the States either but it does seem like we are busy here.

Noelle started kindergarten this year. The kindergarten has various events that guardians are expected to attend. It is not required of course, but there is a lot of social pressure to attend. 　For example, the Entrance Ceremony. There was an Entrance Ceremony for all of the new kids who were just starting at the kindergarten in April. I wasn't planning on going but my wife said that I MUST go and that I had to wear a suit!! I didn't realize that kindergarten was such a big deal. For me, graduating from High School would be a big deal. And getting into a university and graduating from there would be a big deal. But kindergarten? So I had to take time off of work and get ex post facto approval of it. That was not a real cool moment with me and my boss.

I took this picture with the wonderful 18x zoom digital camera we bought recently. This was taken during a recent kindergarten field trip. This too was an event that one or more of the parents had to attend. Ryo was feeling sick so I had to take time off of work again to attend a kindy event. The weather was nice and it turned out to be a good day. I was worried that they would have us all line up and do games or something. Something that they made us do last winter and something that another kindy was doing at the same park that day. However, our kindy just let us play at the park. The only stipulation being that we take a group photo and eat lunch together. Noelle and I had a good time and despite being sick, Ryo made us both wonderful lunches.

View this post in 日本語.
DSCF2785

Aspen and Sota

2008-05-30T12:01:00.002+09:00

Aspen and Sohta
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Ryo took this darling picture at her mother's house. I just had to share it with you! In the background is Aspen's cousin Sota.

Chocolate from Grampa

2008-04-25T10:48:00.006+09:00

Chocolate from Grampa
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Do you like chocolate? Noelle does. But not nearly as much as she likes candy. Daddy likes chocolate much more. But you know what? Noelle's grampa loves chocolate too and he wouldn't have it any other way than for his granddaughter to like it too.

When visiting my parents in Wyoming, Noelle's grampa tried hard to make sure the kids got all the goodies that little kids should. Chocolate, candy, granola bars.... you name it. As you can tell by the picture, Noelle was supremely happy to have such a large piece of chocolate. After all, in Japan, she normally only sees bite size pieces. It's not that they don't have chocolate bars in Japan it's just that we don't buy them.

I really wanted to post more pictures of our trip but unfortunately, we didn't get very many good photos from our new digital camera. We got an even newer one. One that is bigger and better (we hope). Anyways, as time and network restrictions permit, I will update this as I can.

View this post in 日本語.
グランパからのチョコだ！

Brother, Sister

2008-04-04T10:45:00.003+09:00

なかよし
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

Noelle and Aspen get along beautifully. Most of the time anyway. Noelle loves Aspen. She loves playing with him, she loves taking care of him, she loves picking on him. Of course there are often times when she wants to play by herself and Aspen gets in the way. Then there are times when she is just not happy and she takes it out on Aspen. We have have much to learn.

Spring Update

2008-03-28T15:18:00.006+09:00

Spring has sprung! Pretty soon there will be flowers in our garden. The tulips are on the way up and the dandelions are gaining strength. Here in Japan spring means the start of many things. The start of the new fiscal year, the start of school. Everything seems to start in spring. Noelle will be starting kindergarten from April 14. The Entrance/Beginning of Kindergarten Ceremony is on the 11th. I'm pretty sure that Junior High School starts on the 11th as well.

This tulip comes up every year amongst the weeds and other verge behind one of our neighbor's houses. He has lots of tulips and I suspect that when he works on his tulips in the fall that he discards the smaller bulbs. I wonder if this yellow tulip will come up this year as well?

Costco has come to Hokkaido and is getting a lot of attention, at least on people's blogs and amongst the foreign community. We took a pilgrimage to Costco last weekend and got our worldwide membership. We also got popcorn, oatmeal, pretzels, fabric softener, cream of mushroom soup, bagels, rolls and other things that you can't get anywhere else. It was nice. The next day we went to Sapporo Dome and played in the kids area they got there. It is a massive jungle gym with an family seats, vending machine, baby friendly toilets, diapers and a baby play room complete with picture books. We spent almost 2 hours there and then headed for home. We took a different route to Sapporo than usual as the new high speed limited access freeway (or should I say tollway?) has opened up more in that direction. We stoppedin Shimukappu one the way there and on the way back. On the way back we were looking at the few open stores in the Roadside Station (michi no eki). Ryo noticed some cheese for sale in the display at the register of a cafe. We went inside and as I was down looking at the cheese something got my attention and I looked up and what did I see? Another American looking back at me! And he was the cook! Turns out he was an English teacher there from Aspen Colorado and married the owner of the cafe.

In other news, we got a new camera. A Finepix s8100fd. It doesn't seem to be a popular camera. Canon seems to have the lion's share of the market and I really wanted the Canon of the same price but we decided to get the Fujifilm Finepix because of its better face recognition, wider angle lens and longer zoom. We figure all will come in handy when shooting our children as they grow up. Hopefully this will be the last camera we buy for a long time.

I've decided to update the blog theme. I'm just tired of this one. It doesn't work for me anymore. I really should make my own again like the old apple-pie site. I liked that one. Maybe someday.

A Little Extra Help

2008-02-28T15:20:00.001+09:00

We went to America for the holidays. We spent over 3 weeks there with my parents. I was really hoping that this would get Noelle started speaking English.

The first two days on the airplane and on the road were tough for her. On the second day she was tired and rejecting English. She said to her mother, "I'm tired of Daddy's". She didn't know what to say but we knew what she meant. She was tired of everyone speaking English all of a sudden all of the time. It was difficult for her to understand and foreign. But she knew it was the same "language" that her daddy uses.

Pretty soon she became the center of attention. Everyone was trying to talk to her and everyone was trying to play with her. She started to warm up. She started trying, trying so hard, to communicate.

In the end she learned a lot of English and got started talking in English. Now she is back in Japanese mode and trying to speak Japanese to me more and more but I am resisting. We have been back now for a month. Right after we got back both Noelle and my wife were speaking a lot of English. I was so happy. They are reverting back to Japanese now. I must do something to keep up their English. We just have to speak more English at home.

Aspen's Words

2008-02-27T16:46:00.002+09:00

Aspen is beginning to immitate our speach more. Ryo thinks that since he was 10 months old he was saying "clock", "kore ("this" in Japanese)", and "look". I'm not so sure. He sure seemed like he was anyway. The other day we were looking at a baby book together. It was about animals. I was pointing to the animals and saying "This is a dog. A dog says "woof, woof". This is a tiger, ...". He picked up "woof, woof" but he is using it for all animals now. Before he was roaring at all animals because he daddy taught him that the tiger on his mobile roars. "Raahh!"

Growling at Plush Tigers

2007-12-06T14:25:00.005+09:00

I thought I would take the chance to make an update on the family since I haven't done anything since summer.

Noelle　is 3 years old now! It seems we just had her birthday party. I don't have any pictures of it here to post. Sorry. She has gotten a little taller since last year but not a lot. Just a few inches. Of course she has grown in other ways. She is asserting herself much more. She always did. However now she is doing it at the dinner table now. She will only eat what is the most delicious thing on the table. I keep telling Ryo that we are going to have to just put ONE thing on the table and not get anything else out until she has eaten it.　　She still loves to play outside but she is playing more inside as well. She likes playing with dolls and stuff. Things that allow her to imitate daily life. Even when we go outside to play she'll pick up two sticks and play act with them as if they were two people.

Aspen is 10 months old now and is toddling around this way and that. He still crawls better than we walks but he loves to walk around. You can do so much more when you got your hands free, like taking the phone off the hook and eating stray pieces of paper left in low places by your older sister. In the picture above you can see Aspen with a choice piece of paper that he is nibbling on. Speaking of nibbling, we think we might have a mouse in the house. Not sure though. We are trying to trap him at the moment. We have been using Chinese dumplings for bait since we don't have any cheese.

Aspen isn't saying anything yet but he is starting to understand words. Just until yesterday, I still wasn't sure that he was understanding words but now I think he is. I am always playing with him with a mobile that someone gave us. It has plus animals on it. A tiger, a parrot, a tree, a giraffe and a zebra. Yesterday I asked him "where's the tiger?" and he growled like a tiger and pointed in the direction of the mobile! I was very excited and pleased.

View this post in 日本語 at モビルの虎にに向けて吠える白樺

Home for the Holidays?

2007-12-06T13:14:00.000+09:00

Well, they say that home is were the heart is. So I guess we'll be headed home for the holidays. Home for me at least. It may never seem like home for Ryo and the kids but it would nice if it does.

We are going home for the first time in 2 years. The last time we went Noelle was just 10 months old. This time Noelle will be 3 years and a month old and our new addition, Aspen, will be 11 months old. Everyone back home is getting old. Grandma Ruby is 88? Can that be right!?

Today at lunch one of the teachers, actually, the office manager, was asking everyone what the most delicious thing was that they had ever eaten. I started thinking about not the most delicious things that I have ever eaten but of all the things that I haven't been able to eat for so long since moving to Japan. So, mom and family back home in Wyoming, if you are reading this, take note. I want to eat so many things I just know I'm going to gain a ton while I'm there. I hope I can have some of mom and dad's chili with cheese and Fritos. I hope I can have rib roast or rib-eye steak with a baked potato. I hope I can have pizza! I hope I can have French toast . I don't need pancakes since Ryo 's pancakes have finally come up to standard. Mexican food! Fried shrimp and shrimp boiled in beer. Hamburgers not from a fast food chain. Maggie's French fries. Donuts. Apple and pumpkin pie. Candied sweet potatoes. Suet pudding. Cinnamon rolls! YES! I've got to have some good cinnamon rolls! Ham. Polish sausage. Anything roasted or cooked in an OVEN!

I have taken off 10kg since last winter. Okay, maybe more like 9kg but I don't want to gain it all back this winter. I really don't. Believe me. Next year I want to try and finish a 100km marathon. I can't do that if I'm 10kg heavier than I am now. I've got to keep the pounds off! That's why I'm bringing my running shoes with me to Wyoming and I'm bound and determined to put some miles on them. It'll be good too since here I live at like 30m above sea level and it's like 1000m above sea level there. It'll be good for my cardiovascular system.

So, with running shows in hand and two kids in tow, Ryo and I are headed for Wyoming. So watch out! We've warned ya.

Pictures from Summer

2007-08-24T15:16:00.000+09:00

The last picture there is from when we went to watch the big fireworks display. Ryo, Noelle and Aspen got all dressed up in their yukatas. I think Noelle and Aspen's yukatas are homemade. Maybe their aunt Mitsuko made them.

The team at 5 am, after 12 hours of biking

2007-08-17T10:05:00.001+09:00

The team at 5 am, after 12 hours of biking
Originally uploaded by Vivian Hung

This year we once again had a team in the All 12-Hour Japan Mama-Chari Endurance Race. What's a Mama-Chari? It's the bicycle. Click on the picture for a bigger view, but don't forget to come back. The race starts at 5pm and ends at 5am the next morning and is run on the Tokachi International Speedway, a racetrack. It was fun and something to be remembered. I even behaved very foolishly by paying lavish amounts of money for a t-shirt. Something that I kind of regret now. The team name was G-Power, keeping it the same as the year before, least some other teams be looking out for us. Last year we didn't get any media attention at all, which was pretty disappointing considering we live in a country were most everybody has an Asian face and straight black hair. However this year we did catch the attention of the announcer and of at least two media organizations and got a little write-up done about us in the local news. Apparently, our team was also videoed by a TV channel or something, but I wasn't there when they asked my teammates to dance like idiots for the camera. This I heard second hand. You will notice if you look at the newspaper clipping that I am not in that photo either. Bummer. But at least I did get my name mentioned.

The Mulberry Bush

2007-07-25T13:31:00.001+09:00

Mulberries up the lane
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

I found this bush on my way home from a morning run. I didn't know what it was and wasn't sure if it was edible. I snapped a picture of it with my cameraphone and showed it to my wife. She said it was good to eat. A few days later I took Noelle to a "Walk" with the Tokachi Wild Bird association. We strolled around the grounds of the Obihiro Agriculture and Vetinary Sciences college. There was this same tree on the grounds and it was then that I learned that it was called "yamaguwa" in Japanese. My wife called it "kuwa no mi", which turns out is the same thing. I did some searching using Google's image search in Japan and found the scientific name, morus bombycis , and from that it's English name, mulberry. So this was the famous mulberry bush! I couldn't run around it because it was growing out of an embankment, but I was happy to have learned what it was and to find another natural common thing with my homeland.

Summer is here!

2007-06-29T17:03:00.004+09:00

Summer is here!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74

The longest day of the year has come and gone. Yes, summer is here and Noelle enjoys it in the traditional way, with watermelon. This was during our family "after-run-bbq" that Ryo's family does every year after the Tokachi Healthy Half Marathon. Noelle slept through most of the BBQ and only woke up towards the end when the watermelon was coming out. Lucky for us! Since she slept through the meal, we were able to enjoy a nice BBQ without worrying that she might jump or fall into the BBQ!

View this post in 日本語.
夏が来たぞぉ

And the little one said, "Roll over, roll over"

2007-06-05T14:21:00.001+09:00

Aspen started rolling over last week. He is 4 months old now. Up until yesterday he would roll over and get stuck with his right arm under his body. Yesterday we found him completely rolled over with his head up and his elbows planted just like the Sphinx. Unfortunately, I don't have any recent pictures of him. Trying to keep Noelle and Aspen happy at the same time kind of has made us forget about the camera. Too bad for Aspen. I'll have to get a photo of him soon.
Noelle didn't start rolling over as early as Aspen, despite all the coaxing and playing we did with her. She was reaching up and holding onto her feet before she began to roll over. Aspen has never reached up and grabbed his feet yet. I think Noelle was pudgier than he is. I wonder how these two children are going to turn out. Noelle got so much of our attention and Aspen barely gets played with at all. We play with him as much as possible but Noelle gets jealous if we do. She likes to play with him too so we can all play with him together but he doesn't get the same type of one on one attention that she did. I wonder how much this will effect his personality. It is all such a mystery, humans and how they develop.

Noelle Climbs

2007-05-20T15:01:00.003+09:00

Noelle Climbs
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Noelle climbs tables, chairs, trees, stairs, people and cat jungle gyms!

Here Tetsuya is trying to convince her to come down off the gym. You can see she can touch the ceiling from there! She loves climbing that thing and I usually stop her. It's hard to imagine a two year old climbing like she does. No fear. I wonder what she'll be like in 10 years or 20?

View this post in 日本語 at 柊が登る

Noelle made it!

2007-04-25T12:49:00.002+09:00

ノエルと作ったよ
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

ノエルと作ったよ Noelle and I made it!

鯉幟 for Aspen

May 5th is boys day here in Japan. Families with boys often put out big windsocks in the shape of koi fish. They can be very big and are often over 2 meters long. Here Noelle and her mom have made a little set for Aspen. They are called "koi nobori". We also bought Aspen a replica samurai helmet. I guess that traditionally people display the family armor on boys day but who has armore these days? So now you can buy replicas of of various sizes. They often have samurai dolls too. We just got a helmet. These dolls and replica armor are very expensive. I was thinking, "What's the poing!?" because I didn't want to spend so much money. But then again, what is the point of Christmas trees and christmas presents? Where do we draw the line on what traditions of which culture we adhere to? When I get the chance I'll post a picture of the helmet. The armor and dolls are displayed for a few weeks to a month or so before boys day and then put away. The children for whom they are bought, do not get to play with them. We got a bunch of expensive dolls for Noelle that is the same. Just for display.

Noelle's Work of Art

2007-04-18T17:17:00.001+09:00

Ryo sent this picture to my cell phone. She titles it "Noelle's Creation". It is a kaleidescope surrounded by little rubber hamster figures. She love's these hamsters and the little house that she has for them. Someone gave them to us. I think it is from a popular character in Japan called "Hamu". Sounds a lot like ham. Hmmm, makes me hungry just thinking about it. Speaking of ham, last night Noelle had me read Dr. Suess' "Green Eggs and Ham" to her. Often times she can't sit still through the book but she was able to listen to it through to the end and then asked me to read it again. I can tell that she is understanding it more. The more she understands the books, the more she enjoys listening to them.

Ride em' cowgirl!

2007-04-09T09:22:00.001+09:00

Ride em' cowgirl!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Noelle gets on a bicycle rack at the community center and pretends it's a horse. She loves to be outside. But she hates for you to suggest that she do something. If you say, "do you wanna go outside?" she always says "No." If you say, "I'm going outside." Then she says "Me too!". Today we went out to just be together and give her mom a break. I'm not very good at play myself but Noelle has a vivid imagination. Children are just wonderful that way. She can take any object and turn it into a plaything. Two sticks become father and child; a pine cone turns into a motorcar; a bike rack is a ready horse. Why is it that as adults we don't get as much fun out of play like this?

Happy Girls' Day!

2007-03-03T15:34:00.000+09:00

Happy Girls' Day!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Today is March 3rd, Girls' Day in Japan. It is also called 桃の節句 (I think) and ひな祭り. ひな祭り in English would be "Doll's Festival". For some reason that I don't know yet, families buy their little girls a very expensive set of dolls. I gather that the maternal grandparents usually buy the dolls. They dolls are then put on display every year for a few weeks before March 3rd. After March 3rd they are to be put away as soon as possible unless you don't want your daughter to marry. Noelle got a nice set of dolls from her grandmother that we have only put on display once. We have been afraid to put them up in our small apartment because we just knew that Noelle would try to "play" with them. Yes, you are not allowed to play with the dolls. They are only for display. Yes, I don't understand it either. It is a mystery to me and I think an exorbitant waste of money. Oh well, you only buy them once. It is alright to hand them down through the years. But if you have two girls then who gets the dolls after they get married?

Here are some pictures of Noelle's hina dolls.

It's a boy!

2007-02-06T07:52:00.006+09:00

It's a boy!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Introducing Aspen Ross Lane. Born 12:54 in the afternoon. Weight 3594gm (8lbs 14oz).
Ryo felt labor coming on at 6:30am and he was born that day at 12:54, just after noon. There were no complications. A few seconds after he came out he started to cry. It wasn't until then that I realized that I had been holding my breath or something, because I began to feel dizzy. It's not the blood or the site of the birth, it's the pain that Ryo inflicts as she digs her fingernails into my hand! That's just a joke. Seriously, I feel myself trying the bear the pain for Ryo, even though I'm not really feeling any. I sat down so that I wouldn't fall down and the midwife said to me "Don't you want to take any pictures?" And Ryo said "Go get the camera!" So I was up and running to get the camera. It's a good thing, that probably helped me get over my dizzy spell. So we were able to take some pictures of Aspen just minutes after the birth. I was afraid that the flash would hurt her eyes so I really didn't take many pictures of Noelle when she was born.

This time we got a lot more pictures of Aspen. It was my job to cut the umbilical cord. Ryo wanted me to. I know Ryo is going to have a lot of work taking care of Noelle and Aspen when I'm at work so anything that I can do to be a part of it all I want to do. He started looking for a drink right away. Both mom and baby are doing great. They will be in the hospital until Friday.

I made a snowman!

2007-01-24T12:48:00.001+09:00

スノーマン作ったよ！
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Noelle and Ryo made a snowman today in the neighborhood park. She liked it so much she gave it a kiss! Noelle really likes to play in the snow and with the ice. But she has a problem. She likes to take off her gloves to handle the ice. Then her hands get cold and she wants to come back in!

Commute

2007-01-22T11:38:00.001+09:00

通勤
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

I'll soon be seeing this scenery again. Soon our second child will be born and I'll be commuting between Makubetsu and Obihiro again. I took this picture in 2004 after Noelle was born. We moved into Ryo's parent's house in Obihiro, a 30 minute commute, so that Ryo's mother could help out. This is tradition here. I hated being strapped for time but I did enjoy the commute. Maybe I can get a better photo this year.

Second one on it's way

2006-12-04T12:05:00.000+09:00

2nd one on it's way
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

This is a sonogram of our second one. He is due Feb 3rd I think. This is a picture of his face. Can you see his eyes, nose and forehead?

We have been trying to come up with a name. It took us no time to find a name for Noelle and we are so happy with he name. We want to find a name just as good for the new baby. We have one name that we keep coming back to, but it is not easy finding a good combination of Chinese characters for it. Ryo doesn't want him not to have some Chinese characters for his name. She also wants to avoid giving him characters like Noelle's. We chose one for her name. The problem is that no one can read it. She will always have to tell people how to read it. Ryo doesn't want the same thing for the next >one. But I don't think that would be too bad. It would be unique.

Two Years Old

2006-12-04T11:57:00.000+09:00

Two Years Old
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Noelle has just turned 2 years old! She is a constant motion machine and always talking. She is speaking more and more complete phrases in Japanese. Her English is coming a long very slowly. But, yesterday, I got out some old flash cards and showed them to her. She was able to say all of the words, something she has never done before. I was very happy. I mean, she said "elephant"!

Look Daddy!

2006-08-31T15:32:00.000+09:00

Look Daddy!
Originally uploaded by mr_caffeine74.

Noelle and I went to the Heigen Festival in Obihiro during Bon. It was just the two of us for the day. I was really looking forward to it. I think Noelle had a good time. There is not much she can really enjoy yet being so small. I can't wait for the next time we get to go to a festival together.
This is the first time in the 5 years that I have been here that I have gotten to go to the festival. I always had to work before but this time I took time off. Not for the festival, just to be with my family but the festival was on during that time. On the main street there are not very many stalls and attractions but they have the whole street closed off to cars and there are street performers and whatnot. On the side streets there are a lot more stalls and what not, many of them manned by a bit suspicious looking characters. Many people say that what they call Boryokudan, or voilent gangs, run the booths as a source of income and that you had better be careful not to look at them wrong. Anyways, this picture turned out well. Too bad it was taken with the cameraphone.