Friday, August 31, 2007
Papa's face
Yuki is fascinated with Papa's face. Here we are, out again for a beer :) It seems we caught this photo just in time since shortly after this, she cried at a restaurant for the first time. Her days of being highly portable may be numbered...
auf Deutsch
Oma and Yuki are having an animated conversation in German. Later Yuki translated their conversation to me. Apparently Oma told her the well-guarded secrets of life, though she won't tell me the details. She says I have to learn better German.
Then and now
How cute are we? And grandpa was so young...
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Move over, Harry Potter!
Yuki learned to grab a toy today. Oma thought it would be a good idea to give her a grabbing toy and sure enough, here she goes. She is already learning to battle evil. You should hear her shouting out the spell!
And ok, here is her practicing. Could it be that she's a lefty?
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Terrace and Rathskeller
Of course we couldn't let Oma's experience in Madison be complete without an evening at the Union. Unfortunately after a few minutes of being out on the Terrace it started raining so we had to go inside in the Rathskeller. She found the whole concept really funny, being in Madison and old Germany at the same time complete with old sayings on the walls, Pilsner, and Bavarian pretzel. The pitchers and wireless connection as well as doing things like taking remote shift for KamLAND while "hanging out" were new to her.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Farmer's Market
First thing in the morning, we had to take a photo for Oma's English class with Yuki's puffy pink sleeves. Then we were off to the farmer's market.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Millenium Park
Last night's storm caused a lot of damage in Chicago, with lots of trees down and some buildings being torn open. There were millions of people out of power. We stayed in Evanston, and getting there took over an hour with all the traffic caused by debris. It only took 15 minutes to come back in to Chicago, and we spend the morning in this park:
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Yuki does Chicago
We are visiting Chicago today and tomorrow. Here we are on Michigan, two minutes after this photo, we were pelted with huge rain drops and 80 mph winds. We retreated into the lobby of Chicago Tribune building where they let us wait it out in the entrance area (but not further, and not allowed to sit on the floor or lean on the walls...). Check out the evil looking tower (I think this is the new Trump building).
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Advanced tummy time
Yuki is getting stronger by the day.
Additional note from two days later: Yuki managed to roll over from her tummy to her back!
Photo session
We had a photo session so the Yuki can get her passport. Have you ever tried to get a biometric photo of an infant? Looking straight on with a neutral expression, with both eyes open, ears showing, and mouth closed.
Wax on
There are two reasons for putting this photo up. The first is obvious: to show off her karate skills. The second is to show you how her bed is getting to be kind of small. She can reach the bars on the side, and the it's starting to look a little short for her too. Mr. Penguin still seems to be her favorite. She will play with him and talk to him while we have nice long dinner.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Oma is visiting
Grandma Oma arrived for a visit. Yuki is getting lots of fresh air and yes, another bath with her watching on.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Cute photo
After the Okame photo, we were requested to post a really cute photo by Yuki's grandparents. Here is one: Yuki's hair is standing up these days and she has lots to smile about :)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Talk amongst yourselves...
Friday, August 17, 2007
more tummy time
Tummy time is getting more fun with the IceCube play mat:
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Okame-san
Yuki is going to hate me forever for this but... well, I just can't resist.
On the right is o-kame (おかめ）, a Japanese traditional mask people wear at summer festivals. They're supposed to be auspicious and bring good luck. On the left is Yuki. It's the camera lens, I swear, Yuki!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Size comparison
Remember how tiny Yuki was just 5 weeks ago? Here is the photo we posted two days after she was born compared to how big she is now:
The reason for growing
If you were wondering why Yuki is growing so much, here is the reason.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Growing and growing...
Ok, it's the moment we've all been waiting for. Well, I have been waiting for. It's Tuesday, another mom-baby hour, and time for weigh in for Yuki. I found the growth chart from CDC with lines for various percentiles. It seems Yuki was born at 50-percentile, and now she is up to 90-95%... Granted she has all her clothes and diaper on but those can't weigh more than 1 or 200 grams which puts her in the high 80's. Wow. It's like she couldn't wait to get out to grow. I wonder if she will slow down a bit. Otherwise she is going to be off the charts. Maybe I should have Karsten hunt up a German chart to see if she fits better on the chart there.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Kick, kick!
Yuki is getting bigger and stronger. She has out-grown all her 0-3 months clothes she was wearing and has graduated to 3-6 months clothes. We will weigh her tomorrow to see just how big she has gotten now. She is also kicking (and crying) strong and pulling at our shirts and hair, both mine and her own (what did we say about overachieving stress-ball?).
Papa is now off to Grand Junction, Colorado to meet with people from Reynolds. They make big tanks of acrylic, like the one at the Boston aquarium. They are making a prototype tank for his experiment in China.
Tango
Did we mention how we want to avoid Yuki becoming an overachiever? And that we want her to have a stress-free happy life? Well, we've started her on her tango lessons. 5 weeks should be old enough :)
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Mama's Birthday
Today is my birthday. It has been a busy month and it feels odd to have a day about me and not Yuki. Well, it's still about Yuki. Karsten planned the whole day, and took us out to Devil's Lake which we heard had some cliffs people can go climbing on. I was very excited to see some of Wisconsin. Well, the cliff is no El Capitan, but then we are a bit spoiled having spent the last ten years on the West Coast. We finished the day with a frozen custard and a bath for Yuki. Here is yet another movie of Yuki's bath.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
One tree down.
Another exciting day in our household. We had a tree-trimming and removal session today. As some of you know, Karsten removed the tree house that was in our back yard. It was half rotting and while we might have had fun as a 10 yr old, we were a little concerned about it safety. Well, the same tree also needed to come down since it was leaning way over. After hearing about the troubles some of our friends had with a tree falling on their neighbor's car, we decided to take care of it sooner rather than later. We had about six guys all of whom are climbers of some sort, climbing our trees on ropes and a crane dangling and wielding chain saws. It was quite a sight. Karsten is relieved to have another career option if his current one doesn't work out.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Mother-Baby Hour, Take Two
After last week's fiasco, we tried out another mom-baby hour, this time at a place called Happy Bambino. It is a store/gathering place for babies and parents. They offer classes on breast feeding, clothe diapers, baby wearing, and have group meetings for infants, families with multiples, stay-at-home dads, same sex parents, you name it. Anyway, this group was much happier and the facilitator is much more helpful and the other moms seem a lot more in line with the type of mom that I would like to be. Much better! I'm hoping to learn how to relate to other moms and babies, and I think this class is the right place.
We weighed Yuki: she is now 10 lb 10 oz (that's 4820g)!
In the evening, we decided to let Papa join the fun. Here we are at Great Dane Pub. And Mama thoroughly enjoyed her small glass of Hefeweizen after the long hiatus.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Strrretch!
Yuki stretches often. She is growing fast, and her clothes are starting to look small :)
Yuki is now 4 weeks old!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Sunday Brunch
Today Grandma Baba went back home to Connecticut. Thank you so much for all the help!
After dropping her off at the airport we went out for one of our favorite meals: brunch. This is an old-time tradition, starting in Seattle (we miss you Arnd!), and we have found a place that does the job in Madison, complete with pancakes, waffles, omelets and eggs benedict. We are, however still looking for the perfect place. Another favorite of ours is sunday coffee. We have a new movie place in Madison, Sundance 608. Yup, it's one of Robert Redford's inventions, a movie complex featuring Sundance films, a rooftop terrace bar, bistro and cafe. Somewhat pricey but very comfortable.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Yuki's Training
Yuki has been training for a martial arts competition. Here is a photo from today's early morning training session:
Papa is back from China. Yey!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Coffee, Vegetables, Lemonade, and Music, Oh my!
Today was a full day. The spider control patrol came to our house in the morning so we decided to go out for a coffee while he was here. That would be Yuki's first coffee shop visit. We then went on to the farmer's market (Baba is holding a bag of peas), and to the lemonade fund raiser at the Four Corners Park run by the Four Corner Camp for the new Children's Hospital.
In the evening, we went to the concert on the square again, theme this week was "Streets of Paris". Here is a photo of Yuki passed out after a glass of wine... or rather, a belly full of milk. Baba made a huge spread of picnic again, and Yuki had some tummy time dancing to Ravel's Bolero. The menu for tonight was rice with fresh peas, ginger pork, cucumber with soy sauce, bonito shavings and lemon, and fruits. Yuki is very talented: she can lift her head while hiccuping.
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