Photo Friday - Week 41.2874 & Julie - Year 34

 I normally like to keep the Photo Friday posts "strictly Lola".  But, it's not even Friday, so I'm going to break all the rules.  This is the first time since I've started this that I didn't get the photo actually taken on Friday.  There have been a few times that I didn't post until Saturday, but I always at least got the picture taken on Friday.  So if she looks older than seven days since the last photo, you know why!

I like this one better, but I cut her head off!

 Our baby's got a new pair of shoes

Lola wears shoes for the first time - sparkly ones too!

Our morning adventure to the playground

Trying to get the kids to pose with me

Las Chicas Lemleys

Cupcakes made with Love

Today we are celebrating my birthday, since I was away on the real day.  John has spoiled me by sending me off for a massage and a little time by myself, I got a new Le Creuset dutch oven, Max picked me out a present all by himself and decorated the wrapping and gave it to me.  John took him out by himself to buy me something special (anything he wanted at the 100 Yen store!)

Maximo's present to me!

Le Creuset - oh la la!

Tonight I got to pick my dinner menu (as we did when we were kids - and a tradition I want to keep).  I surprised myself by asking for hamburgers, homemade salt and vinegar roasted potatoes, and asparagus, followed by carrot cake cupcakes with ginger cream cheese frosting.  It's been a perfect day!

Post School Trip: A Lazy Post

Here's a link to my school blog, so you can read about the trip I took with the middle school kids to Awaji Island. 

I forgot to take the Photo Friday photo, but I took some this morning, hopefully I'll be able to post them later!

Three Day Weekend Plus

This past weekend, we had a three day weekend in honor of Respect for the Aged Day.  It was a packed weekend, but a fun one.

Saturday was rainy, but luckily we had a birthday party and an excuse to get out of the house in the afternoon.

Sunday we went to Suma to the Kobe Steel Plan Carnival (scroll down on link).  Max didn't want to leave the beach.  There was good street food and the music was fine, but it was hot, so we only stayed for a couple of hours.  Then we went to the Sogo Beer Garden (a beer garden on the roof of a department store) to celebrate my upcoming birthday.

 

Max and Anya at Suma Beach

Max LOVING Nana's Bird Costume

Now we're home early from school due to a typhoon that's heading our way.  I'm supposed to be heading out for three days on a Middle School trip to Awaji Island, but at best, it'll be postponed for a day.  Hopefully it won't be cancelled all together.

But, since we're home in the middle of the afternoon, I can post the pictures from our weekend.  Some of my favorites are in this post, the rest are in our September photo album:

September 2011

Photo Friday - Week 40

Lola Caroline - 40 weeks!  

Lola is doing great, although she sounds a bit croupy right now with a cold - just in time for the three day weekend.   We've finished another long week - luckily, we have a three-day weekend to rest, then another crazy week which includes me leaving for three days and two nights on a middle school trip.

Super Sunday

Unfortunately the temperature heated right back up for the weekend, but we've still been able to do a lot as a family this weekend.

We ventured out Saturday morning for a hike, but it was really hot and Max was super tired from a long week. We headed back early, but it was nice to at least get off island. We came back and all took naps and then we ventured out to cool off at the River Mall.

Then, after that, we went out to the new Sri Lankan restaurant on Rokko Island. It was really good and the waiter and chef were really nice and accommodating. Then I even went out last night with some ladies from work! A full Saturday.

On Sunday, we went to school as they were having hot air balloon rides as a charity event for a local orphanage. Max got freaked out by the whooshing noise when the fire blazed to heat up the balloon. So, we left and went to the grocery store. After the grocery store we stopped by the bike shop, just to look, but... Lola ended up with a new bike seat and helmet!

Max just jumped on to pose with us (hence the no shoes and skewer of chicken in his hand).

For the past six months, Lola's been riding with us on my bike - but she's been strapped to me with the Ergo Baby Carrier. I wish I had a picture of that. I'm a sight, especially on Friday afternoon when John goes to the store and I have both kids with all of our bags. It's still comfortable enough with the Ergo, but it's hot and it wrinkles my work clothes all up!

Lola loved the short ride home from the bike store and got TONS of attention in the bike store as the owner was fitting the seat to my bike and we were getting her straps all situated and her helmet on right. On Sundays, a bunch of people go riding with their start and ending point being at the bike shop. They were all getting back from their ride when we were in there, so she was showered with many "kawaiis" (cute!).

And definitely loving all the attention!

It's been a great weekend, and thankfully not over yet. Next weekend we have a three day weekend, then I'm off for two nights to Awaji Island on one of the middle school trips. I know John will survive without me, but it's a lot of work for one person, especially getting everyone packed and ready in the morning.

We also are making some apple chips in the dehydrator today - I was inspired by this blog post this morning, so we even cut them out into cute fall shapes. Now our house smells so good!Max smelling the apple slices

I hope they look this pretty when they're apple chips and ready to eat!

Photo Friday - Week 39

I can't decide on this weeks picture. Neither are great. I took some before we left for school in the morning, then took a couple more in the afternoon. Help me decide which one to put in the slideshow of photos (see sidebar). Which one should I add for this week?

Her skin is a MESS again. Her neck is all broken out, but her face is also kind of red and blotchy. I've starting putting the yeast medication on her neck, but I haven't seen any change in the past two days. I'm going to keep trying for a few more days, then I think we may head off to the doctor. (FUN!)

Lola has had a big week! She's still LOVING Yume Club and happily goes every morning. She's mastered her crawl and can now get everywhere! She can also go from laying down to sitting back up and she's pulling up (but still crashing). We're thinking we're going to have an early walker.

Maximo joined in the photo this week too:

Lola @ 9 months

Scarface - Mommy was a day late on cutting her nails!

Lola's continuing to be fun and easy, although she loves to get up early - 5:00 am early. Some days it's a bit later, but she's sleeping through the night, so really can we complain? She doing lots of things right now like clapping and pulling up on everything and she's crawling. Even though her crawling isn't super fast or efficient, she can get what she wants. She's all over the place, so we can't take our eyes of her for a minute!


She tools around in her walker smacking into our ankles, pulling everything she can reach off the shelves in the kitchen. She loves to be mobile around the house like that, especially when the tray is full of Cheerios!

She's doing really well at Yume Club, except she's not taking great naps. She goes every day with a smile on her face and she hasn't whimpered once at drop off. She loves playing with the other babies and loves to watch the big kids run around.

We left Lola alone for two minutes and came back to find her "communication book" for her day care chewed to pieces. It looks like a puppy got a hold of it. I wish I could have told her senseis that!

Lola in Japanese (actually Ro-Ra)
All of her clothes and items that go to daycare are labeled with this.

We're getting into a routine, although it's a marathon from 5:30 - 7:30 am and 4:30 - 6:30 pm getting everyone packed/unpacked, dressed/undressed, etc., etc., etc. Right now she can't eat the lunch provided by Yume Club, so I'm sending in meals. Sunday is cooking baby food day and freezing it for the week. We have to label everything, so we've been reusing this labels (as you can see, I got lazy on some of the labels and there's only English).

Sibling Love

Maximo feeding Lola

"I need to wash my arm. It's just a little bit wet. Lola drooled on my arm."

Missing Details: Maximo's Birthday and First Weeks of School

The past two weeks have been BUSY! But even with all of its craziness, Maximo has glided through with birthday celebrations, starting a new school and a new daycare. We thought it was going to be a really rough transition, but it hasn't. It's been exhausting for everyone, but there has been very few meltdowns, which has been surprising.

We definitely feel like we made the right decision to hold him back a year. He the oldest in his class, but there are quite a few kids turning four this fall.

He is thriving at school, as you can see here:
He's so happy. His language has boomed - he can tell us things he did during his day, all of his teachers' names (all 7 of them!) and his classmates' names. His teacher posts pictures for parents every Friday, so it's been fun to see what the kids have done all week and for us to have conversations about all the cool things he's doing.

Maximo loves going to school with Mommy and Daddy. We have a morning routine where we all leave together, give kisses and drop Lola off at Yume Club (where she has yet to cry when I leave her), then we head to Canadian Academy. Maximo comes to my room for about 20 minutes then I bring him to Peter Pan, which is the childcare on campus. The first few days were a little rough, because it was hard transiting between Peter Pan and his classroom (across the hall), but now he understands that he goes to Peter Pan from 8-8:25, then the bell rings and he can go to his class. This week he was invited to full day Building Blocks Program along with about half of his class. Then after school, he goes back to Peter Pan for 30 minutes to an hour, then we pick him up!

He's been doing great. His teachers are amazing, the facilities are gorgeous and the curriculum is fantastic. We couldn't ask for anything more! He has a rotation of art class, music class, and PE class and he gets to check out books from the library. It's quite funny to see what he comes home with each week - definitely not books we'd pick out. (Some so obscure that there are not even reviews or pictures of them on Amazon.)

We went to our first Back to School Night where we weren't the ones presenting. It was nice to move around with parents of Maximo's classmates to all of their classes. Even though we know the school and the teachers, it was nice to look around his classrooms and check out the things he has already done!

Here are a few pictures I didn't get up for Maximo's birthday.
His party at school (which we could both go to!):
The invitation to his birthday party:
One of my trips to school to bring birthday supplies and food:
We got him a camera for his birthday and he took about 300 photos the first day alone!

Taking pictures of Thomas (as he watched a video):

Photo Friday - Week 38

It's been a kooky crazy week.

We've been at school three nights with Back to School Nights and now we're heading to bed and are awaiting a typhoon to hit in the wee hours of the morning.