Longest post, ever.

It has been an extremely long, long time since I have last updated Toshi's blog. Needless to say things have been crazyyyy busy.  For those that don't want to read it all here is a quick outline

• My parents flew up to LA for a couple weeks
• Everyday was filled with things to do
• Prepping food, making food, dinners, walking/exercising, basketball on weekend
• 2 month visit
• "He's a perfect baby!"

So if you want to read on for some details let's get this going but it won't be short haha. Let's hope I can capture everything. 

A few weeks ago my parents came to LA to visit and spend time with Toshi. Their flight plans were originally meant to be here when Toshi was first born but looking back on it, we're glad they didn't show up at that point. It was so hectic and Toshi was very little at that time; all in all things worked out perfectly. Toshi is at a stage where he can be content and he's also a lot bigger.  

My parents loved spending time with Toshi and that's all they really wanted to do. I always told Dawn that you never know how people are going to react to Toshi, especially your parents, family and friends.  My in-laws and parents were super lovey with him and as much as that is expected you just never know.  Jack and Stacy are also very receptive to him and I find that incredibly amazing. I was fearing the, "Aww man, this kid took my spot" with those two but it's a joy to see them so happy to see Toshi. They don't do much with him, now, but Jack and Stacy will be awesome cousins for Toshi. He'll be learning real quick from Jack and Stacy haha. But I'm sure he's gotta earn his keep since he'll be the "succkkaaa" at first.

Anyways, my mom and dad were able to cook some really good meals and the first was Ox Tail soup. It was soooooooooo good that I had TWO huge bowls that night. The meat literally fell off the bone and I can't even remember the last time I had this (either from my grandpa or my mom).  But I can tell that mom did a great job learning from grandpa when he was able to go to Chinatown, gather the ingredients, and cook it up the very next day.  

They also cooked up Mochiko chicken and some pasta dish which were also very excellent. 

August 20th was Kekoa's 2nd birthday and we were so excited to celebrate his 2nd birthday. Dawn went to a local doggie bakery and picked up a few goodies for him. We also learned a new trait from Kekoa so stick around for that one haha.

So, to celebrate his birthday we bought him a birthday cake!! And we can't forget the birthday hat :D

After he had some cake Kekoa was pretty content so we decided to take a family photo. This is probably our best chance since Toshi wasn't crazy or fussy.

While my parents were here we noticed a change in Kekoa. We're not quite sure how it really happened but he has become very territorial with us and especially Toshi. He's by no means nurturing but he will "stand guard" if anyone sneaks up on us or if he feels something is not right. So there were quite a few incidents of him acting as a guardian. I'll list them but probably not in the right order of events:

1. My mom came up to our room early one morning and I didn't hear her (probably because I was still slightly sleeping), Dawn was doing her hair and Kekoa is laying next to my bed side. She poked her head in the room to ask a question and before she could even finish he jumped up and pounced right in front of the door as to say, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!?!" type of deal. Of course mom was like, "oh hell with it" and just left. Kekoa, on the other hand, came back to my bed side and layed next to me. 
2. This one happened a couple times but my parents wake up every so often to use the restroom. So Dawn was feeding Toshi in the nursery room and when my parents made any sound while going to the restroom he immediately walked outside and begins to growl and bark ... once or twice.  One time my dad got freaked out and said, "Kekoa...", and I got out of bed to call Kekoa back. In all cases he returns to the nursery where Dawn is and he sat right in front of the door. He's still alert and just ... waiting. After they use the restroom and return to their bed that's when Kekoa relaxes and returns to the foot of the rocking chair where Dawn is. 
3. One morning Dawn gave Toshi to my dad since he was still wide awake. My dad had him laying in front of him on the couch and he's doing his cooing and grunts as usual. Dawn and I walk away from the living room and we hear Kekoa barking. We both run out and wonder what he's barking at. We thought someone was outside but come to find out Kekoa had his eyes pointed in the direction of Toshi and my dad.  He was about 5' away from him and still just kept staring at him until we came out and snapped Kekoa out of it. This happened to my mom too so it wasn't just my dad. 

In all events we came to the conclusion that Kekoa is a really good family dog and guardian for Toshi. I always wondered what Kekoa would do if he knew someone was in the house. I always thought he would play with them and just follow them where ever and the robber or whoever would be, "Sweet, that was easy...".  But that isn't the case here and it sucks that it was my parents but it's good to know Kekoa is like this.  I can find comfort that Kekoa will protect Dawn and Toshi when I'm not around. 

I finally got around to taking a few random pics of my mom and dad with Toshi. I also took a shot of Toshi while my mom was holding him. He looked sooooo content and peaceful while in his "superman" hold. 

This is my absolute favorite picture of our little Toshi. Everytime I look at this picture I can't help but to feel at peace. Dawn and I still can't get over Toshi and how cute he is .. and the fact that we did this. Still such an amazing blessing.

One day, Uncle Miles stopped by which was quite a surprise. He was on his way to an SBY meeting and he had time to spare to say a quick hello. As usual here's the crazy pics and well a nice pic too hahaha. 

Just the other day we took Toshi for his 2 month check up. Everything is perfect and in working order. The only thing that is abnormal is his umbilical hernia.  The doctor said it should go away on its own when he is a year or two old so we are hoping for the best.  At least it doesn't hurt for him and it's really just an eye sore. Other than that he is now 9 lbs 10 oz. and 22 in. long. He is growing!!! So we are ecstatic about it. He's catching up to his age haha. 

Here's his umbilical hernia ... don't mind the poop and his manhood. By the way ... this was a HUUUUUUGE sh*t. 

He also got his first round of vaccine shots and he handled it pretty well. Although the rest of the day was pretty crappy. He was very fussy and pissed off most of the times but without really expecting much he did pretty good. 

This was just before his weigh in. His face is sooo round hahaha.... so cute :)

"Like a Boss, baby! Who cries when they get their shots!?!?!"

Lastly Dawn had a super nice surprise later in the day. We noticed, after his shots, he was pooping a lot more. On top of that it was super hot too. So Toshi's pooped leaked out on Dawn after a major explosion haha

That's about it!!! Sorry for the long post but thanks for reading it.  Big thanks to our families that have helped us get through these first 2 months. It's been rough but without the love and support from the Yoshioka's and Eberly's we wouldn't be sane at this point. Dawn and I truly appreciate everything that you do for us.  I'll leave you with a couple random shots of Toshi :D

Over the hump

No, it's not hump day but Dawn and I finally went out to a huge get together that involved other families, kids, and people. We celebrated Barrett's first birthday this past weekend and although we were hesitant to bring Toshi we decided to just do it. We were going to run into this type of scenario sooner or later and we figured that it's about time.

Overall, it was a great experience as Toshi's feeding worked out perfectly.  On Saturday we decided to go to Jack's bball practice and Aya was nice enough to watch over Toshi while he helped coach.  Afterwards, we headed to papa's house to shower up and feed Toshi since it was his feeding time. Dawn also brought her pump so she can do that while we are in the car driving to the birthday party (yes ... multitasking at its finest).  Anyways, Toshi was great being that he just slept through the entire event.

A lot of people gave Toshi space when they came to see him.  I was dreading that there would be people that would want to hold him or touch him but luckily we didn't run into any of that. All in all it was a great "cherry poppin" experience.

As some of you may know (the ones with kids) things aren't always so merry. There are times when he is just crazy fussy.  My GO TO is always the pacifier. I don't even bother to try anything else but Dawn .... the pacifier natzi ... told me to not give in so quickly. "NO BINKIE FOR YOU!"

So when he is fussy I try to hold out as long as possible and I got to say that I have improved haha. I do the swaying motion with my hips, I talk to him in an elevated tone, the bounce motion, or a combo of the bounce and swaying, and lastly changing positions of how I'm holding Toshi.  IF all of that doesn't work than I go for the binkie. At that point Dawn is cool with me giving it to him hahaha.

So while he was either crazy fussy or calming dawn we were able to get in some shots of our crazy lil' boy. I played with some of the effects on these photos in Adobe Lightroom.

Surprises

For the past few weeks I have been working on our back yard in preparation to plant new trees and shrubs. Before (can't find a picture of what it used to look like) we had a TON of bamboo, a wanna-be papaya tree, some other tree with wicked roots, and a really big fern.  It was just way too cluttered for us and the worst part was that there were a lot of spiders and wasp flying around in the area.  So the solution was to just chop it all down. 

I gotta say ... don't EVER ... EVER, EVER, EVER plant bamboo in the ground. Leave it in the pot!! It was a serious b*tch to get the bamboo out since the roots are just so massive. I felt like I was taking out a layer of fat on the dirt since it came out in chunks. I also had to call reinforcements (Justin and Nari) to help me chop down 4 tree trunks.  But finally, all the hard work has paid off and our backyard is finally looking pretty darn good. 

My mom found a local nursery, Aloha Tropicals, out in Vista that sold Hawaiian plants. I was mainly interested in a Pua Keni Keni tree since it reminds me a lot about my grandpa. Being that my grandpa's tree has gone to crap and basically hacked down, it's no where near as beautiful as it was before. So to bring him and the memories of home/childhood closer to LA I've been searching for this tree for a long time. The owner of Aloha Tropicals was very friendly and I ended up getting quite a few plants.  I ended up getting: Pua keni keni, upside down Hibiscus, white hibiscus, Brazilian ginger, papaya, guava, mountain apple, laua'e fern, pakalana, and plumeria (pink with white edges). It came out more than expected but once they start growing and blooming it'll be sooo worth it. Just another 3-5 years hahaha

Left to right: Brazilian Ginger, guava, and white hibiscus. Believe it or not we had 3 tree stups in this corner.

 Left to Right: Pakalana (hopefully the vine covers up the wall), Laua'e fern, and Mountain Apple. Along the wall was ALL bamboo.

 Left to Right: Plumeria, Ti leaf (red and green), Papaya, Pua Keni Keni, and upside down Hibiscus. Before we had a large fern, a huge brush tree like thing, and a crappy papaya tree (ended up being rotten)

It was a lot of work to get all this going and I forgot to take a picture of how much green waste we have. It's a HUGE pile of branches and stumps that will probably take a month to get rid of. 

To thank Justin and Nari we had them come over for dinner. The surprising part was that Nari wanted to hold Toshi!! I can't believe it myself ... nor could Justin ... but this was her first new born baby that she has held. 

Like a natural. I swear ... all women look comfortable holding babies. Men on the other hand look super nervous, start sweating, heart pounding, WTF face O_O (and no, that doesn't mean, "Wow, That's Fantastic").  haha. Well that's how I felt when I held Toshi for the first time.  

Rent a family :D. Justin and Nari looked after Kekoa when Dawn and I were in the hospital. We are super thankful and so is Kekoa. He absolutely LOVES them. 

After eating like kings (wings and beer) on Friday night Dawn and I decided to hit up my favorite asian spot, Lee's Tofu, for dinner on Saturday.  I love Tofu soup and I always get it extra spicy. For some reason Saturday night's meal was extra, extra spicy. You can just see the red spices and seasoning floating on top of the soup ... YUM!! My head is always sweating at the end of the meal haha.

Today, Sunday, we had family come over to check out Toshi since they were going to eat Dim Sum at Sea Empress. They all wanted to stop by and see Toshi for the first time. It was great seeing them after ... 6 weeks?! haha. I can't believe Toshi is that old now. 

Dawn's cousin, Kevin, hooked us up with a super cool techy gadget for Toshi. Simply put, it is a camera that you can install in your car so you can see the baby on a screen vs. a tiny mirror on the head rest through your rear view mirror. It's soooo awesome and we had to hook it up today. The screen is about 2-3 inches large and it plugs into your cigarette lighter (well what used to be that). 

Here, the camera is mounted to the rear headrest and it's pretty rigid. We wrapped the mounting legs underneath the head rest so Kekoa can't knock it off or something. 

The screen is double sided taped to the the dash and now Dawn has perfect view of what Toshi is doing in the back seat.  Sooooo awesome!!! Since this product is made in Australia ... why can't we start a company to make this in the US?!?!? ;) instant money for sure. We already have design improvements as we installed the device.