Start of Spring

The past few weeks have been pretty awesome. Toshi is starting to take that step forward in crawling and it's evident that he is getting stronger. I must admit though ... I miss the early stages of life when I could hold him in my arms and he wouldn't mind haha. Now, he doesn't want to be swaddled or cuddled :'( oh wells ...

First off it was Dawn's birthday (April 13th for those that don't know). I threw her a ... somewhat ... surprise birthday party. I decided to make short ribs and Dawn made Mac-n-Cheese (which was really good btw) and we had our friends come over.

Thanks to Nari and Ria for the amazing cheesecakes, which is Dawn's favorite dessert.

We also had a birthday dinner at Sakura with the family. We topped off the night with dessert at mama and papa's house:

Toshi's first experience with birthday candles haha. Now we know what he'll do when he has his first birthday cake.

Kevin and his family, Dawn's cousin, was in town from Australia so the family decided to celebrate Easter one week early. As usual it was filled with great food and good company:

This is one of my favorite pics!

Toshi's first Easter egg hunt. Luckily he was able to find a bright pink one haha. I should have told him to grab the one with money in it!!! hahaha. Next time :P

This is a sample of what the kids got for Easter O_O

Even though we celebrated Easter early we still wanted to get together as a family and celebrate Easter on Easter Sunday. We went to Captain Kids on Redondo Beach Pier and man ... we ate like KINGS!!! Great seafood Brunch :D

As Dawn would say ... it's never too early to start haha. Dawn goes through these flashcards during the week with Toshi. 

One weekend we had a special guest come over haha. Rick was more than happy to read Toshi a bed time story and sing songs to put Toshi to sleep.

Teeth!

About a week or two ago mama noticed that Toshi had a tooth emerging from his lower gum line. At first glance you couldn't really tell but until you ran a finger over it that's when you notice it. Now, it's starting to show more as the days progress. He hasn't been terribly fussy but then again I don't have him all day, everyday, like mama and papa. Not the greatest photo (phone camera) but you can see two little teeth sticking out.

Dawn had a chance to visit her friend, Naomi, who recently gave birth to her son, Genzo. He's only 4 months old but looks older than Toshi haha.

 Toshi found some time to play with his toys while at Naomi's house. As always ... he explores by taste first haha.

While all of us are working hard someone has to be sleeping on the job:

Kekoa has warmed up to Toshi a bit more these days. He doesn't see him as some little alien anymore but he is still reserved, as he should be. Kekoa still doesn't like it when Toshi is on him since his ears go back but it's getting better as the months pass by.

Got food?

This past weekend Dawn's cousin, Kevin, and his family were visiting from Australia. It was awesome to see them but as I reflect back on Sunday we were only there for about 3 hours!!! I remember, pre-Toshi, that we would get there by 1130 or so and leave by 400-ish.  Not anymore haha.

As soon as we got there Toshi wanted to take a picture with Mama and her sisters:

It was already difficult to get Toshi to clap on demand but he wanted to clap at this very moment!! So needless to say it was rather difficult getting a smooth picture of everyone. Oh wells ... this was the best picture that I was able to get out of the 15 shots I took haha.

When we got there it was already time to eat and this was the only shot I was able to take! I couldn't believe time flew by so quickly trying to catch up with everyone and I didn't take any other picture =/.

Whether you're a kid or an adult we all know that you can't get cheeks like this if you don't eat ... here is his "oh face" and I imagined him saying, "Oh snap .. what you lookin' at??"

March Madness

We all know that Dawn went to UCLA for her undergrad and she is a very proud alumna. Heck .. she has ME wearing UCLA gear but you know I have to support my woman so it's all good. Plus UH doesn't have much cool gear like UCLA (except for dry-fit shirts that I wear to work).  Anyways, Toshi is sporting his UCLA gear while watching UCLA win in the 2nd round.

I, on the other hand, was at work all day Saturday and Sunday (except for bball games) trying to meet a deadline for my drawing. And you know when you are having a bad day or just a bleh day you always look for something to make you laugh or feel good.

With that said I present to you my feel good ... can't stop laughing picture of Toshi ... EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope these last two pictures made you laugh as much as it made me haha!!!

Smiles

It's amazing that Toshi is actually beginning to recognize his name. You could yell Toshi across the room and in about a second or two he'll look over at you and then give you a BIG smile. Here's a picture of what I mean: 

The journey has been really amazing so far with Toshi and to see the development everyday is truly amazing. I still can't get over that this lil' guy is gonna be 9 months old. Sooner than we think he's going to be ONE!!! O_O ... still can't get over it. 

And just in case you missed it, here's his 7 and 8 month mug shots:

Man vs. Wild?

Where have we been?!?

It has certainly been an extremely long time since I have last updated my blog. Needless to say work has been insanely busy and the amount of overtime has been unreal.  The paychecks are great but I haven't been spending as much time with my family.  So while the money is good (I would hope to get paid for the extra hours) it does suck not being home as much.

I, at least, try to make it home before Toshi goes sleep and 90% of the time I do.  After that it's a rush to get our dinner ready, help Dawn cook our lunch/dinner for the rest of the week, and other miscellaneous stuff around the house. For a while we weren't sitting down to eat until 745/800.

Anyways, this past pay period was great since I had Jury Duty.  I never been summoned so all of this was a new experience for me. At first I thought, "Crap ... what great timing. I have so much sh*t to do at work and I gotta do this now?!?!?!" After the first day or two I ended up liking it haha. I seriously just kicked it and watched TV in the morning till 9AM. Doing nothing and not working (but getting paid a full 9 hours for jury duty service) was awesome.  I feel that people get so caught up at work that they don't really stop to realize what else is going on around them. I was so out of tune with Toshi and Dawn and being able to just sit down, relax, reflect on life for a bit really helped to clear my mind. I was able to spend so much time with Toshi and Dawn that everyday was a blessing. In the end, going to Jury Duty wasn't such a bad thing!!! So with that said I was ready to come back to work and not feel so stressed and tired.

A few weeks ago, we managed to hit the strand and do a little family time. We were all excited, especially Kekoa, to hit the wood chip trail and make our way over to the strand.  Toshi loved it and was up for majority of the time until the last 15 minutes of our walk. Here's a quick snapshot:

Toshi has been very animated the last few weeks and I can't wait to show some pictures. I know, I know, you all must be thinking, "WHEN??!?! In a few months??" But I'll honestly make more of an effort to update this frequently.  To give you a tease he's nearing his 9 months, sitting up quite well (not crawling though), eating LOTS of solid food, drinking efficiently from his sippy cup, bad case of diaper rash, tons of poop, lots of farts, and baby man boobs.

Inspiration

Dawn and I went to a seminar this past weekend called, "Awaken The Rebel".  Generally speaking it is a life coach seminar that I thought I didn't need. However, after sitting through the first day I felt renewed and for a lack of a better word, awaken. I learned A TON of things and it helped to re-shape my outlook on life. When today's session was over I couldn't believe how happy I was to embark on this new journey.

Anyways, enough about me ... let's get on to the one and only TOSHIHIRO!!! He is such a cutie and everyday I am so thankful to have him in my life. He is teaching me so much in terms of patience, selflessness, and love. I don't know where to begin on this but my love for him and life has just grown exponentially.  I love my family (mom and dad) for their tremendous support over the years as well as mama and papa. They watched Toshi over the weekend and even though they say it was no big deal I'm sure he limited them to what they can and can't do. Dawn and I are so thankful to have such amazing support from our family and I just felt like letting everyone know that :)

Here's a couple of videos of Toshi when he is playing with his new toys. Watch in HD for best quality! :D

Do you think Toshi did this on purpose or by accident???? :P

We started to have Toshi sit up within the boppie and we found that it helps quite a bit. Plus he doesn't fall over and hit his head on the carpet haha. Here's Toshi-meister kickin' it.

One of Dawn's Christmas gifts was a nice workout head band. Toshi also got a pretty cool beanie and we both thought we should sport the new gifts ... I'm not sure if I'm diggin the new look for me personally haha.

Well today, for our usual walk, Kekoa managed to get pooped on. I mean it happened so fast that we didn't even know where the bird was after he unloaded on Kekoa. I felt the air pressure of poop falling on Kekoa while Dawn heard the "SPLAT" on his head. Poor guy ... luckily he has short hair so it wasn't a big deal to clean him up.