Someone's getting bigger

One of our saddest moments, well Dawn's saddest moment, is that Toshi is getting bigger.  He is pretty close to being 3 months now and he is finally out growing a few of his clothes. There are a few onesies that he is unable to fit in (both day and night type of onesies) and he has a bed upgrade!!

Toshi now sleeps in his very own room :D

We cleaned up his crib and got rid of most of the stuffed animals, pillows, and other random stuff that was in there. We also get the added bonus of finally putting the FOSCAM camera to use.  We have been putting Toshi down after his last feeding of the night which is roughly anywhere between 7-9PM (however the feeding time works out).  He is still adjusting to this change and we're debating whether or not to go to him when he starts crying.  It's tough and it truly is hard to sit and just let him cry it out.

Over this past weekend we went to a baby shower for Naomi, Dawn's friend, up in LA.  Toshi let us stay for a bit and he was cool enough to be good for Naomi. Toshi was getting a little fussy at this point though.

Toshi has been holding his head up more and more as the weeks go on and so we were able to have a good photo shoot with mommy.

Got drool??

Be our guest, be our guest ...

Within the past week or two we had quite a few people visit from near and far.

I'll start with our Labor Day weekend BBQ as we had our friends come over to the house and do pot luck style. The spread was soooo good that looking at these pictures makes me want to have a round 2!! Anyways, before we get to the food, Kenji (now living in Hawaii) and his sister Mariko made a stop at our place to meet Toshi.  We actually got Kenji to hold Toshi as well and if anyone knows Kenji he sweats when he holds babies.

You can't see it but Kenji's sweat glands started working instantly as he held Toshi ... hehehe :P I wish I could draw a giant sweat bead but I'm not skilled in photoshop.

After about ... 30 seconds or so Kenji needed a break and Mariko took over. It was a good chance to get a good picture of Kenji and Mariko. Toshi's face is like ...Who is you???

It was super nice to see Kenji and Mariko and especially for them to meet Toshi. We can't wait to hang out, Hawaii Style, with Kenji in a few months when we visit for Christmas. It was great to have everyone over at the house to enjoy the food, drinks, and of course each other's company.

We have Dylan, Justin, and Nari ready to grind some food.

Kalbi

Musubi, Kabocha, daikon slices, seaweed salad mix, green onions, kim chee, salad

Honey glazed chicken, chop chae

Syd and Adrienn were able to come by the house and have a bite to eat as well. This was their first time meeting Toshi too!! We were happy that Toshi doesn't mind being tossed around from person to person haha.

Later in the week Cynthia was in town (visiting from Hawaii) and her sister, Francis, were able to stop by the house, meet Toshi, chat for a bit, and have a quick dinner with us. I think we saw Cynthia when we were in Hawaii back in January so it has been a long time and she was very excited to meet Toshi.

Cynthia and Toshi:

Francis and Toshi:

anddd... group shot!

Toshi has been getting much bigger over the past few weeks and, believe it or not, he will be 3 months in a week!! Dawn and I can't believe how quickly the past few months have flown by.  To see the progress and development of Toshi is just sooo unbelievable.

Toshi has physically gotten bigger and he is finally fitting into most of his onesies. So now, we are cycling through more of his clothes instead of a select 5-7 outfits.  He actually out grew one of his outfits!! Like I said, it's just so amazing that Toshi isn't swimming in his clothes anymore.  He's growing up too quickly!! Ok, ok ... enough excitement haha. Toshi can now wear some awesome clothes .... :D

Toshi is wearing The Hundreds outfit thanks to Bobby and Misa:

He's soooo cute I can't stop kissing his chubster cheeks!! :D

Miles and his humble servants (as he likes to refer to them :P) bought Toshi a Dodger outfit.  The shorts are so big but we had to put it on.

Toshi is now at the point where he can fit in his bath tub without the hammock. We were skeptical at first but he actually fits quite well. Don't worry guys and gals I kept these pics PG this time.

He's probably thinking ... "Hmm... this is a tad bit bigger ... "

 "Well I can still see outside the tub for maximum angle of view here ... "

"Thanks for covering my giant nut sack daddy ... I didn't wanna make anyone jealous ... k, shoots den :)"

Since we were on a role with physical achievements we decided to test out the bumbo!!! Woot woot. Sadly, Toshi isn't quite there yet. He can sorta hold his head up but we don't trust him enough to leave him in there for an extended period of time and without supervision. But ... at least he can fit and fill in the Bumbo.

This picture is soooo cute .. perfect posture, hand position, and look at that smile!! And I made the picture a little soft.

Within all this fun we are able to squeeze in some time to help Miles coach the Venice Pirates. The season has just started and the Pirates are doing an amazing job!! Their practice is questionable since they seem lost but when it comes to game time it's like a switch is turned on and they kill it.  Super happy for these boys. Jack, the superstar with the killer crossover, and Stacy were able to pose with Toshi for a quick second before snack time. Hopefully Toshi can ball with Jack and Stacy one day.

With all this talk about Toshi I had to squeeze in our first son ... with 4 legs haha. He has been doing much better with Toshi and he is always, always following Dawn around with Toshi. No matter if they are home by themselves he will sit in front of Dawn like this:

Kekoa is such an amazing dog and he has adapted to this new change pretty well. He is still unsure of what Toshi is but I think when Toshi becomes mobile he will understand that he is a little boy .. human that is haha. We actually tried to put Toshi right in front of Kekoa and he freaked out and jumped out of the way.  But we are happy that he is always around us with Toshi. 

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.