I was so busy though I didn`t get many photos of the decorations etc but we had yellow/red balloons and streamers and decorations, wiggles plates and cups, a wiggles mat playing music that my mum sent and signs for the food which related back to a lot of The Wiggles songs. Invitations, while not home made this year, were also Wiggles themed! Also Wiggly party bags with wiggles themed snacks, balloons and party horns.

Both boys had a great time- Noah running around the park and Shion devouring everything in site. Lots of lovely people came to help us celebrate too!

Some shots from the day….

Hard to believe my boys are almost 2 & 1 though!

Almost a week ago you turned 9 months old- I waited to write your letter because we had your check-up at the university hospital today and I wanted to hear the results of that before blogging. All good news- you are 7 months corrected in age but doing almost everything a 9 month old would be doing which is fantastic and the doctor said all is good. You weighed in at just under 7.8kg and were 66cm tall- almost 2kg up since you weighed in at the university hospital 3.5 months ago.

In the last month you have taken off! You now crawl at warp speed, try to stand up on everything and will even let go of things you are holding on to which of course gives me a heart attack. You get into everything and I had forgotten what a facination babies your age had with cords and electrical plugs. Noah lost his interest with these long ago and when we moved here I didn`t set things up very baby friendly so we have had to do some more child proofing. A month ago you were still working on the sitting but now you go from sitting to pulling yourself up to sitting back down to crawling and back- it is amazing!

You are much more into food now and we moved up to three meals a day just less than 2 weeks ago. You have had a tiny bit of chicken but from now I will be introducing more lumps, some other meat/fish and maybe cheese as well as more bread and pasta. I have to get cracking on the baby food making. For breakfast you usually have banana multigrain oatmeal stuff from Australia with some fruit puree mixed in. Pear or blueberries or more banana. Sometimes you will also have an edge off my vegemite toast – I usually leave one edge butter free in case you want some! For lunch you have finger foods and some days a yogurt too- you tried grapes recently as well as some tortilla and pieces of avocado by themself of a bit of banana. For dinner it has been packet food lately since I ran out of the frozen stuff I made and need to stock up our freezer with some more homemade goodies- You have tried some of the Japanese stuff like chicken rice, chicken and veg and also some from Australia. Other nights you might have what we are having minus the salt/flavours- like last night you had mashed potato and I boiled some carrot and diced it up and chucked it in with some nutmeg and pepper. You seemed to like this!

Here you are trying vegemite toast for the first time

and here you are again feeding yourself blueberries and cereal

You have two teeth now- on the bottom- both which are helping you chew a bit better and you are now actually SWALLOWING food instead of just poking it back out with your tongue. We have started to brush your teeth which Noah finds the most hilarious thing on earth- He was the same when you started eating food he was like “Wait a minute…why are you eating?” and he has been the same with brushing your teeth. You like brushing your teeth so far!

You don`t seem to have any stranger anxiety yet- sometimes you prefer me to hold you over others but mostly you are happy to just be around people. You will put your arms up or out if you want me to pick you up.

Now that you are on the move it has made things more interesting when watching you and your brother together. You follow him around and he likes to run away really fast and hide of play peek a boo with you from behind the curtains. Sometimes he is a bit rough and/or mean but we are working on that. In the meantime I am sorry about all the bumps on the back of the head you are getting from when he pushes you over while you are sitting up before I can get there in time. Some days when you are playing together and I am watching on I see what it will be like in the future- and it makes me proud and my heart swell! You guys are so cute together!

We went to Shizuoka this past weekend- you were already 9 months old but I figure now is the time to mention it. We went to the bird sanctuary down there but you were not so sure of the birds- I think you had fun though and you loved playing outside in Nay & Leilah`s garden. Leilah LOVES you and I think the feeling is mutual- perhaps you will marry an older woman???

You definitely have a cheeky grin and we are seeing your personality come out more and more as you grow. You see what you want and go after it although sometimes your big brother stands in your way. You have started to fight back a little if Noah tries to take something from you and we are working on sharing with you both but so far the concept seems a bit lost on both of you {which is to be expected} and unfortunately since Noah is the bigger one he wins in a lot of the toy tug-a-wars.

You are still breastfeeding but will take a bottle of formula okay most days. I think I will probably have weaned you by the time you are one- now that you are on three meals a day I want to cut back on the breastfeeding a bit but you are not interested in cutting back and still feed every 3 hours or so but go a bit longer overnight. I recently wrote about what a nightmare your sleep had become but since then things seemed to have calm down a little luckily- last night you went to bed just after 7pm woke up once at 9pm and I resettled you and at 1:30pm you woke up to feed, 3am because you had pain but went back to sleep pretty quickly and again at 5am before going back to sleep til 6:30pm.

I think the past six weeks-2 months have seen the most changes in you- you have gone from been a baby to an almost toddler. Less than 3 months until you are one and just over 2 months until your first Christmas. The next couple of months will no doubt see many more changes in you. I can`t wait {although please don`t start walking yet- not sure I could handle it!}

Love ya little man,
Mama

House maker still not decided. Don`t even get me started. Both companies think we will have a decision for them by the weekend- I am seriously doubting that. Decision is basically made {cheaper one} but MIL is just following up some loan queries on Shun`s behalf. The good news- the house maker it looks like it will be has said we should be in the house by next April! This is sooner than I thought- exciting! I will have to start planning furniture placement and what we will need which will be fun {But no doubt expensive!}

Have had some concerns lately about Noah`s speech regression. He had about 12 words but now only uses three {go, down & there} – speech regression like this can be a sign of having an Autism spectrum disorder so we are a bit concerned. For the moment we will wait and see- I got some great advice from some other foreign wives in Japan as well as some blog friends in Australia. There are some other “oddities” as well but then there are things that make me think he couldn`t possibly have an ASD because of his social personality, ability to maintain eye contact and his communication through his hands by pointing, signs and more. I guess we just have to wait and see for now and hope that the words he has “lost” find there way back soon. Most have said that he could still be in adjustment period from the crazy 7 months he has had- ie, coming back to Japan from Australia, me having Shion and us moving to in-laws for a bit, Shion coming home, my mum here and then leaving, then the earthquake plus another move to this apartment- it has been a lot for me so no doubt it has been a lot for him too.

We had a birthday party on Sunday- Sara`s little girl Sakura turned two! – I met Sakura when she was about 3 or 4 days old! Hard to believe she is now two! Was nice to catch up with some friends I do not get to see very often including Nay who came to stay with me for a couple of nights after the party. Leilah and Noah are so funny to watch together- they really enjoy each others company and Noah is constantly trying to get Leilah to follow him and vice versa- there favourite game was playing peek a boo behind the living room curtains as well as conning me into singing them incy wincy spider.

Since changing my medication dose things have been good- it took a couple of days but in the last week especially I have felt heaps better. Much less agitated and stressed, more in control and I am sleeping better at night. Had a 2nd appt with the English speaking psychiatrist and things are okay right now so will stop “seeing” him for now. Still have to go back to the Japanese one next week to refill my script- hopefully I will not have any issues getting the higher dosage of the anti-depressants. Upping the dosage was definitely the right thing to do for me and my family at least.

In other news I have finished rehab for my back and all seems good there. Hopefully I will have no more problems!

Missed the Some days post this week but it will be back next week along with a Wordless Wednesday hopefully! We have been doing some Tot School too so will try and post on Sunday the activities we have done the last two weeks- has been a bit muddled with guests and some days out but still we have done a couple of fun things!

I think catch up has been completed, no?

Care packages came from all over- some with preemie clothes (new and used), gifts for Noah and me, little toys, food and more. Some from people who I have never met in real life.

Shion was lucky to get THREE quilts. One tiny one for tummy time from Jo at Jojoebi as well as a tiny little outfit from preemielove- a store here selling preemie clothes.

Also a quilt from the lovely Amanda in the UK (also a blogger, and someone I have not met in RL but she walked me through how to make a quilt when  I made a small one for Noah)- who work put my original quilt to shame. It is no wonder she was the “teacher” in the equation!!!

And finally, two wonderful friends  (Nay & Sophie)got together with a bunch of other people in Japan (and two in Australia!) and put together a patchwork quilt of patches from lots of different people who sent them onto Sophie who sewed the top part together and then Sophie forwarded it onto Nay who sewed on the backing. A huge group effort which produced an amazing quilt- it makes me feel so lucky and loved EVERYTIME I look at it. I also want to point out that a lot of bloggers were involved in this project (some who I know in person, others who I do not) as well as some of the FWC ladies!!

Shion is a very lucky boy!

I figure if I complete 93 or 94 of the items on my list then I did pretty well, no? Of course ideally 101 would of been better but I am still happy with my efforts even if in recent months not much got done. It is true that my goals changed in the last 3 years since I made the list and perhaps if I had changed some more things around then I would of completed more but as I said I am still happy with my efforts.

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I have asked before but can`t find the comments on the subject and now we are almost heading to Australia- what are some good toys for 1 year olds? I like wooden toys (and hope to buy some in Australia even though they will be heavy to bring back!) and toys with some educational value as well as the usual type stuff.

Any brands you can recommend? I was thinking in Australia I want to get blocks, another wooden train or car, puzzles, some more books, a shape sorting toy (hopefully wooden) and some other things as it will be Christmas and his birthday while we are there.

I have also been looking on Lakeshore Learning although not much available in Australia it seems- I figure some of the stuff for older kids I could buy now and use with Noah and Edamame-kun as they get older too. In the meantime I could use them in some of my kids teaching classes.

Also does anyone know where I can get bigger sized flashcards in Australia or other educational products? Is it best just to go online? Anyone work in early childhood in Australia know of some good places/online shops? I know there is a lot online in America as well but sometimes the shipping is a bit too expensive to make it worthwhile.

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Yesterday we celebrated Misora`s 1st birthday near Tamagawa River (Mel`s daughter)….Lots of fun and also great to catch up with some friend`s especially before we head to Australia on Wednesday.

Lots of photos: More on my flickr and facebook as well but here are a couple of my favourites.

Seriously was loads of fun- made me even MORE excited for Noah`s first birthday party in January (with Alex) and Melanie did such a fantastic job with the food. It was a “Around the World/It`s A Small World” theme with food from all over and lovely little party hats for the kids with icons from their heritage.

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Am almost up to date with my scrapbooking! Have done til end of September and have October`s photos ready to scrapbook but I might not end up getting to them before I go to Australia (but they are in order and ready to go)

Oh and my other recent crafty project was a scarf for Noah

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Just two sleeps til we leave for Australia now!

Noah of course loved the extra attention.

Nic said good bye to her fiance in England and they are trying to work out some visa stuff before he joins her in Australia (he is Colombian) so leaving England was bitter sweet for her. While she is excited to be heading back to Australia I think she is nervous all the same. Anyway, I wish her the best of luck and am looking forward to catching up again in November and December.

Yesterday we went to look at 5 properties in our house/land hunt. Two were blocks of land, one was a block of land with an old house on it (that will be torn down) and two were new houses built in the last couple of months. It definitely made us realize what size things were. I originally was thinking land of about 35 Tsubo but my MIL kept telling me she thought that would be too small and to only look at places 40 tsubo or bigger. I am glad she did- we looked at one block that was 37 tsubo and it just seemed so tiny and I couldn`t imagine a house even fitting on there but that said there are plenty of properties bought on land even SMALLER than that here. My MIL has been great- she went to the bank for us to get some estimates on loans, and sussed out some places for us to look on Sunday. My FIL watched Noah for the 2 hours it took us to look around. It was just our first weekend of looking (and now the next two weekends are busy with camping and then with Benay and her family staying and Sakura`s birthday party) but one was a possibility (the one with the old house on it currently) although we are not in any hurry and will look again in a couple of weeks. Nice to know what is out there though, what the prices range from and also what some new houses looked like on the inside.

Some other recent snaps:

Things I loved this week

• Home made ricotta cheese for the lasange for dinner.
• Sunny weather yesterday, despite the fact rainy season is DEFINITELY upon us.
• Baby napping so I can blog.
• Sleepovers with friends- was great having Cassie over (and I can`t link to her today because her blog is down- hope it gets fixed soon hun as it looks like her account was hacked!) and having extra hands to help with Noah and I always have fun spending time with her and her daughter. She is such a lovely house guest too – not only did she watch Noah while i had a shower this morning but she also did the dishes at the same time while simultaneously making sure her daughter ate breakfast. Yeah, she rocks!
• 2 year old speak from Cassie`s daughter Nana- “dope” for soap (Like, “where`s the dope?”, “mukit” for music oh and when she talks about Noah she always calls him “A Noah” or “Its a baby Noah”- so cute.  Can`t wait til Noah starts talking!
• Chiba Peanuts playgroup 2nd meeting success- had lots of fun at the oyako cafe the other day and some new members join too. English playgroup rocks!
• Seeing Nay, Naoki and Leilah for a bit yesterday- Leilah has changed already and getting so big! So cute in her little black and white outfit.
• Been all prepared for father`s day this Sunday. I am prepared because I thought it was 2 weeks ago but still!! Shun`s first father`s day!
• Recent videos of Noah- I will eventually get around to uploading them!
• Aircon- it has been so hot but I am glad we have aircon. I can`t leave it on all the time though but it is nice to flick it on and cool down the room for an hour.
• Looking at houses/apartments online- not that we can afford to buy one right now but looking is fun too!!!
• My mum getting time off work to come to Melbourne while I am there later in the year for  a wedding.
• Parcel from Australia with some stuff for Noah.
• Baby sign
• Bonus day (not sure if it is Bonus Day for others in Japan but Shun`s work bonus came in today- most salary men in Japan get two bonus`s a year!)
• six month birthday for Noah tomorrow- yep, my little koala munchkin will be six months old! Hard to believe that this time six months ago I was sitting on the sofa, probably watching re-runs of ER, without a baby but that I had had him by 11am the next day…(he came FAST!)
• Cooled teething rings and frozen wet face washers- Noah is grumpy a lot because of teeth coming in (yet we still have no teeth) but If I give him one of them he will happily sit and chew for awhile which is a bit of a lifesaver.

Oh and onto rants because, well, what week would be complete without some?

I went to go do Noah`s Polio immunization today. For those not in Japan, Polio, at least in most cities, is only administered 3 times a year to all the babies in the area. You don`t make an appointment- you just go, get a number, line up, take bubs temperature and go in. They still do the oral version too (same in Australia, right?). Anyway I went today for it but turns out If I want to do Noah`s 3rd DPT shot on time (10 days away) then I can`t do Polio. Shun rang the clinic previously to make the DPT appointment- usually I would just ring and make the appointment but it was going to be our first time there (although then I got sick and went anyway, oh and then Noah got constipated so we went again!) so Shun rang to make the appointment etc etc. He asked and said we wanted to do Polio today at the cattle call but that the 3rd DPT shot has to be done within 8 weeks of the 2nd (or you have to start over again) and they said the appointment he took etc would be fine, blah blah blah.

I go to get Polio, want to double check first (AGAIN!) and they say, no no, if you want to do DPT in 10 days you can`t do Polio today. And then I said well maybe I would do Polio and reschedule 3rd DPT shot and they look at Noah`s baby health book and say “no no, then it will be more than 8 weeks” and so yeah. a wasted trip to the community centre to line up with all the other mums to get the Polio.

DPT seems to be more important so I am glad we will finish those shots up first but I had been hoping to have his 2nd Polio in October (another cattle call) before we went to Australia but now he will have his 1st in October and his 2nd next February when we come back from Australia. Good thing Australia doesn`t have a Polio problem I guess.

I wish that we could do all the immunzations at the same place and they would just put a schedule in place when the baby is born- would make it a whole lot easier. I would rather do Polio at a clinic instead of a cattle call too but there is no choice for that unfortunately…

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Anyway visiting from FYBF- HI and welcome!

It is Flog  Yo Blog Friday over at Mummy-Time so go join in!

Thanks to Khea who organized it.

I took a ton of photos and so did Melanie and the set of pictures can be found here on flickr (over 100 photos and that isn`t even all of them!)

It was Noah`s first “Hanami” experience and while he was a bit fussy at times I think he had an okay time. We had tons of great food that each of us had prepared and it was a lovely lovely group of people.

Some of the food (I made the apple cake (thanks to Sherry for the recipe), hummus and veggie sticks and some guacamole as well. Also cut up a whole bunch of fruit for everyone to munch on)

Nana & Cassie (both doing Nana`s attempt at the peace sign!)

Sarah & Khea

Our little family

Missha in her party dress

Mel & her family

Bubbles

Noah flying under the blossoms

Blossoms up close

My koala munchkin and the sakura

Babies on the move

And napping

We were supposed to go to another hanami party on Sunday but we were all too tuckered out after the busy day Saturday (and it was also really cold yesterday). I want to do hanami at least one more time before the cherry blossom season ends and will probably go with my brother, Gemma and Noah later in the week once they are back in Chiba.

I have so many things to catch up blog wise like my brother arriving, trip to hakone and Noah`s 100th day celebration (Okuihajime), Noah in his jolly jumper, new pictures of my little koala munchkin and more but will start with what we did yesterday which was head to Kichijoji and meet up with Heather and her girls for the first time as well as Cassie & Nana!

It is no secret that I LOVE Kichijoji! It was where I originally lived in Japan, where I went to university, where I met Shun and where Shun & I had our first apartment together so there are many happy memories there and yesterday was the first time I had been since before Noah was born meaning it was his first time in Kichijoji. The weather was a bit strange all day raining on and off and sunny at other times.

We met in the park (Inokashira Park) and it was nice to see that the blooms had started to come out- my guess is that in another 5 days it will be perfect there so anyone planning to do hanami this weekend should be in luck (We actually have hanami plans BOTH days this weekend!)- we ate lunch in Peppa Cafe and while I have walked past it SOOOOOO many times I had never eaten in there but it was awesome and I will definitely be going back!

Noah sat in a highchair for the first time (and loved it- but I forgot to get a photo as I was enjoying eating my lunch without a baby in my lap for the first time in what seems like forever!!!) and Nana used chopsticks for the first time (without prompting I might add, she just picked them up, positioned her fingers and started picking up daikon from her mum`s soup! The staff and the rest of us were WELL impressed! It was still a cold day so I had to rug Noah up a little

I got to meet Heather and her two lovely daughters Meg & Amy! Heather was just how I imagined she would be (down to the lovely aussie accent and all- I love meeting up with other Aussies as it is like been back in OZ!)- i hope to visit her and her family in Nagano sometime!! After lunch we ate gelato and then went for a walk around Kich – the two older girls tried on some make-up and I snapped a picture of them with Noah before saying goodbye!

Noah had a couple naps while out but none were very long so he was a bit overtired by the time we got home yesterday afternoon but that didn`t stop him from attempting to sit by himself- so I will leave you with a shot of that!

Like I said I still have lots of blog posts to catch up on but for those not on my facebook you can check out any recent photos over at my flickr page here.

One is Clare who came to Japan on her way to moving to the UK. Clare and I met on our first day of highschool at age 12 and have been good friends ever since- in fact when we were about 14 we were inseparable unable to go a day without speaking to each other and even though we were together at school all day we would often write letters to each other or ring each other once we got home from school.  Her family were like my second family especially when my dad got sick when I was 15 and her parents would often take care of my brother & I or help my mum out when she needed it.

Strangely enough Clare`s little brother Timmy and my brother went to the same highschool and while were not very close in junior years they became great friends as the years went by and are still now very close. Through us, our parents also became quite close and have stayed in contact and her whole family was at our wedding last year.

With Clare, no matter how much time has passed since we last saw each other we can always just pick up where we left off!! I love that! She was here Thursday but left Friday morning to go to Kyoto for a couple of days but will be back in Tokyo/Chiba tomorrow! Watching her with Noah was great and I can`t wait to spend some more time with her before she leaves on Tuesday morning.

Next friend is a girl I met in kindy named Sarah-Jane. Sarah-Jane moved to NZ when we were only 6 or so and we lost touch and my parents also lost touch with her parnets as they separated soon after they went back to NZ. I had been thinking about her a bit lately wondering what the hell happened to her and with the wonders of facebook I tracked her down! She was my first friend I made myself if that makes sense. I was 3 or so and she was 4 at the time and while of course I had friends before that but they were my cousins or neighbours or kids belonging to my parents friends…

We have started a bit of a message thread back and forth and have been busy catching up. It is quite amazing really.

The third old friend is Kanako- a Japanese friend I made in my final year of highschool. We hadn`t been in touch since I was still in Australia and she sent a letter congratulating us on our wedding- we did catch up a couple of weeks before I moved back to Australia as well but hadn`t spoken much since! I didn`t have her old mobile number anymore but I still had her parents home number so I rang last night after having thinking about getting in touch for weeks and weeks- I did try when I first came back to Japan but her email had changed so it was no good. Luckily she was still living at home (she is a teacher in Nagasaki now- teaching English) although she lived out of home in Kyoto for university and will also be moving to her own place soon because she has just gotten a full-time (recent teaching job was just a year contract) with a highschool that is part of nihon daigaku (Japan university) which has highschools all over the country. She will still be based in Nagasaki but quite far from her home town.

Anyway- she didn`t know about Noah so it was great to share that news and also catch up on what has been happening over the last year or so! Nagasaki is really far from here but hopefully one day I can go visit her in Kyushu or next time she heads up this way to Tokyo then we can catch up (She said she was here just 3 weeks ago for a wedding but didn`t know that Shun & I were back in Japan)

It is great to catch up with old friends!!!!