Hello

Hello,
It has been a crazy couple of weeks for us. We had a great 4th of July - played with fireworks and had a bbq with the neighbors. Other than that - nothing has been on our minds except Claire and her new condition. We meet with the neurologist tomorrow who is saying Claire has epilepsy. Testing and hospitalization have been tough on Claire and we are all tired. But - we are keeping a positive attitude and trying to find out what is best for her. I'll try to keep this updated!

7 1/2 months and growing big!

I don't know how many times we've heard "you have a beautiful baby boy!" Sometimes we just smile and keep walking and other times we'll correct the person. Don't really care too much though - we don't put her in pink all the time! (Although even when she is in pink, people still think she is a boy - don't know why!) We should stick more bows in her hair - but they all come off anyway. I think when she grows more hair she won't get so many boy comments! Claire has been grouchy today, we think more teeth are coming in up on top - poor thing! If its not one thing its another! We went strawberry picking today, had a great time but it made us tired! I'll post some pictures from that soon - we got some cute ones. Claire even wore her strawberry outfit from Japan. We also bought a pie - mixture of ollala, black and raspberries. YUMMY!!! Life is more busy and hectic than we could of imagined - but I wouldn't want it any other way! Claire keeps us laughing, she does new things all the time.

Wow - its been a long time!

It has been so long! Time goes fast! Claire is 7 months old now, hard to believe. She is so funny, developing quite the personality. She really likes the Johnny jump up - has a great time in it. She also LOVES books, can't get enough of them, especially the pop up kind. Her new favorite toy is an empty kleenex box. She is just thrilled by it. She also has her first teeth! They FINALLY popped through Wed or Thurs (June 10th or 11th). She seems happier about that. We are all happier about that. Right now she has a lingering cough from something she picked up in day care. If it isn't resolved soon - we will have to make yet another drs visit - no fun! She just got over the Roseola virus - fever and rash is mostly what it consisted of. We are staying crazy busy and life is hectic - but we are having fun!

We are suffering from jetlag and it is terrible!!! So hard on baby. I seem to be wide awake between 10 and 2 am - and then Claire wakes up and wants to play! We need our normal schedule back!

In Japan and loving it!

We are in Japan and loving it!!! We are having soooo much fun remembering all the things we loved and had forgotten. A lot of the joy comes from such yummy food! Jun's mom is SUCH a good cook and we are in heaven. She is happy to cook for us and is doing an amazing job and keeping up with our many requests! A shopping center is about a ten minute walk from his house - I like to go often and get yummy snacks. The bread store is incredible. Talk about needing to diet when we get home! Oh well- might as well enjoy ourselves right? We've been visiting some historical sights around Jun's hometown of Shibata. It is a pretty neat city with great historical back round. It has a beautiful castle and an incredible place where the samurai's used to live. Jun told me the name "Asahina" is connected with prestigious samurai from back in the day - how neat is that! It has been fun because we visited some spots where Jun hasn't even seen before! Minori is doing good. Finally after about a week and a half - she is getting used to the time change - just in time for us to mess her up again when we come back to the states.

Crazy thing happened a couple days ago. We heard the firetrucks and Hideko looked out the window and huge flames and smoke were seen. Just a few blocks away a house caught on fire. We went to look at the remnants, and it is in quite bad shape, burned almost to the ground. The sign of the gas station next to it was all melted. A 87 year old man was inside and died. They don't know yet how it was started. It drew quite a crowd. Sad - made us all a little more cautious with the spaced heaters!

On a lighter note - we are having lots of fun and can 't believe time is passing so quickly. The thing I miss the most is a dryer. Not only is it a constant pain to hang and take down clothes, but my pants are too big without being dried and they keep falling down! I'll post more pictures when we get home!

Claire is 5 months!!! My how time flies! We are headed to Japan tomorrow and busy getting ready today. We are excited - but not as much as we should be because we are worried about Claire. She has been sick and the Dr's can't pinpoint what is wrong with her poor thing. She has been to the Dr.'s 4 times and seen three 3 different doctors, been on 2 different medications, and had several tests. So - we have debated about whether or not to cancel our trip - but the Dr.'s thinks she's fine to go - so we will grin and bear it! Wish us luck - we'll be posting lots of pictures when we get back!