Quick Trip to Kentucky

Back in I believe September, Ren and I flew down to Kentucky for the weekend so Grandma and Grandpa could get in some Ren time. I took a total of 4 usable pictures while we were down there. Here they are.

Foreign Coins

Hi all,

First of all, I never realized/intended for this to be the ONLY avenue for examining videos/pictures of Ren.

Any time you want you can click through a video to see all the other videos I've made.

Also any time you can click at a still picture and see everything I've ever uploaded to pictures.

Yet there are a lot of people who apparently only ever see this stuff when I specifically feature it here. All right. Accordingly, I'll be posting a backlog of old stuff.

So here's a 6 month old video of Ren playing with a box of coins from all over the world. These were given to her by her aunt Gina, who gets a lot of opportunities for world travel. Ren likes to get them down and play with them quite frequently.

Ren Plays Peekaboo

This is the last vid for a while, as far as I know. This is one last one from Christmas, of Ren and Grandma playing peekaboo together.

You can ignore the audio, which is my dad and brother discussing the upcoming presidential caucuses.

Ren with Uncle Joe

Ren's uncle Joe came for Christmas, and they got to meet for the first time. They really took to each other and Joe was an awesome and gentle uncle with her. It was really neat to see them together.

Here's a video I made. The audio is rather spoiled by my dad, who I guess didn't realize I was filming. Other than that, this is really cute.

Ren and Aunt Gina

A thanksgiving video of Ren with Aunt Gina. This video also briefly features grandma Goodfriend, so it should go over well with my massive 1-person viewer base.

Thanksgiving shots

Over at my personal blog, I've got a couple cute videos of Hiroko playing Xbox. So no videos here today.

Here are some shots from Thanksgiving (and shortly before) including Ren, though. I thought I'd taken more Thanksgiving shots, but I guess not.

Here's my favorite:

From Thanksgiving

This is a picture of Ren at my mom's office during the recent Thanksgiving trip. It was sent to me by my mom.

There are lots of new pictures, and even more importantly lots of great new video, but I'm having computer problems at home that are keeping them indefinitely non-uploadable. When I finally get them on youtube, you'll see them. They're great and I wish I could get them to you sooner.

Goodbye Yasuko

Hiroko's mom, Yasuko, went home Saturday, after spending exactly a month with us. She was a wonderful guest who looked forward to every opportunity to take are of Ren , and cooked great meals as well. We will miss her. The visit was a reminder of how important family is. I hope we will get to return the favor, and bring Ren to Japan, as soon as we can.

Baby Julianna Visits

Yesterday, our friend Jennifer came by with her new baby daughter, Julianna. Julianna was born 10 weeks ago and this is the first time we have seen her. Jennifer's sister Lisa, also a friend of our family, was there. The visit was great and it was cool for me to see a baby trying out our nursery.

Hiroko and Yasuko have continued to have fun working to perfect the nursery. On Saturday the three of us went to Babies 'R Us to do some shopping, and Ren's room looks great.

I created this photo set which includes pictures of Julianna's visit, and some shots of the nursery. Hiroko really wanted these up so everyone could see. She's done a great job decorating our house. My favorite picture is this one of Yasuko admiring the mobile. Hiroko also took this photo showing a baby's eye view of the mobile.

With Ren not yet here, Yasuko hasn't had a lot to do around the house. She did break out some colored pencils I bought a while back and drew a picture of the flowers on our kitchen table, which I purchased below. She's since been to an art store to purchase some oil pastels and paper, so there may be more to come. Here's a picture of the original flowers, for comparison.

A Very Ren Christmas

Christmas came and went at our house on the 27th, with everyone except my sister there, plus Hiroko's mom. Most of the gifts between adults were handed out at the Christmas celebration at my sister's, so the remaining gifts were for myself, Hiroko, and Ren. Especially Ren! There are a lot of pics in a set here, which include:

• Santa Joe handing out gifts

• Beautiful pictures of the intricate child's kimono which Yasuko brought for Ren
• I purchased a Dr. Seuss compendium for Ren, and a set of books including The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The picture set includes pictures of Yasuko and Hiroko reading the latter.

Every year we also get a set of stockings from my mom (hung by the staircase with care) and this year she included a stocking for Ren, packed with delightful baby's toys. Mr. Lion, who had already been lamenting the lack of gifts for him, immediately decided these were meant for him and has been playing with them ever since. He hasn't come to bed for the last two nights, opting to stay in the nursery crib and play with the toys in the crib, as you can see in the attached picture. I haven't the heart to tell him they're meant for Ren, so I think I'll let him keep "his" toys.

Health update: We've been on two more doctor's visits in the last two nights. Hiroko is very very ripe, and everything is proceeding well. I really think the baby's due almost immediately. In fact, last night we thought for a while Hiroko was in labor before it died down. Next time you see me, I'll probably have a kid!

Yasuko's Arrival

I know it's been a long time since I've blogged. Sorry.

On Wednesday, Hiroko's mom, Yaasuko, arrived. She'll be with us for a month helping to raise Ren. This is great! Everything is in place now for Ren's arrival.

The last couple days have been a frenzy of activity. I would have thought after the long plane flight Yasuko would have been exhausted, but she was so excited to see us that we got started right away. We exchanged a lot of gifts, mostly for Ren. Yasuko brought a great mobile for the nursery, and some baby-sized chanting beads. In this picture, you can see that we've lined up the beads on Hiroko's belly so Ren can get to chanting right away. (They're upside-down, of course, because so is Ren). There were lots of other photos, which you can see here.

Yesterday after shopping for more baby necessities, Hiroko and Yasuko spent a great deal of time arranging the nursery, and I'll have pictures soon. I also worked and shopped, and after that everybody was pretty much exhausted.

I have tons and tons of more stuff to blog about (when I have the time and energy) but mostly it's about me, so you'll find it on my own blog.

Health Update: We went to the doctor again yesterday, and the physical therapist the day before that. Everything is back on track. Hiroko's still in pain, but it's less, and all the exercising she's doing (sometimes with my help) appears to be making a difference. We're certainly anxious about labor and potential post-birth consequences, but the doctors have told us to wait and see.

Preparing for Mom

All the work we've been doing to try to alleviate Hiroko's pain must be paying off, because she's reported very little bone pain today, and has been up and about like an active person. On the other hand, on Friday she fell while preparing a bath and bruised herself pretty badly. So we're watching for her. I'm glad to say that even with the bruise, things are getting back toward more normal and less scary.

On Wednesday, Hiroko's mother Yasuko arrives and I'll be glad that there will always be someone in the house. When Ren comes, she'll have two moms to take care of her, for a month. The picture here is the guest room we set up for Yasuko. This is Joe's old room. The bedding and paint are all new. It's a cozy little space in the basement.

From this picture you can see that poor Mr. Lion is under the impression that the changing table is a new bed for him. Won't he be disappointed when he finds out the truth!