Happy First Birthday, Mariko! (I think...)

Three hundred and sixty-four days ago, we welcomed our third child, little Mariko, to the world. The challenge for the past week, though, has been just how to celebrate her first year. Mari was born on February 29th. I've argued for March 1st as the special day, but Sumie has been a hardliner for the 28th. Given that this post is coming to you on the 28th, you can guess who won. But I suppose this argument is all slightly irrelevant as we celebrated her birthday on the 26th.

 

Our baby with the unique birthday has provided us with an equally unique year. Somewhat hard to believe that we began prepping for her arrival well over 12 months ago. With two kids already in place, there wasn't much we needed to procure. The primary work to be done was prepping the kids for a new attention taker-awayer and toy disrupter. Mimi was excited and offered to test the bassinet.

Kuri wasn't quite as interested in helping, so his Papa spent some extra time with him. He even let him drive the Porsche.

The kids were pretty much ready, and by February 29th, so was Mari. She arrived healthy and, thankfully, not quite as loudly as her older sister.

Mimi was excited, but Kuri, despite all the extra trips and time spent with Papa, still had his doubts. He didn't quite know what to make of this very tiny person.

As with any newborn, sleep was at a premium for the first few months.

But there was plenty of cuddling to make up for it.

Mimi quickly got into the role of looking after her baby sister.

For the first month or two, Mariko was our little monkey...

...but she soon started to develop a mischievous personality...

...an appreciation for being surprised...

...and even a sense of wonder.

Despite only being a year old, Mari is already rather well-traveled. She's been all over California with us, including sites like the Jelly Belly Factory.

But her biggest, and earliest trip was to Japan. That required booking tickets before she was born (something rather difficult to do when one of the passengers doesn't yet exist) and getting passport photos done at the ripe old age of 5 days.

Reading has always played a large role in our family...

...and as the kids have gotten older, they're reading more and more independently.

 But that hasn't stopped them from taking some time to read to their baby sister...

...though sometimes a book is just too good to share and the baby has to play on her own.

And how has Kuri done when it comes to accepting his baby sister? Well, he's done a full 180. She's one of his favorite playthings, especially now that she can crawl. Except for the occasional destruction of his train set at her hands, he loves having her around.

Now that Mari's a bit older, we can do a lot of things together, like shopping at Costco...

...where Kuri works hard to protect his baby sister whenever there's any danger, like rain.

Even little trips up the road to Petaluma are special with these three.

The best times, though, are usually spent just hanging out at home, be it on the living room floor...

...or on Mama and Papa's bed.

And they really love to plan how to make Mama and Papa's lives a bit more, um, interesting.

It's been a wonderful first year. Mari may not be a walker yet, but she's crawling pretty much everywhere, though our slippery wood and tile floors often reduce her to a belly crawl, which at least helps to keep the floor clean.

One of our favorite things about little Mari is her amazing ear for language. She has a number of words now, including all the members of her family and, unfortunately, "no." She loves to babble with us, often taking part in full conversations. The only thing keeping her back from saying more than she does already are those two middle fingers on her left hand that constantly end up in her mouth.

Happy First Birthday, my little Marichan. I had no idea just how much you'd change our lives and how consistently you'd make us smile.

A Japanese Household in America

Our family lives in America, but in many ways, we attempt to maintain some aspects of a Japanese household. From the outside, our home is almost stereotypically American, particularly for California. A moderate sized, ranch-style home with a front and back yard, built in the 1950s, you can't really get a more generically American home. But on the inside, there are a number of little tweaks we have made and practices we hold to that have made our home, at least in some ways, distinctly Japanese.

Let's start with the most commonly know practice: not wearing shoes in the home. Growing up with shoes on at all times, at first I found this a bit odd but have come to love it. The one drawback is that the space before your front door is always crammed with endless rows of shoes and baskets and house slippers.

The same goes for the back door, too!

Taking off shoes at the door may make a bit of a mess, and sometimes leads to some awkward conversations with friends who come over for the first time, but it definitely cuts down on the mud, dirt, dust and the constant vacuuming that come with it. And besides, not wearing shoes means you can slide around the wood floors in your socks!

Toys and nicknacks are another instance where our house is a bit different. While the kids have plenty of American toys, there are a number outliers that help to identify our household as Japanese. In Mimi's room, a koinobori (carp flag) that she made hangs proudly, waiting to be taken out on Children's Day.

Kuri has developed an obsession for train sets, particularly those made by Tomica in Japan. These sets create amazing little worlds for plastic engines and miniature cars. We started small...

...but these sets have a tendency to take on a life of their own. The exponential growth of Japanese train sets in our home is in no way related to Kuri's father's penchant for model trains and cars. That's just a vicious rumor.

Like all kids, Mimi, Kuri, and Mari have a wide arrangement of plush toys. But amongst the usual bears, horses, dogs, bunnies, and cats, you'll come across a cuddly UltraMan in our collection.

Our nicknack shelves even betray that this household has a bit of a Japanese bent. Sumie's, as one might expect, has plenty of Japanese items, including Japanese dolls, a tea set, and a fan.

But even mine, the shelf of a boy obsessed with Star Wars, has succumbed to a strong Japanese influence. Outside of Ben Kenobi, a few radio tubes, a tinker toy Land Rover, and an old CHiPs motorcycle, everything else is straight out of Japan.

Food and food prep tools are another way in which our household has a Japanese tinge. As I have found, no Japanese household is complete without a pot for boiling hot water for tea and a rice cooker, both of which are always readily available. Regarding the rice cooker, this will invariably be made by Zojirushi, National, or another Japanese manufacturer. Accept no substitutes.

With the rice cooker will come a massive storage box for rice, holding at least a 15lb bag. In most of these storage bins, just like ours, you'll find a cup that has given up its first job of holding liquids and has been relegated to scooping rice for the rest of its life.

A portable hot pot is another big item. Ours allows you to make nabe or do yakiniku (Japanese BBQ with thin meat) right at your own table. You'll need plenty of small plates on hand as well. Not as many as your would for a Korean meal, but still, small plates are a much needed commodity in a Japanese household.

When it comes time for school lunch, we don't brown bag-it. Mimi takes a bento each day.

And, from time-to-time, even our drink bottle caps get into the Japanese spirit.

When it comes to furniture, our place is a bit different, too. Instead of a trundle bed or an air mattress for extra guests, we have a slew of futons that can sleep four adults or ten kids.

There's at least one electronic item made by Sony...

...and at there's even an a Washlet to keep everything unmentionable clean.

Our favorite piece of Japanese furniture is perhaps the most unique. It's a kotatsu. As you can see, our coffee table is a little different. We removed the top and put a large blanket over the frame, then put the top back on. In a traditional kotatsu, there's a heater built into the table. For ours, we just bought a huge heated carpet, which does the trick quite nicely.

These tables are fantastic for cold nights as they hold in all the heat under the blanket. Mimi loves to cuddle up under it when she watches cartoons...

...and she likes to read her little brother stories when they're both nice and cozy.

Even Mari, who is still learning how to crawl, appreciates the cuddling that occurs when you have a kotatsu.

There are a number of other things in our home that are slightly out of the ordinary (I couldn't bring myself to show our collection of chopsticks), but for the most part, it's a home like any other here in the US. We just like to think we're trying to apply a bit from the best of both our worlds.