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Andy’s Birthday Weekend

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My husband’s birthday was last week. We celebrated on Friday, and had a great time! It was the first time that I left Kiko at my parents’ house over night. I was a bit nervous about how it would go, but thankfully Kiko kept her regular schedule and the fist sleep over went well.

I planned the whole night and I am so glad Andy enjoyed it! First I took Andy to a jazz bar in Meguro, called “Tokyo Club“. It was fantastic! If you ever get a chance, I totally recommend this place. The place is small and cozy. The night we went we saw a band called “Antonio band“. They were really good. We loved going to jazz bars when we lived in Philly. We used to go to a few different places but usually to either Chris’s Jazz bar or Ortlib’s. Their cover and food charges were pretty reasonable, especially on Tuesday night at Chris’s ($2 cover!). After moving back to Japan, we were disappointed to have found that live music venues are limited and the ones you can find are quite expensive. Thankfully I found a deal for Tokyo Club!

After that, we went to Roppongi, Tokyo’s famous night district. It felt like it was forever and a day since I went out for an entertainment and then drinks after. The pregnancy, earthquake and baby really halted my social life! It was so much fun, and I was really thankful to my parents who generously agreed to watch Kiko  🙂

I might have written this before, but we usually limit ourselves to buying small gifts for each other’s birthdays. We like to spend more money on doing things rather than buying things. So for Andy’s birthday, I DIYed the liquor cabinet (painted it white) and bought some of his favorite drinks. He also received Golden Grahams and Cinnamon Toast Crunch from his grandma and father as a birthday gift. We cannot buy those cereals in Japan, and they tasted heavenly:)

Shop Update: Jackets!

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Left: Black Plaid Bubble Sleeve Jacket, Right: Gray Bubble Sleeve Cardigan

The shop is updated with these new items! I meant to post this on Friday, but I didn’t have time to take pictures after work before going out to celebrate my husband’s birthday. We had a really nice night, just the two of us!

Anyway, it was so refreshing to work on something other than dresses. These jackets are variations of the bubble sleeve cardigan I updated last week. I love this pattern. It has so many possibilities for variations, and I can’t wait to fill my shop with more of these:)

The plaid one is fully lined with black cotton fabric, and is perfect for the Fall. I would wear it with long hand warmers or long sleeves peeking from the cropped sleeves… 🙂

 

Mommy’s Diary 23 – Solid Food

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Week 23 of motherhood! Solid food is the topic of the day 🙂 We started feeding Kiko some solids when she turned 4 months old. I think we are on the early side, but we decided that she is ready for solids because she showed some signs of wanting more sustenance. She drooled, developed a strong neck and was able to sit up with some support etc. And my fatness Kiko was drinking a LOT of milk (1400ml some days) and milk itself didn’t seem to quite satisfy her appetite. Her first solid food meal was rice portage.  Slowly we moved to different pureed vegetables.  Although I read an article that the order given to children does not matter and the baby won’t develop taste preferences, I decided to give her vegis first and move on to sweeter food, like apples and oranges, later. I’ve fed her pureed egg plant, avocado, pumpkin, potato and carrots so far. For the first month, she would spit out the food, and not really eat much, but one day she just started to take in the food much better. A baby’s overnight development is quite amazing!

To make puree food, Andy and I either boil the vegetables or microwave them. We then mash it with this tiny mashing bowl and stick we bought here. I think this mashing bowl is traditionally used in Japan for grinding sesame seeds, but we don’t need much ground sesame so we use it for pureeing vegetables. Once we make the pureed food, we divide it into small Tupperware boxes and save them in the fridge 🙂

Kiko also started using this new bottle, pictured above. This bottle type is in between a regular baby bottle nipple and a sippy cup. She prefers this cup a lot more because more milk is released with this bottle than with the regular nipple. It used to take her about 20 minutes to finish one bottle of 200cc milk, but now it takes about 5 minutes! She is such a vigorous eater!

Also pictured above is a silicon bib which was gifted from my friend. It’s great because it is soft, washable, and don’t stain like regular cloth bibs. The only problem is that Kiko likes to eat the bib…:p

Read my journey as a mom here 🙂