We’re so thankful for the presence of our families and friends, both near and far. We wish for you a warm and safe holiday season, full of joy, love, and laughter with your loved ones. May your days be merry and bright, and we wish you all the best in this coming year!
We got a decent photo with Santa this year! We had only taken Mio to see Santa Claus once before two years ago, and that didn’t end well. We just skipped it last year because she didn’t seem crazy about Santa then either, but this year she has actually been talking about him a lot, maybe because preschool has been hyping him up and partially because she’s able to grasp the idea of him a little better at this age. She’s had only one thing on her Christmas wish list this year (“pink octopus”, a Beanie Baby octopus she saw in a store a couple months ago), and she was determined to tell Santa in person to be certain he knew what to bring her for Christmas. This was Mirei’s first time meeting Santa Claus, of course, and she handled it surprisingly well!
When Mio spotted Santa, she dashed to him, yelling “I WANT PINK OCTOPUS FOR CHRISTMAS!” but I guess he hadn’t planned on having any further conversation with him, so once he sat her on his lap and asked her more questions, she was silent, looking slightly uncomfortable and awkward…
Well, I’m glad that we got at least one photo of Mio smiling with Santa, and although Mirei just looks kind of startled, at least she’s not in tears the way big sister was the first time meeting him!
Mirei’s friend Lily turns one on Christmas Day, but her parents celebrated her birthday early this month with a Frozen-themed first birthday party in Alexandria. I’ve known Lily’s mom since we were kids ourselves as we went to Japanese Saturday school together growing up, and we reconnected this year after finding out that we have baby girls born only a month apart (to the day!). We were so happy to get to be a part of Lily’s very special birthday celebration!
The kids got to romp around in the soft playroom for an hour.
Video clips that Dan captured of the kids playing in the playroom. They had a blast!
Afterwards, we went back to the party room to have some birthday cake!
Happy early birthday, Lily! Thank you for inviting us and letting us be a part of all the birthday fun. ♥ Let’s play again soon!
Mirei tried corn for the first time the other day, and we decided to just give her a whole corncob to see if she’d be able to successfully eat the corn off of it now that she has five teeth. She actually ate the corn pretty thoroughly, but we couldn’t help but laugh at some of the faces she made while she was gnawing on it!
View more of Mirei’s corn-eating here:
Happy ten months, Mirei! She hit some big milestones this past month — here’s the latest on what our sweetheart’s been up to…
(I’ll be taking photos of Mirei sitting in my white desk chair and wearing her monthly onesie every month until she’s one year old.)
Previous Photos:
One Month Old • Two Months Old • Three Months Old • Four Months Old • Five Months Old • Six Months Old • Seven Months Old • Eight Months Old • Nine Months Old
Stats: At your doctor’s appointment a few weeks ago, you weighed 22 lbs 9 oz, so we’re pretty sure that you must weigh around 23 lbs by now! You measured 29.5 inches tall, and have a head circumference of 18 inches… all three of the growth measurements are above the 90th percentile! A lot of strangers that see you are surprised to hear that you are still under one year old because you’re so big and active for your age. It seems like your weight gain is tapering off, and you may even be losing a little bit of your chunkiness between all the moving you’ve been doing and the fact that you got sick a couple weeks ago and didn’t have as much of an appetite. Your top two teeth have completely grown in now, and a third one is emerging… making it a total of five teeth you have now!
Things You’re Doing Now: You took your first steps the day after you turned nine months old, and you’ve been perfecting your walk this past month! You rarely stumble now (and when you do, you know how to expertly land on your tooshie), and you’ve gotten really fast at walking! You’ll walk a few laps around the dining table, and can power walk across the room in a matter of seconds if you see someone you desperately want a hug from! You love getting held, and it feels like you’ve gotten clingier than usual in the past few weeks — you get very upset if we put you down for even a few seconds, and are showing signs of major separation anxiety! You also don’t smile as readily to strangers anymore, so maybe that shyness/”stranger danger” sense is kicking in. We are impressed with some of the cognitive ability that you’ve been exhibiting, like remembering exactly where to find certain things that are stowed away in drawers, and opening them to access them. You react to certain words with upset cries or excitement, showing that you understand some of the words that we use often. You like having “conversations” with us, repeating certain simple syllables with very expressive tones — sometimes softspoken and affectionate, other times bossy and demanding. You have quite an appetite, and want to try everything we’re eating! You’re really strong and are always trying to wriggle away during your diaper changes, and have started pushing against us with all your weight in protest at times. Your smiles are the best — big and wide, and can light up the room! Everyone that meets you seems enamored with you as you are quite the charmer. We are so thankful that we get to enjoy these precious smiles every day!