Mirei officially graduates from newborn-hood today as she turns three months old! While the past three months have had their challenging moments, Mirei has really brought so much joy into our lives and we already cannot imagine life without her — our family now feels complete. ♥
(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.)
Stats: At your doctor’s visit yesterday, you weighed 15 lbs 7.5 oz, approximately double your birth weight! You are now 24.5 inches tall, so you’ve grown a bit in height as well. Even though you are only three months old, Dan and I have been saying that you’re already getting quite heavy too hold! Your head size is 16.75 inches in circumference — you’ve got a big noggin!
Things You’re Doing Now: Since a couple weeks ago, you’ve started becoming much more alert and stay awake for much longer periods of time during the daytime, and there are some days that you are awake for 6 hours straight even! You continue to sleep through the night most nights, usually going to bed around midnight and waking up anywhere from 6 to 8am. We can tell that you can see a lot more clearly now, as your gaze follows us and Mio everywhere we go when we move around the room, and you stare into our eyes when we face you. Your cries sometimes sound more like whines and complaints, and you sometimes “talk” to us with your coos and babbles. The late-night colicky crying has settled down a bit, although you are still more irritable in the evenings than in the daytime. You like to blow bubbles with your lips and often furiously suck on your fist and fingers. You are smiling more and more now, which never fails to warm our hearts.
Dan’s parents flew over from California last week to visit us from Tuesday night to Saturday morning. Mio’s face broke into a huge smile as soon as she saw her grandparents on Wednesday morning, and they were nearly inseparable for much of their visit! It was so sweet to see Mio interacting with her loving grandparents, and they got to meet their new granddaughter Mirei for the first time, too! Here are some photos and video from their visit.
Mio & Mirei with their grandparents
Mio has been doing this funny thing lately where after she touches or comes in contact with Mirei, she smells her hands and often goes to wash them afterwards. Kind of mean, but I guess Mio doesn’t like the baby smell! lol
Grandma meeting Mirei
Mio’s scrunchy face of joy!
Mirei curiously looking on.
Grandma with Mirei
They got a big smile out of her!
Grandpa with his newest granddaughter
Such sweet moments ♥
I captured this video of Grandpa and Grandma singing to the girls on my phone camera. Unfortunately the lighting is a little dark, but it’s still a very sweet video nonetheless!
Sisters in Grandpa’s arms.
On Friday, Dan took the day off so that we could spend the day together with his parents. Even though they used to live in Maryland and are familiar with the sites, there were some new memorials that were built since they moved away 19 years ago, and they wanted to visit the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in particular.
By a statue of Eleanor Roosevelt. Mio kept pointing and asking, “Who’s that?”
Mio and I at the fountains by the FDR Memorial.
Mio and grandparents by the FDR statue.
With Dan and I this time.
Mirei was asleep for most of the time we were sightseeing the memorials in DC.
Mio was all smiles with Grandpa
Sharing a laugh!
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, always impressive! It’s definitely one of my favorite memorials.
One of my favorite quotes by Dr. King. I love reading all his quotes along the wall at the memorial — he was such an eloquent man and his words are often very poetic and beautiful.
“Out of the Mountain of Despair, A Stone of Hope.”
Mio and grandparents by the MLK memorial.
Washington Monument across the Tidal Basin.
Mio was in such a great mood while she was being pushed by Grandma in the stroller as we were walking around the memorials that she started singing! I’d sang this Japanese song to her a few times, but this was the first time I’d heard her sing so much of it on her own so I went a little overboard with recording it on video:
Take 2:
Take 3:
Dan’s parents wanted to see the Jefferson Memorial again, so we stopped there before leaving DC.
This was one of my favorite pictures from that day.
Posing with TJ inside the Jefferson Memorial.
Enjoying a Japanese lunch before heading home.
We’re so thankful that Dan’s parents could make the trip out here to visit us and the girls! Though their visit was short, Mio and Mirei both got so much love from them and were able to make priceless memories with them. We look forward to the next time we’ll get to see them!
Dan took the day off on Monday so that we could all spend the day with Ted and Jackie before they left DC. We thought it’d be a great opportunity to see the cherry blossoms by the Tidal Basin, but alas, the blossoms were definitely past their peak (they were probably best over the weekend, but we knew the crowds would be crazy) and were looking pretty green, with most of the petals in the water and on the ground. It was really windy that day, too, which probably expedited the wilting of the blossoms. Still, we had a nice time walking around the Tidal Basin and admiring the few trees that were still in full bloom, and also got to check out the National WWII Memorial as well. Despite how windy it was, it was a beautiful day — sunny but not too hot or uncomfortable. 🙂
Mio enjoying all the attention from Auntie Jackie while on the Metro.
Arriving at the Tidal Basin… but both girls were conked out.
Jackie and Ted with the cherry blossoms. Such a cute picture of a cute couple!
Mirei woke up so we took a photo with just us girls.
Attempt at a family photo… but Mio is too focused on eating her tortilla chip.
The Jefferson Memorial in the distance.
What was left of the cherry blossoms…
My favorite flowers and Mio’s namesake… still beautiful!
Mirei was so well-behaved the entire time. Even when she was awake, she was so quiet and let us enjoy the cherry blossoms in peace.
Dan and Mio by one of the original cherry blossom trees.
A cherry blossom tree in full bloom
Another family photo… looks like we just can’t get one without Mio eating a chip!
Ted & Jackie under the sakura.
Making our way over to the National WWII Memorial. Mio had a blast getting swung by Auntie Jackie and Uncle Ted!
She couldn’t get enough of the attention!
It was actually my first time seeing the WWII Memorial too since it had been built in 2004, and it was really beautiful and impressive!
Mio getting a photo with auntie and uncle.
She thoroughly enjoyed playing by the fountain.
Full of “what’s that?” questions.
The Freedom Wall on the west side of the memorial has 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war.
There were so many people there!
Mio with Ted & Jackie by the fountain.
Mio was in such a good mood the whole day! Love our little sweetheart.
Sharing a popsicle before heading home.
Ted and Jackie left after dinner on Monday, but the family visits continue with Dan’s parents flying in tonight! They haven’t seen Mio in over a year and it’ll be their first time meeting Mirei. We look forward to spending lots of quality time together. 🙂
This morning, we took Mio to the local community Easter egg hunt in the lawn of the Freeman House in Old Town Vienna. There were a lot of kids there, and Mio had fun partaking in some of the Easter festivities!
Easter egg hunting!
While a lot of the kids were trying to quickly collect as many eggs as possible, Mio was slowly taking her time… I think she was still a little sleepy as the egg hunt was in the morning.
Mio with her friend Junna-chan
Mirei getting a photo with the Easter bunny.
As for big sister… the Santa Claus effect happened once again. ::sigh::
The weather was BEAUTIFUL today. The sun’s shining, the flowers are blooming… spring is finally here!
Getting a photo with Mirei by the flowers.
With both of my sweet girls!
Mirei looking about.
They also had a moonbounce, craft activities, and an egg roll!
After the Easter events, we headed over to the farmer’s market in Oakton. It was a pretty small market and not quite like the ones we’re used to from living in California, but they still had some delicious offerings, including some homemade tropical fruit punch and the most amazing cilantro hummus that we picked up.
Applesauce and pickled goods at the farmer’s market…
I love them. ♥ Today was such a beautiful and happy day!
