Merry Christmas and A Monumental Moment

Merry Christmas from all of us. Today is Christmas Eve and we have just had a nice family day together. Erik took the day off from work so we could have a little longer Christmas celebration. Christmas Day we will have Yoko's brother and his two daughters over. We are glad we can spend Christmas with them. Maika keeps being a good sport for us as we try to capture her showing her Christmas spirit.

Erik was asked to tell the real Christmas story at work as part of the college's Christmas festival. This was an answered prayer as most of the students had no idea about the birth of Jesus. Erik and one of his students, who is a Christan, did a news report skit to tell the Biblical story. Yoko and Maika came to watch, and the next picture was taken by one of Erik's students at the festival.

In winter we have nice sunshine that comes in the apartment, and Maika found a comfy place to catch a few zzzs.

A monumental moment in our lives as parents happend the day before Maika turned 5 months when she rolled over on her own for the first time. She is doing it quite regularly now but has no idea what to do once she gets on her stomach. We think you might get a kick out of one of Maika's less graceful rollovers. Make sure your sound is up; there is a funny sound at the end.

Fall was Beautiful

Fall was beautiful. We didn't get out to enjoy it as much as we would have liked to as we had quite a few things keeping us busy. Maika is a bundle of joy; she laughed for the first time, and we both were there to hear it. She is becoming more verbally expressive with noises that might be found in the jungle.





We are excited as always for the coming of Christmas. We are so grateful for God reaching out to us through Jesus. It is one of our favorite times of year, and we see this year as an opportunity to share the "true" Christmas story. Most people here do not have any idea of Christmas being Jesus' birth. We pray that the Joyous Message of Jesus' birth will touch some hearts around us this year.

On Dec 5th Erik's school had Christmas parties for the kindergarten and elementary school kids. It was a long busy day but a lot of fun. Erik was Santa and had an unexpected visit from Maika.

Sarah visited us, and we asked her to take a family picture. This is the best she could do with the subject matter she had.

The Great Outdoors

We took our first hiking trip as a family to the top of Tsukuba Mountain. It is about a 2 hour drive north of us. The hike was only 4200 meters or 2.6 miles round trip, but it was quite steep, so we got a good work out. Maika did very well in her carrier, but she got quite a few concerned looks and comments from older women. Other than there being a mass of people on the trail, it was a very nice day. In the evening there was an illumination of the fall colors which was pretty.
Maika had a check up a few days ago and is now 62 cm or 24.5 inches and 6.1 kg or 13.5 lbs. Some days she is very needy and wants to be held all the time; other days she is independent and can just hang out by herself. Today is one of those very needy days. Thankfully the Lord gives us the patience necessary for these moments in life.

Hiking Tsukuba Mountain with a unique moment; there are no other people.

Near the top. Can't say this is easy to get used to.

Break time for Maika on the way down.

Keeping warm in the evening.

Hanging out in my birthday suit.

Maika in Her Bumbo

Since baby goats are some of the cutest creatures on this planet, we measure cuteness with the "baby goat cute" scale. As the blessed parents of Maika, we feel that she is "baby goat cute" and of course want to share her cuteness with the world. Maika enjoys sitting in her Bumbo chair, especially in the morning. After waking up, she is quite energetic and ready to be part of everything that is going on around her. Today she helped Erik with the laundry; she sat near by, keeping an eye on what he was doing.
We included Maika's thoughts with some pictures to let you in on her side of the picture.
Why are you always pointing that camera at me?

I am so tiny.

I am so big.

Hello, are you just going to leave me here in the hallway?

When I am tired, my head gets really heavy.

My dad was a cluster of grapes for Halloween at his school, and he thought I would enjoy being in a picture with him.

I got to watch the World Series with my dad. Next time I sure hope St. Louis makes it.

3 Months and Then 100 Days

October 20th marked 3 months, and October 28th marked 100 days for Maika. 100 days is an important time in a baby's life here in Japan. At this time there is a ceremony call "okuizome". At this ceremony the baby is pretend fed with the hope that he or she will never have to worry about food. As it turns out, there are quite a few ceremonies and traditions in Japan for newborns.
At pretty much the 3 month mark, Maika began to hold her head up herself. We celebrated this by getting her a Bumbo. She really enjoys being upright now, so this helps her do that. Some mornings she even joins us for breakfast at the table. Coffee with sugar is her favorite drink.




Maika showing her other side.

Oh Say Can You See...

Maika is now officially a U.S. citizen. On October 8th, we all made the trek to the U.S. embassy in Tokyo where we turned in the paperwork for Maika's U.S. citizenship. Surprisingly, the process only took 45 minutes and was stress free. Yoko did a great job getting together all the documents and forms required. In about 3 weeks, we will receive Maika's U.S. passport. This is the photo we used for her passport. After our time at the embassy, we went for a walk around the Imperial Palace. This is where the royal family of Japan lives. We wanted to go in, but it is closed on Fridays, so we walked around the site.
We had Sarah visit the 10th and 11th; she is a great aunt and would be a great baby sitter if she was closer.
Things have been quite busy for Erik at work as he been assigned several new classes in the last few weeks. Even though there is the increased work load, he is still able to get home for lunch everyday. It is truly a blessing for all of us to have Erik's work so close to home.

Yoko and Maika near the main gate into the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

Dad and Daughter

Family picture on October 11th

Maika has some very talented family and friends. All of these items are handmade.

Grandma & Grandpapa visited

After months of planning we were blessed to have Erik's parents visit us. They were with us 7 nights in total and had a great time with Maika. One day they got to babysit all by themselves for about an hour and a half and pulled it off like pros. We did a little sightseeing, but our time was mostly spent just hanging out. They were also able to spend several days in Suwa where Sarah lives. Having more people around didn't seem to bother Maika all that much, but since her daytime routine was a bit out of whack, she would wake up once through the night. Now she is back to sleeping a good 9 hours each night for which we thank the Lord.

Grandma made Maika a Raggedy Ann

Grand"papa" with his "Maika Sweetcheeks"

A bath picture for a future boyfriend to see

Sleeping in the sling is very cozy

Lounging around before bed

Sleeping is Good

Over the past several days we have been blessed with Maika sleeping through the entire night. Yoko feels so much better getting a full nights rest. Maika has also started "smiling". We don't know if it is intentional, but it sure is cute.
Erik's parents will be coming to visit on the 16th; we are very excited to finally have them come visit. They are of course looking forward to meeting their first grandchild.


I think I'm smiling; I think I'm smiling

It's shower time

I'm all clean

Maika's Dedication

On the 15th Maika made her first trip to church in Tokyo. On that day we had her dedicated to the Lord as she is a gift from Him. Below is the video of the dedication and the translation of the Japanese part.
Lord, thank you for this morning. We thank you for Maika Sophia being here with us today. You have given this life to this couple so help them raise her and watch over her. First of all, please bless this couple so they can support her in all areas, so that Your blessing will flow through them into her life. When she is grown, may people who have witnessed her life say, “Who is like the Lord?” in a testimony to the meaning of her name and that they would also see her life overflowing with Your wisdom. We dedicate this child to You today. Please bless her and guide her for the rest of her life. With thankful hearts we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

A few new pictures from the past week which included Maika's longest stretch of sleeping through the night-6 hours; Yoko got her hair cut,and Erik got pooped on.

One Month Old and a DL

Maika survived her first month here on earth (with Yoko involved it's not a surprise, but the fact that Erik is in the picture makes it a testimony to God's great grace). In terms of some of the things we were doing prior to Maika, Yoko is back doing ballet once a week; we are getting in evening walks again, and we are making the trip to Tokyo for church.
A major event this week was Erik receiving his Japanese driver's license. Much to his chagrin, this has been a 5 month process which involved 6 trips to the DL center and around $200.00 in fees (which is far better, I must admit, than the $2,000.00 that Japanese have to spend for driving school in order to get their DL.) Nonetheless, all that was experienced has given him a great appreciation for how he got his DL in Arizona.

A 4 Day Weekend

A short work week equals a long weekend and there were no complaints about that. We had some good family and enjoyed having Sarah visit. Sarah spent 3 night with us and had a great time hanging out with her niece. We watched a couple movies (at home), ate Indian curry and supper tasty pancakes, went for a walk, went shopping, and had an all around relaxing time.
Maika caused a bit of a stir at the mall when a shopkeeper asked how old is was. We told her that Maika was just over 3 weeks old, and the lady was greatly surprised. It is not typical for infants under a month old to be out and about.
Today Maika took her first long car ride. We headed to Tokyo for church and had a great day. Maika traveled so well and was great at church. She seems to adjust to new situations well and doesn't seem all that disturbed by external distractions as she slept through most of the service.
Below are some new pictures from the past week. The picture in the "Picture to Enjoy" is of a quilt that Sarah made and gave us while she was here. It is absolutely beautiful.