Santa, we are ready

They have been waiting for this Christmas Eve. Working hard to write a thank you note to Santa before bedtime...

 Let's get out the homemade cookies and milk for Santa

 Kiharu's note (interpretation- "thank you for coming Santa.....bubbles bubbles....") & Yoshi drew a cookie on his note.

We are ready Santa.

(side note: before bedtime, I can tell Kiharu was very worry about sleeping by herself in the room, wondering who's coming into her room, or how... I mean Santa. She actually wanted me to move her stockings further away from her bed....^_^)

3 more days to Christmas

Well, Nori's vacation officially starting today (YEAH!!!). We were suppose to be in Chicago this weekend, but we had a last minute plan changed. Yoshi caught a mild case of flu. He had fever the last two days. The doctor visit yesterday confirmed it. But with the powerful medicine and the mild case symptom, he recovered very fast. This morning, he was the usual him again (relief!!)

A side note- when I picked up the medicine at pharmacy, the lady asked :"Are you aware how much the medicine cost?"....just by that question, I guess "I'm". What can I say.....

This week, we had the first snow of the season, it wasn't that much at all, but enough to get the kids excited...

 (Yoshi's iceman)

 Kiharu's ice sculpture

 THANK YOU for all the Christmas packages, we love the doorbell and mailman a lot lately.

 Wall of holiday cards

 Yoshi did a holiday shopping all by himself at school's santa secret shop. With the money we gave him, he bought presents for Kiharu, me & Nori. I love that idea, so cute. Can't wait to see what he had chosen for us. ^_^

 First vacation day = the building of train kingdom



Glass studio

(Just as I thought I lost those precious photos in my camera, they suddenly appear again today...yeah!!)

Last weekend, we attended an interesting glass studio class for kids (adults ok too). We picked "suncatcher" as our project. Basically, the kids picked color chips/tubes, decorate the flat platform. Then the staff will fire the piece, those will be ready to pick up this coming weekend. It was such an interesting experience for all of us. Yoshi did the airplane all by himself.  If anyone interest, you can click HERE.

Letter from Santa

Today, we got this SUPRISE in mailbox........

It all started two weeks ago...... Yoshi & Kiharu had each written/drawn letters to Santa Clause (their first experiences)

 Yoshi was very serious about it. He put a lot of thoughts and "research" into his letter.... (flipping through his toy catalog for inspirations)

 Page 1 & 2 (at the bottom with 4 smiley faces, that means he was telling Santa- Yoshi + Kiharu + Nori + mama are very happy and have been very good this year)

 Page 3 & 4

Kiharu's....full of "bubbles" (according to her)

 Then we went to post office & mailed those drawings to Santa. (supposely...) ......

------------------

Two weeks later- today, we finally got Santa's reply!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Well..... Yoshi's very puzzling look on his face was only because Santa's letter was written in English, which he doesn't understand how to read yet.  But after my reading, he was so excited. ^_^ Now both of them cannot wait till Christmas day.

(bare with me this holiday month, hard to keep up with the blog posting.. but sure will post more when I can.)

Potty progress

With the holiday season, time flies by much faster everyday. I only wish there are more than 24 hrs a day to spend. Luckily Kiharu's potty training progress is much smoother than expected. Guess it's child  #2 strength, Kiharu copies everything Yoshi does, from sitting on regular toilet seat, to wiping by herself, "I want to be like Yoshi, I can do it myself". And she is having dry diaper day and night. I'm really suprised. Good job Kiharu.

(At the Indianapolis Children Museum)

Potty training

It's been a few days since we started Kiharu's potty training. Thanks to Obaa-chan's Shimajiro stickers kit (arigatou), that's her motivation to keep trying. Kiharu has no hesitation to go into the bathroom (most of the time). The suprising thing is, she does not want the kid size toilet seat. She just wants to sit right on top of the regular seat. She said she wants to be like Yoshi. (of course). And somehow, she manages without falling into the big hole....

Today, she had one accident, and two stickers (including big and small business). Great job little girl. Those diaper genie refill is way too expensive, hope we don't need to buy anymore...

日本語発表会 Happyokai

Yoshi has been attending the Japanese school here for more about 7 months. He really enjoys so much being there every Saturday from 8:45-2p.m. Through the communication with teacher and classmates, songs, activities... his Japanese has improved a lot. Last Saturday, the school has the happyokai, which is like performances by each grade to show their achievement so far. Yoshi's kindergarten class performed singing and little drama.

Here is a small clip of the performance of two songs.

(the yukata that Yoshi wore were borrowed from my friend. He looked so cute in that...^_^)

English speaking

Tonight, the kids were doing some role play, theme: "restaurant ordering food"

Yoshi: " いらっしゃいませ. Nani tabemasu ka?" ... means Welcome (to my restaurant), what do you want to eat (order)?

Kiharu- in her rare (English) language, replied: " chicken nuggets, apple sauce, ice cream.."

Don't know why she replied in English, I guess she was really imagining herself inside McDonald....^_^

Homework

Yoshi's school doesn't have any homework at all. When we are at home in the afternoon, I would have him do some writing and math practice. As Kiharu's nap is slowly fading away, I need to find things to occupy her time too. So for the first time, I let her do some cutting practice, she LOVES it. She kept asking for more. And to my suprise, she is pretty good with it too. Maybe it's a girl's thing.....

Kiharu: "I like Hello Kitty"

Yoshi: "I don't like Hello Kitty. I like Shinkansen, cars, Ultraman...."

Kiharu: "すごい!!" ("wow")