Kokochi

Happy New Year!

Continuing with the fun in making our family holiday card, here's our 2nd. Have a wonderful new Rat year!

More Teslas

When we named Tesla, we discovered via Flickr that there was another Tesla girl, much older than our Tesla but with the same birthday! Then a few months ago, we heard about a new baby named Tesla in a friends of friends' social circle (we wonder if they heard about our Tesla and liked the name...). This morning, Dav found a Tesla in Second Life who sells hats and shoes. I hadn't heard of Tesla before naming our Tesla. Lately, we hear more and more about the inventor, the car, and the name. Now that our Tesla is Tesla, the name fits her perfectly, and it's rather neat to see how she and the name evolve.

Thoughts about gifts...

Giving gifts is a wonderful thing. And there is nothing better than finding the perfect gift that you know the recipient will love. Receiving is also special. I love using items given to me because they have more meaning to me. But both Dav and I don't like the pressure to give because of a holiday. Like Dav, I don't want to buy something just because I feel obligated to. I still tend to get into gift traditions though as I don't want to disappoint people, yet I have conflicted feelings. In addition, as the environment and my actions that affect it become more important, I cringe at all the wrapping paper, and stuff. Nice, fun stuff, but still stuff that we probably wouldn't have if there wasn't the gift-giving tradition around the holidays (that is commercially-driven). I don't want to seem ungrateful as I totally appreciate people thinking of us. But again, I feel conflicted. This year I decided to try something new. For a few for whom I did want to give gifts, like my niece and nephew, I bought them donations. So the money I would have used to buy something that may or may not have pleased them (I've goofed up before on buying items that weren't hip and in) went to a cause I believe in. I could feel good about giving such a gift. I decided on the World Wildlife Fund. It was perfect because with the donations, I got nice cards that I could send to my recipients, and with that card, they could go to the website and decide which animal to support, AND they could get a cute stuffed animal along with an informational card about the animal. For children, it's nice they still get a little something. I also bought a few of donations from Oceana, and sent penguin cookie cutters that came with the donations. I think I will give such donations increasingly. If I find gift things that are useful and perfect, great. If not, I will give a donation.

Opening gifts

As most know, we don't do traditional Christmas celebrations. I do a tiny bit of decoration because it's fun and festive, but I don't buy a tree or have a whole box of decorations. The only thing we do is make and send out holiday cards. Overall, we simply enjoy the time off to relax and be together - and love how the city gets all quiet. With Tesla, however, it's changing. She still has no idea what's going on, but I felt the urge to get in the spirit for her sake. Plus, we received many presents this year, mostly for Miss T. So I decorated our palm tree under which we placed the gifts. And to play along, I waited until the 25th to open them (I say 'I' because Dav really doesn't care). We started the morning with french toast and mimosas. Then sat around and made a big fun mess in the living room. We pretty much had to open T's presents for her, but she's been slowly inspecting her new goods. Tesla got a star named after her! She got a pink poodle outfit that included poodle wings (?). I put the wings on T, but she kept turning, trying to grab them off. Maybe later...She also got her very first baby doll from Kennedy Obaachan. I got a wacky hat from bro & family. I giggled thinking how they thought of me when they saw that hat! It's a bit big so I had Dav try it on, who said he'd gladly wear it and I'm sure he will. We each got fancy bento boxes from my parents - mine comes with a special container that keeps the rice warm. Gotta make more bentos! And finally, the aftermath from the morning...it was a perfect morning. Then we went strolling around Fisherman's Wharf. Happy Holidays!

A sentence!

Tesla has been babbling for quite some time. Her babbling sounds like full-blown conversations, but we don't understand much yet. We try to engage with responses such as, "is that so? then what happened?" but aren't sure if we make sense to her either. She has been increasingly saying recognizable words though. And this morning, when UPS dropped off a box, she pointed to the box and clearly said, "what's that?" Wow! I hugged her. She's just beginning to use a few Japanese words. I'll be thrilled when she says her 1st sentence in Japanese.

new neighborhood park

This park on Arkansas St. is next to the Potrero Hill Recreation Center, and was recently renovated. This gives Potrero Hill 3 distinct and quite nice parks for kids to play in. This one clearly has the best views. Tesla can be in the swing, and we can both see the city, the bay bridge, and the bay. Nice. 2nd pic is of Tesla going down the slide carefully (especially after this at another park). Random but apt words inlaid in the grounds.

new hair

I was on a long stint growing my hair long. Especially with pregnancy, and even after, my hair was different and seemed more conducive than before to being long. But I just got bored. And I kept putting up my hair so what was the point? Like many of my decisions, I felt it coming...I pondered and wondered which way to go and what I really wanted. Then last week, I just felt it, and immediately called a salon near work known for its very good cuts. I have a regular place I go to, but because I wanted something totally different, I wanted to try a new place too. I was not disappointed. They spent quite some time discussing and planning with me. At first, my hair was cut longer, but I said I wanted "change," so they cut more. I rarely care this much about my hair, but I love it! And a day later (after the beautiful finish by the pros has washed away), I still love it. The place is Grasshopper in South Park. Yes, I recommend it. A bit pricey, but worth it!

忘年会 - bonenkai

We hosted a 忘年会 - bonenkai - chez nous. It is when you gather with various groups of friends or co-workers to say farewell to the year. Or forget the year. Living in Japan, you'd usually have many of these to go to from all your social circles. With Tesla, I'm happy to host, but requested it to be pot-luck style, which is not a Japanese concept, but it worked well. We had tons of yummy home-made food! Beau and Garth brought an amazing array of stuff for sushi, and Beau created beautiful platters to present it all. Folks who had never been to our house came, and our neighbor Jeremy joined. I contributed nabe. Being a 6A 忘年会, we pulled up flickr photos tagged with 6A, and watched ourselves :) We had a decent but tame aftermath of wine and sake bottles. It was definitely a pleasure to 久しぶりに have a 6A gang over. p.s. It's tradition to also have a 新年会 - shinnenkai - a party to welcome the new year. Japanese love to gather and party!

Visiting SF Zoo

'Tis the holidays and I'm thoroughly enjoying just being home with Dav and Tesla, doing a little this and that, and not much more. But I did want to post some pics from a visit to the zoo from last Friday, my day off from work. I went with just T. Definitely worth it, but after a few hours (when I was right smack at the far end of the zoo), Tesla got antsy. She didn't want to be in the stroller, and if I let her walk, she walked the wrong way. So I had to carry her back to the exit, which was quite far, while pushing the stroller. It was work for mama! But showing animals to Tesla was worth it. And although I dislike zoos, with the current rate of environmental destruction of animal habitat, I have a new appreciation.In this picture, T was looking at some monkeys, totally getting into it. Picture on the right was her seeing penguins for the first time. The penguin group was actually really loud and stinky, so that all probably got her attention. This picture was the lowest point for me...seeing a beautiful lion couple in a cage. Granted they had a door to an outside big pen, for whatever reason were stuck indoors. So magnificent. They just did not belong in a cage at all. There were several indoor cages with other lions. After I left that area, I heard a huge roar and was quite bummed I wasn't inside when that happened, although I have no idea how T would have reacted. Pic on the right is T seeing flamingos for the first time. Such quirky birds! We got to see various large birds being fed by the keepers. The owl, waiting for her turn, was mesmerizing. I got to see her turn her head completely backwards. Such a starer! T and I both saw a hawk get its lunch - a mouse - up close. I turned away several times as it ripped the mouse apart, but knowing I don't get to see this everyday, I tried my best to experience it. [Click on picture to see details.] The most fun part was a petting area with donkeys, pigs, chickens, and goats. T was pretty intrigued by all of that, and me too. I think being able to touch the animals made a big difference for T. The last pic is of a tiger - not in the petting area, of course. Very beautiful to see, but sad as it seemed like the tiger would want to run a bit and there was no space. Like the lions, I couldn't help but see the tiger in a prison-like situation. Not a fun sight. Overall, it was good. Since I can't go to Africa often, I will go to the zoo again, and maybe even get a membership. T already shows quite a liking to cats and especially dogs (interesting since we don't have a dog), and I definitely want her to experience and love animals.

hairdo

Last Wednesday, the day T goes to another house for a nanny-share, Dav picked her up with this cutie hairdo. I dunno what happened since daddy picked her up. Somehow the nanny got inspired to try this hairdo on T. I loved it, and was more interested in getting a decent picture of T during dinner time than making sure more food went in her mouth than on the floor. p.s. This particular nanny-share is a temporary situation until mid-January. Granny will continue with 3x/week, so we are looking into a group daycare place that accepts 1x/week. It's actually hard as most daycares want at least a 3x/week commitment. We've visited a few places that are flexible...and it's really weird to think of dropping off Tesla at these places. I think it'll be more of a transition for mommy than T. I know she is quite ready for group play...