Windy day at the beach!
Finley decided that he wanted to film with the camera.
Finterception (by nnnnic)
Oregon Trip!! 2
At OMSI, we missed their Space exhibition by a day, but we had fun meeting Samson, the T-Rex…
…making and flying a paper airplane.
… and Finley was even engaged in a space mission at one point.
And the day before we left, we went to visit Astoria, where the Goonies was filmed(yes, this was more for us, and we were soooo excited! Just showing off some photos here :-p)
It was such a fun trip, and thank you Rex and Diana for showing us around and putting up with a crazy bunch, which is a cranky baby, a neurotic dog, and clumsy and tired first-time parents! It was Finley’s first time to take a road trip, and it wasn’t easy, but hopefully this won’t be the last and he will get used to it.
In fact, he helped Nic with some of the driving on the way home, so it’s a good sign, right?
Oregon Trip!! 1
We went to Portland, OR, last week to visit our friends Rex and Diana, and it was the first family trip(Rupi came with us) for us. I started writing this post, and I realized I have too many pictures that I wanted to post, so I decided to do this in two posts. I must warn you that these posts are long and have lots of pictures…
The drive took about 10-12 hours, and the scenery was just absolutely gorgeous.
Their house was beautiful, and Finley particularly loved the windows, and he would just stand and watch whatever was going on outside.
And that, of course, included watching their dogs, Tora and Dexter…
When the boys had a skateboarding day, Diana took us to have a tasty lunch at Thai restaurant…
and had a latte at Stumptown, and cruised in huge Powell’s City of Books.
He was crankier and fussier than usual during this trip, and we thought it was from the long drive and being in the car seat. But we found out that it was from another tooth coming in. 
And it looks a lot bigger than the bottom ones. The bigger the tooth is, the crankier he gets?
To be continued….
Chomp Chomp!
About a week ago, we noticed that his two front bottom teeth came in. So, we took pictures.
And past few days, they became more visible, so we have been trying to take more pictures, but no luck on close ups. This is the best we could do and the only pic we got out of few days of trying.
He looks pretty cute with them, and they look pretty cute in him, but they have been leaving bite marks on everything including us. I thought pinching and pulling were bad, but biting is pretty bad too! I hope him biting things because of teething wouldn’t sharpen those teeth more….
1週間程前に下の前歯が2つとも出てきた事に気づいて、写真を撮っておいた。あれからもう少しずつ目立つようになってきたので、またまた写真を撮ろうと数日前から二人で奮闘したけど、よく動くのとカメラの調子が悪いので、1つ目のようなアップの写真どころか普通の？写真にも苦戦。上の写真1枚撮るのがやっとでした。笑ったり、叫んだりして口を開けた時に見えるのがすごいかわいいんだけど、私たちの顔、手足を含めた色んな物に歯形を残し始めた。つねられたり、引っ張られたりも痛かったけど、これも相当痛い。固いものを噛んで更にあの小さな歯を尖らせないといいんだけどな。
Happy Children’s Day
I am sorry people who look forward to catching up with what’s going on with Finley, for not updating this blog for a long time. I have been kept busy by super mobile Finley.
Anyways, May 5th is Children’s Day in Japan, and it is also the day to wish for boys’s (for girls, March 3rd). People celebrate the day by putting carp streamers up in polls, and displaying ceremonial helmets and armors for a few weeks. And thanks to my parents, Finley got his helmet and carp streamers, and we set them up to celebrate the day.
They are so beautiful and I am grateful that we could celebrate the day for Finley like this in the US, and we wanted to show them off here. The little wooden board in front of the helmet says “Congratulations on the First Boys’ Celebration, Makoto (Finley’s Japanese Middle Name), born in September 28th 2009.” How awesome is that!! Thank you Grandpa Shigeru and Grandma Etsuko!
フィンリーの様子を読むのを心待ちにしている皆様、ここのところブログの更新を怠ってしまってすみません。ハイハイ、伝え歩きができるようになって毎日私達の方がヘトヘトにされてしまっています。それはさておき、今日は子供の日&眞の初節句の写真です。日本のお祖父ちゃんとお祖母ちゃんがわざわざ兜と鯉のぼりを用意して送ってくれたので飾っていたのを、こどもの日に記念に写真を撮りました。もう結構動き回れるので、写真撮影に思ったより一苦労。でも、アメリカでこんな素敵な兜と鯉のぼりを飾ってきちんとお祝いする事が出来て、感謝感激でした。これからも元気に育って欲しいものです。茂お祖父ちゃん、悦子お祖母ちゃん、どうもありがとう！
Play Pals (4-3-2010)
Finley and Rupi played together for the first time last weekend!!
Usually, Finley would pull Rupi’s hair and skin, or Rupi would lick Finley or smell his diaper, but interacting each other like this was first, and it was pretty cute!
先週末、フィンリーとルーピーが初めて、ほんの少しだけど、一緒に遊んだ。
今までフィンリーがルーピーの毛をつかんだり引っ張ったりとか、ルーピーがフィンリーをなめたりオムツのにおいをかんだりっていうのはあったけど、お互いに意識し合って遊んだ事はこれが初めてで、これからこうやって一緒に遊ぶようになるんだなーとわくわくしてきた。
Play Pals from finleysaurus on Vimeo.
Finley’s First Food (3-28-10)
Finley turned 6 months old on 28th, so we fed him baby food for the first time. We used the wooden bowl and the wooden spoon that my cousins gave us as Finley’s baby gift. They are so beautiful that it almost made me cry the first time I saw them.
Thank you, Nomura Sisters! I made dry baby cereal with breast milk and formula, and Finley had to knocked it over first and made a mess on the tray. 
And it was amazing to me that he opened his mouth to the spoon and the cereal like he knew it was something to eat even though he had never seen it and done this before.
That doesn’t mean he liked it, and I do feel bad for him that he can’t start eating something super tasty right away.
And thank you, Auntie Shigeko for the bib!
Finley’s First Food (3-28-10) from ayako couillard on Vimeo.
28日にフィンリーが６ヶ月になったので、離乳食を始める事にした。
使ったのは従姉妹たちがお祝いでくれた木の器とスプーン。金で名前が入っていて始めて見た時は感動して泣きそうになったので、使うのがもったいない気もしていたけど、やっぱり初めてのお食事こそはこれを使わなきゃ！と心を鬼にして使いました。なっちゃん、よりちゃん、ありがとう！最初はおかゆをと思っていたけれど、色々読んだらどうやら赤ちゃんは鉄分が必要で、アメリカのbaby cerealは鉄分も他の栄養素も含めて作ってあると言う事で、それに母乳または粉ミルクを足してお粥っぽくする方に決定。あんまり美味しそうじゃないけどね。ちょっと気を抜いた瞬間、早速器に手を伸ばしてトレイにこぼしちゃったため、一応作りたし。びっくりしたのはこの食べ物見るのも初めてだしスプーンから食べるという行為も初めてなのに、ちゃんと口を開けて食べようとした事。やっぱりわかるのかな、人間の本能みたいなもので。顔をしかめながらまずそうに食べててちょっとかわいそう。美味しい物から食べ始める事が出来たらいいのにね。
しげちゃん、よだれかけ有り難う！お嬢様方の器、スプーンと一緒に早速使わせていただきました！
2-19-10
Finley can give you a lesson of how to beat up your dad today.
今日はフィンリーがお父さんをぼこぼこにする方法教えます。
Kick in the stomach お腹に蹴り
Grab his nose 鼻をわし掴み
Pinch him as hard as you can 渾身の力を入れてつねる
We went to get Finley’s passport photo at Walgreens, and it didn’t go so well. I think he is at the stage that he cries when he sees stranger, so when a photo lady tried to take his photo, he started crying and couldn’t stop crying. We decided to take a break and walked around the store, but when we got back, he started crying again. We got two sets at the end, but he has red eyes in both of them.
Walgreensにフィンリーのパスポートの写真を撮りに行ってきました。どうやら見知らぬ人を見ると泣いちゃう頃のようで、係の人を見て泣き始めてずっと泣きっぱなし。一回休みをとって店中を歩いて回ったけど、戻ったらまた泣き始めてしまいました。結局２セット一応もらってきたけど、両方とも目が赤い写真になってしまいました。
