Finleysaurus

Windy day at the beach!

Sun, 20 Feb 2011 18:26:14 -0800

Windy day at the beach!

Finley decided that he wanted to film with the...

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:07:00 -0700

Finley decided that he wanted to film with the camera.

Finterception (by nnnnic)

Oregon Trip!! 2

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:06:27 -0700

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

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:12:43 -0700

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!

Tue, 25 May 2010 11:07:01 -0700

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

Tue, 11 May 2010 11:48:30 -0700

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)

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:19:00 -0700

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)

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:24:00 -0700

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

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:08:00 -0800

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...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:47:40 -0800

From the first session

After a little break

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。

1-28-10

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:46:48 -0800

Today was Finley’s 4months birthday. Wee wee! And we had Finley’s Okuizome ceremony on 26th. Okuizome is a Japanese ceremony that people have when a baby turns 100 days old or 120 days old, and it is to wish so that the baby would always have food for the rest of his life. We are supposed to prepare certain kinds of food, and we pretend to feed the baby those in certain order. I prepared an oven roasted whole Tai (sea bream), red bean rice, clear clam soup, cooked vegetables, cooked spinach, sour plums, and pickled daikon radish. And since we don’t have any older relatives nearby, I and Nic fed him in turn. It was kinda fun!

今日でフィンリーも４ヶ月。あっという間です。２６日の夜はフィンリーのお食い初めをしました。インターネットのどこかで見かけ、生後１００日または１２０日とあったので、またまたインターネットで調べ大安の２６日何とかやってみました。メニューは生まれて初めて作った鯛のお頭付きの塩焼き、お赤飯のもとを使って白米のお赤飯、蛤もどきの貝のお吸い物、野菜の煮物、ほうれん草のおひたし、大根のお漬け物（写真には無し）と梅干しでした。何とかできてよかった。年長の家族に来てもらえるわけでもないので、私とニックで代わりばんこでやりました。結構面白かったし、その内こうやってフィンリーも食卓を囲むのかとワクワク。

Okuizome 1-26-10 from ayako couillard on Vimeo.

P.S.

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:14:48 -0800

While uploading the video, I heard Finley crying, so went to check up on him. This is how I found him….

I guess he got the hang of it now.

ビデオをアップロード中にフィンリーの泣き声がしたので行ってみたら、こんな（上写真）ことになっていた。1回できたらもうやりたい放題ということなのかな？これから大変そうですね。

01-14-10

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:02:22 -0800

It’s been a while since the last post, and I just realized that my last post from Denver Airport didn’t make it here. I don’t know where it went. Anyways, Finley just rolled over tonight!!! He has been working on it for about 1-2 weeks, and he finally did it! The best thing was that I and Nic both got to watch it happen. I think he is still having issues with his arm tucking in, but I hope I can post a video of him rolling over here soon. For today, here is a video of him laughing. He started laughing a few days ago!

前回の更新から大分ご無沙汰してしまいましたが、久しぶりに来てみてDenver AirportからiPhoneを使ってしたはずのポストがない事を発見。なんでだろう？？それはさておき、なんと今晩ついにフィンリーが初の寝返りに成功！！！ここ1−2週間頑張っていたけど、ついにやりました。そして二人ともその場で目撃できたのも感激です。まだ腕を上手く曲げ込むのに手間取っているけど、ビデオに収めるのもそれほどかからないでしょう。というわけで、今回は２、３日前に撮った笑ってる所のビデオを載せます。数日前から笑い始め、頑張って毎日笑いを誘って（？）みています。私たちが笑うと笑うみたい。

01-10-10 Laugh from ayako couillard on Vimeo.

12-21-09

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:10:00 -0800

Some of the activities from today…

First, he had a tummy time, and he held up his head pretty good. I say this is the first time to hold it this up right since we started tummy time with him! I got so excited that I cheered for him. haha

Although, he started holding up his head since a few days after he was born like this….

Anyways, and then, he got busy sucking on his fingers.

Finger Eater 12-21-09 from ayako couillard on Vimeo.

And to make lunch, we decided to try out a baby carrier(onbu himo) that my mom and my sister got for me.

He was fussy first, but then fell asleep. That means he is ok with this carrier, right?

今日は幾つもお見せする物があります。まずは、今朝のうつぶせの写真。お医者さんから起きてる時にうつぶせにして遊ばせるようにと言われたものの、しょっ中吐くようになってしまったためにしばらく遊ばせるのをやめていた。最近また始めた所、今朝はきちんと頭を持ち上げた！！生まれて数日後から頭を持ち上げはしていたけど、うつぶせで遊ばせるようにしてからはこんなにしっかり持ち上げたのは初めてだと思う。思わず興奮して声援を送ってしまった。

数週間前から自分の指や手を吸い始め、最近はその頻度も時間も増えてきた。一旦吸い始めると夢中で吸っている。しかも時々授乳中もミルクから一休みして自分の指を吸ったりすることも。

そして、ランチの支度には先日母と妹が送ってくれたおんぶ紐を試す事に。最初はむずかっていたけど、結局はだらーんとぶら下がりながら寝てしまった。ということはフィンリーにはOKをもらえたということかな。フィンリーがしっかり入ってくれてるみたいで安心できるけど、まだ肩紐とかの調節要です。でも、とっても便利です。有難うございました。

Coffee break

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 16:40:36 -0800

Coffee break

This is Finley’s second trip on BART to SF. He got fussy,...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:02:00 -0800

Fussy boys

Amazed by BK burger ad

This is Finley’s second trip on BART to SF. He got fussy, so we had to get him out of the stroller.

私のパスポートをとりに、フィンリーの2回目のSF。今回の帰りは中々落ち着かないので、ついにベビーカーから救助となりました。

workout time on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:39:48 -0800

workout time on Vimeo (via Vimeo)

Conversation with Daddy 12-14-09

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:54:00 -0800

Conversation with his Daddy 12-14-09 from ayako couillard on Vimeo.

We finally got to film Finley talking to us! We had to film it from the side, and it is hard to see his face, but this is the only way to do it so that he doesn’t see the camera. He loves talking to his Daddy like this every night.

ついにフィンリーの話している様子を撮影するのに成功。正面からだとどうしてもカメラを見てしまって話してくれないので、横からでしか撮れないのが残念だけど、撮りたいから仕様がない。一日数回はこんな調子で私達と話をしてくれます。毎晩お父さんとこうして会話するのが日課です。

I could stare at this all day…

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:53:03 -0800

I could stare at this all day…

Smile (Jedi Style)

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:14:05 -0800

Finley started smiling a lot more. I wasn’t sure if he was really smiling or it was because of gas, but since last week, we can tell that he started really smiling and laughing, and it’s awfully cute.

He started talking a lot too. We have been trying to get that on video, but as soon as we start filming, he stares at the camera and stops talking. Oh, well. Anyways, I posted a few more videos at http://vimeo.com/user2723312/videos.

フィンリーが前よりずっと笑うようになってきた。ちょっと前まではガスのせいなのか、本当に私たちに反応して笑うのか微妙だったけど、先週ぐらいからこれは私達に笑ってるんだ！と確信が持てるようになってきた。話すというか声を出すのも先週から断然増えてきた。頻度も長さも増してきて、ものすごくかわいいし楽しい！話してる様子をビデオに撮ろうとするのだけれど、撮り始めるとカメラをじーっと見つめるのに夢中で話すのやめてしまう。ってなわけで、あんまり撮れていないのだけれど、上のリンクにまたビデオをアップしたので、時間、興味のある方はどうぞ。