日本人の新しいお友達：)/New friend from Japan:-)

毎週行く図書館でのお話読み聞かせのお陰で、最近アラバマ州から引っ越して来た日本人のママ、エリナさんとその娘サナちゃんに会う事が出来ました...：）サナちゃんはもうすぐ３才で会って直ぐマディソンと意気投合しちゃいました。これからお互いの事を知り合いながら遊べるのがとっても楽しみです：）
Thanks to our weekly Storytime at the library I was able to meet a Japanese mom and her daughter who had just moved from Alabama! Please meet Erina and her almost 3 year old daughter Sana...:-) We are very excited to spend more time with them and get to know each other:-)
マディソンの２才の誕生日プレゼントにリリーとグレースから貰ったおままごとのお茶セットですが、最近そのちっちゃいマグカップを使って上手にお水を飲むのが気に入っているマディソンです：）
Lily and Grace gave Madison a tea party set for her 2 year birthday. She loves to drink real water from her pretend tea cup:-)

Tuesday at Disneyland.../ディズニーランドへ行った火曜日...

Last Tuesday Anna and I decided to take advantage of a rare Tuesday without college and a half-day at my school to head to Disneyland of course!! With Madison-sitter extraordinaire Brian meeting us there, and smaller than usual crowds, we enjoyed short lines at all the rides...
先週の火曜日僕の大学院の授業が休みで学校も２時間早く終わったので、もちろんディズニーランドへ行く事にしました!!マディソンのお子守り役のブライアンも連れて、いつもより断然空いているディズニーランドで待ち時間はほとんど無しで、いろんな乗り物に乗る事がでしました...：）

We started at the ride that always has the longest wait...Toy Story Midway Mania...Brian sat with Madison allowing Anna and I to battle it out in the other car...FYI - Toy Story Midway Mania is a 3-D shooting game where you ride through carnival type games...Anna just barely defeated me.
まず最初に乗ったのはいつもとても待ち時間が長くファーストパスが出来ないトイストーリーマニア...ブライアンがマディソンと一緒に乗ってくれたので僕はアンナと真剣勝負...この乗り物は３Dのお祭りである射的ゲ−ムみたいなのなんだけど、アンナがギリギリで勝利。ガッカリ！

Anna and Brian went on the swings...Anna's stomach was not pleased!!
アンナが昔好きだったと言った回転ブランコみたいな乗り物にブライアンと一緒に...でもやっぱり気持ち悪くなったらしい!!

While walking around California Adventure we saw this "custodian" using his broom and water to spread cheer to all...
カリフォルニアアドベンチャーを歩き回っている時に、お掃除をしていた人がいきなりモップで何か描き始めた...ミッキーとグーフィーでした...

While Anna and I enjoyed Space Mountain, Madison enjoyed this weird fountain thing...
アンナとスペースマウンテンに乗っている間にマディソンはブライアンと一緒に変な玉で遊んでいた...
Bonus Video of Madison singing:
ボーナスビデオのマディソンが歌っている所：

日曜日の出来事.../Sunday happenings...

日曜日の朝、教会に行く用意をしている時にマディソンが母親なら一度ぐらい娘にして貰いたい事をしてくれました...ママのパンプスを履く事!!かわいい〜!!
On Sunday morning when we were about to leave for our morning worship service Madison did what many mothers look forward to their young daughters doing at one point... Tried on my heels!!
そして、教会の後ブライアンと一緒に２、３時間ディズニーランドに行ってきました。そして、せっかくマディソンのお子守りをしてくれるブライアンがいたので勇気を振り絞って恐怖のタワーに初めて挑戦する事に...何が起こるかわ言わないけど、とっても怖かった〜！だからこれが最初で最後かも...!?でもお昼が出て来なくて本当に良かったし終わった後もそんなに気持ち悪くなかったから、めでたしめでたし...今残るのはスクリーミンって言うローラーコースターだけ...：）そして、アリエルの乗り物がとうとう６月３日にオープンするのがとっても楽しみ：）東京ディズニーリゾートにも出来るのかな!?
Then after the worship service we visited Disneyland with Brian. Dave and I finally conjured enough courage to try the Tower of Terror while Brian watched Madison... I can't tell you the details but it was really scary and this may just be my first and last, but our picture came out nice especially the girl next to me is priceless! and she kind of looks like the big girl from Glee...
Is she? Anyways, I'm glad to report none of our Subway lunch came back up and we felt relatively good afterwards... Now I only have Screamin' to try, but that will have to wait for later...:-) Also we are anxiously waiting for the little Mermaid ride at California Adventure to open on June 3rd!

マディソンとベンジー.../Madison and Benji...

これは二日前のよるマディソンが寝る前にベビーカーを廊下で散歩して最後の体力を使っていた時に起こった出来事です...私達のアパートに来た事がある人はここがどんなに安全か知っていると思うけど、そのため私とデイブはマディソンを見ていなくてアパートの中にいたんだけど、急にお隣のおじいさんが笑っているのを聞いてまたマディソンが変な事しているのかなと思って出て行くとこんな事に...！
This happened two nights ago when we were letting Madison take her stroller out in the hall to walk around pre bed time to try to let her use up a bit more of her never ending energy... Well if you have been to our place you know how safe our floor is so we were actually nowhere near her and in our apartment... All of a sudden we heard our next door neighbor laughing so we came out to the hall to find this...!
どうやってこうなったのか誰も知る事は無いでしょう...マディソンが大好きなベンジーが空いているベビーカーに飛び乗って、マディソンがいつもぬいぐるみにする様にベルトをしてあげたのかベンジーのお父さんのジョンがしたのか...たぶんマディソンがベルトしたんだろうな〜...面白い事にベンジーは嬉しそうに座って出たがっていなかったのでマディソンがベンジーと廊下を少し歩き回る事が出来ました...：）
We don't quite know how it happened... Whether Benji, who loves Madison, hopped in the stroller and Madison buckled him in just like she does to all the stuffed animals she puts in there OR John(Benji's dad) thought it will be fun to put him in the stroller and buckle him in... We think the former... Cool part was that Benji was so happy to be in there being pushed around and looked quite comfy... So Madison pushed Benji down the hall a bit...:-)

そして、デイブの大学の最後の野球試合にマディソンを連れて一緒に行く事にしました...デイブはそこでインターンとして働かなきゃいけなかったので、試合開始の２時間前には集合時間、私はデイブを降ろしてからマディソンとTJMAXXまで買い物に行って、その後や球場の直ぐ近くにある公園で試合開始の時間までマディソンに遊ばせてあげる事にしました...最近とったも上手に滑り台が滑れる様になりました、このビデオが証拠：）
Then last night Dave had a baseball game to work at for Cal State Long Beach(his school) so we decided to tag along and try out what a college baseball game is like... Dave had to be there two hours before the start of the game so we dropped him off and went to TJ MAXX to do some shopping (I need to find her cute crocs in size6 if you must know...:-) And after not so successful shopping trip Madison played at a playground right by the baseball field... I don't remember if I ever showed you how good of a slider Madison has become so here is proof! This one she is sliding is for younger kids and I really like this because there isn't any big openings for her to fall off of and I can kind of watch her from a distance but she really likes the bigger kids' playground slides which has TONS of openings that would make me nervous...

パパの帽子をモデルしてくれたマディソン...いつもは帽子大嫌いなのに結構長く着ててくれました...：）ラッパーのマディソンです！
Madison is modeling Daddy's Dirtbags cap... We were really surprised she kept it on for a good minute or so...:-) Meet our Rapper!

ボーナス写真：先週久しぶりにメルトン夫妻と夕ご飯を一緒に食べる事が出来ました...前のポストでも話したと思うけどマディソンはグレースが大好きでこの日もグレースに絵本を読んでもらっていました...
Bonus Pictures: Last week we had the Melton's over for dinner which was so much fun... I think I mentioned this in my post before, but Madison really enjoys Grace's company so here the two are bonding together...

そして夕ご飯の後、パシを欲しがったマディソンを見て机の上にあったのをあげてくれたグレース、でもそのパシは変なキラキラが付いていたから後で洗おうと思って机の上に置いておいたんだ〜！それを言う前に貰って直ぐに口に入れてしまったマディソンの唇はキラキラのグリッターで覆われ結果!　この写真はほとんどのグリッターをとり終わった結果だからそんなに悪く見えないけど、本当にキラキラだった！
Then after the dinner Madison wanted her paci and Grace who was being helpful grabbed one sitting on the kitchen island which I had placed earlier when I noticed it had lots of glitter looking stuff and was planning on washing later... Well you know what happened, Madison put the paci in her mouth before I could stop her and ended up with very shiny lips! This picture was taken after I tried to scrape off most of glitter so doesn't look too bad but trust me, it was very shiny!

そしてこの写真は毎朝食べるヨーグルトを食べ終わった後の写真です...まだ結構大量に残っているんだけど本人は気づいてないらしい...：）
This picture was taken after Madison had finished her morning yogurt and decided to save some for later... we are thinking about sending it to the "Got Milk" people :-)

LA Galaxy Game

On Saturday Madison and I made our LA Galaxy game debut... Since Dave had to be there by 2:30pm to work the game and having only one car we had to tag along early and after dropping him off at the stadium we got to shop/nap at IKEA until it was go time...:-)

Madison didn't nap as long as I would have liked her to considering she would be staying up late that night but when she woke up she was ready to play in IKEA's children's department. And yes we were there quite a bit, but then I got to pick out a kids table and two chairs using the last of birthday money from G-pa and G-ma Klein...:-)

Madison is being silly at the kids area...

TA DA!! Madison's more sturdy set of table and chairs! It's hard to see in the picture but there are two animal emblems on the back of each chair and sooo cute! And we don't have to deal with Madison taking apart her plastic table and chairs, Yay!

We survived the two hours at IKEA plus 30 minutes of waiting in the Will Call line it's almost time to go in!!
Before the game we got to enjoy some free entertainment like soccer tricks by young boys and a DJ blasting dance music for Madison to dance to...:-)

Madison really got into the game and she even cheered A LOT! But her cheer would come out "Go GO Celtics!" so I just laughed and hoped people around us can't hear the last part...:-) Her favorite part of the game though was the goal celebration confetti! and since we scored 4 goals Madison got to enjoy a lot of confetti...:-) It was really cute but totally forgot to film or take a picture for you readers... Sorry!

Dave was able to check on us once in a while but after he was done handing out $100 flat screen TV coupons for the lucky section he was able to settle next to us for good. The best part of Saturday night was that we(especially Madison) got to see Daddy work:-) She seemed to know that he was working because she didn't get upset when Daddy had to go and pointed at all the players with LA Galaxy gears and called them Daddy...:-)

The "Frog" Word...

The day has come when we must worry what comes out of our sweet daughter's mouth... The "Frog" word... Since I have English as my second language a lot of times I can't tell if she is saying the word right when it comes to words that start with L or R and this word fits in this situation except a lot times it sounds like the word you must not say than a little green amphibian called Frog... Our worst fear is that she will all of a sudden scream "Frog" during Church and we would just pee in our pants... Figuratively... And yes she sometimes just blurt it out! I remembered a post our sister in law wrote in her blog about their daughter, Lily doing the same thing so we've been working on calling them "Froggy"... I hope this works!

On Monday Celtics had their 4th game against the Heat so three of us were all there cheering our hearts out but our best cheer award goes to Madison...:-)

Mother's Day/母の日

Today was technically Anna's 3rd Mother's Day, but the fact that it was the first one Madison could actually participate in made it a lot more fun...
今日は何と杏奈の３回目の母の日だったんだけど、マディソンが初めてちゃんと参加出来る事が出来て余計に良い母の日になりました...

This morning Madison and I made Mommy a nice hot bath to create a diversion for our sneaky plans. While Mommy was enjoying her bath, Madison and I snuck down to the garage and retrieved the flowers, balloon, card and gifts that I had purchased to and from my working at the thrilling L.A. Galaxy vs NY Red Bulls Major League Soccer Match last night...since we don't do many things without each other, this was my one chance to escape...
今朝マディソンと一緒にママにお風呂を用意してアパートから抜け出し母の日のお祝いの準備をする事が出来ました...まず昨日買っておいたお花とカードと風船を車まで持ちに行って準備オッケー...

After gathering the goods we went to the storage closet to wrap the gifts (another hazard of having a studio...no place to hide)...there we made sure we were ready to go...
荷物を車から取り出した後、倉庫に行ってプレゼントを包みリハーサル...

Just as planned, Mommy was out of her bath upon return and Madison marched the balloon and a flower to Mommy and told her Happy Mother's Day...in single coached words of course...but very clear and cute!!
計画した通りアパートに戻るとママはお風呂から出ていたのでマディソンが風船とお花を渡しながら“ハッピーマザーズデイ!!”って言う事なんとか成功!!　

Mommy's card gave her a menu of choices for the afternoon and she chose lunch at Downtown Disney and a stroll through Disneyland of course!! So after worship we took the short twenty minute drive to "The Happiest Place on Earth."
ママへのカードに今日したい事ブッフェを書いておいたんだけど、その中でママはもちろんディズニーランドを選択。教会の後２０分後には世界一幸せな場所へ到着...

Lunch in Downtown Disney was great. We tried out a pizza place called Naples and it was delicious...but nobody enjoyed it more than Madison...her big thing right now is to chomp on ice and chomp she did, but she also had a strawberry smoothie and many bites of funghi pizza. She sat in her seat the entire meal which is quite a feat for our little two year old bundle of energy!
お昼はいつも行きたいと思っていたネープルズって言う炭火焼ピザのレストラン...マディソンが最近ハマっている事は氷をカリカリ食べる事、だからストロベリースムージーを頼んでママと木の子のピザを分けてと、今日初めて最初から最後まで良い子の子供用の椅子に座ると言う事を達成した！バンザーイ！

After lunch we strolled into the park and picked up Mommy's complimentary carnation which Madison enjoyed.
お昼の後、ディズニーランドに入って母の日のカーネーションを貰ってご機嫌のマディソン。

Then we strolled down Main Street and quickly realized that this was a packed day. We paused long enough for a quick Mommy/Daughter picture
そして、メインストリートを歩いている途中で、母の日の母と子の写真を撮りました。そしてこの時とても混んでいる事にも気づいていた...

and then checked out the line for Pirates of the Caribbean and knowing we could walk on at other times, we turned around and headed out.
そして、金曜日に乗れなかったカリブの海賊に乗ろうとしたんだけど、とてもじゃないけど近づけないくらいの混雑を見てまた来る様にと来た道を戻る事に...

By now it was way past Madison's nap time, so we knew as soon as we got her in the car she would be out...we were right...she ended up sleeping from 4pm to 6pm so we didn't make it to evening worship and are bracing ourselves for a late night tonight with our beloved girl, but the longer the Mother's Day the better...I guess.
もうその時はマディソンのお昼寝の時間でもあったから、車に戻って直ぐ寝てしまった時間を利用してママはゆっくり買い物を楽しむ事が出来ました。結果として４時から６時までお昼寝をしたマディソン、これじゃあ今夜遅くなりそうだ...でも母の日が長く楽しめるんだからいっか：）

I would be remiss if I didn't pause here and utter a word about the usual author of this blog...the mother of the star of this blog...the lady who has selflessly taken time out of her career to raise our beloved daughter. When you think about the work of a mother, it is true what they say...it never ends. It makes us appreciate our own mother's all the more as well. I feel so blessed to have married a woman that can instill the values of a Christian woman in our daughter and also share her immense talents with her (ie: puzzle putting together and exceptional memory :-) Not only does Anna work all day with Madison, whose battery never stops (except for an afternoon nap), but she then goes right to work making incredible dinner after incredible dinner for her thankful family...what a woman!! Her thoughtful spirit is always thinking about inviting others over on the one night of the week we have free and I can think of no better role-model on this earth for my daughter to have then her mother...thank you baby!!
そして、せっかくの今日はいつもこのブログを書く人の事を話しておかないと...このブログの一番星、キャリアを一端中止して僕達の子供の面倒を見てくれているママ...母の仕事を良く考えると人が言うのは本当の事...母の仕事は終わらない。だから余計に僕達の母親に本当に感謝したい気持ちでいっぱいになる。僕は杏奈のような人と結婚する事が出来て本当に嬉しいです。もちろんパズルを簡単に出来たり記憶力が凄いのは杏奈のお陰...：）杏奈は一日中元気満々のマディソンの面倒を見ている(午後のお昼寝以外)けど毎日毎日とってもおいしい夕ご飯の仕度をしてくれて僕とマディソンは本当に感謝しています...すごい！僕はとても思いやりのある人が僕の娘のロールモデルになる母親で本当に嬉しいです...本当にありがとうベイビー!!

お得意パズル!/Puzzle Wizard!

私達の２才の娘はパズルがお得意になってきました... 一人目の子供で知らないだけで、２才の子なら出来て当たり前なのかもしれないけど、私達はいつも感心させられちゃいます...：）
Our two year old is becoming quite a puzzle wizard... and since we don't have any other child to compare her to this may be just a normal two year old ability, but we are easily impressed...:-)

金曜日の夜、ジムとアリソン達と先週達成したディズニーランドで１５時間以来初めて３人で行ってきました... やっぱり４人以内と寂しかったし記録は４時間半だけ、しかもカリブの海賊の列にいる時にマディソンのオムツ漏れ発生で少し早めにディズニーランドを後にする事に... それにしてもちょうど帰る時(８時頃)に来た大勢のお客さん達は何だったんだろう... まさか花火だけ見に来た人達だとは思えないけど...
On Friday night we visited Disneyland for the first time since the 15 hour record we achieved with Jim, Alyson, Lily and Grace last week... We missed them dearly and it wasn't the same but we had our 4.5 hours of fun which ended when Madison's leaky diaper got us out of line for the Pirates of the Caribbean... Because of the world premier of the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie taking place in DL on Saturday night(tonight), the area near the ride was really congested because of gigantic specially built orchestra seating so it was time to get home anyhow but what really confused us the most was that when we were exiting the park around 8:00 so many people were still coming in... I mean soooo many people! It would be too crazy to think all those people are there just to watch the fireworks, but I guess we will never know why...

ミッキーの家の中を通ってミッキーに会う事が出来ました...
We took a little tour of Mickey's house and was able to take a group picture with him...
マディソンの日本にいるじいじとばあばとあすかおばちゃんからの誕生日プレゼントの一つがこのとっても可愛いティーシャツ... オートピアの列に居る時撮った写真なんだけど、なぜか写真を撮るのが大変だった、私が立ったりしゃがんだりする度にマディソンが真似をしたから...
One of the birthday presents from Madison's grand parents and aunt Asuka from Japan was this really cute printed tee... I wanted to take a full body picture of her outfit yesterday while waiting in line for Autopia(which we found out she is tall enough to go on, Yay!) but she kept copying me so when I squatted to take a picture of her she would sit down... Sigh...

日本にいるじいじとばあばとあすかおばちゃんからの誕生日プレゼント.../Birthday Gifts from G-pa & G-ma in Japan...

マディソンの誕生日の次の日、日本にいるじいじとばあばとあすかおばちゃんが送ってくれたマディソンの誕生日プレゼントが届きました。デイブが家に着くなり早速開けて...：）
A day after Madison's official birthday a package from G-pa, G-ma and Aunt Asuka came in the mail so when Daddy got home we hurriedly opened the box...:-)

じいじとばあばからの手紙が入っていた封筒にミッキーの絵が書いてあったからマディソンはそれだけで大喜び...：）このビデオが証拠!
The birthday letter from G-pa and G-ma Iwai came in an envelope with Mickey on it so that made her day...:-) Here is proof!


そして、イカの姿フライをとっても気に入ってしまったマディソン...：）気持ち悪くないけどアリソンとデイブは絶対試してくれないだろうなー...まあ仕様が無い！

And Madison absolutely loves this squid snack...:-) Don't gross out people (especially Aunt Alyson!) It's really tasty:-) but I guess Daddy would want to disagree with us... Well, he hasn't tried it so no tasting no opinion! (editorial note: he has smelled it, and that is enough)

本当に美味しいのに...：）味見出来たら良いのにね!

It's really yummy...:-) Wish you can taste it!

今日のボーナス写真：誕生日の日の夜アイスクリームケーキを食べ終わって直ぐのマディソン...
Bonus Pic of the day: Right after she had her birthday ice cream cake she went a little crazy...

2才のお誕生日おめでとうマディソン!!/Happy 2nd Birthday Madison!!

今日はマディソンの２才の誕生日の日です。そして、今日はアイダホクラインの最後の日、ベガスに向けて出発する前に一緒にお祝いをする事が出来ました...：）
Today we were able to celebrate Madison's official 2nd birthday with our Idaho family before they moved onto their next destination of Las Vegas...:-)

２年前の今日朝１１時１９分マディソン　イワイ　クラインが生まれました...
3147gと47.6cmの元気な赤ちゃん!!
2 years ago at 11:19am Madison Iwai Klein came to this world...
6lb 15oz and 18.75" healthy baby!!
こんなに小さかったなんて信じられない!
I can't believe how tiny she was!
そして去年の今日初めてのケーキを食べました...：）
A year ago, Madison enjoyed her first cake...:-)
１才検診も異常なし!
1 year check up checked out great!
ショートヘアがとっても可愛かったな〜!やっぱり赤ちゃんは髪伸びるのが早い：）
She had such a cute boy short hair! Can't believe how much her hair has grown in a year:-)
だって最近はこんなに長〜い！
Madison's hair is sooo long today!
ミッキーとお茶を飲んでいるマディソン...：）
Madison enjoyed having a tea party with her buddy Mickey...:-)
可愛すぎて見とれていたので少しビデオ撮るの遅くなっちゃったけどミッキーに自分のミルクをあげているマディソン...：）キュート！！
We may have been a little slow to start filming since we just wanted to enjoy the cutest moment but Dave and I got to see Madison talking to Mickey as she fed Mickey a bottle of milk...:-)

私達の住んでいるマンションの責任者シェリルが凄い良い人で住んでいる人全員(大人)の誕生日の日にカードと風船をくれるんだけど、マディソンは特にシェリルのお気に入りなので特別にお届け物が届いていました!
Our building director Sheryl gives every resident(mostly adults) a birthday card and balloons on their birthday and since she really likes Madison she got one also this morning!

そして教会に行く前に特別にママとパパからのプレゼントを開けさせてあげる事に...新しい絵本をミサの間に読める様に...もうすっかりプレゼント開けるの得意になりました!
And we gave her a couple of birthday presents to open so she can take her new books to read at Church... She is getting pretty good at opening presents now!

教会に行く前にいとこのお揃いドレスの写真を最後に撮る事にしました...グレースがいつも通りモデルやる気マンマン...：）
Before we left for Church we had our last matching dress photo session... Grace again wins the best model award...:-)

マディソンの誕生日ケーキはもちろんアイスクリームケーキ...：）
Her birthday cake is of course ice cream cake(white with Cookies'n Cream)...:-)

With this being Madison's second cake in a week she got really good at saying "More cake please" in her super cute Madison voice. She also kept saying "Happy Day" instead of Happy Birthday which was stupendous!!

最近自分で全部食べるって言うのが流行っているマディソン、でも結構上手でしょ：）
She is all about feeding herself lately and you know what? she does pretty good:-)

誕生日おめでとうマディソン!!毎日毎日マディソンがすくすく育っているのを見られるのがとっても嬉しいよ！でもそんなに急がなくていいんだからね：）愛してるよマディソン！
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!! WE LOVE YOU AND WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE WATCHING YOU GROW AND LEARN NEW THINGS TO DO EVERY DAY! BUT PROMISE YOU WON'T GROW UP TOO FAST, PRETTY PLEASE!?