January Update/１月報告

One week after we came back from an arctic East Coast, we headed down to Sunny San Diego to meet up with Robert, Holly, Carter and Grant who had a two day lay over in San Diego on their way to their vacation in Hawaii:-)
とっても寒い東海岸から帰って来た１週間後、ハワイへ家族旅行の途中で飛行機乗り換えのため２日間サンディエゴに滞在するロバートとホーリー一家に会いに行って来ました。

This month Violet started her solids and so far loved everything we've given except Avocado just like her big sister... Only difference is when we gave avocado to Madison her face expressed Yucky! but Violet's face was of a confused look like what did you just put into my mouth!? She liked it after I mixed it with some broccoli puree though:-)

１月からバイオレットの離乳食を開始、今の所口に入れた途端に変な顔をしたのはアボカドだけで、それ以外は美味しそうに食べてくれてます：）アボカドが嫌いなのは誰かさん(マディソン)とそっくり：）

We really enjoyed the warm winter weather here in So Cal while we were sorry the rest of the country suffered and struggled with crazy winter storms... Spent some time on a Tennis court and our little girl is getting better and better with her hits and for some reason really enjoys being a ball girl so Dave and I get to enjoy some Tennis also...

アメリカ中過去に起こった事が無いくらいの極寒豪雪気候に困っている中とっても天気の良い南カリフォルニアにいる私達は外に出ていい気候を満喫(すみません...)。マディソンは練習する度にとってもテニス上手になっています、しかもボール拾いも好きなのでデイブと私がテニスする間とっても助かります：）ありがとうマディソン！

Dave's 35th Birthday fell on MLK's day this year so no work, Hooray! So we headed to Sunset Beach to spend a lovely morning together before we came home for our birthday steak dinner and homemade ice cream birthday cake dessert:-)

デイブの３５才の誕生日は好都合にこっちは休日、なのでクライン家はサンセットビーチでのんびりな午前中を過ごし、家に帰ってお祝いのステーキご飯とアイスクリームケーキ：）誕生日おめでとうデイブ！

 

 I wanted to post this picture because if you click on the picture and get a larger view of it you can see Violet's lips forming a perfect heart!

この写真をクリックして大きくするとバイオレットの唇が完璧なハート型になっているのが見えるでしょ：）とってもかわいい。

This month we had to say good-bye to my Grand-pa Iwai in Japan on January 17th. He was 10 days short of his 92nd Birthday... Unfortunately the last time I got to see and talk to him was three years ago when I went back to Japan with 1 year old Madison so it's been a long time.  He was one of those quiet grand-pas that smiles a lot and says very little. He was a skilled plumber and after he retired from that job he became a mail delivery person until he retired the second time. He LOVED spending time in his beautiful flower garden behind my parent's house and yes he had many Bonsai trees:-) A lot of my memory of him takes place in that garden, him and a pruning scissors. The back of my parents' house opens up to the garden, so growing up I would come home from school and eat my snacks from the sunny sitting area and watch him tend to his flowers. Once in a while g-ma would join me and this was the time he was most chatty talking about each flower...
１月１７日にお爺ちゃんが９１才で亡くなりました。あと１０日で９２才の誕生日だったそうです。アメリカに住んでいてなかなか日本に帰って来れないので最後にお爺ちゃんと話したのは３年も前。私のおじいちゃんとおばあちゃん４人の中で一番静かで口数少なく、でもいつもニコニコしている人でした。庭にある花や盆栽の手入れが大好きで、家の窓際に座ってお爺ちゃんが庭で水くれするのをおやつ食べながら見ていた記憶が沢山あります。

Because I've only been told about him passing and how the funeral was, it probably won't fully sink in until we go back to Japan this Summer. I wish I could have been there to say good bye to him, but I was told so many people came to pay respects that they couldn't all fit inside the funeral home... Hearing that gave me some peace during this sad time:-)
やっぱり家族からお爺ちゃんが亡くなった事やお葬式の事を聞いているだけだから、実感は半分ぐらいです。でも、沢山の人達がお爺ちゃんのお葬式に来てくれたんだよって聞いて、とっても嬉しい気持ちです。

This picture was taken for their 50th anniversary and I must say they do look great:-)
この写真はおじいちゃんとおばあちゃんの金婚式の記念の写真です：）

Dave and I were talking about what we can do to memorialize him here and we were going back and forth with the idea to plant some of his favorite flowers then a sweet couple from Church gave us a card and a gift certificate for a nursery we frequent so we can buy his favorite flower and plant it. Wow how so nice of them! so one Saturday morning we visited the nursery and were able to find the Japanese Peony and Azalea in memory of him and plant them in the sunniest spot in our yard.
ちょうどデイブとお爺ちゃんの祈念として庭にお爺ちゃんの大好きな花を植えようと話し合っていた頃に、教会からの知り合いの夫妻が花を買う様にってお金をくれたので、早速その土曜日に大好きなへ植物園へ行って来て、庭で一番日当りの良い所に植えました。
お爺ちゃんの大好きな牡丹とツツジ科サツキです。

 

Goodbye to Jones Beach

Saturday we tried to get in one last day at Jones Beach and were very saddened to find out that once the lifeguards stop working they post swimming prohibited signs and make it illegal to go in the water...Anna was fine with reading her book and Madison got a great nap in as always, but the water was still warm enough to go into and I was so bummed (still am) that I wasn't able to get back out there...luckily the waves weren't good at all so that helped the healing process, but I am trying to figure out how far south we need to drive to find water we are allowed to go in because that might be next weekends adventure :-)

ついに到着!!/They are finally here!!

土曜日：
今日はお母さんとあすかの来る日、外は少し小雨で寒い秋のような日。まず朝マディソンとパネラブレッドまで明日の朝用のベーグルを買いに散歩がてら行ってきました。デイブはマディソンが居ない隙に家で学校のクラスの準備の続き...予定だと３０分ぐらい早く着陸するみたいだったから２時ぐらいに家を出発。少し迷ったあげくやっとお母さん達の出てくるゲートについた後３０分ぐらい待ったら...
Saturday:
Today was the day that my Mom and Asuka landed. It was a little rainy out, but Madison and I decided to take an early morning walk to Panera Bread to get some bagels for tomorrow's breakfast and also allowing Daddy to work on his lessons for school the next week. We checked the flight status and saw it was arriving a half hour early so we left around 2:00pm and after a little tour of JFK we got to the correct gate and still had a half hour to wait until the magical inspection doors opened on my family!
Here you can see Madison is eagerly awaiting the arrival of her grandma and aunt about ten minutes before they arrive...
お婆ちゃんとあすかおばちゃんを１０分前ぐらいまでちゃんと起きて待っているマディソンだったのに...

In this video you can see that Madison could not make it :-)　
見ての通り待ちきれなかったマディソン：）　　

Still sleeping, even though sitting up...impressive!
座っているのにまだ寝ちゃってる...すごい！

Some airport pics
空港で...

3 generations in the Airtran...
モノレールの中で、３世代...

All of our goodies brought from Japan...one very large, very heavy suitcase full!
１つ持って来たスーツケースは全部お土産でいっぱい!!

This was not planned.
家にあった英語版とお母さん達が持って来てくれた日本語版。

The sisters read to Madison.
マディソンに読み聞かせ。

I think Madison is doing that sitting sleep thing again...still impressive.
あれれ、また座ったまま寝ちゃってるのかな？

Sunday:
Even though Japan is a relatively small island surrounded by water, Anna's family lives about four hours from the ocean and as far as Asuka can remember, Sunday's trip into the Atlantic Ocean at Jones Beach was her first time ever in the ocean...she said it was salty :-)

日曜日：
日本は海に囲まれてる島にも関わらず海に行った覚えがないあすかは今日初めてジョーンズ海を経験する事ができました。あすかの感想は？しょっぱーい！！

Before we left for church that morning the ladies were busy making the greatest picnic lunch for the beach. We ate it so fast we didn't even take any pictures of it.

教会に行く前に海に持って行くお弁当を作って忙しい３人。あまりにもお腹が空きすぎて写真をとるの忘れちゃいました！

Dave and Asuka enjoying a calm moment in the water...there weren't many of them.
あまり混んでない海に入っている2人。

Asuka finding out the ocean is salty and Anna apparently attempting to create fire to heat up the water.
あすかはしょっぱーいって言ってるとこでアンナはなんか変な火を焚く用意？

Mother and Daughter...a lovely pic!
お母さんとあすか...いいねー！

Devoted grandma lets all three of us play in the ocean.
杏奈達３人が海に入っている間マディソンのお子守りをしてくれたお婆ちゃん。

The waves were breaking right on shore so they weren't the best for riding and if you didn't time your ascent into the water correctly you could easily find yourself smacked against the seashells. Below is a video for proof...

波はちょっと強すぎてなかなか波乗りするのは危ないみたい...下のビデオがその証拠...

The Countdown/カウントダウン

Well the countdown is officially on to two events...one we are looking very much forward to and one we are not!! Seven days until Anna's Mom and Sister arrive from Japan!! They come in next Saturday and we could not be more excited!!! Three days until I go back to work and we could be more excited :-( It is definitely going to be an adjustment for all parties, but let us not dwell on that yet, but make the best of our remaining three days...yesterday we took another trip to Jones Beach because we love it!!! Can't you tell from Madison's face :-) Tomorrow we shall go back again!

二つの出来事についてカウントダウンが始まりました。一つは楽しみにしている事でもう一つはその反対!アンナのお母さんと妹のあすかが来るまで後７日！！次の土曜日に来る予定でとってもワクワク！デイブの学校が始まるまで後３日：(　生活習慣がまた変わっちゃうけど大丈夫かな？まだ３日間はそれを忘れて最後まで夏を楽しもうと昨日またジョーンズ海に行ってきました。マディソン嬉しそうでしょ！？ハハ！

It is getting to be that time of year where the water takes a little getting used to...but don't be fooled Madison also got two very nice naps in listening to the sound of the waves...it also gave Mommy time to cruise the seashore where she found an oyster shell that still had an oyster...unlike the lady who was collecting them like gold, we rescued ours back into the water.
だんだんと海の温度に慣れなきゃいけないこのごろです。２回も海の音を聞きながらお昼寝をしたマディソンのおかげでママは海辺でまだ生きてる大きなハマグリみたいな貝を見つけました...誰かに食べられるといけないからちゃんと海に帰してあげました。

But then we went to Whole Foods on the way home and bought clams to go with our supper...where is the sense in that!!
家の帰り道にホールフーズで夕食用にアサリを買ったと意味ないじゃん！！

Today Anna had to be fingerprinted on her road to citizenship so we stayed home and decided to walk over the 59th street bridge and into Manhattan. Then we walked 14 blocks down to a lovely Japanese restaurant on 45th Street where we enjoyed the following lunch specials...you can guess who had what...
今日はアンナが指紋を採りに行かなきゃいけなかったので遠くには行かずにマンハッタンまで歩いてお出かけする事に...走って歩いて３０分後にマンハッタンに到着。４５丁目にある炙り屋錦之助にお昼を食べに行きました。どっちを誰が食べたかわかるでしょ？

I had the fanciest teriyaki chicken and a yummy salad...I donated the miso soup, egg and weird pickles to Anna...
デイブはテリヤキチキンとサラダ...みそ汁と温泉卵と変なお漬け物はアンナにあげました。

Anna's meal was staring at me all lunch...freaky!! Madison was worried because she knew she would be having what Mommy ate in a few hours :-)
アンナのお昼は食べてる間ずーっとこっちを見ていた。ちょっと怖い!!マディソンも少し心配そう...ママの食べた物を後で食べる事になるからね：−）

The Caribbean visits Jones Beach/カリブ海のようなジョーンズ海

Today we headed back to our favorite place to visit this summer...Jones Beach...to celebrate Madison's four month birthday!! We arrived earlier then we had before this summer and it was still low tide which allowed us to push Madison in her stroller along the water's edge like we were on a sidewalk...she promptly fell asleep. Also low tide allowed Anna to collect a ton of seashells and even one of the many starfish that had washed up on shore...we were going to save them for our nephews, but we didn't.
今日はまた杏奈達のお気に入りのジョーンズ海に...マディソンの４ヶ月誕生日のお祝いをかねて海辺でのんびりする事に...いつもより早く着いたら浜辺はガラガラ千潮は低いといい感じ!　マディソンをバガブーに乗せて波打ち際ギリギリで歩く事ができました。すぐ寝っちゃったのでアンナは海岸で綺麗な貝殻や石を拾ってグラントにあげるつもりだったんだけど全部置いてきちゃいました。

Just two days after the surf was so rough from Hurricane Danny it was like a beautiful wading pool with Caribbean like clearness to the water...it was UNBELIEVABLE!!
嵐のせいで２日前はすごい波が強かったのに今日の海はとても落ち着いていてその上カリブ海のようにとっても透明で綺麗でびっくり!!

Above is a still shot of me catching a wave and below is a quick video of me riding another one...
デイブが波に乗って泳いでいる写真とその様子を短いけどビデオで...

Madison slept most of the time, but we did try to get her in the water a bit...she wasn't too happy with it today so we didn't push it...it was her four month birthday after all :-)
居る間ほとんど寝ていたマディソンだけどまた海に入れてみました...今回はそんなに気に入ってくれなかったけどせっかくの４ヶ月誕生日なので無理しない事に...多分水が少し冷たすぎたのかも：）でもミニーの水着が可愛いでしょ！？

Madison meets the ocean/マディソンの初めての海

Today Madison met the ocean and they got along quite well...
今日初めて海に入ったマディソン...

We thought we would just hold her and let her look at the water, but the tide was coming in and it made a perfect little kiddie pool area, so we took advantage of the chance to dunk her feet in...
最初はただ波打ちぎわの近くに行ってマディソンに波を見せるだけという計画が打ち上げた波が丁度良い大きさの水たまりを残してくれたので足を入れてみる事に...

We went late in the day so we could avoid the hot sun and get Madison out a bit more...here are some of our favorite pics from the day...
一番暑い時間を避けて夕方に出かけました...これは今日撮った写真のお気に入り。

Some nice old people walked by and saw Anna trying to get Madison to look at the camera so they tried to help and instead we put them to work so we could get a family picture!!
アンナが一生懸命マディソンこっち向いてーってしてたら知らないお年寄りの人たちが立ち止まって一緒にマディソンの名前を呼び始めてくれたので、家族写真を撮ってもらう事に!!

From the below video you can see that Madison seemed to enjoy her time in the water...oh...and it was very windy!!!
このビデオはマディソンが初めての海で楽しんでいる所...すごい風が強かった!!

We especially decided to go on Tuesday night because it was called "Kid's Night" on the Jones Beach Bandshell website...it turned out the group performing was named "Toxin"...Madison seemed to enjoy them :-)
ジョーンズビーチでは毎日いろいろなコンサートがあるとわかったので"子供の夜"って書いてあった火曜日にわざと行ったはずが"トキシン"って言う変なバンドが出て来て少し困惑、でもマディソンは気に入ったみたい：）

Back to the Beach／また海へ

We make plans...but we are not guaranteed tomorrow...that reminder came this week. We had planned for Madison's Grandparents, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins to come down and meet us at Jones Beach today, but early last week my Mom lost her Aunt and plans change. The drive with our little one and the two doggies coupled with our late night last night would have been too much, but our thoughts and prayers were with my Mom and her cousins.
せっかく計画を立てても明日何がおこるか解らない。本当は今週末にマディソンのおじいちゃん、おばあちゃん、おじちゃん、おばちゃん、いとこ達とジョーンズ海岸に行く予定でいたけど月曜日にリンダから電話が来てリンダのおばさんが亡くなった事を聞きました。小さなマディソンといぬ２匹を連れて金曜日の夜遅く行くのは大変すぎとお葬式には行かない事に。

So Anna and I decided to still try-out Jones Beach...again, but this time we were armed with our tent and we were going to make it off the boardwalk for the first time this summer. The Bugaboo (as you can see in the video) cut through the sand like a hot knife through butter!! It was fun to watch others with their more practical strollers have to struggle to carry them through the sand while I ran circles around them with my Bugaboo!! You know how you sometimes see a Semi truck go through a big puddle and you think...oh that looked easy...and then you don't make it...well I think that happened to the stroller that entered the sand after us...I think they saw my Bugaboo kicking butt and thought they would give it a shot...they didn't last a yard!!! Alright, enough about the Bugaboo and its magical powers...back to the beach. We found a nice spot right down by the water...at this point Madison was sleeping which made set-up easier...a few minutes into our getting settled on the beach, the little one awoke so Madison and Anna shuffled into the tent and did their thing...then Madison laid in the tent a little, but couldn't get comfortable...we began to have flashbacks of last night's ballgame when she refused to settle and we were about ready to pack everything back-up, but we tried one switch to the Bugaboo and I was able to rock her into closed eyes...it was very exciting because it meant I could go back to some of the best waves I had ever ridden at Jones Beach...the kind that break a nice distance out and don't have a vicious under tow...Daddy liked very much!!! So all in all we stayed about two hours and learned that next time we could pack a little lighter, but in the end, I thought it was quite an accomplishment for the three of us!
なのでジョーンズ海岸にまた行く事に決定でも今回は準備満々で初めて砂浜まで行く計画。バガブーだと砂の上でも楽々に移動する事ができて大満足、他の家族が安物のベビーカーで苦戦しているのを見てちょっと悪い気が...波打ち際の近くに場所を見つけて早速設置開始！マディソンが寝ていたからすぐできました：）全部広げ終わった頃マディソンが起きてきたので新しく買ったテントを使ってママのミルクを飲みました。でもやっぱり慣れてないところではなかなか寝付けなく昨日の野球試合の時のように家に帰らなきゃ行けないかなーと思っていたらパパがマディソンをバガブーに移して揺すってみる事に...結果は？成功！パパは海に入って波乗りを満喫。結局２時間近くいる事に成功！来てよかった：）

Madison's beach outfit
海用の服

Our spot in the sand...yep we got it all down there in one trip
クライン家の居場所
Anna providing lunch for Madison
マディソンの食事中
Madison giving her daddy a few more minutes with the waves and her mommy some much deserved rest.
やった〜マディソンお昼寝中：）

As promised...the Bugaboo in action...eat your heart out Maclaren!!
P.S. Yes Madison is really in there and enjoying the ride!
バガブーが砂浜の上を楽々と移動している様子。マディソンはこの中に居心地良さそうにしています！