Memorial Day and Playdate this week

今年のメモリアルデイは去年の離ればなれに過ごした日とは違って家族３人揃って過ごす事が出来ました...といっても別に特別に何かした訳じゃないけど最近の忙しい日々と反対でのんびり過ごし事が出来ました...マディソンと私が好きな公園に行って、デイブは初めていろんな事が出来る様になったマディソンを見る事が出来ました、そしてお昼はその近くにある大好きなタイ料理のレストランで：）
This Memorial Day we got to spend together as one happy family unlike last year's sad Memorial Day when we had the Pacific Ocean and most of North America between us... Well we took it easy and relaxed which was much needed from our normal busy schedules... I was able to take Dave to the playground I really like and he was able to see in person how much Madison can do all by herself! Then we went to one of our favorite Thai restaurants for lunch:-)

うれしそうなマディソン：）
Happy Madison:-)

レモンを食べてみる...
Decided to try a lemon wedge...

スッパ〜!!!
S.O.U.R!!!＞〜＜
そして、火曜日のお話の時間の後近くに住んでいるお友達、リアムの家に遊びに行ってきましたスッパ〜!!!建築家のボブって言うテレビ番組が大好きなリアム、早速安全の為にヘルメットを冠って建築開始です...：）
On Tuesday we went to Story time and afterwards visited our good friends who live right in Downtown Long Beach for a playtime and lunch... Liam is very much into Bob the Builder so right away they got busy playing construction...:-)

Friends in NYC...

While we don't have any visual proof, Sunday we had a great time worshiping and visiting with our old congregation at Springfield Gardens...it was well worth the three trains and taxi ride it took to get there!!

Then on Tuesday Anna and I split up and she visited her old playgroup friends with Madison, while I went and visited old co-workers at my former school and then took out a few of my former players for some fun in the big city...

First Anna's pictures...

Group Shots

PlaytimeMasaki makes his move...

Awwwww...

While Madison was busy with her boyfriend, I had a great visit with my former co-workers and then took three of my former players to Dave and Busters for lunch and some game play...

Of course the first thing I always have to do is break the pop-a-shot record...

Mission accomplished..

Anna and Madison met us at Dave and Busters...

Madison wasted no time winning 150 tickets by picking the right color that a ball bounced into...
She also took the lead when the six of us raced...we came in second...
Time for goodbyes...

サトコさんとコンラッド君にバイバイの日/Saying good bye to Satoko-san and Conrad-kun

カリフォルニア州のサンフランシスコに来週引っ越してしまうサトコさんとコンラッド君と、最後にもう一回プレイグループをする事が出来ました。マディソン がコンラッド君達と一緒に遊ぶのをせっかく楽しみにしていたのにたぶん乳歯のせいかな、私にくっ付き虫。集合場所に来る途中に予定外のお昼寝をしたせいで 寝むそうなのに寝れないし...困った、困った...仕様が無く私の膝に座らせてピザの耳を齧らせたら良い子にしてくれました。ある時点で赤ちゃん４人の うち３人一緒にそれぞれのピザの耳を齧っていたような気がする...笑！あの２、３分は静かで良いときだったな〜：）
Today we had our last playgroup with Conrad, Masaki, and Sephi in Central Park. Satoko-san, her husband Brian and Conrad-kun are moving to San Francisco next week so this was our last all 8 of us get together for playgroup. I was really looking forward to Madison playing hard with her friends, but she was not having a nice day yesterday probably because of her teething. She took an unauthorized nap while walking to the park and that caused her to not be able to take her afternoon nap even though she was sleepy and fussy. She could not, did not, or would not want to play away from me so she would perch herself on my lap and nibbled on my pizza crust. At one point 3 out of the 4 babies are nibbling their own pizza crusts they got from their mommies and giving their mommies a few minutes of quiet and peace so I thought that was really funny:-)



最初に 言った通り一人で置いてく度にご機嫌斜めでグスグスしていたマディソン、一回写真を撮りたくて赤ちゃん達だけで座らせたらセフィちゃんとコンちゃんを誘っ て赤ちゃん３人で泣き合唱...すごかった...そのビデオをどうぞ！
Like I said Madison got really fussy and whiny every time I left her so when I went to take some good shots of our last get together she would not have it... so she started bawling and in the end she has recruited two other of her friends to do some harmonious crying... Here it is!

セ フィ：困った、困った！
Sephi: (hands on head) "Oh man! I can't take it anymore!"

コンラッド君に最後のプレイグループの思い出をちゃんと覚えて置いて貰おうと密かに計画していた作戦を実行：）
Sephi also wanted to give Conrad something to remember her by:-)

学 校が終わった後セントラルパークに来てくれたデイブに８人のママとベイビー達揃って写真を撮ってもらう事が出来ました...残念ながら泣き疲れてどっか遠 くに行っちゃっているマディソン...でもセフィがみんなの代表で言いたいことを言ってくれてるね、ナンバーワン!!
Dave was able to come meet Madison and I after work and walked up at the perfect timing as we were walking out of Sheep Meadow so I asked him to take our last group shot... Too bad Madison is absolutely somewhere else exhausted from all the crying she did today, but Sephi is making a statement for all of us, We are the best!!

この３ 人のママとベイビー達に会えて本当に良かったです。８人みんなでずっと遊んでいられたらいいけどこれも人生...離れて行くのは辛いけど沢山の良い思い出 と写真があるから大丈夫かな...また次に住む所で良いママとベイビー達に巡り会えると良いな〜！
I am absolutely so happy that Madison and I got to meet these lovely babies and mommies to share and play every week. It will be really sad that this group cannot stay intact, but that's life I guess and I have nothing, but great memories and pictures so I just hope we will be able to meet great mommies and babies like them wherever our next place may be!

ボーナス！先週の出来事から.../BONUS! from last week...

とっても知りたがりでうろうろしたいマディソンの活動範囲を狭くする為にたまに寝室とトイレの戸を閉めておくんだけど、寝室にある枕の上でお昼寝するのが好きなエリーは戸が閉まっていてがっかり...諦めきれずエリー必殺“後ろ足で立って前足で押す”をしたんだけど、トイレの戸とは違って全くびくともしない結果...その様子を見ていたマディソンは爆笑...：）
Sometimes we close out bedroom door so that Madison won't go exploring and stay in the living room but Ellie likes to snooze on her pillow in our bedroom so she is trying to get in there... She is trying her old stand on her back legs and push trick that usually works on our bathroom door but this door is really shut so it's not working out and Madison is getting a really good laugh from her trying...:-)

先週、たまたまブラックアイドピーズの歌を聴いていたらマディソンは踊らずにはいられなかったみたい！早速フリップで録画開始：）ピボットしながら回っているのが良いよね！
I was listening to One Tribe by Black Eyed Peas the other day and Madison started dancing as usual so I got it on Flip! She got one of the dancing techniques... Pivoting!

木曜日はと〜っても良い天気でちょうどセントラルパークでミートアップの日。今回は５組のママと赤ちゃんで大賑わい！みんな歳が近いから一緒に遊ぶ事が出来ました：）
On Thursday we had a beautiful day and it was a Meet Up day in Central Park Playground and this was a big turn out with 5 Moms and their Babies! All the babies are really similar in age so it was quite fun:-)
新しい友達、ダニエル君とカイトウ君。
New friends, Daniel-kun and Kaito-kun.




その日にたまたまユニオンスクエアの学校まで会議に行かなきゃいけなかったパパとセントラルパークで待ち合わせをする事が出来ました。マディソンは丁度バガブーでお昼寝を始めちゃったから家に帰る前にセントラルパーク動物園に寄って行く事に...　天気が良かったせいか活発に活動していたアザラシがキスしてる所を写真に撮る事に成功！日本の雪猿も忙しそうに動き回っていたよ。
Today Dave had to go to a school in Union Square for the day for a meeting so he was able to meet us at the park as Madison started her nap in the bugaboo... SO instead of going home we headed to Central Park Zoo for some animal watching... We got really cute picture of Seals kissing and Snow Monkey from Japan.

太陽の下でプレイグループ!/Playgroup in the Sun!

昨日はまたプレイグループに行って来ました!しかもなんて良い天気だったんだろー：）今回はアッパーウェストサイドの７２丁目の辺に住んでいるノリコさんの自宅で会う事に!やっター駅にエレベーターが付いてた!!もちろん予想して計画した通りマディソンは地下鉄に乗っているうちに寝ちゃったから、ノリコさんのアパートを通り越してすぐそこの公園に行ってちゃんとお昼寝取らせてあげる事にしました。もちろん私はアイフォンで時間つぶし。少し経った後座ってるのが疲れたから、またちょっと歩いた所にあるフェアウェイマーケットって言うホールフーズの次に大好きなスーパーで、マディソン用の有機栽培の野菜と金曜日のターキーバーガー用のブリオッシュロールを買いました。ちょっと嘘、ブリオッシュロールを見た途端買いたくて仕様が無かったから無理(最近バーガー多かったし)と金曜日はターキーバーガーって決めちゃいました。
So yesterday was another playgroup day! and it came with such great weather:-) It was Noriko-san's turn to host at her place on the Upper West Side and yay the 72nd street sybway station had elevators!! Madison fell asleep on the subway as I expected and planned and we were a bit early for the playdate time so we went past her place one more block to a park so I could sit down and play with my iphone while she slept... After a while I got tired of sitting so we walked two blocks to Fairway Market(One of my favorite grocery store after Whole Foods!) and bought some organic veggies for Madison and Brioche Hamburger Buns to go with Turkey Burgers I will be making on Friday... Okay I wasn't planning on making Turkey burgers on Friday(since we've been having lots of burgers lately...) but I saw this bag of Brioche buns and had to have it!

ノリコさんが作ってくれたロールキャベツと合いそうと思ったブリオッシュロールを食べた後お腹いっぱいでご機嫌の赤ちゃんを連れて早速、外にお散歩をしに行きました。さっきマディソンがお昼寝している時に座っていた所はこの巨大な公園の先っちょだったみたい...さっき全然気づかなかったトンネルを越えるとニュージャージーとニューヨークの境にあるハドソン川に沿って作られた長〜い公園が...ずっと南に向かって歩いて行くと一番下にあるバッテリー公園まで行けちゃうらしい...もちろんそんな遠くまで歩かずノリコさんが話していた人工芝がある所に到着。コンラッド君は来る途中に寝ちゃったからそこには良い子に敷物の上にチョコンと座っておもちゃで遊んでいるセフィちゃんと、見た事の無い人工芝に興奮してハイハイしまくりのマディソン...最初の内は何とか敷物の上だけでって捉まえてたけどその内あきらめて勝手にハイハイし放題にさせちゃいました。たまにだし綺麗そうだったからね！とにかくそこからの景色はやっぱり良かったなー、ニュージャージー側ってあんまり見る機会ないんだけどこの公園はとってもきれいだし穏やかだし毎日来れれば良いのになー。自転車用のレーンが別で離れてあるのもいいなー。
After having yummy Cabbage Roll dish Noriko-san made and the Brioche Rolls I donated, we headed outside with our full and happy babies. It turned out that the area I was sitting at earlier was just the beginning of the park and once you go through a tunnel that I didn't notice before you get to the edge of the west side where across the Hudson River you can see NJ and you can just keep walking on this nice walkway until you get to Battery park... Well we didn't walk that far but made it to a nice patch of fake grass area where we can put down some blankets to sit on and hang out... Conrad fell asleep in his stroller so there was Sephi who was sitting so cute on the blanket and happy to be playing with some toys we brought along and Madison who was very excited about exploring this fake grass she's never seen of and me who finally gave up on trying to keep her within the little blanket square and let her crawl free in the end...:-) They looked clean anyways! Oh it was such a beautiful view, I'm not used to seeing the NJ side but I kind of liked it and the whole area was clean and really relaxing... There is even separate bike lane so they can't bother us walkers/stroller walkers!

マディソンはママのヨガポーズを見過ぎかな？
Madison has been watching me do Yoga too much!?

ノリコさんとセフィちゃん、日よけ対策バッチリ！
Noriko-san and Sephi-chan, taking the rays very seriously!

マディソンがセフィちゃんの目の前に座っていた時にマディソンを引っ張って後ろにガターン！痛くなかったはずだけどビックリしたマディソンの泣きそうな顔...
Madison was sitting in front of Sephi so she got to pull Madison backwards! I don't think it hurt but surprised Madison is about to cry...
それを見たセフィちゃんも泣きそうになっちゃった!!ゴメンネ、マディソン近づき過ぎたね：）
Watching Madison about to cry made Sephi do the same! Sorry, Madison was in your way:-)


お日様に十分あたった後はノリコさん宅に戻ってお茶の時間...帰る用意をしている時にサトコさんが家まで歩いて帰るつもりって言うからビックリ!だって４０丁(途方時間１時間半)近くあるよー。夜サトコさんから来たメッセージを見ると出来たって、しかも１時間近くで着いたって。すご〜いサトコさん、おつかれさま：）このブログ読んでるかもしれないから一様ここで...読んでなきゃでしょ；）
When we were done enjoying the sunshine we went back to Noriko-san's place for a tea time... As we were getting ready to leave Satoko-san told us that she was planning on walking home, which is about 40 blocks(she was guessing it will take about an hour and a half)! I couldn't believe her but she sent all of us a message later that night saying she did it in about an hour so good job to you if you are reading my blog... which you should...;-)


ボーナス：これは先週マディソンの家でしたプレイグループの写真です。アキコさんが撮った写真なんだけど凄い良く撮れてるから紹介しまーす！
Bonus: These pictures were from last week's playgroup but ones Akiko-san took were great so I wanted to share with you guys!

またまた楽しいプレイグループ/Another Great Playgroup:-)

今日はまた日本人ママとその赤ちゃん達とプレイグループをしました。しかも今日はみんな住んでいるアッパーウェストサイドから遥々ここまで来て貰っちゃいました：）ありがとね！そしてお昼の献立は、ずーっと作りたくても一緒に食べる人がいなくて作れなかったちらし寿司...やっぱりこういう料理の美味しさが分かってくれる人達は良いな〜！
We had another great playgroup with our Japanese friends today... and even though they all live on the Upper West Side they came all the way to our home in Sunnyside:-) Thanks again guys! So I made Chirashi Zushi which I've been wanting to make for a long time but had nobody to make it for! Chirashi Zushi is a bed of Sushi rice mixed with vegetables and on top we put toppings like thinly sliced egg sheets, Salmon Roe, Seaweed, Sesame, Snap Peas, Steamed Shrimp, Denpu(Pink Flaked Sweet Fish Stuff), etc... SO nice to have Japanese friends who can appreciate those Japanese dishes...

もうみんなも知っている通りこのグループはほとんど同い年どうしだからみんなでお座りしてマディソンのおもちゃで仲良く遊んでました。たまにマディソンおもちゃ奪い取っていたけどね...ハハ！最近嫌がって使っていなかったジャンパーだけどコンラッド君が気に入ってくれたみたいで長い時間いい子で入っていました...マサキ君(１１ヶ月)もマディソンと同じであんまり今好きじゃないみたい、でも外から付いてるおもちゃで遊ぶのは好きみたいでそこで掴まり立ちしていたマサキ君は何とデイブのいた所まで初めて２、３歩と歩く事に成功!!!マサキ君のパパがみる事が出来なくて悪い気がしたんだけど観れて良かった〜！アキコさんは旦那さんに内緒にしたかな...
Most of you already know this, but all the babies are really close in age so they just sat around and had a great time playing with Madison's toys and she was really good at sharing... except occasionally she decided to take back some of them though... Conrad tried out the Jumper which is becoming Madison's not so favorite toy so glad someone enjoyed it... Masaki-kun(11 months) is also going through the not liking the jumper stage, but he seemed to really like to play with toys from outside... He even took his first steps(according to his mom) to Dave!!! I really felt bad that his dad didn't get to see it, but it was really exciting to see for us..:-) Maybe Akiko-san won't tell her husband he did it...

セクシーなコンラッド君...

Sexy Conrad-kun...

グループ写真を撮ろうとしたけど...いまいち、誰か良い写真撮れた人いる!?

Attempting to sneak in a group shot... not too successful, maybe someone else got a better picture!?

２時半ごろかな？いきなり赤ちゃん４人眠そうになったからマディソンはクリブでお昼寝を初めて、セフィちゃんとコンラッド君は交代でベッドの上でちょっと休む事が出来ました...またいろいろとお互いの事を知り合う事が出来た私は大満足です...：）もう次ぎに会う予定もさっそく決めちゃいました。
At around 2:30 all the babies seemed to hit the nap time sleepiness so Madison hit her crib and Sephi was able to use our bed to take a quick nap and switched with Conrad... Moms got to share and got to know each other more which is great and already made a plan for next playgroup...:-)

もう少しで忘れる所だった好奇心旺盛マディソンのした事と言えば...水の入ったコップを低いテーブルの上に置いて行った私がいけないんだけど、見てないと思って目を離した隙にそのコップをサトコさんのバッグの中に空けてしまってさあ大変!大慌てで中に入っていたカメラ、アイフォン、お財布などなど水たまりのバッグから出したりとタオルを取りに行って走り回っていたんだけど本人のサトコさんは心配してないみたい...カメラとケータイはちゃんと使えそうでホッと安心の一息!でも本当に目が離せない私に似たオテンバっ子：）
Oh I almost forgot what our trouble maker did today... I set two glasses of water on a table where Madison can reach and walked away thinking she didn't see that I did that, but she did so I came back and saw that she had dumped the water into Satoko-san's bag that was on the floor! Her camera, Iphone, wallets, etc were all soaked sitting in a pool of water!!! I freaked out and was running around to get a towel and to dump the water into the sink worrying that they were all ruined while Satoko-san acted like she wasn't worried at all... and her camera and Iphone still worked, thank goodness! But that little crazy girl is one to watch because she will surprise you:-)

最初はマディソンと２人で見学してたんだけど...

First Madison and I were just gonna watch but then...

やっぱりオムツ替えパーティーに加わる事に!お互いの状況を見合っているマサキ君意外の３人：）
Decided to join the party! Everyone is checking out someone else except Masaki-kun:-)

いつも通りあっという間に家に返る時間が来てしまいました...またすぐ会えるのを楽しみにしていま〜す！
Too soon it was time for everyone to head back to UWS homes...Looking forward to seeing you guys soon!