Lily learns to crawl, but mostly to stand

Lily's first solid food.

Yummy! Yummy! Organic brown rice cereal is just sooooooooo good!

Silly Lily!

Just so you know, I had nothing to do with this...

Daddy's Girl

Koichi and Lily are great buddies. They love spending time together hanging out...

A little bit of chillin'

A little bit of illin'

A Couple of Firsts

Before Lily could crawl, she had to meet the milestone of sitting up unassisted. It was quite a process getting there. She was like a Weeble, except she kept falling down. She finally got it though, and her balance keeps getting better and better.

Here's her first sitting experiences...

First, trying to get her to sit upright

Then, attempting to let go

To help strengthen her back muscles we bought this neat little seat to help her sit up.

She sometimes got bored of it.

Another first experience...

Taking a shower!

Koichi scrubs her down in the bathtub.

Yes, I actually DO realize what a loser I am...

just in case you were wondering. I would apologize for not posting for eaons, but since I will probably be apologizing again in the future for the next time I don't post for months and months, I'll just wait until then.

Ok, so lots has happened in the several months since I last posted. Lily has practically doubled in size. Her Japanese grandparents had to cancel their trip to the US because of health issues. Lily started crawling, and immediately pulling herself up to standing so she could practice falling down and bumping her head. Halloween happened with all its costumey cuteness. And Lily has now gained 2 cousins! It's been a busy few months.

Since the whole reason I have this blog anymore is to post pictures of Lily, I'd better get to it. Luckily our handy-dandy camera holds lots of pictures, so I have some from waaaaaaaaay back in August. Let's start there....

This August, Lily met her first cousin, Abby. Abby is my younger brother, Dustin, and his wife, Natasha's daughter. She's a cutie! Here are some pictures from Abby's birthday.

Here's Abby getting her first taste of some yummy formula.

Abby meets her Grammy for the first time.

Abby and PaPa bond.

On the Catwalk

Lily began her modeling career yesterday at Sears Portrait Studio. We had too much fun with her. Even the photographer was having a good time playing with Lily and getting her into some really cute poses. Here are some of the photos we got to take home. We bought the CD with the copywrite release so we actually are able to print these photos wherever we want.

Long Time Coming

I know I haven't blogged for a very long time, but I've been busy, people. Since my last entry we've packed up our house in Colorado Springs, been from there to Kansas City twice, put 600 miles on our car just searching for a home in K.C., packed up a U-Haul with the help of 2 very good friends (thank you Diane and Tracy!) and are finally here in Kansas City.

















(No, I'm not pulling a Brittany Spears and driving with Lily in my arms. We pulled over at a gas station on our way back to Colorado Springs to feed her and here I am easing out a big burp.)

















(It wasn't always easy driving with a baby and dog in the car, especially at feeding time, but they did pretty well with each other. I never once had to say "I'll pull this car right over if you don't stop bickering!")

I think Lily is really happy to be here. She sure does get a lot of love and attention from her grandparents, aunts and uncles. And Koichi and I sure like the free babysitting that we sometimes get too.




















Lily is getting pretty big now. I'm not sure exactly how much she weighs, but it's probably close to 13 or 14 pounds. She is rolling over, turning around by wiggling while laying down, grabbing objects and putting them inevidably in her mouth, giggling, smiling, cooing, squeeling, and pretty much stealing the hearts of everyone who lays eyes on her.




Lily's Aunt Jen and Uncle Dwain did her and us a great big favor by purchasing a bouncer for her. She loves it because she can stand up in it and bounce (she still is not a fan of lying down for long periods of time), and I love it because I can have 30 minutes free to myself when she's playing in it.













































Now that we're here in Kansas City, the search is on for a job for me. Koichi started his job at Wal-Mart last night, and though he pretty much went straight to bed after he got home this morning, I think he likes it. I haven't found a job quite yet. I've applied for several, but am still waiting to hear back from some districts. Yesterday I had an interview for a long-term subbing position in a very desirable district, and that could get my foot in the door, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for something more stable than subbing. I know something is out there, just gotta find it.

11 lbs 4.5 oz of pure joy

Lily is just too sweet! It's hard to get anything done because I want to play with her all the time.

Here's what she's doing right now...

Taking a nap with her daddy!

Here's some other good pics of Lily that we've taken recently...

Grammy and Pa Pa come to town!

Last weekend Lily's American grandma and grandpa came to see their granddaughter for the first time. I think they were pretty smitten with her. My mom did pretty well with having one arm in a cast, but my dad didn't seem to mind getting extra time to hold Lily and give her a feeding or two. We'll all be reunited next week when the Tsukioka fam heads to Kansas City to do some apartment hunting. Hopefully we'll be there for Koichi's first Father's Day!