[10-30-10] Moms Club and roll over...

Hi, there. Last few days, LA has been so hot! It's like summer, and such a wonderful :)

I recently joined Moms Club in my area. It has many chapters by zip code, and pretty big organization. I went to the first chapter meeting today, and I got the calendar of Nov.
25 days over 30days, there are any kind of events. From just simple play day to mom's reading club, there are something we can join, and both me and my son has a chance to do something. It's a great opportunity for my son to be social since he starts recognizing people, and sometimes being so shy!!!

Then my son has been not rollover boy for last 6mos and 10days, but all of sudden he did two nights ago. Then he's already become expert, so now before he sleeps, he cries and roll over!!! He still can't come back from on his tummy, so he cries out. I've waited for a 10mins or so, but he can't change from there, so I have to fix his position. Then he does again and again and again. Last night I had to fix him 5 times.
( he was on a floor, so I was sleeping next him until he completely passed out!)

Now it's harder than before. We have to assemble his crib asap, cause we can't use his co-sleeper bed anymore!

Baby grows so fast....


Photo: Halloween Flower Arrangement (I held a class at my place. )

Happy Halloween , everyone !!!!




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[10-22-10] Article about my pregnancy and birthing...

One of my recent work of writing is about my experience of pregnancy and birthing.

The website, "SEKAINO KOSODATE KENKYUSYO -Parenting around the world -" ,provides a lot of information about raising kids, pregnancy, maternity life and birthing etc in Japanese. Especially they have many articles about Japanese who raise kids overseas.

世界の子育て研究所（Parenting around the world）

I have two articles in this website now!

Title is "Schedule Birthing in Los Angeles"

Part 1
Part 2

Now I read my own article, and I've already felt such a long time ago...

Yeah 6 months!

[10-16-10] Baby Food Solution 3

Today, I made a grocery list for tomorrow's farmers market. Since my son starts eating solid, I need to " make meal plans " which work for him and for us both now.

I think that's really important. Then making plans definitely help not to waste food! ( I've been wasting so much, and been regret it. ) finally I'm enjoying cooking??!!!

This week, my son eats Sweet Potatoes for the first time. My lovely Italian pressure cooker, Lagostina, works really well, and took only 15min to make potatoes soft and allow me to mash easily! ( pressure time is only 5min!!) If you use microwave, that's ok, but usually makes potatoes smaller (because all the moisture are gone), but if you use pressure cooker, that's a different story.I haven't tried to steam by pressure cooker yet, but the instruction says it take extra 10min to cook them to make potatoes soft ( still lots faster than to do by regular pan)

Well I decided not to purchase special tools for baby food cooking because I know I use it only for a few months. Instead my pressure cooker and food processor help my baby food cooking a lot, and it's great!

So I really think having proper tools for cooking is the first thing to do. Otherwise it's just make every mom frustrated. For me , now I'm so enjoy cooking these simple baby food!!! If I can enjoy, my baby feels it, and he's enjoyed eating :) positive spiral!!!

[10-13-10] Robertson Blvd & Baby Carrier

Today I went to Robertson Blvd with my mommy friend for window shopping!
It was a part of my jobs to do some research which lines and what items do boutiques on Robertson carry, so it is a kind of my work, too.

I was surprised so many KIDS stores now, and they have such cute items!!

Since most of the boutiques have very crowded/narrow aisles, carrying baby is the best way for window shopping!

I've got this ERGObaby carrier from my friend who is a mom and living in Germany.
My other friend also suggested that I should buy this carrier, so once I received it from my girl friend, I hopped!!

This is such an amazing carrier!
It fits well, and support my lower back.

However first few month, my son didn't want to get inside, and I couldn't use it at all.
He did express himself that he was so uncomfortable, so I could only use "Moby Wrap".
I registered this for my baby shower gift list because the reviews were great.
Then once I received it, it took while to practice to wrap it.
But as soon as Kai turned 3 months, this works well.
He was happy to be held, especially I put him facing forward.

So I've been using this moby wrap for two months.
Then as soon as I came back from Japan, which he became 4 1/2 months, we started using ERGO.
My son became big enough to stay in the carrier, and started enjoying being around mommy or daddy.
Especially my husband loves carrying him by this carrier.

Then once I joined the mommy and me class, I found 1/4 of my classmates have the same ERGO.
"Galaxy Grey"
Nice color with cute stars!
I saw one mom has green carrier with embroidery! It was so cute, and I've never seen like that.
Well I'm happy what I have, but one time someone asked me where I got my carrier.
She said she purchased the same one, but just plain black carrier.
So she said she was jealous of mine. It's funny. I felt jealous of my friend's friend who has ERGO with embroidery!!

Anyway, things you use everyday for baby are such important tools to make yourself comfortable.
Motivation to be a happy and good mommy, I think.

If someone asked me which carrier should I buy? I will answer ERGO! for sure.
(only thing con review for ERGO, it isn't allowed to carry my baby facing forward, so I actually have another carrier, too...)

[10-12-10] First night without him..

My son has a 6 month check up on Monday. He's growing pretty well!
And I told his doctor that my son still slept with our room, and he said "Take him out right away!".

So finally we moved his bed to his room.
We've already bough baby monitor with video.
My neighbor recommended SUMMER INFANT's baby monitor, so I bought the same one.
It's expensive a bit, but works pretty well.

The doctor said, "babies love ROUTINE". So
Feed - Bath - Read - Rock - Bed.
That's my doctor's suggestion, and no more feed during a night.
He also mentioned that I should give him my milk just before he goes to bed.
Because he won't be able to drink my milk otherwise he won't be able to sleep!

But last night, I gave him my milk before he went to bed.
Too many new things at once is too much for him,, I guessed.

Well turned out, it works well, so he didn't cry for milk during the night, I think.

He woke up around 4am, and make some noise, Ah-Ah-Ah-, then play with his SASSY toy, then got back to sleep by himself!!

WOW, amazing...

Hope he can do it tonight, too.

SASSY

[10-10-10] First Gerber Babyfood

This weekend we tripped down to San Diego to see our family and friends. Since Kai needs his breakfast, I bought first ready-made baby food at CVS.

As he has been eating butternut squash this week, I bought a pack of squash.

Then yesterday I fed him for the first time. Before I gave him, I actually tried it! It was much sweeter than the butternut squash I boiled, but taste very simple and plain.

Kai was totally ok to eat it.

Tomorrow is his 6 months check up, and I'm kind of excited. I need few things to ask to a doctor.

With a baby , time flies much faster than without!!!

[10-06-10] Baby Food Solution 2

So this week is week 2 for Kai about baby food. I bought books about baby food a couple months ago in English and Japanese.


English - "Blender Baby Food"
Japanese -"Gokkunki & Migumoguki"

I also got very useful handouts about baby food from local city hall office when I was in Tokyo.

My Ped doctor instructed two meals a day from beginning, bur I don't want to rush, so I'm still feeding him once a dat now. The quantity is the hardest for me to decide, so dat 1, I started giving him one scoop. Next day I gave him two scoops. Then I added upto 5 scoops with his baby spoon. According to the books I have,4-5 scoops/50ml is about the right amount per meal foe first month. (plus give him milk as much as he wants after meal)

My Japanese handout said go on to the 2 meals per day when a baby turn 6 months. The quantity per meal is the same: 50ml / 4 table spoons / 4-5 baby spoon scoops. Then my Japanese book and handout suggest to give variety of food per meal once we start 2 meals per day.

As I mentioned before the first meal for my son was rice porridge. His second food was cherry tomato. I supposed to give him " butter squash" however I didn't have fresh squash, and we had cherry tomato tree on our backyard, I decided to pick tomato. He actually like it!


However my girlfriend told me that her son, who is now 26 months,got tomato allergy because she fed tomatoes pretty much everyday when she started solid. So she suggest not to give him too much, so I decided to start giving him butter squash. I got it from local farmer's market yesterday, and I cooked by pressure cooker!

It took only 15 min total cooking time, and it is delicious!!!!

Some people concerns about nitrate. Yes it's very serious issue when you think about purple baby syndrome etc, but what I learn from many webs and books, then my understanding, I decided that I can still cook baby food by myself. ( at least I've been eating baby foods which my mom cooked including carrots, squash, potato and so on, and had no problem. So I believe my experience)

I always try to find as fresh vegetables as I can and choose the correct way of cooking.

Talking with other moms and learn from their experiences is also really useful now. Since I can learn from few different cultures' ways, I'm trying new things and see how my son reacts everyday.

I'm not a big fan of jar food, so I will keep cooking as much as I can. I hope this process helps to increase my motivation to cooking for our meals, too :)




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[10-05-10] The last session of the first mommy & me

We've been taking Mommy & Me class at Bright Beginnings and Beyond in Santa Monica as soon as we're back from Japan this summer. (8 weeks session/$100)
Since Kai was just turned 4 months, and most of the kids in a class were about the same or bit older, it turned sooo much fun!
We did singing with babies and learning sign languages (three at every class), then discuss with some issues or exchange information about useful tips and/or toys.

Since teachers planned "mommies' night out" during the course, we could go out together, and spent sometimes together.
Now I could make many mommy friends, and my son got many same age friends. Since they are too little, they won't be able to play together yet, but I'm going to take next class which is for 6-12 months old class, and some of them will continue to take this class. So our bonding and pretty sure kids' bonding will be tight!! It is so fun to see all these small kids growing together.

Today my son shook hands with the girl next him, while they were laying down.
It was so cute, and me and her mom was smiling what they did!

That is the moment, you know.

Here is my son's favorite toy/tooth brush that I got to know from the teacher of my class.
BANANA BRUSH!
Since my son doesn't have any teeth yet, but he can use it as a toy, and seems like it very well :)
There are few kinds of banana brushes in the world, but my son loves this!
Kushies Baby Banana Brush

[10-04-10] Everyday Fashion As A Mom...

Yesterday, I went to new Santa Monica Place with my husband and my son. It was pretty chill, and I wore a brown one-piece dress and my Sunshine Darlin's brown modal pants (Ilene pants) with brown simple shoes. I was all in brown.

Then browsing stores and I got shocked when I saw myself in the mirror at the store, no-make up, bit tired face women was in there. Yes, that was me...

I'm still nursing my son, so I usually pick the tops which is either V neck or button down type. And I can't pick a dress with round neck at all. Plus my body is still maternity looks like, so I prefer not to pick up tight pants.
Therefore I have few choices of tops and bottoms. Especially bottoms, I can wear either jeans or navy cottons pants. My daily wear is pretty much the same everyday.

I'm getting tired. I need to think about to change my style a little bit.

One of the easiest and quickest solution is using scarves!
Today I picked up my favorite long cotton knit scarf I got from Anthropologie last year.

Today's my look:

Gap's border tops
Gap's Navy chino pants
Anthropologie's navy/white/pink long scarf
TOMS shoes Ash Canvas Classic shoes
with Livity's cotton bag

I think it's pretty ok. It's not fancy, but I think dress well. Absolutely better than yesteday, I think.

By the way, I wrote article about TOMS shoes for Japanese media, and I studied about the company and thier movement. I think that's such an awesome thing what they do, and I bought a pair of their shoes. Since I went to Whole Food, they carry only TOMS CLASSIC line,which is the most simple and plain collection, and I picked this ash grey one.

It's so light and I like it!! Well love it!
As a mom, and if I knew earlier I could have worn while I was carring my son for sure:)

I'm thinking about shopping at Nordstrom to check other fancy TOMS shortly.

Anyway I think I have to keep my mind that I need to dress nice every morning otherwise my fashion sense will be destroyed. So I'm trying to use my brain for the best style I can think of everyday from TODAY!

TOMS article (in Japanese)
JB Press - TOMS Shoes

[10-02-10] Solid Food Solution...

My son will be 6 months old in a week!!
Wooo, time flies so fast.

I started to feed solid food to my son last weekend.
The first food for my son is rice porridge!
I decided to give him porridge instead of rice cereal, because it's what he will eat in his future and much affordable! And also such a delicious! (I think) I know you have to cook, but cooking time is max 30min.

So here are few versions how to make rice porridge.

a) From cooked rice.
I usually do. Basically using rice cooker to make regular rice for adults.
Then just scoop a one table spoon of rice, and put in a small pan with a 1 cup of water.
Then boil it. Make it soft, then use CHAKOSHI to make it much much softer/mash it well

b) From uncooked rice.
this method makes this porridge much more delicious!!
one table spoon of raw rice, and add two cups of water.
almost cook 1 hour, and make it so soft. then use CHAKOSHI to mash it!

c) From frozen cooked rice.
Put frozen rice about one table spoon and add water of 1 cup,
Boil for 10-15 min/mid heat, and mash it with CHAKOSHI.

**Key tool is CHAKOSHI! (See the picture. It's like a small mesh ball with handle. You can buy at the Asian grocery stores)
It's such a bad idea to use blender or food processor only for this amount of small portion!
So using CHAKOSHI is the easiest and fastest way to mash food for babies, I think!

My son usually watching me cooking, then I give him a food.
It takes a while, I know!
But hopefully this process makes him understand and appreciate what he eats !

[09-11-10] cranberry tofu (okara) biscotti

Very healthy snack cookies for nursing moms and kids!


-since I was pregnant, I started making this biscotti and served to my family and friends. Instead of using only flour, I add okara which is fibers left over by making tofu. So it's not so crunchy, yet Italian snack looks and flavor !

*** 100g = 3.5z = 0.2lb

Here is the recipe :
Okara 100g

A
-Flour 100g
-Baking Powder 1 tea spoon
-Sugar 50g

-2 eggs

B
-cranberry 50g
-mix nuts 50g
-fresh rosemary 2-3 branches(2inch long)
-olive oil 1 table spoon

Powder sugar

1. Use microwave to dry out Okara. ( 3min and mix then another 1min)

2. Using pan to roast mix nuts then chop.

3. In a mid size ball. Add A, and okara. Mix and pour eggs into it.

4. Mix then add B. Make sure rosemary is chopped finely!

5. Put dough onto the oven pan with two. Start preheat oven with 340F/170C

6. Put powder sugar onto two doughs

7. Put them in an oven and bake 25min

8. Put them out from the oven and sliced into small pieces (1/2 inch thick)

9. Put them on the oven pan. Make sure the surface of cut is up. Then bake 10min with 300F/150C then turn upside down and bake another 10min

10. Done!!!

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[07-09-2010] Be back from my maternity leave...

Officially I'm back! I took three month maternity leave from April. I had a lot of experiences during my pregnancy and after labor with my baby son, Kai. I've talked with so many moms, and realize there is something I can do thru my blog and thru my business.

I always try to update my blog at every day on a dot, but it's so hard! But I think I should restart. Tomorrow is my son's three months birthday, and since I saw the movie, Julie and Julia, few months ago, it is so important to keep doing the things you set!

Endurance makes you stronger. =継続は力なり（Keizoku ha Chikara Nari）

By the way, I've been experiencing how babies grow fast. As a director of my kids wear line, Sunshine Darlin', I really need to work on the designs more practical for parents and also need to be cute :) Study, Study, Study!
( I'm trying to release new collection during this year.)

Anyway, here is my first topics for my blog -

Breastfeeding : Luckily I have enough milk that my son doesn't need to drink formula, so economically it's super helpful. People say formula and breast milk aren't the same, but I was grown up with 50/50 according to my mom, and I'm doing just fine. But I have few friends who gave only breast milk for first one year, and they are super healthy, and even other kids are catching cold, they don't catch. That's awesome, huh?

Well my first week after my labor was pretty tough because I wasn't used to it, and my son also. So I had a lactation consultant in my hospital, but I also visited Japanese lactation consultant as soon as I'm back to my house.

She, Megumi, is RN, and also a lactation consultant. She used to work in Japan as a nurse over 20 years, and she learned Japanese breast massage for moms. So her consultation is mixed of American and Japanese! This massage basically SAVED me.

Here is the basic idea of famous Japanese breastfeeding method, OKETANI.

Basically if you are in Japanese hospital, you can get this breast massage while you are staying pretty much every day from your nurses! (According to my mom and other friends)

Here you really have to deal with everything by yourself, and I know it's painful in the beginning. But once you get used to it, and now I'm pretty enjoying, and really really CHEAP!

I bought one package of travel formula once, and a gallon water. I also received formula can sample from Enfamil, and also got 8 of 2oz ready-to bottles from my hospital. I don't even finish any of them at all! If I go out, and someone has to take care of baby, I usually pump for few days. For training purpose, I gave him formula few times, but luckily he doesn't mind to drink it. Occasionally babies don't drink bottles milk if you keep only giving breast milk. Some babies notice "TASTE", some just don't like 'FAKE NIPPLE". My son's case is that he can drink as long as we use NUK nipples. It's very interesting!

Dealing with his fussiness is sometimes hard, but being with a baby is very fascinated. I've been no make-up pretty much for last three months, so my skin is now so young! (Recently many of my friends told me that I became so young.) I think it's also because of my labor experience, but also of breast feeding. My blood circulation should be really good.

If you are going to have a baby, please try to breast feed once, and if you are in trouble, talk with lactation consultants! If you are in LA, I'm happy to refer to my consultant.

Now I'm start to work on myself to be a Glam Mom!

Sunshine Darlin'
website

[03-26-10] Maternity Photo Gig

Hi, Guys!
Finally I took my own maternity photos. Great experience. Just a sneak peak photo by taking iPhone today... See below:)






From this May, Funtrap/Sunshine Darlin' will provide a service for arrangement maternity photos with professional photographer and make-up artist! Will post detail information soon.



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[03-06-10] Romantic Army Style

From recent Glamour magazine Apr issue...

I love this knit jacket with bitter army cargo pants style:)

Definitely a part of this spring trend...


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[02-25-10] From Japanese Magazine

I checked Japanese magazine, "Sweet", and felt like the key words for this spring's trend are "flower" "western" "vintage"...




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[02-24-10] Don't miss new men's collection of Varde77 in Japan!

Varde 77 Spring 10

Hey, one of my clients, Varde 77, just released their Spring 10 collection.
Designed by Hiroyuki Miyata
Photographed by Yoshiyuki Nagatomo
Funtrap did casting for San Francisco shooting!

The brand is getting more charismatic, and powerful...

[02-14-10] Happy Valentine's Day :)

Hello, guys-

Well it's been more than a month since my last update! Sorry-
A happy new year, and today is the day of Valentine's day + Chinese New Year!!

Here is a new store who carry our collection, Sunshine Darlin'!

http://www.stylizta.com

Love,
YUKIE

[12-24-09] Happy Holidays!

This Christmas, I gave few gifts to the kids I have been teaching Japanese!!

Custome shirts in Japanese!

Pretty cute, huh?




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[12-17-09] LA BODY magazine production

One of our company's important projects is the production of LA BODY magazine, Japanese fitess & dance fashion magazine!

We did fashion shoots in San Pedro, Long Beach, Torrance and Redondo Beach this time!

We also did cover the famous female dance crew, We Are Heroes, from MTV American Best Dance Crew Season 4 this time!

Wonderful and exciting week...






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[12-1-09] Fidm Trunk Show Now!

Hey, guys-
I'm at FIDM downtown Los Angeles! Come to see us :)
My kids pieces are here...


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