tomorobi.net – News Noah

March 31, 2010

Noah turns 2

Filed under: Noah — Robert @ 4:27 pm

Noah on his second birthday with one of his presents

Continuing with my trend of posting weeks after the fact, Noah turned two years old on March 17. He had a little birthday party with family, cake and presents to celebrate the day.

From his Japanese grandparents, he got some nice clothes. From Grandma, he got a wooden Thomas train add-on kit, A Quarry Mine track for his Thomas trains to rumble along. Noah loves trains! From Mommy and Daddy, he got a big airport play set, complete with an airplane, a helicopter, a baggage train and other vehicles. And from his uncle Tadahiko, he got a toy steam engine.

Noah’s cake had Thomas the Tank Engine on it. Noah loves Thomas, and he liked the cake even more!

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October 18, 2009

Halloween in Kamiyamada

Filed under: Anri, Noah, Sara, holiday — Tags: Halloween — Robert @ 6:57 am

The kids dressed up for Halloween in 2009

Every year in October, there is a great children’s Halloween Party in Kamiyamada Onsen, the hot spring section of town. Though Halloween is still tow weeks away, this years party was on the 18th, and we took all three kids to the party for some pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating and apple bobbing.

Anri came up with the idea of dressing Noah up as Mater, the character from the Disney/Pixar film Cars. It was also her idea to have Daddy put in long hours to construct it out of carboard, duct tape and papier mache, but anything to make the kids have a good day! Anyway, Sara went to the party as Kiki, the little witch from the Miyazaki film Kiki’s Delivery Service, while Anri was decked out as Dorothy from the The Wizard of Oz (Mommy and Daddy were up until 4 am the night before sewing the thing!).

Our good friend Tyler — an American originally from Seattle who runs a Japanese inn in Kamiyamada — was the coodinator, and has done a great job running this event for several years now. Nobody here knows trick-or-treating, so Tyler went around the main road in Kamiyamada and got a whole bunch of businesses to agree to hand out candy and snacks to visiting kids in costumes. with a map in hand, we marched the kids up and down the street, stopping at every listed place to fill their bags with candy. It was then that I realized that despite the time I took to make Noah’s Mater costume, he didn’t want to wear it. I had to wait until he fell asleep in his stroller before I was finally able to put it on him.

Pupkin Carving in Kamiyamada, 2009

Later, we did pumpkin carving. Anri traced the face she wanted and I cut it out. She and I (with a tiny bit of help from Sara) cleaned out the pumpkin and when it was finally done, it looked pretty good!

We also did some apple bobbing, which was thankfully very clean, since the apples all had long stems to grab onto with your teeth. And there were other special things going on, such as taiko drumming, dancing by local geisha and a horse-drawn wagon ride. There was also a costume contest. There was no win for the Greys today, but they had a great time.

Bobbing for apples in Kamiyamada, 2009

Photos of the Halloween Party and others taken in October are on The Kodak Gallery Website here.

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March 19, 2009

Noah Turns One! Bring out that ice cream cake!

Filed under: Noah — Tags: Birthday, Noah — Robert @ 6:08 am

Noah turned one on March 17, and we all sat down and celebrated over a Baskin Robbin’s ice cream cake. Noah too. He loves ice cream!

Noah having ice cream cake.

He got some presents too. From his Japanese grandparents, he got some nice Ralph Lauren clothes. And from Grandma in the US, he got a Leap Frog train!

Noah with his toy train.

Finally from Mommy and Daddy, he got a learning playset, also made by Leap Frog. You can probably tell we are big fans of this company! And though this was Noah’s new toy, we had a hard time keeping Anri and Sara away from it. Here is a photo of the girls hogging the thing while Noah waits his turn. He didn’t have to wait long.

Anri, Sara and Noah playing with Noah's new toy.

Noah at One Month

Filed under: Family, Noah, holiday — Tags: Noah, O-miya-mairi — Robert @ 1:55 am

Noah became one month old on the 17th, and on the 20th we took him to a Shinto Shrine for o-miya-mairi, a Japanese custom whenever there is an addition to the family.

Anri and Tomomi with Noah in front of the shrine.

The ritual done in the shrine is short, involving a Shinto priest pounding a drum and reciting a number of chants to alert the Shinto gods about presence of the new baby. While we have done this twice before with Anri and Sara, this was the first time with a baby boy, and Noah was wrapped in a child-size silk kimono for the occasion (girls in Japan get more lavish attention later on in their development). The kimono was a gift from Tomomi’s parents, as is common with these things, and it is specifically designed and sized to drape the boy when he is an infant, while at the same time allow him to wear it when he is five for his Shichi-go-san.

Aside from this, the only other thing that happens when a baby reaches one month is the ordinary one-month check-up. Both Noah and Tomomi are fine.

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March 22, 2008

Noah Comes Home

Filed under: Noah — Tags: Noah, Tomomi — Robert @ 12:09 am

After five days in the maternity clinic, Tomomi and Noah finally came home today.

Noah with his eyes open

Noah was awake for a short time before we headed out, but was asleep again by the time we got him downstairs and into the car. The entire on-duty nurse staff at the clinic saw us off at the front door. Tomomi remarked that her holiday was over, having spent five days in this clinic — a place that more resembles an upscale hotel than a hospital.

More photos, including those taken today are now up. You can view them here.

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March 17, 2008

Noah is here!

Filed under: Noah, baby — Tags: Family, Kids, Noah — Robert @ 7:54 am

Our first son, Noah Zane Grey, was born today, arriving two weeks before the due date and weighing 6 pounds 2 ounces. He was born at 7:10 pm Japan time at the Shimizu Clinic (link in Japanese only) in Nagano. Both Tomomi and Noah are doing fine.

Tomomi, Robert and Noah

The whole event began at around 2:30 am on the 17th, when Tomomi began feeling labor pains. We went to the clinic right away, but the doctor said it would be a long time before delivery. Although we could have chosen to have Tomomi stay at the clinic during all that time, the doctor said she could just as well wait out the time at home, so that’s what she did.

Until about 4pm, that is. By then, the contractions had grown in intensity so Tomomi’s aunt drove her back to the clinic. I was in lessons at the time, and had another 40 minutes of a lesson to go when she called, saying she had just arrived at the clinic. This was 5:15pm.

At 5:30, I got out of my lesson and cancelled the rest of them for the evening. I busted out of the place and headed right for the clinic. I was almost too late, too. When I got there, I found Tomomi in the delivery room all strapped up and ready to push. Finally, at 7:10pm, Noah was born.

Noah is writtenwith each character for each syllable of the name. The name Noah was chosen because it is a Biblical name but can also be written easily in Japanese. The characters in this name, in order, mean “hope” and “us”.

Tomomi will be in the clinic for the next five nights. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I will visit the clinic and get my first chance to hold my son in my arms. Looking forward to it.

Photos are being uploaded daily. To see them, click here.

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