Happy New Year!!!

We are currently in Utah, staying with Nate's mom and her hubby in Draper. We drove up the weekend before Christmas. We've had a wonderful visit thus far, filled with snow,
sledding,
Santa,
presents,
and family.
My belly continues to grow, though it is looking deceptively smaller as Ella has started to drop.
I'm definitely feeling ready for this pregnancy to be over and to finally meet our little Ella!

We'll be here for a few more days and then head back home for California this weekend. I'm so glad that we were able to make this trip. Savannah has been in total heaven being constantly doted on by her Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Kiki (Nate's sister Kristen), as well as the rest of the family that she has been bombarded with.
What a blessing to have so much family so near. Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Squirrel!

Dear Savannah,

This day two years ago was one of the most incredible days of my entire life. The day before was very memorable. Your Nana was visiting us in Japan, waiting for you to be born. It was a Friday and we had gone to an art gallery to see Van Gogh's Sunflowers and it was standing in front of that beautiful painting that I had my first contraction at about 11:00am.
Nana and I finished walking through the gallery and then made our way back to Hiroo, the neighborhood where our apartment was. We walked up Hiroo shopping street and bought some lunch and then walked home. I had contractions on and off all day and by early evening they were coming regularly. Your dad came home and we ordered food from our favorite Indian restaurant, Moti. I ate a very spicy curry dish, asking for them to make it as spicy as they possibly could. That was my last meal before you were born. That night we stayed up late timing contractions and then finally decided to try and get some sleep. After about 30 minutes I decided that it was no use, there was no way I was going to sleep. We finally called Dr. Sakamoto because my contractions were about 8 minutes apart, and he had asked us to call him when they were under 10 minutes apart. We couldn't get a hold of him, so we called the hospital and finally went in about an hour later.
It turns out that Dr. Sakamoto was delivering another baby when we called him. My contractions quickly got closer and closer together and got stronger and stronger, but not much else was happening.

Saturday morning I had been in labor with you for 24 hours when a doctor put a cell phone up to my ear. The voice on the other end was Dr. Sakamoto telling me that something was wrong and that if we didn't act quickly you were not going to survive. I remember not being able to respond because a nurse was slipping an oxygen mask over my face. I remember the confused and worried look on your dad's face as I was being wheeled out. He didn't know yet what was going on, and with the oxygen mask over my mouth all I could do was to tell him that everything was going to be okay as they wheeled me out the door.

A few minutes later Dr. Sakamoto arrived as I was prepped for surgery. Your dad came in all dressed up in scrubs. He got to sit by my head and hold my hand. I couldn't see anything but him because they had put the surgical guard very close to my head, so I watched him the whole time. He was awesome. He watched the whole thing and never flinched once. His face stayed a normal color and everything! They quickly had you out and dangled you over my face so that I could get a glimpse of you before they rushed you away to take care of you. You were quite the impressive shade of blue and the only bit of you that I really got to see was your bum (but it was a very cute blue bum). That first little cry you made when they pulled you out made your dad and I cry--it was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard. I fell asleep at this point as the doctors sewed me up.
I know from pictures, and from what your dad and Nana tell me that you were putting on quite a show in the NICU. You were kicking around and trying to eat the edge of the oxygen hood.

I finally got to see your sweet face for the first time about 6 hours later and fell instantly in love.
Holding you in my arms for the first time was mind blowing, and a moment that I will always remember. From the moment you were born you looked like your dad and Nana called you "Little Nathanette" for a very long time after that.

It's hard for me to believe that two whole years have passed since those moments.
When I remember them, they are very clear and seem like it was only yesterday. Yet here you are, our crazy little Savvy-Squirrel.
You have more energy than anyone I know and never stop talking.
For over a year now you have been obsessed with Elmo. You constantly amaze us with the things you say and sing. Just this morning we heard you singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star when you woke up in your crib. Your other favorite songs are the ABCs, The Wheels on the Bus, The Eensy Weensy Spider, Old McDonald Had a Farm, Follow the Prophet, and I Am A Child of God. Your nursery leaders tell us that your favorite time in nursery every week is when they bring out the bubbles and you run around going crazy trying to catch them.

You are very curious, always examining everything. I love how you brush the hair out of your face when you've been playing hard. I love how you scold Neko ("Yako"), telling her to "be nice," when it was really you antagonizing her. I love it that when you hear a sound that interests you, like that of an airplane in the sky, you say, "Ooooh, an airplane! You hear it? You hear it?" I love how you desperately ask for more kisses whenever we are leaving your room at night, trying to delay bedtime for just a few more moments.
You are one amazing little girl and I have loved watching you learn and grow over the past two years. I am excited to see what the future brings. I believe that you can accomplish anything you decide to do--you are just that determined.

I love you Savannah. Happy Birthday!
Love,
Mama

Thanksgiving visits and life as "normal"

We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving! Nate's mom and her husband and Nate's little sister drove down from Utah for a visit. Savannah quickly remembered who they were (the last time she saw them was in August when we were up for a visit). We all went to my mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving dinner, where my mom had an encounter with a can and ended up having to have 7 stitches put in her finger before dinner.
The day after Thanksgiving everyone took a trip to the L.A. area to visit Venice Beach and some of the sights in Hollywood.
That night we had a little mini-birthday celebration for Savannah and she got to dig into some chocolate cake.
Then on Saturday the girls all went to see Twilight and the men stayed home to do "manly stuff" like watch 24 and play with Savannah. That night we all went to Chuck E. Cheese's and had a blast helping Savannah to play games.
Sunday the gang left to drive back up to Utah--way too short of a visit! We had such a fun time with them. Okay, who's next???

Since then life has continued on as "normal." I just switched baby docs and had my first appointment with my new doctor last week. I switched because my old doctor would have required me to have another c-section, as that is the policy of Corona's hospital (and his personal policy). I also switched because Corona's hospital is tiny (despite the fact that Corona is not tiny at all) and doesn't have an NICU. So I'll now be delivering at Loma Linda University Medical Center. I'm so happy about the switch because I really like my new doctor. She spent a ton of time with me asking me questions and figuring out a plan of action.
Some interesting things came out of the visit, like the fact that I'm measuring 5 cm larger than the largest measurement that is considered normal, but my amniotic fluid levels appear to be normal and the baby doesn't appear to be the Hulk in infant form. Because of this and some other factors, the doc has put some restrictions on my daily routine. What? I'm being forced to put my feet up and read a book for a change? Darn. :-) I've got 7 1/2 weeks left until my due date, so it will be interesting to see what happens between now and then!

This past Saturday we celebrated St. Nicholas Day like usual, but it was way more fun that past years as Savannah was very excited to pull goodies out of her shoes (and out of her daddy's as well). Though a Santa cell phone filled with candy would probably make anyone excited to pull things out of their shoes, right?

Nate got set apart yesterday as our ward's Elder's Quorum President, so his life is about to become really fun, I'm sure.

Savannah has been on one lately.
When I picked her up from nursery yesterday, one of the nursery leaders told me she spent the last 10 minutes of nursery pretending to be a frog and hopping around the room. This was a result of a party we attended on Saturday, thrown by Nate's boss. There were two little girls who were playing a modified form of leap frog and Savvy was watching them and started imitating them.

For singing time last week I taught the nursery the chorus of Follow the Prophet. I had a picture of President Monson attached to a stick that I held and we marched around the room literally following the prophet. We sang it again today, and then on the way home from church Savannah started singing it in the car!! Then, when we were watching the Christmas Devotional tonight she got really excited and was pointing at the TV saying "It's the prophet! Look! It's the prophet!" She went on like that the whole time we were watching whenever President Monson showed up on the screen. It made it very difficult to hear anything that was being said, but it was beyond cute and was a proud parenting moment.

Last night we had our favorite quick and easy pasta concoction for dinner (Classico tomato and basil sauce mixed with Classico creamy alfredo sauce with spicy sausage in it eaten over noodles) and Savvy ate FOUR bowls of it. She set a personal record for the amount consumed in one meal. Now she probably won't eat at all today.

Japanese Gracious Hospitality

Okay, so I've been meaning to explain what I've been doing for MBK Homes and am finally getting around to it. About 6 months ago while we were still living in Japan I was contacted by a woman that I've known for years (she was actually my Sunday School teacher when I was a teenager for awhile). She had seen a post I had written on La Fuji Mama about an experience I had with one of our neighbors. Her company, MBK Homes, is owned by Mitsui Corporation, a Japanese corporation that is one of the oldest businesses in the world. One of the mission statements of MBK is to provide gracious hospitality and this friend was wondering what my perception of Japanese hospitality was. We talked for a bit and then she asked me to put some of my thoughts down and email them to her, which I did. I promptly forgot about it until she contacted me again in late July asking if I would be interested in putting together a presentation that would help educate the employees of MBK about their corporate heritage, give them some ideas of how they could implement some of that heritage into the way they conduct business and improve the quality of the hospitality that they provide.

In October I went to MBK and did an hour long presentation to their Sales Team which focused specifically on providing gracious hospitality in customer service. After that presentation I was asked to make a similar presentation at MBK's bi-annual conference for the executives. So last week I made a 45-minute presentation at the conference that focused on using gracious hospitality to promote team building within the company. It went well and I had a blast doing it. I've been really impressed with MBK through the whole process. It's nice seeing a company put so much effort into providing their employees this type of training.

Ok, now that you're all asleep, here's something more entertaining! This is a video of Savannah antagonizing Neko (one of our cats) and then scolding her ("Be nice!") when Neko gets a little bit annoyed.

Work, work, work!

Tomorrow I giving another presentation for MBK Homes on the topic of Japanese Gracious Hospitality, though my focus is on team building this time (the last presentation I did was for their Sales Team and focused more on customer service) and my audience is about 7 times larger than the one for my last presentation. As a result I'm just a little bit stressed and distracted. To add to the stress/distraction I finally got a calling in our ward, one that I'm all too familiar with--Primary Chorister. On one hand, I love the calling because it is very rewarding, but on the other hand, I dread it because it is WAY more work than any other calling I've ever had, including being the Young Women's President. After my presentation is over tomorrow I'm going to be feeling a whole lot better about life, I'm sure.

Nate has been more than a little busy as well. The weekend before last he was in Boston working through the weekend helping out with some bilingual interviews (English/Japanese) that needed to be done. Every day during the week he's in a different city visiting a client--poor guy doesn't get to rest! We're very glad that he's driving a hybrid, because boy is he putting miles on that thing!

Savannah continues to make our lives fun. A few days ago I bought a plastic storage bin to store Halloween costumes in. I had brought it in from the car and it was sitting in our family room waiting to be filled. I turned my back on Savannah to unload the dishwasher and when I turned back around she had filled the bin with some of her favorite things and a blanket and was lounging in the bin like it was a bath tub.
I finally moved and filled the bin this morning while she was asleep, but I didn't have the heart to take it away from her before that because she was enjoying it so much. Maybe we'll buy her one for Christmas.

Because I'm feeling particularly uninteresting, I'll leave you with something way more fun--a series of photos I took of Savannah. When I took the first one she didn't have any idea I was there. You can see as the photos progress that she's starting to be a bit more clued in to what I'm doing.

Spooky Resemblance

After my post about Trunk-or-Treat my mom emailed me with a side-by-side comparison of one of the pictures from my post and one of a Cabbage Patch doll. All I can say is wow, creepy!

Halloween Retrospective

Aaaah, the big day has come and gone and what do we have to show for it? Luckily, not much candy!
Savannah had a blast trick-or-treating, but mostly because she got to wear her pumpkin costume which she loves.
We went to a couple of houses on my parents' street and then drove down the Haimson's house (we had to take Savvy to see her Fairy Godmother Kathy of course!). She fell asleep in the car on the way there, but perked up once she saw their bowl of candy!