7mo. and back from Brazil

I'm a 7 months old now and a world traveler.  I just got back from Brazil and let me just say it was hot there.  I'm not use to that heat.  I was a sweaty mess. I ended up taking two baths a day.  I brought all these cute outfits to wear and I ended up mainly in my diapers all day.  I was so stoked to see my Grandma Maria and my Auntie Jackie.  I haven't seen them since I was 10 days old.

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I just wish my Daddy could have come with us, but as least I got to skype with him everyday. When I came home I showed him my two bottom teeth that came in and my new crawling skills.

The first weekend there we had a big churrasco (Brazilian BBQ) where all my mommy's friends came over.  They were all trying to make me laugh, but I may have been a little cruzty from new teeth coming in.  I loved listening to their laughter of past memories fill the hot air as the sizzling Picahna and Linguesse were passed around.

Here I am with Auntie Jackie and Grandma Maria at a restaurant called "Baiao de dois". They serve traditional food from the state of Bahia and boy it smelled good.

So here I'm sitting by this older boy named Paulinho. Let's just say we hit it off and leave it at that.

Me and Grandma playing with Barney

Here I'm with Bellinha and Lulu chillin.  They sang for me and danced for me.  They are quite the performers

It seems like every day there we were at another house having good food and good company.  Here we are at the Sancho's house.

Here I'm playing with Jasmine my 2nd cousin

It was amazing to be in Brazil it was an awesome experience that I wish I wouldn't forget, but I know I will because I am only 7 months. Tchau Brazil I will be back someday!

2012 Easter In Santa Cruz

This Easter everyone was all over the country from Alabama to Hawaii and from Arizona to Whistler.  We spent Easter in Santa Cruz with the Eyres.

It was a mild Easter with only a few of the cousins together, but none the less it was still fun.

The Easter Bunny hid their baskets and they had to search the house for them and he left Easter eggs throughout the downstairs for them to find.

Ethan, McKay, and Namoi were all fighting over who got to hold Baby Isa in the picture.  So we had to rotate her around.  I wish everyone would fight over me like that.

To My 2nd Favorite Uncle

I just had my Birthday and my favorite birthday card I got was from my niece London. She helped me translate it as; "Justin you are fun. You are great. You are my SECOND FAVORITE uncle." Ohh MAN! I have to step up my uncle game. "Uncle" Matt enjoy this win, because it will be the last. I'll be back on top by next birthday.

Isa 6 Months old

Well look at me now.  I'm six months old and I can totally sit all by myself.  I am starting to eat solids too.  First, it was rice cereal which was pretty good.  I was pretty stoked about it, and now I'm trying vegetables likes carrots, zuchini, potatoes and sweet potatoes.  I haven't tried any fruits yet, they think I won't like veggies after I get a taste of pure yumminess so they are holding off for a little while.

I'm not the best sleeper and it seems like any loud noise wakes me up now where as I use to sleep through it.  My parents wish I would wake up just once in the night instead of 2x or 3x or 4x and on really bad nights 5x.  I'm a pretty good napper though.  I wake up at 7:00am and take my first nap at 9am for an hour.  Then at noon I take my 2nd nap for another hour, and then at 3pm I go down for my 3rd nap.  Then I'm down for the night at 7pm.

My Daddy works on Mon, Wed, and Fri and doesn't get home until 7:00pm so he likes it when I wake up around 10pm on those days so that we can rock me back to sleep.  I snuggle into his chest and fall fast asleep in a minute or two.  He is silly sometimes because when he puts me down, he drops to the floor so that I can't see him and then I see him crawling out of the room. Like I don't know what you are doing, but I'm just going to let him think that he is a ninja.

I've been sleeping in my own room now.  I miss sleeping in my parents bed.  Sometimes after the 3rd time I wake up my mommy just brings me to her bed because she so tired.  My Daddy likes waking up and seeing me there in the morning.  I wake up so excited for the day.  I just start kicking for joy and grabbing my mommy and daddy's faces and start talking to the ceiling.

Sometimes when I'm moving all crazy like, I suddenly stop and stare at my left hand.  It's like I become hypnotized by my moving fingers and then my right hand comes out of nowhere and grabs it and starts pulling on it.  It's crazy because I can make them move by using my mind. It's freaking AWESOME!

I think I figured out this Peek-a-Boo Game.  It's pretty cool.  Now when I want to play it, I pull my blanket over my face and then bring back down really fast and wait for them to say Peek-a-Boo.  I know that after explaining the game it sounds lame, but... seriously it's pretty fun.

Well, that is the 6 month me in a nutshell.  I'll see you in month or so.  Laaaters!

Zoe Much Love

My Grandma Zoe Suzuki Passed away yesterday at age 90.  Although she is in a better place reunited with her daughter Jane she will be greatly missed.  She had such beautiful emerald eyes. Although my eyes aren't as pretty as her's, I feel pretty lucky that she passed her green eyes on to me.

We weren't able to go to Farm House in Wyoming this last summer, so we made a special trip to see my Grandparents out in Michigan for Thanksgiving and to celebrate her 90th Birthday.  I love this picture of Isa and Grandma Zoe.  I see pure joy when I look at this picture, and yet feel so heartbroken right now knowing that Isa won't be able to know for herself what a strong and thoughtful Great Grandma she had.  I love that fact that this little farm girl from Alta Wyoming became a nurse and traveled to Japan post WWII where she meet Dr. Mac Suzuki.  They were working on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) to study the late effects of radiation on the survivors.  They fell in love and upon returning to U.S. got married in California after getting denied in Nevada because they were an inter-racial marriage.  My Grandma was full of adventure, a hard-worker, and lived her life to the fullest.

Here's Grandpa and Isa posting up in Mac's chair watching CNN.  They look pretty cozy them two.  Although she is only 1/8th Japanese she looks it more than I do.  I hope her 1/8th is filled with Grandpa's unconditional kindness and wicked smartness. I remember walking through the canyon and G-Mac started naming all the plants by their common name and scientific name. And then one night while looking up at all the stars he starts spitting out the names of all the constellations.  Then I was blown away when he gave his 20 grandchildren each $1,000 of the $20,000 that the U.S. Government gave to him as an apology for putting him in a concentration camp (internment camp) during WWII.  I never heard him complain about the government or how his family had to sell their land and family business.  All I heard was how as a 3rd year Medical at Berkley student he got a lot of experience doing surgeries in the camps.  And talk about a looker, Grandma didn't have chance when she laid here emerald eyes on him.

We love you Grandma and you will be missed. I always loved how you signed your cards XOXO.  So in your memory XOXO

ISA 5 months loving life

My name is Isa and I turned 5 months the day they took this picture (Feb 23)

I went this Sunday Morning on a walk with my Daddy through the Redwoods on the Sand Trails in Henry Cowells

It was a little cold (42 degrees) as you can tell by my red nose, but I love being outside.  I didn't cry, just laughed a lot at my cousins running on the trail.

Later on that day it warmed up (65 degrees) so after church we hung out in the backyard.

This grass is pretty interesting.  I like grabbing and pulling it out and putting it in my mouth.  Then again I like grabbing anything and putting it in my mouth

At five months now I can arch up like a pro and have being roll over for the past month.  My daddy does a lot of tummy time with me.  He thinks it will help my surfing.

I've been smiling since I was 2 weeks and each week since I've been doing it more and more. Unfortunately, it looks like I got the McLeod double chin when I do.

I can sit up pretty good by myself, but stay close to me cause I usually fall over after 15 seconds

My Daddy was making me laugh so hard right here my belly started to shake.

I love life.  It rocks.

Isa Baby

Just a few nights ago my nephew McKay, my niece Naomi and I were playing catch the diaper. Baby Isa was having so much fun watching us throw diapers to each other. She was laughing so hard that just watching her laugh makes us all wanted to laugh too. She is so adorable. She loves the kids so much. Every time they come around she smiles so much, and she even tries to talk to the kids. It's so cute!

Watch the this little video of baby Isa laughing of our game!

Humpback whales are my favorite animal next to Ligers

Silvia and I saw this Photo in our Local newspaper and so yesterday we went out to the Santa Cruz pier to see if they were still around.
Sure enough as we stood at the end of the pier we could see them 200 to 300 yards away jumping out of the water.  It was like they were having a big splash contest.  I believe they are chasing fish and as the fish swim straight up and jump out of the water so do the whales.

Right below the pier were about 30 seals floating and resting there heads on each others bellies.  Then one came swimming up and jumped out of the water in to the middle of them like someone at a concert stage diving into the crowd.

We feel so blessed

It is crazy how much you can love your kid.  It kind of freaks me out.  I'm not use to getting worried about things, but now when she is sleeping I'm like, "Dude she's kind of quiet.  Is she still breathing."  Then I poker her in the stomach to get a grunt.  

On day ten we discovered that she had an inguinal hernia, and on day 12 we found ourselves at Stanford's Children Hospital getting surgery.  Talk about being scared.  Even though it was considered an minor surgery, there isn't really a minor surgery when its your 12-day-old-child.

I am so thankful for the amazing people at Stanford.  We met everyone of the surgical team and the anesthesiologist's team (12 in all).  They shook our hands and looked us in our eyes and said. "We are going to take good care of Isa." They helped us to feel like we were important to them and that we mattered to them. That helped take the edge off knowing that Isa was in caring competent hands.  Needless to say all went well.

Seeing Isa like this brought tears to Silvia

My mom was a great support to us staying with us the entire day and then staying the night with Silvia and Isa.  She just makes you feel like everything will be okay when she is around.

 Now she is five weeks old and we can't stop staring at her. 

 She is hypnotizing with her smiles and here little dimple.

 She looks like a little doll in this picture.