Once Upon a Tanbo

We had a fun weekend! Actually weekends are usually pretty fun here since Ryohei is around and its not just Sakura and me all day long… (that gets old pretty quick since its not like she can really do much on her own and i think she gets bored of just seeing me and the occasional old lady at the nearby grocery store.)

Friday we went to spend the night at the PIL since they live closer to Gunma and Sakura and I took the local train 50 minutes from Nagaoka Station to the one about 7 minutes from Ryohei parents. I had (in hindsight poorly) planned for Sakura to get her afternoon nap on the train ride but she woke up after only 15 minutes due to loud high school students and the door opening and closing.. usually she sleeps.. well… like a baby on trains..

Anyways we got to PIL around 4pm and she cried from 4:15pm to 5:30pm when I finally put her to bed. I think MIL thinks shes is broken or something since she is NEVER in a good mood when we are there. And of course the Iroha comparisons were thrown like rice at a wedding… they were surprised Sakura is so skinny and long. I guess Iroha is short and round…

Anyways after nearly an hour and a half of screaming which reminded me eerily of her first 6 weeks of life – she went off to sleep in regular Sakura fashion.

Saturday she was so tired that she didn’t want to wake up at 6:30 like she usually does but Ryohei’s parents “insisted” on seeing her before they left for work so we had to wake her up at 7:45… I’m not a fan of waking sleeping babies esp. for my parents in law but we did it anyways and she was in a fairly good mood so she let them fawn over her a bit. She’s pretty look but don’t touch with them.. but then again they still try and hold her in a cradling position and now that her head is fully functional she – HATES it.

Anyways after that we headed down to Gunma! We got there pretty quick  only about an hour and fifteen minutes! Woo hoo! It was a lot of fun and Ryohei is his usual fashion was the entertainment for the bigger kids while the rest of the ladies chatted and admired the two smaller babies. It was good food and fun. Thank you so much Laura A. for hosting us and also it was great to finally meet Sophie and Sakurako. Sakurako in particular seemed to enjoy baby Sakura she was petting her head and gave her a hug as well.. very cute!

It is only an hour and a bit from Ryohei’s parents so if we use the ETC to get there its only 2000 yen round trip Hopefully we will be able to meet up every few months…

Anyways the way back we went back to Nagaoka and it took quite a bit longer… Sakura was pretty cranky and then it started raining so we took a rest and a parking area and had dinner there. It took us about 2.5 hours with the stop included and we were all pretty exhausted by the time we got back.

Today was supposed to be rainy but ended up being sunny so we caught up on some house chores and then drove out to a park but it was super windy and cold so we headed back after a brief stop at Akachan Honpo for Sakura and Starbucks for us!

Sakura was being SO cute this weekend.. she is SO chatty now. I wonder if she’ll continue to be a chatty baby/toddler. It makes me crack up when she tooks to us, herself, her toys, etc etc..

Hard to believe she’ll be 4 months soon. At Akachan Honpo we saw another baby crying that was about a month old.. it was a big shock to realize just how much Sakura has matured.. she doesn’t sound or look like a newborn at all. She’s trying so hard to roll over and smiles and occasionally laughs, and has head control.. it really is true time goes quickly.

I just hope this week goes quickly so we can head out to Shizuoka to see Nay and Naoki again!! I can’t wait. We haven’t seen them for over 2.5 months now. This month has really gone by fast… just another 3 weeks until we leave for America?! And then it’ll almost be 2010… I really can NOT believe it!