Our old favorite restaurant...

We used to go to this sushi place all of the time, when we lived here a couple years ago...It is farther from our house now, so we don't go as often. This is a very standard way to eat sushi..It is called Kaiten Sushi, which means conveyor belt sushi. We had to take my mom here, just to experience it. Each plate of sushi is only 100 yen...It is sooo cheap!!!!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Mykel sang her favorite song to Preston!
And, if you are looking to get a easy to use video camera...GET THE FLIP....It is so easy!!!

It's Official...

1. We are coming home on the 8th of June. And, 2. we are taking a family vacation on our way home from here! It's a Happy Mother's Day, a Happy Father's Day, and a Happy Anniversary present.  We are going to Maui! The flight is booked! 3. Emily is coming to Japan!!! Whoop Whoop, can't wait!!!

Mr. P's many faces...

Mr. Circle Mouth

Mr. Circle Mouth with Tongue

Mr. Full Tongue

Mr. I'll Give You a Slight Smile

Mr. Tongue to the Side

Katie-This one is for you!!! I wonder who he gets this face from.....

Psycho Mom, I know... I am obsessed!

First and Last Poo Post...

So I know no one wants to read about baby bowel movements but it wouldn't be a Francis blog without out some talk about poo....Preston is a crazy pooer...He poos all of the time, everywhere, all over everything...We are getting new diapers because the ones we have right now do not stop his poo at all....Every night he poos through his clothes and it is annoying to change at 3am...The other night I woke up and changed him.  I was sooo happy because the diaper was just wet...No poo...I woke David up (I am sure he was annoyed) and said, "Oh my gosh, he didn't poo through his diaper tonight, YEEEAAAHHH!" As I said that, poo started spraying out into the clean diaper, all over the bed and shot out onto my leg...It was a mess; it was disgusting; it was 3am.....We don't have the pee-pee problem that most people have with boys...Ours is spraying poo.....

Also, yesterday it leaked out of his diaper, through his clothes, onto one of our pillows, onto my stretch pants, through them, to my underwear....It was bath time immediately for both of us....

All you can do is laugh.....Thank god babies are so darn cute!!!

First Doctor's Appointment...

Preston had his first doctor's appointment on Wednesday. He is exactly 3 weeks old. The doctor was very impressed with his weight gain. He weighs in at 9 lbs and is 21.5 inches long. He looks monstrous compared to the Japanese babies...Some of them looked like they had not grown, since they were born. We had to retire his first newborn outfit because his is just too long for it....His little legs can't kick all the way out, when he wears it.  He has jaundice, which is fairly common in breastfed babies. The doctor was not concerned at all; however, we do have a jaundice expert in the family, who keeps worrying about (all I will say is that it is not me). The only thing that was concerning at the appointment is that one of his blood results for the metabolic diseases screening was abnormal, so he had to get retested. We will have the results in 2 weeks....Obviously, this is very concerning, but we were told that false positives are very common, so we are remaining positive.

At the hospital, there were soooo many mothers and babies there...I left my house at 11:30 for my 12:30pm appointment and did not get home until 5:00pm...It took forever (socialized medicine but it only cost $10) and while I was waiting, no one fed their babies...It was so weird. Babies were crying everywhere and mothers and fathers were walking around with them but not feeding them. They had to be hungry! Thank god for my Hooter Hider....I use that thing all of the time.

On our way out

Preston undergoing treatment for his jaundice/sunbathing ;)

Getting into a routine...

This last week has been passing by slowly but surely...We haven't had much going on, so we have been staying home trying to get into a little routine and trying to keep Mr. Fussypants happy...Actually, he only had 2 bad days, which seemed like a week and now he has been the angel that he was before last weekend...It is amazing how 2 days can make you feel like everything is falling apart...We are good now....

Mommy's trick to getting the laundry folded, since he is a "hold me mommy all of the time" baby.

Breakfast with mommy and daddy

First Basketball game...

Last weekend, we went to Preston's first basketball game...He was soooo good, it was unbelievable...The fans loved him and told me every second how cute he is...Mecha Kawai, Mecha Kawai...I think they have a thing for the nose and blue eyes...One fan kept poking his face..I think she was trying to wake him up or something..I almost yelled at her.  Also, a couple asked if they could rub his head....It was funny...We also got some nice gifts from the fans...David's team split the series, but they are still in first place.

Old pics.....

Here are some old pictures...I have a little time gap from when I was in the hospital.

Last pregnant picture (04.04.10-39 weeks)

Right after birth...A little gory...Sorry!

Hospital food..Only I would be excited about the food they served...It was like my own Japanese restaurant.

Mom and Baby P

My doctors

Just arriving home

Treats mom brought from home

Meet Preston...

To me, his face is perfect!




Facts about Preston...

He loves playing with his tongue.
He is a nuzzler and loves to be held...ALL OF THE TIME.
Can poo and pass gas with the best of them...(Must get that from the Palmer's).
Has pooed and pee-peed through his diaper and clothes at least 10 times in the last week.
Loves to be in his baby carrier.
Loves his phi-phi (pacifier). We gave it to him about a week ago (not wanting to at all) and have not looked back since...It has saved me many times....He even tries to grab at it when it falls out and he tries to hold it in with his hands.
Has smiled intentionally at mama twice...I swear!!!!
Loves being on his side and tummy.
Loves the heat!
Collects lint between his fingers and toes.
Can recognize when his is alone and he doesn't like it.
And, can cry really, really loud now!!!!
Official nickname in Japan:  Baby Champ...

I am alive and doing well....

I am just transitioning into a two parent household, instead of three, since my mom left on Friday...It was a sad day...I cried at the airport and Baby Preston cried that night...I swear the airport architect decided to make the layout the most dramatic that he/she could when planning the security portion...The person who is leaving literally gets on an escalator, going down at the end of the security checkpoint. The people saying good-bye are separated by big panes of glass. It seems so sad seeing the person you are saying good-bye just go down the escalator..My mom continued to wave so all I could see at the end was her hand waving...It was sad for her too. I tried to give her the Osaka Tour, which I think I did a pretty good job of...Baby Preston has now seen more of Osaka and the surrounding region than I think most foreigners who live here..He is already well-travelled. We had a couple of rest days in between all of our sight-seeing and the baby was sooo good the entire time...Thank god we did it all when we did because he has a much stronger opinion about things these days. The weather was horrible the whole time, but we still made it out and had fun!

A nice break after a day of shopping in Umeda

At a shrine in Kyoto

At the aquarium

At the castle

At the ramen shop

At conveyor belt sushi

Ellen and Osaka

So my mom is here with me to help out with the baby....She has already gotten to experience some great Japanese culture....She has riden a bike in the rain, home from the train station. She watched 2 of David's basketball games, one of which went into overtime and one of which, David got Man of the Match. She has been shopping in Umeda and in Shinsaibashi. She visited a pet store that sells monkeys. She has noticed the crazy fashion and stated that the people here dress weirder than the people in San Francisco. She has seen how expensive things are. $120 for a scarf....She has walked many miles so far and has been exhausted at the end of the day. She has seen the inside of a Japanese nursery with all the Japanese babies sleeping away. She has tried some new foods and she loves crepes and gyozas. She has been inside the U.S. Consulate which was harder to get into than the airport. She has experienced how long everything takes to get done here (I complain about this all of the time). She has taken the subway and the train all around Osaka. And, she has experienced the worst weather in the history of Osaka for April (just kidding, but it seems like it).AND she took pictures with fans at the games and a man had her sign his shirt!!!

Welcome Baby Preston!!!

We welcomed Baby Preston Champion Palmer on April 7th, 2010 at 10:58am. He was 20.5 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 13 oz. I could not have asked for a better birth experience. Everything was very, very fast (about 6 hours total)(except for the pushing, 2.5 hours). Everything went smoothly. We are so happy to have him with us now after waiting for 9 months, especially since we did not know that it was a boy....Life has definately changed for the better :)...My proudest moment: when the doctor said I was 8cm and I had just arrived to L&D and of course, pushing him out. Best part so far: having him start crying and being able to soothe him immediately because I am his mom. Funniest part: seeing how much his face relaxes as soon as he poos.