I'm back!

I had a great time in Orange County visiting Uncle Eric, Auntie Wendy, and baby Ellie Belly. Here they are in case you don't know what they look like.



Lots of fun. I took their doggie Sami out on walks. I went swimming almost every day. I even went to the beach and made a fancy sand castle with seaweed and shells.



I played a lot with Ellie. She likes when I make funny faces and sounds at her. I met my other cousin Cali. She's fun too!



I also spent some time with Auntie Wendy's family. They are very nice but I'm very shy around them.

We visited a placed called something like Mission San Juan Capastrami. It's an old building. There is a Mission near our house here in San Francisco. But the one we visited in Orange County was a little different. I liked jumping around.



I also did a little photo shoot with Ellie. A photo shoot is where Mommy fiddles with her camera for way too long to get "the perfect shot" and I get impatient. How hard is it to press a button? I've been pressing buttons since I was a baby. Just take the picture already. But I do love holding Ellie.



I love a vacation, but I also love being home. I really missed Daddy when I was gone. Mommy missed him too. I think Daddy was bored without us. When he picked us up from the airport, I gave him a super big hug.

Later that night we went to watch the Persied Meteor Shower near Mt. Diablo. My friend Izzy and her mommy came along. We got to lie in our sleeping bags and stare up at the sky. We saw some really neat shooting stars with long tails fly across the night sky. So cool! But Daddy got really sick and threw up a lot. He mostly looked at the ground while we looked at the sky. I don't think he saw many shooting stars.

Two days later, I got sick. No fun. It was pretty miserable. I threw up a lot. I cried a lot. I stopped throwing up yesterday, but I'm still tired. I've been keeping busy by sleeping through. I told Mommy that I wish people never got sick. It really hurts.

But I'm feeling much better today. And did I mention that Ella is visiting again from Israel? My best friend is back! We have a sleepover planned for this week. Yay!!!!

I love Ellie!

She's so cute. I love giving my baby cousin hugs and kisses.

No more stuff!

Hello! This is Yoshi's mom.

As you may or may not know, our household really wants to have a simple, but full life rich with experiences. And one of the ways to reach this is not to be bogged down by "stuff." Sure, it's just about impossible not to have material goods in this day and age, and we are definitely fortunate that we can live comfortably with modern conveniences, but it seems that when I have a lot of Stuff, I end up worrying about Stuff, and then wanting even more Stuff. Stuff that really isn't important and ends up taking up space, not being used, and then creating a lot of guilt of owning it but feeling bad getting rid of it.

And from an environmental standpoint, Stuff takes a lot of resources. Think about that one plastic bottle of water you drink, the energy it took to make the bottle, to transport the bottle, to package the bottle among other bottles, advertise the selling of the bottle, then the energy to recycle that bottle once it's used. Ugh.

But I digress.

This is another plea not to give us material goods. Chances are if we've gone this long without it, we don't really need it, and probably don't want it. And this rings especially true for things given to Yoshi. She doesn't need anymore things. And to be completely honest, I will probably be offended if you read this post and continue to give her stuff.

If you want to give her something, please, please, ask me first. I hate to be the Mean Mommy when I end up taking away a toy she got from someone else.

And if you have a compulsion to spend money and want to put it to good use, consider donating to a charity or non-profit like Habitat for Humanity, the American Cancer Society in memory of her grandpa, or to her elementary school.

Thank you for your support and love.

Baker Beach

The ocean has a lot of water.

Joke of the day

Me: What smells like a banana and is invisible?

Mommy: An invisible banana?

Me: No. A monkey's burp!

Story: Shapetown

Once inside of Shape Town, there were a couple different kinds of shapes. There was Square and Triangle, Circle, Oval, Diamond, Rectangle. And those were the only shapes.

And one day, five Letters moved in from Letter Town. And then the four friends, the Diamond, the Oval, the Circle, the Square and the Rectangle and the Triangle, they said, “You don’t belong in Letter Town. We do!” The Letters said, “We’re the beginning of the alphabet. We’re A, B, C, D, E! We heard there were more houses and we came to move in. That is why.”

So the four friends five friends moved in. And then the five letters and the five shapes became ten best friends. They played every day. And then five animals moved in. There was a cow, a chicken, a cat, a horse, and a frog. Moved in to Shape Town. And then it was called Anything Town where move five things like Five Bottles moved in. A tall bottle, a fat bottle, a skinny bottle, a soda bottle, a metal bottle. And then five chicken pox roosters moved in. They were covered in red chicken box ‘cause they ate too many red gum! And they got some medicine and then they ate healthier.

And animals kept moving in. And different things keep moving in.

Doo doo dooo, doo doo doo. (sing this)

And one day something big and scary moved in. It had a weapon! It scared everything. They were frightened and cuddled together. It was a giant Transformer named Bumblebee!!!!

They all ran away. And came back. And then the five bumblebee transformers all became friends with the rest of them. They always ate dinner together, ate lunch and breakfast and they did everything together. It was so happy story, that they wanted to always have more friends moving in and one day….

They had a new friend come in. They didn’t know what it was. It was a person in a racecar. Five persons in a racecar. And they became friends, too. And they all had smiles when they met.

The end!

I'm So Sari!

About a week ago, Mommy, Daddy and I went on an airplane. We flew to New Jersey for a wedding. Daddy went to college with Dee. Dee is the bride. I was a flower girl.

A couple days before the wedding, we went to Dee's Mommy and Daddy's house in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I didn't see any cherries or hills there. That's weird. We were there for the Mehendi Party. Everyone wears green. All the girls get their hands painted with Henna. Henna is a plant that is used to make this brown paste stuff that colors your skin. It looks like chocolate, but don't eat it because it's not chocolate. It's henna. Dee got the most special henna designs because she's the bride.

Here I am getting my hand painted:


Waiting for it to dry (see the peacock?):


The rehearsal was on Friday, the day before the wedding. Rehearsal is when you practice. It took a long time for people to rehearse I guess. But I hear practice makes perfect. We must be perfect after all that practicing. I mostly waited around for everyone else because I knew my part well.


Finally it was Saturday, wedding day! I got dressed in my yellow sari made especially for me in India, which is a country far, far away. It's sparkly and I feel like a princess when I wear it. Daddy didn't have a sari because he's a boy. And he wasn't a flower girl either.


After the Hindu ceremony, there was a break so we could get ready for the Catholic ceremony. I changed out of my sari and put on my poofy white dress. I made sure I had all my flowers in my basket. I did my job walking down the aisle and threw flower petals on the ground. Fun!


I got hungry towards the end.


More wedding photos can be seen on Mommy's Flickr.

Me and my cousin

I love Ellie!

Fun time at the zoo

Lately I've been spending my time at the zoo for day camp. I know all about the zoo. If you want, I can show you around.

The people that work at the zoo get to hold the animals because they know how to hold them. But we get to pet some of the animals while they are being held. And guess what? Today I pet a Koala Bear!! She is 13 years old and really soft and cute. Almost as cute as a giraffe.

Oh! And speaking of giraffes, I saw them today. Usually when Mommy picks me up after camp ends we go straight home, but today we decided to hang out a little longer at the zoo. We went to see the giraffes together. It was their dinner time. They were eating leaves, alfalfa and giraffe kibble. They have long tongues that are purple. I said to Mommy, "They have the biggest, darkest, most perfect, round eyes ever!" So pretty!

Alcatraz

Alcatraz is a jail on an island here in San Francisco. But bad guys no longer are there. It's a museum jail. That means regular people get to visit and walk around. I had a good time and learned a lot about how people try to escape from jail. They should really practice their swimming.

Pay attention, Mommy

Sometimes she misunderhears me.

Story of a house

Once there was a house. Inside of the house was a little girl. Her was name was Yoshimi. Her mom was named denise. Her dad was named Tom. They were a good family. The best cereal Yoshi liked was Honey Nut Toasted Oats and Honey Nut Cheerios. One is toasted and one is not.

Yoshi loved to wear any type of clothes that looks good to her. Denise likes to knit stuff. Tom likes to work in an office. You can draw on the windows or you can draw on the board. If you draw on the windows you have to draw on the windows with the kind of makers that you use on the white board. Then you erase it. Yoshi once in San Mateo worked and drawed a picture that was as big as herself.

5 Years

I don't really remember Grandpa alive because I was only a little baby when he passed away. But I know he and I had a lot of fun. This picture was taken the last time I played with him. It was at the beach. We were good buddies. He loved me lots.

I went to his Rock at the special park for dead people who are rocks. I said hi to him and told him that I was a flower girl at a wedding the day before. I also told him that I finished Kindergarten. Then I picked flowers from the grass and put it on his rock. And I arranged his other goodies already there on his rock to make it look more nice.

I miss Grandpa.

My favorite animal is a giraffe

Once there was a zoo. In the zoo lived a zebra and a giraffe. The zebra liked camels but there were no camels in the zoo. The zebra was sad. So she almost cried. The giraffe likes people feeding her but at this zoo no one could feed the giraffe! The giraffe was so sad that she almost threw up and cried.

One day, a little boy came and the little boy had a pet camel. Zebra was so happy that the zebra and danced for joy. (do a dance and sing: hmm hmmm hmmm hmm mmmmmm!)

Then came a little girl. She had giraffe food. Giraffe was so happy she dance around and danced and danced.

And then they were both happy dancing around.

The end.

I'm now a first grader!

Today was my last day of kindergarten. Now I'm big.

In kindergarten, I learned how to count by ones, twos, fives, and tens.

In kindergarten, I learned how to read.

In kindergarten, I learned how to write.

In kindergarten, I learned how caterpillars turn into butterflies.

In kindergarten, I made new best friends.

In kindergarten, I had a lot of fun.


Here is a page from my writing and drawing that I do every day.



"In kindergarten I learned how to do my writing and how to play nicely."


I wish I could go to kindergarten forever.

Wouldn't it be funny

Yesterday, Mommy and I looked at new photos of baby Ellie. Mommy asked me what I'm going to say when I finally meet my new cousin.

I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if I shook her hand and said, 'Congratulations! You just made it out of a belly!'?"

Mommy laughed. I told her not to tell anyone I said that.

A Mother's Day video for Bachan!

I'm going to Seattle this weekend with Mommy and Daddy for a wedding. I won't be able to blog until after I get back so this video is a little early. Happy Mother's Day, Bachan! It's from me, Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Eric, Auntie Wendy, and baby Ellie.

Dogfest

Saturday my school had a big fun-raiser. A fun-raiser is where you have fun and make money. The fun-raiser we had was called Dogfest. It's a party for dogs. And kids too! There were all sorts of games, facepainting, and food. Mommy made cupcakes with sprinkles. My favorite!



I dressed up as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz because Dorothy has a dog. I brought my Snoopy in a basket. Snoopy pretended to be Toto. I got my face painted with a butterfly. That's me in the top picture in case you didn't recognize me in my disguise.

There were so many dogs. Big dogs, little dogs. Some dogs had a lot of fur. Some had hardly any.



Mommy told our friend Sabrina to bring her doggies and enter them in the "Best Coat" contest. Her doggies are big and super fluffy white. They look like clouds that drool.



And guess what? Her dogs won!



I told Mommy, "When Sabrina's doggies won, I felt really happy on the inside."

"How did you feel on the outside?" Mommy asked.

"Even more happy than on the inside. I said, 'Yay!!!!!'"

She's cute!

When I saw this picture Ellie this morning, I said, "Awwww! She's sooooo cuuuute!" I really want to see her in real life.

She's wearing a hat that Mommy knit her.

I'm a big cousin!

Uncle Eric and Auntie Wendy had a baby last night. The baby's name is Ellie, which is a nickname for Elizabeth. The baby was born while I was sleeping. Doesn't Ellie know that she should have been sleeping too? The night is bedtime for kids!

Here's some things you might want to know about the baby.
Her name is Elizabeth Quynh Haruko Iwamoto. When she's in kindergarten, it's going to take her 10 minutes and two sheets of paper to write out her name on her homework.

She was born on April 13, 2009. That was yesterday.

At 9:06pm. That was last night.

6 pounds, 14 ounces. I weigh a lot more than that, like more than five Ellies put together.

20 inches long. I'm taller than that. I don't know how much taller though. Much taller if she's lying down.

I can't wait to meet her! I have so much I plan to teach her, like how to carefully place small toys on the floor so Mommy and Daddy can step on them. But first I will have to teach her not to eat small toys. Because that's dangerous.

Happy Birthday, Ellie!

Super Yo!

I drew this picture a couple days ago. It's me as a superhero. See my cape? I'm flying high in the air. That's why the clouds are below me.

Happy Easter!

Today is Easter. It's a day to celebrate spring. It's also about chocolate and eggs. And going to the park. First, we had an Easter Egg hunt in my backyard. Daddy wanted to know if the Easter Bunny should hide the eggs. I told him, "No, the Easter Bunny isn't real. You and Mommy hide the eggs!" The Easter Bunny isn't real like Santa Claus. Silly, Daddy should know that.

My little 2 year old neighbor Z had her first egg hunt. I hid the eggs for her and then she and her mommy looked for them. Z really liked pouring the eggs out of the basket and hearing them go Crack! Crack! Crack! I hope she washed the eggs off before she ate them.



Then Mommy and Daddy hid my eggs so I could find them. Some of them were easy to find. But I had a lot of green colored eggs that looked a lot like the color of the plants in our backyard. They were tricky to find. But I found them. Eventually.



After the egg hunt, we packed our lunch for the picnic at the big park by our house. The Sisters are there every Easter and host a big celebration. We went early for the Easter Egg Hunt. I didn't get any eggs there though because I was kind of nervous being with so many people and I couldn't see Mommy or Daddy. A little girl gave me two of her eggs when she saw I had none. She was very nice to do that. Inside the plastic eggs were chocolates! Yummy!



We set up our big blanket on the grass and sat with my friend Izzy and her family. They brought homemade Challah bread using Daddy's sourdough starter.



We had a great time eating, playing, and seeing all the Sisters. The Sisters are actually grown up boys dressed up as girls. They wear a lot of pretty dresses and fancy makeup.



Mommy said she wishes she was a guy so she could dress up like a girl. Mommy is so silly!



Izzy's auntie's friend James is a Sister. He made a special hat that looks like a big orange flower! With big bees that fly around his head! But they aren't real bees. Just stuffed animal ones. I wasn't afraid.



There were so many people at the park! It's nice to see everyone out on such a nice day.



Lots of people dressed up. Some people wore all pink! Pink is a good color. Maybe I'll dress up next time in my princess costume.



I can't wait until next Easter!

I love you egg!

Tomorrow is Easter. It's a day when you play hide-and-seek with colored eggs. The eggs hide, and then you go and find them. I colored eggs today with my neighbor who is 2 years old. She liked it but seemed to enjoy trying to drink the colored water more. I liked squeezing the food coloring out of the bottles and mix up different colors. But my favorite part is pulling out the eggs after they have been sitting in the colored vinegar-water for a couple minutes. I'm always surprised how pretty they are! Do you think rainbow chickens would lay rainbow eggs?

Easter 3 years ago

Mommy and Daddy found all my old videos. Here is a video of me coloring easter eggs three years ago. Yay!

When I Grow Up

Daddy: When you grow up, Yoshi, do you think you want to be like Mommy and Daddy?

Me: No, I want to be like Yoshimi.

Neck

Mommy calls it a cowl. I call it a neck coat.

Inauguration, Chapter 3

I bet you probably thought I forgot about my trip to Washington DC for the Inauguration. This update is overdue, which means that books are late to the library. It also means that my story about DC is late.

I last left of finishing day Two of my trip. Here we go.

Day 3
January 19th
National Zoo

We spent Monday hanging out with Mommy and Daddy's friend Dan and his oldest son Isaac. He's three years old. Isaac, not Dan. Dan is much older because he's a grownup. Isaac's family lives in Germany and he knows how to speak German, English, and French. He also speaks 3-Year-Old, which I luckily can understand since I speak a very similar language of 5-Year-Old.


Isaac has a nifty wooden bike with no pedals that he brought from his house. He let me borrow it as we explored the National Zoo.



There are lots of neat things to see in the zoo. But it was very cold so many animals were not outside. I saw a fish frozen in a pond.

I did see a 9 day old baby gorilla and its Mommy. The baby looked cozy being held by Mama. I also saw a chimpanzee throw up and eat its own barf. And then his chimp friend did it too because it looked like so much fun. Animals are silly that way.

My favorite animals were the tiny hippos. They are much smaller than the regular hippos. But still too big to fit inside my bag to take home.

Here are some animals I saw:



After the zoo, we had a big group dinner. Dan's sister had a fancy ticket to the Inauguration and she let us look at it. Mommy wanted to steal it, but I told her that taking things without asking is bad.

Hinamatsuri

Today is Hinamatsuri. That's Japanese for Festival of Dolls. But we call it Girls Day. It's when little girls like me get to do fun things like have little parties with friends for our special dolls. On Saturday, I dressed up in my yukata (cotton kimono) and walked to Izzy's house for an early Girls Day celebration. We ate lots of yummy Japanese goodies. Pink, green, and yellow manju with cute, little, happy decorations on top. We also had rice crackers, sushi, miso soup made by Izzy's Bachan, and nigiri (rice balls) shaped like stars, bears, and hearts!



For dessert we had a super cute Girls Day cake topped with candy versions of the Emperor and Empress. My friend Lily's Mommy and Izzy sang a Girls Day song in Japanese. We blew out the candles. Then we licked the frosting off the candles. Then we ate the cake. Because it's yummy!



Lily's Mommy shared her tiny Hina Doll set. There was a beautiful Emperor and the Empress. It's made out of glass and porcelain. So it's fragile. And fancy.



Mommy made a paper Hina doll set for each of us girls. I love Mommy, but sometimes she goes a little crazy with her crafts.



And the best thing about Girls Day? No boys allowed!

Happy Hinamasturi!