The flight between Tokyo and Los Angeles is never fun. It’s long, it’s tiring and it really screws up your sense of time. It’s even harder when you have to do it with an active toddler who is curious about everything she sees.

Our flight back to Tokyo felt like a lifetime. It was only 11 1/2 hours but it really felt like it was never going to end.

E was all over the place. She wanted to touch everything, see everything, wave at everyone and see what all our neighbors were up to. She wanted to sing her little songs and babble baby talk. She wanted to squeal at things and stand up and walk around. She was tired but because of the time change and all the excitement around her, she wouldn’t for the life of us sleep…and she would get cranky and whiny because of it.

The only time we got a real break from having to entertain her and keep her from disturbing the peace was during the 2 hours of sleep she got at the beginning of our flight. It was still uncomfortable and cramped in our seats but the 2 hours of quiet time we got made it bearable.

Ah, quiet time….

Only time we get quiet time these days is when this child is asleep.

For more images of “Quiet”, check out this weeks You Capture challenge over at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Exactly one year ago, at 3:13pm Tokyo time, our lives changed forever.

Our once quiet and simple world was turned upsidedown with the arrival of a 6 lb 1oz bundle of madness.

It’s hard to believe how a year has gone by so quickly, especially when it felt so slow in the beginning. Both Jason and I had a rough start getting use to our new little addition but over time, things got easier and we grew to love her more and more each day.

This has been quite a year for all of us and it was quite an experience raising E and watching her grow from an immobile newborn to an active toddler. She learned a lot of new skills this past year and Jason and I learned a lot about being parents as well as being a family.

If you had asked me a year ago what I felt about having another baby and about my thoughts on how things will be a year later, I would have told you that I’m done with having kids. I would probably be very sleep deprived and depressed and so I would have told you that I wasn’t sure things will ever get better. Now, I can honestly say that I am ready to do it all again and I look forward to the many more years of teaching E about life because it gets better and better each day.

We love you very much, dear E!

Happy 1st birthday, babe!

We’re on our last week home before we have to go back to Tokyo. I ordered a lot of stuff to take back with us but at the same time I didn’t realize just how much I actually bought. So Jason and I went and packed the stuff we had just to see if we need to take back extra suitcases or send stuff back via packages.

Last year, most of the stuff we had in our large suitcase was the clothes we got for E. This year, it’s mostly food and snack stuff for her.

While we were busy opening up boxes and dumping her fruit pouches into the suitcase, E notices the packages of baby wipes in the suitcase. She loves opening them up and taking each wipe out one by one so she made her way to the wipes. Since the wipes were INSIDE the suitcase, there was only one thing for E to do….climb into the suitcase.

So while we were busy trying to pack her stuff away, she managed to climb, without any assistance, into the suitcase, make a little area for herself, sit down and proceeded with trying to open up the packages of wipes.

This child…..she is really something.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is that a toddler you see?

Wha….who….HOW….WHEN?!

With just one more month left before she officially turns one, Ellie is looking and acting more and more like a toddler. My little baby who, not too long ago, couldn’t even sit up on her own or crawl is now a cruising/walking little person who can feed herself bread.

It really feels like she just grew up overnight.

There are days I feel like time couldn’t move any slower and I wish she could do more on her own. Then there are days where I’d watch her as she independently plays on the floor and I wish, just for a moment, that she’d stay just the way she is and never grow up.

I’ve been told that the first year of a baby’s life goes by really quickly and that they change and they grow so much in that first year. They cannot be any more right about that. I spent every waking moment with E so the change is very subtle but now, even I can’t deny the fact that she has grown tremendously.

I can’t believe that we survived each other for a whole year. There will be many more years of interesting moments and experiences as she continues to grow up. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for those yet…

I’m going to miss her being a baby…

Lately, I’ve been working on getting back into my own photography now that E is more independent.  Of course, I can’t seem to get back into photographing like I use to.  Maybe it’s just from the lack of practice or because I can’t seem to focus on taking pictures of anything else other than E these days.

Anyway, I found a blog carnival that sounds interesting so I decided to join in on this weeks challenge.  It’s hosted over at I Should Be Folding Laundry and the theme this week is “Faces”, something I have plenty of (all of E of course.)

And a B&W one just because I haven’t done one in a while.

My child is beautiful, isn’t she?

1 more month and she’ll be one!  I can’t believe it’s going by so fast!

Go check out other people’s photos or put up your own link over at Beth’s blog.

Going to try putting 3 different updates in this post…

There’s a link to each one that you can click on to view.
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Korean style beef stirfry

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Ring in the new year!

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One day, she’ll get us back for this

The story…