Articles Tagged with: family
Immi’s granddad is visiting us from VA for a few days! We are hanging out at a pasta place we like called Pastini Pastaria. Immi is totally loving the lemonade.
We are at the toy shop near the restaurant. Immi found this kitty and isn’t willing to let go.
Immi found her favorite display model bed — I’m guessing because it matches her dress?? She got the kitty on the bed, and ready to take her shoes off (I didn’t let her!)
We are driving out to DC to meet Auntie Junko. Immi fell a sleep on the way. She always takes her shoes off in the car.
Immi trying to squirm out of the photo.
Immi really wanted the pretty blue and white porcelain tea set (a real one, not a toy) with butterflies on it. She was upset for about 40 seconds when I told her she couldn’t have it (or touch them!, or go anywhere near them!!). I’m glad the tantrum lasted only for a very short time but is it narcissistic that I think she is precious for loving tea and tea sets just like me?? 
We are talking a walk.
Auntie Junko and Immi playing with the ball.
Immi and her daddy.
Immi is wearing HelloKitty ears which she got from her Ojiichan’s colleague in Japan (Hi!! Immi loves wearing it!) and eating some jellybeans.
We are at immi’s grandparents for dinner. We’ve walked to the park nearby.
Auntie Junko is here too.
Immi, Auntie Junko, Ojiichan and Obaachan after dinner.
Auntie Junko is visiting this weekend. Todd and his friends went out to watch UFC this evening and Immi’s brother is totally passed out tired from shopping earlier…so its basically just the three of us here enjoying tea and chocolate.
It’s auntie Junko’s birthday (on monday) and we missed celebrating father’s day last weekend (we are always a week behind with every holiday these days!) and both Todd and Junko (and me too!) wanted phở so that’s what we are having. They look like they are having a serious conversation don’t they?
…and immi is engaged in her usual activity.
Immi had a successful sleepover at her grandparents last night for the first time, though she has done this very well several times at her grandmom’s already. It makes me feel better that she’ll be fine for when we have to leave her for a bit when her little brother is to be born since kids aren’t allowed in hospital rooms after hours and we don’t know what time he’ll be coming around!
…anyway we are having an ordinary sunday. Immi’s dad should be coming home from camping this evening. The entire weekend passed by quite quickly for some reason. I think that immi misses her daddy — she wanted me to call him, and I had to tell her that phone doesn’t work where he is in the mountains.
We are at Jammin Java in Vienna to meet up with Auntie Junko. We haven’t seen her in a loooong time. Immi was very happy to see her (though somehow we don’t have any pictures of that…)
Here’s immi sitting at the cafe and playing with contents in her purse. These days, her purse goes through inspection (by me!) before we leave home to make sure it doesn’t have too many things in it. (The other day during the inspection, many tiny ponies spilled out when I unzippered the her purse because immi had about a million of them stuffed in there…).
And here’s immi being acrobatic with the comfy chair.
It’s my birthday today. The BIG one in which I turn 30! When Todd asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday, I said “go yarn shopping in Alexandria!” (there is a cute little yarn shop called Knit Happens which I’ve never been to). Unfortunately, they are CLOSED on mondays! …so I picked Vienna instead which isn’t exactly my favorite town but it also has a fancy yarn store which I’ve never been to.
…so our day started with coffee and very very very delicious sandwich at Jammin Java. Immi and her dad are having ice water while we wait for the sandwich.
Then we found Uniquities which was located in a hidden area. For such an obscure location, there were quite many people shopping for yarn there! This was really fun for me (I crochet, and I’m very mediocre at it, but I’ve always loved pretty yarn!) but Immi was not pleased that we wouldn’t let her touch any of the pretty fluffy yarns so Todd took her out for a walk (very nice day out!), and then this is what I found them doing in the parking lot when I found them — driving immi!
Todd sent me off to DC to hang out with my sister for 1/2 a day saying that he’d be most productive if I were happy and not meddling with his to-do-list:p Junko and I had a long lunch at Busboys and Poets (I had a burger, Junko had a Cobb Salad, and we both had fresh lemonade with pomogranate juice), then window-shopping and junktiquing on U Street, and then teatime at Teaism (chai tea!). Anyway, after a long productive day of immi-less relaxing, Junko came home with me to Reston for the evening (Junko had Monday off work and Todd wanted her to do reiki).
We got phở to-go (Junko really wanted it, apparently phở-craving is contagious!) for dinner. We all finished eating, and immi did too, but she decided that she want to have some more soup. While I sorted out the kitchen, Antie Junko was supervising immi. When I walked into the living room, this is what I found:
Immi is sitting on the table and splashing soup everywhere! This scene is funny to me since immi is usually quite well mannered at the table (she gets compliments all the time from strangers when we dine-out for being so well behaved!). I think that immi just wanted to give her favorite auntie a hard time:D
After the soup incident, immi and her auntie are playing with immi’s little ponies.
I never really cared for Valentine’s day much. The first very memorable one is actually the one shortly after immi was born. Immi was born a day after her due date, but if she wasn’t willing, she was scheduled to be born on the February 14th (I’m happy she decided to join us on her own!). Todd and I always say that everyday is like a Valentine’s day anyhow, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take the opportunity to do something fun!
…so we headed out to Leesburg, since it’s the place we like to get away to when even Charlottesville is a bit too far away. We are at a little Italian cafe for lunch. Immi absolutely loved their bread and now sharing some with her dad.
We stopped by Lola for a cupcake and a cookie and went to our usual coffee shop in town. Here’s immi picking frosting off my cupcake!
It was really quite nice out today. We are getting some sunshine, just outside the coffee house.
In the evening, immi’s grandmom stopped by to be her Valentine:) She brought her a pink giraffe that dances to a silly song — immi loved it of course!
We are celbrating immi’s birthday about 12 hours early this year (Sunday is a good day for party, don’t you think?). Here is immi digging right in to her cake by pulling the pony off and licking the whipped cream!
I didn’t bake the cake, we got it from a really cute and very tasty bakery in DC. …but I did decorate it:) This is what the cake looked like before:
Immi is playing with her Grandmom with the new wooden cake decorating set she was just gifted.
Immi is having more cake…
Auntie Junko got her a beautiful wooden alphabet blocks. Immi is enjoying organizing and reorganizing.
Immi just rescued her super-sized pony from the factory box.
Immi and her pony are having a little snack of raspberries after post-party-nap-time.
We came into DC to see Auntie Junko and then later for surprise dinner party for Alexis’ b-day. We are now at Teaism having tea and yummy treats. Here’s immi eating her crunchies and hanging out with her aunt.
We are at immi’s grandmom’s and we just finished brunch. We are hanging out in the living room and Immi is opening gifts.
We are now in the kitchen having some cookies. Immi is playing with her new baby doll from her grandmom, sort of. At the moment she is busy washing her own face with plastic pretend soap for her baby doll.
Immi is modeling her new faux fur her jacket. She seems to like it a lot.
Immi also got a big pretend kitchen (and huge amount of accessories for it) and an entire nursery for her baby doll from her grandmom. We have to build them though before she can play with them. Tired from running around all afternoon (powered by sugar!), immi fell a sleep and her dad joined her too.
In the evening, we headed over to immi’s grandparents for dinner. For some reason, I didn’t take any photos here! You’ll just have to take my word that we had a very nice time. Immi spent the entire evening after dinner organizing and reorganizing her big box of new crayons (she got a big tub full of art supplies, stickers and activity books from her grandparents).
We are at ToysRus to get some diapers and to watch people do last minute holiday shopping. It’s really crowded here even though the store is closing early in less than an hour. Immi fell in LOVE when spotted this big plushie My Little Pony on the shelf. She dragged her off the shelf and zoomed around the store gleefully. Several customers asked us where in the store we found it (immi-dvertisement!). …And, no, we didn’t buy it.
When we got back home, there were three huge packages waiting for immi from her Great Aunt Marla,Great Uncle Charlie, and second cousin Alisa (It’s already been two summers since we last visited them!). In it, immi found some musical toys, Clifford the Dog, and wooden play center.
For some reason Immi really really loved this red doggie (even though he is a dog!) and spend the rest of the evening carry him around, giving him many squeezes and saying “wruuuuuf!”.
We didn’t think that we’d get to see Auntie Junko again before she left to Japan for the month, but she came over tonight so that we can send her off to the airport tomorrow morning. Immi is converting her faery mushroom house into a cafe/bakery and Auntie Junko is watching. Immi is now pretending to drink tea out of a very very tiny tiny tea cup.
We drove in to DC to see auntie Junko since she will be traveling to Japan and will be out of town for the several weeks. She is treating us at Sushi Taro as a early holiday gift! This place is by far our favorite Japanese restaurant, and Immi absolutely enjoyed their food today! She loved the avocado rolls, pumpkin tempura (with most of the crunchy stuff taken off), yakitori, miso soup and some fresh veggies in the salad. She ate happily for the entire 1.5 hours we were there.
After dinner, we headed to Starbucks for a warm drink. Here’s immi and her favorite aunt.
We are at immi’s grandmom’s. She is doing tea as usual.
Immi, her grandmom and Auntie Junko are frosting sugar cookies and decorating them with sprinkles (I’m staying out of the kitchen to keep germs out!). Immi discovered that she LOVES sprinkles! She is sitting on the stool picking sprinkles off the frosted cookie and eating them.
Auntie Junko is visiting us for the four day holiday weekend. And We are making play-doh pizza! Auntie Junko and I used the molds to make pizza toppings (broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, anchovies…!!) and immi is decorating her pizza (the pizza making kit came with more pizza-like colored dohs but I haven’t opened them yet). When she is done, she is going to slice it with the plastic pizza wheel.
We missed Auntie Junko (she hasn’t been able to come stay with us in Reston since she is so busy!) so we made a very impromptu trip to DC to see her. We are at Teaism, of course. Todd and I are having bubble tea and Junko is having chai tea. Immi got a free cookie (a very tasty looking handmade shortbread!) for being cute!
Immi found a light switch that she can reach without any help!
Immi has gotten very good at climbing up the stairs. She has a flexible and grippy soled boots, but I’m still a bit worried and read to run up and catch her if she looks even a bit wobbly.
Immi can’t go down the stairs very well yet unless there is a rail she can grab with one hand and someone is holding her other hand. …so had to run up the stairs to grab her and carry her down. She didn’t like this at all.
