Jason is Eleven!

Happy Birthday to my dearest Sonny-boy, who turned 11 this year! And thank you to everyone who sent gifts, called and joined in making the event special for him!
Here's the birthday cake, Spiderman theme.Getting ready to blow out the candles, this year I got the number right!

And finally, blowing them out!

And here he is at the park doing his favorite activity--playing games.

Tummy at the Park

Here's the tummy at the park. The shirt sort of hides how big it's gotten, but believe me, it's really out there.Julia already loves her little brother.

And this is my normal 'Jason' face these days.

Japan's Rising Birthrate?

I have a few things to say about the Japanese government's dealing with families and pregnancy and children. In our neighborhood the local kindergarten has declined in attendance so rapidly, it's hard for me to grasp. When Janina entered the kindy 8 years ago there were close to 160 children total. This year we were shocked to hear there were only 18 children in attendance! That's close to a 90% decline in 8 years! It could be because more children are attending other private kindys, but once they graduate into 1st grade, all the children in our neighborhood will attend the same public school, at that time we'll have a true measure of the decline.

The 1st grade attendance has declines rapidly as well. When Janina started 1st grade there were 2 classes with close to 40 kids in each. This year there is one class with just above 20 children, which reflects a definite decline.

Japan does not deal well with maternity and helping mothers. There are very few government benefits, so far this is what they help with during maternity:

* 2 free checkups and the funds to cover the delivery

Each check up is around $30, and you are expected to go every month to 2 weeks. From now on my doctor expects me there every 2 weeks, which I definitely cannot afford, not with 3 other children.

As for government benefits for children--there really are none. A child typically can get free medical until they are 6, and if you qualify, you receive a monthly stipend of 5,000 yen per child for your first 2, and 10,000 yen per child after that, until they reach Jr. High school. In comparison to what it takes to raise a child, not to mention 4, this is nothing at all. This is money we can use to pay our car taxes once a year, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to raise a kid.

I am still working now, I travel the trains twice a week, and unless the train is not crowded, I don't get a seat, although I'm obviously pregnant, which is really a bummer. It's hard to stand for more than 10 minutes or so, on a crowded train with people pressing in on me, jolting around. I would stop working if I could, but I can't, we have to make ends meet, so I'll need to keep going until December, when I'll take 3 months off for Jordan. There's so many things I could talk about that the government could do to make it easier for people to have children in Japan, to create an atmosphere that helps and supports mothers and children, to give them an allowance for buying necessities such as milk, supplements, vegetables and fruits, to ensure that mothers and the elderly will get seats on trains, or to supplement incomes while a mother is in her prenatal and after-delivery stages. Why would anyone in their right mind in this country want to have children? It's too damned expensive! And hard.

And that's not even touching on the whole school system!

So, I don't think the government should be complaining about any declining population, I think they should be looking at the situation and doing more to create an environment where women will feel that having a child is not going to add stress to her family and their already tight budgets, that women will feel supported during that time of their life, and not see it as the 'end' for the next 20 years.

And to top it all off, we are now experiencing exposes in many government run city offices of embezzling of funds by officials and city workers slacking off and using our taxes to pay for it. The gall!

Anyway, all that to say, I'm definitely doing my part to contribute to the population here, and raise good children who will be an asset to any society they are part of.

From Yahoo.com

TOKYO - The number of babies born in Japan rose for the seventh straight month in August, the government said Friday, raising hopes for an upturn in the country's plunging annual birthrate and declining population.

A falling birthrate and an expanding elderly population pose serious concerns for Japan as it struggles to tackle a labor shortage and eroding tax base. Japan's birthrate in 2005 stood at a record low of 1.25 babies per woman in her lifetime, far below the 2.1 rate needed to keep the population steady.

In August, a total of 98,276 births were registered, up 3,001 from the same month in 2005, or a rise of about 3 percent, according to Health Ministry statistics released Friday.

That's the seventh straight monthly gain in the number of births. But Reiji Murayama, an official of the Health Ministry's vital and health statistics division, said it was too early to say that the latest data meant a turnaround in the country's annual birthrate.

"We cannot predict if the falling birthrate may hit the bottom this year yet, until we will see the remaining four months," Murayama said.

The nation's population last year declined for the first time on record, shocking officials and spurring a spate of measures to encourage women to have more babies.

To encourage women to have more babies, the government started a project to build more day care centers, while encouraging men to take paternity leave. Amid changing lifestyles, many single women are delaying or forgoing marriage to pursue careers.

Gaining Weight

At my last checkup the nurse kindly informed me that I have already gained all the weight I should for the pregnancy, and I should start eating more konbu, nori and wakame, all products from the ocean involving seaweed. I snorted, and said 'Oh well, that's just tough'.

I've gained approximately 17 pounds, depending on the time of day you weigh me, and I have 3 months to go. I'm not sure where I've gained too much weight, perhaps it's my butt, it's really hard to tell these days. I was 49 kilos to begin with, and am now 57 kilos at the beginning of my 7th month.

In Japan they have a certain weight allowance for pregnant women, and if you start to go over it, they get on your case. The result is that many babies are being born today very underweight and unhealthy, as women are so concerned about their weight. As for me, I don't think the Doctor factored in that:
1. I'm a foreigner and tend to carry more fat on my body than the typical Japanese woman.
2. My kids are all around 3.5 kilos, not the normal Japanese 2.5.
3. I seem to have a lot of water in my womb.
4. My breasts have increased, not a lot, but definitely more than the typical Japanese woman's does.

So, I'm not going to stress about it, according to what I've been reading, I've gained at a healthy rate and have room to gain more, and I know for a fact that once this kid starts breastfeeding all that weight is going to be converted into food and energy.

I'm thinking to weigh myself as soon as I go into labor, and right after I deliver, to see how much of it is actually 'my' weight, and how much is the pregnant weight--water, baby, placenta...

Introducing Jordan Alex

I'd like you to meet my son, Jordan Alex, who is now 28 weeks old. The doctor said he's growing perfectly, just like he should be, and personally, I think he looks a lot like Julia, especially the nose, but if you look closely at the lips, you can see he has the (in)famous LaMattery lips, sort of look like his uncle Tim's. But he definitely has Art's turned up nose.
In case you were wondering, this is a 4D ultra sound that was taken October 17th.

Check out the tummy

Here it is everyone! At 25 weeks pregnant, according to the doctor.

Meeting up with Grandma Marylin

It's been about 6 years since the kids last saw their Grandma and Dave. This could be a good thing--absence makes the heart fonder--or a bad thing. But nevertheless, we tried to make up for lost time, and got to spend a number of days with both Grandma and Papa Dave. They were generous enough to let us stay in their former house, which had a pool, wonderful during the extreme hot season, temperatures reaching up to 43 degrees C!! And it was nice to have a place to retreat to every so often and be able to 'hang' at.

* Grandma and Jason


* Grandma and Julia



* Trinity and Erinn


* Julia in the pool

Peeping Jacq

I had a freaky experience this morning. I woke up earlier than usual, 5am, and around 6:45 went to take a shower. As I was showering I saw out of the corner of my eyes a pair of eyes disappearing from the little window in the shower-room. At first I was completely disoriented, and freaked out thinking we had a peeping tom back there. It took me about 30 seconds to gather my wits, and my tummy, and peer out the window to see who it was. And sure enough, it was a peeper, a peeping Jacq, peering into the window, pleading to be let into the house.

A few odd shots

This is the day we arrived from the airport at Windy's, and the kids met their cousin Trinity for the first time. It was such a long flight, and a somewhat stressful arrival, but we made it all the way and finally got to relax and take showers, then sleep!Marylin in the back yard.
Me and my sister Auty, who is almost an RN, congratulations to her!

Sprinklers in Summer

Something I seem to remember doing as a child at some point--running through sprinklers. We don't have sprinklers like this in Japan, much less lawns, so the kids had great fun cooling off at the end of the day by dashing across the yard. Even Mike and Marylin jumped into the water!

A local fair

We spent part of the day while in LA at a local fair. The kids got $5 each and decided to spend it on an airbrush tatoo. Of course, Janina asked me if she could get a real one, to which I, being the good mother that I am, said NO WAY, not until you're at least 16 anyway. I'm hoping that by that time she'll have forgotten about it, hehe!



Jason turned out to be quite the good big brother, pushing Marylin around, and if Aunty Windy sends me her pictures, we'll have some of Jason giving Marylin a bath in the sink. It's good to know I'll have plenty of help with the new baby coming soon.
Later on I gave the kids $1/each to spend at the ice-cream truck. What Jason thought was going to be a delicious new candy turned out to be something horribly sour! He shared a bit with Marylin who loved it, in her own way.

Week at Windy's

Our first week was spent with Windy, Mike and baby Marylin, here we are having lunch together after a morning of bowling. Windy and Mike made the first part of our visit really nice and took such good care of us in every way!

Cousins meeting

After a small delay, Windy and Auty picked us up at the bus terminal, and the kids met their cousins Trinity and Marylin for the first time.

The plane--JAL

For the first time we got a flight on JAL, it's usually the more expensive airplane, but we got a really good deal. Neat about this flight were the TVs in the back of the seats, with about 9 movies to choose from (Jason and I watched JAWS), the children's channel, and a game channel (we all played a lot of mahjong), and outside view cameras so we could watch the take-off and landing on screen. The flight was crowded, but smooth, almost no turbulence, and the food was as decent as airplane food gets.

Visiting the States

On June 21st we began a 2-1/2 month visit to the States to see our family, friends, the country. Art wasn't able to come, but the kids and I did. Here we are at Kansia airport on our way out of the country! The flight left at 5:30pm and we arrived in LA at 12pm the same day, hehe! How does that work anyway?