The Eich family is doubly blessed this Christmas!

Andrew's brother Rob and his wife Kate had their baby on December 27th. They had a little girl, whom they named Noelle Celine Eich. Of course we think its super fun to have two little Eich cousins so close in age (only 3 days apart!)!! Pictured here are Kate, our niece Natalie, and newest addition Noelle!! How cute is that family??

Coming Home...

Finally, it was time to leave the hospital! He is a picture of Connor in his car seat, ready for the big trip home. He slept through most of the sights and sounds of Tokyo on the drive home, probably a good thing, he likely would have been pretty overwhelmed by his first look at the outside world! The other pictures were taken once we got home, the second one is of Connor in his Christmas pajamas- I couldn't wait to get those on him! The others are of Connor just hanging with his Daddy.

Merry Christmas!!

Just wanted to share a picture of our Eich family Christmas dinner at Seibo Hospital. We were so sad to be so far away from all of our friends and family at Christmas (although a very great reason kept us here in Japan). We love and miss all of you so much!! From our new little family to yours, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!!!!! Cheers!

Like Father, Like Son...

When we told friends and family we were having a baby, a common concern was that the baby might inherit Andrew's huge feet and toes (which have a very "finger-like" quality) - and it looks like he did! So of course we have really gotten a kick out of taking pictures of Connor's big feet and toes...

Pictures from the Hospital

He's Here!

I'm so happy to report that our baby has finally arrived. Connor David Eich was born on Christmas Eve at 6:27pm (Tokyo time). He weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz. Just in time for Christmas! Despite the language barrier, our experience at the hospital was a very positive one, our doctor and the midwives and nurses there were all incredibly helpful. Here's a picture of the little guy in his Santa hat and kimono that all of the babies born here wear during their stay in the hospital, along with a few others of his first few hours of life. We're actually home from the hospital now, and everyone is doing really well (although pretty tired). This is the best Christmas gift we could ever receive!!!

Baby- where are you???!!!

In case you're wondering why you haven't received an email with the good news of an Eich baby arrival, its because it hasn't happened yet. Not really sure if its even close at this point! I've started to wonder if I really am pregnant or if I just gained a lot of weight and have a bad case of indigestion (to explain all the action I feel in my stomach). Our previous hopes of having the baby and being home by Christmas have passed. Here in Japan they have you stay in the hospital for 5 days for a regular delivery and 7 for a C-section. You can check out early if you want, but we'll probably stay as long as we can stand it, since the nurses are supposedly very helpful in the days after the birth. Once again though, I really appreciate everyone checking in on us- the anticipation of this little guy's arrival is nearly killing us! Pictured here is the infant sized Santa hat we bought for the baby to wear, set up in the car seat we have ready to take him home from the hospital. Now we just need a baby!!

No Eich Baby just yet...

For those of you keeping track, today is December 18th, which is the baby's official due date! Alas, there is still no baby news to report. I had my weekly check up yesterday afternoon and the doctor said that all looked good and he expects the baby to arrive within the week- so we're still hopeful that he'll be here before Christmas. We'll just have to wait and see! Although I know first babies historically arrive late, we're not sure why ours is dragging his feet (as large as those feet may be being that he's Andrew's son). We have a warm and cozy nursery waiting for him, a Christmas tree with presents under it just for him (most of which are "birthday" presents sent from friends and family back home but we put them under the tree because it makes it look like there's lots to open on Christmas morning-- and so begins the lumping together of his birthday and Christmas...), not to mention two soon-to-be parents that couldn't be more excited for him to get here!! He was especially active in my belly yesterday and last night, not sure if its his way of letting us know he's ok in there or if he's outright mocking me now, as in "I'm having so much fun in here and I'm never coming out!!" Hopefully its the first one. I really appreciate everyone's daily calls or emails to check on the status of the baby- he's a very loved child already and that makes me so happy. Everyone's phone messages these days begin with "Well you aren't answering the phone so you must be at the hospital!!"- but unfortunately not just yet- I've either been out running errands, or in the shower, or in one case yesterday- just too large and slow to make it to the phone before it stopped ringing. But hopefully soon!!!

Four Seasons of Japan

Andrew worked on a fun project for our apartment this past weekend. He took four pictures that we've taken here in Japan and had them blown up and framed to hang in the living room (Side note- little things like being able to get pictures developed, replacing a watch battery or finding replacement bags for the vacuum can be daunting tasks here where there is little English spoken and so much is lost in translation. I'm still working on the watch battery, but buying the right vacuum bags was one of my finer moments). But anyway, Andrew successfully blew up a picture from each season here in Japan, and I thought I'd share them with you. Pictured is Spring in Tokyo (during cherry blossom viewing), Summer in Okinawa, Fall in Kyoto (so far my favorite place that I've visited here in Japan) and Winter in Nagano (site of the 1998 winter olympics). Looking at these pictures makes us realize how many truly amazing places we've had the opportunity to visit while living in Japan!

Are you ready for this?

I'm officially sporting a HUGE stomach now. I'm 38.5 weeks here, hopefully only another week and a half to go! At my last doctors appointment he said he thinks the baby will come before my due date (Dec. 18th), but only by 2-3 days. We'll see. I'm wearing one of the last maternity shirts that still fits me, and as you can see, it barely does. Unfortunately there's no place I can just run out and pick up another few, since the clothing sold here DOES NOT fit anyone who isn't super tiny, let alone an enormously pregnant person.

Nursery pics

We still need to hang some things on the walls, but the nursery is just about done. It's a "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" theme. My favorite part is the "family frame" that I put together. He won't get to meet his extended family members right away but at least he'll get to see their faces every day! I hope he likes it!

This is our first attempt at loading video to the website. We recently bought a video camera and it got plenty of use during the Schirner's visit. Andrew edited the clips down to a 4 minute music video to The Killer's song "Read my Mind". For those who know the song, the band shot the video for this song in Tokyo as well, so this is our version of it. Hope you enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving... Tokyo Style!

Hope that you all had a very happy Thanksgiving holiday! While it's certainly tough to be away from family at the holidays, we still managed to have a pretty nice Turkey Day here in Tokyo. We had our friends/neighbors Trish and Seph (and their baby Kate), along with Trish's sister Beth (here visiting from home) and Andrew's co-worker/friend Tom over for dinner. Andrew made the turkey (a 26 pounder might I add- we were all about having plenty of leftovers) and Trish and Beth made the sides. It was a truly fantastic dinner and if you didn't look out the window, you'd think you were back in the USA for sure. I say it was Thanksgiving "Tokyo style" because the night ended at our favorite karaoke place followed by some late night ramen (I was home fast asleep at this point in case you were wondering)!

View from Tokyo Tower

While the Schirners were here we took a trip to the very top observation deck of Tokyo Tower. Taller than the Eiffel Tower (to which its optimistically compared by the Japanese), the tower is approximately 1,100 feet tall and has awesome views of the city. From way up there you can really get a feel for just how HUGE Tokyo is, it seems to go on forever in every direction. In the first picture, you can easily see the building that we call home (click on the picture to view it larger). Its the darker grey building 2 buildings to the right of the big green glass one.

Schirner Visit

Last week our friends Matt and Jessica Schirner came to visit. They were here for just over a week and we really had the best time with them. Its so fun to have friends come and visit! I feel like we really saw and did just about everything while they were here. Some of the highlights were visiting Tokyo Tower, a boat cruise up the Sumida River to Asakusa, Ginza, Harajuku, Meiji Shrine, Omoto Sando, Shibuya crossing, the Imperial Palace, Tsukiji fish market, Ueno zoo, Akihabara "Electric town," Roppongi, a night of karaoke, and of course TONS of sushi. They took a two day trip to Kyoto on their own to finish out the trip. Pictured are (in order) Matt and Jessica in front of Asakusa Kannon shrine, Matt wafting incense over himself (this supposedly cures ailments) in front of the same shrine (Matt's not a short guy by any means but note how he TOWERED over the folks over here), me at the Asakusa market stalls (not too exciting but I thought it was a new side belly shot), Jessica and I in front of the Imperial Palace, and Andrew and Matt having cigars at Agave, one of our favorite bars here (its a tequila/margarita bar- imagine how difficult it is for me to go there and NOT be able to drink!).

Moving right along...

Here's a picture Andrew took of me over the weekend. I'm 34 weeks along now. As I type this I'm just waiting for the Schirners to arrive- we're so excited for them to visit! They'll be here through next Wednesday- I'm sure there will be lots of new pictures to post soon!

Another Baby Shower!

Two weeks ago friends Huntly and Annemarie hosted the most fantastic Japanese themed baby shower for myself, Nicola, and Melanie. It was so nice of them and they really put on a wonderful event. I feel SO lucky to have met so many nice people from literally all over the world, and can't believe how much they've spoiled my little guy before he's even here! Thank you so much to Huntly and Annemarie!

Mt. Fuji

This past Sunday was one of the nicest, clearest days we've had in months. There was a crazy typhoon here on Saturday which cleared out the skies. We realized for the first time that you can actually see Mt. Fuji from our apartment (apparently this only happens on the very clearest of days). The first picture is taken from our kitchen window (zooming in) and the second is from Trish and Seph's balcony (two floors up). It takes about 1.5 hours to drive to Mt. Fuji by car.