http://chrishanaoka.com/blog Chris Hanaoka's web journal for friends and family. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:57:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We've been a lot better about taking videos of Brandon lately. I usually try to do some video-editing on my iPhone while I'm flying with footage I took that weekend. I'll try to upload videos here pretty regularly. Enjoy! http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2010/02/15/brandon-videos/ The Christmas tree, holiday lights and decorations, and snowman (on our lawn), all went up right after Thanksgiving so Brandon can enjoy the festive spirit all month. He even got a little treat every morning from our advent calendar. We enjoyed a nice quiet Christmas at home that started with ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/12/25/merry-christmas/ We spent Thanksgiving in San Francisco with our families. Mioi and Ayumi were traveling in Japan, but all the other Hanaokas and Kamenys shared a festive Thanksgiving dinner together. Brandon got all the attention as he showed-off his brand new walking skills and entertained everyone with his words and signs. ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/11/26/happy-thanksgiving/ You may think we go a little overboard with photos (and you'd probably be right), but we asked Beth Moser to take some photos of Brandon and our family. Since we already took photos around Santa Monica with Nikki, we decided to go to Pasadena this time. Brandon had a ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/10/25/fall-photoshoot/ We just came back from our first true vacation since Brandon was born. We went back to the Big Island's Kona-Kohala coast and stayed at our all-time favorite Four Seasons Resort Hualālai for 12 super-relaxing days. Brandon had a daily routine that involved playing in the pool, a couple naps, ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/10/06/aloha-big-island/ Our friend Ingrid had amazing professional photos taken that Mags fell in love with. Only trouble... she lives in San Antonio, Texas. But we loved the photos so much that we asked if Nikki, the photographer, would be willing to fly out to California. Not only did she fly out, ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/08/01/san-antonio-photographer/ It was a year ago today that Brandon Wade made his early entrance into this world. We celebrated with friends and family on a hot summer afternoon at our home in Santa Monica. Lots of babies and young children, lots of food and drinks, and lots of love and laughter. ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/07/12/happy-1st-birthday/ Neko was a friendly, happy-go-lucky cat who never seemed to worry about anything. Even just a couple months ago, she was so active and playful that we thought she would live to at least 20. Unfortunately, she fell ill suddenly and after a month or so of daily home treatment ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2009/01/12/neko-7181992-1122009/ Brandon enjoyed a quiet first Christmas with mom and dad. It took all day to get through the presents because Brandon got tired after opening about five and had to take a nap. On the other hand, it took Shiloh and Gracie about 30 seconds to open their presents and ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2008/12/25/happy-holidays-3/ We enjoyed a big family Thanksgiving with grandparents Nobu and Ayako and aunties Sayuri, Mioi and Ayumi joining us in Santa Monica. Everyone enjoyed spending time with Brandon. Grandma Ayako came from Daly City right after her retirement in early June to help us during Mags' pregnancy and has stayed ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2008/11/27/thanksgiving/ Brandon Wade came home today after 36 days in the Santa Monica-UCLA NICU, a week shy of his original birth date. Although it was difficult at times, we feel extremely fortunate that Brandon had the world-class care of the doctors and nurses there. We visited multiple times a day and ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2008/08/16/welcome-home/ Brandon Wade Hanaoka was born on Saturday, July 12th at 12:57 am on the day he turned 34 weeks (gestational age) via emergency Caesarian section. Mags went into labor 3 weeks ago and was put on hospital bed rest, her water broke 1.5 weeks ago, Brandon was breached (upside down)... ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2008/07/12/its-a-boy/ We just came back from a wonderful 9-day trip to Lāna'i. The small Hawaiin island only has one town with two markets, and the deer outnumber the people 2:1. They also have two resorts, both managed by Four Seasons. We stayed at Mānele Bay (but also visited The Lodge at ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2008/01/27/lovely-lanai/ Our beloved Shadow amazed everyone with how hard she's fought her cancer. But she was getting tired and we decided a week ago that today would be the day that we let her go. At her heaviest, she was 15 pounds; today, she was a little over 5. Although it ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2008/01/18/shadow-august-17-1993-january-18-2008/ What a year! Gracie and Shiloh both celebrated their first birthdays, both Mags and I switched jobs, we bought the home we plan to grow old in, and Shadow spent the entire year fighting cancer. About six weeks ago, during surgery, we found that Shadow had another, much more aggressive ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/12/07/happy-holidays-2/ Shiloh is 1-year-old today! She got a lot of great presents from her friends and shared her birthday cookie with her big sis Gracie. Shiloh is still recovering from getting spayed last week but you wouldn't know it. http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/10/14/shilohs-first-birthday/ We spent a week in sunny Ireland! It had rained nearly all summer but the sun finally came out while we were there and it was just beautiful! I lived there for nearly a year back in 1994 but Mags had never been. August 5th was the first anniversary of the ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/08/05/irish-sunshine/ After 7 1/2 years at Ask.com, it was time for a change of scenery and so I recently started at Yahoo! as VP of Engineering Operations responsible for products like Sponsored Search and Content Match. It's been a couple months now and I think Yahoo! is a fantastic company with ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/07/15/yahoo/ We have bought a wonderful home in our dream neighborhood, North of Montana, in Santa Monica. We couldn't be happier! It's less than a mile from the beach and just over 3 miles away from our home on Virginia which, sadly, we will be selling. We will miss our backyard ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/05/13/weve-moved/ Our precious Gracie is a 1-year-old today! She and her little sister, Shiloh, went to Sparky's this morning to get prettied up for her little birthday celebration. http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/04/28/gracies-first-birthday/ In 1997, IDOC (and several other localization companies) were acquired by Bowne and formed Bowne Global Solutions. But for 10+ years prior to that, we were a smaller, tightly-knit localization company based in Los Angeles with offices in Dublin and Rio de Janeiro. The other night, we had a ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/04/23/the-early-days-of-localization/ Mags and I spent several days near Cancun to attend our friends Tanya & Chris' wedding. It was our first time on the Carribean side of Mexico and it was also our first time at an all inclusive resort (El Dorado Royale). It was beautiful and relaxing, we spent quality ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/02/25/riviera-maya-wedding/ Our beloved 13-year old black cat, Shadow, was diagnosed with terminal cancer (gastric lymphoma) in mid-December. We started chemo therapy and she's responding extremely well. In fact, she's more active now than she's been in years! We hope that Shadow will be with us for a couple more years -- ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2007/01/04/shadow-has-cancer/ Gracie is a big sis now! We got Shiloh on December 20th at 9 weeks old. She was already almost 3 lbs. and much (ahem) wider and rounder than Gracie ever was. Shiloh's a Bichon Frise too and will probably look more like a typical one than Gracie (who's very ... http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2006/12/29/shiloh/ We want to wish all of you a Happy Holidays and the very best for 2007!The Hanaoka Family - Chris, Mags, Shadow, Neko, Gracie and Shiloh! http://chrishanaoka.com/blog/2006/12/25/happy-holidays/