When the word "mmm!" signals it's something not so good...

It's parenting lesson oh, 5,349,047.

One should always, always remember than quiet=bad, unless the kid is sleeping.

Tonight, I was multi-tasking. I was checking Okinawa Yard Sales for anything we might need (a shed, bunk beds, etc), trying to get dinner on plates for the boys, calling Jason, and checking email. All at once.

This means I was paying not a lick of attention to the boys. Brendan was playing with some toys, and Kieran was drinking some milk, while sitting on the floor by the table...or so I thought.

I hung up with Jason, finished getting food on plates, and looked over to the dining room. Kieran was in fact sitting on the floor, just like I thought. He was not however, drinking his milk. Not even close. The milk was sitting 2 feet away from him. What was sitting next to him however was...dum...dum...dum-dum.....

YOGURT! Yes, yogurt. As in a dairy product. (Kieran is lactose-intolerant). Brendan had left his mostly uneaten yogurt from his snack on the table. Nothing like a lactose-intolerant kid eating 2 hour old yogurt....mmmm.

Speaking of "mmm", that's exactly what Kieran was saying, while holding up the spoon and grinning. He LOVES yogurt. I only wish he could actually eat it all the time-though we may try and see if it bothers him as much as other dairy products do.

So, what does a mom do when she sees her kid eating yogurt-and when I say eating, I really mean wearing and finger-painting the floor with it....grab the camera of course!

For your enjoyment:

Practice Pictures

We took the boys to Torii Beach today to look for some sea glass...I need more for picture frames.

This was Kieran's first trip to the beach as a walker. He had a hard time staying upright-it was pretty funny. He had the most fun picking up fistfuls of coral and launching them...most of it right at me, with the camera. He got into putting stuff (usually coral and sand) into our bucket as well.

Here are some of the pictures I took as "practice."

Just another day...

Brendan has been asking to go to the zoo lately...he's been dying to go. We've had some pretty cold weather (okay, cold for here!) and I haven't wanted to go.

This morning, he got up and asked Jason "Is it warm outside?" When Jason responded with a yes, he said, "Maybe we can actually go to the zoo." Who can resist that? Not us (especially since we were planning on the zoo today anyways!)

So, off to the zoo we went. Brendan and Kieran both love the zoo. It's a little zoo-easily covered in an hour or so, and small enough that Brendan can walk around the whole thing.

Kieran has become very interested in the animals lately-he smiled and said "garrr" at the lion. Brendan was fascinated by the hippos being fed-and so not happy when one of them let out a big "sigh" and got some hippo snot on him....he looked at us (looking very displeased)and when Jason asked, "Did he get you?" Brendan said, very dryly, "I need a wipe." Once the hippo snot was wiped off, he was all smiles again.






We made our way to the little outdoor cafe, where the kids enjoyed corn dogs and Jason ate some yakisoba. Kieran sure can tear up a corn dog! Afterwards, we walked down to the fish pond to feed the fish. Brendan was able to feed a duck right out of his hand-he seemed to really enjoy that!





Later in the afternoon, I headed out for my photography class. I'm enjoying learning how to use the camera-and looking forward to getting proficient and taking great pictures.

Here are some of my practice ones:

"freezing" water



blurring water (without blurring the picture)



changing focal points

Brendan-isms

Brendan is currently 3 years, 7 months and 7 days old. This means that conversations with him tend to be rather interesting. He can be so funny to talk to-he is always saying "I have a great idea...." or just coming up with some wild connections between things, places, people, etc.

Today, while walking to the park, we heard a dog barking. I am working on animals/animal sounds with Kieran (you should here his "garrrr" for lion-too cute!) and when I heard the bark, tried to get Kieran to tell me that puppy says "woof-woof."

Brendan however interrupted and declared "That dog speaks Japanese. It is different than English dogs." I then asked him how an American, English speaking dog sounds. He responded with a "woof-woof." I asked him how a Japanese speaking dog sounds. He responded with another "woof-woof", but sure enough, make it sound just a tiny bit different.

We talked a few minute more about the dogs, and the fact that they apparently speak different languages...he's pretty convinced of this. And...he does not mean responding to commands in different languages, as would be obvious to most of us (he's unaware of this aspect of having a dog-as ours lives in the States)-he believes that Japanese dogs "speak" differently than American (English) dogs do when barking.

Brendan has become really aware of the differences in language that surround us everyday. He has become accustomed to saying "thank you" in Japanese when/where appropriate, and although he knows how to say "good morning" in Japanese, he rarely uses this one. He is aware that Japanese writing is Kanji, and is pretty proficient in counting. He is apprehensive already about his lack of communication abilities with people who speak only Japanese-much like I was when I lived in Germany, although I was older than Brendan is now.


With our upcoming move, I have debated again searching for a full Japanese preschool for Brendan. The school year here in Japan starts in April, so I have to think and make a decision soon. Right now, he is attending the part-day program at the CDC and really liking it-every day, at pick-up time, he tells me he wants to "stay for even longer." While it's not an academic program like he attended before, he is learning new things. They have kid friendly microscopes in his classroom...he was excited because he got to look at a bug under the microscope. He asked me if maybe we could get one and get cards for it-I was really excited as I was telling him that the "cards" are called slides. Perhaps I have a future scientist in my hands? That thought absolutely thrills me-I truly hope both boys love science/discovering things as much as I do. Even if they never want to pursue science-related things as a career, I sure hope they at least enjoy it. You can be sure that we will be making playdough models of cells long before they study it in school!

And as not to leave baby brother out...he's doing great! He is really trying to pick up new words...we've just about got him saying "woof-woof" for puppy. He has a little stuffed puppy from Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian that he's become attached to-he wants it out of his crib in the morning to carry it around for a bit, and tucks it under his arm to sleep at night. :)

Wow, 2010 already!

Man, I remember when 2000 seemed so far away! Now it seems so long ago!

Lots going on with us lately-I'll try to at least mention most of it.

To start with, we had a great Christmas. It was a nice, relaxed Christmas morning and day, with just our family. We got to sleep in a little and open presents at our leisure. The kids were really excited at what Santa brought-a play kitchen for them to share, a popper toy for Kieran, and a kids keyboard and camera for Brendan. Brendan must have taken 100 pictures that day alone!

We got some pretty nifty stuff too-Jason got me a new camera-I've been wanting one for a few years. I'm currently taking some classes on Kadena about using my new camera.

Brendan is not going to his preschool anymore-we decided to pull him out due to some issues we had with their methods of discipline. He's starting up the part-time program at Kadena this upcoming week, so that'll be good.

In our big news...we found a house! Finally! After 2 years of living here, and looking on and off, we found a house to rent. I am so very excited. We move in about 1 month. We will have a nice, big backyard and a great ocean view-we're going to be about 1/2 mile (maybe less!) from a public beach. We're definitely excited about that. And...we're facing the west coast, so we will get ocean sunsets. Unfortunately, it's a little bit more of a drive than we'd prefer, but it's worth it for the yard. We have to switch to an electric stove too...and man, I hate those. After having gas for the last 9 years...it's hard to go back. But, it'll be fine.

Kieran is walking full-time now, so that's really exciting. Even when he falls, he pushes right back up to standing and walks again. He's come so far-I think that by the time he's preschool age, no one will know he was ever behind. That's my hope anyways.

I guess that's about it-or at least it than I can think of.