The joys of boys...

100 Days!

2012-02-05T00:21:00.000-08:00

Brendan recently celebrated 100 Days of Kindergarten! Technically, since he started school in September in Okinawa, he hasn't reached 100 days, but that's okay. He was really excited about the celebration and feeling a little sad about missing the celebration in Okinawa. He's settled into his class nicely here and seems to really like his teacher and classmates. He doesn't say much about missing Okinawa, but every once in awhile, he says something that reminds me that moves are hard on little guys too.

For the celebration, the kids each did a project using 100 of something they collected (we used sea glass) and made crowns to wear. The kindergarten classes all assembled out on the field and counted together to 100 and then popped their balloons! I think the kids all really enjoyed it-and I know Brendan did. I was glad that I was able to make it and watch-I might not always have the luxury in the future.


He's a little hard to find, but you can see him between the girl in the white shirt and the girl in the blue shirt/black skirt.

Heading back to class

Brendan's 100 Day Project- we collected 100 pieces of sea glass from the North Shore and glued them onto a wooden sailboat.

"That" Family

2012-01-25T21:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's us...."that" family. The one with the kid who just can't seem to behave all the time. The one who you look at and say, "if he were my child, I would....."

You probably assume we never say no.

You probably assume we are afraid to discpline.

You probably assume we don't spank enough, or spank too much, or are aren't forceful enough, or are too forceful or don't pay enough attention, or pay too much attention...

Well, you know know what they say about assumptions.

Perhaps surprsingly, we do have rules. We do enforce them. We do have high expectations of behavior. But, we also have a son who seems to be wired a little differently. Not badly, just differently.

We're working on it-finally. We finally have resources available to help us and doctors willing to listen and think, rather than dismiss us. It's a great feeling.

But most of all, we're doing the best we can the best way we know how. If you've been here, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't been "that" family, think about what might be going on next time you see a child throwing a tantrum. Sure, there's a chance it's bad parenting, but there's also a big chance that it's really parents doing the best they can.

Tomorrow is a big day...

2012-01-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, we will finally have a more formal evaluation done on Brendan! As many of you know, he has presented quite the challenge to us for the past few years. He's amazingly curious, energetic and intelligent-and also quite the challenge to parent.

We have yet to discover just what will click for him and we're really hoping that tomorrow will give us a better understanding of what exactly goes on inside his head. We had a glimpse of a wonderfully cooperative child tonight-lots of smiles, no arguments, no defiance, no tears, he read a book to me! and we had a wonderful night. I can only hope that we figure out how to elicit more of these nights from him.

Working on settling in

2012-01-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

We're slowing settling into life in Hawaii, though we are still in a slightly temporary situation. We plan on living on Hickam due to the extremely high cost of living and heavy traffic in Honolulu. Unfortunately, the only available house won't be open until early February. Luckily, we were able to do a month-to-month rental of a Navy privatized house, so we are living in a house instead of a hotel! It's still a place full of borrowed furniture, dishes, and even linens, but it is still so much better than hotel life.

Our home until Feb. It's a duplex. (Picture taken from the park across the street)

Brendan has started back to school. He is attending Nimitz Elementary, which is located right outside Hickam AFB. This is the school he will be attending when we move to Hickam. His teacher seems very nice-her family is Okinawan, though she has never been there. We've gotten a crash course in budget cuts. Brendan has art and PE, but no music-there just isn't money to have all three. Art and PE are only once every other week, as the teacher has to be shared by the whole school (K-6). Ms. Iramina (Brendan's teacher) told me that some schools have music teachers, but no PE teachers, or perhaps foreign language teachers, but of course, that replaces on of the other options. We were very spoiled with DoDDS. Brendan began kindergarten in Okinawa with having classes in art, music, PE, Spanish and Japanese culture, along with the regular kindergarten curriculum. In any case, I have hopes that school will go well here and that budget cuts will not get worse. It's truly sad that so many cuts are made in programs that benefit children. How can we expect them to become good, productive citizens of society if we refuse to give them the resources they need and deserve?

Since we've been to Hawaii before, we've not done as much exploring as you'd expect, though we have done some. We took the kids to one of Brendan's favorite places, the Pacific Aviation Museum and got yearly membership. I expect Jason and Brendan will spend quite a bit of time there.

We've ventured up to the North Shore a few times to watch the surfers. The winter months are when the big waves come and it's almost comical seeing all the surfers out at once. I don't know how they don't all run into each other!

Not too many surfers out this time.

Today we went up to the Pali Lookout to see the jungle chickens and look at the windward coast below. It was surprisingly not too windy up there-so very different from last time.

We then headed to Kailua Bay to walk along the beach and look for seashells for Brendan's 100 days of school project. While we did find stunningly blue water, soft sand and beautiful views, we did not find seashells. So different from the coral and shells on the beaches of Okinawa!

We finished off our day today with dinner from Coco's-an Okinawa favorite. It is a little different here. The pork cutlet tastes different and they don't have naan bread. But...it's that same Coco's sauce and that's the important part!

I realized I didn't post anything from Christmas, so that's next time.

2011-12-06T22:12:00.000-08:00

I have not blogged in so very long. I always think about how I need to blog and then somehow, never do.

Lots has happened since the last blog.

We went on vacation to Tokyo. Awesome time. Went to Tokyo Disney. Also awesome. Met my mom, dad and brother there-yep, awesome.

Brendan started kindergarten-he's growing so fast!

Oh and the big one...we moved! We are now in Hawaii, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam (aka, Hickam AFB).

So, I will try and get some pictures posted from the last year and then resume blogging...and hopefully keep up with it!

Snakes are important

2011-02-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

Brendan (and Kieran) loves to watch the planes as we drive by the flightline every morning-it generates great excitement and sometimes, interesting conversation.

From Tuesday:

Brendan: I hate the trees. They should cut them down. I can't see the plane.
Mommy: Trees are important though. They clean our air, they look nice.
Brendan: but not the trees here. They are in the way.
Mommy: They make homes for the birds...
Brendan: Snakes too. They live in trees.
Mommy: Sure, snakes too.
Brendan: Are snakes important?
Mommy: Yes.
Brendan: They're important because they eat mice. Like Mickey Mouse.
Mommy: um....

Guess who's back, back again...

2011-02-03T04:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've blogged and so much has happened.

Quick recap and some pictures.

Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian came to visit for Christmas. We all had a great time, especially the boys! They sure love and miss Mama and Papa when they are gone-and Uncle Ian too. We got to see some of the light displays around Okinawa and really enjoyed spending the holidays together.

Light display at the zoo. Brendan looks like quite the punk. The dark eyes are from his allergies.

It felt pretty lonely around here after they left, but we got back into our normal routine as quickly as possible-that always seems to help. It was back to preschool, busy days and weekend activities with just our little family.

We took a trip up north to see the cherry blossoms, but there just wasn't much out. We headed back and decided to stop and check out Tropical Fruits Land. Although the weather was anything but tropical (we're still in the midst of this blast of cold) the boys still had a ton of fun, especially feeding the parrots! We also got to take a look at some beautiful butterflies.

Two weeks later we decided to check out the cherry blossoms again-it's our last chance to see them! This time, we had success.

(aka, it's muddy)

Most to post about and I'll get that up before this weekend! We're headed off to Sapporo on Sunday for the Ice Festival and we can't wait!

Children's Christmas Party

2010-12-12T03:37:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, while I was at a photo shoot, Jason took the kids to the Maintenance Group Children's Christmas party. It's the first year we've attended it and I think they had lots of fun. I joined them about halfway through the party and promptly gorged myself on cookies as well! Nothing like Christmas cookies.

The kids gorged themselves on cookies, played some games, jumped in the bouncy castle (twice!), made a few crafts, rode a choo-choo train (also twice!) and visited with Santa (twice again!)!

Sweet Potato Picking

2010-12-11T04:41:00.000-08:00

The end of the year is always packed with festivities-and hippotherapy is no exception!

At the end of the year, Mr. Toma (the owner of the horses) treats the children to an evening of sweet potato digging and delicious sweet potato treats afterwards! The sweet potatoes in Okinawa are very different than what Americans are used to. They are called beni imo and are a deep purple color. They also are not as sweet and the texture is a bit more fibrous. The first time I had them, I didn't care for them much, but it' grown on me-and the kids love them! We eat them at home sometimes, steaming or roasting them and adding a drizzle of honey. At Mr.Toma's, the sweet potatoes are sliced and fried into potato chips with a sprinkling of Okinawian brown sugar (also different than American brown sugar) and balled into mochi with a sesame seed coating. Both ways are equally delicious!

In the boys opinion though, the best part of the evening is riding in the back of the farm truck out to the field and then digging up the potatoes. Last year, Kieran was really too little to fully participate, but this year, he was all about the potatoes! Brendan had a blast this year too-he was quite independent and kept shouting out each time he found a potato. Both boys ended up pretty dirty-as expected! Dirt plus shovels? Of course!

After the potato picking, the boys washed up and dug into the food that the families had brought to share. They both ate a few fistfuls of the sweet potato chips and of course, cake. Kieran is quite the cakeaholic and I'm pretty sure he can hear the word cake from a mile away!

After a tiring evening we headed home to baths and bed...but not before we got 2 big bags of sweet potato chips from Mr. Toma and his wife!

Holiday Festivities

2010-12-05T04:43:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is upon us! Our Thanksgiving turkey leftovers are pretty much gone and it's time to start thinking about Christmas! We're very excited for Christmas-we'll be having visitors-Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian will be joining us for Christmas and New Year's.

The boys are very excited about Christmas. Brendan, at 4, is quite knowledgeable about Santa and how the whole present and stocking thing works. Kieran, at 2, doesn't understand quite as much-but he's very into Santa and Christmas lights, trees, everything! I think he's so excited about it because Brendan is-I don't remember Brendan being as into Christmas at two. Kieran points out Christmas lights and trees everywhere we go.

We started our Christmas festivities by attending Tinsel Town on Kadena AB on the 4th. This is the fourth and last year that we've gone. There is lots to do-games, rides, food, Santa...

We started out by seeing a magic show by Colonel Popcorn. Brendan sat up with the rest of the kids. He was very hesitant and quiet at first, but really got into the show towards the end. It was a very funny show with lots of laughter and yelling from the kids encouraged. It was overall a silly show. For his first trick, Colonel Popcorn told the kids he was going to make water disappear from a glass. He poured the water in, held the glass in his hand and covered it with a magic cape. Then, he put the magic cape over his head and quite obviously drank the water-and then insisted to the kids that he had made it disappear. The kids got a kick out of this, shouting and yelling that he hadn't made it disappear at all, but that he drank it. While he continued to insist that he had made it disappear, he began the trick again, only this time the water did disappear-much to the amazement of the kids! The rest of the show was like that-silliness mixed with tricks. It was great for the kids and parents alike.

After the magic show, we went to see the tree lighting. However, once we walked outside, we discovered that it was already lit. (Who screwed that one up?!?!) Even so, the tree was beautiful and huge! This is the first year they've had a tree like this.

We look a little weird-it's the wide angle lens.

We had some dinner and then took the kids over to play in the bouncy houses and run around. We ran into the newest member of Jason's shop and his oldest (5) and Brendan ran around for quite awhile having fun. Kieran got into the mix as well, running around with the hula-hoops and having a grand time. After the bouncy house and running around, it was time to let the kids ride a couple of the rides. Unfortunately, Brendan had a mini-meltdown over not getting the spot he wanted in the train, so instead of getting to ride the train in another spot, he got to miss out on it all together. Kieran happily rode the train in the spot that was left for him. I'm pretty sure riding the train was the highlight of his night!

We continued with Christmas fun tonight at home as well with decorating our Christmas tree. The boys jumped around while I got the tree out and generally got in the way while I set the tree up. :) They were pretty overexcited about it. After a break for dinner, the kids got their jammies on and got right to work putting ornaments on the tree.

I have a (not nearly large enough) collecttion of wood and plastic ornaments for the boys to hang. These are also the ornaments that decorate the bottom half of the tree. Brendan knew exactly what he was doing and started hanging right away. I had to show Kieran how to open up the loop of string and hang it over a branch. After a few tries, he got the hang of it-and then proceeded to pretty much hang every one of the ornaments he grabbed on the same branch! Brendan helped him move them to other areas. Kieran then spent the rest of the time taking off and rehanging his ornaments. I can see this being a daily issue

If you look right above K's right hand, you can see all the ornaments hanging on the same branch!

The boys decorated the bottom half of the tree and I decorated the top half while Jason took pictures. He played around with the tripod and some of the settings on the camera to get a nice shot of the tree in the dark room. I think they came out pretty well!

After hanging up stockings the boys headed up to bed, protesting the whole time. I know that tomorrow they will make a beeline for the tree as soon as they are downstairs!

Churami Aquarium and Shikwasa

2010-11-21T04:32:00.000-08:00

We spent the day at Churami Aquarium today-one of our favorite places on island! We bought our last annual pass-it's sad to think this is the 3rd and final annual pass we will need. (For those of you in Oki that don't know about it, the annual passes are a great deal. They are 3600 yen per adult-which is the same as two admissions. So, if you only go twice in the year, you've paid for it! Plus, you get 10% off at the shops and restaurants.)

We typically try to go to the aquarium once every couple of months-if it were closer, we'd go more often. In reality, it's not actually that far away-probably around 30ish miles-but it takes about an hour and a half to get there! For those not in Oki, yes, that is a pretty accurate estimate. Speeds here are very slow and traffic is heavy. Even on the expressway, the speed is only 80/kph, which is just about 50/MPH. The rest of the roads vary around 30-60/kph.

Kieran after he flung the sea cucumber.

Kieran and Daddy touching the starfish.

So, back to the aquarium. Everyone in our family loves it. The boys love the touch pool and today, Kieran was finally tall enough to reach in an touch one of the starfish. He also picked up a sea cucumber and kind of flung it. Oops! Luckily, the touch pool attendants are pretty good-natured-as long as they see you are trying to keep the kids behaving properly, they mostly just smile at you. Brendan loves to pick up the starfish and turn them upside down to examine them. Both kids have zero fear of touching and picking up the touch pool animals.

Brendan checking out one of the smaller starfish.

After the touch pool, we ventured to the first of the aquariums. Kieran promptly pointed out a "purple hish" and was quickly corrected by Brendan- "blue fish." After watching for a few minutes, we headed to the next aquarium, where the kids thoroughly enjoyed watching the bigger fish swim about. Kieran yelled, "Hark, hark!" several times as the sharks swam by and then headed around the corner to hunt out Nemo. We saw the shark several more times, as well as a sea turtle, gigantic eels and hundreds of other fish.

"hark Mommy, hark!"

We continued on, looking at the smaller aquariums filled with various eels, lionfish, hermit crabs and all sorts of other water creatures, ending up at the cafe by the HUGE tank. I believe this tank is the 2nd largest in the world. We ate taco rice (the boys and Dad) and spaghetti (Mom) while watching the whale sharks, rays and tuna swim by.

After lunch it was time for the creatures of the deep-crabs, more fish, more fish and um, well, more fish! By that time the boys were pretty antsy, so it was time to head outside to see the sea turtles and dolphin show!

Brendan waiting impatiently for the dolphin show!

Both boys love the dolphin show-I think it's their favorite part of the aquarium! Kieran had a great time saying "Dolphin make a big splash!" every time one of them splashed water up.

Brendan anxiously awaited his favorite trick-the dolphin spitting out the fish! In this trick, the trainer throws a fish into the dolphin's mouth-and the dolphin spits it out. This continues on until the trainer picks up the bucket of fish and shows it to the dolphin-who "nods" yes. The trainer throws all the fish into the dolphin's mouth and the dolphin eats them. Even though we see this every time and Brendan knows what's going to happen, he still gets a huge kick out of it!

After the show,we headed up to the plaza where they had some sort of Autumn Festival set up. We enjoyed a little sea salt ice cream and some Shikwasa juice. Shikwasa is commonly known as "Okinawan lime" and is a citrus fruit (but not a lime, as I discovered on Wikipedia!) that can be used like a lemon or a lime. It is delicious-and not sour. In fact, I like the juice so much I wondered if you could just eat the fruit like an orange. Lucky me, we had to stop at a market on the way home for some potatoes and I bought a small bag of shikwasa-and sure enough, mmmm! They are fairly tart, but sweeter than either a lemon or a lime. I will be eating them as is, but Jason thought they were a little too tart for him. Brendan liked them and I expect Kieran will too.

After a long day of the aquarium and stopping by the market, we headed home for a steak dinner and bedtime for the kids! Unfortunately, it's the end of the weekend....Monday looms.

Oh the Places We'll Go!

2010-11-18T04:28:00.000-08:00

Now that we're on our countdown to leaving Okinawa, the big question looms...where next?!?!

Well, the short answer is:we don't know yet.

However, the long answer is: Dear Air Force, please, please keep us overseas! We tried for a long time to get an overseas assignment!

Brendan has offered to help. He said he'll write the places we don't want with a "x" over them and send it to the Air Force. I wonder if they'll listen to a 4 year olds pleas?

So the new question is...where do we want to go? And the answer to that is, well, we're fickle and it changes all the time. Top of the list is Europe. But mainland Japan (Yakota in Tokyo) is looking inviting as well. And of course, there's Hawaii....sucks to be stuck there for medical-but we could live there! And we're looking at Korea again...

In reality, there's just no telling where we'll be. We'll know as soon as March-or as late as August. So, keep your fingers crossed everyone-and let's hope there's a reason to keep renewing those passports!

And PS- Mom and Dad-we're still hoping you find a civil service job wherever we go next! Maybe? Please?!?!

3 Years! Really?

2010-11-16T03:33:00.000-08:00

We arrived on the island of Okinawa 3 years ago today and those three years have simply flown by!

This is Brendan and me, Sunset Beach, Nov. 2007-our first time out exploring in American Village! It's amazing to think that he's younger in this picture than Kieran is now. I can't believe he's grown up so much! I miss this baby in the picture-but of course, I love the ornery preschooler we have now. <3

This past 3 years has been filled with adventure, on and off of Okinawa. We explored, shopped, ate and made our merry way around Okinawa. We added a family member-Kieran-and new adventures began with him and navigating his challenges. Jason deployed and I took a Space-A flight with the boys to visit family in the States. We went to Hawaii twice for medical stuff/surgery and then finally got to take a real vacation this summer to Hong Kong!

This last year is going to be busy! We've got two vacations planned (Sapporo Ice Festival and Tokyo), Brendan will start kindergarten and we'll be preparing to PCS. Right now, we're just trying to fit in everything that we haven't done in Okinawa, as well as things we can't do once we leave. I find it a little sad every time I look out at the ocean, knowing I only have one more year to see it whenever I want...but I'm definitely going to enjoy the last year we have here as much as I can!

And, here are a few more early pictures.

Playing at Marek Park (the playground isn't even there anymore!) Nov or Dec. 2007

Christmas 2007-First Christmas in Okinawa. Brendan is 18 months

Baby Kieran is home! Sept 2008

Halloween 2008

Kieran, 1 year! This would be after being stripped down-he had cake and icing all over!

this and that

2010-11-11T04:41:00.000-08:00

I'm behind on blogging about Hong Kong, and will hopefully catch up-but here's a little about what's been going on in our lives lately.

Me-not a whole lot. I've been feeling not so great lately and have been trying to figure out what's up. So far, nothing concrete. So, I'm back to a couple more doctor's appointments in the next couple of weeks. And probably have to "donate" more blood.

Jason-he started taking a Japanese class and is now learning hiragana. Nothing like being here 3 years and taking it with one to go, huh? In any case, he's catching on rather quickly.

Brendan-being as crazy as ever. That kid has the WILDEST ideas-and is seriously smart. The connections he makes between things just blows my mind-and sometimes leaves me saying, "huh?" He's been doing really well in preschool this year-almost zero problems. He's still got attitude at home unfortunately. We're in for a rough ride with this one I think. He's starting to really "get" his letters and letter sounds-he's quick to tell us that he "just discovered that blanket starts with B" and other things like that. I am now realizing how tricky English is-he thought that "seed" started with "c"-and had a hard time understanding why it actually started with "s."

We had a very interesting conversation in the car the other day that went a little like this:

Brendan: "What's going on in China?"
Mom: "What do you mean, what's going on in China?"
Brendan: "I'm wondering if the battle of China is still happening."
Mom: "The battle of China?"

Brendan: "yeah, is it still happening right now?"

Mom: "Where did you hear about the battle of China?"
Brendan: "I watched it on Mulan."
Mom: "Oh. That was a long, long time ago. It's over now."
Brendan: "Like 100 long ago?"

Kieran-talking more than ever! People are amazed that he is just 26 months-he's literally holding entire conversations. Sure, they are simple conversations, but full sentences and such. It's nearly impossible to believe that he once had a speech delay-he's more talkative than most 2 year-olds we meet! His current favorite thing to say is "okay Mommy" when I tell him to do something. He's for the most part a very good two year old-the exact opposite of Brendan. It's refreshing, that's for sure! Nothing like a kid who (mostly) does what Mommy says!

Us- we're looking forward to a busy winter and busy 2011! We're going to have visitors for Christmas-Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian are coming to visit and we're all pretty excited. It'll be our last Christmas in Okinawa, so we're going to hit up as much of the holiday stuff here as we can. Then, we'll be headed out to Sapporo for the ice festival in February-it's hard to tell who is more excited for that one! This will be Kieran's first introduction to snow, and Brendan's first time that he will actually remember. After that, it's the usual Oki stuff until the end of May, when we go to Tokyo (and yes, Tokyo Disney!). Then, in November, we'll PCS from Okinawa.

Speaking of PCS'ing-we have no idea yet where we'll be going to. We're keeping everything crossed for another overseas assignment, but also are being realistic-Jason will put on MSgt in April, and overseas assignments for MSgts in his career field are few and far between. There was only one lone assignment on this last round...so we're not holding our breath (but toes and fingers are definitely crossed!). We'll have two cycles to pick up an overseas assignment and if nothing is open....stateside it is. We'll know by March at the earliest and August at the latest.

Today we went up to the northern most part of Okinawa-so here are a few pictures from Hedo Point!

Hong Kong, part 2

2010-11-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Our first morning in Hong Kong we were up pretty early-a little before 7am. I was up a lot of the night-had trouble sleeping, so by the time 6:45ish rolled around, I was ready to get going.

After getting all 4 of us ready, we headed down to our (free!) breakfast in the hotel restaurant, where, I am ashamed to say...we pigged out. Really pigged out. I've never seen my boys eat that much in one sitting-and I got fearful glimpses into the future-and our future grocery bills! Breakfast was wonderful though-and it was great to fill up on a meal that was included in our room price!

Next stop after breakfast was back up to the room to load up Kieran in the Ergo and pick up our backpack with the waterbottles, sunscreen, camera and Kieran's accessories (diapers/wipes/extra clothes). I'm not sure which weighed more-the backpack, or Kieran in the baby carrier! Then, we set out to conquer the MTR.

We walked the 2ish blocks to Jordan Station-the nearest MTR station to our hotel- and descended down the steps into the "unpaid" area-full of shops, ticket machines, info booths, and aha-an ATM! We withdrew money ($1USD=$7.2ish HKD) and promptly realized that we should have familiarized ourselves with HKD denominations ahead of time! Luckily, we're not strangers to foreign currency, so after a quick glance at what we got out of the ATM, we were good to go!

Next stop...info/ticket sales booth. We had to decide exactly what type of MTR pass we wanted to get. We decided to get the Tourist pass for each of us adults-72 hours of unlimited MTR rides, as well as including one ride on the Airport Express-and the regular Octopus card for Brendan-since he could use that at a child rate. Kieran was free!

For our first excursion in Hong Kong, we decided to head to Ocean Park-why not start a vacation with a trip to an amusement park? We thought after a day of traveling, it would be nice to start with a "fun" day for the boys. Ocean Park is part amusement park, part aquarium and was quite a bit of fun! Unfortunately, a good chunk of the amusement park stuff wasn't geared towards the kids, but that's okay-they had fun anyways!

In order to get to Ocean Park, we had to first ride the MTR a few stops, and then get off and ride a bus there. It was a long ride-at least it felt that way-as it was standing room only on both the MTR and the bus. I think it took about 45 minutes total to finally get to Ocean Park. Luckily, we bought our tickets at the MTR station, so no waiting in line for that once we got there!

It was a very hot day-and very humid. We're used to hot and humid, but it seemed even hotter and more humid (to me at least!) in Hong Kong. We're typically not out all day in Okinawa-so walking around all day was definitely a challenge in that heat.

The first thing we noticed about Ocean Park is that it's pretty big-spread out-and not easy to navigate. We spent a considerable amount of time just walking from place to place-not so lovely in the heat. We initially rode up to the "top" of the park (it's on a hillside) on a series of outdoor, covered escalators. While the covers were nice-keeping the direct sun off of us, they were not opaque, so there was a bit of a greenhouse effect while under them-and sadly, no breeze. We were sweating it out by the time we reached the top!

We went on a ride with the boys-a moving observation deck type of ride-and got to see the park, and surrounding areas-it was quite the view! We went next to one of the aquarium displays-it was so nice to be in the air conditioning! The aquarium was nice-but we're used to the aquarium here in Oki-so it was a little underwhelming for us. We did however go to the "Jellyfish Aquarium"-nothing but various kinds of jellies-and that was really neat! There are so many different types of jellies-and they range in size from pretty darn tiny to wow!

Unfortunately, the boys were too short to ride the two rollercoasters there...but Mom and Dad weren't! Jason and I took turns riding the coasters-and taking a break from the walking around. Brendan was big enough to ride the flume log ride-and he got to ride it-twice! Once with Mom and once with Dad-what a lucky kid! We also rode in a cable car from the "peak" of the park down the hill. The boys really liked that a lot.

The other highlight of Ocean Park was the panda exhibit-this is the first time either of the boys had seen a real panda! They both loved it-Kieran really loves bears. He was very excited to see the real pandas...as well as the stuffed ones in the requisite exit-through-the-shop end! Lucky for us, as silly as it seems, we collect magnets from each place we visit. The boys are thrilled-they get to pick a new cool magnet to stick on our fridge (at their level, so they can play with them) and we're thrilled-magnets are pretty cheap! So, we avoided having to purchase one of the expensive stuff animals or t-shirts and came home with a panda magnet instead!

Day 2 in Hong Kong was for sightseeing. We decided to go and see the world's largest seated Buddha-the Tian Tan Buddha. It is on Lantau Island-the same island as the airport and Disneyland Hong Kong. We took the MTR to the Tung Chung Station, and then hopped on a a cable car to Ngong Ping-a 25 minutes ride with some amazing views! Unfortunately, the perfectly clear skies we enjoyed the day before at Ocean Park were nowhere to be found-a typhoon began heading towards Hong Kong (yikes!) and the skies were very hazy-so our views were definitely limited. However, we rode in the crystal cabin-which has a clear bottom- and got to see lots below us-including several waterfalls!

We got off the cable car at Ngong Ping Village-basically, a little tourist attraction with shops, restaurants and 2 theaters (one showing a kids story- A Monkey Tale, and the other showing Walk with Buddha, about the life of Buddha). We walked through the little village area and up to the base of the Buddha...and then up 268 steps to the top! Kieran rode on my back in the Ergo (and slept the whole time) and Brendan did a terrific job of climbing all 268 steps!

The Buddha was so impressive-and encircling the base of it were more statues. After walking around and looking at everything up at the top, and admiring what we could of the view, we took a quick photo op and then headed back down the steps-next stop-Po Lin Monastery.

The monastery was very beautiful-lots of gorgeous flowers, painting, lanterns, carvings, everything. The ornateness of it was impressive-lots of detail on absolutely everything!

After walking to the Buddha and the monastery, it was time for lunch. We found a Turkish restaurant and had some really good food-in fact, the dish we ordered for the boys was so good, we decided we needed to find a recipe and make it at home! After lunch it was time to see "A Monkey's Tale"-a cute little interactive children's movie that illustratees some of the principles of Buddhism. The boys (and us!) really enjoyed it! After the show, it was gelato time...and then, unfortunately, as we were eating our gelato, the cable cars closed down due to the weather. We ended up being stuck for about another hour or so-but the cable cars finally opened back up and back down the mountain we went!
Unfortunately, being stuck up on the mountain, we weren't quite sure what to do with the rest of the day-it was late afternoon and we were left with less time than expected. We decided that it would be a nice time to head down to Victoria Harbour and check that out.

It was still light out when we arrived at Victoria Harbour (we had quite a long MTR ride to get there) and we wandered around the waterfront area for a bit, marveling at the cityscape and enjoying the sights. We decided to go walk a bit and find something for dinner.

As we headed into the city area around the Harbour, we quickly realized that we were unlikely to find an affordable, kid-friendly restaurant in that particular area-it was mostly high-end (very high end!) shops and hotels. We ended up heading back down towards the waterfront and stopping to eat at McDonalds-not exactly gourmet fare, but not too pricey, and definitely kid friendly! McDonald's was very busy-it seemed to be one of the few fast-food (and therefore, lower priced) options around. After finally finding a seat, we sat down and enjoyed our dinner-while Kieran made a 2 new friends two ladies fell in love with his hair and spend a lot of time waving to him and snapping his picture!

We decided to visit a camera store near the McDonalds-we figured we had just enough time to stop in and then go see the Victoria Harbour light show. Unfortunately, we spent a lot more time in there than we initially planned...and of course, in true kid fashion, Brendan had a bathroom emergency literally minutes before the show started. By the time we found a bathroom and finished up-the show had already started and we missed a good bit of it. We decided to come back again another night-it was too impressive to not see the whole thing.

After the show ended, we headed back to the hotel and crashed-we were all exhausted-and Disney was the plan for the next day!

Hong Kong, part 1

2010-09-15T04:50:00.000-07:00

We got back from a week in Hong Kong on the 2nd of September...life got it the way of blogging again! I need to be better at this!

So...Hong Kong. It was fantastic! I never in a million years thought I would set foot in Japan...well, I never in a million and ONE years thought I would set foot in Hong Kong. (I wonder what country a million and two years will bring me to?!?!)

The flights from Okinawa to Hong Kong were short and pleasant. We flew China Airlines (not Chinese as we first thought, but a Taiwanese airline) from Naha (Okinawa)-Taipei-Hong Kong. Each leg of our flight was about an hour and 20 minutes-nice and easy! And...we got food, meals!!- on each flight! Amazing!

In the Taipei airport during our layover.

This way to customs! Woo-hoo, we're in Hong Kong!

We landed in Hong Kong at about 4pm on August 26th and set about doing the normal things one does when traveling internationally- pick up bags, clear customs and immigration and then figure out how the heck to get to the hotel!

We laughed at the "American" things we saw-things we hadn't seen in quite awhile...7Eleven, Circle K and others that we see on base/locally in Oki-Subway, Burger King, Starbucks...

(Although, interesting enough, upon googling, it turns out that 7Eleven is a Japanese company...who knew?!?! We don't have them in Oki however. )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven

Haven't seen a 7Eleven since we lived in the States...


Our happy travelers....the boys love seeing new things!

We opted to take a bus-and while more expensive than the train, it was an nice option-we got to ride in a comfy tour-bus seat and take in some of the city while making our way to the hotel.

We were amazed...we thought Okinawa was rather urban-Hong Kong was urban on steroids! The sheer number of skyscrapers (admittedly missing from Oki) was staggering...building after high rise building of offices and apartments. Traffic was pretty crazy- people obeyed the traffic lights and signals, but it was utterly crowded and if the light turned green-you'd better not be in the crosswalk! It reminded me of the traffic in Rome-though there were actual crosswalks with lights.

Car, people and signs everywhere!

This is actually nothing for skyscrapers...

so tall, I couldn't see the top out the window of the bus!

Our hotel was a very pleasant surprise! Although we were hoping it would be nice, you never know how it really is until you get there. Online reviews were mostly positive (and the bad ones were for stupid things, like the staff not smiling enough at check-in) but still....it's a bit of a risk. Luckily, we picked a very nice hotel-and would stay there again in a heartbeat! We stayed on the premier level, which meant our own check-in desk, lounge with free cocktails (!) and afternoon snacks-and the best part-a delicious, FREE, buffet breakfast. We filled up so much at breakfast every day that we rarely had to buy lunch-even for the kids! I have never seen them eat so much at one sitting!

Our hotel was right off of Nathan Road-a big tourist area loaded with markets, shops, and best of all, very close to the MTR (subway)-meaning easy access to all the sights. Travel around Hong Kong is best done by subway-it's quick, fairly cheap, and convenient to most of the things we wanted to see.

Our first night, after checking in and sampling a few of the free apptizers, we decided to head out and just check out the area. I loaded Kieran into the Ergo (our baby carrier), put some water bottles for us in the backpack-Jason wore that- grabbed Brendan's hand and off we went! The Temple Street Market was literally a couple of blocks away, so we headed that way just to see what it was all about. That reminded me a bit of being in Mexico-lots of stalls selling all sorts of things, from jewelry to clothing to toys to electronics-and everyone haggling over prices, salesmen trying to get you to stop and look, restaurants becokning you to sit at their tables....it was somewhat of a madhouse-and I loved it! We got a donor kebob to eat while we walked-okay, so yes, we traveled to Hong Kong and our first meal was a Turkish one-and just took in the sights. After a short stint at the market, we headed back to the hotel to get to sleep-we had big plans for our first full day!

Yikes!

2010-08-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Vacation is almost upon us, and once again, I've been seriously remiss in blogging! I think about it...and then don't do it. Start bugging me and I'll try to do it more often!

The boys and I have been enjoying our summer, well, not really vacation, since we all stay home, all the time! Brendan's preschool has been on summer break though, so I guess it is a vacation.

Playing the drum at the museum.

We have been doing various activities around Okinawa-we visited the Okinawa Prefectural Museum recently to check out the Acient Egypt Exhibit-complete with mummies!

Brendan loved it-he is such a history buff-I have a feeling that history will be his "thing". I remember being pretty fascinated with historical things at a young age-but not that young.

Kieran liked the museum too, although he was a bit young to appreciate it-and was tired and cranky. He really enjoyed the stop at the play place when we ate lunch. Both boys did! We went with our good friends-and had a great time.


Brendan, Kieran and our friends Calista and Alexa checking out the dinosaur.

We also have done a few trips to the zoo-we're annual pass holders, so we go fairly often. We also went to Neo Park-which is a zoo-esque wildlife park. Both boys thoroughly enjoy animals of all kinds.


Zoo fun!

Feeding birds at the zoo

Neo Park

More Neo Park

We've been doing hippotherapy as well. Kieran is working on strengthening up his core muscles and Brendan is working on strengthening up, but is also going to be learning how to properly ride a horse this year! I'm very excited for him.

Brendan loves riding! Kieran is not so enthusiastic about it-it's a lot of work for him. Both boys ride bareback, and Brendan has just started using reins. We are so lucky they have the opportunity for this-and the best part is that the program is free to us-it's all run by volunteers! We help out by bringing in corn oil and cider vinegar weekly for the horses.

We're getting ready to head out for our first non-Okinawa, Asian adventure-we leave for Hong Kong very soon! We're all really excited-and hoping for good weather. The boys and I are looking forward to Disneyland-I'm pretty sure that's going to be a favorite day for all three of us! It's going to be Jason's first Disney experience-so I'm excited for him as well. After this, I'll only be 2 parks away from visiting every Disney Theme Park on the globe....

Okinawan Jumping Worms

2010-07-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

It has been forever and a day since I've updated! I keep putting it off, but no more!

So..what we've been up to:

We're home in Okinawa and glad to be back! Kieran is doing exceptionally well-he recovered perfectly from surgery and you'd never know his hand ever looked different, minus the small scar. He did have the IP joint stiffen up due to the pin and then the brace, so we're working hard with OT to get that back to normal. While he may not ever have quite normal range, I don't think it's going to make a difference-he's adapted perfectly already. (That's both good and bad-good, because he's able to do everything, yet, bad-since he's able to do everything, he isn't as likely to work on his own to get that joint moving.)

Jason's parents came for a visit. We all enjoyed seeing them. I'm sure they especially enjoyed seeing Jason, as they hadn't seen him since we moved, and of course, the boys...since let's face it-that's who the grandparents want to see anyways. :p

We spent a week with both of them here, and then Jason's dad had to leave. His mom stayed for another almost 2 weeks. We got out and did a bunch of stuff around Okinawa-Pineapple Park, the Aquarium, beaches, castle ruins, Shuri Castle..the usual stuff. I think they both enjoyed Okinawa, though the humidity and heat was a bit much for them. (And it wasn't even that hot or humid yet!).

We're back to the norm now...Jason back at work, me back to entertaining the boys and keeping them out of trouble. We just bought Brendan a bike, so he's working on learning to ride that-he's doing great! Kieran is cracking us up daily. He's speaking in little two (and sometimes 3!) word sentences, so we hear lots out of him! He loves to yell out "big truck", "big bump" and when something is loud, he yells "loud"...as loud as he can!

We're counting down the days until a family vacation-we've decided to go to Hong Kong in August-Sept. We're really excited-we plan to take the boys to Hong Kong Disney (though I'm pretty sure I'm the most excited about it!), and see as much of Hong Kong as we can in 7 days.

Although there's lots more, I'll save that for upcoming posts...and hopefully will not take so long between posts!

Oh yes. The jumping worms. I almost forgot.

We bought a new shed and moved the old one...underneath it was mud and worms. We decided to move the worms into the flower garden area. I tried to pick up one worm...and it literally curled up and jumped away from me. I've never seen anything like it! The worms here are skinny and move rather quickly when they're about to be picked up...about as different as an American earthworm. :)

Kieran's Big Adventure

2010-04-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

On Monday April 12th, we headed to Tripler Army Medical Center dark and early. As opposed to bright and early of course-it was still dark when we left. We got Kieran checked into the Surgical Admissions Center at 6am. Kieran had his vitals taken, we answered a few more questions, met with one of the ortho docs and got his smashing hospital jammies for him.

We waited around in the pediatric waiting room for awhile with him until they were ready to bring him back. He had fun playing with the toys while waiting-poor kid was completely unaware of what was coming up. We never explained anything to him about it-which looking back, probably wasn't the best idea, but really, how do you explain surgery to a 19 month old?

Before surgery-and the doctors initials on the body part for surgery. I thought it was a little funny. Kieran was disturbed by the marker on his thumb.

After waiting for a bit, they collected us and a bunch of other patients and took us back to the pre-op room. What was initially a sleepy, quiet room with just a few patients in it quickly became a buzzing, busy place as nurses and anesthetists rushed about getting their patients ready.

We talked to Kieran's anesthesiologist for a bit about what his plan for Kieran was. Since Kieran is so young, he did not get an IV started until after he had already gone under with gas. Kieran seemed to like his anesthesiologist, even letting him hold him while we were still there! Kieran initially got gas anesthesia and then IV anesthesia. The plan was to just place a tube that would sit at the back of his throat-but we were also told that if they felt an endotrach tube was necessary, they'd place one. I honestly don't know if they ended up doing that or not.

The attending doctor also stopped in to see us while in pre-op. He told us that although he initially didn't plan on it, he was definitely going to do a pin in the thumb and cast Kieran's hand-and then keep us in Hawaii until the cast was ready to be removed. Oh, and the ENT also stopped by to reconfirm the tubes and answer any other questions.

(As a side note, Kieran's ortho doctor both looks and sounds like Owen Wilson, so I have a hard time not laughing when I see him-I always think of Owen Wilson's character from Meet the Parents.)

Shortly after that, they took Kieran back to the OR and we went to the waiting room. We waited for what seemed like forever-I read almost an entire Janet Evanovich book. We got a call in the waiting room after we'd been in there for about 30-40 minutes-they had finished with tubes and had been working on his thumb for about 20 minutes, with about 1 1/2 hours left to go.

After he was done, I went back to the recovery room to hold him while he woke up from the anesthesia. He did really well-not too much crying or thrashing about. He was very, very sleepy. The few times he roused himself, it was to ask to have his cast off. He didn't like it at all.

We moved up into the peds ward, so Kieran could stay overnight to be monitored. He finally woke up around 2 or so-and had some food, some water and then, went to the playroom! He kept asking to have the cast off, but seemed to play around it well enough. He was pretty doped up on Tylenol with codeine and Motrin.

The rest of the evening went ok. Kieran had to have another dose of IV antibiotics, which he did not like at all. He was not happy when they hooked the IV back up to his port. He played again after that, gobbled down dinner, and then settled into the crib and luckily, slept most of the night-he even mostly slept through his last dose of IV antibiotics.

We got discharged from the hospital around 830 the next morning and Kieran has been doing great ever since! Running around, playing, overall, not acting like he just had a body part removed! I will continue to post more pictures of him (and us) in Hawaii.

More Hawaii...

2010-04-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend! We've been trying to enjoy ourselves as much as possible before Kieran's surgery, since I'm not sure how much we will be able to do afterwards.

Yesterday (Saturday) we decided to go running shoe shopping. This can be a pretty detailed process. We both got fitted into the proper type of shoes (I actually did a re-fit) and bought shoes and inserts. I got one pair and some new inserts. Jason got 2 pairs of shoes and inserts. We won't talk about how expensive running shoes are. :)

We then went to Pali Lookout. Pali Lookout is this, well, lookout that is incredibly windy. Hard to walk windy. Nearly blowing you over windy. Hold on to your skirt windy!

And, one more picture from Pali Lookout-

Those are chickens. They are in a jungle-ish area. (Just beyond the parking at Pali Lookout). Brendan took one look at them and said, "Chickens! In the jungle. I have never seen jungle chickens before!" So, yes, these are the jungle chickens of Hawaii. It's a rare breed, I'm sure.

We then went and did a little more shopping, and had fish tacos for dinner! Yum.

Sunday, we went to Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, the Arizona Memorial is closed for construction right now-they are re-doing the theater and working on the dock. Luckily, it is re-opening on the 15th of April, so we can go back!

We looked around the bookstore and picked up a new book-war stories from the Pacific. One of the men featured in the book was there signing books and we got his signature (which was on a stamp, lol). We talked to him a bit-turns out he's going to be at the Ortho dept tomorrow at Tripler...perhaps we'll see him in the hall.

We then drove over to Ford Island and took a look at the Utah Memorial-we didn't get to see that last time in Hawaii. After a quick stop and some pictures, we headed to the Pacific Aviation Museum. We figured the boys would love the planes...and we were right. (We went last year, and Brendan remembered, but Kieran of course was too young).

Brendan gave us the most compelling explanation ever of Pearl Harbor. After getting confirmation from Mama about the "different terpeders" he then explained exactly how Pearl Harbor was attacked.

"Planes shot terperders in the water and they hit the ships, BAM! And then the ships shot the planes. Then these planes shot more at the ships from the air and BAM! And the ships shot those planes. And then those planes shot more planes and BAM! There was fire. And that wasn't nice."

While he explained this, he was pointing to a map that outlined the route of attack. I only wish I had a picture of this. He was very passionate about explaining it. He is very concerned about the ships and planes that are on fire. He watched a short film before touring the museum about the attack on Pearl Harbor. His eyes were about as big as could be. In a way it's funny...I limit the TV shows he can watch, not allowing cartoons that depict violence, etc, but I was fine with him watching the Pearl Harbor film. I hope that he can gain an appreciation of history, and hopefully, love it as much as I do!

We finished up our day by having lunch at the Aviation Museum, driving around Ford Island (um, were those restricted area signs?!?!) and Pearl Harbor Naval Station before heading back to Hickam to have some downtime and dinner.

Hawaii, Day 3

2010-04-10T01:23:00.000-07:00

We got to sleep in today! And by sleep in, I actually mean sleep in! Normally, "sleeping in" means that we get to sleep til, oh, maybe 8am. MAYBE. But today....we got up at 9am! It felt wonderful to sleep so long-although I swear I could have spent half the day sleeping!

We decided to make today a shopping day-one advantage of having to go back to the States. We headed out to a nearby outlet mall to check stuff out-and had a great shopping day!

Brendan needed new jeans-all of his 3T's were both too short and too tight in the waist. Kieran needed sandals. Mom and Dad didn't actually need anything, but walked away with ~~way too much~~ a few carefully chosen things.

Both boys behaved wonderfully today-even while out shopping all day. They took lots of "pretend" rides on those little coin-operated ride thingies...

They did get to take an actual ride on one each, and then apparently got a free ride on one-Mama (my mom, the boys' grandma) shook the ride and it suddenly started working. Not sure which ride that was though.

We found out today that we need to be at the hospital at 6 am on Monday for Kieran's surgery. I am feeling a little anxious about it-he's scheduled for 2 hours in the OR. He is having the tubes placed in his ears first, then the hand surgery starts. He's going to be an inpatient for the first night-and I'll be staying overnight with him. I'm definitely worried about making sure he's not in pain. I believe they can give him morphine (yikes!) in the hospital, and then most likely Tylenol with codeine and/or Motrin for pain relief once he is discharged.

I also want to say thank you so much to friends and family who have been sending us well-wishes-it's so appreciated! I am also a bit saddened by a few who have not bothered-though even sadder, not surprised.
Anyways, I am glad to know that there are so many people out there thinking of us and more importantly, of Kieran.

Ah, yes, and Kieran. That boy. He says (among several other words), "Daddy", "brother" and now....."Mama." That would not be Mama as in me, his mother. No. He doesn't call me anything. Today though, he pointed to my mom, and very clearly said, "Mama" and grinned. Little stinker. But I know he loves me best anyways!

(My boys both call my mom "Mama." Not really sure how that started. My dad is Papa.)

Not sure what the rest of the weekend has in store for us...but I'll be sure to update as often as possible.

Aloha!

2010-04-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

After some planning, a lot of last-minute scrambling, and a looooong day of travel, we are here in Honolulu, Hawaii.

We left Okinawa on Wednesday morning, flew to Tokyo, had a layover, and flew to Honolulu, arriving.....Wednesday morning! Gotta love the time difference coming this way.

We've checked into Tripler Army Hospital, spent the day running a few errands, and are now seriously jetlagged, sitting in our hotel.

And....I went to Target today! Twice!

It's so funny. When I am in Oki, other than a few times here and there, I do not miss stuff like Target. I just don't care all that much about not having it readily available. (My wallet thanks me for this.) However, now that I am actually here, I will scour that store up and down, along with every other store I have time to get to. It's really rather amusing.

However, our primary mission here is to get Kieran's surgery all taken care of. We have pre-op appointments tomorrow and surgery set up for April 12th. I am anxious, nervous, excited, everything. I don't know much about the details of Kieran's surgery-I anticipate finding out more tomorrow. I am surprised at my outward level of calmness...I attribute that to knowing for the past 19 months that this day was forthcoming.

My mom, wonderful as she is, has decided to join us in Hawaii to both help out with Brendan, but also to help with caring for Kieran, and to help take a stressful load off of us. I am so very appreciative of the fact that she took time off away from work and time away from the rest of the family to make sure that we were taken care of.

I will be sure to update as much as possible. :)

Why, oh why, do I torture myself like this?

2010-03-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile, I get this weird desire to be a "good" mom. You know the type. Her kids socks are organized alphabetically by color. Schedules are color coded. Exciting, stimulating activities are planned-exposure to so many diverse things!

Then there is me. I buy socks in white, cream, and black. There is no matching of socks to outfits. Schedules are kept in my iPhone. They are also forgotten in my iPhone. I do, every once in awhile, plan exciting, stimulating activities. They sounds fantastic in my head. Doing them is another story.

Yesterday was a lovely, bright, sunny and warm day. Perfect for playing in the water. I could have pulled out the water table. Or the sprinkler. Or bought a little pool. However...it was project time! My chairs have needed to be scrubbed down for some time. They have mold. Gross, I know. It's a combination of them being in an incredibly humid place and having small people that spill a lot of food. And drinks.

So, what better way to have fun and play in the water, and generally go crazy than to have the kids help me scrub the chairs?!? Really, what was I thinking?

I armed the big one with a soapy sponge and put him on hose duty. Turn it on, then turn it off. Only, half the time, he couldn't remember which way to turn it. I guess I can forgive that-he is not yet 4. However, he seemed to have a thing against getting the faucet soapy.

The little one did not get a sponge. He just toddled around, falling all over the place, getting in the mud and overall was underfoot. He, of course, had a blast.

In the end, my chairs ended up sufficiently cleaned and the boys had fun anyways.

Move on to today and my hairbrained ideas...today's idea was baking cookies with B. My mother (known to B and K as Mama) sent a box with some great Mickey mouse stuff. Unfortunately, it's not any thing that happens to be great all by itself...no, she sent, amongst other stuff, a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter and Mickey Mouse sprinkles. Thanks Mama. Just because I let my kids play with playdough...

So, against my better judgement, and frankly, because I was tired of hearing him ask, B and I made cookies today.

He actually did decently well. While K napped, we mixed the dough. I set up the mixer, measured out ingredients (B learned 2 new words-ingredients and recipe. How is that for stimulating!?!?) and generally cursed the thought of making cookies.

B then came over and helped make a mess, um, I mean, make cookie dough. He actually did pretty well. He got to add in the sugar (we used Splenda actually-because, you know, calories count when you're making cookies!), the eggs and the flour.

After dinner, a walk, and putting K to bed, B and I finished up our cookies. We pulled the dough out of the fridge, he helped me cut it out, and we baked and decorated our Mickeys.

That poor fellow on the bottom left-yeah, that's Mickey's little known second cousin once removed, Vinnie. Poor Vinnie lost his ear at some point. He doesn't like to talk about it. Next to Cousin Vinnie-the naked Mickey-well, that's because ~~Mom ran out of icing~~ Mom didn't think that the baby needed all that extra sugar.

Apparently, they were good. I must concur-after my 3rd cookies, I think they came out okay.

An ode to my (internet) love....

2010-03-17T05:02:00.000-07:00

Except I am not really going to write an ode, because, let's face it, I suck at poetry. I don't even like reading it. I'm damn sure not going to write it.

But, back to my non-ode....Google, I love thee! How on Earth did we survive for thousands of millenia without Google? Without the internets?? I look back, even to just high school, and wonder how different it would have been if I had been wired. Hmmm.

Tonight, I had to vacuum. Very exciting, I know. I lead an impossibly exciting life-there are days where I am just absolutely sure that I may drop dead if things get any more intriguing. Tonight was one of those nights. I was not only going to vacuum, I was also planning on......wait for it.........MOPPING! MOPPING! My nine-thousandth favorite thing to do! And tonight was the night. The excitement, the joy! However, I had to get through the vacuuming (my 9002nd favorite thing to do-it narrowly lost to dusting). Lucky for me, I have this incredible vacuum cleaner. I am a crazy fool and spent entirely too much money on a Dyson vacuum. I mean, the thing doesn't even vacuum for me, no, I still have to do that.

Anyways-for those of you wondering what the hell this has to do with my Google infatuation-the beater bar on the vacuum wasn't working. I'm a well-learned sort of individual-I immediately turned the vacuum cleaner upside down and opened it up, expecting to need to replace the belt.

Well, no. The belt was fine. More than fine. Looked mostly new. I cleaned up the bar, thinking maybe it's had enough of having my hair all tangled up in it...nope, didn't fix it.

What to do? Ah, of course. Google! I googled "Dyson carpet bar does not work" and voila! In a matter of seconds, I had my solution. It took less time to find the solution than it did to actually apply the solution.

What isn't there to love about Google? Where else can you look up the lyrics to your favorite song? See ~~naked~~ pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio? Learn what to do to fix your Dyson? Stalk your friends and enemies? Oh, wait, no, that's Facebook. Where else would I have learned that I am suffering from hypothyroidism, depression, stress, Lyme Disease, Irritable Bowel Disease, and general malaise, with a good dose of binge drinking thrown in there every once in awhile? Google, of course!

And if you think you've reached the ends of the internets? (I have nearly done this-I was horrified at what lay ahead...nothing new to read!). Simply Google some random and fascinating subject. Or, Facebook your former enemy and note with glee how fat they've gotten...oh wait. I never, ever do that. Never. Besides, this post is about Google, not Facebook.

I have always thought that the public library was the greatest invention ever. I may have to revise that thought, and allow Google to take the number one position. Right now though, the library still holds number one by just a slight margin....after all, you can access Google at the public library!

PS-Happy St. Patrick's day to my friends...who are out at the bar....without me. :(

Um, did you just lick my toes???

2010-03-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

My children routinely crack me up. (When they aren't driving me crazy, that is.)

The things that they do and say-my god. I often wish I had recorded it to send into America's Funniest Home Videos-assuming that show is even still currently running. I have no clue-I'm a little TV isolated here, in Japan. We don't have any cable, so we don't see anything brand-new on TV, ever. We actually pretty much never watch TV actually-just the kids stuff.

So, today, we were at the commissary, picking up a few things (60-freaking-dollars of a "few" things!). We had paid and I was waiting for the bagger to finish up. Brendan was jumping around and stepped on my toe. I reminded him not to jump around-told him he had stepped on my toe and hurt it. He apologized, and I went back to paying attention to the bagger.

Suddenly, I felt something-something wet-ON MY TOE! Warm, wet and kind of squishy. I looked down and it was Brendan, licking my toe! Eww, eww, eww. I'm not sure what was grosser-him licking my toe, or me having him lick my toe.

I told him (in my best parent voice) "Stop! You do not do that." He jumped up, the bagger finished, and we started walking out of the commissary.

I told him as we were walking out of the commissary, "Don't do that again. We don't lick toes."

He said to me, "I was kissing your toe Mommy. I hurt it."

I said, "Well, thank you for trying to make it better. But, no kissing toes please. That's yucky."

And then we went about our merry way.

The Clearance Aisle: A Very Dangerous Place

2010-03-13T03:59:00.000-08:00

Today ended up being a wonderful day.

It started out on the wrong foot...kids up early, cranky, husband home from work late trying to sleep, tantrums (the kids, not the husband)....

I was done with the day by 8:15. A.M. Yes, it was that bad. Luckily, it was time for the ~~cranky, tired~~ wonderful husband to get (woken) up. I had to leave at 8:50 to workout. Yes, workout. Yes, on a Saturday. I wouldn't pass it up for the world...CrossFit, while looking at that gorgeous ocean, without kids. What's not to love?

The husband finally stumbled out of bed and I rushed off to workout. After a workout that was 2 parts strenous and 3 parts a little too easy (I should have used more weight, I know, I know!) I headed back home to get ready for the rest of the day.

We rushed about, showers, lunch for the kids and piled into the cars. Once again, bliss...Daddy drove with the de~~vil~~ darling children and I drove my car, peacefully, listening to the sounds of....only the radio! No whining, no crying, nothing but the not-so-good AFN deejay. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

We dropped my car off for a much-needed oil change, and then dropped the short ones off at the CDC, for Give Parents a Break Day. We kissed, hugged, said "You'll be fine" and dashed out the door...freedom! 5 hours of freedom!

We went to lunch at one of our favorite Italian (!) places and stuffed ourselves with delicious soup, pasta, pizza and dessert. I could hardly walk out the door. (Remind me again of why I wonder why I can't lose weight???)

We, being the boring people we are, headed over to the PX on Foster to look for the printer ink that Kadena was out of. No ink. Then, we wandered over to the Twilight Zone...aka, the Power Zone Clearance Aisle.

Printer ink. We came to purchase printer ink. We did not purchase printer ink. We did however, purchase a Nintendo Wii. And a game. Same thing right? Ink, video game console. You can see the similarities, I'm sure.

We've (okay, I've) been thinking about a Wii for awhile. While the boys aren't quite video game age yet, Brendan is starting to get interested. He has a Leapster that he enjoys, and a preschool computer game-and he delights in playing Daddy's flight simulator game. So, with that said, a Wii seemed reasonable...for maybe Christmas. Only, it's um, well, March.

But, it was ON SALE! Yes, that makes all the difference in the world. It was a customer return, and marked 25% off. It has all the parts. Good as new-and $50 bucks cheaper! Score one for impulsiveness.

We also bought a scuba diving game. I can't remember what it's called. It came with a Wii Speak. I'm convinced this is an important piece of Wii-quipment. (It is, isn't it? Pleaes tell me it is.) Now, when we can't get out to actually scuba dive, due to the weather, the sea condition, it's too cold, no babysitter for for the little darlings, well, we can scuba dive anyways. On the Wii. BCD and regulator not required.

But seriously, we're hoping to find a few family friendly games, and ones that can be good for being active and burning of the excess of energy that two little boys seem to make in endless quantities on rainy days.

We wrapped up our day by a Starbucks date with friends (we shared a Frappuccino-calories don't count that way, right?), went to the Kadena BX to check out their stash of clearance stuff-not nearly as exciting-and picked up the kids, the car and came home.

In Love with the Ocean

2010-03-12T03:45:00.000-08:00

I have had the pleasure of living on the island of Okinawa for two years and four months now. To some people here, that is a long, long time. To me, it's a short little flash. It's been 2 years, and four months, already?

Some are bored of island life after the initial enchantment wears off-which probably occurs sometime shortly after the third or fourth day of non-stop rain. (I am not kidding. It can, and does rain like that here-sometimes for longer stretches. It's rather amazing the amount of water that can pour from the sky. Amazing in an annoying sort of way.)

Two years, four months and counting...and I still love island life. Admittedly, my viewpoint of island life might be just a tad different than thousands of others on this island-I get to enjoy it all day, every day. I traded my 7-4 job for a 24/7 job...but one that allows me the freedom (mostly) to enjoy this island life.

I see the ocean every single day. Multiple times a day. I never get tired of it. It looks different every single day. Some days are so gray, you can barely tell the water from the sky. Some days are hazy and you can't see anything but water stretching before you. Other days, it's so amazingly clear you can see the other islands around us, off in the distance. Some days, it's stormy, with whitecaps visible and small waves crashing up on the shore. (The water around Okinawa is for the most part calm-we do not have lots of waves constantly rolling in, as you might on the California coast. Our ocean surroundings surprised my California-native mom.)

This morning, the ocean was glass. It looked like a giant pond-smooth, still, lit by the early sun. It was incredibly beautiful-I wish I had had my camera ready to go. (Instead, I was loading kids and driving to preschool and to run errands.)

Early this afternoon, the ocean was full of ripples and small waves breaking around the reefs. I went for a run-most of it in sight of the ocean, some of it close enough that I could see into the clear water right down to the sand and reefs. It was low tide-and the shallow water was a beautiful turquoise, slowly transitioning into a deep blue It was beautiful out. Breezy, warm, low humidity...and that glittering ocean. I wanted to jump in.

Two years of island life has spoiled me. I honestly do not know how I will fare going back to a landlocked existence when our time in Okinawa ends. In the meantime though, I will get my fill of the ocean on a daily basis-and hopefully store enough pretty pictures in my head to sustain me when we leave.

Thoughts from Nearly Half a Lifetime Ago

2010-03-11T03:49:00.000-08:00

Today, it was a normal day-wake up, eat breakfast, get the boys ready to leave.

Then, I looked at FB. And I was reminded of my high school days, and nearly instantly transported back 14 years ago (nearly half of my life ago!) to a time of sadness.

Memories, some that I haven't thought about in years have flooded back to me today. Fuzzy details. As each hour has passed today, I have recalled more and more. Time has dulled the memories-I no longer remember each detail sharply, rather, it is more like recalling a dream. A bad dream.

14 years ago, two of my classmates died in a car accident. Two well-liked girls, best friends. One worked with me at Dairy Queen. And, one of those fuzzy memories has just popped up...I think they other girl had just started working there as well. Several of my classmates worked there-we all knew one each other-it was a small school, and many of us had known each other for years.

It was a weekend day....Saturday maybe? Sunday? I don't recall. I just know it was 1996. March of 1996. I didn't (until FB) remember the exact day even, though I do recall thinking I would never forget that day.

One of the girls boyfriend's came into Dairy Queen. (Many of these memories are actually coming to me as I am typing). Chris, Amy's boyfriend. He had a police scanner in his car (?). He had heard an accident report on it. I don't remember what tipped him off-maybe the location? A description of the car? Description of the girls? A gut feeling?

He (Chris) tried to page Amy. She didn't answer. That was unusual. For some reason, he came into Dairy Queen. I don't recall why. We were working-it was a slow day. Midafternoon? Late afternoon? He told us what was going on. We let him come use the phone behind the counter. The owner walked in. He was really upset at us letting him behind the counter to use the phone. I don't remember what happened next. I don't remember if we got any sort of confirmation at that time. I don't think so. I remember feeling disbelief and shock. Just the night before (at work) Amanda, my other classmate, had asked if I wanted to go to the end of the basketball game after work-and could I give her a ride? I declined-I didn't really feel like driving a half hour out there so late. I regretted that for a long time. It wouldn't have changed anything-but it would have been a nice thing to do.

I can't remember how long I was at work after all of this happened. I vaguely recall calling my mom...wanting her to pick me up. I didn't want to drive. I also remember her getting nearly hysterical when she originally thought it was Gina in an accident-a fellow classmate, a member of my Girl Scout troop, and someone we had known for years. I do remember quickly reassuring her that it was not Gina, that Gina was fine.

It's a blur after that. Did I sleep that night? I have no idea. Was anything even confirmed that night? Again, no clue. I don't even remember how we were told at school. Was it in our classes? An assembly? I don't remember.

I do remember though that Amanda was in my Honors English class. I remember that empty desk, just a few desks away from me. I remember all of us looking at it. Every last one of us. Our eyes would go to that desk, and we'd have to look away.

I also remember the funerals. The differences in them. Amanda's-at the chapel on Peterson. Very solemn Very sad. Amy's. At her church-a Catholic church I believe. It was sad, of course, but more of a celebration of her life. A lively eulogy, an urging to remember her as she lived. I remember food afterwords, cookies and cakes...and the irony of eating cake after a funeral.

I remember it was just before spring break. I went to California with my family, and with Jason. Amy and Amanda were supposed to go to California too-I think to maybe visit Amy's sister, who had just had a baby (??). I remember the entire time I was in California, I thought of them. Thought of how they should have been enjoying themselves.

I also remember that desk. I don't remember how long it sat empty, a Monday through Friday reminder of loss. I do remember vividly when that desk was filled. It was the "empty" desk-and the new student got it. But to us, it wasn't empty. It was occupied by the spirit of a girl taken too soon-and having someone new sit there was another blow to us all. It finalized things in some way-before, it sat empty, waiting for it's occupant... and once filled, it slowly turned back into an ordinary desk, occupied by a ordinary teenage girl, rather than by the ethereal spirit that had lingered there.

Fourteen years has passed...and this still brings tears to my eyes. I was not even a good friend...just a casual friend, fellow classmate and co-worker..and yet, it affected us all.

Weekend....bliss??

2010-03-07T00:12:00.000-08:00

Bliss, not so much actually.

Brendan, as many of you know, is proving to be a rather difficult child-lots of ignoring us, doing the opposite of what we've asked, doing anyways what we've told him not to do...so it can make for some difficult days. He's also prone to some temper tantrums when things don't go his way. All can add up to some rather trying times.

Our Saturday started out like this-attitude from the get-go. We didn't think it would be much of a good day-but we managed to mostly salvage it.

We started out with a walk to show Jason the market where we have been buying fruits/veggies. We got a few more things-some various greens/lettuces/something green and presumably edible for salads anyways, garlic (I want to make baked garlic like Arin Krin), a lemon, and maybe some other stuff I can't remember. We walked back through some neighborhood areas, saw beautiful views of the ocean, Fisherman's Wharf restaurant, and generally just sweated our way back home.

Once home, it was lunchtime for the boys and Jason left to play basketball with friends from work. Kieran decided that screaming was the appropriate naptime behavior (rather than sleeping, of course!) and Brendan, who had earlier lost his TV, computer and playroom privileges, entertained our neighbor with the story of his life. (We live next door to another American family-also Air Force.)

While I worked on ~~cleaning~~ Facebooking, Kieran screamed and Brendan both charmed the neighbors and watered the flowers for me. Jason came home sooner than expected, as no one else showed up for basketball. He wonderfully entertained the boys in the backyard with the water table and the sprinkler, while I actually got to clean the house. (Or Facebook maybe??)

We ended the evening by going and getting a movie to watch, went to a new (to us) restaurant- Hanahou- and had fabulous garlic shrimp, tuna sashimi and shrimp/avocado/wasabi salad. MMM. The boys (and mom!) shared a great Hawaiian pizza-the crust with thin, crunchy, and delicious. No tomato sauce on it either-there was some fantastic cheese-it had a slightly smokey scent, but I'm not sure of what it was.

We came home, put the boys to bed and watched Night at the Museum Two. It was funny, though I fell asleep through some of it, as tired as I was.

Sunday (it's Sunday early evening-ish now). Sunday started out okay...I made pancakes for breakfast. We lazed around a bit-boys watched a Kai-lan DVD and we finally decided to run a few errands. Unfortunately, the temper tantrums and attitude started rather quickly. We've currently got veggies roasting in the oven for dinner (brussels sprouts and green beans), corn soaking in the husks to be grilled, and steak marinating.

We'll see how this evening turns out....

Back online...back to the civilized life!

2010-03-05T05:02:00.000-08:00

Ahh, the internets. Nothing makes you realize how internet-addicted you are like not having internet.

We moved into out new house and we're loving it. (Did I mention in a previous blog about moving? If not, we've moved!)

We love, love, love having a yard. I love being able to kick the boys outside, especially during the witching hour of making dinner. We love the house overall. It's actually slightly smaller than our apartment-we have one less bedroom, but somehow, it seems larger. I guess because it's 2 story?? Either way, we really enjoy it.

For the detail lovers-we have 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. The boys share one room, we have a playroom and of course, the master bedroom. It's huge. Crazy huge. It has 2 closets-a walk-in that we use for storage, and a large in-room closet. Full bathroom in the master bedroom as well. We have a little half-bath at the top of the stairs. Downstairs is the other full bath (seems weird, but perfect having the tub downstairs with 2 little boys) the kitchen and the living/dining room.

In other stuffs...

Hm. Oh. Yeah. We got a new date for surgery for Kieran. He'll be having surgery on the 12th of April. We'll leave Okinawa on the 7th of April. Unfortunately, it's not going to be cheap for us. When this is all said and done, we'll have spent probably close to $8000-$10000 out of pocket for this. It's a bummer-we had other plans for that money. But, whatever it takes to make sure we are all there when he has his surgery-that's what's most important to us.

I'm sure there is tons more that's happened...but I just can't think of it. Hm. Jason's parents are coming to visit in June-I am sure they are excited to see him and the boys. I think Brendan is still slightly confused as to who is coming. He's pretty focused on Hawaii and my mom right now. :) My parents are supposed to be coming out again at Christmastime, so that will be nice. Brendan misses his Uncle Ian a lot. Probably a lot more than his Uncle Ian misses him. :)

I guess that's about it right now. I'll try to get some new pictures posted up.

Bloggity, blog, blog, blog...

2010-02-05T06:05:00.001-08:00

God knows, I really should be sleeping right now. I have a busy, long day ahead of me. But, my hair is wet, and I hate sleeping with wet hair. And I refuse to blow dry it at 11pm-hell, I rarely blow dry it during the day.

I've been having blogger's block lately...well, sort of. I know exactly what I want to write about, and keep writing it in my head, but so far, haven't set typing to screen. I just can't right now. Blogging about what I truly want to say will open a can of worms I'm just not quite ready to open yet-in fact, I probably won't ever be ready to open it-it's just not in the best interest of well, anyone really.

While my blog is/will be mostly about my family-me, the husband, and the kids, it will occasionally be about other stuff that strikes me as bloggable. It won't always be all rainbows and cupcakes either, so be a little prepared.

Some of you know this, some of you don't-I'm a pretty liberal person. Yes, I am a *gasp* Democrat. I am pretty darn close to a tree-hugger, albeit I do not hug trees. I am not nearly as crunchy and granola as some, but I definitely enjoy a little environmentalism. I'm not quite apt to follow the crowd...unless the crowd is leading me somewhere I just can't resist. I don't like to make too many waves, so I often don't speak what I am thinking-but you can be sure that my brain is churning, silently yelling, and probably wondering, wtf?

Anyways. Some days, you'll get cute pictures of the kids doing things in Japan. Other days, you might get quite the earful. Either way, enjoy.

So,

Welcome to February...

2010-02-03T02:55:00.001-08:00

February 3rd, already! Where does the time go?

We've been pretty busy since my last blog. Unfortunately, not so much fun stuff as just taking care of stuff.

We (the boys and I) all got sick last week. More ear infections for Kieran and colds for both Brendan and me. Brendan had also been complaining of hearing "noises" in his ear-and we got in for a hearing test-and he has a blocked tube. So, we go see Dr. Bloom at ENT on Monday to find out what to do. Poor Kieran will be having an ENT consult soon too-he's probably going to be getting tubes as well-he keeps having antibiotic-resistant infections.

We've made more headway on packing stuff up at the house. We're trying to reduce the cost of having the movers move our things (the estimate was around $1600) so we've packed a bunch of the smaller stuff and will move the boxes ourselves-starting TOMORROW! We do our walk-through tomorrow morning and then get our keys. I am so excited! I am so looking forward to having a yard for the boys to play in. I am not so much looking forward to being a little further away, but, well, trade-offs.

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

2010-01-27T02:34:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-18T05:08:00.001-08:00

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...

2010-01-17T04:00:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-15T05:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-01-08T07:33:00.001-08:00

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T14:39:00.000-08:00

It's Turkey Day here in Okinawa....yum! Of course, that means a busy day for me in the kitchen. Luckily, Jason takes care of everything with the turkey, so I'm off the hook there. I'm trying a new stuffing recipe this year-it has portabella mushrooms and leeks in it-should be interesting. I have to make my own whole wheat bread crumbs too....in fact, the kitchen calls now.

Ah, I'm back. Thanksgiving Night...the food has been eaten, kids are in bed, and I'm about to head off to bed.

Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had some good friends come over-so we had 4 kids in the house...they all did so great. The food was terrific-Jason's turkey was wonderful as usual, the stuffing came out great, and we had sweet potato casserole and dressing, as well as candied carrots that our friends brought over.

Kieran loved the carrots-in fact, that was all he ate. Brendan didn't eat much either...he was a little too wound up with having friends over. After stuffing ourselves (and cleaning up, ugh) the bigger kids went and played in Brendan's room with his trains, while the adults stayed in the living room. Kieran had a lot of fun playing...and WALKING! Yes, he FINALLY walked. He took about 6 steps at first-4 more than he had previously taken. He looked so proud of himself. We were amazed. Then, he managed about 10 steps, walking from Jason to me. It was fantastic. I think he'll be walking full time by Christmas. I'm so excited-we've worked so hard in therapy to get to this point.

Then we moved onto pie-the kids were very excited about that. I made pumpkin pie, and our friends brought chocolate pudding pie over...Brendan was excited to eat both. Kieran gobbled his pumpkin pie down-he practically inhaled it. I gave him a small piece of the chocolate-not too much, since it had a lot of uncooked milk in it. Then, I gave him another small slice of pumpkin....he picked up the ENTIRE slice and started to eat it.

After a long, and surprisingly happy day (no tantrums, misbehaving children, etc...)
the kids headed off to bed, we finished cleaning up the kitchen, and watched a movie. Now, I'm headed off to bed early (not feeling good-I've been sick and can't seem to shake it). Jason is up early to go to the Black Friday sale at the Marina-hoping to get a new scuba tank, as one of ours has a leak.

Oh yes. And I can't forget...yesterday was Brendan's preschool performance-he did great. He was a little shy with some of it and didn't dance, but warmed up by the last performance.

Here are some pictures from that.

Shikinaen Royal Garden

2009-11-24T03:04:00.000-08:00

We ventured down to Naha on Sunday afternoon to check out the Shikinaen Royal Gardens. Shikinaen was the 2nd largest residence of the royal family and a guest residence for visitors from China.

It is a really pretty, peaceful place...smack dab in the middle of crazy Okinawian urbanity. Once you step inside the gardens though, and walk along the paths, you pretty much forget the city outside...the heavy foliage filters out some of the sun, and the noise from the city is muted.

There is a huge villa-I think it was something like 15 rooms. It overlooks a pond with some pretty stone bridges.

Everything structure-wise in the garden has been rebuilt-it was destroyed (like much of the island) during WWII. I think we read that reconstruction started around 1975 or so. Many of the pathways that we walked along appeared to be original though-the villa/gardens was originally constructed in 1799.

There is also a very cool lookout that has a pretty panoramic view of....only land. Sounds funny, but that's rather unusual in Okinawa...you can pretty much see water off in the distance anywhere you look (when you are at a high vantage point). At this lookout, you are on top of a large hill-but no water in sight. The view in 2009 is of city, more city, and some distant hills, but I bet it was beautiful before it was completely urban.

Sushi and Pizza...

2009-11-15T03:33:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend of trying new places.

On Saturday night, we dropped off the kids and went out with some friends for sushi-at a sushi-go-round. First time we've been to one.

The concept is simple. You sit at a counter/bar and there is a conveyor belt in front of you-with plate upon plate of sushi. The plates are different colors/patterns-that tells you the price of the plate. Prices ranged from Y130-Y630. You simply grab the plate(s) that look appealing to you and eat them! Then your selections get totaled up and you pay at the end.

It was pretty good-some was cooked, like the shrimp and prawns. Much of it was raw-we both had some salmon-that was fantastic. We got a half-rainbow roll order as well-that was good.

Tonight (Sunday) we went to a pizzeria up in Onna Village. It was fantastic...best pizza outside of Italy (and Marino's!). We had a caprese salad...yum. I think they used buffalo mozzarella. Had some fantastic garlic bread-best I've ever had. Seriously. Then we had pizza Margherita, Fungi and Cipolla. (Mushroom pizza and onion pizza on those last two). We will definitely go back!

We also went to the Foster Holiday Bazaar this weekend too-picked up some Christmas gifts and played the glass game. We won a TON of hand-blown glass...probably about $300 (retail) worth. We ended up with a total (from Sat and Sunday) of 5 plates, 4 vases, 1 tray, 4-5 glasses and a couple of coasters (consolation prizes).

For the glass game, there is an area set up with lots of different kinds of glass-you stand behind the little counter and toss ping-pong balls at the various pieces. If you get it in/on the piece, you win it. It can actually be pretty hard-the balls bounce like crazy off the glass! We've had a lot of luck so far in it.

Kieran at the pizzeria.

View from Moon Beach (Onna Village) area.

Brendan at the pizzeria.

Wow...it's been nearly a year

2009-11-13T02:07:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a year since I've gone and blogged on this site. I usually stick to blogging on MySpace, but I think I might just start blogging on here....

We've done so much this past year that I don't know where to start.

Maybe I'll start with what's current.

Right this very second, Brendan is about to be in trouble for messing around in bed, instead of sleeping. How's that for current?!?!?

It's Friday night...we're hanging out at home, per the norm. It's raining outside, also rather normal. Tomorrow should be a good day....we're going to the Foster Holiday Bazaar-little bit of Christmas shopping, and then dropping the boys off and going for sushi with a good friend (and her hubby, lol).

Not sure about the rest of the weekend. We've been going and visiting the various World Heritage sites on Okinawa-we have 4 left out of the 9. So, we might hit a new on Sunday.

I'll post more about our weekend adventures as we do them.

My Christmas Wish

2008-12-10T06:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas is fast approaching...presents are wrapped and under the tree (an obscene amount this year....the grandparents went a little overboard, lol)...the turkey will be purchased soon...cookies for Santa need to be made...it's a busy season.
And, I thought I would put my Christmas wish out there. It's not quite what you might think...I'm not asking for clothes, or shoes, or books, or DVD's or, well, anything tangible actually. Nope, my wish is different.

My wish backstory: I need to start here.

All of you who read this know that Kieran has polydactyly of the left thumb. We're know he is going to have surgery sometime this summer to remove the extra thumb. What we're not sure of is the outcome for his "regular" thumb.

After his birth, I did some online reading of various sources (hospital info, research papers, etc) and discovered that usually, the "normal" thumb is smaller than normal and probably less functional. We thought we were okay on this front-as Kieran's "normal" thumbs on both the right and left hand were the same size.

However, we started to notice (within a few weeks of his birth) that he just didn't have quite the same grip with the left hand as the right-he didn't seem to want to wrap that thumb ("regular" one) and forefinger around adult fingers as much as he did the right hand.

Well, a couple of days ago, I noticed that his grip with that hand really hasn't improved-at least not as much as the right hand has. I also noticed that while that thumb has grown (as have the rest of his hand/fingers on both sides), the "normal" thumb on the left has not grown as much as the right. It's smaller-both shorter and slimmer than the thumb on his right hand. The joint on the left is also tighter-he's not able to bend it as much, and it just doesn't seem to have the same dexterity when I manipulate it.

So, I have to ask the doctor some more questions (in a month, at his 4 month well-baby visit). At this point, we're not sure if his left thumb will catch up to the right, or if it will always be smaller, or what the function of it might be.

It of course doesn't both him in the least...he's never known different. He's a happy, healthy baby. He loves to talk to us, smiles like crazy and is working on a laugh! We've gotten a few gurgly-giggly noises out of him. He's got quite the personality!

My biggest worry about Kieran's thumb-how others will react. I don't want him teased when he is in school (if the remaining thumb is much smaller/less functioning), I don't want people making comments about him...he's just a kid, a little boy. My single biggest fear-that he won't be accepted as is...among friends and especially among family.

Sure, Jason and I wish that he didn't have this-not because we're ashamed or embarassed-heck, we count ourselves lucky that he has a thumb-it could be worse. We think he's perfect the way he is. We just wish that for his sake-he didn't have something so obvious that identifies him as "abnormal". People are mean...we don't want him to experience that..
So back to my Christmas wish....everyone is always so consumed over their wants for actual Christmas presents....

For my Christmas gift, I'd like everyone to take some time out to teach their kids that differences amongst other kids is okay...and that it's NOT okay to make fun of someone due to a physical "defect"-afterall, they can't help the way they were born. I'd like everyone to stop making fun of someone they see because they walk funny, or have a weird looking body part, or sound funny...

Really, it's an easy Christmas wish to grant me...it doesn't cost anything, you don't have to take it to the post office, and it'll make the world a nicer place to a child. (or an adult-they sure don't need the insults either).

Work in Progress

2008-11-20T04:07:00.000-08:00

I took a big step today.

I posted previously about my frustration and stress levels and I really haven't improved anything on my own. In fact, I had forgotten that I made it my goal to be less stressed. Bad, I know.

But, today, I decided that I need some extra help in decreasing my frustration/stress/anxiety level. I decided to seek out some treatment, either counseling/meds or both.

I think a lot of the behavior issues we are seeing with Brendan stem from my lack of patience and my frustration/stress levels. The more stressed I get at his behavior, the worse he behaves.

So, I should hear back tomorrow about what to do next. I am actually looking forward to this in weird sort of way-I am looking forward to trying to get back to being the me I liked- and the me that was more patient, more understanding, and just a better mom.

Frustration

2008-11-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling very frustrated lately. Frustrated with hubby, frustrated with myself. Frustrated at the kiddo (the older one).

And it's not fair.

I've realized that I've been taking out my frustration with things on my kiddo. Not physically mind you-just being short-tempered and less patient than I should be.

My frustration stems from a lot-I'm frustrated the hubby switched work shifts and is hardly home-and when he does, he sits around. I know he is working long hours, but dammit, so am I...I just don't report to an outside workplace. I work hard every day taking care of kids, hubby, house...and running all the errands, etc. It certainly doesn't qualify as doing nothing.

I have decided though that I really, really need to be more patient with Brendan. I don't like who I have become lately with regards to him-I'm not giving him the time to just be a two year old. I get impatient when he doesn't want to follow my schedule, or wants to dwadle, or just wants to do well, nothing I want to do. I think lately more in terms of "I need to" rather than "he needs to".

It's not fair to him, that's for sure. He needs time to just discover, explore, be a little kid.

So my goal-to be more patient and understanding. To yell less, use a sharp tone less....to make him feel like he is the most loved kid in the world...since of course, he is (along with his brother!)

I have a feeling that right now is just a trying stage...but I'm trying to remember I am the adult, and the one that knows better and has the capacity for patience, understanding and that I need to use them more!

Of course, reading all of this makes me sound like a terrible parent...I don't think I am a terrible parent. I think just the opposite in fact- I work really hard to make sure my children know what is most important-that they are loved, for who they are, no strings attached, and that I can recognize when something isn't going like it should and can admit that to myself and strive to change it.

Wish me luck!

The Zen of Running

2008-10-31T04:35:00.000-07:00

I had bootcamp again today. I joined an intense, 12 week bootcamp fitness program run off-base here in Okinawa, by a guy named John. He's pretty awesome-I went to his aerobics/toning classes throughout my pregnancy with Kieran, and now, it's time to get into shape.

Bootcamp was running today. Boy, it's still really hot at 9:30am-way to hot to run. I'm so out of shape after this pregnancy that I'm having a hard time finding my "zen" while running-that point at which you kind of tune stuff out, other than your shoes slapping the pavement, or the rhythym of your breaths going in and out.

Running is such a relaxing, settling activity. One foot after another, always moving forward. Breathe in, breathe out. In and out. At some point, (when I am in good shape) I settle into my "zen"...nothing around me matters anymore. I am just concentrating on moving forward.

I can't wait to get back into shape-into good enough shape to hit this zen zone every time I run. Right now, I'm struggling. I want to be back into great shape-but it's an uphill battle. I have to really watch what I eat, make some changes in my diet, and get working out even more. Bootcamp meets 5 days a week-and I am going to need to add in an additional class 3-4 times a week, to really improve.

It's hard work, but I'm going to have to do it.

2008-10-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

For Brendan:

Brendan, my first baby boy, is two. Two has been a challenging age for him (and me!).
So, I wanted to remind myself of all the wonderful things about him.

Ten Things I Love About You:

1. I love, love, love your beautiful blue eyes, and loooong eyelashes!
2. I love the way you say "Oh yes!" when you are responding to a question.
3. I love the way you kiss and hug your baby brother.
4. I love the way your eyes light up at something new and wonderful.
5. I love the way you have started singing the songs I've taught you.
6. I love your adoration of your Mama, Papa and Uncle Ian.
7. I love the way you say "Mommy like that" when you've done something you know I'll approve of!
8. I love the way you've learned to say "please," "thank you," and "excuse me."
9. I love the way that you love me, even if I'm not the perfect mom.
10. Most of all, I love that you are my son and that I have the privilege of being your Mommy.

I am working hard on being patient, understanding, and simply just enjoying the toddler years with you-I know that all too soon, they'll be over and I'll be looking back, wishing to visit them just one more time.