Happy Thanksgiving!

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

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...

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

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

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

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

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!