I guess I should watch what I say

Mary has developed a new bedtime stalling technique...it's called "poo-poo potty." Heck what parent wouldn't give in when their kid says they have to poop? Well, we figured it out pretty quickly that she didn't really need to go, she just wanted to stay up longer. We have her potty right before bed and then we tell her if she needs to poop, she better do it immediately 'cause she's not getting back up. We put her in bed and then walk away as she's crying "poo-poo potty." Night before last, she cried a good 20 min. Last night, it was only about 5. Yea! Maybe tonight...? Don't want to jinx it. Anyway, Doug and I were amazed that she quit crying so quickly last night. He said," do you think we should check on her?" I said," Heck, I don't care if she's sleeping on the floor as long as she's still in her room and quiet." 30 min later, he checked on her and immediately told me I had to see her. There she was sleeping in the middle of her floor. I should have taken a picture. I shouldn't have laughed. Hmmm, maybe I should be more careful about what I say.

I'm Sorry

I'm sorry. I thought that I could take a few minutes of "me" time this morning and go to the bathroom with the door closed. I'm sorry that I left the bottle of syrup on the dining room table.

What was I thinking?

I'm sorry that I gave you your first taste of marshmallow this morning. You seemed to really like it and you kept coming back for more. I'm sorry you gagged on a piece and threw up all over the exercise mat. At least I was able to throw it in the sink and wash it (much easier than the syrup on the carpet). I hope I got it all out or the next time Doug is doing sit ups and wonders what that smell is, I might just have to say, "I'm sorry."

I'LL SHARE!!!!!

Kaye gave Mary this book for her birthday. I have to say it's one of our favorites. Not only does it have a good message, but it get's this kind of response from Mary. Too cute not to video and share.

Vacation!!!- Part 4- Tokyo- final installment

"If I could be a train, I'd be a bullet train..." Doug kept singing this practically our whole vacation; therefore, I kept singing it too. Apparently, there's a goofy kids program on Sunday mornings and they like to sing this song. I'm regressing, let's get back to the vacation...

Monday morning, we checked out of the BOQ, returned the rental car and headed out in a taxi to the train station. Mary loved the taxi ride. We took an express train to Hiroshima (15 min) and then transferred to the bullet train to Tokyo. Mary was so excited about the trains, though she didn't realize that even though it was called a bullet train, it would still take us 4 hours to get to our destination. Two hours into the trip and she announced that she was "done." Good thing Doug took her for walks and finally, she fell asleep. When we arrived in Tokyo, we had to transfer to a local commuter train to get us within walking distance to the hotel. It was quite a challenge. Doug had Mary strapped to his chest, had his laptop slung over his shoulder and was pulling the big suitcase that had the stroller bungeed on the outside. I had Mary's car seat strapped to my back like a backpack and was pulling the smaller suitcase with my humongous purse on top. The station was huge and confusing...not to mention crowded. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed, but we eventually made it. When we got to our final stop, there was a lady that stopped me. She had to be in her mid 40's and she kept gesturing to my belly and my suitcase. It took me a while but I finally figured out what she wanted. She grabbed my suitcase and carried it up 3 flights of stairs. There wasn't an elevator. How nice was that? Then we were walking down the street to the hotel (approx 1 1/2 blocks) and a nice lady was following us. She spoke English and said she worked at the hotel we were going to and she ended up taking my suitcase and pulled for me. I guess I looked beat. I was. Thank goodness the hotel had a great pool. I wasn't in the mood to tour.

Ueno Zoo was on top of the list of places to go. I had heard from an acquaintance here that it was THE place to go. What a great zoo! It was huge. We didn't get to see everything, but it was definitely worth the trip. They even had a petting zoo for the kids. Unfortunately, the only thing to pet was a bunch of goats and unfortunately, Mary still seems to like to touch her lips A LOT. Wow, never noticed that before. After what seemed like the billionth time we told her "don't touch your mouth!" we high-tailed it out of there to the hand washing station where we scrubbed for a good long time. Probably won't do another petting zoo for a long time, but look at the joy on her face. It was worth it.
Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 and it's 1,093 feet tall. Even though it was based on the Eiffel Tower in Paris, this one is taller. The main observation room is at 492 feet. We didn't pay extra to go any higher. There were some beautiful views of Tokyo. Hey, guess what? It looks like a big city. They had a couple areas of those Plexiglas floors so you can see all the way down. Usually, they make me kinda dizzy. Wasn't sure how Mary would react, but she had no fear. People thought it was pretty cute. It's a good thing, since she was hogging the view. I'm including a shot of my 27 week belly looking down. I feel huge.

Our last big site was the Senso-ji Temple. It originated with a shrine to the Buddhist goddess of mercy in AD 628 and a then a temple was built in 645. The majority of the buildings didn't survive WWII bombings, but were rebuilt to follow the Edo-era layout.

This is Kaminarimon Gate "thunder gate". It burned down in 1865 and was rebuilt in 1960.

Nakamise-dori is a street filled with shops and food vendors. We tried a little fried dough thing with Japanese apricot inside. Mary didn't want to share. There is also a picture of a 5 story pagoda that was built in 1973.

Hozo-mon gate. this was at the entrance to the main hall. It was built in 1964.



Inside the main hall is a gold plated shrine where people come to pay their respects by throwing coins and lighting candles.




So, it took 4 parts, but I think I've finally reached a conclusion to our vacation. I hope you have enjoyed reading about our little adventure as much as we enjoyed doing it. I'm glad we were finally able to take some time to see a part of our host country.

Vacation!!!- Part 3- Hiroshima

Doug, Mary and I drove the 40 min estimated (but was really closer to 1hr 15 min due to traffic and trying to find a parking space) to Hiroshima for the day. Unfortunately, this was our one rainy day. And even though the BOQ offered free umbrellas for guests to use, they could only seem to find one. One's better than none, right? We were able to scurry in out of the rain to the Peace Memorial Museum. Ok, maybe not the best idea for taking a 2 yr old after being cooped up in the car for an hour. She wanted to run and play. Thank goodness it was only about 50cents per ticket, since I really didn't get to look or read very much. I was on Mary patrol while Doug walked around, but by the time we made it to the second floor, she was done. It would have been nice to be able to go back there and really look at everything. They had a big replica on what the epicenter looked like before the bomb hit and then one that depicted the "after". It was amazing. Doug was impressed that the museum didn't seem to bash the US and put all the blame on us. He said there were parts that talked about the Japanese aggression at the time. We have a Peace Memorial Park here on Okinawa that made us feel like we were to blame for the whole battle of Okinawa. Made me wonder why the locals are so nice to us.

This is the A-bomb dome. This building was originally the Industrial Promotion Hall and it stood close to the point where the bomb exploded. All the occupants of the building were killed instantly and this is what remained. It has been preserved all these years by the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is a picture of the Cenotaph (the arch), which was built as a memorial to the victims of the bomb. It contains the names of everyone who died and an inscription that reads "rest in peace. We will never repeat the error." Behind it, you will see the Flame of Peace, which they say will never be extinguished until all the nuclear weapons have been eliminated from the Earth. In the background, you will see another view of the A-bomb Dome.

We then headed to a local Onokomyiaki restaurant that was recommended to us. We had never had this before, but I had heard of it. It's essentially a huge (and I mean HUGE) noodle pancake with yummy toppings. Mine had pork, cabbage, egg, green onion and a delicious sauce. Doug's was practically the same, but he had cheese and corn and no onion. Mary liked both equally. She just loves noodles. And yes, we did clean our plates...or at least I did.

I had read in the tour book about a Children's science museum that provided hands on play for kiddos. I thought this would be a great place to explore and help Mary get some exercise, even though we were quickly approaching nap time. What a cool place! Can you believe it was free? Heelloo? Doesn't this city want money for anything? I absolutely loved this place. Mary could, and was encouraged to touch everything. She especially liked the tunnel. She looks like a caged animal. Of course the train set was a huge hit too.

On a side note, we tried to go to Miyajima Island the next day (our last day in Iwakuni). It was a beautiful day, nice clear skies and we thought it would be perfect. Apparently, so did everyone else. After sitting in traffic forever and passing full parking lots after lot, we decided we had tried our best and called it quits. We explored downtown Iwakuni looking for trinkets and souvenirs and found a surprisingly good restaurant hidden off the beaten path. And even though we didn't get to see a beautiful island and the floating tori gate or pet the tame deer and eat delicious cakes only made on that island, we had some good quality family time and Mary got to see her favorite playground one more time.

Vacation!!!!- Part 2- still in Iwakuni

Iwakuni is home to the beautiful Kintai-kyo (brocade sash) bridge. There are 5 linked arches that are amazing to look at, a challenge to climb with a toddler (the steps were difficult to see), but a great way to wear her out. It was originally built in 1673 but destroyed by a typhoon in 1953. It has been rebuilt as an exact replica.

Beyond the bridge, there is a nice park with a number of samurai houses. We chose to just walk around and not actually go inside any of them. Mary enjoyed seeing all the stray cats, the huge fish swimming the streams and ponds and basically, running around. Doug and I enjoyed stumbling upon an old shrine that was lovely and peaceful. There is a cable car that will take you all the way up the mountain to the Iwakuni castle, but we were too late and it was closed for the evening. Too bad, I think Mary would have loved the cable car. Oh well, we settled on heading back to town and having a fantastic Chinese dinner.

Vacation!!!- part 1, Iwakuni

Doug, Mary and I just returned from our first REAL vacation since moving to Japan over a year ago. Doug had some business in Iwakuni, Japan, so Mary and I tagged along then he took some vacation time for us to explore and relax. We started out at the nearby Marine base waiting for a military flight to Iwakuni. Doug was able to get his plane, but there were no more seats available for me and Mary, so we had to wait space A (space available) for the next flight. Good thing it was only an hour and a half later. Mary kept busy watching Shrek on her DVD player, eating my granola bar and running around entertaining the young marines waiting for their flights. We were on a C-12, a little tiny plane with only 5 real seats, but man, were they comfortable. I had more leg room than I knew what to do with. It was kinda loud and they handed out ear plugs to us as we were about to board. I brought Mary's headphones that we borrowed from her friend, Jessica. Can you believe she left them on the whole time? I guess she realized that without them, it was really loud. It was nice having Doug arrive first, since he was able to pick up the rental car, check into the BOQ (bachelors officer's quarters i.e., hotel), grab a carton of milk for Mary and juices for us and still meet us at the air terminal when we arrived. The first night, we went to a restaurant that was recommended by the front desk staff. Everyone calls it the "chicken shack." They told us the chicken on a stick and the gyoza are great. When I hear chicken on a stick, I automatically think of yakitori which we can get here and yes, it's delicious, but it's just small strips of chicken threaded on a skewer and grilled. It hardly ever fills us up. Ummm, this was no ordinary chicken on a stick. It was a whole breast and wing! I already bit into it a couple of times before thinking to take a picture. We all loved it...even Mary. The restaurant, itself was set back in the woods. It was cool and lush with tons of trees and a gentle waterfall. I felt like I had been transported back in time. They had beautiful statues (I only wish I knew what they meant) and of course there was the standard "touristy" cut out that we just had to pose Mary behind. Wouldn't she make a cute samurai? It was a great evening and a perfect start to our vacation.
What a nice base. Everything is within walking distance. Mary and I even managed to find a fantastic playground while Doug was working during the days. That girl sure does love a playground. Is it wrong to admit that I actually had playground envy? This place was huge and 90% of it was in the shade. Of course the fact that it was cooler in Iwakuni than Okinawa sure helped a lot. I didn't miss the humidity one bit and I had almost forgotten how wonderful 60 and 70 degree weather felt.

Thus ends part 1. The blog is acting weird and the pictures aren't posting exactly how I would like, so I'm calling it a night. I'm also writing a bit more than I had originally planned; therefore, I'm breaking the vacation blog into sections. This has become my new scrapbook, since I seem to be too busy to keep up with all my crafting, so forgive if it becomes a bit too tedious. This is for my memories as well as to inform family and friends of our lives.

What makes it Dutch, baby?

My sister-in-law posted a recipe for a Dutch baby on her facebook page. I decided to try it this morning and I have to say, it was pretty impressive looking and quite tasty. Doug and I were amazed at how light tasting it was...so much in fact, that we ate the whole thing! Ok, we shared a small piece with Mary. I chopped up some pears and sprinkled on some powered sugar. Yum. It was a nice change from our standard french toast, pancakes, or scrambled eggs. Our only question is, why's it called a Dutch baby?

hooked on Cocok's

I've been here over a year and finally went to Cocok's (silent K) for the first time. Ask anyone you meet walking down the street and they know Cocok's...not to be confused with Coco's the convenience store or Coco's the curry restaurant. This is where you go to get your nails done. And man, do they DO them. I had a gift certificate that I've been wanting to use for quite some time. Finally, I took some ME time and spent labor day sitting in a big plush chair, listening to the relaxing sound of the waterfall in the lobby, drinking wonderful iced tea and getting the most fabulous foot and leg massage. It's popular to get toe nail art versus the plain jane solid color. So popular, in fact, that they provide you with a huge binder of designs to choose from, but no listing of plain colors. I tried the flower look a couple years ago while in Hawaii, but Doug said it just looked like my polish was chipping and not flowers. He's such a guy. Since the design cost more, I never did it again. At Cocok's, the cost is the same and I told him that I'm coming home with flowers. And so I did. So if anyone's wondering what to get me for a present, I know another gift certificate would be appreciated. I think I'm hooked on Cocok's...like everyone else here.