The joys of childhood

Ahhh, remember your first fort? I remember draping blankets over chairs and tables and crawling underneath as a child. I loved to pretend I was in a castle and I was the princess, or it was a fort and I was camping in the woods. I even took books in there with me as a nice hideaway. Mary experienced it for the first time last night and had a blast. She loves to pull the cushion off the chair and jump on to it. Sometimes she likes to curl up in the base of the chair and pretend to take a nap. Last night, Mary wanted Doug to cover her with the blanket and he was a bit enthusiastic and dramatic with whipping the blanket in the air. It ended up draping across the chair like this and viola', a fort! How fun!

She was having such an adventure, that she decided she wanted to sleep on the floor last night. Umm, ok. How many times can you be a kid? So this is where she went to bed "camping". She always wakes up once to go to the bathroom, so she slept in her bed for the second half.

Surprise!

Today at playgroup we were having a surprise baby shower for our friend Kristen. To my utmost surprise it was actually a double shower! Nicole's going back to the States for her daughter's baptism soon and wanted to make sure I had my shower in case baby boy decides to arrive early. I have such a great group of girlfriends here and feel so very blessed. They definitely make being so far from family easier.


Nicole made this beautiful cake. It had a pink strawberry cake and blue colored white cake layer and enough homemade buttercream icing to send Doug into diabetic shock. Kristen's having a girl and I'm having a boy, so it was so creative how she made the cake.

Kristen's due Nov 21st and I'm due Dec 18th

Taking a break from eating cake

And last but not least, the diaper cakes. I made the one for Kristen and Nicole surprised me with one of my very own. Poor Jessica couldn't understand why she wasn't allowed to pull all the cute little bottles off the cake.

Thanks again ladies for all your hard work, generosity and most of all, friendship.

She's definitely my daughter

I remember not too long ago, when I would change clothes, I would just leave them on the floor wherever they fell. I know this probably drove my mother and my roommates nuts. Luckily, I've corrected that habit, but now it seems I've passed it on. The other night after dinner, I told Mary to take off her clothes and go hop in the bath tub. I went into the kitchen to clean up the dishes and when I came out, this is what I saw. I just had to get a picture. It looks like her shorts could just walk on their own. I guess she was excited about her bath.

Foster Fest

This evening, we went to the festival on base. This was our first time at Foster Fest, since last year it rained so much that the parade grounds were muddy and I didn't feel like going out in that weather. This year looked like it was going to be the same, but after the brief shower this morning, it cleared up and was beautiful. I think the organizers were worried too, since they set it up in a huge parking lot this year. Much better. The air was cool, it wasn't too crowded and they even had a train. What a great time.

Mary really enjoyed my yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick with a teriyaki type sauce). I tried to get her to try my stir fried veggies, but she was so content with the chicken...that, and Doug's lumpia. My little carnivore.

This train was a bit bigger than the one at Futenma Fest and Mary wasn't eager to ride it alone. Thankfully, the operators let us ride with her without charging us for 2 people. Doug bought 2 rides, so she could have equal time with Mommy and Daddy. What a generous man.

scissors

The other day, Mary told me she wanted to cut her hair. I told her that we have to wait to go to the beauty shop to do that. I went into the kitchen to cook dinner and she was quiet for a long time...too long. At dinner that night, I noticed a couple strands of hair on her place mat, but brushed them off without any thought. Doug then noticed a nice size clump of hair on her bib. Uh-oh. I asked Mary where the hair came from and where did she get scissors. She took my hand and walked me to the bathroom to show me where she had placed her stool and reached a pair of scissors that Doug had left and the scattered wisps of hair. Good thing she has so much of it. I couldn't tell where she had cut, but her ponytail was a bit askew.

This morning, it was definitely my fault. I used the big scissors this morning and apparently left them within reach. I screamed, "NO!!!!" when I saw she was cutting her bangs and of course, she started crying. Here are the pics, because I just had to grab the camera and take pictures before I soothed her.

Happy 234th Birthday Navy!

Saturday night, Doug and I went to the Navy ball over at the Officer's club. We had a nice night with friends and meeting new people. It's kind of hard when Doug works with the Marines on a daily basis instead of being at the hospital with all the other Navy folks. We really didn't know too many people, but we enjoyed some good food, a nice ceremony and no, we didn't dance. For those of you that know us, you know why (we're terrible). Of course, I forgot my camera and had to rely on someone else to take a couple of photos for us. We decided not to do the formal pictures since Doug's in his white dress jacket (we have a lot of pictures of him in that uniform). Next month at the Marine Corps ball, he'll be wearing the black jacket (better looking) and of course, I'll be wearing the same dress (I'm not spending money on 2 maternity gowns). Maybe I'll talk him into photos then. It will be nice to have a formal picture of him with his 3 gold ribbons. My handsome Commander.

ABC's

Doug and I were vegging on the couch this morning when we heard Mary in the other room singing the alphabet. This is the first time she's done it completely without any prompting from us. She was so happy with herself that she kept repeating it over, and over, and over again. I figured I lost my window for video taping, but she waited patiently while I grabbed the camera. Enjoy!

2 yrs, 3 1/2 mo old

Part Caucasian, part Korean and ...part Mexican?

Mary's new favorite thing is to be rolled into a burrito. She asked for it the other day and apparently I didn't do as good a job as Daddy. He had to come to the rescue. Here's our little burrito. Mmmm, she looks yummy.

Oktoberfest 2009!

Our new tradition is to go to the Oktoberfest celebration brunch at the Officer's Club on base. There is a huge assortment of German food and sweets, not to mention the Oompha Band. We were a bit worried when Mary fell asleep in the car on the way there and she was quite clingy at first, but then she really opened up when the band started. We just had to go do the chicken dance with her friend, Jessica. Watch the video and you'll see how she goes from being really shy to just having fun. Sorry the pictures are a bit blurry, she wouldn't stand still.

She did it again!

And this time I took a picture! Last night, Mary had a temper tantrum to beat all tantrums. Man, she really threw a fit when it was time to go to bed. We struggled with getting the pajamas on and going to the potty and brushing teeth. She was having so much fun playing and reading books, she just didn't want to sleep. Finally, I just gave up and had Doug put her in bed. She was screaming the whole time. We walked out of the room and I kid you not, she stopped within 3 minutes. Doug said she wore herself out. Later, when we went to check on her, this is what we found. I told him I had to get a photo this time. We had to keep telling ourselves, "she's 2."