precious

I love how Mary holds on to one of my fingers as we're walking down the street.
I love how she runs to hug Doug when he comes home from work.
I love how she looked at me the other day across the lunch table and said, "I love you, mommy."
I love how she stands at the front door and says goodbye to Doug every morning.
I love how my baby boy gets so excited when I peek my head over the side of his crib.

We met Toshi last year through mutual friends. We were introduced when we went to a wine festival on the Air Force base in March. His wife, Melody, and I eventually went off to the slot machines (my hidden vice) where I had my $20 burning a hole in my pocket. I walked away $16 richer and she won over $30. I remember laughing so hard with her while we kept winning and decided to cash out while we were ahead. I remember the other people in there glaring at us because they 1) didn't like us breaking their concentration being so loud (we were a bit tipsy), 2) didn't like the fact that we were winning and 3) couldn't wait for us to leave so they could grab our machine. We've been to their house for an Italian dinner party. We sat together at the Navy ball. We've seen them with their son and daughter at church. We were so happy to hear that his pending deployment to the middle east for 15 months was cancelled, but then learned it was due to high blood pressure that the doc's were having trouble getting under control. We didn't think too much about it when we heard they were going to send him to Hawaii to see a specialist. I saw his facebook post the other day that he was packing for his trip. Doug saw him last week. A friend of mine saw him yesterday laughing and joking. Today, he died. He was found unconscious. They think he had a massive heart attack. In an instent, he was gone.

This tragedy reminds me just how precious and short our lives really are. I take for granted that Doug will always be with me. I honestly don't know what I would do without him. I would be lost. So today, I will hug my husband just a little tighter, kiss him a little longer and remember to savor every minute we have together. Life is so very precious.

The Bus

Big city + free shuttle bus + me with 2 kids looking for cheap entertainment = 1 unique experience.

Mary loves riding the bus. Actually, she's not too picky about her form of mass transit. Be it a bus, a taxi, the subway, it's all good. Our hotel is 1 block away from a mile long pedestrian mall. There's a free shuttle bus that runs the entire length stopping at every corner. Guess what she always wants to do? Ride the bus. You can see some pretty interesting people on the bus.

There was the girl (in her 20's- I hesitate to call her a woman) with her pet mouse. Yep, mouse. Reminded me of Mr. Jingles from the movie "The Green Mile", except that it was death row, the mouse did tricks and of course, it was a MOVIE, so he couldn't jump down and bite one of my kids. This girl was walking around with this mouse on her shoulder. It would walk up and down her arms and back behind her neck. Yuck! Of course, Mary was fascinated and wanted to touch it (I quickly vetoed that idea). A couple other crazy ladies got in on the fun and took turns petting it and letting it crawl around on the seat. Ewww!! One lady who looked like she had seen better days (I counted only 2 teeth) said she used to have a pet mouse that lived in her shirt for 7 years. I actually felt bad for that mouse. She said hers loved beer. Well, duh. If I had to live in her shirt, I'd probably consume a lot of beer too. I decided we'd had enough of mouse girl, so we hopped off the bus and pretended to be interested in the Colorado Visitors Center. Mary scored a free hologram postcard out of that deal.

We got back on the bus with the plan that we would ride it to the end, come back to the hotel for lunch, than take an extra early nap. 4 1/2 hrs of sleep does not a happy mother make. Jet lag stinks, esp. with kids who don't want to sleep. Anyway, back to the bus story, we get on and end up sitting next to an older man who smells like he's been pickled in alcohol. Maybe he's using it as a preservative. He kept trying to get Adam to smile, but he refused. He said, "Oh well, maybe when he gets older, he'll warm up." I wanted to say, "Maybe he'd smile at you if you didn't stink and weren't a tad bit creepy." I smiled and nodded instead. To the other side of us, there was a woman with a very large lip piercing. Mary looked at me and whispered (not so quietly), "What's that thing sticking out of her face?" Ahh, the honesty of children. Public transportation sure can be interesting. I can say we probaly would never have seen anything like this in Japan.

So even though I was tired and cranky, we got out of the room and had a mini adventure. Now both kids are racked out and it's my turn to join them. I wonder what's in store for this afternoon?

Exhausted

We did the massive flight back to the States yesterday. Doug has a conference in Denver and Mary, Adam and I tagged along for some food, adventure and SHOPPING! We're also flying over to Kansas City next week to visit Doug's family for 3 weeks. We'll be getting Adam baptised and my parents are hopping in the car and driving all the way from North Carolina to be with us for the wonderful occasion...and I think they want to see their grand kids again.

The flights here were pretty painful. I definitely know why we only do it once or twice for a full 3 year tour and I also see why we don't have many visitors. Actually, the kids were great. Adam is an awesome traveler. He barely fussed and was happy flirting with all the ladies he could find. I will say the bassinet on the big flight from Tokyo was a life saver. It was so nice to be able to put him down and let him stretch out. Mary did better than I had expected, esp. missing her nap and having to sit still for so long. We had to literally run through all of the airports for our connecting flights and she either held our hands and ran or let Doug carry her all with no fuss. See, there are miracles.

Last night was pretty rough, but looking back on it, it doesn't seem as bad as it could have been. Isn't that the case for most things? We had a nice solid chunk of sleep from 3:30am to 6:30am. The problem is single room living. Oh boy, if Mary starts crying, Adam almost always has sympathy crying too. Don't they understand it makes it so much more stressful for us to calm down 2 children instead of 1? Today at nap time, Adam started fussing and Mary woke up at the same time with a bloody nose...and I mean bloody. This was the worst one she's ever had. I attribute it to the super dry air on the airplanes, the dry air here in Denver, and the fact that she almost always has a finger up her nose. I was trying to get Adam settled down, Doug was trying to calm Mary and apply pressure to her nose, but she kept blowing it and making it worse. I finally got Adam quiet and we switched kids only to have him start back up because I put him down. Oh boy, it was a stressful situation for a while. The whole time I kept thinking that thank goodness Doug hadn't started his conference yet and was here to help me. I don't know what I would have done if I was alone. I will say that "twinkle,twinkle" is now our magic song. Repeated over and over, it calmed down both kids and even made Mary smile when I made up silly lyrics to go with the tune.

It wasn't a horrible day, we had a great visit to the Denver Children's museum and the Platte trolley ride. But that will have to be saved for another day, when I can post pictures of Mary and Adam having some fun exploring and playing. **I'm posting pics now**

Doug starts his conference tomorrow and we are on our own. I hope we have a better night of sleep. I really want to get the kids (and me) back on schedule.

I thought life was busy with an almost 3 yr old and an infant, but I'm starting to see the changes that are coming my way. My immobile chunky monkey learned to roll yesterday for the first time and now he has decided it's the cool thing to do. Mary learned early, but would do it infrequently. I put Adam down now and never know where I'll find him when I turn back. He scoots, he rolls, he wiggles. Next thing I know, he'll be crawling. Yikes! Good thing I have a tattle tell that informs me of everything he does.

Peek-a-boo

We had Adam hanging out on the bed the other day and I started playing peek-a-boo with him. I was hiding by the bed and would jump up. He was cracking up. Of course, by the time I thought to grab the camera for a video, he was getting tired. Oh well, here's a small sample of the quickly tiring baby.

At least this is way more appropriate than the time I was trying to get Mary to laugh around this age.

Ha,ha,ha! Look at the difference in the amount of hair! Mary was just under 5 months in this video. Adam is 5 1/2 months.

Chores

At what age is assigning chores appropriate? I was thinking about making Mary a chore chart and having her work to earn her spending money for games and rides...and popcorn from Jusco. Doug thinks she's a bit young. He thinks 5 or 6 versus an almost 3 yrs old. Okay, maybe I'm a bit ahead of myself, so I haven't "officially" assigned her chores, but I've been asking her to "help" a lot more. I see nothing wrong with asking her to take her plate to the kitchen after she's done eating, she already puts her empty sippy cups in the sink. She cleans up after herself (occasionally), helps me throw away dirty diapers and other trash, and today, helped me strip her bed. This was the first time with the bed and she had a blast. Even carried all her sheets to the laundry room. Funny how kids find fun in almost anything. I wonder when that stops? P.S. Truth be told, I did happen to mention that if she helped me, then she could earn some money toward her popcorn. That got her highly motivated.

Tuesday Tidbits

"I'm a perfect pickle picker!" Wow, say that 3 times fast! Yep, she came up with that phrase all by herself. Mary loves her pickles. I always ask for "heavy pickles" at Burger King. Good thing they "do it your way".
Mary looked outside: "Mom, I see the sun! When you can see the sun, that means it's gorgeous outside."

Enjoying some of the gorgeous sun outside the post office.

I put Adam down on the blanket before we sat down for dinner.

And this is what he looked like when we finished.

Oh, he's going to be a handful when he learns to crawl!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mary and Doug made me a beautiful card! What a nice day (not weather wise, since it rained...again). We had a delicious brunch at the Officer's club with friends where we ate way too much, but savored every single bite (at least I did). Yum! Of course, not cooking or cleaning up was a wonderful treat.

I want to thank God for giving me such a wonderful family. I have such a kind, thoughtful, supportive husband. I don't know what I would do without him. Together, we have created an amazing little girl who delights me every single day with her outlook on family, friends and life in general. She is growing up way too fast and I'm so glad I have this opportunity to stay home with her to enjoy all the "little" moments. And now we have a son, who instantly changed our family of three into a sometimes chaotic, definitely more busy, and somehow more loving family of four. I hope I am molding our children into competent, happy, well-adjusted adults. I hope I am being as great a role model as my mom and my mother-in-law. I hope that one day my kids won't appear on Oprah complaining about their terrible childhood. Oh wait! Oprah's retiring. Whew, dodged that bullet. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. These little rug rats have changed my life and for that, I am truly thankful.

Huh?

Today, Mary and I escaped off to the Exchange for a quick bit of shopping. As we were checking out, the lady at the register (Japanese) said, "she must look like your husband." Huh? I looked at her, looked at Mary, looked at the crazy lady again. "Um no, she looks like me." I replied. She scrutinized Mary and said, "I don't see it." Maybe Mary is starting to look a bit more "mixed" as she's getting older, but stand her next to us, and I think even crazy people have to admit she's my daughter.

Busy, busy day

I'm starting to get tired of all the power outages. We planned to meet Nicole, Jessica and Michelle and go on an outing to keep busy today. We had another friend, Ella, join us for our little adventure to Dolphin Park. Have I mentioned how much I like this place? Not only does it have a big playground, there's a huge field to run around, a beach that never seems crowded and covered picnic areas. Mary kept talking about going to the beach all morning, so I knew that's where she wanted to go first. Good thing, since the sun was out initially, but clouded over by the time we were ready for lunch. We carry Mary's beach toys in the trunk, so we have them whenever we need them. Mary was wonderful with sharing with her friends. I was so proud.

Ha,ha,ha! Jessica started to throw a fit when she saw Mary's beach toys and she wanted hers. Nicole, the ever resourceful mommy, scrounged around in the car and found the pee-pee cup for Jessica's training potty. Tada! It's a bucket! I also love how Jessica looked through all of Mary's toys to find the shovel that matched her "bucket". Kids.

Gettin' a tan for the ladies. Hey! I'm making hand prints!

Even Nicole got in on the fun. Wheeeeeee!

"The girls on the horses go round and round, round and round, round and round..." I was walking and pushing one of the horses when I realized it would be much easier to get on and pedal. The girls were having a great time. I need to lobby for padded cushions on those seats. Ouch!

After the park, we ate at the food court on the Air Force base then headed home for naps. We were pleasantly surprised to find our power restored. After naps, we went over to Nicole's for an impromptu pool party. Yea! for busy days, Yea! for great friends, Yea! for tuckered out kids!

Hard to see it, but Adam's shirt says "Bikini Inspector". Ha,ha,ha!

Nueve De Chaos

Happy Cinco De Mayo! Or in our case, Nueve De Chaos. Nine kids -6 toddlers, 3 infants, 5 mommies, 1 scared kitty, and 1 daddy trying to fly under the radar and grab chow and skedaddle back to work. Playgroup this week was at our house and I had a good time planning out and preparing "snacky" Mexican foods. We had little mini taco salads, fresh veggies, quesadillas, chips and dips, and Mexican ice cream pie. Our morning started off early with Mary's friend Jaiden coming to play. They were really good at sharing toys and playing nicely together. What a relief for me, since Adam decided to be needy. Here's a funny story, Jaiden went to the bathroom all by himself, but left the bathroom door open. He finished and was standing there in just his t-shirt when Mary walked by. She said, "Hey! He has boy parts just like Adam...only bigger!" Ha,ha,ha! I quickly shut the door and made sure I was out of sight before cracking up. For some crazy reason, whenever Jaiden comes over, they always have to play "doctor." Why is it that almost every time, it's Mary that ends up with her shirt up? Oh boy. I need to keep an eye on those two.

So that was our busy day. Lots of friends, LOTS of sharing, and minimal meltdowns. All in all a good day.

Backyard fun

I pulled out the pool today. Umm, I think it's time to get a bigger one. There seems to be a disproportionate child to water to space ratio. Good size for Adam though...once he can hold himself upright for longer than 0.1 seconds. Mary didn't seem to care that she was a giant in the pool, she was just so thrilled to be able to play in the water. She kept asking me if she could get in. Hello, that's why it's there goofball. I originally planned to fill it up, let it sit in the sun all morning to warm up, then she could play in it this afternoon after nap. Good thing I didn't follow through with that, since now it's overcast and looks like rain...again. Sigh. At least we had a fun morning.




Adam seemed to enjoy watching the fun...


more than participating. He looks a bit panicked, doesn't he? After all the play time, we're left with exhausted infant (yes, he's sleeping in my lap again) and a cheesy toddler. Hope you all had a good weekend.