So. ..

I don't really have a whole lot to say. This might get rambly.


Our PC died, so we got a new one, which is annoying but sort of exciting at the same time. I don't like it. I can't figure out how to get pictures straight from camera, etc etc etc. I'm not a tech geek in any way, shape or form.

Christmas was...funny. Thomas wasn't very excited to come out to all of his presents. He started lining them up and organizing. I have no idea why. He did eventually start ripping into them. It was all sort of anti climactic. Not that I had a bad holiday, it's just so different from what I grew up with that it's hard for me to find the festivus in it. My family skyped me during their gathering, which was fun, and also sort of sad. Maybe sad isn't the word, it's just different, and I need to find the blessings in that. It was pretty low stress..I'll go with that.

Happier news, I got a pedicure today. I haven't had one in months. Probably close to a year. I felt bad for the girl, there was some serious work to be done. It was one of the best pedicures I've ever had. I'm so used to the quickie, get in and out at the No.1 nail salons back home, that having someone actually take their time was amazing. I have an appointment at the very much loved Cocoks in a few weeks, they make little masterpieces of your toes, and there's a full bar, AND it's in walking distance. Sign me up baby!!


I've spent my day going between reading InStyle magazine, with visions of Chanel and long legs dancing in my head, and wishing I had the guts to try out the roller derby team here. I'm such a Gemini.

A warm heart Christmas

We went to the Botanical Gardens to see their Christmas lights display last night. We had been planning to go to the zoo instead but that was more expensive and we didn't know how long T would last at night. We're very glad we went for the cheapy light show.




First of all, the lights were awesome!! It felt very Disney-esque. I also was glad to be out in December at night time in short sleeve shirts. That will never get old.

It would have been really romantical if we hadn't had a crazed out past his bedtime toddler with us. It seems that once we get close to 7pm he loses all sanity and just starts running in circles.

He did seem to really like the lights though. He pointed out every "fower" or fish and he went nuts when he saw the choo choo train.

The Japanese idea of Christmas doesn't always make much sense to me, but it's sort of a borrowed holiday for them and I guess somethings get lost in translation. There weren't any jingle bells or candy canes or Santa Claus lights, but plenty of Nemo!!!

My favorite part was watching Thomas check out the train. He poked and prodded every wheel and passenger car like he was a little mechanic or something.


If I can make myself forget the headache that was finding a parking space and the screaming from the time we said we had to go until we finally managed to get him in his carseat it would be a great holiday memory. I'm thinking next year might go a little bit better.

Oh, and the warm heart Christmas title was because that was the slogan they had on all of their signs. I thought it was cute.

YuKids Island

We decided to celebrate Josh getting out of work early and went to Wago Family land. It's an entertainment center with different floors. We stayed on the Yu Kids section. It was so much fun!!! Half of it was for younger kids and the other half was all arcade games. You pay basically $5 an hour and everything is free to play.

Thomas raced to the balloon cage. He then proceeded to run around in it for at least 20 minutes. He was deliriously happy.



I went in too and it was definitely fun. Just disregard that balloons are supposed to be dangerous and nevermind the extension cord draped over the netting...it's all totally legit!


Thomas also enjoyed the ball pits, but got annoyed with constantly falling over.

There were three trampolines in the place and T tried them all out. He still sort of gallop jumps but that doesn't inhibit the amount of fun he has.

He has also really been into hanging from things lately. I'm quite impressed with his strength to be honest. I joke around with Josh that he's been working out with Thomas.

He's basically a monkey. If he had a tail we'd be so screwed.

We did eventually break away from the kid section and went to go play video games. I think this is why we loved this place because not only was it fun for T we had a lot of good times as well.


This game cracks me up. You type to kill the zombies. When they appear they have a name or just a letter and you have to type it before they get to you.


Air hockey with a toddler was pretty pointless.

This was my absolute favorite game. I have no idea why. Probably because I could actually figure it out. A lot of the games we just sort of played with no idea if we were winning or not. This one, you're a sushi chef and little flailing fish show up on the screen and you have to cut them up.

Thomas got bored with the video games and went back to the balloon land so I sat down and checked out the magazines they leave out to entertain parents. They were hilarious. It seems like almost every model had dyed her hair blonde and was wearing colored contacts. They also make really stupid facial expressions. When did it become cool to look like you're picking your teeth or scraping your tongue?

This one made Josh laugh pretty hard...GILFY JELLY? He has a dirty mind.

We were there for over 2 hours when we decided to call it quits. We grabbed some ice cream and paid the tab and before we were home Thomas was totally passed out.


We're so going back to this place. If only so I can maintain my high score on the sushi game. By the time we got home my first attempt at pot roast was smelling wonderful. It's so nice to walk in the door to a warm dinner waiting for you. It was a perfect end to the day.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

In the following pictures you will notice that Thomas is wearing clothing. Footed fleece pajamas no less. It's been in the 50's today and raining. It almost feels a little wintery. Most of this post will be me blathering on about how amazing Thomas is. I'm his mom. It's only natural.



Check out the buildings and trees up there....he did that all on his own. Amazing. He was supposed to get this set for Christmas but when he proved that he knew his colors Josh decided he deserved an early present. I tend to be a pushover about that kind of stuff so it didn't take long before he was ripping open that gift.



I switched out his toys yesterday, I put all of the ones he's been playing with in the closet and brought out ones he hasn't seen in awhile. He was totally pumped to drive his flyboat again.


Then he moved on to his favorite book. It's a photo hunt book that we figured would help him learn some new words. It's worked pretty well. He screams so loud everytime he finds something he likes.

I made the mistake of showing him he could climb in his mega bloks wagon. I didn't think that one through.

Luckily his "crash pad" was right next to him so when he fell out it was funny rather than painful.

Speaking of his crash pad, it was sitting right there because he's officially sleeping in his own bed now. While Josh was in the field I decided to give it a try one night and he did great. It's like he's slept on his own all along or something. The first few nights were hard (for me) but I'm doing better. Who knew this transition would be harder for me than him?

On that note, I'm going to go turn the heat on. This is ridiculous.


P.S. Totally unrelated but Josh gets some extra days off between now and the new year. The battalion is doing a port and starbird (starboard??) work schedule so he gets every other day off plus all of the holiday long weekends. I like the Navy sometimes.

I really miss Josh.

My man is in the field and his absence is really highlighting my loner tendencies. Essentially I'm going bananas. It didn't help that for the past three days I couldn't find my car keys. Last night I stayed up till about 2am totally anxiety ridden that someone else had my keys and was planning on breaking in. Yes I'm aware that's completely irrational but I've always been a worrier and it's only magnified since procreating. I probably have some sort of borderline disorder but the thought of taking drugs makes me anxious. It's a vicious cycle.

Of course finding my car keys (in the car!) didn't really do me any good. Driving here still makes me a little nervous. My biggest issue is lane usage. What part of stay in YOUR lane do these people not understand??? It's like those lines on the road are just decoration. Throw in the people who park on the side of the road to hit up the neverending vending machines (no matter how busy that road might be) and figure as long as they're within 3 feet of the curb it's all good. That makes veering into the next lane a requirement. I swear sometimes the Kanji plates TRY to get hit by a Y plate. Maybe they fell on hard times and want some good American gomen nasai? It's sort of an unwritten rule that we (y plates) are always at fault for everything because we don't belong here, therefore if there is an accident it's our fault. This makes me paranoid.

The fact that there is an entire blog dedicated to reporting Y plate driving mistakes is not lost on me. I won't be surprised if I end up on that blog....but it's all their fault! Isn't it sort of weird that you get certain plates based on where you're from? Maybe it's weird because I'm a white girl and have never been discriminated against?

Anyway I did leave the house, because I needed a rolling pin and an unwarped cookie sheet or two. I was also concerned that Thomas was going to threaten to pull a Menendez if he didn't get out soon. Unfortunately there weren't any rolling pins. Why I can buy a chainsaw, or any number of very well stocked swarovski figurines but rolling pins aren't available I'll never know. Thomas was being rather disagreeable while I paced up and down the cooking aisle, so I gave up. I ended up with the last cookie sheet that was less than $20 and the last roll of parchment paper. I really hope no one else wanted any.

On a more positive note we stopped at a playground where no less than three little Japanese girls chased T around and giggled at his shyness.

I'm pretty sure my only saving grace in this country is that small children are basically godlike and having Thomas around gives me a few brownie points....at least with the women folk.

Christmas crafts with Thomas

The end result. I'm too lazy of a blogger to fix this and put it at the end.
I read a crafty mom blog, and always think it looks like fun but they're usually too advanced for my little man. She recently posted a banner her kids made and I thought it was adorable. We decided to go for a Christmas tree motif.

It's turned into a Sunday tradition to get Dunkin Donuts. Thomas is fueling up for craft time!


And none too pleased with me being all momarrazi on him.

I had precut six trees and stars for him so all that was left was glue and beads.

He cracks me up. He was very focused and serious faced about it. He started with just one bead at a time.

But very quickly moved onto dumping.

Too much? No, it's perfect.

All done and drying! The coolest part is that the beads are glow in the dark. I can't wait for tonight so we can turn off the lights and check out T's christmas trees with "lights".

Traditions

We filled up the advent calendar today. It's the same one I grew up with and my mom let me have it last year. It used to have a little mouse that you moved (may he rest in peace) but we're filling it up with candy.



Thomas made sure to shove at least two pieces in each spot. So cute.


What's not so cute is that I said "What the fuck?"
He repeated it. Verbatim.

facepalm.

A cafe and Christmas duty.

We walk past the Hearth Cafe all the time, it's right down the street so we decided to try it out. I've looked up reviews before and everyone raves about the sweets and the drinks. We were idiots to try the food.




It's right on the seawall so the location is nice and now that it's cooled down it's perfect eating outside weather.

Thomas took this picture, I thought it was pretty artsy, lol.

We ordered Mexican dip....avocado and mayo with some tomato on top is not mexican dip. The Okinawan sweet potato chips were pretty good though.

We also got taco rice. It was about three times the cost of the taco rice we love from Gori's and not anywhere near as good. We should have known better than to order "street food" from a "fancy" place. Although all hope isn't lost and we might go back to try dessert because true to reviews my margarita was delicious.
I love having so many little hole in the wall places to explore in the neighborhood.

Other than that we've just been hanging out at home. We bought a bubble kit that has provided tons of entertainment because Thomas can blow the bubbles himself.

Josh made T some leftover smoothie popsicles, he chowed down on a few this morning. He's refusing to eat pretty much everything lately so that made me happy.




I haven't posted many videos lately so that's for my parents. Enjoy!


Josh called today to let me know he got scheduled to stand duty on Christmas day. At first I was pissed. I'm not going to lie. Why can't a single person with no kids take duty that day? Why does Josh always have duty on weekends or holidays?

Oh now I remember, because if he doesn't go to work things don't get done. He takes on too much and his superiors know he'll get it done so they pile more on. I'm proud....but also sort of mad.

Now I'm over it. At least I have a husband. A loving, funny, non deployed at the moment husband. A healthy baby. Money for gifts we don't need. At least now I have an adult reason to celebrate a day early.

So on and so forth.

Off to the park...

Okinawa Living is a magazine we read every month (mostly because it's free) and last month they did an article on some of the playgrounds here. We are going to try and check them all out before we go.





This was a dangerous park. It was also totally awesome! We won't be back for at least a year, if not two though. Thomas has no fear and just wants to go straight to the top. Nevermind that about 5 feet from either side of the structure is a steep hill just waiting for children to fall down.

We only stayed for 30-40 minutes. Thomas was refusing to walk or listen when we tried to keep him from dying. That seems to be a trend lately.

Home again, with his choo choos.

Happy day

It was my day to sleep in so I rolled out of bed around 10 today. I didn't expect to wake up to a clean house. I believe the first words out of my mouth this morning were "Holy shit".

I walked through every room and they were ALL clean. He rearranged my bath products (in height order). He organized the mountain of his clothes that are usually all over the place. Dishes and laundry....done. He even swept the balconies. That was when I realized the boys weren't home, I looked outside and could see them halfway to the park.

I think Josh is going for husband/daddy of the year award.

That set in some wife/mommy guilt so I got the crockpot going with our backup ham and went to meet them at the park. After we got home we finished all the rest of the cleaning together.

This isn't very exciting for anyone to read about but....it made my day.





Thomas, enjoying his freshly cleaned room.

Tropical Beach and park

We went to Tropical Beach today in Ginowan. There is a huge fountain and manmade streams that are usually full of carp and turtles to feed....but they were empty today. So bummed. Not a big deal though because there is still a playground and some walking paths.




I took some video but it was crazy windy so they're pretty useless. The waves were the highest we've ever seen them, so that was cool.





Thomas was grumpy through 80% of the trip so we didn't stay long.


Apparently we are the meanest parents ever because we didn't let him climb walls to his death.



Then we made the mistake of going to the BX for boring things that could totally have waited until after Black Friday was over. The Coach purse section looked about one snarky look away from a riot breaking out. I'd rather pay the 20% discount than deal with all that nonsense.

I need to go make dinner now.