We've done nothing fun.

They just did the flumist for Josh's unit....which means they're ALL sick. He said the barracks looks like a zombie dorm.

So now Thomas is sick. He's also teething.

I think there may be a dent in the desk from my head hitting it multiple times a day.


Here is how my days are going lately.

Thomas hands me the box of graham crackers, so I offer him some. He doesn't want it. Starts crying. So I put them back. Crying louder now. He hands them back to me...umm okay. He never did eat any of them, but I wasn't allowed to put them back. Was I supposed to just hold them?

Now trade the graham crackers for anything else, crayons, diapers, toys, whatever...
I have no idea what he wants, and honestly I don't think he does either.

So I'm channeling all the patience I can muster and hoping my miserable child gets well soon.

Oh and Josh is on duty tomorrow which essentially kills our weekend.

On the plus side we got T's birthday card from his Grandpa. It had Nemo on it and he's been carrying it around showing me the "sheshees".

Here's hoping the sheshees get us through the next few days. And maybe a glass of wine on Sunday night. And a bubble bath.

Our favorite farmer's market

This flower has nothing to do with the farmer's market, but my baby picked it for me and I think it's really pretty.



Anyway, we took a trip to our current favorite farmer's market this morning. I remember reading the directions for it, there were phrases like "gorgeous ocean vista" and I figured even if we got lost it would be worth it!
Turns out it's super easy to find, once you see the Okinawa Hollywood sign you know you're getting close!

And then....tadaa! I wonder if I can request a reincarnation to be a mermaid in my next life. That way I can satisfy my urge to spend my life in that beautiful blue water.

After you get to the great view you turn right and you're at the farmer's market. Under the awning are a bunch of hot food stands that smell really good and they play Okinawan traditional music...it's just so different from an American market that it feels new and exciting. Yes, exciting. Produce is the new adrenaline in my world.

Thomas was being a little rambunctious today so I didn't get any good pictures of the inside...not that hard to imagine, lots of produce, exotic plants, and our favorite part...candy! There was also a guy emptying a huge barrel of sprouts and yelling about something...he was entertaining. We went through and picked out the fruit and veggies we wanted and even snagged a new kit kat flavor. At the checkout the cashier tried to hold Thomas but he was NOT having it. If I was in the states I would be seriously wigged out about a stranger trying to hold my baby...but there's just nothing creepy about it here. Strange.
Would you like some sesame seed covered tiny fish? They're pretty cheap!

Now as much as we love fresh, local, produce....we also love fresh, local baked goods. This little bakery is right above the market and we aren't capable of resisting it.

We haven't been disappointed with a single thing we've picked here. Isn't it pretty?

These are the napkin holders at the bakery...why buy? There are perfectly good tomato cans we could use!

We ate our pastries, grabbed our groceries (in a cloth bag...it's required here and I like them, they're so strong!) and headed home. As soon as we got in the door Thomas was begging at the bag...he knew there were kit kats in it. Beni imo flavored, it was a light purple and probably the best weird kit kat we've had. Not that I'll be craving it or anything. We bought the five pack so we can start our "send fun candy back home" box.

Sam's by the sea

Josh got home a little early from work today and we wanted out of the house so we went to our list. I made a long list of all the things we want to do, see, eat, try etc while we're here. We decided to try out Sam's by the sea. The only negative I've heard about it is that it's expensive, but because we spent last weekend indoors we had enough to splurge a little.

We cut through base to get there quicker, this is what the roads look like on base.


And offbase.

About two minutes after we thought we had misread the directions we found it. On the way we passed a huge king kong statue with a sign about prohibition on it. I'll have to get a picture of him someday.

It's a Hawaii themed restaurant where all the waitresses wear sailor outfits. They have signature drinks and cups and we might be planning to go back often enough to get all the cups. Thomas was over the moon about this skull cup.

The bread basket had three different kinds of bread...why this one was pink I don't know, but I claimed it for myself and put some butter on it. Surprise, it was pineapple butter. I didn't even know that existed. It was actually pretty good especially since I had a pineapple drink to go with it. You can see my festive cup in this picture, that's the one we took home today.
T's salad came with a fish toothpick, again he was thrilled by this and proceeded to eat anything he could by poking it with his fish. They also give you some curry soup to start that was actually pretty good...but hot creamy soup just isn't on my list of favorites in this weather.

People were right, it was expensive and you don't really have a cheap option so Josh got some sort of chicken and filet combo, which he devoured. I ordered ribs and filet...it seems filet came with everything. The food was worth what we paid though, all of it was delicious. These places make me wish I liked fish because they had quite a selection for fish lovers.
T's kid meal came with this little dessert which he ate entirely by himself saying "mmmmmm" the whole time. I guess it must have been good!

On the way out I stopped in the bathroom, mostly because I was curious as to what it would look like, I love this shell sink, how fun! Notice the cloth hand towels...no throw away paper towels here!

We had had such a great dinner, Thomas was patient and happy through the entire meal which is such a rarity and so we were all in a goofy mood afterwards. We took this picture and I said I didn't like it because our noses were all squished.

And then he did this. This is why I married him. Sometimes I laugh so hard I get worried I might pee my pants. (a very legitimate fear)

Happy 2nd Birthday baby boy!!! Although I guess you aren't a baby anymore, you're officially in toddler hood. I was feeling a little bummed that we weren't having a "real" party. It's a little difficult to get the family together when plane tickets are over a grand. Then my mom brought up a good point....Some people plan small family parties on purpose! It was actually pretty awesome. We scheduled the day around when family could Skype in so they could see him on his birthday but other than that we just went with the flow and had a nice family day.
Josh and I spent Saturday night blowing up 214 balloons. It was so fun to watch him wake up and come out to a balloon paradise.



We played with those balloons for hours, and spent the last few hours before bed popping them! Cheapest all day entertainment we've had in awhile!

Then we hopped on Skype and video chatted with Grandpa Honn. We brought out his Wonderpets cake and before we could even start singing he blew out two of the candles. But he left the big 2 candle until we were done singing.

Then we gave him a fork, but he wasn't very interested in the cake. He was kinda shy because he was right in front of the webcam.

Then we had Thomas open two presents, his fridge phonics (which he loved and played with on and off all day) and a farm animal matching game.

We didn't get to talk to Grandma until after T woke up from his nap, we held off on the rest of the presents until she could be there. He showed her every present he got.

It was so fun to watch him open presents this year because he understands the concept. Every gift he opened was "OH!" "WOW" or some other excited noise. Once they were all open he brought them one by one to his daddy so he could open them up.

All in all, a very laid back and happy birthday!

Meat tenderizer=happy toddler

I'd read about this a few times and was just waiting for T to be old enough to do it. Basically you freeze a few toys in a big block of ice and then he is supposed to excavate them.


He loved it. He's always trying to get the hammer or the meat tenderizer so he can play with them and finally we encouraged him to go for it.

Daddy had to give him an example or two but then he was a pro.

A very fun activity for a hot day.

Japan is spoiling me...

The garbage company was supposed to give us an estimate for throwing away half of our couch. There was a misunderstanding and they just took it, they also took our stroller. Then they tried to charge us 11,000 yen...that's $130.
When I got upset about the charge and asked if they had taken our stroller on accident, they admitted it was a misunderstanding and the stroller was a mistake as well so they dropped all the charges.

We never would have known if they had taken our stroller, the garage door is almost always open and anyone could have taken it. It's kind of sad how surprised I was that they admitted it and took responsibility for it.

I'm really glad we never bought a fancy stroller.


Back when we still had our stroller and used it often people would help us all the time. They didn't offer, they would just grab the front and help you down the stairs, bow and smile and walk away. There's usually a good amount of Americans there who saw you struggling and they just kept walking.

The gas stations are full service here. They literally sprint to your door to ask what you need today. Then they sprint to fill your tank, and sprint back to your window to give you your receipt, again with a bow and smile. And usually a very enthusiastic "arigato gozaimasu!"

There are a lot of other little things that they do too...like the service at a fast food restaurant is better than fancy restaurant I've ever been to in the states.


The kindness is contagious.

Really glad we bought the talc free powder....

This is what happens when Mom and Dad are watching a movie.

The second stage of culture shock

I was reading about culture shock today. Apparently the first stage is euphoria. Everything is new and exciting and beautiful. I really like this stage, lol.

However I think I've moved on to stage 2. This is the stage where you feel overwhelmed, frustrated and annoyed. You start to withdraw into what is "safe". I'm just not up to going to new restaurants, trying to communicate with gestures and pointing at pictures. Always feeling like a big fumbling American, worried about offending someone and you don't even know what you did. The crazy motorcyclists. (Seriously, they are insane and they weave in and out of traffic like they're invincible...the idiots) I'm sick of the blank stare I give when the cashiers ask me something and I don't have a clue what they're saying. I cut into a "lime" today, and it wasn't a lime, it was orange inside and didn't taste like any citrus fruit I've ever had.

We've only been shopping on base lately, only taking T to the on base playgrounds etc etc etc.

Apparently the next stage is being sort of depressed and idealizing your home culture, after that comes acceptance and independence. I'm hoping to skip the depressed stage.

Okinawa is amazing, but it's definitely not home. Not yet anyway.

Maybe next year...

Yesterday was Josh's birthday. I might have dropped the ball on planning anything really cool for that day. It's kind of a trend with his birthday that I feel bad about.


The first birthday I was around for I booked us a funky suite at a boutique hotel in downtown Wilmington. I thought we could go bar hopping at all the bars we went to when we first met, get a nice dinner and not have to worry about driving anywhere. Sounds like fun right? But at the time I worked at a daycare where all the kids were passing around a stomach bug and while I never fell prey to the virus it definitely got to Josh. He spent his birthday worshiping the porcelain god.
The next year I was 5 days away from delivering his son and already contracting. I think we got taco bell and played rummikub. Not the most exciting birthday, except we were wondering if he wasn't going to get a son for his birthday for a few hours there.
The year after that he was deployed to Iraq, and I couldn't even send him anything because he so close to coming home (YAY) that they weren't accepting packages or even letters at that point.

This year was my chance, my opportunity to redeem myself, but in all the upheaval of moving his birthday just wasn't on my radar. No one's was. I mean we haven't even gotten all of Thomas' presents yet and his birthday is on Sunday. I think he had a good evening altogether. We went to Macaroni Grill and I let him have a beer even though that required me to drive at night. I hate driving at night, they don't use reflective paint so lanes are a guessing game after sunset. Then we headed to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream, came home and I packed his lunch for him. I helped Thomas make him a card and that's about it. He picked a present a few weeks ago but I can't even remember what he picked.


These are the only pictures I got of his birthday "celebration". They'll look great in a scrapbook...or not. There's always next year right?

Shoveling during a blizzard...

My dad shovels while it's still snowing. He says it's easier to do twice when it's fresh than to wait for it to pile up. He's a smart guy and he's probably right. That doesn't change the way I feel about organizing Thomas' toys.

It might only be clean for five minutes but there are positives. Thomas rediscovers toys that were buried and now I know what he has and what we have room for with his birthday and Christmas coming up.
What do we have room for? Basically nothing, lol. He has one empty cube, and that's only because we keep a good portion of his books in our nightstand. I guess we're going to implement a one in/one out policy now.



He actually helped me clean up for about 15 minutes. Then we discovered this train puzzle and he said "You're on your own mom, why didn't you tell me we had this?!"

30 minutes later I had to drag him away to get him to eat lunch.

He's precious.

He busted his lip open today. Then he stubbed his toe. After that he hit his head...then he fell down a few times. Needless to say he had an early bedtime tonight.

ummm.

There are about a dozen pictures of T and I riding the train at Kinser Fest today. I didn't want to post a single one of them.

In fact looking at them made me cry. Talk about letting yourself go, no wonder my self esteem is at a -100.

How pathetic that I hate myself so much that I don't want to post a picture of my son, completely overjoyed that he's on a beloved "choo-choo".




Sometimes I can't begin to fathom why Josh still loves me.

At least this picture was there to make me smile. Nothing says happiness like a boy and his (hot pink plastic) dog. It kept turning on it's side and he would put it back upright, pat it on the head and keep walking, all the while looking back to make sure his puppy was okay.




*Please don't feel bad or tell me how beautiful I am. I don't believe you. I have to find happiness in myself all on my own. I don't want to blog and only write about happy times and sunshine. I want to be honest, so that's what I'm doing.*

You know what's weird....

I was looking at the stats on my blog that tell me how many people have looked at my blog, what they read and what countries they're from.

It's kind of creepy. I really only expected my family and maybe a few really bored friends to read this.

United States Japan Canada Denmark Australia Serbia United Arab Emirates Germany United Kingdom Indonesia Who are you people??? I might just make this by email invite only.

Just not feeling the Eisa/Beer fest

We went to the Eisa/Beer festival today. It's a HUGE event, my first "sea of humanity" experience in Okinawa. I had high hopes due to my love of Eisa drumming but it just wasn't very exciting. There were what felt like 100 food booths and 200 game booths. I didn't count or anything but they just went on forever...




We paid 300 yen for Thomas to play his favorite duck game where he won a car in .2 seconds. Then we walked around till we got to the stadium with the drumming, but you had to pay for bleacher seats and we knew Thomas wasn't going to sit still so we sat in the free grassy area. We were immediately swarmed by bugs, Josh thinks they were fleas, but I have my doubts. They were very flea like, but they were huge. So we didn't stay in that area very long.
We walked to the entrance of the Beer fest, but it was a little rowdy already and decided to not take Thomas into the party zone. This was when we decided we were over it. The only thing we could really do was play games or eat really fatty food and we just weren't feeling it. It was about this time that a group of about 10 girls all stopped walking and squealed in Thomas' general direction. I wish I had my video camera ready for moments like this...it's just hilarious.

On the way out we saw a bunch of kids with fish and knew we had to stop...I was expecting the ping pong game, but they just gave Josh a net and had him pick three fish out of a pond. Very anti-climactic. Thomas didn't care. He was thrilled!


I don't have high hopes for their survival, but we'll give it our best.



I bet this guys mom is really proud of him.


One thing I really did like about the festival...you know how carnies are weird and scary and pushy? Not here. Smiles and politeness all around.

We also went to a new Farmer's Market today that I loved! But I forgot my camera...luckily I'll have no qualms about going back.

The reasons I smiled today....

Thomas has become very sensitive lately. We were watching Enchanted and there is a tense scene with the Evil Stepmother and he freaked out. He did this yesterday too when we were watching Gilmore Girls and there was a twenty second fist fight in the episode. He stomped his feet and screamed and ran to me. So I think it's time to keep anything on our tv light and fluffy, no tense scenes at all. I'm kinda glad he reacted like that, the world needs more sensitive men.

This picture isn't his tv freakouts, but he wanted my camera and I wasn't letting him have it. He has no half assed emotions. I love him. I'll admit I feel like a douchebag for putting this picture up...but he's 2. This is a classic 2 year old face. It deserves documentation.


His "acceptance" face. He knew he wasn't getting my camera. As much as I love the pictures of his smiles I love the bored or sad or mad faces just as much.

Leftover love note glue. I used an envelope to write Josh a little love note, but I didn't realize the glue would stick so strongly to the door. I'm going to leave it there for awhile. It's a nice reminder.


Thomas makes piles. He'll just stop and look at stuff sometimes, you can see him making his plan and then he starts gathering everything, balls it up and places it just so. Then he pats it to make sure it's perfect.

He also likes to hide things in it. So you think it's okay to step on...but it's not. Diabolical, that kid.

I nearly broke my foot on this dog...he was on the edge of the pile and I wasn't paying enough attention.

He brought me this sock and held his foot up as high as he could so I would put it on. He left it like that for hours.

While he napped I took a long bath. Yes, I scotch tape my nano to the tub. I would be so upset if it fell in. I'm really liking the newest Blake Shelton album and since Josh was at work I could sing along as loud as I like without any commentary from the peanut gallery.
So did these products. The shampoo and conditioner smell like rosemary mint, and the scrub smells like orange ginger. The two combined make me think I'm at a spa. That face wash is the first one I've tried that I actually like.



So there it is...the small, insignificant things that made my day a happy one.

A proud parenting moment.

We went to the BX today. We needed pillows and a book and some supplements for Josh. We walked in and Thomas wanted nothing to do with holding hands, or being carried, riding in the cart, or even just helping push the cart. These are his four options for when we're at a store. Of course all he wants to do is run.

Since we got here we've been bribing him. At first it was just to get through the travel and hotel living...but it just kept going and Josh mentioned he was starting to see a spoiled trend in him. We knew it was our fault and our responsibility to nip that in the bud.

I really hate that phrase.

Anyway.

So there we are, and Thomas is shrieking, writhing on the floor absolutely appalled that we aren't allowing him to run like a madman. I understand his anger, I'm sure he isn't interested in pillows.
Now before we would have tried to distract him with a toy or book or candy or juice but we had agreed to not give in on this. He needs to learn what is acceptable in public.

We don't agree with spanking or time outs so we decided to try a few things I've learned from other moms and even a book or two.

So I held him, and spoke calmly in his ear. I told him that I knew he was angry and upset. He wanted to run but we said no. I told him his choices, hold hand, or go up. I told him I loved him. I told him that I wasn't going to hold him if he kicked me. Josh said all of these things too, we took turns. Rinse and repeat.

It was probably the first time we've worked together, in a consistent fashion and kept calm through the whole thing.

After about 10 minutes (although it felt much longer) and less stares than I thought we would get he calmed down. He sat in the cart and drew pictures with a pen and paper I keep in my purse.
We moved on and smelled a bunch of candles, he loves smelling them. We played peek a boo at the checkout. He held my hand from the BX to the shoppette with no fight at all. We made sure to tell him how happy we are when he holds hands so nicely and that he was doing a great job being a big boy. So we let him hang out in the toy aisle hitting every button he could reach but even when it was time to leave he didn't melt down or fight us.

I'm sure we'll have to repeat that scene but I'm just really proud of us. I feel like we're hitting our stride working as a team. I'm so lucky that I have a husband who wants to parent with me, who brought up something he didn't like and came up with a plan with me to fix it. He's a great Daddy.

Just another day in paradise....

We haven't done very much in the way of Japanese adventures lately. The fact that it's been raining buckets on and off for over a week has kept us mostly indoors. Our big shipment got here this weekend and we've been having so much fun rediscovering our stuff. It's like Christmas. Thomas had no affinity for these rain boots before we left but he loves them now. I think it might be because he can put them on and off himself. Josh is wearing ridiculous shoes too.


This little bookshelf area makes me happy. It's pretty much the only corner of our house that feels "homey" to me. I have no idea how to hang pictures on cement walls so these are our only decorative things that are out.


Thomas J was thrilled about his blocks. I don't think he ever played with them this much before. It's been really cool to watch him stack and sort these blocks. He's SO much better at it than he was when we left the US.

He's also been in a huge reading phase lately. If we aren't reading to him then he's flipping through and babbling to himself. I don't mind. I would much rather be able to recite his books from memory than to see them sitting on a shelf.

Look how big he is....watching Finding Nemo. I love him.


Hey look! Josh took a picture of Thomas and I that I actually like. Woohoo! There will be proof that I was his mom.

On a more annoying note...the movers didn't seal our crates. So anything plastic is warped. Half of the couch was wet. The elliptical is broken, things are scratched....etc etc etc. I was really upset at first, but you know what? It's just stuff, we'll file a claim and hope we get a fair reimbursement but even if we don't it won't be a big deal. We weren't planning on bringing the couch back with us anyway. (I spent about an hour sewing up the rips in it today).
The only thing we really need now is somewhere to eat, we think we'll get a really cool Japanese coffee table and use it like a tatami area style set up. We can get some pretty floor cushions and eat like the locals. It works out in the end because we don't think our current coffee table will survive the preschool years.

The other thing I'm excited about is setting up our garage as another place to hang out. A grill, some comfy chairs...then we can hang outside even when it's raining incessantly.

Josh found me a new candle. It's the best smell I've ever smelled. Lemon lavender by Yankee Candle. I bought my first BIG jar candle. These are the things that make my day.

We really need to get out next weekend.