I don't know why I thought our lives would be so interesting once we moved but I was wrong. Domesticity is the same no matter what continent you set up shop in. That being said...here's my ramblings for this week in my life.
I'm dealing with the ever present mommy guilt lately. I can't decide if T's shyness is my fault for not socializing him properly, or if it's some big karmic joke to get back at me for my shy childhood. Or maybe I got the shy kid because fate knew I could empathize???
So anyway, I looked into preschools for about 2 days and realized that I'm not okay with it, at least not yet, which is good since he can't go until the fall....that whole September birthday thing. We also ran all over Kadena to find info on a toddler gymnastics class that only has classes during naptime so that's out. Then we headed to a trial class at Alligator Steps which is a generic Gymboree. It could have been really fun. The whole having a toddler scale me like he's got a tiger chasing him and my arms have the magical anti-tiger force field kinda sucked. I never thought I would have to clarify that I'm not a jungle gym.
Thankfully the lapsit program at the library went a little better. He looked the leader in the eye (!) and took a tambourine and returned it...all on his own. This should not be monumental but it is. So I think we'll stick with lapsit and ease him into the whole group activity thing, move on to Alligator steps and see how he does. I just don't want to dump him in preschool and say "Good luck.....with that." I think it makes sense, especially since preschool is really just a test to see if he would be happier in traditional school or homeschooling.
I also joined the book club at the library. I like books.
Other than that we haven't done much that's exciting. Well actually Josh and I filled out these "emotional needs questionnares" which was really awesome. It's like a report card on your spouse ability. It's hard for me to get Josh to tell me what he needs more or less of from me but I guess being able to write it and rate it on scale works for him.
Sorry for no pictures. I'll remedy that later.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Castle Ruins, and my toes.
We had planned on a New Years visit to a shrine this year but that didn't happen due to the unexpected camping trip. We figured a trip to some castle ruins would be equally cultural.
We picked Nakagusuku because it's supposed to be one of castles that has held up the best and it's close to home too.
I guess the story is that Gosamaru (I might be spelling that wrong), well he was big fan of King Sho, so he built this fortress for his main man.
It didn't last because Gosamaru wasn't so bright and he let an enemy into the castle because they were carrying a King Sho banner. So he killed himself.
I swear, every single place we go, I go home and read about it and it's always about someone killing themselves. WW2 took some good chunks out of the place as well, but it's still pretty awesome.
This picture was to demonstrate that toddlers weren't meant to walk on castle walls. Talk about narrow! That was terrifying.
He was very excited to be up so high. He pointed to everything as per usual. I wish it had been sunny, you could see the Pacific on one side and the East China Sea on the other. So cool.
They were doing some digging and reconstruction while we were there. I love their constructions signs, he's bowing to say he's sorry for the noise, or at least that's what we think.
I love Japanese construction equipment. I just assumed it was always yellow, but it isn't. Here it can be purple or blue or green, whatever you want.
There were a lot of sacred places, little altars to deities, basically things I don't understand and don't want to piss off.
That building behind my men is an abandoned hotel project. The man that was building it had been warned that it was sacred ground but he didn't care and when some workers died mysterious deaths !he couldn't get anyone else to work on it. The castle had signs up, saying they weren't responsible for anything that happened to you if you got off their property!
I think T's favorite part was this bug we saw on the way out. We thought it was an earthworm. It doesn't like fun dip no matter how happy T was to share it. Josh touched it and it flipped all over like a snake or something, and it kept lifting it's head up...so I don't think it was a worm.
That really weirds me out. I hate that I don't know what the bugs are here. How can I keep my kid safe from them other than to just avoid all of them, with a toddler boy.....yea right.
Warning...toe picture ahead
I finally made it to Cocok's nail salon. I enjoyed my ocean view, my free ice tea, an awesome massage and some fun toe art. It makes me want to stop clipping them so short. I can't wait to take my mom there next month. She'll love it. They offer wine and popcorn too, it's like it was made for her.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy New Year at Okuma
My original NYE plan was cheap champagne and a mini Glee marathon but Josh's co-worker Martin called and asked if we wanted to go to Okuma and that's where we very happily ended up. Okuma is a recreation spot set up by the Air Force on the island and I couldn't wait to test it out. We loved the beach cabins at Lejeune so we had high hopes. We weren't let down.
The cabins are $30-ish a night and pretty bare bones, just beds, a mini fridge and a microwave. I'm pretty sure we all ended up peeing behind the cabin at some point. It's creepy to have to walk to the bathroom late at night! But hey, it's not camping if you aren't roughing it a little bit right? We had heat and bug free space to sleep, that's good enough. We weren't so lucky with the weather. There was a huge cold front, crazy gusting winds and the random rain that we always have. I felt pretty bad for the families that were actually camping that night, you know, like in tents? The tent area is right on the beach too so they didn't even have many trees to cut the wind.
Luckily Josh is pretty good at keeping a fire going. My counting down to midnight margaritas helped as well.
I felt like a bad mom though. Thomas should have been wearing a coat, but we had to improvise with layers, my scarf, and Molly's extra gloves. My baby is man enough to rock pink gloves.
Speaking of Molly, she is the Martin's daughter and completely adorable. I'm pretty sure she thinks she's T's mom.
She helped him keep his hood up. "Put your hood up boy, I help you."
She also held his hand and led him all over the place. He got a little sick of it by the end of the trip, and in true mama's boy fashion just shook his hand out and ran to me so I could pick him up. I love him.
They had a party going on, where we got horns and cranium accessories. There was food and drinks, hula dancers and flame dancers. Thomas was thrilled about popcorn and bouncy houses.
There was also a bar/club for the rowdier guests. I thought they did a really good job of catering to every different kind of celebrator. The kids made it to 11 before it got ridiculous. I was pretty proud. So we hightailed it back to the cabins, put the kiddies to bed and hung out by the fire waiting for the fireworks.
It was a pretty sad display to be honest, but I just didn't care. I was happy.
Plus the finale was full of the gold sparkly ones that I love.
The next day we ventured into the other things around Okuma. There is a ton to do in the summer, but we certainly weren't bored for staying out of the water. Thomas loved the playground, especially the tetherball.
I loved walking on the beach waiting for the sun to peek through the clouds.
We also went on a little hike to the lookout point.
Thomas decided to become a mama monster at this point, because you know, the hills weren't steep enough I needed to carry around 30 pounds of leaning toddler.
The view was worth it.
We didn't last long, the winds were crazy up there and the kids weren't so steady on their feet so back down we went.
We checked out the maze, hunted stray golf balls, and took walks. We checked out both the North and South beaches, someday I'm going to watch the sunrise at one and set at the other. We also played putt putt. Thomas was in heaven. He couldn't believe we were all going to play with balls and sticks, lol. We cooked out and made smores and really just had a great time being together and unplugged.
The sun didn't really come out until our last morning there. That's alright, at least I didn't need my sunglasses all weekend, which was great, since I forgot them.
This is just random on the way home. They were taking orders outside like they do at Portillos. They dress a lot nicer to work at McD's here huh?
The cabins are $30-ish a night and pretty bare bones, just beds, a mini fridge and a microwave. I'm pretty sure we all ended up peeing behind the cabin at some point. It's creepy to have to walk to the bathroom late at night! But hey, it's not camping if you aren't roughing it a little bit right? We had heat and bug free space to sleep, that's good enough. We weren't so lucky with the weather. There was a huge cold front, crazy gusting winds and the random rain that we always have. I felt pretty bad for the families that were actually camping that night, you know, like in tents? The tent area is right on the beach too so they didn't even have many trees to cut the wind.
Luckily Josh is pretty good at keeping a fire going. My counting down to midnight margaritas helped as well.
I felt like a bad mom though. Thomas should have been wearing a coat, but we had to improvise with layers, my scarf, and Molly's extra gloves. My baby is man enough to rock pink gloves.
Speaking of Molly, she is the Martin's daughter and completely adorable. I'm pretty sure she thinks she's T's mom.
She helped him keep his hood up. "Put your hood up boy, I help you."
She also held his hand and led him all over the place. He got a little sick of it by the end of the trip, and in true mama's boy fashion just shook his hand out and ran to me so I could pick him up. I love him.
They had a party going on, where we got horns and cranium accessories. There was food and drinks, hula dancers and flame dancers. Thomas was thrilled about popcorn and bouncy houses.
There was also a bar/club for the rowdier guests. I thought they did a really good job of catering to every different kind of celebrator. The kids made it to 11 before it got ridiculous. I was pretty proud. So we hightailed it back to the cabins, put the kiddies to bed and hung out by the fire waiting for the fireworks.
It was a pretty sad display to be honest, but I just didn't care. I was happy.
Plus the finale was full of the gold sparkly ones that I love.
The next day we ventured into the other things around Okuma. There is a ton to do in the summer, but we certainly weren't bored for staying out of the water. Thomas loved the playground, especially the tetherball.
I loved walking on the beach waiting for the sun to peek through the clouds.
We also went on a little hike to the lookout point.
Thomas decided to become a mama monster at this point, because you know, the hills weren't steep enough I needed to carry around 30 pounds of leaning toddler.
The view was worth it.
We didn't last long, the winds were crazy up there and the kids weren't so steady on their feet so back down we went.
We checked out the maze, hunted stray golf balls, and took walks. We checked out both the North and South beaches, someday I'm going to watch the sunrise at one and set at the other. We also played putt putt. Thomas was in heaven. He couldn't believe we were all going to play with balls and sticks, lol. We cooked out and made smores and really just had a great time being together and unplugged.
The sun didn't really come out until our last morning there. That's alright, at least I didn't need my sunglasses all weekend, which was great, since I forgot them.
This is just random on the way home. They were taking orders outside like they do at Portillos. They dress a lot nicer to work at McD's here huh?
Monday, December 27, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, December 17, 2010
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.
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.
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