Christmas

The holidays this year have come and gone like they always do. I always think its funny that as a kid the days up until Christmas dragged on and on and on. But now as a parent it gets here way to fast and it feels like you have hardly anytime to prepare. I am sure like most parents our house gets bombarded with toys and wrapping paper galore. This was Zacks first year giving gifts to Steven, Eli, and I. Eli also gave a gift to Zack. We're trying to teach him that Christmas is about giving. He got to go with each of us to get a gift for the other person. He got Steven a small Samarai statue, Eli a dinosaur outfit, and me a memory card holder. On the morning of Christmas after he had a mini heart attack from the wrapped beauty we asked him to give his gifts first. He went right to them and gave them to each of us. He even watched us unwrap them before going back to ripping apart the beautiful wrapping. It was a great Christmas and now I am going to fill this post with plenty of pictures.


Decorating the tree









































Christmas morning

Bowling Fun

Over the next few days I'll be posting pictures of what we did for Christmas and New Years. Normally Steven takes one of the leaves given to them but this year we decided not figuring we would have free days off regardless. We're saving up leave for a vacation to Cambodia for Thanksgiving next year. Anyway everything turned out as planned we got 4 days off for Christmas and 4 days off for New Years. This left us with a lot family time. We went to the movies, we went on nature walks, and we tried new restaurants. Zacks favorite thing was to go bowling. I believe we went twice and both times he had a blast. Thankfully I actually took my camera for one of the times.


Showing how not to throw the ball the floor.


Eli had fun too


He wanted to use the slide too


I want mommies ball


Just kidding moms ball is too heavy


Perfect form


Looking good honey








And evidence that I won. Don't worry zack won the next round.

When Eli Turned Into A Gremlin

We thought we were safe with the small one. He has this way of making you think he is innocent but don't be fooled. He is his brothers clone.

You see for the first year of a babies life they are lying to you. Babies know what they're doing. They're making you all goody and soft on the inside. Not that pregnancy and childbirth wasn't enough to make us emotional saps, they have to be cute too. All their coos and giggles. Don't forget all those "firsts" they go through in one year. Oh they know what they're doing alright. So why am I so paranoid about my child's secret missions? Let's get started.

About a week ago or more. It's probably more the holidays make me very confused about time and space. Anyway about more than a week ago we were sick (also why I'm confused on time) like not just kind of sick. We were really really sick. All of us were not able to hold anything down for at least 2 days. That kind of sick where you are sore when you're done throwing up that you just lay there on the couch like a slug. Yup that was me. If you don't know already but when you're a parent and you get sick...nobody cares. Seriously though I miss the days when my mommy would bring me soup to my make shift bed on the couch and I would study shows like Sally, Maury, and of course Jerry to learn how not to screw up my life. So back to story. We were sick and it was awful. On this day I am speaking of we were slightly feeling better.
The boys were starting to get better and Steven was able to go to work. I dressed the boys in cozy pjs and made them their very own make shift beds on the couches. Then I curled up on my end of the couch and proceeded to let them watch whatever they wanted. Fast forward after a marvelous nap time and a lunch consisting of crackers and water. It's about 3pm when I think to myself "hmmm Eli hasn't pooped today. His body must be pretty drai...." I was cut off by Zack saying "EWWW....MOM!!! Eli made a poopoo on his back!" I was officially scared to even look but I did and it was only partially up his back. To mom that's a huge deal. So I got saddled up and ready to change a poop; I had new comfy pjs, a diaper, and all I needed was wipes. Then i realized we had used up all the wipes the night before to clean Eli's explosive poo up his back. Now I was in panic mode. Wipes, wipes, wipes....where we're they? I tore apart the house in search for wipes when I remembered that I carry a pack in my car. Yippee!
This is where the story gets interesting. I put on my boots because no other shoe goes quite as well with my mid thigh t shirt nightgown fully decked with flamingos on the front ( thanks grandma it's still my favorite) and no pants. Hey! I was opting for comfort and nothing says comfort like no pants. Can you really blame me? So I put on a grey tattered sweat shirt and went outside. Of course Zack followed in his underwear. Where did his comfy pjs go? "Zack get inside right now!" I barely made it to my car when I heard a very familiar "click."

ZACK LOCKED ME OUT!!!! I ran to my door only to find Zack standing there shivering. I tried the door and it was for sure locked. The bottom lock to be exact. I grabbed Zack and found him a jacket in the car and sat him in there. He put a blanket over his legs and was quickly happy to be warm. I ran back to the door and there it was. I saw his outline standing by the door....Eli had locked us out. Now I was really in panic mode. I tried to get him to unlock the door he just sat down by the door and started crying. So then I tried to comfort him from outside the door. I said things like "Its ok baby. Mommy is right here please unlock the door baby" "Eli my love please open the door and mommy will give you booby" then my please escalated to "ELI mommy is cold open the door now! You were able to lock it now unlock it or you'll never see my boobs again because they'll be frozen." To my dismay neither of these approaches worked. I had no keys, no phone, and holy cow I was pantless.
Since he was busy crying I figured I would find a way in. I ran around the house checking every window. I even considered climbing my neighbors roof to check the upstairs windows. Then I remembered Zack is afraid that ninjas will break in at night, so we make sure everything is always closed and locked. Darn those ninjas. So I went back to the door the plead some more. When I crouched down I realized that he was not by the door anymore. I heard giggling and silently prayed to myself that he wasn't rubbing poop on the walls. Meanwhile Zack was in the car discovering the blinker and some toys he had been missing.
I decided to open our shutters in front of our house. If you don't know Japanese homes a lot come with large metal shutters in front of the windows to protect during typhoons. When I opened them I was relieved to see Eli sitting on the floor watching Mickey Mouse. I spent the next 45 minutes trying to convince him to unlock one of the doors, crying (me), laughing (him), and finding random objects to try and pick the locks. Turns out you can't pick certain locks. I would make a horrible criminal. In this time Eli had successfully made the house look like a tornado went through. All of their toys were thrown around the house. He found a bag of wipes (yup what I went outside for) and removed them from the packaging.
I was in the middle of putting my face and hands against the window just staring at him when I felt someone staring at me. It felt like slow motion but I turned my head to the right and there was my Japanese neighbor trying not to stare but I imagine it was hard. Remember what I was wearing? Comfort clothes....and no pants. Thankfully my flamingo nightgown is to my mid thigh. But still I'm sure he was thinking I was a very crazy American lady. We said awkward Hellos before he scurried back into his warm home. Eli now had my phone and was listening to lady gaga and dancing. For a moment I thought it was cute. Then I saw Steven was trying to call. How long had I been outside? When I checked on Zack he had buckled himself into his car seat and said he was going on a rocket ride.
At this moment in my life I felt so helpless. This little person had won the battle. He was thoroughly enjoying his poopy butt freedom to play with my phone and his big brothers toys. Just when I was getting ready to run to my neighbors house to call the police I turned around and a beautiful ray of sunshine drove up. It was a knight in shining armor coming to my rescue. It was Steven. He jumped off his noble steed and unlocked the door, swiftly changed Eli's diaper, ran me a bath, and made dinner. Or at least that's how it felt. I actually ran to his Honda made him give me his keys while he asked questions like "did zack lock you out?" "wheres Eli?" "why are you wearing your flamingo nightgown?" I unlocked the door and swooped up my baby and kissed him. I even cried because I imagined all the horrible things that could've happened to him. I changed his diaper and gave him new comfy pjs. When Steven came in with groceries which included wipes. He asked "where's Zack?" I ran outside saying "holy cow! He's in the car still!"

And that my friends is how Eli became a gremlin.

P.S. zack was only by himself in the car for 5 minutes
P.S.S. please don't ever leave your children unattended in the car ever

And

P.S.S.S. When leaving your house always bring your keys.

Laugh it off...

In Japan there's a lot of different customs to fit into their culture. When we first got here it felt as if we were tourists in their country which in retrospect is true. Now that we're much more settled in living off base we are starting to notice the wonderful things they do and don't do.

I don't know how many times I have seen Japanese women fall. I am not going to lie it's hilarious but I came from a Dad who taught me to just laugh it off and keep moving forward. This is NOT how the Japanese see things. They absolutely don't like to lose their dignity. Especially the women. No, they have not heard me laugh out loud since a majority of the time I am in my Ironvan. And no I am not scaring them purposely in Ironvan to see them fall (you all know me too well). When they fall it's like a single movement of walk walk walk, trip, fall, roll, get up, walk away. It's like they are the ninjas of making a fall look like it's on purpose. I really wish I had this skill. I also really wish I can pretend that what just happened to me was not hilarious but that it never even happened. Surrounding Japanese people ignore it too. I am pretty sure if the person was actually hurt they would help but nope they don't lose face ever. So the point of this little story of Japanese people falling. Is because today....I fell. Not just fell I completely crashed and burned.

While out on a walk with the boys to burn Bears energy before nap time, we decided to walk to the Sanwa (grocery store). We needed some eggs so it worked out. Burn Bears energy and get eggs, totally productive. We get to a busy area where a lot of people are walking towards the front of Sanwa. I got momentarily distracted by what looked like someone eating live squid on a skewer and BOOM! next thing I knew I was on the floor with  2 kids looking at me. Thankfully neither of them was being worn. Aside from my shoulder and arm hurting I was happy to be in one piece. So I started laughing, hard. Bear sat down next me and asked if I was ok. I kept laughing and said "mommy is fine but she sure looked funny falling" which in turn made him laugh. Hippy Baby caught and started laughing in his stroller with us. After awhile I looked around and all the Japanese people seemed to be horrified with us. I got up and dusted myself off. Then it started "daijoubo des ka?" from every corner around me. I even had someone bring me water. Which I am not complaining about but I am so used to falling I never thought once that water would help. Anyway we went in the store got out eggs and went home. 

While laying Bear down for nap he kept talking about how I looked like I was getting trampled by Hulk smash. I am happy I will be teaching my boys that it's ok to laugh at ourselves. Mistakes happen and it's best to just take them and move on. Life is a beautiful thing and we should take every little bit and be happy. Whether it be good or bad. So I will leave you all with this....

Homeschool

Yes it's true we've made the switch to homeschooling. There wasn't that much of a switch since Bear wasn't in school but it's been a change on all of us.
We are setting up the classroom still and we are almost done with it. So this whole week we've been doing work downstairs. At first Bear was a little against it but with some encouragement he's really jumped on.
Our day lately has been...
6am wake up, brush teeth, eat breakfast, morning chores, let mom drink some coffee :)
7am morning board (calendar, days in school, weather, money counting)
8am work boxes this was a great idea I found on a couple of homeschooling blogs. You have a certain number of boxes and in each one is a different activity. Since the room is not complete I've just been bringing each activity downstairs but when they're ready zack will get to take the box out and work
10-11 The last work box is usually a craft, sensory, fun activity, video, or a movie. Today it's Ponyo since he listened to me all morning and worked real hard.
11 lunch and then nap around noon.

When he wakes up we find something else to do. Park, library, music etc. we will find something for him to do. this schedule above is Monday-Thursday and on Fridays we got this awesome bible that's hands on. So we will read one story on Fridays and do the activities. Also on Fridays will be our co-ops.

This weeks theme was firefighter. He really loves it and we even talked a little about September 11th and Daddy's very important job for our country.

Please excuse the iPhone pics I will be adding more once I get the chance..
Also I am on my iPhone posting this so please excuse any typos.

I've got 99 problems and Sleep Aint One.

Oh to look back on the days when Mr.Bear was formula fed and slept for 12 hours every night. I feel back then I had him pretty trained in the sleep category. When it was time for bed we had him bathed, fed. read to, and BAM! he was out on his own, in his own bed, and in his OWN ROOM! Those days were pretty blissful. Then came the day that would change all days in history of our parenting days. The day he climbed out of his crib. We pretended not to notice the first few months and then Sailor Man had to eventually go in his room, lay on the floor, and wait till he fell asleep. Right then and there was when it all came crashing down. Then comes little Hippy Baby and his wonderful breastfeeding ways. With breastfeeding usually comes co-sleeping. Not always...but it sure makes things on Mom much more easier.

Now 1 year later Hippy Baby and I are still co-sleeping. Sailor Man is still in Mr. Bears room except now they share a bed. Is this normal? Maybe not for most but it is for us. Do I miss the nights of snuggling up to my husband waking up to his bad breath? You bet I do! But when we sat down and really thought about it and really put the boys first we made a decision that while they're young we will enjoy sleeping with them. After all they're only little for so long and when they're big teenage almost men we will miss the days when they wanted to snuggle up with Mom and Dad. I am pretty sure getting a "good morning" from them will feel like Christmas.

If you want to really understand co-sleeping we look at it like this...

1.)  Have you ever been in bed alone and really really wished your spouse, boyfriend, Mom, Edward was there? Do you fall asleep much easier when they're around. We as humans sleep much better when we're with someone. Sure having a nice big bed to ourselves is nice but nothing beats that warmth of someone you love and care about right next to you. Now imagine how a small baby or child feels alone in their crib/bed. We feel the boys sleep better with us therefore less waking up a bazillion times a night on our part.

2.) Studies show that co-sleeping helps prevent SIDs. Preventing the infant from entering into sleep states that are too deep. In addition, the parents' own breathing may help the infant to "remember" to breathe (McKenna, 1990; Mosko, 1996; Richard, 1998). I felt much safer having Hippy Baby by my side in his early days. Even though my husband and I are active sleepers we we're very aware that he was with us.

3.) Helps with breastfeeding. Like I said above Mr. Bear was formula fed. I feel in my heart that I was so concerned with him taking a bottle, sleeping on his own, and through the night that it ruined breastfeeding for us. We ended up listening to others bad advice and giving him formula. With Hippy Baby we have made it to the 1 year mark with breastfeeding and I couldn't have been more proud of both of us. 

As always when you co-sleep please practice it safely. Here is some links on how to co-sleep safely and some more information on it.

http://www.attachmentparenting.org/support/articles/artbenefitscosleep.php

http://www.attachmentparenting.org/infantsleepsafety/

http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/sleep-safety/safe-co-sleeping-habits

http://kellymom.com/parenting/nighttime/familybed/

In a year….

So much can change in 1 year. This past year since Hippie Babies birth it has been a whirlwind of changes. Both Mr. Sailor and I have changed our mindsets on a lot of things from parenting to religion and back again. We have truly matured and now fully understand each other much more than what we have before. I feel 100% that this is mainly because we we're moved across the world and have had to solely rely on each other. Yes, I am making friends but in the end we are on this amazing adventure together. We are experiencing things that others only dream about and there's in no other person I want by my side to experience it all.

But this post isn't about us it's about Hippy Baby. Who just turned 1 on the 2nd.

Hippy Baby graced us with his presence on September 2nd 2011 after 12 hours of labor and 5 minutes of pushing at 5:36am he was ready to conquer the world. Weighing in at 7Ibs 9oz. and a long 21 inches. You can read more about his birth story here. I guess my best way to describe Elis first is through pictures so here we go.

September 2nd 2011

We were surprised at how quickly he calmed down

Daddy got to hold him first

Meeting his Mommy.

Some brotherly love.

1 Month

2 Months

3 Months

4 Months

5 Months

6 Months

7 Months

8 Months

9 Months

10 Months

11 Months

1 YEAR!!!!!

This picture just sums up our year with Hippy Baby. It's been absolutely amazing! Love you our sweet boy.