blatant random silliness

finishing up the old year, so I can start anew

Wow, yet again I have let months pass without blogging.  I guess my only excuse is that it's been a busy few months.  My New Year's Resolution is to start blogging regularly again.  So, here is a month by month catch up on what we've been up to here at the Pack house:

July

In July, we flew to Idaho to spend two weeks with Denny's family.  We had an amazing trip full of beautiful backyard time, family, waterfalls, and camping in the mountains.  I (of course) took a ton of photos.  Just click on the links to go to pages with all of the photos from each event.

In the backyard  and In the Garden

Dylan sniffs the daisies.

Eating all the raspberries.

Dylan was fascinated by Sue and Ward's lovely garden.  He found his own little spot amidst the beans that weren't doing so well and used a stick to poke around.  I loved the view of him through the rows of corn that now graces the header of this page.  We also enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful flowers and picking succulent raspberries that didn't make it into the basket.

That's me down by the waterfall.

 The whole family (my camera was perched on a huge rock).

We took several little road trips to see some of the local sites near Twin Falls.  The first was Cauldron Linn, a swirling waterfall carved into the Snake River Canyon.  We took a winding narrow road down into the canyon and walked to the edge.  Amazingly, there is no railing, or anything to block a hiker from exploring.  So, we took turns going down closer to the falls and taking pictures.  

Shoshone Falls

Our second waterfall trip was to see Shoshone Falls.  I've seen these falls before and remembered how amazing they were.  This trip didn't disappoint.  It was a beautiful bright sunny day and the mist from the falls created not one but two rainbows.  What an amazing sight!  

We don't get to see Garth and Aimee very much (only when we head to Idaho to visit), but they are the kind of friends that make you feel welcome, as if you get to see them all the time.  We had lots of fun playing Rock Band at their house (Dylan especially liked to rock the microphone - unplugged of course). This album has a collection of all our random fun in it.

A view of Mt. McGown in the morning.

The second week of our trip, we all loaded up into different vehicles and headed to the Sawtooth mountain range for a family camping trip.  Denny's parents pulled their fifth wheel, and we got to use the little camper that Denny grew up camping in.  I'd never camped in a camper before and I really enjoyed the experience.  We camped on Stanley Lake at the foot of Mt. Gown.  Denny's sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephew were a couple of campsites away and spent most of their time with us.  We played games, had lots of art time with the kids, did a bit of wading in the lake and spent some time digging in the sand.  Dylan really enjoyed playing with his cousins, climbing on the rocks around our campsite, eating marshmallows and playing Hungry Hungry Hippos with Grandma.  

The little camper we camped in...the same one that Denny grew up camping in.

Dylan sleeping in the camper. One of the rare times we were awake before him.

Art time with Grandma and cousin Elizabeth.

Another view inside the little camper.

One of our days in the sawtooth mountains, we drove north to the ghost town of Custer, Idaho.  They have an interesting set of buildings with artifacts on display from the days of mining in the area.

Grandpa and Dylan at the Drilling Rock.

A family picnic in Custer, Idaho.

On our way home, we stopped a few times for lunch and photos. Dylan really enjoyed the whole trip.  For a couple of weeks after we got home he'd randomly ask to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  I think one of his favorite things was the little barrel train he got to ride at the arts festival in downtown Twin Falls.  Lucky for him, Young's Dairy has one too.

Dylan riding the little train in Twin Falls.

August

In August, we didn't take any exciting trips, but we did have fun at home.  We spent lots of time outside, in the little pool, at Young's Dairy, and in Yellow Springs.  We celebrated Denny's birthday and found a beautiful sunflower field.

Dylan and Jax dipping their heads in the water.

Denny and I in the sunflowers (Dylan was napping in the car.

Denny blowing out his birthday candle.

September

In September, we took another trip.  This time, we drove to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for a Labor Day family reunion with my Dad's family.   I hadn't seen many of these cousins in over 15 years and our reunion was at the same hunting camp that the previous reunion so many years ago was.  We spent three days with my cousins, eating, drinking, playing cornhole (I've never called it that, but apparently that's what the yankees call it....in the south it's just plain beanbags), and catching up.  The weather was beautiful and Denny, Dylan and I did a bit of hiking around the area.  One of the reasons for the gathering was the spreading of Uncle Bill's ashes around the camp, one of the places he loved best.  I was glad that I was able to be there for Aunt Barb.   In true Shermer fashion, my cousin Mark made us laugh several times with stories of Uncle Bill.

This was also the weekend that Dylan started trying to draw letters.  And he wasn't half bad at it...he successfully drew A's, T's, J's and L's.  And possibly some others, but I don't remember which ones.  Since then he's gotten better and better and I've been working on teaching him to write the letters beside each other instead of wherever there is space on the page.

Denny, Dylan and I in the woods of Pennsylvania.

A group shot of the first batch of Shermer's. We never did take a second one after my cousin Scot and his kids arrived. Back row: cousin Mark, Uncle Jack, cousin Tom, cousin Jimmy, cousin Kevin, cousin Eric. Front row: Mark's wife Cecil, cousin Nancy, Aunt Jane (with Eric's son in her lap), Aunt Barb, Tom's girlfriend, and myself and Dylan.

Dylan on top of the mountain of dirt with the hunting club lodge in the background. He loved climbing this dirt/rock pile. We didn't love it so much as that is where the gnats congregated.

Also in September, we went to Day Out With Thomas with our friends.  We did this last year too.  Dylan was excited to see the big Thomas engine and to ride the train.  He also really enjoyed stamping at the art station.

Dylan and I in front of Thomas. This was about the only photo we got with him actually looking at the camera instead of turning around to look at Thomas.

We did Yellow Springs a lot in September as well, up until our CSA ended. One of our favorite trips was going blackberry picking with our friends Mary and Mary Claire. We followed up the blackberry picking with a trip to Young's Dairy to see the pumpkins.

Dylan and Mary Clair walking by the blackberry bushes.

Dylan and Mary Claire next to the huge pumpkin at Yellow Springs.

Dylan on the tractor at Young's Dairy.

October

In October, the weather cooled off and the leaves started falling from the trees. And Dylan loves playing in the leaves.  He also really liked his little orange pumpkin bucket and had lots of fun carrying it around here and there.  I started taking him outside, spreading a blanket out, and having art time.  It was nice to be out in the cool air painting and drawing.  The tricycle came out of the shed and we worked on teaching Dylan how to pedal.  Which he started doing a little bit at a time.  That was very exciting.

One of my favorite photos of that sweet little face after putting leaves on his head.

My little focused painter outside for art time.

Dylan making letters during art time.

Of course the big event of October was Dylan's 3rd birthday. We had a joint party with Dylan's friend Jax (like last year). This year, we rented out the leasing office and decorated for a Curious George and the Zoo themed party (Dylan was into animals and Jax was into Curious George, so we combined them). I spent a couple of weeks before the party making animals and a Curious George out of cardboard. I also sewed birthday streamers that we can use for every birthday. And, of course, like last year, I had great fun making the cakes. We ended up with way to much cake in the end, but, it was all still delicous. I made a jungle themed cake and a little rhinoceros cake for Dylan.  We rented a bouncy castle for outside, we ended up with lovely weather and spent a lot more time outside than we'd planned on.  It was a fun party!

The entrance to the party.

Dylan and Jax ready to blow out their candles.

The weekend before Dylan's actual birthday I flew to Washington, D.C. to take photos for my friend Ingrid's wedding.  It was a whirlwind weekend–I attended a photography workshop, took photos for the rehearsal, spent the day of the wedding taking photos, did a little shopping, saw my friend from college Yehudi, and spent one day seeing as much of the D.C. sights as I could.  I'll make it my next goal to do a post all about my trip.

And of  course October isn't complete without mentioning Halloween.  This year I made matching Super Sleuth t-shirts for all of us.  Dylan's favorite show is My Friends Tigger and Pooh and they solve mysteries in the Hundred Acre wood as Super Sleuths.  Dylan had fun trick-or-treating with his friend Elena (who dressed as tigger).

Anytime, Anyplace, the Super Sleuths are on the case.

Elena and Dylan ready to go trick or treating.

November

finally, an update

Wow, I can't believe I let a whole month go by without posting to my blog.  I fiddled with the header and name sometime last month, but decided to go back with my original name and a new tagline this evening.  I have lots to catch up on, here goes:

We received our household goods in early April.  Yay!  That's part of the reason I haven't blogged in so long.  We've been busy unpacking boxes and trying to get settled in.  I've also had a couple of big work projects to get through, so when I get computer time, I'm usually working. 

Dylan is now 18 months old.  I have a whole list of new things he's been up to this month.  I think the best news is that we both have new friends.  I met Tina and her son Jax at a library storytime back in March. Jax is just a few weeks older than Dylan.  We've all been having fun together ever since.  The boys get along really well, and Tina and I do too.  I'm very, very happy to have found a good friend here.  She really made our lives easier on moving day.  I was able to take Dylan over to nap at her place and then he stayed there most of the afternoon.  He's very comfortable with them and always seems to have a good time.  We are going to be starting a babysitting exchange so that we can have dates with our hubbies once a month.  Yay!

Tina with Dylan and Jax.

The big news from the end of March was that Dylan finally decided that he not only wanted to talk about hats, he wanted to wear them too.  We were in a store called Steve and Barry's and he found the hats at the back of the store.  He picked one up and handed it up to me saying "please".  So, I plopped it on his head and he took off with his fast little walk.  The hat was of course too big and would slide down over his eyes.  That didn't stop him, he'd just keep on going (I had to keep up with him so he didn't bump into anything or anyone).  I bought him two hats at Old Navy, and they have been the best purchases.  He'll get up in the morning and put his hat on with his pajamas.  He's also started wearing boots with his pajamas and sometimes a belt. 

We've also been talking with Grandma and Grandpa on the computer.  Dylan really loves when we do.  He remembers them and always does the monkey with them (wave your arms in the air and say "ooh ooh eee eee"). 

Denny and Dylan talk with Grandpa on the computer.

Dylan has become quite the little copycat.  Denny will do something silly, like squish his face with his hands, and Dylan will copy it as best he can.  He's doing really well with his signing, he will point at something and say "please" for us to sign it for him.  And sometimes, he'll put our hand up to do it again.  I've shown him "girl" which is a thumb to your cheek and when he sees a girl in a book he'll grab my hand and put it to my face.   Another copycat thing he's been doing is trying to wink.  It's way cute to see...he can't quite get his eye closed but he really scrunches up his face trying. 

Playing squishy face.  Dylan uses the stove like a mirror to check himself out.

We had a lot of rain here in early April.  Tina invited us along to the children's museum in Dayton–the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery.  What a cool place!  They have all sorts of fun things for kids to do...and it's geared toward all ages of children.  I think Dylan's favorite thing was the water table...he tried to climb in!  I think the photos will describe things better than I can:

These tide pools are open during what is usually nap time.  Luckily for us, the boys both were off their schedules that day so we could go and check them out.  The pool had starfish, anemones and coral that could be touched. 

This is the water table.  It's a multilevel table filled with water and fountains and cool things for kids to build and play with in and around the water.  Dylan kept trying to climb in and would get frustrated when we wouldn't let him.  Poor guy.

Dylan also enjoyed plowing the field.  This little area had lots of ups and downs, which toddlers love, especially mine.

Dylan had a lot of fun looking through this faceted magnifying glass.

They have a pioneer house scaled down for little people, complete with clothing that can be worn and plastic food to cook.  Dylan's favorite (as it is with real food) was the plastic strawberry.  Notice that his hair is wet.  That's because he tried to dive head first into the water pool and would have made it had I not pulled him back out. 

Our new townhouse/apartment/unit (whatever you want to call it) is really nice.  We are in a good location, only a few minutes from downtown Dayton one way, and the other way is only a few minutes to lots of shopping in Beavercreek.  I think the best part of our new place is the outside areas.  We have courtyard out front with a play area (it is old and potentially dangerous, but still nice to have).  Out back is a little fenced in yard and beyond that are lots of green areas and trees.  Dylan really likes watching the squirrels.

Denny and Dylan in the courtyard.  Our place is in the background–the door on the right.

What you see when you walk out our front door.

Our new kitchen.  On the left (not in the picture) is where the stove and refrigerator live.  We normally eat  at the counter...you can see Dylan's chair clamped on the right side of the counter.  The next room over is Dylan's playroom.  I can work in the kitchen and see what he's up to.

Our household goods came on two different days.  So we had a weekend of having part of our stuff.  We were way happy to have something to sit on besides folding chairs.  This was the day Dylan decided to fall asleep a lot earlier than usual.  We had taken down his usual bed because we thought the movers were coming on this day, but they didn't.  So, he's snoozing on the love seat.  On the far wall are our new bookshelves from Ikea.

Now, back to Dylan.  The silly little guy has gotten really good at putting on our shoes and walking around in them.  He also likes to help put the groceries away.  He'll take things out of the bag and hand them to me.  We've started watching the Wiggles every now and then and he loves to dance with them.  He's started turning around in a circle when he's dancing.  And he has several new words–whoa, water (wa wa), uh oh, hole, cool, and (unfortunately) no.  Luckily, he seems to only use the word "no" when he knows he's not supposed to do something.  He'll get close to something or close to doing something he's not supposed to and he'll say "no" or "nanananana". 

His favorite book right now is called "Fourteen Bears in Summer and Winter".  It's Denny's favorite book from when he was a kid.  I wonder if it's genetic.  It's a longer book than we usually read to him and it doesn't rhyme.  But he loves to have it read to him over and over again.  Sometimes, he'll gather all of his bears and have them read it with us.  He gets very excited to point at the Father Bear in the book, and the bear I've dubbed "Papa Bear". 

When we play outside in the backyard (which is mostly backconcrete), we pull out the chalk.  Dylan draws lines with it, and everything he draws he calls "Ananan" (which means Anpanman, a japanese cartoon character).  This started when one of us adults drew Anpanman with the chalk.  Now he requests it.  I will also pull out sand toys and corn meal for him to play with.  He enjoys using his shovel to put sand in different containers.

Dylan and Jax play in the "sand".

There's more to post, but it's getting late and I'm hungry, so I'll write more later (and I promise I won't take a month to do it).

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the waiting is the hardest part

This blog is brought to you by my office closet. Yep, I've set up my desktop and ginormous monitor on a makeshift desk in the closet.....the base is the G5 box (very sturdy) and the top is one of Denny's hard guitar cases. I am flanked by the monitor box as a table for holding paperwork, and a printer box to hold my mouse.

And yes, this means we still don't have any household goods (our "deliver no later than" date was two days ago and they don't have any information for us!). We've been in our new place for about two weeks, camping out with our air mattresses and folding chairs. We finally broke down and bought counter height chairs that came in yesterday. Oh how nice to eat at the counter and not feel like I'm at the kids table! And yesterday, I made my makeshift desk so that I could work on a book project on my lovely 30" monitor instead of my tiny laptop monitor. Oh huge monitor...how I have missed thee.

I still have lots of photos to upload...I will hopefully get that done soon so that I can share the joys of our new place. Right now, we basically live in the kitchen and the dining room AKA Dylan's playroom. And we sleep upstairs. I love our kitchen! It's huge! Especially compared to the TINY kitchen we almost had in the new construction (we're in privatized housing...which is kind of like living on base except we aren't on base..yay!). After seeing that one, we asked if there was anything with a bigger kitchen and they said yes, in the old construction. And it was love at first glance. There is a lot of counter space, a gas range, windows and it is open to what is now Dylan's play room. So, he can play away and I can cook or clean (or check my email on my laptop). And his little clamp on chair fits perfectly on the hangover of the counter.

He's such a cute little guy. Just this week he's started saying "please" (which sounds a like like cheese and sometimes like juice) and doing the sign for cheese (which is rubbing your chest). It's way cute when we are in the car and he can't quite reach his chest comfortably because of the jacket and the carseat he rubs his leg instead. We've been trying to teach him to say "help, please" when he needs help with something instead of screaming in frustration. And it is working now! It started when he dropped something behind his LeapFrog piano thingie. He said please a couple of times and it took me a minute or two to figure out that "please" was indeed what he was saying. And now he uses it all the time when he need our help. Like today, when he dropped lots of blocks into his ball popper thing (see photo below). Or when he dropped a little elmo figure into another ball thing with a hole. He very sweetly rubbed his chest and said "peassth". He's even using it during food times combined with more.

We are also into learning lots of animal signs. Cats are his favorite and his sign for cat is way cute. Instead of doing the whiskers on his face, he sort of puts his hands together in front of him and then pulls them way apart...with his arms ending up behind him. And he gets so excited about cats...he very emphatically says "ta ta ta" and throws his arms back. He's doing bear, giraffe, mouse, and bunny in his own unique way. And whenever he hears a dog barking he says "uf uf".

I made up a song for Dylan all about hats and shoes. And now, we can leave blanks where we would say hat and Dylan says "haaaaaaat" to sing with us. We have this one on video, so if I ever get the video page updated, you can hear his cute little voice. Now, he does that long drawn out hat and says shoes to request that we sing (he'd been requesting it before we realized he could sing parts of it with us). He also sings the Elmo song by sticking his tongue as far out of the side of his mouth as possible and going "la la la".

While we were in Idaho, we set up a new Mac computer for Grandma and Grandpa. So now, we can video chat! Dylan gets so excited to see them on the computer screen. They do the monkey at each other and he talks about Grandpa's hat. He likes to get in close to the camera and back away. Too cute! I do love how technology brings us closer.

I will have some photos of our new place uploaded soon. In the meantime, here are some photos that should have gone with my last post:

Dylan slept almost all the way to the airport on the bus.

This was Dylan's fan club in the airport. They came running over saying "kawaii" (cute) and wanting to take his picture. Wow, this was a little over a month ago!

Dylan was playing with his hat and actually left it on long enough for me to get a picture! I could hardly believe it. I think he's warming up to the idea of wearing a hat. We were out shopping today and I was baby wrangling while Denny looked around a little bit. We had found the hat section and Dylan was carrying around a hat. He handed it to me, so I put it on him and he went toddling off...and kept going even when the hat covered his eyes. This was a fun game for a while.

This was in the airport play room...I believe this was after Dylan threw up the first time and we had already changed his clothes once.

Ahhhh, the lovely big sky of Idaho.

Dylan and his ball in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house in Idaho.

Dylan and the neighbor's cat....he finally gave it a pet and grabbed its tail.

Dylan's sign for rock.

Dylan on Denny's shoulders peeking in the window.

Denny's Uncle Gene and Aunt Charlene brought this ball popper machine for Dylan. It uses air to pop the balls out of the top...and they do go everywhere! This is the one he was putting blocks and play food in yesterday.

Dylan and Grandpa read a story.

we're in ohio

Well, it's time to officially change my header. We no longer live in Japan. Today, we arrived in Ohio...on probably the worst day of the year to arrive. It's been snowing here for a couple of days and the roads are covered. There's a two foot snow drift outside the back door of our temporary lodging. That's a lot of snow to a Georgia girl.

Anyway, as usual I'm behind on my posting. I am getting some photos uploaded to Flickr, so you can check there to see what we've been up to. We had a great time in Idaho visiting with Denny's parents and their dogs and the neighbor's cats (Dylan LOVES the cats.....so much he would want to go outside first thing in the morning while he was still in his pajamas). They have the latch type doors instead of doorknobs and Dylan figured out pretty quickly how to get those open. We also got to visit with some of Denny's friends and see his sister, brother-in-law and their kids. Dylan had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and his cousins. He also learned a few new tricks.

Grandma and Grandpa taught him how to do a "monkey". So now Dylan will wave his arms in the air and make a "ooh ooh sound"..and when he looks at you he expects you do to the same thing. Silly boy.

I had to stop myself several times when we were out shopping from buying too much. You see, I'm so used to not being able to get certain things in Japan, that when we come to the states I usually buy things because we won't be back for awhile. I have to keep telling myself that Target is going to be close by for quite a while now. *biggrin*.

So, to catch up with our flight over from Japan, I'm going to copy and paste in an email I sent to my friend Bethany rather than retype all the details:

"We made it here all in one piece. Dylan got sick at Narita in the Children's Play Area. And by got sick I mean throw up. We thought that maybe he just got too hot, or maybe had some phelgm in the wrong place or something, so when he asked for milk I nursed him and then we went out to play a little more. And he threw up again. Just the thing you want to have happen before you get on a plane for hours and hours. Basically, he couldn't keep anything down, not even water (which we kept giving him in hopes of keeping him hydrated. He would drink, sleep, throw up, and either sleep a little more or wake up and drink some more and repeat. Except his sleep wasn't a good sleep..it was a squirmy, whiny sleep leading up to the throwing up. Finally, toward the end of the 9 hour plane ride, he had some water and some milk and fell asleep...a good deep sleep so I got to sleep a little bit too. We got off the plane in Seattle both smelling like vomit (he did all of his throwing up while he was on my lap). Luckily, I bought two t-shirts in Narita...one for Denny and one for Dylan, so I changed us into those after getting our flights arrange in Seattle. We ended up changing our flight to go straight to Twin Falls instead of stopping over in Boise (originally we were flying to Boise and staying with Denny's sister and family for two days and then going to Twin Falls). We decided we needed to get Dylan somewhere that we would be for a little while instead of going some place for two days and uprooting again. Poor little guy. He didnt' vomit any more but was pretty darn pitiful the rest of the way to Twin Falls (we had another layover in Salt Lake City). His sleep isn't adjusted yet, but he is finally feeling better. We had a day and a half of pitiful and tired and really big green poops. But after his afternoon nap he seemed to be more himself. And he actually stayed in bed tonight (unlike last night where he decided after an hour that he needed to be up up up...and then after going to bed at 10, he was up from 12:30 to 3-ish).

And that brings us to now. He is warming up to Grandma and Grandpa and the two dogs. We went to Target today and he stayed in the cart with Grandma pushing for a nice bit of time while Denny and I shopped around. Of course, when I came back he wanted me to carry him around though. And did I mention that I LOVE TARGET! Let me know if you need anything.

Oh, and we already bought a car. Denny's dad found one in the paper and had already test driven it and talked the price down from the owners before we even got here. Denny test drove it yesterday and they brought it back here for me to look at. And they took it back and got another $100 off of the price and said we'd take it. Ward has volunteered to drive it to Ohio and says he'll take the bus back (we're going to get him a plane ticket)."

So, now we are in Ohio, and Ward has made it into Wyoming on his first day of driving. We really love our new (used) Subaru Forester. It drives really nicely and has lots of room in the back for stuff. It will be nice to have it here on Monday (and to have Grandpa here for a couple of days).

Wow, I just realized this blog posting is sort of in reverse. Go figure. Today, our flights went pretty well. Dylan slept through the first leg through Denver, and then was up most of the way to Dayton. And landing in a snow covered place almost felt like being dropped into a different planet. Moving to someplace completely new is a very surreal experience. Denny even had to shovel the driveway to get our rental car in the garage. Our temporary house is really a temporary house...not quite what we expected (a hotel room with a kitchenette)...but nicer! Well, except it's really cold in here right now. Hopefully it will warm up (fingers crossed).

I think that's all I've got for now. There are all kinds of new things Dylan has been saying and doing since he's been at Grandma and Grandpa's, but I'll do that next time.

what a week

The past week has been quite a whirlwind.  We ended up moving into temporary housing on Monday (we originally planned to do it on Tuesday) to accomodate the cleaners that we are sooo glad we hired.  We've junked one car and we've been packing boxes to ship.  Oh, and hitting all those last places to shop and eat. 

Dylan and I had our last playgroup this morning.  And we'll head to the playroom tomorrow for the last time.  We've been feeling very melancholy about leaving Japan.  There are so many people and good things we will miss.  Too tired to list them now though *yawn*.

Anyway, I'm behind on posting photos as the internet in TLF is splotchy.  So be sure to just check my flickr page to see photos as I get them uploaded.  Not sure when I'll be able to post again..hopefully once we get to Idaho and to Denny's parent's house.

A couple of cute things Dylan has been doing.  Yesterday, he spontaneously started doing the sign for tree.  We had shown him tree a lot on walks, but I really haven't done it much recently.  But, he remembered and started doing it.  He is also now saying "nana" for banana.  And asking for it by name.  And I guess he's been listening to too much Outkast when we aren't watching him because his favorite phrase is currently "Hey ya!"  He's using the more sign more and more for things besides food (like tonight, I was singing a made up song about hats and shoes and had stopped for a bit.  He asked for more and I asked him what he wanted more of...he answered "hat").  Isn't communication grand? 

In preperation for our internal clocks to be all out of whack by the time we reach the states, Dylan decided he didn't need to go to bed at bedtime.  Nope, not for him.  I could only fight so long and finally just gave up (it's hard to fight when there is not place like a crib or playpen to stick him in).  He played quite happily while we packed boxes, and then decided he was ready for bed.  Still took a bit of rolling around and trying to crawl off the bed, but he finally went to sleep at 9:30!  Ahhhh....9:30.  Here's hoping he's not up at 5 like usual.

Anyway, here are a few cute shots of Dylan from last week to hold you over til the next posting:

Last Friday, our Monday playgroup met for a little sayonara gathering at the playroom (since this past Monday was a holiday).  Here are Ethan, Dylan and Austin playing with the crayons.

 
Dylan has started really putting his hands together and gripping them and making funny faces when he gets excited.

I LOVE BLUEBERRIES!

 
We love the play areas in Japanese shopping areas.  This one is in Akishima at the Mori Town Mall.  It's full of oversized soft blocks to stack and roll.

 
Ready to stack it up!

Chiharu with Dylan.  Chiharu is a friend and a client, and we usually meet her once a month or so in Akishima for lunch.  We will miss our lunches with Chiharu.

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moving moving moving

Oh boy, we are less than a week away from leaving Japan.  It still seems a bit surreal that we are moving away.  It probably won't seem real until we are actually on the plane.  The past week has been chock full of painting the walls back to white, sayonara parties, and shopping.  I'm stocking up on 100yen store things and other things I won't be able to get back in the states (like fun japanese children's books).  I probably won't be able to blog again until the end of the week, so I'll go ahead and play catch up on some of Dylan's new things.

Dylan climbed into his "toy trunk" the other morning.  Denny was highly amused.

Dylan has been "talking" a lot.  In an excorcist-donald duck sort of way, which is hilarious.  He and Denny can have conversations in this same tone of voice-babble.  I have it on video, but haven't updated the video page with February videos yet, so check back for that later on. 

We have this japanese book about pooping (poop in Japanese is "unchi"), and the animals in the book make a sound when they are pooping..."uooon, uoon".  What is funny is that Dylan makes the sound while I'm reading the book to him.

Dylan says "uuf" when you ask him what sound a dog makes and "mmmmmm" when you ask him what sound a cow makes.  He's evidentally thinking of a very quiet cow.  And he's mesmerized when I sing a particular japanese children's song that goes through all of the animal sounds (in japanese).  For instance, did you know that an American cow says "mooooooo" (like muuuuuuu) and a Japanese cow says "moooooo" with a long o sound.  And a japanese dog says "wan wan", a cat says "nyah nyah" and a pig says "boo boo".  As I'm singing this song, he always asks for more after every verse.  He's really started using "more" for more than just food things. 

We do "this little piggy" with Dylan's toes and he asks for more.  I usually go through and do different animals on each foot.  And we have this cute hugging game that I got ouf of my Itsy Bitsy Yoga book.  He sits in my lap and I hold his hands.  I used to do this for him, now he moves his arms (and mine) of his own accord.  I say "I love you" and for I, our hands are on his chest, on "love" our arms go out to the sides, and for "you" I hug around him and we wiggle.  He giggles and wants more.

Dylan loves Elmo (whom he calls "ha ha").  I got him a couple of Elmo books and a small Elmo doll (that makes no noise for when we travel) for Valentine's day.  He'll take the little Elmo and make his hands clap...I walked in on him doing that the other day and it was sooo cute.  He has a bigger Elmo that we call Torture Me Elmo.  You stretch his arms and legs to unnatural lengths and he giggles and says "Elmo needs a good stretch" (along with some other phrases).  Dylan used to hand Elmo to us to stretch, but now he has us hold Elmo and he pulls the arms and legs himself.

I've mentioned in the past how much Dylan loves to watch the cars and big trucks go by on the highway from our window.  Last week, he started doing this "happy dance" type motion where he twists his body and moves his arms from side to side.  We weren't sure what this was besides a new dance move until I saw him doing it while he was watching the cars and trucks.  When he stopped, I asked him to "show me cars" and he did the same motion.  So, now we know that that is his sign for cars and trucks. 

Making a card for Grandma.

We had lots of fun this week with stickers.  At our Monday playgroup, we were going to be making Valentine's boxes, so to prepare, I bought some stickers and we made a valentine for grandma.  Dylan wasn't sure what do with the stickers to start with besides move them from finger to finger and take all the sticky off.  But, he quickly learned that you put the sticker on the paper.  But then, he wanted to take the sticker back off the paper.  He still wants to remove the sticker's from his valentine box.  And he loves to take the lid on and off.

Playing with his Valentine's box that we decorated with stickers at playgroup.

Here is our Monday playgroup (or part of them anyway).  From left to right, Hannah, Dylan, Edza, Miguel, Yuriko and Kai-chan.

Dylan has learned how to "take a bite".  So now, he can have a whole pancake to eat himself without us having to cut it all up.  He also likes cucumber sticks and french toast (but not together *grin*).

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way behind

Dylan makes sure I didn't leave any mail behind in the mailbox.

So, wow, I am really way behind on my blog posts.  I have several food items to get online, along with lots about Dylan and our recent adventures while Denny's sister Camille was visiting the past 10 days.  I think I have a really great excuse though....They are packing up all of our stuff and taking it to Ohio on Wednesday!  So we've been going through things and sorting and throwing out stuff we don't need or want anymore (for those of you who haven't heard yet, we are moving to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio at the end of February).  On top of my other excuses, I've had some new design projects in that have been taking up time as well.  *Phew*.  Makes me tired just listing the things we've been up to. 

Here are some quick highlights on Dylan: 

•  He knows where his tongue is.  We were reading a book about animals eating, and the illustration of the cat has his tongue sticking out.  I asked Dylan where his tongue is and he stuck it out for me.  He usually does this on command.

•  On Aunt Camille's first day here, we had a moving appointment and she babysat.  When we got back, she had taught Dylan "woof woof".  She would say that while chasing him around and that became her nickname from him.  Now, we can ask "What does a dog say?" and Dylan will reply cutely "foof oof".

•  Dylan has really been doling out hugs.  I think I posted this before...but it's just so darn cute it deserves another post.  He just lays his head on the closest part of you and makes a cute little "ahh" sound.  So heartwarming.

•  Dylan has also figured out where his nose is (along with ears and feet and some other parts too).  He also quite happily points at our noses (and sometimes tries to stick a finger in).

•  He has been stacking cups and blocks and especially his new cool crayons (I'll have to take a photo of these...they are hard to explain).

•  Dylan is dancing.  Actually, it's more like bouncing or knee bends...but it's way cute.  He mostly does it to the music the cuckoo clock puts out (we call it the "clock show").  But, he's branched out into dancing when any type of music comes on. 

•  And the newest thing he's been doing is waving bye bye to his plate when he's done eating.  I ask "all done" and he waves bye bye.  Funny boy.

I will post more about our adventures in Tokyo (and Camille's adventures as well) by the end of the week.  In the meantime, you can check out my Flickr page to check the photos I haven't had a chance to blog about yet.

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weekend of fun and tiredness

So, wow, what a weekend. It really all started Saturday morning with a childbirth class at the hospital. They used to do a 4 part series, but now they just do a one time 4 hour class. Which was very informative, but I could of used some more on "comfort" techniques...like lamaze. Denny came with me and we learned all about the birth process....which included watching videos of an actual birth. I really think they could show these videos in high schools to lower teen pregnancy. Holy cow. I think I've been in denial my whole pregnancy about the actual giving birth process. So watching the videos was frightening. But, I guess it worked...I was in shock for the afternoon, but by Sunday I was coming to terms with it and know it's going to happen. If millions of women can do it, so can I.

Saturday night was the Air Force Ball, and Denny's band was playing. I went with my friends Jen and Raul and a group of people. Luckily, Denny's band alternated with a DJ so he and I got to dance together and look cute dressed up. I did dance, just a lot more carefully than I would normally. The twist was out, but as long as I kept my belly over my legs I was just fine. We had a picture taken by the pro photographer there, but we won't have it for three weeks. I'll make sure to post it when we get it. The photos taken with my camera just aren't all that great. It's hard to get a good shot with a small camera when it's mostly dark. We did have a great time though. Denny came down to the dance area during a slow song or two and played his guitar to me. He's such a sweetie. I also had fun hanging out with Jen and Raul and Calley and Chad and Debbie and Richard and the other people in the entourage. They were Denny's fan club and acted as if he's a huge rock star whenever he played a solo. Twas quite amusing.

Sunday, we had planned to drive to Ikea. Denny didn't get in until really late Saturday night, so we had a slow starting morning. However, we knew if we didn't go, we may not make it before the baby comes...and I may not want to go the closer it gets to my due date (we are now about 6 weeks away). So, we got ourselves in gear and hopped in the car. Traffic was pretty decent for most of the trip and we were making good time......until we actually got close to Ikea. As you can see from the photo above, crossing Rainbow Bridge was beautiful...such a nice clear sky day..kind of a rarity this time of year. Anyway, as we got off the Shuto Expressway, traffic slowed way down. And we soon discovered that everyone was turning onto the road we wanted to turn onto. Basically, it took us about an hour and a half to get there after getting off the interstate. It should have taken 20 minutes. I was a very cranky, frustrated, pregnant lady by the time we got there. However, once we got inside, things got better. I had fun showing Denny around and we picked out our new table, along with some other things to make our trip worthwhile (a shoe bin for our entryway, some new office chairs, and other fun accessories for the nursery....I'll take some photos soon).

The way back was a lot easier, traffic was still very congested leaving Ikea (the urban planners should really do something about the traffic flow in the area.....the lights just don't line up logically), but once we got out of the vicinity we made it home in 2 hours. Yay us.

I had my first swollen feet on Sunday night after getting home. Probably because of all the sitting and standing and no time with my feet up. After water aerobics on Monday, the swelling went down, which is good. I also took my wedding rings off over the weekend. The OB nurse recommended that in case your hands swell or you go into the labor and they can't get them off. So, I've been wearing them on a chain around my neck. It's funny though, it's been 4 days and I still have the ring indentation on my finger. It's like i'm wearing an invisible ring.

Monday was my recovery day, I was so tired after doing too much over the weekend. We did manage to put our new table together though.

We're at the beginning of week 34....6 weeks left and counting. It's getting harder and harder to bend over to pick up stuff. Have to bend at the knees and spread my legs to make room for the belly. And if I do too much bending over, my sciatic nerve acts up (this causes pain through the left side of my lower back through my butt and thigh). The baby's movements are getting bigger and more breathtaking (literally). He really makes me jump sometimes. The right side is his favorite place to be...when I'm sitting and he wants more space he pushes upward with a good amount of force to make me stretch. Funny boy.

Well, that's about all for now. More to come.

catching up

Wow. I can't believe I let my blog go so long without posting. Except that I can. You see, the big news is that we are going to have a baby. I'm 8 weeks along in my first trimester. What they don't tell you about being pregnant are the things other than the dreaded "morning sickness", which in itself is a misnomer. You see, I haven't had morning sickness. I feel just fine in the morning most days. But, by the evening, my tummy is all funky and i'm sooooo so tired. I go through bouts of constipation and gasiness. And it's just not fun. On the days I don't wake up feeling okay, I wake up feeling like I have sandbags on my arms and legs. I feel weak and dizzy (the byproduct of my heart pumping extra blood through my body). I'm really looking forward to my second trimester when these things are supposed to clear up and I get my energy back. That will be a very good day. Besides all of this, we are excited about having a baby. We were trying to get pregnant. But, even though we really wanted to, when it actually happened, it was an exciting yet nervous moment (kind of an "oh shit, i'm actually pregnant" type moment). It's also quite amusing to me that I put it on my 101 things to do list, and then it happened. Maybe it's all the power of just writing it down. LOL. The other thing I've been experiencing is food aversion. I've found that strong flavors don't agree with me. It's like I've reverted back to childhood and the plain food I used to favor then. Peanut butter and toast are my bestest friends.

So, now that you know the background on the past few weeks, I can fill you in on other things. The week before last was the busiest week I've had in a long time. I had a couple of design projects come in. And, the stock photo agency I work with started doing assignment photography. They had a client that had an office in Tokyo and needed a photographer. So, I sent them my portfolio online and got the job. The catch was, the job was on Friday, and I needed to rent a 12 megapixel camera for the job. Heh. Sounds easy. Most places in Japan won't rent to a foreigner without an application process (that takes a week or two) and without a japanese national to vouch for you. I had my friend Chiemi helping me by calling some places. And for a day or two that week, I thought it wouldn't be possible. Finally though, we found a place that was willing to rent as long as I brought a huge cash deposit. So, Thursday, I went to Tokyo, met my contact at the office I was photographing, and checked out the office (I wanted to make sure I wouldn't need lights). Then I picked up the Nikon D2X. Lovely camera. And all my lenses work with it.

On Friday, unfortunately, it was raining. Which meant I had to keep the camera an extra day and go back on Saturday to shoot the outside of the building. The interior shoot on Friday was fun. It's been a while since I've had a chance to do assigment photography....it was nice to have that challenge again. Of course, by Saturday I was sick of riding the train into town. I'm so glad I don't commute everyday. Luckily, Saturday was a beautiful clear day. I got to Hibiya by 9ish and took my outdoor shots. And then decided to relax a bit. I walked over to Hibiya park and found a place to sit by the pond and read my book and have a snack. Hibiya park is full of all sorts of wildlife.....coy fish, birds, ducks, turtles, and cats. I was happy to see the cats. Very funny to watch them stalking the fish, the birds and the ducks.

mmmmm......fish

Then I made my way to the New Sanno (the DoD hotel in tokyo), and caught the free bus back to Yokota. I couldn't take the camera back until Monday morning, which meant going into town again. Man I was tired of the commute. Denny went back with me on Monday (it was nice to have his company, cause he was gone the whole weekend), and after delivering the camera, we walked around Ginza a bit and had lunch at Zest an American-style southwestern restaurant. We were so impressed, they used large glasses and gave us free refills. A first for us in Japan.

This past week I had two days of weak and dizzy. I did manage to go to my second quilting class on Tuesday night. I've really enjoyed learning how to quilt. We've been learning the log cabin pattern and I'm making a table runner. Our teacher is japanese, and she is sooo talented. I went to her quilt show in Hanno and was very impressed. I need to get those photos posted so I can share.

My unfinished tablerunner. I have to finish the square on the left, and attach it to the other two. Then, at my next class, we'll learn how to add the binding to the edges.

Yesterday, Denny and I went to Ome to help our friend Wakako with her children's culture class. We showed them how to decorate easter eggs. And afterwards, we had an easter egg hunt. The kids had a lot of fun (as did we).

And, I believe that catches me all up. I'll try to update more often.

cold

So, it's been really really cold here this week. I don't have much to tell about, just realized it's been to long since my last posting and I should tell you all what we've been up to. Which is watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. We had planned on doing something this past weekend, Denny had Friday and Monday off so we would have had the time. Instead, we took a little "mini" vacation and didn't do much of anything. We did manage to leave the house on Saturday to go and see Memoirs of a Geisha (called "Sayuri" here in Japan). And we did move around a bit by playing Dance Dance Revolution on our PS2. But mostly, we watched Buffy.

Memoirs of a Geisha was a beautifully done movie. The acting was excellent and the sets and costumes and cinematography really transported you back to pre-WWII Japan (the city they are in is called Miyako, which is another name for Kyoto). If you get a chance to see it, I say go. One thing I couldn't help but notice is a lot of the movie (over the years of a girls life) takes place in the springtime......during cherry blossom season...so that narrows it down to two weeks in the spring. And we only missed a little of the beginning dialogue because it was in japanese and then it switched to english (which my japanese friends in Culture Group think is a bit odd).

It's supposed to snow this weekend, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Should have some new photos posted after the weekend. The english school I teach at is having a New Years party complete with rice-pounding to make traditional new year's mochi.