blatant random silliness

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.

Blogged with Flock

moving

They came on January 23rd and 24th and took all of our stuff.  Luckily, there are some good services on base to get us through the month. We've borrowed some furniture from the Furniture Management Office and kitchen things from the Airmen and Family Readiness Center.  We are all sleeping on air mattresses and doing lots of laundry until we fly away on February 23rd. 

Our friend upstairs, Yolonda (whose son Jack is a couple of months younger than Dylan), offered to watch Dylan on our moving days.  This worked out really well as I could just hop on the elevator when Dylan needed me. Dylan started saying "ja" for Jack. 

Dylan chases Jack around. 

It was so nice afterwards to fall back into our normal routine of things.  It took a few days for Dylan to "adjust" (he woke up really early for a couple of days).

After the first day of moving, Dylan was very happy to come home to Daddy's shoes...so happy in fact that he actually kissed them.  We're not sure what kind of crazy phermones Denny's feet put out, but Dylan really loves those shoes.

Dylan happily dove into this air mattress when he saw it.  He loves jumping on pillows and the air mattress is basically a bit pillow.  He and Denny had fun "wrestling" on the mattress.

Our friend Meghan brough over enchiladas for dinner the night all our stuff left.  Her kids had fun playing in our big empty room (hey, I always said I wanted more space).

Here's the way our apartment looks now.

Blogged with Flock

wow...we are really going

oh my goodness. I haven't posted in awhile because it's just been tooo crazy. We moved out of our house a week and a half ago, been transient and homeless, flitting from my client's office...to the hotel...to my mom's house and trying to get work done...talking to her now on the phone.

we've had a smooth day...complete with massages....good food (flying biscuit and the vortex) and good company (jello and dunc). And now we wait for our flight to Seattle to board...which will happen soon so I'll post more later.

sayonara!