Superbowl Monday

Some things we did on Scott's day off for the Superbowl.
We made a sort of football field out of masking tape on the ground.
Matthew's making a touchdown in the teeny endzone!

Anna just littered the field with stuff and then laid down in the end zone.

We made little footballs, just like last year.
Anna got really mad about the glue stick - as she does anytime the glue sticks come out.
She wants to eat them. I don't want her to. Therein lies the conflict.
If she had it her way, she would be eating gluesticks 24/7.

After the game we took a walk. The weather was in the 70s. Nice February weather.
Here's Matthew looking down at the seawall jacks.

...and watching some people fish.

Then we played with a ball at the park.

The kids lost interest in the ball pretty quick, but Scott and I had fun kicking it around.
It's nice to have an extra day off once in a while.

Matthew and his tunes

Matthew has this little walkman tape player that my mom sent him a while back. He loves it and calls it his recorder. She also sent him a couple tapes to go with it. He accidentally broke his favorite tape (of Grandma talking to him) so we had to get out another one: an old Brite Music tape of animal songs. He listened to it and listened to it. Then he told me his favorite song was the butterfly song. He was very excited when I showed him we have those tapes on CD, but still preferred to listen on his tape player.

Here he is clapping along to the music. He started clapping and told us, "this is how Grandpa Guptill claps...like this." Not sure what that means.

Later he just sacked out on the couch, still happily listening to his tunes. I'm glad he likes the music. I guess I should eventually get him something else to listen to his music like a MP3 player, but he really loves taking the tapes in and out and rewinding (remember that?), so why mess with a good thing, right?

A Major Deal

I was sitting at home with this kids this afternoon when the phone rang. It was our commander's wife.

Her: Can you get to the squadron in 15 / 20 minutes?
Me: (puzzled) Uh...yes (even though it takes about 15 minutes just to drive it)
Her: Ok, hurry... (pause) ...and don't tell Scott you're coming in.
Me: Ok (?!)

I told the kids to put their shoes on while I searched for a not so snotty shirt to wear (I'd gotten a few nose wipe hugs earlier) and we were out the door. We made it to the squadron in 20 minutes and found the commander who quickly ushered us into a corner.
They were about to have a hall call and our commander got up and started making the announcements which included this...

CO: Captain Guptill can you come up here please?
(Scott comes up without seeing us hiding in the corner)
CO: We just found out that Captain Guptill has been selected for Major!! (that's means a promotion to the next rank up for those of you non-military speakers)

Great applause follows, at which point Matthew can't contain himself and goes running out of his hiding place to give Scott a big hug. Scott was surprised to see him, and the rest of us. The squadron had a little cake for him, which I didn't get a picture of. I left in such a hurry I forgot my camera. They also gave him some of his new rank, which he actually doesn't get to pin on for many months. But he's been selected, so we're excited about it! Good work Scott!!

I also learned a lesson today. When you know your husband is up for a promotion you should always leave a bag packed at the front door...a bag with your camera in it. And don't sit around the house in a schnozzy shirt with your hair unwashed...'cause that's the day when you are going to get that call. :)

Sesame Street Live

We went to see a free Sesame Street Live show on base this weekend sponsored by the USO. The line to get in was the longest I've ever seen at the base theater, all the way around the building and almost down to Douglas Blvd - yes, even longer than Twilight or Batman. Luckily for us, Scott volunteered to help them set up the day before so we got to go in first with the other volunteers and didn't have to wait in line. Scott was the hero of the day in my book! All the kids got free Sesame Street swag, including this light up spinning Elmo toy. It was a big hit!

Anna is mesmerized by hers.

Posing as a few characters while we wait.

The stage was all set before the performance. For some reason Matthew was very worried about them opening the curtains (I don't like it if Elmo opens the curtains!), so he was happy to see that the curtains were already open when we got there.

The show was short and sweet - lots of singing and dancing. The kids liked it I think.
Of course, Elmo was the big star!!

Some of the characters came down to shake hands with the kids. This is how close I was to cookie monster while he shook Matthew's hand. Anna was a quite alarmed when he came down to say hi to her. He was big!!

Matthew got to shake hands with Elmo at the end of the show. My camera was having trouble focusing in the dark, so I missed getting him actually saying hi to Elmo, but you get the idea. Matthew got to be the first one to shake Elmo's hand since we were sitting in the front. It was very exciting for all of us!

Here's Anna after the show (and after naptime - notice the amazing post naptime hair) playing with her Elmo toy. The batteries are nearly dead now, so I will have to open it up to see if they have replaceable batteries. Fun! It was so nice that the USO arranged to have the free Sesame Street show plus the free goodies! We had a great time!

Family Resemblance?

Here are Matthew and Scott at about the same age.
Scott's a little blurry 'cause I zoomed in on his picture a bit.
I used to wonder where Matthew's light hair comes from, and now we know.
See Anna and I at the same age HERE.

Storytime with Matthew

Matthew has a few favorite books, and some of them he has memorized. He will sit with his favorite books and recite them, as best as he can remember. Anna has even started doing this too, to some extent ("and Max said, BE STILL...and my wild things rolled their terrbull eyes").
One of Matthew's favorite stories is called The New Baby by Mercer Mayer. I got it for him a few months before Anna was born hoping it would help him get used to the idea of having a little sibling. Well, it's still one of his favorite books, and although I know some of you have already seen Matthew "read" this book, here it is again. This video is from last month, so its a little old. Incidentally the last line of this story is "They think I'm so lucky" (not yucky).

Random Matthew-ness

It's the age I guess, but Matthew says so many things that make me laugh. Here are a few recent ones. Warning: they may only be funny to me.


While playing dress up and wearing a doctor outfit
Me: Matthew, would you like a diaper change and your fingernails clipped.
Matthew: Mommy, I'm a doctor Matthew. I don't get my diaper changed or finger nails clipped. (pause) I'm going to look in your ears.

After Matthew found out at the dentist that the water we give him has fluoride in it, "I don't like water with vitamins in it."

While trying to dress himself and having a little trouble, "Where ARE you, sleeve?"

"When you get to Louisiana, then you should take the banjo OFF, because it hurts."
A reference to Oh Susanna and band-aids vs. banjos, at least as far as I can tell.

To be a bug

Last night after dinner Anna announced out of the blue, "I'm a bee!"

Anna: Bzzzzzzzzz I'm a bee!!
Matthew (not to be outdone): I'm a bee! Bzzzzzzzz
(after a few minutes of buzzing)
Matthew: I'm a bee, but I'm a nice bee. I don't sting. I don't even have a stinger 'cause I'm a different kind of bee. I'm a Hawaiian bee. I just have a stinger on my leg, but I don't sting because I'm a nice bee.
Anna: I'm a bee!!

This morning after breakfast Anna again announced that she was a bee and I tried to get some video of some of her bee antics. This is the best I got.




Matthew also wanted to be interviewed. This morning he told us he was a fly. Here is his fly interview. I put in some subtitles in case its too hard to understand him over Anna's shrieking.

The new blanket

I bought this fabric in Rhode Island and put the blanket together while I was there. I didn't get around to finishing the edges and my mom did that for me after we left and then sent the finished blanket to us a few days ago. The kids were so excited to get it and really liked trying to find Okinawa (which isn't there) on the map. We asked Matthew where we should live next and he pointed to Alaska (NOOOOO!!!) so I hope he doesn't know something that we don't.

On one side is a world map and on the other side is a US map.
Matthew was really studying the US map carefully. We found where all of our relatives live. Thanks mom for finishing the blanket and sending it to us!!

And somehow things evolved into Scott getting a kid induced core workout. They were having so much fun. At least the kids were.

Neo Park

We took the kids to Neo Park this weekend. It's a little park up north with different birds and animals that you can feed. The kids had a great time. Here they are feeding some birds in the Amazon region. They were both brave enough to let the birds eat right out of their hands even though some of the birds were taller than the kids.

Here we are checking out some flamingos.

In the community farm area they got to feed doggy treats to these little dogs. Matthew absolutely loved it! He ran around making sure all the dogs had a treat. Anna was more skittish. She fed a few of the dogs, but wanted to stay close to mom.

The dogs all crowded around for a snack, but Matthew didn't mind.

He was having a great time.

He even wanted to feed this dog who was napping alone in a corner. The other dogs followed him over. I'm not sure the sleeping dog appreciated it, but it was cute.

Matthew and Anna (but mostly Matthew) fed the goats some carrots.

And Matthew found a favorite dog who he stayed with and petted for a long time.

We saw lots of kangaroos

And got to ride some bumper cars. Matthew drove his all by himself.

Here he is coming to ram us!

At the end we took a train ride around the park. When we got home Anna cried, stood by the door and said she wanted to go on a "venture" to feed the "amimals" again. I think that means she had a good time. Here you can read about our first trip to Neo Park.

Nothing to see here...

We've had a low key week. Matthew has been sick all week and we've been hanging out at home. Here are some pictures from our non-exciting week.
The kids like to play dress up. Here's Anna dressing up as a fireman. This is her trying to smile.

Matthew dressed up as a bee.

...and a doctor. Too bad he can't diagnose his own illness.

Scott reads the kids a story.

Just Anna looking cute.

We played with puzzles.

It was a lot of fun while it lasted.

There were even some nice moments of playing together.
The good news is that Matthew is getting better. The bad news is that Anna has started acting sick. We'll have to see how that pans out.

New Years Eve

We just stayed at home this New Years Eve. It was fun.

We got to skype with the Guptill grandparents.

And Matthew and Anna had a fun time with these "sound makers."

See how much fun??

We had a little family party which involved having cheese fondue for dinner (a new tradition for us), playing Candy Land with the kids and then playing Beatles Rock Band.

We had the kids get their musical instruments out and play along with Scott and I on guitar. Anna and Matthew loved it and danced around wildly to the music. Here Anna is crying because we wouldn't give her more M&Ms. But mostly she had fun.

We counted down the New Year for the kids at about 8pm Japan time and then put them to bed. It was probably our funnest family party yet. ;) Maybe next year we'll invite other people.