Happy Birthday Matthew!

Yesterday Matthew turned three. I should probably say something like, I can't believe its been three years, but it feels like so much has happened since he was born. Here he is showing off his 3 shirt and his three (or six) fingers.

And here he is on his 0th, 1st and 2nd birthdays.
How things change.

Scott made him special waffles for his breakfast. He was excited.

Here he is enjoying a special birthday shake at Chili's. This was during our tsunami evacuation so we had lunch on base. The Chili's crew brought Matthew a birthday shake and sang to him. He didn't quite know what to think about it while they were singing and clapping, but afterwards he giggled and squealed about it. "They said, Happy Happy Birthday to ME!!!" Later in the meal when they sang for someone else, he was also tickled. We didn't ask him to pose doing his "I'm three" gang signs, that was his own doing.

Here he is with some birthday balloons

And his birthday cake...a Matthew favorite.

He requested smoothies for dinner. Scott had the kids help make the smoothies. They did a good job.

Matthew was really excited about his cake.

And blowing out the candles.

Anna enjoyed the cake too

It was a fun birthday!!

Trip to Wago Land

We took the kids to Wago Land (an indoor play place) this weekend in honor of Matthew's birthday. Hardly anyone was there so the kids had their run of the place. They loved it after being cooped up all week. See another Wago Land trip HERE.

Bounce house

The room of flying balloons!
It's hard to get a good picture in there.

Riding this big spinning thing?

Some down time on the trampoline

Riding toys

Down time in the inflatable tube

Matthew's favorite - the zip line. He has never been big enough to do this on his own before. But he could do it this time and he loved it. He did it over and over and wanted me to take pictures of him each time.

Riding in the truck. All the little coin op rides and games are free with the admission price. Fun.

Playing the taiko drum game. Scott and I started out playing together, but Matthew took over for me so I could run after Anna. I tried to get Matthew to take a picture of Scott and I playing but it didn't turn out so well. That's what happens when your photographer is three feet tall. We had fun.

Our Sick Week

Last week the kids and I were sick with colds, pretty much all week. I was pretty miserable for a few days there, but am feeling a lot better now. I felt like a terrible mom since I was just laying on the couch most of the day all week. Anna would cry at me and say, "Don't sleep mommy!" And Matthew would say, "Mommy, I'm going to be the Holy Ghost (a church reference he just learned) so I will make you feel better and not be sick." He's so sweet.
Scott was a little sick but still had to go to work. Things at his office, just like most places in the military these days are stretched very thin by all the deployments. Poor Scott. He's very stressed.
We played outside on the balcony a little bit during the week, 'cause they were getting a little stir crazy in the house. Here's Anna playing with some sidewalk chalk and bubbles from an automatic bubble machine we recently bought. Great investment!!

Playing with the water table. They love it.

Matthew loves throwing the water.

I was getting desperate for indoor entertainment. Here's Matthew playing with some pegs inside. I just like the picture.

Another day on the balcony. I laid in a chair with a box of tissues while they played. It was a survival mode week.

There's the ocean from our balcony. Someday I hope to feel well enough to go there in person.

Tsunami Update - All Clear

We got the all clear to go back to our house at about 5pm this afternoon. They evacuated our whole neighborhood and we had to wait in a little bit of traffic to get back (city workers were controlling traffic access to the ocean in our neighborhood) but it looks like there was no damage. I don't think the swells even breached the seawall. We live on the China side of Okinawa and the waves were supposed to be coming from the pacific side (the other side) so maybe there were bigger waves over there. I don't know. We also have a large reinforced seawall lining the ocean by our house, so that made me feel a lot more protected. I haven't heard of any damage on the island yet, but its better to be safe than sorry.
We just hung out on base for a few hours during the evacuation. Aside from the kids not getting a very good nap, it wasn't that big of a deal. More details from our exciting day to come, complete with Matthew's third birthday celebration.

Okinawa Tsunami Evacuation

We got a call this morning that we need to evacuate from our house this afternoon because of a tsunami warning caused by the 8.8 earthquake in Chile yesterday. We are supposed to go to the base since the base is on higher ground. We live a half block from the ocean and were told that we can stay here if we're on the 3rd floor or higher. Our house is only two stories so we will be evacuating. I don't think the tsunami is going to be too bad here, but we still have to evacuate and its kind of a bummer to have to go hang out on base for three hours, especially since today is Matthew's birthday and we had a few special festivities at home planned. Oh well. We'll let you know how things turn out!

Earthquake in Okinawa

This morning at about 5:30 in the morning we woke up to a pretty good sized earthquake. We didn't have any damage, just a good shake. The kids didn't even wake up. I was guessing it was about a high 5 or something on the richter scale (using my California honed earthquake gauging skills) but the news this morning says it was a 7.0 and centered 50 miles off the southern coast of Okinawa. All morning we've been hearing loudspeaker announcements that I think are beach evacuation notices (we live right by the water) so they're preparing in case there is a tsunami. Hopefully there isn't. Okinawa seems to be pretty well equipped for earthquakes, typhoons and tsunamis. So we're thinking we're ok. The news says a tsunami isn't likely so that's good.
We've had a few other earthquakes while we've been living here, but this is the biggest one yet. Anyway, in the states its probably not even on the news...I know the northeast is getting pounded by snow again (hang in there mom and dad!) but we're fine here.

What do little boys need?

Matthew has a beloved blue tape measure - the kind that retracts with the push of a button. We got it at the 100 Yen store a while ago. And also a while ago he got his blue tape measure taken away because he and Anna were bonking each other on the heads with them (Anna has a pink one).

On occasion he will ask for his tape measure back. Today he asked again several times and I said no. Then he said this...

"Mom, I tell you what. Sometimes boys need their blue tape measures."

It made me laugh so much that I relented and gave them their tape measures back as long as they committed to no head bonking. So far, so good.

Delicious, delicious potato

DISCLAIMER: This picture has pretty much nothing to do with this post, except that it's the only documented evidence (I think) that I have of any of my children (Matthew at 13 months) eating potatoes. I really feel like a failure to my Idaho heritage here, but I'm still working on it. Commence post...

Scott is very smart. And I think our children might take after him.

For most of the time we've lived here I've been hearing a truck with a loudspeaker come by every few days around 2 or 3pm loudly saying something (via loudspeaker) that sounds like "AHHH DEEE DOOOOH" in a sing song voice. I could never figure out what the truck was saying or what it was all about.

Usually I don't get to see the truck 'cause I'm upstairs with the kids at that time, but a few weeks ago it came by later than usual and the kids and I all rushed to see the mystery truck. Seeing the truck gave me no additional clues as to what it was about, except that it looked like it was selling food.

I figured I had no chance of figuring it out, short of walking out and trying to buy some of whatever it was, but I was too chicken for that. I knew however, that Scott would probably be able to figure it out immediately if only he could see or hear it. Unfortunately the truck always came by while he was at work. Until yesterday...

As we were coming home from the store yesterday (Saturday) and driving into our driveway I heard the sound..."AHHH DEEE DOOOOH." We quickly got out hoping for a chance to see the illusive vehicle. Scott saw it turning the corner...and quickly recognized some of the other chatter from the truck loudspeaker to be, "oishi oishi imo" or delicious, delicious POTATO!!

Immediately I felt like I should have been able to figure that out. I know they sell roasted potatoes on the street here and I even know the term for it. YAKI IMO!! So what I was hearing every day was "YAAAAA KEEEEEE MOOOOOH." (grilled or roasted potato) followed by "oishi oishi imo."

Like I said, Scott is smart. He's very good at context clues and he also knows some Japanese. I was right. He figured it out in about two seconds. Now I know what it is and maybe I'll even run out and buy one next time they come by.

On a sort of related note...today while the kids were waiting for us to finish making dinner, Anna, who is 18 months old, was running around saying this,
"Ash-ta ten-kee-nee nah-ray" over and over.
What was she saying!! I couldn't figure it out. But she was very definite about it and kept repeating it.
Then I remembered...
Ashita tenkini nare - "may it be fine tomorrow" in Japanese.
The phrase is from a children's book we've been reading a lot lately, A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno. How did she remember that big phrase? and in Japanese! Kids learn things so easily and I think she must take after her dad a little bit!

Our little smarty pants.
This picture also has nothing to do with this post except that it's of Anna.

I must be getting desperate for pictures.

Our Valentine's Day

We had a nice Valentine's Day this year. Here are a few of our adventures.
Matthew admires the beautiful Valentine's Day flowers Scott brought me.

We made some sugar cookie hearts. Some of them even looked like hearts! Success!!
Here they are waiting to be baked. We had to do many batches since we have a tiny oven.

Matthew liked playing with the cookies cutters while he waited.

We decorated the cookies - which just involved a lot of candy eating.

Matthew kept asking me what each little conversation heart said and squealed with delight each time I told him.

Scott and I decorated these cookies that were stuck together. Pretty nice, huh!

The kids enjoyed playing with their Valentine's Day gift - a heart shaped pez dispenser.

Here's Anna delivering part of Scott's Valentine's Day gift - some candies. They were heavy, but she was tough about it.

She didn't give up til she had made her deliveries.

I had big plans to make a nice dinner for Scott, but I was feeling really sick that day, so Scott made, on the fly, this very nice dinner of heart waffles from scratch. It was so fun I think it might become a Guptill family tradition. Needless to say the kids LOVED it. Scott, you're awesome!

We definitely had some good family fun this year.

First day in nursery

Anna just turned 18 months old this week, so today was her first day in the nursery at our church. Matthew is not yet 3, so he's still in the nursery too and now they get to go together. Matthew often has a hard time in nursery, so I thought maybe he would like it a little more if Anna was there. He made it longer than usual before he got sad today. When I checked on him part way through he was crying and Anna was sitting calmly next to him. I came in to comfort him for a while and then left again for a few minutes. When I came back the second time, Matthew was crying and Anna was sitting by him, calm and patting him on the back for comfort.

Here's Matthew's summation of how Anna's first day went:
Anna was a little bit sad, but I was all the way sad!

Maybe Anna will be ok in nursery. Now we just need to help Matthew feel more comfortable.

Is "World's Best Daddy" a job?

This picture is a month or so old, but I just like it. Scott is such a great dad and he doesn't even mind when he gets attacked at the end of a long day of work. Here are a few more pictures of Scott and the kids.

The do sort of attack him.

But he can hold his own.

And give dual airplane rides.

And he also does the hard jobs, endless laundry, dishes, cleaning, teeth brushing, stories and the occasional nose bulbing.

More playing...

The kids love to play with him.

Daddies just seem to have superpowers, especially this one. You're the best Scott!!