Anna vs. Nursery

We had a nursery breakthrough.

Anna and Matthew both go to the nursery at our church and have never made it through the whole time without either Scott or I being there. At least not in Okinawa.
After much deliberation, I decided to just take Matthew to class with me. I had a feeling Anna would be ok if Matthew wasn't in there freaking out all the time.
This week was Anna's second time without Matthew and she made it all the way through with minimal sadness. She was happy and participating when we peeked in on her. Hooray!
Sunday afternoon after church Anna was happily singing songs from nursery and had this to say...

"I like [the nursery leader].
She reads me a book and she *wipes my nose."

*For the record, she wasn't sick...the nose wipe was required after a little crying at the beginning.

And as for Matthew, he sat quietly by me in class, didn't ask for toys or snacks and was very happy to not be in the nursery. Go figure. I'm hoping he thinks class is boring after a while and wants to go back, but we'll see.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what it looks like when you put pigtails on a moving object, it looks like this.

I know they're crooked, but I thought I did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

Kurashiki Dam

We took a little trip this weekend to Kurashiki Dam. I've been wanting to go there 'cause they have a little swim area for kids. It was rainy and misty today and the swimming area was closed, but we still wanted to check it out. Here's Scott looking down at the reservoir. I thought it was really pretty!

Matthew was super excited to be there. He RAN all around.

Matthew looks at the dam

A floating walkway - Matthew wanted to go out on it.

Matthew right before he RAN up a big hill. Earlier in the day, Scott and I ran a hilly trail while pushing the kids in the jogger stroller (while Scott pushed them I mean) and Matthew was dying to get out and run with us. We didn't let him then, 'cause it was raining, so he was happy to get a chance to run up these hills. He ran all the way up too!

No matter where you are in Okinawa, you are never far from the jungle...and the snakes. Here's one of many snake warning signs we saw at the dam. At least I think that's what it is. Scott thought this snake looked too friendly. Matthew thought it looked like the letter N.

Anna liked walking around even though it was very windy. She was excited to see all the pigeons, which she called ducks.

We drove across the dam before we left.

After our trip to the dam we went out for Chinese food. Yum.

And took a little ride in a car by the restaurant. We got a lot done for a rainy misty day.

Dancin' Machine

We went to Kiddie Disco night at one of the clubs on base. I wasn't sure if it would be age appropriate, but the kids had a lot of fun. They had a couple buffet lines of food. One was at regular adult height and the other, complete with kid food like macaroni and cheese, hamburgers and spaghetti, was at child height. Very nice touch. We tried eating first, but the kids were just too excited to eat. Out on the dance floor other kids were dancing and there was a big bounce house.

Finally Matthew got to head over to the dance floor...and he really got his groove on. He was all over the place dancing up a storm. He even tried to do the Macarena. I was surprised he was so into it.

Anna ventured out there too. She mostly just stood in one place instead of running all around.

They both got plenty of dancing in.

They both had several turns in the bounce house too. Anna got bonked on her way out one time and needed a little Daddy snuggle.

After dancing we had a little dessert. Matthew picked cake and Anna got ice cream. Then Anna got mad 'cause I ate some of her ice cream and threw a full blown tantrum, so that was the end of our night. We still had fun and we might even go do it again on the next Kiddie Disco night.

Taking Care of Daddy

Scott has a tendency to fall asleep on the couch - it might be hereditary. ;) Last weekend he fell asleep and Anna wanted to make sure he was comfortable. She brought him the special duck blanket and put pillows all around him so he would be able to have a nice nap.

He napped for a long time without waking up, so Anna must have done a good job. If only the kids napped as well. Here she is bringing Matthew some blankets.

Hija River

The weather for our Memorial Day weekend was disappointing. So far we've had rain, rain, rain. Friday Scott had the day off work and we had a little break in the rain so we took a walk along the Hija River near our house. We started our walk at the red bridge. I'm not sure what it's really called but that's what we Americans call it. Scott pushed the kids in the jogger stroller. Good man!

We walked along a walkway by the river a little way and saw some kayakers out for a paddle.

It's very jungly along the river. And so many bugs. We saw a lot of warnings to watch for snakes. Yikes! There were also a lot of tombs tucked here and there along the river. It was a nice walk and it didn't even rain on us.

Back at the red bridge Anna was getting sleepy. I think she fell asleep eating a granola bar...and I think Matthew wants that granola bar.

Swimming time

I haven't been blogging much lately 'cause nothing remotely exciting is going on. Here's some of that non-excitement.

We got a bigger inflatable pool for the balcony this year. I finally blew it up so the kids could play. It's starting to get warmer. It was overcast this day, but still muggy and over 80. And it only gets hotter from here.

Matthew wanted me to take a picture of him sliding on his belly. He never really committed to the belly sliding, but he liked posing for the pictures.

Anna wanted to get in on some of the picture taking too.

A little bird landed on the building next door and the kids were trying to coax him over by yelling, "COME HERE BIRD!!" at full volume. That didn't work, but when we left a few pretzel crumbs on the wall he came over for a visit.

Anna watches the bird too. After she saw the bird liked the pretzels, she kept asking for more pretzels and then chucking them over the balcony. We stopped giving her pretzels after that.

Sushi-go-round

Saturday for dinner we went to a sushi-go-round restaurant. It's a kind of restaurant where little plates of sushi and other little Japanese bites go around on a conveyor belt. You take the plates you want and they tally up your plates at the end to figure your bill. I know they have these in the states, but I've never been to one before, so it was lots of fun for me. The kids loved it too. Matthew wanted to pull anything off the conveyor belt that had a flag on it. He and Anna both loved the egg on rice and the shrimp tempura. They watched and watched to see if any more shrimp would come by that they could snatch.

There's the conveyor belt going by. I was nervous to eat there because I imagined it would be all bar type seating which could be a pain with the kids, but they had booths and tables too and still right next to that conveyor belt. Nice.

My first pick was this. It looked good and it wasn't until after I picked it up that Scott told me it was eel. I ate it anyway, and it was very good. I tried a few other things without being able to tell what they were, so I was proud of myself for that. I definitely want to go back!

Anna's Story

Anna let me record her reading Green Eggs and Ham, one of her favorite stories. She really condensed the story, but I think she still caught its essence.

The family that rocks together

For our Family Night activity tonight we let the kids play a few songs on Beatles Rock Band. Matthew has always been very interested in the guitars for the game, so we finally let them play a little bit. We played Yellow Submarine and Twist and Shout. I think they liked it.

Scott helped them get set up.

And I think he helped Anna play a little bit.

She was kind of perplexed by the whole thing.

I sang for our two songs and afterward Matthew wanted to try singing too. He ran around with the microphone singing Yellow Submarine. Anna really liked his singing and kept clapping along. They did a great job! He's already asking when we can do it again.

Obstacles

We have a big wooden sliding door in our living room that separates the entry way and stairs from the living room. Anna thinks she should go out there all the time and play with shoes or go up the stairs. I don't want her to go out there for many reasons, the main one being her own safety. We have a daily battle of wills about it and she does not give up. We've tried some different ways to "lock" the door with varying levels of success.

Our door.
It's big, like a sliding wall.

Our first attempt, back when Matthew was small. We bought a lock that adheres to the wall. It worked until Matthew got too strong and ripped the lock off the wall with the wallpaper. Fail.

A recent idea of mine: using this bouncy ball as a wedge. It was very effective at preventing Anna from opening the door for about two days. Then she realized the ball was the obstruction and that, with a little elbow grease, she could pull it out. Fail.

I also tried putting the chair in front of the door. That didn't work 'cause Anna can shove the big chair around too easily. So strong. Fail. Here she is a few days ago - she fell asleep while trying to shove the chair out of the way. She also threw all the clean laundry on the floor in an act of defiance.

This was Scott's idea: the lid of a big plastic container wedged between the door and the wall. Anna has figured out what the obstruction is, but she can't reach it. So far its working.

Anna does not give up easily, so we'll see how it goes.
She's probably hatching some kind of new escape plan right now.

Happy Mother's Day

I didn't feel like the greatest mom today 'cause both of my kids had meltdowns in the nursery at church. BLA!! But after church the kids took a long nap which was great.
When they got up from the nap, Matthew and Anna were waiting upstairs behind the baby gate and Matthew said this:

Matthew: Mom, can you take the baby gate down and then go downstairs?
Me: You want to come downstairs by yourself?
Matthew: Anna is going to be my mommy.

Then they walked down the stairs hand in hand. I'm glad to see Anna has this parenting thing under control.
Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Fashion!

Anna and Matthew got a few new clothes in the mail today and we had a little fashion show.

Matthew just got a shirt...and that's all he wore. Should have ordered pants.
He liked his number three shirt though and he looked great!

This is what Anna did when I told her to put her hands on her hips.

I tried to show her how to do hands-on-hips and she did this.

Even with the crazy glasses and creative posing, she still looked fabulous!