And one year ago today...

...I was probably peacefully asleep in my comfy Lester Hospital room napping after a visit from Mom, Brent & Jake.  Quinn asleep in the crib next to me.  He'd been born at 2:08am so we spent most of the day asleep.


A year later I spent very little of today asleep...  after a birthday party for both of them last night I probably should have slept all day, but instead enjoyed celebrating C's birthday with her (she was born 3 days before Quinn) and spent the afternoon looking at the gorgeous casual portraits Kim took of us last week.  More on C's party & our portraits a bit later, but here are the pix from our party yesterday and from this morning's (Quinn's actual birth-day) pancake & candle shindig.

First, look at the AWESOME cakes that Jennifer made for us!!!  Click here for Quinn's & Jake's.

Obviously, it was an "AIRPLANE JET!!!" party (requested loudly by Jake) and so other than the requisite decorations from Birthday in a Box, I got little kit airplanes for us to put together and fly with the kids.  I thought you would insert tab A into slot B and that would be that.  Oh no.  It was like a test of physics and DIRECTION FOLLOWING. (Mom, you would have lost.)  I had meant for it to be a fun interactive activity and instead it was moms/dads hunched over all these little pieces of stuff trying to get the darn thing put together.

JennyJeremy ChariseValHeather

But it did eventually work and the kids had fun flying them around for a few minutes before diving back into the bouncy castle.

J & J 2
J & J 2
Gang Planes
Gang Planes
B J PlaneJ PlaneJeremy PlaneA Plane
Then of course the wonderful presents!  The kids have played non-stop since the party!  And while we were opening gifts, Brent started in on the 100+ tortillas he prepared for us for TACOS!!!!!  We went through 6 POUNDS of ground beef (we ran out of Vegeburger about 2 months ago, keep forgetting to reorder) -- gluttons, all.

And finally it was time for CAKE.  Jake's friends donned the "pilot shades" from their goodie bags and sang their little hearts out.
J Jo Cake
J Jo Cake
J Eatin Cake
J Eatin Cake
Quinn was next.  He wasn't too happy at first.  And actually more interested in the airplane than the cake.  And I had to shove the frosting into his mouth to get him interested -- but then he really DUG IN!!  Good job on the sugar, son.
Didn't like that first taste...  but began to change his mind...

Then the sunglasses came out and he had to add them to his photo op!
This morning we had MORE pancakes for Quinn's real birthday.  He tried again to put out the candle with his fingers -- this time he was unfortunately successful..
Q Birthday Day 2
Q Birthday Day 2
So proud of my big boys.  Three and One going on 27.  What a blessing.

3 comments Tags: birthday

He was SPEAKING Japanese!!!!

I was pulling leftovers out of the frig and getting ready for lunch when I overheard Jake in the living room talking to himself....  IN JAPANESE.


I could only pick out a few words here and there. It sounded like something memorized at school -- maybe a prayer??  BUT IT WAS JUST SO COOL!  Couldn't grab the video camera soon enough, but have it sitting out now in case he does it again.

Tomorrow is his last day of Japanese school until September -- so fun that he's already learned so much!

Also wanted to add these pix of the boys in their jinbei's that I got for their birthdays.  Aren't they cute??
And Brent was having fun shooting pix of Jake and trying to get him to smile in his England uniform (given to him by Leslie when he was born -- finally big enough!)...
Love it.

1 comment Tags: japanese, jake, jinbei

Jake's Birthday!

The big cake day is coming up this Friday, but this is how his REAL birthday began:

And Auntie Julie is amazing at always getting boxes to us on time, so Jake got to open something exciting from his cousins!

4 comments Tags: birthday, jake

On this night 3 years ago...

... I'd already been in labor for 2 whole days and had another 24 hours to go.  Sigh.  But it was all worth it.  :)


My Jake will be three entire years old tomorrow.  Sometimes I feel like he's 23.  Like with his latest, "So mom, how was your day?"

And he's been wearing big boy pants for FIFTEEN DAYS!!!  Gorgeous.

It's going to be a rather drawn out birthday celebration.  We'll have the birthday pancakes in the morning and then we're having a family photo session at a local traditional Okinawan village.  Hopefully we'll all be happy and in the mood.

Then next Friday is the big AIRPLANE JET Birthday Party.  I'm not a big fan of the birthday party.  I mean, I'm glad we're having it, but I'm not the most comfortable hostess.  I've gotten the hang of taco night, but much beyond that freaks me out a bit.  But there will be a bouncy castle, so I think that means I just stand around other than that.  The thing I'm most excited about are the cakes a friend of mine is making for us -- kinda 3-D and stuff.  Should be coolio.

Hoping to have some BRENT original photos for you soon.  He's taking a DSLR class and learning to take REAL pix just in time for the breaking of my second camera in 2 months (yes, Quinn again).

Anyways, off to bed.  Happy 7-11.  :)

3 comments Tags: birthday, jake, labor

One of those moments...

...when the heavens seem to open and angels begin to sing as you feel your life infused with meaning and purpose...


At Jake's school, there are bulletin boards that always have the kid's art displayed or other holiday-ish things.  Right now, they each have a star with a long slip of paper attached (almost like a ribbon) where it says what they want to be when they grow up.  The English-speaking parents were asked to write them for our kids.

The conversation went something like this:

Jake, what do you want to be when you grow up?  Blank stare.

You know when you get older and you start going to work like Daddy?  What do you want to do for work?  Stare.

What kind of job do you think you want to do when you get big?  Still staring.

I started to feed him a line about flying airplanes (as that's all he talks about at the moment) and then he interrupted my thought with this sentence:

"I want to grow carrots."


Dum-dum-DUUUUUUUUUUUM!!!!!

Made me one happy hippie momma, I tell ya.

3 comments Tags: hippie, jake

A little B+W

I'm lucky to have some really talented photographer friends on island.  One of them, Aviva, took bunches of pictures of us all while at Meredith's Sayonara coffee get-together a few weeks back.  Just LOVE this one of Quinn & me.

And these, too...
And here's a couple of Meredith & me...
Another in a long line of goodbyes thanks to the good old military...  :)

1 comment Tags: meredith

3 days!

Jake woke up Wednesday morning and announced he wanted to poop on the potty.  So we sat and sat and sat and I missed Stroller Strides and we sat and sat and finally he admitted he was "done" having done nothing.  But when I asked if he wanted to wear "big boy pants" he said yes.  And went three days with only one accident!!!


NEVER something I pictured myself rejoicing about.  How life changes.

But this morning he asked to wear diapers but still told me throughout the day every time he peed.  So we'll try for the underwear again tomorrow.

If this works it will certainly be support for the whole wait-til-the-boy-is-really-ready thing.  :)

1 comment Tags: jake, potty training

No words...

Words are inadequate to describe how I feel at this moment.  Sitting in my living room at 4:45pm on a Thursday surrounded by beauty.  And what I mean by beauty is that I can see ALLLLLL of the floor in every direction.  I mean the entire surface of the couch is clear.  The spaghetti sauce from last night's dinner is no longer smeared all over Quinn's highchair or the space under it.  My kitchen counters are sparkling.  My dishwasher is empty -- AS IS MY SINK.  


I feel peace.  I feel no guilt.  I feel like a good manager of my home.

And I didn't lift a finger.

I really did try.  Occasionally.  After leaving my lovely Kirsty in England (she cleaned for me one day a week) (and btw, she fell in love and moved to Australia and just sent me wedding pix!!!!), I tried to do it myself for a year.  It didn't work.

I'm good at a lot of things.  Cleaning is not one of them.  And I think I'm finally ok with that.  I went through a guilt stage, an I'm-not-a-good-wife stage, the why-am-I-so-lazy-and-unorganized stage, and the I'm-so-embarrassed-that-my-husband-is-having-to-do-laundry-cuz-he's-out-of-underwear stage.  And I'm past them all.

Taba-san came today for the first time.  My mamasan.  And the angels rejoiced and the air swelled with music...

She even did the laundry.  And I have ALREADY put it away.  It's like I'm living in someone else's home.

I hope they stay away for a LOOOONG time.

2 comments Tags: cleaning, mamasan

Bowling

We celebrated Melody's birthday yesterday at the bowling alley.  Jake went when he was just walking in England with Hannah -- but I don't think has been since.  So this was the first REAL bowling experience.  He loved it for about 45 minutes...  after that the video games he pretended to play were more fun.  


Starting with Dad's help...
Hey, where d'it go?
Lemme try it myself.
And carry it myself.
Look at it go...  man, good thing the lane is greased or it would NEVER make it down to the pins...
Does Quinn wanna try?
Oh, and Quinn's learning to kiss finally:
Love those slobbery wide mouthed gifts!!

Post a comment Tags: bowling

Skuut!

I know I posted pix of Jake on his Skuut at the beginning of the year, but at that point he could barely sit on it and touch the ground.  He's grown into it better now and Saturday morning we took it on it's first REAL trip down to the park.  He's doing so great with it!!!  Looks like we may not need training wheels when he gets his first real bike.

**Just have to add a safety note:  We had just stopped to check for cars and the "road" he's crossing is just the driveway/parking area for the 4 mulit-plexes to the right.  I'm not a HORRIBLE mother.  :)

*** And he's got his shoes on the wrong feet -- so it makes him look even more like he's flailing... (He consistently puts them on the wrong feet.  Sigh.)  

2 comments Tags: jake, skuut

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