While I wait/procrastinate . . .

Right now Andelynn is sleeping after getting her 4 month shots yesterday and the wool sweater I am knitting for Christmas is soaking, so I shall take a moment to blog.  I should probably be packing for our 4-week trip, or ironing out the last few details for my Christmas program Sunday . . . but I'm feeling overwhelmed by both of those tasks.  Looking at pictures is much easier.  Here's a photo series Vivien took of her room on my phone.

She's been sleeping in her nest a lot lately.  I think it's because she spends the hour and a half from when we put her to bed to when she finally falls asleep playing musical beds between her own, the nest, our bed, and the floor.  On the plus side, she's sleeping in till past 8!

The doll house has been out for 2 weeks now . . . I've been using every available moment to knit and have slacked on my toy rotating.  Luckily they really like to play with those bungee cords, so they're not upset by my inattention.  Vivien made a swing out of them the other day and told Rafe he couldn't ride on it because it was only for one-year-olds.  Then after he cried for 10 minutes she announced it was now for two-year-olds as well.  He stopped crying, and tried it out.  I wish I could teach them that they don't have to believe/do everything they're told by their peers, but still do everything I tell them to do.  

Put on your Sunday clothes . . .

I really love this doll house.  The bright colors make me Hape.  (That was a little pun, see?  Cause the company who made it is Hape, which is said ha-PAY.  Ha ha ha)

I think Rafe is getting a drink from the doll shower.  

Alright.  Enough Vivien photography.  I got to go to the temple this month!  Drew stayed home with all the babies and I drove down with my friends Rebecca White (the Relief Society president) and Annie Billings (the Primary President) for the branch temple trip.  Annie's got a 6 month old, so we both brought our breast pumps and had periodic pumping parties and lamented over the reports from our husbands of how poorly the babies took bottles while we were gone.  Drew ended up feeding Andelynn by syringe so she wouldn't die of dehydration during my 12 hour absence.  

A woman who was visiting from Snowflake, AZ took pictures for us.  It is a small Mormon world!  They gave us all headphones with the English track for the session, but most of us ended up just reading the English subtitles because it was too much noise to hear the English and Japanese filtering through at the same time.  I sat next to an older Japanese woman during the session who informed me in a whisper while we were waiting at the veil that the rest of the session would all be in Japanese.  I spent a moment looking concerned, then she winked at me and said, "Just kidding!"  I gave her a hard time for giving me a hard time in the dressing room afterwards.  She learned English on her mission in Kobe, Japan because she had all American companions.  She had twinkly eyes.  I hope I can be a happy old lady.

Ii-eh-su Ku-rii-su-toh

We had the Billings over for our Second Thanksgiving feast.  I love Second Thanksgiving.  There's no pressure, because it's not the actual holiday.  And, if you messed up the stuff you made on actual Thanksgiving, you get a chance for redemption!  With our combined families there were 8 little kids and 4 adults, so I just put some collapsed folding tables on the floor and we all sat around them on towels.  It was fun!  We succeeded in working the kids into a considerable state of excitement by the end of the night.  Rafe's cheeks were red from playful exertion.  I love it when that happens.

Don't worry.  I put a tablecloth down before we actually ate off the tables.

One of the nights when Drew was on duty we got ready for bed then went to say goodnight to him by way of the base Christmas tree.  Vivien had been asking to go see it for days (she can see it from her bedroom window when she's busy not sleeping).  When we got there all she really wanted to do was climb up trees.  But not down. She had to be rescued like a stranded kitten from each tree she scaled.  Still, it was fun to listen to Christmas music in the car and walk through Christmas lights at night.

It's Mt Fuji.

We got our Christmas lights up too!

Some Individual Updates:

Rafe

Oh, this little boy.  He is such a 2 and a half year old.  His emerging independence is manifesting itself in eating battles right now.  It takes 10-30 minutes to convince him to eat any meals.  And he's usually wailing loudly, throwing things and himself, or making some variation of this face:

If I try to bring him to the table, he flails at the food and upsets dishes.

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Eventually he will come to the table on his own.  But he won't be happy about it.  There will be lots of disliking of the food and wishing for other food that isn't being served, especially candy.  I tried to have a conversation about eating food that is good for our body with him, but it backfired:

The kicker is, when he finally sits down and stops throwing a tantrum, he will often eat all of the food he had been railing against.  I hope we can move through this unpleasant phase quickly . . .

 I did figure out a way to keep him in his room a little bit longer in the mornings.  It works about 50% of the time.  I had not put toys in there previously because he was just playing with them during nap time.  But, since naps aren't happening anymore, I just tuck a box in there by his bed and he'll flip on his light and entertain himself for awhile when he wakes up.  And then we get to sleep until the clock says 6.  Happy dance.

He's had some great quotes this week.

Sinister ABC's:

"Now I know my ABC's.  Next time you won't sing with me."

Rafe: I want to touch your phone.

Me: No.

Rafe: You make my feelings cry!

I'm having the congregation sing a Hymnplicity arrangement of With Wondering Awe for the Christmas program so we've been singing it for our practice hymn the last few weeks after sacrament meeting.  I caught Rafe walking around the house chanting: "Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to my name."

Vivien

The other day at dinner Vivien ate like half a honeydew in one sitting.  Directly after setting her final rind atop the huge pile of them on her place mat, she groaned and said "I need to go squish my tummy."  She then proceeded to lay on the floor like this and pass gas sporadically, loudly, and unashamedly for the next several minutes.  

We got a package from Aunt Heather this week and inside were these darling Disney princess peg dolls she had cleverly painted.  The kids LOVED them and spent all day dividing them up between themselves in various combinations.

Vivi got a mosquito bite on her eyelid.  I need to hang up the mosquito net we ordered above her bed. She reacts so strongly to their bites!

Here she is eating udon noodles in her parka, scarf, and . . . shorts.

She's a funny girl.  Sometimes she'll come up to me and ask me something, and if I say yes, she'll say "Yay." It's in this super bored voice, like when you're working next to someone and ask them to hand you the stapler and they do and you say "thanks" without looking at them.  I also like how sometimes she dots her eyes on opposite ends of the lines.  They remind me of Spanish exclamation points.  This was on the back of an "egg" that she colored, cut out, and delivered to her friends all by herself.

Here's some Engrish from her Christmas youchien bag, for fun.

Andelynn

Beautiful baby, with dimply hands.  (This sleeping situation is not approved by the AAP)

Cute jammies from cousin Rebecca.

She learned to roll.  Sometimes she can get that arm out from under her.  Most times she gets stuck and mad.

And here is our mosquito prevention for her.

Lastly, I bought some caterpillary lettuce from the produce stand right out the main gate several weeks ago, and Drew has been collecting and feeding them.  One of them "hatched" this week.  Here is the cocoon . . .

And here is the newborn.  We released him into the wild!

There is one more in there that just barely decided to make his cocoon.  He'd been getting fatter and fatter, to the point where he could hardly drag around his gorged, green midsection, and somehow he heaved himself up onto a branch and encased himself.  He had beetle-black little legs and evil looking black eye markings and his cocoon was green but hardened into an inky black shell.  I start getting the heebie jeebies every time I look at or think about him.  I'm afraid we'll miss his hatching, because we're going to Utah on MONDAY!!!  We'll have to find someone to release him once he transforms, or I fear we may return to find he's claimed our apartment as his lair . . .

A date!

We begin with Annie's squishiness.  Pre-bath . . .

 . . . and post-bath.  She has started rolling onto her side to look at things, and is getting more and more control over her hands every day.  I love baby shapes. I keep feeling like I should apologize for all the neked pictures, but I'm not sorry for taking them; I want to remember this little body! 

 We're getting a little better at tummy time.

It always helps to get those arms up for support.

 Annie had a couple of firsts this week.  She took her first ride in a swing.  Drew said she was ambivalent.

How about I chew . . . on my fist!

 And she went for her first swim in a pool.  It was pretty cold, but she didn't hate it.  We got to go because the kids had a "yasumi" (holiday) from school.  Vivi picked up right where she left off this summer swimming-wise; she even dove for a few things on the bottom of the kiddie pool!  Rafe was happy to keep his head above water and play with the rubber ducks.  He loves the whale mural on the wall of the kiddie pool; in fact, the indoor pool is "the Whale Pool!" as far as he's concerned. There are no pictures because I didn't trust myself to handle baby and camera so close to the water.  But here's Vivi and Rafe warming up in the sauna afterwards in some hand-me-down Angry Birds towels.  They are good little friends.

One more first for Annie--she stayed with me in Primary for all of 3rd hour this week.  She was very good while I played for singing time, and then we walked the hall during sharing time because she was happy-yelling.  

And now for some Vivi stories.  I started Vivi on violin.  We made a foot chart and practiced going from rest position to playing position with our feet while listening to the Twinkle variations.  She was excited.  Then she said she really, really wanted to hold her real violin, so I got out the box violin, taught her rest position, and told her that we would practice being gentle with the box violin so that when we got out the real violin it would be safe.  After our practice session we made a place where she could put her things away.  I walked into the kitchen, feeling proud and excited for our new adventure, and not 10 seconds later I heard a snap.  She'd jumped on the couch while holding her box violin.  I fear my ambition for this project has lost a little steam . . .

Funny conversations

Me in the morning, trying to get them ready for school: Here Vivi, put on your skirt.

Vivi: But I'm trying to make myself pure. For Jesus Christ to see me.  

Me: You are so beautiful and big!  When did you get to be such a big girl?

Vivi: Half an hour.

Vivi: Do you know what Isabelle means?

Me: I do not.

Vivi: It's a girl.  In my class.  She's a classmeter.  (That's her new word for "classmate")

Drew and I were talking in the car the other day about our friend whose hairline is starting to recede.  He is Mexican and has thick, curly, black hair and a very impressive beard to go with it.  His wife doesn't like that he's losing his hair and wanted him to try some products out to slow things down, so he asked Drew if he had had any luck with anything.  Drew was recounting the conversation for me.  Then I commented.

Me: So, she doesn't like it, huh?  Maybe it's because he'll look like a dirty Mexican with it gone.

Vivi (from the back of the van): Watch out for the dirty Mexican . . .

Me: Uhhhhhh. Backpedal, backpedal, backpedal.

 A journey through Drew's hair loss, told in drivers license pictures.  Just for fun.  Drew was organizing his closet today and these turned up, so they must be shared.

Vivien has started to be very interested in learning to write her letters.  She does O's and H's very well.  Sometimes she'll "write a letter" to a friend and hand it to me to read, so I'll read what is written ("HO! HO! OH! HO! OOH!").  She does not appreciate this, and will exasperatedly tell me what it really says.  But the other day she wanted to try writing "HO! HO! HO!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!"  So I sat down with her and had her do her exemplary H's and O's.  Then I wrote an M and had her try to copy it below.  She wrote a W, so I said we just needed to stand him upright, because he was upside down, and then she wrote an M.  Then we did the E without incident.  Then I wrote the R and she said, "I don't know how to write R."  She could not be encouraged to try on her own, so I guided her hand to write the two R's.  She loved Y because it was V ("like me!") with a tail.  Then she was convinced she couldn't make a C, so I guided her hand again, but she was upset that I put a big space between the Y and the C, so she made her H to fill up the space.  Then it was time for R again, which she maintained she did not know how to write.  I convinced her to give it a try, and she drew a circle and then a line, but when the line didn't go where she wanted it to, the frustrated tears and the can't-ing started.   I tried to make it all better by drawing another line on the side to complete her R, and then she totally lost it.  Big, fat crocodile tears spilling onto the paper.  I am so afraid of all the years of homework ahead of us . . .

 When the weeping and self-insulting of her abilities and worth had dragged on for an alarming amount of time without abating, I flipped the paper over and drew a Christmas tree and asked her to decorate it.  She perked up and drew some lovely ornaments, then proceeded to add presents and happy kids on Christmas morning.  She asked for a banner of HO! HO! HO! MERRY CHRISTMAS! to top it off.  Whew!  Crisis averted.  My daughter has so many feelings.

 But I love to see her start making an effort to color in the lines and play with different hues.

 She even tried out a new medium when I got out the wood to make a project that I just remembered I forgot to photograph and have already put away in a storage bin with the rest of the fall décor.  It was modpodgey and everything!  I'll catch it next year I guess.

 This is the song she made up about her piece:

Here are my intrepid explorers, going for a (very loud) ride in an Amazon rocket.  

 What else?  We had a half day in addition to our yasumi this week, so we passed the time by making edible play dough.  Pretty much equal parts powdered sugar, powdered milk, peanut butter, and corn syrup.  It was like peanut butter nougat.

 They played with it for a very, very long time, and there was not much left by the end.

 I have been trying out toy rotation lately.  I have divided up all of our toys into 4 big suitcases/totes in the kids' closet and locked it.  Only one of the container's contents are out at a time.  When the kids go to school on Monday, I switch them out and display the new batch of toys in an exciting fashion.  It's like Christmas every week!  And I feel like the toys are getting played with more often and with less fighting.  And, it's much easier to clean up because there's so much less to get out.  Now let's just see if I can keep it up.  

Tracy granted us Calvin's old trains.  I showed the kids a couple episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine and they were so excited when the train tracks showed up in the rotation the next day.  

 They even played quietly in their room when they woke up the morning after.  I got to sleep in till 7:30!

 Rafe is in heaven.  He loveth wheely things.

 The only tricky thing about the toy rotation is when toys miss their pack up; it's not very convenient to open up the closet and find the bin they should go in.  So, I just keep a box on top of the bookshelf in Vivi's room and all the lonely toys go in there.  I finished exercising the other day and crawled over to the couch to heft myself off the floor, when what should I spy camouflaged in the throw blanket but Brother Rabbit's shirt!  I had been looking for it for 3 weeks, but I don't think I ever would have found it if I hadn't stuck my nose right in it.  Into the box it went.  I think the doll house comes out again tomorrow.  I'm sure Brother Rabbit will be happy to have his shirt back.

I got some pictures of Vivi from youchien this week.  I'm sure I'll get some of Rafe tomorrow, but I'll just put these up now and add his in later.  Once a month they have a traffic safety class given by the police department.  Here they are learning not to "dash out" and to look both ways before crossing.  "Migi OK!  Hidari OK! Migi OK! Douzo!" 

 They had their annual "potatoes digging" day.

 I'm not sure whose garden it is, but it's right behind the school and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the youchien's garden and the older kids planted the potatoes.  I'll have to learn how to ask.  

Vivien is strangely excited about this batch of potatoes, for a girl who will not touch potatoes unless they are fried in the French style.  She wants me to save them for her birthday to make her a sweet potato birthday cake that is pink.  ???

Here are the kids in front of all the crafts they've made so far this year.  They had a big bazaar ("Come to see my claft!") but we missed it.  I think I spent that Saturday running errands while Drew was home with babies . . .

 But don't worry.  We did get to physically see some of the crafts, because the day after Thanksgiving, they organized a big market for the kids.  They made paper money and decorated a shopping bag, then the kids got to wander through the exhibition room and purchase each other's crafts.

Don't American preschool children make tempura shrimp, onigiri, curry, and sushi for their crafts?

 Vivien loved it.  I was feeling guilty about sending her to school when Drew was off for Thanksgiving, but she had a blast.  

I think Rafe had fun too.  His favorite purchase was his own sword (each of the crafts were labeled with the creator's name) made out of a paper towel roll.  He's been hitting everyone with it all weekend, and consequently spending a lot of minutes in time out.  I tried to ask him about his shopping experience.  Is it any wonder I struggle to form coherent sentences when I'm talking to adults if this is what I'm usually listening to?  Bless him!

The nice thing about them going to school on Friday is that Drew and I got to go on a date.

A date!

 We went for a hike.  Andelynn was our third wheel, but she was very good, so we didn't mind. 

Here's Drew in front of Three Peaks, our destination.  

 We climbed up the left side of  the mountain.  It had snowed the night before, so the trail was slushy in addition to being very steep.  The Japanese love their hiking stairs.

 We went to the highest of the three peaks first and everyone had a snack.

 Then we proceeded on to Peak 2.  Andelynn was mad because we had to use chains to get up to it and she didn't appreciate dangling in the Baby Bjorn unsupported.

 Peak 3 was .03km off the main trail.  I was a little bit embarrassed at how long it took me to figure out how many meters that is.

 And then we headed down the right side of the mountain.  In hindsight, we should've reversed our directions.  It was a steep, slippery descent.  I got to use my Japanese word of the week, "suberu!" (slippery!) that I had read on a warning sign at the pool earlier.

 Drew did an awesome job keeping the baby safe.  I was impressed, because I was feeling a little adrenaline rush just getting myself down.

We passed a wall that had bolts for rock climbing.  

 There were also several of these cool trees, which I think are Japanese yew.

 It's been pretty warm here until this week, so there were beautiful fall leaves and even some flowers scattered over the snow.  Plus all the brilliant green ferns . . . The world is beautiful.

Sleepy baby.