Pumpkin Carving

Caleb had a hard time at first touching the guts of the pumpkin. Even after several minutes, he wanted to use a spoon to explore with. Not me, I pushed everyone out of the way so I could get my hands in there and feel the GOO!!

At this moment, Caleb has a terrible runny nose, so Shawn thought it only appropriate to give our jack o' lantern a runny nose too, EUGH!!! Caleb thought it was great!!

Haircut

Caleb has never been one to enjoy getting his hair cut. Actually, he's been the one who has the panic attack with just the thought of having his hair cut. It use to take both Shawn and I to hold him down when we took him to a barber shop....too embarrassing. So I've been doing it at home with scissors...a bit choppy looking, but otherwise less embarrassing. We finally got smart and bought electric razors....Yeah, it works great and fast and Caleb doesn't mind too much. And Shawn likes doing it, so 2 yeahs for me!!!!

Hum, he doesn't look happy, but I think that's because he realized that his hair looks like his daddy's...

He looks like such a big boy with his new haircut. And he thinks he's a big boy too.

Halloween Cookies

Daddy got to help in the making of our cookies. There was so much flour spread out EVERYWHERE!!

I think Caleb liked using the icing as much as he liked using the flour. He gets the love of textures from me. I love getting my hands dirty. And he gets his sense of concentration from his dad..check out the tongue, for some reason the tongue hanging out of the mouth helps with the task at hand.

I really think his favorite part of making halloween cookies was eating them.

Oh what a mess, but oh what fun we had!!

Mikoshi Parade

Over the weekend we attended the Mikoshi Parade. The parade started out in town and then ended here on the base. It was open base, which means anyone is permitted to come onto the base with limited access and the base was overwhelmed by the local community.

It was one of the most interesting parades I've ever witnessed. To describe it is almost an impossiblity, but I will try. First of all, Mikoshi means, "portable shrine". A shrine houses a kami, a spirit or god or deity of the Shinto religion. The mikoshi allows the kami to experience the community of its people. These mikoshi were decorated with laterns and masks and were carried on the shoulders of both men and women.

At one point, Caleb was carried off into the crowd of men carring a mikoshi.

We also took about 300 pictures at the parade, but I'll bore you with only 29 of my favorites. Of course Caleb and Riley got the usual attention of being the blond haired, blue eyed babies in the middle of many Japanese people. Shawn was pulled into the parade and given a coat to wear and asked to carry one of the mikoshi. We enjoyed a pizza on the grass and had an awesome weekend!!! Take a look at the pictures at the following website...too many to upload for blogger....I have to warn you however, there is a picture of a man's butt checks....just in case the kiddos are looking....

http://picasaweb.google.com/rachaelplus2/SlideshowOfMikoshiParade?authkey=GhYNkMxS2qA#

Happy Birthday Shawn

Happy Birthday Shawn! We had a little party with balloons and cake and many, many, many, candles!!!

Enough candles to burn down a house....how many candles??

33...

and he didn't have any trouble blowing them all out...

Columbus Day Weekend

The boys loved having daddy home for 3 whole days! On Sunday, we took the boys to the Ueno Zoo, which is just north of Tokyo. On the train, it was about a 2 hr. ride.

Here's the new stroller we were given by a fellow family on base. It's a sit or stand stroller. There's not really a seat for Caleb, rather a platform that he can sit on or he could stand, which he doesn't do. This stroller has been a blessing. It keeps both kids happy without the bulkiness of a double stroller. I love it, especially since we walk so much!!

This picture is on the train. Caleb thought being on the train was the big event of the day. Check out his new smile (he's saying, "cheese).....I know what you're thinking....we've already been in Japan too long....Caleb is starting to look Japanese! (hahahaha)

Riley really liked looking out the window, especially if another train was passing us. I think we've got another train lover in the family.....and of course, Caleb loved being on the train. He explained everything he seen to Riley; his exact words were,"Riley, look backhoe" or "Riley, yellow train". (Backhoe is Caleb's new word)

The boys did so well on the train ride there. Not one complaint from either of them for the whole 2 hours.

Right before the entrace of the zoo there were several food vendors. This one is chocolate covered bananas on a stick. Doesn't that sound good? We'll I didn't think about what it would look like to eat it, only what it would taste like......

Okay, so one day Caleb will kill me for taking this picture!!!! I told you I didn't think about what it would look like to eat it. Wow!!! That just isn't right!!!! Anyway...

Here's the entrance to the zoo. Instead of clerks taking money and giving tickets, here they had ticket machines. You put in your money and voila, your ticket comes out. Of course, you wouldn't find this sort of convience in the states because no one in the states can be trusted to buy an adult ticket instead of paying for a child's ticket. There were SO MANY PEOPLE but the line moved incredibly quick.

A Japanese man and his family asked us to take their picture. As Shawn was getting ready to take the picture, he counted off, 1..2..3. I'm sitting there thinking that these people are like what is he saying.....but then they offered to take this picture of us. It was neat to hear him try to count out to us in English....1...2...ok.

It was kind of sad when Caleb went up to the signs next to each exhibit and asked us to read about the animals (most kids don't pay attention to the info) and we had to tell him that we couldn't read it (it was all written in Japanese). He's going to start telling people that his mommy and daddy can't read.....

Caleb's favorite exhibit was the Gorillias. The male silverback was enormous! The animals were all very entertaining. Sometimes you go to the zoo and the animals are sleeping or hiding. This trip all the animals were very active and engaging with the visitors. One of the female gorillas came right up to the window at Caleb and showed her teeth a few times.

Our little growling zoo animal (he thinks he's a lion).

These next pictures are just some of the things in Japan that I find silly or interesting.....

This woman was at the zoo. Would you ever wear this to walk around the zoo??? And she wasn't the only one by no means wearing such attire!!! Can you imagine what her feet must feel like at the end of the day?? And she had a toddler with her!!! This is not an uncommon sight in Japan.

Okay, this is just nasty!!! Would someone please tell this GENTLEMAN that a bird has pooped on his "Hello Kitty" bookbag!!!! Yes, this is a man! Men here carry all kinds of bags and purses of sorts. It's crazy! Sometimes you think he must be carrying his wife's purse only to see that she is carrying her own purse....It's way beyond the man purse. I seen a guy at the zoo who was carrying a metallic silver purse with a matching wristband!!!

Okay this is the last picture. On our walk to the train station here's this guy cleaning the road. Look at the road, does it look like it needs to be cleaned?? And he's out there on a busy street with no bright orange vest or caution cones. It's crazy!! Again, not an uncommon sight in Japan. It is beyond clean in the area that we live.

6 Months Old

Riley is 6 months old. He had his well baby check-up and he's 27 inches long and 17.2 lbs which puts him in the 75th percentile for height and the 48th percentile for weight. His head measurement puts him in the 10th percentile. Caleb's head measurement was always very small also. I'll tell you what....I was glad to have babies with small heads at their births!!!! I don't think they look like they have small heads though....maybe I'm blinded by the fact that they're my babies and no matter what they are perfect. So you guys be my eyes...Do my babies look peculiar with small heads?

Moving on...

Riley's pediatrician is absolutely in love with Caleb. Every time we take Riley in, Dr. Malarie comments on Caleb and his behavior and his development. Well, this last time he commented on Caleb's speech. He suggested I have Caleb tested at his three year old check up. I guess at three, the school system steps in for speech therapy instead of the hospital. I'm a bit heartbroken about it. It's difficult to think about your baby having trouble in any area of development. Shawn and I have kinda worried about his speech in the last year, but in the recent months we've really been wanting to have Caleb tested. However, I don't think either of us wanted to totally admit that there was a problem....and there still might not be, but I'm thinking there is. I don't think that there is an issue of him understanding objects, but rather an oral dysfunction. He's very smart and loves to talk, but it's very difficult to understand him. Like for instance, he'll say "why" for "dry". We've always thought it was cute, but he's starting to get frustrated when we don't understand what he's trying to tell us and we get frustrated too. He'll go off and tell Riley what he's saying, like Riley is going to then interpret for us....

Commissary Nightmare

I am so irritated! I went to the commissary twice today once this morning with both boys and then again after Shawn got home without the boys. The first visit got me halfway through the store before my cart was too full to keep going. (we literally had no food in the house). Caleb was very impatient in the store and kept running down to the end of each isle yelling back at me,"Let's go mom!". It's so easy to keep your mind on the task at hand when you're 2 year old is giving out commands (NOT!!!). So, I decided I'd go back when Shawn got home from work. When I went back, the shelves were empty....there was no lemon juice, no light brown sugar, no half and half, no bagels, no madarine oranges, no chunky applesauce, (and these were the items on my list, who knows what else they were sold out of). It's so irritating!!! There's no Kroger or Super Walmart across the street to supplement the sold out of items at the commissary. UGH!!!!! This happens so often. Last week, there was not one pack of size 2 diapers on this base. I had to buy Riley size 3, which are way too big. Ususally it's milk or bread that is sold out. There is a sign above the bread that reads, "no more than 5 bread items per family". CRAZY!!!!

Okay, I guess I'm done complaining. I'll just have to try again later this coming week to get my shopping list items.

No, I lied. I have one more thing to complain about. My hairdresser is moving to San Diego!!!! I don't know what I'm going to do now!!

Okay, now I''m done...