Riley's First Solid Food

We decided to give Riley some rice cereal because he still seems so hungry after he finishes a bottle.

Oh, he loved it!! He took to eating solids VERY WELL. He took the spoon into his mouth and ate like he's been doing it forever.

Grandma loved being here for one of his biggest milestones!

Kita Kamakura

We started our day at Yokosuka train station at about 11:30.

We took the train to Kita Kamakura which was about a 20-30 minute ride.

Kita Kamakura, (kita meaning, north) is a tranquil area of wooded gullies which includes three of Kamakura's "five great" Zen temples: Kencho-ji, Enjaku-ji and Jochi-ji.

This is the San-mon, the main gate. It is made of wood and held together without nails. It was built in 1783 by priest Daiyu Kokushi.

Behind Caleb is the Butsuden, (buddha hall or Worship temple). Inside contains the following image of the Buddha.

I'm sure that what we were seeing is much more important than what we understood, but either way it was very interesting to experience. We saw men practicing Zen, and keepers who cleaned the entire area that was impossed by tourists directly after something was touched, and an older gentlemen, maybe a monk or a practicing monk (we think) came up to Riley and rubbed his head in several circular motions while repeating words (we think a blessing, maybe).

After we left Kita Kamakura, we stopped at Kamakura to eat a late lunch and walk through the local shops and markets. We got home at around 6:30 and ended the day with sushi and fresh fruit we brought home from the market. It was a great day!

We are walking everywhere that we go. Caleb loves to hold grandma and grandpa's hand and lead the way.

We decided to eat some lunch out in town. Tom was a bit worried when the waiter didn't bring any forks out with his food, but he learned to use chopsticks very quickly

As did Joann

And even Caleb tried the chopsticks....with some success.

Love having family

Riley is in love with Grandma. She can really get him laughing and talking.

Caleb on the other hand is in love with grandpa. Wherever Grandpa is, is where you will Caleb.

FYI

We have Shawn's mom and step-dad flying in on the 16th for a two week visit. I may not take the time to do much blogging, we'll see. I'm hoping to get some Rachael time and let the grandparents take over some childcare duties....so maybe I'll have lots of time, if not, I'm apologizing in advance.

A new friend

Riley has a new friend. His name is Bear and Riley loves to sleep with him. Riley does this thing where he tugs on a blanket with both hands when he's trying to fall asleep, so I got him this blankie that is also a rattle and a teddy bear. He loves it. I wonder if he'll call his "Dee Dee" like Caleb does his. Or maybe he'll call his "Bee Bee" since there's a bear on it. I think Caleb started calling his blankie, "Dee Dee" because his orginial blankie had a duck on it (which was lost in our moving process and has since been replaced with a Pooh Bear blankie). Either way, Riley gets alot of comfort from his new friend.

Maternity clothes

I have cleaned all the maternity clothes out of my closet and I'm wondering what to do with them?? Shawn and I thought that 2 was such a perfect number of kids, but now we're thinking that 3 might be better. I have mixed feelings about it. It's hard being a parent of small children. We are limited in our availability to attend certain functions and to go certain places. Not to mention how much of your life is put on hold (getting fat, being tired, not knowing who the person staring back at you in the mirror is, not having time to do anything for yourself, always being last in getting your needs met, the lack of adult conversation, and forgetting that your birth name is not "mom" ). Riley has been such a wonderful baby. We have enjoyed every moment of him and I can't imagine not having another one when I'm holding him, but it's so hard with a baby. And the cost is so enormous. Riley is a weed and is growing out of clothes before I can buy new ones. And the cost of college is ridiculous. Shawn and I were working numbers and in order for us to give our kids just 30,000 dollars a piece we'd have to be saving $175 a month per kid for the next 18 years. We all know that $30,000 is not enough for a 4 year degree, but how can one save enough?? Anyway, back to the question at hand, what to do with maternity clothes?? For now, I've packed them and put them into storage (which storage here is a limited commodity and currently mine is already full with baby gear). I did just find out that a friend here is pregnant and hopefully I can pawn off the bulk of clothes to her for the next 10 months. I do know that I don't want to have another baby while we are oversees. It's too hard being away from family and friends. Children really should and need to be raised by a village because it's almost impossible for one person.