Round One - Lexington, Kentucky

Round one of our US tour began in Lexington, Kentucky. The kids and I arrived on Wednesday November 28th. Daddy joined us two weeks later on scrapbook day, December 12th! It is hard to scrapbook/blog about a trip so full. We did so much in the 6 weeks we were there, but the biggest blessing of it all was visiting with friends, catching up with family, relaxing, laughing, baking cookies, running outside in large yards, and just being in America. I am from Lexington originally, grew up there, went to college there, got married there, so a good portion of my friends and family are there. I saw friends from high school, college, and from when we first got married. My old running partner drove down from Ohio to visit me. Twice! My high school best friend/maid of honor in my wedding lives 2 minutes from my parents. We took our four year old girls to the Nutcracker, had a nice lunch at the Tea Room (one of our favorites at Christmas because of their Kentucky Bourbon balls for dessert), went to the YMCA together at 5:30AM just to chat while we worked out, and made gingerbread houses with our kids. I was in Lexington for the annual "holiday" party with my high school youth group friends and got to attend the "cookie night" where the ladies get together every year to make treats and hang out. I shopped. I did unlimited Bikram yoga for 2 weeks at the very inexpensive price of $30! Mind you, one class in Tokyo cost about $30! I took in a few spinning classes, ate Mexican with a mentor, and enjoyed Harry's for a girls night with my gym buddies. I got in a run with some girls from church. I went to our old church for 3 Sundays and enjoyed the beautiful sanctuary at Christmas time. I watched some UK basketball games with the fam, hung out with my niece who is in college at UK, changed my drivers license, drove a car, took the kids to Monkey Joe's, watched Hallmark movies with my mom after the kids went to bed, drove by our old house, went to BSF, and had more play dates with friends. I shopped. I never saw a movie...not the entire time I was in the US. And I really wanted to, but in the end, I wanted to be with people more, so I am taking in Les Mis next weekend in Tokyo with some girlfriends. I ate good food at home. Mom made me my favorite fried potatoes and I had good ice cream nearly every night after the kids went to bed. My mom taught Miss M how to fly a kite. The K Man got to go feed ducks while Miss M went on a hot cocoa date with daddy. My brother and sister came down to visit from Ohio with their kids. Miss M loved my sister's dog, and would walk it around the house on its leash, thinking she was taking the dog for a walk. I learned on this trip, my kids would really LOVE a dog. But they know it will not happen until we move back to the US and have a backyard with a fence! It was so great being back. We left Lexington on Monday the 17th. When I left, I felt like I had exhausted Lexington. Sure, I could always visit more with people, but I got quality time with the people I wanted to see and some I did not expect to see. I did not leave thinking "Oh, I wish I had done that or seen this person." It was so fun being at my parents' house as well. We have stored our furniture at their place and I got to sleep in our bed, which I miss terribly. When we first got married we spent money on a nice large king size bed with a fabulous mattress. One of our best purchases ever. And it was so nice sleeping on it again, especially when little bodies found their way to it during jet lag party sessions - plenty of room for kids to have a party and mama still get some sleep. My parents live on an acre lot so you feel a bit outside of the city and it is quiet and peaceful, with wide open spaces, something you do not get in Tokyo. I could just let the kids out in the backyard and watch them play and it was so refreshing. Miss M seriously thought flying a kite was one of the most wonderful things ever invented. She had so much fun with the cheap kite from the dollar store. We also got out the sidewalk chalk and traced our bodies. Now that was a site. My aunt and uncle came down to see us and my uncle is a good baker. He helped Miss M decorate her Christmas cookies. I maybe do have one regret - not getting enough pictures. I was so busy enjoying life that I did not take enough pictures. I am sure my mom can send me some. It just was wonderful. I could go on and on...just to be back in your hometown, with so many dear friends and family...thank you to those in Lexington who made my time there so special. I sure am blessed to have such quality people in my life.

I may be biased, but...

my kids seriously have to be some of the greatest little travelers on the planet. Now, due to the generosity of my parents and some sky miles, and our American Express sky miles rewards credit card, my husband spent the extra bucks for upgradeable tickets and we upgraded to business class. So, maybe being in business class is why my kids did so well traveling. But even so, considering jet lag, long car rides, and sleeping in four different homes over 6 weeks, our children are flexible and fabulous travelers. Now, we still had our moments over the 6 weeks we spent in the US, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for kids. On the flight going, I was flying solo, which was a bit intimidating. However, the flight attendants were super helpful, watching kids when I needed to use the bathroom and giving me whatever snacks I needed. I do know I would not have had the same service if I had been on the other side of the curtain (any Seinfeld episodes come to mind?), but it sure did help when I was flying 12 hours by myself with two small children. We also had unlimited Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which meant Miss M watched about 6 hours of tv and then went to bed for 6 hours. Mama did not sleep but both kids slept about 6 hours going and 6 hours on the flight back, so that was huge. My rule on airplane rides are there are no rules - our kids can eat whatever they want (including the ice cream sundae Miss M ate while watching the endless tv) and watch as much tv or play as many ipad games as their hearts desire. Bottom line is we will do whatever it takes to get us from point A to point B with some sort of sanity and love for one another. If that means 6 hours of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and 20 Pecko-chan lolly pops, so be it. On the trip going to the US, we somehow made it through security again. Several people asked how I did it. Well, Miss M was in the stroller and I pushed it with one hand. I pulled the suitcase with the other hand. And the K Man tagged along in the baby ergo for the ride. One man looked at me and said, "You are my hero." I responded with, "Tell my husband.":) We had a slight delay in Atlanta and ended up walking to every concourse chasing our plane. This young lady on the way to Lexington took pity on me. She also happened to work at a Delta ticket counter in Nevada, and thanks to her airline smarts, we finally got on a plane to Lexington at 5PM. Keep in mind we were originally supposed to land at 4:30, so this tired mama was reaching the end of her rope. We made it to Lexington in one piece, loving each other and sane. We rode in the short car ride to my parents' house, ate some supper, and settled in for a long winter's nap...not really...we partied like it was 1999 because of course my kids did not want to sleep. Oh jet lag...you are why I do not like these trips. It took the kids about 5 days to get over the jet lag, but once they did, we were all ready to go. I will include in this post thoughts about our return trip as well, since I forgot to take pictures of the airplane or my sleep deprived face when I arrived in Lexington. The travel on the way back was fairly easy, and even better because we had daddy along for the ride. We had a delay out of Knoxville, but boarded the plane on time in Atlanta. Same rules - lots of candy - lots of Mickey Mouse clubhouse. Mama even got to watch a movie on this flight sense Daddy could help out, although it was not that good. We had A LOT more luggage coming back than going. Praise God for luggage delivery service at Narita airport. We utilized it. After a car ride, a plane ride, a train ride, and a taxi ride, 24 hours later we were in our apartment, home sweet home, and the kids could not be happier. It was like Christmas morning all over again coming home and playing with their own toys. It warmed my heart a bit. Jet lag has been much easier coming back to Tokyo. The first night Miss M slept straight for 9 hours, however, the K Man was up from 11-3 and then again at 5 for the day. Mama may or may not have shed some tears that night due to sheer exhaustion. Thankfully the husband thought ahead and had groceries delivered Wednesday night, so all I had to do Thursday was shower and somewhat function and cook spaghetti. However, ever since Thursday night, our second night home, our kids have slept straight through for 10-12 hours. A friend joked that by next weekend they will be sleeping 17 hours a day. I am not sure what it is. The husband and I have not had bad jet lag either. Not once have I been away from 2-5 like I was going to the US. We wonder if it has something to do with being back home...maybe you settle more quickly into a routine. When we lived in the US and would travel to Tokyo, it was always easier going back home than coming to Tokyo. Food for thought - maybe jet lag is purely psychological. Doubt it, but it is funny how easy it has been coming back here. So as you can see, I have some great little travelers. They are flexible. They know that we sleep on airplanes, and they actually sleep. They are the best. I think I will keep them. I know you all want to see pictures and here more about our visit. That will have to come tomorrow. It is 10PM and I am calling it a night. More to come...

I am behind...way behind...but here we go...

Y'all, I am behind...like so far behind I do not know where to begin behind. Did I even blog about Thanksgiving? We had a great one - I cooked, in the tiny oven, every dish and some Japanese friends came over for their first Thanksgiving feast. Then, on Sunday, my friend Sally arrived on her way back to Oregon from a vacation in Thailand. Now, Sally has often sent Miss M Snoopy gear, so Miss M thought she was Charlie Brown's sister. However, Sally is Korean/American. Definitely not blonde hair Sally from Charles Schultz. So Sally arrived, and I prepared Miss M ahead of time that she would look a bit like Daddy. We had a great visit with Sally. We had intentions to go to Disney Sea on Monday for Christmas festivities, but both kids had horrible coughs and it was raining, so instead of Disney Sea Sally went with me to the pediatrician in the rain. She got to experience my daily grind. It sure is not pretty some days. :) On Tuesday our sitter came and Sally and I had a day to ourselves. We strolled through the fish market, visited a garden and enjoyed a green tea, strolled through Ginza, window-shopped because only the rich and famous actually by a $1500 purse in Ginza, ate lunch at my favorite noodle shop, and walked around the Imperial Palace. We ended the day with a cake and hot tea in the afternoon. It was a fabulous day. And then, Sally was here conveniently on the day we left for the US...she helped me get the kids from Tokyo station to Narita airport and through security. She boarded her plane to Seattle, and 30 minutes later I boarded our plane to Atlanta. And the journey began...

Scrapbook Day 11/12/2012

Scrapbook day fell on a Monday this month. Normally on Mondays we either go to a play group in Ikebukuro or do something that involves getting on the train and adventure. But on this particular day I was tired, the K Man had a cough, and we just stayed local. I love that staying local means I can walk to 4 different amazing parks or a climbing gym! We played with a lot of Minnie's on this day and went to the park behind our building. It was just an average day. I wrote down on my calendar about the K Man talking more. He will hold his hands up and say "upu" when he wants to be picked up. He has learned this Japanese word from his big sis. He can also say doggie, Mickey, Ruff Ruff, Moo, and Amen. He does a mean Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Hot Dog dance. Seriously folks, it is hilarious to watch the two of them do the hot dog dance. He is still big...oh so big...and heavy. Miss M continues to amaze me, especially with her Japanese. She can read hiragana and was reading a book today in Japanese. I guess I should work on those English letters some, huh? Her Japanese teacher said she is amazed...she said M could enter primary school based on her knowledge of the language. Her teacher gave us a book for daddy and Miss M to work on while we are in the US. Speaking of, we are coming in one week!! To say I am excited is a bit of an understatement. We will be in Lexington from 11/28-12/17. We will be in Knoxville from 12/17-12/21. We will be in Nashville on the night of 12/21. Then we head to Little Rock, Arkansas from 12/22-1/2. We are back in Knoxville on 1/2 and fly back to Tokyo on 1/8. If you are in these areas and want to see me, please send me your contact info friends, especially if you are not on facebook, so I can get a hold of you. I am not taking my computer with me so my main source of emailing will be through facebook. My calendar in Lexington is filling up fast with amazing people to visit with and lots of visits to the gym and Bikram yoga studio. The studio in Lexington lets you do unlimited classes for 2 weeks for only $30. Did y'all read that?! $30 is what I can pay for a one trial class here in Tokyo. So, Bikram, here I come - I may go every day since I have babysitters to watch the kids. Let's get some sweat on. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in America. I am cooking here on Friday because it is a national holiday and the hubs is off. My friend Sally is stopping in on Sunday for a visit for a few days. She flies back to Oregon the same day we fly out so I will have some help getting to Narita. She is famous for sending Miss M lots of Charlie Brown stuff when she was in her Charlie Brown phase. Miss M thinks my friend Sally is Charlie Brown's sister. It should be interesting when Miss M meets her and finds out she is Korean with black hair, and not blond with a pink or blue dress on. So, we will have a busy week before we leave. I have been trying to clean out closets so I can fill them up with goodies when we come back, especially new clothes. The girl needs to shop more than once every 2 years y'all. I am excited, but I admit, I am a bit nervous. It has been awhile since I have been back. I may get a bit overwhelmed in the grocery store. And I know I will miss routine and my own home because I thrive on structure and routine. You just do not get that traveling with two kids and living in 3 different homes over the course of 6 weeks. But, when I get overwhelmed, I am going to step back and relish our family, our friends, the endless variety of ice cream, and say "Thank you Lord for this gift of a lengthy vacation. Help me to be flexible and embrace the craziness of it all and lack of structure." Not much fun for this scrapbook day...but just some thoughts. I have been a bit silent lately...probably because I am reading a great mystery book by a Swedish author. I have to give it back to a friend before I leave as I know I will have plenty of new books to get lost in once I am back in the States and check out the book shelves of my friends and family. 7 days...tick tock...

Miss M Turns 4!!

So, we celebrated Miss M on November 3rd in style. She woke up to her over-sized dollhouse that took lots of square meters out of Daddy's office, but it has been so worth it! She loves the dollhouse, even though the K Man broke the sink within 30 minutes of seeing the dollhouse. She has lots of dolls and Minnie's to play with inside of it, but she said she needs a pink sofa to go with it to match the purple sofa it came with. Since we have two small couches her dollhouse needs two small couches. If only our apartment was as big as her dollhouse... After birthday family fun, the K Man took a nap and Mama went to the party room to decorate and prepare for her Minnie-chan party. It was the first birthday party for her where I actually planned games and such and we had a lot of fun. Initially I was only going to invite four kids because she was turning four years old. It seemed reasonable at the time, but then she kept asking if so and so could come and well, I just could not resist it. So, we had 8 kids total that were Miss M's age along with parents and a few older siblings. Everyone seemed to have a great time. We started with a Cake Walk with Disney character sheets to walk on. When the "Hot Dog" song stopped, the kids froze and I picked a character. Whoever was standing on the character got a sticker. We also played Pin the Ring on Minnie Mouse. Then, we went on a scavenger hunt for Pluto's dog bones in the park behind our building. Please do not give me much credit - all I did was google Mickey Mouse Club birthday party games, found one fabulous blog of a mother who really out-shined me in her birthday preparedness, and I basically copied a few of her game ideas. I would have loved if she had come and just organized the entire party for me, but I do not know her and she lives some 7000 miles away. After the park fun, we came back in for cake and snacks. I planned the party from 3-5 so I would not have to do lunch or dinner. I basically loaded up the kids with sugar and then they went home with their parents. Now, for the cake, I had these high hopes of doing a Minnie cake, with a hairbow and all, but once Miss M saw the Minnie pan, she wanted to help decorate the cake. She wanted Minnie to be pink - full pink - with lots of candied Minnie's on top of her face. So, it was her party and this is what we did. Again, my cake did not look like what I saw on the internet, but Miss M LOVED it and that is all that matters. We cleaned up, loaded up the stroller with the goodies, and came home. As soon as we got inside the apartment, this mama crashed. I had woken up with a bad headache and sore throat and it only got worse throughout the day. It felt like someone was banging my head against the sidewalk. I fell asleep on the couch around 6:30 and did not wake up until 10 the next morning. Thankfully it was only a 24 hour bug and I was able to bathe the kids the next night. Lord knows for as much as the hubs works in this city, he cannot take off work because his wife is a bit sick. He does not even take off when he is sick, but that is a whole other post. Miss M is amazing...full of life, smiles and energy. She can be oh so dramatic and oh so sweet. Since her birthday she has continued to thank us for her dollhouse and tell us how much she loves us and her house. She loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (praise God for utube) and her imagination and commentary throughout the day often come from adventures that she has been on with Mickey. We are still happy with our decision to keep her out of yochien. Do not get me wrong, we have some bad days. Who doesn't? But our house is running a bit more smoothly and I am really enjoying my time with both of my kids and watching Miss M blossom. She is fairly bi-lingual now. It amazes me really. She will translate for me sometimes. English is obviously her first language, but when asked a question in Japanese she will answer in Japanese. She will even converse with me in Japanese. Her Japanese teacher is helping her write hiragana and she can read some words - she reads more Japanese words right now than English words. We are having some issues with being scared of the dark and wanting to come sleep with mama in the middle of the night. Some nights we work with her and she goes back to bed. Other nights I am too tired and she sleeps with us. Miss M, you are such a delight to be with each and every day. You amaze me. Just tonight you were so kind and loving to a friend who came to have dinner with us, hugging her and telling her she is welcome back anytime. We love you so much. Our lives have been so enriched having you in them. Happy Birthday sweet girl.

18 Month/4 year old Stats

I took the kids to the doctor yesterday for their check-ups and immunizations. The K Man turned 18 months old today. He weighs in at a whopping 28 pounds (gained nearly 8 pounds in 6 months) and is 31.8 inches tall. The doctor tried to encourage me that he is growing by telling me he moved from the 10th percentile in height to the 30th, but he is still in the 75th percentile for weight. Now Miss M, on the other hand, gained one pound in a year. She weighs 34 pounds and is 39 inches tall. I think she said she was 55th percentile for weight and 40th for height. I cannot remember. Do those percentiles really mean anything? Any medical experts out there reading this? If so, let me know. Since I have a lot of birthday blogging to do in the next couple of days I will focus this check up post on the K Man. He can walk!! YAY! Walking makes the park much more fun. Today at the park we were playing hide and seek and when I would close my eyes to count he would start mimicking me. I would tell him to go find Miss M and he would go right to her because her hiding places are kind of out in the open. He does not talk much yet. He can say mama, doggie, dada, and ashi. We do not know what he means but he says it a lot. The other day it sounded like he said "nani" a few times which is "what" in Japanese. Hard to tell. Miss M does speak Japanese to him. Today she was being pretty sweet to him - holding his hand while he sat in the stroller and giving him a hug in the elevator. He loved it and when she stopped he would hold his hands out for more hugs. I love it when they are sweet to each other. They love to play together in the baths. They like to stand up and hold onto the edge and play the "splash splash game;" this is where they just run in place as fast as they can and try to splash as much as they can. One of these days are tub might fall through to the apartment below us. As you can tell there is not much the K Man won't eat, but he does not like watermelon or pear. He is learning or trying to use the fork and thinks he is hot stuff when he puts the food in his mouth with the utensils. I was too lazy to sign with him so when he wants more he lets you know by banging the table. I know, not good manners, but I just was lazy. I have said this before and I will be saying it again - he loves people, any kind, but especially the ladies. It is quite comical to watch him flirt on the trains. The apple does not fall far from the tree. K Man, we love you! You bring so much fun to our home. Happy 18 Month Birthday!

Happy Halloween

On actual Halloween night we went to hang out with some Aussie friends (the same ones we went to the beach with back in September). We took the kids trick-or-treating in their apartment building and then enjoyed a fabulous roast prepared by my friend. I say "we" meaning just the moms because all of the dads were still working. We opened some wine (because the dads were all working), had a dance party with the kids, ate some chocolate (because the dads were all working) and enjoyed good company. The apartment complex is pretty large but thankfully our children were too young to know that we did not hit the other two complexes for more candy. They got enough just going to the seven or so apartment we went to. One thing I learned that night is that Australians call a flashlight a "torch." That was new to me. I also learned that I have two really solid friends here in Tokyo. We have lots of friends here, but these two families feel like friends from home when we hang out. Like I said, one day, I will definitely be visiting Australia and will have people to visit!