The Night that Never Ends

So this was my night last night...which sadly has actually been the norm lately for some reason. It makes me feel better to whine about it a little bit, since I'm fresh out of big girl panties.  Nights like these result in me doing stupid things like I did yesterday - going into the grocery store and leaving the car unlocked, with the keys in the ignition.... and the car still ON.  Oops!!

12:30 - 2 a.m. Olivia is awake for the first hour coughing, sneezing, cooing, pushing the button on her musical soother thing and listening to it. Not crying... just hanging out...She is the happiest "sick" baby I've ever see.  I finally went in and fed her just to get her to go to sleep because I couldn't sleep hearing her on the monitor. Fine, I still have at least 3 1/2 more hours of potential sleep to be had.

Except that then I was coughing and sneezing from 2-3 a.m. and so was just drifting back to sleep when, at 3:15 a.m....

Wyatt woke up and had an accident in his bed... his first since transitioning to underwear during the nighttime a few weeks ago.  So I got up and changed his p.j.s and tried to get him back to sleep.  The wet spot was in the far corner of the bed somehow so I figured it'd be ok til morning and didn't change the sheets.

3:45 a.m. - drifting back to sleep when Tommy's alarm goes off.

4:00 a.m. - drifting back to sleep when the water in the bathroom turns on full blast, which is very LOUD.  Seriously, who takes a shower at 4 a.m.?!?

4:15 a.m. - Wyatt has apparently not gone back to sleep and has found the wet spot. Sheets changed. Seriously child will you please go to sleep now?

4:45 a.m. - Wyatt bounds into my room and says, "Good Morning!"  Um.... NO. It is NOT a good morning. In fact, it is still dark out. Go back to bed.

5:00 a.m. - Again.  For the LOVE... Go back to bed please!

Somewhere in here the cats decide it is time to get up and start harassing me....

5:15 a.m. - Again with Wyatt.  Fine. Get in bed with me. Just please go to sleep.

5:30 a.m. - Olivia is awake.....

And so I give up.  But now Wyatt has decided that bursting into tears for something like spilling syrup is entirely appropriate.  I'm guessing that's because he's been awake since 3:45 and didn't get enough sleep.  Silly mommy, wanting sleep....

Does it ever end? Ever? Someday - will I get 8 hours of sleep in a row without a cat, husband, son, or daughter waking me up?  I guess I should look at it as each of my little blessings letting me know they're there...

Camp A is the Way

Wyatt started swimming lessons on Monday, and its going surprisingly well!  I say surprising because it took some convincing to get him to get in the pool with someone other than mom or dad.  And by convincing I mean telling him that if he did the whole lesson we would take him to play games that night. The second day we told him we would give him a bell for his bike. Convincing...bribing...same thing, right???

Well, it only took two days and now I can't get him to get out of the pool!  He loves it.  Three days ago he didn't even like to put his head underwater and today she had him holding his breath and going to the bottom of the pool to fetch a dive ring! 

Here are some side notes in this crazy parenting adventure I'm on...

First, I am embarassed to admit that I am officially a "helicopter parent."  And I didn't even realize it.  Monday was the first day of lessons and, as I mentioned, Wyatt wasn't about to get in the water with some college girl no mattter how cute she was. So I stood there (with the other parents, I might add) and bribed him during the lesson.  On Tuesday, however, I (along with the other helicopter parents) were actually asked to take a seat over in the shade and let the kids be.  HELLO, Wake Up Call!  I was mortified.  I have now become the parent that I complained about for 3 years during orientation!!!  Tommy won't stop teasing me about it... first swim lessons, then college advising sessions, he says! Yikes.  I backed off immediately.

Second, apparently being the parent of a 3-year old means waiting in long lines to register your child for events.  And I am tired of it already.  So far, I've stood in line for hours on end at the Sesame Street Live show, Preschool signup, Swim Lesson Registration, and I am about to brave the Soccer Moms at soccer registration here soon. God help me! I have no patience for these things.  Haven't they heard of online registration?

Third, I can't help but smiling every single day at swim lessons, because the college students that teach them are from Camp Adventure.  For those of you who don't know, I did the Camp Adventure program some 12 years ago and was sent to London, England for the summer...where I met my eventual husband-to-be!  It was an amazing summer and the experience of a lifetime. So everytime I see the Camp A girls here on base I just smile.  I told one of them our story at swim lesson sign-up, and she said, "So you mean there's hope for us!?!? (to meet guys, I assume)" It was hysterical.  I hope they know what a great Adventure they are on.  Sooooo many memories!

Beach Day

Tommy's Squadron hosted a Beach Day on Friday up at Oura Wan Bay. I had previously posted about Oura Wan because we went there to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends shortly after our arrival on Okinawa.  As soon as we found out that Beach Day would be at Oura Wan, I booked one of the cabins there for the weekend!  We had a great time.  There was sand volleyball, yummy food, kayaking, banana boating, swimming in the Bay that leads out to the Pacific Ocean, and, for some added entertainment, cardboard boat races between the companies.  And, for the record, Tommy's company won! :)

After much sun and sand, we checked into our cabin and got cleaned up.  We took it easy that night and grilled some ribeyes.  In the morning, I took Wyatt for a bike ride and, what else, back to the beach!  He and I had so much fun. I forgot how much fun it is to just spend time alone with him.  We worked on our swimming skills in the ocean in preparation for this week's swimming lessons, played in the sand, and went on a bear hunt through the rocks and found the bear caves!!

The little guy was wiped out after that, so there were long naps all around for the Parker Family.  Soooo nice!  We had had enough sun for one weekend and Wyatt really wanted to try his hand at bowling, so off we went!  We had a great time. It's been quite awhile since I've bowled. We forgot socks for Wyatt so we had to buy some women's... I think they're pretty stylin', what do you think???  He was so darn cute and he just got so excited. Also, this was the first time in 8 months I had heard American dance music (we only have one radio station here in English, and it does NOT play dance music) so we danced it up!!

After dinner we went to the BeachHead restaurant for a nice dinner overlooking the Pacific, and back to the cabin for movie night.  The next day we packed up and went home, but we made sure to get some lovin' in on Daddy to celebrate Father's Day with a nice lunch and a fun afternoon out at Round One (think Dave & Buster's).  A super-fun weekend!

Pineapple Park

This past weekend, Tommy & Kyle went deep sea fishing. Their birthdays are just a couple days apart so Jen & I got them this "excursion" as their birthday gifts back in January, and they finally cashed them in!  

So Jen and I headed out for an adventure of our own. We decided to take the kids up north to Pineapple Park. This park started as a little field of pineapples on the side of the road and this woman developed it into a concept theme park. There are fields of pineapples, of course, and beautiful, lush gardens.

After you pay, you board this funky looking Pineapple Cart:

Wyatt loved driving the cart! It was actually on magnetic track, but I do believe he 'thought' he was driving it! So there was actually an English version of the audio tour but we were so busy with the kids and looking around, we didn't pay much attention to it.

So then after the tour of the park on the golf cart, you get out and see all things Pineapple. There is pineapple wine and pineapple cakes to sample (and buy)... lots of them... I didn't sample much as I was trying to keep Olivia out of the grasp of gawking Japanese ladies all trying to see the American Baby. :) But Wyatt got his fill!

Then there was of course the gift shop to peruse and lots of pineapple "stuff" in general. There was also a shell exhibit/museum and coral display to look at. All in all, a fun little excursion!

Next up was a trip to the British Wine & Tea Shop, which is run by this crazy - and I do mean crazy - British man out in the boonies of Okinawa. You drive through this crazy road and get to this remote house/restaurant. We sat outside and the guy basically told us what we were going to eat... salmon quiche for Jen and tandoori chicken for me! The food was pretty good, and the desserts were fabulous... Jen had rhubarb crisp and I had chocolate mousse I believe. Wyatt ate it up!

The entertainment was the best part, though... this British guy was a TRIP! He had an opinion about everything from the pseudo-cuisine on the island to President Obama and everything in between. All delivered in your typical "snooty" British fashion... :) He was a hoot!

We made a quick stop by a glass factory on the way back and then called it a day. The boys came home with their fish... a whole cooler FULL of skipjack, yellowfin tuna, and wahoo. We grilled some up and had a YUMMY dinner. What a fun day with great friends!

Treehouse Park

I just love the funky little parks that Okinawa has to offer, and that Wyatt is at the right age to take advantage of them all! This one is probably the coolest one I've found yet. It's a park with not one - but three different treehouses! How cool would that have been when you were a kid? Wyatt just loved it. It kept him entertained for over an hour and a half, and probably would have longer but it started to rain so I made him pack up. It had a huge log bridge, a rope climbing net inside one treehouse, cement slides, tall ladders, lookout points, swings, ropes, and this very cool cave-like tunnel as if you were crawling through the root of a tree. What a great concept!

While we were there Wyatt made "friends" with a little Japanese boy who was about four years old. They had a good time together, but I think Wyatt was confused as to why the boy wouldn't talk to him. Wyatt would yell things at him like, "Come over here, friend!" and the kid would just look at him.

I don't think Wyatt really "gets" the whole Japanese concept yet... another country, another language, customs like taking your shoes off in some restaurants but not in others... which is why I got him a puzzle map for his upcoming birthday to help explain where "America" is, where we used to live, where the grandparents are, etc. versus where we live! A few weeks ago he told us he wanted to go to Iowa State. I thought he meant when he was older, so I said, "Sure, you can go to Iowa State!" Usually he says, "You and daddy can come with me... it's not scary..." And one time he told me we could come to his parties!! :) But that day he said, "Okay, let's go!" At which point I had to fumble to try to explain that it was far away and we'd have to take a plane. He said, "That's okay! It's not raining, we can go!" Hmm.... more education is definitely needed on that front!

But I digress. Here are some more pictures of this awesome park we discovered!

Forest Adventure Park!!

Yep, that is Tommy.... :)

I have been wanting to go ziplining at this park since the day I read about it online, almost a year ago! I was determined to go as soon as I popped Olivia out but you know how that goes... three months later I was finally able to pull it off! Our friends Kyle & Jen came to the rescue again to watch the kiddos so Tommy & I could get our Adventure on.

The Park is about 30 minutes north of here in the "jungle-y" part. Things are squeezed together so tight here it's a wonder there even is such a thing but lo and behold they opened this park in 2008. It's a series of about 10 ziplines and a crazy obstacle course at the end. You have to climb straight up tall ladders to get to the top of the ziplines, then you buckle yourself on the lines and away you go, ziplining at top-of-tree level with beautiful views of the ocean. It's absolutely amazing and a total rush!

Once again I am amazed by what you can 'get away with' in Japan. A course like this would never fly in the United States. Way too much liability and people looking to sue. But here they give you a not-so-safety brief in very broken English. Which mostly consisted of hand gestures I didn't understand and a demonstration of the hooks and the phrase "safety first." (DUH!) If Tommy wasn't with me I would have had absolutely no idea what to do, but we made it through the course just fine and it was super fun!

Enjoy the pictures!! There is a video of me on the obstacle course where I free fall a ways then zipline over to the cargo net and slam into it, bouncing back. I wasn't expecting the free fall so to me it was the funnest part of the whole course, but for some reason I can't get the video to post correctly here. Boo!

Video:

Summertime!

Memorial Day has come and gone and summer is officially here!  It really does 'feel' like summer to me with Wyatt out of preschool and the warm, sticky weather that crept in mid-May.

Tommy had a "96" (96 hours off) so had Monday and Tuesday off; a welcome relief from the very long hours he has been working in his new position as the training officer for the squadron.  It poured (and I do mean poured) rain Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday, so we mostly stayed inside with our sick kiddos watching movies and having some quality family time.  By Monday I was getting antsy, so even though it was still raining we packed up the kids and went for a drive.  One of the things I've been wanting to do since arriving on island was just take a day to drive up the coast on Hwy. 58 and stop at all the cute little stores along the way, so we did just that.  When Wyatt asked where we were going, we told him we were like the bear going over the mountain... we were going to "see what we could see."

We stopped at a few different stores and shops but my favorite was the handblown glass factory where we saw some amazing works of art... beautiful glass wall art of all shapes and sizes, glass sinks for the bathroom, funky decorative bowls and lamps, light fixtures, and my personal favorite - doors with inlaid glass designs!  There were drinking glasses and other trinkets of all shapes and sizes, but at over $35 per glass I wasn't about to purchase a set of four! 

Then we saw this cute little restaurant off the beaten path - my favorite kind!  We were in for a treat... the restaurant backed to its own private beach, and the rain actually stopped for the 45 minutes we were there eating, so Wyatt played on the beach. I slurped on Japanese soba noodles, Tommy ordered the house special (fried oysters, fried white fish of some kind, Japanese french fries, rice, and what tasted like meatloaf) and Wyatt dined on "hamburger" (again... meatloaf?) and fries. Yummy!

Tuesday dawned and it was absolutely gorgeous!  Finally, no rain!!  We packed up and headed to a new beach - Zanpa Beach. It was beautiful and we had fun swimming, sunning, and relaxing in the East China Sea.  Even Miss Olivia got in on the action and tried out the waters for a few minutes! The day was topped off by a fun barbecue with friends.  So. Much. Fun!