Lovely Boy

Benson has been pretty colicky, a lot like his sister Olivia.  But once Olivia got older she leveled out and is my calm child.  Bianca was the quietest, easiest baby ever and then when she got mobile she became my whirling dervish.   I am hoping Benson follows this trend to become another calm quiet kid haha.  

He LOVES to cuddle.  He would be happy as a clam to have him hold him ALL DAY.  He is in the front pack a lot, for any errand running and normally from the afternoon on at home.  He responds to touch instantly.  As soon as I touch and rub his head he will stop crying and snuggle into the touch.  It is about the cutest EVER.  

He spits up a LOT and he is super gassy (which, come on, is pretty par for the course for any child of mine.  Sorry Marcus.  --He hates when I talk about my gassiness.  So he hates that this parentheses is going on as long as it is.  LOVE YOU BABE!).  I have cut out dairy except for some feta cheese here and there and it has helped some.  

 Sleeping baby.

 BAM.  Gassy baby.

 The girls are SO in love with their little brother.  They can't wait until they can hold him or love on him.  Often times one or both of them will cry because he has been sleeping in the swing and they really want to touch him so badly they can't handle it.

 Bianca loves him a little TOO much.  It is like she cannot contain her excitement around him.  No matter how many times we go over it she gets so pumped up when she is around him that she is almost incapable of being soft.  It isn't malicious.  She ADORES him and every time she is too rough she will face palm herself like "DANG!  I forgot.  AGAIN."  We are working on it with her ;)  Can't fault a girl for loving her brother SO SO much.

 Just because I am keeping it real here is a picture of the down and dirty.  Diaper changing time baby.  He is so weird because he can go the better part of a week without going number two.  Everything else is working fine and the Doc said it isn't abnormal for a breast fed baby to go longer in between number two's if he is having wet diapers.  Which is fine by me because the boy situation makes cleaning up dirty diapers a lot more work.  So much to clean around I am finding out.

I also am showing this picture, as unflattering of a shot as it is of myself, to share the positive reinforcement I have been receiving from the girls.  I was pretty slim before getting pregnant and I think they assumed that once the baby would come out that my body would just whip back into it's old shape again.  Well anyone that has had a baby knows this is NOT the case.  So at least once a day if not MULTIPLE times a day I will get any variation or all of the following.

"Mom, do you have another baby in there?"
"Mom why is your tummy so big?"
"Mom, why is your bum SO big?"
"Mom are you sure there isn't another baby in there?"
"Well if the baby is out why is your tummy still SO humungous?"
"So when does your tummy start getting small again?  Is it because you are eating so much food?"

They sure do know how to make a lady feel hot I tell ya.

 Cuddles with brother

 So tiny!  He is already bigger compared to these photos and it is just crazy to me how fast it goes!

 Tummy time, not a fan.

He is incredibly strong.  He could hold his own head up right when he was first out of the gates.  In the hospital he would push off me with his arms to turn his head around and look at the room.  He loves to observe.  He can sit upright with only a little balancing help from me.

He also LOVES to talk.  As soon as someone is just sitting still in front of him he will just start talking and talking.  He will mimic sounds that you make and when you say something to him he will answer back.  The girls love it.  Olivia always wants to know what he is saying.  Sometimes I make things up, other times I tell her I don't know.  We sure do love him!

Hibernation

 The first week or so after Benson was born we were pretty much in hibernation mode.  Besides follow up appointments for Benson I don't think any of us left the house for a full week.  The girls really didn't get bored or squirrly, they were so excited about the baby that they were totally happy to be home.  They did take a lot of pictures during that week and it was funny to see what they captured.  Lots of silly faces.

 And lots of I am not impressed faces.

 Or trying to mimic Bianca's "I am NOT happy about this" face.

 She can pull a pretty good sour face when put to it!

 Michelle also baked for like 2 days straight and we had a TON of yummy cookies and treats to eat!

 Benson loved to be snuggled and was pretty good at helping put to sleep anyone who was supposed to be helping HIM get put to sleep!

OH MY GOSH.  These strawberry treats.  SO AMAZING.  I guess it is tradition when Marcus and Michelle were little that they had these during the holidays.  It is a can of sweet and condensed milk, a bag of coconut, a package of strawberry jello and like 2 tbs of sugar or something.  You mix it all together and form them into strawberries and roll them in more jello powder.  HOLY FREAKING DIVINE.  The girls tried them right after they were made and did not like them because they hadn't really set up so the outside jello powder tasted a little sour I think.  Michelle had made a big batch and there was a LOT.  So naturally I think, and I am only speaking for myself here, I do not know how much the other adults consumed...but I had like a dozen a day until they were gone.  

As far as timing for a baby coming right before the holidays, it worked out pretty well for me!  I lost 20 lbs that first week home and then the next week was Christmas and because of all the extra hormones and extra calories being burned with nursing and healing up, I seriously ate like a MANIAC and did not gain a single lb for that two weeks.  It was freaking awesome!  About right after New Years my body started to level out more and the scale would respond in kind with what I was consuming.  By that time I had overdosed on so much during Christmas time that I was ready to start eating more healthy anyway.  CHRISTMAS BINGE FOR THE WIN!  

Lost in Translation

 There are lots of awesome things about living in a foreign country and there are also lots of hilariously awesome things.  Like toilets.  You are never quite sure what kind of toilet situation you are going to get.  I have had just holes in the ground where you squat down and hold onto a bar.  Then the above picture which is like a cross between the squat down kind and a regular toilet.  Then there are super crazy high tech ones, heated seats, bidet options, air dry in several different functions.

 We also love finding shirts in the Japanese stores that have english on them.  There is something lost in translation between what they want the shirt to say in english and what it actually says.  Like "Friend also dances lightly" because of course.

 I am not sure what happened to prompt this sign needing to be put up.  Quite puzzling.

This shirt had me laughing forever.  "Fine and Smile..Directly simply and positively, GOOD FEELING, They're good feeling" because, again, of course.  I am going to miss these crazy shirts when we leave! (And these two shirts were in the little kid section, like the girls sizes).

Toguchi Beach

 There is a really magical place here called Toguchi Beach.  It has a playground area too.  I love the playgrounds here outside of base.  They are simply designed and don't look like anything too fancy but they are SO FUN and can entertain kids FOREVER.  Like roller slides are really popular here and Toguchi Beach has this really long one.  You can go really fast if you squat down and ride on your feet.

 There is a little path up the side of the hill you can take or this little rock wall thing that is in the left of this picture.

 View from the top of the slide.  This park area just has a sand pit, the roller slide, a stone slide, rock wall and a little play thing for toddler kids.  My girls could play here for hours and hours on end.  Seriously.

 The pathway leading down to the beach area.  Olivia loves this outfit and it is the first outfit she puts on after it has been cleaned.  When she likes something she really sticks with it!

 The beach area on the cave side.

 This spot is so cool.  I love the archway in the rocks.  In this section of the beach you can be baptized here if you like.  Olivia will turn 8 while we live here and in our church that is the earliest age you can be baptized.  Olivia is already talking about Daddy baptizing her at this beach.

Here is the full view of the park.  The stone slides are on the end of the climbing wall.  You can go down them pretty fast with a piece of cardboard.  So simply designed, not a lot of bells and whistles but GENIUS in design.  I love this park and beach!  

Ginger Bread Town

 Marcus decided he really wanted to do ginger bread houses for Christmas. This was totally his baby. He researched out supplies, how he wanted to build them, icing recipe, THE WORKS!  They spent an afternoon whipping up these bad boys after Benson got here.

 I was in a baby coma so I missed the construction phase, but I appreciated their beauty once they were done.  Marcus is such a good Daddy to plan out fun things like this to do with the girls.  They LOVE it and love spending the time with him.  Michelle was a great assistant for the construction!

 Marcus also made the Daddy of houses, that beast at the end of the table.  It was HUGE!

 The girls showing off their works of art.  During the weeks we had them out "pieces" of the houses would go missing.  Bianca took her quality control of the ingredients VERY seriously.

 Marcus' MAMMOTH house.  It cracked me up every time I looked at it.  He also made a little Christmas tree out of gum drops for the front yard.  LOVE IT!

Close up shots of the girls houses.

Artists

 While Michelle was here there was a couple of things you could BE SURE would be happening daily.  Cuddling the baby (with each adult and child taking turns throughout the day) and ART TIME.  We do lots of crafts in this house.  Daily and frequently during the day.  Not that I structure anything, it is basically just a big ole free for all.  I try to organize it a little bit but having them clean up one round of crafting before they do another.  Like coloring stuff needs to be cleaned up before we do painting.  Lately it has been a TON of cutting/gluing/glittering/pasting which makes for a lot of little pieces of cardstock paper all over the floor.  I am trying to keep my neat freakness at bay and just let them go for it if they feel so inclined and just wait til the end of the day to do a big clean up.  We have a really big dining table so I can kinda keep the crafts to one end so there is room to eat when it is meal times.

 Mmmmmmmmm.  Babies.  I could love on this little guy all day long.  And I normally do just that, either because I want to or HE wants me to.  Either way it's a win win.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture.  One of Olivia's favorite crafts to do is water colors.  She can sit and paint for an hour straight.  She can sit and do crafts for an hour straight.  I kid you not that at least 2-3 hours during our day revolve around some kind of crafting.

While Bianca would nap, Olivia would paint and recruit her special Auntie to help her.  It makes me happy to look through one of the paint books and see the beautiful things that Michelle painted.  These two are kindred spirits and I know Olivia treasured this time (I also know that Michelle treasured it too).  To this day when I try to pull that one sketchbook out for them for crafts Olivia will tell me that she can't color or paint in it because it is Auntie Shelley's.  Even though she got it as a birthday present, she is preserving it. So precious.

Xystus

They have amazing indoor play places here.  It is a flat fee for a three hour time period.  It is very reasonably priced and it is a magical kid play jungle gym type thing.  Just a total free for all with all kinds of things to tucker a little one out.  It is nice when it is super rainy (which is a lot this time of year) and I imagine it is also magical for when it gets roasting hot during the summer.  

 This sign was over one of the garbages.  So awesome.  Prastics.

 There is slides, trampolines, ball pits, jumping places, zip lines.  Seriously I have never seen anything like it.

They also have these donkey things that you can bounce around on and if you are Bianca you take them for a stroll around the whole gym too!

Gastronomique

 While Michelle was here we ate out A LOT!  It was awesome and so yummy!  We took her to places we liked and explored new places with her.  I think the first two days she was here we ate out at like 4 different places.  It was so insane and insanely delicious!  

One of the places we went to was Big Daichan.  You eat on tradition Tatami mats.  It is a ramen noodle house and we feasted on miso ramen and gyoza.  So delish.  Marcus does not enjoy sitting on the floor or any form of cross leggedness, so he was not quite feeling it there haha!  They do have regular tables you can sit at but with our larger group we could only fit in at the tatami tables, plus you have to eat like that at least once whilst in Japan.

 I also had Indian food for the first time while she was here.  Mango Lassi's!  So delicious and creamy and amazing.

 When you buy a set (like a combo meal but they call them sets here.  Even at McDonald's they call the value meals sets) it also includes a drink and I always get a lassi now!

 Curry and naan bread.  SO delish!  This day we were at Ali Babba's but since then we have tried a few different ones and a Nepalese curry house and they are all so good!

 They had this fun thing outside a thai place we ate at in American Village so of course we had to have the girls pose in it!

 This one they are eating out someplace that I didn't go to.  I think this was after I had Benson.  I sent them out to do sightseeing while I stayed back with the bebe.

 Ooooooh!  The cuteness!

 Again I don't know where this restaurant was but I love this picture of Auntie Shell and Bianca.  She needs to make an appearance on the blog after visiting with us for the better part of the month!

 We also went to this lovely little sushi house and had a fun time exploring the world of sushi.

 The presentation was so BEAUTIFUL!  I have determined that I am not a fan of wasabi.  AT ALL.  I love me some spice and I will do spicy curry or spicy mexican food or spicy pasta.  I will pour hot sauce on my food (well not really so much right now.  Poor Benson. I am abstaining from spice for him).  BUT wasabi...BARF.  Seriously gets my gag reflex every time.  They are so sneaky with it on the sushi too.   Hidden underneath a beautiful piece of fish on rice and then BLAM!  The grossness that is wasabi hits my tongue.  Besides that I am LOVING to delicious sushi!

 Macaroni Grill on Camp Foster.  I had never eaten at this restaurant stateside before coming here and I really like it!  Helps me fill my Olive Garden cravings.  Plus we love to doodle all over the paper table cloth while we are waiting for our food to come!

Michelle!!  Love this girl.  Seriously.
DISCLAIMER:  Bianca requested a funny face from Michelle.  Hence the googly eye picture.  That is why she rocks as an Auntie!  (One of many many reasons!)