Elena's Birthday

Maybe an hour later? I held her right after for awhile, maybe 30 minutes, then they gave her a bath and stuff and gave her right back to me. Maybe she's 45 minutes old.

Tyler, Clara and Elena in the Postpartum room the next morning. Tyler spent the night at home with Clara and brought her to the hospital the next morning to see us.

Elena

15 Hours old. Clara was pointing out Elena's facial features. Here she's noting her cheeks. And yes, my hospital socks with rubber tread were both a blessing and a curse (for both function and fashion)

Clara pointing out Elena's nose.

Still in day one. I've showered (woo hoo!!) and still feel great! She was born Saturday night and we came home on Monday afternoon.

Clara playing some music for Elena in the bouncy seat. Fortunately the batteries are almost dead in the seat, becuase Clara mostly just likes to push the volume button.

39 Weeks + 5 Days + 16 hours =

Baby!!

I am delivered. And now I am home. And it is awesome.

Elena Patrice Young arrived at 6:02pm on Saturday, March 6th, 2010
She weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 inches long.

She was born about an hour and twenty minutes after we got to the hospital--'through the chute' if you'll pardon the expression.  More story and pictures to come!

Right now Clara and Elena are napping and Tyler and I are having some computer time and Frankie has stopped licking/sniffing Elena's head and is back at her perch on top of the couch.

Oh, and P.S.

WE"VE GOT TWO KIDS?!?!!? HOLY CRAP!!!!

Some Clara Items

Two weeks down and her finger is practically completely healed. There's the teeniest of scabs, but really that's it. She does, however, seem to be much more concerened about other people being hurt. Especially if she sees a band aid on my finger or 'the King' in her Cars book (when Chick makes him crash). She'll bring her book in to me every time saying "Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! mama! HURT!" With her face all scrunched up and I have to tell her, "yes, he got hurt but look, Lightening McQueen is helping him so he'll be all better. It'll be ok! He'll get better." Then she says "help. Help." and continues through the book.

She pointed to my finger the other day with a band air on it and said "Mama. Hurt." Yes, it hurts, please don't touch it. "Mama. Door. Hurt!" No, no mama didn't hurt her finger in the door. "Me. Door." Yes, yeah you hurt your finger in the door didn't you? So we need to be careful with the doors and ask for help. "Mmhmm."

I thought it was terribly observant that she made the connection that my finger was hurt, so since she hurt hers in the door, I must have hurt mine in the door. But maybe that's just maternal bias (don't burst my bubble : )

Last night she also talked in her sleep. I went up to check on her and started to move her back onto the fouton (she was half off with her blanket in a ball under her chest) and as she rolled back onto her bed (completely asleep) she said "Mama. Plane! Mama! Plane!"

I laughed because she says that ALL DAY. We hear planes flying all the time and whenever we drive in the car we're under the approach pattern so she constantly points out the planes. I thought it was funny that she was even dreaming about it.

I think she understands a  little bit about the baby.  We've talked about the baby's bed and small baby blankets and how the baby will have to wear diapers and next month, when Clara turns two, we'll bring the baby home. She knows there's no baby in hers or daddy's bellies, only mine. And I've talked about how she can help mama read to the baby and show the baby her animals and play with the baby. . . so I'm hoping it'll all go smoothly.

She's getting much better at using "me" and "Clara" in reference to herself. Like she'll ask for "Clara Movies" or "Me Movies" (it acutally sounds like "Car jeeya!" or "Me jeeya!" but at least she points to herself as well). But at the same time Daddy and Frankie/Doggy have merged yet again. Frankie used to be gagee and Daddy used to be Gaga. But now she uses gagee for them both and it's confusing for me. She's anti "d" though, not sure why.

She says hi to lots of her toys. "Hi Pony!" "Hi Turtle!" "Hi Doggy!" and she'll say it very high pitched and get increasingly higher the more times she says hi (which is usually at least 2-4 times). She'll also put her toys to bed. She often decides her doll, llama, turtle or pony needs a nap so she'll take them upstairs and put them on her bed (pillow) and then come back downstairs and report to me. "Doll. Sleep!" "Llama. Bed!" So all her stuffed toys are migrating upstairs.

She's very into bears--but mostly at night. Her fouton has a bear cover and a bear comfortor. I've got a bunch of polar bears that are practically 3/4 her size that she's insisted on sleeping with the past few nights. She'll put her arm around the one from Sea World Australia and then ask for the prayer then just fall asleep cuddling with it (while the other bears and doggies are around her head and other side). She knows only one bear is allowed for story time though becuase otherwise there's no room for her on my lap.

She still gets shy in public or when people say hi directly to her and sometimes she still spits at them. Fortunately she's still young enough that people think it's funny. But we're working on that. We're also working on wiping boogies on a tissue instead of pants or in the mouth. AT least she points them out to me when she wipes them on her pants, so then I get a tissue and say "boogies go in tissues." Then I have her blow her nose again in case she missed any : )

She says no for EVERYTHING.
"Do you want some breakfast?" No. . . . .. . . baba. (Breakfast).
"How about some oatmeal this morning? "No. . . . . . .  momo (oatmeal).
"Do you want to pick out some undies?" No. . . . . . nunies! (as she gets some from the drawer and brings them to me).
Tyler will say "Hi Clara!" No.  (no what? No is not an appropriate response to a greeting, Clara.)

I can't even imagine how insane I would be right now if she didn't still use some sign to communicate with me and if I was trying to start potty training right now. IN-SANE I would be! As it is I'm just holding on, so I always have to remind myself how much worse it could be for both of us.

She's not very articulate. I don't think, anyway, for being two (in two weeks). But I think she's ahead of the game on some other things, so I'm not too concerened that she uses the same two syllables for, like, 6 different things. She's putting words together and constantly 'talking', so I'll just serve as translator until she sorts it out. . . . and laugh at her pretend games and silly faces.

More Small Things Make Me Happy

Like when I get a massage while Clara is at home playing and loving life with Yoko-san after I got all my earrands done.

Except pick UP the packages that finally arrived becuase hte post office window doesn't opne until 10, but at least I got the slips to pick them up finally!

And even though Homac didn't have a lamp for me, they came through with this (see picture): THE MOST AWESOME PILLOW ON THE PLANET!!

They have it at the massage place and in my coop catalogue and all over the place. Homac is basically like a Home Depot, and when I passed that aisle (looking for an addition to clara's fouton, actually, since I was in the area) I saw it! And even though they sell for less than 1980 yen at other places, I dind't care. I've been sleeping so crappy with regular "american" straight block body pillows I couldn't take it anymore. Plus I think the pattern rocks too. So it just all makes me happy!

Not only THAT! But when I got home, before I could even say goodbye to Yokosan Clara was saying "bye! Bye! Mama, sleep! Sleep!" and walking upstairs. By the time I got up to her room (15 seconds behind her) she was lying down on her fouton with her blanket ready to go! I just covered her up, she asked for prayer (she's getting really good at repeating prayers when we say them) and then left. Haven't heard a peep since!

THIS DAY IS SO AWESOME!!!!

Enjoy the following pictures of Clara's rediculously crazy bedhead/mullet I took yesterday morning  : )

Small things make me happy

Like when clara wakes up at 6:20am today (nistead of 5:50am yesterday) and has taken off her pants, thrown her wet diaper in the garbage, and has pooped in her potty and is just waiting up in her room for me to come up and help wipe.

"Mama. Wipe. Mama. Wipe." As I hear her playing around in her room.

>sigh of relief< THIS I can handle.

That and also, this happened this morning:

Clara eating her cereal

"Bubbles! COOL!"

I Laughed so hard and said "DId you just say "COOL"?! That I think I made her nervous or something, but then i agreed, that bubbles in cereal ARE cool and she smiled and said it again for tyler.

Bubbles aren't new, she always comments whenever she sees them (in milk, usually) but the 'cool' was definitely a new addition.

P.S. I added pictures finally to the Space Jammie post as well as to our trip to the UCC for her finger (which does not need a splint or even a wrapping anymore, but it still looks awful.)

PS Again, these pictures are from earlier in the month, before the 'incident", just playing around with TYler.

It just never ends

So today, a week after clara smashed her finer, I was cutting a carrot for dinner this morning using the mandolin and sliced off a bit of the top of MY right, middle finger. OWW!! I forgot how bad a fingertip injury can hurt.

Fortunately clara probably forgot too becuase she managed to fall/slip while climbing onto the kitchen chair and cut her bottom lip. Not bad (no UCC trip this time thank goodness!!) but there was blood involved nonetheless.

Seriously! Just, everybody work with me and stop getting injured!!

And if the dog could stop throwing up that would be awesome too. This past week she's thrown up 5 times, three times one night and twice on the other (A few days apart), but each night she hurled once on my bed comfortor/blanket (the second time the comfortor was still in the wash, so it was a blanket).

This was, of course, AFTER Tyler got food posioning from Ankur (Indian) last friday morning at 3am. . . . it's been a busy week-plus.

But It's WAY WAY Worse when MOM is in Charge!!

>sigh<

Yesterday clara caught her finger in the closet door. She's fine (see how I start with that?) but the top of her finger got munched pretty bad (split open all across the top, parallell to the nail). Fortunately the bone dind't break and it didn't touch any nerves or anything, just split the top, but still. IT WAS AWFUL!!

The pictures are on the camera, but I haven't put them on the computer yet so here's just the story for now.

I got home from lunch and the commissary (the only errand I managed because she was being a bit of a stink. She bit me so hard on the arm at the food court that I started crying and she gave me a huge bruise and teeth marks for hours afterwards--through my coat sleeve! I wanted her to eat before playing on the playgym, that was my crime.) and had just brought all the groceries in and taken off her coat and both our shoes.

I sat down on the couch to put a movie on for her so I could put away groceries and maybe think about starting dinner and she went to the closet to open it up to get an acutal DVD case. I said "no sweet pea, I've got the movie right here" (They're all on our computer). So she starts to close the closet (accordian style closet) which she's done MANY times.

It's almost closed by her pulling on the handle but she decides to switch tactics and close it from the middle fold. I say "Be carfulL! wath your hands!" but it closed and caught her middle finger. She starts crying and I immidiately go over to her.

I think she just clipped it (which she's done before in her bedroom) and it just scared her, but after a few seconds of holding her I say "ok, let mama see" and she pulls her had away from her chest, takes her other hand off her fingers and I just see blood.

Lots and lots of blood.

I think to myself "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! HOLY CRAP!!!!OH MY GOSH SHE CHOPPED OFF HER FINGER!!!! AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

But I say, quite calmly, "Ok. It's ok sweet pea. We've got to clean this up. Come on."

And I pick her up as blood is literally dripping everywhere on our clothes. Take her to the kitchen to try to clean it off but realize there's no way she'll let me stick her finger under runnign water becuase I Wouldn't let someone do that to me if I was her. So I grab a paper towel, wet it, half squeeze it out and just put it over her fingers to clear some of the blood. When I pull the towel away after a few seconds I just see split open flesh.

Again, I think, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! OH MY GOSH IT"S SPLIT OPEN!!! WHAT DO I DO!??!!? AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

I think I said, "It's ok sweet pea, we'll just keep this on your finger. Shhh Shh, it's ok. Mama's got you."

I take her upstairs and give her some tylenol, becuase I figured it will help with pain and whatever happens at the UCC (urgent care center) but then I realize I have to get her TO the UCC. . . . but I need to keep pressure on the finger becuase I don't really know. .  she'll bleed out or something If I let go!!

So I've been holding her in my right arm this whole time with my left hand holding her right hand. And I manage to get the phone and call Cami without really letting go of Clara or her fingers. And I tell her clara smashed her finger in the closet door and I need to get her to the UCC but I'm not sure quite how to do that becuase i need to keep holding her finger.

Cami, being the awesome friend that she is with three children of her own, says "ok, I'll just put the kids in the car and we'll be right there. . . . are YOU ok?"

"Yeah. . . yeah, I'm just. . . .just a little emotional."

So I keep holding her until Cami arrives.  We said a prayer. . . mostly for me. . . but she completely calmed down immidiately which in turn helped me too. Clara asked to say another prayer a few seconds later and I obliged her. That's nothing new, she'll sometimes ask for 2 or 3 prayers at bedtime, but still. I wonder if she acutally made a connectio nthat time between the prayer and how she felt?

Cami arrives and she puts clara's car seat in her van and takes us to UCC. They ask to see her finger before even giving me the stupid forms to fill out, which annoyed me but I guess I understand that they might get a lot of panicky parents in there. Plus clara wasn't crying anymore or even whimpering and it only happened 30 minutes ago. Anyway, I get hte form and have to figure a way to hold her hand (She whimpers every time I let go) and fill out the forms about a 2 year old by answering questions such as "could you be pregnant? when was your last Menses?" etc etc. I skipped most of the form.

Cami called the squadron to let Tyler know we were there (I thought he was flying and just wanted him there instead of sitting in a debrief). They asked to see her finger again a few minutes later (two different people) and said "yeah, that's not good but it's not terrible." But they were still nice enough to let us skip ahead of one or two people.

She had to wash her finger off in a cup of solution and I thought "yeah right, she's two. Like she's going ot keep her hurt finger in a warm cup of wash." However, she was fine with it. She dipped it in, said "Hurt. Hurt." I said "I know, its ok, put it back in the cup and it will feel better." Dip. "Hurt. Hurt." It's ok. Dip. Then she kept it in there and started moving her fingers around ot swish it all over the place like I DON"T allow her to do with her milk at home.

We go back, they take her vitals. She takes off her socks (I never put shoes on her), we point out things and various colors around the room. Tyler arrives. She doesn't want to say hi (go figure). The doc comes in, assesses the situation and says "its a little too deep for my comfort. Before I seal it up I'd like to tak X-Ray."

Dr. Olga (I can't remeber her last name) orders the x ray. Fortunately tyler was there becuase I couldn't go in the x ray room becuase I'm prengnat. And fortunately clara was done being shy with daddy at that point so he took her back no problem.

Olga got a second opinion on the X rays from orthopedics and fortunately, the bone wasn't broken. But the next question was how to seal it up. Her finger was almost too small for stitches, plus the way it was injured, the skin was too thin to even hold a stitch anyway. But it looked a little too wide to derma bond it. . . so what to do on such a little finger?

The two (Olga and Ortho) are just standing there holding her hand out like she's giving them a high five and Tyler's just holding clara and she's just sort of looking at everyone. Not making a sound while they investigate and move her hand and fingers and stuff.

They decide to derma bond it (superglue it, basically) to keep it clean and then put a little cast/splint on it. She was practically alseep while she was soaking her hands in cleaning solution again (it didn't hurt the second time, or at least she didn't say it did). She was just leaning back against me with her blanket on her lap (I grabbed it before we left) and her hand in the cup. Then let them put the splint on and wrap her up without a fuss.

We get her in the car (Tyler sent cami and the kids home since he was going to stay) and Clara starts laughing and giggling at tyler and his hat. We get home and she starts running around and playing 'choo choo train' and laughing at the dog and just being crazy! LAUGHING! and smiling and she ate a huge dinner (good thing we had a late lunch around 2pm becuase we didn't get home until about 5:30). and ran around some more with tyler and then went to bed. She slept like a rock! I was in more pain I think than she was that night!

I checked on her a bunch, and she was completely fine. Even when I found she'd curled her hand up inside the splint and Tyler and I had to straighten out her fingers. She fidgeted, but dind't wake up.

So, in conclusion. My child is a champ rockstar who's super tough yet rediculously cute at the same time. And I'm clearly not fit to be sole caretaker of her, especially in time of emergency. She's better off with Daddy.  At least HE"S never had to take her to the emergency room!! ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

This last picture was taken on Tuesday (She did it on WEdnesday) after her follow up at 7:30am with orthopedics. She's just sitting with her right middle finger taped up watching Toy Story. Course she also got a cold this week too, so that was awesome.

An "Exercise" in Communication

So, today was the last day of the base exercise. . . . and it has clearly taken its toll in the Young household. Communication is quite difficult between a pregnant wife and a 3am wake-up husband. It's been going a little something like this:

Tyler: Ok, it's 1:53
Anna: What?
Tyler: It's 1:53
Anna: What?
Tyler: IT"S ONE FIFTY THREE!
Anna: ONE FIFTY THREE WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
Tyler: THE TIME!!! IT"S ONE FIFTY THREE!!!
Anna: oh
(he was making pasta and wanted to make sure he kept track of boil time and just happened to say the current time out loud and I clearly got super confused)


Anna: So how were your flights today?
Tyler: Eh, ok. I got shot down by triple A.
Anna: . . . . . . . triple A?
Tyler: Yeah
Anna: . . . . . what, like a tow truck?
Tyler: confused look
Anna: just as confused back AAA? What's that? Like a tow truck shot you down?
Tyler: Oh, I forgot you didn't know what triple A was--Anti Aircraft Artillery. I got shot down by that.
(obviously, triple A in 'pilot speak' does NOT mean Automobile Association of America, which is clearly the only triple A I've ever had to deal with)


Anna: Ok, I have to leave for mutual soon.
Tyler: what time?
Anna: Well, I'd like to leave by :45
Tyler: 5:45?
Anna: By :45
Tyler: FIVE forty five?
Anna: BY FORTY FIVE!
Tyler: I KNOW! FIVE FORTY FIVE?
Anna: I"D LIKE TO LEAVE BYYYYYYYYYYY FORTY FIVE!!
Tyler: I KNOW!! WHICH ONE?!?! FIVE or SIX?!
Anna: looking at the clock and realizing it's only 5:35 Oh! Oh. . . . um, no, Six forty five I guess. So I've got some time.
(I clearly have difficulty with the concept of "time" and it passing)

It's been a difficult week. . . . . . >sigh<

On the upside, you should check out the space jammies post again in the next few days because he actually let me take a picture of him in both the poopy suit AND the silver awesomeness! (Apparently, there was this black nylon-ish thing that they used to wear instead of the silver ones that kept tyler more warm and was called, get this, the Cat Suit. No it wasn't form fitting like the standard female catsuit--still fit like the space jammies, but still. I laughed pretty good at that one. I guess they came back from Komatsu and all the life support stuff was a little different--namely the catsuit was replaced with space jammies).

Tyler Has Space Jammies?

So, the base is in the middle of a big exercise where they pretend they were attacked and we're at war right here in Japan. It lasts about a week--Wednesday to Wednesday (but they were nice enough to pause it for Sunday). All the guys in the squadron have crazy schedules and night shifts and early shifts and everything. Tyler's show time yesterday was 3:30am so he woke up at 2am. Today's was 4am so he woke up around 3am. Eeesh.

But becuase it's an exercise he has to pull out all this gear that I normally don't see and he has to wear it all the time or most of the time so new stuff is showing up all the time at home. Like his chem gear bag, his g suit, his poopy suit and best of all--his space jammies!

They're really, I guess, just a thermal jumpsuit he wears under his poopy suit (A dry suit in case he ejects over the ocean becuase the water is so so cold) but they're this silvery grey with a diamond waffle-print thing going on.

I laughed when I saw them becuase I just wasn't used to that being under his flight suit! Then this morning around 3:15am I saw a silvery being walk across the room and sort of chuckled to myself again : )

It made me think of the Seinfeld where he wonders how everyone in the future picked out the 'uniform'. Was it just a fashion show where you come out, Silver jumpsuit, v-stripe on the chest, and everyone claps and says "Yeah, I could wear that."

So even though the excercise is sort of crappy becuase of the schedules and everything, I guess it does have some perks.  Although, to be honest, I was more than a little ticked that the exercise started literally one week after I had FINALLY put his chem gear AWAY from when he was TDY at Komatsu in December. It has a space now though, so hopefully it won't take so long to get put AWAY (stupid A-bag. So big and bulky and in my way!)

So A giraffe walks into Daiichi. . . . .

As I was dropping clara off at Daiichi Youchien today I passed a literal giraffe walking towards the building. The japanese snowsuits and buntings here are HILARIOUS! It was yellow with brown spots complete with the hoodie with the little giraffe nubber things (I don't know what they're acutally called. . . but I don't think they're the giraffe's ears). The kid had to have been just barely 18 months judging by how he was walking (or her) of course that could also have been the HUGE puffy GIRAFFE SUIT she was wearing! HAHAHahahahaha!

I've got another one for you:

So, a crow crosses the crosswalk in winter. . . . . . and slips TWICE on the ice!! HAHAHAHAHAHAhaha!!

ON the drive home I was stopped at a light and a big crow started hopping across the street in the crosswalk (I don't think American crows would have done that, but the Japanese ones seem to not believe in "jay walking"--ehh? EHH??! JAY walking?! HA!!. . . ok)

So it's almost to the other side and all of a sudden it's little feet slip forwards and it's tail hits the ground. Hops up, makes one or two more hops and slides again! HAhahahaha! Then it sort of flew the rest of the way to the snow bank. I've just never seen a bird slip on ice before and it was hilarious.

"Undies" Night

Last night I put Clara in undies around 8pm. I went to check on her around 10:30 before I went to bed and, of course, she had peed on TOP of her covers. She was sleeping soundly, however she had soaked her top fouton cover and her crochet blanket was a little wet too.

Fortunately her waterproof pad was bone dry--so I'm glad I went through that effort.

I take her wet undies off and hold her over hte potty. She just has some gas then clearly wants to get back to bed, so I put a pull up on her (baby steps) and she lies back down so I have to finagle her jammie pants on her while she's dead asleep.

I've got a bajillion blankets but lots of htem are downstairs from when I washed them, so I just covered her with her remaining dry blanket and got an extra quilt from her changing table.

I didn't notice any later wake up or anything (which sometimes happens when I change her wet diaper or help her go potty before I go to bed--probably becuase her diaper gets so wet that it wakes her up. It'd wake me up if I was her) but it wasn't an early wake up either. So that's nice.

Maybe we'll try again and I'll check on her a little earlier. . . If she wants. Otherwise I might wait until the baby gets here becuase then I"ll acutally already be up and I don't think it'll be that big a deal to feed the baby then check on clara. Like I said, I'll be up anyway.

Sans nightime diaper?

Clara's been out of diapers for a while now. We've been going out and about and staying home with her in undies all day since at least 18 months (there were still accidents, but mostly becuase ignored her or she couldn't get her pants down on her own).

I guess maybe a few weeks or a month ago I stopped putting her in a pull-up for naptime. Mostly becuase I would go to check on her when she wouldn't fall asleep and she'd have taken it off and either missed her potty or taken it off mid-potty or taken it off and thrown her tangled up diaper/pants combo in the garbage. While I appreciate that she knew where her dirty diapers go, I flush poop and there were two times where she clearly was very close to getting the diaper off but couldn't quite make it--so I had poop cleaning duty which, as many of you know, I am not a fan of.

So once I started putting her in undies she acutally did pretty good. I'd go in to check and there'd either be a #1 or #2 or both in her potty (she'd be sleeping soundly naked from teh waist down--she still has some trouble with getting undies and pants on by herself). Sometimes she'd wake up wet and sometiems she'd come down to me dry. Lately she's been mostly dry on wake ups.

(except for the time I went in and she had taken off her pants and undies, gone potty, then managed to climb up on the changing table and fall asleep--after ransacking her room)

Tonight, however. I put her in her standard pull up, did bed time routine and went to check on her becuase I head noises. It was dark, she was wandering around upstairs (it's not that big) and I say "clara! get in to bed!"

I walk into her room, kneel down by her fouton and straighten her blankets for her (in the dark) and she comes and lies down and I cover her but feel her naked bum.

Anna: "What? where are your pants?"
Clara: "Peaaa! Peaaa." (pants, pants)
Anna: (turn on the nightlight and see her jammie pants on the floor, no diaper in them) Where is your diaper?
Clara: Diap! DaiP! (as she points to the garbage can)
Anna: Why is your diaper in the garbage? Was it wet? did you go potty?
Clara: Weh! Weh! (wet, wet)
Anna: (pulling hte diaper out and, noticing she had ripped the side like I do when I take it off her, sees it's wet.) Oh, well then lets get another diap and put your pants back on!
Clara: Nunies! Nunies! ('undies, undies' as she gets a pair of undies and brings them to me to put on)
Anna: Oh, you don't want a diaper? you want undies on?
Clara: (nods) Nunies! Peaa!
Anna: Ok. I guess we'll just see how this works then.

So I put a full sized water proof pad on her fouton and tucked her back in and now I'm just waiting, I guess, for a hopefully dry night? or for her to use her potty up there and not come down at 1am saying "mama! wipe! wipe! Potty!" THat would be AWESOME. . . . but I"m not corssing my fingers. Plus it's not like I won't be up anyways being 35 weeks now.

However, Daddy Still Rocks

I don't want anyone to get a bad impression of Tyler's fathering skills, because he really is quite awesomely talented.

(crap, again, video exhibits a, b and c are not loading!)

Example #1:

The other night I had a baby shower to go to, so he was in charge of bedtime. He was playing with her for about 15 mintues--running around, chasing/being chased, standard fare and all of a sudden Clara stops and says "no'. Apparently the scene went like this:

Clara: No

Tyler: No? I'm gonna get you!!

Clara: NO

Tyler: Oh. . . . you're all done?

Clara: Up

Tyler: Oh! You want to go up! ok! (starts to throw her up in the air)

Clara: No

Tyler: Oh. You don't want that?

Clara: Bed

Tyler: Ok, lets go to bed. Do you want a bath?

Clara: No

Tyler: Ok. Puts her in a diaper and jammies and holds her for a second

Clara: Bed, down

Tyler: Ok. Good night Clara!

Boom. DONE. He walks out and doesn't hear a PEEP out of her!

No bath, no freak out about a lack of bath balls, no teeth burshing requirements of him brushing at hte same time, no ear cleaning, no drink of water, no bed time book, no fifteen blankets and 32 stuffed animals (or not stuffed, plastic planes), no leg warmer requirements or specific jammie requests, no three rounds of prayer--NOTHING.

In case you were wondering, yes, I must satisfy anywhere from one to all of the aforementioned requirements for Clara before she will go to bed for me.

Example #2

Clara: Movie! Movie! (pronnounced "jeeya! jeeya!")

Anna: Ok, what movie do you want?

Clara: Daddy movie (pronnounced "Gaga jeeya")

If I try to put anything other than the Incredibles in, she'll freak out. If I try to persuade her to another movie more to my liking, she's obstinate. The SECOND I put The Incredibles on, she sits on the couch and doesn't move. It's like she's channeling Tyler home through the movie.

I think Tyler watched it with her one time and from then on, only Daddy's movie will satisfy. Fortunately for me it's getting better with repeat viewings, but still.

Example #3

Tyler can make a funny face and Clara will try to imitate it and then laugh out loud hysterically. I tried to make funny faces with her the other day and she stared at me like I was retarded. No imitation, no laugh. Nothing. Just this look of "Um. . . you probably shouldn't make that face in public because you look retarded"

I just hope I can get the videos to load because lots of his parenting can't really be explained, you have to see Clara and her reactions and how she looks at him to understand how great a Dad he really is : )

When Daddy is in Charge Part III

He takes Clara on the slides at the Weasel's Den meant for 5-12 year olds. . . .

(Shoot, my video isn't loading)

She was able to go down all three of the big green slides at least once. She still got knocked around a bit, but nothing too bad until she tried the middle one again and smacked her ear on the side of the slide and started screaming.

FORTUNATELY on her way up the stairs to go down that slide her foot slipped and she smacked her forehead against the plastic slat leaving a nice red mark. . . sooo. . . . . yeah. : )

. . . Speaking of back up names. . . . .

My ticker says about 47 days to go. So if anyone has name suggestions, feel free to send them our way.

Please weight your submissions towards girl names, since boy names are easier for me and that's what we're pretty sure I'm having.

We've got a few, but I had a mini freak-out the other day and found out I'm about 6 weeks from my due date and said "WHAT!? Tyler!! SIX WEEKS!! Do you like that name?!"

He just laughed, then imitated me, then we looked up some names online but we got distracted. So we're still where we were. . . . . . awesome.

We're pretty sure it's a Girl

So, I haven't really made a big announcement or anything, but we're pretty sure #2 is a girl.

We're only "pretty sure" because the base ultrasound techs aren't allowed to tell people what gender the baby is. And they're really good at not slipping up. But she did pause the picture between the legs while she had some things to do so we could squint and stare and tilt and guess and debate as to the gender.

I saw 3 white lines which was what Clara was and which was what her Ultrasound tech in AZ told me meant was a girl. I didn't see any "turtle sign" or anything, which I was told after the fact means 'boy'. However, I was also not looking for turtles, I was looking for girls. Sooooooo, that could come back to haunt me : )

So we're saying it's a girl. And if the baby turns out to be a boy he'll be in a little bit of pink for the first few months until I can buy some boy stuff. But it's really not an issue here in Japan becuase I STILL get asked, when Clara is dressed in head to toe pink, "Boy? Girl?"

Really sir? You think she's a boy? That was your first guess? With that much pink?

So clearly the only issue would be a name, which we'll have a few back up boy names in case we're wrong.

When Daddy Is In Charge Part II

Tyler took Clara out to go potty at church today. She didn't have to go she just wanted to play. So he stayed outside with her until the sacrament was over. While I was sitting in teh chapel I THOUGHT I heard Clara's cry and I THOUGHT it sounded like a hurt cry, but I dismissed it thinking there's lots of kids out there and Tyler just probably won't let her play with the elevator so she's not really hurt. But still. . . .I thought it.

AND I THOUGHT RIGHT!!!

Turns out Clara decided she wanted to try jumping down the stairs with both feet. So she made it one step (her hand was on the rail) and the second one but she lost her balance and started tumbling.

Tyler was right there and just missed grabbing her when she jumped down the first step. He tried to get in front of her but she fell sort of sideways so she was parallel with the steps and he didn't want to step on her. Not only that, but the church stairs are REALLY steep and narrow, so he probably would have fallen and broken something if he tried to leap over her to catch her.

Fortunately it's a short bout of stairs, but long enough to give him a good scare and leave her with some good bruises. She was a little cranky the rest of the day, but no signs of concussion or anything like that. Just some solid cheek bruising and a forehead bruise/scratch. (I couldn't get a good picture of it though)

I really felt bad for Tyler though because it did give him a pretty good scare. Would have given anyone a good scare given those stairs! But to be honest it probably would have happened if I was watching her because she's NEVER tried to jump down stairs before. She's always been really good at stairs even before she could walk. I don't know what got into her. But now we're both a little nervous with her around stairs.

Yoga vs. Shoveling Snow

At 32+ weeks, you'd think I'd pick Yoga.

You'd think wrong.

I now think I chose poorly as well. . . . . . .but I just wanted the driveway to be nice for Tyler when he got home because the snow plow came by at 6pm finally but left a 2.5 foot high wall for the Subaru to clear before he can even start driving through the regular snow that fell before he even hits the garage!

My arms are getting weaker as I type this.

Stupid snow. You're supposed to fall gradually over time! Don't you know that? Not just dump 13 inches or whatever it is (its practically above Frankie's head--I made her a little corridor on the back patio so she can at least go outside to pee) all at once!

That being said, it is a little bit nice to actually have snow. I just wish I had some better snow mittens for Clara so we can go play.

Ways to Boost Pregnant Self-Esteem:

Ask a rhetorical question while getting ready for church at 32 weeks pregnant and have your husband answer.

Anna: (smoothing maternity shirt down and noticing how 'billowy' her clothes look in the mirror) Gosh. How fat am I?

Tyler: (from the bathroom) You're pretty fffffff. . . . . . . . .freaking NOT fat! Is what YOU are babe!

He's lucky I"m not more emotional and that I was laughing at him. Although, he admits if I WERE more emotional he wouldn't be making jokes like that. It also helped that he gave me a really good hug as I was laughing at him. : )

Dear Maternity Clothes Makers,

You seem to be under the impression that my head is growing in direct relation to my belly.

I would like to inform you that it is not. So please stop making the neckholes on maternity tops the size of texas, becuase my boobs DO seem to be growing in direct relation to my belly, and I don't like giving 'free shows' all the time (if you know what I mean).

Thanks.

Your devoted customer,

A. Young

Japanese Jehovah's Witness'

I think the large majority of the 140,000 or whatever are located right here on the northern tip of Japan.

They come by allllll the time! And I feel SO BAD! Because it's either a super sweet couple or a super sweet little Japanese lady and her younger friend. . . or some other super sweet combo, and they tend to come by when its FREEZING cold so I feel EXTRA bad about saying "thank you but no thank you I"m very happy with my current faith".

Although, this time the one girl did ask if my current church offered answers to the following questions (as she handed me a little 'free home bible study' card):

-Does God really care about us?

-Will war and suffering ever end?

-What happens to us when we die?

-Is there any hope for the dead?

-How can I pray and be heard by God?

-How can I find happiness in life?

The answers to which are (I sum up) Yes, yes, LOTS of stuff (aka eternity), of course, be sincere and humble, and I've already got it! : )

So at least its good for me to occasionally remind myself that I find no loopholes or large glaring, unaswered questions when it comes to the gospel. But seriously, I feel so bad when they come by!

www.LDS.org

www.Mormon.com

Appi, PuuTalo and Hachimanti (AKA New Years)

Frosty Panther is what it's called. Most of the squadron went on a ski trip over New Years' and it was so much fun! We left Thursday morning and drove south to Appi ski resort.

The car did awesome but I passed out on the way up right before we got off the toll road. And no, I don't mean I fell asleep. I passed out, in and out of consioucsness like I did in the Post Office when I was 5 months pregnant with Clara. It was a little more intense this time I think becuase of the altitude (I think), and took me a long while to recover, but everything's been fine since. Once we got to Appi I spent a lot of time just sitting and drinking juice and eating crackers to get myself feeling better while tyler's getting his gear and stuff ready and while the Chicowski's are giving us Katie's old snow gear for Clara (because I dind't have a good coat or pants or boots for her. Thankfully my Land's End order came in on Wednesday night for Clara and Tyler's snow boots!)

We get in the lodge and Tyler has to go buy some gloves (because we forgot to pack them-doh!). he gets back, then i have to go to the bathroom and change into my snow pants. I get back and ask him for the car keys in

case I need something from it while he's skiing. They're still in the ignition (although he did turn the car off). So . . . we were off to a bit of a slow start to say the least-hahaha!

Finally we get everything sorted out and tyler hits the slopes. I hit the little indoor play area with clara becuase I'm still not feeling strong enough to brave the snow/wind/sled hill elements. Plus i don't really know where it is and don't want to go wandering. Clara has a blast on the

little slide, going down head first after toys she pushes down. We had some ramen and curry and finished up jsut as Tyler was coming in for some lunch. So we all headed over to the bigger food court where everyone was hanging out (which I dind't know about).

Tyler went back out after lunch and I took clara to the sledding hill which was a lot of fun, except I had to ride with her and it was a bit of interesting logistics, to say the least. Considering the size of the teeny tiny sled I brought, my 7 month pregnant self and my toddler whose bundled up more than Ralphie's younger brother from A Christmas Story. But still, it was fun. And they had al ittel conveyor belt you stood on so you didn't have to walk up the hill. Nice.

She was in undies all day and we didn't have one accident. Either told me or I'd ask her and we'd go before we headed out in the snow. But man! So much CLOTHING! Bib pants and regular pants and a tee shirt and a fleece and the coat and the boots. . . she weighed an extra 10 pounds with all that gear on! I won't lie, I tried to not give her as much liquid as I normally do because i didn't want her to have an accident, but she still ended up drinking a ton. But like I said, no accidents in borrowed pants so that was nice.

We left Appi around 4 and rove to PuuTalo cabins. We got switched cabins so instead of it just being us and the Chicowskis it was us, the Chicowskis and the Lugars and, we found out as we were unpacking, Jarod the new guy whose family was still back in teh states. So there were 3 toddler girls (21-36 months), two pregnant women (4 months and 7 months) and a single guy (technically). Hahahahaha! But it was a lot of fun. . . we just felt bad for Jarod in teh morning. Fortunately he has a 4 year old girl and a 3 month baby so it's not like he was completely single and without kids.

Tyler unloaded the van and I realized I packed WAAAaaay too much. But I'd never been, so I'd rather have been prepared. Plus it didn't help that we had 3 more people in the cabin who packed for themselves too, so there was a ton of food and snacks and everything. There were 3 bedrooms with 2 sets of bunk beds (That's why jarod took the couch even though there were technically 3 beds still) and a teeny tiny ktichen and only a stovetop. Spaghetti was delicious that first night.

Since it was New year's Eve though, I went over the the 'party' at about 9:30 or so to bring my fudge and see what was going on while everyone else watched Ronin in black and white (becuase something was wrong with the TV when we hooked it up to the laptops). Nothing much was going on except I had a bite of jalepeno cheese dip that almost killed me (thanks Kline Family! : ) So I went back to the cabin pretty early and fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Woo! Happy New Year! : )

The next morning, on New Year's day

everyone went to a closer place called Hachimanti to ski and sled. It was much smaller than Appi but it was nice. I had to buy a beanie becuase I, of course, forgot mine at the cabin. We strapped on some (borrowed) skis to Clara and tyler pushed her down a hill a few times. She liked it, but I think she only liked the poles, really. It was hard to get her to let them go.

Then we took her sledding and it was AWESOME! She loved it! It was really snowy and windy though, so she hated that, but the acutal sledding part she loved. She'd sit in it and grab the side and tyler would send her down to me and I'd hear her just laughing so hard! "HA HA HA! HA! HA HA!" it was so hilarious! She'd get to the bottom and I'd ask "do you want to go again?" and she'd say "again again!".

WE started off by takign her out of the sled and Tyler would carry her up the hill, but then tyler had to sit in the sled at the top then slide off the back of it as he put her in the sled 'with him' otherwise she wouldn't get in. So then we jsut stopped giving her the choice and when she got to the bottom I'd grab the sled string and start pulling her back up towards tyler (Who would run down to meet me so I didn't have to go very far--thanks baby!). Otherwise she'd say no no she didn't want to get in, but then she'd be laughign the whole way down.

I didn't take any pictures of sledding becuase i wanted to just enjoy it. And the wind was sort of blowing pretty hard. And it was snowing too. So I didn't want to have to fight that. Plus it was cold. Freeeeeeeeeeezing cold. I was SO glad she had proper boots and pants and a coat! She needs better snow mittens though. She just had cloth ones so we had to go in once or twice to warm them up becuase they'd get cold and wet from holding the sides of the sled. We almost had an accident when the Kline girls ran into us at the bottom, but no one was hurt thankfully. (Although, I gave Siobhan a hard

time because, first the Jalepeno dip then she sends her kids after me to finish the job?! hahahahahahaha!)

Tyler got some more skiiing in though. We didn't keep Clara outside for long mostly becuase of her hands. So Jenny and I took Katie and Clara back to the cabin early while Trevor and Tyler kept skiing. When we got to the cabin Clara was so dead asleep I took her snow coat, pants and boots off her, held her over the potty to pee (which she did while alseep) and put her back in bed without disturbing her. The position she was in when I left the room was the same position she was in 2 hours later when I went to get her for dinner. Hahahahaha! She was OUT! it was so cute! I should have taken a picture, but I wasn't thinking.

That night was the crock pot cook-off in the main room at PuuTalo. I made creamy chicken and jenny made a cherry pie (which won!)

and Mary made a chili. I tried to make my box oven brownies. . . but it didn't turn out becuase I didn't have enough time. As I was lighing (or trying to light, rather) the charcoals, TYler said "So, they'll be ready in 20 minutes?" and i said "Waht?! No! I have to get hte charcoals hot then it needs to bake for 35 minutes!". So I had to scrap that idea. But I still have the oven and I'm still going to use it--oh yes, I will.

There was a TON of food, but i forgot t

o bring drinks so I had to run to the vending machine and buy a bunch of drinks for TYler and I and Clara. Clara had fun running around with all the other kids. We took a big group picture and then were out of there by 8:45 (PuuTalo rules)

We played Apples to Apples that night in the cabin and started to watch The Princess Bride after two rounds, but no one made it very far into the movie. I think the two days of skiiing and the onsen (which I didn't get to go to becuase the water's too hot and I'm pregnant and I'm bummed about that becuase i've wanted to go to an onsen for al ong time n

ow) and all the food, everyone was just wiped out.

We packed up and headed out the next morning. We packed SO MUCH STUFF!! HAhahahahaha~!! But liek I said, I dind't know what to expect, so next year I'll be better. It was mostly all food too. But we both could have used smaller bags. Just that snow gear takes up so much space!