Alyssa had a great time at her birthday and loved her presents!


Yesterday was Alyssa’s birthday and we had a fantastic time! (Well technically today is her birthday if you consider the fact that now it's the 17th in California.) She is the most delightful, fun, loving baby ever! She loves to clap and wave, she is all smiles and loves to snuggle into to my shoulder and smile shyly whenever someone tries to talk to her. It’s so adorable! It’s hard to imagine that she is the same child as the colicky newborn I had a year ago! I can’t imagine life without her! She got such a kick out of her little birthday party today, loving all the attention, especially when everyone started singing! I think her favorite part was the chocolate cake! It was fun to spoil her all day! Thank you for the birthday wishes you sent her!

Like Kenn mentioned in the comment on my last post I use these as journal entries and just figure I'll paste them in here since it's easier than trying to right our a separate blog. We’ve had a lot of fun the last two weeks but I’m not exactly sure what we’ve been doing! With Alyssa still taking two naps a day it seems like we spend a lot of time just hanging out at home. Our house hold goods have not yet arrived but they are supposed to be here this week so we have our fingers crossed that it’s true. It will be so nice to have our stuff again! Especially our bed! I just called the office since they were supposed to arrive today and he said they aren't here so he sent out a tracking request to the carrier and will here back within 72 hours... ugh... our friends that moved and arrived here at the same time as us called and found out there stuff is just clearing customs and will be here tomorrow...lucky ducks.

Last Monday I had a fantastic day out exploring the shopping in the city with just Alyssa. We had such a great time! I had a voucher for free child care for the other two kids at the day care that was going to expire so I decided to just take advantage of it! Danica was excited to go to the preschool and did okay when I dropped her off but it was a long day and apparently after nap time she was spent and cried most of the afternoon. I felt really bad when I picked her up but I’d had such a great day I didn’t feel as bad as I should! Alyssa and I started the day by going out to a store called Uniqlo that was recommended as an Old Navy type shopping store. Alyssa fell asleep on the way so I let her nap for a while and I relaxed and read Breaking Dawn. Then we browsed the store and I found a great selection of jeans, and t-shirts. I got Danica a cute khaki skirt for 1,000 yen ($10). Then I went next door and enjoyed some shoe shopping. It’s so amazing that in Japan my feet are almost LARGE!!!! I felt really happy. Most shoes are in centimeters but a lot of the women's sandals and such just come in s, m and l. I had fun trying on little strappy sandals I will probably never wear! Then I went to the next store in the little strip mall. It was a 100 yen plaza (dollar store) but also had a lot of stuff that was more than a dollar. They sold just about thing you could ever think of and I relished the chance to actually go up and down every isle with no one bugging me. I came home with some real treasures like a plastic banana holder so they won’t get squished in the diaper bag and a magnetic key hook and wallet holder for the side of the fridge! After that we drove over to the “mall” called Jusco. Alyssa fell asleep again so I sat in the car and read, quite enjoyable. Then we went in and I fed Alyssa while I did some people watching. After that I spent a few hours just enjoying the mall. I got a great deal on some fabric storage boxes and a super cute new purse/diaper bag at this purse store called HushHush. There’s just enough english that I can get by. I just hand the cashier some money and say thank you. Once we finished through the mall I bought some treats for the kids at the supermarket and headed to the “make-man” store, a hardware, home goods store. I found a cute little T.V. stand just perfect for the back room and was excited because it was on sale and the last one. So I finished my day and picked up the kids just in time. It felt so good to just do whatever I wanted with no one bugging me. Alyssa was delightful company just enjoying all the sights and sounds. I enjoyed all the smiles and attention she gets from the Japanese people. My friend and I decided that we need to just trade babysitting days once a month for no reason at all so we can just go out and enjoy!

So the trend around here is to have a mamasan. This is a japanese woman who comes to your house from 8-4 and she cleans, does laundry, ironing, ect. for about $60 a day. Most women have her come every other week. I’ve thought about this but what I really want done is the deep cleaning and she doesn’t necessarily do all that. I don’t mind the cleaning or the satisfaction I get from it I just don’t have time with the kids. So I am thinking I will try to get a babysitter once or twice a month and I will relish having the house to myself to clean all day while I listen to a book on tape... sounds nice to me!

We have been to the beach a lot and Hayden is getting really good at snorkeling. He has a life jacket now and just swims around everywhere checking out the fish. I went out to another spot where we swam out to a large trench that was filled with scuba divers. We obviously stayed near the surface and but still a lot of cool stuff. Tom tried diving down to check out an anemone and hurt his ear because he went to fast but he is luckily doing fine now.

Well, Tom just turned on the Office and I can’t resist so I have to go. Oh one last thing- Tom and I finally went out and had some Japanese food at a local place. I played it safe and got something with curry that I enjoyed. Tom got a noodle thing that was just okay. I was just happy that we didn’t go to the McDonald’s we walked past!

Take care!