Little Raindrops

I don’t get a whole lot of time each day to sit on the computer, but when I do I like to read other blogs. I have 230 blog subscriptions on Google reader, and usually every couple of days I get to browse through the most recent 50 posts or so. So I know I’m missing a lot, but I get my fill of inspiration, motivation, and awe in all the amazing posts and photos. Anyhow, quite a few blogs do a weekly roundup of sorts, where they post favorite things they’ve seen during the week. Off the top of my head, there’s Amy’s Notebook on Mom Advice, which I always love, Craft: Weekly Roundups, and Weekly DIY Roundups at ThreadBanger. Since I see so many interesting things while I surf, I thought I’d start a [possibly] weekly roundup of my own. For now, not all of my entries will be recent happenings on the web, but they will be favorite things that I’ve Stumbled, or bookmarked that I’d like to share.

Easy Valentines Chocolates @ Gourmet Mom on the Go

These look amazing and actually not very difficult to make! They remind me of all the wonderful chocolates my brother, Matthew, and his girlfriend, Adria, made all his family for Christmas. Yum! I don’t think I’ll get to try these in time for this Valentine’s Day, but maybe I will next year, or this Christmas, or just one day I’m craving chocolate!

Rainbow Pancakes @ i am mommy

This poor gal has gotten a ton of criticism via blog comments for something as silly as making these crazy colorful pancakes for her little ones as a treat. I definitely don’t want to pack the boys full of food dye, sugar, etc daily but I don’t see any harm in pumping up the fun factor in foods occasionally. These awesome pancakes remind me of the wonderful colorful cakes (like my 4th of July cupcakes) and I definitely will make some colorful breakfasts for the boys in the future!

Total Eclipse of the Heart: Literal Video Version @ YouTube

My friend Liz linked this on Facebook and I cannot get enough of it! I’d never watched a “literal version” of a music video but considering how Matt and I adore MST3K, it’s not surprising that we enjoyed this sort of humor. This particular video was done by dascottjr, and there are some other wonderful literal versions of videos on his site. My favorites, not including the awesome Total Eclipse of the Heart, are definitely Jingle Bell Rock, Separate Ways, and the choreography part of Love is a Battlefield!

NZ Book Council – Going West @ YouTube

This is a short animated film narrating part of the book Going West. It’s a stop-motion of papercutting, which is absolutely stunning. I highly admire papercutting and hope to do some of my own someday, but I cannot imagine the time and skill required to produce a project such as this. Amazing!

Bunny Hop Slippers @ Craft

The cutest! I’ve always wanted a pair of bunny slippers, and these are the most adorable I’ve seen. I can’t wait to knit them up! I’ve never made thrums before, so that should be fun, too.

“So Easy, A Toddler Can Do It” Snowflakes @ Frugal Family Fun Blog

We made these in our Wednesday night King’s Kids class (Flyers; 4 &5 year-olds) a few weeks ago. It really was easy and the results were wonderful! I let the kids place their masking tape however they wanted, so some of the snowflakes were a little creative and free-form, but that was sort of the point! It’ll be fun to make these one winter when the boys are a little older.

9 Ways To Encourage Your Kids to Live Simply @ Simple Mom

This is my goal. I fail at it often, though. I really do want to instill simplicity in the boys as they grow. Simple Mom has many great articles like this to steer us in that direction. By the way, I’d love to make the boys’ toys! I have knit, sewn, and crocheted a handful for them, but I’d love to pick up some woodworking to make them some terrific, sturdy toys, too!

How to Get Back in the Groove of Reading @ Mom Advice

This term I’ve had to do so much reading for my literature class, as well as the half a dozen textbooks for my other class, that I feel so burnt-out on reading that I don’t want to do. I am trying to put these points into practice in order to read for pleasure. Oh, it’s hard and I feel like I don’t have the time to read, but I’m going to start taking advantage of those reading windows now.

Prayer: Why We Struggle (and how not to) @ holy experience

This really spoke to me. I don’t have much more to say about it. Just read it.

Inspiration: “Tips for Capturing Newborns” @ i heart faces

Now that Heron’s getting so big, I feel like I wasted time that I could have been photographing his tiny newborn bottom and wrinkly little fingers! I wish I had played around more with my camera like this. I am still enjoying photographing the boys as they are, but hope to have another bitty baby someday to capture in this way!

We were a little lazy about having Heron’s baby dedication! I know we had Rhino’s dedication when he was eleven days old, but we just weren’t on the ball with it that early this time. There’s nothing wrong with having it postponed, though. Any time is appropriate to dedicate ourselves to raising our child according to God’s word.

We chose to dedicate our children before the church because it is important to us to publicly ask for wisdom and grace as we carry out the responsibilities God has given to us as parents, as for support from our church, and pray that our children will one day come to trust Christ as their savior. We were presented with a certificate documenting the day as well as a small blue bible for Heron.

Heron is a little picky about who holds him! He is just now warming up to Matt and in the nursery would usually rather sit in the swing than be held by a lady who isn’t Mommy. Occasionally he’s in a good mood and let someone new hold him, but not too often. There are two people in our church who he has never complained for, though! He loves spending time with our friend, Tanya, and our pastor. Pastor says it’s because he’s a “Papa” and Heron can tell. While Pastor Popwell was holding Heron during the dedication, Heron would stare up at him and babble a little baby conversation to him. He’d respond enthusiastically with coos and gahhs whenever Pastor would ask him a silly question (like “your mom and dad should keep working on filling that quiver, shouldn’t they?”!)

It was a sweet moment with Heron and I am so thankful that we have a close church family standing by us with support, advice, and prayers as we try our best to raise our boys. I do pray that one day they too will know the joy that is a relationship with our Lord and an eternity with Him.

Dearest Heron,

Hello, sweetie! It’s been so wonderful spending time with you these past two months! You’ve grown so much and have been such a joy in our life! At your five month doctor’s appointment, you weighed 17 lb 7 oz (72nd percentile) and were 25 inches long (25th percentile.) You are sitting up on your own and reaching for toys, rolling over, passing objects from one hand to another, and babbling nonstop!

You love your brother Rhino so much. Whenever he’s around, you watch him, smile at him, and laugh at him. You can be in a terrible mood for me, but Rhino can almost always cheer you up! He likes to play with you and tickle you. You aren’t yet too interested in playing with him, but I’m sure soon you two will be having so much fun together!

In the past two months you’ve had your first Thanksgiving (but no turkey for you!), have met your Aunt Jen, starting attending the nursery in church, and had your first Christmas and New Year’s! You loved Christmas, playing with (chewing on) all your new toys and crinkling the wrapping paper. You also like going to the nursery in church where you can swing and watch all the other babies and toddlers. You usually get a little hungry and I come and visit with you, but I’m told you are usually very calm throughout church. Your brother liked nursery at first, and then eventually had some separation anxiety for a few months, so I won’t be surprised if you start to experience the same feelings soon.

You are starting to sleep better throughout the night. You still sleep in bed with Mommy (Daddy works at night so he never gets to sleep when you do.) You used to stay up with me and sleep downstairs or wait to go to bed until I did. I’ve just started being able to put you down at seven in the crib where you’ll sleep for a few hours before I come up to bed and snuggle down with you.

Daddy and I (and Rhino!) love you so much and can’t wait to have more fun with you next month!

Lots of Love,
Mommy

Rhino dearest,

The past two months with you have been a joy, as always! You are such a sweetheart, a bright little boy, and always make us laugh! You didn’t have a doctor’s visit this month, but did have a WIC appointment where we were able to get your height and weight. At 22 months you were 26 pounds, 12 ounces (44th percentile) and 32.75 inches tall (22nd percentile.)

Your vocabulary has really taken off these past few months! You say all sorts of words like shoe, boot, two, hat, cheese, snow, car, plane, up, down, juice, hair, eye, nose, mouth, chin, and thank you (“dat doo”). You don’t string words together to make simple sentences yet, but I have the feeling that’s coming soon! You still use your words together with sign language symbols, but we haven’t taught you any new signs lately.

Some exciting things have happened these past months! Your Aunt Jen came to visit and had such a good time with you! You entertained her a lot with your dancing, silly playing around, and guitar hero strumming. She tried for ten days to get you to say Aunt Jen, but you wouldn’t even try it. Then, after she left, you were looking at photos on our digital frame and saw a picture of her, pointed, and said Aunt Jen. Daddy was on the computer and looked up with surprise, and asked if that’s what you had said. It was pretty clear. Too bad you couldn’t do that a few days earlier for your aunt! We did lots of fun things with your aunt while she was visiting, like shopping, going out to lots of different restaurants, a wonderful Thanksgiving, checking out the Aviation and Science museum, visiting the fish market in Hachinohe, going to the beach to see shipwrecks and horses, and playing games. She can’t wait to see you again!

We also celebrated Christmas last month! It was your second Christmas and was a little more exciting for you than your first Christmas. You enjoyed getting advent treats every day in December, loved all the sweet goodies we munched throughout the month, and really loved the tree and would consistently try to blow out the lights and take down all the ornaments! You received some wonderful gifts from all the people that love you, including a tricycle, a Mr. Potato Head, a huge box of Lego Duplos, some wonderful wooden puzzle toys and lacing beads, lots of snazzy clothes, and your favorite ball – a Blue’s Clues ball! It was a fun, quiet Christmas and you seemed to really have a great time!

You are still such a good big brother and are really bonding with Heron. He adores you so much and you make him laugh when no one else can. You shower him with kisses, want to hold him, and share your toys (by forcing them into his little hands) and your sippy cup (though he doesn’t care for that yet!) You two are so sweet together and I’m looking forward to the days ahead where you will play together!

Thanks for another fantastic few months with you, Rhino! Daddy and I love you more and more each day and can’t wait to have another great month with our big boy!

Love always,
Mommy

We had our first family Christmas at home this year. It is a little lonely being so far away from family, but we had a beautiful Christmas with the boys and our friends. We had lots of lovely snow for Christmas, cinnamon rolls and hot cocoa. Rhino ran downstairs in the morning after we read Luke 2, excited about his advent treat that he’d gotten for the past 24 days. He completely overlooked the tree and presents and ran straight for the empty advent calendar. We had to turn him around and set him straight before he saw all the presents and pointed with a great big “WOW!”

Rhino enjoyed unwrapping the gifts. He’s much better at it this year than he was last year, when he’d only peel a tiny little scrap at a time! Everything unwrapped received another “WOW!” and he was just as excited about Heron’s toys as he was his own. Heron liked to just lie under the tree and gnaw on his toys, then eventually fell asleep on the sofa from all the excitement!

We received so many wonderful gifts from our family. We really are blessed to have such wonderful people who care about us. I only wish they all could have been with us to share in the festivities. I would love it if all our family, both Matt’s and mine, could come together for the holidays, but I don’t really see it happening anytime soon. We’d love to go back to the States to spend future Christmases with family, but while we’re stationed in Japan, it is too much of a trip to trek all over the country for the holiday. Maybe someone will want to come out here with us one of these years!

Christmas is just a few days away and now it finally looks like it! Our tree is up and decorated, along with our nativity, stockings, some random decorations on the wall, and the advent calendar. The advent calendar is one that my parents have had since I was little, that my brother and sister and I used to look forward to every December morning. It’s a garland of numbered burlap mittens and stockings to hold treats. It was passed down to me this year and I put it up for the boys. We picked up lots of small goodies from the Daiso, ¥100 store. Rhino’s figured it all out and comes downstairs first thing in the morning and heads straight for the corner with his treat! Next year Heron will be old enough to enjoy the small bits of chocolate and tiny toys, too. We also have stockings for the boys hanging on our wall, along with mine and Matt’s. Betty, an old friend of my parents’, made my stocking for my very first Christmas. I know it isn’t an adult’s stocking, but I love it and still want to hang it for myself each year. My mom made Matt’s stocking a few years ago to match. She’s been commissioned to make them for the boys as well, but is falling behind a little! So she sent us these cute store-bought stockings as place holders, until she’s finished embroidering new ones for them!

Pretty much everything has been up since Thanksgiving, the only problem around here is that the weather has been so nice! We got a little dusting of snow last month, but hadn’t seen anything since. Well, it’s finally happening. We’ve got enough out there for Matt to shovel! Rhino is excited about it, looks out the window and says snow (in a cute little nasal voice.) I’m looking forward to snowballs, snowmen, and snow angels in our near future!

The ladies of Faith Baptist Church regularly have a fellowship, with potluck snacks, our pastor’s wife giving some sort of devotion, and lots of chatting. This month’s was a Christmas fellowship, of course, and we were all to bring ornaments to exchange. Mrs. Popwell stood in front of a decorated tree and spoke on ornamentation while we sipped punch and munched sugar cookies. Then she set a wrapped ornament in front of each of us and read to us the story of Jesus’ birth. Each time she said the word left or right (which was quite often!), we were to pass our ornament to the person sitting beside us (right or left, depending on which word was said.) This was fun and got moving pretty quickly, it was a little confusing at times! When the story was over, we unwrapped our ornaments. I got a sweet, little Hachinohe horse (like the horses here.) It’s red and has Misawa and the year painted on it. I love ornaments like this, that will remind of us where we’ve been and what we were doing. I made a felt gingerbread man, which turned out really cute. I wanted to do a snowman also, but just didn’t have the time. I just freehanded the figures onto paper, cut it out and pinned it to the felt as a template. Then when the felt pieces were cut out, I embroidered details on to each side and blanket stitched around the edges. I like it a lot and think I’ll make more (and snowmen, reindeer, etc. in the same fashion) for next year’s Christmas for our own tree!

Matt took leave for all of Jen’s visit with us, plus a little extra padding on each end of her trip. I’m sure there are other men like Matt, who would rather never shave their faces. He had two weeks of leave and wanted to see how much of a beard he could grow in that time. Usually I at least have him shave for church, but I had never seen him with facial hair and wanted to see how this turned out. Too bad military regulations won’t let him keep more than a neat little mustache, because I wouldn’t mind if this goatee stuck around for a while!

Well, this year’s NaBloPoMo was not successful! I thought a post a day wouldn’t be so hard. Not that I’m complaining at all, but I know having Jen over didn’t help my efforts, haha! Maybe November ‘10 will be a normal month with no guests and I will get my post a day in. It’s no big deal of course, and I did get a lot of posts in last month, even if I petered out at the end! I’ll try again next year.

Well, Jen went back home yesterday. On one hand, it’s nice to get back to our day-to-day routine, but it’s always sad to see our visitors go. We are on the other side of the world from all of our family and know we won’t get to see them too often while we’re over here. I appreciate so much that she took her time and saved up to take this extravagant trip out here. We aren’t in a position financially to do too many expensive things and travel, but I hope she enjoyed our cheap, local version of Japan! I know she liked hanging out with the boys and Rhino adores her! We had a great time just vegging, playing games, and sharing TV shows (she introduced us to Arrested Development, Community, Lie to Me, and suggested we give Fringe a try — we should be busy for a while!) I was happy to have a crafting/knitting buddy around, too! Jen had been meaning to learn how to knit for a while, so we worked on that. We practiced by making swatches and dish scrubbies, then looked through all my books and magazines for favorite projects. We both fell in love with a sweater in last summer’s Interweave Knits that we both will have to work up to. I’ve never made a sweater and haven’t done much color work, so that will be a big project! Anyhow, we had a great time with Jen, but of course time goes so quickly. I really hope she will be able to make it out here again before we leave so we can show her Tokyo and more of Japan and she can see the boys in their next stage (a walking/talking Heron!)