Posts Tagged ‘Heron’

The boys are interacting a lot more together now that Heron is walking around. Sometimes they have fun together playing together and making messes together. I think Rhino's figuring out that a little brother can be annoying sometimes, too! We really thought Rhino would be the one that was rough and pushy, but it seems that little Heron is a tad more aggressive. He takes things from Rhino, messes up his toys, hits him over the head with cups and blocks, and pushes him around!

This whole exchange took less than one minute. Heron smacked Rhino on the head then pushed behind him to the other side of the couch. I guess Rhino had his revenge by making it as difficult for Heron as possible to get through.

One minute later, they were both happy to just sit and watch cartoons and sip their juice!

Dearest Heron,

I've been such a lazy mommy! It's been months since I've written you a letter and you've grown so much in the meantime! I'll try to remember all the excitement you've brought us since you turned one, but too much has happened!

Last I wrote to you, Grandma and Grandpa were coming to visit. You had such a great time meeting them! We went to Tokyo (Imperial Palace & Ueno Park / Zoo), Hachinohe (the fish market, Fantasy Dome), Aomori (Asamushi Aquarium, Tony Roma's), Lake Towada & the Horse Park, Shipwreck Beach and a bunch of other places. You had a very busy summer (including a fun birthday party!) The fun didn't stop there! You also took a trip with me and Rhino to the US (your first time stateside!) You met your Pop, Grandmother, Granddaddy, Uncle Matt, Aunt Andrea & Cousin Amelia, and all your great-aunts and -uncles! You had your first plane trip (plus your second, third, fourth … seventh!) and saw Colorado and Texas! We were visiting for a month and you had lots of fun going to the zoo, the North Pole, Christmas shopping, visiting with family, playing with pumpkins, going to the Texas State Fair, playing at the lake, and so much more! It was a really long trip, but you were such a trooper!

You've grown so much in four months. What happened to my baby?? You started walking (and now, running!), talking (you say mama, dada, dog, door, hi, bye), and had your first haircut (which made you look so much like your big brother!) You're mischievous and sneaky, but also so sweet! You give us hugs and kisses, wave, and blow kisses. You stack blocks and roll toy cars and trains around. You're starting to get interested in books as more than just teethers (oh, and you have eight teeth!) You'll sort of play with Rhino, but mostly you just want to destroy whatever he's building! You didn't used to care much for Daddy and didn't like him holding you, comforting you, feeding you, etc. Since we've returned back from the US, you hug him and snuggle him and love to play with Daddy (he's relieved!) 

You're getting bigger, of course! At one time the doctors were concerned that you weren't growing enough. I know it was no big deal, you had just started cruising along and had weaned to cow's milk and solids. Last month you were up to 22 lb 10 oz (24th percentile) and 29.75 inches tall (15th percentile.) You're getting too heavy for me to carry around all the time (plus, you keep kicking your baby brother/sister!) You still love to eat and will chow down on pretty much anything (and lots of it!) I'm not exactly sure what your favorite foods are because you seem to inhale mostly everything! You love peanut butter, fruit, noodles, anything sweet, and rice. Yum!

I love watching you grow, little Heron. You've really started developing quite a personality and it is so wonderful! I'm looking forward to another fun month with you!

Lots of Love,

Mommy

I know there are going to be hundreds of pumpkin related entries over at I Heart Faces for this week's "Orange" challenge, but I can't help but share one of my favorite photos from last month's trip! 

We went to the Dallas Arboretum's Great Pumpkin Festival where there were over 40,000 pumpkins, gourds and squash displayed. It was amazing!

Heron had a fun time running around and smacking all the pumpkins. He even blended in with the seas of pumpkins!

This week's challenge over I Heart Faces is really neat: "photojournalism." I'm loving looking through all the submissions that are all ready up. So many interesting and touching stories!

My submission is about saying goodbye, from my in-laws' visit out to us last month. They came out here to Japan for a couple of weeks to see us and the boys (to meet Heron for the first time!) We had the best time together and I wish we weren't so far away and could do it more often.

The time went too quickly and before we knew it we were saying goodbye at the train station. These are two of my favorite photos from that morning. Matt hugging his dad goodbye and Mom not wanting to let go of Heron. I can't stand goodbyes!

Tell your story this week over at I Heart Faces!

I've never submitted an entry to the I Heart Faces photography site, but I love looking at all the entries each week and have learned a ton from the tutorials and Fix-Its!

I saw that this week's challenge is "Got To Wear Shades" and one of my favorite recent photos popped into my head! I just took this one of Heron not long ago when the boys were out playing with bubbles. I just picked up matching sunglasses for them from Toys R Us and they get such a kick out of them! Heron takes them off and puts them on again (or tries) over and over!

Check out my cutie! (And you can see Rhino in the reflection, too!) Excuse the bit of food on his chin!

We got up early to take Mom & Dad to the train station. They were here almost three weeks, but it did go by really quickly.

We hadn't visited a Buddhist temple while they were here, so we stopped by the one on the hill by the train station. We went inside and it was dark and quiet and I felt like we shouldn't be there. It was peaceful and very pretty.

They had to take a train to Hachinohe, then get on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo, then take the Narita express to the airport. Then a 14 hour flight back. It's a lot, but they made it there just fine!

I love the Matt & Dad hug. And Heron's squishy cheeks!

It was so great to have them visit! I'm really thankful that they could make it all the way out here to spend some time with us.

Rhino had a hard time with their leaving. He sat on Matt's shoulders yelling "Grandpa, waaiitt!" (Both Mom & Dad are named "Grandpa" apparently. He just didn't get "Grandma.") Then in the car he cried for Grandpa to "si-down" and kept trying to hand the seat belt up to nobody. It makes my heart ache to see him so upset to see his grandparents leave! We'll miss them, too.

It was more important to just hang out with Mom and Dad and the boys than to go sightseeing and take them all over Japan. Of course, since they made it all the way out here, we wanted to show them our favorite things!

We ate at Noodle House Marumiya (a.k.a. Cheese Roll). We had ramen, yakisoba, beef dunburi, and (of course) cheese rolls! Yummy! Matt and Rhino (coincidentally, dressed alike) waited for their cheese rolls.

We tried a lot of different restaurants. We had Pepper Lunch at the mall, Cheese Roll, yakiniku at Viking, this place (I can't remember the name!) for delicious yakitori … Rhino loved this place because he could crawl under the floor between the table.

I seem to get sick every time we visit with Matt's parents. I think it's them!! This time wasn't so bad, but I did get some bug for a few days.

We were planning on going to the Tanabata festival right out the main gate, but I really, really wasn't up for it. So Matt took Rhino and Mom and they had a good time! Rhino ran through the streamers, rode Thomas the Tank Engine and a mini-carousel, and they took in the sights and got some cute pictures. I've never been, but hope to go next year!

This is an illegal picture. You can't take pictures in the Universe (Japanese grocery store!) That's okay, though. Matt's parents are rebels! Rhino likes to drive the Hello Kitty car all over the Universe.

We went to the awesome cake house, Shiroi Mori. Delicious! Here we are hanging out on the couch at the table. I had a delicious chocolately, nutty, crunchy cake slice. Rhino had some awesome chocolate cake. Heron wolfed down some custard … and I don't remember everyone else's. It was all delicious, though! One of our new favorite places in Misawa!

I love the Misawa Aviation and Science Museum. It's close and just so neat. Rhino is finally at the age where he is really enjoying a lot of the exhibits. The planes are really exciting!

Heron had a good time, especially playing with sound waves. So cool! I can't believe with as much as we've gone here, we never went upstairs with all the awesome electricity and weather displays.

Everyone loves to watch the slow-motion multi-camera videos of themselves jumping. I think Rhino mostly likes the countdown to the jumping!

The playground there (Sky Park, I think they call it) is really cute, too. Rhino almost liked riding these rails, but just for a second. I'm glad that Mom & Dad could join us on a trip to one of our favorite local spots. It's just too much fun (and educational!)

Looking for driving directions to the Aviation and Science Museum in Misawa, Japan? Check them out here!

Well, our Horse Park outing didn't work out last week, but Mom and I made it out that way while Matt and Dad went golfing!

Of course we got a ride on the giant roller slide in! I rode with Heron on my lap and he loved it. Rhino got his foot stuck at the top of the slide so he wasn't too happy a lot of the way down!

We fed the horses some carrots (100 yen for a cup)!

And Rhino had his first horse ride! I thought 2 was too young to ride a horse, but look at him go! He loved it and didn't complain at all! The men who walked him around talked to him and pointed things out. When the loop was finished, they told Rhino to touch the horse's nose, its mouth, it's ear, talked to him about the horse (I'm guessing — it was all in Japanese!) and had him give the horse a kiss (yuck?) It was sweet! And look at my big boy on a real horse!!

Rhino climbed the big horse slide and rode some play horses. Heron liked riding on the wooden horses, too! And We had some delicious ice cream to beat the heat before we left.

It was such a fun day! All the excitement and heat really wore Rhino out, though!

Looking for driving directions to the Horse Park (Komakko Land) from Misawa? Click here!

We don't go to the beach a lot, but when we do, I love going to "Shipwreck Beach" in Noheji!

We showed up and there were a ton of cars and people everywhere! We got out of the van and someone tried to hand us trashbags and gloves. Apparently there was a big beach cleanup! Usually I'm all for volunteering for these sorts of things and felt bad turning down the bags, but we just came to run and play with the boys and look for sea glass (technically, that's trash and we were picking it up!)

Rhino would wade in the surf and run from the waves. Heron took his first little dip in the ocean (well, I guess this wasn't actually the ocean — Mutsu Bay is on the Japan Sea.)

We found quite a bit of sea glass — even Rhino helped! He would walk along the water with me and then point — "pretty!" — and pick up a little piece for me.

We were worried about the weather because shortly after we left it started sprinkling. Then when we got to Nojehi it was really coming down. As soon as we stepped foot on the beach, it cleared up and became a beautiful day! I loved our day at the beach!