It didn't all work out the way I envisioned. We were attempting to get a free flight on the Patriot Express from Seattle straight to Misawa. In order to get on that, Raven had to have the proper paperwork. We've been trying to get that paperwork for months. I finally found out that we could get it done, after having him checked out by a doctor then having an in-person interview at the nearest base (at least 4.5 hours away.) Then it would be processed for a few weeks before moving on to the next step. The in-person part pushed me over the edge. He's two months old, not a terrorist. We've all ready been waiting for months and new obstacles keep appearing. If we were to pursue this paperwork for Raven, what other problems would arise in the weeks we waited to get it approved?

Our alternative was to accept a commercial ticket home. The route is a little more roundabout than the Patriot Express's. My ticket would be from Denver to Seattle to Narita (in Tokyo.) From there we'd have to take the hour drive over to Haneda, spend the night, then get a flight up to Misawa in the morning. And Raven doesn't get a seat. And I have to check my double stroller. How am I supposed to manage all these kids (with Raven on my lap the whole time)? It seemed way too overwhelming.

Tickets to and from Japan can be expensive. We decided to just go for it and get Matt a ticket out to Denver and try to get him on the same flights returning. When he booked my flights through the Air Force, they wouldn't book him as well and have us pay them. All they could do was (days later) give us the itinerary and then we could hope there was still space for him on my flights. Thankfully, there was. Unfortunately, there's no flexibility and we just have to shell out the many thousands of dollars that the ticket costs. I don't know how else I could manage, though. It's a very long trip for three planes, three seat, two days, two toddlers and an infant and me. We really need Matt. And we need to get home. It's been almost four months now since we've been apart and I don't want to wait another month or more.

I'm so excited! In just five days, our family will be whole again!!

You're now nineteen months old and have definitely grown into the toddler role! You keep me chasing after you (and now, with my big belly, you're usually faster than I am!) and pulling you down from tables and shelves! You will play with toys on your own or with your brother for an extended period of time. You love musical instruments, your baby doll, ride-on toys, Lego Duplos, and animal figures (all of them make the same growl, which right now is your only animal sound effect!) You're saying "no" and causing trouble and also having sweet little conversations and offering up hugs and kisses all the time.

You went on your second big trip to the US and back. This time, to visit Daddy's family in New York! You met for the first time your Uncle Jason and Aunt Kay, Great-Aunts Connie, Barb & Sherry, second cousin Josh, Great-Uncle Brian, Great-Grandpa, Great-great-aunt Ginny, Mom-mom & Pop-pop! You warmed up quickly to everyone and enjoyed playing and eating everywhere we went. We stayed a week and a half at Grandma and Grandpa's house with your Aunt Jen and had a fun, relaxing visit. You got in a lot of exploring, playing, becoming buddies with the dogs, and getting spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa!

You're such a good eater and enjoy almost everything we put in front of you. So far the toddler pickiness hasn't set in! You love soup and lasagna, will at least try most vegetables, and devour any fruit. You're starting to use a fork and spoon sufficiently (though messily!) and have almost mastered drinking from a normal cup without spilling all over yourself!

It's been a busy, fun month of seeing a lot of people and adjusting to different schedules and time zones. We don't have any big trips planned for the near future, so this next month we'll just be at home, playing and chasing after you! I love all the joy you and your brother bring into the home. I love you so much!
 

- Mommy

You're three years old now and all ready telling everyone you see "I'm Rhino. I'm three!" We didn't have a large celebration this year, but had a great little party at your Grandma and Grandpa's in New York two weeks ago. You enjoyed a train cake, made by Mommy & Aunt Jen. You loved all the attention, the Thomas & Friends party hats, ripping into presents, singing Happy Birthday to yourself, and picking candy off the train cake and sugary landscape. It was a fantastic birthday and you're still

Like I mentioned, we went to visit your grandparents (and aunt, uncle, great-aunts, great-great-aunts, great-grandparents, etc!) You've now flown across the Pacific Ocean seven times in your three years! I am so proud of how well you handled all the travel this time. You either slept, colored, played on the iPad or watched movies while we were on the plane. For the hours that we were waiting in the airport, you were usually playing with your little brother — chasing each other around, making silly faces and noises, and putting on quite a show! You love going through security checks and were very helpful with putting items in bins and pushing the bins on the rollers down to the scanner. Wherever you saw a mat with footprints on it (for people getting scanned to stand with legs spread) you'd get so excited and place your tiny feet on the prints and stay there! You also had some long car rides, bus trips, and quite a long train ride (the trains were especially exciting for you!) Even though the travel was long and you were tired, you were quite a trooper.

The visit in New York was all sorts of fun for you! You really liked being around all your relatives, who gave you plenty of attention! You got lots of play-time in with Grandma and Grandpa. They played your new favorite board game: Blokus (which you play with your own rules!) You exercised and stretched with Aunt Jen and Grandpa. You helped cook and ate lots of big-boy meals at the dinner table. You loved Jasmine and Mugsy, the dogs, and were really gentle with them and had fun! You got to sleep on a big air mattress with your brother, go out to restaurants, play with neat new toys, take lots of pictures with Grandma and Grandpa's camera, and spend time with lots of people who love you very much! We've been back for a week now and you're still asking about "Grandpa's house!"

I haven't scheduled your annual pediatrician appointment, but will soon. You seem to be growing well (you're in 3T clothes now) and are talking more and more! Your vocabulary has grown tremendously lately and other people are starting to understand you better than they were. Your favorite toys are still your train sets and you love to be read to or just browse through books. You are getting really good at jigsaw puzzles and will do them over and over! You're playing a lot of different toddler and preschool games on the iPad and I can see you learning how to problem solve. You also draw great pictures! You doodle a lot of pictures of people (of me, Daddy, Heron, Uncle Matt, Grandpa, etc!) They all have very large heads with vertical lines for eyes, a tiny stick body, and little stick ears and are so adorable! You draw other things too, some of which we can't recognize right away, but you tell us all about the train going through the tunnel or the dog. And you're excellent at drawing railroad tracks!

You still really enjoy going to church and ask all week about church and your friends and snack time and Jesus! You make some fun little crafts in there, sing songs, hear stories, and play with toys. You're still memorizing bible verses for Wednesday night well. You've been reciting John 3:16 to us for weeks now! You remind me throughout the day by asking "bible verse?" and we practice together. You also like to say a short prayer before each meal or snack ("Dear Lord, thank you for this food. Amen.") and get bent out of shape if Heron doesn't fold his hands with you while you pray. I know that right now you like to go to church to play with trucks and eat snack and that you'll memorize your verse because you get candy and toys for it, but I'm so glad that you're enjoying and learning a little bit about Jesus. I'm excited to teach you and see you grow as you learn about our Lord over the years.

You have some favorite foods, which I don't think have really changed lately. Dinner time is often difficult, but throughout the day I can pretty much always count on you eating any peanut butter sandwich (honey, jelly, plain, doesn't matter!), any fruit, anything sweet, raw carrots and celery, any bread, cheese, and a handful of other typically toddler-friendly snack foods. You are spending more time in the kitchen lately as you've gotten more interested in helping me or "I can do by myself." You can make your own sandwiches, slice your own bananas and cheese and pour your own juice. You like to do a lot of other things on your own as well, including attempting to get dressed and undressed (you're still figuring out buttons, but doing really well), putting on your own boots and jacket, sweeping the floor and brushing your teeth. Now why is it so hard for me to get you to pick up your toys??

Three years really seem to have flown by. You're such a compassionate, messy, humorous, noisy, friendly, loving little boy and I just can't wait to see what the next year brings! I love so much my little "big boy!"

- Mommy

We flew in late Tuesday night and Jen had convinced Mom & Dad to stay up late and wait for her (she lives in Ohio and was driving out after work, but she had to go pick us up first!) So they were up and watching Firefly at 12:30 when we just walked in the door and this was their reaction:

I'm still recovering from the time change, all the excitement, and have pregnancy-brain, so I'm not sure I'm going to be able to touch on all of what we did for two weeks. It was tons of fun, of course! We didn't make any big plans to go anywhere or do anything, just hang out around the house and play, visit with relatives (mostly everyone lives very close) and have a relaxing visit.

We went over to Aunt Ginny's and visited with her and Grandpa and Aunt Connie for Mom's birthday. Jen and I made snowman cake pops since Mom loves snowmen! Jason and Kay came over too and we had pizza and wings, cake and cake pops, and just visited with everyone. The boys loved playing in Aunt Ginny's living room, which is full of all sorts of treasures!

We also went over and visited at Mom-mom and Pop-pop's a few times. The boys loved playing with the coasters and getting spoiled by Mom-mom with Hershey Kisses and Oreos! Uncle Brian and Aunt Barb stopped by, too. We hadn't been out to New York to visit any family since Heron was born, so it was great to be able to be out there he could meet all the family!

Aunt Ginny and Grandpa and Aunt Connie came over one day to have grilled cheese sandwiches and soup and pretty much just watch the boys play! They are wild and loved all the attention! Aunt Ginny's cane was Heron's favorite toy and Rhino kept demanding doctor check-ups from Dad.

For two weeks we watched some movies, read books, played a lot of games, went out to eat, did a whole lot of playing, worked out, played with the iPad, cooked a little bit … while the boys ran circles around us! They loved the dogs, Mugsy and Jasmine, who seemed to like their company too (usually!) They were so sweet and didn't mind that they used them as chairs or tried to ride them!

Jen and I try to do regular crafting together, even while we're so far away. It was awesome to get to do some knitting together in person this time! Mom decided to join our duo and make it a Knitting Trio! We freshened her up on the basic stitches, signed her up on Ravelry, and started picking out projects. The first thing we made was some coasters, then we moved on to dish cloths.

Matt and I got to go on two dates without the boys, which was fantastic! We went out to dinner twice and to two movies (Black Swan & True Grit.) We also did some window shopping, actual shopping, and just hanging out together. We definitely need to do that more often. Our last date night was when Mom & Dad babysat the boys when they came to visit over the summer! I love just spending time with my sweetie — and actually getting to eat a whole meal without feeding/cleaning/scolding boys!

Rhino's 3rd birthday was pretty close, so Mom suggested we throw a little party for him. That sounded great to me, then I wouldn't worry about throwing a birthday party when we got back! Jason and Kay came over and celebrated with us. Jen and I made an amazing train cake with some mini loaf pans and lots of candy! It was a little sloppy (I'm so terrible at frosting cakes!) and super sugary, but awesomely fun and Rhino loved it! We sang happy birthday in the dark (he sang along) and when we turned on the lights he seemed really impressed haha. He is still crazy about Thomas & Friends, so we found some Thomas party hats and blower-thingies that he really liked. He got some great presents – a train whistle and slide whistle, some Thomas wall decals, a Toy Story memory game, a Toy Story puzzle, some cute new clothes, and we picked up an otter hand puppet (which he named Scarf for some reason!)

We left a week and a half later, on Saturday evening, to return home. The trip went really quickly and it's sad to leave knowing we won't get to visit again for a while. Even with the almost-free flight from Japan to Seattle, it's still really difficult and expensive to travel home often (especially considering between the two of us, "home" is in three different states!) We have just a little over a year left in Japan and then who knows where the Air Force will put us! Maybe closer to at least one of those states!

Thanks to Mom & Dad for letting us stay with you without any notice for almost two weeks! We loved every minute!! And a big super thanks to Jen for taking care of the surprise and coordinating everything for us! We couldn't have kept it secret without you! Love you all!!

It wasn't easy toting everyone around on my own. I missed Matt for a lot of reason, but I really missed his arms while I was limping through airports, carrying two 25-lb car seats, two carry-ons, a suit case, and two toddlers! Sometimes carts were helpful (but expensive!) and going through security was kind of a nightmare. Rhino didn't want to walk, I had Heron strapped on to me in the BabyHawk, and my pregnant belly isn't quite large enough to possibly evoke some sympathy in strangers! We were slow and awkward and often very loud, but we eventually got where we needed to go.

The final flight home was probably the hardest. We arrived in Seattle from Denver on Saturday night and signed up to get on the flight. The USO there was great and really comfortable. We had free hot dogs, cereal, ramen and cookies. There were TVs and computers with internet access and beds available. They also have a children's room with kids' movies and toys that we spent the whole time in. It was crowded and the boys were really rowdy. There was no chance for any sleep! We met a nice family with two girls that really liked Rhino, so he spent a lot of time playing with them. They were all really sweet and it was nice to have someone — Michelle — to talk to. They even took Rhino for part of the plane ride and he played dolls and colored with the girls a few rows back!

We had to check in at 11:30 pm and make sure we got on the list. Phew! I don't know what we would have done if we hadn't gotten seats. Once we were checked in, we got to go back to the USO for a little bit. Then we got moving around 1 am. Michelle and her family and a new friend, Falon, and the boys and I hung out and the kids played video games and ring-around-the-rosies, which was a nice break for me. Falon helped me cart the boys and our things through security and then we relaxed a little bit in a nice little play area for the kids.

The boys were so tired and once we got to the gate, Rhino fell asleep on the floor. I tried to keep him up, but he kept dozing off. We boarded a few minutes later and he had to walk and was so angry. He screamed at us for a couple hours from there. Heron, too! Someone passed me a single dose of children's Benadryl for Heron and I think he swallowed a small amount of it. He would fall asleep and wake up angry continuously for quite some time. Thankfully, Rhino finally passed out. The wonderful family in the seats in front of me (the pediatric dentist on base) was really helpful with Heron. He took angry Heron from me at one point and walked the aisles so I could close my eyes for a bit. I woke up to Heron strapped in and asleep, snuggled up with an airline blanket.

I had really reached my last nerve by this final flight and was doing all I could to keep it together. I'm so thankful for Michelle and her family's companionship and help with Rhino, for Falon's company and for carrying our things, and for Emily (the amazing mother of four boys in front of us) and her kind husband for being so helpful with the boys! All the flights were a little rough and I did it on our own and managed, but it meant so much to me at the end of our trip for so many people to lend a hand. I knew traveling with a one and a two year old while pregnant without my husband would be tough, but I felt pretty insane most of this trip. I definitely won't be doing that again! 

We arrived safely after about nine hours and Matt was waiting at the terminal for us! We were supposed to arrive a week earlier, which is when Matt had some comp days off and would have been great, but that didn't work out (thanks, tornadoes!) So he brought us home and had to run back to work, but that's okay, we were pretty exhausted and basically went right to sleep any way! It's so good to be home!!

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.

We found the beach without much problem, despite some questionable directions. It was much, much colder in Noheji than we had anticipated. It was a short walk from the parking lot, past a gigantic mound of shells, to the beach and by the time we arrived at the ships we were all pretty chilly. We spent about five minutes checking out the wrecks before heading back. It was just too cold and windy. We are definitely looking forward to returning when the weather is a little more tolerable or we are better prepared. It is definitely an interesting beach!

We were all ready working our way up the hatchet and decided to keep going, to the tip – Cape Shiriya. This is a fishing town where wild horses roam the beach. We weren't exactly sure where to go to find horses, so we just made our way to the water. We found a gathering of horses. They strolled down the road, grazed and drank, and some even came right up to the car. We ate our bento lunches in the car as we watched the horses. Rhino was most interested in the water and would point out the window and "wow" at it. It seems the horses made him a little uneasy. Jen chose a favorite horse, which she named Raja, and Matt liked the shrine on the rock on the coast. It was too cold still to go out, so we drove past the horses and headed home.

It was a great outing and I'm looking forward to going back up along beautiful Mutsu Bay! — Need directions? Check out How to Get There: Shipwreck Beach

It was a Tuesday when we all got on the train to go down to Tokyo and meet Mama and Ron. The trains here are wonderful and it was a great trip. We take a 10-minute train to Hachinohe, where we then get on the Shinkansen. It’s about a 3 hour ride to get to Tokyo Station and is very comfortable. It stops a few times in the major cities along the way and we get to see a lot of buildings and rice paddies. When we got to Tokyo Station, we took the Narita Express train to the airport (about an hour.) I was a little worried that something would go wrong — someone would get lost, someone would be late — and we wouldn’t meet up. But everything turned out fine and we met them just as they were exiting from customs. It’s so exciting seeing loved ones at the airport, when they’re exhausted after a 12 hour flight and have been awake much, much longer! We exchanged their dollars for yen and got on the train to go back to Tokyo Station. From there, we got on the subway to Minato, where our hotel is. It was a lot of walking, stairs, dragging luggage, and hauling babies, but we finally made it. That was the end of that day!

We spent two full days in Tokyo, seeing what we could, before taking the Shinkansen back to Misawa on Friday morning. On Wednesday we slept in, had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel, took the subway to Asakusa Kannon Temple, explored that in the rain, and then walked through Kappabashi, the kitchen district. This was really interesting, it’s a street where pretty much all the restaurants go to buy furniture, stoves, pots, dishes, fake display food, etc. I didn’t get anything, but there were plenty of wonderful cooking supplies that I’d love to go back for! We had tea and toast in a sweet little shop along the way. This is where Mama and Ron learned about the fancy toilet seats we have out here. We made our way back to the hotel and everyone was all ready pretty exhausted. We went out for a great dinner at a nearby yakiniku restaurant, which was fantastic! Matt and I love yakiniku, but we have a fairly cheap, buffet-style restaurant that we frequent. This one was much nicer and SO delicious! Then we said goodnight to Mama and Ron and Heron and I nursed down in the super-comfy hotel bed and Matt and Rhino snuggled up on the also-comfy sofa bed.

Mama, Ron and I woke up very early on Thursday to make our way to the Tsukiji Fish Market. This is the largest seafood market and also the largest wholesale market of any kind in the whole world. We arrived around 5am and were there to see the vendors setting out their catch. We made our way to the far end of the market where the large tuna auction takes place. Every day there are 1,000 tuna auctioned off. We watched while the fish were inspected and labeled, before the bidding took place. It was crowded and we wanted to see the rest of the market, so we didn’t stay around for the auction. A lot of the stalls hadn’t yet opened. I guess there is a time line to the whole market that we just didn’t get right away. We had been told that this was the best place in the world to get the freshest sushi, so of course Mama was interested in some breakfast! Ron and I are not sushi fanatics, so we found a nice beef bowl restaurant while Mama had her sushi breakfast. The three of us headed back to the hotel where we met up with Matt and the boys. Then we took the subway to Meiji Shrine, which was absolutely beautiful! We walked around the grounds, fed the fish, saw some spiders, examined beautiful flowers, and got a little lost. Then we found the shrine, which was fantastic as well.

Mama and I got a chance to go out alone to Akihabara on Thursday night. It’s really nice to just hang out with her and catch up. It’s been almost a year since we were last together and even though we talk on the phone every week, I still miss her all the time. We walked a lot and had some coffee. We weren’t really up for shopping, we just went to see sights. We didn’t want to be out too late though, because we had a train to catch in the morning!

Now it’s up to Misawa!

Well, another month has flown by and you just keep growing! When we took you to the doctor for your 1-year checkup, she was concerned because you had lost some weight (dropping to 20 pounds 8 oz.) It looks alarming in your chart, but I think it’s mostly because you started to get a lot more mobile (lots of crawling and cruising!) and had stopped drinking so much Mommy milk (but weren’t liking cow’s milk.) So the doctor said to come back in a month and see how you’re doing. So, for your 13-month checkup you seem to be doing much better in that department. You still nurse occasionally (really only if you get fussy at night, otherwise you aren’t very interested and would rather have a sippy cup) but drink plenty of whole milk. You’re now at 21 lb 6 oz, which is still a low percentile for babies your age, but that’s nothing to worry about — you are a very healthy little boy! You are also getting even more exercise now that you’ve started walking!

Yes, you’re walking now! You took your first, wobbly steps on Feb. 22nd and today you’re almost running! You used to cruise around the sofa, look at the ottoman a couple of feet away, think long and hard about it and then give it a go, stumbling into the ottoman! Now instead of pulling yourself up with the coffee table or pushing up from a toy on the floor, you can stand up on your own. You are very steady and will walk around, turn corners, step over small obstacles, and right yourself if you start to trip over something. You are so cute to watch and you often find it so exciting to walk laps around us in the living room!

This past month you had another adventure: visiting Tokyo! We all went with our friends Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. Kiser. We drove down to Tokyo, about a 9 hour drive, and you were so great the whole way! You love to look out the window at the passing scenery, play with your toys, show off to us, and sleep. The only time you fussed in the car at all is during the drive back home when your tummy got a little upset. While we were in Tokyo you stayed with Daddy and I in a hotel, went up Tokyo Tower, tried Japanese foods, rode on subways, trains, and buses, went to a pretty zoo and saw lots of exciting animals, saw the gardens at the Imperial Palace (and pretty swans and koi), and visited the Ghibli Museum where you looked at lots of pretty pictures and played with stuffed soot balls and watched lots of little Japanese kids. It was a very nice time and you loved chatting with and showing of to our friends, watching all the Japanese people zipping by, and flirting with the occasional waitress or lady on the train!

There are other new things that you are doing now, too. You point all the time at things you want, pictures in books, and Daddy and I. While you point, you usually say da, which sounds like you’re trying to say “that.” You aren’t talking to us yet, but we do get a lot of dadas out of you, which sometimes sound like you mean “Daddy”, but you say it to lots of things that aren’t Daddy, too. One of your favorite new activities is putting things away! When we play together, you like it when I dump lots of little toys out of a bucket or blocks out of a bag so you can quickly pick them all up and return them to their container. It’s lot of fun when you do this with your toys — especially now that you will help me clean them up! — but you do it with all sorts of other silly things, too. We are constantly finding toys, crochet hooks, remote controls, and other random objects you find stuffed in Daddy’s shoes by the front door or placed in empty glasses we leave out on the coffee table! You like to play with your nesting cups. You’ve always enjoyed un-nesting them and banging them together, but now you try to put them all together properly. Sometimes you stack the blocks on top of each other, too. This usually happens when your nesting doesn’t quite work out and you try to put a large cup inside a small cup. From there, you build upwards and seem happy with the outcome, too!

You giggle and chat and smile all the time, but lately you’ve gotten quite a temper! You understand “no” and will test to see where the line is. Sometimes you can be pretty sneaky and you get punished for it. Usually when we swat your hand and tell you no, you’d get over it really quickly and come give us a hug. Now sometimes you’ll push us away if we try to hug you or you’ll bang your head on the floor and throw a little tantrum! You need to get over it and I feel a little bad for you sometimes, but you still are way too cute! You definitely don’t like having things taken away from you and if we try to hide something, you’ll go searching for it. Sometimes you get so upset by other people. You used to do just fine in the church nursery, but lately it’s been such a horror! As soon as we walk up to the door, you know what’s going on, and you will throw such a fit about it. I’m hoping this passes soon because I know it can be tiring for the other ladies who work in the nursery and I want you to have fun with the other children while Daddy and I are away at the service. Soon enough you should be able to understand that we won’t leave you in there forever. In your last two doctor’s appointments I mentioned earlier you were also so upset. Even if I was holding you, if the doctor came near you at all or even just looked at you, you would howl like she was torturing you! I wish there was something I could do to calm you down because you get madder than I’ve ever seen, but I’m hoping this too will pass soon.

It’s been such a fun month and every day you entertain Daddy and I so much! I love how you hug and kiss us all the time and want to snuggle and also how pleased you are with yourself for doing silly little things! We love you so much, Rhino!

Love Always,
Mommy