May Days

I wish I had something nice to say about this past week.  But I don't.  Nothing horrible happened, just lots and lots and lots of little things (car trouble, cranky kids, MORE problems with finding childcare, etc...).  But we still managed to have a little fun.

E playing at a Zama park while we waited for our car to get fixed.  We had to take it in twice this week... it was raining the first day.

She sang 'Wheels on the Bus'

And then applauded herself.  So cute.

I am not sure when Leyton learned how to draw and color so well.  But I can recognize most of her drawings and she colors inside the lines.  She can also do some rather perfect summersaults, which I also can not take any credit for teaching her. Once again I am pleased with her schooling.

Both girls got new hats.  Tested them out at Cloud park this week.

Cloud park is awesome.  They both ran up the hill to go down the roller slide at least 30 times each.  Then proceeded to take 3 hour naps (neither do that anyone).  So though it's a 40 minute drive (though only 7 kilometers away) and its very crowded, we will be going there again and again!

The SHA pool also opened this weekend.  The water was still a bit chilly but I am certain we will be spending a lot of time there this summer.  It's a little nerve-racking watching two kids at the pool, but Leyton is pretty steady now and TALL.  Ellis took one unintentional dip, but I was right next to her and helped her right up.  Plus there are lifeguards.  Still, they have a habit of going in opposite directions that makes me nervous.

Love these girls!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day.  Please take a minute to remember the real reason for the sales, BBQs, and day off from work.  As a military family, we've made sacrifices -missed anniversaries, birth days, moves, deployments.  But it is nothing to the ultimate sacrifice that thousands have made defending our country and for the loved ones they leave behind.

Toys R Us and Tama Zoo

It's hard to keep kids occupied day in and day out, especially by yourself.  So last week, Ellis and I took a little field trip.  I googled Toys R Us, and discovered one just 15 minutes from our house.  So we dropped Sissy off at school and ventured out (and make no mistake, driving here is always an adventure).  It turned out to be in a nice shopping mall with lots of other kid stores and an Old Navy.  Ellis ran wild in ON, so I didn't get to do much shopping before we ended up in Toys R Us.  It was an interesting hybrid of America and Japan.  A lot of the toys are the same, but some are different.  'Anpanman' is HUGE here in Japan, and he had his own section of the store.  They only had 2 small shelves of My Little Pony.  Lots of Hello Kitty, Thomas, and all things Disney.  I felt less weird about letting Ellis run wild here, so she had a blast.  A good destination for rainy days.

This was an entire section of little houses and collectibles.  They reminded me of the Richard Scary animals.  They were ridiculously expensive.

Ellis LOVES 'choo-choos'.  She watched it go around until I got bored and had to move on.

Last Friday, Leyton had her first school field trip.  It was to Tama Zoo.  Her entire school went, but sadly, Ellis didn't get to go.  I could have taken her, which would have been a horrible idea.  It was very hilly and warm and Leyton and her friends where difficult enough to keep up with.  So we woke early and drove Ellis to our only sitter so far (the worst/hardest part of moving has got to be finding new babysitters), on Atsugi base, 30 minutes from our house.  Dropped her off and then drove home, walked 15 minutes to the train station, and caught the chartered 'Romance' car train with LC's entire school by 9:30 in the morning.

Leyton had not ridden on a Japanese train yet, so she was really excited

Here we go!  She named our train 'KoKo,' like the Chugginton train.

It was a 30 minute train ride, then we switched to the Monorail that took us to the zoo

By the time we got there, it was lunchtime, and the kids where ready to eat.  Then we fell in with 4 other kids from LC's class, and their Mommy's.  Two of the Mom's speak English, which is awesome.

It was a nice zoo, though it's hard not to compare it to San Diego's

The lion bus was cool

Up close and personal

Hiro, Leyton, and her BFF Skylar

Leyton talks about Skylar all the time.  They held hands most of the day, and where constantly getting into trouble together.  Skylar's father is American and his mother is Japanese, so he is bilingual.  

Today she told me she wants to marry Skylar.  And she calls him her boy friend.  But I am certain she only knows that he is a boy and her friend..... there will be no boyfriends at 3 years old!

Holding hands as we climb the hill to see the Japanese monkeys.  We saw lions, giraffes, monkeys and elephants.  That was all.  Herding cats is easier than herding five three-year-olds.

After a day of hills and lots and lots of train station stairs, LC was pooped.  But she held it together until the last little walk home from the station.  Then she got to rest in the car as we drove to get Ellis.  Very long and fun day.

We are staying busy, but we really, REALLY miss Daddy.

How We Roll in Japan....

This blog has a duel purpose.  Primarily it is to keep our loved ones up-to-date on the latest and greatest Campoamor adventure.  It is also my scrapbook.  The idea of sitting down and scrapbooking immediately gives me a headache.  Ugh.  I can think of 100s of things I'd rather do.  So, once a year, after Christmas, I print our blog via some website company that prints and binds them for you.  We now have 3 books that follow 3 years of our life.  And the girls, especially Ellis, love these books.

So sometimes I may include some things that may leave you wondering why I would include such a thing, but it's to track the girls as they grow (because I have also fallen short on the whole 'baby book' endeavor).  They both had check-ups today and neither cried at all (well Ellis cried, but not during the exam -she was hot, tired, and bored waiting for the doctor).  This is a first for us, so it was very exciting, especially because I had the girls solo.  Ellis is 83.7 cm (69%ile) and 12.1 kgs (72%ile) and 19 months old.  Leyton is 100 cm tall (65%ile) and 15.1 kgs (52%ile) and 3 years and 7 months old.

I also learned how to download photos from my phone to the computer.  Not hard, just never done it before.  All are from our time here in Japan, because I've only had this phone that long.  You may not notice, but we spend a lot of time at the Japanese parks :)

This is the dress LC wore when she came to see Ellis in the hospital

Beautiful day at SHA park

LC rocking her My Melody mask that she needed for school

Looks like she's hugging her, but I think she was stuck and using LC to help her roll over 

Cute, but look closely and you'll see a red mark on Ellis' forehead from one of many head-bumping instances 

At the zoo

Earthquake evacuation plan... so glad the Japanese are fond of pictures

E in front of the old Bravo in Alliance Park

Sagamihara Park

Yogurtstache

Cheeseball

Old guy pushing Ellis around Pirateship Park

Lunch at Sagamihara Park and gardens

Random Japanese people asked if they could take our picture

Dinner one night.  Apparently this is a common occurrence in Japanese households.  In a handout from school, they had all kinds of pictures and ideas on how to 'dress up' the kids' food.  Leyton loves it, but it kind of freaks Ellis out.

Giant Kites Festival of Sagami which began in 1830  Very cool to see them get that thing in the air.
http://www.sagami-oodako.com/e/

One of many cat (nekko) safaris.  You can see two cats behind the bushes.  

Lilac park

This is the park where Ellis' buddy wipes it down for her in the morning

Breaktime six feet in the air

Dino Park with my monkeys

P.S. they both held on for a good 10 seconds while I took the pictures.  Impressive.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all our favorite mothers and grandmothers!  I had a nice day of church and play with my little loves.  Ryan headed back to 'Captain America' on Saturday, where he will be for 6 weeks.  So it's just us girls again.  It always makes for interesting evenings.  We do fine during the day, with school and parks and naps, but those 1.5 to 2 hours between dinner and bath can be brutal.  So far I've resorted to movies to try and tame them, knowing full well that Ellis won't watch more than 5 minutes and Leyton will multi-task by watching, playing, and harassing her sister.  As mean as she can be, one would think Ellis would be happy to have her away at school.  But Ellis is lonely without her sidekick.  I, of course, play with her, but I am apparently not as amusing as a 3-year-old.  

Leyton is doing well in school.  She can now sing 6 or 7 Japanese songs, only one of which I have any clue as to what she is saying.  It's a Japanese version of the 'Clean Up' song.  A mom at the park translated for me.  Her teacher gives us a report of her behavior every day.  After the novelty of the first few weeks wore off, apparently LC was not listening, not getting ready, and walking around during lunchtime.  To correct this behavior, I did what any good mother would do.... I bribed her.  If she listens to her teacher and gets a good report, she gets 4 jelly beans.  Works like a charm, and I need to buy more jelly beans :-)

Ellis is still a sassy pants adorable princess.  She is hilarious.  Even her tantrums are cute.  She practices ballet with her sister, and it's darling.  She sings and it's adorable.  And every Japanese person she meets is immediately taken with her.  Twice, at two different parks, she has conned some elderly Japanese man into pushing her on a tricycle.  And she has another elderly man, at our local park that we visit after we take LC to school, who will stop whatever he is doing and go clean and dry the slides for her.  Older ladies stop and just talk and talk to her.  One lady took her by the hand and sang her a sweet song... just randomly... on a walk one day.  She is a charmer, that Ellis, and certainly 'kawaii desu'.

We still love our house and neighborhood.  The weather is warming up and I am DREADING summer.  I don't do heat.  We have an earthquake that shakes the house about once a week.  Last week we had one strong enough to wake me up.  It was a 6.0.  That is as strong as I hope they get while we are here.  Our pictures are still crooked on the walls from that one.  Earthquakes are certainly my biggest fear while living here.  They are so unpredictable and potentially very destructive.  My biggest fear is one will happen while LC is at school.  They have drills for them all the time, but it would still be nuts to try and go collect her and make sure we are safe.  My plan, if a big one hits, is to collect her and walk to the nearby base, where I know they will look after us.

Haven't done a photo shoot in a while, so here we go.  Enjoy!

Mother's Day 2013
Coronado, California

Mother's Day 2014
Sagamihara, Japan

Ellis wanted to go play in the street, so she was less than thrilled to have her picture taken

How CUTE are they?!

Sweet headlock

It warms up quickly these days.  The above where taken before church, and these, afterwards.

The only smile I could capture on camera from Ellis

DoDo's Mommy