Konichiwa Tomodachi! (Hello Friends!)

Things are plugging along here in Japan.  We have been keeping a low profile, just waiting for Ryan to go out on deployment again.  He will be gone three-and-a-half of the next four months.  Leyton is wrapping up her first full year of school.  She will graduate to the 4-year-old class on March 20.  Hosen also recently informed me that Ellis will not be able to start school until September.  I guess she wouldn't listen or sit still during her last practice school (sounds familiar).  So they said she needed to do some maturing.  Therefore, all of my kid-free plans will have to go on hold a few months (feel free to pause here and feel sorry for me -I sure did!).  But I am sure we will have fun, too.  In fact, we will certainly have fun in a few weeks when we fly across the world to Germany.  We will be visiting our wonderful friends, the Mallory's.  Leyton is already driving me crazy with her uncontrollable and excessive 'packing'. 

This is from LC's school performance.  She is on the far left, doing her 'Nekko Ya-Ya-Ya' song.  I only got to see three songs, because Ellis had had enough.  Fortunately, Leyton performed second.  I bought the DVD of the entire show.  It is sure to be a hit.

Leyton has been requesting hairstyles like those of her Japanese friends whose Mommies have WAY more skill in this area than hers.  I googled how to French braid.  I need LOTS of practice and a patient victim with straighter, all-one-length hair.

We got the girls a Balance bike.  They both like it.

I needed to buy Leyton her school supplies for next year, so I took Ellis on a scouting mission to a nearby mall.  It was awesome and we will be back, especially during the rainy season.

Leyton was sick last week.  She threw up one night and blamed it on the broccoli  she ate at dinner.

She had a little fever so she got to stay home and watch movies all day.  After Tylenol she felt good enough to do some crafting.  This kid LOVES to craft.  She will literally spend an hour every day cutting up paper and glueing it onto things.  If you want to get the girls some great gifts, go for stickers, paper, and art supplies.  They certainly have enough clothes and toys, but art supplies are time-consuming and I can throw them away after use.  Everyone wins!

Passed out on the couch, even with Ellis running around.

Last week we went to Hiro's house for his birthday.

Lots of kids and toys and I enjoyed talking to the Japanese mothers.  I am amazed that I have known these women for a year and am just now hearing them speak English.  Many Japanese are shy with their English.  If they can't speak it perfectly, they are embarrassed to speak it at all.  But I guess after hearing me struggle all year with Japanese, they figured I wouldn't mind their broken (though generally still good) English.  While we were chatting, they told me that I have a 'small face.'  I had the same reaction you just did.  'Huh?'  They explained that it was a compliment.  So I went home and googled it.  Apparently the Japanese have a complex about the size of their head/face.  I guess it's generally larger that other nationalities.  So a small face is a sign of beauty in Japan.  How fortunate for me to be on the positive side of a societies random determination of beauty.  Meanwhile, I can assure you that each and every Japanese woman sitting at that table was absolutely lovely.  

It's still pretty chilly here, but there are signs of spring.  A few early plum and cherry blossoms are appearing.  And Ellis and I are hitting up our favorite parks.  Here she is lying on a bench instead of walking to the car like I asked her.  Sometime over the past year, she went from being my 'easy' child to being the difficult one.  Leyton is generally a good kid and no trouble at all when we go somewhere.  Ellis, on-the-other-hand.... I guess that's the difference between being two-years-old and being four.  I recall LC being a little stinker, too.

Happy March!