Now that we are officially in November it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... I mean Thanksgiving. I promised Kyle I would hold back on the Christmas decorations this year till at least veterans day. The only thing I set up early was the tree, but I didn't put the lights or ornaments on it yet. It is our "thankful tree" for now. I knew I had to put the tree up cause in case the baby decides to come early like the other two kids did, Kyle will not do any setting up of decorations, and I know I won't want to put up a heavy tree just after labor. So I got he biggest and bulkiest decoration up and out of the way. So all thats left are some lights, nativities, and other small Christmas decorations.
I am trying to soak up as much time with my two kids before the baby gets here. I can't believe we will have three kids soon. The days Abby goes to school but Connor doesn't I make sure to get plenty of one on one time with him. Connor will after all be the middle child, and lets face it, the middle child usually gets lost in translation a bit. Abby has the only girl granddaughter thing going for her, and the new baby will be just that... new, and a cute baby. So I am making sure Connor doesn't feel left out or forgotten. We still go on our weekly donut date, and he devours the donut everytime. He knows exactly where to go to stand in line, helps me hand the cashier the money, and climbs up the chair and sits at the same table where we eat our donuts together every week. He loves that its a special thing only we get to do. I also have had him in tumbling class on Mondays which he loves. The only problem is I don't love it. The teacher doesn't do any teaching and relies on the parents to teach and help their kids. I am fine with a little parent interaction, but if I am going to pay this lady to teach my kid, I want her to actually teach my kid! I think we are going to pull him out of the class at the end of the year and try swim lessons instead. After all, he loved swim lessons this summer when he took a couple classes in St. George.
Now that the weather is getting really cold and it's starting to get dark around 4:15 in the evening, I am having to get really creative when it comes to entertaining the kids. I don't want the kids to have too much screen time, and limit their TV/ipad usage to about 1 hour a day. For the rest of the time we play with toys, set up train tracks, paint, color, play with play doh, dress up, and play bingo (Abby's new favorite game). Since the kids literally have the attention span of five minutes we are constantly hoping from one activity to the next. I am exhausted and very tempted to up their TV/screen time, but always tell myself how much better off they will be when they are constantly thinking, growing, and using their imagination. Too often I feel as if kids spend way too much time watching TV. I am not saying TV is bad, but everything in moderation, right? I just hope that when they look back they will have fun memories of a mom who was actively engaged in their lives and would play with them, not just stick them in front of a screen.
Every friday night the kids get to pick a movie and we eat popcorn and watch it together as a family. This has been a fun tradition that the kids look forward to. This week we received a fun package from Grandma Kaye which contained baby clothes for the baby, and a baby doll for both Abby and Connor. Now everyone has a baby! The kids insisted on eating popcorn and watching their movie with their babies. I sure hope they are as sweet to baby Brayden (or Braden... Kyle and I still have not finalized the spelling of his name) when he comes. The problem is they confuse being love and sweet with playing hard and being very physical. My goal is to just keep little man alive from the aggressive hugs and loves from his two older siblings.
Well, it finally came. Snow is upon us. It snowed 7 inches one day this week. Luckily it's starting to melt, but I know this is just the beginning of a long and painful winter. I hate everything to do with cold, snow, and winter. That's why I want to live in Arizona when we are done with this Air Force life. If I don't own a single pair of pants or sweater in my closet later on in life I will be completely ok with that. Bring on the shorts and t-shirts! The positive to the snowfall is that it provided great entertainment for the kids. They just loved playing out in the snow... that is for about ten minutes before coming inside due to being frozen! If anything, the snow made me realize that I need to stop procrastinating and take down the trampoline before the snow and cold winter ruin it. So guess what I will be doing this weekend? Last winter went by relatively fast since we were in Hawaii for November and then Guam for February. Visiting those two tropical places during the cold winter months helped keep my spirits up and endure the long winter. This year we are going nowhere because of the new baby. We are in it for the long haul. I just hope it passes by fast and that it ends up being a mild winter. Who am I kidding, we live in Misawa Japan, the northern part of Japan, just a hop and a skip away from Russia, and the location of the 1998 winter Olympics...I am screwed!
Kyle has had a crazy schedule lately that even though he is here, he really isn't "here." Three days passed this week where he went into work before the kids woke up, and came home after they were in bed. The kids have missed him so much. It's times like this that I really hate his job. I don't think most people realize the hours these pilots put in. We are talking 12 hour days! And that's not counting the sacrifice of being away from family for several months every year on either TDYs or deployments. He has been working really hard and we are proud of him, but it would be nice to have a husband/dad back again. I am hoping our next assignment isn't so high paced as it is here in Misawa, but I'm learning that pretty much all active duty assignments are this busy due to their being a pilot shortage and military cut backs. To be honest this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I agreed to marry Kyle, or should I say when WE agreed to marry the Air Force. As difficult as it is, we are trying to make lemonade out of lemons and enjoy the good moments when they come because there will always be bad moments in this lifestyle as well.
When the kids finally saw Kyle again after three days they just clung to him. They sure love their babbo so much. I couldn't even get Connor to get off Kyle's lap to eat dinner. What is Kyle going to do when he has three kids fighting for his attention??
To end off the week we went shopping at the local mall, Shimoda. We ate our favorite meal at the food court there called pepper lunch, and found some snow hats and gloves for the kids, as well as some new tennis shoes for Connor. He has been growing like a weed lately and I am having to start putting him in size 3T clothes, and move him up a shoe size. I honestly think by the time we move from here he will be the same size as Abby and everyone will think they are twins.
When walking around the kid section both Abby and Connor saw a giant life-sized Anpanman. Apparently this guys is cooler than sliced bread over here in Japan, and both my kids love him because of the influence their Japanese peers have on them at their school. It took us 20 minute or so to pry both Abby and Connor away from this guys they were so excited. So yeah, Anpanman is like the Mickey Mouse of Japan, the cartoon of all cartoons. Not going to lie, I think he is kind of scary looking, but all the kids love him and I love that my kids are getting the FULL Japanese experience over here, creepy cartoon guy and all!
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