japan pics

I found this on the table.  Whitney had been cooking dinner.  Each place setting has a ball, a cup holding the ball, a container holding the cup and a special O as a side dish.  She already knows how to put together a good meal.  That would explain why she doesn't eat anything that is a little bit off in taste.  Nothing gets past her palate.

The entrance to a temple up in the moutains that Jim visited last weekend

Jim didn't know what this meant, but he kept seeing rocks with dresses on.

You can't see too well for the glare, but there is a taxi driver taking a nap in his back seat.  Jim said that part of the work culture is that a short nap is acceptable.  Some of his co workers would put their heads down for a bit during work.  They also all do exercises together at work for a break.  Man.  I wish I could be a PT there!  But then maybe they don't need my services.

Picture of osaka.  Not where he was staying, but I was amazed at how big the city was

 

 

Jim really liked the gravel garden things

 



My hubby has been gone for 2 weeks and I'm definitely sick of it.  You also have to add in the 2 days after he got back that he wasn't really around because of jet lag and working still.  Grrrr.  It ended up being 3 saturdays and 2 sundays by myself.  My first real taste of people that have hubbies traveling all the time.  Or single moms. Or hubbies really involved in other things.  Definitely done with it all.  Now I remember why I wanted to coincide the time I would be gone with the time he was gone.  How dare his company not consult with me as to when he was to be gone!:)  And then I remember that some people's hubbies are killed in a war.  And life is great again.

Some things he commented on were about kit kats and airport security.  I guess part of customs into Japan is screening for cold or flu like symptoms. I asked him what would happen if he had had them.  He said he didn't know.  He had a lot of fun buying all the different flavored kit kats.  But being american, I really don't like the green tea one.  Tastes and looks like grass.  I only deal with that flavor if the food has nutritional value.  And the cookies and cream one. He also said it was fairly easy to get around and not get too lost, even though he doesn't know any Japanese.  He also said people like to practice with him.  One of the tables next to him in a restaurant they ate in noticed them speaking English and switched to english to make them feel more comfortable.  And people are honest.  He saw some money in a train station for 3 days where millions walk by and no one picked it up.  The cabbies were honest, too.

We had fun and lucky, lucky me that it was not my turn to teach preschool and I got some time to myself.  And some other willing friends watched them for me during some other times I needed to be gone.  Whew!  What would we do without friends?

Back to the babies being cute.  I'm sure if Whitney had a tea set and we had tea on a regular basis she would be playing tea party.  It still cracks me up how their imaginative play is just a repeat of days repeating.  She played feeding me several times this week.  She found a big blanket and put it over me, just like a bib, saying I need to put a bib on because I wasn't being careful with my food (usually ice cream).  That's what I tell her all the time about big huge messes down her shirt and her spilling food and the dogs eat it.  She makes me soup and feeds it to me to "make me feel better" after I get after Tucker jumping on me or hanging on me.

She also put me in time out for "hitting Tucker", one of her most common time out reasons at the moment.  Although sometimes it's a bit hard for me to put her in time out for that because Tucker has been beating her up for probably 2 years and she is just now defending herself.  I kind of want her to defend herself a bit.  Especially after the park incident.

This week at the park she was making nests in the playground tanbark.  Another kid, probably around 4 or 5, came over to fling chips around with her, too.  That was fine until Whitney looked up at him to see who was coming close to wrecking her nest.  When he saw her look up at him, he said "Oh!  You're cute!" and tried repeatedly to give her a hug.  She wasn't liking it, and neither was I, but the grandma kept telling him no touching and pulling him away from her, seeing her distress.  The boy was confused about this reaction from his grandma and said to her, "but grandma, I love her!"  AAAAGGGGHHHH!  And where was Tucker during all of this???!!  Not slugging the guy or telling him to go away!  Not even aware.  What is a bully smaller brother twin for anyway!  The boy was innocent and looked like that he was working on the no touching of strangers with his family for awhile, but it did unnerve me a bit.  Whitney did come to me, right away, though.  I was glad for that.  I decided I should probably have the good touch, bad touch talk repeatedly these upcoming weeks.  AAGGHH!  A reality check that the babies grow up every day and will soon be in school and such.

This week we were out  gardening and I heard Whitney say "oh no bug, oh no!" in a very distressed voice.  I turned around and a spider was climbing up Whitney's face and over her open and blinking eye.  She didn't like it, but wasn't totally freaking out.  She does have some toughness!  I, on the other hand, had to withold the scream I had in me to flick it off bare handed.  Whitney was definitely more brave than Mommy.

We have this nursery rhyme tape that they love.  I'm liking it less and less as the days go by.  But the other day Whitney was singing and the lyrics to this song are "won't you be my darling".  At least I thought they were.  Boy was I wrong.  I started singing with Whitney and said darling, but Whitney stopped and said "no mom!  Won't you be my dolly!"  She didn't get why I started laughing, just looked at me like I was weird.

Whitney made a bed for me with the couch pillows this week.  She told me to lie down and went through most of the nighttime routine.  The part that really got me was Tucker laid down on the floor next to my bed and said "Do you want Tucker to stay?"  So cute!  That's what I do with him when he is bouncing around the room.  I give him the option of staying in bed and mommy staying and snuggling or bouncing around the room and mommy leaves.  He also says "mommy stay?" if he wakes up and goes potty in the night when I tuck him back in.  I can never resist, no matter how tired I am.

Tucker found a new and improved way to eat noodles this week.  He puts them from the bowl into his bib and then slurps them up.  Less falling and flicking of sauce everywhere. The first time he did it, he finished off the meal with " Mom!  I ate them ALL!"

Their current favorite bedtime song is "small one"  I have no idea how this song got this title from them and it took me forever to figure out which song they were talking about it, but it is "I feel my Savior's love"  It amazes me how Tucker slows down and stills his body to listen.

This week they've been learning the five senses in pre-school.  It's my turn to teach this week, so I brought home the board that has pictures of eyes, ears, etc.  Tucker saw the hand on and exclaimed "touch!"  They must have had a touch lab this week he really liked.  Or he really likes touch.  A good snuggle will usually calm him down.  That or fish crackers.

This week I asked Whitney to leave her paraphinalia in the car instead of bringing random toys around with us.  She amazingly agreed rapidly, placed them in the sun and said "they LOVE the sun, Mom!"  just how I say it every time we are in the sun.  Lucky, lucky, lucky me I've been able to say it pretty much 3 months straight, a record for here. 

Thursday they babies were absolutely amazingly well behaved.  I couldn't believe it.  The girl that usually plays with them while I go clogging wasn't able to come, so they played by themselves for an hour and a half without whining or fighting.  I was blown away! I couldn't believe it!  I did bring out toys they haven't seen for a few months, but still.  No fighting over "new toys".  Then we went to the park and they listened to me and played together for 2 hours again!  They played walk up the slide then slide down as slugs, Whitney sometimes asking Tucker to sit on her lap like a baby.  They played on the bleachers  and Whitney made fruit snacks for Tucker with pulled off green pine needles and put them in a bottle cap.  Whitney and Tucker both said "I will help you" lots and lots.  Tucker wanted a boost to talk into the speaker thing and whitney helped him by shoving his head up.  I guess it didn't hurt, because Tucker was glad for the boost.   They helped each other jump off rocks and crawled through the duck tunnels.  It was very pleasant!

I love how Tucker says pjammys.  Tucker also did a really, really cute thing today.  He gave Whitney some of his fruit snacks to "help her feel better".  She wasn't upset or anything, but I loved how he knew how much she loves those things.  So do I!

Did I tell you about how they put their playdough on their toe nails like nail polish?  Cracks me up.  Whitney has purple ones and Tucker has blue ones.  Whitney also likes to make boots for her "dedos".

They are really liking Curious George more each day.  But I do have one regret of reading them Curious George.  We read the one about making pancakes and putting blueberries in the pancakes.  So I thought it'd be fun to make pancakes just like Curious George.  But then Whitney got me.  She started begging for syrup.  You know, just like Curious George.  Previous to reading that book, I had them convinced the way you eat pancakes is by dipping it in applesauce.  Nope.  Whitney knows better.  It's syrup from here on out.  Aahh, the influences of the media on the very small.  Totally effective:)