Lilia is Three!

Disclaimer:  I have no idea how my pictures got so scrambled...  I am not sure about this new blogger layout...  

So this past Tuesday was Lilia's birthday!  Her THIRD birthday!  My little girl is three years old!  Her day was an exciting one too!  We met daddy for lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant and daddy arrived with a surprise!  Aunt Loradona came to visit!  Loradona is Cliff's elder sister and she and Lilia share a birthday.  Lunch was delightful.  The buffet at Milan was even better than usual and Lilia was in heaven with her "pita," (naan,) and raita.  She was content to just eat the raita by the spoonful and I would have let her, it being her birthday and all... but it was a little (LOT) messy. 

We resumed the festivities in the evening with a birthday dinner chosen by Lilia and cake and presents.  Here she is opening presents from mom and dad.  Ivy was just as excited as Lilia was...

  See how much Ivy wants to help?

 Oh boy!!!  Lilia has been so fascinated with doctors lately that we couldn't resist a pink doctor set for her.  She was thrilled.  (Ivy was and is too.)

 Reading a card from Grammy May.

 Grammy May sent Lilia a "Baby Rapunzel" doll.  Lilia was over the moon.  She actually let out a little shriek when she saw what it was.  Ivy is trying to get a look. 

 Rapunzel has slept in Lilia's bed every night this week.  She doesn't appear super cuddly at first glance, but what do moms know?

The birthday dinner was peanut butter and jelly - the birthday girl's request of course.  We used the strawberry jam that I made recently and it was delicious. 

 After dinner we had cake.  I made a cake for Loradona and a smaller cake for Lilia.  Same recipe.  Chocolate cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting and topped with a chocolate and peanut butter ganache and chopped Reeses' peanut butter cups.  HEAVENLY.  

 Lilia is pretty excited! 

 Getting ready to blow out the candles while we sing!

 Happy Birthday to you!

 Yay!!

  Stay tuned for Lilia's "Tangled" birthday party!!!

Ivy 9 months

  Ivy is 9 months old!  She has now been out of me longer than she was in me! 

  Ivy, Ivy, Ivy... crazy girl.  She is my busy little bee.  She never stops MOVING!  She has been cruising for a couple of months now and she gets around quickly.  She loves to climb up on walls, chairs, sisters, garbage cans, legs, dogs, and everything in between.  She also loves to pick up anything and everything and put it in her mouth.  Sippy cup?  Sure!  Cheerio?  Yes!  Hair ball, insect, grain of sand, dirty band-aid,  piece of glass?  Of course!  My floors have never been so clean.  When I say that they are so clean that you can eat off of them - I actually mean it most of the time.  Between the sweeping and the mopping and the Lysol, Ivy is very good for a clean and sanitary house.  Anything that escapes me and doesn't kill her, I just have to figure is good for her immune system!

  She is also chattering up a storm.  "Dadada" is still her favorite phrase, but she occasionally throws in some other sounds and consonants.  She also likes to growl.  At least that is the closes thing I can compare her strange and often guttural sounds to.  They raise more than a few eye brows at church, that's for sure.  She is so much fun, though.  While she is a little clingy, as long as I am in the room she is happy as a clam.  She follows me around like a little puppy with a *slap* *slap* *slap* of her hands and knees on the floors panting all the way.  She LOVES to "play" with Lilia and most of the time Lilia tolerates her well.  Oh, tolerate sounds so harsh.  Lilia loves her baby Ivy and thanks Heavenly Father for her every night in her prayers.  Lilia even made up a song about how much she loves her the other day.... Anyway, that's another post.  Here are Ivy's latest stats:

She is 26 3/4 inches and 18lbs 11 oz.  20th-25th percentile for height and 50th for weight.  She is so SMALL to us!  I think she seems so tiny because she is a little on the short side, but also because Lilia was never less than the 98th percentile.  I just love it, though.  She is so EASY to carry!!!  Man!  I can carry her around all day long if need be.  That usually doesn't happen, though.  She is a girl on the go and very squirmy.  She is a pistol when it comes to diaper changes.  I'm lucky if I get both tabs on.

  Cliff describes her as "vocal and active.  She is tenacious.  She sees something and goes for it."  She makes things happen.  Lilia might have been content to sit and observe the world around her, but Ivy is not.  She is all about exploration and discovery.  She is also very smiley and laughs easily.  She has Cliff's hair.  She climbed up two steps the other day....

   Her hemangioma is fading.  I think it will be completely gone in 6 months.  Maybe less.  I won't say that I will miss it exactly, but it will be a little strange not to see it anymore.  It's just been part of the package, you know?

 She is still mostly breastfed.  She is super interested in food, the problem is once you start feeding her you can do NOTHING else because she melts down if you aren't 100% devoted to her feeding.  She yells and screams and bangs her tray.  Our solution for this has been mostly finger food.  This allows us to eat as a family.  She is doing ok with the sippy cup.  Mostly she chews on it, but she gets a little water down.  She still hasn't really every had a bottle.  No point in starting one of those now!  She is finally sleeping through the night like for real sleeping through the night.  12 hrs sometimes.  I do still feed her at least once because I am a sucker and because I like my sleep.  She knows this and "milks" it for all it's worth.  Ha ha...

  We just love our little baby Ivy, though.  She is so much fun.  She fits right into our family in a way we could never have imagined!

A Year Ago.

All of the following pictures were taken this weekend at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. I want to pause for a moment, though, and talk about where I was this time last year before I move on to Cherry Blossom festivities.

Last year on the 23rd of March I was boarding a plane at NAF Atsugi to leave Japan. I had two suitcases, a stroller, a back pack, a baby, and another baby on the way. I didn't even know the gender of the baby in my tummy.
The two weeks that followed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were followed by uncertainty, sheltering-in-place, and "the rumor mill" on our little base. CNN made it sound like the world was ending in Japan and all of my family back home wanted me to leave immediately. I didn't want to leave. My home was in Japan. My husband was there. I didn't know what to do. Rumors were flying about radiation and "the next big quake." No one wanted to be alone, but we were asked by the base commander to "shelter-in-place" with our doors and windows and vents closed. We weren't supposed to go outside unless it was an emergency. Many cities were conducting rolling black outs and we were without power for 8 hrs at a time many days. Sometimes these black outs took place at night while we slept, but often they were in the middle of the day or in the evening while I tried to get Lilia ready for bed by candle light. When we could leave our houses, no one went far. Gas was too precious when no one could foresee the future. I waited and waited for calls and e-mails from Cliff. We watched the devastation live on television. The spouses and I got together for dinners to calm each others' fears and discuss the future and the rumors. Every day we held our breath and waited for the other shoe to drop. I kept my suitcase packed - just in case we were called to leave. Voluntary evacuations were announced... and then postponed. Then they were announced again... and postponed again. When we finally did leave it was very surreal. Most families left with the knowledge that they would most likely be returning to Japan at some point. It might be a month or two, but they WOULD be going back to finish out their tours. Cliff and I discussed our situation at length and finally decided that if I left with the evacuation I would not return to Japan. I was already over 20 weeks pregnant and this pregnancy had been difficult for me. I was still miserably sick and traveling with a toddler internationally is no easy task even when you aren't throwing up. If I left, I would be leaving for good. I think I was in shock or denial. When I locked up our garden apartment for the last time and left for the theater where they briefed the dependents on our departures, I didn't cry. When I watched NAF Atsugi and then Yamato shrink outside the window of our plane I let one single tear slide down my face. This was it, but I couldn't think about that then. I haven't really thought about it much until now.
I never truly grieved for Japan. I never got closure. There are so many people I never got to say goodbye to. So many things we didn't get to see or do. Friendships that are missed. Food, shopping, mundane activities that are SORELY missed. Guilt about leaving.
I had the opportunity to teach English in Japan and I never got to say goodbye to my students in person. Some of them I have been able to keep in touch with and others I have not. I still wonder, do they resent me for leaving? How easy it was for us Americans to just hop on a plane and literally "jet" out of there, but for the Japanese? They weren't going anywhere. Come hell or high water, that is there HOME. A large part of me wishes I could have stayed and helped.

All of these pent up feeling were a large motivation for us visiting D.C. this weekend. I wanted a little closure. I wanted to dress the girls in their matching jinbei and eat delicacies out of bento boxes and reminisce about our wonderful years in Japan. I LOVE the United States, but I MISS Japan and hope to go back some day.

In a lot of ways the day was a perfect analogy of the my abrupt departure, my feelings of loss and guilt, and the irony of trying to plan for anything in life.

Saturday was wet and windy, cloudy and dismal. We were under dressed for the change in temperature. It had been in the 80's all last week and this weekend it was in the low 60's and rainy. The wind and rain had blown most of the blossoms away. I was trying not to let myself be disappointed as we drove down Connecticut Avenue toward the Tidal Basin, but I was a little miffed. We got there and it was windy and muddy and we were all hungry. We found parking and bee-lined for the food tents hoping for the bento boxes that had been advertised. We were too late! They closed at 2pm and it was 2:30! ARGH! I wanted to cry. Then a gust of wind blew some more blossoms toward us and I started to cry. Then I looked at Cliff who shrugged and I had to laugh. I wasn't alone! The Japanese tourists had come out in full force on this blustery raining day and NOT ONE OF THEM was frowning or complaining. They laughed as the petals rained down and then reached up to the branches to shake a another shower of petals to the ground! They petals were like pink snow on the ground. Pink snow mixed with rain and muck. This was what it was all about. Life is constantly changing and disappointing and raining. It's still beautiful and funny.
Here is Lilia all bundled up in the stroller.

We may have missed peak bloom with the unseasonably warm temperatures of the last week, but the blossoms were still beautiful.
We saw a few monuments...
Took a few pictures...
And still saw PLENTY of cherry trees.




I love this picture of the Washington Monument in the background.



This one too
And you know what? Every now and then, throughout the day I caught a glimpse of "Japan." If I closed my eyes for moment I was there again. Then I opened them and remembered that WHERE I AM is pretty great too.

Highland County Maple Festival

Beautiful Highland County Virginia, located near the western border of Virginia and West Virginia, hosts an annual maple festival! We live about an 1 1/2 hours away from the festival, but decided that MAPLE ANYTHING was worth the drive. Turns out - it was! It was a GORGEOUS spring day and the drive was breathtaking. It took us through mountains and the Shenandoah valley and over rivers and through woods.
We arrived in the early afternoon ready and willing to learn about MAPLE SYRUP!
The little town of McDowell was our first stop. There we met a fun Old Time-y Blue Grass band and took a tour of the "Sugar House" country store.

Back behind the Sugar House general store they made MAPLE SYRUP!!! We learned that the same tree can be tapped for more than 40 years! Sugar Maples can put out different quantities and qualities of sugar water every single day during the winter months. Freezing weather is helpful in pushing the sap on through the tap. This past winter was extremely mild and therefore the output of the Sugar Maples was not as great as it usually is. There was still plenty for us to taste and buy, though! We learned that there are two different "grades" of syrup, Grade A and Grade B. Grade A has three sub-grades: light, medium, and dark. These three are all created from the sugar water of the tree. Grade B actually has the sap in it as well. Grade A dark has a strong maple flavor, but the Grade B actually has the strongest flavor of all because of the sap in it. Some people prefer the Grade A because the sap gives the syrup too strong a flavor and too pungent a smell. I actually preferred the Grade B. If you are going to enjoy maple syrup, you might as well go all the way, right??? We bought ourselves a quart.
We also learned about the process of making maple sugar and and candy. Yum!
This is where the sugar water is boiled down. Nothing is added to make the syrup. No preservatives. Just reduced and reduced and reduced by evaporation.
We got to try some of the syrup from these vats.
After the Sugar House tour it was time to dance! Lilia LOVED this little band that was playing outside.
She wanted to be as close as possible.

Here she is dancing with her daddy :)

After our tour in McDowell we headed on to Monterrey for more MAPLE and some arts and crafts vendors.
Monterrey was a quaint country town with lots of old buildings and friendly people.
The views were spectacular.


I feel like we haven't even brushed the surface of things to do in lovely Virginia. This festival is one of literally hundreds of other fun things to do in our area. We only have a little over two years left on this tour and I am feeling the panic already that I had as our tour in Japan came to a close. There is just never enough time to see everything! I am making it our family goal to get out of the house and GO SOMEWHERE at least once a month if not twice. I am SO glad we got to enjoy this particular festival and hopefully there will be many more like it in the near future.
We left Highland County with a jug of syrup, maple doughnuts - still hot!, maple (OH MY HEAVENS GOOD!) fudge, and maple ice cream. I think we satisfied our maple cravings at least temporarily. Yum!!