We are so easily entertained now

Tiredness is a sign of weakness - and I will not succumb

Bathtime is getting better

Guttenberg's newspaper of record

Olivia's birth announcement ran in my hometown newspaper today. Too bad they misspelled my sister's name. Who is the copy editor there? Maybe they should hire one.

For our Minnesota readers, check your eyes peeled for her announcement in the Burnsville newspaper. It should be printed any day now.

Probably our favorite restaurant in Okinawa

So if you come and visit us in Okinawa, we're probably going to take you here:

Public vs Private, Potato vs Potatoe

So there is a little box in YouTube that says "share" or "private" and guess who didn't click "share" until now?

So from now on, the videos should work.

Thanks for your understanding,
The Management

It's Japanese for 'cheers' or it was so long, Michelle almost forgot this word

Correct response:

When you smile, the whole world is smiling at you

My weekly notice from BabyCenter.com, a Web site that emails pregnant women and new moms a development report on their newborns, said this about 6-week-old babies:

"Has your baby smiled at you yet? If not, she will soon."

This statement brought a smile to my face.

Benny and I had a photo shoot with Olivia on Saturday afternoon. We were trying to copy and recreate some artsy professional photographs that we have seen in other people's baby albums.

Olivia was content. Benny was holding her and I was snapping away taking as many photos as I could in the short period.

It was late on Sunday when we downloaded the photos and saw this:



A perfect picture of happiness: Olivia's first smile.

Olivia showing off her muscle

Olivia's baptism

On the last day that my mom was here, Olivia was baptized at the base chapel by two Navy chaplains.

Benny and I knew we wanted to baptize Olivia here at the church service that we regularly attend. The chaplains and parish members have been so supportive during my pregnancy, we thought it was the right thing to do. And even though she was only three weeks old at the time we held the ceremony on March 29, so my mom could be here for it.

The chaplain did a wonderful job of making the ceremony special and tailored the wording to match our religious beliefs. Unforunately Olivia's godparents, Auntie Patti and soon-to-be Uncle Bob couldn't attend. But again the chaplain mentioned their names several times in the ceremony and noted how they will play a special role in Olivia' life. He also included my mom in the ceremony, which I really appreciated.



We invited a few of our friends to the service. They joined us for coffee, cake, fruit and doughnuts afterward. The doughnuts were gone before I had any, so I ate two pieces of baptism cake for breakfast.

Everyone took turns holding Olivia, which she loved.


Afterward we went home and relaxed while Olivia slept. Benny made banana pancakes for the first time and they were delicious. In the afternoon we chatted on Skype with our Yuma friends, Andrea and Jeremy, who had former Yumans, Tammy and Chris visiting them. This was the first time they saw little Olivia on the web cam. Ah, the Internet makes keeping in touch so easy.

Olivia's Baptism

Mom's first baby-free afternoon

After an awesome breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon on Saturday, Mom broke the news to Dad and Olivia. Mommy needs to go run a few errands... on her own if that's ok. (Note to reader: Mom hasn't spent any time away from Olivia since she was born - 5 weeks).

I knew this day would come, as I sighed and let out the reassuring "No worries, go for it." I think that shocked Michelle at first.

So after one false start (aka thinking she was about to leave, but then stopping to feed a hungry Olivia), Michelle was on her way. With a few priceless ounces of Mom's milk in the fridge, it was just me and Olivia. What should we do?

Get out of the house, what else?! But first we had to take her afternoon nap with Dad while watching Sportscenter (Olivia's nap, not mine). After she woke up, I changed her and thought I had her ready for a walk in the stroller.

Enter eureka moment #5 (for Benny). There is a lot of planning that goes into taking a baby anywhere besides ensuring you have the baby, car seat, stroller, and diaper bag. I changed Olivia, picked up Olivia and was ready to head out the door, then put her back down in order to put on my shoes. Here comes the eureka moment: there has never been anything in between me and putting on my shoes and walking out the door. Lesson learned, time to go.

I unloaded the stroller from the car with one hand, set it up one-handed, and set her in it. (Alright I got it, moms are used to doing everything one-handed). Baby, check. Diaper bag, check. Bottle, check. Funky noise, I didn't plan for that. Yup, dirty diaper. Unstrap Olivia, haul her back upstairs, change her, bring her back down and we are ready to go.

Fifty yards down the street, Olivia starts crying. Try weaving the stroller, no luck. Rocking the stroller, no luck. Wait a second, it's been 2 hours since her last feeding... she's probably hungry. We stopped under the little pavillian and Olivia had her afternoon snack. After burping we were back on track to go for our walk.

We walked for about an hour, got back home, but no Mom yet. Olivia's not crying, let's keep walking. So we walked for another 15 minutes before coming home to fix some more funky sounds.

We made it home safe and sound and waited for Mom's return. When Mom returned, she asked how it went with Olivia. I responded "who?" Just kidding, everything went fine (and I'd probably tell her everything went fine anyways even if I didn't have as much fun as Olivia). Mom said she worried about us the whole time, like we thought she whould. But now she knows she has nothing to worry about.

Come home Daddy

We recently realized that the only picture of Olivia posted in Benny's office was the grainy black and white ultrasound picture from November 2008. That is not going to cut it.

So we uploaded the one million pictures we have taken of Olivia and started browsing through the choices. Benny wants the photo to be black and white, which is easy enough to do. And he wants the photo to say "Come home, Daddy," so he doesn't fall into his old habit of working late.

We have narrowed it down to two choices.

Photo No. 1


Photo No. 2


Any opinions?

Show me your good side

Olivia loves to make faces. It seems like she makes 30 different faces every minute. I think she is stretching her face muscles. You know, trying them on for size. Either that, or she has Benny's personality and inherited his funny faces.

Cheap sunglasses

Jesus must have been an early riser

It turns out that sunrise service is held while the sun is rising. At 6 a.m. When it is early and there is a chill in the air. This service is held outside, when folding chairs are damp with dew. In order to be on time for sunrise service, you have to leave your house when it is dark, before the sun is up and before the Easter bunny has hopped into your home and left candy.

All these things I didn't know until this Sunday. I had never attended a sunrise service before. I didn't even know that Easter church services could be held outside until I met Benny.

See Benny loves sunrise service. Each and every Easter he talks about how wonderful this service is. To Benny sunrise service with its upbeat cheerful music, usually accompanied by a trumpet, is the definition of Easter.

To me, Easter is rolling out of bed around 7 a.m., eating candy for breakfast, before you put on your new Easter dress and head to Mass at the reasonable hour of 10a.m. I thought it was enough of a pain in the butt to arrive 30 minutes early so you can sit in your regular seat before it was taken by a family who attends church only on Easter and Christmas.

I always thought sunrise service was just a cleaver marketing tool for Christians. Like saying midnight Mass because traditionally Christmas service was held at midnight, but in today's modern world is conveniently held at 10 p.m.

On Saturday night, Benny and I went to bed with alarms set. Mine was set for 4:30 a.m. so I could shower and dress before waking Olivia at 5 a.m. I would feed her while Benny got ready at 5 a.m. It was a great plan.

Then Olivia decided to wake up at 2 a.m., 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., so I ended up sleeping a chair with her. And we took her to the chapel in her yellow pajamas because I didn't want to wake her at 5:30 a.m. even though I did want her to wear a pink Easter dress.

At the breakfast following the sunrise service

This was Olivia's first Easter, so besides attending sunrise service, she also had to get her photo taken with the Easter Bunny.

The three of us went to an Easter brunch buffet at a Marine Corps base's restaurant with views of the ocean.


I got to play Easter Bunny by buying a few goodies for her and placed them in this pink basket. I didn't get her basket and Benny's basket filled until about 6 p.m. last night, but I tell myself it's the thought that counts.

Happy Easter

The strike is over

The agreement was if we had a visitor, the strike would be over. Late last week our readers' wishes were granted even though it wasn't the type of visitor I expected.

On Wednesday night, when Benny got home from work he noticed that our neighbor boy was sitting outside his front door, exactly two feet from our front door. It appeared that this young Japanese man was locked out and forgot his key. It was getting chilly and dark outside so Benny invited him in.

This boy sat straight in the chair we offered him and didn't move until 8:30 p.m. He sat there, even though we told him to relax. He sat up straight even though we offered to let him sit in a more comfortable chair or even to lay down in the tatami room. We told him he could use our phone to call his family. Or use our laptop to send some emails. At least that's what we thought we said.

This visit was an eye-opening realization of how little Japanese Benny and I know. After the first exchanges of names, ages and offers of water and cookies, we stared at our 15-year-old neighbor unable to continue the conversation. And he stared back. He seemed to stare at everything in our townhouse with wide eyes of wonder. And I couldn't blame him. If I had same opportunity, (locked out of my house, waiting outside when a foreigner invites me in and I can't talk to them), I would have soaked it all in too.


When we realized that we had exhausted our limited Japanese conversation topics, Benny and I smiled, nodded and continued to move about our lives with this boy observing our lives. I feed Olivia. Benny grilled steaks. I cooked Okinawa sweet potatoes and green beans. We offered him a plate of food so he could join us for dinner. He declined by shaking his head and making a motion of eating with his hands and pointing to his home. I translated this action to mean that his mother was a wonderful cook and he didn't want to spoil his dinner.

Benny and I ate dinner and talked about our day to each other with the boy sitting right there. After dinner we gave Olivia a bath and put her to bed.

Was it awkward? At first yes. Then I forgot he was there. And I think he felt like he was watching American television.

When his sister got home, he thanked us and left.

Benny and I wondered what he told his family about the 3 hours he spent with us. I imagine the conversation starting something like this:

"Don't worry Mom and Dad, I'll never forget my house key again. I don't want to be left with those Americans. They are crazy."

One month old

The photo shoot wasn't going well, but yet I was determined to take Olivia's picture exactly one month after she was born. So I have numerous pictures of her crying and yelling. She seems to be screaming, Mom, get this dress off me, NOW!


Here is a better one-month-old photo taken a few days later when she was calm and not wearing a dress.

We're on strike

We were so fortunate with Grandma Kann coming to spoil Olivia, we didn't realize that we were the ones getting spoiled instead. We grudgingly dropped Grandma off at the airport Monday morning, and the gravity of the situation didn't hit us until 12 hours later. We found ourselves stumbling into bed at 8:30 on Monday night, ready to fall asleep the second our heads hit the pillows.

Going to bed at 8:30 at night was no easy feat. The journey to the bedroom involved dodging laundry, dishes, near-capacity trash cans, and other man-made obstacles.

So until we get another visitor, we're going on strike. No more blog posts until our demands have been met.