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More Beach Day photos

Olivia dips her toes in the East China Sea

Beach Day

On Memorial Day, we busted out Olivia's bathing suit and went to the beach. We dipped her toes in the East China Sea and I think she liked it. I mean she didn't scream, so she must have liked it. We'll be back.

Brett is Driving the V-Team Bonkers

We had no idea Olivia would be big enough to wear this onesie before football season, but if we hold off until August, it'll be her little brother or sister wearing it.

The Farve Fiasco in Minnesota has made its way to Okinawa.

This is Olivia happy and content thinking that Farve could take the Vikings to the playoffs and ultimately bring them their first superbowl in God knows how long. Notice the slight smile and optimistic look in here eyes - she gets that from her Mom being a Cubs fan (through thick and thin) and her Dad always rooting for the underdog.

This is Olivia concerned that the Vikings have not even given former Iowa Stater Sage Rosenfels a chance to get the top QB spot over never-going-to-take-em-to-the-playoffs Tarvarus Jackson. Not to mention the heartache that Farve would bring to the V-Team in Okinawa if the Vikings were to sign him in hopes the old man would make it as a starter throughout the season (without getting injured). I know my Dad would be happy to be able to watch Farve again, but I kindly as that the Vikings leadership please put down the peace pipe. Sign him as a QB coach to mentor the young Jackson and Rosenfels, but please don't think the old man is going to make it through the season. How else would he be able to keep up his streak of retiring on a good note (tossing an interception as the all time interception leader). I know Farve fans, you have to through the interceptions in order to throw all those TDs, but you have to remember that I watched him beat my beloved Vikings one too many times.

Catnap Cathy

"She is so alert."

Complete strangers say this to me all the time. They are talking about Miss Olivia and her gray-blue eyes. And the fact that they never close. Never. Ever.

Or at least that's how it seems to me on days like today. It's Saturday. Olivia woke up at 7 a.m. It's 12:32 p.m. And she STILL hasn't taken a morning nap. Sure she has yawned. And fussed like she's tired. But when I put her down in her crib, she screams bloody murder, as though I'm exposing her to some kind of shock treatment.

This display of tiredness without any sort of willingness to sleep didn't start today. It's been a daily occurrence for Olivia since she turned the ripe old age of 3 weeks old. Basically my mom left this island and Olivia decided she didn't need to nap anymore. Naps are for other babies, not Olivia.

This anti-sleep behavior isn't only at home.

There are many days when I pick up Olivia from daycare, and Marie (the super sweet Japanese woman in charge of the infant room) will apologize with the statement "Miss Olivia didn't sleep much today."

Her infant daily diary reads like this:

Sleeping Schedule
Sleep Time Wake-Up Time
7:30 7:45
8:05 9:20
12:30 1:05
2:30 2:55
3:45 4:15

If she takes one nap with a duration of two hours, I'm pleased.

So who is to blame for this problem? It's two people, my mom and Benny.

My mom's family is known for their short efficient naps. The Wille catnap is 20 minutes of intense and deep sleep, usually while lying on the living room floor following lunch. And without the aid of an alarm clock, my mom and her 10 brothers and sisters can wake up 20 minutes later completely refreshed and ready for many more hours of hard labor on the farm. This is the reason my mom couldn't sleep on her 14 hour flight here. Every 20 minutes she would wake up and be completely awake. And like Olivia, they have the ability to sleep through the night. It's a crash and burn mentality in the evening, I think.

The other reason she doesn't want to sleep is I think her personality may be active and social like Benny's personality. She doesn't want to sleep because she doesn't want miss anything. For example, the other day at daycare, she didn't want to sleep and cried until they moved her into the 2-year-olds' room. There she could watch the children play and was completely content for hours. Rested? No. Happy? Yes.

You are probably wondering "If Olivia isn't sleeping on Saturday, how is Michelle writing this post entry?"

After three hours of trying to gently rock Olivia to sleep, lull her to sleep, sing her to sleep and talk her to sleep, I pulled out my secret weapon: her swing.



She falls asleep in it on most days. Will it be for longer than 20 minutes this afternoon? That's anyone's guess.

Missing my girls

I am so thrilled to pull out my wallet these days, especially now that I carry around two pictures of my two favorite women. Being away this past week has been bittersweet, as I miss my girls, but love to show them off to anyone who will look.

Last week was my first trip away since Olivia was born, and the first time it has just been Mom and Olivia at home. As I dropped her off at daycare on Tuesday, I asked her to take care of her Mom while I was gone, and no parties after midnight. Pretty easy rules I thought, but turns out she’s already pushing the limits. So please bear with me as I provide the chain of events from my perspective 7,000 miles away and 39,000 feet high.

I left Tuesday morning, and the trip started off well since I got the catch the last three outs of the Twins getting swept by the Yankees at Naha airport. Bittersweet indeed, but the Twins games on TV are weeks between, and watching the last out wasn't any less painful.

I called Michelle after getting to my hotel room in Lansdowne, VA at 5:30pm (6:30am for Michelle). I would have called sooner, but I had to find my room first. I was staying with 150 other participants at National Conference Center, a facility that has some connection to Xerox. There was also a chaplain’s convention going on for the Army reserve, and another one of the guests commented “I feel bad cursing about getting lost in this place with all the chaplains around.” I told him not to worry, most of the chaplains I know would do the same. The hallways in the facility had states names (And I was excited to see that Iowa and Minnesota “streets” were right next to eachother), but getting to my room was like trying to follow the onscreen instructions on a copier on how to fix a paper jam. I found my room, but it took ten minutes of directions from the front desk once they gave me my room key.

I asked Michelle how our Olivia was doing (falling into the groove of new parents talking about their kids all the time). Turns out Olivia thought with Dad gone, she’d go out for drinks after midnight, again at 2am, and once more at 4am. I didn’t know what to say… or do… Michelle is the only one of us who hears Olivia’s cries at night, and I don’t hear them until Michelle helps my hearing with a gentle elbow to my ribcage. She doesn’t do it as hard as she could, but just enough to wake me up and let me know that Dad’s diaper (and sometimes feeding) service is needed in Olivia’s room.

Since the after-midnight parties usually involve feeding with parts that I don’t have, Michelle takes care 95% of them. I’ve tried and Olivia has not been fooled by my “suck Dad’s pinky” shenanigans, and calls me out for not giving her the real deal. How often Michelle wakes up, I have no idea to be sure, but it is way more than the couple of times I get an elbow. She doesn’t keep score, and I only find out when I ask if Olivia slept through the night. The only times I don’t ask is when I roll over in the morning only to find my superhero is not laying next to me. Like Batman, she disappears in the middle of the night to fight hunger, and I often find her feeding Olivia while catching up on the news that isn’t on Good Morning America.

I checked out of my room early on Thursday, after confirming two critical pieces of information: one, our friends Jason and Melinda were coming to pick me up Thursday afternoon, and two, I could crash on their couch and get a ride back up to Dulles Friday morning. Yes and yes. Jason picked me up at 5pm for my first experience with Washington DC traffic. I forgot how green and lush and big and wide and open the United States is. Our trip took us 2.5 hours just to go the 60 miles south, without even going into DC, but I was loving the whole trip with the cool breeze in the windows and the wide open spaces.

I hadn’t seen Jason and Melinda in 15 months, but it didn’t seem like it more than a week had passed. After catching up on life, work, and friends, and a fantastic dinner, we went to bed way after the sun went down (but before it came up).

When I called Michelle Friday morning, she was still up with Olivia trying to put her to bed at 9pm. Still trying to keep our routine, Michelle bought sushi for the Friday night ritual of watching The Biggest Loser and Amazing Race (after putting Miss Olivia to bed). But our little Olivia loves the irony of eating and watching The Biggest Loser too. Not wanting to teach Olivia any bad habits, Michelle kept her sushi in the fridge, and still hadn’t touched it as of 9pm. Not cool. At least we can tag team eating dinner when we’re both home.

I said a little prayer that Olivia would let Michelle sleep, but I think Olivia’s was a bit stronger. Melinda gave me a ride to the airport as Jason work stuff to do in the morning. The ride to the airport was awesome, taking side roads to avoid the traffic. The ride only would have been better if I didn’t have a suitcase. Without the baggage, Melinda probably would have taken me on the back of her Harley. The trees, green fields, deer, and most of all, the company made it an awesome trip to the airport. But the best part was having my picture taken with the President at Dulles!

So here I sit, 1 hour away from getting on a plane to go home. By the time I get home I will have spent 34 hours travelling (including connection times) and 65 hours on the ground in the USA. But it’s those first few minutes of hugging and squeezing and kissing that I’m looking forward to the most.

Daddy's Girl

From the first time he held her in the delivery room (gosh I wish I had a picture of that) Olivia has been daddy's little girl. She likes me when she is hungry or wet. For everything else, there is Daddy.

My First Mothers Day

Benny and Olivia did a wonderful job planning and fulfilling my hopes and dreams for my first Mothers Day. Olivia did her part by sleeping in, so I didn't get up on Sunday until 7 a.m. What a blessing.

I awoke from my slumber to find a happy baby, the above card, a vase of flowers (sunflowers, birds of paradise and lilies) and Benny making me breakfast. The cards (one came with the flowers too) were so sweet, but it was strange to read "from Dad and Olivia." I'm still adjusting to the realization that I'm a mother.

We followed breakfast with our usual Sunday routine, church service at 8:30 a.m. Again, it was strange to hear people say "Happy Mothers Day" to me. To me. That's something that should be said to my mother or Benny's mom, but not me. Again, I'm slow when it comes to accepting life changes.



Then we drove to White Beach, it's a Navy base on the east side of the island that Benny goes to for work, but I've rarely been to. I think I've been there twice in the year we have lived here.

The weather was sunny and warm. A nice Okinawa day. Not humid and not too hot. There was a cool breeze off the Pacific Ocean. We only have a few of these wonderful summer days left before it turns blister hot, so we needed to spend it outside.

We ate a relaxing lunch at the restaurant and again Olivia played her part perfectly by napping during the meal. She never does this, by the way. But down at the beach, she wanted to eat the entire time, so I didn't get to read my book in the shade as planned.

But I did get to see this smiling face looking at me the whole time.



That's when I felt like a mom.

10 weeks old

No longer a newborn

Olivia has grown out of her newborn clothes. Time to pack away the small stuff and pull out the 3 month old onesies and dresses. And with how fast she is growing, I might put her 6 month old clothes in her dresser at the same time. It may save me the hassle of doing it in two months.

Cupcakes, oh delicious cupcakes

I didn't bake these cupcakes. I didn't frost these cupcakes. I didn't even place these cupcakes on the lovely platter. But I did eat two of these vanilla coconut cupcakes and they were so good that I had to take a picture of them.

These cupcakes were the icing on the cake for another wonderful weekend in Okinawa.

Friday night Benny and I watched the season finale of The Amazing Race while eating sushi. Yes, the television episodes were super old when compared to what you see in the States, but as long as I don't know the winner it is exciting to me.

On Saturday, Benny and Olivia had Daddy-Daughter Quality Time while I went to an Aerobathan. Three hours that kicked my butt and now my abs hurt when I laugh. So I'm avoiding laughing at all costs. Same with coughing. No coughing or laughing until I get back in shape. When I got home Benny went to the One-Day Sale at the golf course and purchased an early Fathers Day gift for himself. Olivia and I relaxed at home and got absolutely nothing accomplished because she wanted to be held the entire time. And I couldn't argue with her. Saturday night Benny and I watched "Under the Same Moon," a sweet foreign film.

Sunday morning I slept in. Benny got up with Olivia at 3:30 a.m. It turns out our little girl loves Twins baseball as much as her father and knew the game was on. After the game, we went to chapel for the weekly praise Jesus session, followed by breakfast at the golf course. Then we went to the end of the year picnic for the Navy Officers Spouses Club (where I was recruited to serve as a command rep for next year) and Olivia wowed everyone with her cuteness. Here is Benny modeling his new golf attire:

Following the barbecue, Benny went the golf course while Olivia and I attended a baby shower for my co-worker.

Again, Olivia appeared to be an angel. It's fun how my child can be a devil child at home and a perfect angel in public. It makes me want to never be home.

We ended the day at home, planning for the upcoming week. Only 12 more hours until Monday morning and the madness begins again.

Rookie mom to the rescue

When Benny blogs he calls Olivia the newest rookie of the V-Team. Somehow I think Olivia isn't the only rookie. On most days it is me, Rookie Mom.

Case in point: Last Thursday night, Benny scheduled mandatory Navy fun for Olivia and I. It was the first dinner out for Olivia with her dad's fellow engineering officers and their spouses. I thought about declining the invitation and sending Benny solo. But I really enjoy the food at this particular restaurant (it's traditional Okinawa food from locally grown veggies) so I nodded yes, when he asked if I was still in at 6 p.m.

At the time I was feeding Olivia and hoping she would fall asleep. After all, she hadn't slept for more than 15 minutes at daycare that day (more on our little Catnap Cathy later). Apparently the action of breastfeeding automatically turned off my accurate hearing, so when Benny asked "Is the diaper bag ready to go?" I answered yes. In fact this diaper bag was packed with only one diaper and nothing else.

I nodded yes because I heard Benny ask "Do you need me to get the diaper bag ready?"

Fast forward to the drive to the restaurant, Olivia decides she is STILL hungry (babies and their constant growth spurts), so at a stoplight I jump in the backseat and feed her from a bottle for the remainder of the drive.

At the restaurant I want to burp her, but can't find a burp cloth, receiving blanket or anything else that will remedy this situation. Yes, we carried in an empty diaper bag into a restaurant without noticing how light it was. So I improvised and used a clean T-shirt (originally packed in my gym bag with every intention of returning to my workout routine in the not-so-distant future) as a burp rag. I wiped my child's mouth with a brightly colored orange and blue tank top from Target. Nice.

Later I changed her diaper in the backseat of the car after I found wipes in the front seat. Luckily, I bought some extras at the store the day before and forgot to carry the wipes into the house when I got home from work. But I didn't have a wet bag for her very dirty cloth diaper. So I tossed it in a blue canvas bag normally used for grocery shopping.

When we got home, Benny put Olivia to bed while I threw her cloth diapers from the day into the washing machine. Included in that load was the blue canvas bag. Does anyone see where this story is going?

The next morning, Benny casually asked what I washed with Olivia's diapers.

"Nothing. Just her diapers."

"Oh, because they are all blue."

My super cool blue grocery bag from Tokyo stained Olivia's diapers. One-third of her diapers now look as though a Smurf rubbed up against them. One-third of her diapers are evidence of my poor planning as a mother and even worse -- my blind eye when it comes to separating laundry.

In the end I learned an important lesson: Always check the diaper bag before exiting your home.

Or be prepared to improvise.

Happy Mother's Day

So we tried to get a little Mother's Day greeting for our moms back in the states. But Olivia wasn't too excited about doing it on camera, she preferred to keep her smiles off the record.

You can catch a glimpse of her smile when the camera came back up - Happy Mother's Day!

Exactly two months old

Olivia is now two months old. And she isn't any happier about having her photo taken or wearing this dress.

Breakfast at the Volkmann house

Thanks to Mindy, this is what Benny and I are now eating for breakfast.

Reporting from Tokyo

A few weeks ago, Tammy emailed me a Los Angeles Times column written by Steve Lopez. Lopez was apparently on assignment in Tokyo. In my opinion, his piece is an accurate description of the life in Tokyo, and even Japanese society as a whole. His column was most interesting to me personally because the things that surprised him about Tokyo are the same exact observations I had when visiting Japan's capital a year ago.

It's clean, even the bathrooms in the subway. The Japanese celebrate beauty in nature, despite the fact that they live in a densely populated country. People respect their elders and delight in babies and children. And there is deep sense of pride that was lost somewhere along the way in the United States.

So yes, Steve, L.A. could learn some lessons from Tokyo.

Can You Spot Olivia's Split-Second Smile?

First person to put down the correct time (within two seconds of elapsed time, without going over) wins a prize. No purchase necessary. Leave your guess in the comments section, in whole seconds only. One guess per person, first correct response is the victor. Judges ruling is final. Winner will be notified by mail.

The management is not responsible for anyone reprimanded or fired for doing this at work.

Good night and good luck.

Eight Weeks into Olivia's Rookie Season

Olivia is well on her way to a breakout rookie season as a utility player for the V-Team. She displayed her pregame jitters and hurling skills today in front of the sold-out waiting room crowd of six people. Mom was catching for Olivia, and displayed her own all-star moves by keeping it all on the blanket. (Olivia doesn't spit up often, and this case was likely due to an unplanned call for a relief pitcher without any warm up in the bullpen [limited burping time] so she wasn't late to her pediatric appointment.)

After a little cleanup and a miraculous catch by Mom (nothing on her pretty dress OR Dad's uniform--yes, my wife is amazing), it was time for a talk on the mound with the coach (Pediatrician).

"You're doing great kid, you growing right on target," said the 40-something doctor. The statisticians had her listed in the program as weighing 4.55kg, 57cm long, and a 38cm noggin (9 lbs 15 oz; 22.4 in long; 15 in circumference). That put her in the 54th percentile for weight, 70th percentile for length, and 51st percentile for noggin circumference. Besides the numbers, she's smiling, looking at us, finding her voice, filling her britches regularly, and developing on par with the fancy dancy growth charts.

After a glowing review after an impressive eight weeks into her rookie season, the doc came out with the hard truth. "We need to send you to the minors, seems like you are going to need a little rehab after we give you these three vaccinations."

Then the nurse proceeded to give Olivia her three vaccinations, and she's currently upstairs recovering (sleeping). She's been a bit fussy with being downgraded to the minors and all, but who would be a little upset. Even with the sore little legs, she looks as though she is going to bounce back tougher than ever.

The Corn Verdict

Because inquiring minds want to know what the judges think:



The Verdict:

Sweet Corn in May?