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!