Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
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.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, May 22, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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.
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