Back on Japanese soil

Finally, we are back in Japan and adjusted to the time change. Mike was gone for about 6 weeks and Rory and I were gone exactly a month. Gosh, what a difference a month makes with a growing little one! By the time we got back here, it seems none of her clothes are fitting right so it's on to the next size ; ) I've taken two videos of her this week, one of her rolling over (finally, I was getting worried!) and one of her cracking up at Huey. It's so funny because she didn't even notice him back in October but after returning from America, Rory just LOVES him and everything that he does! It's so fun to watch her and Huey together. I know they'll be great friends!

While in the U.S., Rory and I were finally able to meet her cousin and my niece Lily! They were so cute together. My mom was in heaven playing with these two but gosh, when you get them together, it's a lot of work! It's like having twins...when one would cry, the other would, when one was hungry, the other one was..., you get the idea! It seemed there were never enough hands for these two. How funny and different they both are from each other. Rory has an extremely LOUD voice and cry whereas Lily is very quiet and when she cries, it's more like little whines. Ha! When Lily gets excited, she flaps her arms wildly whereas Rory kicks her legs rapidly! And then there's the hair, or lack there of. Rory took advantage of a few hair tugs on Lily's poor head and Lily would retaliate with unknowing little pinches! Grammie Buckie loved singing to Rory and showing her the many fishes in her house as well.

Rory and I then flew down to visit Mike's side of the family and Rory was very happy to meet all of the Quinns. Auntie Liz was very brave and took Rory multiple times when Rory would throw a fit. Big G aka Mike's Dad would play the guitar and Rory would happily sit and listen. Grandma Quinn knew exactly what to do to please Rory as she is a very opinionated baby...i.e. you can't sit, you must bounce around, hold her vertically, take her outside, distract her with lights, that sort of thing! Rory can wear you out I swear ; )

Now we are unpacking in a new house that we'll live in a grand total of 4 months before we move to New Mexico! More about that in my next post...

Our Family Pictures

Before Mike left on his TDY, we got our family photos taken for our Christmas card since he won't back until December. I think they turned out pretty cute even though Rory refused to smile for any of them!

Yep, this is our child; )

I wasn't kidding when I said that Rory gets literally swarmed by Japanese people. They just love her! It's too fun ; )



Ok, are you happy now? Lots of pictures right?

My little pumpkin

I pretty much load the majority of my pictures on my facebook profile so take a look there to see more but here's just a sampling of what we've been up to this past month!

Here's a picture of our friend Jeanette who came all the way from PNG to visit us!

Here's some of our Pease Place crew at the top of Mt Takao.

Rory looking at her daddy after a diaper change.

Rory was lulled to sleep while watching the Clemson Tigers play some football.

I love all the cuddles and snuggles from this little baby!

Hanging out in Yokosuka.

Rory is helping me make an apple pie. She was very happy as you can tell!

As soon as I see our culture club friends, they just swoop in and take over. The Japanese are in love with caucasian babies and everywhere I go, people stop and swoon over Rory. They all say "Kuwai!" which means cute.

Rory loves her tummy time mat from Mrs. Horst. Here she is blowing bubbles and smiling at mama.

Another time that we met our culture club friends, they took us to a sake factory and provided lunch that they made. It was so cool to eat such yummy food and a lot of it came from their very own gardens.

My 3 month old pumpkin! I can't believe how fast the time is going by. I want it to slow down!

Huey gives his sister WAY too many kisses. She's pretty tolerable of them as you can see ; )

Little Miss Roo in our pretend pumpkin patch.

There ya go! These pictures should make up for my lack in blogging ok?

Fall Activities

It's been a while since I've blogged, but to my defense, my computer needed to be repaired and this Sunday is the first time I've been able to sit down in front of my computer long enough to load pictures and write about what we've been up to.

Last month, our good friend Jeanette came to visit. I've know her since 5th grade so it was really fun to reminisce about all of our shenanigans when we were young. Her life is very interesting and exciting because she teaches in Papua New Guinea at an international school. Here's a link to her blog. Since Jeanette was here for a little over a week, we took advantage of our short time and took her to as many sites as we could, with a two month old in two. The bonus to her visiting here was that she was able to get her "American fix" as well and get all the necessary American goodies that we have at our BX and commissary. We've also go plenty of Starbucks and McDonalds around Japan so Jeanette was happy to enjoy in such delicacies. Hey, don't judge me, we also took her to plenty of Japanese eateries as well ok? Some of the places we went to were Mt. Takao where we were able to enjoy cherry blossom ice cream and hike around some beautiful shrines. The next day we went to a Sake Factory that is up in the mountains and has a very different perspective than typical city life. We also went to Tokyo and stayed at the New Sanno. While there, we went to Roppongi and saw the view of the entire city on the top of Mori Tower. We went to Ueno park only to discover that the "f*$king zoo was closed" (don't judge, I'm just quoting a line from Jerry McGuire.) We went to Asakausa where old Tokyo meets new and looked at some amazing shrines as well. And to end the night, we went to Shibuya crossing, the busiest intersection in the world. The next day we went to Yoyogi Park and took in more views of the Meiji Shrine and other beautiful landmarks and finally, we walked to Harajuku to see some crazy girls in ridiculous costumes (oh yeah, we did some shopping too!) We also ate some yummy Japanese food like okoyamanaki, shabu-shabu/sukiyaki, yakaniku, and of course sushi. We were really sad to see Jeanette go but hopefully we'll see here again soon!

As far as daily life is concerned, I'm really enjoying being a stay at home mama to my little one. Rory is growing so fast and I wish I could just freeze time and have her stay this little and snuggly forever. I just LOVE watching her thrive. Last weekend was a three day weekend and the 3 of us were able to spend some much needed time as a family. On Saturday, we took family photos at Showa Park for our Christmas cards (Mike's going on TDY for a month and a half so this was our only chance to do it) and then on Sunday and Monday, we traveled down to Yokosuka and did a little shopping. This weekend was spent getting Mike ready for his upcoming trip and again, spending more time together as a family. Our 3 year anniversary is on Tuesday, gosh the time sure does fly. I'm still working on gift ideas but I've got something up my sleeve, I just need to take the time to make it!

Some upcoming plans are that Rory and I will be going back to the U.S. in November to visit family. We are flying direct from Tokyo to New York and we'll be home until the 30th of November. Rory is excited to meet all of her family and finally go to America ; ) We'll be in NJ and NY for the first half of November and then in NC with the in-laws for the second half, including Thanksgiving. Mike will meet us in Fayetteville after his TDY is over. We're hoping to go to a Clemson football game up at NC State so hopefully that works out. I can't wait to introduce Rory to all of her family and especially for her to meet her cousin Lily. Ooh and I can't wait to get my hands on my little nieces as well!

Here's a video of my Roo. This was recorded a few weeks ago so it's not showing all of her party tricks...like how she loves to LAUGH ; )

Movie from Grandpa Q

I know it's been a few weeks since I last posted so I'll be better about keeping you guys informed. Our friend Jeanette came out for 10 days and I've got some pictures to post but I need to get my computer fixed first before I do that. In the meantime, here's a really sweet video that Mike's dad made with pictures of Rory and pictures of Mike as a baby. It's really cute and fun to see how similar Rory is compared to her daddy!

More to come!

So far this morning...

-I woke up to a smiling baby just as she spit up on our freshly washed sheets

-I changed her diaper and placed her happy self on her play mat

-I put in a work out DVD (Insanity to be exact) and made up every excuse under the sun why I shouldn't do this video

-SO, I didn't do it and instead played with my little one

-I tried to repair our broken tire on our BRAND NEW jogging stroller so that I could go for a jog (the damn mail is slow and I still haven't gotten our replacement tire)

-I couldn't fix it so I placed Rory in her other small stroller that is not meant for running and preceded to walk 1 mile and then run 1 mile (huffing and puffing the entire way)

-I noticed poor Huey was very tired so I placed him underneath the stroller in the storage compartment to which he happily stayed

-And finally, I finished our exercise and took a few pictures and uploaded a video so you can see snippets of our morning

-Oh yeah, and I just noticed I had spit up on my shoulder for who knows how long...

Just Hanging Out!

Today Rory is 7 weeks old! Gosh the time flies by and every day, she surprises me with new things that she can do. The past two weeks, Rory has started smiling so it's really fun to see what makes her happy. I went crazy with the picture taking and added a few more on facebook if you want to see them there but here are a few of my favorites.

You can see how big her smile can get. I just love it!

This is the "Ok Mom, I'm Done!" face

I used to look like this as baby with a slight mark on my forehead and my tongue always sticking out.

And here's another fun video ; )

Rory Videos

Here are some videos of sweet baby Rory ; )

1 month old!

Today, my baby is 1 month old! I can't believe how fast the days go by and how much she grows everyday. When she wakes up in the morning, I find myself studying her face to see what changes happened overnight. I love to kiss her sweet cheeks and stroke her soft hair. She is such a blessing and gosh do we love her!

Some things that have learned since having a baby is that the kid can poop literally 10 times, if not more, each day. Each time she farts, I swear I have to do a double take to make sure it was her and not my husband. After I hear such a glorious explosion, I have learned that I need to hear at least 3 more fartful tunes before I change her, otherwise it will be like a Yellowstone explosion that can reach her curtains about 5 feet away (and by the way, I'm not kidding, this has happened.)

I've also learned that when Rory is not happy, she will definitely let you know ; ) She does not like her car seat and does not like to be changed. If you attempt to buckle her down or change a onesie, watch out as she will go from 0-60 in a blink and let you know her dislike!

I must say that Rory is a great sleeper and averages about 4-5 hours between feedings at night. I am so grateful for this and happily let her sleep so that I can get some much needed zzz's as well. Really, I only get up once in the night because of this because the next time she eats is in the morning when it's time to get up!

Just for fun, let me tell you about our passport adventure. Yesterday, Mike and I were able to get all of the necessary paperwork together for Rory's passport. We were both under the assumption that they would be taking a picture of Rory at the office, however such was not the case. They informed us that we'd have to take Rory to the photobooth and take one of her ourselves. Ok that makes sense right? As we are walking there, Mike asks me if I have yen to put in the machine to pay for the picture. I told him no, I didn't have any because I gave it to my mom to use at the airport. When we get to the photobooth machine, Mike looks at the price and asks me for 700 yen. I again tell him that I don't have any yen because...surprise, surprise, I gave it to my mom. Mike gets frustrated and is all "Well why did we walk up here then?" Um hello? Did he not hear me? So then Mike walks off all frustrated and gets on the escalator to go downstairs to the atm and AGAIN asks me, "Are you sure you don't have any yen???" to which I reply "Oh MY gosh, every time you ask, I'm just going to say NO! I don't have any yen!" Well... Mike's gone for about ten minutes and while he's gone, I get a little bored and decided to check my purse and whattaya know, I do have 700 yen. No wonder Mike asked me like 100 times, he knows I'm retarded. Finally, we're set to take the picture! Now this was a sight to see as Mike had to suspend Rory in the air while I had to push the photo button several times. Believe it or not, the photo below is actually the best out of the 3 we attempted! I LOVE this picture because of how ridiculous it looks. I mean, you can see both of Mike's hands in the photo and Rory has one arm awkwardly up in one direction, not to mention that "What the F?" expression on her face. It's priceless! Gosh is she lucky that she will have this passport photo for the next 5 years of her life ; )

And here's a cute picture of Rory and her Daddy!

Rory's Newborn Photoshoot

When Rory was 12 days old, we had her newborn pictures taken by Princess Photography. Princess is a wonderful photographer and captured so many sweet photos of our baby girl. The funny thing about taking pictures of a newborn without a diaper on is that...you get pooped and peed on... a lot! Since she's my kid, I really didn't mind and we did a good job of hiding all of her little gifts that she contributed during the photo shoot!

Here's a picture of our fur baby, Mr. Huey himself!

I was lucky that both grandmas were here to be a part of the photo session! We got some good ones (the majority of the pictures are on facebook if you'd like to see more)

The kid is already on to a good start supporting her parent's school. Hopefully she'll want to go there as well!

Below are just a few of my favorites ; )

I just love her hair color! I hope it stays that way!