TWO!

My baby girl turned TWO today!  What a wonderful two years it has been, and we are looking forward to so many more years.  Gabby has been so excited about birthdays for going on 4 or 5 months now.  When we were still in Japan we went to two birthday parties in one week, at that point she was really ready for it to be her turn for a birthday.  I was even asked "momma, sing happy birthday to ME!"  Moving away changed the style of celebration we had, simply because we don't know any new friends in our area yet to have a party with.  I tried to make it as exciting and fun as she could want. 

   All week I asked Gabby what she wanted for breakfast for her birthday, her reply "cupcakes with sprinkles, and hotdogs."  I didn't give in to that, but instead she had a chocolate muffin with two candles, turkey breakfast sausage and vanilla milk.  Plus I had a princess balloon waiting for her when she woke up!  

   Still trying to get the house in order, and having company come this weekend means that we have been trying to hang things on the walls and figure out where to put the last of our stuff. One of my jobs that needed to be done before friends come was to clean the couches, we got a new little steam cleaner for the job.  I cleaned the couch and Gabby got to enjoy her very favorite show Diego and then Kai Lan too. Over the vacuum I could her her speaking Spanish and Chinese!  I think she was happy and I was glad to have the cleaning done, and couch looking better.  

   Yes we are having company this weekend.  Our former neighbors from Japan who are out of the military and living 3 hours away from us are coming to see us and help celebrate Gabby being 2.  Geo, her very best friend is 3 and his parents are driving down tomorrow morning to play and visit.  We are all very excited, it has been almost 7 months since we saw them.

  Clay got home from work early, we went to the post office to pick up lots of boxes that were waiting for us.... so much for being done unpacking and free from deciding where things go. The birthday girl was fast asleep in her carseat for a much needed nap.  Grocery shopping to pick up last minute ingredients for birthday and superbowl celebrations and then out to a good Mexican restaurant.  Once home one of Miss G's favorite activities, baking, not just baking but baking CUPCAKES!!  From scratch we made chocolate coconut mud cupcakes and then a coconut cream cheese frosting, which of course we colored ORANGE (her absolute favorite color).  Played with some new birthday toys, a bath, stories and off to bed it was.

  So after all that went on today, I am amazed at how quickly the past two years has gone by but also astonished by the amount of stuff that has happened.  Two years seems to have gone by quicker than the 35 hours of labor I was in.  Last night as I put her to sleep I told her about the day she was born, and how happy she has made her dad and I... and continues to make us!  After my story to her, she told me one:  "Once upon a time in a far away land there was a beautiful princess.  She lived in a castle. She had a beautiful mom, and a beautiful dad.  She had a dog and a cow on a farm."  

 I love you my sweet Gabby Jean! Happy 2nd Birthday!

   

Cute!

I must say that Gabby is the most stylish little girl I know!   Everyone always loves her outfits and say she dresses like an adult and not in goofy baby stuff. I rarely buy her dresses, but love the ones she has.  Aunt Molly bought her about 5 summer dresses, and Aunt Kay sent us a really chic faux wrap dress that Gabby is just growing into.  The purple wrap dress was a huge hit at PT Tots this week, so I had to give Aunt Kay and her European shopping credit.  With polka dot tights and boots it made the cutest outfit.  

After grocery shopping this week, buying a ton but getting home and feeling like we had no food, I was fixing lunch for Gabby and I.  I had opened the vegetable drawer and got out a cucumber.  Gabby grabbed out the raw head of broccoli, sat down and started munching away on it (I had to snap a picture of it b/c who else does this?).  

The past few days Gabby is getting interested in anatomy.  It started out with bottom, and has led to discussions of what is "down there".  I debated weather or not to write this down and put it out on the web, for anyone to see but it is just too silly not to.  It is now known to Gabby that girls have a vagina aka "gina".  Of course that was followed by what dad has.... nope he doesn't have a gina, so logically Gabby states that "dad has freckles!"  I think this comes from a book we have that talks about it being okay to be different, its okay to have freckles.  We talk about Dad having freckles but mom doesn't.  So since mom has gina, but dad doesn't he must have freckles!  

Halloween!

What a difference a year makes.  Halloween last year was me trying to make it something special for Gabby, just so she could experience a first halloween.  This year Gabby was excited about everything and started talking about trick-or-treating at least a month in advance, and pumpkins have been the ultimate coolness! 

  Clay's schedule for duty has been the worst possible, we had to do everything without him.  The week before Halloween the base had a carnival, with some games, a fun walk that had 5 stops to trick or treat at, and LOTS of people.  Gabby dressed up in her lady bug costume, and we had a great time with good friends.  She was scared by the people passing out candy at first, and then got really happy about it all b/c she got CANDY! 

The pumpkin that has been rolled, pushed and carried around the house for the past few weeks finally met its fate of becoming a jack-o-lantern!  We carved it into a cat, and Gabby thinks it is the coolest thing ever.  The first morning after we had carved it she saw it out the window on the balcony and started jumping around "kitty pumfin".  Every night we put a candle in it.  

Halloween day we woke up happy, and had lots of fun things to do.  The ship group hosted a party for the kids during the day.  Gabby went dressed as a ballerina, wearing her brand new ballet shoes.  She had a great time seeing all the decorations, like the spiders.  We decorated a trick-or-treat bag and a bracelet.  We had to leave the party a bit early to come for nap.  Within 5 minutes of being home she was asleep!  

We started our trick-or-treating nice and early, going with a family that lives in our building.  The very first house we went to had someone dressed in a full Gorilla costume, at first it was frightening... but then she was okay with it and happy.  She quickly grasped the concept of going up to doors with the little girl we were with, saying "trick-or-treat, happy halloween!"  She sounded so clear and like a big girl!  It was so much fun watching her full of joy running from house to house.  Our bag ripped and some teenage boys scared her with their costumes so we decided to call it a night.  We came back home and handed out candy to those that came.... mostly Japanese that were sponsored to come on base for the occasion. Every time the doorbell rang, Gabby ran to the door saying "who dat, who der?"  The evening ended with a little bit of crying b/c she wanted to eat candy but had already had some.  Clay got home in the morning from a long night of being the police man on the ship and ensuring everyone that needed to was back by their curfew, Gabby showed him all her candy and told him all about our fun 2nd Halloween!

"Go Baseball Game!"

   A few weeks back I had the idea that we needed to get to a Japanese baseball game before we leave.  Clayton has been to an MLB Allstar game vs the Japanese, but neither of us in over 4 years had been to the local team, about 45 minutes away.  Clay figured out it was due to the fact that this is the first summer he has ever spent in Japan, normally the ship is gone.  We tried on Saturday to buy tickets at the mall here in Yokosuka, but they didn't have any. The man assured us there would be plenty available at game time if we went to the stadium.  Apparently the Yokohama Baystars aren't doing that great this season.  

   Without any directions except for what a friend had told us we headed up on the train to Yokohama.  We found the right train line to transfer to and found the stadium easily.  Before game time there were bands playing, with fans cheering and chanting. We tried to buy tickets at the first ticket booth we saw, turns out they split the stadium into home vs away and you have to buy the tickets at your side.  We cheered for Yokohama, the other half of the crowd cheered for the Hiroshima Carp.  Both sides had their own make shift bands and team clothes.  

  We didn't know realize how small the stadium was so bought the more expensive seats.  We were 6 rows up from the field on the first base side.  Part way into the game it started to rain, we talked about leaving but waited it out and the sprinkles stopped and the sun came back out.      One of my favorite people watching parts of the game was watching the beer girls, in goofy little outfits with their money folded intricately around their middle finger.  The creepy man in front of us had 8 beers, and would only buy them from one special girl!  They had bento boxes you could buy, rice and sushi being sold into the crowd instead of hotdogs like American baseball.  One of the best things they sold at the game was edamame, Gabby's absolute favorite snack!  She ate an entire package by herself.  

     We had a great time, and loved the new experience.  Even though we couldn't understand much of what was being cheered or announced, sports are pretty universal.  Clay did buy a noise maker thing that you clap with, Gabby instead uses it as a funnel to yell into, cheering "Go Baseball Game!"  

New Gabby Things!

   The past few months my little girl has been growing up even more than I could have imagined.  She is into many new things, including dress up, purses, barbies, dinosaurs, dancing, pumpkins, oh and things like not listening and "run away!"  as she likes to call it.  Most things are fun, but then there are the times where she tries to test me and refuses to listen... such as today at the store when she wanted to touch everything!  

    Dress up is something that she likes to do only occasionally but is becoming more fun, like tonight she put on a pink tulle dress and pretended to be a ballerina.  Ballet is another thing she has gotten into lately, no clue where she picked it up but she dances and talks about it and now we have two new books to go along with the theme.  A few weeks back dress up consisted of putting on a fun dress, necklaces and lipslick (lip gloss).   Boots go with everything, rain ones are even better!  It helps that we now have new frog rain boots and little ugg type boots.  

    Gabby has two purses, first is her Tatiana bag- pink and usually filled with goldfish crackers for snack.  Her new purse I bought to tease Molly, who has been coveting a giraffe print bag.  Gabby is just always up on style so she has her very own giraffe bag!  

     I wasn't going to buy a Barbie quite yet, but I needed some new small toys for our long airplane ride to NY.  Gabby was first introduced to a Barbie at stroller class when an older girl had one, but wouldn't let Gabby play with it (she was very intrigued by it).  We have Damatina, Latino (fake brand) Barbie... we have re-named her Jenny From The Block, I couldn't help it with the outfit she came with (knee boots, a poncho and a large floppy hat).  In NY we got "princess" Barbie who is really a ballerina.  On sale I found beach Barbie who is wearing a swimsuit and has sunglasses.  That is our collection, and trying to keep track of all the little things they come with is laughable.  

   One thing that has not changed is her LOVE for books!  We could spend the entire day reading all of her books and that would make her totally happy!  Even though we have a large number of books, reading 30 or so a day we go through the same ones frequently.  Gabby can tell you just about every word of every book.  I think the girl has a photographic memory b/c I really am amazed by things she knows.  Just this week we bought a bundle of new books at the second hand store (cheap and necessary b/c the NEX rarely gets new books in).  After reading the Clifford book a total of 3 times she knew each page!  Another thing about the books is that become scattered all over the house.  While I was on the phone this week she sat quietly and took each book out of her book case, looking at each one.  A total of 3 books were left IN, all the rest were in a pile on the floor!  

   Well here are some pictures to enjoy of our sweet Gabby Jean doing some of her new favorite things.

    Oh and a few funny things that she said today.  At lunch she had ham, after eating what was on her plate she had this short conversation with herself "Where the ham go?"  "In the BELLY!"  For dinner I had cut up cucumbers and put rice wine vinegar on them, Clayton asked her if she was going to eat cucumbers with vinegar.  Gabby signed drink and said "Drink Vinegar!"  She proceeded to eat about an entire cucumber soaked in vinegar, then drank the vinegar off the plate telling us, spicy! It is funny that we were trying to get her to eat the pizza and not just cucumber!  I swear the girl will eat almost anything!  

4 years!

Today marks my FOUR year anniversary of living in Japan!  I am amazed that I have lived here that long, but it also doesn't seem like that much time.  It is crazy to think about all that has happened since we moved here!  The best and worst thing about living here (and anywhere with the Navy I suppose) is the friendships you make.  I have made incredible friendships with many people, but everyone eventually moves away at some point.  I have solid friendships with people I met when I first got here, and am building great relationships with people I have only recently met!   I will miss Japan dearly when we do end up moving, it really has become HOME!  I am trying to all that I love and enjoy here while I have the chance.   So KOMPAI, and CHEERS to 4 years in Yoko.

What we saw...