he made it here!!!

It has only been 2 weeks since Nathan has born and so I figured it was about time I give a short story about Nathan's birth.
About a week before Nathan was born Derrick had said to me, maybe we should have something under you just in case your water breaks. I advised him we did not have to worry because the chances of having my water break again was pretty slim and when I went to the Dr. I had her check to see if I was dialated. I was not and my cervix was still hard. That is exactly what I was expecting since I had not felt any contractions.
My mom and dad got here Thursday night so they could be here for Emma's birthday, which worked out perfect. I just wanted our baby to wait till they got here so we would not have to worry about Becca or Sandy (Becca's sister in law) coming to our house in the middle of the night. Around 3 a.m. I had just put Cole back to bed and was just laying in bed after going to the bathroom, when all of a sudden I felt this little gush come out of me. I laid there and just waited to make sure it was my water that broke so I did not have to look like a fool. I knew what it was because it had happened twice before. I was kind of taking my time this time since the hospital was 15 min away and I knew there was no reason to rush. I woke Derrick up and like with the other 2 he was ready to go before me. I went and got my mom up and gave her the paper I had written for Cole and Isabelle and also the unwrapped present of Emma's. One thing that made them laugh was me saying I wanted to go to Emma's party.
We got to the hospital around 4 and they proceeded to examine me. It was at that time the nurse told me that my water did break, which I knew. I was dilated to a 4 and my cervix was about 80% effaced. She said they usually send people home if their water breaks but because I had the group B strep they needed to get antiobiodics in me to make sure Nathan was safe. I was moved into my room and the nurse told me to walk around or do whatever I wanted and around 6:30 she would call the midwife to see if any further steps needed to be taken. All I could think about was getting rest, because I knew it was going to be a long day. The time went on and with Cole and Isabelle I got pitossin, which I told the nurse and she was up for giving it to me. The midwife Natalie did not want to give me any pitossin yet and wanted me to wait till she got back from some appts at 10:30. I was fine with that since nothing was happening, or so I thought. I did ask for an epideral and when I got one I was dialated to a 6 at least. I have no idea what time I got my epideral, all I know it was so nice, even though I did not feel anything till I asked for my epideral. A while later the nurse came in to give me pitossin, but she decided she to check me before giving it to me. When she did she said oh my the head is right there about an inch away, I guess you won't be giving you pitossin. She went really fast over to the phone and called the midwife over. She was getting stuff ready very quick. She called another nurse in to assist just in case our baby was born before Natalie got there. When Natalie arrived she was breathing pretty heavy because she was running over from the building that was across the street where all of our appts are. Once everything was set up she told me to push, but before I could do anything she told me to stop because the head was right there and she was not quite ready for Nathan to come so quick. Once Natalie was ready I was told to push and 2 pushes later Nathan was born at 10:33 a.m. weighing in at 8 lbs 14 oz. 20 inches long with dark hair. It was very interesting because one of the nurses was pushing on my stomach and Nathan was coming out with that. While I was pushing Derrick made me laugh because he told me to breathe because my face was turning red.
It was funny because Emma's party started at 10 and my mom had called me for some reason, which i can't even remember now and to think that 30 min later nathan was born and that was after i told her nothing was going on and we were  just waiting.

all i can say is i am glad this birth was so easy and how quick he came. we did not have a name for him when he was born so he was called baby boy for a while. nathan has been such a good baby and is very cuddly. cole really likes him and can't wait to play with him and isabelle thinks he is her very own baby doll. i feel so blessed for the kids we do have and find joy everyday.

Silly Cole

Last week we were outside on the deck and Isabelle was crawling around and I told Cole that we would have to teach Isabelle how to go down the stairs backwards. Cole came to the top of our 3 stairs and said to Isabelle to watch him. He then turned around and walked down the stairs backwards. Now hopefully Isabelle will learn from his good example.
Here is another short story about Cole. We were walking in the hallway at church and there was a member of our ward in front of us taking her 2 yr old to nursery. Little did I know this whole time Cole was pretending to be a train and out loud he said, "out of my way slowpoke." The lady turned around and looked at us. I told her he was pretending to be a train and did not really mean it. He did that a few more times and he has even used that same quote from a thomas the tank engine movie is stores, luckily nobody was too close to us. 

Welcome Isabelle Akyko

Here is the newest member of our family. Isabelle Akyko. born Feb. 23, 2010 @ 12:21 pm. She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz, 22 inches. My water ended up breaking around 3:15 a.m., which I am so glad it did because I did not want to have to be stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital. It all depends on traffic here but it could take up to 2 hours to go 30 miles. Needless to say we missed all traffic and were able to make it to the hospital in pretty good time. Cole is getting more and more use to her and will now sit next to me when I am holding her. When we first got home from the hospital he did would not even come by me at all. He will now go up to her and start to talk with her and will even share his cars with her. At the hospital the dr and nurse were very excited to see what we were having because we did not know. The nurse told me everyone always finds out what they are having so this was very exciting for her. They asked if we had names picked out, which we did for a girl but could not think of one at all for a boy, luckily we had a girl. We feel we have been blessed already having her in our home and will bring much happiness.

Konomi childrens park

This slide is so much fun to go on, but it sure does go fast. The best way to describe this slide is cement that is painted.
Once you get going down the slide, there is about a 2 foot flat spot, then you do a jump on it because you are going so fast.
It is a long way up, but the ride down makes it worth it.

As we were walking around this park, we came across this little fort. Inside it is like there are tunnels everywhere. If you are good enough you can climb up to the top of it from the outside. In the picture it does not look too big, but it actually was very big and fit so many kids in it. Wouldn't that be fun to play in?

This is not the best picture to describe this car, but I got lazy and did not want to sit there and look through all the pictures.
This car is not motorized at all. To get anywhere you have to pedal. You even have to go through water that was not more than 6 inches deep. You can't really tell with this picture but there was not too much room, after all these cars were made for small Japanese people. Poor Cole was in the back and did not have too much room, but Derrick did not have much room either. I will have to find the picture where you can really see how much room they didn't have. Cole really loved this car and wanted to climb in another one and go again, but that would have cost more money and there were people waiting.
This little car roller coaster was so much fun. It had a chain to get us up to the top of the hill, but after that you had to pedal your way through the rest. It is very easy, unless you have a huge stomach making it so you can't pedal.
I was not too sure how Cole would do, but he actually loved it and as we went down a little hill he said, "weeee."
This park is so much fun. I think it is 230 acres with tons to do. They even have a place to feed cows and sheep. The only thing I saw that was motorized was a small train, everywhere else you had to walk, ride a bike or pedal. If only Americans had something like this. It is a park where you get exercise but don't even realize it because you are having so much fun.

While we were trick or treating Cole saw another "James" and "Percy" from Thomas the Tank Engine. When he saw them he went right up to them and stood right next to them. I have no idea who those other kids are. Luckily they were willing enough to take pictures. We were walking home and ended up going the same direction and Cole just wanted to follow them and be with them. It was so cute. He was literally in heaven after seeing them.

Here is Cole and our Japanese friend Kiego getting ready to go trick or treating. Cole had so much fun with him even though he does not speak any english. His mom is the only one who does. I met Mariko about 18 months ago through my calling as a Branch Missionary. I thought it would be a great opportunity to have her come on base to trick or treat since the Japanese people don't go trick or treating. This was her 2nd time coming with Cole and I and this year her husband did not have to work so he got to come with us. He does not speak english either, but we still had a good time.

This year for Halloween Cole was James from Thomas the Tank Engine. It was still a little long and the hat itched, but that did not bug him at all. He was happy being "James"

Last Sunday after church we headed down to Yokosuka to say bye to Derrick before he left for the ship again for almost 2 months. I was so prepared with lunch, dinner and breakfast foods so I would not have to buy anything especially on Sunday. I figured things that are cold would not have to stay out too long, plus we got a hotel room on base that I could just put the stuff in the fridge. Well my plans did not work out the way I was hoping they would. A lady called the cell phone while I was at church (luckily it was not during sacrament meeting) and asked if I would drive her down so she could drive another car back up. When the guys left there were not enough buses so people had to drive their cars down. I told her I would drive her, which is at least a 20 min drive back depending on traffic. It is usually longer than that to get home, luckily we found a shortcut that I saw other people from church taking home. It sure is nice, but you have to be careful because it is a 2 way road but only 1 car can fit down it. Luckily the japanese people are use to it and will stop and wait for you to back up with no honking or getting upset. by the time I got back to base I had to wait for that lady, then wait for another lady to drive her car back. When we were almost to the Yokosuka the lady with me got a phone call from her husband telling her it will be at least a few more hours and they were still waiting for the trucks to get there. Here it was almost 2 and we had a few more hours to go. The other ladies had no problem with it because they just went shopping, but since it was sunday I didn't and decided to take Cole to look at the water. That was fun and he really enjoyed it. while we were walking by the water I heard a splash. I looked up and saw more people walking and I thought they threw something in the water but I did not see anything. I kept looking out and I saw a jumping fish. It would swim under water for about 15 feet then jump about 10 feet. That was kind of cool.
I finally got a call from Derrick saying he was done. By this time it was around 5. He came off the ship wearing a jacket and it was pretty warm. Come to find out he was drenched because of sweat and he was worried that they would not let him off because his shirt was a different color.  We would have had enchillidas for dinner but I could not check into the hotel room till 3 because it was not clean so I had the food sitting out in the sun since 8:30 that morning and did not want to risk getting sick. I also had eggs for lunch or breakfast. I would have put it in a cooler but the one we did have was used for a squadron picnic and it got lost. We have no idea where it is now.
It was fun to spend that extra time with him before he had to go. I had to get out of bed and get Cole out so I could bring Derrick to the ship. I don't like that part because it is like saying the final goodbye. I felt bad for Derrick because he was already sore from carrying everyone elses stuff he also had to take his 2 huge bags when I dropped him off.
I like to stay there to see the ship leave so I would keep watching out our window but never saw anything. I decided to get ready for the day and while I was in the shower I heard a little bang noise. I had no idea what it was. I figured it was probably Cole doing something but he was not crying so I figured he was ok. A few minutes later he came over to the bathroom and said, "mmm good" I looked at his face and saw white stuff on it. My first thought was oh, great he got the enchillidas open that were left out all day long. I hope he does not get sick. He came back again and said, "so good." I had no idea what he ate. When I got out of the shower I looked over at the table and he had taken all 4 eggs we had (that I was not sure if they were good), cracked them open on the table and was eating raw eggs. He even used a fork to crack the eggs open, luckily he did not see the knives that were pretty close to the forks. All I could do was laugh at him because of his reaction then see what was so good.
I had to check out of our hotel room around noon and as I drove pass the birthing where the ship is, I noticed it was still there. It is usually gone by 9 or so in the morning, so I was a little confused. I did not want to go home so I stayed a few more hours, looked around in the stores since their's are so much bigger than ours, got gas and windshield wipers. I drove by again and it still had not left. I did see 2 destroyers go out then come back in and that really messed me up. I ended up talking to a lady and said they were not sure if they were going to pullout or not because of a typhoon coming our way. Derrick ended up calling me and let me know they were waiting to hear if they were going to get off for a few more hours, but he was not sure if he would beable to get off because he was on duty. when he is on duty he has to stay on the ship. A few minutes later he called back and said he could not get off at all. Not fun for him and hard for me. I was in the same place practically, everyone else was getting off but not him. That was hard, but at the same time I think it was a blessing because I would have travelled home in the dark, with it pouring rain.
It was nice to be together for that short time. It is always hard to say bye to him but this time it was easier because I knew this was the last deployment here in Japan, so I have been very excited about that. Now the time while he is gone just needs to fly by.

Finally some pictures from Singapore. It was a great opportunity to be able to have our whole family visit another country that we do not live in. Sentosa Island is the southern most point of continental Asia.

The other day I decided to make some rice krispies because we had all the stuff for it, which does not happen very often. I got our marshmellows and started the slow process of melting them. I kept waiting and waiting and they would not melt. After about 5 min I thought something must be wrong with the marshmellows. They were soft and we had used them before to make rice krispies so I could not figure it out. One thing I could think of why they would turn out the way they did was because the marshmellows were so old. They were only from April. They never went hard so I figured it would be ok. I also had a quick idea of it being due to the humidity but I have made rice krispies before and never had this problem. I also thought it could have been the name of the marshmellows. The name of them was "campfire marshmellows." I remember that Derrick and I did use those marshmellows to make rice krispies back in april and they melted fine then. that is why I thought it was how old they were. Needless to say the rice krispies never got made and we had to settle for something else.

EARTHQUAKE and TYPHOON

Tonight I was sitting on the couch just playing with Cole and all of a sudden I heard the sliding door rattle and the floor was kind of shaking. It did not last too long, but a few seconds later the shaking started again. This time it lasted longer and I could see things shaking and moving. It was scary for me and my heart was beating pretty fast. It made me think of what I need to do to be prepared if anything did happen. I remembered I had 2 cases of water but they are in the car. We do have some food but not enough. that is mostly my fault because I have not been to the store since we got back from Singapore a few days ago. We are also on a typhoon watch. It is actually a tropical depression but they are just giving us a warning just in case it is more than that. Oh the adventures with mother nature we have. Oh, I almost forgot to write but the earthquake was south of Tokyo on some island , it measured a 7.1, which I am so glad was there and not where we live.

This first picture is how Cole was before the fireworks started the other 2 are how he was almost the whole time the fireworks were going on. I managed to uncover his head for some of them but he would keep it covered. I would talk about the colors and he would peek out occasionally to look at them, but not very often at all.



















Cole hiding his head

Here are more pictures from Fuji Safari Park with the kangaroos (notice mom petting it). It was so much fun and we got lucky because it did not rain at all (even though it was very cloudy) until we were walking to the car and it started to pour.

I love the picture with the water and the reflection. Cole loved running through the water and was drenched when we left. This was the day after mom and dad got here, it had been raining and we made it out when it had stopped for a little bit.
Dad wanted to make a train cake with Cole, which he loved. Cole took the food coloring and put it right on the cake so when dad put the frosting on it changed the color of the frosting. Cole loved doing it along with mom and dad.
The other pictures with the kangaroos are at Fuji Safari park. You would not believe this, but mom actually touched a kangaroo.

Yesterday Cole fell and got a cut on his back so I put a band-aid on it. It was the funniest thing I have seen. It was like watching a dog catch his tail. Cole would turn his head to try to see it, but as he turned his head, his whole body would turn. He just kept going around in a circle and never saw the band-aid. He eventually gave up and went and played with his toys. Who knew a band-aid on a childs back could be so entertaining to watch.

Anyone want to live in a pink house? This house is right by the base and I have always wanted to take a picture of it because it is so pink. It always catches my attention when I am leaving base. I must say it is pretty classic.

Cole was pretty thirsty after all the picture taking we did, which I don't blame him because it was pretty hot that day. I was actually sweating.
He found this faucet which actually has a drinking fountain that did not work. I must say this is a huge improvement from a year ago when we were at Karen and Jaymon's house. A year ago Anna would get a drink just fine but Cole tried to get one and he would move his whole body down to get a drink and never got any water, but this time he was successful and was able to hold his body still and get a drink. He still came out soaking wet, but it is ok because it cooled him off.

Cole loves hanging from things and Derrick let him hang from this tree branch. How fun is that. We got another picture where Cole is lifting his legs up like he wanted to go higher. All he needs now is a little bit more muscle in his arms and he will have it

I thought this one was really cute.

Cole is having so much fun being out here. We had to hurry and get this picture before he wanted to get down, so here he is at 2 1/2 years