31 Weeks and Counting Down!

Yeah, still working on the holiday post...Today we had a doctor's appointment so I thought I'd share the latest twin update.  Here's me on Christmas Eve, at 31 weeks:

Today the babies had strong heartbeats and were definitely looking bigger.  There was no way they were going to fit on the ultrasound screen together!  They're packing on the pounds now!  Someone else is definitely looking bigger, too...Alan should really think about those "sympathy" pounds he's putting on ;-)  Everything looks great and we're feeling lucky that we haven't had any complications.  I start non-stress tests next week to begin regularly monitoring the babies.  We got some clarification on when we can expect these little guys, as well:  38 weeks (Feb 12th for me) is really the max they want to see them go.  Beyond that, the chances of losing one increase exponentially due to the decreased function of the placenta (this limit is about 41 weeks for a singleton baby).  So, if they haven't come by then then we'll be induced or a c-section will be scheduled. 

I mention the c-section because after today it looks like it's time for us to wrap our heads around that as the most probable method of delivery.  See, with Adam, he was head-down from the first time we saw him on ultrasound and he never changed.  He was quick and easy...then.  As for these babies, not so much.  "Baby A" (the one closest to the cervix) has never failed to present breech on these ultrasounds, and she's the only one that matters.  No, I didn't just give anything away!  I *think* that baby is a girl.  If she isn't head-down when labor begins, then no chance of even trying a vaginal delivery.  If she is head-down, then we'll give it a try and they'll even attempt to deliver "Baby B" breech.  Since these babies are growing well and fast now, there's less and less chance they'll turn so that's where we stand.  It's time to start praying (because, honestly, who really wants to have a c-section?) and have our first little "talk" about doing what Mommy and Daddy say.  Ultimately, we want nothing more than to get these babies here healthy, but a little praying never hurt.  So, if praying is something you live by, I could use a little help :-). 

And while you're praying - My Mom is scheduled to arrive here on January 29th, so pray she makes it in time! 

Just a Nugget

I'm working on a post of holiday stuff, but thought I would hold you over with this true "Dayton Day to Day" nugget.  On Christmas Eve, we went to buy a box spring for Adam's bed because we had only bought the mattress before, to see how it went.  Knowing they would charge us at least the price of the box spring or more to deliver, we figured it should fit in the van and we'd just handle it.  Alan grabbed a tape measure and did some research to be sure.  But, alas, despite our thorough planning, we resembled that minivan on Cars that McQueen sees passing Mack and gets upset over:

Sweet.  Only here can we pull that off without being completely embarrassed.  I guess if there is an upside then it's this:  Since the mattress wasn't taking up the entire inside of the car, we had room for a hand-carved teak bench that we decided to buy, too. 

Just Adam

I thought it would be a good time to give an update on the Monster.  He turned three in August and is currently obsessed with anything Toy Story.  He got the chance to meet Woody & Buzz Lightyear at Disney World in October and was completely star-struck.  He can narrate the entire Toy Story and Toy Story 2 plots and is waiting with excitement for Toy Story 3 to come out this summer.  The other day I went and picked up his 3-year pictures.  To be honest, this was the first year I was really worried about having pictures made.  In the past, he's been fun and photogenic and I always knew I would walk away happy, despite having spent way too much money because the decisions were just too hard.  This year...not so much.  He's three, after all.  I wasn't sure which child would wake up that morning and, even if it was the angel version of him, which child he would morph into just in time for the photo session.  Thank God, we were once again able to fool everyone who only knows him by photograph and here were the results:

They're all adorable and, of course, I got them all in some form or fashion.  You'll notice Doo-doo is there (the bear), which has made an appearance in nearly all of his portraits.  Picture #4 is especially funny to me because it has Rex (the dinosaur from Toy Story) in it, too.  It's funny because he's not particularly attached to Rex in general, he just went through a phase that week.  If you've read previous blogs, he was also in a picture with Adam at Cape Zanpa, by the lighthouse - which was about the same time these were taken.  I'm glad I'm one of those people who has pictures made regularly, because they really are worth a thousand words.  Looking back at his monthly, then yearly photos, I am flushed with so many memories.

 

6 Months old and just sitting up!  I think this was actually the first time it was captured on film.  Also just getting attached to that bear...

9 Months old - he was kissing a picture of a brown-eyed girl in that book, which he did every time he saw her.  I hopped in some of these pictures with him because I was about to lose my hair...

One!  He loved animals and could make most animal sounds, and this tractor made animal sounds.  He loved pushing it around, ramming it into things.

Christmas 2007 - He literally stopped screaming for 3 seconds and they snapped the picture

Two!  Still attached to that bear and this time he wanted to take Cookie Monster with him.  Another phase, but that one actually lasted a while.  Also, this was before he got the handbook on "How to be a Terrible Two-Year-Old" (don't worry - he got it!  But it was nothing compared to the one on being a three-year-old).

There was no Christmas 2008 picture...there was no chance in hell he was going near enough to Santa to get a picture of them together.

Christmas 2009 had two phases - the first time he would stand near Santa and tell Santa everything he wanted, but would not sit on his lap.  The second time he went ahead and hopped up on his lap, but I have a feeling that had to do with the fact that Santa was actually handing out gifts...

Obviously, he's growing up.  And despite what the calendar may say, it has taken a lot less than 3 1/2 years.  It goes fast.  Last week he started preschool and I had a little breakdown.  He has spent every day of the past few years with me and now he won't.  If I wasn't pregnant with the twins, I would wonder how on earth I was going to fill my days.  Because he always filled my days.  Soon enough, though, I know he'll have replacements in that department and, don't get me wrong - I did learn pretty quickly how to enjoy the free days.  Even recognizing the freedom it gives me and the positive effect it's having on him, it's hard to do.  On his very first day at school, they started correcting his pronunciation of "yellow," which is "lellow," and I happen to think it's cute.  After his first two days at school, he no longer lumped "L-M-N-O-P" into one while singing his "ABCs" - he actually enunciated each one.  That's great!  But the lump is so cute...I can only hope they don't soon correct the fact that he calls hangnails "snails."  I'll miss that when it's gone.  However, I don't miss that he generally uses manners and nice words now when asking for things (I say "generally" because he is still three and still has plenty of "three" moments).  On Friday he came home with his first craft - a noodle wreath - and now it proudly graces our front door - Okay, I couldn't find anything better at the BX, but it's actually pretty cute:

I could write and write about Adam.  What can I say?  He's our first-born.  But since he has politely asked me about 15 times now to read Fly Away Peter to him (which we just got yesterday and have already read about 10 times), I guess I should go be a Mommy and read it.  He also just told me that Al McWhiggin stole Woody again so we have to go rescue him.  Toy Story...

I've got a runner in my pantyhose

There are a few things I have been meaning to blog about lately:  The '80s-themed holiday party we attended, some local "engrish" spottings (check out engrish.com to hold you over until I post pictures of funny engrish I've actually seen), the circus act that was my mammogram earlier this week...the list keeps growing.  Since my camera is in the car and I'm too lazy and tired to walk out and get it to upload pictures, the first two options are out for tonight.  The mammogram is actually a funny story, but the short version is that they didn't think there was any way in hell they were going to get around my belly (which was actually getting bigger as they stood there debating the issue) to get the job done.  After some creativity and incredible, gumby-like moves by me (at least in my opinion), the most painful mammogram I've ever gotten was a success and revealed nothing of concern.  I do slightly wish there had been a video.

What I really wanted to complain about is this:  My first stretch mark.  Ever.  I made it through my first pregnancy without any.  I will go ahead and assume it's because I repeatedly spent about $40 on L'Occitane Shea Butter Body Cream because that makes me feel better about the money.  This time, however, I opted for the Suave brand of Shea and Cocoa Butter Lotion because it's about the only thing I could find at the commissary when we got here.  Well, let me tell you something, Suave - I can tell the difference between you and the more expensive brand!  And so can my belly!  And I have a stretch mark to prove it!  Of course, it probably doesn't help that I am bigger now, at 28 weeks, than I was at 37.5 weeks, which was when I delivered Adam...but that's beside the point. 

So, now here I am with a red, ugly stretch mark on my lower abdomen.  I discovered it about a week ago while looking in the mirror.  Actually, it appeared a few weeks ago but it looked like a vein at first.  You know, how when you're pregnant and you can see every vein in your belly because your skin is stretched so thin?  I even had Alan look at it (as if I can even see my lower abdomen myself) and he confirmed it was just a vein.  Seriously, why did I ask him?  Anyway, last week it turned red and I was furious.  I grabbed a hand mirror and got a closer look for myself.  Sure enough - stretch mark.  Damn.  And you want to know the worst part?  Now that that little sucker has infiltrated, it's running wild!  My belly might as well be a pair of pantyhose because it's just getting longer and longer.  If only clear nail polish or hairspray worked on that...

Stretch marks, spider veins, thunder thighs, complete loss of physical fitness, heartburn from absolutely anything I eat...these babies better be cute!

Just Sayin'

Tonight we went to dinner, and when we got home I changed into pajamas, natch.  I noticed as I was folding the pants I wore to hang them that they were split right on the ass seam.  Of course.  28 weeks and bustin' out of my last comfortable pair of maternity pants.  Crap.  That's about all I can handle tonight.

An Okinawan Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We have plenty to be thankful for this year.  Our health, our friends and families, two precious babies on the way, and the opportunity we have been blessed with.

I cannot even believe we have been in Okinawa for a month already!  It has flown by, which I hope is not indicative of our whole tour here.  Needless to say, we are enjoying everything and I don't want it to be over too quickly.  What a wonderful, eye-opening experience it has been thus far.  Just tonight, I took Rosie out to potty and there were over a dozen fruit bats swirling overhead.  Normally I would have freaked out and worried that Rosie was about to be dinner - because they're as big as she is - but I read up and know that, as their name attests, they pretty much eat fruit.  They aren't aggressive.  Except maybe toward one another because I hear some pretty pissed-off sounding screeches sometimes.  Usually it's when one tries to land in a tree, because apparently they aren't good at landing and just "crash" into the tree, disturbing the others.  I think it's one of those moments when God got a little distracted.  Really, would he intend to make an animal  that could fly but not land?  Sort of like when he got distracted and forgot to give me a good singing voice...

Just in time for our one-month anniversary of living here, today was Thanksgiving.  So we celebrated, of course, with turkey and all the trimmings.  I cooked the meal and my trophy-husband cleaned the whole kitchen while I napped after stuffing myself so full that the babies couldn't even move.  Here's me having some turkey on our back patio:

Yep, I'm in a tank top and shorts :)  And those are chopsticks.  Don't be silly, of course it was just for the picture.  How could I eat sweet potato casserole wth chopsticks!?  Maybe that's why Japanese are thin...Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we spent nearly all of it outside, watching Adam jump in his bouncer (Thanks, Griffins!!).

On another note:  Last weekend we took a short drive up to Cape Zanpa to check out the lighthouse and beach.  The cape is amazing, with breathtaking views, but dangerous-looking rocky cliffs and crashing waves.  In case you aren't smart enough to take your cues from the thunderous waves, they warn you:

 

You can climb the umpteen-hundred stairs to the top of the lighthouse for 200 yen, but we opted not to on this visit.  I'm sure it's an amazing opportunity for non-pregnant-with-twins women and not-three-years-old boys.  Here are a couple of Adam & Rex (the dinosaur from Toy Story) in front of the lighthouse and then all of us:

On the way to the parking lot, we saw this sign:

Adam thought it was obviously a sign for a car wash.  Alan figured it was probably a sign warning us of robbers and not to leave valuables in the car.  He's probably right, but then why does the car have water droplets coming off of it?  Well, he says the car is "sweating" because it knows the robber is nearby.  If that's really what it means, then these are some funny people.  We really need to learn kanji.

We also took a picnic lunch and found a nice little beach to enjoy it on: 

Seriously, it was our own private beach.  I mean, there was the random snorkeler, but really nobody was there.  Some locals would come, fully-clothed in fall/winter garb (even though it was 80 degrees) and wander for a few minutes, then leave.  We aren't sure why, but they could have been frightened:

*26 weeks*

Whether we offended the locals or not, we collected shells and stuck our toes in the East China Sea and had a great day.  This is our happy little boy at the sight of yet another piece of brown sea glass or regular-looking rock: 

Memories were made, no doubt.  But I would like to leave you with one that I will likely never forget.  As we were leaving, I had to pee (of course) so I stopped at the bathrooms.  Here's what I had to use:

 

With an extra 30 pounds, mostly right on my belly, the goal is to squat and pee into this.  Imagine that, would ya'?

A Bunch of M&Ms

This one really isn't about Okinawa, but I thought it would be fun.  Yesterday I jotted down some of the random thoughts I had throughout the day.  Originally I thought I should explain some of them, but finally decided not to.  I think it's better left to your imagination.  Here is a collection of my thoughts on a normal Friday:

“158. 31 pounds in 26 weeks.  You kids better respect that!”

“Thank you, Adam, for making vacuuming just a little bit tougher.”

“(Gasp) I think my water just almost broke!...Nope. Thank you, God.”

“Hire a maid. Hire a maid. Hire a maid…”

“Wow. And it’s not even backwards.”

“Seriously, Rosie, how much can a 10 lb. dog poop? I wonder if Adam could handle searching the yard and picking it up.”

“Is it English that’s coming out of my mouth?”

“Yep. I’m huge. Stop staring.”

“What on earth could you be looking at in the middle of the aisle? Pick. A. Side.”

“No, actually, I’m not ‘about ready to pop.’ But thanks for pointing out for the tenth time today how big I must look. Note to self: Don’t ever say that to a pregnant woman again.”

“$35? That’s like half price! Sweet!”

“Oh my God, please don’t let that tip over and break!”

"Thank you, God."

“God, grant me a little more patience, please. As soon as possible would be great. I know you’re busy.”

“Oops. Wrong side. Veer left.”

"I wish I knew what that sign said."

“This looks like it will probably turn into a true Dayton project”

“Yes…and that would be my better idea”

“Can’t. Get. Up.”

"Huh.  That turned out not to be so bad.  Maybe our luck is changing."

“Anybody else wanna come in here?”

“It would be fabulous not to cook dinner”

"Thank you, God."

“Priceless. This is why we decided to have more. Try to remember this.”

"There’s that noise again. What is it?”

“A bowl of cereal would be good. Or a bunch of M&Ms.”

"Really?  Right now?"

"Seriously. What is it??”

Tourists in Our New Town

How long do we have before we aren't considered tourists anymore?  I hope we can be considered "permanent tourists," since we do reside here, but really only temporarily.  I'm going to go ahead and take the liberty to classify us as that.  I hope that means I can always take pictures of restaurant menus and funny Japanese people without feeling a little bit corny.  That being said, here are a few places we've gotten to explore in our new country.

Adam happens to be a connoisseur of aquariums so last weekend we took him to the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.  This aquarium boasts several firsts:  The world's first to successfully birth a manta pup in captivity, the first in the world to house several whale sharks in one tank - maintaining the world record for the longest times kept in captivity, the world's only to hold schooling manta rays (the largest of all the rays) in captivity...the list goes on and on.  Until Atlanta opened, it was the world's largest.  The bottom line is this place is AMAZING.  If it didn't look like this,:

it might still be just as amazing...but probably not.  Honestly, this helps a lot.  Here are some highlights of the tour:

This is us near the entrance of the aquarium.  Really, I needed a break because the walk from the parking garage was a little long, so it was a good excuse to stop and take a picture.

 

At the first exhibit, Adam got to pet a starfish...

...then strangle a sea cucumber. That's Alan reaching to release the death-grip

This is a Japanese Spear Lobster.  The educational sign next to it (loosely translated into English) says it doesn't have any claws...as if that should make us feel better about a chance encounter.  Seriously - bigger than Adam.

Next came the Whale Shark exhibit.  I like this picture because it shows the whale in relation to the people standing by the glass.  There is really no relaying how big these things are.  But, if it helps to imagine it, here is also a shot of Alan and Adam standing in an open jaw:

Next, we ventured outside the main building, where the sea turtle pool, dolphin pool & theater, and manatee pool were.  Here are some sea turtle shots...of "Crush," of course:

Finally, we were just in time to catch the dolphin show at the theater, which included a "False Killer Whale."  Here's what we saw when we paid attention to the (completely Japanese-narrated) show:

Don't get me wrong - the show was really cool, like one at Sea World.  But here's what we saw if we turned our head to the left, which was way cooler:

Here is the obligatory belly shot of me outside the manatee pool, at 24 weeks:

A Few Other Firsts & Some Random Funnies

McDonalds:

American Village (think Chinatown, but for us):  There's a big ferris wheel that we haven't been on yet, but Adam insists he wants to, and a place called "Yogurtland" that's like Maggie Moos, but with frozen yogurt.

Seriously, why do they have this?

We Americans would call this "Cat Karaoke"...not sure what it really is called, but I'm pretty sure it's karaoke and it might also be a restaurant.  We also have "The Monkey Man Store" and "the Bunny Store" only because those animals are on the sign.

To end, I give you a picture of my first meal at Mike's Tex-Mex here on Okinawa.  It's no Alamo Cafe or el Jarro de Arturo, but it was a "happy ending" for me:

The Best-Laid Plans...

When Alan came to Kadena (which, for you non-military folks, is the Air Force base we are actually stationed at on the island of Okinawa) in August, we agreed it would be a great idea to go ahead and start looking for a car to buy.  For one, he could get his license and we could hit the ground running when we arrived, saving someone the trouble of either shuttling us around or lending us a car.  Also, he was going to be here for six weeks, so having a car would be nice.  Well, not long into the trip he found a car that was in great condition, especially compared to most of the cars you see other military people in.  We agreed it would be nice to have something smaller on this island, but still fit two carseats.  You probably see where this is going.  So here's the car we bought in August:

I was so excited!  After imagining the beater we would probably own, this was a Lexus.  It's actually called a Honda Legend - leather interior, heated seats, new tires and breaks...good stuff.

Here's where the story turns into a typical "Dayton family curse" example.   A couple of weeks after making that decision, we received some big news:  We're having twins!  Just in case you're all, "Wow, is she saying twins is a curse?"  No, I'm not.  I'm saying we put so much thought into this decision to buy a car, certain it was a good decision, only to find out it was actually a bad one.  Alan was still in Okinawa, driving this car around, when we got this news so it didn't take him long to come to the realization that three carseats were not going to fit in this car.  Japan law says you must own a car for 120 days before selling it, so we kept the car and parked it at a friend's house while Alan came home.  We would be returning in a month and we could make a decision then.

When we arrived we immediately began looking for the new family car.  There aren't many options here that fit three carseats.  Most of the cars on this island are tiny.  So we're left with a full-size van - which I was against because it's too big for the streets and also it's a full-size van, those smaller Japanese vans that could roll over at any moment and look like you chopped off the front end, or a station wagon (which is what they call a minivan here).  So, here's what I got:

It's a Nissan Bassara.  It holds three carseats and is exactly what we needed.  Plus, it has Japanese t.v.  They say it's a "station wagon," but they aren't fooling me.  I don't even want to talk about it.