Okinawa-rama

Here are just some random Gabe shots from last week. He's growing up!

Here's Gabe with Kamiko-san, our mama-san.



Look, he's almost as tall as Kamiko-san!

It's been a nice, nice, nice couple of days. Weatherwise and also just general well being. Gabe has had three nights in a row of long and lovely sleeps, only waking up once. And thus, mommy, daddy and baby have all been feeling mighty darn good.

This past weekend, in fact, we made it out and about for a mini adventure. The quest? Go find Koi Noburi, these really nifty koi fish shaped kites that are flown at this time of the year to celebrate Boys Day, and take pictures of them. In some cases they are flown en masse and create a really stunning image. Here are some about 15 minutes from our house.






We went on a long drive up to Motobu as well, where Joe thought there would be another fine spectacle of Koi Noburi. Oops, all we found was this measely little string. Still, they are pretty, and we had one of the really great drives that you can have here on a sunny Sunday in Okinawa.




But we needn't have traveled so far to see the Koi. We've got our own flying right in front of our house. They were a gift from Joe's co-worker. I just think it's fantabulous. What's the symbolism? The top fish is the daddy of the family, the red one is the mommy and the little one on the bottom is the little boy. If you family has more than one son, you add another fishy. Daughters, sorry, no fish for you. (You get dolls for girld day though, so don't feel too left out.) Anyway, take a gander!

Okay, moved my last post away from the gorgeous pictures to this separate Too Much Information post. But it's the same as before. Probably shouldn't have written it at all (according to Joe), but I'm just documenting reality. So I'll keep it here, just don't read it if you don't like reading about strange incidents w/ my mammories.

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Something strange happened today. I was feeding Gabe when all of the sudden my boob went beserk and turned into a milk-spraying fountain. It was just spurting uncontrollably out of me and arching into the air, like when you watch Saturday Night Live and they have a fake blood gush scene. Needless to say, Gabe couldn't handle it and I had to run to the trashcan so I wouldn't douse the whole room with my lactation.

I stopped by my friend's house a few days ago where we were treated to an impromptu photo shoot. So here are some new shots of my little lovely.

For all of you that insist that Gabe takes after Joe, here's a little something to chew on:

My sister, Kimberly Race Verdi, two days old




My son, Gabriel a few hours old



He takes after my sister! Take that!

Gabriel is...let's see. He's 30 days old today. Thirty days! I predict that I'm gonna be one of those moms who's like "The time goes by so quickly. Cherish these moments!" He's getting longer, heavier, louder, and more alert. He spends more time staring at himself in the mirror, or staring at some random point in space. And like his mommy, he spends about thirty minutes stretching himself awake, only his wakeup stretches are accompanied by snorts and grunts. I don't think mine are. Well, maybe grunts.

This week has been a week of getting into the groove. Joe went back to work this week. My parents are gone. During the daytime it's just me and the boy. So far we've: eaten, slept, taken a long walk, done errands on base, eaten pancakes (surprise), gone to the garlic restaurant, and had a guest over for dinner, and eaten and slept some more. Exciting stuff. As you can see there is a lot of eating involved. Last night I even made lasagna. I was pretty proud of myself for that one. Part of me really wants to flourish into this domestic goddess role, now that I have the baby and all.

That part of me wants to give up drinking caffeine. That part of me wants to vacuum my house everday. To finish writing thank you notes. To write regularly on this blog. To quit watching TV. To make bentos for my husband.

The other part of me just drank a cup of caffeinated coffee, even though I know it'll probably keep Gabriel up tonight (and I'll be tired in the morning and want coffee even more...the vicious cycle!). It's surfing the web for adventures to go on this weekend. Is there a festival? A market? A concert to go to? (Ohhh! Salsa night? Are babies invited?!) It's plotting out a daytrip to Naha with my son...screw showering, vacuuming, thank you note-writing, and this goshdarn blog writing.

Gabriel is a month old! It's time he sees the world!

Joe and I have been regulars at our local pancake house since it opened in January. The place is amazing with the most beautiful and satisfying pancake confections ever. So, they must have been concerned when I didn't make an appearance there for over three weeks! (Egads!) Yesterday, Joe and I returned bringing our own little flapjack with us. It was a beautiful reunion with smiles and hugs and oohs and ahhs over our new addition to the family. And then they gave us this!




It's just the sweetest and cutest little baby gift, I think. It's a little Japanese boy kimono - "Jinbei" along with the "geta" (the wooden sandels) and "kabuto" the hat. I mean, come on, how amazing is that? Gabe loved it. Just look how excited he is in the pictures they took and put on their website

So, I realize that looking at pictures of other people's babies is not #1 in the excitement department. But do you think a little thing like that's gonna stop me from pasting my little precious all over this here blog? Here's Gabriel in his third week. It was really busy:

He cried again. For some reason I love baby crying pictures...



He said goodbye to grandma and grandpa. Look how sad he is.



He tried out different hairstyles. This is his Pointdexter look or is it turn-of- the-century Texas saloon owner?



He tried out a bottle this past week for the first time. Note the suspicious gleem in his eyes.



He also got some exercise. Here he is during some tummytime. He's building some bulk. Shoulders, back, neck. He's started doing a little swimming in place action that is pretty impressive!



My parents left on Wednesday after a two week visit. It was a sad departure with tears shed. Gabriel was fussy all day afterwards and missed his grandma and grandpa. Joe and I have been subsisting on moms pot roast for the past two days. Now it's gone and sadly...I have to cook again. But I'm postponing that fact with a trip to the pancake house today. Hopefully it will provide me with enough nutrients to throw something together for dinner.

I've begun the post baby Kelly self-improvement plan. It started while mom was still here with a trip to Cocok's to have our nails did. And as usual, Cocok's did a fine job. I wish I could go there every day. Then I FINALLY got my haircut at my favorite local hair salon, Tarm Powder. As usual, Takako, the owner and sole hair cutter there did a fab job as well. She speaks as much English as I do Japanese, which is maybe 10 words. We do great with that, somehow, and chat for about an hour and a half. Anyway, I got a bob, for lack of imagination. I'll have to post a picture at some point. Then yesterday, I got my hair colored, well the roots done.

THAT did not go so well, unfortunately. The lady, not my normal woman, turned my roots orange. That wasn't what I had in mind. But what could I do? She was a nice lady. A really nice lady. We had just been chit-chatting like buddies for over an hour. How could I tell her that her work sucked? That she had ruined Takako's beautiful hair design? That my self improvement plan had been put on hold? Well, I couldn't. So I'll just go around hoping nobody notices.

My boy's got an attitude!




And his mama's love handles...





(thanks meredith for the pics!)

Sitting here on the floor between feedings. It's Sunday morning and we're recovering from last night. Gabriel's lungs have developed - so that now when he has an opinion about something...and it seems he's becoming more and more opinionated, he expresses it in a full blown, red-faced, raging screech.

Last night he had lots of those screeches.

This morning though he is sleeping like a baby, arms sprawled out and limp. It must be grandma's magic touch!

This week we took Gabe for his 2-week well visit. He did a great job, pooping and peeing on the nurse and showing off a healthy weight of 10 lb 14 ounces. Good job Gabe!

We also took a couple of excursions this week. We were quite adventurous and went to the aquarium, along with every other child in Japan, apparently. It's vacation time for Japanese kids and it was packed. Oops. Gabe was looking around wide-eyed like what the hell is going on here! I, in the meantime, was feeling like all the Japanese old women were looking at me and thinkin what a bad mommy I was for taking my baby out amongst all these people. (From what I'm told Japanese babies usually stay at home for the first 1-2 months). But anyway, at least is was nice to get out of the house...even when we got to the car and found out the battery was dead!

Grandma and Grandpa leave this week. I am NOT looking forward to their departure. It's been so very very nice to have them around here keeping us company, being warm and loving to their grandson, doing all kinds of nice things around the house. And now, soon, real life will begin.

And the baby is crying and his face is reddening and it's time for me to go...