1st Mother's Day

One year ago, Mother's Day was a bittersweet moment for me- I was able to spend it with my mom in the Philippines, but we were there because my beloved grandmother had passed away. I was also feeling down because several of my girlfriends in Virginia Beach had just given birth to their babies that spring and I was having some major baby cravings.

This year, Mother's Day holds nothing but happy moments. I am blessed with a beautiful baby of my own and a husband who dotes on us both.

We celebrated by going to the New Sanno in Tokyo with our good friends, the Blews and the Estoestas, for a Mother's Day brunch. The moms also got to do some shopping while the dads babysat. Then we went home to spend the rest of the day napping. It was a fantastic day!

My sweet girl 'presented' me with a sweet card this morning.

My pretty Mother's Day corsage.

The moms- Julie, Jojo, and me.

Trying to get all the kids to a)look at the camera and b)smile was very difficult. Here's take one...

Take two...

Take three...

Take four...

The best one we could get.



While the moms were shopping, we found cute hats and decided to buy them for each other as Mother's Day gifts. Here I am sporting mine and pretending to be a hot mama. Pretending is the key word....

"She makes me smile."

This is a direct quote from Mike when we were reviewing Grace's pictures last night. He says that sometimes when he's at work, he'll go to the blog just to look at some of his favorite pictures. How sweet is that?

Tonight we went to the Captain's house for a Hail and Farewell party. Grace enjoyed getting passed around like a baby doll. There was no lack of people wanting to hold her, that's for sure. I should've taken pictures to document just how many people got to hold her tonight, but the only ones I have are with her daddy. This also happened to be the only time she was a wiggle-worm, and during the Captain's speech no less. I ended up having to nurse her in the middle of a crowded room while the Boss was speaking. Having a baby has robbed me of all my modesty. Thank goodness for the Hooter Hider. Again.




Despite the expression on his face here, Mike says he wasn't at all phased by her wiggly-ness.

Rain, Rain Go Away

On rainy days when my brother and I were kids, we would draw sunny pictures and tape them up to the window to convince the sun to come back out. I might resort to that again if the sun doesn't come out tomorrow. Today was the fourth consecutive day of rain. Please, rain, go away!

Because of the weather, Grace and I haven't been up to much- hence the lack of blog updates. Sorry again, grandparents.

I was delighted when Grace finally started 'talking'. I loved listening to her babble in her crib in the morning. But right now, she's obsessed with her hands. She's constantly trying to stuff them in her mouth and as a result, doesn't talk as much as she used to. Hopefully her fascination with the hands will pass and she'll be more talkative again soon.


Rainy afternoon nap- doesn't she look comfy? She does great sleeping in her crib at night, but her favorite napping place during the day is still my bed. She'll sleep for a couple hours if I'm lucky, but will only catnap if I place her in the crib.

Rolling

For the past week or so, Grace has been trying to roll over, but never quite making it all the way. Today she rolled over. Twice!

Lest the grandparents think I don't watch my baby carefully, let me preface the picture that I took documenting her rolling accomplishment. I was on the phone with my friend Julie while it happened and I was sitting on the floor right next to her jungle gym. I almost forgot to document and Julie had to remind me. And I know it looks like I let my child play face down on the cold, hard floor, but she was only on there long enough to snap a picture. Thank goodness I mopped the floors recently!


Mike and I tried to get her to do a repeat performance tonight when he got home from work, but she wasn't interested. Maybe tomorrow I can catch it on video for him.


The other good news of the day is that Grace was an awesome sleeper. She slept in until 10 this morning giving me a 6 hour stretch of sleep. However, I think my body thought that was too much sleep because I ended up with a sleep hangover headache. It's amazing that pre-baby, my body thought 6 hours was too little- I would be a little cranky if I only got 6 hours of sleep. And now 6 hours of sleep is a luxury my body apparently can't handle. Amazing!

Sweet Girl

When Grace was a newborn, she was adorable, but boy, was she a lot of work! Everyone with newborn baby experience kept reassuring me that things would get better. I clung to those words of encouragement, prayed for strength, and hoped for the best.

Three and a half months later, my sweet girl is just as adorable and still a lot of work. But somehow, it has gotten easier. Maybe it's just that I've gotten used to functioning on three to four hours of sleep each night. Maybe it's the support I get from my husband and my friends. Maybe it's the joy I get out of seeing her personality bloom. Maybe it's her smiles and laughter* that make my heart feel full.

Whatever it is, all the work is worth it. I just love my sweet, sweet girl!

*Grace's first official belly laugh happened Friday morning and I've been trying to get her to repeat it at every opportunity. It's still a little challenging to get her to laugh long enough, but the tiny giggles I get every once in a while are good enough for me.

Differences

I always knew there were fundamental differences between men and women. How Mike and I chose to spend our Sunday afternoon exemplifies this difference perfectly. I decided to mop the floors and do a few loads of laundry. The picture below shows what he did.


To his defense, he tried to get me to nap with him and Grace, but I just couldn't relax knowing my floors were dirty and there was laundry piling up. Oh well, there's always next Sunday....

Bunco and Baseball

The wives' club that I'm a part of has a monthly Bunco game night that I like to attend, not necessarily because Bunco is my favorite game, but it's a nice group of ladies and I always manage to have a good time. However, I haven't been able to go the past few months because of a brand new baby and all.

Last night was supposed to be my first girls' night out playing Bunco with friends since Grace was born. Mike was supposed to babysit. Turns out he also had a guys' game night at the same time, in the same building, but he promised he would watch her. Long story short, the night didn't turn out as I had planned. We left game night with a furious me and a daddy who was in big trouble and getting the silent treatment.

Lesson learned- when it's my girls' night out, Mike stays home to babysit. No more dual game nights because it just doesn't work out. Notice who Grace is hanging out with in the picture. Enough said.

Today was much better though. Mike made up for last night by taking care of the baby all day long. We headed to Yokohama to take Grace to her first professional baseball game. It was a beautiful day and our team won! We ended our day with dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. I am exhausted so tomorrow will be a lazy Sunday for us. All I've got planned is church and then we're headed straight home to change back into our pajamas and relax for the rest of the day.

Waiting for the train.

Happy Grace.



Uh-oh...the lip...



In front of Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.