Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tour de Okinawa

Living here in Okinawa, we are very lucky to have a select amount of great friends. Many of those friends, are those who live just next door. We are so very lucky to have such wonderful neighbors, because it really makes the world of difference in our lives in okinawa. Last night, one of our neighbors, Kelly, sent a message to a bunch of us asking if anyone wanted to go on an electric bike tour with her the following day. It was not kid friendly, so I was the only one who could go. I love having neighbors who like to do random things like this like I do! It's nice to get out and do things like this sometimes, especially with Dima deployed right now.
So we met at Kadena at 8:30am to meet up with the bus and rest of the group going with us. We loaded the bus with snacks and plenty of water. We got to this place where there were a bunch of pink bikes outside lined up. Yes, they were pink!
These were not regular bikes. As you can see... they look kind of like cruiser bikes. But they are electric. They work like a regular bike, but when you have the power turned on, the bike gives you an extra push when you pedal. It was cool, especially for a pregnant girl like me! It was close to 95 degrees, i don't have many clothes that fit so was wearing jeans, and you get hotter when you're pregnant. So that extra push now and again was nice!
We rode along the beach pretty much the entire time. As you can see, it was a beautiful September day out!We rode along more and more along this beautiful beach and pulled over to this spot. The view was amazing, and the stuff down there was all coral! so pretty!

After that we went to this landing site for this japanese medical copter. It was so tiny, but leave it to the japanese to find ways to fit everything inside!
We then went riding along the beach more... what a beautiful site! Along this path we passed these beautiful chapels. I remember seeing thse online before. They are all glass in the back overlooking the ocean! So beautiful! I would be at church everyday if all chapels looked like this!
We then road along more and got to a place where we could take a break. We decided we wanted to explore this lighthouse nearby. It was so pretty. There were rock cliffs all over and lots of guys fishing off the sides. i even saw someone catch something. It was so pretty.
We then went back to our meeting place... and like most things okinawa, found a random assortment of things there. There was a small petting zoo. Here is Kelly and a baby goat.And there was a little shop with these awesome shisas! i want them so bad! love the boy!Then there was this huge shisa on the outside of it all. Biggest one i've ever seen!
We then rode back and went home. I loved this ride. What a pretty view. I wish dima was with me. It wouldve made a great date. I wish we could ride and then have a picnic. but i don't think we will have time for that with the baby coming in just a few months. Anyway that is it for now.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

A Scottish Baby shower!

Today was a baby shower for a friend of mine, Natalie. She is due in about 6 weeks and is having a boy (who isn't?). A friend, Megan, planned the whole thing and I must say, she went over the top for it. But Natalie deserved it! We are so happy to have made her so happy.
We went to this coffee and tea shop here, since Natalie is from Scotland it was very fitting! We had the entire upstairs of the place which was nice because there was a good group of us. We had a little menu of things to order, I got the cinnamon toast which was wonderful! Baby Stepanoff really enjoyed it!
We played baby shower games, of course! We did a quiz with questions about Natalie's mom's pregnancy and about Natalie growing up. It was a really cute idea. After that, we played the guess the size of the belly game, I guessed wayyy too big, whoops! Sorry, Natalie! We also played a game where we had to make a diaper out of toilet paper for one member of our team. Ours looked the most realistic, but it wasn't very thick. The toilet paper we used was REALLY bad and kept tearing. Oh well. Here is a photo of Maggie, the girl from our group who we dressed up! She could barely breathe without breaking it!
Natalie got to open her presents, and got some really adorable things! Lots of cute onesies, bath accessories, diaper accessories, toys, books and other great baby stuff.
Here is the diaper cakes that were made for her. two of them are sushi diaper cakes... one had baby socks and stuff in it and the other just diapers. The other diaper cake is a typical diaper cake which is beautiful!I got her a baby sling, nursing cover (little did I know a friend got the exact same one for her), and i made this canvas for her nursery. It's kinda far away, but it says "LOGAN" in black and "We made a wish and you came true" in white around it. She seemed to like it. I thought it was totally cute and can't wait to make one for our little baby. I just need a name first!

After that we all parted and I came home to an email from the hubby (yay!!!) asking me to send photos of myself and the dog. I hadn't taken my 21 week photo yet, so Courtney took a photo of me and my Banana. This week the baby is the length of a large banana from head to butt. That is about 7 inches. The banana in this picture is very small, but that's ok. As you can see, Ive gotten much bigger and FINALLY look pregnant! The first thing a friend said to me today when she saw me was, "Whoaa! you finally look pregnant! I just saw you 2 days ago and you didn't look like that!" It's funny how fast babies grow. I'm glad I look pregnant now and not like i just gained a ton of weight.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Half way there!

So we are officially more then half way through the pregnancy. Even less if he is born a week or two early like I hope. I am offically 21 weeks along now, leaving 19 until he is born if he is on time. But of course we are all crossing our fingers that he is a little early so his daddy can be home!

Yesterday I finally had my anatomy ultrasound. This is a more high tech ultrasound done between 18-22 weeks to check a bunch of things like the heart chambers, stomach, kidneys, bladder, brain, cord, placenta,and so on. I was crossing my fingers the whole time to see a boy part between the legs since I have bought boy stuff already. Literally the first thing I saw was two legs and a very large male part. Sure hope he grows into it.
The first 10 minutes or so were spent with a guy looking at different parts of the baby. He didn't really talk too much, but he did point to different things and just say, "this is the...." every once and awhile. He then had another guy try for a few minutes and I could tell he was learning how to do the ultrasound. They then had a woman come in and I realized both of the guys were learning it and she was the doctor. I'm glad I could help teach them!
The doc was very nice. I had heard great things about her, apparently she loves baby boys so she really loved my little man. She asked if i had anyone waiting in the waiting room for me so she could show them the baby, but of course with Dima deployed it was just me. She showed a photo of the legs and asked if i wanted to know what it was. I laughed and said, "there's no mistaking that is a boy." She thought this was funny I guess and said she hoped i did want to know. If i didn't want to know, I wouldve been very mad because there was no mistaking it.
She looked around for awhile and showed the two guys different things that I didn't understand. She was very friendly and overall it was a good experience. I couldn't see very well and my neck hurt very bad from craining it to see though!
She did do some fun shots for me. She got the baby to look at the camera at one point and i swear to you he smiled at me. Sure did melt my heart! I can't wait to see that smiling face in person! She showed me his crossed arms once, and he was putting his hands in his mouth a lot as you can tell in this photo below. I wish she had printed it, but he also had his hands up as if he was praying at one point. It was adorable!
While she got him to smile at the camera, she got this one. We thought it looked like he was ready for halloween so she printed it for me for giggles. His first halloween in-utero will be spent as a skeleton I guess!
We didn't get much else. She did show this one to me because i thought his butt was so darn cute! Can't wait to see it!
This will most likely be the last ultrasound for awhile (possibly until I go into labor) so I am glad I got to see so much! He is one adorable baby and i cannot wait to meet him!

Today Joe helped me get the crib and dresser together. Now that the baby's bedroom is all painted and ready, it was time to put it together. I was sad that Dima couldn't help with it, but I really needed it put together and couldn't wait until December.
We had a heck of a time with the dresser/changing table. The slots to slide the drawers into were a pain and it took 3 tries before we finally figured it out. The instructions were worse then ikea, there are no words of course. We ended up getting the dresser done and put to the side while we worked on the crib. The crib seemed easy to do actually. We put the mattress up as high as it goes and once he's bigger we will move it lower so he can't climb out. I am so very happy I chose to get a black crib. It's so sharp looking and will look good even when he's a teenager (it converts into a toddler and full size bed). The only problem with the crib is that it was missing a screw. The company has a website to report missing pieces, so it should be easy to get a new one, but the problem is having it shipped here. I think it will be fine though since we have a US address.
Here is the finished product. Unfortunately we have these awful tile floors that I had to cover with a carpet. The carpet is not wall to wall (our resources are limited!) and the only way I could get it to fit so that the crib wasn't on a slant was to push the carpet all the way to one wall. We have a glider and ottoman on the way soon too so this was the best way to arrange the room.
I will be putting a shelf above this crib with Samaurai swords (don't worry, they will be made of wood) and some Shisha dogs on it. I also plan on getting a black bookshelf to put to the left of the crib for toys, books, and a bunch of other stuff. I will also be hanging a photo with Kanji on it for the name (if we ever decide on one). It should look good.
This all looks pretty bare now. In the corner there will be the glider and ottoman for late night feedings. I also plan on getting a short shelving unit for next to the dresser for diapering stuff. I will have to hang a wet bag on the other side of the changing table since I will be going with cloth diapers. I will hang some kind of photo above this too. I'm not sure what it will be of yet. Maybe a dragon or samurai or something.
Here are the first photos I have hung. They are on the small wall directly as you walk in. The top is of the Taiko drummers.. aka the Eisa dancers of Okinawa. The bottom is of the Torii gate.. a symbol of Japan. I love these photos and think they really give the room the japanese feel as soon as you walk in! I can't wait to see the room later on!

The baby is now the size of a banana (7 inches in length) and I will post the weekly fruit photo soon. Still deciding what to do for it! Last week was a cantaloupe and we did a mexican theme since we celebrated louise's birthday with a mexican theme. I can't wait to get the photo from Kelly!

For now, bedtime for Neko, baby, and I. I am exhausted. A good thing, since I have so much energy nwo that I am up late and wake early. Guess I should take advantage of this tiredness while it lasts!