I’ve been craving all sorts of terrible delicious goodies lately, so I spent the day in the kitchen baking for myself. I had four zucchinis and wanted to make some bread. It’s almost healthy! This is my favorite recipe, but I decided to make some changes. First of all, I had 4 medium zucchinis, which I’m pretty sure was a bit more than 2 cups. So, more zucchini, but it didn’t seem to hurt anything! I cut back on the sugar just a little bit (2 cups instead of 2-1/2). I also substituted half of the oil with applesauce (so 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 applesauce). I made one loaf and a bunch of muffins and love how they turned out! Rhino inhales the muffins too, and I’m glad to sneak some vegetables in the boy, even if they are surrounded with sweet, cinnamony bread!

This morning was also our church’s annual 4th of July picnic. It’s a potluck and I signed up for dessert, so I made some patriotic cupcakes. I split the white cake batter and dyed a third of it red and a third of it blue and layered the batter in the muffin cups before baking. When you bite into the cupcake, you get red, white & blue stripes! I also decorated them using the same technique that I used for Rhino’s 1st Birthday rainbow cupcakes. They turned out pretty (even though I rushed through decorating) and were a hit!

I also made up some peanut butter Rice Krispie Treats and some chocolate oatmeal no-bake cookies. I know, I’m being a pig, but I think I have an excuse! :-)

(What was going on this time last year? 4th of July Fellowship!)

Almost there! This was taken out in the big grassy area near our house.

Compare to my 38-week belly shot while pregnant with Rhino.

Feeling good!

My dear Rhino,

This month has been very busy! You’re running around even more, playing cute games, and babbling to us in your own language. You keep growing, of course. You’re now 30.5 inches tall and weigh 22 pounds. We’re not worried about your low weight anymore, it seems you’re just a smaller guy right now. I think it’s because you’re always burning off so much energy keeping active! You still love dancing and have a whole bunch of cute and hilarious moves. You will dance to songs in movies we’re watching, music on the radio, the sound of the dishwasher or washing machine, or songs I sing or whistle. We have been attending church early on Sundays and are around for choir practice, which is my favorite time to watch you dance! You run into the auditorium as soon as you hear the piano and dance in the aisle, either squatting, sumo-stepping, or rocking back and forth, then clap for the choir at the end of every song. You’re so amusing! You’ve always been pretty interested in music. You love the little toy piano Aunt Jen gave you for Christmas. I’ve also set up a keyboard so I can practice the piano and you are very excited about that! You like to listen, but you really enjoy playing, too. Every day we get about 30 minutes in front of the keys together where you play little musical patterns, alternate between the highest and lowest keys, or bang excitedly! You also like playing the guitar and more than once have unzipped the guitar case and struggled to pull it out of the bag so you can sit on the floor and pick away. I do hope that this interest sticks with you and you will pick up some instrument later on!

You are also such a big sweetheart. I am still pregnant and awaiting your baby brother and Daddy gives me a massage every day to help me relax or ease some of the pregnancy aches. You always want to be involved and will help rub my legs or back alongside Daddy. Usually your massages tickle or you just rock me, but it makes me so happy! You’re copying us more and more each day and always seem to want to do what we’re doing. It’s so much fun having you around!

Part of our month was a little stressful. You had been sick in the past, but recently you were even more sick. Your temperature rose to 104 degrees, which had me really scared. You tried to do the things you usually do and seemed to want to be in a good mood, but we could tell how drained you were. You spent about four days really tired and calm. You weren’t sleeping well and didn’t have much interest in food. We took you to the doctor and he determined you had an upper respiratory infection and all we could do was let you get over it. We kept trying to keep your fever down with Motrin. Daddy and I got sick at the same time and our whole household was pretty pathetic. We got through it though, and you were such a trooper! I’m so glad you’re better now!

We had one more big change this month: we moved to a new house! Because we’re adding another member to our family, the military has let us have a larger home. It was a lot of work to pack everything up, move all our stuff, and clean the old place, but the new house is so nice that it was definitely worth it! You started to get a little stressed out at the old house with all the mess and boxes. As soon as we were given our new home, you loved running around the big, open rooms! We had to go back and forth between the old and new houses and your mood would sour so much when we arrived at the old place, but whenever we showed up in the new home you would get so happy! I’m glad you like our new house! You were very helpful in the moving, though. When Daddy would carry boxes to the car, he’d give you something small to carry (a small box or your baby wipes or a little bag) and you would carry alongside him. You’d also want to help clean with any rag or paper towel you found. Mrs. Kiser came over to help clean up the old house and when she took down all the long, vertical blinds in the living room to wipe them down, you sat on the other end with your own paper towel wiping away, too! Now we’re mostly settled down into the new house and you seem to be right at home.

Maybe next month when I write your 17 Month letter, you’ll be a big brother! I can’t wait to see how you react to a little baby around the house. I know it will be a big adjustment, but I won’t forget about my sweet, first born boy! You’ll get a lot of time with Daddy at first, but I know I’ll miss you (I’ll have to be in the hospital for a couple of days) and want to spend time with you, too! I love you so much, Rhino!

Love,
Mommy

We had our housing appointment this morning to determine where and when we’ll be moving. Because we’re adding another member to our family, we’re authorized an upgrade from our 2-bedroom home to a 3-bedroom. I’ve been a little bit stressed out about this whole thing because voluntary, not forced on us, it’s a self-move, self-clean (unlike other military moves where they take care of everything for you.) I know it’s also stressful for Matt because he has to do a lot of the heavy work. I’m organizing, decluttering, packing, etc. but I can’t really move anything. We’re going to ask around and hopefully our studly friends will come to our rescue come moving day!

We found out today that we can move on Tuesday! That’s the day we’ll pick up keys to the new place, and we don’t have to have our final inspection on the old house until Monday, the 8th. That’s a relief! We get a week to take it slow and be thorough. We’re planning on Matt making daily trips with the van to move boxes, and small/medium items, then we’ll rent a truck for Saturday and have all our best friends-in-the-world! over to help us out. Then I’ll either be cleaning like a mad woman on Sunday (what a terrible day to do it, but maybe I can get some help between services?) or just end up paying a service to clean our home. The inspector’s coming by at 2 on Monday afternoon and everything has to be absolutely perfect by then. Yeah, I’m a little stressed.

But where are we going?? Well, there are two parts of base: “Main Base” and “North Area.” We’re currently in North Area, where it’s pretty quiet, sort of a small Misawa AB suburb, there are lots of trees and playgrounds, a shoppette and gas station, a school, and the base beach. It’s about a 10 minute drive to Main Base, which is where mostly everything is: hospital, commissary/BX, post office, the Weasels’ Den, tons more housing, etc. etc. Location matters to us and we love being in North Area, but the quality of the house was important, too. We were given two choices: one on Main Base and one in North Area.

The North Area choice is exactly, right across the street from our current home. That would be fabulous, because we could pretty much walk all our things over! These houses are pretty old, built by the Japanese military in the 50’s, cleaned up since them, but still not amazing. I’d never seen the 3-bedroom versions of these houses, so I definitely wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, right when you walk in the door there is a dark, extremely narrow, uninviting hallway leading to the kitchen and the living room. I’m not impressed. The kitchen was a nice size, the living room was kind of weird, and the master bedroom was really weird! There is one door in the bedroom which leads to a tiny room with a sink. From that closet-sized room there are two more doors: one to a medium-sized closet and one to a small room with a shower. It was kind of strange. The deal-breaker for me was actually the heating. Right now we live with these horrible radiators that I loathe. They sit along-side a wall in every room and we can’t put anything against or on top of them, so we pretty much lose out on most of a wall. Not all the houses are like this, but our North Area house choice had them. Yuck.

We went to see our Main Base choice, which is in the newly-built “800s” section of base. It’s on the northern edge of Main Base, sort of separate of everything. I guess the idea of being centrally-located, like some of the housing, is nice so you can walk places quickly or have lots of people around you, but Matt and I like being tucked away, somewhat removed from everything. The area isn’t as pretty as where we are in North Area currently, but it’s not horrible. Everything is new and shiny, which of course is appealing. The layout of the house is just like that of our friends the Armstrong’s old home, so we were all ready familiar with it. And guess what? No horrible radiators! All the heating is in the ceiling, so we can actually use all our walls! I really like the layout and it seemed a lot more open and bright than the North Area choice. There are two small bedrooms upstairs and the master bedroom, plus a main bathroom, and then a small bathroom off the master bedroom. The bedroom has a closet (just like the one we have currently) but then also has a large walk-in closet as well (wonderful!) Right now our bedroom is pretty cramped and Matt and I share a dresser and a closet, so it would be really nice to have some more space. There is also a small bathroom off of the kitchen as well as a laundry room. This is great because our current house and the North Area house just have the washer and dryer in a nook in the kitchen, not a separate room.

Anyhow, I’m sure you have guessed that we chose the Main Base house. I love it and can’t wait to settle in! Matt had leave approved for Monday-Monday so he can get to work moving us, thankfully! It’ll be a busy week, but I’m very excited. The house is great! The boys will share a room and then we’ll use the other bedroom for computers, crafts, toys, whatever. Right now it’s a pain because Matt uses his computer at the coffee table and I use mine at the kitchen table because we have no where to put a computer desk. All my sewing stuff just sits in Ryan’s closet because there’s no space for me to set up a craft desk. Our board games sit in our linen closet. It will be really nice to have a little more room!

So we’ll be working through the weekend, but come Tuesday you’ll probably see some empty house / move-in-progress pictures. :-) Pray that we can get some help for Saturday moving all the heavy things and that the place gets cleaned up in time!

Last Saturday we were all about finished recuperating and I was feeling pent-up from spending pretty much all week in the house! Matt wanted a day to veg and not really do much of anything, but I wanted to get out and about! I wanted to go take some photos, but sometimes it’s a little bit of a hassle bringing Matt and Rhino (because of how long I want to spend, them getting bored, etc.) So I took a couple hours to just go out, have some lunch, read, and take some pictures.

When we drive to Shimoda, we always pass this torii right on the side of the road and I’ve wanted to stop and go further into the forest to see the shrine up there. Well, I decided to go get lunch at Shimoda Mall (I should have tried something new, but was craving some Pepper Lunch and an ice cream crepe!) and stopped at the shrine along the way. It’s hidden from the road by the trees, so I had no idea what to expect. There are TONS of shrines all over Misawa – some very simple and some more elaborate – and I was surprised this one was as big and beautiful as it is, and that we pass it all the time and have never stopped!

It was a nice little outing, but it started to rain and I missed my fellas! I’d like to have more days every now and then by myself to just go out and take pictures or have a lunch to myself!

Rhino really wanted to be in the shot this week, so here we are with his little brother!

You can compare this to the same week last time around. I think I’m bigger than I was with Rhino. I’m measuring right on target when I go to the doctor, so maybe not. I feel so big, though. And we still have seven more weeks of growth!

This post makes 300 blog entries here! Not that I was waiting for this magical number or anything, but I did notice it when I went to post. So the cake wasn’t really in celebration of this blog milestone; I was just baking a cake for no reason. But post #300 sounds like a better reason than just because I was hungry!

My past cakes have been pretty ordinary. Chocolate or white cake or mostly just whatever the box mix says to do and slop on some frosting. I saw this recipe at Recipezaar (my favorite recipe site!) after having some cake at the last ladies’ fellowship that sounds like it could be the same thing or close. Matt doesn’t care for coconut and has just started a diet (he thinks he’s too fat. Hah! But it’s good for him to try to eat better…) so I know I’m on my own with this cake, but I still wanted to try it out. Well, I have friends I can share with … I guess. :-)

Rhino likes to “help” me in the kitchen lately, which I appreciate! I can’t wait to cook with him and teach him things in the kitchen. For now, he just likes to play with silverware, the refrigerator, bowls, peek inside the oven, etc. Well, yesterday he discovered the oven mitts while Nicole and I were making tacos. He put both of them on all by himself and came barreling into the living room to show off his mitts! I’m not sure if he thinks they’re puppets (which he has gotten the hang of for the most part and really enjoys!) or if he just likes to copy Mommy, but it’s very cute! So today while I had the cake in the oven, I left the oven mitts on the rug for him to play with. He put them on and walked around for quite a while, peeking in at the cake and turning to show me his hands. I love it!

Usually I pig out on the batter bowls, mixers, and spoons by myself, but there were enough bowls to share this time! I took the batter bowl and gave Rhino the pudding bowl/spatula and then the whipped cream bowl/spatula. What a lucky boy!

The cake is yellow cake, topped with a layer of crushed pineapple, then a layer of vanilla pudding, then a layer of whipped cream, then some toasted coconut. Delicious! Before layering the whipped cream, I let the cake cool for a while in the refrigerator. I guess I didn’t let it cool thoroughly enough, because when I went to take it out of the fridge and cut a piece, I noticed all the whipped cream had melted. So it’s not all tall and fluffy like it should be, but it the whole cake still tastes wonderful! Next time (ohh, there will be a next time!) I will be really patient and wait to do the whipped cream for quite a bit longer.

I had our 31-week prenatal checkup on the 11th, but have been too lazy to write about it!

It wasn’t a long appointment and isn’t too much to speak of. We saw Doctor #1 again, who I am liking more and more. We heard baby’s heartbeat (he kept trying to hide though, so we’d hear it then lose it and she’d have to chase it down!) Everything sounds good there. I’m putting on an appropriate amount of weight and measuring just right. I’m not having any problems or pains (other than the usual pregnancy discomforts!) I’ve been really hesitant to bring up our birth plans, expectations, hopes, whatever, especially after our doctor the first time around. Maybe I’m too worried about confrontation, but with my pregnancy with Rhino, the doctor made me feel like a wacko or like I didn’t know what I’m talking about half the time, so I’ve just been a little cautious. At this appointment I asked Doctor #1 if anyone ever brings in birth plans or when we can talk about our options (hoping that there are some!) She said that they are very flexible, but we need to be, too. She has no problems with declining medication, laboring on a birth ball, not wanting to be hooked up to the fetal monitor continuously, allowing mobility, different positions for pushing, etc. but within reasonable limits. Of course I understand that if there’s a need to monitor or a problem arises that won’t let me do one thing or another, I can work with that. I just like knowing that it’s not 100% “routine” and the doctors aren’t stuck in their one way. She said that all of the doctors pretty much share the same views (though she paused and looked thoughtful in the middle of the sentence, so I don’t know…) We’ll talk about it more as the time grows closer, I just don’t want to pop any surprises on a doctor at the last minute or have the doc try and sneak something in (like Rhino’s immediate cord-clipping because our last doc didn’t agree with us, or him arguing with me while I’m giving birth about why I’m stupid for not wanting an episiotomy. Ugh!) So I left the appointment feeling pretty positive. We go back again in three weeks. The time is getting closer and closer and I’m starting to get more anxious and excited! It’s completely different this time around, but it’s still excited and I cannot wait to meet our second sweet little boy!

Hello dearest Rhino!

You’re now fifteen months old and just as sweet as ever! Your personality is so silly lately and you have such a fantastic sense of humor. I love playing with you all day – you laugh so much! You find the silliest things so funny – putting a bucket on your head like a hat, then on my head, then laugh so hard; wrapping yourself or your head in play silks and running around the room; playing peek-a-boo with a stuffed animal from behind a chair or in the car; shutting any door I just opened (even if it’s the pantry door or the refrigerator and I’m still using it!) – you laugh all the time! I love it so much and you make me laugh most of the day, too!

You had to say goodbye to some of your friends this month. Samantha (your “girlfriend”) moved away, so we had a couple get-togethers so you two could spend some time together. We went over to her house so you could play with all her toys, sit in her little tent, drink from her cup, chew on her playing cards, and chase her around! We also went out to lunch with her and her parents, where the two of you sat across the table from each other trying to share food and napkins but just couldn’t quite reach (so you tried throwing things at her!) Your buddies Josh and Aime moved away this month also. We had them over before they left and they loved playing with you in your room and your bus tent. You’ve grown more fond of them over the months and are fascinated when they come over, always wanting to do what they do. It was sad to see everyone go (I know you weren’t sad – you have no idea!) but you received a bunch of hand-me-down toys that they didn’t want to move (lucky you!)

You still aren’t really talking consistently, but you have a couple new words that you use occasionally. You’ve stopped pronouncing “bye” as “die” and now actually tell people bye as you wave! You’re also sometimes saying “hi” when they arrive. You do wave at people all the time, though! Every day when Daddy is getting ready for work, gets his keys and badge, you know what’s coming and start waving at him or asking for a kiss.

You’re developing some cute habits that I just adore! Whenever I sit cross-legged on the floor, you come over to me, turn yourself around, and plop on my lap. When it’s time to read a book, you bring a book to me and take your place in my lap without me doing anything anymore! When we lie down together on the sofa or in bed, you squirm until your back is against my chest and your head right under my chin and snuggle with me, either to watch some TV or fall asleep. We pretty much only use your high chair at the table for dinners and often you have your breakfast, snacks, and lunches in your little rocking chair. You know when I’m in the kitchen getting food ready that it’s almost time to eat, climb into your little chair, and fold your hands patiently! We didn’t try to train you to “pray”, I guess you’re just copying us and know that folding your hands is something you just have to do before you eat! It’s so cute and sometimes you bow your head (but usually you’re just staring at the food or us throughout the prayer) and you usually say your version of “amen” (which doesn’t sound anything like amen, but you’re usually on cue and always very excited!)

You’re getting friendlier with other people, which is wonderful! I hear that you have a great time in nursery now (you just don’t like being dropped off your picked up, so I figured you were crying the whole time through as well!) You talk to people, dance for them, laugh at them, and are generally a big ham! Every now and then you’ll want some other lady to hold you instead of me (well, at least for a little bit.) If someone has food for you, you two are buddies for the day! I love that you’re getting more comfortable with people other than Daddy and I.

We’ve had such fun this month and I love watching you grow and change so much! Thank you for making my days so enjoyable, patting me on the back when you give me hugs, offering me kisses, sharing your toys with me, feeding me your goldfish crackers, and making me laugh. I am so thankful to be your mother!

I love you,
Mommy