15 Month Update

I know, I know. This update is seriously late. What can I say, I am a super busy Mama to an INSANELY busy boy! So much has changed over the past few months. I have unwillingly accepted that Liam is now a toddler, and no longer a baby. I miss my snuggly clean smelling infant. His replacement sure is fun though! Even if he is covered in food and dirt 90 percent of the time.

Things around here are going great. We are heading back to the states for a month long visit the week of September 18th. We have been on this rock for over a year, and we both are needing to break free for a bit. I am nervous as heck to fly with Liam just because he DOES NOT SIT STILL! It is going to be a looooonnng flight. We just bought a Sony blu ray/dvd player for the plane, so hopefully that will eat up some time. I swore to myself that I would never become that parent...that was before I became a parent. So to all the Mama's out there I judged in the past, my apologies.

We are getting PUMPED for our big PCS next July-ish! I like Okinawa, but it is hard to love Okinawa when you spent the last three years living in Europe. We are ready to live back in the states and be around family. It's very important to us that Liam know all of his Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles and Cousins.

Anyway, on to the boy. He is growing and learning so fast! It's so much fun to interact with him now. He makes Kyle and I laugh so hard every single day. I sure love that little dude. At 15 months old, Liam is able to:

*Wear 18mo shirts, and 2t pants/shorts (cinched all the way in the waist though.)

*Size 5 or 6 diapers. Depends on the brand.

*Brush his hair and his teeth on his own.

*Wave hello and bye-bye

*When I say, " Get your shoes so we can go bye-bye." He scampers over to the shoe closet and brings me his shoes and plops down on my lap. He even attempts to put them on himself.

*He points to EVERYTHING and wants to know what it is. He will point and say, "Da..." and then we tell him what it is.

*If we are singing a song, he will join in and just hum or sing notes.

*He shakes his head yes or no. He loves shaking no when it comes time to eat dinner...

*Blows on hot food or candles. His "blow" is more of a spout of air coming out of his nose.

*He picks up my necklaces and puts them on and wears them around the house.

* He is OBSESSED with airplanes. That boy has so many toy airplanes, and he loves them all equally. He flies them around the house while making airplane noises. Anytime he sees planes outside he points and gets all excited.

* He also loves toy cars. He drives his Hot Wheels all over the house too making vroom noises.

* He knows what face a fish makes. I ask him to do it all day because it's pretty much adorable.

* He mimics everything. If I snap at him for doing something wrong, he will speak jibberish back to me in the same tone.

*His first molar popped in on August 18th. His 2nd molar came in a few days later.

*He loveeeess coloring. This new hobby of his buys me at least 2o minutes to get some house cleaning done.

* He is a CLIMBER! He climbs on the dining table, the couch, in his dresser, the baby gate, the rocking chair, into the dishwasher, on the dryer...If you name it, he probably has climbed it.

*Eating is still an ongoing battle. I have just settled on the fact that he will eat what he wants, when he wants. When he gets hungry enough, he will have to eat. No more specially made dinners for him. That's just dumb and was getting us nowhere.

* He has learned to run. If we are in public and if I let go of his hand for a SECOND, he takes off.

* Last but not least, he has mastered the art of going down a slide.

I am in disbelief of everything he does now. Let's face it kids, he's a toddler. He keeps me so so busy, but I can't imagine life without him. He is my whole wide world and I love him to a trillion pieces.

What in the world did I do with all my free time before he came into our lives?!

Day 3 of Typhoon Muifa

*Here she is, all over Okinawa like a fat kid on cake.*

We are sitting at day 3 of this nasty hurricane. Last night was the worst of the whole thing! It's true what they say, the back side of the hurricane packs way more power than the front of it does. As soon as the eye passed over us, it was chaotic! The eye hit Okinawa around 3pm. I thought the storm was over because the winds turned to a breeze, and there were birds chirping and it got brighter outside. Liam went down for a nap so we decided to have family nap time and we all slept for about an hour. As soon as we woke up, it all turned nasty.

I read a weather report that we got almost four feet of rain! Four feet! It is still pouring rain outside. I heard some people off base have severe flooding in their homes, some people's roofs are caving in, some even lost the roof to their homes! We were lucky enough to not have lost water or power. The strongest gust of wind that was recorded, I believe, was 130+ mph. The sustained winds were around 95mph.

The local news says that 47 people have been injured, and 70,000 people are without power.

We have been on lock down for 40+ hours now. We have not been allowed to step outside and it is starting to take its toll on us. We are getting impatient and irritable, but this hurricane is showing no end in sight. We are still in Typhoon condition 1-Emergency which means the winds are still up to 57ish mph or more.

Last night the worst of the storm hit around 10pm. We finally got our butts to bed around midnight after watching, " Arthur." The slider in our room sounded like an severely obese man was throwing himself up against it over and over again. It was pounding, and rattling and whistling ALL NIGHT LONG! I believe I was woken up every 20 minutes throughout the night. At one point, it took every bit of strength in me to get the slider door to open because of the air pressure in the house. Once I did, it felt like I was going to be sucked out and thrown over to China. It was terrifying. Liam slept through the entire thing!

I felt bad leaving him in his room since it was so creepy and loud outside. I went in to get him form his crib so he could sleep with us, but I couldn't even wake the kid. He was sleeping like a rock!

Anyway, here we are at day 3 of Typhoon Muifa. We have read every magazine we own, watched tons of movies, ate all our typhood, cleaned every square inch of the house and we are now starting to get cabin fever.

I know I am whining, but in all honesty, it has been nice to have to stay indoors. We have had good quality family time without things like needing to run to the commissary or bx getting in the way. We have spent hours talking and playing with our boy, and it can't get any better than that.

Thank you to those who called or emailed us to check in to make sure we are safe. It really means a lot to us. I know those who have lived here in Okinawa know that typhoons are nothing to be afraid of so no need to check in on us. You know how they play out :) I saw that this hurricane is making the news back in the states! Pretty crazy!

I am going to go sit on my butt and watch the rain with a huge huge huge bowl of coffee!

Toodaloo!

Typhoon Muifa update

Not much has changed since I last posted. Today was a beautiful day! I guess that is why they call it "the calm before the storm." It is now 9:30pm and the wind has picked up drastically. We have our patio packed up, and everything is shoved into our storage closets. They are saying it is going to hit at some point tomorrow. Word on the street is it will hit late afternoon-ish. I hope it hits during the day! Typhoon Songda was creepy because it hit at night and we could only hear the damage being done outside. All the street lights were out, so it was pitch black. You could only see big black shadows flying through the air and slamming into our building.

Now, our power is probably going to go out. The latest update I heard was that Typhoon Muifa will be barreling 29 miles SW of Kadena Air Base at 10 am Friday, packing sustained 132-mph winds and 161-mph gusts at its center. If it remains on course & as strong as advertised, Muifa should be the strongest typhoon Okinawa has experienced since Bart ravaged the island 12 years ago!!

So chances are we will be without power. I don't imagine you, family members of mine, will freak out since the states doesn't show our weather on your news so therefore you probably have no idea we are about to get hit with a Category 3 hurricane. If you are curious of the damage or current location of the hurricane, just google "Typhoon Muifa."

Kyle and I stocked up on junk food, wine, beer and all kinds of baking ingredients! Oh and art supplies to get a start on my sister's baby shower! We are set to go!!

I will update more as this beast approaches the island!