Reminiscing

I have got to start blogging again.  I've been looking back through my blog from Beaver's babyhood and having so much fun reading all about my baby when he was a baby.  I found a few good Bear stories that I had completely forgotten about too.  Someday I am going to look back on Japan and wish that I remembered what our lives were like here, but I'll have no record!  Get back on the wagon, Mrs. Mike!

Let's begin with a Beaver story.  I was talking to my sistah last week and she told me that they have a "manners minute" at dinner time.  I thought it was a good idea, so I decided to try it with my kids.  We started with greeting people.  "What do you do if someone says hello to you?" I asked.  "Do you walk away from them?  Do you drop your head and mumble 'hi'?  No - you look them in the eye and say, 'Hi!'  Now, let's practice.  Beaver, pretend I'm your friend that comes up to you at preschool and I say, 'Hi Beaver!'  What should you do?"

Beaver: "Poke them in the eye and say, 'Hi!'"

We'll keep working on that one...

We've been adjusting to the new neighborhood dynamics here.  Bear doesn't always have someone to play with after school anymore, and those days are hard for him.  Luckily, Sleeping Queens has come to the rescue.  It's a card game that Bear's teacher has at school.  He told me about it and really wanted to buy it.  I found it on Amazon, so I ordered it along with the board game Ticket to Ride.  It cost me about $70 to get those two games shipped over here, but, I tell you what.  That is the best money I have ever spent.  We play Sleeping Queens every day.  The games go pretty quickly, it's something we all can play together - even Beaver - and we all enjoy it.  Hooray for Sleeping Queens.

I'm kind of irritated with Beaver's preschool right now and I was talking to a friend today about the Japanese yochien that her grandson goes to.  If we sent Beaver there, it would be three days a week from 9:00 until 2:00.  I told Mike tonight that I just dread the idea of having him gone that many hours.  "You just don't want to let him go, do you?"  Mike said.  It's true.  Beaver wanted to watch videos of himself as a baby today, which was what got me going back through the blog.  It was kind of killing me.  He was sooooo incredibly cute!  And Bear!  The video of him as a six-year-old mixing baking soda and vinegar.  Did I realize how cute they were at the time?  Do I realize how cute they are now?  I just want to hold on to them as long as I can.  Childhood is so fleeting!

See!  He's grown up already!