priceless

ewww strawberry and banana with tapioca

mmm oatmeal coma!

yummy carrots!

Cora's "enjoying" her solid foods... as you can see. So far, the banana oatmeal trumps all. But carrots are a close 2nd.

The three of us are hitting the road on Saturday for an 11 day "vacation" from Sasebo. Vacation for Cora and Greg (he's FINALLY able to take his paternity leave) and a combo of work and play for me. I'm going to Yokosuka (the big naval base in Tokyo) to become trained as a Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner. I'm excited about this opportunity and being able to add some more skills to my CV and get some continuing education. (Not that I'm looking forward to utilizing these new skills). After the work week in Tokyo, we are flying up to Sapporo for their annual snow festival.

Stay tuned, we'll hopefully post along our way!

ma-ma-ma-ma

We're not sure if she knows what or who mama is, but she's saying it! It joins dada, baba, and papa. YIPPIE!!!

date night!

For the first time officially (really the 3rd --- we went to the movies when Cora was about 10 days old when my folks were here and we went out to Indian dinner alone when Greg's folks were here).....

Greg and I had PROPER date night! Complete with dinner reservations and a driver :) We enjoyed the "Steak Salon" for dinner --- with Kobe beef and lobster in addition to 5 more courses, yum. (We had dinner there when Cora was baptised, by her antsiness made Greg and Duke not able to truly enjoy the food/atmosphere).

Next we went to Sasebo's best "karaoke box" called Shidax. This place is a trip. It's a 6 story building of private karaoke rooms, with each room stocked with every song one would want to sing, a flat screen TV, leather couches, disinfected microphones (for some reason that's a big deal here.....) and a butler available every time the phone is picked up for drink delivery..... It's an "all-you-can-drink-for-2 hours" kinda deal. This was the first time I was there not pregnant and Greg's first time at Karaoke at all in Japan. We had so much fun. Pretty sure the walls are soundproof as the rooms are close together and we couldn't hear anyone singing....we hope the same for them!! Funny, we sang a few songs we'd never done before --- "teach your children well" and "Teenagers" --- I guess Cora was on our mind even if not in our sight!

Finally, we stumbled upon a scotch and cigar bar Greg had visited with a friend. It was a riot of a place -- again, very compact, Japanese style, I suppose...... The whole bar was a maximum of 3 ft wide and probably 25 feet long. The wall was covered in scotch from around the world. They had cuban cigars for sale. We were a bit irked by the 600 yen per person sitting fee, but were glad for the snacks they served us ---- a high end bar mix and a jar of hershey's kisses! ooh and the draft Guinness was a nice end to the night!

All-in-all our night was great! Oh, by the way, Cora was under the excellent care of our friend Janet and really her 14 year old son Reid (who was our surrogate teenager a few months back)....we're sure going to miss them when they PCS in a couple of months!

ADDENDUM: Greg's been seeing a Japanese doctor here who does acupuncture and was a little perplexed at Greg's "low energy" (don't ask - neither of us understand) at an appointment the day after out date. When Greg explained he had been to Karaoke the night before, the doctor was VERY impressed and was told that "Karaoke is VERY good for your health" -- I guess we'll have to kick it up a notch and do it more often! On a side note, the same doctor is not a fan of Greg's insatiable thirst for ice cream and explained to him (in an accent) that "ice cream bad" (and after Greg's reaction) "beer good, but ice cream bad." I think Greg is intending to continue to pick and choose what words of wisdom he decides to follow.

UT, oh.... she's MOBILE!

got a little bit on video to share -- miss Cora all of a sudden got up on her knees and took off! The same day she pulled herself to standing and walked along the furniture....

winter WONDERland!

Cora's first snow --- she loved looking at the flakes :)

our ISLAND DOGS preferred to watch the snow from inside...

We were surprised to open the door this morning to head to work and school and see a blanket of snow outside! By blanket of snow, we're talking about 2-3 inches. Remember our posting last year when we were essentially snowed-out of our neighborhood? WELL, the trip into base was a bit nerve-wracking. Of course Greg drove wonderfully (although I think he brought the good Lord into conversation a few too many times when we skidded out of our cho) and I was a nervous wreck (did I REALLY learn to drive in 3 feet of snow back in Michigan?!?) but gave enough urgent directions to ensure success. Greg thanked me incessantly for my direction. Thank God we got Cora to school and us to base without incident. Of course, as we arrived at the front gate, we heard on AFN that the base was closed except for emergency personnel..... BUMMER! Luckily, medical was still open and I ended up seeing almost my full schedule of patients. And Greg's work continued as usual, too...

The snow didn't ease up throughout the day and the temperature barely got above freezing, so getting home was a bit challenging and tomorrow morning will likely be even more stressful.

A side note to those of you who didn't tune in about a year ago to our blog posting.... JAPAN is NOT prepared for snow. They do not have snow plows or road salt, they don't sell shovels, they barely have winter coats for sale. People put tire chains on their cars (and public buses) with snow flurries... just so you guys back at home in Michigan and the North East don't think we're becoming wimps the locals here become complete idiots at the mere mention of snow! On the bright side, I'm sure it will give us more pleasant memories of our temporary home!

a neat find!

With the weather being nice -- we decided to seek some adventure in the Peacock Park (known for the giant zoo cages of Peacocks -- blue and white ones). We found some trails that were really nice and reminiscent of Saipan boonie stomping and the Cliff Walk of Newport. The best part is we were able to let Finn and Bonny off leash, which they haven't had a lot of opportunity here in Japan to experience. They were SOOOOO happy (and EXHAUSTED afterwards...)

Thank GOD Greg had Cora for this "stroll" -- it looks pretty tame here, but there was some rough terrain that challenged me a lot. His ship-board life of climbing ladders had him well-prepared, but I was puffing and whining (or so I'm told....)

Finn SWAM!! Just like back in Saipan :) He didn't mind that it was 40 degrees outside (instead of 85) nor that the water was in the 30s instead of the 70s.... I had to shake my head a bit to remind myself that THIS IS JAPAN!

Happy 8 month birthday, Cora!

We can't believe how time flies.... our lil miss is not so little anymore. She's waving and smiling at us when we pick her up from school and she's working on some more teeth. She's crawling, too -- well, it's more like a scoot acorss the floor, but she gets from point A to point B in no time ;)

Showing off her red sweater and hat, knit with love by her Obaasan

trying to look like the "locals"

mmmm, teething biscuits! OR "Cora, age 85"