Bowling Fun

The week before Memorial Day, we took Caleb bowling. He had been doing so great in school and he had started taking a nap for them which was our main issue because he'd come home so ill and cranky and need to be put to bed around 7-730. On this day we had planned on going bowling but Caleb took a nap so we celebrated a little more and had pizza while we were there. We also stayed longer than we had originally planned which Caleb loved. He never wants to leave! Here's some pictures of our night. We've also been a few other times because he loves it so much.

One of Caleb's many spares!

Update on Caleb

This Memorial Day weekend Caleb was very sick. He woke up Friday morning around 6 AM throwing up. He went back to sleep and woke up again around 8 AM and threw up again. He continued from 8 AM on throwing up every 30-45 minutes. He finally fell asleep around 1 PM or so and slept for about 1 1/2 hours. Once he woke up though, he started throwing up again. We finally decided to go to the ER around 6 PM because he wasn't holding anything at all down. He would want some water occasionally but nothing other than that. We don't have anti-nausea or vomiting medicines here in the store so all we could chose from was Children's Pepto which he refused to take or look at. We arrived at the ER and the nurse gave Caleb some Zofran (anti-nausea and vomiting medicine) and about 5 minutes later he threw up again but after that he was finished. He went about 12-18 hours and started all over again. We made it through Saturday night and went until Sunday around 5 PM before taking him back to the ER again. The doctor that night finally gave us a prescription for Zofran and we were golden after that. Daniel had to work that night so it was just me and Caleb. I'm so glad Caleb made it through the rest of the night without any hurting or any more throwing up. We got home around 10 PM and he crashed.

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He woke up Monday morning feeling okay. He said he needed to throw up but didn't. Instead when he went to "stinky" in the potty we discovered he had diarrhea. This lasted until Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we went to see the doctor and she said he seemed perfect and hoped everything would be fine. Yeah, ME TOO! Wednesday he had a great day at school and came home and stayed in a normal routine for the rest of the night.

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Well, we got up Thursday and he was so ill and cranky. He was crying non-stop and wouldn't stop whining. He was crying about random things so I had no clue what was going on. This lasted about an hour and he finally finished up after tantrums and all. He then said he had to stinky and once we got there he couldn't. He was screaming and saying his belly hurt. I figured it'd take a few minutes and he'd be fine and something would pass, but I'm not that lucky. He refused to get off the potty because he needed to use it and wouldn't stop crying because of the pain he was in. I was able to call the nurse at the pediatrician's office and she told me to try and put him in a warm bath and let him go in there. Yeah right, that's a great idea!! She also mentioned that if the bath didn't help that I should take him into the ER because they had no available appointments that day. I finally decided after 45-50 minutes of him trying to use the bathroom and not being able to, I'd do the bath. I ran the water and he was telling me no the entire time. I tried to encourage him to go in the bath tub, although it's normally NEVER allowed. He's never even attempted to do that so he wasn't wanting to start now. I let him sit for around 30 minutes or so and he calmed down a lot but wouldn't go or even try to go. He started screaming again needing to potty so I put him on there and nothing happened. He finally let me get him down and we were off once again to the ER. There's also no other medicines or glycerin suppositories here in the store that he could or would take to help him pass a BM so I had no other options. I also didn't want to do a laxative because it'd cause cramping and I wasn't 100% sure that he didn't swallow something and it was now trying to pass, so I wanted an x-ray taken to make sure it was nothing more than him being constipated. After a couple of hours we took the x-ray and a few hours after that we were told it was nothing other than Caleb being constipated and were able to pick up a prescription from the pharmacy for suppositories and stool softener to help everything along. He hated it all and I felt so bad because he was in so much pain. He was such a trooper though and refused to use the bathroom anywhere else other than the potty. He told me that he couldn't go in his pants (I had him in a pull-up just in case) that he needed to only go in the potty. He was finally able to go about 2 hours once we gave him the suppository and after that we had supper and did bath time and bed time. All in all, it's been a long night and an even longer weekend and week. I'm hoping that Caleb wakes up tomorrow feeling much better but we'll see!!

Mother's Day 2009

This Mother's Day we had a pretty busy day overall. We all got up and got dressed and went to a restaurant on base to have a buffet style meal. Think Shoney's just more options to chose from. After that Daniel had to get his hair cut and then we came home. We sat around for a while then went to the grocery store. Daniel had the "range" that coming week (where he shoots to qualify for a certain score) so we had to get some food and stuff for him to take for lunch. I got flowers from both of the boys, an ankle bracelet, and a card from Caleb. After that we had planned to eat at a nicer restaurant in town, but we decided not to and we had either Chinese or Subway instead. Who knows! Anyways, that was pretty much how my Mother's Day was overall. The day before though was our trip to Okuma Beach, so we had a good weekend overall. Here are a few pictures we took before breakfast.

My flowers

Playing the Trumpet

Here's a video of Caleb playing the trumpet, one of his favorite toys. Enjoy!

Caleb's ABC Song

This is Caleb's latest ABC song. He went from saying "E-L-P" for the L-M-N-O-P part to saying it kind of fast and together like "L-M-N'll-P" or something close to it. He was playing with a puzzle train that had Mickey and friends on it so he decided to sing his ABC's once the puzzle train was completed. He was so cute and now sings it all the time. He's went through this stage before which started the first ABC video but here's the latest one.

Playing Outside

Here's a video of Daniel and Caleb playing in the front of our house. Caleb loves for Daniel to jump over him and he laughs so hard! It's the cutest thing. You can also tell from this video how well Caleb listens. :). Enjoy!

Okuma Beach Trip

We decided to drive up to Okuma on the day before Mother's Day, May 9th. It's a really nice beach and "recreation center" that's located about 1 1/2 hours away. You can go up there and spend the day on the beach or even rent a cabin or tent to camp out on the beach in. You can also rent boating stuff, a jet ski, and do different activities like going out on a glass bottom boat. We basically wanted to go because it's something we haven't done yet, but I also needed a relaxing day at the beach away from our "usual" places. It was a nice change and the drive wasn't bad at all. We had a great time. We all got in the ocean for a few minutes and I got out to soak up some sun while the boys played for a few more minutes. Once Caleb got out he was freezing so he decided to lie down beside me and I wrapped him up in two towels. He was about to pass out, he was so tired! He didn't though, he was hungry and it was lunch time so the boys left to eat while I relaxed. We enjoyed the day and decided to ride in a glass bottom boat once they got back from eating. It was a short trip and the boat ride was pretty cool but nothing spectacular. We saw a lot of coral, some fish, and a few starfish but not much more than that. Once we were done with that we drove back home and spent the evening playing around the house. Here are some pictures from our day.

One of the road signs along the way to Okuma.

More views on our way.

The entrance to Okuma, obviously.

One of the views from the boat ride

Some of the coral. Ignore the orange in the picture. It's a reflection of another kid's life vest.

Another view from the boat.

Caleb really enjoyed himself and liked calling the coral "wrinkles". Of course he got that from the other kid on the boat that was screaming it constantly.

Our Day on Ie-Jima

**Warning - This blog covered a very long day with many pictures so it is a pretty long post. Just wanted to give you a heads up before you started reading!

The first weekend in May, we decided to take a ferry to another island (Ie-Jima, pronounced i.e.) close by to see the Ie Lily Festival that is held for a very short time, as well as some other "popular spots" you must see while you're there. We decided to take a tour that's offered through the travel place here on base and make a day of it. We had to be present by 7 AM and it takes about 15 minutes to get there, so we had to start our day around 5:30 AM. Caleb got up at 6 AM and we all had breakfast. We packed a lunch and tons of snacks because we wouldn't be getting back to our car until around 5 PM. We would literally be gone ALL day!! We weren't sure how Caleb would do, but I was pretty confident that he'd be fine seeing in how well he did on our trip back.

Caleb loved looking over into the water. He liked the "bubbles".

The view of the water from behind the boat.

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We started by stopping by the memorial of Ernie Pyle who was a war correspondent that died in WWII on Ie-Jima by enemy fire. Every year there is a memorial service held in his honor on or around April 18th. This is one of the three monuments that were allowed to stay up once the Japanese took power back over the island. Pyle won the Pulitzer Prize and was also one of the few American civilians that died in the war that was awarded the Purple Heart medal. He also wrote a column urging that soldiers in combat get "fight pay" just as the airmen were paid "flight pay". Congress passed a law authorizing $10 a month extra pay to combat infantrymen. The legislation was called "The Ernie Pyle bill". It's more now, but men still get paid "combat pay" once they've been deployed over a certain amount of time.

The second spot we visited was the Niya-thiya Cave. The cave was used for shelter for roughly 1,000 people during the Battle of Okinawa. The cave is also famous because it is home to a large rock which is known as the "fertility rock" to the locals. Yes, you read that correctly, a fertility rock. The Japanese superstition is this: if you are having problems conceiving or "making baby" as they put it, you pick up this rock, kiss it, and sit it back down. If it's heavier than you initially thought, you're having a boy. If the rock is lighter than you thought, you're having a girl. This is a place where many barren couples go because nothing else seems to work for them. There are also various praying spots around the island where infertile women go and pray to be blessed with a baby.

A view from inside the cave.

The famous "fertility rock".

Waji Point was our third stop. This is a cliff that is a well known look-out spot. We were able to take some amazing pictures and this place couldn't be more amazing. It's so peaceful and relaxing. You could literally see for miles and the water is crystal clear. You're also so far up on the cliff that looking down and around is breathtaking. The pictures do not do this place justice.

The last spot we stopped at before making it to the Lily Festival was Mount Gusuku. This mountain is located near the middle of the island. The idea we had to climb this mountain was great in the beginning, but by half way up I think we regretted our decision. You have steps all the way up, which seems pretty simple and a chain to hold on to as railing. Although this mountain wasn't huge, the steps were awful and very steep. The steps are pretty narrow and not very long so you had to tip-toe up some of them. At times it felt like you were walking straight up! Daniel had the pleasure of carrying Caleb more than 3/4 of the way. 315 steps later we made it to the top, which was nice, but not worth it to me. It was great to say we did it, so for that I'm thankful, but I'll never do it again. You could see all around the island, but mostly all you could see was the farm land (which was a nice change) and also the ocean in the distance. There's also a story the tour guide told us that goes along with this mountain. You'll see this plaque with Japanese writing (kanji) on it in the video with Caleb. My interpretation of the story is this - which has obviously been revised - There was a "bad guy" and this giant was fighting him to protect the people and the island. The giant was the underdog because he was going against someone so big and powerful. He won this fight and defeated the enemy. He protected everyone from the harm of this bad guy and "they" say this "dip" in the mountain at the top is the giant's footstep. There was yen (Japanese money) in this "footstep" and the tour guide said it's because the people are basically paying the giant for protecting them from harm and doing a good job in beating the enemy. It wasn't a lot of money just a lot of "pennies" basically. Here's a video of the view from the top and some pictures we took along the way.

Going up

A view from the top

I know the video isn't great. It's windy and kind of fast.

This is the footprint I had referred to of the giant. If you look past the stone Caleb's pretending to write on you can see the little dip along with the silver coins. I also read that this is a place that the farmers will come to pray for good crops for the upcoming year.

At the end of 630 steps - we were up to the top in 10 minutes and back down about the same. We had a 30 min. time window and couldn't be late. My legs were no longer functioning at this point, they could only manage to shake.

Another view from the entrance of the mtn.

Finally, the Ie Lily Festival that is held at the end of April and the first of May. There's well over 100,000 lilies planted so it was pretty cool to see the different types of lilies and enjoy the different colors all around. Towards the end of our time there, there was a lady singing, in Japanese of course, and Caleb was so drawn to her. He's never been so content or persistent in staying and watching something like that. Daniel and I could care less, but he was loving her. He went up to shake her hand, but he "needed" to sit down in the front so he could see her and watch her while she preformed. He was so funny with it all. We had a great time and Caleb was amazing throughout the entire day. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

A few pictures from the ferry...post to come soon.

One of the views from the ferry.

The "bubbles" the ferry boat was making. Caleb enjoyed this part.


He was so happy to be sitting by himself.

About to start our 30 minute ride.