Master Builder

Colin loves to build. He usually plays with his legos, but today he got out the Wedgits blocks and was building with those. He made several creations from the idea cards that were really cool. Here he is with one of them.

Boring

Today was a lazy day and I really don't have anything interesting to share, but I've committed to 30 days of posts so you shall get the boring details of today. I was in my PJs util about 4 PM when I finally left the house to walk the dog. Shelby worked all day yesterday, came home at 5 PM and then went back to work again at 1 AM and was there until about 11 AM today. So he was tired and the kids and I just bummed around most of the day.

I read with Caleb. I'd like to say we read all these books, but really he's only interested in Brown Bear Brown Bear at the moment. We just read that one 100 times but all the other books must still be sitting on the couch with us. If even one falls down he has a fit. I am under this pile somewhere, it wasn't comfortable I can tell you that!

While Caleb napped I cleaned out my coupon binder and sorted others to add in. Pax was insistent upon helping. Or maybe he just knew he was being a jerk rolling around in the piles I just sorted out. He's a cat...who knows what he's thinking.

Park Visit

Today after a trip to the grocery store I took the boys to the park on base to play. It was super hot and even though the playgrounds are all fitted with frames to hang a canopy cover over the playground, they don't actually put the canopies up. It's unfortunate because the equipment gets so hot, even though it's plastic, that the kids can barely use it. My kids chose to play in the trees instead after a few minutes on the hot playground. They had a blast climbing and playing in the shade though.

Skater Caleb

Caleb found a tiny skateboard toy and spent a good 15 minutes trying to skate on it. It is only a couple inches long and looks like it's for an action figure, but Caleb was determined to make it work!

Growing up

Today Colin had a dental appointment that took up our morning. It was a routine cleaning that I have been waiting for. He fights brushing his teeth all the time and we constantly remind him what a filling is and what will happen if he doesn't brush his teeth well. I go in and brush for him once or twice a week to get them good and clean, but he is a very lazy brusher when we have made it beyond easy for him. He has a kids sonicare, which he has been told time and time again he must TURN ON when using, AND to brush with the beeps and not finish until the long beep at the end. He still frequently gets caught with the toothbrush not even turned on while in his mouth. Then he has mouthwash that he may as well just pour down the drain because the 2.5 seconds it is actually inside his mouth probably does no good at all. So I was very curious to see if he was going to skate by with another clean check up or if a cavity had popped up. Well much to Colin's dismay he has not one, but THREE small cavities in the back. Thankfully they are in baby teeth that will eventually fall out, but I so hope this has helped him learn his lesson. He doesn't get them filled until the end of August, so I don't expect his attitude towards brushing will improve much until he actually experiences the filling process. He is terrified of shots, so one look at the Novocaine needle and it's entirely possible the whole building will think someone is being murdered. I've requested Shelby take the day off, because I can't handle that kind of humiliation on my own.

After his dentist visit I took him to get some new play shoes. His old play shoes have holes straight through the bottom from him dragging his feet on his scooter. Mean mom that I am I have made him wear the holy play shoes for a good long while despite his complaints. I am still making him wear the shoes with the holes when he rides his scooter, he can't drag his feet on it with holes in his soles so it helps teach him not to do it. But he did need a pair of respectable play shoes for wearing to the youth center and out to play when scooters are not involved. He has been begging me for Jordans. When did this kid grow up and why does he even know about shoe fashion? I took him to Foot Locker and showed him the price tag on Jordan shoes ($80+) and explained those are clearly not play shoes. Then we went to Ross and I gave him a $20 limit. He chose a pair of Sketchers basketball shoes that he was so excited over he could hardly stand himself. Oh dear Lord it has started! I am not ready for him to not want me dressing him and him being so concerned with what he is wearing. Here he is with his (hideous) new shoes...

Lazy Sunday

This morning we got up and took Cooper on a good walk, then came home and let the kids play in the pool for a bit. They had fun for a while until Caleb "contaminated" the water and we had to shower everyone off outside and wash the pool.

 Then they came inside and dogpiled on Daddy for a while.

 I went to the store and came home to find the boys with new hair dos. Caleb was quite proud of his mohawk.

Party like a local

Several weeks ago we were down at Gab Gab beach when a family of locals who were set up at the pavilion near us came over and invited us to eat with them. We chatted and ate with them and visited for a while before our kids were ready to go back to our spot and play in the water. Off and on during the day we chatted and before we all left for the evening they asked us to exchange phone numbers so they could invite us over to their home any time they had a big family gathering or party. It isn't unusual here for a local family to "adopt" a military family to share in their family parties and such. This family is also retired military, so they love sharing their culture with other military people here.  Last week they called to invite us to a big party they were throwing for two of their grand children, one who was turning three and the other who was graduating high school. 

They live way down on the complete opposite end of the island than us, so it's a bit of a drive down there, but it's very pretty and less populated than our northern area. Their home is beautiful and sits on a fabulous piece of property atop a hill overlooking the jungle and mountains to one direction, a waterfall in another direction, and the ocean from yet another direction. Here are some pictures of their view. In the first one the waterfall is hidden out there in the jungle. You can see it in person but my iphone isn't good enough to see it in the photo.

 Out there you can see the ocean off in the distance.

We had no idea how serious a party this was, they went all out! There were at least ten tables set up just for food, then tents and chairs and tables for guests. There was a wall with a huge vinyl poster they had printed with the birthday boy's picture on it along with the Transformers logo and a happy birthday message. Underneath that was no less than two dozen new in the box Transformers toys that I assume were his presents from family. I'm pretty sure that three year old now has a complete set of Transformers! Next to that was a much larger vinyl poster they had made with the graduate's senior picture on it, his school logo and class year, along with some childhood photos of him printed on it. His graduation gown hung next to that as well. It was quite the set up. 

While we waited to eat the kids had a blast running around outside and playing. Caleb loves the outdoors and to have such a huge new area to explore he was in heaven! 

We learned that much like Portugal, some homes here have two kitchens as well. The "pretty kitchen" inside that no one really uses, and the outdoor kitchen where the cooking and mess really happens. People were all over the place helping and cooking. I just stood back and took it all in, hoping to learn a thing or two! They kept offering me bites of what they were cooking, which was sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad depending on if I liked it or not. When it was all done and set up I ran and snapped some pictures of the food before they gave the blessing and people started dishing up. There were a couple tables I didn't get pictures of and I missed the two dessert tables, yes I said TWO dessert tables! They had all kinds of typical local dishes, as well as some less common local foods as well. 

Here is one of the pigs roasting in the oven, they showed me before they took it out.

 The back left dish is made with local eels from the river near their home. The front center is chicken cooked in coconut milk and made with pumpkin leaves.

 All kinds of crabs!

 Fish on the right and my favorite finadene sauce in the pink bowl.

 The pig all ready to cut in to.

 So many types of kelaguan. Chicken, crab, blue crab, local deer, and shrimp kelaugen here, shrimp is delicious and reminds me of ceviche in a way. All kelaguen is "cooked" using an acidic lemon powder sold all over the island. So the meat is cooked in the acidic juices, instead of being heated.

 Shrimp fritters.

 Ham and pancit.

We put some red rice and titiyas (like a soft, puffy sweet bread tortilla of sorts) on a plate for Caleb and since Shelby ran out of room on his plate he threw two lumpia on Caleb's plate. Caleb went straight for the lumpia when we set the plate down and I didn't expect he would like them so much after tasting them. I was wrong. He tore them up! He literally ate the majority of BOTH lumpia and Shelby didn't get any! 

As we ate the sun started to set in the west, over the mountains and looked like this...

Which also lit up the sky to the east over the ocean to look like this...

Both directions it was a beautiful scene as we stuffed ourselves silly. Shelby had to work a mid shift that night and it was close to an hour drive back home, so we had to eat and run so he could get back to change and prep for work in time. It was a great opportunity and wonderful experience, there really are some awesome and generous people on this island. 

Stripping

A couple of times today Caleb has randomly taken off his clothes. I am not sure if it is just something he has realized he can do by himself now and so he's fascinated with testing it out over and over. I  hope that's it. We have a friend whose toddler just plain hated being clothed and would randomly strip her clothes off in a matter of seconds. She would do it at home, at the store, in restaurants, anywhere she could. I really hope we are not entering a phase like that! Here he is today shortly after taking his shirt off by himself. Proud as can be.

 This picture captured his silly little curl in the back of his head. His hair is getting longer but isn't quite long enough for a haircut just yet. When he gets hot and sweaty his little curl pops out in the back. I think it's adorable.

The days march on

Just another typical day in my house...

Caleb "cleaning" things. Seriously, when I need to cook dinner at night or just need him entertained for a few minutes all I have to do is hand the kid a wet wash rag and he goes to town.

The animals acting like, well, wild animals... Who knew a hamper basket could make such an exciting cat toy?

Colin is noticeably absent from most of my pictures, because he's always outside playing with his friends. Who says kids don't play outside enough anymore? Not my kid!

Screwdriver to the heart

Shelby was putting the Kelty back together after beingn washed and he had a screwdriver and some pliers out. Caleb had a hold of the screwdriver and thought he was hot stuff. He knew just what to do with it and went straight to his toy TV remote, flipped it over and started trying to unscrew the screws from the back. When Shelby was done working he took the tools back to put them away. Oh man did that set Caleb off. He clung to that screwdriver for deal live screaming "NO NO NO NO" as I pried his little fingers from it. He carried on a good five minutes as I frantically searched through an old box of Duplos in the garage knowing there was a toy screwdriver in there. When I finally gave him the toy screwdriver, so proud I was going to make him happy again and remedy the situation, he looked at me like I had three heads. I got this face...

 Which quickly turned to him just laying his head down and sobbing.

 And finally ended with him screaming at the top of his lungs and desperately trying to give me back my impostor screwdriver.

Can't fool this one.

Liberation Day fun

Today is Guam Liberation Day. There is a big parade, carnival and fireworks to celebrate Guam's liberation from Japanese rule during WWII. There is a ton of WWII history on this little island! Shelby ended up with the day off work, but got the memo late and had already gone in for a few hours before he was told to go home. By that time we figured we had missed our chance at seeing the parade, add that to next year's to do list, and decided to go to the beach instead. It rained off and on but it was still a pretty decent day at the beach.

Beautiful Ritidian Beach

 Caleb and Lisa building sand castles.

 It doesn't look like much from above, but it's all coral reef under there.

 This boy loves the sand!

 And these boys love the water!

Washing away the attitude

Colin has a terrible habit of throwing his clothes all over his room when he takes them off. When it is time for me to do laundry I wind up on a treasure hunt looking for it all. I've stopped doing that and started washing only what he gets relatively close to the laundry basket in his room. When he discovers he has to wait an extra week for his favorite shorts or shirt because he didn't get them in the basket, maybe he'll learn.

I was nice one night and I warned him I was going to do laundry in the morning and to clean up his clothes and get them all to the basket, as well as turned right side out that evening. He got about half his clothes in the basket and then came out of his room to go back to his movie in the living room. Which is when I reminded him about the turning everything right side out part again. He got very annoyed with me and started yelling at me that wasn't his job it was mine. Oooooooh buddy! In no time flat his dad and myself informed him that it was NOT my job to do his laundry, but something I do as a kindness to him. A generous offer on my behalf that he had just seen the last of for a while. He was told he would be gathering, sorting, washing, drying and folding his own laundry until further notice.

Each day since then I've asked him if he would like to do his laundry yet and he continues to tell me no, it's my job and he's not doing it. I don't push the issue and figure soon enough he'll run out of clothes and when he has to send his friends away because he has nothing proper to wear outside, well so be it! He's been coming out in PJs the last couple night that are a good size too small and I haven't seen him wear in ages. Guess who decided to do his laundry today. Now he knows it's not as easy as it looks, He's still going to be doing it for a while, hopefully he gets the point. Until then, I've got a lot less laundry to fold. Yippee!

Mini golf

The cub scouts had a mini golf day set up for the kids. The course is nothing special and it's always open on the naval base, you just bring your ball and your putter and go to town. The cub scouts had fun for sure, Caleb also had fun running his ball around the course for a while. When he got bored with that he discovered the flowers in the field between the parking area and the golf course. He was in flower picking heaven!

Group shot of those that attended the event.

Trying to read with a Boxer

This is what happens when you try to read to the baby before the dog has had his walk. Cooper was making sure he was heard while I attempted to read to Caleb. Caleb had his book in my lap and Cooper kept putting his paw on my lap, which bothered Caleb and he would move Coop's paw and Cooper would put it back and frustrate him. So much for story time!

Jerks

I forgot what total jerks cats can be. Only a cat can get away with such obnoxiousness on a daily basis. Exhibit A: Cat refuses to leave a room when you call him so you close the door and walk away. As soon as you close the door the cat howls at the door for the next 20 minutes to be let out. And when you finally think you've taught them a lesson and go open the door to let them out...

"Oh hello there human, what ever are you doing here?"

"Oooohh riiiiiight, I was howling for the last 20 minutes calling to you. Well now that the door is open I'm not so sure I want out after all..."

 "No. I'm really not so sure we should come out. I think we should sit down and talk about this, what do you think Pax?"

Because I love nothing more than standing in a doorway for 10 minutes waiting on cats who are pretending I am invisible. 

Exhibit B: I buy them expensive, high quality food that they carelessly eat and throw all over the floor. Cat comes to bowl, cat sticks face in bowl, cat gets a mouthful of food. Cat shakes head, food flies every where, cat chews the one tiny morsel remaining in is mouth, repeat. I am pretty sure I sweep up and throw away more food than my cats actually eat. Then sometimes, just for fun, they like to do this...

 "Oh hey, look what happened to my food bowl. Can I get a refill please, I'd like to practice my bowl flipping trick?"

Exhibit C: We picked up the shoe rack so the roomba could clean underneath it. Cat as 1800 square feet of house to get comfortable in, yet...

"I'm just gonna get comfy here right up in this dirt and dust pile. And when I get up I'll take all the dirt with me and leave it all over the rest of the house."

Yes, cats are total jerks.