Bear Party for Brandon

Brandon turned 6 on June 25. He had his first party with friends invited, and his first party that was not combined with Nathan's birthday (June 22). He decided on a Bear theme. I had my kids decorate the living room with all their teddy bears. We have a lot of teddy bears in this house!

When the kids arrived, they made Honey Comb necklaces.

We put all the bears on our big blanket and played "flying bears"--like the parachute game kids play at school. The bear who stayed on the blanket the longest was the winner. We played this twice and they loved it so much that we played it again while we were waiting for the parents to pick them up at the end.

Pin the heart on the bear!

Hot dogs and fruit salad for lunch.

Brandon requested "strawberry blondies" for his birthday cake. They're bar cookies made from strawberry cake mix with chocolate chips in them. Paul turned it upside down out of the pan to make the bear face with candy and cupcakes as accents. Cute!

After eating cake and opening presents, they played "pass the bear" (hot potato). When a kid got out, he got his favor bag.

So, the party was a success. Fortunately our landlord let us use his empty lot near our house for parking. And fortunately Paul was off school to help me pull it all off!

More Spring Happenings

Jacob signs "more" over and over when he sees food on the dinner table. It's a definite improvement over the screaming he used to do when he wanted food!


June 5, Paul made this lovely Japanese ensemble called mosubi: rice, fried spam, and eggs wrapped in seaweed. Everyone liked it.

On April 10, Paul ran the Ie Island half marathon. What a stud.


On May 25, Emily's 2nd grade class performed a hula dance for the Asian Pacific Heritage Month assembly. She's on the right. They made their own yarn leis in class.

For the past few months, Emily has participated in Taiko drum club (see last month's post). The girls in the club also learned a Japanese girls' dance and performed it at the Asian-Pacific Heritiage Month assembly. They were so cute in their kimonos!

Emily also participated in Music Club this year. Here she is during a performance for parents.

Nathan's preschool class had an end-of-year program. They sang songs and received certificates. He didn't feel like singing the songs for the parents, but he didn't mind posing for this picture with his teacher, Ms. Melina (right), and Ryoko-san, the teacher's assistant, who also taught them monthly lessons on Japanese culture.

The kids love seeing big bugs.

On Saturday, June 5, Brandon lost his second front tooth!

The same day, I gave Brandon a shorter haircut than he's had before. He initially was asking me to shave his head (no need to comb!). I showed him pictures online of kids with really short buzz cuts to be sure he knew what he was getting into, and he changed his mind and asked me just to give him a trim, but Paul and I talked him into getting a shorter cut. We all love it, including Brandon. (And it is easier for him to comb.)

Lots of pictures

Tooth Fairy season for Brandon! He's lost three teeth now.

Here he is after the 3rd tooth came out. It was already a bit loose when he bumped it on the playground and it loosened up enough for him to pull it out! He'd been asking for apples in his lunch to hurry up the process, so he was glad to get it out! Now he lisps more--and it looks like the other top front will come out before it comes in!

When one kid is on the computer they all gather around.

All of our kids love books! This is our "library."

We attended the Cherry Blossom Festival in Naha in February.


In March, Emily and Brandon's school had a "Character Parade." Emily dressed up as Pinkalicious from one of her books.


Brandon's class coordinated their costumes with a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme. Brandon was excited about holding the sign.



Jacob LOVES his puppy. He loves to bite its nose (and ears and tail). He got it for his birthday and a month or so later started chewing it a lot. Ever since then, he has stopped biting us! (Thanks, Mom Finlayson!) He's gotten LOTS of new teeth during that time, too. The puppy must soothe his gums a lot!



In April, Emily participated in a "Show and Share" talent show for the District Activity Days girls in our church. She showed this beautiful painting she made.

It's election season in Okinawa. Candidates ride around in these vans with speakers so they drive through the streets and thus force the public to hear them. The kids like waving to them because they always wave back.

Jacob is gaining lots of new abilities! He's pretty good at pushing himself around in his baby car now.

Last week I went with Emily's Gifted Ed. class to the Cryogenics Lab on Kadena Air Base. They put some rubber balls in liquid nitrogen and the kids broke them on the pavement.

Emily had hard time breaking it!

They also used the liquid nitrogen to make ice cream! Yum!

Emily performed with her Taiko Drum Club on May 3 for her school's Asian Pacific Heritage assembly.

On the dresser you'll see all the great cards and things the kids gave me for Mother's Day! I love you, kiddies!

Skate Night

After school today I took the kids to "Skate Night" at the elementary school. Kids could bring skates, bikes, scooters, etc. and ride around the loop between parking lots. It was a good idea. They advertised that they would be selling hot dogs and popcorn, among other things. Emily was the only one of my kids who wanted a hot dog. I was counting on the popcorn for the other kids, but they didn't have it as they'd advertised. That was disappointing. It would've been their after-school snack, and plus, popcorn makes them so happy, and I like to have happy kids! Then Emily dropped her hot dog off her plate before she even got one bite. She ran up to me and was so upset that she hit my arm with her plate (face down), getting ketchup all over my arm. I got upset with her and told her she was the one who dropped the hot dog, so she is the one that needs to pick it up and either eat it or ask for another one--and told her to get me a napkin for my arm! She did ask for another hot dog, and they were nice and gave it to her for free. I got rid of her plate so she'd have to hold onto her hot dog instead of balance it on the plate. Then someone bumped into her and she dropped her second hot dog! Another burst of tears. Again I presented her options. She asked for another hot dog. The hot dog seller gave ME the hot dog and said maybe I'd better hold it for her! Of course I had to hand it over so she could eat it.

The hot dog came with a drink and chips. I said Brandon and Nathan would get most of the chips since there wasn't any popcorn, and they didn't want a hot dog. Emily accepted that, and it went all right until Brandon took the bag out of Nathan's hands so he could get some. Nathan is so little that he feels like they're totally being taken away from him when that happens. Outburst from Nathan. So I put some chips on a plate just for him. Then the kids sort of settled down to eat. Nathan whined that he wanted to go sit inside the school, but that wasn't an option. (He likes to eat at a table.) We sat on the curb watching the skaters glide ride by.

After their food was gone, Emily wanted my help putting on our roller blades (a wonderful hand-me-down from some friends). They're really hard to put on and she seemed to think she depended on me to put them on her, although it was nearly impossible for me to shove them onto her feet. She needed to push her feet down herself. At one point she got frustrated and threw the skate toward me and it hit my ankle. Sheesh! Yes, I let her know I didn't appreciate that (and said I was done helping her). She pouted, but finally she got the skates on and I helped her skate. We recently got these roller blades and she had only skated on the carpet, so she was pretty teetery. I held her hand and she went a little ways and then plopped herself down on the curb in discouragement. I asked if she wanted to skate or if I should go back to where Jacob and Nathan were, and she said I could go back. I did. I could still see her, and she sat there and pouted or cried (I couldn't tell which). Then a friend of hers came along and helped teach her to skate. That worked out better. Sometimes someone other than me is best for helping Emily with frustrating things. Kind of like how my mom initially tried to teach me piano herself. With her, I didn't restrain myself enough when I got frustrated. My situation with Emily is extremely similar. She was proud of herself for skating and I was, too.

The rest of Skate Night went all right. Brandon was nice to share his scooter with Emily and Nathan. We also have some "heelies" that Nathan put on. He really likes those. He took one off so he could be steady on at least one foot. He likes that better. Cute Nathan. And then while Emily was riding the scooter and after Nathan got tired of the heely, Brandon and Nathan just ran around the loop. They enjoyed that. Nathan, especially, loves running. He sometimes says, "I'n a runner!"

When it was time to go home, Nathan had been the last one to take a turn on the scooter, and Emily wanted to ride it back to the car. I told her she could ask him, but if he said no, not to take it from him. Well, he said no. She tried to take it from him and I stopped her, so she plopped herself on the ground and refused to come to the car with us. We walked ahead and I silently prayed for help to know what to do. (Seems I do a lot of such pleading lately!) I called back to her that if she didn't come with us, (in other words, if I had to come back for her), she'd have to go to her room when we got home. She came.

We got home and hurried and had some dinner before bedtime. Fortunately I had lots of spaghetti leftover from Nathan's preschool picnic today. (It's nice when you bring something to a potluck that people like and eat up, but in this case, it worked out well that they didn't! Especially for Brandon, who recently discovered that he LOVES spaghetti and meatballs.)

Day off

Don't faint because I'm writing this less than three months after my last entry!

Today is a day off school for the kids (It's Educator's Day, when the teachers to go workshops) and has been really fun for me. Not only did I get to avoid bus stop deadlines, but I got to relax and soak in the fun of having such cute kids. And I went to bed early last night. Otherwise I wouldn't be feeling so great.

First, Brandon was so kind and thoughtful during breakfast. Emily started out the day not feeling too hot because, she said, she was up beginning at 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep due to a lot of "hullabaloo" regarding her nose. As a result, she's been pretty cranky today, so when Brandon poured a little pink lemonade for himself and for Nathan at breakfast and Emily saw very little left in the pitcher, she slammed the pitcher down on the table (splashing some onto the floor) and threw a fit. I decided to mostly ignore her behavior for the moment (and she sort of "cleaned it up"). She calmed down and asked Brandon nicely if she could have a little of his lemonade. He kindly gave her ALL of his lemonade. Classic tender, generous Brandon. Later in the day when I sent Emily up to her room for "rest time" when she was again being difficult, Brandon hopped up and gave her one of her "American Girl" books to take upstairs to read. She had already read it and said so. Well, if not Emily, at least I acknowledged Brandon's nice gesture!

Anyway, I don't mean to give Emily a bad rap. We'll cut her some slack since she's a little sick!

So for the day off today, after Jacob's nap we went to the post office, the bank, the library, and the park by the library. It was just a nice time, and the kids were good and happy. It's blustery today (typhoon passing near) and a couple pieces of mail blew away from my pile, and Emily and Brandon chased them down . It was a remarkable moment to me because it reminded me that I've finally passed the point where I have to do all the work all the time! I just waited with Jacob and Nathan while the others ran down the sidewalk after it!

Brandon brought along a picture he had brought home from school the other day and colored with colored pencils. It looked so nice that he was really proud of it, so he showed the bank teller, post office clerk, and librarian. The bank teller didn't notice it right away, so he said, "Look, Miss." I loved that!

At the park there's a set of four swings--two baby swings and two big-kid swings, and I enjoyed seeing all four of my happy kids lined up on them (all wearing shades of red). I should've brought my camera!

Cute things Nathan said today: When he was crying, he said, "I need some milk to feel me better." Later he made an announcement for me: "Mom Gentlemen, come here" (in the tone of "Ladies and Gentlemen"). Then he whispered it, and I thought he was so cute that I asked him to do it again so I could take a video:

This past Sunday in Relief Society we discussed the CES Fireside talk by Elder Bednar called "Things as they Really Are" and someone made the comment that some people's blogs make their lives sound too rosey. I don't mean to make my life appear better than it is. A friend of Paul's who reads our blog told me this summer that it seems like I'm a really calm person, from what I write in the blog. My response was that I just don't write in the blog when I'm flustered! I do often feel like writing in here to complain, but I never do because I think I would probably regret it later. Anyway, today is one of the good days of really appreciating my kids. Now to come up with something to make for dinner that might not result in kid-whining. (Very hard to do.)

AH! Update--Paul just called and said he got a free cheese pizza that he's going to bring home for dinner. Wow, the great day continues!

Fun kid stuff

Nathan really wanted to make his own PB&J sandwich for lunch (like Emily and Brandon often do for their lunchboxes), so I let him. Here he is with his creation. He only ate the middle part since that's the only part with any peanut butter and jelly! He asked to make his sandwich the next couple of days as well, so I let him, but helped with the edges this time. (By the way, I've been enjoying focusing on Nathan more than before, now that Brandon's in school.)

"Want that ball...want that ball..."

"Yay!"


They made a throne and said Jacob was the king.


Emily's assignment was to paste a photo or draw a picture of something in each box that was important to her in each year of her life.



Jacob loves the remote.



Nathan made a big mess of Cheerios so I had him vacuum them up as a consequence. He had so much fun doing it that I'm not sure it was much of a punishment!

Brandon and Jacob get along well. They even share a room now! (But this took place in the living room.)

Emily came home one day and said, "I know how to jump rope!"After all these years of wanting to do it, she finally arrived! (Play video.)

February stuff

My fans have asked for more blog. So here it is.
What's going on in the Campbell fam?

• Nathan sleeps in a little big-boy bed and pees in the potty (occasionally).
• Brandon has been working hard at writing his preschool classmates' names on his Valentines. It's so cute to see him concentrate so hard!
• Emily claims, "All I ever do is homework!" but spends just a few minutes on it per day, with lots of whine-time surrounding it.
• Jacob amazes me at his ability to fall asleep (sometimes) and charms the pants off the whole family with his smiles.
• Paul is getting over his sickness that lingered over a month until he finally went to the doctor for antibiotics. Good thing he got them before March came around (his hardest month as a teacher, as it is 3/4 of the way into the school year and has no days off).
• Jill is tired but enjoying life. I'm especially excited about the new weekly music group for preschoolers that some friends invited us to. It's fun for Nathan and Brandon to participate in, and they get to play with the kids and toys before and after the music part. Really, the play/social aspect of it is the most exciting thing, for them and for me!
• We all are enjoying the Japanese "cherry blossoms" that are all over the place this time of year. We're going to attend a "Cherry Blossom Festival" this Saturday. It's probably just the same as any of the fairs we go to with dumb little (and expensive) kids' carnival games, food for sale (our favorite part), and possibly some Eisa dancers and Taiko drummers. The big plus will be seeing Emily surrounded by all the PINK blossoms, which will surely be a taste of heaven for her.
• I think I've converted to using liquid Tide rather than the powder (although usually cheaper)! It smells so good!
• I have 9 lbs to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. The number sounds small but I still can't wear most of my wardrobe. Plus, being tired makes me want to eat more! And I can't escape being tired with a 2-month old!

Just desserts

Brandon got a cupcake in a bag to take home from preschool today for someone's birthday. I told him he could eat it at home after lunch. It was really hard for him to resist eating it before we got home. He snuck a couple licks outside the preschool. Then, after he got out of the car at home, he ran behind a tree while I was getting Nathan out and scarfed down what he could before he got caught. By the time I reached him, his hands were COVERED in yellow frosting, and his face, shirt, and shorts all bore evidence of cupcake consumption. The top of the cupake had fallen off in the dirt (but he'd licked off all the frosting already, so it was no big loss, I guess). I picked up the cupcake top and told him that's what he gets when he disobeys--he lost part of his cupcake. I told him not to touch anything and we went inside. Brandon started whining, "There's paper in my tummy," and pointing to his tummy, where yellow frosting was smudged on his shirt. I told him it's frosting and he could change his shirt at home. But he kept repeating the exact same thing and pointing to his tummy. Then in the elevator, he touched my elbow and, despite my good intentions, my elbow touched my white shirt. The next time he whined, "There's paper in my tummy!" and pointed to the yellow splotches on his shirt, in my irritation over my shirt getting messy, I snapped at him, "It's not paper, it's frosting!" He broke into tears, and after that I realized he was not talking about his messy shirt. In his rush to finish the cupcake before getting caught, he had ingested the cupcake paper! There really was paper in his tummy, and that just didn't sit right in his mind! I had a little more sympathy for him at that point (well, at least I acted like it), and told him it wouldn't make him sick and it "would just come out in his poopoo." (He could use a little extra fiber anyhow!) He was not comforted. Of course I had to throw in that if he had obeyed me and had waited to eat the cupcake at the table at home, he would not have been in a hurry and accidentally eaten the paper!

Another School Year

School began this month for Emily and Brandon. Emily is in first grade at Killin Elementary, just behind our building. I put her in a first-second grade "Multi-age" classroom. She is enjoying it. I am really amazed at the skills she's learning. It seems to be a big step above her kindergarten class, but one she is totally ready for. She's already doing things like 2-digit addition and subtraction and using editing marks to edit her own writing. Also, yesterday she asked me how to spell "balcony," and then she stopped and said, "Never mind, I'll just spell it phonetically."

Everyone in our family was sick for the first week of school except for Emily. What a blessing for her. She told Paul that she was excited and scared to start school again.

Brandon is in a four year-old class at Kuwae Preschool that he goes to three mornings per week. He seems to love it just like his class there last year. He has another great teacher, Mrs. Lavallee, and is always excited to go to preschool, and comes out of preschool happy every time. Brandon seems like such a big boy now. One thing I love about Brandon is how he will dig in and work hard at things. He likes to help around the house and learn to do things on his own. He isn't afraid to scrub hard or to lift heavy things.

Nathan stays with me. At first he wanted to join Brandon on the playground at his preschool, but he knows the routine now. Nathan is a full-blown two year-old in the sense that he has a greater desire to choose things for himself, such as what he'll wear and where he'll go. It's fun and difficult. You know. ;)