Birthdays and Standing Tall

The key words for this week are "Busy" and "Exhausting". I apologize for the lack of pictures but I spent most of this week in either a stupor or far too busy to pick up the iPhone. Such is the life of a supermom.

Ian's birthday was this past week and we celebrated for a good three days. It's not everyday that my hubby gets incredibly old ;-D. We got him a new espresso machine for his board game. I was relieved because this is probably the first holiday in which we haven't bought him a board game. Seriously, they are stacked to the ceiling. Anyways, we set it up the night before his birthday and you  should have seen how giddy (not to mention caffeinated) he was experimenting with the darn thing after he got home from work.

Friday night I got a babysitter to watch Bea while I took Ian out for a lovely French dinner. Courses! It was not to be though because the restaurant was closed for a large party going on. This is why you book ahead! I didn't think there would be a problem getting in because only Americans go there for dinner and the last Friday night I went it was a very lean crowd. All the Japanese go there for lunch and I can't even begin to describe how fabulous their eggs Benedict are. Anyways, we ended up at a low key ramen shop called Sapporo Ramen. Very tasty but neither of us were really dress comfortably enough to be sitting on the floor. After that well, with an hour and a half to kill....with the weather hovering just above freezing and raining....and not being dressed for anything so romantic as a walk on a moonlit beach...Ian being on standby so we can't really go out to a bar...not knowing at the drop of a hat where a love motel is... We headed to the Universe for some good old fashioned grocery shopping. We are so pathetic. Ian bought a $10 bottle of Scotch about which he said "The $9 much have been for the import fees because the whole thing tastes like it couldn't cost more than 75 cents. " I being a little wiser than spending money on cheap booze got a bag of croissants. Now I get jam and warm croissants with my breakfast every morning. Heaven!

So we all know that Ian loves nothing more than board gaming with people. However, he wouldn't put anything together for Sunday. He has building a set for the theater company on Saturday. So Thursday I put out a Facebook blast letting people know that we were having and Espresso/Food/Games soiree...practically all day. Ian and I were cleaning and cooking all morning and then people started showing up around 1pm. It was such a blast. Tons of good food and conversation. Our friends brought some wickedly awesome Indian style curry. Ian made Italian bread the night before. The Espresso was flowing. There was chocolate mousse and brownies. Ian got to play games with the boys in the dining room and I got to play games and gossip with the girls in the living room. I think we'll have to do it again soon.

In Bea news, she has finally learned to pull herself to standing! It is so cute because she puckers her lips and hoots at you to let you know that you should praise her. My days of hiding things on chairs is numbered. In fact a week ago, I took her to a baby lap sit and she saw another baby crawl on all fours and since then she's been experimenting with getting on all fours and pushing her self up. I swear a week after she sees another baby do something she's got it down pat. A keen observer that one.

She has also learned to blow kisses. Ian and I discovered this when we were kissing each other, making a kissy noise, and then Bea did the same thing! So we had to test it out, and sure enough she could make the kissy noise after we do. So now we give her lots of kisses just so she will make the kissy noise. We'll have to turn it into a bed time ritual. which we haven't quite gotten around to making one. Usually we put her to bed after exhaustion takes hold.

Bea was helping me sort through my kimonos after I reorganized her room to give her a little more space. Bea has become quite the talker. She babbles too herself and sorts the laundry or the kimonos into piles. Which means she's using her whole arm and body to move the clothes from one side of her to the other. I haven't been successful in getting pictures because as soon as she sees my phone she stops and poses. She did surprise me on Thursday when she pulled off her sock and said "Sock". It was so clear, and then I said sock back to her and she giggled. Those are the moments that make you pause and realize how quick your kid is catching on. It's scary. Ian and I still turn to each other and say "We have a kid". Continual source of amazement.

I feel like some time this week Bea went to bed a baby and woke up a toddler. Now she has realized that she can refuse to eat certain foods, pureed peas, peaches...and the list goes on and on. I think she just likes to spit things out for the hell of it. That and she discovered her tongue so she's always sticking that out. Now the only things I can get her to eat are fruit and whatever we are currently eating. Mommy woes.

This week I got to do a little flower arranging for the officers spouses club. They were have a little bingo night and wanted some ikebana like flower arrangements to give away as door prizes. I say ikebana like because ikebana is really hard to do in the round and since I'm not a sensei I don't really know what I'm doing. Sensei, a friend and I went down to sensei's flower shop the day before and sensei helped up pick out some wonderful flowers. I absolutely adore the azaleas and Gerber daisies. We had a lot of fun arranging them and had to continually tell ourselves that we didn't have to strictly follow all the ikebana rules. Though I tried to follow most of them. We got lots of praise for the arrangements and that's what's important. Here are the pictures that I did actually manage to get taken this week.

On a side note Ginger has a stomach parasite. That was a whole Tuesday afternoon of running around for me. But she's on meds and will probably over come. Shiba's are like cockroaches, extremely loyal cockroaches. Now if I could only teach her not to eat every scrap of bone that she finds on our daily walks.