Happy Easter

Callie and I had a pretty mellow and relaxing Easter with just the two of us today.  The Easter Bunny visited and Callie had a good time with her little treats.  I "hid" a couple of eggs out in the open for Callie, but she only managed to find two, even with lots of help.  She was more interested in what was in her basket :)

Callie's Easter basket

Finding an egg

Showing off her Easter treats :)

After breakfast I dressed Callie up in the Easter dress I brought from home and we met Caden and his mom outside.  Caden had been up since 6am so he didn't last long and we didn't get any pictures of them together.  Although he was pretty excited when he saw us coming and ran over and both kids reached their hands out to each other.  It was pretty cute :)  So, since it was just the two of us and Callie was all dressed up we walked over to the tulip garden to try and get some pictures.  Callie wasn't really into the whole picture thing, but enjoyed sitting on the ground and playing with a little toy truck she had . . .  

Posing by the tulips

Tired out after our morning photo shoot and walk

She felt much better after I took the dress off :)

Playing in the dirt after nap time.  She is saying cheese in this picture.  I started trying to teach it to her the other day since she never looks at the camera when I am taking pictures, and when she does she usually doesn't smile.  I'm not quite sure who she is saying cheese too, but she obviously doesn't quite understand the concept yet :)

Finally, she looked at the camera!

We hope everyone has a Happy Easter and we wish we could have spent it with all our loved ones.  We miss everyone and can't wait to see you all at the end of the season!

Baseball games

The baseball season has started and we are getting back into baseball mode.  Scott usually leaves for the field around 1:30pm so we have the whole morning to spend together as a family.  Right now he is on his first road trip, it only been a three day one so it hasn't been too bad.  Next week they are on the road for twelve days!  I will definitley have to find some new and exciting things to do with Callie while he is gone:)

This season Callie and I have already made it to three baseball games!  This may not seem like a whole lot, Scott has had six home games already, but we only made it to four games all last season.  Last season Callie was a little scared of how loud the cheering and the music is at the games, but this season she seems to love it!  She claps and says "yeah" when everyone is cheering and kicks her legs and dances to a couple of the players songs that come on when they come up to hit.  The only unfortunate thing is that she wants to walk up and down the stairs by the seats pretty much the whole game!  And since she isn't too good at walking on her own yet, I have to hold her hands and walk up and down the stairs with her.  We get a lot of interesting looks from all the fans, but if it keeps Callie happy during a three hour baseball game I'm not going to complain too much.  

At the first baseball game of the season!  Callie doesn't look too happy because the game just ended and she was very ready to go home :)  Scott didn't pitch, but the Tigers won!!

It looks like she is cheering in the picture but I'm pretty sure she is either trying to take the bow out of her hair, or the static on the chair is tickling her neck :)

Callie enjoying some french fries during the last game we went to.  She was perfectly content to sit on the steps and did more playing than eating with the french fries.  At first I was a little worried that it was weird, but she was quiet, happy, and wanted to stay in one place, so it was fine my me :)  Scott pitched in this game, but Callie didn't really seem to notice too much . . .

Getting ready for bed after the game.  It was about 10pm and Callie was pretty hyper after being at the game and playing with some of the other players kids afterward.  We were trying to put her in her pajamas and all she wanted to do was chill on the couch with Daddy :)

Perfect weather

The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days so we have been keeping busy outside.  There are a couple of small parks around the island with little sand/dirt pits and some playground equipment.  Scott and I took Callie to one the other day that had some pretty Cherry Blossom trees and we had a lot of fun playing on the playground.  Callie really enjoyed the slide and kept asking to slide over and over again!  She also wanted to walk up the stairs to the slide, which were pretty big so her steps looked pretty awkward :)

In front of a Cherry Blossom tree 

"Walking" up the stairs to the slide with Daddy

Sliding with Mommy

There is also a little playground right outside our apartment building.  We have spent the last couple afternoons letting the kids play in the sand (or as I like to call it, dirt) and they love it.  There is usually some drama over who has what toy, but they are slowly learning to share.  I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot of our days here once the weather stays nice :)

Playing with Caden in the dirt :)

True love???

There is a really pretty tulip garden on Rokko Island that is a short walk from the apartments.  This Saturday is a little tulip festival, but we have stopped by the last couple of days just to check out the pretty flowers.  The other day Callie, Scott and I went.  Callie wasn't too excited to check out the flowers, but we got some pretty pictures.

Today we went with Caden and his mom since the kids were going a little stir crazy in the apartment and it had stopped raining :)  The kids had a good time and as we started to walk away Caden walked up to Callie's stroller and his mom asked him to give Callie a hug and a kiss.  Oh boy, did he go right in for the kill :)

Caden looking all shy walking up to Callie :)

This one looks like Callie is about to tell Caden a secret :)

The money shot!!

By the way, Callie is probably going to kill me later for this post.  How embarrassing!!!!!  My theory is that you aren't doing your job as a parent if you don't embarrass your kids.  I guess I'm off to a good start :)  Love you Callie!!

Animal sounds

Callie has had a little cold the last couple of days so we have been laying low.  It's seems like she is slowly getting over it.  Hopefully we will only have to endure a couple more days of it.

So I thought I would post this video of Callie trumpeting at the elephant at the zoo last week.  She absolutely loves animals and can make a ton of different animal noises, not to mention tell you what just about every animal is.  Sounding like an elephant is one of her favorites, along with the monkey and a dog.  About the only noise I can think of that she can't quite do is a ribbit, but she is getting really close.  She has the "r" down, but not the rest yet.  

Enjoy!

Play date!

This morning Callie and I went on a little adventure with Amanda (another baseball wife) and her son Caden, who is one week younger than Callie.  We went to Motomachi, which is a short train ride away and has tons of shopping.  We were in search of some wooden toy trains for Caden and a friend told us about this store that has tons of wooden toys and then downstairs is a great play area.  Once the store finally opened, at 11am!!!!!, we headed straight for the play area.  It was amazing!!!!  They had a dress up area, a shadow room, a mirror room, a little kids area, a ball pit, etc.  The kids had a great time and never really played together until we found the marble toy.  I know, marbles are a little dangerous for one year olds, but of course it was their favorite part!

chasing after a ball in the little kid area

checking out the balls in the ball pit

playing with marbles

Callie and Caden on the train ride home.  They were playing footsie, and then Caden tried to take off Callie's socks :)

Callie is now officially done with her Doc Band (well Thursday was supposed to be her last day, but it seemed a little too tight, so I took it off a day early).  The band needs to be adjusted every two to three weeks and there isn't a Cranial Technologies in Japan so we had it adjusted right before we left and now we are done!  The Doc Band did an amazing job and Callie's head is almost completely round.  I'm so glad we did it and would recommend it to anyone that is thinking of doing it.  It will be big change seeing her without the band on, oh and making sure she doesn't bump her head all the time :)

ZOO!

Scott had an off day on Monday so we decided to head to the Zoo!  It was a chilly day, but there was no rain in the forecast so we braved the cold and headed out.  Callie had so much fun and loved looking at all the animals.  She was such a good little girl and stayed in her stroller for most of the visit, which was great for our backs :)  Her favorite stops were the peguins and the elephants.  The zoo has a baby elephant that is only two days older than Callie and I was really excited to see him and how much he had grown from last year, but they had him all closed up.  I guess it was too cold for him.  Hopefully we will be able to see him on our next visit.

Callie and Daddy posing at the entrance to the panda exhibit.  Pandas are a big attraction here.  Pretty much everything in the gift shop has a panda on it :)

Trying to jump in with the penguins :)

Checking out the penguins from underwater.  At first she started quacking at them, but once we said they were penguins she started to say penguins, well her own version of the word :)

Callie was sitting and eating a snack while watching the penguins and I was taking pictures of her.  The lady at the info desk brought this panda over for a photo-op I guess?!?  It was pretty cute.

Checking out the sleeping tiger.  Callie was doing a great job sitting in her stroller, so Scott just picked the whole thing up so she could see into the windows :)