Random pics from the last week

This is a pretty random conglomeration of pictures from over the last week:
We had corn on the cob one night, which Luke and Sterling were SO excited to have. I was afraid Sterling's fang tooth might give him trouble when trying to eat the corn off the cob, but it didn't slow him down at all!

This is the same night that I took the video, just him sitting and playing with his trucks and tractors.

I got out the playdoh on the day Luke was gone to the sumo match to help cheer Sterling up. He always hates it when his dad is gone all day! Those two are attached at the hip (or at least Sterling wishes they were!)

And this is more presents we got in the mail! Yeah!! My mom, grandma and the Wee Church kids at GCC all made a combined effort and sent us some awesome treats that we are SO excited about. Sterling was especially excited for the cheerios and Cheetos/applesauce- in fact he refused to lay down and take a nap until he at least got 2 cheetos (one for each hand of course). Thank you SO much to Bama, Gigi and all our friends at Wee Church.

ANOTHER BOY

Yep, we're having another boy! We went to the Dr. today and he did an ultrasound. He actually said he was "pretty sure" it was a boy (and we got to see the image) but he also said he would check again next month just to be sure. So it appears as if I'm going to be seriously outnumbered in this family, especially after our adoption!

New Videos

Potty Training....
So, just to clear the question of which of the Chase/Wood kids (of the four born in 2006) is potty trained first, Sterling wins :) He's been potty trained for over a month now- it actually was when my parents came to visit that he really picked it up and for real went with underwear all day every day. Now, he even naps without his diaper, although he does still sleep at night in one. Every once in a while he'll wake up dry, but he's not good enough yet to go all night without a diaper (which is why he has one on in this first video)
I took this one night before Sterling went to bed. This was one of those rare times that he was just sitting quietly and playing by himself on the floor. I think I was so amazed by the unusual sight of him playing so nicely and quietly that I had to get it on video!


And this one was from the other night when Luke and Sterling were playing baseball. He was being funny and trying to repeat everything Luke said.

In case you didn't know...

Well, this video is for all of you who have never had the pleasure of viewing real sumo wrestling. Luke and Sterling will show you a very good imitation of what a sumo match really looks like. Hope you get a good laugh.

Sumo

Luke and Sterling having been watching sumo on TV lately and Luke actually got to go and watch last night! There is a tournament in Nagoya and he went with some of the people from his class. Sterling and I looked for him on TV but we couldn't see him (he was way at the top of the stadium). He will hopefully get some pictures from his classmates (because he didn't take our camera) but until then here are a couple of Sterling watching "the big guys wrestle" as he hilariously puts it :)

The Pool and Muffins

I've been taking Sterling to the pool on the days that I don't have my tutoring, and Luke goes with us on the weekends. We've been having a fun time. It's pretty busy on the weekends (when these pics were taken) but during the week when we go, we're sometimes the only ones there! The next three pictures are from the park/pool. I let him ride his bike from the parking lot and around the park a little before and after swimming. The slide is one of his favorite things to do at the pool, along with jumping in from the side.



This is when he was coloring a picture one evening. I caught him sticking out his tongue in concentration.

Thanks to Uncle Brian, Aunt Erin and cousins Alexis and Ava! They sent us muffin mix and we made them the other morning. They were SOOOOO good! Sterling ate 3! He would have eaten them all if I'd have let him! Thank you guys- and to everyone who has been so kind to us by sending us special things from America that we miss.

Lagunasia

Last week while Luke had a few days off of school we got to go to Lagunasia, a waterpark that is about 40 minutes away. We had such a good time! It was the first time we've done something in Japan like this and we loved it. Since we went on a weekday there weren't very many people there, which was nice. There was a wave pool, 2 kiddie pools, a regular swimming pool, a small lazy river and lots of rides. We didn't do any of the rides, but we spent the whole day in the water! Two of the videos are of Sterling and Luke doing the giant bounce house slip n' slide, which was probably the highlight for them. I was so glad we got to do something fun on the short break that Luke had between his quarters.

Yoga and the Park

Sterling decided he wanted to do yoga with me. It was hilarious because he kept saying "Good job mommy!"

This is at the park by our house, although we've never actually been in this section of the park. There's really not much to see in this section, but there are go-carts! So Sterling and Luke took a spin around the track--they are pretty slow :)


The same day that we went to the park we also fed the fish and turtles. A little boy beside us gave us bread to throw to them because the little shop that sells the food had already shut down. Sterling could sit here for hours watching the fish and turtles.

July 4th Weekend

Here are some pics from our "holiday" weekend which isn't actually a holiday here in Japan, of course. So we celebrated with our team and on our own. We went to a park on Friday afternoon and had a picnic, but it was SOOO hot and sticky and there were mosquitoes everywhere. We stayed for a while then we all went back to Nick and Rachel's to hang out all together. Before we even got to the park though, Sterling fell asleep in his stroller with both of his favorite toy trucks in his hands, which I just thought was pretty cute. It was actually a bad day for him because I forgot his pig which he ALWAYS has when he naps. So it took him over an hour to get to sleep because he didn't have the pig's tail to play with.


Brayden, Sterling and Owen


On Saturday we played in the water with the neighbor girls. It was so much fun to play and splash and we were again grateful for our little yard!

This was Sterling and Luke on Saturday or Sunday afternoon, I can't remember which. But I do know they were watching baseball and eating soybeans and having a coke, which I just thought was too funny-- like a couple of old friends or something.

Great Grandpa Huiskamp

For those of you who didn't know my great grandpa Huiskamp you definitely missed out on meeting a great man. He was a gentleman, humble, and very generous with his time and resources. He was willing to help in whatever way he could without wanting the credit or recognition for his kindness. He cared for his family deeply. I still can picture him all bundled up with my great grandma watching my high school football games. It was an honor to be his great grandson. He passed away this past week. I just wanted to ask for your prayers for my family as they go through the grieving process. The visitation and funeral are Thursday night and Friday morning. Since we are living in Japan we will not be able to make it back to Keokuk to be with our family. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your prayers. I only hope to follow my great grandfather, Carl Huiskamp, in the way that he lived: a life of generosity, humility, and enormous amounts of love and respect for others.

Wrestling More

I took these two videos the other day of Luke and Sterling wrestling-- which they are constantly doing. We've finally gotten Sterling to understand that he can't wrestle with me, although he still tries sometimes. It's a lot of fun to watch them because they both enjoy it equally!

Wrestling

So I Lied...

My mom sent me about 15 more pictures from their time here, so I'm going to go ahead and post some of them because they are so good! Sorry for the overload of Birt Family trip pictures, but we just had so much fun! So if anyone else wants to come, look how much fun we could have! :)

Sterling and I at the bus station.

Sorry this picture is blurry, we had the waitress take it. This is when we ate "Udon" which is a main meal here in Japan. It is a noodle soup and you can put fried vegetables/shrimp in it. We sat in the traditional Japanese way on tatami mats.

When we were at the aquarium in Nagoya Sterling wanted his picture by this Mickey Mouse. They were actually advertising for English Classes that Disney offers.

The three guys were watching the dolphins...or at least Sterling was watching the dolphins, the other two were just there!

Sterling was watching a diver clean out the tank.

We went to Outback on our last night together. When we saw this sign, Sterling got so excited and immediately started mooing. Everyone that was sitting out there just started laughing and thought it was really cute.

We all went to visit Sterling's school together because it is really important in this culture to have the grandparent's approval. So the teachers at his school were very nice to my parents and really wanted them to see all that Sterling does while he's there.

This is our backyard fence-- Sterling copying my dad as best as he can.

This was on one of our train rides.

This was at the zoo- we were actually sitting on a bunny rabbit statue, but you can't really tell :)

This was at the grocery store. Sterling got tired of riding, so Kara tried to fit...obviously that didn't work out!

Last of the Birt Family Trip

These are the last three pictures of their trip...It was the sad last day.


These pictures are from the train and bus station. We had to take an 80 minute bus ride to the airport, so Sterling played with stickers for about 7 entire minutes.

The Huff family sent a little race car track carpet for Sterling to play on and he has literally spent hours on that thing! I still can't believe how long he'll just lay there and drive his tractor. Yes, you read that correctly, it's a nascar race track and he will ONLY drive his tractors on it which I think is hilarious.

Last Sunday afternoon my teammate Caitlin and I went shopping with our friends Reina and Yuko. It was a really fun afternoon. We did one of those little photobooth things, only they are way better here in Japan! They have a million backgrounds and have you do all these funny poses, then you can add all kinds of artwork, writing, etc to them on the computer after you have finished. I know this picture is blurry, but they are really tiny and I couldn't get the picture to come in clear.

The Port

All of these pictures were taken the day we went to the Nagoya Port with my family. Sterling really enjoyed the day because we did all of his favorite things- ride the train, run around outside and see animals at the aquarium. He especially loved the dolphin show. The second picture is mom, dad, sterling, and kara in front of the ship that is at the port that you can board and look around. The last picture is Sterling exhausted after running the entire day. We had only been on the subway for about 2 minutes when he fell asleep!

Announcement

Most of you know this already, but I am currently 3 months pregnant! This has been a huge surprise for us, something we were definitely not expecting. Many of you also know that we were right in the middle of an adoption of a baby boy from Ethiopia...So this pregnancy will put that on hold for a little while, although we still plan to continue with the adoption as soon as I have the baby and we are both healthy. This has been a crazy couple of months for us as we've tried to adjust to the idea of having another baby as well as adopting!
Many of you also know that since I'm already 13 weeks along I've been having trouble finding a clinic to go to. Here in Japan you basically have two options- you can go to a hospital (where you will be in an open birthing room with other mothers and your husband is not allowed in and no one speaks English) OR you can go to a clinic, where you have your own room, there are some doctors and nurses that speak English, etc. So obviously I want to go to a clinic but the problem with that is that everyone wants to go to clinics so they get "booked up" quickly! I went to one and they didn't have room for me so I was a little worried about getting in somewhere since I'm already so far along. BUT, today Luke and I went to a clinic in Nagoya (an hour train and subway ride, but we're hoping a little shorter by car) that has room for me! The doctor lived in America for a few years and speaks great English so we are really excited! Plus our teammates The Parsons just moved into a house in Nagoya that we might be able to stay at when it comes time to have the baby so that we wouldn't be so far away. Things are finally coming together!

Okazaki Zoo

This first picture was taken at our school the night there was an outdoor BBQ. We all brought our own meat and grilled it. It was raining, but there was a little carport roof and Sterling and Brayden had a ton of fun just playing in the rain :) Andy took this picture of all of us and I think it's really good!

The rest of these pictures are from the zoo. We went one day while Luke was in school.



We added a second monkey to this last picture!