Tiny Loves Justin

Trying to catch up with posts. This one will not be very interesting. Sorry. Pictures for Grandma though. :)
Luckily, Tiny loves Justin. Justin often decides he MUST have Tiny's toys. Of course this is most likely because he has no toys of his own, right? Here is Justin taking over one of Tiny's books and telling Tiny it is okay to have his big brother rip the book out of his hot little hands. Tiny likes his infant gym and guess what--so does Justin!
This ball is one of Tiny's absolute favorite toys. Justin has tried to play catch with Tiny. It is hard to be too upset with him when he is honestly trying to play with his brother. He seemed surprised that Tiny didn't catch it. He told Tiny to catch, but it still hit Tiny in the face. Tiny has a pathetic little cry that indicates a fear/hurt/surprise type emotion.

I have a game called Ring Around the Nosey that I bought several years ago on clearance at Toys R Us. The kids in my classrooms over the years have enjoyed it. Justin, Tiny, and I played with it for awhile. Justin cheated (and won) and Tiny doesn't play very well. We had a good time though.


Here is my sweet talking Tiny!

Zoo and Green Beans

Friday we went to the zoo. I thought that since it was a non-holiday weekday it wouldn't be too crowded. Wrong! I think that there were more people at the Tokyo zoo than live in all of Namibia. When we move to Namibia later this year we will see if I was right or not! We managed to get away from a lot of the crowd and see the major animals that we thought Justin would be expecting. He was quite excited to see the rhino, the green anaconda (which he said was "the biggest snake he's ever seen!"), the Galapagos tortoise, and the iguana. All of these animals are featured in youtube videos that he used to watch with Papa.

The zoo also has a petting zoo area. Justin enjoyed the goats and the sheep. He was so excited to see them, that he managed to trip and hurt himself running in to see them. He scraped himself up pretty badly and screamed to let everyone know it. After washing up, we returned to the petting zoo. A zoo employee took Justin by the hand and (in Japanese) consoled him. Justin ate it up.

Saturday was the sidewalk sale here on the Embassy Housing Compound. I had a large roll of stickers that I used as price tags for the items. I was VERY careful to always put the permanent marker up out of Justin's reach. We had an incident with a dry erase marker he found and I am still finding places he got. I knew I didn't want a repeat of that incident with a permanent marker. I didn't, however, keep the roll of stickers out of his reach. Surprise! When I asked him what happened, Justin told me that he made me a present with my circle stickers. How can I be upset about that? Tiny got into the fun too. He enjoyed the strips of waxy paper that were left after I removed the stickers.

Tiny got to try a new food. Evidently green beans are not as exciting as rice cereal. We will see if the next veggie is any better for him. If nothing else, I must admit that he is quite flexible. He has managed to kick the bowl out of my hand a couple of times.

Do you think he likes green beans?

Look! It's Ryan sleeping without something on his face.

Video Clips of Rolling and Not Rolling

Even though Tiny has been rolling for awhile, I still want to catch it on video. I have not had success. He is more interested in me and the camera. When I turn my back, he immediately rolls.


Justin, on the other hand, is all too happy to show off for me. I am sure you are so impressed to see a two year old roll. ;)



I find it more interesting to watch how Justin plays with his toys. These stacking/nesting cups have numbers on them. It is helpful since Justin is about as good at visual spatial things as I am. Poor child! He has fun with them though. Warning: probably boring video if you are not Justin's grandmother, mother, or Justin himself.

Playing Outdoors

Now that spring seems to be here to stay, I have been spending a lot of time outside with the boys. The nearby playground is a favorite spot. Justin has really learned to maneuver the playground equipment well since we have been back in Japan. He owes a lot of that to his dad. I hate seeing him climb because that can mean falls! There have been some, but thus far nothing major. See how brave I am letting him go into the treehouse?
Justin really enjoys having other kids out on the playground with him. He has a lot of fun with Sammy, who is about Justin's age. I hope that in Namibia we are able to find some kids for Justin to socialize with. It is good to see him having so much fun doing such simple things.

Sammy's dad was out on the playground the other day and took some pictures. I think this one really captures my Justin. The poor little kid always looks a little bit neglected. I swear he doesn't stay clean and groomed for more than five seconds! Sometimes I take advantage of this and don't put forth much effort. The other day when I told Justin that I needed him to come over so I could comb his hair, he told me that he didn't need to be handsome because he wasn't going to church, he was going to the play park! True indeed, but it would be nice if he didn't look like he was in charge of his own grooming.

Tiny is still a pretty mellow guy. Once he starts crawling I don't know if he will be as content to just sit in the stroller. He loves watching Justin. I admit, Justin is entertaining!

Justin is intrigued by the big kid swings. I should point out that I do NOT push him high, or really very much at all. He is not ready for that and I don't want him to land on his head. He likes to swing with me or in the baby swings though. He can never get as high as he would like.

Tiny still likes things on his head when he sleeps. Don't cover up those arms and legs too much or he gets upset though. What a strange little kid. People look at me like I am a bit weird when I throw a burp rag or lovey over his face when he is screaming. It often means he is tired and needs his face covered. Sometimes he instantly stops crying.

One day when Tiny was asleep, I decided to help Justin with a "big boy" puzzle. Good, quiet activity, right? Not when he gets excited about getting pieces to fit. Needless to say, his enthusiastic cheering woke up the baby. :(

So What Does That Mean?

I bought these postcards for my sister last February. I thought they were very typical of Japanese things written in English (and French). I know the words individually, but I am not sure what meaning is intended. I finally got around to putting them through my scanner (a Fujitsu ScanSnap 9510 which I just love!) so I could put them up on my blog. Since my sister is one of the few people who reads my blog, guess they won't be such a novelty when they arrive in her mailbox. Oh well. She can eagerly anticipate getting mail from me. :) Guess I should send it soon...

Tiny continues to enjoy baby rice cereal. He is my ravenous beast. Now when I put him in the high chair, he starts whining. It used to be a great place to sit him where I could keep an eye on him. Now he expects he will be fed when he is there. When he sees the spoon moving towards his mouth he goes insane! His mouth goes wide open and he squeals while frantically moving his arms and legs. He probably burns off more calories when he eats that he is taking in.

Justin has a cold or allergies or something that is causing him to have what I call pulsating boogies. Yum! He is also drooling since he can't breathe through his mouth. Lovely. My whole house feels what I guess can be described as tacky. It isn't exactly greasy or slimy or sticky, but definitely gross. Guess I should stop typing and start cleaning. :)

Why doesn't Justin sleep?

Sigh. I just finished reading my sister's latest blog entry. I shouldn't do that before I write. It discourages me. It would be fun to be creative and witty with my entries, but I find myself struggling to even put together somewhat coherent sentences. I want to record some of my thoughts and the events of the week because I know otherwise I will forget them all too soon. I am going with the theory that something is better than nothing.

This week I decided to sort through my floppy disks. I mean, do I really need behavior tracking sheets I created for students over ten years ago? What about scoring software for a test that is now obsolete? So many things I found I just didn't need, especially not on floppy. Well, silly me was going to get rid of them. What was I thinking?!? Justin has decided they are the best toy ever. I mean, you can stack them, line them up, act out five monkeys jumping on the bed with them, build them into a birthday cake... The list just goes on and on and on. I think that I should think of a marketing angle and sell the things as the newest and greatest toy.

Justin has also been enjoying the wooden blocks that his grandparents sent him. He builds a lot of towers and animal playgrounds. He was particularly proud of this structure. I am not sure why, but for some reason this one is cool in his mind and he wanted a picture of it.

He has really been getting worn out this week. We have been playing out on the playground for a couple of hours each morning and then coming home for a snack. Justin will then ask to watch something on TV and totally crash within minutes. It isn't his normal nap time, but I won't argue with him sleeping. I will take peace and quiet whenever I can get it. If only Tiny would sleep at the same time so I could have a little nap myself. Not sure that I can complain about Tiny though. Right now I am up with Justin. It is almost 4:40 on Monday morning. Justin has been up since 2:00 AM. He appears to have insomnia. I didn't know toddlers got insomnia. Surprise!

Ryan turned five months old today. Yesterday I thought he turned five months. Evidently I don't know what day it is half the time. I had decided to start solids at five months. I think I started Justin at four months and he wasn't that into it. Tiny was ravenous! I had to make more! I tried nursing him when he still seemed hungry and he refused. He wanted that great flavor of rice cereal. He sure can track that spoon and get his mouth open and ready.

We received a huge box of hand me down clothes from my sister-in-law this week. Justin was quite excited. He loved piling them on the floor and making a cozy nest for himself. He also expressed that he liked to roll around in them. I don't mind too much when he does things like that until he takes clean, folded clothes and does it.

All in all they are good kids. They are so cute together. My favorite sound is the two of them laughing together. I try to remember that when my eyes get heavy and I have trouble focusing.