Well, the morning started off at 2:30 a.m. with MDF waking the adults up in the house with “Down” –she was awake & ready to get out of the play pen. We attempted to keep her in the room with us & as quiet as possible. We ended up in the living room with cereal snack & the door to the hallway shut. We stayed up for a while & then thought about giving her benadryl to help her sleep; we were able to make it back to the bedroom & watch some TV & finally ended up putting her in the play pen awake & just let her cry it out. It didn’t last that long. However, we were up for almost an hour & half to 2 hours. We were all able to go back to sleep & I ended up awake around 7 a.m. MDF got up with me & we started breakfast.
Side note: Up until now MDF has preferred JF. She really didn’t want to have that much to do with me–which hurt my feelings but today is better & she likes me again. I suppose it is just a stage & will pass. Then again it may get worse before better & I will cry many more times.
So, MDF & I were up & ate breakfast with Vasco. Then again with JF & again with Stephanie (that was just MDF & Steph). The morning was uneventful. We did go out to the playground & play for a short time. MDF started off on the fat, metal slide & ended up on the curved, tall, covered slide. Alone!! Ahh..how she is growing. She really enjoyed that. Came in because it was starting to sprinkle & was time for lunch.
After lunch & naptime, around 3 p.m. we headed off base & to the Hundred Dollar Yen Store. (Our Dollar Store) It is 3 stories & full of this & that. I know we have dollar stores in every town & plenty of them but this is very nice. You can buy dishes there (and I’m talking nice dishes), you can get just about every shape & size of plastic “Tupperware” container you can imagine, organizing baskets, toys, stationary, CDs, but it also has some cheap plastic things–plastic tiara, etc. We spent big money there–$14.70!! Big spenders I tell you! J We really enjoy the Japanese CDs that are instrumental so we bought another one of those & we got MDF some foam Alphabet letters for tub time, among other things. After the Yen Store, we walked quickly through what is called Iwakuni Grand. From what Stephanie said, it is like a department store with a grocery store on the bottom floor. We walked in, went up to the 6th floor, walked around & stopped in the elevator & looked from there to see what was on each floor. By this time we were tired, Abigail was doing good but had a dirty diaper, & MDF was getting a little restless.
Back at the apartment, Stephanie was nursing Abigail & MDF (bless her heart) climbed up on me; pulled at my shirt & clearly asked to nurse. I calmly explained to her that she is a big girl & she eats big girl food. I took a breath & she asked again. I repeated the above & added “Momma has no more milk” she climbed down. She did this 2 or 3 times. She has really taken to Abigail. She says her name, likes to watch her, likes to be in the same room with her, talks to her some, etc. I think she’s gonna miss her when we head home. It is very sweet to watch. And MDF is told to be gentle & she is. She, so far, has only touched Abigail’s feet & hands. But she likes to be around her & close. Not a problem though.
Tomorrow we are heading to story time at the library (yes, I find these things out & keep to our schedule. For those of you who do not know my “weekly schedule” every Thursday that we can we go to story time at our library. ) We are doing that from 10-10:45 after that I think we are going back in town & meeting Vasco for lunch at a Chinese restaurant. Go figure we’re in Japan & eating Chinese food. But hey, we love it & aren’t complaining. Friday night, we are meeting with some of Stephanie & Vasco’s friends (this couple is the one that took Stephanie to the hospital when she had Abigail–they also have family in country for a visit) and are going out to eat at “The Fish Bowl”. Don’t really know what to expect other than you order food individually rather than by plates. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Well, I suppose I will go for now. I do hope to hear from some of you soon. Hope all is going well with everyone.