Playing House

 

Family life has been pretty chill lately. The holidays have winded down and Gracie is letting me leave her here and there for a few hours at a time. It’s a kung fu act trying to keep life manageable but it is being done.  The post after this will be out of order, but I couldn’t pass up posting these photos before I caught up.

Our girls are “all girl.” Mina likes to randomly declare to me, “I’m NOT a boy! I’m a girl!” She says it with hands on her hips jutted to the side, in a voice that makes me think I’ve threatened her.  No Mina, you are not a boy. You are certainly all lady. I don’t know if its the 6-10 dress changes per day or the 3 sets of high heels you own, but sometime tells me you really really like being a girl.

Marie got a new prescription for her progressives. Her sight is definitely getting worse and we need to patch more. Sometimes I forget she has a stronger prescription than me and I expect her to do more and do it quickly. I  shouldn’t be so hard on her, but she’s the oldest and I expect a lot from her. And she pretty much always delivers. Yet she still maintains her whimsical love of life and exudes pure joy. She reminds me to live in the moment. We even had a serious mom and daughter talk on how I can be a better mom. I don’t know what brought it on but one day I decided to sit her down and ask,

“Marie, what can I do better?”

Marie: “You clean TOO much. You need to stop cleaning and play with me.”

Me: “hmmm, yah I guess I do need to to not be so obsessed”  (now don’t let that statement fool you into thinking my house is always clean… it’s not, but I am definitely always cleaning). “Ok Marie, I promise to clean less and play more. Will you promise to be a little more obedient when I do need you to clean?”

Marie, in the sweetest-Mickey-Mouse voice possible, “Yes! Now lets play!!"

Since this simple conversation she’s had to remind me to keep my promise, but I am glad she keeps me in line.

Brett continues to be Dad-of-the-Year. I am so lucky. He fills the girls time up with books, board games, cute movies and lots of love. Getting gushy enough for you? There is no way around it, without this guy I would be toast.  As of now, we hope to never push to be deployed. We would rather be No-where-ville USA as long as we are together. (And of course visit our families at least twice a year!)

Marie makes Grace smile like none other!           Gracie thank you for being such an easy baby! You make my life so happy! I love playing mommy to my little doll!

That is about it for day-to-day life. Our conversations are full of questions about Virginia and how we hope to see our parents and siblings in between the move.  

The snow has come head on into Misawa now. We are bundling up for our last winter in Japan.