Day 154 / 43 To Go: Reds Win!!

Posted by: Cris

Today was a long and busy day and I have a SUPER early day tomorrow so this post will have to be short. Today was special for reasons in addition to it being MLB opening day. Now I'm not a huge baseball fan in that I won't tend to sit down and watch a game from beginning to end on TV but I used to enjoy going to a few games per year when I was living in Cincinnati near the team that has been my favorite since childhood. Plus, there are very few places where opening day is as big of a deal as it is in Cincinnati, home of the first professional baseball team. And even though MLB screwed me up by moving opening day forward from Monday, I still managed to figure it out in time to see that the Reds came from behind in the 9th to win.

But the real special events of the day revolved around our program seeing the successful dissertation defense of our second ever PhD graduate, Jen...and she is in good company :) ...(prior to today, the first and only graduate from our PhD program had been me).

It was also the final time that one of my mentors was serving on a PhD committee before he retires. Dr. Zhang is the most brilliant statistician and one of the most effective teachers I've ever encountered. He had served on my dissertation committee and it was such an honor to get to be on a committee WITH him before he retired. Since today was possibly the last time I'll see him (he is from China originally and will be spending most of his retirement years there), before he left I had a moment to speak to him privately and thank him for the role he had played in my education. He shared some kind words with me about how much he enjoyed working with me that really meant alot. He will be missed greatly.

Meanwhile, the girls were adorable as ever while they spent their day around the house waiting for daddy to come home from his long day. When I came through the door I got excited "Daddy!!" and huge tackle hugs...the best part of my day ANY day. Juneau's cracking me up lately with this adult crossing her legs while she's sitting around.

Today is actually the first opportunity I have had to take a picture of a rainbow out over the ocean...

It's hard to see in this picture but the helicopter is still there. They are having trouble figuring out how to get it out of the shallow water without damaging the reef too much. They aren't sure how to get a big enough boat close enough without damaging the reef and they haven't committed to using a big enough helicopter to pull it out as the water filled wreckage will reportedly be a very heavy lift. The sad news today was that they released the details of the Marine who was killed and he was a 22 year old husband who had been married just over a year and had returned a few months ago from deployment.

Life is indeed precious...

Day 153 / 44 To Go: Toy Story in Spanish

Posted by: Cris The last 24 hours was eventful in the ocean just out from our lanai. Just about this time last night while I was down reading a bedtime story to the girls, a CH-53D helicopter carrying 4 Marines crashed into the ocean about 4000 feet offshore onto the sand bar. My neighbor was out on his lanai and actually heard it go down. I didn't know anything about it until I took the dogs out for a walk and he was out watching the rescue helicopters. The next 3 hours I think every helicopter in Hawaii was flying over my house - Coast Guard, Police, TV News Crews. Even though it was pitch black, I was able to get this pretty cool picture of the rescue helicopter with my telephoto lens: This is the type of helicopter that went down: Come daybreak, you could finally see the wreckage out on the sandbar. Unfortunately, during the late morning the news reported that 1 of the members of the crew had not survived the crash. The rest of the day was a flurry of activity out there but at sun down, the wreckage was still there and now in the dark, I can still see the flashing blue light of the patrol boat that will sit out there again tonight making sure everyone keeps their distance.

Onto happier topics:

The girls have kind of been ridiculous the last couple days. Lots of free entertainment for me... A mischievous pair... Lunchtime - check Juneau with the casual legs crossed look sitting their like she's a little adult. Junean was very proud of the Shrek she made with her "Scarf" (this is what she calls her Flarp) Nova informed me she was holding her crayon the way grandma taught her to... The girls had been asking forever to eat these spiral Minnie Mouse lollipops that came in a care package a while back...tonight we finally cracked them open. In our nightly routine, we headed downstairs to read a Toy Story book story. I was tired of the girls picking the same stories every night and arguing about who's turn it was to pick so recently we decided to read the stories from the beginning of the book to the end. So, we still end up coming across stories we've already read 5 times...like tonight.

So, when we opened the book and saw the story the girls already knew, Nova said "Read it in Spanish!" - This is what I'll call the "Dora Effect".

When I told her I couldn't read it in Spanish she said "No, I'LL read it in Spanish" to which Juneau quickly followed with "And I'll tell you what she said".

So, Nova started into "reading" each page in Spanish which amounted to her sticking her tongue partially out of her mouth and doing a combination of talking and spouting gibberish that sounded like a lot of "blah bluuu blih bloo bwaaa" and Juneau would follow with a summary of what that page said in the story.

I think I nearly broke a rib trying to hold in my laughter as I sat there and turned pages and they continued their Spanish with English translation of the story until it was over. Probably the funniest thing they have ever done.

Day 152 / 45 To Go: Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

Posted by: Cris

Birthday #1 for baby Emilie: It's hard to believe that it has been 8 years already since Emilie and I met. When we first met, Emilie was just 23 years old and I'm super lucky she didn't care that I was just a month away from turning the big 3-0.

That first birthday, we'd only been dating less than 3 months so I got her a modest present: a reprint of a Janice Joplin concert poster from the 70's that apparently was cool enough for her to decide to keep me on for another year.

Two birthday's later we got married here in Hawaii...

That first birthday after we started dating I could never have imagined what a difference this woman would make in my life and how lucky I would be to get to spend the rest of her birthday's with her.

But, I've been incredibly fortunate to share 9 birthday's with Emilie and along the way, this crazy ride has resulted in the two greatest blessings we couldn't ever have imagined 8 years ago:

---"Come over soon" was supposed to be "Come home soon" but Juneau couldn't remember it :)

Happy Birthday Em! I love you more and more every birthday that goes by! We can't wait to celebrate your birthday with you for real in about 45 more days!

Day 151 / 46 To Go: Learning in disguise...

Posted by: Cris

Last night before we were in bed and Nova was having a breakdown, I was telling the girls that I had to go back to work today and Nova said "I will miss you while you are at work tomorrow." That might have been why she got so interested in the super cool "ABC's with Daddy" book that Emilie had made for me last year for Father's day...it is a personalized picture book of every letter of the alphabet with something that applies to our family, especially me and the girls. It sits on the table normally and will continue to do so, especially next year when I'm separated from them. Apparently though, the end result was a tear on one of the pages that they were very apologetic for when I got home. A little tape fixed it right up.

Nova showing her bitty baby how to get up on high-heels because, after all, Nova is a pro at it.

The girls especially look forward to me coming home because they know they can hit me up to play on my iPad.

I don't have to feel guilty letting them play because for $2.99 I downloaded a "SuperWhy!" reading game so while they think they are getting to play a game, I'm actually tricking them into reading...I've had to figure out over the years how to trick their mommy into learning some things by disguising them as entertainment so why not apply these principles to parenting.

I think the highlight of the day though was getting the replacement Flarp! I had ordered for them in the mail. As soon as Juneau saw the package on the counter she immediately knew what it was and just HAD to play with it RIGHT NOW.

And speaking of their mommy - in Afghanistan it is already my beautiful wife's birthday though it's still a couple hours away here. I'm sad Emilie has to be away from everyone on her birthday but I know we'll have a huge make-up celebration for her when she gets home!!

Day 150 / 47 To Go: Catastrophic Meltdown

Posted by: Cris Despite being up until 11:00 watching Shrek and having a slumber party on the couch, the girls were up at the crack of dawn this morning and ready to go. Allowing jumping on the couch...good parenting or bad parenting? A little break from jumping for some dancing princess time: By lunchtime, Nova was feeling the late night: But, I had finished grilling up the stuff that I (and by "I" I mean Bret) hadn't cooked last night so Nova was really enjoying the teriyaki short ribs. At one point she said "Daddy, I LOOVE meat!" I expected a nice long nap but they barely made it to 2 hours. But, they seemed full of energy when they got up so we headed off to the NEX. By the time we made it home, the girls were tired...Nova was TOOO tired and her bedtime routine degraded into the biggest meltdown I think she has ever had that lasted right at 1 hour. She was trying to out-stubborn me over something but finally realized she wasn't going to win (although, she didn't realize it but after an hour, I was so tired that she was getting close to winning - okay, not really). She finally gave up and layed down on my chest and fell asleep. As a result, this blog post is going to be much shorter and poster much later than normal. Tomorrow it is back to work - Spring Break was very nice and I wish it was longer. But, the good news is we keep getting closer to Emilie coming home...Grandma Saccenti gets here in 3 weeks and that will be awesome. The girls will be in heaven with over 2 weeks of Grandma, a week with Aunt Coral and then a plane trip to see mommy!!

Day 149 / 48 To Go: Fun with Julian

Posted by: Cris

The Afghani internet cooperated for awhile this morning so the girls got to play their favorite game with mommy. Thanks to the built in software on our computers, the girls and mommy can take turns putting virtual faces and hats and hairstyles and facial hair on each other...Juneau and Nova could sit and do this for hours. We had plans to host a little cookout this evening so we spent the day cleaning the house (which badly needed it) and organizing all of the girls toys (which needed it even more badly).

The girls were excited all day knowing that after nap, Julian was coming over and I could barely hold them off long enough until finally Julian came to the door. Juneau immediately ran up and gave him a big hug and even though Julian's mommy and daddy are our very good friends, we hadn't gotten together for quite some time so Julian wasn't to sure about this crazy girl coming to smother him before he could even get through the door.

But, it wasn't long before they were all off and running.

Bret grilled up some great Huli-Huli chicken and we had a nice dinner with Becca, Brad, Becca's parents and Bret.

Becca may kill me for posting this picture but of course, here is pregnant Becca eating for 2 :)

The girls loved sharing their new table with Julian

while having a scary face contest.

Nova was Brad's buddy and wanted to hop right up on his lap and cuddle.

Since Julian hadn't been here for awhile, he still wanted a "spot" to get up in the castle. After Julian's daddy stood at the bottom of the ladder while he climbed up, Nova came over and told made me get up out of my chair and stand at the bottom of the ladder while she climbed the ladder (even though she has done it a million times without caring if I'm there or not)

When it is time to say good night, Nova is always ready for a big hug (hard to believe tiny Nova is actually 3 weeks older than Julian).

Juneau's birthday buddy: "Julian's mommy has the same birthday as me"

Not sure what Becca is doing here...I never really know what she's doing.

"Smell my foot"

I had been telling the girls for the last few days that on Saturday we would have a slumber party so tonight the 3 of us are set up on the couch watching Shrek even though it is WAY past Juneau and Nova's bedtime (and daddy's too).

I think we'll have to start doing slumber party more often in the next 48 days since I won't really get much of a chance to do this starting next fall so I'll savor the opportunities while they're here. :)