We are moving

Ok not litterally. I am just moving the site. Our new location is http://thetillmanfamilyadventures.shutterfly.com/
Hope you like the new site. It's much easier to manage.

California Trip

Recently me and CJ took a trip to Huntington Beach, CA. I went for a conference at Boeing and CJ went because that way I would only have to buy 1 plane ticket. That saves a lot of money when you live in Japan. My mom and dad met us out there and got some quality CJ time in. He went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. I'm not sure what he is doing here, but the fish probably are deaf from the banging on the tank.

Then they were going to go to the beach or pool one day and somehow ended up a the Wild Animal park north of San Diego. Here CJ is watching the Gorillas with his Papa.

Then he had his 3rd!! birthday while we were there. What better than birthday brownie (with whipped cream to dip in) at the cheesecake factory. He only ate a little bit of 1 piece of the brownie. When he was done I took a bite to see how it was. WHOOO!! Chocolate overload. I also do not recommend sharing 2 pieces of cheesecake between 3 people. You need about 5 people to finish them. And don't get the Godiva one and think you can eat more than 5 bites, this coming from someone who could live off chocolate.

The last day (I didn't have to work) we went to the Queen Mary. Very cool. Here's CJ and his Meemaw and Papa in the engine room.

This picture was probably illegal. But I caught CJ sitting on the wrench used to remove the retaining bolts for the propellers. They would remove them using this wrench and hammers...crazy.

CAPT CJ...who put him in charge?!

Baby Girl Tillman

This is a few weeks late, but we have a girl!! The first thing James said was, "Now I have to buy a gun". Her size and everything looked great for 19 weeks. She is very active already. If anyone needs any boy clothes let me know and I will ship you a couple rubbermaid tubs full.

Disney Tokyo

Here's James and CJ in front of the Disney Tokyo castle. By far the best Disney experience from a mom perspective. CJ had a great time on the rides. Since he is short and I'm pregnant we could ride all the same rides. So I had my little riding buddy. We did the Dumbos, merry-go-round, train, river boat, Small World, and some KiddyLand stuff. He had a great time. And James was able to ride the big kid rides with some of his friends that came up for the Chapel youth trip. Plus factors of Disney in Japan: Really, really, really clean. I felt bad that the only trash on the street was some ice cream drops from CJ's popcsicle. No line cutting. No one smoked where they shouldn't. And my #1 favorite. Take a look at the stoller parking here. There was an employee that kept them all nice and lined up in organized rows and as you went through the ride, they moved your stroller to the front. So when you came out there was no mad untangling. It was so cool.

Baby Tillman #2

Surprise to those who don't know. This was the ultrasound at 10 weeks. I'm 15 weeks now, so I guess that tells you how behind I am on posting. At 20 weeks we do plan on finding out if it is a boy or girl this time. If its a girl, I get to empty out all the boy stuff from the closets. If its a boy, I get to save a lot of money on clothes. It's pretty much a win-win. Since James was right about it being a boy last time I asked him what the baby was, but he had no guesses. CJ says he wants a baby brother, then 10 seconds later a baby sister. We are due Feb 6th. I'm hoping to come a little closer to the due date this time. Apparently I, or James, just make big babies because I was dated at 10 weeks, but the baby measured 11.

Hawaiian Vacation

We took a vacation to Hawaii at the end of June and over July 4th weekend. I think we all had a great time. CJ said his favorite part was riding escallators at the mall for the longest time, so I guess next time we'll go to the mall and save the 7 hour flight.
He was a fish in the pool at the Hale Koa and kept wanting to jump in (if you knew me growing up, this is not my child).

I also got to go to the Arizona memorial...finally, on my 7th visit to Hawaii. I was really excited to take CJ on the ferry ride, but he didn't quite make it. He was sacked out the entire time on his Aunt Lynda's shoulder and didn't see a single minute of the boat ride.
Then we headed to the Missouri, which CJ was awake for. He thought that was pretty cool walking around all the decks.




























Here we are watching the 4th of July fireworks from out hotel balcony (which was far more important than a picture apparently).

CJ's Genius idea of the week

Toddler creativity never ends. So CJ came up with a great idea that (in his little eyes) was a good activity. In fact it kept him busy the whole time I was in the shower yesterday.
We had a cooler with drinks for the couples study we've been hosting the last weeks in our dining room. Good part was the cooler was on the tile, not the carpet. So he normally just dips his hands in until he gets told to stop playing in the water. He took it a 100 steps farther this time. He decided to take his jammie pants off and put them in the water. Probably realizing he had done something wrong he proceeded to get several towels out of the kitchen drawer to clean it up. At least 2 of the towels ended up in the cooler. 1 soaken 1 was on the carpet and about 1 gallon of water was on the floor when I caught the stinker. Good news was I didn't have to mop my floors this weekend.

May Wrap-up

This is what has been happening since my last post.
CJ re-fell in love with talking on phones. Here he is chatting with his imaginary buddy or maybe there's more than 1. Who knows what's in the mind of a toddler.

Then he got some super cool new Thomas the Train bed sheets and blankets. I was hoping he would give up his nasty blanket that he chewed the snaps, yes metal snaps, and tags off of. But its a not go so far. He's just added 2 new blankets to his collection of things on his bed. At least they are all soft and quiet.














Here is James and CJ (I'm behind the camera) at Adam's last ramen excurtion. Super yummy.

My fabulous mother's day

This year, to my surprise I got flowers!! James did a great job picking them out. And its not a potted plant so I won't feel bad if I kill them within a week. For breakfast I had french toast at Chili's (they serve breakfast) on base. Then topped it off with some afternoon HGTV and Wii Fit action. Then after dinner and the evening chapel service James gave up the TV and let me watch House Hunters International. So it was extra special!

CJ's first successful home haircut

James bought a nice set of clippers and (braver than I am) gave CJ a nice buzz for the summer. It's much better to wash too. So here's the before...















And the after. He definitely has James' face with my chubby cheeks.

Vocabulary

Things are going good in Japan. It is definitely warming up in temperature and humidity. CJ is saying a lot of sentences. Some of his favorites are "Mommy coming home, Curious George take job, ride car up big hill or ride car thru tunnel." He loves pressing the door bell and saying ding-dong. And pants and barks like a dog. It's pretty funny. He loves every show on Noggin. And he can say most of the bedtime and meal prayers by himself. Can you believe he is 35 inches tall?!

We are planning on a Hawaiian vacation at the end of June, YEAH!! James has spent a lot of time there and I've been there 6 times, but we've never gone together so this trip will be very exciting. CJ hasn't been in the ocean since our camping adventure in Italy when he was 9 months old.

James went with the chapel youth to Beach Break on Okinawa. So that was a fun time for him. I had to take a forced weeks vacation to stay home and watch CJ...I just hate forced vacations. We started hosting the Fireproofing study for 5 1/2 couples this last week at our house. And I plan on taking an online college course this summer. So we are definitely keeping busy.

A Day at the Aquarium

We went to Sea Paradise in Yokohama Friday. It was really cool. The aquarium is 2 stories deep...with an escillator going through it! CJ loved it. He was a little cautious at first until we showed him the fish were "stuck" behind the glass. Then he went to every tank and said "fish stuck" all day.














This is me and CJ looking in the first fish tank. It goes up 1 more story.















This is us riding the escillator through the fish tank.

After we saw all the aquariums we went to the dolphin/sea lion/walrus/seal show in the "dolphin swimming pool". But it was getting pretty late and CJ needed to eat and take a nap so we didn't make it through the whole show.

Japanese super park

I'm a little behind posting because we went to this super cool public park with hiking trails and some totally sweet jungle gym stuff over the president's day weekend. Here's just a preview. I put a video of James and CJ going down the slide on snapfish.

Here's a group photo with our friends Robert and Sheryl. Aren't we adorable.














And here's a little overview of the jinormous size of the place:














And this is the longest slide. It ends a little bit into the tree line. It's not your traditional slide since it is made up of conveyor belt type rollers to move you along. It was really fun but brought back a few Firestone memories...HAHA!














By the way, my foot is doing much better. I actually put on 2 different pairs of sneakers today (YEAH!!).

The latest

Things are going good here. I had surgery on my right foot to remove the old lady bunion, or raptor claw as the guys in the office call it. I would post a photo but those with weak stomachs (like me) wouldn't do so well. James just finished a full load of college courses (yeah!!) CJ is growing like a weed. And he says so many words I don't know what he doesn't say any more. Elevator man, , strawberry milk, helicopter, tunnel, and eat...(insert any word-meow, CJ, daddy, bah-bah) are some of his favorite words. He also says eat perogie, go go green (from Go Dogs Go). He loves to dance to the move-it move-it song on Madagascar. Yo Gabba Gabba has been added to the top of his favorite shows. Patty cake is definitely his favorite nursery rhyme. Meow is his favorite animal noise. He loves to run his toys into stuff so he can say crash. You can hold conversations on the phone with him pretty well. He loves to help do the laundry, put stuff in the sink, and bear crawl. His favorite foods and spaghetti o's, hot dog, french fries, green beans, ice cream, oreos, perogies, chicken nuggets, and pancakes. He is currently boycotting all meat except meatballs, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs. He knows all the names of his trains (Aiden would be proud). He likes swimming in the bath tub and while the water drains he turns over on his back. Maybe he will be more willing to learn how to swim than I was. His is also a champion barfer when he is upset now. NOT GOOD!!!!! James is good at keeping it to a minimum. But his quick flight skills to the toilet are also fine tuned. He apparently likes ketchup with everything because at the moment he is dipping perogie and eating it. Yum, yum...not. I think that's about all that's going on here. I'll be in San Diego for a conference at the end of March if anyone needs a vacation.

Can you believe this is the same kid?

Before haircut:













After haircut:

Christmas!!

Christmas was really fun this year especially with CJ so excited to rip presents open. He definitely knows the word 'present' now and kept asking for more when he was done. We went to the Christmas eve candle light service and CJ stayed in service with us. It didn't go as terribly bad as I expected. I was hoping there wasn't going to be too much screaming, but there was no screaming. A whole LOT of wiggling though! CJ is definitely not into caroling right now though. Hopefully next year. Here are a couple high lights.

CJ's new jammies (thanks memaw and pappa)




























Opening presents














Stealing goldfish off the counter, he's so tall.

Preparing for Christmas

Well its been a while since I posted, and a lot has gone on. We recently took a trip too Tokyo for my command Christmas party.
We drove across the super cool Rainbow bridge into Tokyo.














Then we swam in the pool. CJ hasn't stopped saying hot tub or pool since we left.














This is me and CJ in the lobby of the New Sanno where we stayed. And, yes, I cut my hair again.














Then we took a "train" ride on the infamous Tokyo subway. No one in white gloves touched James. This was obviously not rush hour since we had seats and could breath.














Here's me and CJ at the Christmas party (minus my head) in our best garb.














Then after we got home temps went from a beautiful 66 to 50 over night and the surf came in. This was taken from our balcony. Those are the small waves in the circles. The entire street was wet, but it wasn't raining.

Our new Christmas tree

We actually have a Christmas tree this year. This is our first prelit tree. Wow, what a snap to put it up!! Anyway here are some photos and video so you can see how it looks.

Vaseline hair

CJ woke up from his nap this afternoon and found something to entertain himself with until we went to get him. Today he made a wonderful selection...a large jar of Vaseline stored in the top of his dresser. He then proceeded to smear it all over his bed sheets and hair of course. Because it is sooooooooooo easy to wash it out of hair...NOT!! To give you an idea of the amount he put in his hair, this photo was taken after we caked his hair with baby powder, washed it once with baby shampoo, and twice with dish soap. At least he looks cute.

Out and About

Here's a few photos of things we've done in the last month. I can't believe how fast time goes by here. Good thing James helps me out or I lose track of adding entries.


Here's James and CJ on the way to dinner right off base.














This is when we were coming back from Ikea in Yokohama and missed our exit. So we decided to be daring after taking the next exit and found another way home. We somehow get home easier when we are lost here than in Sicily...could it be the roadsigns actually go somewhere? Don't be intimidated by the Kanji, there's English everywhere, or at least route numbers.














Here we are at our favorite curry house. CJ loves curry by the way.














Here's CJ playing at the park with his twin girlfriends who just happen to have a stay-at-home dad as well.