Private Hours

Saturday Afternoon was filled with private hours. What is a private hour(PH) you might ask? Well, I too was ignorant of these facts until meeting Emily. A PH is when you take a child and got do something with them without others with you. You might deduce that it lasts for an hour, but you would be wrong and after 8.65 years you still would not understand why it is refered to as an hour if it lasts 3 hours! Well, that confusion aside I took both M and S on private hours Saturday.

M has been doing really well with his behavior chart at school lately so I took him to see "Inkheart" at the base theater. (We get most of the same movies but about 1 or 2 months later.) I even let him invite one of his best friends along. (Again, how can it be a PH if someone else is there too? Just go with it is the motto of this relationship!) It was a good movie and both of them enjoyed it.

Then S needed some alone time too, so I took him on a few errands with me (including to purchase a crate of apples from the "Apple Lady," a little produce store off-base. (btw-Japan apples are the BOMB and better than any apples heretofore tasted!) Then we ended by going to the Weasel's Den, the Airplane Hanger turned Kids play place on base. He had a great time climbing around throwing his paper airplane (made by mom) from all different heights. It was a blast doing some fun things with the older boys.

Unfortunaly, G got jealous and wanted to have a PH of his own in the ER on Sunday evening! He fell and hit a coffee table at our friends house just as we were finishing our cheesecake. IT was however fun to sit in the waiting room with him. Really it was! He was being so cute. I brought a few of his trains and he was have a fun time with them. Then he started to get a tired and I think he was saying he wanted mom. So I went over and sat by him and he put his head on me for about 4 seconds and then got up and went over to where I was sitting and brought me his trains, took my novel and went back and thumbed through my book while he expected me to play trains. It was quite commical. Then I got out a board book for him which he looked through and then traded for my book again and so that I could look at his book. Again, cute and funny. He didn't like it when I had to wash his wound in the sink and then hold his laceration together while the ER Doc super glued it. But he's all better now and he got his private hour with me, which was actually Private and took 1 hour. Go figure!

(actually occured/written in March, but didn't publish at the right time...Sorry)

Dental Answers

Here are some answers to some of your questions.

Baby Teeth vs Yellow Adult Teeth

I have always told people it is because the adult tooth has more dentin than the baby tooth. Dentin is yellow and thus shows through the translucent enamel as yellow. It could also be a combination of that and the orientation of the enamel refracting light differently since the enamel is oriented differently in the two types of teeth. Anyway, it is normal and fine and dandy. White teeth are not normal.

Baby Tooth Spacing

In the baby teeth it is good to have spacing. It they are touching then he will most likely need braces or have crowded/crooked teeth. It does depend at how much space/lack thereof there is. IF there is extra space they should be fine. If there is no extra space/all touching then braces are a maybe. If they are already crowded/crooked then braces a definite.

As far as cleaning them: brush twice a day and floss. All the pediatric dentists here on base recommend to use the Reach Access Flosser. It's design makes it really easy to use on kids.
Floss: Before or After?

It doesn't really matter if you floss before or after brushing. If I had to pick I'd go with before, this way the brush carries away the stuff you've flossed off your teeth. The main thing is to floss!

If I missed anyone's questions let me know and I'll add them. Sorry for the delay, I was away on sabbatical.

Time Line

So here is the photographic time line of the past few days. Friday was a beautiful day and then Saturday was really cold and windy. Sunday morning turned very rainy, then I looked out the window Sunday afternoon and saw big snowflakes coming down. Wow! April Showers...how about April Snow Flurries!

ThursdayFriday
SundayAnd here is a bonus shot at the Misawa Shinto Shrine. I've been waiting all winter to go get a shot of this but kept putting it off..til April!

Weather

Today is April 26th and IT IS SNOWING!!!!!!

oh..and we had an earthquake last night!

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009fwat.php

YES we are fine, thank you for your concern...again.

-Funnyily. We had recently watched an episode of Life, where there was an earthquake in LA and the Main guy, Cruz, was wondering why in an earthquake does everyone ask, "Did you feel that?"
Then last night, the first thing I said to Em was "Do you feel that?"

Well, have a nice day!

MCP Actions

I am entering this photo in the MCP Actions/Color Inc. Win a Gallery Wrap Canvas Photo Contest at http://mcpactions.com/blog. I certify that I took this photo and give both parties permission to use this photograph on their blogs/sites.

Spring Time

Here is a little taste of Japan as Spring emerges. Cherry Blossoms are a big deal hear and they are beautiful. We are going to a Cherry Blossom Festival next week. I took these this evening on the way to Max's piano lesson. The view is of the center of base, where we have a huge traffic circle. The water towers in the background is where we live. (The flag polls usually have an American and a Japanese flag flying together, but for some reason, the day I decide to get my camera back out, they were not up!)