2010 Japan All Star Game...

We were lucky that the All Star Game was held in our city this year, so the kids and I were able to go, without having to travel anywhere! Brian's team, the Pacific League, ended up losing, but Brian pitched a scoreless 8th, we were proud!

It was a sold out game, and we only got 2 tickets, so I had to hold Brooke on my lap the whole time. We got there early to see the end of the home run derby and wanted to make sure we were there for the opening ceremonies. We knew Brian wasn't pitching until the 8th, so it was going to be a long night at the ballpark! I was worried about having to hold Brooke on my lap the whole time (she's a mover, she doesn't like to sit still!), but she did awesome, I just made sure I had a bunch of food and kept feeding her the whole game, that seemed to work...the girl loves food!

We were told we were going to have access to the family room at the field (the room we wait in for the guys after the game), so I figured I was going to let the kids run around in there for a few innings and feed them dinner, but the media ended up setting up shop there so it was off limits. Thankfully they found an empty box suite and let me take the kids up there for 2 innings so they could run around and I could have some free hands to feed them an actual dinner!! It was so nice of them, it was a private suite all to ourselves with a private bathroom so Austin could go without having to wait in the huge lines at the public ones, and we had a great view of the game!!

Too bad Brian's team lost, but it was a great experience and we had a lot of fun!

Got our tickets, we are good to go!! (Yes, all of our tickets are always in Japanese, it's fun trying to figure out where your seats are! We know where to look now though!)

It's not a Japanese baseball game without your clapping sticks!! Austin showing off his special All Star game ones!

The Pacific League All Star team

Brian with some of his teammates...that's one of Softbank's starters, Sugiuchi, to the left of Brian, and our closer, Mahara, to the right. The other tall guy standing there is Yu Darvish of the Hokkaido Fighters, he's a really good starter over here!

Brooke stole Austin's seat for a while, she loves clapping when all the fans do!

Let the game begin!

Started feeding Brooke right away...food always keeps her entertained!

Still eating!!

This kept her busy for a few innings!

Brooke loves people watching!

Austin spotted Brian on the wall of the stadium! He screams Daddy!!!! when he sees it, causing all the Japanese fans around us to clap and want to take our picture!

95% of the food sold at the stadium is Japanese cuisine!

Haven't tried the squid on a skewer (bottom right of picture) yet...

you see people walking around with them all the time, I prefer our skewered chocolate covered strawberries at the games in the states!

hmmm...not so sure about those, I swear I saw one moving.

Austin enjoying his view from the suite!

Brian's going in!!! (His name is written in Kanji under the P on the bottom right of the scoreboard!)

Brian on the mound

Pitching to Kenji Johjima, remember him, he played for the Seattle Mariners not too long ago!

A scoreless 8th, way to go Bri!

All Star Game 2010!

Nice wheels!

It's Brian's All Star Break over here in Japan and we celebrated day one by hanging out as a family all day long and treating Austin to a new set of wheels...his very first bike!! He was SO excited to go pick it out and had a lot of fun choosing his helmet to go with it! He rode it into our apartment complex when we got home and insisted on riding it into the elevator too! We couldn't keep him off of it!! Brooke is also quite fascinated with it, especially the bell, she has been sneaking over to Austin's bike and ringing it all night!

The first thing Austin did when he woke up this morning was yell "my bike, my bike!" and strap on his helmet and hop on his bike, I swear he would've eaten breakfast on it if I would have let him! (He did keep his helmet on all breakfast though!) We can't wait to go take it out for a spin to the park today, then it's off to the All Star Game tonight to cheer on Brian and the Pacific League Team!!

Austin showing off his new bike! He is so proud of it! Doesn't he look so grown up!!!

Navigating through our apartment halls to the elevator!

"Dude Brooke, check out these killer spokes!"

We couldn't get him to sleep last night, he didn't want to leave his bike!

First thing this morning...he can't wait to take it out for a spin!

Pedicures...

I have been waiting for the moment Brooke would hold still long enough to let me paint her toes. This is what makes having a little girl so fun, getting to do all the girly stuff! One day while watching me take the polish off mine (to inspect just how black and blue my toe was becoming from Brooke just throwing her sippy cup down onto it), she seemed pretty intrigued at the shiny pink nail polish bottle I had next to me. So I gave it a whirl and painted one of hers to see what she would do. She seemed to like it, so I painted another, and another, and soon, we had 10 pretty little piggies. Of course, it wasn't perfect, and yah, she kept trying to touch them and I had to teach her she has to let them dry, but she couldn't have had a bigger smile on her face seeing her bright pink toes!

Austin even got a big kick out of it and said "Look mom-mom, Brookie's got shiny toes!" Then he went straight for the nail polish bottle and wanted to paint mine. My gut told me this was going to turn out to be a complete mess, but he was so excited and that's what nail polish remover is for right?! Sure enough, he made a little mess...got a little on the carpet, his hands, and even managed to get some on Brooke's blankie...but oh well, he was proud of his work, and even told me "Daddy is going to love it."

Check out these cute little pink toes...

Brooke's first painted toes!

Brooke was so proud of her painted toes and kept pointing to them all day long!

Austin giving me my pedicure. Brooke was there supervising.

He kept telling me to hold still...I was just trying to keep the nail polish from dripping all over the place!

Austin's finished product...don't think he's getting a tip this time around!! He's got some work to do!! In all honesty though, he didn't do that bad of a job for a 3 year old!!

Potty training and weaning, oh my!

It's been a big week for us Falky bunch over here in Japan. We finally said enough with the diapers for Austin and started seriously potty training him. This kid had it almost down a year ago, but when we came over to Japan last year he was so over it. He wanted absolutely nothing more to do with it. It became sort of a mental thing, he just didn't want to go, at all, on the potty any more. I didn't want to scare him or anything by making him go, so I sort of left it alone...but now, with preschool around the corner, and just being tired of changing so many darn diapers, and him being 3 now, I said enough, we are going to do this already!!

So we waited until Brian and his team were on a long road trip so we could just dedicate some time to sticking around the house and conquering this whole potty training thing! It actually worked out to be perfect timing, Brian is away which means no games to go to and it has been raining all week so we have been stuck inside...plenty of time to just put him in his undies, and ask him every 5 minute if he has to go! Seriously, I know Austin and all of Japan is completely annoyed with me asking if he has to go Pee-Pee yet!!

Right before Brian left, we took Austin to Toys R Us and got all the essentials. The potty seat for him sit on on the toilet (which he hates and refused to use after the first day), a stool for him to climb up on, and we also bought a boat load of random things to put in a box we made called "Austin's poo-poo & potty box!" It had stickers, bubbles, trains, cars, coloring books, balls, baseball bats, you name it, every incredibly enticing toy/thing we could think of that Austin loves and wants. So we told him, you go on the big boy potty, and you get to pick one thing out of the box (If he ever wonders where all the money for his college tuition went, he can refer back to the potty box!). He was a little resistant at first, but we didn't budge. We stuck those big boy undies on him and said good-bye diapers. He kind of threw a fit the first few times we put him on the potty, but once he realized how easy it was, and that he got a super cool toy for going, he knew this was a pretty cool thing he had going on!!!

It's been over a week now, and he's only had 2 minor accidents...just pee pee ones, and that was in the first 2 days. He's gone pee and poo out in public when we've been out and about no problem, and loves his new big boy undies!!! We still put him in diapers for naps and overnight, we will master that later, but now he doesn't even like going in them anymore and will hollar at me that he has to go potty or poo-poo even with the diaper on, resisting just going in the diaper...I am so proud. For a kid who just a week ago would scream and cry when I asked him if he wanted to go on the potty, to now use it all the time no problem, I couldn't be more excited for the little guy!

We have had to change our rules about the potty box, since he started going so much (I swear, now he wants to go on the potty...all...the...time!) and we were running out of toys, so now he only gets something when he does a "big poo-poo." He isn't going to like it when he runs out of toys, but hey, it worked, and we now have a pretty much potty trained little guy!! We are so proud at how quickly he adjusted, and are so happy not to be changing so many diapers now!! Way to go Austin!!!!

Oh, and I also FINALLY weened our little Brookie Brooke. Seriously, I never thought it would take me so long to quit nursing her!!! It was all me, I was so afraid of the whole weaning process after the pain and engorgement I had when weaning Austin at 13 months...I dragged it out as long as I could. I had her down to one feeding a day, for maybe 5 or so minutes for the past month. I know right, you think it would have been so easy, I should have stopped already, that's nothing! But it wasn't. I got so engorged with Austin ( I cut him off cold turkey), I was dreading it with Brooke, so I took my time and got her down to minimal nursing. I thought I had it made, there's hardly any milk supply left, but I was wrong. Sure enough, the same engorgement, the same bowling ball on steroids, lumpy, looked like I had a breast implant gone wrong, swelled in my armpit/collarbone breast. All that for nothing. I am just a milk producing machine. Oh well, it only lasted a few days, and now, at 14 1/2 months, (and not a single bottle this whole time mind you) she is officially done breast feeding. It's always a little sad when you are done, your little baby is all grown up, but it was beyond time, I mean the girl has molars already.

So we officially conquered potty training and weaning all in one week...I feel like I can go climb Mt. Everest now!!!!!

YAY for the big boy potty!

(Don't worry, I spared the guy the agony of having his bits and pieces showcased on the internet and blurred them out!!! It's bad enough posting pictures of him going the bathroom, I am sure he will let me have it one day for sharing these at all!)

Check out those adorable big boy undies!

Brooke loves helping Austin go on the potty and insists on sitting on his step while he goes!!!

All excited after grabbing some stickers from the potty box after a successful trip to the bathroom!

It's so weird seeing undies poking out of his shorts instead of diapers!!

Such a big boy now, he doesn't need the "potty seat" anymore and goes all by himself when he has to!

No more diapers!!!! YAY!