Some highlights.

Bright and early tomorrow morning Deliah and I are leaving to spend the next six months in California. I just wanted to take a moment and express how grateful I am for the joyous last month that we have had here in Guam. We are so blessed to have such remarkable family outings and I love spending time with my adorable little family. Six weeks is a long time to be apart from your husband and Deliah will miss her Daddy so much. I know Glenn fears that Deliah will change and grow like a weed while we’re separated by an ocean. We wanted to squeeze in as much family time as possible. Whenever you leave somewhere you go through a phase of wanting to cross items of your to do, to see, and to eat list that has been in the back of your mind forever. We did just that, checking items off our list and creating a lot more positive memories of our time in Guam in the meantime. There were a lot so I’m just going to hit some highlights.  

-          Deliah rode on a water buffalo named Bessy! We were exploring the tiny village of Umatac and went to check out a war history site from the Spanish-American war. There was a nice local man, “Big John,” who offered to take our picture in front of Bessy and then surprised us and said Glenn and Deliah could hop on. It was so unexpected and I can’t wait for the day Deliah comes across that picture and we talk about how she got to ride a water buffalo in Guam. Seriously, who has baby stories like that? Umatac is famous for being the place Portuguese Explorer Ferdinand Magellan arrived on Guam while traveling the globe.  

-          An ordinary trip to the bank turned into a cultural explosion filled with dancing and authentic homemade empanadas and other yummy treats.  

-          I went snorkeling for the very first time! We bought snorkels for Christmas and I finally used mine. Normally I’m hanging out with Deliah while Glenn is the one swimming with the fishes. For some reason it has never worked out that we have time for both of us to snorkel in the same day. I can now say that it’s amazing! I was completely oblivious to how many fish were swimming around us every time we go in the ocean. There are so many and the colors are beautiful. While Glenn was snorkeling, Deliah and I walked along the beach collecting puka shells. It was the best day and Ritidian Beach quickly became my favorite beach on the island.   

-          Deliah discovered her favorite beach spot on the island. There is a spot not far from our house that has a sand bank that is covered by 2-5 inches of water. You can run out hundreds of feet without the water ever going past your ankles. It’s perfectly baby friendly and Deliah loves that she can crawl around and splash easily all by herself. We set her down and then watch as she crawls towards us with an ear to ear smile. Deliah is such a little bubble guppy that belongs in the water. Seriously she can’t get enough! Although she does have strict specifications that the water is warm. I’m hoping she can adjust to that CA water.  

-          We finally ate at the little Thai food shack right near our home. It was recommended to us once but let’s face it that the outward appearance can be deceiving and we frequently forgot about it until we drove past. We were given tons of food at a reasonable price, and I even got a mango watermelon ube smoothie. It was a successful lunch adventure and I would go back. 

-          Deliah went down her very first water slide! To do so I did perhaps the naughtiest thing I have ever done in my entire life! We snuck into the swimming pool area at one of the fancy island resorts. All the resorts here have public beach access and we were originally planning on hitting up the beach after some shopping. We honestly didn’t think it would be a big deal to use the pool. Who would even notice that we weren’t hotel guests? Turns out the lifeguard flagged Glenn down in seconds for not wearing one of the necessary green wrist bands. You needed a towel card that they give you when you check in. Glenn thought we could swindle one. When we walked up to the cabana and were asked for a room number Glenn promptly replied #902. I have no idea how he knew that would even be correct, but we were given wrist bands and never even asked to see a towel card. It was such a rush of excitement for me. The pool had a water slide and a lovely ocean backdrop. We took turns going down the water slide with Deliah and even let her sit on the slide herself in between our legs. It was a blast and made for the best day. Shopping, swimming, water slides, a little bit of rebellion, and closing out our day with the most amazing salted butter caramel gelato. I was euphorically happy all day and couldn’t have asked for a better last weekend here.

I have really been striving to live in the moment recently, and have been happier because of it. It’s difficult for me to look past things that are difficult sometimes and can put myself into a slump. I truly am grateful I have a husband with a job that can provide for his family. Guam was a shock to me. Guam was difficult those first few months, like moving anywhere new would be. I missed my Chihuahua. I missed avocados. I missed Holidays spent with family. I missed home. I know this experience has brought me closer to my husband and strengthened our family. We have a lot of wonderful memories and a lot of once in a lifetime experiences as a result of this unexpected stop in our life’s journey. This is a side of the world I never thought I would visit. It’s been good to broaden my horizons. It’s been hard, but it’s been good too.

 

The grass is greener where you water it.

 

The grass is greener where you water it. I read this simple quote the other day and the words struck me instantly as I realized how fitting this was for my life right now. About mid February we purchased plane tickets home to California. Initially we were just planning on spending the summer and after a few different variables were thrown in, the tickets stretched into what will be a six month trip for me and Deliah. I am over the moon to be reunited with my Chihuahua. I am thrilled to be home in time for one of my best friends weddings. I’m looking forward to holding new babies that will be born. I am grateful to have time with my in-laws before they leave on a mission. More than anything I want to show off my perfect beautiful baby to all my family and friends. Deliah is not the same 2 month old infant who flew out to Guam with me anymore. She is a fearless 9 month old little girl who is so eager to try new things. I am already nervous about how I am going to handle a squirmy 9 ½ month old who is already attempting to walk during 18 hours of flight time, but that will be another story. The reason this quote had such a profound impact on me is because my feelings towards Guam have really changed recently. It’s almost like the second plane tickets were purchased off this island that is 6,000 miles away from everything I care about, I realized there is so much I care about here as well. There are still a million reasons this island makes me crazy, but that has not been my focus. Knowing I will be leaving and suddenly have limited time has allowed me to enjoy myself more, appreciate more, explore more, smile more, and hopefully be a better  wife and mother because of my shift in mood and perspective. I have allowed myself to feel happy when before I felt like that wasn’t allowed because this wasn’t my plan. Silly, yes, but understanding this about myself has helped me grow in a way I needed to grow. Lesson – life doesn’t always go your way, but water where you are and you can find beauty anywhere! For me it has been very literal beauty in the form of sunsets that light the sky on fire, amazing hikes, waterfalls, and the ocean! 

Guam was never on my radar, not for a place to live, and not even a place I considered for travel. I honestly knew absolutely nothing about it. I couldn’t even locate it on a globe, but then again I can’t locate most places on a globe. We have been here seven months now. Like anywhere you need to learn the ropes a little to feel comfortable. The learning curve in Guam is just steeper than when we moved West Coast to East Coast. On Sunday we met a new young couple with a 6 month old baby from Utah who just moved to Guam three days prior. Hello, sound familiar! I can relate to what this new Mom must be feeling so uniquely and I know too well the feelings of stress and loneliness that will creep up on you in a new place, although maybe she didn’t move here as reluctantly as I did? I thought about how I wish we had someone to help with the transition and tell us all the best places to shop, eat, hike, and explore on the island. We were told the same two spots to visit and once we went to those right away all we did was go to the beach a lot. Now we are discovering there is so much more to see and I love how blessed we are to be surrounded by so many fun excursions we can do in just a day. In the spirit of being appreciative and watering where I am planted here are 10 good things about Guam.

1.   The beach.

2.   The sunsets.

3.   Taking a hike, literally.

4.   Playing tourist for the day and exploring the island.

5.   The amazing scenic backdrops and vast amount of photo opportunities.

6.   Renting three movies for $5 at the video store across the street, we don’t have Redbox.

7.   The year round swimming in warm water. I miss seasons, however my baby is half guppy and loves to swim so this has been nice.

8.   A baby wearing an Aloha print dress.

9.   Laughter. There are plenty of strange things about Guam and we have really learned to have a sense of humor about it all, or try to anyway.

10.      My husband has a job here that can support his family, and every weekend is a 3 day weekend.

 

 

What have the Fox's been doing?

When we first moved to Guam we made a conscious effort to go and play tourist on the island as often as we could. Initially it was more like an extended vacation. We really wanted to be happy here and the beautiful sights eased the distance. The last few months we have been in a slump. We bought a car on Craigslist and were scammed. We took it to a repair shop that kept it for two months, and were scammed again. We are currently driving a car that literally has the head gasket glued together. We poured a lot of money into this car and not wanting to waste another dime on our Guam bomb have been without a consistent reliable vehicle. A few kind people lent us a loaner for a while, but there were weekends we were stuck at home. January rolled around and we were broke. Glenn was on winter break and only receives paychecks on the months he works, so it was tight. We were happy to spend days swimming at the pool in our complex. We kept saying how lucky we were to be swimming in January. Life in Guam has really surreal moments and the year around swimming weather is a perk, especially when you have a baby who is a natural born bubble guppy in the water. We discovered the video store across the street rents three movies for $5! We binge watched TV shows on Netflix and spent more time with the characters from Chuck than actual real people. We were living life on the cheap and kind of stopped exploring the island. The last month we have started to emerge from our shells again and have been able to enjoy some fun family outings. Here are a few of my favorite moments recently. 

Our Valentines Day dinner date turned out to be very memorable and kept us laughing the whole time. We ate at a new place called Tapenade and didn’t know any reviews or anything at all prior to walking in the door. We asked the hostess what it meant and she said it was a serving for two. The menu looked delicious so we ordered a few things with the plan to share. I asked for a strawberry lemonade to drink which wasn’t on the menu. The bartender said he could whip it up no problem. We watched as he sliced strawberries, juiced lemons, shook it all around and created his masterpiece. Since there were no refills on this creation I savored and drank slowly. Throughout the entire meal the bartender kept walking over and adding to my drink. He dropped in diced orange and apple and garnished with extra fruit. He just couldn’t stop! When the food came it was delicious, but turns out Tapenade means a taste for two. We had two skewers and split between the two of us it was three bites of meat each. We ordered two other dishes and joked about hitting up the Wendy’s in the parking lot on our way home. Neither of us had ever eaten at one of those tiny bite size portion restaurants before. It made for a memorable dinner and the food honestly was fantastic.

Last Monday Glenn had a surprise day off work that we weren’t expecting. Guam literally called a Holiday out of nowhere and schools were closed. One of our favorite places on the island is a place called Tumon. This is the capital of everything touristy on the island. You have the best shopping, restaurants, resorts, and therefore the best beaches. We spent the first part of our day wandering around the stores and waiting out the buckets of rain that were pouring down outside. We ate lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. To some it’s just pizza. To me anything that I enjoy in the states and can still enjoy on this island feels like a little piece of home. Once we finished the weather was all cleared up and we were planning on swimming in the ocean. When we walked down to the beach we were warned about jellyfish. Being the cautious Momma that I am I chose not to risk going in the water with my baby. Glenn however thought he could dodge any jellyfish that he saw, put on a snorkel and mask, and proceeded with caution out into the water. He was back on the beach five minutes later after getting stung. Lesson learned we chose to take a casual walk along the beach taking pictures. Immediately we noticed the beach was littered with these Pacific Men-Of-War, dozens and dozens of them just washed on shore. They are a bright royal blue and look like chewed up spat out pieces of bubble gum with a giant clear bubble stuck to them and a single long tentacle. Unlike anything I have ever seen before at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that I visited many timed during my childhood. We came upon a catamaran that was a perfect posing my baby moment. We saw this triangular glass home that had a wedding going on in that exact moment. This little beach walk was my favorite part of the day. I experience a lot of emotions in Guam, some good and some not. This day I was grateful that we will have so many cute family photos on the beach because of our time here.  

I feel like each time we go out on a Guam exploration I think that’s the most scenic place on the entire island. Seriously though I really think this hike we went on to Tarzan Waterfalls last Friday was my favorite so far. We have talked about hiking pretty much every weekend, and up until now have only done one very small very short hike down to a place called Haputo Beach. Tarzan Falls was a 3 mile roundtrip hike and perfectly baby friendly. The trail was so wide and kept opening up to these gorgeous scenic views of the island. It was absolutely impossible to get lost because even when the trail split off it always converged back into one. The weather that morning was spectacular and we had a nice little breeze. There were some muddy patches and one place we had to do a little bum scoot down a crazy steep slippery hill but that’s the reality of nature. I can’t say enough good things about this hike and this day. The funniest part was this group of Japanese tourists that were taking an ATV tour down to the waterfall and as they kept stopping to navigate we kept catching back up with them while walking. They were shameless about photographing our beautiful baby. When we were down at the waterfall one of them just randomly put his arm around Glenn and Deliah to take a picture with them. I feel like wherever we go our white baby is such a novelty and we’re constantly getting compliments on her beauty, her gorgeous eyes and curly locks of hair. People can rave about my baby all they want, this Momma eats it up. The waterfall was spectacular. Who doesn’t love a waterfall?! The water was so refreshing to jump in but was a little cool for Deliah’s liking so we didn’t stay in too long. Deliah got real worn out hiking and being so photogenic that she slept the entire hike back. All in all it was great family day and I was feeling very lucky by our surroundings.

Not every day in Guam is all rainbows and unicorns and waterfalls. Those days it’s effortless to see the magic in my day and the unique experiences that Guam has brought us. Whenever I’m out of the house and we’re trying something new and exploring the island that’s when my mood is at its best. The most challenging aspect of living here is the feelings of loneliness that can creep up on you. I have never struggled as much socially and felt like it was so difficult to make friends as it has been here. Some days I am perfectly content at home tending to my Mommy and Wife responsibilities. After too many days without venturing outside those walls I start to get bored. I love spending my days with Deliah but I think about how awesome it would have been to have Deliah while we lived in North Carolina. There are a lot of young moms in our previous ward who supported each other and were excellent about keeping a playgroup going. They always invited me even without a baby, but now that I have a baby I see how crucial those groups are to both baby and Mommy. I love showing off Deliah and her new tricks on Skype, but it’s not the same. I’m already looking forward to being back in California and having games nights, and people over for dinner, and meeting friends at the park with their kids. We really do lead a pretty good life and have exceptional options for fun weekend outings but I do wish Guam wasn’t in such a stupid location on the Globe.

 

 

 

 

A walk along the beach in Tumon. March 3, 2014

 

 

A hike to Tarzan Falls. March 7, 2014

 

 

 



 

Deliah at six months. (12/28/13)

 

Milestones: We introduced Deliah to stage 1 baby foods the day after Christmas! First up on the menu - squash! She had been giving signals that she was ready and was getting grabby with her hands and wanting what her Mom and Dad were eating. The kicker was when Deliah dive bombed her face onto a McDonald’s mighty wing her Dad was eating one night. OK Deliah we get it, you are ready now! Her absolute favorite so far is carrots! She constantly has her mouth open towards the spoon and devours the entire container, unlike the squash where she would eat 1/3 to a 1/2 a container at a time.  

Discovering: Deliah is learning how to use her hands to grab onto things. She can take her pacifier out of her mouth and will attempt to put it back in her mouth by herself, normally backwards. For a long time chewing on her feet and hands was the most entertaining thing for her. Now that she can control her hands playing with all the new toys she got for Christmas is very fun. She has hung up on people while on Skype a few times because she wants to press all the buttons. She is not quite crawling yet but so close. She does little baby push-ups and gets her butt and knees so high in the air but hasn’t taken off yet. Instead she maneuvers her way around the floor by rolling over and over and scooting. We have had to invest in lots of those soft floor puzzle pieces because her play mat just didn’t cut it anymore.  

Sleeping: Deliah is not ready to give up her middle of the night feedings yet. The girl has an appetite and still wakes up anywhere from 2:00 to 3:00 to breastfeed. She will wake up again anywhere from 6:00 to 7:00. As far as bedtime goes she is getting better and will crash around 8:00ish and stay asleep when we are ready to carry her to her crib for the night. We have stopped swaddling Deliah when she sleeps because she is way too strong and just frees herself easily now. Her preferred method of sleeping these days is on her stomach, on a pillow, with a stuffed animal to wrap her arm around, a pacifier in her mouth, and her baby jams in the background. She is particular and knows what she wants!  

Eating: Since day one of her life, I have breastfed pretty much Deliah’s every meal. She took to it so naturally and judging by her arm rolls and adorable chunky thighs she was eating plenty. So this is a huge deal to be starting solid foods. For now we are just replacing one meal a day with solid foods, either her Gerber veggies or some rice cereal. She loves it! No surprises there. On occasion her Momma and Daddy like to dip her pacifier in something sweet, like frozen yogurt, Wendy’s frosty, or icing from a cinnamon roll to see what she thinks. All you parents know you did the same thing! Just today Deliah tried banana flavored baby puffs for the first time. Her Auntie Kayla sent them and wanted to see her try them while we were Skyping. I wasn’t sure she was ready because she has never had anything not liquid or super soft, but she swallowed them just fine.  

Disliking: She has no teeth yet, but poor baby has been suffering from sore gums for months now. She also doesn’t understand why all her friends live inside the computer box!  

Liking: Deliah’s favorite activity and always has been is playing in water! The bathtub, swimming pool, ocean, she loves to be wet! My favorite game she plays is when Glenn will balance Deliah on one hand and she bobs around like a little baby seal. Deliah kicks her legs and floats, and I’m confident already that we have an Olympian swimmer on our hands. At just two months old we were already able to dunk her head underwater, which made me so nervous that first time. Deliah looks adorable in her swimsuits but sometimes we can’t resist letting her swim naked because she has the cutest little butt! She loves her Jumperoo that she got for Christmas, and enjoys the music and all the lights and fun toys to touch and chew on. She loves watching her new Bubble Guppy movies that she got for Christmas and literally tries to crawl into the computer screen to play with her friends.  

Stats: First off I’m a slacker Momma who has yet to record her 3 ½ month stats for her last Doctors appointment.

3 ½ months.

Weight: 15 pounds 9 ounces – 94^th percentile

Length: 25.6 inches – 95^th percentile

6 months.

Weight: 18 pounds – 90^th percentile

Length: 27.3 inches – 90^th percentile 

Yes, I have a big baby! She wears some of her six month clothes just fine, but fits better into 9 month and for whatever reason 12 month jammies fit her best.   

New Mom thoughts: There are times where my baby doesn’t seem quite so baby like anymore. Deliah is transforming into a little girl right before my eyes and the six month age is filled with so many new discoveries for her. When Deliah was just a newborn my mother in law told me that whatever stage your baby is in at that moment always feels like the very best stage. I was pretty certain that I wanted Deliah to stay a tiny newborn forever that I could cuddle constantly. But, I have to admit that I love watching Deliah learn and discover new things. I love when she uses her voices and I laugh when she uses her voice to yell at me and let me know something is wrong. As a new Mom I pretty much don’t do anything without my baby constantly by my side. She is my sidekick in the kitchen and will assist me while sitting on the counter in her Bumbo, maybe getting a taste of brownie batter ;-) She folds laundry with me while rolling around on the bed. She checks my e-mails and catches up on Facebook. We play with her toys together on her floor. My whole world revolves around trying to keep Deliah happy, and we really do have a very happy, cute, perfect baby. I’m a lucky Momma that she picked me!