"Sit down" & "oide"

These are Reina's newest and most common phrases these days.  Usually they are accompanied with "mama" or "dada."  Its funny what she says, since she seems to combine the Japanese and English.  For example, "oide" means come here.  I think that the phrase "oide" is easier for her to say than it is in English.  So, my theory is that she learns the phrase that is easier to say first (Reina says "ohayo" for good morning for example).

Romeni and Granddad's visit is coming to a close.  We had a great thanks-giving meal.  Reina has been eating everything.  They leave on Tuesday and we will be sad to see them go. They've been spending lots of quality time with Reina and we've had lots of good meals thanks to Romeni.  Oh, she also hemmed our curtains (THANK YOU).

Pre-Turkey Day meal (onigiri)

Reina absolutely loves her bike.  She starts to cry when you get close to the turn for our house.  Right now its cute, but I think it will get old fast.  The neighborhood girls all have trikes too and they love to race down the street.  There are three little girls two houses down (6,4, &2) and then I've mentioned Rana and Ako (2 & 4) next door, and then there is a little boy and an older girl two houses down in the other direction.  They all like to get their bikes and go back and forth.  Reina of course wants to join in, but can't even pedal yet.  We usually watch, or go back and forth behind them all.

The roller slide near our house

Visitors

Emily and Reina

Granddad and Romeni arrived on Oki last Friday night and are here through Thanks-giving.  We had a great start to their trip, with some amazing weather and a little bit of sight-seeing.

On Saturday we kept it low key, so they could catch up on some much needed sleep after the long trek.  We also had Emily over (a little half Japanese girl who goes to Reina's daycare and whose Dad Chris worked with at KMS).  They had a great time together. They hung out at our house for a couple of hours truly enjoying each other's company (it was really sweet).  Then, after Emily left, Dad and Romeni unveiled Reina's early Xmas present: her very own trike. She was very excited, and spent about 30minutes getting on it and then getting off it, ringing the bell, and playing with the streamers.  She was very happy.

On Sunday, after Reina's nap, we went north to Manzamo (its a point that overlooks the East China Sea and has some cool rock formations).  Then on the way home we stopped at Torii beach to enjoy the weather and play at the park (I should say, swing, since the majority of the time Reina insisted on her swinging and US swinging).

"Shampoo, Shampoo..."

Ya, this is Reina's new favorite spot.

We have been busy, busy this weekend (well, the last couple of weekends) and are preparing for Granddad and Romeni's visit this weekend.  This past Saturday we went down to Kinser to see Chris' soccer "team" play in a tournament.  We only stayed for one game, but it was still fun to see the boys playing.  Then on Sunday I got up bright and early to bike in the mini Tour de Okinawa.  It was 50k with 3 other friends of mine.  We were the only American girls and we were the only people who did not have road bikes (of at least 500 - there were only 100 in our race, and there were MANY more than that out there).  It was fun, but hard.

Making pancakes on the weekend.

Reina working on zipping.

Reina has been working a lot on singing lately.  If you recall from last summer, Reina often asked for more and more songs to be sung to her.  I had high hopes of the first song she would start to sing on her own...you know, like "If you're happy and you know it," or "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes." But, Reina busted out with CHris' homemade, "shampoo, shampoo, everybody shampoo." This was created in the tub (as you probably imagined) and goes to a very monotone melody that I cannot liken to anything.  Fortunately, Reina also sang "rain, rain go away" on the same day (and it was totally appropriate, as it was pouring).

Reina is also getting much better with combining words.  Usually more than two word sentences sound like, "mama, sit down" with a patting motion to some location she wants me to sit.

Well. That's all.  Next time I post, Granddad and Romeni will be here shortly followed by Thanksgiving.

A House Warming

Last night we celebrated the completion of our house.  We invited practically everyone, including the Japanese neighbors and Joy Housing and Taba-san, and had an excellent turn-out (despite my mishap of sending the wrong map twice!).  Chris and I bought a brand new, big charcoal grill and had hot-dogs, hamburgers, and pulled-pork sandwiches to go with all the goodies everyone else brought.  We also were surprised to receive quite a few gifts - mainly awamori and plants as well as other goodies (like a had-made pot from Mr. and Mrs. Pope).  It is nice to have such amazing people in our lives, and for that I am thankful.  There were so many people that I didn't even get to speak to all of them (sorry) and I managed to only take two pictures I think! Fortunately, Kaori got a couple with her cell phone that I can share too.  In one you can see what Reina had for dinner last night: chips! :(  I would peak at her now and then and catch her picking up a chip of someone else's plate and at one point I found her taking veggies off the trey, taking a bite, and then putting it back.

Me taking "the" picture.

The picture

Chips for dinner!

Our first guest made me worry about the rest of the night with Reina, since she got a bit shy and clingy, but as more and more people showed up (and more kids arrived) I actually lost track of her for a bit as she played with everyone on the yard.  She even went down for bed around 7:30 with not one complaint (I think she was pretty pooped).

Today we are recovering.  Actually one of the nice things about having a party is the pre and post clean.  I know my house is cleaner now than it was last weekend when I had nothing going on!  I even mopped the floors this morning!

Playing with Grandpa Pope!

November is going to be a busy month.  We kicked it off with our little get together, and then next weekend is the Tour de Okinawa (a 50K bike race me and some friends are doing) and the weekend after that Granddad and Romeni will be here, followed by the next weekend with Thanks-giving.