The Third and First Christmas

Mom and Halil arrived on time last Tuesday. We've since seen some of Okinawa (as Halil didn't get to see much last time) and enjoyed our first Christmas together with them as a new family of four.  Reina enjoyed her third Christmas and Kaiya had her first, but she of course didn't really know what was going on!.  Reina was very thankful for all of her gifts and two days after Christmas has since played with every single toy (she wasn't into the clothes as much as I thought she would be).  Crazy to think she's just going to get more in about two weeks for her birthday (and be three). Although that's not as crazy to me as the fact that I'm turning 30 tomorrow. Woah.

Watching the dolphin show at the Aquarium

Anyhow, we've taken lots of pictures, so here they are to tell what I have not.  Mom and Halil sadly leave us this Thursday (man time flies) and then my Dad and Romeni come in shortly after Reina's birthday.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!    

Sisters are Sweet

I knew there was a reason I always wanted a sister (or a sibling at all for that matter!).  Reina LOVES Kaiya. She is more involved with her each day, which probably has a lot to do with Kaiya staying awake a little more as she gets older.  She'll be one month on Christmas Eve already! I have been on a mission to get a good, cute picture of the two girls, but it has been tough, as one always squints and makes funny faces during pictures, and the other is completely oblivious.  Here are a few that are ok.

 Kaori and Sklya came to visit with Kaiya and Reina last week.  Skyla also opened all of her presents (two for Xmas and one for her birthday - which is the same day as mine).  Reina and Kaiya also recieved presents from Kaori and Skyla - cute fur jackets.  Hopefully the weather continues to cool, so that we get to wear them soon!

I can't even wake her up if I move her.  She will just keep sleeping!

My time alone with Kaiya has ended.  It was much easier than with Reina, as Kaiya is a very good napper. She almost always has at least one good, long (like 4 hours) nap and a well rested mama is much better for everyone.  I even got good at juggling both kids in the morning.  I still don't know how single moms do it (or moms who have husbands who are lazy and don't do anything - Chris is WONDERFUL).  Now Reina and Dad are at home with me every day, and as I mentioned, Grandma will be here today, followed by Granddaddy in January.  Now to find a daycare...

Kaiya during one of her long naps.

Bouncing both girls on the exercise ball.

Mom and Halil get here at 12:30....TODAY!  Yay.  

Reina-isms & Quilts

"Remember, babies sleep in cars...Remember, babies cry sometimes." These are two phrases Reina has told Chris and I on an occasion or two.  I'm not sure where she got them from.  The latter I'm thinking I may have mentioned when preparing her for a baby sister.  I'm not sure where she came up with the former.   Either way, Reina is still coping pretty well considering she is no longer the center of attention. I actually ran upstairs this morning to put the laundry in the dryer....when I came back downstairs, Reina was attending to Kaiya in her bouncy chair - gently bouncing Kaiya, as I had asked Reina to do.  So sweet.  I haven't seen any signs of anger or jealousy towards Kaiya (knock on wood) and aside from being a bit more whiney than normal, I would say she has made the transition seamlessly.  But...I think I've already talked about this.

Kaiya or Reina?

Kaiya or Reina?

What I have failed to mention in a while is the progress of Reina's quilt. Its DONE!!! And it is amazing.  It came from Romeni (who actually quilted and put on the finishing touches) just in time for our "cold" whether, and has been on Reina's bed since it arrived in the mail last week.  We even went through her baby books last night and talked about all the clothes that were in the pictures and the quilt.  Pretty cool.  Ironically enough, the same day my quilt arrived, I received a surprise package from my best-friend in elementary school, Jessica Halley.  She made two baby quilts for both Reina and Kaiya. WOW.  And Reina's was a collection of fabrics from our young years together. It was VERY sweet and thoughtful. She also sent two Breyer horses, toys that Jessica and I treasured more than I can ever explain.  I fear that Reina doesn't appreciate them as much as I do, but perhaps with time she'll worship these horses as Jess and I did.




The count down has been going for a while now, but aside from the obvious Christmas nearing, Grandma and Halil will be here in a week.  Shortly after that Granddaddy and Romeni will be here...and the visits couldn't come fast enough, as I am lonely at home alone (even though Kaiya is so sweet).

Reina will turn three while Grandaddy and Romeni are here and we'll have her party that weekend - guess I better figure out what we're going to do for that!  Wish EVERYONE who reads this blog can come...that's all I want for Christmas (oh, and for Kaiya to sleep through the night!).  

Many, Many Thanks

Reina's little sister, Kaiya Elizabeth arrived Thanks-giving morning, two days after her due date and one day before her Aunt Liz's birthday.  As soon as she was here, Chris' first comment was, "she's big." And she was.  She was two pounds heavier than Reina, at 8lbs 9oz and an inch longer, 21".  Kaiya had a bit of jaundice and had to return to the hospital in her first week of life 3 times for a bili check (several heal pricks) as well as spend the night on a take-home ultra-violet light bed. So far Kaiya has been more mellow than Reina baby, sleeping in three hour stretches at night, which has been blissful.

Reina met Kaiya at the hospital when Kaiya was only a few hours old and was very excited to hold her. Reina also loved going home with Kaiya, right next to her in the car.  She has transitioned very well and loves her little sister so much.  However, Reina did come to the realization two nights ago that Kaiya, Mommy and Daddy all got to sleep in the same room.  She showed up one night after we thought she was asleep, blanket in hand, and said, "I'm going to sleep in your bed tonight."  We negotiated another book in bed with Mom, and that seemed to appease her.

In addition to being thankful for the delivery of a healthy baby girl on Thanks-giving I have to mention how thankful I am for all of my friends.  Living WAY over here makes times like these difficult, when you can't depend on family.  So, special thanks to Auntie Karen and Jane, and Barbara we've got a freezer full of meals.  I know there are several more who have offered for next week, and I am so happy to not only NOT have to worry about cooking or shopping, but getting to eat some new good food!  Our family has also been very supportive, its just a bit more difficult since there a bit further away.  Thanks to Skype, Grandpa and Uncle Paul have met Kaiya, and hopefully there will be more introductions this weekend.

In a bit of random news, Reina has started a new activity, that reminds me a LOT of myself (I probably started it).  Its called the "guessing game, guessing game," yes, it always comes in twos, and we usually have requests for it while we're in the car. Either Chris or I are to think of something, give Reina clues, and then she guesses what it is: "I'm thinking of a vehicle that flies in the air and is loud sometimes..." When its Reina's turn (and we guess), it usually starts with, "I'm thinking of a bus, that is yellow, and has a lot of kids in it." As you can see, she tells us what she is thinking, but she still gets excited when we tell her we know what it is.  Silly girl.

Mom and Halil are coming to visit December 20th, and we all can't wait (especially since I'll have spent the previous two weeks alone with Kaiya).  And Reina knows that when they are here Christmas is soon.  She is VERY excited about Christmas and Santa Claus.  As the matter of fact, I mentioned to her that we could put up the tree today, but we had to wait until Daddy got up to carry it downstairs.  So, about an hour later (and I had since forgotten this conversation), Chris comes downstairs, and Reina didn't waste a minute requesting the tree brought down.  We'll get the Xmas music going this afternoon and put up the decorations and put some presents under the tree (which she was very concerned about).

Kaiya goes in for her two week check up next week (12/7), so I hope to report then.

Trick or Treating & Sesame Street

Ako (owl), Rana (princess), Reina (Fairy)

On the 31st, we stayed up a bit later so that Reina, Rana, and Ako could go trick-or-treating.  They loved it.  We didn't brave on base, mainly b/c Chris and I didn't want to deal with the massive amounts of people signing on Japanese guests for trick-or-treating.  So, instead we went to Sunabe, which, if you haven't been to Okinawa recently (or ever) there is quite a few Americans squashed into one area. While the number of people handing out candy wasn't very substantial, there were tons of Japanese kids walking around trick-or-treating, and we still made out with plenty of candy.  Reina was by far the cutest trick-or-treater ever...I'll post the pics so you can see yourself.

Passing out candy at the Stevens' after we were all done

This friday Sesame Street visited Kadena.  The USO flew them over to put on a show about deployment and moving.  We scored some tickets from a friend, so that all three of us could go meet the Sesame Street gang.  Their message wasn't exactly appropriate for Reina's age nor the topic, but she enjoyed all of the singing and dancing.  Elmo was her favorite.  She was very concerned as to why Big Bird didn't make it, so we told her he couldn't fit on the plane b/c he was too big and that it was too far for him to fly.  She seemed more or less ok with that.

Reina's Japanese is coming along great.  She uses quite a few phrases with us, and I can only assume that she uses it more at school.  Things like, "ma-te" [wait], and "kore nani?" [what is this] for example. She even busted out in Japanese on her own with Obaa-chan, which is especially interesting since Kuniko tends to speak to her in English. Its like Reina knew Obaa-chan was Japanese.

Enjoying the Sesame Show!

Kaiya should be here soon.  I'm secretly hoping for 11/11/11, because that would be a cool birthday.  But that would also be a week early, and planning wise, its not a great time for my AP Bio class..but what can you do!?  I'm very uncomfortable, at plus 40lbs, and ready to be done.  I know that after Kaiya is here, I will STILL be tired but at least that will mean the beginning of re-gaining control of my body!  I have another appointment this Wednesday, which will put me at 38weeks and 2 days.

Jack-O-Lanterns

Yesterday we had the neighbors over for our second annual pumpkin carving.  The girls loved it.  Sure, there was some distracted playing with the golf clubs and bowling balls, but they liked scooping out the seeds and drawing on the pumpkins.  The "big" girls, Ako and Miri (5ish) were able to use the little knife provided by these cute kits I got this time.  All 4 girls wanted cats, so we have three cat pumpkins in a row in our little neighborhood, but who cares, its for them, right?  We plan on going trick-or-treating on Monday.  Reina will be a fairy. We'll see how it turns out...its a costume I just happened to be able to put together with things she already had around, so we'll see how it comes together.

I'm almost 3 weeks away from D day!  Crazy.  I'm feeling really tired and seem to have quite a few contractions, as compared to my pregnancy with Reina.  This worries me a little, since delivering early is going to be a school-planning nightmare. I'm not quite sure what I can do about it though!  I have another appointment with the doctor when I'll be 38 weeks, which should be the week of the 4th.  Baby was head down last week when the doc checked with the ultrasound machine, and said, as usual, that all of my stats are normal.

Reina's First Haircut

After Chris and I both chopped off some hair this early fall, we decided it might be time to give Reina a trim.  We like her hair long, so we just took off a little on the bottom so it is straight across.  It sounds simple, but cutting Reina's hair was more of an ordeal than either of us expected.  At first she was excited, since both Mom and Dad had their hair cut....then she realized it involved scissors.  As soon as I pulled them out, after combing her hair she got quite upset and insisted on us NOT cutting her hair.  I think she thought it was going to hurt.  Finally, after much encouragement, and holding her blanket and Chris I got one small snip off.  After that, it was fine.  As a matter of fact, she wanted more hair cut after I was done.  Silly girl.

Our goya!

We are continuing to prepare for baby Kaiya.  Today we swapped out dressers, since Reina's dresser is much lower and perfect for diaper changing.  Reina has been great about all of these changes, but I've been sure to include her in the decisions.  Today she got to pick which drawer to put her panties and socks in, and even helped out with the transfer.  We also raised the crib back to its highest setting.  Aside from a couple of other small things, we're pretty much set.  I am trying to start Xmas shopping early, as I'll be swamped I fear, in the weeks approaching Christmas.  Two friends of mine have insisted on throwing a shower, so I've kept the guest list pretty small and we're just supposed to have a good time!  Its next weekend, and I admit I am honored that they have insisted, and a little excited!  

Go Kubasaki!

We've been to both Kubasaki v. Kadena football games this year, and Reina really enjoyed them.  At the first game, Reina started screaming when she saw the Kubasaki Dragon mascot.  I guess she still has a little bit of fear around dressed up people (hope she does ok for halloween!).  She got better throughout that game and then was ok for the next.  I think Reina most enjoyed the cheerleaders.  She has been dancing and mimicking them (including "go kubasaki" and "go dragons") whenever there is music on at home.

I had my 32 week visit with the doctor last week, and things are still very normal (weight gain, stomach size, heart rate, blood pressure, etc).  Kaiya is 7 weeks away from being born and is kicking up a storm in my tummy.  Reina is very excited about her, and even invited her to her birthday party.  I'm feeling pretty pregnant - hard to bend over, tired, back aches, etc.  But, as my mom reminded me, I need to enjoy this time, as I will never be pregnant again and will never get to have it be just the three of us.  Boy is Reina in for a surprise!  

The Fruits of Our Labor

These little pics are of a time when Reina and Mom were bored.




We have goya!  We finally invested in a proper structure for them to grow and and they have literally taken off.  We ate one nice fresh one, but since we only had one, we weren't quite sure how to prepare it, since they're much better stir-fried.  But, I think we'll have a crop of several next time, and barring any typhoons, I think within the next two weeks we'll have a fresh batch.

Other than gardening and playing, we've just been getting back into our old routine.  We did go out yesterday night with some other couples (the Popes, the Stevens', and the Deakins).  It was a good time, and good for us to get out without Reina (which we don't do very often).  We also saw Obaa-chan this weekend. We went to Toys R' Us since the weather wasn't reliable enough for a park, and went to a little inside park, which Reina really liked.  They had all of these cool little play structures perfect for age, to include a slowly spinning tree with hanging cocunuts the kids could hold/swing on and Reina's favorite, a net room with a blower and several big balloons.

We're down to the single digits for our Kaiya count-down....9 more weeks. We've submitted our leave and aside from nailing down a sub for me (and of course the dreaded sub-plan writing) we're more or less set. If that's even possible when expecting a newborn.