I Love Thumbs

The biggest news for this week....we have another thumb sucker! Thank goodness.  Last night was the first night Kaiya put herself to sleep in her crib and each subsequent wake up (twice) and didn't need to be wrapped.  Chris and I even brought up moving her crib out of our room. Maybe next weekend?  We're thinking of putting Kaiya into the spare room until summer, and then after summer (August?) we'll move them both into Reina's room.  The spare room will turn into our guest/play room.  We'll see if we carry this out.

Who is who? I love this game!

Kaiya is officially Kaiya Elizabeth Eastman.  We picked up her birth certificate and passport and her SSN will be on the way soon.  I posted pics of both girls' passport photos - not nearly as good as my photos! Its a shame its 5 years until they get new ones, b/c as you can tell, Reina doesn't look like her picture at all! I'm always surprised they let us through customs!  Can you tell who is who? Chris always guesses wrong.  

Pretty in purple.

Not much else to report.  Kaiya has her 4 month check up at the end of August, right around the time Reina will go to her new daycare.  She is still dressing herself, with some nice outfits, and others I could do without.  Next week commences soccer season, something I've been dreading since it is all consuming for Chris.  He takes it a bit too seriously if you ask me.  But, I can kind of understand since I used to feel that way about soccer.  I think I'll warm back up to the idea after the girls are a bit older.  

Trying to stay warm on our post-dinner walk.

Biking & Drooling

Reina rode her trike to the park today, in what I would describe as frigid weather for Okinawa (57F!).  Kaiya rode in the wrap on me, but we turned around after we got to the park, since it was just soooo cold.  But, Chris and I were quite surprised as Reina rode her bike all the way there basically by herself.  She needed help up the hill, but aside from that, she really has the pedaling down.

Kaiya is approaching 3 months and already seems to be drooling a lot.  Reina didn't get her first tooth to much closer to 6 months, but perhaps Kaiya will cut hers earlier!  Maybe she will always be trying to catch up to her big sister.  She will go in for a 4 month check up at the end of next month.  I've been meaning to weigh her, but I have yet to actually do it.  She has definitely filled out a bit and is much more baby-like as compared to her scrawny infant self.

Soccer try-outs are February 27th, about a week off.  We've been conditioning for about an hour after school, which has been great for me; starting to shed some of that baby weight off. Hopefully I can keep it up, as right after school seems to be a convenient time.  I can honestly say that I'm not looking forward to soccer season, but I'll manage.  I gave Reina a bath with Kaiya in tote by myself as Chris was fighting a 24hour flu.  We've had a rough winter with sicknesses.  I think the combination of germs from work (high school kids) and then now germs from two separate day cares has been a tough battle.  Hopefully with the warm weather on its way, we will all get healthy and stay healthy.

I didn't get any good pictures of Reina this past week, but I did get some of me wearing Kaiya. I had so many pictures of Reina in all of my carriers, that I thought I better get to taking some with Kaiya.  I love to "babywear." It is so sweet, and I remember all too well with Reina, how fast she grew up and wouldn't let me carry her anymore!  

Big Girls' Gymnastics

I brought the camera to Reina's gym class this weekend.  Despite feeling a bit under the weather and awaken from a nap, she did excellent again.  Reina seems to take things pretty literally - if you say, "sit here," she will sit there until told otherwise (despite other kids jumping up and wandering off).  There is quite a bit of sitting and waiting at gym class, since most activities have to be done one at a time. But, as I mentioned, Reina does well at waiting her turn.  She even went on the bars without me (only teachers allowed on the mat) and did a flip (assisted of course). At mommy and me gym, rarely could I get her to do a flip - but a little positive peer pressure seems to have worked and she didn't even whimper.  She has always seemed to like the balance beam the best, so I was happy when they went to the "big" one and she got her turn to walk across.

A Reina designed outfit.

Reina has become something I never imagined I could produce - a girly girl.  She ONLY wears dresses and can occasionally be talked into skirts, but pants...NEVER.  She also insists on picking out her dresses so we have been working a lot on matching.  Here is one outfit she picked for this weekend.  I had to buy several more leggings and long-sleeve undershirts to keep her warm during these brisk winter months when pants aren't allowed.  Reina also insists on wearing the slippers Grandma bought her, since these are "pretty." I have been able to get her into her leotard and shorts for gymnastics, so Chris thinks that perhaps she'll be the one always dressed for the sport, but more or less indifferent about playing the sport.  I'm sure its too early to make any of these assumptions...I'm sure she'll be an athlete!  We've been to watch the Stevens' kids basketball games and she always seems interested in playing afterwards.  Reina is also excited about watching Daddy's soccer games, but again, this is probably due to the fact that I bought a special green outfit for her to wear!



Kaiya has been doing great.  She is a champ at going to bed, just not so great at sleeping still, but it is what I expected.  I need to weigh her again, since she has definitely filled out a bit in the last few weeks.  We're always told to put babies on their stomachs for "tummy time," but with Kaiya it lasts about three seconds before she rolls back on to her back...so much for that.  She can roll to the left and right, but has yet to roll to her front.  When that happens we'll have to stop wrapping her at night...and hopefully she'll be sucking her thumb by then (still just whole fist in the mouth).  We visited our friends, the Stevens', last night, and Kaiya, despite a 5 min screaming session let the mom and daughter hold her.  I'm hoping that continues, as I remember very well how much crying Reina did when other people held her.  Kaiya also continues to TALK SO much more than Reina ever did.  She is laying on her mat by herself right now, cooing up a storm.  Its SO cute.  I wonder what this will mean for her future...I think REINA talks a lot!

This is Kaiya around 3 months

This is Reina around 3 months

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I'm always wondering how Kaiya compares to Reina so I thought I'd put up pictures of the two of them.  I think Kaiya is not nearly as chubby as Reina is, and I think her face is more narrow compared to Reinas.  What do you think?  I can't remember when Reina's eye's changed color. Kaiya are changing, but still not brown!  Grandpa and Grandma (one from each of our sides) each have blue/light eyes, so there's a chance Kaiya might not go brown, but I have a feeling its unlikely!

Reina-ism to end with: "Mommy, can you make it [lasagna] NOT tasty."  Despite explaining to her what tasty meant, she still insists on things not being tasty.

So tired

All I have to talk complain about is how tired I am. Kaiya has gotten worse during the night rather than better.  We went from waking after midnight and then morning to waking up twice (10:30 and 2:30).  Its brutal, b/c that means I never get more than 3 hours of consecutive sleep. Do you KNOW how important consecutive hours of sleep are? I'm sure there's been research on this, but I can tell you from experience...its debilitating.  I find myself at work referring to objects as "whatchamacallits" and saying things like, "you know what I"m talking about, right?" because I just can't find the words.  I know its due to lack of sleep.

But, other than that, Kaiya has been an amazing baby. She sleeps well during the day and has lots of happy wakeful periods where she is all smiles.  Reina has been great with her and loves to have her read with us in bed at night.  Reina definitely seems to be the challenging one these days.  She is insistent on only wearing "pretty" clothes, which pretty much means only dresses...maybe a skirt, and absolutely NO pants.  This drives me nuts.  Who would have thought I'd have a girly, girl?  Will she grow out of this? I hope so.  I'm not up for drama, tutus and cheerleading.

Kaiya loves to read with us too!  

In other news, I think we've found a solution to Reina's daycare closure.  We made arrangemnets with Kaori to meet this weekend to search for a new daycare - one that opens at 6:30 and is full Japanese.  This is impossible, we've found.  The solution? Kaiya's daycare will watch Reina until 7:30, when a nearby Japanese daycare opens.  They will walk (or drive depending on the weather) when its time. I fear that Reina may want to stay at Kaiya's daycare (for whatever reason), and throw a fit about leaving.  Hopefully not.  I find that if I do lots of coaching with Reina, preparing her for what is to come, she does pretty darn good.  You should have seen her at her new gymnastics class. She moved up a level, since she turned three.  What is cool about this, is she is now going to the Youth Center (where I went for gymnastics when I was little) and they have all the "big kid" equipment.  What's not so good as it was more a lesson in turn-taking and patience than gymnastics.  Obviously, these teachers (specifically Reina's) don't know how to keep 3 year olds behaving.  She had crazy expectations - sitting for SEVERAL minutes while other kids (ONE at a time) went through a fairly long exercise.  Then they did it three times (times, oh, 6 or 7 kids) and only went to one other piece of equipment (thankfully it was the trampoline, which allowed a faster flow of kids).  THEN they had 2 water breaks during the whole 45 minutes.  I don't know if its since I"m a teacher, or I just want the best for my kid, but it was all I could do to bite my tongue.  Somehow Reina did great. Aside from occasionally running over to me,  and almost getting on some things she wasn't supposed to she was able to wait her turn.  Seriously, she deserved a gold star.

Ok. I feel a little better.  Got that complaining stuff out of me!  Thanks.