Our Family

I feel like the new blog pic really expresses our new family.  Just a little bit of chaos...making do, but overall happy with life.  Reina and Kaiya love to play together and Chris and I love watching them giggle at one another.  Kaiya is growing up so fast, already 6 months. She's very close to sitting up on her own, seems to be about to get her bottom teeth, working on inching along on the floor, and starting solids.  I know its going to go super fast this summer and I know she'll be crawling before we go back to school in August.  Crazy!

Playing with Rana

Almost sitting!

The summer plans!

Eating! Rice cakes...mmm

Can you read what Reina wrote?

Silly sisters.

Our mini-picnic at the beach today.

We had an excellent first weekend off from soccer with a visit from Oba-chan, some gardening and a small barbeque with our "neighbors," who live about 10min away.  Three more weeks left and we're all barely working!  Its amazing how much we all check out at the end.  See you all soon! 

They're "Gangin up"

On the way home from dinner tonight, Reina was arguing with Chris about something.  I can't remember exactly, but I do remember Reina deciding that Kaiya had taken her side in the whole deal. It went something like, "Kaiya thinks so too Daddy."  It made me realize that this will probably happen more frequently in the future.

This is the default Kaiya "look"

Until Kaiya has an opinion of her own, I am sure Reina will continue to put words in her mouth and boss her around.  One of her latest crazes is getting Kaiya dressed or undressed (or "un-dressed up" if you're Reina).  I got a sequence of pictures illustrating how this process goes.  Reina was actually able to do most of it by herself, and Kaiya actually tolerated it.  Actually, Kaiya thinks anything Reina does is pretty cool - any press is good press to her (if you know what I mean). However, the other day I came downstairs while Reina was playing with Kaiya (who was giggling of course) and Reina said, "look Mommy." I almost scared them both with my expression, as Reina was holding Kaiya around the stomach in the air; not something a three-year-old should be doing.  Needless to say, I quickly got Reina to put her down, but since I starteld Reina so much, she bumped Kaiya's head which made Kaiya cry.  I think Reina learned her lesson (as did I mine).  So Kaiya is happy to have Reina's attention until she hurts her.

The pink onsie is wet Reina.

Apparently, pulling the shirt down was easier...

Reina jumped on the opportunity to pick out new clothes...

Still a happy baby!

Today we went to the beach again. In addition to the fact that I love the beach, Reina has also realized how much fun it is, so it makes going that much more enjoyable.  Then there is Kaiya who hasn't quite realized this, but darn she looks cute in her beach get-up.

The beach "get-up"

Dang, this pic would have been WAY better with my SLR.  

Far East soccer is next week. Yep.  This is it. One more week. Then I can relax again.  Then summer is here and I can REALLY relax!  Can't wait to see everyone.

This is Reina's drawing for Mother's day.  It was posted in a mall here.  

Reina's Camera

So, I took my Nikon to the shop, and they sent it to mainland.  The shutter is sticking (a problem this guy hadn't seen, and he asked if I dropped it).  I didn't drop it. Might it have been bumped, yes.  Do I have a three-year old who may have dropped it, yes.  Hopefully its not too expensive.  This means I'm using my old camera (the point and shoot) that was my first digital camera.  Its crazy to think we used to drop our film off and hope for the best!  I had actually passed this camera on to Reina.  I was uploading some pictures I had taken, and thought it was funny to see some of the pictures Reina took.  I think its pretty clear who takes which pictures.

This is Jason Stevens - Reina got a shot of him unbeknownst to me!

After resisitng for some time, I decided to figure out what this whole pinterest thing was about.  Its still a bit foreign, but in a nutshell it has lots of ideas all in one place for lots of different things.  The first one I saw was of a way to organize hair ties.  Each day when I go to put Reina's hair back, it is a task to figure out where the good hair ties are, and which headbands actaully fit, etc.  So, when I saw this, I was pretty excited to give it a go.  I think it turned out pretty good.  Actually, too good, because now Reina is obsessed about which barette and hair tie she is going to wear, which means its not always the most practical ones.  And she insists on putting the barettes in her hair, which usually looks pretty funny.  I also got some ideas for the playroom.  Hopefully Grandpa Jeff can help me out with some of those projects.

Last weekend the weather was amazing, so Ako, Rana, and Reina went to Torii beach (with me and Megumi).  All of the girls enjoyed playing in the sand and the water, despite quite a bit of seaweed and brisk temperatures.  These pictures were the last few I got on my SLR before EVERY picture had a black bar.  I am hopeful it will be back with me before we leave for the summer...now that would be a real tragedy.  

The Camera...

Wow that looks like Reina.

The camera is on the fritz and I am just sick about it.  I'm going to blame it on the humidity, which is out of control here, especially in this house.  Seriously, I checked out some flour and corn starch the other day....COVERED in mold.  Anyhow, I think Chris and I have decided that its the shutter that is sticking, which is causing a black bar of varying widths to show up on every other picture taken.  Again, MAKES ME SICK.  We bought the camera last summer at no small cost.

We are in the homestretch of soccer and AP season.  I think Chris and I are both ready for the end. Its been a tough season.  Chris keeps reminding me that this is as hard as its going to get. Kaiya and Reina are only going to get easier to care of from this point forward and I'm going to get better at teaching!  It sure has taken its toll on us. Each evening, when Chris gets home from practice (around 5pm) we're both exhausted. And on top of it all, Chris had an unsightly hives incident yesterday. He was taking some anti-biotics for an infection he got and as it turns out, he's allergic to sulfa.  That makes two of us.  He was COVERED head to toe in little red bumps.  He's off the meds now, so hopefully he'll continue to get better.

Kaiya has taken on a nice routine (except for at night of course).  I get both girls home around 3:30 - 3:45 after work and then Kaiya takes about an hour nap, which is a great amount of time for me to get something together for dinner. Sometimes Reina is better at playing by herself than others; mostly I think she wants me to play with her, which I try to do, but its tough when you are tired yourself, and then have bottles and dishes to wash, laundry to do, and dinner to make...at the same time.

Reina continues to adore Kaiya and the feeling is mutual.  When Reina was born we joked about who she preferred, Chris or myself. I feel that with Kaiya the stakes are higher, since Reina is in the picture, and I think Reina might win.  Kaiya literally giggles and wiggles with excitement when she sees Reina.  Its sweet and cute and it just makes me happy.

This is how Kaiya sucks her thumb

Kaiya is 5+ months at this point and is getting ready to sit up on her own.  She is chewing and drooling on everything, but she still hasn't sprouted any teeth.  I think I've mentioned that like Reina, Kaiya sucks her left thumb.  What's different is that Kaiya doesn't curl her fingers up like Reina does. Kaiya spreads her other fingers over her face (see picture).




Amongst what seems like an endless amount of rainy days (which have turned out good for me, since soccer practice/ games have been cancelled and cut short), we got a gorgeous Friday afternoon last week. I met Kaori and Skyla the beach and both Skyla and Reina enjoyed playing in the water and sand.  It only takes Reina standing next to Skyla for me to realize how big she has gotten.

Trial carseat @ airport scenario

Summer is 6 - 7 weeks away!  I've already started making my lists.  I've gotten the passports stamped and I even figured out how to get Reina's heavy carseat through the airport.  In the picture, you can see how Reina has started this new "swimsuit as outfit" campaign.  She will announce half way through the day that she wants to go try on her swimsuits, and she comes down still wearing one.  Speaking of swimsuits, I went to watch Reina at her swim class. She goes with her daycare on Friday's.  Its in the Chatan Sports center (by Kitakaisen and the batting cages). It was cute watching them learn how to swim without my having to get in the pool with her. She really looks forward to swimming each week.