My Two Favorite Girls

My new favorite thing to do is read to both little girls before bed.  I get about one book out of Kaiya before she's ready to crash and these few minutes with them both sitting on my lap being calm are precious.  Reina picks out a book and then Reina shares her blanket with Kaiya.  They both quietly suck their thumbs while I read to them.  Its a very special moment in our daily routine (and I don't think Chris has discovered it yet...shhh).  

They're matching. :)

"Ta"

Some words Reina recognizes.

Reina has been doing very good and practicing her reading and writing.  She's got some work to do, but you can generally tell what she intended to write (if you spell it for her).  She even has been practicing her Japanese Hiragana characters. I was quite impressed with her "ta" and took a picture of it.  You saw "daddy" last week, and she has of course written her name a few times as well.  Each day I try to make it a point to write a little something on the white board.  Something like, "Reina is 3," or "Reina likes Kaiya."  Just so she starts to recognize some words and is able to read from left to right, etc.  Of course her Japanese daycare is working a little against this, since her Japanese book (she gets a new "ehon" each month) is written in Hiragana from top to bottom (and the pages flip from right to left - I think I'm explaining that right).  I'm just excited that she's excited about reading and writing.  She still really enjoys her books before bed and when there is a sitter, they always tell me they have to take the books out of her bed to get her to go to sleep (I don't really mind!).  

Mmm. The birthday cupcake.

Playing with the parachute.

This weekend Kaiya and Reina went to Juju's (Julia Mendoza, ironically enough her mom, Heather, is a friend of my Mom's originally...maybe its not that ironic since everyone on this island either knows my mom or Chris' dad) birthday party.   Both girls loved it.  Kaiya was just absorbing it all. She loved watching all of the other kids play, sing, and dance. And of course Reina loved it all.  

Watching bubbles.

Kaiya finally got in for her 6 month check up (Here is Reina's post on 6 month stats).  She was 15.3 pounds (32%) and 25.6 inches (39%) in length.  After checking Reina's stats, it seems as I thought, Kaiya is narrower.  Reina was 18.1lbs and 25.5inches, so height is about the same, but Kaiya is significantly lighter.  Both girls were measured closer to their third week of 6 months, with Reina a little closer to 7 months.  Interesting.  

A visit from Skya (wearing an "old" dress of Reina's)

We're expecting a small storm tonight.  It was/is a typhoon, but I don't think it will do much to us as its fairly week (cat 1 by the time it gets close to us) and its a bit East of Okinawa.  Hopefully we miss most of them until school starts up in August again.  2 weeks till we fly!!!  After staying one night in Portland with Granddaddy and Romeni we'll head straight up to spend a week with the Guifarro's (Liliana, Celeo, Jack and Diego).