The Last of LA and Home Sweet Home

A Reina-insisted photo: "Mommy, take our picture"

Enjoying the VERY cold LA water.

After a night's recovery from Disney, we spent the next few days with Paul, Jannie, and Grandpa Jeff.  Most notably, we walked around Hermosa Pier, saw some seals and played at a little arcade.  It was probably the first time Reina had done any type of circus type rides.  Chris also got in a few video games that he swears he used to be good at!  On our last day with Uncle Paul and Grandpa Jeff, we went swimming in Uncle Paul's pool.  Reina must have spent at least an hour in the water, if not longer, and got confident enough to swim in the pool with just a noodle.  Kaiya also got in, but didn't enjoy it quite like Reina. 

With Uncle Paul in the pool

The flight home was long.  Reina did amazing.  We were on a very new plane (maybe 2011) and it had touch screen monitors in front of each seat, which meant Reina could watch quite a few different kids' shows and movies.  Kaiya did ok.  She was a little bit fussy before "bedtime," but after she fell asleep for a few hours, she was fine.  The turbulance on the long leg was very bad about an hour and a half out.  The worst I've ever had.  I was happy once we landed.  But, like on the way to the States, we had very little time to get to our next flight.  With customs, immigration, and re-checking our bags we didn't have any time to eat anything before getting on our Tokyo-Naha leg.  Once we were home we all crashed until about four am.

"Swimming" all by herself

Since being home I've been obsessed with organizing all of our closets.  This is mainly because we were making the big move: Reina and Kaiya in one room.  Uncle Mike is coming in a bout a week, so we needed to get Kaiya into Reina's room for that, but this had always been the plan.  Eventually the spare room will be a play room.  Well, night one with both girls in the same room has been the best night of sleep for both of them in months!  I'm sure its mostly coincidence...that coupled with the fact that we played hard at the beach yesterday afternoon to ensure both girls were nice and tired. 

Kaiya also FINALLY has two bottom teeth. I've been saying since we landed in Portland that those two teeth were due any day.  Yesterday they broke through.  Hopefully THIS will help her sleep better.  Maybe that's why she's been such a bad sleeper.  I hope so.  Kaiya has also mastered pulling up (I've found her standing in her crib) and more recently sitting up on her own (from lying down).  Time sure does fly. 

Reina wanted to drive, Chris wouldn't let her.

We're still working on buying another house in Bellingham.  The house we're buying is bank owned, which I think has made the process a bit more cumbersome.  We got some news yesterday that I think will help move things along (but things could also go bad too with the news).  Hopefully we close by the end of August. 

At the arcade.

Home sweet home

DisneyLAND!

On the train (you can't see the back of her sweaty head)

After our day at Dodger Stadium, we woke up early the next day and drove to Disneyland.  Paul had to work, so it was just Kaiya, Reina, Chris, Jeff, and myself.  I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived:  we got parking very quickly and walked right into the park (quite different than Orlando, where you take a rather long tram ride, only to wait in line again for a boat or monorail ride to the actual park (I guess this is just for the Magic Kingdom)). 

NOT afraid of Minnie!

Snow-white story-telling

Afraid of Mickey - notice the distance (that was purposeful)

Dumbo.

We were able to get Reina on the carosal twice, since there was no line, then she did Dumbo and a small train which she enjoyed.  It wasn't until the boat ride through the whale's mouth (a-la Pinocchio) where Reina decided to be scared.  Well, she was scared before we got on when she saw the sharp-toothed tunnel we would enter, but after we got through it she was ok.  Then we tried to go on the tea-cups, but she got upset when she didn't get to pick her color and we got off.  We ran into the princess land, which was a good thing. We happened upon the end of a princess display, so that Reina got to see Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).  She loved this.  We had a snack and then got to see an interactive story-telling by Snow White.   She was still being a bit shy, but perked up after the story got going.  What was so nice about this princess area is that it wasn't ridiculously crowded - probably because it appealed to only little girls.  All the same, I thought it was awesome.  After some good princess time and a snack, we walked to Toon-town and met Mickey and Minnie.  Both had their own "houses," but Reina was much more excited to meet Minnie.  I think this mainly had to do with the fact that Mickey's house got dark towards the end where there was a cartoon playing and she thought it was scary.  She didn't want him to touch her.  With Minnie, the line was outside, and Reina was actually shouting her name as we got closer.  I still thought she'd be too scared to take a picture by herself, but she proved me wrong.  She even let Minnie touch her! 

Grandpa did a lot of carrying (or pushing the stroller)

One of the scared Reina-looks - on the safari ride.

The after Disney affect...

After our Toon-town success we decided to head to Tomorrow-land on the train.  The train was a hit, finding a ride good for Reina that was less than a 30-minute wait, not possible.  After another quick snack and bathroom break, we did the Tiki house. I thought for sure that would be a hit - come on, singing birds, what could go wrong (it seems many Disney rides like to scare)?  Anyhow, low and behold, towards the end the lights suddenly went dark and it thundered.  So, that wasn't good after all, however I do think it was Kaiya's favorite.  Lots to look at.  She was cute, hanging out in the backpack, head tilted up, taking it all in.  After the Tiki-tiki bird failure, we headed to the Jungle cruise.  Here is where Chris got a picture of her being scared of something.  I'm not sure what, all of the animals were fake and it was in broad day-light.  I guess Reina is just a bit conservative.  We had all had enough by then and we headed back to the car where both girls crashed quickly (we timed Reina, it was about 2 minutes after buckling her in.  Kaiya took about ten, but she had had about two short naps in the carrier already).  We were all hungry for some food (the salty Mexican type), so after getting back into "town" (Hermosa Beach) we found a restaurant ate dinner and then headed home. I must have been so tired that I don't even remembered where we ate exactly (we were searching for Mexican), nor do I remember what happened after we got home. I'm sure it was baths and bed!  I do remember taking the picture with Reina in her crown and glass slippers.  I guess there was time for a little playing!  We were able to spend some more time with Janny and Paul the next two days, which I'll have to report on later.  We head home tomorrow!  Woohoo.  I'm always very excited to come to the states, visit with friends and family...and then very excited to get home!  There really is no place like home. Sometimes you just have to step away to realize it! Ok. No more explanation points.  ;) 

Just in case you might not know this: inserting pictures into the blogger format is trying at best.  I do my best to make the words and the pictures go together, but it is extremely difficult. 




 

Root, Root, Root for the Do - dgers...

Our cute little Dodger fan.

We arrived in LA on Tuesday around 1pm after an uneventful flight. Luckily we were able to get row one, which meant extra space with the bulkhead; both girls napped almost immediately after take off, sleeping for over half the flight.  Kaiya is definitely starting to exert some independence, as after she woke up, she was ready to go, trying to crawl all over (or up) me and then if I had let her, she would have crawled down the entire plane aisle I bet.  After getting our bags, we took a taxi ride with the meanest taxi driver I've ever met to our hotel, which was about $20 away.  He was just unpleasant. That is all.  Then we relaxed in our room, as we didn't have a car. Uncle Paul met us for dinner at a very good Peruvian restaurant right around the corner.  Then we met Paul's girlfriend, Jannie, and she surprised the girls with some much needed toys for the room.  Reina was very happy with everything, since she mostly got princess stuff.  We waited and waited for Grandpa to show up (Reina kept looking out the window, asking about him) and he finally did around 8:30pm.  I had to put Kaiya to bed around 8...she couldn't make it.  But Reina did, and thanks to some coaching from Uncle Paul, she made sure to tell Grandpa to make sure and "go [drive] faster next time."  I think Reina was excited about him coming because he's great (of course) and he was going to sleep in the bed next to Reina (Chris, Kaiya and I took the other room so that we could minimize wake-ups with Kaiya's crying). 

A happy moment for the boys (Reina, not so much)

Thank goodness for the peanuts!

A happy moment.

Playing...

Playing in our room

After game affects

The next morning Reina and Kaiya experienced their first Dodgers game.  It was... exhausting.  It was right during Reina's nap, so that made things a bit more challenging, since Reina's attitude is very dependent on that one, little, mid-afternoon nap.  However, there were a few moments that she enjoyed: one being when Grandpa sat with her OUT of the sun (thank you random Dodger employee for offering to move us to the shade) and ate an entire bag of peanuts with her.  Kaiya did pretty good considering I carried her in the Ergo the entire time.  She got a bit fussy right before she crashed, but aside from that, I think she enjoyed watching all of the people.  Unfortunately, the game went into extra innings, so with two cranky little ones and two tired parents (and I mean myself and Grandpa), we were anxious to get out of there.  But, the Dodgers did win! 

We went to Disney today (Thursday), but I will report on it tomorrow. 

Hanging out in Oregon

We had a nice, relaxing time with Grandaddy and Romeni in Central Oregon.  We mainly hung around the house, recovering from our busy schedule with all the little kiddos and family in Washington.  I think Reina's favorite part of the visit would have been "swimming" in the hot tub.  Grandaddy turned the heat off, and we discovered that the hot tub makes a wonderful little pool for little girls.  Reina and Kaiya also enjoyed our nightly golf cart ride after dinner, even though one day we got stuck for about ten minutes in a dead golf cart.  We also made some fun cupcakes, after Reina recovered from a 48-hour flu (ick). 

Making cupcakes

Chillin in a card-board box

Watching Sis play in the water

In the golf cart

Kaiya is crawling everywhere and into everything.  She slept well at my Dad's house, which was a nice change (only waking twice!), but she seems to have already regressed here in LA.  As you can tell from the pictures, we went to several parks, where both girls clearly favored swings.  Kaiya is still working on sitting up on her own and standing, by pulling up, which she has done a handful of times.  More on LA later.

Cousins

From left, clockwise: Cora, Will, Reina, Kaiya, and Lucie

Reina and Kaiya will never have cousins on my side and still don't have "real" cousins on Chris' immediate side, so we look forward to getting together with Katie and her family, since they are the next closest thing (Katie and Chris are cousins, which makes our kids second cousins?).  Katie & George have three little ones, Lucie (4.5yo), Will (2.75yo), and Cora (4mo).  With Kaiya and Reina making five kids under five we had a busy little household.  It was really fun watching everyone playing together.  Aunt Katie made sure we had plenty of parks to run around at and we went to the Zoo with Grandpa Jeff and Aunt (or Grandma) Debbie on our last full day there.  The Meers' also had a nice new finished basement that we got to break in.  That makes two new bathrooms for us this year(Liliana and Celeo had recently added a new bathroom too) and I ensure you we enjoyed the extra space, as 4 people and all of their luggage get big fast!

We exchanged small gifts and were able to play with the rockets I got Will at the park one day. It was a first for Reina, and I think she thought they were pretty cool.  We also had a last get-together with Uncle Mike, Grandpa Jeff (although we'll see him in LA),  Aunt Debbie, and Uncle Jess at the Meers' house last Sunday.  Reina got to have her first "show," in front of family, which I have a feeling we'll be doing again.  Ironically, Jeff even accidently called Reina Liz, who as you know was very into dance as a youngster (and even as an adult).  The Eastman's often say that Reina looks like Liz when she was little.  Anyhow, the family show was predominantly Will and Reina singing.  I have some video footage that I'll post one day, but for now, you'll have to see the pictures.  What you may not notice is that Will is totally ending up in front of Reina during the "recital." I am pretty sure Will was not deliberatly trying to block out Reina, but as soon as we all gave him a reaction, he pretty consistently did it after that.  Some of the things we got to see at our Will and Reina show was "ABC," "Twinkle Twinkle," and some very cool dance moves on Will's part (I'm hoping Aunt Liz can show Reina some new ones next time they see each other, as Reina clearly gets her lack of dance moves from Chris and I).  

The audience for the "show."

Reina's solo - "All the Colors of the Rainbow"

At the zoo.

This week we're in Oregon, spending time with Granddaddy and Romeni, while next week we're meeting Grandpa and Uncle Paul in LA.  Busy busy!   

Entitled

A bit more on our week in Bellingham, as I forgot to mention a few things.  Firstly, Reina had her first dentist visit.  We bought a new Bearnstein's Bear book about going to the dentist, which I think prepared her aptly.  She was amazing!  She did exactly as she was told right away and didn't complain at all.  They actually cleaned her teeth, which surprised me.  As soon as we talked about when she would be going, she immediately said, "we have to bring this [dentist bear book] with us." 

As Kaiya goes through her seventh month, I am overwhlemed by her need to be involved in EVERYTHING.  I  would describe her as feeling entitled.  Did I already talk about this? If I have, its simply because it is so apparent (and it wasn't with Reina at all). Kaiya sees us eating and throws a "fit" if she doesn't get food too or if Reina is playing with a game, Kaiya will crawl as fast as she can towards it so that she is involved too.  I feel like she is already so much more of a handful than Reina ever was, but I wonder if that's just because we have so much more going on with other little kids around. Unlike Reina, she still loves to be held and cuddled by everyone (phew, that stranger phase of Reina's was NOT fun) and I am definitely appreciating her being a sweet baby more than I ever did with Reina.

Sparklers are scary and hot!

As I mentioned briefly in my last post, Uncle Mike came up for the fourth of July.  We bought sparkler's for Sydney and Reina and they loved holding them even though it wasn't dark at all (I think its like 10pm when it gets dark here).  I got some cute shots of the girls holding their sparklers and if you look closely you can see Reina's expression, sheer terror. I was surprised when the first one was over that she wanted to do another.  I think Sydney's desire fueled her on, so a little positive peer pressure worked out for us there.

Sparklers are fun now.

Reina has demonstrated her great ability to adapt again this summer.  She has been thrown into several new houses and families and happily played with many other kids' toys very well.  This probably isn't as big of a step for her as it is for those kids' whose toys she is playing with.  They have all done very well sharing with Reina their favorite toys too.  But I do think gone are the days of us having to stay up singing to Reina before bedtime to get her to go to sleep. The last two summers, jet lag has been very trying and Chris and I are very thankful that is over.  Reina happily lies down in her tent with her little sleeping bag and personal lantern to read books before falling asleep THROUGH the night.  Yay Reina.




We've had a wonderful, yet very quick visit with the Meers' (Chris' cousins) in Tacoma, which I will update on next time (lots of good pictures of their kids playing together).  Its been a bit crazy, since all together there are 5 kiddos under 5, two nursing, and several napping schedules, sharing or not sharing toys, etc.  But I know its a time that I nor my children will never forget and that we will all cherish forever.  Growing up, I know that I always looked forward to my summers with family and friends.

Some of the artwork I mentioned last blog.

I can't thank Karen & Joe or Liliana and Celeo enough for welcoming us to their homes and barging in on their lives (and sleeping schedules).  I hope we weren't too tough on them! 

Bath-time was their favorite!