Tired, Thirsty, Itchy, and Cold

What is this thing?

Trick-or-treating with Ako, Rana (and Skyla)

Skyla and Kazuki

The much anticipated Halloween festivities are over.  After our long Saturday morning at undo-kai (sports day) and our Halloween party at the McKinney's, we looked forward to staying at home on Sunday.  But, that afternoon, the neighborhood girls came over and we had our pumpkin carving party, with caramel apples (Reina and I made them Sunday morning and they were a big hit).  Reina choose the smallest pumpkin with the happiest face.  Reina is not much into scary things.  I didn't know how many of the girls would want to carve pumpkins, so I got 5.  Skyla and Kazuki came too, so with them and us, we had 3 left-over, one for Ako, one for Rana, and then one for the Goya sisters to share (Manaka, Miri, and Ichika).  Kaiya was great, sitting next to me and Reina in the yard, taking everything in.  All of the girls had a great time, not just carving pumpkins, but running around in the yard.

Reina with her pumpkin (Kaiya's is the little pink-haired one)

All of the girls (plus a few I don't even know!)

On Halloween, the girls' daycare went to Depot Island (Chatan Jusco area) to trick or treat.  There was some kind of festival going on so Reina went as a Greek princess (the costume we got for her two years ago in Greece - so we got some extra wear out of that!).  Kaiya and the littlest ones stayed for at school.  Unfortunately, Reina and her classmates missed her nap, on such a crucial day too, as we were going to have a late night. Reina took a little cat-nap in the car home only to turn around and head out to meet Skyla, Ako, and Rana (and their mamas) at gate one.  We headed to the food court for a quick bite to eat and then went off to trick-or-treat.  We drove over to a housing area after dinner, and went trick-or-treating.  They all loved it; Reina was the quickest I've ever seen her!  Ako and Rana would run back to their mom every time they got candy only to tell her how they got more, and Rana even kept a running tab until adding them up got too complicated!  Towards the end, Rana was getting tired.  Megumi told me Rana said she was "tired, thirsty, itchy and cold." We decided that meant it was time to go.

All in all, it was a great Halloween.  The holidays are so much more fun now with little ones to experience it with.  

Mamiru Hoikuen

I LOVE this new school Reina and Kaiya are going to. What's so great about it, is they treat everything like a school, rather than a daycare.  Is there some down, unstructured time, sure.  And this is what characterized Reina's old daycare and every other daycare I've been too.  Mamiru is more like a preschool, where I know they are reading books in Japanese, rehearsing for performances, and learning how to swim.  Speaking of Japanese, Reina has officially surpassed Chris and I in comprehension and speaking.  She will say things to us and neither of us know what she is saying!  So, after summer, where we were nervous she had forgotten everything, 9 weeks later, she's past her previous spot.

I bring up the daycare again, because they put together another event: their very own undo-kai (sports day). I spoke about the elementary school in our neighborhood doing their sports day a few weeks back. We went and watched the neighborhood girls participate in many of the same events that our daycare put together for yesterday.  We showed up around 8:30 with our tent;  30 minutes prior to start time and we still struggled to get a good spot...these people take their sports day seriously. Just about every family had a tent, bentos ready for lunch, and extended family show up.  And this is for the preschoolers!  It was very clear how many classes there are, since each different age group got a different hat color.  In blue, with a class size of 2 is the 0 - 1 group: Kaiya and Alisu (Alice, who I have decided is 1/4 white, 3/4 Japanese).  They got to participate in their very own event: a walking race, with assistance  Poor Kaiya, who has not started walking yet, got beat pretty badly.  We forgive her though, since she tolerated her blue hat so well and all of the commotion without one tear. The next class was 1 - 2 years (Tanpopo Gumi - the dandelion class).  They wore pink hats.  They were the most pitiful, as 50% of the class cried the whole time they were without their parents. Then it was the yellow hatted class 2 - 3 year olds(Sakura gumi).  Reina's class (3 - 4: Churipu - tulip) wore green hats and the oldest group (himawari gumi - sunflower class)wore orange.  This April, everyone will move up, with the orange hatted class off to kindergarten.

Getting ready to march out.

Undo-kai started with all of the classes marching out to the center of the field then doing a collective dance.  After, each class did races, usually in groups of 5 at a time by gender.  Then there were individual dance performances by each class.  There was also a part where I had to "dance" with Kaiya and run with Reina in a relay race. Reina was not the fastest nor the strongest. But she was one of the better dancers, who knew most of the moves by heart.  As a matter of fact, her tug of wore performance was pretty pitiful.  We'll have to practice that.  Despite a rocky start (Reina complained of a tummy ache), both girls did amazing and we were very proud. Oh, and check out the quick stitching on their shirts - their names in their coordinating color. Yep, I did that the night before.

Chris is working on posting all of the video footage we took.  I have to admit, I admire the amount of work the daycares must have put in organizing and practicing this event.  The kids did a great job, and were clearly practiced. However, many of the dances and events would have been better had they been about 1/2 as long.  But, I'm not going to complain.

We were at Undo-kai (Araha beach) from 8:30 till 1pm.  When we got home, all four of us took the best aligned nap in the history of our family.  It was amazing.  Then we woke up a 3:30 and got dressed for a Halloween party. Reina easily made the decision to skip gymnastics (we havent' been in weeks) and go to this party instead - she kept asking me what present we were bringing, since I think she thinks all parties are birthday parties.  The party was a blast.  Ms. Sarah McKinney really out-does herself with the treat bags, games and decorations.  Everyone had a great time.  Reina is very excited about carving pumpkins with the neighbors this afternoon.  We bought 5 pumpkins, one for just about everyone.  We also made caramel apples, my first ever. We'll see if they turn out.  Reina is also very excited for Halloween.  Ako, Rana, and Skyla will go to Kadena with us on Wednesday to officially trick-or-treat. Reina will be Cinderella and Kaiya will go as sushi.

Kaiya's "race"

Line leader.

Kaiya is 11 months old!  She turns one in November. Dang it went fast.  She is teething a lot lately, which I am hoping is why she is sleeping so terribly. I even found a small amount of blood on her blankie (she stuffs the satin part in her mouth when she is sucking her thumb).  Poor girl.  I also think she is sensitive to everything, which has made making dinners and feeding everyone a bit challenging.  Right now I think she is sensitive to all dairy and eggs.  I've also eliminated chocolate (since it has milk in it), pancakes, and caffeine   You all know those are some of my favorite things.  Oh the sacrifices of a mother.   I think I could mangage without everything minus the cheese and chocolate.   Kaiya also stood in our little tent at sports day yesterday.  I know this means walking will be coming up.  I'm so excited for dresses.

Dad and Romeni are coming for Thanksgiving and Kaiya's first birthday.  I am debating on whether we should just put some candles in a apple pie for her cake or if that is cheating her out!  We'll see.

This might have been Reina's best event.

30 minutes for obento-lunch

Getting ready for Eisa dancing and Taiko drumming

Can you spot Reina?  

Out little fairy

And our cute sushi!

The Routine Stuff

1st position!

Not really much new going on here, nor anything terribly exciting.  We have been pretty good about making ballet/tap each week (I cannot say the same about gymnastics, but its on Saturdays...at 3!).  Here are a few pictures of Reina Ballerina (like Angelina Ballerina).  She LOVES ballet, and I know it is in part to her amazing teacher.  They have a ballet word each week and all these cute songs reminding them how to sit nice and tall.  As Reina approaches 4, she has gotten much more independent.  On some occasions, she goes next door to play all by herself (or out in the street, or Rana comes over to play).  If Rana comes over, they always go STRAIGHT for the sylvania family animals.  I took a video of them talking; Reina's Japanese has definitely passed mine. I often don't know what she is saying!  Course I can't figure out how to shrink the video and upload it. Sorry.

Playing with Rana

The annual Mango tree picture.

Watching Reina play soccer in the yard.

Kaiya has 5 teeth now.  The top two came in along with another top one.  I wonder if that's the reason she hasn't been nursing as much....although it hasn't stopped her solid intake!  We had to start sending one bottle of formula last week. I was pretty depressed about it.  I made it to one year with Reina, and she never had formula.  But, its only one a day, so it can't be that bad! I need to relax.  Kaiya is pretty happy the rest of the day.  She take one very good nap at daycare, but still does better with us at home on the weekends.  She is back to waking up 2x a night, which is actually better than the  4 - 5x I experienced last week.  I have decided a lot of her sleeping issues come down to her sensitive stomach and skin.  No dairy, no chemical products, nada!  I miss cheese dearly!

I took our annual mango tree picture.  The mango tree was planted when we first moved in, October 2010.  Chris pointed out that after three really bad typhoons, he had to trim it back, as the upper branches were pulling it down.  I took some with Reina standing, but Kaiya was pulling her down, as she was trying to hold her at the same time.

Today we're all excited about going to the beach.  We had a typhoon scare mid-week, which brought some nasty weather, but fortunately it has cleared up and turned into a beautiful day. Not sure if we'll make it in the water, but we will try.  We've got hot-dogs, drinks, and smores too, so it should be a fun time.

Next week Reina has undo-kai (sports day). I'm excited to see what all will happen.  Reina is also starting soccer soon, so we've made an effort to get her excited about it.  I've purchased pink shin guards and socks to help the transition (apparently these are required even at this young age - I suppose we need to start good habits)!   

A welcome three-day weekend

Manaka's Dance with the rest of the 2nd graders.

Manaka - 2nd grade

After what seems like several busy, typhoon-ruined weekends, this three-day weekend was much anticipated and enjoyed. Saturday morning, our Japanese neighbors (the ones I talk about less frequently) invited us to undo-kai (sports day). This was no elementary school field day. This was the type of event where you went the night before to tape off your section for where your family would sit.    I was amazed at how serious the Japanese took this holiday.  Saturday morning, Manaka (the oldest of the girls' next, next door, came by in her uniform to make sure we were in fact, coming to watch her at undo-kai (see picture).  Her red hat is because she is on the red team, competed in points with the white hatted team.  Ako and Miri, the other two girl neighbors in kindergarten had pink and blue hats, but that was special since they were in Kindergarden.  Manaka, as you can see from her shirt, is in the 2nd grade (which is the same as ours).  They ran races, did dances, and shot balls in hoops.  What was really crazy is the whole thing was more or less run by the kids. They set it up, the counted points, they brought equipment out, then cleaned it up.  They were quite self-sufficient. 

Reina enjoyed watching all of the events and spending time with the other little ones, Rana and Ichika (Manaka and Miri's youngest sister), who are both 4, but technically in her grade, if we decide to send Reina to school with them.  Reina will have her own undo-kai, held by her daycare on the 27th of this month. They've been practicing.  I've been told to send sneakers each day with her and to also dress for running when we come, as we will be participating as well.  Kaiya is to practice crawling on command (we've not had much success with this), but apparently its a whole-school event. After the last one, I"m sure it will be great.  

Reina and Ichika, enjoying a lolly-pop under a tent.

Not much other news. I included a picture of what has become a pretty common weekend routine.  Chris wakes up with Kaiya around 5:30 (thank you Chris) and lets Reina and I sleep in till about 6:30 - 7.  Since Chris doesn't want to wake up Reina, Kaiya falls asleep on the floor downstairs with him.  Kaiya will crawl around, blanket in tote, until she finally gets sleepy enough to just stay where she is.  The other picture is of Kaiya and Reina "helping" me make pancakes.  Kaiya loves pancakes, and to be doing whatever we're doing, and this particular morning, we decided it would be fun to wear our new flower headbands. I fear that I'll never get another picture (or moment) with Kaiya in the headband, as she pretty much immediately tries to remove it.