Feeding Frenzy

I wish this title was describing Reina's appetite. Unfortunately we still haven't figured out what she'll eat no matter what (except maybe rice), so she always seems to want to eat, but doesn't want to eat very much of what we offer. I guess to be fair, she goes in spurts with eating. Maybe its her teeth?

I digress...Obaa-chan Kuniko took Reina to the park last week for one of our house meetings. She got eaten alive by mosquitos. Reina seems to be sensitive to the bites; between the park and our visit to the beach yesterday she is covered in huge red welts. She scratched one so much she started to bleed, and today she seemed quite annoyed by them. I'm not sure what to do aside from not go outside, which seems kind of sad.

Reina LOVES to play in water. We have a spicket on our balconi that she recently discovered, and the last two mornings she has come in soaking after playing in it. And of course at the beach she loves to sit and splash in the water and figure out buoyancy. I plan on signing up for swim lessons again the week before we leave and am excited to see her in the pool.

We finally got by the house today. All of the load-bearing walls are in place. We even walked through. I have a whole album dedicated to the house if you find your way to picasa via the slideshow on the blog. There I uploaded a bunch of new pictures with captions. We have made most of the final decisions. I'm most excited about the tile. We found some really cool tile for the outside. After walking through the house everything seems pretty good. I'm a bit worried about the bedrooms being a bit small and the whole house being dark....but its going to be ours and it will be awesome!

We are on our last week of school. Then Chris will be boxing up his school stuff and moving to Kubasaki. We are really excited to be at the same school. And I know Chris will enjoy the older crowd (the students, not the teachers!). We have also been casually researching different preschools for Reina. We may change, but if we don't find the perfect fit, we'll be happy with the place she goes now. 3 weeks until WA!

Newest Accomplishments

Again, I have little to report. I feel like I say that a lot, but still post on here I guess out of habit. Reina has been learning some new tricks that Chris and I really appreciate. She signs "thank you" pretty often now and she can shake her head "yes" when you ask her a question. She's been shaking "no" for some time now, so the yes is a welcome change. And its really cute, because she still has to deliberately shake her head "yes" in such a manner that its really a whole body yes. Pictures are just ones I took around the house of Reina being Reina. She is still waking up once at night, but if she does, that usually means she'll sleep in (today she made it till 8), so I don't mind.

We are making lots of decisions about the house and I am finally starting to realize that its going to be done in no time. We leave for the states in about 4 weeks and when we return in August, it will practically be finished. 2 more weeks of school, and I swear we're all practically counting the seconds at this point!

Interior Design

Final decisions have been made (well I think!). We decided on some tile that I feel really good about. After that I feel like I won't really know how I feel until I see it done. We meet again today at the kitchen showroom to make final decisions about the kitchen and the front door. I have to praise Reina for being such a trooper. We lug her to these long, boring meetings and she really had done well.

Not much else new. Reina has been talking a lot more. She is working on thank you, which is my personal favorite, since it gives her such good manners and it sounds funny when she says it, since it sounds nothing like what it should be. I have to make her 18 month appointment for June. I can't believe she's 1.5! I have uploaded random pictures of her reading, helping with the laundry (she copies EVERYTHING we do), and holding a lot of things (something else I think she gets from us).

Oh, we also made plans to go to Greece this summer. We had planned on going to London to see Liz graduate and had added on some extra time figuring we'd do some travel in europe. After much deliberation, we finally decided we really wanted to do Greece. It really is the perfect location for Chris and I, since I love the beach and he loves history. We will do Athens for a few days and then head to one of the Greek islands (right now its looking like Tinos or Naxos with a visit to Delos).