Little Ballerina's are Cute

So, little girls doing ballet must top the cutest things there are.  Reina had her first ballet/tap lesson last Thursday and I think its safe to say she'll want to go back.  I'll have to bring my camera to ballet one of these days, so the pre-pictures I took at home will have to suffice.  She said she liked ballet better than tap, which surprised me, but she could not verbalize why.  She's become quite the busy little girl. Right now she has ballet/tap on Thursdays, swimming with her daycare on Friday's, and she's still in gymnastics on Saturdays.

Our new favorite device: Ipad 3

Thanks for the easter presents Grandma

Thursday morning we drove up to the aquarium. It was actually fairly empty, which was a nice change.  Reina loved running around putting her nose up close to all the glass windows.  And we did the dolphin show which I think is probably her favorite part.  We of course now have it memorized, but she doesn't seem to mind, and that's all that is important.  Kaiya did great too.  Unlike Reina, she is more into looking around and staying alert when I wear her.  She has taken to sleeping on her belly, now that she can get there on her own. I'm not sure if she's happy about it or not, but she seems to fall asleep like that weather it be out of exhaustion or happiness.

Eastman's Girls!

We have our itinerary for this summer!  SO SO SO excited.  We leave here for Portland on June 18th and then will come back here July 21st.  So, about a month away.  Not much else to report, since I've been blogging so frequently with all the free time I have.  This has been a great break; really just a tease about how great our time will be this summer.  Love to all!

The start of a great relationship

Mommy's Lil Sagittarius (and Capricorn)

"Shell" hunting with Amy, Miki, and Chloe

We nixed the camping idea due to the possibility of inclement weather. However, we were determined to have a beach day and bonfire, so we did! The girls did amazing.  I wasn't too worried about Reina, she's become quite the beach gal.  Plus she was so excited to go, that she didn't even nap (she was up there asking if it was time to go for about an hour and a half before we gave up).  I was more skeptical about how Kaiya would do.  We packed up the car and I swear we could have stayed the night (or maybe two) with the amount of things we brought.  We had a little tent that Romeni and Granddad bought us that worked out perfect for keeping Kaiya out of the sun and "holding" Reina for those few moments she wasn't playing in the sand/water.

Collecting "shells" 

Reina was very excited about it getting dark which was surprising since she sleeps in her room with a very bright night-light on (we'll call it a lamp).  Since I was thinking she might be anxious about it, I bought about 10 glow sticks/bracelets/necklaces. She was so excited about opening these that I don't think it even occurred to her to be scared.  About 15 minutes after arriving at the beach, she asked if she could open them.  When I replied that we needed to wait until it was dark, she told me about 10 minutes after that, that it was dark enough.  Ha! It was like 4pm.  Needless to say, they were a big hit with her and the other few kids we ran into while there.  The fire wasn't nearly as fun as I thought it would be for two reasons: one, it was too big and two, it was too hot!  But I was determined to have smores, so despited having to get really hot to make them, I had two.  Reina didn't seem to be as excited about the smores as I was.  She was more into eating the "raw" marshmallows, which she kept telling Chris were eggs.

As I mentioned, I was very worried about having Kaiya out at the beach all day and into some of the night. Well, I shouldn't have worried, because she truly did great.  When Reina was her age, Reina would cry when pretty much any one aside from Chris or I would hold her.  This has not been the case with Kaiya.  She went to everyone and was all smiles all the while.  After I nursed her around seven pm, I was sure she would conk out.  However, she insisted on staying wide eyed and smily until we left.  This is what prompted me to think of her little Sagittarius shirt.  The saying, as you can see from the picture is that she is "Funny, adventurous, friendly" and the "life of the party." All things I though were very fitting for this particular outing.  I included Reina's capricorn shirt too, which just claims she'll be "born ambitious" and "loves to organize." I also think this is pretty true of Reina (and myself, since I too am a Capricorn).

Playing in the tent.

Her one beach nap in the tent.  It lasted a measly 30 minutes.  

Kaiya has been sleeping terribly.  I'm sure this reminds you of all my complaining about Reina and not-sleeping when she was little, but Kaiya does seem to be worse. I'm hoping its because she learned how to roll over yesterday (both ways).  I think she hasn't been sleeping well because she wakes herself up frustrated on her tummy, and isn't sure how to get back to her back. I am also wondering if she might be getting a bottom tooth, but after looking at Reina's first (which was closer to 7months), I think it must not be teething.  Hopefully she'll get this rolling thing under control and let me sleep!  And Reina too.  And Chris too.  We moved Kaiya into her own room on Sunday night; remember we moved her to the spare room so that she wouldn't wake Reina up if they were in the same room.  In retrospect that just seems silly, because now, when Kaiya wakes up, we're all up.  She wakes up the whole house.  We might as well all be in the same room!  Hopefully this passes and we can resume our regular sleeping schedule, whatever that is.

Spring Break!!!!

A sleepy baby

Wow.  Chris and I REALLY need this break.  I think that's true for most of our breaks, but for some reason this one is SERIOUSLY welcome at our house.  We don't have any really big plans, although I'm trying to coerce Chris into going camping for a night with some friends.  Does it sound crazy to go camping with a three year old and a four month old....yes.  But I am of the mindset that these kids are not stopping me from living, and they're going to learn to be better people because of it.  We'll see if we all end up driving home in the middle of the night; at least we'll have had some campfire hotdogs and smores by that point.

So bright!

Kaiya is SO close to being a master roller.  She can still pretty easily roll from front to back, but she's not quite got it the other way.  Today I thought she may have done it, but I didn't see it myself. Plus she was on the soft bed AND Reina may have helped her!  Any day now though, I'm sure.  She also went to the beach for the first time today and fell asleep in the wrap.  Somehow it doesn't have the same amount of sleep affect as it did on Reina.  When Reina would get wrapped, she would fall asleep just about every time.  Kaiya is more into looking around when she's in the wrap. Perhaps Kaiya can stay awake because she takes such amazing naps by herself in her crib.  I keep thinking she is going to get on predictable 2-nap a day schedule (when does that happen?); but she seems to easily get in four naps, with two pretty solid ones around 8:30 and 12:30.  Her last two naps seem more of an afterthought.  Speaking of sleeping, Kaiya is in her crib in her own room tonight. I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but we decided to wait till spring break so as to let us all acclimate slowly.  So far so good, but it has only been an hour.  Reina questioned why we didn't put her in her room, but I think its better for a slow transition.  We're sticking with our, after summer plan, for now.

Making cupcakes just because its fun

Playing with Reina's wand

Reina is doing great at her new Japanese school.  She spends about an hour and a half with Kaiya at her school, and then is driven to her Japanese school around 8:15am. I love it.  The head teacher seems very organized and particular which lends it-self well to running a good school (in my opinion).  They even started swimming this past week.  Boy, getting all of the Japanese swimming paraphernalia was an ordeal.  They have to wear certain swim caps and only flip flops and have separate bags and no bikinis.  There were all of these rules.  The head teacher has lots of those too - like, no socks, ever, not even when it is cold.  According to my neighbor this is typical of a Japanese daycare.  I think it has to do with the kids sliding on the floor, but it seems a bit excessive if its cold outside!  Whatever. We don't have that many cold days!

 Most of you know we're locking in on our summer plans.  It is always so exciting planning our summer, talking about spending time with all our family and friends.  I can't wait!  And it helps when the little kids are excited too.