Okinawa Lily - Jan. 26, 2013

Life has fallen into a boring routine and I kind of like it. After the bustle of the Christmas holiday, things really settled down around here and we just began kind of living. "Winter" in Okinawa seems to be a series of rainy days in the low 50s and sunny days in the mid 60s. More rainy days than sunny I'm afraid.

The biggest event is that Lily Grace is now potty trained. It kind of happened over night even though she has been going to the bathroom at school since she started. The teachers assumed she was at least partially trained because when the other little girls would go for a potty break, she would too. I was reluctant to send her in underwear instead of the trainers, but, she was ready. We had a whole week to practice here at home and she was just THRILLED.  So we traded the training pants for real underpants at school (she LOVES the cartoon character ones and seems to have less accidents in those oddly enough) and she has been doing fabulous. A few accidents or bad days here or there, but for the most part, trained.
It's so surreal how fast I went from doing diaper laundry to washing itty bitty underpants. The time is just FLYING by....

Okinawa Lily - Jan. 02, 2013

 Folks ask me all the time, "do you think you guys will stay in Okinawa after your 4 years are up?" Days like this where I am sitting on the beach in January, watching Lily play and explore, so happily, enjoying the breeze and the view, I think, I could stay here forever. Of course, that is completely selfish and narrow sighted, but really, this place is amazing and I am enjoying it for what it is.

Happy New Year! 

Wow, 2012 was a heck of a year. It was so crazy, I don't even have the energy to write about. So....enjoy some pictures of Lily Grace at the beach today!

She use to hate her toes in the sand. She loves it now.

So, she got too hot and stripped out of her clothes. Thankfully, we were the only ones on the beach this afternoon.

Picking through the coral.

I love that she seems so FREE here...