Okinawa Lily - March 19, 2013

 Easter's on It's way....



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okinawa Lily - Feb. 24 2013

Okinawa has a lot of "hidden gems." If you don't know Japanese at all, the whole island seems like a "hidden gem," but seriously there are a lot of cool things to do if you know where to look. We found this place on a website called OkinawaHai. It's an online resource for English speakers (mostly military) on the island, the website has list of restaurants, schools, tourist attractions and tons of information about the island, complete with reviews, it has been Jeff and I's main resource since we have been here.

 The place we found ourselves visiting was classified as an "egg farm," I have it in quotations because we really did not see many chickens at all and it was not so much a farm as it was a botanical garden and petting zoo full of island animals. They did have a shop and restaurant that sold ice cream, sweets, and free range chicken and eggs. We are still not sure where all the eggs came from....

Daily Lily - Feb. 18, 2013

Presidents' Day at Okuma Resort 

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...

Merry Christmas, Okinawa Lily!

This is our first Christmas in Okinawa. The mood and the feelings were pretty mixed around here. 

On the one hand, we are so happy we at least have each other; we cannot forget that there are 20 families in CT who's Christmas will NEVER be the same again and thousands of military families who are separated by deployment every year.

On the other hand, we miss our extended family and Christmas, much like Thanksgiving, the day had that "something's missing" feel to it. Of course, those mixed feeling are only from Jeff and I.

 Lily Grace had an AMAZING Christmas.

Our holiday started with a Candle lit church service on Christmas Eve, opening presents on Christmas morning and going out for sushi for Christmas dinner. Maybe this will be our NEW Christmas tradition.

All dressed up for Christmas Eve service

We decided to get Lily Grace a few presents that she REALLY wanted, instead of hoards of junk toys that she would break or forget about the next day.

"I Love this!" She kept saying. She REALLY wanted a play kitchen. Jeff put this one together using just a diagram. The written directions were all in Japanese. 

Super Lily Cape!

Merry Christmas!

Okinawa Lily - Dec. 14, 2012

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....well, as much as it can look like Christmas on a tropical island in Japan.

Lily's preschool had their annual Christmas recital and party today. The kids had a great time and Lily Grace did AMAZING. Jeff and I are so proud of her.
This program really demonstrated the difference between Lily Grace and other children her age. Not only in size, but general demeanor. Lily is so happy, energetic and today we found out, not shy in front of an audience. One of her teachers had to stay on stage beside her to contain a bit of that excitement, but all in all she was very well behaved. I can't post many picture because this is a public blog and I really should not post pictures of other people's children, but trust me when I say, it was adorable.

Singing

Hand print ornament she made at school. I love stuff like this!

Popsicle stick snow flakes. :-)