Cosmo Fields

Back in February my friend Taylor and I and our babies and her mother in law drove up north to see the field of cosmos in bloom. The farmers who plant these plant them in between planting their crops for a short season. I think that's pretty cool and I sure appreciate it. It really is pretty hilarious trying to get a toddler to cooperate during a photo shoot, let alone 2 toddlers. But we had a good time anyways. Lucy wanted to run around but she kept falling into the grooves between the crops (she had only been walking about a month at the time), so she was having a rough time. In about half of these she's actually crying/whining/screaming, but it looks like a smile ha!

I'm so thankful for this wonderful lady's friendship. I met her when we were both pregnant and she was looking for someone interested in going to the prenatal yoga class. I actually only went twice bc it was mid-summer and the AC was out at the gym and I was blacking out during it. haha. Anyways over time she has become one of my dearest friends here. I love her positive, happy, fun, flexible personality. Okinawa has been a treasure trove a wonderful friends and it is really the main reason I have loved this place so much. The hardest part is seeing them move-which has already happened a few times but these people are friends for life.

Little Drew Drew. She's 6 weeks younger than Lucy although you'd think it was the other way around!

She loves pointing and now picking the flowers.

totally over it ^^

Until next year my cosmo flower friends.

Currently

Reading: Rising Strong by Brene Brown. I have loved her TED talks and articles I have come across on the web, so I decided to check out her most recent book. I'm only a few pages in, so we shall see. Next on my list is Love and Logic bc I need parenting help. And The One Thing which Duke is currently reading and says he thinks this book will help me bc I'm all over the place ha.

Listenting: Freakonomics podcast. Such an interesting podcast. I've really enjoyed their  recent episodes- "how to be great at just about anything" and "how to be more productive". Also listening to the Seize the Day playlist on spotify and I'd say it makes my day more "seizable" if you will.

Going: Planning on FINALLY going to the Kerama islands over memorial day weekend. These islands have some of the prettiest beaches in all of Japanland. They have been on my list forever but just haven't made it out there for so many reasons.

Looking forward to: Keramas trip AND finally getting scuba certified!! My goal is to get it done this month. Okinawa has some amazing diving and I just think it would be a crying shame to not get certified out here. So I'm DOING IT!

Appreciating: Lucy. I recently wrote a post on facebook asking for book recommendations bc she can be a monster sometimes. I was in this "woe is me, what did I do to deserve this child" mode of thinking. Then last night I came across some random post on instagram about this lady who lost her 4 1/2 month old after she had already been born 9 weeks early and had an unknown disorder. They never even got to bring her home from the hospital during her short life. I cried and thought even if Lucy is a monster I'm SO happy she is healthy. What a blessing. I'd rather have a crazy terrible child who is here and healthy than something much worse. And honestly she's not that bad all the time. She has her moments like all toddlers. It's all about perspective!

Enjoying: My husbands job-wait, what?! In February Duke got sent to do a different ground job assignment with a different unit and it has been so awesome! He never has to work late, like ever and it is so much more stress free. It's been nothing short of life changing for us both. I almost wish he could just do this job forever. He still leaves town but as far as day-to-day life, I feel like I finally have a husband who is home and happy and helping. It's amazing!

Drinking: Bai. These drinks are soooo good. I'm not really into infused water, but I love trying new drinks that look cute. I'm a sucker for good packaging. So at the airport in the US I grabbed the coconut flavored one, even thinking it's probably not that good. But I was so very pleasantly surprised! It only has 5 calories per serving, which is great bc I hate drinking my calories (i'd rather eat them) and they use stevia to sweeten it which is supposedly better than aspartame. So as soon as I got home I looked these up on amazon and they were actually listed as the same price they are in the US, so I was like gimme! I'm trying to quit the Diet Coke habit again..we'll see how that goes.

Watching: Recently finished The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. One of my favorite TV shows of all time possibly. But trying to not spend my days watching TV. In fact I think we may cancel Netflix, gasp! Oh and we are selling our TV--who are we???!! Please still be friends with us.

Wishing: I was more motivated to blog the fun things I did the last 5 months. I have so many photos I would love to blog about but have been so busy until recently it just has not happened. One day...

18 months of Lucy Joy

Lucy turned 18 months old on the 25th. It feels like a big milestone to me, so I wanted to be sure to do an update. I would say that so far she just keeps getting better and better! These posts are really for me to look back and remember bc i haven't been very good at writing in my journal. Overall she is in my favorite stage yet. When she's happy I just look at her and am overcome with how cute she is to me and all the little things she does. I could just squeeze and kiss her all day!
 In recent months she's discovered baby dolls and loves to carry them around, give them kisses and push them around in the stroller. It is one of my favorite things to watch her do. SO CUTE!
She is still a very picky eater.
Still my strong-willed child with what I can only describe as anger management problems lol.
She likes Winston but is scared of almost any other animal.
Still not saying a lot, but knows about 8 signs-more, all done, water, dad, mom, thank you, please, water, food.
She hates to have her hands "dirty" which is real fun when we're at the beach and she gets sand on them.

She's currently teething (i think/hope) and she's been pretty hard to deal with. I just asked Duke-"what else should I say about Lucy?" and he (jokingly) said "she's a monster, a terror." Ha, sometimes though that seems about right. Today I brought her to someone's house and for about 30 mins she threw a full on tantrum screaming till her face was red and sobbing till there was snot all over her face. It all started with a chair she was getting so frustrated with that we finally hid it and then it was all downhill from there. I have to say...if our next baby is as challenging as Lucy was/is...then I might need to go to therapy. ha. No she's actually not bad most of the time these days. But I did have a hard first trimester being pregnant, a long and painful labor, a very long recovery (like 10/11 weeks till I was normal), Lucy refused to breastfeed for a week, she had colic and just cried ALL THE TIME till 9 months, has always hated the car, hates to eat, and now she is just extremely strong-willed. She gives us a run for our money a lot of the time. At the end of the day though I'm grateful that she is perfectly healthy. That is a huge blessing in itself. I love her so much it's crazy. Just hoping that her teenage years are a smooth ride;). 

ready to go to the beach!

Always has her mouth open when she's thinking

Lately she likes to take things she's found and then lay on the ground to look at them. Ha.

That smile is my favorite!

Obsessed with these jellies on her feet!

crossed legs. I'm gonna miss these baby days.

Sakura

Way back in February the cherry blossom trees bloomed. It is one my favorite things to see here. The sakura blooms here are a beautiful pink color compared to the white ones you see in mainland or DC. I have to say I'm a big fan of the pink blossoms! This year I went to a couple different places to see them. I went to Nago Castle and Yogi park in Naha. It was also Duke's first year to see them since they bloomed a little later than normal he was actually here for once. I took approximately 1 billion pictures and really tried to narrow them down. When things are so pretty it's hard to stop clicking the shutter button!!! I want to capture the beauty forever. So I present you below with about 1 million flower photos ;).

 Had to climb the tree

Love this picture with the two little Japanese boys walking home from school.