Keila's 3.5 Year Update!

   Well, Keila is now closer to 4 than she is 3. I'm already having awful thoughts about how she'll be out of the house and off to university before I know it. How is time going by so, so quickly?
 But on to her update.

 1. Keila is still going strong with the British accent, and she will often correct me if I pronounce things like 'tomato' the American way instead of the British way. Apparently Mommy (Mummy!) doesn't know how to speak properly.  The alphabet is another point of contention: 'z' is not 'zeee' but 'zed'. Keila has added her own twist to it however and will randomly say 'e...f....'jed!'' instead of 'e...f...gee'!
 2. Still sleeping pretty well for the most part, and now we are officially a big girl ie no more night time diapers! Go Keila!
 3. Keila is continuing to gain self-confidence, although this has been a bit troublesome when the self-confidence involves wandering away from Mom or Dad when out and about. Maybe time to bring back the leash? Just joking! Really.
 We just ordered a paddling pool for the back yard that is supposedly large enough for kids to submerge themselves. Hoping it will help Keila practice putting her face in the water and getting a bit more at ease. We are also good to go in terms of getting back into the big pool next Monday!
 Keila has also really gotten into dress up and princesses recently. She now has 5 Barbie princesses, along with a Barbie horse and a Barbie Jeep, since a friend from church was selling some unwanted toys. Her dolls like to dress up and go to the ball, although now we 'need' to get a prince so they can dance. I tried to tell her that the girls are happy to dance without a prince, but that didn't go over so well. Guess I need to start searching for one on Amazon or Ebay? 
 4. I'm sure there are tons of stories from this past month but only a few are coming to mind. This afternoon, Keila locked me out of the house while I was unloading groceries from the car. (Honestly, who installs a deadbolt at ankle level on a door??). Thankfully she listened to me and opened the door right away when I told her to. Praying she doesn't catch on to the fact that I won't be able to do much if she doesn't open up! Perhaps now is the time to start carrying a spare set of keys to the patio door?
 Other story: Keila has decided that we need to have a birthday party for Wasabi the cat, who is turning 5 this month. I am apparently crazy and have agreed to this idea, so we will be having up to 18 children over to celebrate. Praying for clear skies that day as otherwise this party will be a disaster! Keila is insisting that Wasabi will dress up and perform tricks for everyone, although my bets are on the guest of honor going into hiding for the duration of the party.
 5. Not sure of Keila's height, although yet another person told me she seems tall? Her weight is holding steady at 16 kilos, however.

 That's it for this month!

Keila is 41 Months Today!

  We've been busy since last month...here's what's happened in the last 30 or so days:

1. Keila's accent is further developing, although into what I'm not sure. One of my friends here told me that she sounded Irish! Keila is also having a bit of a rough time with her r's and l's...as in, most of her l's sound like r's instead. And I thought most kids had trouble with r's, not the other way around. In any case, apparently it's pretty normal and she will likely outgrow it. For now however, Keila has been getting quite frustrated with me when I think she's talking about 'Mari' instead of 'Molly'. Poor kid!
 2. Sleep! We are more or less sleeping through the night! And we are having dry nights consistently too, go Keila! Now if we can just get Daddy to stop working so late and getting home in the wee hours, then maybe I will start to catch up on rest at some point.
3. Keila has become more and more outgoing in the past month or so, I think as a result of attending nursery. She will happily wave at strangers when we're out for a walk, and she will reply to most people when they talk to her. Her shyness does return off and on, but overall she seems a lot more confident. During church services she will often try to wander off and go visit some of the women who teach her Sunday school class!
 We haven't really been swimming in the past month thanks to Mommy being on crutches, but we're hoping to get back in the pool within the next couple of weeks. One of Keila's little friends just got a couple of swimming badges for putting her face in the water, etc, so hopefully that will spur Keila into getting a bit more adventurous.
4. A few stories this month: Keila started crying one night before bed. When I got her to stop long enough to tell me what was wrong, it turned out that she had heard Wasabi (the cat) sneeze....and then tried to wipe Wasa's nose for her with a tissue. When Wasabi wasn't all that agreeable and then ran away, Keila got quite upset and began crying. She was exhausted but kept insisting that Wasabi 'really needs her nose wiped!!'.
 Also, Keila likes to make up fake words sometimes. Today's was 'pungees'. I asked what a pungee was and was informed that they are 'a type of kangaroo; they hop very fast and they don't give people kisses but they do give hugs'. When asked what made them different from regular kangaroos, I was told because 'they are blue' in a tone that implied I should have recognized the obvious!
5.  Keila is about 100 cm now!! She's really shop up since the last time I checked her height. I think she's about 16.5 kilos too but that was after a big meal so maybe a bit less?

Added bonus this month: Keila's Cinderella video!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXUdTW-Qz1M&feature=youtu.be

 That's it until the 3.5 year mark!

Keila is 40 Months Today!!!

  Here is Keila's 40 month update....how is time passing by so quickly?? I feel like I'll be doing her 40 year update before I know it!!!


1. Language is still coming along quite well, although Japanese is lacking. People are starting to notice her cute British accent, though. She's picked up a lot from nursery school, although the American accent from Mommy sneaks through at times, too.
2. We are sleeping better, for the most part. Enough so that she sleeps through the night more often than not, and I'm getting accustomed to having a full night's rest again!!!
3. Keila is still enjoying nursery immensely, and she tells me stories about all of her friends there. Her nursery school has a lending library too, and she gets to bring home a book to borrow just about every day. Today, Keila came home from nursery and told me that 'God gave us brains, so I can think'. Clever girl! I can't remember if I mentioned last time that Keila can now write her name on her own? We practiced it a few times, and now she signs cards all by herself! She's very interested in letters and numbers, so we will work more on those in the following month.
 Keila is still scared of putting her face in the water while swimming, but this past week she was able to swim with just a ring around her middle, instead of her armbands and the ring. We are definitely making progress!
 4. Story of the month: Keila told me yesterday that when Wasabi (the cat) dies, God will tell Wasa to stop being naughty and knocking things onto the floor. (Wasabi has an awful habit of jumping onto counters and dressers and batting around whatever she can find). She also told me that Daddy's work is bad, and we should bury him in bananas so he can't go. Seemed logical enough to me! Haha.
 5. I think Keila is still around 16 kilos? Need to measure her height again soon!


    Snacking on broccoli while watching Mickey Mouse on the iPad

Keila's 39 Month Update

  Well, I've just about given up on blogging other than Keila's montly updates. Now that she's in nursery, I do have more time but it's spent swimming or cleaning! We did find a new product at Whole Foods the other week that I may post about...maybe. How do people with more than one child find time to blog??
 Anyway, here's what Keila has been up to the past month*


1. Language is of course progressing day by day, although her Japanese hasn't made any noticeable improvements since last month. We really need to stop speaking English so much in the house!
2. Sleep has finally gotten somewhat back on track....it was at an all-time low when she was sick with a cold AND we were stupid enough to take her paci away at the same time. Apparently I like to torture myself. Now that we're doing relatively better (she still gets up at night if she needs the toilet), go figure she's caught another cold and has been up a lot tonight already.
3. Keila is doing great full-time at nursery! The transition to eating lunch there and staying until 3 pm has gone really well! By Thursday afternoon she's pretty worn out from 3 straight days of playing and having fun, but she loves it. It's been great for her social skills, too--we aren't quite as shy around other people now, and I often catch her singing songs from school when before she never sang along to much of anything. However, sometimes she's a bit overly confident and I have to chase her through the store when she runs from me!
 4. Story of the month....literally a story! Keila was eating dinner and decided to tell me a fairy tale: 'Once upon a time, there was a little mango who thought the sky was falling. He lived in the woods with his mama and hurt his knee.'  I asked if he fell and hurt his knee, to which she responded (as if it were obvious): 'NO, he hurt his knee because the sky fell!!'
 5. Keila is almost 16 kilos now, so she really has been going through a growth spurt. Not sure how tall she is?


Preparing for Valentine's Day...

Keila is 38 Months!!!

Keila is 38 months today! We've been up to a lot in the past month, too. Here's what's new:

1. Keila's improved her Japanese quite a bit just by being back for a few weeks. She still doesn't speak a ton, but her understanding has made a lot of progress. We are of course speaking more and more in English too.
 2. Well, Keila slept GREAT in Japan, once we got over jet lag. Likely due to the fact that she got to share a bed with Mommy and Daddy. Sleep now that we've returned isn't going so great....what else is new, right? I actually had to pause just now to go put her back to bed...the third time she's been up in as many hours!
 3. Keila is really, really excited to start full days at nursery this term! She'll go 6 hours, 3 days a week. She's most excited about taking her lunch and eating with the other children.
 We had a great time in Japan playing with Grandpa, and Keila keeps asking when she will see him next. She also told me that we're going on another airplane soon, this time to visit Grandma in America. The kid really likes to travel!
 Today, Keila earned her first swimming badge! She had to blow bubbles in the water, swim by herself (with floats of course) and get her head wet (but not submerged). She's come a long way from the shrieking 'I-don't-want-to-get-in' child of August!
 4. Memorable quotes from the past month.....Wasabi (the cat) puked and Keila commented on how she must not have gotten her flu shot.  Another one was confusion regarding 'Wii' the game center and 'wee' as in pee. She thought that Daddy must've strained his back going pee, after I asked if maybe he pulled something while playing Wii. Hah!
 5. Keila seems to be holding steady at around 15 kilos and 98/99 cm. Maybe she'll hit another growth spurt soon?
 

Slurp!

  On a big-kid swing

Keila's 37 Month (And One Day) Update

　　I haven't forgotten about the blog...but I have been rather busy lately. Christmas is fast approaching, meaning lots of shopping, packing, and just preparing in general. Don't even remind me about all the Christmas cards I still have to write. Plus we did a full-on Thanksgiving dinner this year, even though it ended up just being the 3 of us thanks to illness. Speaking of illness, Keila has been sick for the past 5 days and is only finally coming out of it thanks to some much-needed antibiotics. It's been a long week, and our house looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years. Does anyone else with toddlers have that problem? No matter how much you clean, it's imposible to keep the mess at bay!
 But enough rambling. Here is Keila's monthly update, before I get back to frantically working on her annual photo album!

 1. Keila talks. A lot. I've probably said that before, but not it's even more so. I can't remember how much more from last month, but I'm sure it's a lot. Daddy has been working on her colors with her in Japanese, so she's got a lot of those down now. Keila also understands that not everyone can speak Japanese, although she tells me that her nursery school teachers can speak 'a little' since they know some of the words she has taught them.
 2. Keila has set a new record for number of wake-ups in one night!! I think it was somewhere around 15, although I lost count after 10. To be fair, the poor girl had a terribly stuffed up nose and cough along with a fever, so she was just miserable. And we all know that misery loves company! Fingers crossed she sleeps better this week...
 3. Keila will be in a nativity play at her nursery school this coming week. She's been practicing singing songs for it and is quite excited. She also tells me what all the other children are going to be, too. Not quite sure of the valdity of all of these costumes, as I was told that Issac was going to a shark. A navitiy shark, hmmm....
 Keila is REALLY into counting money now! She received a bank for her birthday, and she's somehow managed to weasel 20 coins out of me for said bank. Lately, she will repeatedly take the coins out of her bank, line them up, and count them. She can count to 20 pretty well all by herself, although the 'teen' and 'ty' parts confuse her a bit.
 We also love making up rhymes and songs about objects, although Keila will usually only sing these in front of Mommy. The latest song was 'Cheese and Chive went to town, to buy some beer for Daddy!' Did I mention that she likes food??
 4. One of Keila's best quotes of the month was from when I asked her which of her kumas (teddy bears) she wanted to take to Grandpa's. She said she was only taking her big bunny rabbit, as Grandpa was going to have lots of kumas at his house! There is lots more, but I'm too tired to think of anything right now! Will post them if they come to mind...
 5. Still no idea how tall or heavy she is. People keep telling me that she's tall, though?? Will try to check and post it next month. Until 2014......



        Oh, and she's been practicing with her chopsticks lately, too....

A Few More Keila Quotes

 I forgot to add these to her monthly update, but I don't want to forget them!

 (While smelling her favorite blanket) 'This smells like a Japanese doctor!'  Upon questioning, she couldn't really explain what exactly that smelled like, but she's said it of the blanket a few more times since. Hmmm?

 'Why do women sometimes have moustaches???'

and yesterday, 'Where does the sun sleep?'

Also, Keila has been learning her letters and will often point out 'K', 'M' etc when we are at the store or anywhere there is writing. I'm fully expecting her to start reading some time soon!