Nora Turns T W O !!!

Here I am, crying all the ugly cries because my baby girl is TWO today!  It's true what they say: the days can be long, but the months and years are short.  How did she go from this teeny-tiny 6 pound baby:

to a whopping 30 pound toddler?!?!

So what is our girl up to these days?  She still loves books and now reads them to us (go look at my recent Instagram video of her reading "Your Baby's First Word Will Be Dada" - it's the best!).  She loves to give squeezes and kisses but is also quick to say "no kiss mommy" when I've given her too many.  She's a great eater - current favorite foods are quinoa, tofu, acai bowls, and most importantly apple sauce!  She has to have an apple sauce every.single.day.  We potty trained back in June and she totally rocked it!  She still has a diaper at night just in case, but that's it! {I highly recommend reading "Oh Crap, Potty Training!" it worked great for us!}  She loves to be outside and is happiest when she's at the beach swimming in the ocean.  She's quite the world traveler - she's visited five countries and has taken countless flights.  Our goal is to have her passport filled by the time we leave Japan!  She's still not a great sleeper, but getting better.  She takes a solid nap everyday and usually wakes 2-3 times a night.  Baby steps...she'll sleep one day.  Right???  She loves her friend Natalie and talks about her non-stop.  She always shows me toys or objects and says "Natalie hold" (her way of saying she wants to share that item - even though most of the time Natalie's not even there - it's down right adorable and still makes me melt!).

We had a little party for Nora over the weekend to celebrate her birthday.  Her favorite part: the bounce house, of course!  She also had her first bite of cake (although, you know me, it was a naturally-sweetened cake, aka no sugar!) and loved it too!  We didn't go crazy with decorations (not Pinterest-worthy), but I did spend a good amount of time making goody-bags for all the kids that came.  I've been practicing hand-lettering lately and wanted to use my new skill to write each kids' name on their bag.  I think they turned out great!  Of course we were so busy playing and eating that we totally forgot to take a lot of pictures, but here are the highlights:

Prob my favorite photo from the party: the look of disappointment when the candles blew out when I took the cake outside! 

Cake face!

We have been so blessed with this girl and I'm so grateful to be her mom!  She brings me more joy than I ever thought possible (I know Jonathan feels the same!).  We love you Nora and we can't wait to see what this next year brings you!

Japan {Year 1}

I can't believe we've been on this little island for a year!  Where does the time go?  We have truly enjoyed our first year here - exploring the island and this side of the world.  It was super nerve-wracking when we first moved here (I mean, who isn't a little nervous about moving across the world?!), but man am I so glad we made the choice to go on this adventure.  We've taken three trips since we've been here (Kyoto, Taipei & Seoul) and have been working hard to nail down the trips we're planning to take over the next two years (top places include: Thailand, Australia & New Zealand, Hong Kong, and about a half dozen cities in mainland Japan).  In looking back on our first year, I thought I would share my favorite things about life on Okinawa so far:

1. The beaches!  If you follow me on Instagram, then you're probably so over seeing all my pictures of us at the beach.  But seriously, the beaches here are like none I've ever seen before.  The water is so clear and the most perfect shade of turquoise.  We spend most sunny summer days playing at the beach - mostly because they're so beautiful, but also because the humidity here is bonkers (like you can cut the humidity with a knife it's so humid).

Ikie Beach (eekk, little baby Nora!)

Uken Beach

Torii Beach

Araha Beach

Zanpa Beach

Tropical Beach

Hamahiga Island 

Muruku Beach

Muruku Beach

Sea Glass Beach

Sea Glass Beach

2. The parks.  When it's not unbelievably humid, we love exploring all the parks near us (and there are so many!).  From pirate ships to tree houses to crazy long roller slides, every park is unique and fun.  Once beach season is over and the weather cools down, you'll find us back at the parks going down the crazy slides or climbing up pirate ships!

Tree House Park

Pirate Ship Park

Big Top Park

Big Top Park

Urasoe Park

Peace Memorial Park

3. Traveling!  We knew when we decided to move here that travel was going to be a priority for us.  When will we ever get the chance to explore this side of the world so readily again?  The other night we sat down to hash out our must-see places while we're here.  After putting together a list, Jonathan and I looked at each other and said "two more years isn't enough to see all this!"  I'm so grateful that we have the opportunity and ability to travel here and explore new cultures.  I can't wait to keep ticking places off our bucket list!

Kyoto, Japan 

Taipei, Taiwan  

Seoul, South Korea 

Seoul, South Korea

4. The people.  The Japanese people are so welcoming, humble, kind, hard working, respectful, and family-oriented.  Honestly, the list goes on and on.  I've so enjoyed learning more about their culture and am grateful that they've so graciously allowed us to be apart of their community.  My hope is that Nora will pick up on these wonderful qualities and keep them with her for the rest of her life.  And of course, I can't leave out our military people.  This military community is very special and we have been blessed with great friends who have become like family (and Nora has found her own little bestie too, Natalie, which is amazing!) .

This first year has been pretty incredible, and we can't wait to have another two years full of great memories!

Hamahiga Island

For the July 4th holiday, rather than traveling somewhere, we decided to have a staycation {easy to do since there's SO much to see and do here}!  Our first adventure took us to Hamahiga Island.  A little history for you: according to Okinawan mythology, Hamahiga Island is the place where Okinawan civilization was born.  It's where a female god (Amamichu) and male god (Shirumichu) settled after they were ordered by the other gods to create Ryukyu Island (Okinawa).  They created the soil, stones, trees and flowers, and then settled to live on the island as humans.  

We spent most of our time exploring Muruku Beach.  I wish we could have spent more time exploring the rest of the island.  We really wanted to visit the salt factory on the island, but we had to get home to make sure Nora to get a nap (#toddlerlife).  We will definitely be back to explore more.  Maybe next time we'll stay overnight so we don't feel rushed and can take in all the island has to offer!   

Seriously, if this post and these pictures don't make you want to hop on a plane and come visit, I don't know what will!  The water here is so blue and clear - basically it's paradise!