A Very Big Belly

This Thursday I had my doctors appointment and everything is going well. The babies heartbeats are looking wonderful and they are in the same positions. Baby A breech and Baby B head down and ready to go. My stomach is measuring 49 cm, which means I'm the same size as someone who is 49 weeks pregnant. Although I must say I'm starting to slow down slightly I still feel good. The little ones are moving a lot and I have no problems doing my kick counts. Gabriella has started to feel them more especially when we cuddle in the morning. The babies recognize her voice when she talks to my belly and it's hard to say if they are moving towards her voice or away from it. She's been incredibly helpful this summer, helping me pick up things, make dinner and do laundry. In celebration of this new found helpfulness we've begun paying her allowance for extra services rendered. So far she's purchased a fan and a Toy Story 3 lego set. She'd like to save up for a talking Jesse doll. We are about 2.5 weeks away from the big c-section day. Hopefully I'll make it to August 18th, but my doctor and Greg don't think I will. They both believe that I will simply run out of room. Personally I think I'll make it.

What every road needs

There are a lot of cool things here on Okinawa: vending machines, cartoon characters hawking everything from soda to cigarettes, and a personal favorite road side ice cream stands. These stands are located in most bus turnout lanes on sunny weekend days. They are sponsored by blue seal, an American ice cream brand now made here on Okinawa. Usually a teenage girl mans the stands from 10 am or so in the morning until about 6 pm in the evening. They are alone and usually talking on a cell phone as we drive past. They have a small cooler which keeps the ice cream at an optimum temperature and a small container of water to wash things. Gabriella and Greg stopped at one on a daddy/daughter adventure day. Greg got shiquasa lime sorbet and Gabriella got vanilla ice cream. Greg explained that they stuff the cone with ice cream then put two small scoops up on top. Greg and Gabriella chose to get out of the car and eat their treat, but a person could choose to stay in the car, get the cone and then drive off and enjoy. It's another way that Okinawa makes summer delicious and refreshing. Sure it's 95 degrees outside and the humidity is pushing 80, but in a few kilometers there will be another ice cream stand to get something to cool down with.

Gabriella the Babysitter

A few weekends ago we headed to White Beach to watch a dragon boat race. Since it was a sunny day we took our swimsuits in expectation of a little pool time. Gabriella's friend Luke was coming along since his mom was the on call doctor at the hospital. We thought this would be a wonderful outing for everyone. The pool was wonderfully refreshing and although it was a little cool at times everyone had a good time jumping off the side and practicing their swimming. Gabriella deemed herself Luke's babysitter and did a fantastic job of keeping an eye on him, making him feel comforted and cared for. She shared her food with him, held his hand while crossing the street and even buckled and unbuckled his car seat at every stop. I hope she's just as nice to her little sisters. The day was capped off by all of us cheering Rachel to another Summer Dragon's victory.

Beer and Pizza a Perfect Saturday Combination

Since it was the week of factory tours Greg decided that Saturday was the perfect day to visit the Orion Beer Factory in Nago. This beer is made here in Okinawa and is served at all fine drinking establishments. It's very refreshing and perfect for the delicate taste of sushi and quenching thirst on a 100 degree day. The factory tour was conducted in Japanese but they gave us a little brochure in English so we could follow along. As we walked through the factory I was amazed by how clean everything was. The brewery wasn't operating on Saturday so the line wasn't running, but they had a video to show how it looks when the beer bottles were being filled. The tour was fairly short and ended in a large tasting hall. Greg was given his free beer, while Gabriella and I opted for non alcoholic choices. Gabriella had some acerola juice while I had some delicious lemon tea. We also got a snack pack of mixed nuts. They had a nice gift shop where Gabriella got a cool little black pig and Greg got a nice bar towel. On the way back home we stopped off at Piccoli a small pizza place and had a quick pizza snack. It was deliciously made with completely fresh ingredients. The hours of the place are ridiculous, they are only open from noon to 3, last order at 2:30, then they reopen for dinner from 6-10, last order at 9. We barely made the 2:30 pm deadline for ordering. But the pizza was delicious and well worth the hurry.

Burn your own Steak

Friday night is home to a special night at Torii Beach, it's cook your own steak night. The choices for cook your own steak night are t-bone or rib eye. They also have chicken or hot dogs to cook, but really we are there for steak. Gabriella actually got pizza which not surprisingly you do not cook yourself. We met our friends there and enjoyed a few minutes of nice weather before a summer storm rolled in. The rain seemed to go back and forth between soft showers and downpours. Gabriella even got to play in the rain in her dress. The food was delicious. Greg cooked the steaks to perfection and the sides offered were quite tasty too. The coleslaw, baked beans and rolls were all quite fresh. We were lucky to arrive when we did we missed the first downpour and as we left we got to the car just before it began to rain again. It's a nice program offered every Friday at Torii and we plan to go as much as we can before summer ends. Next time I will remember to bring Gabriella's bathing suit and towel just in case she wants to ride the water slide before dinner.

Cream and Coke Tour

Summer offers a lot of cool tours around Okinawa through our travel office. While other people are heading to mainland Japan to climb Mt. Fuji we are doing things close to home. Gabriella and I took a day to visit two very important factories here on Okinawa. The Meiji milk factory which makes over 50 different kinds of ice cream. They also make a lot of different kinds of milk, coffee products and juice. But really the important part is the ice cream. The tour was really just a video, in Japanese, of how the milk is collected from local area cows and eventually turned into delicious ice cream. Our tour guide did her best to translate for us, so we were able to get the gist of what the process entails. We received a delicious milk ice popsicle which we ate at a park located close by. After about 20 minutes of playtime we were able to get on the bus and head to our next factory stop. The coca cola factory is located just a few minutes away from the Meiji milk factory. They have many different kinds of soda and canned coffee than they do in the US. I found out that there are only 150 "official" coke vending machines here on Okinawa, that's a fraction of the 400,000 vending machines located throughout the island. That's 3 vending machines for every single person on Okinawa. The factory line was filling water bottles and cans of Aquarius sports drink when we walked through. At the end of our factory walk through we were offered a tiny can of coke or juice to drink. The coke was deliciously refreshing. We were able to ask questions while enjoying our beverages, we found out that while the coffee products are made by coke they are not distributed in the US because of a lack of interest by Americans. Also the formula for coke is the same here in Japan and if the coke tastes different it's because of the natural differences in water and other locally sourced ingredients. I also learned coke has no artificial additives.

When our tours were complete we headed to a local restaurant for lunch. Yakiniku is where a buffet of raw meat and vegetables are offered and you the diner cook the food at a little grill on the table. This was our lunch stop. The place had a nice variety of meats, some a little more exotic, for example liver, kidneys and a duck sate stick. The summer noodles were delicious as was the soba. The best part of the meal was making my own green sno-cone for dessert. The whole day was a great opportunity to explore the island a little more.

Little Chef

My parents are flitting their way around France as I type this. Gabriella was thrilled about their trip because that is the place where Ratatouille takes place. She instructed my parents to try to visit the restaurant featured in the Disney cartoon and say hello to Remy. My mom was actually very interested in visiting this pretend restaurant and saying hello to the character until I told her Remy was a rat. She did send Gabriella a wonderful Ratatouille Golden Book. Since our discussion of french restaurants, both real and make believe, Gabriella has been very interested in cooking. In fact she's become our little sous chef. She assisted Greg in making the delicious shish kabobs pictured above even going so far as to dice the vegetables with her very own safety knife. She loves helping me season dinner especially the stirring and tasting. She's become a great help at grocery shopping trying to select the best piece of produce. I hope to foster in her the same love of cooking that my family fostered in me. There is something I find wonderfully satisfying about putting a delicious meal on the table. Those meals are becoming a little less frequent since I'm exhausted by the time dinner rolls around, but I still make a few attempts a week. Perhaps my sous chef will have to step up and start to take over the majority of cooking.

Our Daughter the Dolphin

Gabriella has been really enjoying all her swim classes this summer and she's progressed through to the top preschool level. She can swim using a freestyle stroke, they call it the front crawl and the backstroke. It's a world of improvement from the girl that not too long ago refused to put her face in the water. Swim class this summer seems to have a lot more requirements than the levels did last year, however she's doing wonderfully. She has one more session before the babies come and hopefully she will learn even more in those last few weeks. The video below is of her working on her diving. She's diving into the 10 foot part of the pool.

Another Weekend of Fun in the Sun

I must say that we are all getting nice and tan this summer. Despite our best efforts to keep ourselves completely slathered in sunscreen we do seem to be getting more and more color. This week Gabriella and I went to the Renaissance resort on Friday for our play date. We had a great time playing in the water and hanging out with our friends. Her swimming continues to improve by leaps and bounds. The weather was beautiful, just enough cloud cover to keep us cool.

Saturday we drove up to Manza to enjoy the beautiful beach and pool. Greg, Gabriella and I rented a few beach chairs and an umbrella to keep us cool and comfy at the beach. The water was wonderfully cool and refreshing. Greg and Gabriella did a little snorkeling and they were able to see a lot of beautiful fish and even an eel that tried to take a chunk out of Greg. As the tide came in and the water in the swimming area became deeper Gabriella and I had a good time swimming in between the floating platforms. We took a walk around the grounds looking at the guest only pool and the hotels huge lobby. The hotel is beautiful and would be a nice play to stay for a weekend. We spent a few minutes out of the water when Greg had the opportunity to bury Gabriella in the sand. She loved every minute of it. On the way home we had another lesson in Okinawan eating. The first restaurant we tried didn't open until 6, then the second one we got a little lost getting to, which is just how it works out here. We discussed that we look forward to going back to the states where every business has an address and the streets actually have names.

Manza Dragon Race

Sunday was another Hari race, aka dragon boat race up at the Manza resort. We went out to support our good friend Rachel and expected to watch her boat team's continued dominance of the summer dragon boat season. It was a beautiful day with a hot sun and a cool breeze. We arrived at the Manza resort just in time to see Rachel's team load into the boat. The race started and the women's team started off very strong, they were the first to start the turn. Then they suddenly stopped rowing and the next thing we realized they were all in the water, because their boat had sunk. The waves were really rough and a few had crashed over the sides of the boat swamping it. The sinking was certainly the most surprising end to a dragon boat race we've ever seen. Rachel and her team got a ride back to the shore on a few banana boats and even though they were soaking wet they still had a great time. It was quite an international race, including a team from Singapore and a British team. After the race we walked across the street to our favorite little sub shop. The food was once again delicious, this time all Gabriella got to eat was the homemade sorbet and fruit. It was a beautiful day filled with delicious food and a little bit of excitement.

Water Park and Pasta

Saturday was the first day of Greg's 3 day weekend. We spent it by going to Comprehensive Water park. The water was cool and refreshing, just what we needed as the mercury begins to rise here on Okinawa. The park itself has a concrete slide area for children, a lazy river, 2 tube slides and a inner tube slide. Unlike last summer, this summer Gabriella is able to stand up in the lazy river and walk. She didn't do much walking, instead she worked on her freestyle stroke. Greg and I were both very impressed, I didn't know she could do that stroke and neither did he. When we asked her about her new skill, she replied that she'd been taught it at swim class, but was just now practicing. Her form is wonderful and the coordination of her feet and arms is spot on. Although tall enough to comfortably navigate the lazy river she is still a little too short for the water slides. Perhaps she'll be tall enough by the end of the summer for the tube slides, but she still has a bit of growing to do for the inner tubes. My plan is to go to the water park at least one more time before the babies arrive. It was so relaxing to float in the cool water and as a bonus it was easy to get in and out of both of the pools.

After our fun filled day in the sun we were all starving, and italian food sounded perfect. Marino's is a place I'd read about on Okinawa Hai, a website of all things Okinawan. I've actually attempted to go to this place 4 times in the past and for some reason or another have either not found it or once I got there something came up or they weren't open. But finally on Saturday I made it! The food was just as amazing as I'd imagined it. The picture above is the girl making my pasta in a huge rind of cheese. Everyone enjoyed the dinner, the pasta was great, the all you can drink beverage bar is completely unheard of here on Okinawa and the dessert bar is reason enough to return. I can't wait to go back again, there are almost 20 different kinds of pasta on the menu so I'll have to start soon if I want to try them all before we move.

Sweet Treats

There are somethings in Japan that are just head and shoulders above it's American counterparts. For example I've never met more polite and happy employees than at the Japanese McDonald's, they wear heels and their uniforms are always pressed perfectly. Yesterday after a delicious trip to our favorite sushi go round we stopped by Baskin Robbins for dessert. We've been to many different ice cream shops around the island but Baskin Robbins has very special treats geared just for children. Their children sundaes usually feature a small cookie and some sprinkles, however yesterday's sundae really out did itself. The sundae was a bunny. The body was the scoop of ice cream, the ears cookies, the face edible candies painted to look like eyes and a nose. Gabriella gobbled up her sundae, she of course ate the ears first as is the proper way to eat anything that has ears. Greg and I enjoyed our cones which were slightly less impressive than the sundae but still delicious. Summer is full of opportunities for delicious treats and we are looking forward to finding more.