This land is your land. This land is my land....

...from California, to Okinawa! This goes out to our friends in Irvine, who maintain the Yogurtland diet (along with the rest of Irvine) and stood in long lines with us (even on cold rainy days), just to enjoy a heaping cup of numerous frozen yogurt flavors and toppings of our choice. We somehow managed to make trips there several times a week. So of course, upon leaving the states, I was sad to leave one of my favorite dessert joints.

Well, lucky for us Yogurtland's first venture into an Asian region happened to be in Okinawa! Wow, it just picked itself up and followed us here - it's meant to be! Their grand opening was on Leyna's birthday. Good thing I didn't know it at the time, or else I may have sent Danno to get me some and bring it back to the hospital! haha.
For those who are unfamiliar and haven't yet fallen victim to the Yogurtland addiction, it's a buffet of self-serve frozen yogurt flavors and toppings...so the combinations are endless. You choose any mix of everything, and at the end (when you look down and come to realize the damage has been done, you've piled your cup way too high) you pay by weight.
Here we'll get to explore some different toppings, like dragonfruit, starfruit... I do favor the yogurt selection back in the states since I don't think they switch it up as much out here. The price in the states is much better as well. Here it's a whopping 200 yen (just over $2.00) per 100 grams (about 3.5 oz). If I remember correctly, it was only about 20 to 30 cents per 1 ounce in the states! So although I won't be lining up as often here, I'm sure glad to have the option to! ...this (yogurt)land was made for you and me! =D

Leyna looks like she's ready to taste some herself.

Oki Living: Itali-yum

I've always loved the Italian food at the food court in Mitsua (a local Japanese grocery store back in the OC). Here I'm happy to find there's lots of places with the same deliciousness. Yes, there is no Olive Garden here, but we'll be just fine. Here's a unique place we tried back in early September and have yet to revisit... Marino's serves Italian food that is certainly for cheese lovers such as myself.

They feature yummy cheese fondue...

a variety of wood fired pizzas......and best of all, their parmigiana pasta is prepared in a huge wheel of cheese! Yes, they come table-side and toss the hot pasta in a half slab of a giant cheese wheel, coating it with some melted cheese goodness...then they mix in other ingredients like mushroom, bacon, whatever you choose...

Also it's common that restaurants have dinner sets that include an unlimited beverage bar and some kind of dessert bar. We got to choose 3 desserts each (there's even choices of ice cream). Good deal!Meanwhile Leyna enjoyed her nap, allowing us to enjoy our meal =D

Oki Living: Engrish Clothing

It's already been 6 months since arriving on island and we've been doing a horrible job showing you more about living here in Okinawa. Understandably Leyna steals the show, but we'll start sharing some various highlights of island life here n there...the many differences, the pros, the cons, random funny things we come across...

Here's to start with We Shop...Jusco is our primary mall here, so you'll find a few are scattered across the small island. It's very minimal compared to the states. Typically there's just one department store (with a grocery store on first floor), electronics store, bookstore, a food court, arcade, and less than 10 other specialty shops. We always check out the kid sections and we are truly entertained by the "Engrish" phrases on the clothes. Of course we see these spelling and grammar errors wherever we go, but here's a few your child can fashion! haha.

Some not as bad...

...can be cute...

...but others definitely needed an English translator before mass production!

One plus about the stores out here, is they conveniently provide mini stroller shopping carts with adjustable and reclining seats for kids. We finally decided to test them out since Leyna (still) gets fussy being couped up in her car seat.
..and looks like we have a winner! She must love the ample space. Danno loved "drifting" her around every corner since the wheels maneuver so freely...and meanwhile Leyna kept sleeping peacefully.

13 Weeks

Boy, it’s hard not to post about Leyna all the time! She could have her own website by now. We'll try to mix it up a bit more, but she’s definitely everything that’s “eventful” in our life! Well, here’s another video of a recent accomplishment at 13 weeks (for real this time and not by accident hehe) Yay for Leyna!

Monthly Milestones

Birthday month#3 is approaching for Leyna and we've got more milestones to record. She's been impressing us in so many ways. In addition to maintaining a great pattern of sleeping through the night...She's quickly developing her leg strength. She has an activity infant seat that plays music and glides up and down when they kick, and shes kicking hard enough now to activate the music herself. She loves standing all the time and her legs can hold up her weight (she just needs assistance with the balancing of course). She's becoming more coordinated as she finally reached up and grabbed her playmat toys for the first time. Also, we wanted to see how close she is to rolling over on her own since we realized we haven't really tried to get her to do so before.
With her book as motivation, she easily managed to get on one side, but (with amazing flexibility) would end up just arching her head back more and more. Well, this morning she was laying on our bed, Dan and I were in conversation before he left for work, and next thing we know she had rolled over onto her belly while trying to get her left fist in her mouth! We reset her on her back, and once again she rolled over. Perhaps it helped that she could "sink" into the mattress a bit, so we still have yet to try again on the floor. Still, it was an exciting moment!

To top off the night, right before her bedtime we were "talking" and she just started laughing! I recorded a bit of the audio (had to hide the phone so she wouldn't get distracted as usual.) We're anxious to hear her laugh more! Here's some clips to enjoy...

The Best of Both

She's got the pattern of mommy's right palm on her right palm, the pattern of daddy's left palm on her left...Mommy's crooked little toes and smiling eyes...daddy's lips and nose...glad she's got more hair like daddy...and of course she's got an appetite we all share! We thought we'd compare baby photos and so far we like to think she got the best of the both of us.

Wanna Sing?

Seems like if you say anything to Leyna in a melodic tone, she likes it! When I went through "do...re...mi.." she tried to "follow" after each word. Of course when we try to tape it, she gets distracted halfway...more amused by the red record light or the dangling winnie the pooh hanging from my phone! haha. nice try mom and dad, maybe next time.