Bye Bye 2012, Welcome 2013!

My sincerest apologies for the ridiculously long silence since the last post.  As you can imagine, we have been busy settling into life back in the USA.  To recap the last three months.... Eléa did great on the flights back to Texas and seemed to make the adjustment quite smoothly.  We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Luke's parents for two months in Austin while I looked for work and we found a place to live.  Eléa started at an incredible daycare center where she gets to play and get messy everyday.  She is really loving it there and seems to be thriving.  I started work at an interfaith public policy organization, and am so happy to be working on criminal justice issues again.  We bought a station wagon (super fancy) and found a lovely rental house with a gigantic backyard and a beautiful study space for Luke.  We are now pretty settled into daily life and are, of course, open and eagerly hoping for visitors. 

Eléa is becoming so fun and funny!  She is talking up a storm and went from 1 word when we got to the USA to easily over 50 now (I've lost count).  She is even putting four words together, a real change.  She loves to play all kinds of games and definitely has a large,and fantastic, sense of humor.  We love that she is still super affectionate, loving to cuddle and kiss.  She remains fearless and will jump off of and climb anything she can find (though she has yet to attempt the crib).  She has even starting "peeing in the big girl potty", though we are holding off on full scale potty training for the moment.  We are super lucky to be among family and Eléa is enjoying her time with Tia, her abuelos and her grandparents, as we are also enjoying the free and generous babysitting and assistance. 

Enjoy the many, many, many pictures over the past few months! Sorry they are not in chronological order....

Making friends at Sea World

Let me at it....

So excited!

Peek-a-boo!

Made it!

I love playing with water...

Yeah!!!

Christmas lunch with family and friends (welcome Sujung, Catherine, Saski, Ryan, and baby G)!

Christmas morning before the opening of the presents!

Opening fun

First trip to the Zilker Christmas tree!

Train ride with mami!

First Halloween trick or treat....Eléa's a dinosaur!

Enjoying stories with grandma

"Decorating" tia!

Our little ladybug...

Brrr.....it got cold!

Sayonara.....almost....Japan

We will have some final pictures to post from Japan yet, but this will be our official last blog FROM Japan as we leave in one week.  Eléa remains an extremely active two year old!  She has chosen to still shield us from the sure to be "future" terrible tantrums, and instead taken to running to pout in a corner when she is not happy with something.  Pretty cute still!

We have slowly been getting rid of furniture and other miscellaneous things we have amassed, and Eléa seems unphased for the most part (though she seemed pretty sad to see the dining room table go).  We move to a friends house for the last few days and then comes the flood of changes.  Luckily, she has proven pretty adaptable so we have somewhat high hopes.

I have a large herniated disc at the moment creating more "family" time than we had planned and resulting in lots more sightseeing.  Enjoy the photos!

Temple hopping with Anpanman!

Chilling at Heian Jingu

More fun with Anpanman

With a little bit of help from Papi!

The face does not adequately express her love of Anpanman!

At the Botanical Gardens...

With friends in Nara...

Another of Eléa's "important" friends

Sightseeing with Papi

Eléa's stellar attempt at posing for a photo

Pretty!

Anpanman taking a rest at the Botanical Gardens

Acting as tour guide

Playing in the stream

Do I have something on my face?

Saying goodbye to friends.

Yummy

Eléa turns two!

It is amazing how much Eléa has changed even in the past few months....

She sings along, in her own way (see video), to songs.
She dances and does the hand gestures to her favorite Japanese and English songs (see videos).
She likes to play make believe, hide and seek, and chase.
She can hang on bars and swing (holding her own 30+ pounds).
Her new favorite books are Rapunzel (she pretends to call up to Rapunzel, climb the tower and wander blind through the woods), Hansel and Gretel (she is good at dropping pebbles and bread crumbs), and Rumplestilsken (where she likes to remind us how angry Rumplestilskin is that they found out his name).
She still loves swimming and all activities water related.

It has also been very hot here in Kyoto, but Eléa is showing her Texas and more tropical roots and does not seem to mind in the least.  We had a great birthday party at the park for Eléa and all her buddies.  Abuelitos made sure there was a piñata to destroy and, as her usual, Eléa refused to eat her cake and opted for her favorite tofu dish.  We are not sure how aware she was that it was her birthday, but she did LOVE the singing and could put two fingers up to her cheeks when asked how old she was......

We know it is a bit late, but a few days after turning two Eléa also said her first intelligible word, "bye bye".  I am trying to not read to much into the significance that she is asserting her independence before even saying Mami or Papi........ but, though loving to hear her talking, it made me nervous for the future teenage years.

Eléa has also begun to get a bit shy(ish)....though I really just think she is being funny.  But when you ask her to say hello to someone, she now may giggle and run to our legs, peaking out with an incredible smile.  She definitely knows when and how to be cute.  We took a trip with some friends to Lake Biwa, which was really nice though simultaneously made us super nervous for the long plane trips to come.  Eléa likes to stand, jump and move around a lot........ though I have managed to get her hooked on two episodes of Dora la Exploradora for the airplane ride home.....

Awesome videos:
Dancing along to a Japanese children's song - http://youtu.be/1wTeMKm0sxc
More dancing - http://youtu.be/DHlo0_3tuGU
Eléa's take on singing - http://youtu.be/KfhHKYYTY60
She just learned how to blow out candles - http://youtu.be/O83MOktRmJQ
First word - http://youtu.be/T7-fK7rm0xg

Morning bedhead

Birthday girl and her cake!

Party.....!!!

Crowds at Gion Matsuri festival we braved.

Eléa and her bestie out on the town

More Gion Matsuri

Piñata loot

It's my birthday, and I like presents!

Baby gets around

Piñata time

Serious play at the lake

Taking baby to the park

When in Rome...... It is customary to wear traditional Japanese clothes at the Gion Matsuri festival.

Fun at the park!

Eléa learns to swing!

Mini Thompson family reunion!

This is a guest post by Uncle Seren. I was able to drop in on the dynamic expats and see them in their natural habitat. Elea still has a big baby belly, much like Luke did when he was a kid. Veryan and Greg also managed to drop by on the way back from their trip, so the whole Thompson clan was together, a rare event even in the US. Luke and Cindy were the consummate hosts and toured us around tons of monasteries and sites. Elea came along on many of the trips and we took turns pushing, carrying, and entertaining her.

At the pool (swim class)

Tatami playtime

Dining out 

Natural city dwellers

My new backpack.  Kind of squirmy.

Feeding the deer at Nara

Like father like daughter

A civilized duo on the train through Kyoto

Stomping puddles never gets old

Birthday party prep. This was an awesome playground with water areas for the kids to play in.

Eléa is the only person in Kyoto who wore a helmet it seemed.

Shion and Eléa playing with more water on a hot morning.

Luke proving his strength and running Elea + stroller up the side of a mountain

Eléa is trying to catch the birds

Luke had a big belly back in the day as well.