calling daddy

Ethan is such a big boy lately with all of his new vocabulary. He surprises us more and more with how much he can say and how much we actually understand now. He still gets word order messed up sometimes or misuses his pronouns. Such as "hold you" instead of "hold me" or "help you" instead of "help me", but the one that topped it off lately was "you fall off my pants". Jason and I both looked at each other hoping the other one would know what he was talking about. And then finally we realized his pants were falling down and he needed help pulling them back up. So I'm not sure how he got "you fall off my pants" but I think he got confused with whether or not to say "you" or "me" that it came out sounding all wrong.

It's fun to have conversations with him now even if it's not really important stuff...such as, "what are you drinking mommy? Is it good?". But he has gotten better at conversation on the phone too. In the picture he told me he was going to call daddy (which thankfully he doesn't know how to use a phone yet so he was just pretending) and then acted just like mommy does on the phone by saying "uh-huh" or "okay". So I thought it was pretty cute considering he wasn't really talking to anyone.

crazy smile

This is Jude's new way of smiling. I'm not sure why he started doing this but it just cracks us up. For some reason when he smiles now his little tongue sticks out. Maybe it feels good on his sore gums...who knows. I must say it doesn't make him look very intelligent...just really adorable. :o)

hale koa - part 1

Well my mom said that when you turn 30 you get to extend your birthday celebrations for a few days. And when you turn 40 you get to extend the celebrating for a whole week...a great idea by the way. So I took my mothers advice and my friend Malia and I, who are exactly 1 day apart, thought it would be great to keep celebrating a few days after our birthdays. Our plans were to have a night away to lounge around at the pool, go out to dinner, watch a movie, paint our toe nails and sleep in the next morning. Our husbands were a little confused at why they weren't invited...but our kids needed someone to look after them. :o) So they were great in watching the kids so we could have a much needed 22 hours (we weren't counting or anything) away to feel rejuvenated.


We got to the hotel in style in a gray Ford truck. I realized later how I should have been the one climbing into the truck to get the suitcase since Malia is the one that is newly pregnant. I think we were just too giddy about getting to the hotel that we even forgot where we parked the next day. Yes it looks like we were staying for a week instead of almost a day...but a girl needs so many things when we're away from home.

We then went out to eat and had a great dinner and great conversation with no interruptions. We even had time to do our hair and put on a little make-up.

I told Malia that my birthdays just won't be as exciting once they move next year (we had a surprise slumber party last year with the ladies in our church). So maybe we'll just have to keep up the tradition and meet up in the middle somewhere.

hale koa - part 2

This was the great view out our balcony. And the pool where we got to relax and read our books.This is Malia and I lounging around on the balcony enjoying our quiet morning where we just had our breakfast that was delivered to the room. It was great not having to fix, clean-up or dig through the pantry to find something to eat.



So that there is no mistake, we do love our children and husbands dearly (although we were talking about how one day wasn't quite enough...maybe two or three next time), it was just nice to have a quiet day to rest and relax. Anyway it's great when you come home and your kids come running up to you to give you a big hug with big smiles on their faces, and your husbands come running up to you to give you a big hug and ask that you never go away again...it makes you feel so loved and missed. :o)

mom's lil

I thought I would just post some cute pictures of Jude. Notice the great drool marks. I think the teeth are coming...between the drool and the old man look where he rubs his gums together, which kind of resembles an old man without his teeth...although I still haven't seen the bumps on the gums yet.

He's definitely a busy little guy.

birthday pics

the big 3-0

Well today was my birthday. I have now entered a new decade. I don't feel any older...which I guess is a good thing. And everyone tells me I will appreciate my young looking face when I am older.

My wonderful husband made sure that my 'turning a new decade birthday' was very special by making sure it was a whole day of relaxing. He did everything from feeding and taking care of the kids to doing the dishes and cleaning up the house.

We started off the day by going out to breakfast at Cinnamons. I got their very delicious carrot pancakes. We had a great time and the kiddo's were very well behaved. It was so enjoyable that we thought about possibly going out to breakfast more often.

I then did a little birthday shopping with the some of the money I got for my birthday. I had quite a fun time...not that I don't love being with my family but it was really nice to be on my own for a little bit. We then had sushi for lunch (California roll...not real sushi) which is what I requested. It's funny how my birthday kind of revolved around what food I wanted to eat but I guess the whole point was that I didn't have to make one single meal all day...not even a pb&j sandwich.

And then for dinner Jason grilled some salmon and other tasty things. A friend of ours made a cake for me which all of us enjoyed very much (as you can see in the picture). We then took a walk after dinner. It was nice to end the day being together as a family and enjoying the not so hot later evening breeze. I think what topped my birthday off was when Ethan was making Jude giggle so hard that I had tears rolling down my face from laughing right along with him. It's one of those times I wish I had the video camera because it was Jude's first big belly laugh and the first time Ethan realized that his little brother thinks he's pretty funny. Ethan was laughing just as hard which made it all the more funny.

So I must say turning 30 is not so bad. I have a lot to be thankful for and I feel blessed that at 30 God has given me two great kids, a very loving husband and a chance to live in a unique and beautiful place that challenges me every day to rely on God more and more. It's neat to look back and see how God has worked in our lives and how he lead us to where we are today.

crazy bag baby 2

cute stuff

crazy bag baby

Usually Jude crawls through the house pretty quickly and pretty quietly. But once we hear the crinkling of grocery bags we know exactly where to find him. The only other time he gets this crazy is when he is in the pool. He loves to splash everywhere.

Ethan is laughing in the background. He loves to play with his baby brother and he thinks he is hilarious.

not such a good idea

Ethan and I were having some fun with the alphabet stamp set. I wasn't too worried about Ethan getting ink on his fingers (since that was kind of hard to avoid anyway...unless he wore gloves maybe). I turned my head for a second to do something and saw Ethan putting his hands on the ink pad. I was about to tell him not to do that until I had this great idea that it might be fun to make hand prints on the paper. They get foot prints when they're born, why not do hand prints...it said it was kid safe. Well I found out later that kid safe does not mean washable. So after we made a great hand print we went over to the sink to wash it off. After many washings with soap there wasn't much change. So Ethan just laid his hand on the table, palm side up, and stared at it as if it were diseased. I think he was afraid to touch anything, thinking that he might make ink marks on everything. It's all fun to get dirty if it washes off later.



So anyway I had to take a picture of this so we could all laugh later at it.

who is that baby?

Jude has always liked mirrors or just watching people. I don't think he has yet realized that the baby he's looking at in the mirror is himself...which is fine because he can entertain himself pretty well by just staring at himself.

So I caught him today looking at his reflection in the oven door and thought it was a pretty cute moment. He stayed there for quite a while probably wondering how he can get to the other side where that other baby is.

6 months

Well our little baby Jude is 6 months today. I can't believe half a year has flown by already. It's funny how at times it seems that time has stood still when they are first born and you think that they will always be that little...and then before you know it, months have gone by and they aren't as little.

These pictures I thought were true to what Jude is up to these days. He loves to crawl around and sit up. And he chews on anything he can get his hands on. And lately he likes pulling himself up on anything that he can reach...coffee table, chairs, crib, coat tree, me, etc. I think he wants to be like everyone else around him because he gets so excited when he does pull up on something. And he loves the fact that he can explore the whole house on his own by crawling from room to room...which makes me nervous because he's very quiet and quick. But Ethan has enjoyed Jude moving and loves getting on the floor to crawl with him or he will run around the room and make Jude laugh.

laughing 2

giggle box

This is Ethan watching home videos of himself when he was about 1 1/2. He is actually laughing on the video and Ethan is laughing at himself laughing. It is so funny to watch and it was hard for me to keep the video camera still while I was trying to film it because I was laughing myself. We love Ethan's laugh and it is so contagious.

Just click on the play button twice to see the video.

air-conditioning

I thought this was funny last night while me and the fam were going on our nightly walk. As you have seen in a previous post we sometimes go and feed the ducks (which is right down the street) or we'll go to the beach and let Ethan run around. Well our other fun evening tradition is to go down the street to our local Safeway grocery store. I know that sounds weird and I didn't think it sounded weird until last night. One of our reasons for going is because it's air-conditioned and sometimes we may need an item or two (but mainly we just go for the cool air). Well for those that live here, they know that there is nothing on this side of the island that is air-conditioned and kid friendly. We do have a small mall but it's not worth it to go to and then fight evening traffic.

So as we were walking last night, and Ethan knows all the great stops along the way (looking over the bridge to see if he can see crabs or ducks, jumping off the man-hole, pushing the button at the traffic light for the cross-walk, and asking to stop for a milkshake at Burger King which is on our way to Safeway), I thought it was kind of funny that Ethan will have this crazy memory of walking to the grocery store in the evenings just to "hang-out". Jason and I were talking about this on our walk and he was laughing that when he takes Ethan to the grocery store, they always have to stop by the bakery to look at the birthday cakes first. And then he runs over to the display of 'real fruit' fruit roll-ups and as Ethan says "buy it, daddy?". It's almost like a zoo to Ethan. He's probably the only 3 year old that knows his way around the grocery store.

So anyway, I thought I would share our adventures living here in "paradise".

Happy Labor Day!

Well we did anything but labor today...well we did do laundry. We had a great day as a family and just hung out and relaxed. It was great. Later in the day we went to the church's salt water swimming pool...which was Jude's first pool experience...which he seemed to really like. It helped that the pool was heated...yes I know that seems really weird to have a heated pool in Hawaii, but the school seems to think that the kids are too cold...?? So anyway it was like taking a bath...which is why Jude probably liked it so much. And Ethan had his first experience with putting his head under water with his goggles on. He wasn't too sure about it at first but once he did it we couldn't get him out of the pool. I'm sure he will be asking to wear his goggles in the bath tub now...he had such a blast. Now we just have to work on the swimming kick. He kicks but it just spins him in circles or doesn't propel him at all.

sitting up

Well this has been a busy week for Jude. He's accomplished a lot. Great for him...his explorer side enjoys his new freedom. Not so great for me sometimes...a lot more supervision, cleaning floors, putting up gates, picking up small toys, keeping doors closed, and potty lids closed (so he doesn't try to climb up on it or suck on the side of it).

He can now sit up on his own and can even go from the crawling to sitting position all on his own.