Auntie and Uncle Love

Last week we had a long anticipated visit from Auntie Aynsley and Uncle Meeko. Uncle Meeko is so named because there are alot of Mikes in our kids' lives so we thought it would help to keep everyone straight. Life must be confusing for little'uns, trying to figure out why there is one Mommy and one Daddy but more than one Grandma, Grandpa and multiple Aunties and Uncles. Kai decided that just saying "Auntie" and "Uncle" would suffice. It must be the Hawaiian in him :-)

We treasure all of our family visits but this one was extra special because Uncle just got back from an 8 month deployment to Afghanistan. I thought about giving Kai a sign that said "Welcome to Boston, You're our Hero" for the airport but decided Meeko would prefer to be low key.

The kids, and in particular, Kai, were in heaven all weekend, just loving all of the extra attention. Auntie and Uncle were non-stop fun and energy and provided treats like chocolate milk! Mommy and Daddy were even able to get out for a Saturday morning bike ride that included a cookie and coke relaxation stop along the way, completely worry-free!

Here's a shot of Uncle working his Uncle magic to turn a frown upside down!

Love this photo! Auntie was great with snapping shots and this one of Kai and Uncle is too sweet! We do have a smiling version but I liked this one :-)

Here is another favorite with Teia getting in on the Uncle bonding.

And here she is bonding with Auntie!

Kai was a little Uncle shadow for a few days and he figured if Uncle was on the computer, he would be too! He seemed to like his "Uncle chair" and sat down more than usual during their visit!

We love our family visits but it is always a bit sad when they end and I always find myself wishing we lived closer. It would be so great for the kids to get Auntie and Uncle time all the time. Next up, a visit from Grandma C!!!

Little Peach Turns 7 Months Old!

Teia here. Now that I'm 7 months old, I figured I'd blog about how big I'm growing all by myself. I've watched my parents typing away on their matching Macs long enough that I know how its done. Here is my "official" 7 month old photo. I've noticed my mom tries to make sure she takes a photo of me on each of my "month" birthdays. Its a good thing too because she doesn't seem to remember to take photos of me the rest of the time, at least not many :-( I'm pretty happy here because I'm eating and I really like to eat. My favorite things to eat are oatmeal (my big brother calls it Mushies) and anything fruity. I definitely DON'T like peas, green beans, carrots or pumpkin and sometimes I don't even like sweet potato. Mushies are also fun to mush my hands in and sometimes I make a mess but no one seems to mind. I've got that "cute factor" going for me.

The other day my Mommy gave me this thing to hold and when I put it in my mouth I discovered some frozen goodness...yummy bananas! Boy do I like this and it even makes my teeth feel better too. The two on the bottom are trying really hard to break through these days. Even the doctor said so.

This is me and my banana in my office. That is what my Dad calls it anyway.

The other day we went to a farm and I got to sit all by myself on the blanket and watch my big brother run around. He does that alot. Everyone ate ice cream but I didn't get any....I guess I'm not big enough yet. It sure does look good though and my big brother gets really messy when he eats it.

In the photo below I am chilling in front of the TV. I don't watch TV very often but sometimes my big brother wants to and then I get to as well. There are benefits to being #2. I'm not always quite so calm though. I do like my jumparoo and I like to make squealy sounds and raspberries. I really like it when my mom and dad do it back to me. I also love when my dad holds me and helps me to chase my brother. My brother runs away from me and I just laugh. I wonder if he knows that Dad and I are just pretending we can't get him. He is not as fast as Dad, not yet anyway. Hmmmm, what else is new with me? Well, I really like tags. Toys are cool but tags are cooler. I like to play with them and suck on them. In fact I like to suck on everything. My dad called a me vacuum cleaner the other day. Is that a good thing?

And here is a picture of my big brother. I know this post is supposed to be all about me but I just love him soooo much! I'm trying really hard to crawl lately but I haven't figured out how to get my bottom and top half off the ground at the same time. But I almost do it when my brother walks by. I really want to grab his feet! He is so much fun and so big and so smart. The other day he was making bird sounds and I tried to do it too! I know he was proud of me :-)

I think its time for some more Mushies and I hope some other tasty treat that is NOT green (maybe one of those frozen bananas in a bag things!) so I'll say bye bye for now!

Race Day!

Despite the children's attempts to foil us, we made it to the start line of our first family 5K on time. Teia decided to get up at 6 am this morning (early for her), which meant we had to squeak in a 30 minute nap before we could leave (sometimes these short naps of hers come in handy!) Kai decided he would sleep in this morning so we had to wake him up. Funny how they never can get on the same sleep schedule, whether it be early mornings, late mornings or sleeping through the night. Teia hasn't slept through the night since a few nights last week when Kai decided he would wake up each night that she slept through! I just keep continuing with my mantra "I will sleep again, I will sleep again." One day it will be true.

Here we are during our very brief warm up. We discovered that 45 minutes is not enough time to nurse a baby (especially one who prefers a leisurely meal to a rushed one), go pee, register for a race, go pee, pin on a race number, play with a preschooler, warm up, and go pee again. But we did make it to the start line before the gun went off.

The race was in Marblehead, Mass. This pretty photo does not convey the howling winds we had to deal with running across the causeway. We picked this race mostly for its scenic potential. Unfortunately for me, I forgot how much racing hurts and I really didn't get to appreciate it. Greg on the other hand debuted in his first ever "jog stroller, run slower than 5:30 minute pace" race and got to enjoy the view in between stopping to wipe runny noses and making sure the wind didn't blow the top off the Chariot.

We think the kids enjoyed their first race. They both looked a little overwhelmed sitting in the Chariot at the start line. I think they wondered where the heck all these people came from! Kai had never seen so many runners before in one place. We decided to stop a little ways out from the finish line so Runner could actually run in his first race. He was a pretty happy little man, running along toward the finish. But he didn't take too kindly to being whisked up and out of the way by Daddy before he could run "by myself" through the finisher's shoot (Greg thought he might get in someone's way - you know how those mid-packers are about losing a second or two ;-) But this was a particularly cool race. They had finishers' medals for all of the kids and no sooner had Runner crossed the finish line that one of the volunteers draped one around his neck and the tears were immediately forgotten. In fact, Runner was so taken with his first running medal that he actually wore it for several hours afterwards. He even got to wear two medals seeing as Teia is a bit too small to wear hers.

You can see here that Runner's medals were much more interesting than Mommy who kept shouting "Look at the camera!"

Afterwards we stopped at a ubiquitous Massachusetts homemade ice cream stand (despite the chilly wind) and ordered our usual, Kiddie Size. You can see by this photo that one Kiddie Size would probably have fed all three of us! We really needed to run alot farther than 5K to justify these treats.

50 pounds of kids!

I posted this photo below for my mom :-). It was taken Mother's Day morning after I staggered downstairs after enjoying my Mother's Day sleep in. After not sleeping through the night for more than 6 months, you can bet an extra 2 hours in bed was a wonderful, wonderful Mother's day gift. When I told my mom about this photo she asked me to post it. At first my vanity said "no way, I'm wearing my Winnie the Pooh bathrobe." Then I realized that in all reality, I'm pretty sure most of our blog readership have already seen me in my Winnie the Pooh bathrobe, so I posted it, for my Mom.

When I arrived downstairs after said sleep in, Greg promptly placed Teia beside me for a photo and then Kai decided he wanted to get in on the act too and snuggled in on the other side. It was a lovely way to start the day, snuggled by my munchkins, all 50 pounds of them!

Both kiddos are under the weather and Kai, in particular has a suspicious looking bug bite (we live in lyme disease country so all unidentified bites are worrisome), so off we went to the pediatrician today. We learned that the bite is not that of a tick (thankfully) and that Teia is about to pop her first tooth!!!! (Which explains why she kept me up last night from 3:30-6:00 am). We also learned that combined they weigh 50 lbs!!! Teia is now 16 lbs, 6 oz and Buds weighs in at a solid 34 lbs. The reason this is of any significance is that we are planning a family 5K race this coming weekend. We recently bought a double Chariot jog stroller on Craigslist so it is now possible to push both kids together. We were thinking that Greg would push the double with Kai and let him use the lounge room to bring along select members of the bunny and lion community that reside in his big boy bed. I would push the BOB jogger with the featherweight, Miss Teia cuddled up inside. But lately I've been thinking I might enjoy just running the race and maybe Greg should take both kidlets in the double Chariot. 50 lbs eh? That should technically slow him down...

First Day of (pre) School!

Now that Kai is three years old, he is on to bigger and better things! On Monday he had his first day of school! To say that it was a success is an understatement. In fact, when I picked him up, his teacher gave me the thumbs up sign and said "beautiful!" We knew Budsy was excited about "shool" but we weren't entirely sure if he actually knew what school was. After all, he knew that Daddy went to school everyday but he really didn't know what it was Daddy did there or where exactly Daddy's school was.

But we should have known that the little man knew what was what. About a week ago he requested a trip to the library. In the past Kai's patience for library visits has been about 5 minutes so I wasn't sure that he knew what exactly he was talking about. To make it even more odd, he preferred to go to the library rather than the gym! To make sure I asked him "what do they have at the library?" To which he replied "books" (Duh, Mom). So we've since been back twice and Kai chose a book and checked it out himself. I guess he just had to decide on his own that the library was a cool place. It seems he has decided that school is a cool place too! His favorite part so far is his "school cubby."

He also seems to really like his teachers, the other kids and the things they do each day. Going to school has prompted a big leap in independence too. Kai helps to pack his snack bag each morning (this also gives me a head's up if he is going to complain about his snack once he gets to school), he carries his rather large backpack all by himself and he puts on his own coat and shoes, sometimes with just a little help! We are proud of our little student.

If you're wondering why on earth he has a backpack that looks like it is about to eat him; he is required to carry a book each day for communication with the teachers and it is too big to fit in a pre-schooler sized backpack (of which he already had a few). So off to Target we went and Kai picked this bag which came complete with a laptop section. I'm sure he'll be required to have a MacBook by kindergarten so we figured it would be a good investment, (or maybe they'll suggest iPads instead, given their smaller size). And to Granddad Dave who is reading, don't worry about his back. He only has to carry this the short walk to the mini-van and across the parking lot at school ;-)

And one final shot of the big man on campus in front of his school. We stopped by on Sunday so Daddy could take a look and Kai was proud as punch to show off "his" school.

The Hawaii Chronicles III: Milestones

Seems alot of our life is about milestones lately: first smiles, first words, sitting up, eating solid (if you can call it that) food, first day of preschool, the list goes on. In Hawaii, I embraced a milestone of my own, turning 40. It is one of those milestones that we seem to make a big deal about, kind of like sweet 16, or turning 21. Except that instead of looking forward to a set of car keys or a legal beer and a life story yet to be written, you are looking back. And forward. At the same time. Maybe that is what freaks people out so much about turning 40. You are right (if you're lucky) in the middle. There are those things not yet done, but there is still time to do them (if you hurry ;-)

I remember my first experience with a 40th birthday. It was one of my aunts or uncles (although I confess I can't remember who). There was a birthday party at my Auntie Winnie's house and I remember a birthday cake with a big 40 on it and a lot of Lordy You're Forty jokes. I know it wasn't my parents. They were WAY younger than 40 0n that day. But I do remember thinking, wow, 40 is OLD. And now here I am.

Turning 40 has given me some great bargaining power. I managed to convince Greg that a trip to Hawaii was in order. Somehow he agreed to not only the cost of the trip, but also to the inconvenience of dragging our little angels on two epic travel days through several time zones. I'm not sure if he agreed b/c he felt sorry for me (she's turning 40, I better appease her), or because he truly reveres the "specialness" of this birthday. Or maybe he is plotting his own 40th birthday adventure and wanted to make sure I would agree when the time came.

On the morning of my birthday I requested some quiet time to take in the early morning on Lanikai Beach. I wanted to just 'be' and see what happened. Would I panic at my vanishing youth? Would I feel myself filling up with the wisdom of my years? Would I simply wish I had asked for a sleep in instead? What I felt was an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the people and experiences that have made up my life thus far. Gratitude that I am here at all, to experience turning 40. Shortly thereafter I received a birthday greeting from a dear friend and he included the following quote that he came across on his 40th birthday, "I take happiness to be a state of conscious gratitude for the circumstances of one's life." Gratitude. Happiness. Turning 40. It's All Good.