october news

maya playing outside

celebrating uncle greg & greg's birthday
with uncle pat, cousin's shannin & sophie

maya eating her meltaways she got from auntie lo & uncle vere for halloween

kalia finger painting

sunset at honolua bay with uncle pat

playdate with deveraux

painting a pumpkin

kalia's painted pumpkin

cooling off in the wagon

kalia's seeds from auntie cheryl & uncle curt

getting the dirt ready

planting the wildflowers

getting the seeds out

planting the corn

planting the peas

OK, a couple of quick updates - Maya did cut her upper tooth last week and is much, much happier now. Although, she does like to try out her teeth (on my neck last night after bath!) Maya started clapping a few days ago and she loves to show it off. It is so cute! She gets the biggest smile on her face and looks for us to cheer and clap. Erik's uncle pat has been in town visiting Shannin & Sophie (erik's cousin who moved here a month ago) and we went to dinner on friday night and everyone at the table was clapping with her. It's so neat because it feels like we are communicating. She is so proud of herself! It's funny because technically, she is keeping one hand still and hitting it with the right hand and kalia pointed this out to us. "She's not clapping, she's doing this."

The other night we were making kalia go to the bathroom before bed and erik was taking her and she was not happy about it. When he got her to the bathroom, she said to him, "i need some privacy." It was so funny to me, because I've been saying this to her (obviously) when I'm in the bathroom and when I asked her the next day if she knew what that meant, she said, "it means go away". I am so glad we have this blog, just to look back and remember all the funny things kalia says and maya will be saying.

Kalia has been doing really well at school and has even said that she wants to stay later and play more, so i think i'll be picking her up a little later. She's also telling me more about her day and who she played with. We had a really great playdate with Deveraux at the park - Shannon and I were able to sit with the babies and talk and the girls just played!

Last tuesday erik's uncle pat was in town and so we had everyone over for dinner. Uncle Greg came over to help me watch the kids, while I got everything ready and we had a great time. Our neighbors Emmy & Ethan came over and it was fun to see everyone playing (Kalia & cousin Sophie too). I think that school is definitely helping kalia to learn about different types of personalities and dealing better with more aggressive kids.

We've been going outside after dinner and kalia likes to look for the moon and it's different stages & find stars. Last night we went outside (while daddy did dishes!) and she asked me to "make a smoothie" where we draw a blender with chalk and then draw the different ingredients inside and blend it up and pour into our drawn cups -- we've done this before, but it's been months. It's funny how they just remember things and then suddenly want to do again.

The girls are having a snack right now, so I can finish this. I know there's more, but I feel pressed for time. I have some new pics, so I'll do another post soon. It's strawberries for both girls (maya's having tofu too, I know, gross combo but she eats it!). In between throwing her sippy cup everywhere.

just hanging out

kalia made this card for baby joel - she traced all the letters in rainbow colors,
her own idea!

playing pass the parcel at her friend scarlett's birthday party

at mala playing with our new neighbors - emmy & ethan
while daddy got to surf a great south swell

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog! Maya has been cutting her very large upper tooth and it's right there, and it's massive. We do not make babies with small teeth! But she has been very uncomfortable and not my normal happy, cruiser baby. She also has been very restless sleeping and we finally got a longer nap today - 1st time in maybe 10 days. So because she has been requiring a lot of attention, so has kalia. I've been trying to stop myself from doing dishes or trying to get everything else done while maya naps and just spend some concentrated kalia play time. We have been drawing a lot! It's actually been a lot of fun. I realize that since maya is so much more active now, when she is down, I set kalia up with her markers and then go try to get a few things done, but it's been nice to try to relax and just play. Plus, kalia has been needing some good one on one.

I do have a little kalia story - the other morning she was coloring in her room and she wanted the "pink marker I used yesterday". She has a pack of 64 markers and I found the one that I thought was the correct color and even tested a little dot next to the person she had drawn yesterday, but she kept insisting that it was not the correct shade of pink. Maya was a little fussy, so I really was getting a little frustrated, I drew a little heart and said, "see it is the same color ...ok, it's not the same color." It was just off by a shade and then I was able to find the color she was looking for. Truly you could barely tell it was the wrong color, but kalia could tell! I had to immediately call mom, since I knew she could totally relate to kalia and probably wouldn't have made the mistake i had made in the first place. Two peas in a scary, scary pod:)

Took the girls to napili park again and maya got so excited when she saw the slide, she started kicking her legs and leaning so far forward that i had to practically drop her on the slide. She immediately climbed up. Took a couple face plants and just kept going. Maya's been getting up at the crack of dawn, but it's the only time when she will just let me hold her and rock in the rocking chair - so even though I'm exhausted, it's our little time.

Kalia woke up the other morning and said, "mommy, can i have a tattoo?" I guess somebody at school had a fake tattoo th0e 10 (OK, maya just reached up and typed that). Where was i? Oh, somebody at school had a fake tattoo at school and she wanted one too. I actually have a stash of fake tattoos since she has never wanted to put one on and we get them at birthday parties - so we put one on. But when she first asked me it took me a moment to figure out what was going on...I thought I had at least I don't know 12 years or so before I got that question.

We have new neighbors - ethan & emmy and we've been playing outside with them. It's really good for kalia, they are not shy at all! We all went to the beach yesterday - baby beach mala side and ended up staying most of the day. The surf was really good and people kept showing up that we knew and we just kept staying. At about 1PM, I went home to get supplies and saw Woozer, Jackie, Kanoa & Kapono just pulling up and knew we would be there for a few more hours. It was a fun day - we were all exhausted going home.

I went out with my friends Jinny & Diane the other night and Erik and Kalia had a fun daddy night. Staying up late with popcorn, movie & ice cream - lucky girl!

OK, need to help daddy. Maya is our wild little lady!

kalia's 1st hair cut & a beach day

getting ready to cut!
don't mind the mess in the bathroom!

look how long it was!

cutting her hair

finished length

maya getting ready to catch a little wave at baby beach

beached

just hanging on the boogie board

daddy & kalia

paddling around

We cut Kalia's hair for the first time on tuesday night. It was just a really spontaneous thing, we had talked a little bit about it, but after her bath we decided to just do it. I was always a little scared that cutting her hair we would lose the curls, but her hair still has them.

Wednesday, erik had a night shift, so we had a nice beach day at baby beach - mala side, since there were some really small waves. Maya is such a cruiser! We put her in the baby floating and kalia pushed her around, then she went on the boogie board for some rides! Erik & I both winded ourselves by running kalia up and down the beach in the shallow areas on the boogie board.

I still get surprised at how different our two little girls are! I took maya to the gym on one of kalia's school days and I actually made it to a class (since maya was up at the crack of dawn and took an early nap!) When I picked her up, she was happy to see me, but as soon as I picked her up, she wanted me to put her down so she could play with the toys and explore more. April told me that the entire time I was gone, she just crawled around and played with toys! When I used to bring kalia alone, she would just attach herself to me the minute I arrived back, maya is already so independent...a little sad. I was kinda thinking, "hey, mommy's here, don't you want to smother me with love?" Maya was thinking, "toys for my mouth, toys to throw".

fall is here!

playing outside

making our construction pumpkins

kalia was really into it this year

6 little pumpkins

kalia woke up today and wanted to be snow white
like her doll someone gave her for her birthday.
look at how excited maya is in the background!

So it's october and now it officially feels like the holidays are going to be begin. I always feel like doing craft projects at this time of year. We did the same pumpkins as we did last year, since they required little set up. What a difference a year makes, last year kalia really didn't understand where the eyes and nose and mouth should go and this year, she carefully picked the shape of each one and glued them on. I think it's funny, because when I cut the shape of the pumpkins, I meant for them to go horizontal, but of course all 3 of kalia's and erik's 1 pumpkin are vertical- that's so cool! I really want to do paper mache pumpkins, but I'm not mentally prepared to do that project this week.

Maya is currently doing laps in the living room - from our stack of magazines to the front door, to kalia's booster seat (where kalia is sitting, organizing beads and staying away from maya). Kalia and I were on our hands and knees searching for a bead she knew she had dropped and couldn't find it- 30 minutes later maya found it and had it in her mouth, of course.

Kalia wanted to be snow white today - she even wore the outfit to the gym and went by "snow white" for a couple hours today. After we left the gym, we played hide and go seek and tag on the lawn in the back and she was so sweaty in the costume, that she had to take it all off and go home in her undies.

Kalia has been saying that she's scared in her bed all alone lately - scared of monsters. So I've been doing the "magic shield" that my mom used to put around lo and I when we were little and it's been totally working.

maya crawling

home again

little miss papaya eating her grapes

kalia and her koi fish drawing

surf girls at olowalu

mommy, i want to paddle out at middles

kalia on a horse at ironwood ranch-
we got her to sit on the horse, but she didn't want to go for the actual ride

kalia's school work-
they are learning french, geography & music

chalk outside

maya drew a little with chalk and sometimes we were
fast enough to keep it out of her mouth

Did I mention that Maya cut her first tooth while we were in California and then her second tooth just after we got home. She sure likes to try out her new teeth on your finger- ouch!

We have definitely entered stage 2 of adjusting to sharing our life with baby sister. I remember when my friend Kristi said that her son was fine until her baby started crawling and eating at the table - well, I would have to say that this is true for us too. Kalia was great when maya came home and seemed to adjust so well to having her in the house. But now, Maya is just exploding in her crawling, exploring, pulling up on everything and confidence in being mobile. Maya will pull up on the coffee table, pivot and grab onto the couch, then grab onto kalia and grab her snack out of her hand. Maya can get anywhere so quickly - and that's usually wherever kalia is and tries to grab whatever kalia is playing with. Kalia is not happy about this and has declared that maya is not allowed to play with anything, even her own toys. She has been peeling her hands off the coffee table, giving her the shoulder to get her off things and even "accidentally" rocking the foot stool into maya's head. Maya's single minded determination amazes me! She will not be stopped! Yesterday she pulled herself onto the coffee table, grabbed one of kalia's markers and then just stood there all by herself (without holding on to anything) for about 5 seconds- until I closed my mouth and grabbed her before she fell face first into the table. She also climbed the stairs at the park and crawled through the yellow tube- all on her own. At 8 months, kalia was still rolling to get anywhere and maya can get to practically anything she wants.

We've been having a tough week with kalia and it's definitely because maya requires so much more attention - you cannot take your eye off her. She almost crawled out the front door yesterday, when erik left it open to get something. Kalia told me the other day, "I don't want to be a big sister, I just want to be Kalia". But other times, they are giggling and playing so well together.

Our mom's group had a field trip to Ironwood Ranch the other day and it was really nice. The drive to the ranch was beautiful, hard to believe that it's just above napili, you really felt like you were upcountry. Kalia was ready to go, but when it was finally our turn, the huge horse was a little intimidating. She was willing to sit and pet the horse, but didn't want to go for the ride. It was a really big horse!

Trevor & Nichaela were back on Maui and we surfed with them at Olowalu- see photo of girls above. Then later that week, we met them in Kaanapali and went down to black rock. While Trevor amazed the crowd with flips off black rock, a couple of turtles were swimming with everyone right in the shore break. Kalia was inches from the huge turtle, it was really cool!

Couple things - Kalia asked to go in the Bjorn the other day and even got it out and started climbing into it. I had to laugh, when I actually pictured it in my head- she's so light, I may have been able to carry her- but do I want to go there? The other day Kalia wanted erik to go in her room to play and he was lying on the couch, so she said, "daddy, march, march, march". This is so funny, because this is what we used to say to her to get her to go to her room before bath every night!