We're Back!

Maya's 1st sick day and she was letting Kalia hold her.

Finally both feeling better and running around naked after bath. See Kalia in the closet, they were both playing in and out of the closet for so long and being so cute. Only photo I can post - all too naked, but you can see how much fun they were having by the expression on their faces!

Kalia wore her blankey like this during a lot of her sick days, this photo she finally felt well enough to do her dance to the song at the end of Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. We have been watching a lot of movies.

Mom's Group
Butterfly Farm Event at Napili Park

Caterpillar

Chrysalis

Maya was so good in the tent - she just explored around and played with the plants that were the butterfly's food.

Kalia holding the feeding butterfly.

Holding hands.

Sisters

So we are back in the "land of the living" as a friend said to me. But Kalia still recovering, she slept until 9AM yesterday and then after a little play at the park, asked to take a nap at 1PM, so you know she's not feeling 100%. But last night she slept better than she has in a long time (little coughing), although I was just in there with her a minute ago since she was having a cough attack. Maya has been back waking up - yes, they are conspiring against me, or at least me getting sleep. Erik let me sleep this morning- so feeling a little more refreshed. Kalia had ballet today and then we went to Napili Park where Shannon from Mom's Group organized the Butterfly Farm to come and have an interactive experience for the kids. They went in groups of 4 and everyone else played - great showing about 24 families.

Maya has been saying "sister" or "sissy". Yesterday, Maya was up at 6AM and Kalia didn't wake up until 9AM, Maya went to her sisters door so many times and called "sissy". Every time I pulled her away, she cried. Then right when I was going to put Maya down for her nap, Kalia came walking out and I knew that Maya wouldn't be going down for a nap - she was soooo excited to see Kalia, they gave each other the biggest hug. Maya sat next to her while she drank her milk.

News from the quarantine house

So yesterday Kalia woke up with another 103 temp and was up all night coughing and saying that her ears hurt, so after 5 days I finally took her to the drs. She has a sinus infection that turned into an ear infection, is on antibiotics and is just starting to feel a little better, although still had a 104.3 temp last night. The only thing she will eat are those mandarin oranges, thank goodness I went and bought 2 more bags a couple days ago, but might need to get more today. I've been bribing her with some ice cream to take her antibiotics.

Maya is feeling much better and finally slept through the night again last night. This morning she must have been tired because she brought me her blankey that she sleeps with and held it up for me to put on my shoulder, then put her arms up for me to hold her and take her to her room for nap routine.

This morning I was sitting at the coffee table feverishly peeling mandarin oranges (since I can barely keep up with the girls eating them) and maya came over and took one of the unpeeled and threw it on the floor (like a ball). I told her to go get it and bring it back to me and after a moment of thinking, she walked over to it on the other side of the table and brought it back to me. I was really proud, she understood what I wanted and then she actually did it.

I forgot to say in an earlier post that Maya has been singing Ring Around the Rosey, she says "ashes, ashes......down" and then sits down. So cute!

sick babies

Monday we met some friends at baby beach. At one point Kalia was pulling Maya on the boogie board through the little shallow area and gave her some fun rides and Maya was totally into it. But by the time I felt confident to go get the camera, kalia started to go a little deep. We "took turns" as Kalia was telling everyone and Maya and I would pull her and then she would pull Maya. So, so cute I can't even tell you! Got a couple photos after when they were playing with the board, but the rides were fun.

Monday night Uncle Greg watched the girls and Erik and I had a date night. We had such a fun dinner at Hula Grill. I am still thinking/dreaming about the Ahi I ate.

Maya seemed a little congested that night and by tuesday was definitely sick. She has had a pretty bad head cold, contast runny nose and she really didn't start breathing through her nose until today. We've had 4 really hard nights and I don't see tonight being any better. It's really reminded me of when we first brought Maya home from the hospital, especially the first night Kalia was sick too. We were going between rooms all night. Luckily Erik had the last two days off, that helps especially for the nights and also naps, since the only naps longer than 20 minutes seem to be on your chest. I have literally been in the rocking chair as much as my bed the last few nights. Poor Maya just coughs and is so stuffed up. The other night as I was rocking her, I saw her thumb go up to go into her mouth and then she remembered in her sleep that she can't suck on it since her nose is so stuffed and put it down. Not that's bad, she loves to suck her thumb to sleep! Kalia has been sick too, but we thought she was almost faking it at first to skip school. But she will have these random high fevers. She will be acting like she's getting better and then all of a sudden she has a crazy fever. I even took her to the store yesterday and she felt warm there and had just shy of 103 when we got home.

One of the first days Maya was sick and I thought Kalia was heading there, I wanted to make them chicken noodle soup and went and bought all the ingredients and made it that afternoon, even though Maya wanted to be held through most of it. Anyway, it's funny because when it all comes down to it, they really just want to eat the noodles out of it (which could have come out of a can) or goldfish crackers and cheerios-whatever their little comfort foodies are. I've been making them their favorites; banana pancakes and banana muffins, just to get them to eat. We've also been going crazy on those little mandarin oranges, the girls and i ate a 2 pound bag yesterday. All of a sudden, they both wanted to eat them and lots of them, so i kept peeling.

Even though she's sick, Maya's still having a vocabulary boom. The other day we were playing in Kalia's room and Maya was roaming in the hall and she came to Kalia's door and hit the wall next to the door twice and said, "knock, knock" (the k sound wasn't really there, but you could totally tell what she was saying and did it a bunch of times). She also brought Erik a shoe the other day and said, "shoe". She's been pointing to Kalia's baby doll and saying "baby" and then pointing to the baby's eye and saying, "eye". She also likes to poke me and kalia in the eye over and over and say "eye" - it's starting to get a little old. She did say "lia, lia" after I tried for a little while to get her to say Kalia. She's been saying, "woah" and "oooooh" (you know, how you would say it if you were holding something that you wanted her to be excited to play with instead of whatever Kalia is holding, long u). She will also hand you something and say "here" and I swear the other day she handed me her empty bowl and said "all gone". Also "fish" and points to picture. The other day I was washing some dishes and she came in with a CD from the computer desk (install printer or something- she's finding all sorts of treasures there now) and she kept saying "here" and trying to hand it to me and wouldn't stop until I took it from her. Anyway, it's so weird and unexpected some times when she all of a sudden says something that you didn't just say or even said in the past few days.

Tonight Kalia asked me if Maya was feeling better because she was sick now and needed taking care of. Poor thing, we've been really asking her to be a big girl and Maya has been needing a lot of attention. Plus a sick 3 year old lies on the couch and wants to watch a movie and have a cuddle, a sick 1 year old wants to play but doesn't feel right and wants you to hold her and fix it, but they still want to go, go!

march stuff

Kalia's New Responsibility Chart

Princess makes banana bread, I did miss photos from the Princess plays t-ball, Princess goes to the library and Princess goes grocery shopping.

Princess at s-turns to go fishing with daddy.

Maya before she charged out into the ocean and fought me to go into the water and fell and rolled around in the waves and loved it. I didn't bring a towel - it was cold when we left the house!

Maya and the painted coconuts.

She put them both up on the table - she's so cute!

Our much needed beach day!

Kalia is turning into the master shell finder!

Daddy lounge.

Maya cruising!

Looking for shells!

Maya

Kalia found a cave on "Kalia Beach".

Before bed tonight, the girls sitting in their strollers.

Maya's language and understanding is really growing. She points to her nose and says, "nooo" and eyes, "eyyyyye". She has been saying "no" for "no" and shaking her head for yes. Today in the car Erik had a call from work and Kalia was saying, "what daddy, what, what happened?" So Maya starts saying, "wha, wha, wha," but literally about 50 times. She's a real copier, she'll say, "woah" and "baby". She is really, really into books right now. It's so cute, she'll go find a book and bring it over and then lifts her hands for you to put her on your lap to read. And she'll sit and listen to the whole book- well, if it's one that she likes. She loves the book, "I Love You Through and Through", don't know the author off the top of my head, but I'm so happy. This is a book I loved to read to Kalia and I was so sad (ask Erik) when it got too easy for Kalia. I would sneak it into our bedtime books pile and she would find it and exchange it for something more big girl. I'm glad Maya has found a love for books too, I guess they couldn't help it when they see their mommy sneaking in books whenever they look distracted. Although Maya's love of the library is mostly just pulling many, many books off the shelf. I am now running after this girl - she'll just take off!

So we started Kalia on a "Responsiblity/Chore Chart" and she is going to earn a small allowance. Her responsibilites are: Brush her teeth, Clean Up Toys, Take Dishes to the Sink and Go Potty By Myself. We don't want it all to be about money, but it's a little motivation to help out and then she can save up and buy the things that she wants, instead of mommy just always saying "no". This all started with that trip to Claire's - did I mention it earlier? Anyway, she loves Claires now, but needs to save her money. But it's definitely a hard concept to understand. Today in the store, she wanted to buy something and she didn't have her money, when I explained that I would buy it for her (it was $1) when we got home she would have to give me the money. She made her most sour face and said, "my daddy gave me that money!" She also told me earlier, "didn't you bring your money. why don't we use your money to buy things." It's a hard concept. Plus, she wanted to peak into Claire's, but didn't have enough money to buy anything and that was pretty much torture. But although she wanted to have a complete meltdown, she kept it together. Maybe she is sensing from the last few days that mommy will not put up with that behavior. Oh yes, mommy has been having little patience for that lately.

The weather has been terrible - windy/rainy and we've been at home a lot and I think it's been getting to me. Today I told Erik that we needed a beach day - we needed some vitamin D and to get sandy and go in the ocean. Erik's shoulder has been bothering him and now his back, so there were some waves and I was the one that got to surf. I even got caught inside for a really long time and it felt really good- I just needed to be "in the moment" for a while. Definitely needed that new frame of mind! Hope Erik gets to surf too - he needs it too, it had been about 2 1/2 weeks for both of us!

We really had a great day at the beach, the girls played, Kalia found shells and a little cave and we relaxed. At one point we were both laying in the sand and the girls played. We are getting to a stage where Maya can cruise the beach too, although the charging out into the water is a little scary. She loves the water and kept asking to go in today, especially when daddy and Kalia were in and it was cold today!

I know I have more, but tired. Went out with friends for a birthday two nights ago and still might be still feeling the effects! (Could I be suffering from A-G-E too?)

princess dress my tutu made

So when tutu was here in January, she told Kalia that she would make her a princess dress. Since then Kalia has been telling anyone who will listen that her tutu is going to make her a princess dress and it's going to be pink. Well, it has arrived and Kalia is a little bit in love with it. She asked if she could wear it to school and told me she will wear it every day. Unlike, my princess dress that she can only try on once in a very, very long while.

Look at Kalia looking in the mirror. I am trying to get princess Maya in the shot.

Kalia went to her dress up drawer and said, "what else does a princess wear, a crown, oh, glass slippers". Maya got to be a fairy princess.

OK, they totally look alike in this photo! At the park the other day a little girl (about 2 yrs old), was pointing to the girls and telling her mom, "two, big and small". Basically telling her mom there were two of the same girls, one big and one small. I told the mom, "I guess they look alike, but I always thought they looked so different." She totally looked at me as though I was crazy and said they do look alike.

Yesterday I obsessed (Erik would definitely say obsessed) over making granola. And since the first batch I burned (it said 20-30 minutes, but really needs about 16), I really obsessed over making the second batch. But it was all worth it and Kalia & I had yogurt with granola this morning!

This couple comes every year with their entire family to Maui and every year they bring Erik BBQ sauce (they are from Kansas City). This year's package included several BBQ sauces, two rubs, a hat and an apron. Erik trying out his new stuff and the rub on some chicken and his famous potatoes - yum!

Couple small stories forgot to tell last time. At Kalia's ballet class (yes, it's ballet again) they always pick a princess and the other girls have to do a dance solo for her and then she picks the princess for next week. This week Kalia got up and did the dance solo all by herself (she has needed the teacher guidance in the past) and it was a long dance - we were so proud and she was so proud of herself. Then she got picked to be princess next week. It was awesome!!!

Today I came into the room and Maya looked at me and said, "mama".

This morning we watched our neighbor Ethan early and I took Kalia & him to school. It was really funny to listen to their conversations, Ethan is such a boy and Kalia is such a girl.

Ethan: I got a new power ranger, one arm is red and one arm is black.
Kalia: Look I have two ponytails.
Ethan: I didn't know that was your jacket.
Kalia: I have this jacket and another one. The other one is all white and has lots of buttons. I like to wear that one and look like Auntie Ann.
Ethan: Dinosaurs are big, giraffes are big (looking at some toy animals).
Kalia: Uh huh.

It's Ballet Time!

We could watch at ballet and we did - well, as much as you can when you have a 1 year old charging the dance floor constantly. We took turns - running after the little monkey.

I know, I love ballet class- can't help myself, so yes, you will see lots of it.

We had Kalia's old tricycle in the closet, but when I went in there this morning to get a dress out for Maya, she saw it and started crying for it and trying to pull it out of the closet. So now it's outside and she climbs onto it, but it's a little tippy - so we got her all set up in Kalia's stuff. She just wants to ride a bike too, is that too much to ask?

A couple ballet videos - have more, but will not go too crazy - unless you want me to, then I totally will:)


Maya - oh, just want to eat her up all the time!

Look Who's in the Batter's Box...Kalia & Maya

We had a little lunch date with Maya at Kimo's.
Erik has been working night manager shifts - so we have a little Maya time
on tuesday.

T-Ball Tuesdays at Napili Park

Maya is totally into it, Kalia is getting there.
She likes the song, "Look Who's in the Batter's Box,
Kalia, Kalia. Look Who's in the Batter's Box, Kalia the Great,
Kalia the Great, She can hit it straight,
Look who's in the Batter's Box, Kalia the great!

Team Huddle

Fishing with Daddy after school, Kalia doing her thing.
She had fun playing with Sydney, while daddy and uncle kirk & uncle jerry fished.

The waves had created these little sand drop offs and
Maya was having a really good time sliding down
them and then charging out into the waves.

Sacred Heart Bazaar
This obstacle course was pretty tough and we sent Kalia in alone at first,
but then daddy went to help and she had a blast.

Maya's new big girl car seat!!!!
I've had mixed feelings, Maya is really a toddler and not
my little baby. The girls looking at books and playing with the balls
they won at the bazaar.

So Erik has been home during the days lately and we've had some great family time. Although I am sure that he imagined that he would have surfed more, but the weather, especially the wind has been crazy. Today was the first day we had nice weather and of course, today was the day I finally got around to making soup. We even went fishing with daddy in slightly stormy weather. The girls had a blast, we went to the North Kaanapali Beach by Duke's and Maya had fun just walking on the little bridge boardwalk and climbing up and down the stairs. I kept her there for a while, since she would just slide down the sand and run out toward the waves that were coming in. This girl scares me and is quite a work out running after her.

My friend Adrienne started up t-ball on tuesday and the girls had fun. Kalia took a little warming up, but has been talking about it all week. Maya just wanted to play with the balls and bat- she just wants to be in the middle of everything. It was so cute watching the kids. One little boy hit the ball and then instead of running the bases, just ran straight ahead and kept running, past everyone playing outfield. I had a constant smile, it was so cute. If you'll notice the girls are all dressed up- well, I didn't totally warn Kalia, since I wasn't sure how she would feel about it.

So I was really excited about the idea of Maya's new carseat, but when she was actually in it, it made me sad. She's getting so big and she's growing up faster than kalia and learning everything faster. Kalia & Maya really do play a lot together now, like kids...so sad.

one more story

The other morning, Erik had worked late and when he woke up, both girls ran over to him and had to be carried by him. He sat down on the couch with a girl in each arm and Maya totally tried to shove Kalia away. She really is getting a little feisty, I think Erik sort of liked it.

tsunami warning and weird weather

Kalia sewing

it's the new double bjorn
front baby, back toddler

napili park post tsunami warning
so fun to watch them play together

and give kisses

erik took the girls to flemings on rainy sunday

maya cheeks

ok, that sweatshirt is way too small for maya,
but we both love how it accentuates her cheeks.

they found a stage all set up

ok, just a quicky show

Maya was stoked!
She wanted to wear these elbow pads and knee pads so much
and walked around as happy as could be!

Kalia in my "princess" wedding dress- story below.

play area at the mall

watching huge honolua bay

Kalia climbed into Maya's car seat and asked us to buckle her in,
Maya tries out Kalia's seat. I know, I'm ordering one right now,
Maya can sit forward and I still have her looking at the back of the seat.

Happy Birthday Anthony!!! Hope you had a wonderful day!

So Saturday we woke up and found out there was a tsunami warning with evacuation from the earthquake in Chile. We literally didn't find out until 6:30AM, since we hadn't turned on the TV the night before. It was really just a weird day - there were cars lining the the road up to Kahana Ridge and people camping out at the top of the street. Erik spent quite a bit of time in the morning at the store trying to get us some supplies. I have to say that the supplies Erik got made everyone happy - we usually don't get the trail mix with m&m's or granola bars with chocolate chips. Yes, Daddy brings home the fun food and I gobbled it up too. Anyway, it was a really long time to wait - since the potential tsunami wasn't supposed to hit Maui until 11:25AM and then it was a couple hours until they called off the warning. It just seemed like such a weird day- we just waited and waited and then had to go back to normal life. Erik had to go to work and to a crazy night, they had to open the whole restaurant starting in the afternoon. I took the girls to the park just to get out of the house, I was about to lose my mind being at home all day.

Sunday, we had some really raining weather and still have had some windy/rainy weather. Erik had the girls in the morning and took them to Flemings. It's fun to do daddy things - I probably would have never taken them to Flemings on a rainy day. I think I do a lot with the girls - but daddy stuff is always different and fun. They found a stage set up for an event for the Ritz and Kalia did a little dance performance. He got some really cute shots!

Kalia is really into "designing" her hairstyle. She picks out which color hairbands, or which clips go where, how many braids, etc. When we went to the otherside (see mall photos above), Kalia had picked out the flower for one side, then she wanted this ribbon clip for the other and then she wanted more clips - so I had to cut her off.

Maya is obsessed with all things big kids. She loves to wear kalia's helmet and elbow/knee pads and she loves, loves kalia's scooter. Maya went down twice today on Kalia's scooter and still went back for more again and again. Unfortunately for both of them, Kalia's scooter is now put away in the closet since she refused to bring it home from the neighbors house. That girl really likes to test me. Her pink tutu skirt was put away in the closet for so long that we all forgot about it - just found it last week. Thus, the tsunami warning outfit she had on.

Maya is also having a shoe thing, I think they all go through this. But Maya has a whole drawer filled with shoes (Kalia's old ones that we saved for Maya, ones for Maya that don't fit yet, Kalia's shoes) to feed her obsession. Today she was pulling every shoe out and either throwing them on the floor, or bringing them over to me to put on her feet. She also will bring something over to you and hand it to you, then when you go to take it, she says "no, no" and pulls it away. I wonder where she got that from....hmmmm.

Monday we went to the otherside and ran errands - didn't get too much done since very hard to fun shop with two little muchkins. The girls did get to play at the mall play area. Maya made a friend - well, actually met a baby and tried to poke her in the eye and pull her hair over and over again, Maya likes to play rough (did I mention she likes to pinch too?). And a girl wanted to be Kalia's friend and Kalia told her she only wanted to play with Maya. But the poor little girl just wanted to follow Kalia around and Kalia just ran away. So that was my day on the other side. Oh, we went to Costco and it was Maya's nap time and she was about to have a meltdown in the cart, but some lady started talking to her and it turned everything around. Maya is such a social creature - if you just interact with her she is just happy as can be. Thank you random lady at Costco, I really don't know what I was going to do. Of course, as soon as Maya was out of the cart, she was fine. We ate there and all Maya wanted to do was to walk to different tables and try to engage people who were eating and then run away from us when we tried to get her.

Almost forgot- the wedding dress. So we have been reading a lot of fairy tales lately and they all end up getting married at the end. Kalia was a little confused and thought that you had to be a princess to get married, so I explained it to her and then told her how daddy and I were married. Then I got out the photo album to show her, she was really excited about my "princess dress" and wanted to see it. So I got it out and then she asked me to put it on. At first I said no, then she kept asking and asking, so I changed my mind and put it on. And you know what, it was pretty fun. She even picked out a necklace for me to wear with it. The next day she wanted me to wear it again and when I said "no", she said she would wear it instead. So we got it out and I let her put it on. It was fun, but the hard part was taking it off, she really felt like a princess.