i lub you

Mom's Group Cold Stone Field Trip
This year Maya got some ice cream too!

Playdate with Scarlett
I let them watch a little something,
so I could put Maya down for her nap.
When I came out I heard Scarlett say,
"Kalia, do you want to put your head on my lap?".

We made white chocolate
covered pretzel rods with sprinkles.
I had intended to make them for
Kalia's party and ran out of time.

Mini Snow White

This is the only time this has happened,
and it only lasted maybe 10 minutes.
It may never happen again...but it's so darn cute!

The wagon is back in action!
OK, we are just lazy, but the wagon
has been missing a nut for about 6 months
and I just went down to Ace and $0.17 later
it's fixed!

Go fast!

Kalia

Maya has been chewing on anything,
but really likes it if it's metal.
i-teeth i think, i hope.

Sorry it's been a while again...
Let' see what have we been up to? Well, Kalia has been out of school, so we've been pretty much cruising. We had spent four days in a row at the beach last week. I'm pretty stoked I met a mom who surfs and has a 2 year old son and we've been trading off to surf. She lives across from Puamana and we've been meeting and strolling the kids into Puamana, just taking her board and we share and then we take turns surfing "beaches". Two weeks in a row and now we are meeting tomorrow. Wednesday we both had so much fun- felt a little guilty that I was catching a bunch of fun waves while erik worked...

Last weekend it was pretty flat, so Erik put up with me and helped me re-organize our entire room. We literally moved every piece of furniture. We got a new bookshelf and got rid of a few things I've wanted to forever and I'm really happy. It's pretty funny because I just started on Friday when he was at work, but told him that he didn't need to do anything, it was totally my project. But it would have been difficult without him - so thanks Erik! Did I mention that I re-organized the girls' rooms too, so I was on a serious roll.

The girls:

So Erik came home the other day and Maya ran out to meet him. Then inside, she gave him a big hug and said, "Daddy, I lub you." Seriously, so amazing. She had said "I lub you" before, but never directly like that. The next day I got one. As I was answering a work email, she came up and hugged my legs and said, "i lub you." She told him tonight, "daddy, you funny". Her language is amazing. She's been saying, "I want ____ " (snacks, milk, ariel) and today she pointed to Kalia's dress and said, "I like". She's been reciting books to us to, little parts, but she can say, "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?", then she laughs hysterically and then says, "funny". This girl will do anything for a laugh. I put on the ABC song in the car and she sings away. The version we have does a slow country version, classical- sort of opera style and she copies each way, it's really funny.

But she is definitely 18 months and testing. The other morning Kalia asked to have some juice and after I told her "not now", Maya had already heard the word and decided to throw herself on the floor screaming, determined to have some. I had to stand my ground and it was hard, but hopefully, she will learn soon that mommy's word is law...haha. Erik just rolled his eyes when I read that to him. I will laugh later when I see that, when she's really pushing her limits.

Maya is now in a big girl booster! She just didn't want to sit in the highchair anymore. She has also been my helper in the kitchen lately, just like Kalia at this age. Well, she helps herself to whatever ingredients I'm putting in.

Now onto Kalia...

I think Kalia is hitting that stage where 1 nap is too much and no nap is not enough. So everyone has been in bed super early lately. Kalia has been very observant lately, which is saying something because she really is in her own little world a lot. We were driving and it was raining the other day and she was asking about what controls the windshield wipers and was I making them go or do they just go when it rains.

She has been drawing a lot lately. Today she drew a picture of maya's cupcake purse. I think she is really figuring out that she can draw almost anything, if she looks at the shape and details. She drew a unicorn with a princess the other night and it looked exactly like one. Well, both the unicorn's legs & princesses were stick, but the shape was great. I know I could never at her age drawn something like that, especially without looking at a picture of it. It was just from her head!

We are starting to work a little on lower case letters, since she still writes all letters upper case. She recognizes both, but only write in upper case. We got this cool book with ABC, numbers, patterns, science, language and she's really into it. The only hard thing is keeping maya away, she thinks she can draw on anything that Kalia is drawing on. Kalia has been playing by herself a lot in her room, making stories up with her stuffed animals or looking at books. We had a fun playdate with Scarlett on Monday, they played really well together. We have this wooden/magnetic doll set where you can changed their clothes and they would call me in to see the crazy/funny outfits they put on the doll. They were laughing hysterically! Although life is hard when both you and your best friend's favorite color is pink and there is only one pink set in the tea set...

Monday school starts for Kalia (mon, wed, fri) and Maya is going to go those 3 mornings to Celena's...having mixed feelings, but I think it's time.

art work & beach days

Kalia drew this picture of
the four of us at the beach,
there's a blanket and there's waves!

Kalia's flower with rainbow wind

Maya at Kanoa's birthday celebration.

Kalia cruising by the boards.

Monday after Erik got off work we headed
to Maya with Uncle Greg & Erik's friend Mark

Girls hanging on the boards

Uncle Greg takes them for a sunset ride

While I washed the dishes this morning,
Kaia was drawing her favorite Princess doll,
I was totally impressed!

So we've had a great past few days. We're back in the water, had to stay out of the water for 10 days and it was really starting to get to me. Kalia is on summer break, it has really been warm and there has been surf...yes, feeling a little crazy not being in the water. Sunday, Erik surfed Mala in the morning, I had my mommy's brunch at Duke's and then to Launiupoko for Kanoa's 3rd birthday. I surfed for the first time since we've been back from California- I needed some serious surf therapy. Talk about instant attitude adjustment! Then on Monday after Erik got home from work we headed to Mala for the late afternoon/evening. Uncle Greg watched the girls on the beach and Erik & I got to surf together. It was sooooo fun, can't even tell you! Then we played on the beach, the girls got to ride the surfboard around and we bbq'd hot dogs and ate the dinner we brought down. Erik's friend Mark came down and we all had a great time.

So each night while one of us is putting Maya to bed, the other person starts a hide and seek game with Kalia. The only thing is that since Maya is going to sleep - it's only played in our bedroom and bathroom. If you've ever seen our small bedroom/bathroom, you understand how creative you must be. Kalia is really into this hide and seek game. It's hard to stop! She has been hiding in the bathroom closet and shutting the door. One day she climbed into the Kelty backpack carrier (that is currently sitting in our room, ready to be sold on Craigslist) and put her head down - since we obviously can't see her with her head down. We have hid on the side of the bed, under a blanket, I hid last night in Erik's closet with a pair of his pants on to hide my legs. Anyway, it's become a fun tradition.

Maya knows almost all her body parts, we name it and she points- head, ears, eyes, nose, tummy, belly button, arms, fingers, legs, toes, feet & teeth. She is also very good with animals. She's can name most animals in "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". When she sees a surfboard she says "surfing". She loves to hand out things - last night she was handing out chips and cold beers from the cooler.

...it's been a while

Blankies tied around as dresses
and another blanket on their head.
Dancing in the living room.

Puzzle when the internet was down.

Sorry it's been a while...

Our internet was down from last Friday (a week ago) until Wednesday. Wow, did I feel lost. But it also meant I couldn't do any work from home, check email or lose countless minutes/hours to looking up things online. I actually did a puzzle that Kim had given me when we were in California and Kalia helped. In fact all three of us girls have been doing puzzles this week.

I've also been doing some spring cleaning and re-organizing. I just need to purge our lives of the clutter - Erik is a little alarmed, but if he doesn't notice it's gone...then does it really matter?

Kalia had a cough for 3 weeks and it was just getting worse. She would only cough at night or if she was running around. I took her in this week and the doctor thought she might have allergies and after a few days of Benadryl, I think so too. It's made a world of different. After a few mornings of sneezing and stuffiness, I took a Clariton and felt great - so something is definitely in the air right now.

Kalia & Maya are definitely getting to a stage where they can really play together. I feel like I can leave them to play for a while, usually one of them (50/50 on who it will be) will end up crying, but they are definitely playing together. Maya can be quite the brute, I came into the room the other day and she was pulling a huge handful Kalia's hair because they were fighting over a toy. Yes, my almost 18 mo. old can make a 4 year old cry. They had a tea picnic yesterday afternoon- it was really cute!

Instead of crying for me when she wakes up now, Maya calls for me, but in the most disturbing way. She says, "Ma-Mee" strong emphasis on the "Ma" and sounding like a very annoyed 4 year old. The first morning she did it, I went to Kalia's room and then after walking in to find her sleeping, realized that my little baby Maya was calling to me in this really mad voice. Yes, it's a little alarming. Although, she's pretty darn cute most of the time. When you give her something, like milk or a book she has asked for she says, "thanks". And the other day she said, "thank you, welcome" when I gave her something. She's also been telling me when she has a poopy diaper and sometimes wet diaper. She is obsessed with giving Kalia her blanket, milk cup or water cup. If she sees one of these things and it's not in Kalia's hand, then she will not stop until Kalia takes it from her - she's quite persistent.

Kalia had a playdate with Scarlett on Monday and she took over her princess plates that Auntie Kim bought her for her next playdate. We've been having a pretty mellow week, library, story time, lots of drawing. I need to take some photos of Kalia's latest drawings - she's getting really creative-rainbow wind. We've been cooking and a little baking. Trying not to use the oven, it's so hot right now. Used our basil from garden for pasta the other night. Tried to revisit the Deceptively Delicious book where you hide pureed veggies in food - well, Maya is not fooled and Kalia not a huge fan either, I think that's why I gave up the first time.

4th of July Weekend

4TH OF JULY
2010

We had a great fun filled weekend...

Friday
Mom's Group 4th Party at
Honokowai Park

Kalia played with Scarlett
and Maya insisted on going on the big girl swing like the big girls.
(No photos since I was right next to her the whole time).

Saturday - Beach Day
We attempted to have an all day
beach day and brought the boards
and even the tent.
It was very windy, but we still had
a fun, adventure day.

The girls in their 4th of July suits - thanks Tutu!
I never thought I would be one of those moms
who dress their kids alike, but I did it this
weekend and you know what - it's pretty darn cute!

Sunday- 4th of July
Makawao Rodeo

It was our first time at the rodeo and it
was a lot of fun! The girls had fun watching
the horses & the rodeo was great! We also met up
with a bunch of friends. Maya saw Joel for the first
time since we got back and was very, very
excited to see him!

It was nice because we sat in front of the bleachers
and then the girls could run around.
Maya took that statement a little too literally
and really just started running off a few times.
Literally running in a random direction
away from us, at full speed.

Kalia wants a horse now...

Early 4th evening picnic at S-Turns
and then a few fireworks & sparklers.
The girls were exhausted from the weekend
and so we did an early evening.

My little pyromaniacs!

Some fireworks

Maya was going crazy over the sparklers &
fireworks. These girls love it a little too much!

Monday -
Birthday Lunch for Celia at Leilani's

Scarlett & Kalia


After lunch the girls went out front to the grass, where we could see them and played, while we finished lunch. Maya stayed with Celia & I and called for Kalia the entire time she was outside. "Kalia, Kalia, Kalia, Kalia", then when the girls came back to the table, she ran over to her and gave her the biggest hug!

So we are back to do some serious sleep training with Maya. I have avoided doing anything for so long because she's Maya and she's also so loud and she's my little baby. But she's getting to the point where she wakes up at night and since I've been putting her all the way down, she cries for me and won't go back to sleep for hours. Just like Kalia started doing right about this age after vacation, although she hasn't gotten to the up for 3 1/2 hour thing Kalia used to do. But it seems like things are turning around and she's starting to get the sleep she needs and hopefully me too.

California Trip - Part 4

Maya & Papa
Hanging out at Auntie Kim, Uncle Jay, Allie & Anthony's House

Abigail & Maya
(second cousins)

Family Photo
On Swing at Erik's Cousin Debbie's House

Erik, Kim, Denis, Tim & Greg

Family Photo

West Covina Buddhist Church
Obon 2010

Kalia found a stage and wanted
to up and do a little performance.
She took Tutu for moral support.

Maya wanted to perform too.

Great Grandma & Tutu working the
Asian Chicken Salad booth.
It was a perfect location,
inside next to the bingo.
We got to hang out with the family & play bingo.
Erik one bingo two times at the
beginning, then Kalia one a game
and then Auntie Lo tied the blackout game.
We were hooked!
Erik took Maya home for a nap and
Kalia & I stayed, played games & ate junky food.

Shave Ice

The Dessert Booth
was also in the Bingo Room.

Had to take a picture of
this caricature of my dad.

Kalia getting a rainbow painted on her arm.

Maya wants the same.

Lining up to dance.

Kalia was really getting into the dancing!

Dancing while holding Maya.