Christmas 2008, part 2

Me in the kitchen
Alana
Kalia hanging out with the boys

I'm never going to be a surf photographer, I take the worst surf photos.

Alana going to paddle out

Christmas was fun, but very busy. It really took me a couple days to fully recover. Luckily for me, it's been raining a lot this week, so I had an excuse for doing nothing. I think that Kalia likes a little down time too.

I'm pretty excited because Kalia got a nail polish set for Christmas. Erik is very anti-nail polish for Kalia until she's in high school or something like that. But I have been wanting to try to paint her toe nails at some point, so now that it was a gift, he's giving in. Haven't tried it yet, hopefully she will be up for it...you never know with this one.

Kalia is still on the Christmas kick, she really wanted to listen to Frosty the Snowman today. She's finally memorized most of the words, she going to be really sad when the tree comes down. We went to Safeway today and walked through the mall and the area where Santa was is still set up and she wanted to stop and look at it and tell me about his reindeers.

Kalia has been calling us by our "real" names. Today after Erik left, she said "good bye daddy" and then she started saying "good bye erik" over and over and laughing. Then out of nowhere she started yelling at Safeway today, "good bye erik". She also likes to call me "daddy" and and erik "mommy" and then laugh hysterically.

One last thing, she told me today, "oh mommy, you are the best mommy ever." I had to include that one.

christmas 2008

For some reason all the pictures are posting from last to first.

Kalia at Ironwood Beach, Christmas afternoon.
Ironwood with Daddy & Uncle Greg, watching my cousins surf.

Christmas Beach Shot

Riding on Uncle Greg's scooter!

Pulling my babies in my new wagon, Santa left for me!

My new wagon

Gifts from Santa!

Opening stocking gifts.

Christmas Eve - opening gift from Papa, a treasure chest with pirate ship!

Making a picture for Santa to go with cookies on Christmas Eve.

(excuse the foot shot)

We had a great Christmas. Erik had to work on Christmas Eve, but was home by dinner time. Kalia and I had a nice day finishing up some wrapping and we made cookies for Santa that Kalia decorated with sprinkles. I had an OB appointment in the morning and had to take Kalia with me. She was great at the appt. she told the nurses and the doctor that we were going to make cookies for Santa and last week we made cookies for the neighbors. I don't know that she fully understood the whole Santa thing, but tried to explain more that day. In the afternoon Kalia made a picture for Santa to leave with the cookies. She really wanted Santa to come to her house, but didn't really get that he would do that when she was sleeping, she wanted to pet the reindeer.

Erik came home for dinner and then we let her open 1 present. She opened a gift from Papa, a little red car with removable surfboard on the roof and a treasure chest with a pirate ship. Kalia is obsessed with Word World and one of the episodes has a pirate ship and treasure chest and she sings the song all the time. As soon as she saw the treasure chest she said, "a treasure chest!!!" She is now keeping the change she finds in it. Erik has been sick and slept on the couch a couple of nights, to not get me sick. So she has been finding a lot of change in the morning - he always has change falling out of his pockets!

Before Kalia went to bed we set out the cookies and milk and Erik took her outside to leave cheerios and water for the reindeer. Christmas Eve was fun for Erik and I, we set up all her Santa stuff, ate cookies, watched "elf" and waiting for her to fall asleep, so we could set up her wagon....she stayed up really late! Have to admit we put on one part of the wagon backwards and had to do it again.

Christmas morning Kalia was up early and she came right out and instead of looking at her presents/new wagon/stocking. She went straight to the plate of cookies to see if Santa had eaten them. Christmas morning Erik was outside and saw our neighbor taking his dog out and after the dog pooped, Erik asked him to leave it there...so we would have reindeer poop next to the eaten cheerios and water. Kalia was really excited to see it in the morning and mentioned "reindeer poop" quite a bit throughout the day.

I really thought that opening presents would be more exciting for Kalia, that she would be tearing through the wrapping paper. But she really maybe was a little overwhelmed. She would open one thing and then we would have to set it up/play with it/read it, go get something she already had that was similiar. At one point she opened up some headbands from her stocking and then she tried each one on, then put one on me, then we had to hold hands and dance, then put them in a pile, then put them in a drawer I once kept her old ones in, where she found an old jar of play-doh and wanted to play with that instead of opening any other presents. It took all morning to get through her stocking and Santa gifts. I have a weird child!!!!

Uncle Greg was right, in the end it took until Saturday to open all her gifts. It was actually the threat of me opening them for her that got her to open them, but I did end up opening one and she didn't care. Although each time she would say, "what could it be?" I think Alana thought we were exaggerating the opening gifts thing, until she came over on Christmas afternoon and there we all were trying to get her to open a gift. Then she would get distracted by something else. Don't get me wrong, she has been playing with her new things and reading her new books, but it was really hard to get her to open those packages! Erik had picked out this keyboard for her, which she loves, but her favorite part is the microphone. She loves reciting her books, making up words and singing loudly into it. I'm sure our neighbors are thrilled!

Christmas early afternoon Alana and Tanner came over then everyone left to check the waves. Kalia and I met everyone at Ironwood Beach and Kalia had such a good time. I think she may have enjoyed rolling in the sand and running around more than opening gifts! We took her on a little hike and then she just played in the sand and cruised around.
Everyone came back to the house and we ate and the boys played horseshoes outside. While Kalia tried to get people to pull her around in the wagon. It was a great night.

beach with uncle greg

it was a little cold at the beach
with uncle greg in a big cave
exploring

uncle greg dug a big hole for kalia

Yesterday we went to slaughter house in the afternoon with uncle greg. Greg was over before Kalia's nap and then he left with Erik to fix his scooter. Kalia wanted to know where they went and when they were coming back. I told Kalia that Daddy would be back after her nap, but Uncle Greg will probably go home. She wanted to see Uncle Greg, so I told her that maybe we could call him and see what he was doing after her nap. After her nap, we told her that we were going to the beach and she said, "No, I don't want to go to the beach, I want to call Uncle Greg and see what he is doing." We had a great afternoon and Kalia had a so much fun, trying to climb out of a huge hole Greg dug for her. She crawled far back into a cave and looked for shells. She showed uncle greg a shell and said, "check this one out."

Kalia and I have been battling the crowds to shops. Yesterday we went to Costco and parked as far as you could possibly park and still be in the Costco parking lot and people waited for my spot when we left! Then we went to Safeway today and it was a zoo! At one point Kalia told me, "It's OK Mommy, we will find a parking spot." It's pretty bad when your 2 1/2 year old is trying to calm you down. I found myself saying, "seriously!?!" I'm starting to think she may have gotten that from me. But I'm hoping that we will not have to leave the house to go to a store now until after Christmas, I simply cannot go out there again.

She's getting pretty smart too about certain things. Kalia spied a fruit roll in the grocery store and I told her that we could buy it, but for after her nap. Then she say some yogurt she wanted also and said, "maybe we should get this for after my nap too."

I'm going to put this in writing because it will never be that way again, but Santa and Celena asked Kalia what she wanted Santa to bring her for Christmas and she said...."nothing".

We went to Whaler's Village the other night and Santa came in on an outrigger canoe and we waited in line and Kalia didn't sit on Santa's lap, but she gave him 3 high fives. This is huge progress for my child, who usually cries when he gets too close. After Santa we had dinner with Sandy and Wyatt. Wyatt was breaking his crayons and throwing them on the ground and Kalia was running around picking up the crayons and putting them back in front of Wyatt telling him not to throw them on the ground. I think she is going to be a good big sister.

I've been having those alien in your body experiences, where I look at my stomach and see a body part sticking way out! I think a great Christmas present would be if we actually decided on a name for the baby...maybe Santa will deliver. No luck this morning, going through the baby name book. Kalia wants to name the baby "sock", but this morning wants to name her "banana". Banana Sock Hendrickson...kinda catchy.

busy week

keiki christmas party
kids on the arboretum hike

kalia on the hike

posing with puppets from kit tutu bought

she asked me to take this one

I'll start with a couple of funny things. Kalia's phrase of the week is, "seriously?" Erik loves it and so she says it a lot when he's around. "Daddy, seriously?" Kalia had the hiccups the other night and I said "you have the hiccups" and she said, "no, I have a cough" and then she said, "no, I have a bless you."

Monday night Uncle Greg and Alana came over for dinner and Kalia was in her super silly mood. She was running around and showing off.

Tuesday was Erik's Leilani's Christmas party and we asked Joelma and Bianca to watch Kalia. I was a little nervous because for some reason the past few weeks, Kalia wasn't really into her friend Bianca. We spent Sunday and Monday playing with Bianca and on Tuesday after her nap, she was practically ready to walk there by herself. I packed her Hello Kitty lunch box with snacks and she had her Word World DVD and she went outside and said, "mommy, are you coming too?" I guess she thought she was just going to walk over by herself. Then when I left she gave me a kiss and said, "bye, bye mommy." Pre-school is going to be hard on me. Erik and I had a lot of fun at his party, it was casino night and we brushed up on our black jack and tried craps with our fake money. I even splurged and had a coke. Erik was more than happy to use my drink coupons.

Wednesday we had our ultrasound and I'm measuring perfectly, 50th percentile. Baby looks about 5 lbs and 6 oz. with 5 weeks to grow. Very difficult laying on your back for the ultrasound now and it took much longer since it's hard to get the measurements when she's all curled up in there. She was sucking and had both hands under one of her cheeks.

Thursday Kalia and I went with some of the Mom's Group to the Kapalua Arboretum Hike. It was a lot of fun, although we were both exhausted afterwards. Kalia walked most of the hike, I did have to carry her towards the end. My babies are getting heavy! That night there was a Keiki Christmas party which was a lot of fun, despite the fact that Kalia and I were both pretty over tired and feeling a little (a lot) cranky. Thank you Daddy for keeping the peace.

Friday was our Mom's Group met at baby beach and there was a great turnout. Then in the evening we had our Mom's Night Out Christmas exchange. Erik had to work late and got home just before stories, Kalia was so excited to see him!!! She asked me where he was when she woke up that morning and then said, "But I want to give him a hug." We called him on the phone and she told him that. Then when she was making cupcakes in her kitchen, she said, "I wish I could give daddy his cupcake." I was going to be late to our Mom's gathering and Erik just told Kalia he was putting her down and that I had to meet the mommies and she was fine with it... my baby is growing up! Mom's right, I totally underestimate her...but she needs me...haha.

Kalia has so many books memorized, she almost has "The Little Engine that Could" memorized and that's a long story. I do have to help prompt her with a word or two. She could read books all day, but playing outside and running around she could pass on. We did take her babies on a long walk today in their stroller.

christmas photos & banyan tree lighting

kalia was so excited to look at the photo, she got up before the timer took the photo
one of many christmas photo trials

kalia at leilani's bar...waiting for a seat to eat

with snowman at the banyan tree lighting

We decided to take some photos with our timer on the camera since we didn't have a single photo of the 3 of us. Kalia was really having a good time taking the photos, but by the end, she was so excited that she would jump up before the camera took the photo.

We've been doing some Christmas crafts and yesterday Kalia helped me make some cookies. Yesterday was such a rainy day, it was really coming down. Kalia's friend came over to play for a little while and then we met some kids/mommies at the Cannery for lunch. The parking lot was packed and the Cannery Mall was so busy! It was probably the only place to hang out on such a wet day. Kalia had fun running around with the girls.

Kalia has been on such a late schedule since Thanksgiving and I can't seem to change it. Today I thought we would skip the nap to get back on schedule, but it didn't happen. We went to a going away party at Leilani's during Kalia's nap time and she was having so much fun, dancing and running around. Then we were going to go straight to a baby shower/party and she could not stay awake. We've had a busy couple of days, but it looks like she is still rolling around her bed and now it's almost 10PM. She has been sleeping in , which I don't mind, but I feel bad when I know she is awake trying to go to sleep for 1-2 hours some nights.

At this week's appointment, I guess I was measuring a little small, so we will have another ultrasound on wednesday. At least we get to see the baby again. My doctor isn't worried, but I've definitely been trying to eat more...

decorating the tree

Kalia loves the Christmas tree. We put the lights up on Friday morning and then on Saturday we put up the ornaments. Erik wanted to make it a progressive tree decoration. Kalia is really good at finding the fallen ornaments and putting them back on the tree. She even told me this morning when she pulled the baby musubi off of one of the ornaments.

We have been reading her Christmas books and her favorite is the reindeer finger puppet book Lo gave her. She likes me to make the reindeer eat out of her hand and they were dancing (head bobbing) to music together for about 10 minutes yesterday.

Oh, I forgot to write this yesterday. The night we went into Leilani's to eat, when we were leaving to go home I said, "Kalia, you got to see Santa and a snowman today!" and she said, "and Daddy!" Erik really liked that.

christmas tree & tree lighting at ritz

Erik & Kalia watching Santa at the tree lighting at the Ritz
Looking at the stars at the Ritz tree lighting.

Getting the tree on the car.

Kalia in the middle of the trees.

Picking out a tree.

Last wednesday we went to pick out our Christmas tree. I was finally feeling better and more in the mood. So on went the Christmas music and we just went to Star Market to get a tree. Kalia was having a lot of fun looking at the trees. She is also having a lot of fun listening to the Christmas music, she still loves "All I want for Christmas is you.." by Mariah Carey from her Christmas DVD last year. She asks to listen to it over and over again and is starting to sing all of the words.

We have been decorating the tree in stages. Wednesday we just put the tree up, Kalia is my water monitor and told me the next day when the "tree drank up all the water". Wednesday night we went to the tree lighting at the Ritz. Kalia's favorite part besides wrestling Erik on our blanket, was watching the keiki hula dancers. Santa and his elves arrived via parachute out of a helicopter, it was pretty extreme. So far Kalia loves to look at Santa, but I don't think we'll be getting a Santa photo this year. Today she wrote him a letter (drew him a picture?) and wrapped up her fork in her napkin as a present to Santa.

Today I told Kalia that the night before Christmas, we will leave milk and cookies out for Santa to eat and she looked at me and thought for a moment and said, "that is a good idea mommy." How do I come up with these ideas?

On Saturday there was the Lahaina Banyan Tree tree lighting. They had snow to play in, a snowman and crafts. Kalia's favorite part was putting beads on pipe cleaners to make this really cute Christmas tree. We skipped the actual lighting and went to Leilani's for dinner with daddy. It was so slow that we sat at the bar and had dinner while Erik worked, but he was with us the whole time. She's getting really good at sitting at the bar stool, kinda scary. I was thinking that there might not be too many more times like that just having our Kalia and mommy night hanging out. Santa was next to Leilani's and we did go and look at him. They also had music and hula dancers in the shops and we stayed and watched them for a while because Kalia said she didn't want to go home, she wanted to "hang out".

Many more photos to come, but it's late.

more photos

i don't know if this was before or after she was rolling in the sand
i'm in a tree

31 week belly shot

More beach photos. The last day Tutu and Grandpa were here, I was feeling really sick and ended up hugging the toilet for 24 hours, so unfortunately we didn't see too much of Lo and the kids. But I ate a cookie today, must be feeling better. Too many cookies left from mom and dad's snack box. I really do feel like a whole new person today.

Tutu will be back in about 6 1/2 weeks, baby will be here in about 7 weeks...what???? Did I just write that? Anyway, Tutu will be staying until about mid-february. There is a time period between then and when Aunty Kim arrives in March, if anyone would like to come and help me :) Just thought I'd throw it out there. No, it'll be fine, right? Just like one of Kalia's favorite books "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."

turkey day continued

kalia and tutu (next to tutu's obsession)
aunty lo and tutu

hugh


grandpa & tutu

kalia & lucy (her new bff)

Friday we spent the day at Kapalua Bay playing and then later went to Lo & Vere's to swim. Then back to our place for turkey soup. Saturday, we all headed down south so Erik could take everyone surfing. The above photos are from that day. I started to build this sand castle/ball roll down thing. I actually got the idea from Sesame Street, when Elmo was thinking about the beach, they had a shot of a ball rolling down this circular sand castle. Well, I started it and then I got mom started and that's all I had to do. It became tutu's obsession and she did a great job. If I had a copy of the video of it, I would post it because it truly was a work of art! It was fun to watch her obsess over it, in total tutu style. If anyone were to wonder where Lo or I get it from, they would just have to watch our mom on the beach that morning.

sorry, it's been a while

Tabitha and Hugh
Lucy and Kalia everyone playing outside on Thanksgiving


Kalia and her cousins

with Grandpa at the park in the boots she insisted on wearing

Sorry about the late update, we had a lot of visitors and I just had a 36 hour stomach flu. We started out the visit with a couple of mellow days with Tutu and Grandpa, they were recovering from their all nighters preparing for the trip and Hilo show. We did walk to the park and back one morning (who's idea was that anyway) I for one was exhausted. That last hill is a killer! Aunty Lo, Uncle Vere, Tabitha, Lucy and Hugh all arrived on Wednesday night and for the next few days we were pretty busy. Thanksgiving day we all played outside - horseshoes, frisbee, catch, etc. It was a lot of fun. I was very surprised at how well mom (tutu) can hit the ball with the bat...impressive. I also have to give credit to Lo who got two ringers in horseshoes to win the game. Tutu and Grandpa slaved in the kitchen most of the day, while we played outside. Thank you again mom and dad, you are the best! Kalia loves her turkey soup, she had 3 cups today, but she sure can eat around the peas and carrots!

Kalia had a lot of fun with her cousins and was very sad every day when we had to say good bye. Friday we met everyone at Kapalua bay for sand playing and snorkeling... more pics to follow.

In other big news, twice this week Kalia has been in the bath and told us "mommy, I have to go shi- shi" (she does this quite often) but this time when we put her on the potty she went in the potty! This is big news for us, because we have had quite a bit of potty time, but nothing has ever, ever come out...and this is quite a bit of potty time. However, this morning, we still wanted to wear our diaper and not do potty time. Oh well, baby steps.