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.