mama's day '12

Today I post in honor of both my mom, mama-in-law & grandma. How blessed I am to have not one but two amazing moms and Grandma to look up to & by whom I am continually encouraged. Reading Ann Voskamp's blog (aholyexperience.com) she has promised that by thanking mom(s) publicly she will, in turn, help support a mothering educational project in Haiti - just through this simple act of gratitude. She calls it "the 1000 moms project" ~ she will match my (your) honoring of mothers by funding a maternity/child survival program in haiti for a whole year! You can read about it here: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/05/the-one-thousand-moms-project-make-a-mothers-day-difference/ So onto these three amazing women. I would have to say some of the greatest things I've seen in my own mom is the servant's heart she has, and her ability to spread love & joy on anyone who crosses her path. Sometimes I wonder if her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. I've never known someone to smile as much as she does! I love the lines etched in her face from years of smiling and joy. I am so grateful for her constant encouragement from early days through my own journey as a mama and I know much of what she learned, she learned from my Grandma - a woman who epitomizes one who is gentle & humble at heart, a quiet & kind spirit. I am so thankful for these generations of women... Regarding mama-Susie, she has most definitely remained committed to me since the moment I married her son! I remember when Tagen was just a few weeks old feeling like I didn't want to blow it in any way as a mama and the overwhelming task of raising this lil' human being. As Ann points out in her blog: as humans, we DO mess up and that simply exposes our need for Jesus! So it’s not so much that we aren’t going to blow it. It is what we do with it, when we do. Both my mom & mama-Susie have gently reminded me of this in many different ways over the years. Ann continues this thought by saying "perhaps there is something more powerful to experience than a perfect Mother: the wonder of a committed Mother who simply humbles herself. Like that Shepherd who knew the cost of relationship, chose to pay the price, and, staggeringly, “humbled Himself… even to the point of death on a cross” (Phil 2:8) No one gets it perfect. And that’s exactly why we sing Amazing Grace — and it really is! Motherhood does not require complete perfection and a Superman cape. It simply requires an imperfect commitment and the surprising humility of Christ. The Shepherd gently leads those with young not to be Hallmark versions of perfection — but rather persevering versions of humility. Grace stands in the gaps." I couldn't agree more. And I couldn't be more thankful for two mamas & grandma who embody such grace and humility and for all they have sacrificed for me. I know there are plenty treasures awaiting you three in heaven. I love you!!!

Tagen turning 7?!

Dear Tagen,

In just 5 days, you are going to turn seven. It's the oldest question in the world, but WHA?! When did I blink & suddenly you're a man? Please. Slow down a bit for your poor mother. Perhaps I should put a brick on your head.

But. There are most definitely many benefits of you getting older! One is that I'm always safe. Because you are super strong. You frequently remind me of this fact by showing me your bulging muscles and ninja moves. Aveda is the luckiest to have you as an older brother.

Another amazing part of you getting older is that we get to know more and more of the workings of Tagee's mind. You are getting more & more creative in your humor and you keep us laughing constantly. We can see that you love to make people laugh. It's definitely a gift God gave you early on. Whenever Aveda is sad or hurt you think of the craziest things, even if it means inflicting pain on yourself, to make her giggle. Just this morning you thought out loud "what if i could have a wind gun and blow things from here to there. We'd see chickens flying so far! or what if i could make a tickle gun and shoot tickles out of it - everyone would be laughing…"

You tell me that when you grow up you are going to be a police man. You are very concerned with justice, for yourself & for other people. I have never met a lil guy so empathetic. I can see this in the way you take note of how others feel and how, of your own initiative, you try to help. I greatly admire you in this. I can also see this in the way you like it best when everyone sticks to the rules and you panic a lil' when somebody doesn't. In this, I gotta say, lighten up my love. You are a tad dramatic (understatement). You get very upset when you feel that YOU are being unfairly treated. But you are also selfless. If Aveda feels SHE is being treated unfairly, you often share what you have to make her feel better.

Bonus again of getting older - your mind is coming up with more and more complex ways of putting together your legos. You are like a lego-king; something of a phenomenon. You love your legos and at your request are having a Lego birthday party with some of your buddies from school this year. Being a huge fan of legos myself, I am ecstatic about this idea. Perhaps you'll end up being an engineer or an architect or something. Your skills really are insane in this area.

My dear son, I know there is something very special about you. People feel it They're drawn to you. I feel it too, & it makes me a little protective of you. But then I remember how God gave us you as a gift. One to train to love Him above all the world has to offer and eventually to shoot you off like an arrow into this world we live in. I love you with a wild, ridiculous love, son. Happy 7th Birthday!

love, mama

preschool:

kindergarden:

1st grade!!

October already?!

Why does time fly so quickly and then stand still at other moments? I've been asking Tagen & Aveda if they could just stop growing already and stay little forever. Tagen responded with an emphatic "no... I will be big like Goliath." "Just so long as we can still cuddle and be silly," I replied, and he agreed to that. I realized it was February when I last posted and how much has happened since then... Tagen is 5 'and tree quarters' and Aveda Violet turned 4 in July! We got to celebrate her special day in Oregon visiting Gramma & Poppy and Gigi. Just today she asked if we could go back and visit and go fishing again as she remembered those wiggly fish and how funny they were when they would flip and flop their tails and splash water on her. Tagen 'graduated' preschool in May and had a special lil' ceremony and now he is a kindergardener! He is loving his school and Mrs. Taba, his teacher except for having to wake up in the mornings. He's not exactly a morning kinda kid. He's playing soccer again this year and has 3 other lil' boys on his team. (There's only 3 on the field at one time) He loves it this year! Lil' miss Aveda has begun pre-school at Kalaheo Missionary - just around the corner from Tagen's school. Words cannot even describe how much she loves her school. Whenever it is not a school day she longs for it and constantly talks about it, asks about it, recalls stories of it etc... Pretty cute. I didn't realize until her being there that most of her friends are Tagen's friends or siblings thereof so it is pretty special to her to have made some friends all by herself! I miss both Tagen and Aveda like crazy when they go off to school but I have seen so many good things already in their little lives as a result of going and it makes our times together that much sweeter & more meaningful.
I came across an article recently entitled, "Why don't friends with kids have time?"... a woman (who doesn't have kids) wondering what her friend who has kids does all day and why she didn't have time to call... I liked it so i am reposting the answer to her:
"I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard.... When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out bed, fed, cleaned, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kids, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; ... it's needing 45 minutes to do what takes other 15.
It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to second tier.
It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.
It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiousity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.
It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling someone back..."
This article struck a chord with me because I could relate on many levels. How many times I have been asked "what do you do all day?" and really, how am I supposed to respond to that? This did sum it up so well. Although it does err on the side of doing it all with a cynical attitude even though at the end it does say "this is a joy". I really do consider it a joy. I LIKE being a mom. I LIKE being with my kids and all that it entails. I am honored and blessed to have this role and even though I the season has changed from baby/toddler-hood and all those demands (which actually leaves me a bit melancholy) I love this season that we are in and all the new questions and things we get to do all day. Even though they are 4 and 5, and in school too, I am still mama and going from morning til night.

pictures:


family photo from our trip to Oregon, unfortunately Kyle couldn't make the trip. I thought of photoshopping him into this one but realized how cheezy that would look.


Uncle Garrett and Tagen built this pirate lego ship!


Tagen's first day of Kingergarten!


Aveda V's first day of Pre-school!


Tagen has become good friends with the boy in the front (Jesse) and is on the same soccer team too! He's a big teddy bear.


and just because I love this photo

gratitude

“Gratitude is truly my life preserver. Even in the most turbulent waters, choosing gratitude rescues me from myself and my runaway emotions. It buoys me on the grace of God and keeps me from drowning in what otherwise would be my natural bent toward doubt, negativity, discouragement, and anxiety. Over time, choosing gratitude means choosing joy…” – Nancy Leigh Demoss

Holy Heat Wave...

So it's "fall break" here on Kauai.... Tagen Train started pre-school in August and the schools run year-round here so there's a bunch of random 'breaks' through-out the whole year. He's LOVE-ing school so far and we're super impressed with the place and the teachers. Aveda and I have been able to join him on all the field trips and drop in whenever to hang out. The only thing I would change is somehow figuring a way to terminate all misquitos. Nightmare! Poor guy comes home with welts almost daily. grrrr. Aside from this, all is good.

Since ... Sunday there's been the craziest heat-wave here. (yeah so today is only Wednesday but we feel like we've been living in this for a month alreadY!) Kona winds (meaning NO WIND), muggy, HOT. Can't complain though because we have the privilege of pretty much living at the beach. This evening it was literally too hot to even be in our house so we packed up the kiekis and headed off to PK's - a beach where Kyle likes to surf. The beach itself is sorta sandy, sorta rocky. The kids and I don't typically hang out at this one because of how the waves crash on the shore and the reef under the water. But today - I didn't even care where we went as long as it involved us out of the house and in some form of cool water. Tagen has been, since about July, on an unusually brave streak which is pretty fun (oK, sometimes heart palpatating - is that a word? - for mama to watch)... Dada's been taking him out to the big waves to surf and duck-dive those big waves. And this evening I buckled on his life-vest and he didn't even wait for me but just charged right into the shore-break and out into the ocean. Aveda, on the other hand, has been having an unusually timid streak lately. So she sat, fully content, on the sand and watch and I went out to swim with Tagen. (For anyone reading this thinking I am a crazy mama who leaves her 3 year-old on the beach to fend for herself, it's just not case! This is a SUPER mellow place where she's not gonna get stolen and my eyes are stuck on her like glue. Besides, I'm really only like 20 or 30 feet from her....) I then decided I was was gonna break this girl of her timid fear of the waves. (Who knows why... maybe it was the heat) So I swam back to shore, popped the neon orange floaties on her arms and carried her (screaming) to the water. She screamed "I WANNA GO BACK DERRR (pointing to the shore) as we swam all the way out to where Tagen. This continued for about 3 minutes and then... she realized... it was JUST. LIKE. THE. POOL! (that she is in love with right now) and she stopped crying and had the HUGEST grin on her face and I couldn't even get the girl OUT of the ocean for a good hour! success. So we had such a blast swimming and playing out in the water. And it was the first time Tagen's really been swimming far out and at a place where there is TONS of reef fishies so I put his goggles on him and how i WISH i had video of him because I don't think words could possibly do justice to how excited he was over all the fish he was seeing right beneath him. He'd hold his breath and stick his head down under water and then pop up so excited and talking so fast I really couldn't understand what he was saying about those fish and then he'd throw is head back down before he even finished talking. And on and on it went like this for quite some time. So now, as you might imagine, they are sleeping soundly in the next room over with the ceiling fan on high because it's STILL so hot. And a side note - I don't know how this got started but every night before I leave the room I tell the kids "I'll see ya when the sun comes up" and Tagen replies "I'll see you when da sun come up!" and for some odd reason Aveda always replies "I'll see ya wen da moon come up mama!" It's been a good, hot, day.


ps - Dada's been teaching Tagen how to ride bike... hopefully this video works oK

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a mama who took her two young kids to the doctor because kid B got kid A sick. They went to this same doctor for Kid B a week ago but now it was Kid A's turn because his fever and cough were just getting worse & worse. So there they were in the doctor's office waiting... and waiting... and waiting. They waited so long you see because Friday is not a good day to go to the doctor as a walk-in patient... everyone's trying to get in before the weekend and then there's all those people who already had appointments and so on. So they waited.
Finally doctor called em in and thought Kid A's lungs sounded pretty yucky in there... a lot like asthma in fact. He went on to show mama with his handy-dandy flashlight thingy that Kid A had broken a whole bunch of capillaries on the soft pallet of the roof of his mouth from coughing so hard! ouch. So doctor thought it best to send mama and Kid A and Kid B over to get Kid A an x.ray.... There they went and there they played the waiting game... again.
As they waited Kid B thought it was a good idea to lick the hospital chair which made mama gag and nurse lady run over promptly with paper and crayons to keep Kidlings a little busier than licking hospital chairs. Kid A was soon called in... x-ray done and back they went to doctor. As he and mama looked at the x-ray it was concluded that at the least Kid A had bronchitis and that he could possibly have asthma too which is not unlikely seeing that whenever Kid A gets sick it immediately turns respiratory.
So off they went to get a nebulizer and antibiotics and finally mama, Kid A and B made it home. Breathing treatment done. Medicine taken but there's a new twist to this lil' fairytale... Kid A tells mama he just swallowed a marble! Naturally she responds with "Why didn't you do that BEFORE we had the x-ray?!" okay maybe not but she's been diggin' through his poops ever since looking for some sign of it coming out the other end. What a day. What a day.




And to dada of Kid A and B - what a good dada you are. We love you to the moon and back!

scroll down...

so i realized there was an old post i wrote but never posted... scroll down a lil' and you can see it... besides that i'll just post some pictures. enjoy!

bye-bye binkie...

incredible. it's official. we have two kids who do not need binkies. i never thought this day would come. no that's not true. i knew it would come, i just can't believe it is here. It has been over a week and lil' miss A. has taken both naps (or at least stayed in the room) and gone nigh-nigh withOUT her beloved binkie!!! For how incredible this is she really didn't put up much of a fight about it either which in an of itself amazes me knowing her strong lil' personality. I guess she was more ready than I was. I mean it really feels like the last bit of her babyhood I'm having to say goodbye to and so yes, it's true, I was more attached to that binkie than SHE was! HA, go figure.

So i had this brilliant idea of "helping" her "let go" of the binkie by asking her one night if she wanted to plant a 'binkie tree' the next morning. I told her how it would grow and grow and then lil' birdie mamas could come get binkies for their baby birdies and so on - making it sound real magical and stuff. Her reply: "no mama, i don't tink dat a veewy good ideer. i tink we sood pwant a pineappaw (pineapple) twee instead." well oookay lil' practical one. Way to burst my magical bubble (0: I'm proud of her - how easily she made this and the potty training transitions... and i am sooo thankful for her. Just can't believe how quickly she is growing up.

Dear Tagen Train....

SO i just realized there've been a few posts that I had written yet never posted. Better late than never i suppose... This one's for Tagen's 4th birthday: January 30, 2009

Today you turned 4. FOUR... i think i'll have to keep saying it until i really get it through my head that my first-born, my little guy as already FOUR! crazy. you are so proud and i can just tell you feel so OLD when you've been able to say today that you are 4! that is too cute for words. You have a very specific look for moments like these and i can't help but smile. You raise your eye-brows, close your eyes about half way, move your eyes to the side, stick your chin out some and tilt your head a lil' bit... and then you usually put your hands on your hips while you raise your eyebrows up and down nodding your head very slowly. I hope you'll do this forever and i have a feeling you will because i've been looking through old photos and videos of you since babyhood days (because our computer had 7000+ photos on them and i was in dire need of getting them off before losing them forever!) and i see some of the same faces you make now that you made even when you were tiny... the happy, the sad, the worried, the mad, ecstatic, the bored, the frustrated, the content... you are a boy of so many expressions. This is something I do so love about you because i always know what you are thinking.

So we've lived in kauai this past year of your life and you've accomplished a lot this year... your balance is getting better all the time and you're really good at standing on your 'surfboard' down at the beach, you climb your 'monkey-bar tree' (the avocado tree) all the time with Aveda, you've learned how to hop on one foot, spin in a 360 on your heel (and you've learned it's even better when you wear socks), you make insane rocket ships out your leggos, you've taken your drawings to a new level, in the past couple weeks you decided you don't need naps anymore (at this point mom panics; your guys' naps have meant more to me than you will ever know... until you become a dad), you are almost as tall as a buffalo (well that's what the picture on your growth chart is next), perhaps the biggest milestone of this year (which occured only about 3 or 4 weeks ago is that you go DO-DO in the POTTY!!!!! yes it took you nearly a year and you sure weren't givin' in for any convincing or disciplinin' we'd give you but you apparently decided it was the right thing to do and so you DID iT one day and have done it ever since. THANK YOU! thank you. did i say, thank you?

You are definitely a cautious boy - an observer - i love to watch you watching others as this is the one time i can only imagine what you must be thinking; once you see what fun someone is having you don't want to stop once you join in on the action (i actually really really appreciate this about you, i think we may have avoided a lot of painful injuries so far because of this part of your personality)... you are the silliest kid i've ever met, LOVING to make people laugh and learning much more about what a 'joke' is... you are also the sweetest kid i've ever met (ok maybe i'm a bit biased) but seriously, you have a sort of empathy in you that makes you think about others in a way i haven't seen in other kids your age. I love this about you. You are thoughtful and contemplative and are learning to be a gentlema. I have taught you that we serve girls first and I laugh out loud at how quick you are to correct me if I accidently serve YOU before Aveda. We love you bug and are so happy to share this life with you in our family!

cultivating joy

I read this recently on another blog and felt so much in agreement with it that I had to post it up

I think that when you do challenging things, you make a trade. You trade one thing for another, and you may trade something like convenience or the zoo for color and the rustle of coconut trees.... But the circumstances that you have found yourself in cannot define who you are.

Everyone has to decide what they will spend their life looking for. I learned a few years back that happiness is a shifty creature. Happiness is not easily found, or when found, is as elusive as a jellyfish. You can’t hold onto it. My emotions are all over the place, folks. Blame it on artistic temperament, genes, or maybe I’m just sulky, but I know that I cannot count on feeling a certain way for any length of time. Happiness. It’s something that happens to you and then whoops! There it goes.

No, I can’t follow after that. My life must take a more intentional path.

My tagline is Cultivating Joy. We all have many things that we can cultivate, things that don’t happen to us, but that we go out and water everyday, things that wrap their little shoots around their neighbors and need to be staked and cared for and checked for bugs. Like joy. Like love, thankfulness, kindness, honesty, choosing not to be offended, choosing to see the best in others, refraining from ill wishes or gossip.

What I mean is that I wouldn’t use the word happy to define my life. Neither would I say that I am more productive when I am happy. I know that I am the most productive when I embrace and fully receive the truth of the unfailing love of God who made me. (Because when I do, I am not telling myself the evil mantra: you’re no good, it’s your fault, you will fail, and I can shut those voices out and just have fun making stuff and loving people.) I know that the words that define my life are loved, blessed, supported, sure, steady, secure, at peace, content, broken, thankful, hopeful and waiting. There are probably many more.

The only thing I wouldn't trade for the world and anything it had to offer is my beautiful family...

Aveda prayer tonight...

see if you can translate... I tried as best I could through the binkie she was holding between her teeth...
um, Jeeezuuus, tank You fo taygin (Tagen) an' fo me babies an' dolliees an' my feeeeet an' my tooowzzz (as she's grabbing her toes) an' um Jeeeezuuus, tank You fo Jonah (typing does not do justice to how cute she says her lil' friend Jonah's name) an' Wyan (Ryan) an' Tofa (Topher) an' um tank You fo' mama an' fo mama an' fo me tooowzzz an' me babies an' binkie an bwankie an' taygin an' ... (sometimes she'll pause and I really think she's done but really she's just thinking earnestly about what else to pray about - pretty dang cute) an' my books, i wuv my books. And Jeeezuuus, tanks fo' dada an' mustawd (Mustard) my bed an'
Tagen interrupts and says "and aAAAAmen!"
Aveda retorts back: "NO! my still pwayin'! You go get in yo bed taygin. my still pwayin'!"
thankfully Tagen doesn't take this too personally and continues listening to her.
... and Jeeezzuuus tank You fo my toes.

Tagen comments...

Deep in thought while sitting in his carseat contemplating is hands... mom asks, "whatchya thinking about Tagen?" and he replies, "oh, I'd just really like to have some more fingers... one here, and one here" (pointing to other parts on his hand).

Having a rough time going to bed tonight and mom asks from a different room, "what do you need Tagen?" no reply... "what do you need Tagen?" finally he replies, "a time-out?"

wanting a bite of daddy's burger, "can I have a bite of your Burger King daddy?" i swear this child eats at Burger King only once every number of months. Obviously it has made a BIG impression.

when lying in his bed at night and he wants to come out of his room but knows that we always tell him aveda will follow... he turns to her in her little bed next to his and says, "Beyda, no come out. say otay, otay?! say otay!" aveda... "otay" really funny and cute to overhear their conversations...

Dear You...

I came across this prayer recently on a blog of another mom I read when I can. It just resounded with my heart in more ways than one. Don't we all come to this place at some or many points?... it is a good thing that God is not content leaving us where we're at and a painful thing at times. Like just when we get comfortable it seems like He does something to up and draw us nearer to Himself - sometimes thru joy... at other times pain... anyways, I love the way she writes...

Dear You,

The Youest of Yous. The Dancing One, the Singing in my blood, the One who moves and breathes and loves me always.

So here we are again, we’ve been here before. I have a theory that You bring me here on purpose. Is it true?

Because this circle comes around again and again, and now I am at the start, where I’m kicking like a baby, resisting change with all of my might.

We box. You block all of my punches and never hit back.

I run to You, then pull away because I am more than a little upset. Why are You always bringing me to my limits? It doesn’t feel fair.

Every day lately I wake up with what feels like a fat furry cat sitting on my chest. It’s heavy and I can’t breathe and there’s that stupid cat dander that makes my eyes itch. I struggle to get out of bed because this cat feels like fear. Where is the fear from? Why is it heavy on me? Whose cat is this, anyways?

I remember the pattern from the past. You remind me, most excellent of friends, when I take the time to listen. You say, “We’ll get through this.” You say, “We’ll be a little closer, my love.” You say, “You’ll drop a few more of those ideas of yours, the ones about your self-sufficiency, your big plans for yourself, your need to be perfect, to keep it all together, to fix everything by your own small self.” You say, “Lean into it, don’t push away.” You say, “There are greener things than you can imagine, sweeter smelling days than you’ve ever known. Just wait. Just wait.”

But I feel alone and the fear is ever-present and I’m not sure why I have to do this again. Remind me?

I know there is a changing. There is the kicking and the pushing and then slowly my resistance fades, I go limp, I fall in, and then I learn contentment again. It has been this way so many times before. All the places I have been, the homes I have lived in, all the deserts, all the valleys. Even on the peaks. It is the newness I resist, the loss of what has been. It is the small etchings I have carved into the wood in places all around me, reminding me of who I am, of what my name is. Leaving these things brings a tearing that I don’t think I could have imagined.

Now I have only You to remind me. You and the faces of my family. It is enough.

And after the tearing comes a divine healing and Your hands surround me and I have obeyed and You have promised. And there are new things, there are sweet things and the ocean will fold over me and not throw me, it will rock me like a child. It is better than before, it is larger and more spacious than clinging to the old ways. You lead me into ever opening rooms.

It is good that we will have a long time together, my Friend. One day I will look back on all of this and say, “You told me so.” So just, please, help me now, when I am still blind and foolish and inwardly about two years old.

All my love. You know You have my heart.

lil' miss Aveda Violet turned TWO today...

lil' miss,
you woke up today no longer a little one year old. how is it possible that just a year ago you were still such a little baby and now it seems you're on the verge of pre-teen?... ok maybe not quite that far yet but I just cannot believe you have lived two years already! i remember so clearly sitting in the hospital just after you were born. It was such a hot hot day in santa barbara and we were so stoked to be in the air conditioned room of Goleta Valley. You were born with a full head of thick black hair and big brown eyes. In an instant you made your older brother go from our little baby boy to looking huge and old. How tiny you were next to him... I'm not sure how he felt about you entering our family and taking the place of the "baby" of the fam but I know that he adores you now. Although there's some fighting (which i think you instigate most of the time) he always wants you around. I've even asked him if wants to go places just him and daddy or just him and mommy and he always replies, "well, beyda's gotta come too awright?!"
We love you lil' miss...
As you are now a two-year-old we've really seen your personality unfold over this past year. You are somethin' of a phenomena...
so fiesty yet so loving... tough and yet such a girlie girl... still need help with things but so sure of yourself and want to do things your way, say things your way and correct others when they're not 'your way' ... you're so into your books and will go off and read em for an hour babbling to yourself ... you've gotten into this strange habit of lining things up in some funky order (like all the stuff from your dollhouse, or your stuffed animals or really whatever else you come across) ... you're an independent little one but
I love that you are still my lil' cuddle bug. I love your hugs and the way you grab the sides of my cheeks with your chubby little hands and kiss me smack on the lips so hard that it probably shouldn't even be called a kiss. But you do it with such sincerity that all I can do is laugh. I love how you wrap your short little arms around my neck to hug me so tight I can let go and you hang on me like a baby monkey. Whenever I lie down on the couch or the ground you run over to cuddle. I hope you'll always do this my little lovebug. We love you so much and just thank Jesus for the spunk and charisma you bring to our family!

good times in the maligro yard...

the Are you kidding me Day

thought you might appreciate the insanity of our day on um, Thursday i think it was. well Aveda has had this eye goop goin' for like well over a month so i finally took her to the eye doc. thursday and he took a sample of the guck -mmm and thought maybe it's staph or some bacterial infection. anyways, he prescribed this ointment where i'm supposed to pull down her lower eye lid and squirt a 1/2 inch strip (it's the consistency of vaseline) into each eye 3 TIMES A DAY! thinking to myself: she's 22 months old - are you kidding me?! he suggests doing it while she's sleeping so she wouldn't fight me. is this worth waking a sleeping baby over? no. i'm ready to do battle with this child.
anyways, it took an hour and 1/2 too long in there but finally we got out and had to go to Wal-Mart to get the prescription filled. I called kyle to give him a heads up because he had Tagen at home. When i dropped the prescription off they told me it would take an HOUR! oh Lord - it was like 5pm by now so i knew Aveda was getting hungry. Not fun when you're stuck in a store for a long long time and couldn't do anything to hurry it up. Then i got a phone call from my hubby and this is how it went (side note: I'd been giving Tagen these homeopathic tablets by Hylands called "Sniffles n Sneezes 4 kids" cause he's had a little runny nose and it's supposed to kick it early. the serving size for him is 2 tablets)
kyle: "um, how many tablets were left in that bottle?"
me: "mmm, it was at least 1/2 full, maybe 40 or 50?"
kyle: "okay, well, um he ate them all."
me: "WHAT?! are you kidding me?! thinking to myself ' where the hell were YOU while he downed this bottle of pills?!' managed to refrain that one and told him to hang up and call Poison Control right away.
kyle: "are you serious?"
me: thinking "are you kidding? - there's that phrase... again... the kid just ate more than 20 times the amount he should have" i had to just hang up.
So he calls me back a few minutes later and the guy at poison control said he should be alright. He'll probably have a tummy ache but he's not gonna die. I'm still doubting that fact and praying the dumbest most repetitive prayers. Finally a painful hour at wal-mart goes by and we go back to pick up the prescription. The lady at pick-up tells me "oh, looks like there's a problem. Go see that lady over there."
oh you gotta be kidding me... again...
"That Lady Over There" says to me: "oh sorry, we couldn't read the prescription and the doctor has left his office so you'll have to wait til tomorrow morning to get it filled." (mind you we live a good 20 min. from this Wal-mart.)
I take the prescription out of her hand, look at it and can read and tell her exactly what it says.
She looks at it again... pause... hmm, well yeah that's maybe what it could say but I can't take your word for it, only the doctor's.
She goes to file it for the next morning but i get that thing back to get it filled somewhere else. Don't ya love days like this?!

Mama's day...

Dang i've got a wonderful family! Getting to sleep in with Kid A and greeted by hubby who carried coffee and a scone from the shop down the road - a good good way to start the day. We got to spend much of the day at Mahalapu - a beach off the beaten path somewhat... we danced in the rain, drew in the sand, surfed on the waves and wiped poop with my bare hands off little miss' bottom. mm, that last one wasn't so fun and let me tell you, scrubbing with sand and washing in saltwater does NOT take the stink off. Aside from that we had a blast at the beach and the kids took super good naps after we got home. That to me was the bestest gift they could've thought of to give me! Good time with family is priceless.

been a while...

so it's been a while since the last post... thought some pictures would be better than lots of words. Since Tagen's birthday we've been on a trip to the Big Island to see Kyle's dad - the kids call him Papa and his wife Momo... we've been on an easter egg hunt... we've been to the beach plenty times... watching the little monkeys grow and develop in amazing ways. These kids are tight - they love each other so much & it's a blessing to witness...