day 3 of mission bye-bye binkie

So three days ago we went for a walk down the road to feed the goats. Typical day... beautiful blue sky... nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, while we were feeding the goats I believe Tagen, at some point, must have chucked his beloved binkie and munch munch (goats eat anything) bye-bye binkie. He didn't seem phased by this... or maybe he didn't see it happen. On the walk home he asked for his binkie and I searched and searched and alas, no binkie to be found. We even walked back to the goats and it was gone. At first, not too big a deal but come nap time... very big deal. We decided this would be the day Tagen would have to give up his binkie for good. A big transition for a little guy. A piece of growing up - even sad for mama realizing her first baby is no longer a baby. Anyways, long story shorter... Tagen gave his binkie to the goats because baby goat needed a new binkie (or so we've told him) and in return the goats gave Tagen a new Buz Lightyear toy. So just remember, when you give up this:



you get this:


(why the picture turned out sideways is beyond me... you get the idea though)

Not a bad trade huh?
Tagen would probably beg to differ but he's getting through it.

Aveda Violet is walking!

so you can see it with your own eyes - she's walking! for whatever reason she loved walking around with this Superman ball today. Maybe it gave her added superhero power to walk. She's a little unstable still and crawls a LOT faster than she walks but knowing how this girl works so far it seems that once she figures something out she masters it pretty quickly just like her daddy. So she's about 10 and 1/2 months old now, loves to wrestle with her brother. For some reason they LOVE to do this on mommy and daddy's bed. Throw them up there and they both get wild and can't stop laughing. Lately Tagen's been playing "pretend" a lot more which is so awesome and see his imagination grow and grow. He wants to be a firefighter and a superhero... maybe a superhero firefighter when he grows up. And he told me today that mommy will drive his fire truck. hmmm.

It's obvious this kid has parents who drink coffee every... single... morning.... as he's playing pretend and pouring drinks in the bath for aveda and says, "Here Bayda. coffee!"

more maligros videos...

these are some older videos i came across... mostly of tagen and his buddy josiah and a funny one of Tagen's first experience eating corn on the cob - this is definitely one of his favorite things to eat.

videooooos

ok so it's kind of pixelated but it's the best i could figure out for right now!

This picture says it all

Tagen found these pink and green goggles at the beach last weekend and has worn them ever since. He would probably even sleep with them on if we let him. It is the funniest ever watching him run around with them on... usually lop-sided but he's actually getting pretty good at putting them on by himself ("My Try!" is the latest phrase we hear 100 times a day) and getting them to go on at least one eye correctly. There's a crab and a seahorse on them too but he calls the seahorse a sea cucumber because we always find sea cucumbers at the beach here and he's never seen a seahorse before. I love the way this little mind works.

a good morning even at 6:30am

So Tagen woke up this morning at 6:30am. That's been the average wake up time in our household lately. Despite what I keep telling them, kid A or kid B decides this is a good time to get up in the morning. One or the other is my alarm clock every morning. Usually I wake up pretty groggy, stumbling toward the crib. This morning Kyle went and got Tagen and brought him back to lie in bed with us. A few minutes later Aveda woke up and so he went and got her too and brought her back in bed. So it's me, Aveda, Tagen and Kyle all squished into our queen size bed (and one wiener dog somewhere under the covers). I began to nurse Aveda and the sweetest, cutest thing ever Tagen did of his own accord. He was look down at Aveda and just started gently petting her head and whispering, "hi beyda.... hiiyyyy beyda." Every so often Aveda would stop look up at him and smile real big. So even though it was about 3 hours earlier than I really wanted to be waking up it was well worth seeing this gem of a moment. Tagen is such a good big brother and loves his little sis so much. The love is mutual seeing how much Aveda adores him as well.

Aveda Violet's 7 1/2 month birthday!

20 things I love about you, Aveda Violet Maligro (this was supposed to be in honor of your 6 month birthday which was jan.25… and at the time you weighed in at 17 pounds 14 ounces; measuring 27! But now it’s march so let’s call it your 7 and 1/2 month birthdays because really – how many people do you know get honored for that?! So, 1-12 are when you were 6 months and the rest I wrote today)
1. The way you crawl around like a caterpillar except for some reason you go everywhere backwards. You’ve also figured out how to spin in circles so I place toys in a circle all around you and you’ll spin from toy to toy.
2. The way you’ve mastered this fake cough/cry thing if you want attention or to be picked up.
3. Your baby chub – I love to touch it, sqeeze it, hug it and kiss it and I love your earlobes too – weird? – ok yes but they are like velvet!
4. How happy you are after you wake up. Huge grins and happy squirms from head to toe – it’s like your whole body smiles when you do this. Now THAT is how we should greet everyone.
5. How much you love bath time.
6. The head nuzzles. Nothing beats these. Both Tagen and Aveda – when they’re tired or sad or just need some cuddle will nuzzle their head under my chin and into my neck/shoulder and although few and far between these are treasures of gold.
7. The way you smell. I wish I could save this in a bottle forever. Even your poop right now is still sweet to me (perhaps one reason I’m holding off giving you solids for a little while longer) – daddy thinks it smells like popcorn but still it’s a lot better than what Tagen’s smelled like tonight! Beyond just the poop – you smell so wonderful to me. And I love that your blankie smells like you because you cuddle with it every time you sleep.
8. When I am lying next to you as you take a nap I can tell when you are awake or asleep from listening to the rhythm of your breathing.
9. Your lengthy stares. You have chocolate brown eyes with which you love to make eye contact. You search deeply into the things or people you are looking at. I think you may have it all figured out by age two the way you focus and study things.
10. You have the sweetest spirit. You are so full of energy but such a sweetie at the same time. I can’t wait to see how this plays out in your personality as you grow.
11. You are incredibly strong. I could’ve guessed this from the womb how crazy you would kick at times. It still amazes me now – I think there are times I could probably let go and it wouldn’t matter because you cling to me like glue.
12. You make noises just like Tagen did at your age. Did he teach you this? How? Maybe it’s genetic or something. Regardless, it’s super cute!
Ok so between 12 & 13 I took a break for a month or so and now you’ve totally changed. It’s incredible how rapidly you babies grow and develop. Just when I’m getting the hang of you, you change!
13. You’re sitting up now. No support – just all by yourself! You’ve fallen back and bonked your head a few times but you get over it super fast because you’re a tough cookie (sidenote: whenever I say “tough cookie” your brother T looks at me and says “cookie? Cookie?” and doesn’t stop until I convince him we don’t have any cookies in the house)
14. Not only are you sitting up, you’ve totally got the scoot crawl thing mastered and you can get yourself pretty much anywhere you want to go. It’s really funny when you see something you’ve obviously gotta have because you crawl with such focused determination and NoThInG will get in your way.
15. Today you even crawled over and pulled yourself up to standing. Incredible. See how much you’ve changed just this month?! We’ve got a whole new baby in the house.
16. I love how much more you and Tagen are interacting too. You laugh. He laughs. You copy each other and just love to act silly. So sweet to watch. He’s nicknamed you “beyda” by the way and whenever you are crying he says… no he SHOUTS: “OTAY!!!!! Beyda OTAY!” with his eyebrows raised to the ceiling. He does thisbecause I asked him once to go over to you and say “It’s ok baby!” all sweet and gentle like. Oh well. His own rendition is pretty funny – somehow it even sometimes calms you down! That’s how much you love your brother.
17. You are such a little water baby. You’re probably the one who is going to be all into surfing like your daddy! You LOVE to sit in the shallow waters of the ocean. We also just got a kiddie pool that you now play in every day. You long outlast your brother in it and would probably stay in there playing all day if I let you. You splash, sit up, lie down on your belly, try to stand holding onto the edge (meanwhile mama’s heart skips a beat as you almost fall) but it’s so cute how happy you are in there.
18. You’ve learned from the professional (your brother) how to scream at a pitch that should not be legal. How did we birth babies with such loud lungs?! It’s crazy. I think you must be teething right now too because you’ll shriek many times a day for no apparent reason. Or maybe you just enjoy hearing yourself. Note to you: you could still hear yourself if you toned it down like 10 notches.
19. You’re chubbier than ever and I’m loving every piece of you!
20. That you, also, are mine.

Tagen Train is TWO!

20 things I love about you Tagen Train Maligro. 2 years old! 31 pounds of rock solid toddlerness…
1. The way you dance. Turn on some music and you just can’t help yourself. You love to copy daddy’s moves in your own awesome rendition.
2. How you have learned that if you come into our room in the morning and says “eat mama” it will get me out of bed. All you really want is for me to get up with you and you really don’t care about eating at all. Okay actually this drives me crazy but I will always remember it because it seems to happen every morning and every morning I fall for it because you’re too dang cute.
3. When I am cooking anything you wander around saying “shoe?” asking for your stool because you must stand and watch… ok stand and mess with whatever I’m trying to cook and take everything off the countertops.
4. You can now climb all the way up into your highchair and climb back down when you’re finished. I can’t imagine if I had to do this every time I sat down to eat. You’re such a monkey.
5. You have learned how to open the screen door to let yourself outside whenever you please. Some day we’ll teach you how to get back inside too.
6. You are one of the only ones who can actually make Aveda laugh. You show such concern when she cries and even though she’s been with us for six months and you know full well what her name is you still call her “baby”. Maybe you’ll call her this forever.
7. You are totally obsessed with any kind of ball – football, basketball, soccer ball, baseball - and you now say trow (throw) and katttch (catch) and talks story about baseball and football. I think you would throw and catch a ball with us the entire day if we would last that long.
8. shubel and beeech (shovels and the beach) two of your favorite things living in hawaii
9. the way you can’t not jump on me or daddy and attack hug us when we are lying on the ground
10. How much you love bath time… you’ve gotten to a point where you hate getting out because you’re having too much fun. You’ve fully mastered blowing bubbles and “floating” on your back and tummy.
11. All the words you now say. You copy so much of what we are saying and you are so proud to communicate. Funniest ever the ways you say “yeeesss mammmaa” or “yessss daaada” with eyes wide open and many overemphasized head nods. Another word I love to hear you say: “sorry” which you say like “soollly” (sounds like Japanese or something). Really makes the disciplining difficult when I’m on the verge of laughing.
12. The way you draw. Such detail. Such focus. Mostly you draw circles – big circles, little circles or some other rendition of a circle…but these aren’t your ordinary circle. Each one is some incredible piece of your imagination. A firetruck or fire”guy” (as you call a fireman). A lion. A gecko. A fish. You usually draws them very slowly and then will turn and tell me what you just drew. I am amazed at how detail oriented you are. Not only in drawing but also when we are reading a book – you notices things in the pictures that nobody would ever notice.
13. Finally, after 23 months of being attached to your binkie and blankie you call them their names… well not always… actually only on rare occasions. Usually they still are called that noise which I don’t know how to write as a word – but you make the same noise every time you want these. MmmMMMmmmMMMmmmMMMmmmm. Or something like that. It cracks me up when you do the noise and then say ppeeeezze (please) at the end of it. Like you’re mixing baby language and toddlerese or something.
14. You are such a “boy”… so into all kinds of balls – especially footballs. Your uncle got you a football for your birthday and you carry it around with you like it’s your new blankie or something. You can’t get enough motorcycles, trucks and the like and love to see the fire truck every time we pass the fire station.
15. How you are consistently grumpy (note: opposite of sister) when you wake up from a nap and that I am the only one you want. Daddy can get you as long as he mentions something super exciting – like that there’s a rooster outside or something. But it better be good or you’ll hear nothing of it and we’ll hear a lot of whines. Ok so we kind of look forward to the day this will end but as for now is such a part of you that we’ve gotta love you and all your weird quirks too!
16. You are so opinionated now. So sure of what you want and don’t want. If mommy or daddy asks if you want something your first response will usually be “no!” and then you turn around, turn back and ask for the very thing we just offered you. I guess it had to be your idea. Sometimes it’s hard not to laugh at how ridiculous this is.
17. You are so crazy cute with your big ol’ belly sticking out as you walk around, blonde hair getting blonder every day as we live in Hawaii now and your little tans lines. I noticed that you still have baby chub for which I am happy because that means there’s still some babiness in you and you’re really white inside the folds now. That’s how I can gauge how tan you are getting too. I love your Fred Flinstone feet and toes. Where these came from in the genes I don’t know but since birth you’ve had little square blocks down there and they still are.
18. The sweetest ever is the way you give kisses and hugs. Especially watching you hug a little person your size. You lean way forward and pat their little back as you lean your head on their shoulder. So sweet.
19. Sometimes you think you are so funny. You just crack yourself up! We’ll be driving somewhere and you tickle yourself and just laugh and laugh. I need to record your laugh. It makes me smile every time.
20. That you are mine.

christmas and things...

december 23rd we went to a full local Christmas parade with our kids and kyle's parents... too funny and super fun. Tagen just really figured out what Santa looks like a few days before this and (still) is soooo excited whenever he sees a santa. Doesn't even matter if it's a live santa or a plastic one. At the parade was the first time he met a live Santa. Here's the dialogue and pics:

Santa "hi"
Santa's wife: "you're supposed to say Ho Ho HO Merry Christmas! not "hi"


Tagen: "uh, dabaduba vroom-vroom... da wib a santa" (translation: look I got a motorcycle with a santa riding on it!)


Santa: "oooOOOOooo... akward silence. want some candY?"


Tagen then trades his vroom-vroom for some candy... but soon after grabbed his motorcyle and started gnawing on the wrapper of his candy. So what if we couldn't get Tagen to sit on santa's lap. The way he was talking about santa allllll night you'd think he did.




We DID get a cute pic of Aveda sitting on Santa's lap.



and other cute pictures too... dec.24 was mommy's b-day and we had a super fun day going out to a coffee shop in the morning and then to the beach and then to dinner at our friend's for the night. Christmas day kyle's parents and brother came to our house for breakfast and presents in the morning and we had an awesome meal at their house that evening. enjoy the pictures!

laughter

I know I have mentioned before how Tagen seems to be the only one who can make Aveda laugh... I wish you could have been in their room tonight to see how hard she was cracking up as Tagen was just being his silly goofy self. She laughed so hard she spit up and then got the hic-ups. As always, it only egged Tagen on to make her laugh even harder. Too funny!



Tagen's best buddy Josiah came to visit for a week along with his mama Heather. We had such a good time going to beaches and exploring different parts of kauai. I haven't seen Tagen so happy and wild as he was this past week with Josiah than in this whole time of living here so far! He would ask for "Ida" (as he calls him) every time he'd wake up from a nap or in the morning. I was very proud of Tagen how well he shared his toys and food and sippy cups and binky (unless he had just woken up of course) with Josiah. But now he is gone and Tagen is going to perpetually think Ida is on an airplane because that's where he went when he had to leave and he just doesn't quite get it that after the airplane he went back to his house. Days later he sees an airplane and says, "Ida?" ah, the mind of an almost 2-year-old.



He's learned that if he does a "no-no" and after I make sure he understand what he did wrong he needs to say "yes mama" which he emphasizes as "yeeEEESsss mmmMMMMAAAaaaama" and usually says at least 2 or 3 times like this while sticking out his belly and making his eyes wide as can be. It takes all that is in me to keep from laughing. Every day he becomes more independent and more assertive about his opinions. (And for someone only 22 months old he certainly has a lot of them!) Every day I think that surely he must have reached the pinnacle of his oppositional behavior, but then he goes ahead to surprise us by taking his oppositional behavior to new heights.

isn't she cute?

how cute ShE??? she rolls over now. looooves brother tagen more than ever - he really seems to be one of the only ones who can really make her laugh. she just discovered we have a dog in the house and is fascinated by her. she is sooo strong - she holds onto our finger and it's virtually impossible to break her grip. she's been half way into the ocean waters of kauai twice now and really liked it. she takes 3 naps a day and i wish i could say she sleeps through the night but that's not true of little aveda quite yet. she is perfect just the way she is though!

life on the rock

So we actually made it to Kauai and are living in our new home. It is still surreal that we are really living here - kind of feels like we are on vacation or something. But no, this is our new reality. The last days before moving was nuts and there were many moments I was wondering if we were really going to be able to pack up or get rid of or clean everything we needed to. Grandma and Grandpa from Oregon came to help which was a lifesaver. For sure we couldn't have done it without all of their help! We stayed in a Super8 motel our last week there and the last night before we left I think we were the only ones there who weren't there with the intention of partying in Isla Vista for Halloween. Needless to say it was kinda loud there that last night. We are grateful for any and all of your prayers though because God's grace proved sufficient many times. We bought 4 plane tickets for mom, dad, grandma and grandpa planning on the babies sitting on our laps... not to excited about that but that's just how it was gonna be. We ended up getting hooked up with 9 or 10 seats we could move around between... basically having the back of the plane to ourselves which was such an awesome blessing!
Grandma in Kauai *aka:Tutu* basically stocked our house full of what we needed before we even arrived here... couches, beds, crib, etc etc etc... what a crazy blessing. Maybe that's why we feel like we are on vacation living in someone's vacation house. We've hardly had to do a thing to unpack/settle in. Our "magical mystery box" hasn't arrived yet though. That will for sure take some time to unpack and organize (it's a huge 1300 pound crate with kyle's screenpress and everything else we wanted to bring crammed in all the nooks and crannies of it.)
So anyways, we're here now. It rained the first few days we were here: refreshing. Then it was super hot and humid and now the winds have changed and there's this wonderful cool breeze blowing on me right now. Some differences from Santa Barbara: 5 baby geckos living in our house, 2 large toads living in our yard - one of which i almost stepped on yesterday, and ants. lots and lots of teeny ants. you can't leave food out for 5 minutes before they discover it. oh and did i mention the chickens and roosters? sheesh, roosters here start crowing between 3 and 4am. kyle says you get used to it where you don't notice any more. i still notice. Tagen looooves them though and calls roosters "ooshers" The sunsets are beautiful here which we see setting over the ocean through our living room window and the ocean is warm and perfect for babies. Kauai is a beautiful island we have moved our family to.

6DAYS&COUNTING

INCREDIBLE!
can't believe it, countdown to kauai. It's been pretty mayhem here in the Maligro Household.
i don't like moving from place to place. so much stuff/clutter to go through. i just want to burn
it all, except some things, and just start all over. ever had that feeling? we're in it. so that's it
for now. please pray for the Crazy Maligro Family. we need it! thank you. papa maligro

love binds

Upon reading a favorite blogger of mine: littlejourneymama... i read a post she recently wrote and couldn't have related more to what she was talking about. So, adjusting some to apply to our family, space and circumstances I have cut and pasted and rewritten some of the same...

I don't think you can ever know how having a new child will affect your family. How could you? The small person that is your child shines and darkens in ways that have never appeared to you before. Sometimes there is a spark of recognition, a piece of your childhood, the smile of your brother or the eyes of your husband. But this person is new; new to the world and to the small village that is your home.

With the birth of each of my children, I died a small death and awoke to new love. With Tagen, it was the death of my independent self, a self that spent hours reading and napping and creating this or that, a self that jumped in the car without checking lists, packing diaper bags, or shoving shoes on tiny feet. With Aveda, it was the death of having one baby, the concentrated affection, the passing back and forth of one child. This is what felt like a small death to me. It's what made me cry, during those first days as I missed Tagen while staying in the hospital.

But the awaking! The new love, the kind of love that you never have for anyone else, not even your spouse. Love for my husband is constant and HUGE in me, but how many times have I watched my children sleep and felt that clutch of pity, the fierce protection that brings tears to my eyes? I've never felt love like this before having these children. It has made me intensely vulnerable, easily shaken, and yet as solid as the hills.

I've also watched my children's hearts expand with love as our family has grown. They open and blossom in care for one another, and this is what forms them, in addition to the love they receive from us. Aveda has never known a life without a brother. Tagen has received Aveda with such joy. Yesterday was Aveda's very first laugh and Tagen is the one who made her do it... over and over and over again as he jumped and spazzed being his silly self. Aveda just couldn't get enough of him. At her tender age of nearly 11 weeks old she adores her older brother.

In all the craziness, the dullness, the frustration of parenting, LOVE BINDS. Love takes our family and makes us a small force in the world. In all the ways I've changed since my first son was born, the biggest is that I am more loved, and I have more love.

LEARNING LIFE THROUGH DEATH

It's like 6:55am. 6 days after the death of our beloved KETCHUP. see below for the story, it may be really loopy cause we were totally emo writing it. amazing what can happen just days after a death of a loved one. it's the hardest thing i think for us to go through, and i don't desire it for anyone. but the reality is that death happens. i was recently talking to one of my best friends about the whole scenario we just had gone through. he actually went through the same thing with his dog so he actually could relate to our situation which was really nice and a blessing. one of the things that was brought up was how death wasn't suppose to be. meaning, not suppose to happen. before the 'fall of man', death wasn't in the scene. well we all know what happened, eve and adam ate from the tree that God said don't. there were consequences. death. so since then we all have to deal with it. seems to me that there is a difference between some deaths then others. obviously depends if you were close the person, animal, etc or was just an aquantence. but it still is hard for someone to deal with. real hard! hardest ever!

after all that said: i wanted to shared something that i've learned through this whole experience. i know that some of you may be thinking, 'dude, kyle is whacked, it's just a dog!'. well, you have the right to say that eh. but for our little family, ketchup was like our first kid since kristy and i got married. you're not married to either one of us so you don't know. hehe.
anyway, through the death of ketchup i've been learning about LIFE. yeah, sorry, it's not sounding really deep. but what i've learned about this life on earth is that i can get really ungrateful or just let beautiful things slip by and so on. God has been really showing me a lot about that sort of things and i'm really grateful to relearn it again because LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL. go watch the movie!

yes, there is more from the whole experience. but i'll share more later.

tons of love to you all!
kyle

Our beloved Ketchup....REST IN PEACE

Pictured here is our beloved dog Ketchup with Tagen. Today was one of the sadest days of The Maligro's ever!
We decided after a few days of Ketchup being sick, throwing up a ton, taking him to the vet and not getting better, taking him to the ER vet for 2 nights in a row spending atleast $1200. We don't know exactly how it all started, he could have chewed or eaten something bad or could have got a rat that may have been poisened. We just don't know. Ketchup ended up with pneumonia which is really serious and takes a bunch of time 24 hour medical assistance to get him better, could even take weeks for full health. we just don't know. so anyway, we had to make a choice whether to persist on him being in the hospital for who knows how long and how huge the bill or put him to sleep. soo sad!!!! sucked! kristy and I came to decide it was time to put him to sleep. we both were crying and even now are teary eyed or crying while writing this. it was one of the hardest things i've ever done, hold my dog who is like our first kid, who was really ill in my arms and talk to the vet, sign some papers and say we've decided to put him to sleep. worst ever!!!!!!! so we did. i placed him in someone elses arms and left the vet as fast as i could, losing it on the walk to the car. RIP Ketchup!!!!!!!!

Ketchup to us was a family member from the beginning. He has such a rare personality, we at times thought he was sorta human, obviusly he thought he was. He had at times a smirk on his face that looked like he was smiling a lot. He had his own personal dance move that we called "the shuffle", he would groan in bed if you moved him, and also snored loud. yes, he slept with us almost every night of his life, he loved a ball or anything like it, he was such a loving dog that always needed attention or give attention, he never understood if we left the house how come he couldn't go with us, he had to always check on us if we were in another room by touching his cold wet nose on our legs, he greeted tagen and aveda when they arrived home as his best friends, he loved people/strangers and would always jump on their laps even if they didn't want him too, he was a lover, he was also a barker which would drive us nuts a lot, and now our house is different place, we expect to hear him barking all the time and its not happening anymore/its like we live somewhere else now. one of the really sad things is that Ketchup was our other dog Mustard's husband and playmate and friend. Mustard is soo sad now, she doesn't know whats going on. tear tear. so now Mustard is our only dog going to hawaii. so sad, so strange.

So if you pray, please pray for us Maligro's cause its been one of the hardest days of our lives. Also, the hardest couple of months for us with figuring out moving and dealing with our Ketchup and scared out of our brains about Mustard getting sick and needing money for moving and all the stuff. It's really crazy and we're praying a ton to God for faith, hope, comfort, trusting and strength. We're trusting God knows whats up and He's never left us. Its just hard at times. Looking to grow through this all in Him.

That's it for now.
The Maligro's

hot dogs

Little did we know it would be such a process to get our two wiener dogs over to kauai with us. Pictured to the right is Ketchup jumping. Our dogs are wierd. There's no way around it. Especially Ketchup. He's like the opitomy of super-hyper-active-attention-defecit-separation-anxiety disorder. Mustard is the opposite. Anyways, we are planning on shipping them over in a couple weeks so that we can actually get some packing done and leave some doors open without them running off to who knows where. The paper work involved to get them into hawaii (see http://www.hawaiiag.org/hdoa/ai_aqs_info.htm for the lovely details of it all) is ridiculous though and if we get it wrong then they have to go into quarantine for some crazy amount of time costing more $ than they are worth. Needless to say we're doing everything we can to make sure we've got it all right. Anyways, these dogs are in for an adventure of a lifetime as they are soon to experience the longest day of their lives. They'll be staying with Kyle's parents over there (who already have two wiener dogs) until we get there. haha! That'll be a nut house for a while.

TTM growing up

Tagen Train Maligro... you are 19 and 1/2 months old now and you've jumped full swing into toddlerhood. You now make known your own opinion with incredible passion although rather than using real words your thoughts are usually expressed by either a scream (because we got it wrong!) or an "uuuhn?" along with some hand motion to make it a little more clear what you are talking about. Thanks for that hand motion. We'd really struggle without it.
You love eating things with wrappers on them (like string cheese) but can't stand it when you get to the bottom and can't eat that last part in the wrapper. You are in the middle of transitioning from two naps a day to one and are VeRY attached to your TWO blankies and binkie. Yes mom got you an identical blankie should anything happen to your first one and you've now learned you have two of the same and need them both. You are totally obsessed with motorcycles, trucks, tractors, trains, airplanes and helecopters and have a different noise you make for each one.



The cutest thing ever is watching you dance. You looove to dance especially with your daddy and copy whatever he is doing. You also love hanging out with your buddy Josiah (whom you call him "Ida"). For months the two of you would love hanging out but just do your own thing while sitting next to each other. Now you guys are finally starting to act like normal friends as you have "conversations" usually about your dadas and some uh-ohs and a lot of head nods are involved. You also are learning to share but I can see that this is going to be a very long process. You say please now which is super cute as you pronounce it "peeeeze!". Having learned this is the "magic" word you do not at all understand why you can't have WHATEVER you want as long as you say peeeeze. Kind of hard not to laugh and give in when you're so stinking cute. You love your baby sister and call Aveda "baby". Often when you wake up in the mornings you call out to us trying to get us to come get you out of your crib: "mama? mama?.... dada? dada?!.... baby?" As if Aveda is going to come get you. Too funny. I love this about you. You are growing up and becoming more and more independent and yet parts of you are still such a little baby. We love you to pieces Tagen Train!

FIVE YEARS AGO FROM THIS DAY

This day five years ago something crazy was going to happen on national television, actually it's really wierd cause I was going to be on national television. "What are you talking about Kyle?", you say. Well, just so happens that a couple months prior I got a call from some chick saying her name and that she was from the "Jenny Jones" show and so on. I was on the other end saying, "Ok, whatever, you can stop messing around already, who is this really?" Come to find out that it was the real deal. Basically, long story short, I ended up in Chicago on the show to reunite with a buddy of mine who I was surfing with at the time and he got his leg bit off by a shark and I was there with him and tied a leash around his leg to make a tourniquet and supposedly the doctors said if I didn't do that he'd probably die. I can only say that God was in control of that situation and I wasn't, glory to Him! Anyway, that episode of us being on the "Jenny Jones" show was airing September 11, the same day the craziness happened here in the USA.

So basically, it doesn't even matter to me that the show didn't air that day. What really matters is that a lot of people died and a lot of people still hurt this day because of what happened on that September 11th.

Back then I didn't have a wife. Back then I didn't have kids. Now I do and it even hits me harder to even imagine if my wife or kids for family or friends for that matter were killed in that situation. So nuts! I can't even imagine the hardship the family and friends have to deal with.

So today, I remember all of them. God please be with those who hurt and have sorrow.
God is close to the broken hearted.

Love, Dad

Aveda V. at 6 weeks

It's hard to believe Aveda Violet Maligro is 6 weeks old already. Here's a picture of this cutie-patootie with her dada...



These past 6 weeks have been pretty interesting in the Maligro household. Some moments are so psycho hard that I want to give up and then others are spectacular. To fill you in on who little Miss Aveda is at this time here are some the things she's into...



AVM LiKeS:
- being bounced on this big blue exercise ball for the length of time it takes to break mommy's back doing this
- taking warm baths (Tagen has been helping pour water on her belly to wash her off and he is verrrry proud of this)
- conversations with her daddy
- being held upright much more than lying down
- going for walks in the stroller (aka the bus we call it because double strollers are so looong)
- mommy's milk (which Tagen refers to as "numy-numy-nu")
- lying on a blanket in the backyard
- looking at her big brother T