wordless wednesdays

an accomplished ancestor

We are in the middle of a move so there is little time to share anything but it is Christmas time which invites lots of great moments.

Last night Thing1 received a Christmas card from his Grandma Ally. As he opened it up a $5 bill fell out and he exclaimed "cash!" When we asked what he would spend it on he told us, "a new mommy and a new daddy," but refused to elaborate on the whys and hows. He then pointed at Honest Abe and asked, "is that Grampy Bob?"

Those of you have never met Grampy Bob should scroll down to find a picture of him.

Oh, the minds of children.

Medium and I are both sick so we are pretty much permanently on the couch this week. On Tv there is a train chugging down some tracks and he calls my attenion to it saying, "Mom! It's a tractor bus."

These small glimpses into his mind where everything is brand new are some of my favorite parenting moments.

"space, the final frontier"

There is a lot of Star Trek going on in my house. So much so that Thing1 has started to recite the opening lines of The Next Generation right a long with Captain Picard at the beginning of each episode. Tonight he jumped the gun and started a bit early and when the TV finished echoing him he looked annoyed and said to us, "I already said that!"

baby's first thanksgiving!

wordless wednesdays

school fair

Large had a fair at his school recently so we all went to check it out. There were games, face painting and best of all, a bounce house!

Medium bowling with an assist from Dad

the good old Zoo Choo

Aunty Bailey's visit

While my sister was in town we managed to pack about 6 vacations into one. We went for a trail ride in Waipio Valley on horseback, went to a luau, saw Kilauea, checked out waterfalls, stargazed on Mauna Kea (and laying in my driveway), we snorkled everywhere we could, went scuba diving(!!!) and even swam with wild dolphins at Honaunau. But like many vacationers we spent most of our time on the beach.

Exhibit A:

Keanu and his Aunty Bailey playing @ Perfect Beach

we luv company

We have had a bunch of family in town and have been up to all sort of touristy activities.

You know what that means. Pictures!

Thing1 with his great-grandparents leaving Boiling Pots

Thing2 & Papa

Thing2 hamming it up with Nana

Me & my boys with their Aunty Bailey and Nana @ Rainbow Falls

hide n seek

Why is it that kids believe that you can't see them when they can't see you?



Unfortunately this him hiding, not seeking.

boo @ Perfect Beach

waving hello???

more staycation pics

boys watching baseball

Grandma Alii ;) @ Rainbow Falls

my boys and their grandparents

a photo by Medium

wordless wednesdays

staycation

My parents are here visiting this week. They rented a nice big house with a pool so we've packed ourselves up and moved across town to stay with them.

At our previous home we had an ungated swimming pool so last summer we made a huge financial and time commitment and got Thing1 ISR lessons. At the end of lessons I was amazed that my 2 year old could not only swim under water but had the survival skills to float to the surface and swim to the edge if he fell in the water fully diapered and clothed.

Then we moved.

Yes, we live In Hawaii and spend plenty of time at the beach but how much actual swimming does one do in the ocean?

One year later, I am now extremely proud to say that, my little boy can absolutely not swim on his own.

As for Thing2, well, he isn't even interested in trying.

WHAT is this water stuff?!?

wordless wednesdays

i <3 pineapple!

While we were on Oahu we went to check out the Dole Plantation. Despite the fact that Thing1 is allergic and couldn't enjoy any yummy pineapple it was actually pretty cool. We got to ride a train through pineapple fields and got lost in a pineapple shaped maze that was in the Guinness Book.

little vegan boy

Last week when we watched Food Inc. Thing1 was horrified at the treatment of animals in the factory farms and slaughterhouses, convinced that we had to help the animals. He actually put his shoes on, asked for help to open the front door, then started down the stairs saying that he needed to go tell everybody.

He has finally started putting two and two together and realized that we are vegan which means we don't eat animals. Now he's started identifying that that cheeseburger Dad eats is a cow. His bacon is a pig. His spam is...well, who knows?

So now it's Sunday morning and Dad is watching football and eating a manly breakfast of beef jerky. Thing1 comes into the room and says, "Dad, are you having coffee and cow?"

He definitely takes after his mother.

wet n wild

I haven't found a lot in the way of non-beach activities nearby so we couldn't pass up a chance for a day at the water park while we were on Oahu. It definitely made for some good photo ops.

Looks like Dad and Thing1 are having a blast, right?

But you might be wondering what Thing2 and I were doing all this time.

Teddy Bear World

I have about a bazillion more pictures to share from Honolulu but the coolest are probably from Teddy Bear World. I'm talking Jurassic Park Bears, Times Square Bears, Red Sox Bears, Bearack Obama!

At 7 months, Thing2 was pretty clueless about how awesome it was but Thing1 (whose nickname Babybear or more often just Bear) was totally awed.

And last but certainly not least The Bear(s) Scream...

the tiny peoples' first parade

We got lucky with our timing and managed to catch a parade just a block from our hotel. There were tons of horses, bands, Marines and even a princess.

The boys thought it was much better than traffic.

And who could forget the largest Aloha shirt in the world!

Children's Discovery Center

Yesterday we had a blast at the Children's Discovery Center in Honolulu. Thing1 got to try out being a bus driver, a judge, a fire fighter and even a giraffe.

He also had a blast brushing some giant teeth and reading., two things he always loves to do. You might think I'm lucky to have a kid that doesn't fight brushing his teeth. I thought I was wise giving him a kiddie toothbrush as a toy even before he had teeth but now he begs to brush all the time them because he thinks its a game. Okay...I guess that's still better than battling over it.



an addendeum to yesterday's post



my boys n their toys



island hopping

It's our first trip to Honolulu! We've arrived at our Waikiki hotel and after being cooped up in an airplane then stuck rush hour traffic for 60 minutes I'm loathe to pack the boys back up into the car and head out in search of dinner. Luckily Grandma Tutie got the boys some new Leapfrog toys just in time for our trip. For fear of annoying nearby passengers I tucked them into our suitcases on the way here but I'm sure we'll make good use of them in the boring hotel room.


Stay tuned for more pics!

milestones

Blogger has this fun little function called Labels that you can see over to the right. Basically, when I write a blog I assign relevant labels it then later you can go and click a subject to see all of my blog posts on that subject. Rather than being useful for Grandma to find all of the posts in which she is mentioned, it just plain amuses me. Chinlessness...ha! Recently I added the Milestones label because these kids are doing new things every day.

The thing they don't tell you in the parenting books (trust me, I read them all) is that milestones aren't something that happen all at once. Kids don't take their first steps then all of a sudden cruise around the house like old folks at the mall on a weekday morning. It's really very gradual. There is a lot of falling down. Thing1 rolled over a few times at 3 weeks then didn't do it again for several months. Total fluke. Thing2 didn't roll over until he was exactly 6 months. He spent about 5 minutes the next day going back and forth and back and forth and hasn't done it since. He's just happy where he is. No need to get up and go anywhere else.

This is much more fun. Thing2 has finally decided to sit up. It's so darn cute I've taken a bazillion pictures  already and he just started doing it this week. I've pared it down slightly for the sake of your viewing pleasure (IE. nonboredness) but because I'm still One of Those Moms you shall now be subject to pictures of my child sitting.

Amazing, I know.

Remember how I said how the thing about milestones is that they don't really happen all at once?

I give unto you: Falling.