Missing Daddy

Makaela has been very vocal about missing Matt lately. She has made some comments that make me want to laugh and cry at the same time:

-When I got the milk cap stuck in the sink and couldn't get it out, she said, "Guess we need to call Daddy to come home and fix it." (oh sure, he'll be here in 10)
-"Daddy is not allowed to go on a plane again forever"
-"I don't like Calee-forn-a" (she alternates thinking Matt is in California and Iraq)
-"Don't pick me up from school today. I want Daddy to pick me up. He would like that." (I would like that too)
-"My daddy can't wait for my birthday party." Then when I tell her that Daddy won't be home for her birthday she says, "Well, I guess I have to have a princess party because Daddy is not going to be there and princesses are only for girls" (ummm, gender roles anyone?)

sick, sick, sick

I thought I would have so much time on my hands once summer came, but that is not the case. We have all been battling colds and illnesses since the summer started. It started with a stomach bug that literally knocked me out for two days and then Mia came down with an upper respiratory infection that spread through the house, snowballing with new symptoms as each family member got sick. We are now back onto Mia, who, after having some of her cough clear up, now has an eye infection. With the cold she has started waking up again around 1:30-2am for another feeding. Good grief. I have had to quit Crossfit because I have had to keep the girls home from daycare and couldn't attend my gym classes (and as much as I hated Crossfit in the beginning, I was actually seeing major improvement in my muscle tone, so I was bummed about this). I have been doing laundry, cleaning vaporizers, sterilizing everything I can, with no luck. Mia is too young to go on meds, so that doesn't help and Makaela hasn't been sick long enough (or severe enough) to be seen by the doctors at the clinic, so Mama is playing nurse, house keeper, laundress, playmate, cook and trying to find time for the dissertation...wait...that was everything I was doing anyway just to the 9th degree.

Teeth!

Mia finally has teeth! She sprouted her first two bottom teeth on Friday. Makaela got hers very early, so I was wondering when Mia's were going to pop through and they finally have. I tried to get a picture of them, but they are still pretty small.

USO craziness

Since our last military event went so well, I thought we would try another one- USO Military Appreciation Day at the Waikiki Aquarium. Last time I went to the aquarium, I wasn't overly impressed, but since it was free and they would have kid friendly activities, I thought I would give it a shot. There was a free shuttle from the NEX and since Makaela has never been on a public bus, I thought it might be a fun experience for her. We got to the NEX and were told we had to wait for the next shuttle- they didn't anticipate so many people going. Once we did get on, Makaela had a great time watching the scenery pass by. Mia, of course, smiled and charmed everyone. Once we got there, we had to wait on line to get in. I let Makaela go play around the Banyan tree while I was in line, but she soon came running back crying saying the bad lady scared her. Turns out a homeless lady was camped out on the other side of the tree undoubtly irritated by the rush of little kids. Once we got in, Makaela lined up immediately for...yep, more tatoos. She got three. So at this point, she has two on each arm- all she needs is a Harley and a do-rag and she is all good (I shudder to think). She then said she was hungry so we attempted to get online and then I found that it wrapped around two walkways. Thankfully at one point we passed the tidepool exhibit. Needless to say, both she and I were irritated by the time she got her food and even more so when she realized that she didn't like the hot dog ("It tastes funny"). So we decided to finally go into the aquarium. We started towards the main hallway when I noticed yet another line, so I asked someone and was told it was the line into the viewing halls. Now, I'm no idiot and I'm not about to take a 3 year old into a packed hallway while I'm pushing a stroller. I had visions of Makaela being shuffled away in the crowds and I try to catch up with her with the stroller- no thank you- however, I didn't want to disappoint her. I was prepared to put sleeping Mia in the sling and Makaela in the stroller and brave the elements. Luckily, when I told Makaela that we had to wait on another line, she said, "Can we go wait on the line to go home!" She had had it and I couldn't have been happier to hear those words come from her mouth. So at 12:15 we got on the shuttle line...mind you that the shuttle wasn't coming until 12:50, but Makaela was great and played memory on my phone. When the shuttle arrived however, people rushed the back of the bus...grown men...grown military men with their families, cutting all of us who had waited patiently. At this point, Makaela started crying and I was close to tears as well. The driver, instead of making the ruthless people get off, he simply called another shuttle. This shuttle was much less crowded so I guess I am glad we waited. By the time all was said and done, we were very happy to be back in our car and I think Makaela won't be asking to go back on a bus anytime soon.

Circus Night

With Matt being an Individual Augmentee from the Navy (meaning he went by himself, not a whole command), I have been assigned an IA Liason, Diane. She and the other liasons organize family events to get people networking and to just give the parents a break. This month was a circus themed party. Makaela kept asking me if there were going to be lions and elephants and I had to explain that it was just a party- then she asked if there was going to be cake. Oh, that girl. She was beside herself when she realized there was an airbrush artist (otherwise known as the tatoo lady).

Makaela enjoyed all the games too. She was literally at the craft tables until they closed down the party. Mia charmed everyone and stole the show. She had more men in camo making goofy faces, blowing kisses and pinching her cheeks than any other lady there. Overall, it was a great night.

Family Bed Rationalizations

In a previous post, I mentioned that I loved waking up with the girls, but I think I may need to take that back. Makaela has started boycotting her own bed. She will let me put her to bed and then sneak out about 30 minutes later (just when I think she has fallen asleep too). She has come up with some pretty interesting rationalizations about why she needs to sleep in my bed and here they are:

• "I just like your bed better"


• (in reference to a night when I was really sick) "You are sick, so I need to stay here in bed to watch you. Don't worry, I'll sleep down here so you don't get your germs on me" (she slept at the foot of the bed the entire night)


• "I can't have Mia waking me up. I have school tomorrow and I don't want to be so so tired"


• "Mia's crying hurts my ears" (sharing a room may not have been the best idea)


• "The motorcycles are scary" (living on Kapolei parkway- not so quiet anymore)


• "I just don't feel well. I need you." (I think I'm raising a hypochondriac)

and the best one...

• "Daddy is not here so I don't want you to get so lonely" and then when I asked her what will happen when Daddy comes home she said, "Well, then I'll go back to my bed, but Daddy will be gone for a long long time so I'll stay here"

Crawling...maybe

Mia wants to crawl very badly and against my better judgement, I have been encouraging it (I'm sure I will wish I could take it back in 2 months but oh well). Check out her improvement. Not sure if it's her crawling ability that got better or if she just learned to stretch a bit further :-) Video 1 is from Saturday June 18th and Video 2 is from June 19th.

Happy Father's Day!

When Katie took our mini family photos last week, we made sure to get some "Father's Day" photos done as well. This Father's Day is definitely bittersweet: not having Matt home definitely dampens it, but I am grateful that the girls have a daddy that loves them so much and if he has to be gone, at least he is over in Iraq doing service for our country. Makaela made him a great little goody basket (then proceeded to eat all the goodies on the way home from school, citing that he is "too far away to eat them").

We made the most of Father's Day bouncing from church, to the movies, to a girl dinner date and then for some errands. Even though we didn't have daddy at home, we had a packed day.

Bling Bling

So I finally mustered up and took Mia to get her ears pierced. I was very lucky that my mother-in-law took Makaela when she had hers done so I didn't have to endure the crying that ensued. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to have that luxury this time. I was afraid to wait any longer because Mia is still young enough to not notice them, but if I wait any longer, I'm not sure that would be the case. I never thought the practice was barbaric until I had to be the one to take her to get her ears pierced. I was envisioning pure terror (for me), but luckily, the Walmart ladies and Mia did far better than I did. We had two wonderful jewelry clerks who cuddled Mia and blew kisses at her. They pierced the ears at the same time so Mia had only moments of "discomfort". My brave little lady cried for all of 20 seconds before she started blowing bubbles at the Walmart ladies. Makaela noticed them as soon as I picked her up from daycare and showed her little sister off to all her classmates (although she did point out to a little boy in her class that, "My sister has earrings just like you" and here I was thinking I was going to pierce her ears so people didn't think she was a boy.)

Skype

Technology is amazing, especially for the military. Matt has been able to keep in touch with the girls fairly often through Skype. Makaela knows the sound the Skype ring makes and automatically assumes it's "Daddy". Sometimes Matt calls in and I leave him to sit with the girls while I clean up dinner or fold laundry and this was the snapshot he took of them the other night. Nice to know they come in as cute on computer cam as they do in person.

Happy Birthday Logan

Tonight we went over to celebrate Logan's 2nd birthday. It was a small impromptu get together since most of our friends are off island, but the kids love any excuse to party. Logan had an awesome Cars cake with red frosting that the kids loved a bit too much. I was still scrubbing the red frosting stains off Makaela's lips the next day!

Another day at the Martin's pool

I love heading over to the Martin's pool because the kids can play in the kiddie section while the mamas relax...well, kind of. I have to be in the pool now more because Makaela is intent on practicing her swimming WITHOUT her swimmie...leaving me to play lifeguard a bit more. Mia is starting to cruise in the tube too- using her feet to walk along the sand in the water- too cute!

This particular day, Katie, Steph and I brought over fixings for a Mexican dinner out by the pool. The kids feasted on chips, pretzels and guacamole.

Summer Pictures

I am so lucky to have such talented (and helpful) friends because instead of spending hundreds of dollars, Katie offered to take summer pictures of the girls and me. The plan was to take pictures at Mia's 6month mark, but with the craziness of the move, I had to postpone. Here she is at 7 months and Makaela at 3 years 9months. Here are some of the shots.

Happy Birthday Brooke and Jackson

Brooke and Jackson turn 3 this summer and they had a big birthday party today. Makaela had been waiting for this day for weeks. She literally watched the clock until it was time to go to the party. As soon as we got there, her swimsuit was on and she was off with all her friends. Uncle Shelley provided loads of entertainment.Mia spent her time chewing on her teethers and smiling at everyone.
She found out that she had more hair than Uncle Brian and was elated!

The party was bug themed and the Weidas and Staffaronis did a great job decorating, having bug themed crafts and bug themed games. The highlight of the party (other than the bug cupcakes) was the bug hunt at the end which was like an Easter Egg hunt only these eggs were bug eggs.

We had lots of fun and we it was great celebrating two of our great friends' birthdays!

7 months!

My baby is 7 months old today. It has gone by so quickly, I wish I could grab time to make it slow down. Mia is such a joy-she always has a smile on her face (unless I am not feeding her fast enough). At this point, she grabs everything and puts it into her mouth, so taking this picture was a bit of fun...the paper was utterly destroyed by the time it was done. She is a good sleeper- from 6:30pm-5:30ish. She is a very hearty eater. She doesn't have the pincher grasp down yet, but likes stars and her mums. Because she can't crawl yet, she is very content just chilling out on the floor surrounded by toys or watching the kids run around. She loves watching Baby Can Read and starts squealing as soon as she hears the opening song. Her newest trick is the raspberry with sound effects. Perhaps the best feeling though, is watching her watch me at this point. She can anticipate some of my actions at this point like when she is about to eat or if I am going to pick her up. I think she has made the connection of who I really am, and the excitement in her face when I show up at the babysitter's melts my heart.

Me vs. Them

It's definitely interesting being outnumbered by infants and toddlers and tonight I got to

test how good I was at multitasking. The Martins went out to celebrate the closing of their house, so I watched Zack and Abby. Yep- me and four kids: a 3 year old, a 2year old, a 1 year old and a 7 month old. This has been the week of friends and once again, Makaela was very excited. I had planned out dinner ahead of time and had most of it prepped, so that was pretty easy.

Then we had playtime which was lots of fun, but I was a little nerve wracked because this home isn't baby-proofed and I was overly cautious with Zack- made me realize how I need to get this

home baby proofed before the end of this month because Mia looks like she is ready to start scooting.

Makaela let Abby "do" her hair- wish I could get that much cooperation.

And here they are dancing to Dora:

Zack was a great sleeper so he went down and I was able to give all three girls a bath- wish I had my camera, but I definitely had my hands full. At one point, all three of the were squealing. Ahh- girls. When bedtime came, Mia tried her best to hang with the girls, but it didn't last long. Makaela "read" Abby a bedtime story. Here is Makaela's rendition of Cinderella. In the video listen as she talks about the King's invitation (the "mail"), the mean girls being jealous of the "cute dress", the mother fairy, and the "bobbity boo".

She also cuddled with Abby when Abby missed her daddy. It was precious, Makaela laid down next to her, rubbed her back and stroked her hair. Let's see how all three girls do sharing one room tonight :-)

Leila

I think the move has been pretty rough on Leila as well. She is dealing with some obvious separation anxiety and is my shadow when I'm in the house (and believe me, it's not too fun prepping dinner in this small kitchen with a 40 pound dog behind you). I wish I had more time to take them on longer walks, but I'm trying to give her as much petting as I can once the girls are asleep. She is also overly fond of Mia and tends to have more patience with Mia than with Makaela when she was Mia's age. Mia can full on pull her hair and Leila just licks her...now if she were just as nice to other people :-)

Day at the Pool

Since I didn't make it down to Kristen's aloha day at the park, we had planned on a beach day to hang out before she left. It turned out that Tanya was going to bring Brooke and Abby is home from daycare, so I decided to pick up Makaela early from school and head over to Koolina to meet up with the girls. It was really nice to have some adult time (since Makaela and the older kids can play independently) and then even better to have some Makaela and Mommy time. I rarely get to swim with just her now since I usually have to hold Mia. Makaela was a little fish in the water today and very proud of her new (almost) swimming abilities.

What I wake up to

My bed has become a family bed by 5am. Mia is usually the first one to wake and I hurry her into my bed before she wakes up Makaela. Mia soon falls asleep again after eating but then I tend to hear little footsteps and my blankets start to pull as Makaela hauls herself into bed on the other side of Mia. We all nap a bit more and by 6am, I have two smiling faces in bed with me (not to mention the two dogs who whine until they get some lovin').