Toys Now Exist!

Ikaika has had this elephant dangling from his car seat for almost an entire month. Not only has he never "played" with it - hes never even looked at it! He has paid less than no attention to this thing. Hes never given me any kind of indication that was thinking about playing with it but just didnt know how (ie. staring at it or reaching for it in some manner).

Then, quite suddently and unexpectedly, the other day when we were in the car, I heard some rattling and I looked over and he was doing this!!! He was shaking it and laughing and trying to eat the feet, etc!!! Seemingly overnight he has made this amazing developmental progress! I was so proud. And, additionally, he has also recently discovered his hands so when hes not loving on Mr Elephant he is playing with his fists.

Make Man Rain

Its called Make Man Rain (mah-kee) when the rain falls at the same time the sun is shining. I think this is because the freaking centipedes come out! I have seen two of these disgusting creatures in the last 24 hours - one crawling around on the sweet bread I was eating and the other slithering near my infant child! As a kick, their legs are an eye-catching electric blue to let me know how grossly poisonous they are.

Well life here in Kohala is certainly something new. New Years came and went with a wonderful and welcoming party at Cousin Billys house. The single largest spread of food I have ever seen! From one end of the garage to the other and up the center. Imagine a food and Im sure it was there. As one man commented "Holy smokes, they even got spaghetti!"

At midnight they hung a line across the yard and from this line dangled a dozen or so of these specific fireworks. There were three drums at the top and a steamer of fire crackers coming from the drums. You lit the bottom and the fire crackers exploded up the streamer until it reached the drums which were loaded with louder and more elaborate explosives. The streamers varied in length but I couldnt tell if this was intentional or not. There were other parties going on around the block and they all did this or some variation of it so I guess this type of firework is specific to New Years and/or Hawaii.

Yesterday Mr A, Bradda J, Bradda Clay, and Cousin Billy all went out and dug a grave. You bet. A 6 foot deep grave. Someone has to do it and I suppose why not a bunch of strapping (young?) men. Thats something I like about life in Kohala so far. Everyone seems to be as self sufficient as possible. Of course, you probably have to be since there isnt really much in the way of "convenience retail".

This is your official tour of our house-for-the-time-being.

In this picture I am standing in the front doorway looking into the place. On the right you will see a closet. There are two of these on the wall and the space is substantial -something I wish I had at the Ellis house. Through the doorway in the middle is a hallway/stairs that lead to Bradda Clay's house and our (private) bathroom. I didnt take a picture of the bathroom but its pretty straightforward - sink, mirror, shower, toilet. To the left you will see our bed (unmade of course). The three of us share this and Im fairly sure its a queen. I wasnt worried about it being on the floor until the whole centipede fiasco started. In front of the bed you will notice the small table that is our dining table/office space! Like a kotatsu but smaller and no heater!

In this picture I am standing in the corner where the bed is in the previous picture. The television, which doesnt get tv but does play DVDs, is to my right at the end of the bed. What you are seeing here is our front door and kitchen. Standard stuff. But the exciting part is that kick ass treadmill in the corner. Not only does it work but it has a CD player and a fan and is pretty much awesome. Only bummer is that when I run I am staring at a wall!

And this is the gigantic aloe plant that is in between Bradda Jason and Bradda Clays house (therefore, its right outside our door). I recently learned that their father had dug a 26 foot cess pool BY HAND directly under this plant. Keeping with the theme of self reliance.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Its almost time.  In a few short hours the three of us will be on a plane destined for our new life in Hawaii.  *deep breath*  Wow.

This month has been shabby on updates so here are a bunch of pictures to make up for it!

Norio and Charlene - our new little Catholics godparents!  The baptism was fantastic - short yet very informative.  It was precisely the reason we had him baptized at the same church we were married in.  Two words: Father Bob.  Holy Family Church, people.  Its the place to be.

Gentlemens Jack for the men of the house.

Aunty Beth is by far the most fun.  Always good times with the Bethster.

And she buys you ridiculous things like the frog suit.

Hanging out at Gramma Arrayans place.  Mr A looks darker than dark - someone stop that brown man, hes stealing my child!

This is us PRE-Twilight.  Notice how excited we all seem?  Yeah...Mo should have known better.  

God that movie was terrible.

Twilight: the movie that sucks.

In my last post I was trying to be very blase about my feelings regarding Twilight in a desperate attempt to not let on about how totally in love I am with these books and how Ive quite unexpectedly joined forces with legions of preteen Edward Cullen fanatics.  

Well, the Stransky sisters went and saw the movie (with great anticipation) and it sucked.

SUCKS!!!

I really cant say enough about how terrible it was or how truly disappointed I am.  Sad face.

Now all I have to look forward to is reading Breaking Dawn.  I guess sometimes it just pays to be literate and put in the time and effort to get through the book.

Aunty Mo Overcomes Fear of Babies!

Twilight!

I finished the ENTIRE SERIES of teenage smut novels - Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. Oh man, I have a lot to say about that but I feel like I would have to start a new blog since Im sure they exist (Twilight blogs) and diehards would probably be insulted by this casual reference. I read a trilogy of similar books (Vampire Diaries?) when I was in high school. The one thing I will say here is that these books are neither insightful nor well written (the writing was simple but then she would use pop quiz vocab words like "chagrin" or "insolence" and she would use them over and over again, it was just bizarre) but they are literary crack! I skimmed through the last two but I couldnt put Twilight down. COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!

I do, however, understand why people usually just see the movie. Reading books takes a whole lot longer and Im like "whats gonna happen? whats gonna happen?" and instead of having the answer within the hour and a half - its hours later when I get to page 462! Although my sister insists that the book is way better than the movie (which now I will likely go and see just because Im curious) and thats typically what happens.

Oh thats a good topic for comments - what movies are better than the books they are based on?

Ive discovered the inherent flaw in my moving plan. When we go to Hawaii there will be no grandparents to pass the baby off to! In order for me to read these books my mother spent endless hours playing with Ikaika. A task she was more than willing to take on, but Im no less grateful for. Being here with mom & dad is AWESOME!

Theres No Place Like Home

Ikaika and I have been in Seattle for a week now.

The ride up was an adventure. He slept so much before the ride that somewhere around Centrailia he woke up and wanted to eat...like right now! I had to stop at a Subway and feed him in the parking lot. The car was so packed with stuff that I couldnt have fit a tic-tac in there if I wanted/needed to. There was a little hole in the backseat for Ikaika and a hole in the front seat for me and a couple patches for me to look out the windows. Wild. I still cant believe I fit all that junk in there!

Its great to be up here since my family can help out with the baby. I can take a nap! I can pump some milk and go to a friends house sans infant! I can hand him over to someone else when hes fussy, gassy and inconsolable! Nice!

Mr A has been keeping me updated on his progress in Hawaii. Hes been on several promising job interviews. This week he interviewed and did a presentation for a position as a community health educator...educating the youth of hawaii about SEX! SAFE sex, no less! Harhar. Other than that hes been playing vball, watching our friends son play basketball, and eating gallons of poi. Best of all - its 80 degrees plus every single day. I can not wait to get over there.

The baby has been smiling more and will smile reactively, so thats new. Hes also started babbling/cooing. Didnt know exactly what cooing was until I had a baby. He will sit with Opa (my dad) and "talk". Its cute.

ECing has been challenging here so I had to change not one but TWO kukae diapers today. Yuck.

For his gassiness I had gotten some mylicon drops but found that they didnt do much (in fact, they seemed to only make it worse) and then, on the recommendation of my moms coworker, I got a Dr Browns bottle and that seems to help. Yay! Solution!