Plunger laughs

Last night Autumn was brushing her teeth and looked down at the plunger and declared, "It's a dang it... hahaha!"  I have no recollection of when that word was used or when it was use with the plunger - but somehow the connection was made and she thinks it is absolutely  hilarious.   We played it cool, said it is called a plunger and that it is not nice to say dang it.  But over and over about 8 times she's giggle, "it's a dang it... hahaha."  Dear oh dear.....   I've never seen her think something she has said was soooooooo funny!  

Cont...   on Saturday in a restaurant bathroom Autumn saw the plunger and said "Hey mom they have a dang it!"

16 Weeks

Time is a flying!  The last four weeks flown by and I am now very very happy to be into the 2nd trimester.  I have more energy and don't feel nauseated all day - got to love that!!!!  Today I had my 16 week visit and everything looks good! Baby's heartbeat was a healthy 145 bpm.  I was eager to hear it, as I've had 2 bouts of food poisoning in the last 10 days.  Talk about bad luck - and it wasn't even high risk foods!  Dried fruit and coconut flesh that shouldn't have gone bad as fast as it did.  Oh well....   Hoping it is the end of that for the rest of the pregnancy!  I still haven't gotten a side picture yet - I'm wider, but certainly don't look pregnant to the unknowing eye.  I'm hoping to get a special sarong tomorrow to use as a backdrop and start doing side shots soon - otherwise this kiddo is going to wonder why Autumn's pregnancy got all the pictures and theirs has so few!

Here are a few stat questions I stole from Christine's blog:
  
How far along: 16 Weeks and 1 day.

Size of Baby: about 4 1/2 inches and 3 1/2 ounces

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 5 since December and still weigh 3 pounds less than my pre-pregnancy weight with Autumn.  Seems strange, all I can figure is that I've lost muscle - and I certainly can't attribute anything to me being super healthy lately - other than surfing I haven't exercised and I eat whatever I want.  I hate that I crave sugar even more when I'm pregnant and I haven't been terrific at telling myself no.

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. My tight jeans are a bit uncomfortable, but otherwise everything fits fine.

Gender: I'm letting Aaron decide if we will try to find out at our diagnostic ultrasound - he is still deciding and I'm not counting on him making up his mind until we walk through door to the machine.

Movement: I occasionally feel like I can feel the baby jump like in the 12 week ultrasound, but then I think oh, maybe that was just gas. When I was sleeping one night Aaron said he was holding my belly and praying for the baby and felt a jump.

Sleep: Doing pretty well. We are all going to be fairly early, but I've been able to stay up a little longer some nights.  I do get up and pee 1-3 times each night though. Luckily I sleep hard and it takes me no time at all to start dreaming again!

Symptoms:  Sore, itchy and growing chi chis, growing belly, gas, acne...  oh the fun stuff!

Best Moment This Week:  Hearing the baby's heartbeat

What I'm Most Looking Forward To: Newborn cuddles and watching Autumn be a sister

Life plans

I've been meaning to write a post about our plans.  We've spent months praying and pondering over our next move in life.  My desires have been to make Hawaii home since we came back last March.  We landed in Maui after a cold winter and I looked at Aaron and said in a joking but honest voice, "Tell me again why we don't live here?"  I'm not tied to the move and know I would be happy where ever God wants us - but deciphering that is so difficult.  In about February we both started to tell other people that we planned to move back to Hawaii more permanently after the 2012 holidays.  It seemed to fit and the more we said it, the more it sounded right. We will go back to Colorado, spend time with family, have our second child, save money and then try to return to Kona in February of 2013 to buy a place to live here.  God still has to work out some of the details and can always change our course, but that is where we are headed for the time being.  Oddly this place feels more like home than anywhere we've ever lived - hard to explain, but we believe this is where God wants us to raise our family and be his Light.  

Spunky

Autumn - your spunkiness is so much fun!  This last month has been full of lots of fun memories!  You insisted on going for a surf board paddle with daddy at Kahaluu to look for dolphins and even told me the other day "I want a dolphin for my birthday."  I ask if you wanted a real or pretend one and you replied, "well I don't want the pretend kind!"  We took a family kayak trip out in Kailua Bay and have had many many picnic parties as you call them with our friends at the beach.  You've taken more of an interest in doing crafty things so we've made pictures with construction paper, painted on special paper, learn how to make snakes and things with play-doh and finger painted.  You really like using the stick glue - sometimes successfully and sometimes not so much!  You still love to climb anything you can - this is fun but I'm fairly certain it will lead to trouble sometime soon.  On Easter I caught you climbing up a huge rock wall.  Lately you have taken to the Ipad that I get to use from work and can spend a lot of time hoping around doing puzzles and starting netflix shows that you stop so you can navigate around the slide bars.  You're going to miss it when we have to return it and we've already started preparing you for the reality that we will be giving it back soon. You enjoy swimming at the pool and ocean, you have no problem getting you head in and trying to kick and paddle.  You also enjoy your ring and will kick to swim around in it.

You've really enjoyed our new neighbors and ask about them all the time.  What they are doing and if you can go over to see them.  We have gotten to do a couple of dinners, beach and swim dates and evening play sessions with balls and bubbles with them and you always have fun! They have a 5 year old boy, 3 year old girl, 2 year old girl and a baby on the way like us! 

You continue to blow us away with what you can say!  Lately as we drive home at the end of the day you label the bank, gas station, Kona Boys and the shops we went to with Nana.  As we drove by the bank on Friday you said, "there's the bank." I replied "yes and we probably should have stopped to get cash."  You responded, "I don't like cash. I like cake and fruit!"  This same night on the way to town you talked to Nana and Papa the whole way into town.  You asked Papa how many baths they had, told him that we do not live in Colorado, that when you slip in the bathroom you get your clothes wet (which you have done once before bath) and that you know to take your clothes off before bath. You talked and talked and talked - it was so cute!  Today with daddy you were playing with play-doh and daddy suggested making an outrigger and you decided that it needed a mommy, daddy, baby and they needed paddles and life jackets! Such a smart girl!

You have also have a very cute relationship with your friend Jackson! He is our friend's son and goes to the same daycare.  So you see him everyday and sometimes see him at the beach for surf dates.  Other than your over protective attitude about your own stuff, you play with him pretty well.  When you don't see him, you ask to go over and say hi to him.  Today we got to go over and you guys played for awhile.  Jackson came over and gave me kisses after he pretended to saw on me. He went back over to you and you said, "Yes, Jackson you can give me a kiss."  Later you had a shi-shi accident and were sitting on the toilet. He ran in and gave you the biggest hug on the toilet - it was so cute! 


















Lately your babies have become your new friends at daycare - Kamahao and Malia.  You feed Kama kau kau in the shower, wash him up, diaper and dress him.  Last night you even breastfed him in the tub as we had been to the great diaper change and I'm pretty sure you observed some of the other babies breastfeeding.   "I think he needs the other side."  "Come on dude just drink the mama's milk..." You had so many great comments! So funny!!   Oh, we're not sure where the 'dude' came from - but the other day you said to me, "hey dude."  I didn't think too much of it and then you said, "Hey I just called you dude... hahaha."  We rolled laughing. 

 Autumn we love you so much and you bring so much joy to our lives!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Easter 2012

For the first time in many years we braved the early morning and made it to the sunrise service.  He was good - hundred's of Christians circled around on a ball field near old airport worshiping our Lord and Savior for the resurrection of our King.  Autumn woke up slowly and cuddled with her new bunny.  During worship she put the blanket up over her and rested for a few minutes.  The Christian Hula was fun - I never tire of it.  Autumn sat with the other kids on my lap for the keiki message and we heard a message about taking the gospel into the world.  All in all, worth the very early wake up time!

Next we headed to breakfast - sadly McDonalds egg mcmuffin sounded all too delicious!    It worked out perfect though because our friends had chosen the same destination and we got to sit and chat for breakfast!  Next it was a toss up - head home for rest or use the surf board we had packed just in case.  Then I checked my phone and my surf friend said they were out and the waves were good.  So to Limons we went for a mama surf session while the kids and daddy's played on shore.


 I didn't catch anything, but it was a good learning session.  We then headed home, opened fun gifts from grandparents and Amazon (I didn't think the stuff I had ordered would arrive in time, so I was very excited)  Autumn got her first Bible, finger paints, a big ball, an outfit, kite, puzzle, and sand toys!  Made her day!
We tried to interject a lot of we celebrate Easter to celebrate Jesus saving us as well!!  We then got to Skype with Aaron's side of the family, finger paint and play. I assumed it would be another nap free day, as the day before she played hard on the beach for 2 1/2 hours and didn't take one.  But 15 minutes before we were to head to a friend's, she fell asleep on the couch watching George.  We canceled friends and let her sleep for awhile, as we still had communion dinner at our Church.  We packed up the Challah Bread and headed out to church.

Our pastor is passionate about having communion in a different fashion than pass the juice at the end of a sermon.  He believes that communion is a community event taken together over a meal.  We had our first one on Easter.  It was a lovely potluck, time to share about our lives and Christ's power to release us from our bondage to sin.  It was very powerful.  I look forward to more of them when we return to the Big Island next year.

Side notes: I acutely realized how much my focus on Autumn affects my ability to focus on Christ during events like these.  Then in life, there is not excuse - I have time to spend with God and I make other choices.... I had planned to read John before Easter and only made it to Chapter 5, I desire to keep a prayer journal and be more faith in my prayers and am struggling to be consistent...  Definitely need Christ's help to overcome my life long struggle to carve out time and be more disciplined.

Easter was good! God is so Good to us!!!  So thankful that He rose, that I live with Hope!!!!!

Parenting

There are many many things I love about being a mommy!  Hugs, kisses, caring for her needs - meals, teaching, baths...  and of course playtime.  I knew there would be one part of parenting that would not be easy or fun - and it is not - discipline.   The days that go by without thinking about it much are great!  The days like yesterday that feel like you are a disciplinarian all day long are exhausting.  Today I read more of Boundaries with Kids by Cloud & Townsend.  It is a Christian book that my Maui mom suggested.  The biggest take home at this point is that at this age - my job is to set appropriate boundaries and her job is to test them to the full extent to figure out what reality is.  Children that lack good boundaries struggle a lot in life - so far the book is really good Christian parenting theory and motivation to stand firm on the boundaries - you only have to last one more time than your child.  Some children test and push harder than others - but it is reassuring to hear over and over that it is so worth the exhaustion.  All this said, I still have a lot to work on in the area of patience and kind firmness and other stuff too - but I after yesterday, I needed the reassurance that she will by far benefit from our expectations being consistent and firm.