Keeping it Real

 I've been on a drippy, gooey emotional kick lately, reflecting on my kids, how much I love my life with our little family, and this piece of paradise we wake up in every day.  Coming off of a nearly-perfect summer with my snuggly baby and constant wind and ocean in my hair, it's been an adjustment to go back to the routines of "real life."  The last two weeks have been full of ups and downs, with some anxiety and several times, feeling completely trapped.  Brady's been traveling more for work, and that combined with church responsibilities has made it tricky to get a few minutes to myself.  We are working that out, figuring out ways to give me a breather from the mommy duties and trying to get more involved with other moms, too.  I also have my favorite sitter back in town, and left Owen with her for an hour while I surfed this week.  Fantastic.

The kids are a month into piano lessons with Ms. Lois.  I love listening to her teach them and see for myself what makes her stand out compared to others.  She's been encouraging better technique with Zachary and pulling out more musicality from him.  She's very patient with Kate and I can't believe what Kate can do already after four lessons.  This is what Zac does during Kate's lesson, while I keep baby O quiet in her studio.  He just finished reading Harry Potter #5.

 The kids playing with their besties...  Kate is so excited to show off her piano.

 She also played house with her friend and read scriptures to her.  Hilarious because her friend is not religious at all, so the dialogue between them had me in stitches.

 We've kept our Friday night beach nights alive, even on days that are less than smooth and when Brady can't make it.  I almost never regret a trip to the beach.

 Soccer Saturdays are in full force.  We love watching both Kate and Zachary participate.  Kate was so excited for her first game last week.  She could barely fall asleep the night before, and had her uniform set carefully by her bed.  Her coaches are adorable and full of enthusiasm.

 Owen keeps himself entertained while we cheer.  Zachary scored the first goal of the season for his team, but we didn't get any pictures!  His team plays together better than any team he's participated with in the past and we love the pace of the game at the U10 level.

I've been trying to get the kids interested in snorkeling for years.  Kate asked if we could get snorkel gear a little over a week ago, and I jumped on it.  We bought them gear, with the promise that it will be used 20 times before Christmas or they owe us a dollar for every time less than that.  We used them in the pool, and then last Saturday tried them in the ocean.  It was not a calm ocean day, and we were concerned it might freak them out, but they were both naturals.

Snorkeling with Zachary was one of my favorite experiences of all time with him.  He's always been anxious about what is under the water, although has basically no fear on top of the water.  However, within minutes of spotting his first few fish, he could not be contained.  He dove down to the reef again and again to explore.  He held my hand as we swam around for ages.  He pointed out the fish he was most excited about, in particular the Hawaii state fish, the humuhumunukukukuapuaa.  He's the only one who can say that fish from memory.  

Kate went out with Brady for her first time.  She was not worried at all and loved the needle fish.  She asked if we saw the angel fish and rainbow fish, and Zachary went out for round 2 to make sure he saw them, too.  I love that her excitement about trying something new led us to find a new way to adventure together as a family.

 Lots of naps on the beach, between the soccer games and snorkel outings.

 We finally ordered furniture for our front lanai and Zachary initiated it within days.  He sat and read Sunday afternoon for hours.

 Owen is a doll, but is also making me a tiny bit crazy (some days a lot crazy).  He has never been a great napper, but he's been especially inconsistent with two 20-30 min naps total for the day.  He wakes up irritable and fussy and that keeps up for hours.  It's gone on long enough that I think I'm going to get tough and see if we can get him into REM sleep in his naps.  I'm a total wuss with his crying, though, so we'll see how this goes.  But you'd be a wuss, too, with this darling little face begging for your attention.  If he looked happy like this regularly, I would let him sleep 20 minutes total every day.

 Kate, practicing her songs on Owen's toy.  Ha!

 Another Friday, another beach night.

 We packed up the car Friday night for our long soccer Saturday and turned it into a beach afternoon.  Brady and O are both sick right now, and spent the afternoon snoozing under the umbrella while the kids and I paddle boarded and build sand castles.  We planned on getting stuck inside all weekend with two hurricanes threatening to hit us, but they both missed our island (although stole our trade winds, so we are cooking hot).

 Looking forward to our Labor Day holiday and the rest of "real life" this week.

August: Mom Taxi, Soccer, Back2School Routines and Wayyyyy too Much TV

The first day of school was a full three weeks ago, but here's the photos which landed on Instagram but not here.

 I love their relationship.  They are great friends, which means they fight more but they also can't sleep if the other one isn't around.

This little girl, so ready to be at school.  She's so proud of her achievements in Kindergarten, most of all that she comes home with the highest behavior color, purple, nearly every day.  I love watching her interact in her classroom when I'm there and she's doing a great job making new friends.  Since starting school, she walks with a little more swagger, twirls her hair, and says things like, "So....how was your day?"

At drop off the first day:  "Mom, it's 3rd grade.  No one else is taking pictures."

Kate's bestie, Daysha.  They were heartbroken to land in different classes but play together every day at recess.  After seeing everyone's back to school pictures, I'm realizing that our facilities aren't as pretty as the mainland.  Ha!

 Watching her skip over to that carpet in the middle of the class is when I realized I needed to high tail it out of there or I was going to make a scene.  I got back to the car where Brady was parked with Owen and bawled, immediately telling him that we had to have another baby.

 The first day of school, the kids came home and could not wait to play with Owen.

 Kate also rode her bike, commenting, "I'm so fast!  I used to be slower but now I'm in Kindergarten and I am FAST!"

 It's quiet at home without Z&K.  At least I get to watch Baby O stuff his entire fist in his mouth while he eats Cheerios.  I think that's the part that makes up for the mess.

 Kate had her first soccer practice!  She was so excited and ready.  She did tell me that even though I was on the sidelines watching, she had "some water leak out" of her eyes.  She was nervous that maybe she would kick the ball the wrong direction.  Watching 5-year-old girls play soccer together is a much different experience than watching 5-year-old boys play.  I do understand that is a stereotype but I think it's a fair one.

 Baby O and I hang out at the pool, do chores, go on walks, and meet other moms during the day.  It's an adjustment.  I'm a little lonely but trying to find ways to remedy that.  He's on a 20-30 minute nap kick, then be grouchy all day, which I'm also trying to remedy.  Cute, cute, cute little stinker.

 I made cinnamon rolls, inspired by Kristen's recipe.  It was a really hot, sweaty day but now I have a freezer full of the most delicious things ever.  When Zachary saw that I was making them, he asked why I didn't just go buy one at the store.  In 9 years living here, I haven't had a successful cinnamon roll (or really, most rolls) recipe turn out.

 I have to admit that while I think baking is not really for me (too HOT!), these moments with the kids were absolutely charming.

 After dinner, Zachary tried one and exclaimed, "MOM!!!  These are almost as good as the ones in the store!"  (By store, he is referring to one time when he got basically a gas station version of a cinnamon roll.)

 After school routines of piano, soccer, homework, reading, and their online assignments are kicking my trash (especially with a grumpy baby), but we had to make time to excavate real shark teeth when his kit arrived in the mail.  I loved that he used his spy goggles for this "science" project, that he let Kate take so many turns, and that Owen was just as excited to watch.

 I'm such a Mom Taxi now.  Brady and I decided to get the kids signed up to take lessons from a very good teacher here, who unfortunately teaches from her studio in Wailua, a full 48 minutes away.  There are other teachers in the 20 minute range, but we are less than impressed with them.  If I'm not going to teach the kids, we want someone good, so we'll see how it goes.  It does make for insane Wednesdays.  On this particular Wednesday, I picked the kids up from early-out day at school at 12:30pm, went immediately to piano, drove to town for the dentist (pictured below), rushed to soccer practice, showed up late to a PTA meeting, and didn't pull back into the driveway until after 7pm.  I do understand that other people do this kind of thing all the time, but this level of chauffeur is new for me.  We have three other days of soccer, but at least it's nothing like our Wednesdays.

 Owen loves his tongue.

 We are trying to keep the Friday night beach time routine in our life.  Another reason to love Fridays.  Owen prefers pool water (it doesn't splash you in the face unexpectedly) but loves the sand.

 Kate is so much more confident without me in the water.

 I had to add a couple bowling pictures.  I am not a fan of bowling, probably because I'm lucky to score 60 even when I really am trying, and also because I can't understand why we'd pay so much money to put on someone else's shoes and go into a dimly lit facilities when there's the BEACH.  But.  The kids love bowling and Brady scores a lot higher than 60, so I pretended to like it and it was so much fun watching Kate jump up and down and watching Zac strategize with bumpers.

 I love it when we iron baby clothes.  It cracks me up but yet we do it every week.

 I also love Sunday nights.  We've had the TV on non-stop for the Olympics, so it's a welcome relief to spend the time together outside, watching the sunset and playing soccer.  The Olympics were fun and the kids were so into them, practically screaming at the TV during the swim races, holding their breath during gymnastic routines, and asking if we ran as fast as Usain Bolt when we raced in high school.  The kids were also obsessed with the commercials.  We forget that commercials are a foreign concept to them since we don't have cable or any network station, and when they watch on weekends, it is only from Netflix.  They sing along to the commercials and even recreate them when they play.  The kids are now obsessed with racing each other in the pool, and running off their starting blocks.  Ha!

 My baby started the night with clothes on.  The fastest way to cure a baby of constipation is to wear a completely white shirt.  That's not the end of the story but I'll leave the rest to your vivid imagination.

 "I'm wearing my red, white and blue shirt to cheer for the Americans."

Yay for America, boo for Lochte, and hooray for beautiful nights to breathe before we do it all over again.

Owen's 6 Month...er...7 Month Shots

Overdue and finally here!  Owen's 6 month shots.  I already spouted off my goopy feelings for this baby and they haven't changed over the past two weeks.  He is a gem and I am so, so grateful for him.

This head-up, tongue slightly out is the most accurate portrayal of our little man.  

His little mouth is always open when he's checking things out.  We're just lucky there's no drool in this one.

I love a shirtless baby boy.  The past few weeks were scorching hot and I wanted to join the shirtless club.

Zac's last picture with long hair.  Sniff, sniff.  I love the long locks but he was ready to look a little more trendy with the buzzed sides and long hair on top.  He made the decision to cut it Sunday and was so excited to go in on Monday.  For a kid so meticulous with decisions, I couldn't believe how ready he was to chop.

At least I convinced Kate to keep her hair long.