Sunday

We hiked Kolekole Pass to let Ron get some schoolwork done yesterday morning and then hit the beach on the western most part of the north shore. There were some fantastic body-surfing waves but we were a bit chicken and didn't spend too much time in the water, just enough to eat enough sand and salt water to clean out the system. The babies of course were kept well away from the surf... not that the pictures do the surf any justice. It has been proven that Stephanie is much braver than I.

Exhaustion

Ella has been sick with cold the last couple of days. I spent Thursday night up with her all night and then again last night. I slept maybe a few hours total each night and last night, caved in and let her sleep in my arms in our bed... Ella has been in bed for almost an hour and a half and she's still crying, playing, grumpy. We've gone in a few times but once we leave she's back to hysterics. I'm exhausted and going to bed. I don't know if she's just out of sorts from being sick, or she wants to stay up and be with the adults. I'm worried that she could have turned a corner and is now going through the stage of fighting bedtime. I'm giving it one more night before we switch rooms with Steph and Matt and we sleep in Ella's room with her.

We drove around the north part of the island today and the North Shore...

Highs and Lows

Stephanie, Matthew & Oscar arrived without incident and we are so happy to have them here. Oscar, as everyone raved, is as cute as ever!! Ella isn't so sure about him. She likes babies, but apparently only ones who are too young to use her toys. Oscar may be "overstepping" his boundaries and *gasp* using her things. LOL :) Let the sharing lessons begin!

The weather was beautiful yesterday so we headed to Ko Olina with the babies. It was a nice day and if you read Stephanie's blog, you'll get Oscar's prospective on the whole beach thing. Ella of course loved it! Here's some pics.

Our day started off on a high note with great friends and a beach. At dinner, Ella fell off the back of the couch onto the floor with a giant thud. Of course hysteria broke out, do I take her to the ER??? When she calmed down, it didn't seem to be much damage so we let her be. By bedtime she was hysterical and wouldn't go to sleep. So not like her, so we took her to the ER in Pearl Harbor. After a long wait, we realized that perhaps this isn't anything to do with her fall, but Ella seems to have her first, real, full-blown cold. Her nose is so congested and she miserable. I was up most of the night with her, on and off. She only fell asleep when she was laying on me. It made for a long night, but now that we figured out what her problem was, I felt much better. Just building up some more anti-bodies, but ewwww, the runny nose - yuck!

Manners

Ella has finally learned "sorry", "thank you", "me me" (Excuse me), and "peas" (please). She says "sorry" to any toy or piece of food she drops and says "me me" when she burps, or fake burps as the game seems to be.

She is doing okay with napping, usually I have to get her so exhausted before she'll go down without incident. Otherwise she'll use her crib as a trampoline for the whole time, blankets, clothes and diaper strewn everywhere. Once she's up from her nap I usually find her bouncing and tossing around - funny though that she doesn't like the trampoline at gymnastics???

Love

It's funny to think that if anyone had told me I'd be married, married to a sailor, and married to an American sailor, I would have thought they were mad. Love comes when you least expect it, that is for sure. I am married to a man I cherish and we have a daughter we adore. I am a very lucky girl.
Ron is my rock, my anchor, my supporter, my entourage, and my strongest ally. Happy Anniversary, I love you.

Ella Says Milk!

Ella has known the sign for milk since long before she was one. Until today, it is the one word we have not been able to get her to repeat. She'll sign it all day, but when we try to get her to say it, she just signs more vigorously.

As we are in day 2 of the food stand off (she eats a great breakfast, good lunch but for the second night, refused our dinner), she must be more eager than ever to curb that hunger and before bed actually asked for "milk". Finally!

It took her a bit longer to go to sleep tonight (I went in and laid down with her for a minute) and she was up an hour later screaming until I gave her some more milk. I know she won't be harmed by going to bed a little hungry, but it's proving to be more emotionally stressful for me than anything. Another "thank you" to Amy for your comments - helps keep me focused during this stand off.

Change is in the Air

Random Age Post

I posted a comment on Amy's blog to this notion as well...

I was reading Amy's blog about her 33rd birthday, and honestly thought to myself that I didn't realize she was a couple years older than me, I was sure we were the same age. I am so delusional that it wasn't until later that night, I did the math, and yes, I am indeed going to be 33 this year. I was shocked! How could I have possibly thought I was only 30??? I know that people say once you have kids your whole life revolves around them... but seriously, where did these past 2 years go!!! LOL
Upon further contemplation, I have decided that 33 will be a breakthrough year for me. 3 is my favorite number - and this year I'll see the double 3's. So my goal is to be the healthiest I've ever been and the happiest I've ever been (already got a head start). Happy belated birthday, Amy! Thank you for triggering my age amnesia!

Big Girl Stuff

Despite my notion of starting Ella on potty training months ago, she hasn't been inclined to the whole thing so I didn't really press her. Seeing as 2 1/2 seems to be the norm with everyone I know, and the potty video kids are all around 3 years old, I figured I had a while before we delved into this obstacle. It now looks like the time may have come. This is how I found her and her room after today's nap.

In the past couple of days, Ella has finally learned to get naked - and get her diaper off. The other night when I went in to check on her before I went to bed, I found her stark naked on her belly with her bum in the air, sleeping on top of her pj's, her diaper at the end of the crib. Now, it seems every nap time ends up with her clothes, blankets and diaper strewn across the room, and during the day, her wet diapers are discarded before I even have a chance to know she needs a change. Usually as I'm cleaning up from lunch or doing some other task, I catch her naked in the living room and have to go hunt for the wet diaper.
So here we go with another attempt at the potty... we'll see how it goes.

We've also moved Ella into a booster seat. She's refusing to eat anything and is "testing" our will power to stand firm. I, of course panic, she needs to eat, let me find what she WILL eat. Ron, on the other hand says if we give her enough water, she'll eventually eat. And so it goes... tonight was the first night at the table like a big girl (which she totally loved) but she had two bites of potato and refused the roast beef (surprise, surprise) and carrots. So we cleaned her up and she's gone to bed for the night. I'm hoping she doesn't wake up in the middle of the night screaming from hunger. But, she must learn to eat what we do and thus begins the battle of wills. Ron is so much better at this than I am, I worry too much!

Little Miss Canada