Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Long lost cousins


Raph's cousin, Christian, came to visit with his wife Mags and his son Liam. They got here while Makili was sleeping. Liam was very anxious to get Makili out of bed and find out what kinds of toys were in his bedroom. They were buds once Makili got up though and played soccer, played in the rocks, etc. Liam climbed his first tree (and also fell out of his first tree). And they gave us a ton of hand-me-downs for Makili!!!



Friday, March 27, 2009

What I'm up against.


As my midwife says, "the honeymoon is over."

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Makili can catch!




Saying ball thousands of times a day (literally thousands) seems to have paid of as he is now able to catch a variety of ball sizes. So we're making progress there!

He remains a little confused about the purpose of the potty however.

PS: I'll get off my B+W kick soon!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Thoughts on New Orleans

We had a really great trip to New Orleans, even though Makili slept horribly. I couldn't really blame him since our hotel had no cribs, and we shared our room with our friend Mark who went to the conference with Raph, and instead of two queen beds, our room had two doubles. We made a little bed for Makili on the floor, which only lasted part of the night, after that he just kicked the crap out of us all night, so Raph and I didn't sleep too well.

We stayed in the worst hotel ever, the Hotel Chateau Dupre, which we affectionately called the Hotel Chateau DuCrap. Our "non-smoking" room reeked of smoke. The TV remote didn't work at all, and you had to stick your finger into a gaping hole, risking an electric shock every time, to turn it on. The radio also didn't work. Everyday our keys would stop working, so we'd have to wait in line to get our keys reprogrammed at the desk, while the woman working there completely ignored you and went on and on with the person in front of you or on the phone about nothing. There was no shampoo in the room and not enough towels for all of us. The first night we arrived shortly after mid-night, and when we found out that there were no cribs, asked for some extra blankets to make Makili a bed on the floor. She told me that I couldn't get more blankets until the next day. Makili's favorite part of the hotel stay was the metal plate that was supposed to cover the edge of the carpet going into the bathroom, which wasn't actually attached to anything, so he could pick it up, wield it like a weapon and hurt himself or one of us.

The best thing about the Hotel DuCrap was it's location, which actually was perfect. We were very close to the Marriot, where Raph and Mark had their sessions in the conference, but also in the French Quarter, so that there was a lot to walk to and see. Makili and I spent most of every day walking around and enjoying absolutely beautiful weather. The architecture in the French Quarter is awesome and it was fun to be in a city. We ate great food, even though we were warned by several people that vegetarians couldn't cut it in New Orleans. Raph loved the beignets at Cafe Du Monde, the croissants at Croissant d'Or, the pasta at Angeli's on Decatur (which was awesome!). We took Makili to the Louisiana Children's Museum, but mostly he just loved throwing and retieving his ball in the grass on top of the levee along the Mississippi River. The weather was glorious. Yum. And it was great to get away without too much agenda (the conference wasn't too consuming...

Though we had a terrific time, I have to say that I sort of felt like I was in Cancun on the beach, not really seeing the real mexico. We were limited by where we could walk, so we only really saw the French Quarter, the business district and the museum area. We never saw the 9th ward, or areas in destitution. I felt like New orleans was one big tourist destination, designed to look a certain way for the tourists. We walked down Bourbon Street one night, which is nothing but a disgusting tourist trap. The rest of New Orleans, though thoroughly enjoyable, sort of seemed like a similar sort of thing, though, with much more character...

At home, it is cold, but look what is popping up!

Friday, March 20, 2009

New Orleans

We're in New Orleans, and the camera battery died, and we don't have the charger, but here are a few pictures from yesterday, mostly at a fountain that Makili loved a whole lot. He actually wanted to go swimming. Had the camera been working I would have taken a bunch of color architectural pictures yesterday, because this town is pretty cool.







Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Winds of Change Are Upon Us.

Makili is changing rapidly. Some things, like his exploding language abilities are awesome. (This morning when I was sitting on the toilet, he came in and said "Mama poops bath," meaning after I poop I should take a bath.) Other things like his new tantrum throwing are a whole lot less awesome. So I thought I document some things about him right now...

His favorite foods are apple sauce and avocados and beans and broccoli. He has suddenly started eating lots of things he wouldn't eat before: asparagus, mushrooms, cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes. At the same time, he is a whole lot less interested in cheese and bread products. He eats a lot.

His favorite thing without contest is "the ball." He says and differentiates between basketballs (#1 favorite), footballs (#2 favorite), soccer balls, and ping-pong balls. The most dramatic and epic tantrums have come over leaving his balls. Last night he slept all night with a full size basketball. When I went in to get him this morning he was standing there in his crib holding his basket ball. He is learning to catch after months of holding his hands out and letting balls bounce off of them. He is just starting to react and hug the ball to him, so a well-aimed throw might be caught.


Another favorite thing is puzzles, which he has quite a collection of. One of his newer words is "pieces" since he is always looking for the missing pieces. And there are always missing pieces since he throws them all over the house. This morning we were working on an alphabet puzzle and when I came back it was gone - no board, no pieces. When I asked him where it was, he climbed on the couch and pointed behind it. Sure enough he had thrown every bit of that puzzle behind the couch. I guess he was tired of that one.

His favorite books right now are Gloria and Officer Buckle (#1) and Counting Cockatoos, though he likes make books. I'm excited about his interest in Gloria since it is really the first longer book that he has demonstrated the attention span for. I was getting a bit tired of Sandra Boynton books, though he loved them.

As I mentioned before, his language has grown by leaps and bounds suddenly. Bob, the dad of the kids I babysit for, pointed out that all of his kids had language explosions after being sick, which coincidentally has also been the case for us. His list of words is pretty long now, and grows every day. Some of his favorite new words are wet, bike, box, basket, all the ball types (he said ball at least 64 times as I was putting him down for a nap the other day. I counted.), pieces, Jack (which refers to Jack and Sam - the boys I babysit), and bus. We also now understand that "me" actually means "you." When he wants you to do something, he points to you and says "me." He frequently puts more than one word together, particularly when things pertain to Raph. "Daddy's shoe?" he asks or "Daddy outside" when he wants Daddy to take him outside. Everyday more and more. It is really fun!

He continues to climb on everything and do really dangerous stuff all the time, though at other times, he won't try anything without holding our hands. He won't walk on even slightly deep snow without holding our hands, for example, but he'll happily get out his little riding car and stand on it while holding the handle bars and then rock back and forth trying to get it to move. He has gone over the handle bars a few times doing this. He has been jumping for a few months and now will jump/lean off of the changing table to me (I'm hoping this translates to the pool in a few months!) He can easily manuever one normal size stair by himself, or a whole flight with a railing.

He sleeps pretty well - roughly 8:00pm to 5:45 on the dot. It is actually uncanny how predictably he wakes up each morning at 5:45. Sometimes he'll lay in bed with me after that for up to an hour, but often not. Sometimes he wakes in the middle of the night, and I just go to the door, tell him to lay down, and he is fine. Otherwise he'll cry for at least 1.5 hours. I know because we tried that method, until I decided enough was enough.

He likes other kids, though we are entering the "difficulty in sharing" age. He loves to watch the boys I babysit jump around outside in the snow. But inside, he gets upset with them a lot because sharing isn't always something they do well together. He is very proud of himself when he does share, and will have a huge smile on his face that is damn cute.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Oh my.

This picture cuts right through me. Those shining eyes, the dimples, the booger-crusted nose. Ouch.We went to see Ann this weekend and Raph took Makili skating on the pond out back. He was actually pretty good, though I'm attributing that to the balancing power of his tongue, which you'll see is in action here. He loved it too!





And again. Those eyes!

Friday, March 13, 2009

This message brought to you by John and Gwen


So we didn't actually come to any agreement on a new lens. Though I did make an executive decision and bought the one I want, it's not here yet. But out friends John and Gwen who have a scuba/photography business in Hawaii were done with a Canon XTi and sent it to us with the stock lens. Talk about nice! So here you are. A few photos (cause I'm not used to remembering to use it yet) of Makili biking yesterday, and the resulting fat lip. Though when I took him inside to wash away the rocks and boogers and blood, he had a complete fit, because as he yelled, "bike outside!" How dare I tear him away from his bike, even if he was bleeding and shivering!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

I like it this video.

I found this on another blog. I like it this video, as my niece Gabrielle would say! I liked more and more as it went on. Evan, you in particular will like it.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

My new Name

Makili has been saying Daddy for a long time, and though he would occassionally say mama after someone else said, it wasn't frequent and it wasn't usually independent. Now things have changed. I have a name. Apparently I say things like "give me that toy," or "do you want me to help you," or "what do you want me to do?" because I am officially called "ME." Raph thinks it's hilarious. I kind of like it actually.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Allergic Reaction, Fifth Disease, A Mystery!

We have no idea what has caused this incredible rash.


Sunday, March 01, 2009

A Gabrielle-Paka Saga

She started off cute as a button and happy as a clam (love those cliches!)
But then Makili made her mad. (She has a delicate nature!)

Paka came to the rescue and decided to provide some diversion. She loved it. Laura did not.Then the inevitable happened. A little slip. No harm done, but...

Again the delicate nature.
So Paka tries another diversion. And all was well.

A few more shots.
I look ridiculously pregnant and big, but otherwise a nice group shot.

I just liked this silly picture of Ann.