Our little girl has turned 2! I can't believe how fast time flies!!
She was born on April 25, 2006, weighing in at 8 lbs 3.8 oz & measuring 19 inches long. It seems like forever ago...and yet like just yesterday! For those who haven't seen her grow up, Here's a little slideshow of some pictures from the first 2 years of our little "Anna Banana"'s life.
Tonight was the Pearlridge Elementary's (the girls' cousins school) Family Fun Night. Every year, they hold a huge venue of rides, games & food for a fund raiser. We've gone every year, and the girls had a blast tonight! Plus, the venue keeps getting bigger and bigger!
This year, the girls were big enough to actually take part in some of the "big kids" activities!
So, they had a little Kiddie helicopter ride that Kela and Anna loved. We thought Anna would get scared, but since she was riding with her cousins Riho and Seina, she seemed fine! Kela, of course, loved it. She rode with Rumi and Hugo...a.k.a "the Three Musketeers"
After the helicopter ride, it was dinner--Mmmm! Spam musubi's (spam & rice wrapped in seaweed...doesn't it sound yummy!), hot dogs, chips and juice. Yea, none of that "healthy food" here!
After dinner, the games resumed with a pony ride, some coin tossing, ring tossing, marble rolling, frog-leaping, and ball throwing. Everyone was tired at the end of the night!
Yea! We couldn't believe it! Today, Anna went poo-poo on the toilet for the very first time! Her cousins Kumen (2 months older) and Aya (1 month younger) have been doing this for a little while already, but after "losing it" with Kela's potty-training (oh, how many times!!) we decided not to rush Anna. But, tonight, she came up to me all on her own and told me she wanted to go! I've put her on the toilet before, but she usually just sits there and wants to play with the toilet paper...tonight, though, she did it!! Hooray! She did get a bit scared at first, but after some encouraging and cheering (a lot of cheerleading!), she was brave enough to "do her business." We were so proud of our little girl!
I contemplated whether I should post pics, as some people might find this offensive...so if you do, I apologize. But, I figure she's only 2 (this Friday!!) and thought she just looked so happy and proud of herself-how could I not post?
Aya came over today and spent a couple of hours with the girls. Anna and Aya LOOOVE to dress-up like princesses. Here's a shot of the two of them.
Today was a rainy Saturday. It's been raining off and on the entire day...even downpouring at times! Such a bummer that Kela's friend's birthday party happened to fall on such a junk day! But, since we do live in Hawaii, and our friend's pool happened to be a HEATED pool...the party went on!
After dinner, the girls decided it was no fun simply watching all the kids swimming...so Mitch graciously agreed to swim with them. Which was a good thing because I wasn't about to sport a swimsuit to brave the cold! The water was heated, but the air was pretty cool--and when it rained (which, like I said was off and on the entire day) it got COLD! I think Mitch was hoping the girls would be happy staying on the stairs...but no, they wanted to go ALL the way in. He ended up getting soaked head to toe.
You can see in some of the pictures how Anna learned how to Jump into the pool from the edge. It was funny (and scary) because she'd actually try and run away from Mitch while jumping into the pool, so he had to literally chase her just to catch her in time! She's absolutely our fearless one when it comes to the water! Kela stayed close to the stairs nearly the entire time. Although for a short while, she actually ventured away from the edge...albeit she had a floatie ring around her. She's still pretty scared of the water. I keep thinking I need to teach her how to swim. Since our friends live just up the hill from us, we just may visit more often to teach Kela and Anna how to swim (especially since I'm deathly afraid of drowning...I had a near-drowning experience when I was preggo with Kela and have been a baby in the water ever since!). And, living in Hawaii, we go to the beach so often...it's always better to be safe than sorry, right? 
After swimming (can you tell it was cold? The girls are sporting cardigans and sweatshirts!), it was time for brownies and ice cream! Zoe is the birthday girl. Her little sister Sophie is Kela's age and are Sunbeam buddies.
The pool was fun, and the company even better ( I got to relax and "talk story" with the other moms..while watching the dad's chase around the kids in the pool. I had a blast!) The girls did too, and didn't want to leave even after it got dark. I was especially happy not to have to cook dinner (yea~!). Being preggo is the only time I lose all desire to cook...is it just me? Anyway, it was a great day, despite the rain and cold...I guess I really have nothing to complain about.
I apoligize if the layout looks kind kooky. I'm just playing around with some digital scrapbooking stuff I found and decided to try it out. On my computer, the design kinda doubles on the left side and looks a bit funny...I imagine if your screen has a higher resolution then it must look even funnier.
I promise, this shouldn't last too long. I'll change it to some other background soon. Just for fun, though, I'll probably keep it like this and may even dabble around with some other layout creations in the future... (I know, I should probably stick to the "regular" scrapbooking stuff and leave the digital to the experts.)
Please tell me my kids aren't the only ones that do this! 
It's finally the weekend and we can all breathe! Well...hopefully. Mitch is technically "on-call" for work tomorrow, which means that he gets a day off so long as no other pilot calls in sick or a plane doesn't run into mechanical problems. We're keeping our fingers crossed since he's been working some serious overtime this past week. I think he just may have even beat his brother in the hours/week department! Which is pretty hard to do since he's a doc in his first year of residency.
Since Mitch had such a busy work week, we had to wait until the weekend to celebrate. So, after a 1/2 day of work and another 5 hours or so of hard-labor construction work, we dragged a very tired daddy out to dinner. It was a short (because the girls were tired, too!) but nice dinner with just the four of us. Happy (belated) Birthday, Daddy!
At the end of day #2, our house looks like this. The outside walls are all up, the windows all in, the roof has been extended and it's basically a real room! Well, except for the door. There still isn't a door...but that will have to wait until next week. And that crazy guy on top of our roof is my brother-in-law Dean. I especially think he's crazy walking on our roof with no straps or safety harness because a couple of years ago when he was building my sister Airi's house, he fell down from the second story and landed on the stairs and broke his back. 
Preschool here in Hawaii is rediculously expensive. So, we decided to wait until Kela turns 4 to register her into an official preschool curriculum. However, in the mean time, there is a very short and very cheap 8 week preschool program put on by the state at a local high school for little kids. We took Kela last year and she LOVED it, and has been asking to go back since. Officially, Monday was the first day of school, but since we decided to keep her home on Monday (worried about her relapsing or getting other kids sick...), today was her first day of school. She so loves going to school and even though I have to drive 45 minutes in traffic to get there, it's all worth it. Besides, I have nearly 3 hours to kill in town to do some exercise, shopping, etc. It's great! 
This year is especially great because Kela's cousin, Hugo, is also in the class. They drive from farther away...but they both love school and are so happy to be in the same class!! And, I get to hang out with my sister-in-law and Anna. Today, we hit Ala Moana mall to walk around and window shop...I actually shopped a bit, too, but can you blame me?
Since school finishes right about lunch time, we bought a few little bentos (Kela and Anna's favorite sushi, rice and chicken) and ate them in the car before the long drive home. As you can see, Anna didn't really want to leave Kela's classroom because they had a toy kitchen and all kinds of fun things to play with. Next year, we'll be putting Anna into the program--if only she were a couple of months older, we could have made it this year too...darn! 
I enjoy Mitch's birthday for several reasons. One, he's my hubby and it's his special day--of course, I'm happy for him on his birthday! Two, birthdays and anniversaries are basically the few occasions we get the chance to get out just the two of us. (that date is still pending, by the way...I'm sure I'll be posting that when it actually happens). And three, his birthday means that we are (finally) the same age! ( and I don't have to feel like the "old maid" in the relationship anymore...yippee!!)
So, on this "monumentous" occasion (and yes, I realize that isn't an actual word...It just sounds like it should be), poor Mitch had to work from really early this morning. He woke up around 4 am or so to prepare for his class (he's the instructor, not the student), then go to work and teach all day, come home and rush to Laie for our evening Temple session. (I stayed with Elika to watch the kiddies and cook dinner...but mostly because silly me has an expired Temple Recommend. I know, terrible, huh? It's just missing the Stake Prez signature...but that's beside the point.) So, needless to say, Mitch had a LONG and tiring day--tiring enough that I drove home (which means he was REALLY beat). But, after the session, we ate dinner at Elika's, had brownies and ice cream (is there any other way to eat brownies?) and relaxed watching CNN for a little while. I know, old fogies, right?
I promise, we'll do something much more exciting to celebrate the big day--on another day--when Mitch is less tired and less busy. :) Hopefully.
Today, I had my follow-up appointment with my opthamologist and I'm all clear. No Glaucoma. Hooray! I did, however have to have my pupils dilated again, and had to drive myself home, again. It wasn't very fun...although this time, I was prepared! I armed myself with darker sunglasses, and an extra pair of eyes! Kela came with me to keep me company while we waited (and waited, and waited....). She was a great helper and held my hand and pushed the elevator buttons for me. Just kidding-but she really does like to push those elevator buttons. I swear, it's the highlight of her trip to any office building.
And right now, I am typing this with my face 6 inches from the screen because everything closer than 5 feet is a big blurr--unless it's 6 inches away and I take off my glasses...I know, I should just wait for the dilation meds to go away, but the girls are sleeping and this time is simply priceless for uninterrupted "me" time.
I do, however, have to go back in about a month for some more testing (does it ever end??), but at least now I can rest assured that I'm not going blind! :)
We've finally "broken ground" and begun construction on our tiny little home. We're planning on inclosing our little lanai and creating a little bedroom for us and our soon~to~come baby. It's so exciting, I can hardly contain myself! We've been living "sardine-style" for way too long and I'm just ecstatic about having a real bed and a private little room to call our own. SO, the day before construction, Mitch cleared out our lanai of debris, wiped down our washer/dryer and power-washed the entire area. Had I taken a picture before all was cleared out, you'd be impressed by this picture here and how clean it looks...
I know it doesn't look like much yet, but in a few short weeks, it'll be exciting to compare the difference, I promise!
Dean, my brother-in-law, and his friend Zak came down to start the framing. They did all this in less than 4 hours or so! So fast how they pounded out the skeleton of our future room! They sure are professionals! And we're SO grateful for them taking their Saturday afternoon to help us out. Even Mitch got in on the action and framed up one wall! Well, as of Saturday night, Kela had finally broken her fever and was feeling just well enough to smile for the camera--a ham for the camera as always! But, it's nice for us to see her finally well enough to smile and walk around just a little bit. This has been, by far, the worst "bug" she's ever gotten...Rumi must have contracted some kind of "super bug" in Utah! At it's worst, her fever hit about 103. Mitch thought she was having a mild seizure because she began twitching a little...but it was only for a few seconds and she was coherent the entire time. Just a bit scared, and extremely hungry. She hasn't eaten anything really solid (or at least hasn't been able to keep it down) for almost 2 days. Poor thing...but, as of Sunday morning, the worst seems over, and her fever has subsided. She's even eating some crackers and downing the pedialyte laced with probiotic to help her build up her immune system.
Whew! We're sure glad she's finally feeling better!
Anna, on the other hand, is fine and active as usual. Here's a shot we took a couple of nights ago. Her "thing" these days is dressing up in the few articles of princess dress-up clothes we have. She calls it her "Rella" (short for Cinderella) dress and likes to walk around with her plastic shoes, sunglasses and either a purse, a phone or both in her hand...
This is new for us, as Kela was never quite into "dress-up" but I'm getting the feeling that Anna will make up for all those dress-up-free years. Oy oy!
Well, it seems Kela didn't stay far enough away from her sick cousin Rumi. We woke up this morning fine and happy as usualy, but this afternoon, she finally came down with the "bug" and has been couch-ridden. It doesn't seem too bad, though...as she's able to get up and walk to the bathroom by herself (a lot!), and is finally able to keep down the pedialyte we got her. Poor thing...it's the saddest thing seeing your little one sick. Hopefully the worst is over and tomorrow she can kick her fever. 
Or is it? I saw the Opthamologist and basically, she thinks my "supposed glaucoma" scare is really not a threat. There was a hemorrhage on my optic nerve which I need to go back next week for some more testing (peripheral vision tests, etc.) and they'll be needing to monitor it for the next few months to make sure I don't get any more...but I probably needn't worry. So, although I really never did stress about it, it's nice to hear it from the experts. :)
Horray for sight!
Oh, and P.S. During my appointment I had my eyes dilated for the very first time. Ever. It was so weird. But, I must say, having to drive myself home with dilated pupils on a sunny afternoon was beyond weird...for any of you out there faced with this opportunity, I highly recommend it. Just kidding! It probably ranks up there in the top 5 freakiest experiences I have ever had...by far. I shudder at the thought of having to do it again next week!
And, now that Airi and Elika's families are back from their respective Spring Break vacations, Kela and Anna are especially happy to have their usual playmates returned safe and sound. And although Rumi is still getting over a NASTY bug she caught in Utah, she's well enough to entertain Kela in her favorite activity: playing "house" (which I can't stand, but can't seem to get her to stop!! Any ideas? I'm all open for suggestions). Anyway, despite my constant worry about Kela getting too close to Rumi (she frankly mentions this to Rumi upon our arrival..."My Mom says I can't touch you because I don't wanna get sick"), they all had fun.
