8/22 Pictures

We have a lot of pictures for your enjoyment--especially you, Mom.

Anuhea multi-tasks by holding her sleeping sister, Leiohu, and using the computer.

Leiohu at 1 month, held by Jason

Leiohu looks at Anuhea from her carseat

Hokulani flashes a bright smile

Leiohu looks at her mommy, Carmel

Nalani, Leiohu, and Hokulani

Hokulani holds Leiohu on her shoulder

Hokulani doesn't look big enough to be holding this baby (For you who are squirmish, Hokulani only holds Leiohu while sitting, and is always under supervision.)

Leiohu loves bath time. As you can see, we bathe her at our kitchen sink. :)

Jason and Leiohu

How do you like this face? Leiohu looks so funny in this picture.

Leiohu at 1 month

Leiohu in one of her summer dresses

Leiohu's 1st attempt at being on her stomach to try using her neck to lift her head

The oldest and the youngest: Anuhea and Leiohu

This was our (late) one-month celebration of Leiohu's birth. It's traditional to have sticky rice (with mushrooms, pork, and dried shrimp). We also had roast chicken from the Asian market and stir-fried ong choy (the green vegetables).

Leiohu often scratches herself with her sharp fingernails (even though I cut them all the time). We don't have any mittens so here she is with socks on her hands! (The socks are new and have never been used on feet.)

Thousand year old eggs

I tried a little of the egg. Can you believe it? It's jelly-like and not very good, but with the sticky rice, I could barely taste it.

Hokulani and Leiohu

Mmm, lobster. We had lobster for dinner, but it wasn't as fun as eating crab (which he had about a week before having the lobster). Can you believe the lobster was still moving after being in the car, and in the refrigerator for over a day? Even in the steamer, the legs still moved a little before finally giving up.

We love chocolate cake! Okay, at least I do. Everyone else in the family eats it too, but I love it most. We also LOVE Publix cakes. If you have a Publix grocery store near you, then you should try their cakes. Mmm. . .yum!

Nalani and Leiohu

Nalani's a big help with her baby sister, Leiohu. Nalani loves carrying Leiohu and is often able to get her to fall asleep.

Hokulani and Leiohu

Hokulani looks like she's holding a doll.

Hokulani and Leiohu after bath time

Anuhea likes putting Leiohu in the sitting position for picture-taking. Leiohu looks like she's falling asleep.

Leiohu is a little more awake

Hey! I'm falling over, Anuhea!

One of many pictures of Leiohu

Leiohu in one of her long-sleeved onesies. Jason got Leiohu to smile in this picture (taken on 8/21).

Another picture of Anuhea multi-tasking (see the first picture if you forgot what I'm talking about).

8/21 Rain and Wind

August 21, 2008

The children started school on Monday. Then they were out of school on Tuesday and Wednesday because of Tropical Storm Fay. The children went back to school today, Thursday, but schools are closed again tomorrow.

The crazy thing though is that nothing happened on Tuesday. We didn't even have rain or anything.

Last night it started raining and getting windy. I woke up during the night to the sound of the wind and rain, and it actually sounded like the ocean. I was actually happy to hear the sounds that made me feel like I was sleeping by the ocean.



Today we got unbelievable rain and wind. The winds have been around 40 miles per hour. The rain has been nonstop. There were flash flood warnings in some areas of Florida, but not where we are. There were also flood warnings, but we've been okay so far. We got pretty wet getting the children from school. Nalani and Hokulani also started their Acrobatics and Beginning Dance classes, respectively, again today and we got quite wet being out then too.

I don't know if you can see a difference between these two pictures, but one was taken in the morning and one in the afternoon. The "ditch" behind our house, where the water runoff from the street goes, is getting higher. We don't seem to be in danger of it getting up to our house, but we sure have a lot of water back there. There's a lot of water between our house and our neighbor's house. Our neighbors also got a lot of water in their driveway and some in their garage. I don't know why their driveway goes down.

8/18 Back to School

August 18, 2008

The children have returned to school today. Anuhea's in 6th grade and has started middle school. Agh! When did we get so old?! Okay, I don't feel old, but having a child in middle school does things to your ego. Nalani's in 4th grade and Hokulani's in 1st grade.

We found out that the children won't have school tomorrow because Tropical Storm Fay is likely to turn into Hurricane Fay tomorrow. Yikes!

8/14 Clean Bill of Health

August 14, 2008

I went to the doctor for my 6-week postpartum checkup. He said everything's good, and I can get back to doing WHATEVER I want to. Yeah!!! What I really need to do is exercise. For those of you who know me, you'll know that I don't especially prefer to exercise. I hope I can at least do some. I can't wait to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes.

8/8 The Olympics

August 8, 2008

The Olympics Opening Ceremony. . .we were looking forward to it all summer. Then we looked forward to it all day. We even allowed the children to stay up to watch it since school hasn't started yet. Finally, at 7:30pm we started watching the ceremony on TV and after only 15-30 minutes the POWER WENT OUT!

We were so surprised. We worried about our food and lack of air conditioning. However, after finding out that the power would likely be out until 11pm we sent the children to bed. The power came back on around 9pm, and we saw some of the parade of nations, but it went out again after 15-30 minutes again. Then it came back on for good around 10pm or so. By then, I went to sleep and Jason stayed up to watch TV.

We missed the entire ceremony--I mean the good stuff with all the performances. http://www.nbcolympics.com/ Luckily, we were able to watch the highlights online. It was amazing! All of you who got to watch it. . .LUCKY!

Also. . .in Chinese, the number 8 is "ba". Today is 8/8 so it's baba. Baba is also how you say father or dad (with different tones from the number 8), so today is Baba day or Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to all you fathers!

WALL-E

August 6, 2008

At the last minute Jason suggested we go out to watch a movie. We were all excited, but it's not often that we get to go to the movie theater to watch movies. We watched WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class). Everyone enjoyed the movie. Jason appreciated that it was fun, and that it was teaching about taking care of our resources.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/wall-e/

I was disappointed that I missed almost all of the movie. I watched the beginning of the movie, but had to take Leiohu out because she was fussing, and I had to change her messy diaper. Then she cried for a long time. I think she was feeling uncomfortable. Just when I thought she was calm enough for us to go back into the theater, Leiohu would start crying again. Finally, I got her to fall asleep and was able to go back into the theater for the end of the movie. Ugh!

These were everyone's favorite things about the movie or our favorite parts of the movie:

Jason--I liked that it had an environmental theme. People can't just exploit and ignore the environment.

Carmel--I didn't see enough of the movie, but I liked when WALL-E and EVE first introduced themselves (by name).
Anuhea--I liked M-O (Microbe Obliterator)!

Nalani--I liked the part when he was on land and was playing with the fire extinguisher.

Hokulani--I liked it when M-O had to check out WALL-E when WALL-E went to EVE's ship.

Leiohu--(We think she didn't like the loud and dark theater.)

Leiohu's 1 month!

July 30, 2008

Leiohu is one month today! We're so excited that she is a part of our family, and are amazed that one month has already come and gone.

She is much bigger now: from 7 pounds, 11 ounces to 9-1/2 pounds, and from 20 inches to 22 inches.