My wee prince took me for a ride on a modern lily pad.

Heidi and I took the SUP out to the beach this morning. Tide was high enough that my fin didn’t scrape the reef and knock us off 🙂 Heidi did a great job paddling all over and even spotted a turtle! I went out for a bit then came back to pick Sam up – my favorite part of owning an SUP. The current was strong so we got a good workout! Then we picked up sushi and cake (eat cake every day of birthday week!) and had a picnic on Heidi’s lawn. We got VERY messy – she had to hose the boys off! Lots of fun.

Sparkling water case has eye holes!

We had some fun this morning with a sparkling water box – it already had eye holes and when you cut an opening for the neck, you end up with a nice breastplate! Can you see my beady eyes?

I’ve been meaning to post this plant and legend for some time so I don’t forget when we move away…this is Naupaka kahakai (naupaka by the ocean). The well-known legend associated with this plant is that the half-circle of petals represents lovers separated: Kai (ocean) and Hiwa (entirely black). Frustrated by having to meet in secret, Hiwa split the flower in half and gave it to Kai before she ran to the mountains. There are two variations of this endemic plant – Naupaka kuahiwi and Naupaka kahakai. The beach naupaka grows so well in dry, sandy soil in unrelenting sun. It’s a very hardy plant, and I’m hoping we will grow some when we landscape our little front garden.

Ben walking and Sam biking!

Ben took his first steps about two months ago, but decided crawling was faster. Just last week he started walking, and hasn’t looked back. From walking about 20% of the time the first day he tried, he’s now up to walking almost all the time just 3 or 4 days later. Here we are at the beach park so they can both wreak havoc on all the weekenders. Ben is weight lifting in this picture. I also uploaded a movie so you can see him following a doggie and saying “duhddie” or something like that, and Sam is biking over logs, through puddles (not very big here) and rolling off curbs! Wow. That’s at the end of this 2 min movie. Click for movie: 2009-06-ben-walking

We still have the plague here. Sam relapsed or still has the same cold, but he never complains and still wants to do all these things. I try to get him to rest, to no avail. Ben is still healthy. Dave has another week of school work before this batch of classes and heavier than normal work load is over. We are blessed, though. Others, whom we pray for every evening, are facing much more daunting days and bearing heavier burdens.  

Full moon from Kailua Beach.

We took a quick ride over to Kailua Beach to see the full moon tonight. Ben LOVES the moon and always points to it saying “bbbbooon!” (Make your lips go sort-of “bbrrrr” when you say it, like you’re cold.) Tried to take a video of him saying it over and over again, pointing the whole time, but there was no light for video. This is a long-exposure shot taken with camera resting on sand.

 

 Our original plan was to go to the Bishop Museum, but Ben was still recovering from our all-out Maui trip (as am I!) and we ran out of time due to a loooong nap (during which I caught up on some work). Sooo…what is one to do?

Honu eating

We had such a crazy week last week with me sick the entire time – really sick, actually. I felt so awful – it was pneumonia most likely and I have not been that tired in more than a decade. Even childbirth and sleep deprivation did not compare. I am so thankful to have my health back! (Thanks ZPack!) Four days of fever over 102 will really knock you on your rear. And I’d committed to editing a 90 page thesis, so I was still working every day through the fever. Unreal. Even took boys for a picnic for Ben’s birthday on Thurs. Anyway…enough about the plague that hit our home. Dave was working 6am to midnight, so he was not available to help out and was doing all he could to avoid getting ill. (Apparently I have PTSD and can’t let it go!) This weekend we celebrated being together again and me no longer contagious. I was so tired, but working so hard to keep the boys healthy so my every move was doubled by cleaning and sanitizing, cough-covering, sneeze-blocking…ugh! Thankfully neither got this awful thing, and Sam seems to have just a simple cold now. We went to Sea Life Park over the weekend, then to several tide pools. We were in the water swimming and snorkeling the whole weekend. Nice!

My new favorite birthday toy – thanks Gramma!

Happy First Birthday, little big man, BenBoots, bops, biscuit man, baby honu… You are ONE now! Wow – what a year you have had. You are so grown up, and you feel it, don’t you? With Big Brother Sam to watch and admire, you don’t miss a trick. You’re right in there, insisting on walking down stairs, crawling up slides, head-first into the water no matter how big the waves are…Sam says he likes your claps the most, and Daddy says he likes splash claps. Do you remember your funny claps now that you’re doing “real” ones? You used to “clap” your fists vertically, banging your fists together as they passed each other in mid-air. You’d sometimes get so wild you’d bop yourself in the forehead on each pass, but that didn’t stop you! You’re walking now, although you don’t like mommy to know so you hide your walking from me so you get cuddle-carries longer. You’ll walk across your bedroom for Daddy or Sammy, but not Mommy! You say all kinds of little words, and you really seem to understand things beyond your years. You traveled so well to Europe, and we can’t wait for our next trip (Maui next week). I am perplexed, though – why do you still fight me so much to have your diaper changed? Why do you hang upside down and writhe while I’m trying to wipe you? What is so difficult about just getting cleaned up? I sing, I play, I coo, I smile, I give you toys, none of that works. You hate being interrupted. The irony is the more you writhe the longer your interruption. With the smell of Memorial Day grilling all around, I’m hankering for a camping trip…now that you’re walking it will be easier in many ways. What a messy buddy you were on the other campouts. We love you Ben, so much. You are so funny and have such a bright, engaging, wide-mouth smile. What will you get into this year? What mischief awaits? Happy birthday, my big man. I love you!

A running stream on Maunawili trail on the way to the Pali lookout.

Just a couple random musings…yesterday we went to the commissary thinking it was open until 7pm. We arrived at about 5:45 pm, no problem, right? Turns out it closed at 6pm. When I heard “The commissary is closing in FIIIIIVE minutes” on the PA I was freaked out! We did extreme shopping and saved a bundle, though, and had fun. In fact, I only used my green bags and didn’t bring any plastic home! When we were walking to the truck, Sam said “Mom, 8 plus 7 is 15.” Just very matter-of-factly. I said “why yes” thinking nothing of it…then realized what he’d just said! Wow! Today we went on a little hike – just a quickie, but a good one. We actually got a bunch of good pictures and had a great time. Our friends were otherwise engaged today so it was nice to just focus on the boys. The picture above illustrates a word we learned in an Eddie Kamae song – I downloaded lyrics so we could learn some Hawaiian. It’s a lot easier for me that way…more immersion style. So running stream is “kahawai.” And “pali” is cliff.

We enjoyed some beach time this morning with our friends. While Ben napped, Sam and I sneaked out for a snorkel in the tide pools. Wow! I love snorkeling, and it was really special to spend that time with Sam, floating around and sharing exclamations about all the fish we saw. When Ben woke up we enjoyed trying out our new “shell” phones…get it? ha! One of our friends also tried snorkeling for the first time in her life! She was so funny, worried about fish touching her. She was very brave, though, and actually got into the water and swam around a bit. She was kicking so hard, though, that her 2 yr old son said “Momma is going to scare all da fish!” So cute! Good going, Kiela!