Busy doing nothing (but some bragging)

I will cover the stuff that you are really reading this blog for first.

Helaina and Indi are little weeds.  It is so amazing to watch someone grow and learn.  It's almost unfathomable at the rate in which this happens.  Helaina has her alphabet memorized and has some letter recognition.  She can spell her 1st and last name.  She counts to 16 (with no mistakes before 10).  I keep telling Chris to save for Harvard to which his reply is "Virginia Tech."

All my girls including Minnie and Tevan

She's being brainwashed by Chris and Mimi
Note the adorable pigtails.  (were up to 6 min of wearing)

Potty updates (isn't my life exciting?)
She is wearing big girl underwear!  Pull ups can go pound sand!  My opinion is they are worthless.  It's much easier to pull down underwear and she is much less inclined to relieve herself in Minnie or Princess underwear.  Yes I have, totally sold out to "the Mouse" and bribing.  We also should buy stock in Raisins and Craisins.  She gets some every time she goes to the potty.    I believe that is the main reason she has any desire to go but hey, it works!  She was almost there and  then regressed some but that seems to be a theme with children.  As my BFF Cathy said, "it's all a phase, good and bad, it's all a phase"

Things Helaina says:
Last blog I covered funny things that Helaina says.  I beginning to think this will be a regular topic in the blogs.  She has a baby doll that we have lovingly named "Tevan" as a reminder of when she was learning to count she would count up 8, 9, and then say "teven" which is a combo of Ten and Eleven.  This week she wanted "just one Chee" which we later deduced that she was bargaining for just one piece of cheese.  Pretty smart that she made up a singular use of the word cheese.
She also said she wanted to go through the "funnel" when we went on a road that has a tunnel through the mountain.  And lastly she asked if I was looking at the "Frigatta" when I was looking out at the ocean.  Which of course, was the sail boat regatta that we are lucky to see every Friday from our place.  I sometimes feel bad that I get so much enjoyment out of her mistakes while she is learning but it's soo cute.  

I can't help but smile when she does

Indi is officially rolling over.  Time for us to get a twin bed for H so we can convert the crib back for Indigo.  WOW kids are expensive.  (especially in Hawaii).  What I wouldn't do for nice IKEA bed right now.  Indigo is a happy baby.  She wakes up and hangs out her crib making sweet cooing noises until someone comes to get her (unless of course you wait too long, which I have found out the hard way-- don't judge as I'm keeping pretty busy with this potty training stuff).  She smiles a LOT and only has some moments of cranky at this point.  (again it's just a phase but I'm trying to enjoy it while it's here).  She is learning how to use her voice and lets out some relatively loud screams all the while with a big smile on her face.  She LOVES to watch Helaina and gets excited when Helaina engages her.

My goal right now is to get Indi sleeping just a bit longer threw the night so I can attempt to put them in the same room.  Be sure to see my updates :o)

We were a good looking couple - 4 years and 2 children ago

Chris and I just celebrated our 4 year anniversary.  We are going to dinner on Saturday and looking forward to some mommy daddy time.  Again, in some ways it feels like our wedding was yesterday and in other ways it feels like we have always been together.  I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world.  I often feel like it was a dream that we actually met by my chasing him down the sidewalk.  I can definitely say that story has a happy ending.  I feel like our marriage is so easy going at times that I fear I might be missing something.  We both read a book called Love Dare.   I feel like it realigned things that we didn't even know were amiss.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is married.  (or considering marriage).

On another note, I joined a book club.  Since the first book was Hunger Games I was a shoe in (as I had already read and obsessed over the all three installments. The second book is called Make the Bread, Buy the Butter).  In short, a journalist who lost her job took on the task of home making many of the every day items that most of us buy from the store.  (yogurt, bread, butter, cheese etc....).  She found great recipes for each weighed them against how much time it took to make, taste and average cost.   It's essentially a cook book but she has added her hilarious dialect and it makes for a great read.  

So far, I have made homemade plain yogurt which was easy, DELICIOUS and not bitter tasting like store bought.  (though living in Hawaii and buying organic made this not a cost savings.  I have also made bagels.  I used whole wheat (which I don't normally buy at the deli) so it was not as good as white flour bagels but the smell was SOO yummy and they were pretty darn good for whole wheat.  I also made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that were delightful.  Helaina helped.  And by helped, I mean she poured into the bowl the measured items I handed her.  Minus the cup of sugar that landed on the floor, she did an outstanding job for a two year old.  I plan on continuing to make things from the book.  I will let you know if there are any others worth making.   

Cooking yeast is SERIOUS FUN for an amateur baker

My lovely assistant sporting her own apron from Auntie Ro Ro

Yummy smelling and tasting

Many of you want to know when we are moving and where.  So do we.  

The story pretty much changes every week as there are a bunch of moving parts.  I promise we are not holding out and we will update you all as soon as we have a more clear and solid picture.  For now, we are continuing to enjoy our life in Hawaii.    Much love to you all!

H.I. Update

So many things have happened in the last 3 months that I would love to blog about.....

Mimi and Grandaddy visited

We went on a "cation" to Aulani

My BFF Cathy came to visit.

She's a professional

Girls night out 

The Kwasnowski's and Jessica threw a fabulous 2nd birthday party for Helaina.   We were so appreciative since incapable of doing so with a 2 week old). 

Ballon fest thanks to the Vertollis

The Kwas family has moved back to Florida :o(

All of our girls will miss them dearly

Sara and 2 or her 4 children, John and Grace, are currently visiting from Chicago

1/2 the Quinn Family

Helaina is loving John and Grace! (and Sara too)

This is how she looks at John (shhh, don't tell Chris)

These were all such wonderful or important experiences but a las time is slipping away and I do not for see any opportunities for better time management that will allow me to blog on these.  Right now a shower, teeth brushing, and dinner all in the same day is considered a blessing.  Your going to have to imagine what a good time we had with our visitors along with the sadness of saying see you later and enjoy the pictures that I have managed to post.

I did want to jot some thoughts down about my growing girls.  As my best friend Cathy pointed out, our daughters initials are H and I which also happens to be the abbreviation for the state they were born in.  Random but cool.

HELAINA:
Helaina is amazingly smart (though I think most people think so about their own child).  Either way, she get's any of her smarts from Chris and she continues to amaze us on a daily basis.

She found the letters that coincided
to spell Toms all by herself

It's hard to gauge at the moment as she is receiving quite a bit of attention from our guests but I think we are rounding the corner on the jealousy thing.  She is back to sleeping through the night and eating all of her meals with little hassle.   She likes to help a lot with the baby.  She is always eager to get a diaper or clean out the trash can during changing times and even says "it's ok Indi" when there is crying going on.
She would like to hold her a lot more than I am comfortable with but she is very delicate and sweet when she does.

Helaina has an extensive vocabulary, especially for a two year old.  Her pronunciation is sometimes a bit off but it comes out so adorable that Chris and I find ourselves talking like her after she goes to bed just for a giggle.  One of our favorite quotes is "We read about dis" when she wants to read something.  She pronounces "Ss" as Phs or Fs"  Ex.  Foon for Spoon, Phin for Spin.  It's almost sad when she learns the correct way to say it -- it's a reminder of how fast it goes.  Fortunately she has not picked up on any of Mommies accidental potty mouth words.  However, my husband, who hardly ever swears, has not been as lucky.  Chris' go to expletive is Oh Sh%^.  But instead of saying the word he literally cuts himself off and say's Oh SHhhhhhhhh.  Now this has only happened two times in front of her that I am aware but since daddy hung the moon, she picked right up on it.  We have tried ignoring and sometimes correcting when it became habitual. Lucky for us, I think it's fading and we won't have to worry about getting a call from the school.

We just got through our first legitimate sickness and it was NOT fun.  After a month of on again off again, we broke down and went back to the doctor for antibiotics.  She is doing much better and I am grateful that she has not been sick a lot.

Bless her heart, she has her mommies hair but I am proud to say that after 2 years and 2 months, her hair is finally able to make some sort of pony tail.    We  will probably finish the year before needing a hair cut.  Now she will wear a hat all day if necessary but refuses to wear barrettes or hair ties.  I guess I can't complain about that though.

I snapped a pic in the 4 minutes that these remained in her hair

We are potty training right now.  Yes. I am insane but I was always told that when kids are ready you will know and of course.....Helaina showed signs of ready when we have a 3 month old.   I keep telling myself it's easier now than it would be when Indigo is mobil.  I have resorted to the old school way of letting her walk around at home in her birthday suit.  The first day there were a few messes to clean up but after that, it works beautifully.  The transition to pull ups has not been as smooth but we are working our way up.  Besides, I have to admit that I get a giggle by seeing her cute little tushi walk around.

I hope health department doesn't
stop by the house.

Indigo (Indi)

Maybe she is an 'easier' baby than Helaina was or maybe it's because I feel more confident as a mom, either way, I feel like I am able to enjoy Indigo a little easier than I did Helaina.  It also doesn't hurt that she nurses for an average of 10 min on one side and then she is done for a couple hours.  

Helaina attends 'school' 2 days a week so she can socialize and I get to spend one on one time with Indi.  I think she is going to be sensitive towards others.  From the very beginning, when breast feeding was painful, she would latch on and pause and I swore that she knew it was hurting me and was hesitant to go forward.  When I would relax, so would she.  Her ears both wiggle when she is feeding.  (this could be a good party trick later in life). Speaking of her ears, I think they are so adorable.  They look like they are upside down with the wide part at the bottom.   She smiles a lot and when Chris smiles back at her, she turns her head to the side and almost blushes.  SOOO CUTE.  She loves to watch her big sister and I can hardly wait for them to play together (but I won't wishfully rush it since I know it's likely they will fight also).  She is an AWESOME night sleeper.  We put her down around 7:30 and she will sleep to somewhere between 1:00am - 3:00am, nurse and go back to sleep until 6:30 or so.   She often gets cranky around dinner time but I think this is common for most kids.  (I think I do too!)

Sisterly love

Because she is so new, I don't have a ton to blog on her yet.   I do feel incredibly blessed to watch these girls grow like weeds and get to be part of the process as the Lord develops their personalities.  Hopefully I will have more time to keep you updated! 

Indigo Arrives

Warning:  Some graphic content...not for the weak at heart...and if you haven't had a baby yet, you may not want to read this as some of these things people don't tell you so that the earth's population doesn't become jeopardized.  

I didn't want to have any expectations for an early arrival for our second child because I assumed that would help time not to drag on if I was "late" again.  The problem with this line of thinking is without the thought that the child may be early, we failed to complete preparations for the arrival -- most importantly packing the bags for the hospital.  If our delivery were anything like last time, this would not have been a problem because we had made a list and we would have had plenty of time while we were laboring at home.  However, true to the advice that almost everyone who has multiple children told me......every labor is different. 

New Years Eve in Hawaii is a BIG BIG deal, as is any holiday that boasts fireworks.  This year recreational fireworks were supposedly banned.  The neighborhood around our building, maybe even all of Oahu, did not get the memo.  At one point I got our of bed to see if the fireworks were actually hitting our building.  Fortunately Helaina was able to sleep through them but I only got about 5 hours of sleep.  

I wasn't completely alarmed when I had my first few contractions at 5:30AM on New Years Day so I stayed in bed until 6 or so. I got up and told Chris that we may be having some labor signs and that I was going to relax on the couch as I find it impossible to sleep if I think I am going into labor.  I suggested he rest as he was able to and would need if it were go time.  Around 7AM I called Jim and Rochelle Kwasnowski (our Hawaiian family) and left them a voice mail to let them know they may need to pick Bebe and Helaina up as I might be going into labor.  Chris and Helaina got up and we all started preparing just in case :o)  In the next few minutes my contractions became so overwhelming that I stopped what I was doing and got into the tub which helped immensely.  By the time Rochelle called back just 45 min later, I overheard Chris on the phone and yelled from the bathroom for them to come now and quick!!!  Chris began franticly getting Helaina and Bebe's bags together.  He's got fantastic execution in panic situations.  

After the Kwas' picked up the girls, Chris began getting our things together and I drug myself out of the tub.  I couldn't believe how strong my contractions were already.   I started panicking when I couldn't even get dressed because my contractions were so close and so intense.  My labor was twenty-five hours long with Helaina.  There was NO WAY I was going to be able to stand what I was feeling at the time for even five or ten more hours.  I informed Chris I decided that I wanted an epidural.  We had Helaina natural and had planned to do it again so he agreed to support me but I could tell by his tone he had plans to discuss it later.  All that discussion became moot anyway since he couldn't even get me to get dressed and down to the car.  I was OVERWHELMED to say the least.  He was going to tell my midwife to come to the house, which would have ended in an ambulance and I was NOT going to do that.  He finally got me dressed in pajama bottoms (I was in too much pain to choose anything else) and bargained with me that to get to the car, we could stop when necessary on our way down to the car -- which we did about 7 times.  He ran to get the car from our spot and later I found -- it would not start on the first few turnovers.  Once it finally did he came to get me at the door.  I wanted to ride facing backwards on the seat, as being on upright on my knees was most comfortable.  When I was getting in the car, I thought that I felt the baby pushing down but I dismissed the thought that time - part fear and part disbelief.  When the next contraction came while we were driving I investigated the matter and told Chris that I thought I felt the head.  So adorable with all his birth training, he asked, "Do you have an overwhelming urge to push?"  Again, with fear and confusion, I said I wasn't sure.  He called Linda, our midwife (heaven sent guardian angel) to let he know that I may or may not be further along than we thought.

*** By the way, we were breaking a number of traffic violations at this point including, but not limited to:  speeding, passenger riding backwards, no seat belt, talking on the phone while driving & indecency as my pants were pulled down around my knees (with a towel “covering” so I was not fully mooning all innocent bystanders-- good thing it was a holiday and there was hardly anyone on the road*****

Linda told him that if my water broke on the way to go directly to ER and let her know, if not, she would meet us in the front of the hospital (a nice big round about drive way where everyone enters and exits from the hospital.)  Unbeknownst to us, this had apparently happened already in while I was in the tub at home.  Upon arrival to the fortunately-not-that-busy round about, where our midwife was waiting she opened the passenger door.  I told her I thought I felt the baby’s head and with the next contraction she confirmed that the baby was in fact crowning.  Since we were not sure if I was going to make it to the room or deliver right there in public display, Linda asked if I my PJ bottoms were special or if she could cut them off.  Despite my pain and the possibility that I was having a baby any second, I collected myself long enough to slip out of my PJ bottom’s as I had just gotten these cute little red with white stripe candy cane looking things for Christmas from my mother in law and I wanted to hold on to them.  :o) 

Linda suggested not waiting for a gurney and that we take the wheel chair.  I reluctantly agreed as long as I could again ride facing backwards.  So get a good laugh, as I am partially naked with a towel over me, facing backwards and screaming like a wild banshee on a wheel chair. Chris helped support my grip and Linda along with some wonderful nurses all ran though the hospital and into an elevator.  I feel bad for the sweet unsuspecting family that was waiting on a floor that that the elevator stopped on.  They graciously agreed to wait for the next elevator.  Once in the room I began pushing straight away and at 9:53am Indigo was born.  Just 10 minutes later.  No need for epidurals or any other procedure.  They even only had time to take one fetal monitor reading which was good. This was all just four and half-hours after my first contraction. WOW.  What a ride. 

Chris proudly announced that we had a girl.  This is great considering we weren’t even close to establishing a boys name yet; though I am suspect one of my favorite names would have trumped because I almost birthed our child in the car.  We would have considered “Ru” (we were in our Subaru) as a middle or nickname if she were born in the car. 

 

Despite the chaos of the labor, after she was born, we enjoyed the most peaceful and wonderful time fawning over Indigo.  The hospital was gracious to let us have a lot of time with her before they started their typical procedures.  This was a new experience for Chris and I as Helaina was quickly whisked away and taken to NICU.  Right away we noticed her dark hair that she had quite a bit of.  She has really long fingers and skinny long feet.  She was crying a bit when she came out but calmed down quickly and settled into us.  She had a great latch and I was able to breastfeed right away.  She weighed 7lbs 1.8oz and was 18.5 inches long.

We found out that the nurse’s name that helped deliver was Angie.  For those of you that don’t know, my mom’s name was Angelina and that is where Indigo’s middle name came from.  I can’t tell you that warmth that washed over me at a moment when my cup had already runneth over.

We were only in the hospital for about 30 hours, which was great.  The Kwas’ brought Helaina to come meet her new sister.  She wanted to hold her right away and embraced her with love.  We will hopefully keep you updated with blogs on Indi’s budding personality and Helaina’s new role as a big sister. However, for now it's 9:30 PM and my tired self is going to bed to keep up with our newborn and 2 year old.   

Our midwife, Linda 

Christmas

I"ll start off by saying that I'm well aware that it is 2/8 and I am just getting to my Christmas blog.  Later blogs that I will hopefully post over the next week or so will clearly explain/remind me why I'm behind but I didn't want to miss documenting the first Christmas where Helaina was somewhat aware.

Family Tradition:

One tradition that my family has passed down for many generations is 7 seafoods on Christmas Eve.  After my mom passed, my brother picked up the torch for this tradition and every year out does himself to a level that would easily impress any of my ancestors (if not make them envious).  I've never attempted to pull off all 7 on my own.   Being nine and a half months pregnant with 2 friends coming over, this was not the year to try.  Though the food isn't the same without being with my immediate family, I still had to attempt to represent my heritage.  I decided on clams casino and crab pasta for the seafoods as well as our family recipe for "stuffed" mushrooms.  Jim and Rochelle (our 'Hawaiian' family) brought a delicious salad, bread and some yummy green beans for a complete meal.  No one went hungry and it was a relatively simple meal to pull off (especially since Chris had the hard job of shucking the clams and Jim & Rochelle brought half the food).

You can't go wrong with Butter, Parsley, Garlic

Bacon & Cheese on top of a clam

Last minute coaching from Big brother

helped me to serve this winner up

Rochelle added homemade candied walnuts (yum)

Mushrooms that I don't make regularly

since Chris doesn't prefer mushrooms

Wow mommy is BIG is what Helaina is thinking

"New Traditions" (or Old if you really think about it)

Chris and I have decided to take the road less traveled and actually focus more on the Christian part of Christmas and much less of the "Santa" / presents things.    We made a Advent chain and we read a corresponding scripture each night for the entire month.  We purchased a beautiful hand made nativity scene.  We talked in detail and often about how God gave us the best present of all with baby Jesus.  We purchased 2 main gifts for her and some stocking stuffers knowing she would receive plenty from everyone.  Hopefully  our efforts will yield the results were looking for (focus on Jesus instead of things) but based on our 1st go round, I think were going too have an uphill battle.    

a portion of our advent chain

This was actually made in Bethlehem

Attempting to not overload on gift opening we opened some presents on Christmas Eve and the rest spread out throughout the day on Christmas after church.  We even got to open The Higgs' family presents "with" them via Facetime.  Being far away is hard but a lot harder on holidays and big events.  I love that technology has taken a bit of that sting out.  The Higgs family even got to see Helaina find out she got a bike for Christmas.  Chris and I got to enjoy seeing the look on Helaina's face when she came out to see the table and chairs that we got her.  Despite our not promoting the big guy in the red suit, she seemed to have a fabulous Christmas and hopefully she won't be scarred from our "science experiement."  Then again in my opinion, raising children is all a science experiment that you really don't know the results of until much later.

Merry Christmas to all!