Jesus and Rachel Zoe

Wednesday morning happenings

True just told me "hey Mom, Jesus can see us, He can put his big head down and look at us right now."

For some reason this just creeps me out!

I just got Zoey dressed for a wam Seattle day, a diaper and a dress. She decided she would like to also wear a night gown over the dress, pink velour pants and one pink rain boot. Somebody call Rachel Zoe because there is some serious fashion mistakes being made over here.

This water smells like mayonaise

I try to do my best to expose True and Zoey to the natural wonders that are available to us who are lucky to live in the beautiful Nortwest along the Puget Sound. We visit parks, beaches, create fall leaf collages, discuss the mountain ranges, explore the varied insects in our backyard, I feel like I am doing a pretty darn good job in introducing them to the environment that surrounds us.

So please imagine my chagrin when after boarding the ferry to Bainbrige island (in the Puget Sound) True looks over at me and says, " MOM, this water smells like mayonaise and I no yike it!"

Wow

A one year wonder

Zoey did it, she made it through our steady but always a little bit wild parenting; we are the parents of a beautiful one year old!

Zoey is such a lover - She loves to snuggle, nurse, be held and hug anyone but especially her brother. Uncle Bob and Uncle Howie get a lot of affection from her, if they don't pick her up she will walk over and hug their leg. So cute! I love waking up to hear her babbling and trying to get someone to wake up and notice how cute she is being. She loves to be around people and her cousins and brother our her favorite people to be with. She especially loves it if they are running, their is something about the movement that makes her yell and laugh and their funny antics.

She started to crawl at 6 months, cruising at 7 months and walking at 11 months. She will sign that she is all done and more, her words are Mama, Dada, mo (more) and hi. She has made it through her vaccinations with no fevers and irritabilitly. She has 8 teeth and they have certainly been difficult as they break through the skin. Teething seems to exasperate her desire to wake up at least 3 to 4 times a night to nurse and then snuggle with Dad, we have had many long, long nights with her but she is slowly sleeping for long chunks of time.

She is pure sweetness.







Zoey's list of likes

Nursing
True-Blue
Playing in the tea drawer
Sleeping anywhere but her crib
Playing in her car
Playing on the deck
"Helping" to load the dishwasher
Climbing the stairs
Popcorn
Carseat
Banging on the computer keyboard
Dancing
Music

Zoey's list of dislikes

Bathtime
Going to sleep in her crib
Most foods
Brother messing with her
The gate blocking the stairs

Guns

True recently found a nerf gun left here by Miguel and Noni. He started playing with it while I was working in the yard. I heard him talking to himself and had to try really hard to not laugh out loud.

His one-sided conversation went as follows.

"I has a gun - ha HA, ha HA"
"I is a bad guy - ha HA, ha HA"

His ha HA ha HA was really loud and funny. Later I was trying to tell Matt what he had been doing and he interrupted me and said "Dad, I had a gun and I laughed a terrible laugh."

Lordy, he is so much fun.

True the ballerina

True is non-stop talking lately. My days of listening to NPR in the car are over.
At dinner he told us, "Mom, you are the queen, Dad you are the King, Zoey you are the princess and I am the ballerina!"

OMG!

I didn't even know that he knew what a ballerina was! So cute.

We have been going to Bible Study Fellowship and he LOVES his class and his teacher. He cried for 2 minutes the first time I left him and now he can't wait to go. He is really ready for preschool this fall.
and I get to go to the lecture and hang out with a small group without the kids and it is heavenly. Zoey goes to Abi's house or one of my super-friends watch her for me.

Conversations with True

Here is a little bit of my conversations with True tonight.

Me: True, come on get in bed.
(He ignores me)
Me: True, RIGHT NOW
True: Hey, Zoey's mom
Me? What?
True: Hey, Zoey's mom
Me: Hey, kid! I'm not just Zoey's mom, I am your mom, too!
True: oh
True: Your my mom and my dad is crazy.

Later, I am singing him song while we lay in bed together. He asks me to sing the "quiet song" which is the old Psalty song I grew up singing - I cast all my cares upon you, I lay all of my burdens down at your feet. When I finished singing it I asked him to sing me a song. His song went something like this.

I cast all my care on you-hoo. I lay my burdens, all on your body. and then we are at the farm. there are so many ducks, cows and g-hoatttttss on my farm. then we will dance all over.

Sing it with me, mom!

What a kid!

2010, Really?

How is it possible that it is already 2010? As a kid it seemed that I would never make it to be in this decade!

We had a great Christmas this year. My whole family from Alaska and Hawaii were here as well as Josh and Whakawa. We ate, laughed, talked and the boys did a construction project; we turned our carport into an extra bedroom. The kids had an amazing Christmas and made out like little bandits, lots of toys, books and clothes.

True speaks his mind

"Moma, your da best mom I ever did saw"

What a kid!

Pig, poo and a penis - a few things I don't want to forget.

When my mom was here a couple of weeks ago, she was asking True what his favorite animal is at the zoo (my mom and dad buy us a family pass every year - thanks). He yelled, "the pig, the pig is my favorite." She asked him why and he looked at her slyly and said, "because they make poo." Apparently, the last time Matt took him to the zoo the pig took a huge dump, it made a big impression on him and he still talks about it all the time.

Today, he was coloring a picture of a horse and he looked over at me and said, "I am going to draw a big penis on this horse."

He's not allowed to talk to anyone when we go to the grocery store.

Zoey's first photo shoot

Yesterday, Zoey had a photo shoot with MeRa Koh photography. MeRa recently got a book deal with Random House. I think it's a book on how to take photographs of your kids. Not entirely sure but I am thrilled to have such an amazing opportunity to get some professional photos taken of Zoey. We should get the disk in a few weeks and the book comes out next year. Can't wait to see the pictures! Zoey was amazing the whole time, a little solemn for her (she is usually all smiles) but I think they are going to be great.

True is thankful for......

Today in the car, Matt asked True what he was thankful for. Here is his list.

Me is thankful for
my toys
my Cohen's
my Lola's
my Auntie Abi's
my Miguel's
my Noni's
my Bayla's
my Judah's
my Zoey's
ummm
my W's
my T's
my B's
ummm
me thankful for all my ABC's
that's all

My kids are so great.

sleeping

Recently our sleep has been constantly interrupted. We are working on the "no cry" sleep training for Zoey and True is still dealing with his yegs cramping at night. We are really, really tired.

damn

Thank God they are really cute and during the day I just can't get enough of them. But at night I want someone to come and take them away and let me get a two hours of uninterrupted sleep. I think that if we could get two hours without someone waking up I could change the spacey, tired feeling I constantly experience.

damn

did I mention they are cute. I just checked on true (who has been laying in his bed for over and hour and a half) he hugged me really tight and said "I am so thankful for my friends!"

Nad Pod Coll In Show

My yegs, my yegs

Poor True-Blue has become the victim to painful leg cramps which the Dr. classifies as growing pains. They are really a nightmare for all of us. He wakes up yelling, "My yegs, my yegs, my yegs. Ouchie, Ouch, help me Mom, DAAAAAD, my yegs, my yegs." Matt usually gets up and starts to massage his legs and comfort him that it will be over soon. I try to sleep (since Zoey will usually wake up right after he gets back to sleep) but after about 10 minutes of non-stop crying we decide he needs baby ibuprofen and then I get up and get it. It is so sad. The Dr. said to pump him up with lots of potassium in avocado, orange juice and vitamins. Also, dehydration and a really active day can aggravate his little legs. The vitamins seem to help the most. We really see a difference when we has had his gummie vitamins. I am hoping soon that someday we will have a night where we all sleep soundly for more than four hours at a time. But, I am not holding my breath.

Big Chicken

My nick-names for the kids are always evolving and recently I started to call Zoey my chicken and True my monkey. Today he came over to me, gave me a little squeeze and said, "Mommy, you are my big chicken!" So freaking cute and absolutely hilarious.

True is also in the stage where he loves to run around naked. He takes off his clothes and says, "Naked boy, naked boy" he proceeds to dance and "shake his bootie". Another favorite is to powwow dance with a scarf or a towel. Yesterday he was naked and getting ready to dance with my mom's scarf. Miguel (oldest cousin) who is eight and very dignified saw what True was about to do and told me, "Auntie Colleen, True is naked and about to dance with that scarf, It's going to be horrible." Poor Miguel.

Sorry about that!

True is learning new phrases and it is so cute. Today he was drawing on his doodle pad and I heard say, "Oh I only made one eye, sorry about that." I like him a lot!

We had a good day today at Davids house at Angle Lake. True is very comfortable in the water; he wears a life vest and floats around and enjoys "swimming" out to the dock. The weather has been so great this summer and he is a brown, brown boy.

Gentleman and Yadies

Today, True spent a lot of time pretending to be dancing on stage. He wears my my nursing cover like a cape and then announces himself.

Gentleman and Yadies, announcing True-Blue Echohawk - Hayashi. I am powwow dancing - BOY!

He then proceeds to dance and entertain himself and anyone else who is watching.

We yove him.

Zoey is a GIANTESS!

Zoey had her 4 month well child check up on August 3rd. When they put her on the scale Matt and I cracked up because she looked so big on it. She weighed in at an impressive 17.2 pounds! For her weight and head size she is in the 97th percentile, her length is 78th percentile - She is officially a pretty, little MONSTER!