Thanksgiving

On Kai's first Thanksgiving we walked to the local beach, then ate at the DFAC at Schofield Barracks and shared dessert with our neighbors Benita and Arvil.

6 months of fun

Today Kai turns 6 months old.  We are spending the weekend in Waikiki at the Hale Koa for a Strong Bonds Retreat.  Caspian is at doggie daycare at Tails of Hawaii.  Kai will spend his first day of his 6 month in day care. Kai did really well in the daycare and I was able to go down and feed him whenever.  Several of his friends were in the day care and he was happy to crawl around and play with all the new toys.  The Hilton Hawaiian Village does fireworks every Friday night and accidentally we had front row seats.

Early on the 19th we went to the beach at Waikiki to do Kai's 6th month photo shoot.

Photo Card

Sunny Christmas Christmas

Personalize your Christmas card at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Cooking Lessons

Head Chef

Sweet Potato Casserole, ready for the oven

Just being cute this week

As Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching I  took some time to teach Kai how to make (great) grandma Millie's sweet potato casserole. He was a great supervisor And we were both pleased with the outcome. Kai loves everything with pineapples.  He smiles at the pineapple because he was a pineapple too. Even though we are so far from New York, I will work hard on sharing our traditions with him.  I really wish that I could come home for the holidays, but I am sure one taste of traveling to NY during the holidays with a baby would scar me for traveling for life.  In traveling news, Hawaiian Air has a new nonstop flight from HNL to JFK.  I am excited to not have to land in Jersey but be able to go straight to Long Island.

Nana Package

Reading his new book

Every month Kai receives a package from Long Island from his Nana.  The boxes are packed with toys, books and clothes.  Kai looks forward to getting the packages and seeing what is in them.  The postal employees know us at the post office and call us 82 when we show up to pick up our packages.  Some of his favorite books have arrived this way.

Boys Time

Kai spent the evening alone with his father.  He stayed up until after 9.  Victor did not see the bottle that was in the fridge so he defrosted some milk I had frozen and put it in the sippy cup for Kai.  I had bought a sippy cup for Kai and had been letting him play with when I cooked dinner so that he is familiar with it.  Unbeknownst to Victor, it was Kai's first sippy cup experience and Victor tried to nurse the sippy cup.  Kai's face turned bright red and Victor states the milk was bad.  So he defrosted yet another batch of frozen milk to give him this time using a bottle.  The 4 ounce bottle I left was untouched in the fridge.  I now do not have a back up supply of milk, so I will need to start pumping.

I had a nice time with the ladies and played Bunco.  I arrived home at 10:45 to everyone asleep.

Family Photos

Here is a selection of the photos we had taken 2 weeks ago in Honolulu.

We were standing on a hill

I was able to get Kai to laugh in this one

The background is blah but I like this

Only big smile by himself, Victor placed the ball in an awkward spot

Veterans Day low Crawl

Victor low crawling at Waimea Bay

So happy to leave his blanket behind

Kai low crawling at Waialua

Kai will sit for a short period of time but what he is most interested in is crawling.  This week he has  mastered his low crawl.  Today he would not stay still and was crawling all over the living room.  He is able to check everything out and is enjoying his new mobility immensely.  It has made him very hungry and he is exhausted.

Besides Kai mastering his crawl, we had a nice veteran's day.  Victor was home from work, it is always nice to have him around on Veteran's day because he is often deployed or TDY for holidays.  We walked to the beach this morning and spent some time there.  The waves were pretty big so we did not go swimming.  Victor worked on some of his pinball machines in the afternoon.  We then went to the Pearlridge mall and Victor had a free dinner at Chili's for veteran's day.

Tomorrow night, I am leaving Kai with Victor to attend a social with the other wives of 84 Engineers Battalion.  This BN is very different from the 3 we were in while we lived in Alaska.  Each of these had socials, called coffees, monthly.  It is a nice way to get to know everyone and find out what is going on with your husband's schedule. These were always held during the week and children were always welcomed.  My very first one was 2 weeks after we moved to Alaska and the BN commander's wife picked me up at the hotel and drove me.  This is the third one that they have had since we moved here in March.  I am looking forward to the chance to meet and make some new friends.  But I am very anxious about not putting Kai to sleep.  And I am not sure how he will do with a bottle at night.  I am sure that I will leave early because it is 45 minutes away and I will want to see my baby.

November activities

Playing with Halle

why stay on my playmat when Caspi is here

We had another fun week.  The weather has finally "cooled" to the mid 80s during the day and at night in the 70s.  It is such a relief to not be hot all the time.  Kai is not always sweating in his car seat.  Overnight his little hands get cold and he is not sweating in a onesie in his crib.  Life is good.

Waialua Bandstand

This Sunday was the first Sunday of the month and we went to Kai's 7th concert in the park.  He was in utero for his very first one.  This week's performance was by the Navy Brass band.  They played upbeat jazz music.  Kai enjoyed himself and danced until he fell asleep in his father's arms.  Caspian had a good time as well and made friends with the people on neighboring blankets.

Navy Brass band

It is daylight savings time for the majority of the US.  Thankfully, Hawaii does not participate.  Kai is able to stay on the same schedule and we are only 5 hours time difference from the East Coast.

Kapolei Carnival

Victor heard a radio ad for a carnival in Kapolei and came home singing about the "Kapolei Carnival."  So, Saturday night we drove to Kapolei to check out the action.  Set in a grass field, Kai attended his first carnival.  He enjoyed all the lights.  We mainly played the games and won lots of prize.  I won the first prize of the evening, a stuffed snickers bar, Kai was impressed.  Victor won the water gun race and we both won prizes on a plinko-esque game. Please excuse my grammar, I am sleep deprived.

Bob Stroller

Victor works 12 hour days and on the weekend sometimes he works and other times he is fixing pinballs.  This leaves me with no time to workout and I still have 5 pounds of baby weight and another 5 pounds that I would like to use.  I have patiently waited for Kai to get really good head control so that I can start jogging with him.  I have the nice weather and access to a bike path on Waialua Beach Road.

After getting our permanent fund dividends from Alaska we purchased a Bob Stroller.  I was not sure which one to get but wanted to be able to put him on the beach.  Because I drive a Prius I knew that no jogging stroller would comfortable fit in the trunk.  I finally decided on the Bob all utility as it had the best reviews for pushing on sand and was one of the least expensive ones.

Caspian and Kai

Snoozing

Waialua Beach

Random house on bike path

Kai loves it and we have jogged to the beach everyday since UPS delivered it.  Caspian gives it a wide berth but seems ok with it.  Kai is able to take naps while we run.  The steering is way more difficult then our other stroller but it pushes to easily over the grass in the park we have to cross to get to the bike path.  Even pushing it on the sand is not bad.  We will put lots of miles on this and hopefully lose some of those pounds that are clinging to me.

Happy November

Silly boy

November starts the rainy season in Hawaii.  It rained a bit in Waialua but I would call it partly cloudy and usually still sunny.  After the Halloween candy high wore off, Kai had a playdate with Anthony and Halle.  He attended a music Gymboree class and loved it.  When the class sang his name he made his little proud face.  He was able to play the drum and each of the instruments when it was his turn.  During the class, we rolled the balls around and played with bubbles.

On Wednesday our new jogging stroller arrived.  We have taken it to the beach everyday and it is so much easier to push on grass and sand, I will definitely post more on this.

I still am unable to get my videos to load from my new iphone but will try and get this resolved.

Why stay on the blanket?

Self portrait

Chilling at the beach

Hey Caspi, look at me

Today we went to turtle beach.  Kai is noticing the turtles a bit more and they still love him.