Growing up with a little of both and the lessons learned along the way
From the category archives:
Lauren here. I have a confession to make. We were in Hawaii for so long, that I forgot what home was like. And I definitely forgot about my best buddy, Elena.
Here’s us on our first day back together:
Who are you? What are you doing here? Ahhhhhhhhhh!
And here we are today:
And we're friends. Again.
All is well again 🙂
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Just like her big sister, Lauren was introduced to ice cream for the first time on her birthday by Papa Cal (it’s in his contract that he gets to introduce the girls to ice cream). We threw in a cupcake (which she loved) for good measure too!
In comparison to Maile, Lauren was certainly a bigger fan of ice cream. She ate up everything Papa threw at her!
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...
Maile Girl showing Lauren how the whole candles thing works...
This pink thing? Delicious!
This food is pretty different from my normal food. Can we work this in to the routine more?
(Click here for the video.)
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Incredibly, it’s been a year.
Lauren at 1
I just looked through all our pictures from the past year and put together a short video that captures how our little girl has grown. It was a fun way to reflect on everywhere this year has taken us.
Lauren is an amazing little girl – slowly, but surely developing her very own personality (no small feat given her very outgoing sister who has no problem dominating the conversation!) But Lauren finds her spots and has carved her own place in our family. She’s easy going, but not a pushover. She has a mischievous streak and it’s already clear she’s not going to let her big sister leave her very far behind. She has a smile, that while different from her sister’s, still is able to light up a room. When she puts her head on your shoulder, you can feel her love. It’s the best.
Happy Birthday, baby girl – we all love you so much!
(Click here for the video.)
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Maile Girl here – aloha from Hawaii! We’re still visiting with Grandma and Papa, but I’m very sad to report that Katie and Emily already went home to Japan. I miss them so much already! I had so much fun playing with them – check out all the fun things we did…
First things first, I showed them my new baby Lauren - they hadn't met her before - they hit it right off with her. I knew they would!
We attempted many times to take pictures all in the same purple dresses that Grandma got us - they didn't all work out, but we still had fun trying...
Grandma and Papa taught us Pokeeno - which is kind of like Bingo. None of liked losing, so that made things interesting.
We did LOTS and LOTS of art projects with Grandma and Mommy...
Grandma Gail read us stories and let us play the puzzle game on her iPad...
Katie, Emily and I decorated the whole back patio with chalk!
And we pretended we were Hawaiian warriors with the toys Uncle Steve got for Katie and Emily...
I love you Katie and Emily! Lauren and I can’t wait to see you again next year!
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When Maile was 6 months old we came to Hawaii for the holidays and took a picture of her in front of the kadomatsu (a traditional Japanese New Year’s decoration):
Don't I look pretty in my jimbe posing in front of the kadomatsu?
This morning, Christine decided to recreate the scene this year with Maile and Lauren – and even better, they had a chance to show off the new kimonos that Grandma asked Uncle Steve to bring all the way from Japan. (And yes, if you look close you can see that they have Hello Kitty on them, which pretty much make them the best kimonos ever!)
First Mommy tried to take a picture of the girls together ... that proved difficult.
This appears to be a beautiful picture of Maile Girl, but Lauren is hogging the camera 🙂
Okay, solo this time - incredible how much Maile has grown, the kadomatsu dwarfed her in the first picture!
Lauren's turn - let's get this thing fixed up first...
Lauren hamming it up for the camera...
We good?
Cause I'm out of here...
We hope everyone had a wonderful new year’s – 2013 was quite the year for us and we’re looking forward to even more adventures and fun in 2014! Thank you for following along – we’ve enjoyed sharing a little bit of our girls as they grow up.
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Something really special happened on Sunday night. Around 6 PM Hawaii time, my mom texted that my Grandpa Irv (GG Irv on this blog) was completely lucid and having conversations with people. This was strange because my Grandpa hasn’t said more than a few words strung together for a few years now. We’ve visited him a few times and “introduced” him to Maile and Lauren, but other than a twinkle in his eye, there was no real acknowledgement that he knew who they were.
Well, that changed on Sunday night and it was incredible. My Aunt Julie went over to the nursing home he stays at and we were able to Facetime with him. (He was absolutely blown away by Facetime – kept asking how he can see us and if we could see him too.) Maile was able to say hi to him and told him a bit about Hawaii and he said she was such a pretty little girl and I introduced him to Lauren as well.
GG Irv gets a good look at Lauren, his youngest great grand daughter!
I then got to speak with him for about 10-15 minutes along with my folks and Aunt Julie. It was surreal. He told some jokes (“I’m 95!? I look at least 30 years younger than that!”), talked about how much he loved his children and was proud of them and complained about work. It didn’t all make sense all the time, but just hearing his voice again and having him acknowledge all of us was such an amazing gift.
I have no idea what it all means, but it was just nice that I got to really introduce him to my girls and that he acknowledged them. It was special.
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On Wednesday, we made the move from Oahu to Kauai for the rest of our vacation. Great Grandma lives on Kauai so we went over to visit her yesterday – she has a pool too! While Maile Girl, Katie and Emily went swimming, Lauren had some quality catch up time with Great Grandma…
It's kind of hard to get a 1 year old and a great grandma to both look at the camera at the same time...
See what I mean!
For her part, Maile is getting braver and braver in the water. Here she is swimming across the whole pool…
… and then she even ditched her floaties (although she was much more particular about how far away she was willing to let Mommy stand…)
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
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Per tradition, we spent Christmas Eve with Grandma Gail’s side of the family on Oahu. We had a great time with all the uncles, aunties and, especially, cousins – but the best part was definitely the visit from Santa Claus. Yep, the big guy took some time out of his rounds to visit with Maile, Lauren and the rest of the kids.
For Maile, it was a big year – our fear of Santa has finally gone away and we were just plain excited – Maile even made a card for him. Christine was sitting with her when Santa arrived and she said Maile’s heart was beating a mile a minute.
I didn’t capture it in the video, but Maile Girl was absolutely floored when she opened her present and it was the Barbie she had asked for in her letter. “He got my letter! He got my letter!” she was screaming and giggling all over. Big time win for Santa.
As for Lauren, unfortunately, Santa got a little tied up so he didn’t make it until after little Lauren had already crashed out. For posterity’s sake we made sure she got a photo op with him and she later stirred to play with her new toy that he brought her. We’re giving her a “no tears on her first visit with Santa” nod anyways.
Maile Girl and Santa - not a tear or fear in site!
Did you get my letter?
Lauren meets Santa (sort of)
Maile Girl showing Lauren how her new toy works...
Thank you Santa! I'll try to stay awake to meet you next year!
(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)
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It’s late on Christmas Eve and time to hit the sack to make sure Santa has time to come – but thought I’d post a couple great shots from yesterday. We headed over to a local park to get some family pictures taken – while we were waiting for the photographer we were playing around on the grass and I managed to snag a couple pictures of the girls. I imagine the real family photos will be even better and am excited to see them!
Maile Girl showing what happens when a city girl is unleashed on wide open green space!
Lauren managed a smile in between mouthfuls of grass 🙂
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate – we had a great Christmas Eve with Christine’s extended family and will be sure to post pictures and video soon!
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We arrived on Oahu on Saturday afternoon and wasted no time hitting the pool. Maile Girl was in her bathing suit as soon as our bags landed in our room and imploring Daddy to blow up her floatie. Lauren got in on the action too – she had no idea what to expect, but once she got in to the water, she loved every minute.
Maile Girl. Ready. To. Rock.
Lauren went more gracefully, but was a fish in her own right...
Not sure who enjoyed this more, Daddy or Lauren...
Daddy definitely had his hands full with both girls! Good luck once Lauren gets a little older...
Maile Girl is so comfortable in the water now - really a joy to see...
Building on the last point – it’s really great watching Maile take to the water now. As you can see, she started with the inner tube floatie, but quickly ditched that in exchange for the arm floaties. We done a lot of swimming over the past couple of days and every time she pushes her self. Our “short swims” where I stand a bit away from the edge and she swims to me without help have become “medium” swims and she has no problem putting her head in the water. We’re still working on the “small” water slide vs. the “big” one – but we’ll get there. Huge kudos to La Petite Baleen – while I’m some of it is just her age, I’ve been really impressed with the classes and Maile’s whole attitude towards swimming since we started classes there this summer.
Can’t wait for the rest of the trip!
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