Gavin comes over

Friday, March 25th

Oh my goodness, thank you Gavin for coming over today. You saved us from the rainy morning!
There was actually a slight break in the rain this morning, Kekoa and I headed out to splash in the puddles. The puddles were so deep that I thought the water was going to go over his boots! I'm so bummed I didn't have my camera!
Anyways...The two little monkeys had so much fun playing, except Kekoa had a really hard time sharing toys today! It was the first time he has ever actually had tantrums because someone was playing with his toys!


Gavin is "pushing" his smoothies on Kekoa!
Kekoa loves it!

making dumplings

Friday, March 18th

Today we went over to Papa Beezy's house for a visit. It was so stormy outside, the perfect day to make dumplings. I've been wanting Jenny's mom(also Popo) to teach me how. She makes them the best, makes the skins from scratch and everything! She poured about a half a bag of flour in the bowl, added 4 eggs, and then about a cup of water...slowly. The thing about Chinese cooking is that there isn't any recipes, which makes it hard for someone like me. I love my recipes. This is also why I can never duplicate my mom's delicious food either! She then kneaded the dough and let it sit on the counter while she prepared the filling. She told me you can put whatever you want in them. This time she used ground turkey, green onions, shitake mushrooms, and napa cabbage. What amazes me is how the pieces of veggies are diced up so fine, like she used a food processor (but she didn't').
She then cut off a slice of dough, rolled into a tube shape, like cookie dough, and cut that into about 2 inch pieces. Each of these pieces were rolled out into the dumpling skin. I then filled them with the meat and veggie mixture and folded the edges. Voila, dumplings! I am challenged when it comes to folding things or wrapping things, like presents, so my dumplings did not look as beautiful as hers, but I'm also a beginner! :)
The best part was that Kaiwei wanted to help too. He sat right next to me and folded down his little pieces of dough...no meat though for Kaiwei. Just like when I was little, Kaiwei only likes the skins. He was soooo excited to eat the dumplings he had made! :) I remember making dumplings when I was little too. We would all sit at the table, around the large bowl, filled with the meat mixture. My mom taught me how to fill the skins and fold them up. We would rub egg yolk on one side, it acted like glue, to make sure the little dumplings stayed stuck together! But, we never made our own skins, we always had the store bought kind.
Thank you so much Popo for teaching me your trade secrets!

Fun at dinnertime

The past few nights at dinner, Kekoa and I have been cracking up. We have been making each other laugh, with silly faces or silly dance moves. I love it when we are both feeling goofy. It makes dinnertime much more enjoyable!


Pounding water! Kekoa loves this water bottle, a present from Auntie M to Scott...now it is Kekoa's! :)

Kekoa was moving his shoulders to the beat, it was hilarious!


The next night, Kekoa had frozen blueberries for dessert. It stained his face, his teeth, and his hands! He got a little freaked out when he realized his hands were purple! He had me in laughing so hard.








Here is Mr. Blueberry ("boo boo") face...gotta love the purple teeth!

so proud

I woke up this morning so proud of Kekoa. I have been trying to wean him from nursing throughout the night this week. It is time. Our night time ritual is no longer working...I'm not getting any sleep anymore. I used to just fall right asleep while Kekoa nursed, but this is no longer the case. It hasn't been easy, but each night he cries less and less when I deny him. Last night he actually didn't wake up at 2:00 a.m.! Progress! He did wake up around 3:00 am, cried for a second then fell right back asleep. He woke up again around 4:30, through a few second tantrum because he was denied to nurse, and then fell back asleep. He slept straight through until 7:00 am (which is fantastic because he usually wakes up again around 6:00 am) and didn't even want to nurse when he woke up! Yay Kekoa! We shall see what tonight brings! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Changes

Life can be so crazy. Doesn't it seem like everything happens all at once? We have been casually looking for a place to live since our BOB stroller got stolen. We have been wanting to find something bigger for awhile now, but just haven't been motivated to look. Well, on Tuesday we went to see a house. Our hopes are never high anymore, just seems like there isn't anything to get excited about...until we saw this quaint, old house, with the biggest backyard. The yard is so HUGE, it is like a park back there. As soon as we saw the yard, we were sold. The house itself isn't too big, but it is being redone inside, brand new kitchen and windows. There is a washer/dryer and a funky basement. We loved it, Kekoa loved it, and we kept our fingers crossed that the landlord would pick us to rent. And he did!! He actually called us the same night to tell us that we were the perfect fit, just what he was looking for. This means we are moving!! Yay, we found a house, yay us!
I have been dreaming about having a garden again, for so long now. I remember telling Scott our goal was to find a place so we could have a garden for the summer...and we did. I'm hoping we can also have some chickens. It is such a liberating feeling to be moving into a house...I can't quite describe it.

The other exciting news is that Kekoa got into the preschool we really wanted him to go to. It is an outdoor school and we fell in love with it during their open house. It is just what we want right now, one day a week and a parent co-op school, which means we go with him to class. The only bummer thing right now is that he is not in the class with his buddy Gavin, who is in the Friday class. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the boys can be in a class together, but we are still super excited.

Another piece of exciting news is that I may be able to teach Pilates locally. I have been driving over to Santa Cruz to work, which is a haul for me. I love the studio there, but it would be nice to work a little bit closer too. It is crazy because I started the week off thinking I was going to get a paid position, teaching Pilates mat classes at the local gym. This didn't pan out but now I may get to teach private sessions at the local studio...even better!

They say things happen in 3's right? All I know is that all this excitement is giving me insomnia! I wake up in the night and can't get back to sleep. This morning I woke at 4:30a.m. and laid in bed for about an hour before getting up to make chili!