Sunday, March 23, 2014

Harrison - Eight Months

Eight months!  As happy as can be and growing chunkier by the day, our little bundle of love brings light to our life every moment of every day.  His smile and laugh are completely contagious and he gives both out freely.  He continues to love snuggles, being read to, being showered with attention from his big brother, driving with the window down, and sticking just about everything in his mouth.  I'm certain teeth are on their way.  He started making his first sound this month, the G sound.  Everything is "guh" this and "guh" that.  I'm guessing he's going to be a chatterbox, much like his older brother.  He also - FINALLY - dropped middle of night feeding!  He is sleeping soundly from around 7pm until I feed him again around 11pm, and then all the way until 7am.  You can imagine how much more peaceful things are around here!



On the Move! The timing couldn't have been better - as soon as we returned from Hawaii, this little man was on the go.  One morning upon waking up, we sat Harrison down in the living room with all his toys.  Kevin, Kaden, and I were in the kitchen getting breakfast and coffee started when, from around the couch, a little face peeked out.  Before we knew it, Harrison had made his way all the way to the kitchen.  He obviously didn't want to be left along.  Or maybe he just didn't want to miss a meal.  His belly is so big that he's not quite strong enough to get up on all fours, but his army crawl is remarkably speedy.  We call him our little Roomba - he sweeps the floors as he goes.


Speaking of missed meals, this child won't hear of such a thing.  While he was slow to start liking real food, he has now formed a blissful relationship with it.  He can't get enough.

This month also brought Harrison his first bad cold.  It was not a fun ten days for any of us.  Harrison hates having his nose sprayed or suctioned and fights tooth and nail to get me away from him.  He kept his smile through the whole thing though.

Bath time continues to be one of Harrison's favorite times of the day.  Especially when his big brother joins in the fun.  


Some parting shots



Thursday, March 6, 2014

Maui 2014

Our first true family vacation and our first trip to Hawaii!  I had several reservations about the entire vacation (Kevin planned all of it), but it was practically perfect.  We all had a fantastic time and, despite the few days of rain, I think it will go down in our books as one of our best vacations ever!  Not that Maui wasn't beautiful, but I've decided that the very best part about family vacations is just being together with out the distractions of phone calls, cooking dinner, folding laundry, getting to school, etc.  We loved all the quality time we spent just being together.  We stole an idea from the television show, "The Office" and took several time-outs each day to take mental photographs.  We hope those moments are now etched into our memories, but just in case we took some physical photographs too.

Arrived Thursday - went to the grocery, unpacked, explored the pool and the hotel grounds at the Grand Wailea, for dinner made sandwiches in our room, and had an early bedtime
Early bird at the airport
Aloha!
Friday - woke up early (5:30!), took a nice long walk along the coastal path, enjoyed the pool (it took K some time to warm up as he hadn't been in the pool since last summer - he insisted on goggles), had an early dinner at Da'Kitchen in Kihei, and celebrated K turning four-and-a-half with a cupcake





We lit the candle with a tiki-torch because the hotel had an anti-match policy (explaining they are a safety hazard).
Saturday - woke up to rain so we enjoyed a long, leisurely, and expensive breakfast at the resort buffet, since it was overcast with sporadic showers decided to go on a whale watching tour in Maalaea (phenomenal experience, saw so many humpback whales and K was extremely interested in all the factual accounts given by the tour guides), stopped at Ululani's Hawaiian ice for a yummy afternoon treat, and ate at the Monkeypod for dinner 






Sunday - full day of pouring rain, early breakfast at Kihei cafe - delicious and inexpensive, but  squeezed under a patio umbrella since it was outside dining only, went to the aquarium (with a thousand other tourists, but the boys had fun), drove by the lava rocks at Makena-La Perouse State Park (and, shhh, stole a rock for K), had a yummy dinner at Maloni's Pizza Company



Monday - another day of rain but went to Kihei cafe (again) for breakfast, decided to take a drive to Lahaina (where we parked, explored, had a picnic lunch, and another Ululani's Shave Ice), decided to keep driving north to see Kaanapali, and Kapaula (the terrain was so different than where we were staying in Wailea), went to Tommy Bahama's for dinner, and caught the end of our hotel's luau (decided against going to a luau becheld indoors because of the weather)

Banyan Tree

Unprepared for K's desire to get in the ocean despite the weather


K loved the mini-van


Tuesday - finally a beautiful Hawaiian day, woke up and went for our daily walk on the costal path, spent the rest of the day parked at the pool, watched the sunset and whales jump from our dinner table at Ferraro's at The Four Seasons






Wednesday - another amazingly beautiful day, the boys both loved playing at the pool, K had a great time jumping waves and playing in the sand while Harrison napped in his stroller,  finally enjoyed some fresh local fish at Sansei Sushi for dinner



Beach time fun



Thursday - our last day, enjoyed a final coastal walk, snuck in a little bit of pool time, and got packed up to leave paradise


K met some friends (two of whom live right down the street in Bird Rock)



K really liked all the Botero statues at the resort - he couldn't get over the fact they were all nude!

Until next time, Maui!
We couldn't have asked for a better vacation!  We lived by the mantra, 

don't count the days, make the days count 

And count they did.