While I'm at it

I am currently trapped under a sleeping baby that will only sleep if held (wow, how unusual for one of my children) so I might as well download the cameras since I have the time. These pictures are from Jason's Lanikai Triathlon, Hannah's ballet recital at the Mall (which Ella dressed up for as well) and of course baby Charlie.





A run through with the ever incredible Miss Nicole.


Hannah manages to keep cool and keep going even though her partner for the dance ran off the stage!
Prima Ella.


The boy finally opens his eyes.

One Week Old

Slowly, little by little I'm getting my body back. Its an achy process and I'm not in a hurry. I've done this before and realized I do more damage by being impatient. I am looking forward to swimming again and running and setting my bike back up but for the time being my arms are full with a 7 lbs appetite and I'm in full Mama Cow mode. I only need look at big sisters (or try to pick them up) to be reminded how fast this time will pass. Here are this weeks pictures for Grandparents and Aunties and Uncles as I'm sure by now most others are over pictures of my sleeping baby!

More photos

Busy weekend

So I haven't posted in a while, not a whole lot of beaching going on but we finally made it to the beach on Friday! This past week the Beach Moms finally had a group swim. We've been plotting to get together for a while but stuff kept coming up or lightening kept coming down. We had a nice swim and then life got very busy for our family! The following pictures are intended for adoring grandparents.

Here are some pictures from the past few days.

This was Thursday


This was Friday

The girls chilling at home
The girls came to the hospital to meet baby brother
This was Sunday, heading home finally

This was Monday
I had decided I wanted him to be born on June 19th but of course we all know babies come whenever they want. I'm at least glad he didn't make me wait for his original due date of July 12 considering he was already 7 lbs on June 17!

Remembrance Day

Growing up in Canada November 11th, known there as Remembrance Day, was typically cold, gray and dreary. The trees were completely bare of leaves by this time and there always seemed to be a threat of rain. We observed the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in the center of town at the Cenotaph freezing in our girl guide or boy scout uniforms. The veterans and the cadets marched with the school bands. It was a day to remember the sacrifices of the veterans and their fallen comrades. It all seemed so historical, a thing of the past not to be forgotten, but somehow over. Veterans were grandfathers and great uncles, not young people. And their fallen comrades were names and faded pictures, not anyone us kids actually knew.



But on this Veterans Day I remember a 23 year old soldier. Lt. Dennis Zilinski was killed in action in Bayji, Iraq on November 19, 2005. We met Dennis 6 years ago during his senior year at West Point. He was the captain of the swim team and an active member of the Cadet Chapel. Jason was an officer representative for the swim team so we got to accompany the team to meets and attend their end of the year banquet. Dennis was a leader, quick with a smile and so full of promise and potential. And now he's gone.

I've been thinking about writing this blog for a while so Sunday I went on line to make sure I had Dennis' information correct to share with you when I discovered this celebration of Dennis' life, a 3 mile road race in New Jersey with an option for those of us around the world to participate. This site is a wonderful tribute to Dennis.
http://www.runwithdennis.org/index.html

I discovered the event a half hour before it began on Sunday morning so Jason and I were able to do our own little run but I will be actively recruiting runners for next year's Hawaiian chapter of the Run With Dennis Race. A great way to honor an outstanding young officer and veteran for Veterans Day.

Beach Mom recruiting

I've been hesitating to write this blog for fear my little crew of new Beach Moms will disband but we're growing and I'm so excited! For a long time I have wanted to get a Moms Swim Club organized where we have enough Moms to divide into two groups one to swim and one to watch kids play on the beach. Up until recently I haven't met a whole lot of swimming moms looking for this kind of arrangement. Last year I had Kelley (sniff, sniff) who had the same childcare restraints I did, a surfing husband, loved to chase turtles and we were the same speed!! And then she moved away (more sniffing) but I know she'll come back to visit me soon (hint, hint!). So this summer Hubby did the Mountain Man Triathlon and I bumped into an old running partner, from when Hannah was a baby, and she was interested in swimming! We are currently up to 4 members but at least 4 more have expressed interest and its awesome! We even saw a turtle at Lanikai last week, which has never happened to me before! We also saw dolphins at the start of the Splash and Dash race on Saturday before we got in the water, another first for Kaneohe Bay! In other news:

I love this picture of Hannah and her ballerina buddies. This is their costume for an upcoming performance. They were allowed to try it on to make sure it fit and then ordered to put it away until show time. We of course put it on at home to show Dad and immediately got something on it, Hannah is convinced the audience will be far enough away not to see it. She clearly has learned laundry skills from her Mom, if no one sees it, its not really there.

Ella is an awesome Mom, she has four kids, 2 girls and 2 boys (although I've only ever seen one of the boys- maybe the other is away at college or something). And she tucks them all in at night and dresses the one that has a change of clothes every morning. When we go to a pool or water slide she strips baby down and takes her on the water slide naked, neatly seated between her own little legs. She has "Brand New Baby" on in the above picture. This is the one that goes with her everywhere. "Big Sister" generally naps in the car while we do errands or stays home. And the boy I have seen (Peter Pan doll) usually stays home. I don't know how she manages them all but she's doing a great job.

The Artist. Hannah has recently decided that she is an artist and it is so fun to watch her create. Mind you, we are personally responsible for great destruction of rain forests with all the paper she is going through but sometimes we head outside and use our awesome driveway canvass. We have the sweetest Tutu neighbor who has adopted the girls and keeps them supplied with sidewalk chalk and pads of paper. Thankfully our neighbors that share our driveway don't seem to mind all the fairy villages and mermaid scenes we create!

Learning by accident

This is what a homeschool house looks like. I had manage to get both the front room and the back room tidy and then I saw the stairs. They were using the broom to "paint" the walls. Not sure why I even bother most days!

We're moving along through grade 1 and some days are better than others. Last week we had a couple of nice experiences. We were at the beach on Monday morning waiting for our other "Beach Moms" to show up for our Monday morning swim and we started to dig a sand castle since the beach was thickly lined with Portuguese Man-O-Wars and the girls were not interested in risking it. While we were digging we found a long thread and as we pulled it out and brushed it off we discovered it was a necklace. So we continued to dig and found a bobby pin and a toothbrush. As a result I was able to remind Hannah what we had learned from our History CD's (Story of the World-Ancient Times, so awesome!!) about archeology and looking for artifacts and what could we tell about who had been here before us. We managed to chat about how the area would need to be marked off into sections so when we come back we know where we left off and where items were found. We also talked about the tools used by archeologists and how careful they had to be with what they found and where. Hands on is when she really makes the connections.

Hannah is also enjoying drawing and writing. She is constantly writing and drawing on everything and I do my best not to think about all the trees that are dying for her art. Seriously we have given her a block of computer paper and said go to town and she is! After listening to "The Greeks" (Story of the World) she started drawing Cyclops. Men Cyclops, women Cyclops, families of Cyclops. Our current favorite movies is Disney's Princess and The Frog, the main character is working hard to open her own restaurant so the other morning Hannah started creating breakfast menus and listing all the possible options we had. I've also taken advantage of the story being set in New Orleans to talk a little bit about jazz music, Hurricane Katrina and American geography. Its amazing what creeps into their little minds when they're not expecting it.