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Silly Stories

There was a story about Koa that I forgot to mention in the last post and he's been keeping us on our toes for the past couple of days, so I thought I would share some of his silly antics.

A couple of weeks ago we were at Stroller Strides after the class had finished and the kids were playing together near the play ground.  Koa had been playing with his friend, Bodhi, with rocks and sticks and whatever.  Pretty soon Bodhi wandered around the side of the bathroom where Koa couldn't see him.  Apparently Koa thought this meant they were playing hide-and-seek because he slowly crept around the side of the building and yelled, "Boo!" and then ran away laughing.  Bodhi did nothing.  Then we tried teaching two kids under two years old how to play tag.  That was pretty futile, but entertaining for the mothers involved.  Koa seems to always be on the lookout for a game to be played!

A couple of nights ago Koa re-discovered a little bear that Great-Grandpa Hunt and Great-Grandma Myrna had given him for Christmas.  He brought the bear out to the living room and when Zak asked Koa what the bear's name was he very matter-of-factly said, "Pete."  We have no idea where he got that name, but he has proceeded to call the bear Pete from that day forward.  Koa's never been much of a stuffed animal lover - he's never slept with them, or carried them around, or even played with them for any length of time, including Pete.  Zak and I still kind of giggle every time we say Pete's name and we ask Koa where Pete is several times a day for our own entertainment.  We just think it's odd that Koa has randomly given a bear that he doesn't seem to have much interest in a name that he has never heard before!

This morning (I'm still just shaking my head about this) I got Koa's booster seat out of the dish washer and re-assembled it, wiped it off, and set it in its usual place in preparation for breakfast.  Koa rushed over to sit down in it while I got his breakfast from the kitchen.  A couple seconds later when I turned around from the refrigerator he was right behind me getting a rag from my stash of microfiber rags that I keep in the cabinet under the sink for messes.  He very carefully unfolded a rag, closed the cabinet door, and walked over to his chair where he proceeded to wipe off the water spots that I had missed!  While wiping up he kept saying, "Muss, muss," then he would turn around and look at me and asked "Why?  Why?"  Then he'd go back to wiping up the "muss."  Finally he brought me the rag and sat down to have his breakfast!

He continues to amaze and amuse us!  We shall never be bored again!!

Brave Or Just Crazy? You Decide

So, today I decided it was time for a second haircut.  I had recently mentioned to Zak that I thought I would take Koa to one of those kid's haircut places and he mocked me.  Yes, mocked!  He thought it was silly that I do everything else "from scratch" so to speak, but I wouldn't cut his hair myself.  He reminded me that he is a year and a half old and would not care what his hair looked like.  So, bravely, I put it off.  But this morning I decided something needed to be done.  So, I called my sister (who used to be a hairdresser and who cut Koa's hair the first time) to ask for pointers.  She is camping in the mountains this weekend and couldn't be reached.  So, I consulted the Internet.  I found this article.  I decided to cut it anyway.  There are some before and after pictures in Koa's nineteen month photo album for you to critique. 

His hair is not the only thing that has been growing like crazy lately.  His vocabulary is doing it's thing, too.  I'm not terribly surprised, but he is quite a talker!  His favorite words right now:  wash, bash (a combination of bath and wash), It's stuck!, Why?, and I don't know.  I thought the "why" thing was supposed to come much later, but he has gotten a head-start on that apparently.  It's usually in response to doing something he wasn't supposed to do.  He no longer yells, "No, no, no." when he does something naughty.  Now he looks at the result (or hands it to me) and says, "Why?"  Then he replies to himself with, "I dunno."

After much debate in our house we decided to get some videos for Koa.  We are not so anti TV that we keep it off when he is in the room, but we have never encouraged him to watch it by playing kid's shows.  Until very recently he has not cared at all when the TV is on.  So, I went to the library and got some Signing Time videos.  It is a program they show on PBS, but here it comes on Saturdays in the middle of the day, so there is no way I ever think to stop and watch it.  He seems to like them OK.  He still won't sit still through an entire one, but I'm perfectly fine with that.  They have books that coincide with the videos and actually he likes the books more.  We have watched each of three videos once, but he likes to look at the books pretty much every day and he is starting to pick up on a few new signs.  He now knows bath, ball, milk and help, in addition to all the ones he already uses regularly.

The other TV program he likes is Wheel of Fortune.  I always like to watch that in the evening while I am making dinner and as soon as Koa hears it, he comes running into the room.  One night I started making dinner, but it was too early for The Wheel and the TV was off.  Koa went and got the remote and brought it to me!  The funny thing is I think he kind of gets it a little bit.  He always throws out his guesses which is usually an "M", but the other night he guessed "S".  I'm kind of embarrassed that I am encouraging him to watch TV, but I guess it could be The Bachelor or something!  Mostly we think he loves clapping with Vanna every few seconds.

Along with all of the new developmental things, we have been dealing with new attitude problems.  I guess they aren't exactly new, but rather a slow-growing problem.  He has been whining a lot more and has been "talking back" a lot when I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do--which means high pitched screaming some of the time.  So, we started our own form of "time out".  We have a corner by the door where he has to go and stand (facing in or out, but it has to be in the corner) as soon as he starts to talk naughty.  He is allowed to cry or scream as long as he wants in the corner, but he is not allowed to come out until he can tell us, "Yes" he is ready to have a good attitude and he has to show us his smile.  He really hates this...  The first couple of times there was much screaming and gnashing of teeth (like 15 minutes at a time), and if he thought Dad might show mercy and rescue him, it was even worse.  But once he realized no one was going to rescue him (via the screams), he has figured out he really can have a good attitude pretty quickly.  The first few days we had to employ the technique several times a day, sometimes in rapid succession.  However, now it is usually once a day or less and life is so much more pleasant without the whining and back talk!

We decided for Halloween Koa would be a Colorado Rockies baseball player (Go Rockies!) so my sister sent him a jersey since we couldn't find anything out here and I ordered a hat for him on-line.  Yesterday I went and bought him a ball and glove.  He loved it!  He wears the glove as a hat and throws the ball like a wild man!  The glove is pretty big but I just could not resist!  Well, I just went to the mail box and got the jersey and it is a basketball jersey with the Rockies logo!  So, maybe I will get him a basketball now.  Like he needs another ball!  At any rate, I think it was probably time for him to have a ball and glove. 

Speaking of the Rockies--Wooo Hooo!  It's about time they made it to the Series!  Now let's hope their home games go a little better then their first two in Boston!  I've never been much of a baseball fan--it's just too slow for me--but I am being converted.  We even went to a Hawaii Winter Baseball game the other night.  HWB is sort of like Minor League baseball, but the players come during their off-seasons to Hawaii to continue working on their skills and get scouted by teams.  Most players in HWB are already signed and are just working their ways through the farm systems.  Koa ate his first hot dog (which I am still lamenting) because Zak insisted that is part of the baseball experience (but, to Zak's chagrin, there were no boiled peanuts, sausage dogs, garlic fries, or Cracker Jacks ).  That was a lucky night for us -Zak's class got canceled because his professor was sick, so we took advantage of a rare Friday night off and enjoyed some family time.

Speaking of school, last week Zak finished his last big paper (An Exegesis on the Lord's Prayer) for the class that he considers the hardest of this semester (Biblical Interpretation).  He will officially finish the class next Friday, but he is mostly finished already.  So, he's pretty much down to three classes left until December 15th when he's all pau!  Today he already went to class, so we have the afternoon to play.  We're going to go to the pumpkin patch and pick us a pumpkin before Zak locks himself away again for the evening (he needs to prepare his lesson for our Malama Group meeting tomorrow).

The Prodigal Returns!

This post is probably not all that exciting to anyone but me, but I thought I would share.  Koa did, in fact, return to the potty.  He has resumed using it regularly, but he still will not tell us he needs to go.  My theory is that one day when he was bouncing from person to person between Sunday activities he didn't want to go to the potty so he kept telling everyone he didn't need to go.  He ended up holding it for about 4-5 hours and I think it might have made his little muscles week again so that he got to where he couldn't hold it and he couldn't predict when he needed to go.  I started noticing that he would shee shee a little when I tickled him or something like that and he didn't do that before.  So, I think it was more of a physical thing.  I also started thinking back and every time he has relapsed from potty training it has been after he was really stubborn and held it for a long time.  See where stubbornness gets you?  In a big mess!  Let that be a lesson to me.

Ahhhh Holiday!

I didn't even know until Friday that today was a holiday, but it is so nice to slow down for a second and have the whole family at home--and celebrate our discoverers.  Just a few months ago a holiday would have meant we were in store for an adventure, but lately we just spend the day trying to catch our breath and get ahead on school.  I look forward to December 15 when we can resume to normal holiday protocol.  In fact, I have a cabin on the Big Island reserved in anticipation of just such things!

Zak's present classes--Intro to Islam, Biblical Interpretation, Ethics of Leadership, Philosophy of Religion--are keeping him very busy along with the small group facilitator's training and his regular job.  He just finished Intro to Philosophy.  That was an interim session so it was hard and fast, but he got it out of the way quickly, so that was nice.  Two of the classes he has this semester are actual classroom classes, so he is actually out of the house in the evenings instead of just holed up in his "office" with his Internet classes.  These are the last classes he has to take for his bachelor's degree, so last week when he got the news that one of his classroom classes had been canceled at the last minute (on a duty day, of course, so he couldn't do anything about it on that day) he had to run around like a crazy man the next day to try to find another class that he could take in its place and apply for tuition assistance from the Navy and all the fun that goes along with that.  Thankfully he was able to find one and it is offered only about 20 miles away from our house and they had the text book in stock!!  Prayers answered, disaster averted!

Zak is leading and I am attending the facilitator training on Sundays which makes for busy Sundays for the whole family.  Koa usually has to be woken up from a short nap to be toted off to a baby sitter for the hour and a half.  I also have been doing a ladies Bible study on Tuesday evenings and since Zak is usually swamped with school assignments Koa gets to go play with his Pappy Booker for the couple of hours that we are together.  It's so nice to have so many people around whom we trust and are willing to take the time to help us raise our little man. 

About two weeks ago we had a baby shower for our friend, Bethanyanne, and her baby.  Said baby was conceived during a vacation to India, so the shower theme was "Made in India".  We decorated with lots of bright shiny fabrics and pillows and we found recipes for food and drink from India to set the mood.  So that was a busy couple of weeks getting decorations together and sewing pillow cases and fun stuff like that.  I also made two different flavors of homemade ice cream (Ginger and Sweet Cherry/Chocolate) that I thought turned out pretty well.  We're still trying to finish off the rest of it.  Our friend Chanda made chai banana bread and chai tea and chai coffee.  Then I went to a friend's house the night before and we made something called Gulab Jamun.  It was a fun party to prepare for, but it made for a busy couple of weeks.  Bethanyanne seemed to really enjoy it and that is all that mattered.  Now we wait in anxious anticipation to meet Baby Bahm!!

Just a few days after the party we had to bid a fond farewell to our good friend and auntie, Chanda.  We miss you, Chanda!!  Koa had just started saying her name right before she left.  Once in a while it would come out really clear as "Chanda", but most of the time it was "La La".  Well, I regret to inform you, Chanda, today you have been replaced by mashed potatoes.  I have no idea why, but today he started calling mashed potatoes "La La".  He really liked the mashed potatoes if that is any consolation.

Speaking of friends going and coming, our friend, Brad, just got back from a month and a half of training in California.  He is preparing to deploy sometime in December.  Since he was back we were able to have him and his wife, Rebecca, and Bethanyanne and Eric over for dinner on Saturday night.  We decided to try out another fancy dessert we hadn't made before, so we made Bananas Foster.  It was fun to make since we got to light the pan on fire (Zak turned out the lights for effect) but I'm not a huge fan of the dessert, really.  No one else complained, though.  Well, Zak said the bananas were a little soft.  I guess I used too much rum and it flamed for too long.  Brad insisted he was drunk from any alcohol that remained after the flame.  We think he was just trying to get Rebecca to take advantage of him.

As we were preparing for the dinner at our house I made a final run to the grocery store for a few essentials--coffee being one of them.  When we got in the store I told Koa we needed coffee and asked him if he knew where it was.  He pointed in the right direction (no, I'm not making any genius claims).  So we headed that way.  When we got to the aisle I told him to turn right and he did (still, that could mean anything).  He headed all the way down the aisle not touching a single thing until we got to the coffee.  Then he grabbed a bag of coffee!  Genius maybe?  Seriously, I thought it was too funny.  I have no idea how he would know that coffee comes from a bag like that.  It is just amazing to me how he picks up on little things like that. 

He is also showing us how much of a little boy he is still.  Lately he has been trying to make himself burp.  He's only actually been successful once.  Usually he just makes a sound like he is clearing his throat.  Do little girls do this kind of stuff?

Don't dismay (maybe that's just directed at me), he is learning some manners.  He uses thank you very appropriately for things that I have never prompted him to say.  Like if I say, "Good job, Koa."  He will say, "Tay tu."  He also says, "Excuse me." when he wants to get past someone and they are in the way.    He's started to say please ("ps, ps") but usually just uses his sign language for that.  He does a good job with it, though.  I am teaching him that he has to ask permission before he steps over a curb or off a sidewalk anywhere we go.  So, he rubs his chest and points at the ground and has to wait for my answer.  He does pretty well with that.

I am also trying to teach him about "quiet time" at home so that when we are in church or somewhere that he needs to be quiet he gets the concept.  A few months ago I tried it by putting a red towel on the couch and asking him to sit there until the timer went off and I sat beside him and encouraged him, but he was still too young and it just made him really upset and we didn't really accomplish anything at all.  So, I put that on hold and decided to try it again recently.  This time I just had him sit on a chair by himself and got the timer out and set it for five minutes to begin.  I told him what we were doing and what was expected of him.  He did pretty well, but even five minutes seemed like forever for both of us.  The next time we did it he actually started to whisper to me and say, "Ssshhhh."  Two days ago it was raining and since it was wet on our lanai and I didn't want him tracking dirt in the house I laid down one of the red towels from our second bathroom just inside the door.  When he saw me laying it down he came in the house and sat down on it and started saying, "Ssshhhh, ssssshhhh."  It was pretty funny.  I couldn't believe he actually made that connection even though the quiet time didn't click back when we did it the first time.

I do have some frustrating news to report.  Koa has disfellowshipped his potty.  For some reason he all of the sudden decided he would no longer tell us when he needed to go and he started going shee shee more in his pants than the potty.  He was completely dry day and night and was telling us when he needed to go very consistently.  Then about a week ago he just refused to tell us even when we asked and he gets really frustrated if we take him too often.  So, with much reluctance, I just put away his potty chair and pulled out the diapers.  The really weird thing is that Koa despises his diapers.  I don't think it will take too long before he is motivated to use the potty chair again since he prefers the freedom of the big boy pants, but I didn't know what else to do.  Just as disfellowship is not intended as an end but a means to an end, we hope he will soon be reunited and I can put the dipes away for good!  If anyone has any input on this I am totally open to suggestions!