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Entertainment of All Sorts

I have a couple of funny little Koa stories to share.  As his vocabulary continues to increase and we get to see more of what kinds of things are going through his little head it gets more and more fun all the time.  A couple of weeks ago we were at the park and there were a some guys in cars on the street next to the park revving their engines and squealing their tires.  Koa and I were walking towards the bathroom and he stopped to look at them.  I asked him, "Are they actin' silly?"  With all of the disgust he could muster he very plainly said, "Tourists!"

The last several nights he has been having dreams that keep waking him up.  They don't seem to be nightmares or anything really scary, I think they are just disturbing and frustrating.  A couple of nights ago he called me and I went in his room.  I can't remember exactly how he said it, but he made it very clear that he was having trouble getting his spoon in his coffee and he was very frustrated by it!

There is something he has done for a while now that has had me really puzzled and I finally had an epiphany about it the other day that made me feel like I had solved the Sunday edition New York Times crossword!  Every since he learned the sign for fireman he has used it when talking about babies--specifically his little friend, Pierce.  Even when Pierce is not around he will show me the sign for fireman and then say, "Baby.  Pierce.", or as soon as I mention they are coming over or we will see them he would start to do the fireman sign.  I was so perplexed by this association until the other day another little kid was trying to say "pacifier" and she said, "Fire paci".  It finally dawned on me that he thinks what Pierce puts in his mouth is a "paci-fire".  I got such a kick out of that.  And Pierce's mama said he did the fireman sign as soon as she put the paci-fire in Pierce's mouth the next time we saw them. 

For those of you who know Zak's obsession with the Brothers Cazimero, you will appreciate the fact that we got to go see a Brothers Caz concert a few days ago.  And for those of you who used to live here, you will appreciate that it was performed at the Hawai'i Theater.  It was a really great show--surprisingly low key and not sold out, but it was a nice, intimate little crowd in a lovely theater and they did a great show.  One of my favorite parts was the hula.  They had some kupuna (elders) dance for a couple of their songs and I just thought it was such a beautiful representation of what hula really is.  That's certainly not what most folks get to see when they come to Hawai'i for a short time.  We have been so blessed to find some of these little nuggets of culture that we will always appreciate about Hawai'i.

I'm getting a little sappy about our time here possibly coming to a close, but we really have no idea how much longer we have.  Right now Zak is in the middle of submitting packages to apply to ROTC and for an early out for higher education.  We have no idea if either of those will be accepted.  If one of them is, he will most likely be going to school in Portland, Oregon at Multnomah Bible Seminary starting this August.  If neither of those options work out, we will be here until next May and then he will be able to pursue his education goals the next Fall.  We are pretty excited to see what God has planned for us next.  As much as we love Hawai'i and it has become our home in the past eight years, we sure are excited to see what the next adventure will be!  We just ask that you keep us in your prayers as we play the waiting game and that we will be at peace with whatever the decision is.

Well, He's Two...

...in attitude and all.  It was almost like someone had told Koa that when he became two all of his answers should be "no" and he should be fussy and stubborn about every possible thing.  I was a bit concerned at first, but then I realized he was about on schedule for his routine of "checking to make sure all the rules still apply".  This usually happens about every six weeks and as long as we stick to our guns and don't give any slack we pass through it without too much stress.  This time it lasted several days, but we made it through and now our (mostly) sweet boy is back for another six weeks or so. 

You will find pictures in the brand new 2 year old photo album of Koa going ice skating for the very first time.  I was a bit concerned when we left Stroller Strides and started towards the skating rink that day since Koa had been in his mood for a day or two already (i.e. yelling "no" at anyone who told him happy birthday!)  I just wasn't sure it was going to be much of a success.  I even called Zak to see if he had any reason to opt out.  He said, "We've already planned it, let's just do it."  So we trudged on...  When we got to the Ice Palace I got Koa's skates and started putting them on and he was very excited to get to wear "boots" (he was considerably less affectionate about his long pants, however), so I thought that was a good sign.  When he was all laced up I set him down on the floor (and my toe while I was still wearing slippers!  OUCH!) and he immediately started to scream.  He was not interested in that unbalanced feeling!  He didn't want anything to do with standing up, but he also was not interested in sitting down.  At this point I was pretty certain the day was a wash!

When Zak got there he took Koa for a minute while I got my skates on and took a twirl (HA!) on the ice to get my bearings.  Oh, my goodness!  Ice skating is so much harder than I remember it being!  At this point I had very bad mental images of me falling on top of my poor, unhappy, two year old son on his birthday!  There was no way this was going to be a successful day.  I should probably have hung up the skates right there and then.  But, no, I took Koa from Zak and headed for the ice.  I set him down immediately inside the rink and his feet started flailing and I was doing everything I could to maintain my balance and all I hear is....giggling?  I couldn't believe my ears!  Koa thought it was so funny to be completely off balance apparently.  So we spent the next hour or so being just that--off-balance!  It took me a while to figure out just how to help Koa along so that it wasn't killing my back, but once we got it figured out we had a ton of fun!  We didn't even have any uncontrolled falls.  The only times we both ended up down on the ice was by choice.  Zak ended up playing photographer this time, but I'm pretty sure we will be doing this again some day soon and then the tables will turn!  Koa has been asking for "states" every since that day.  We will have videos sometime soon.  You will have to bug Zak about that.

We finished that part of the day off with lunch which was pizza with Daddy and Uncle Brad and then I ran Koa ragged at Costco and took him home and put him to bed.  After his nap we played for a while and then opened presents from Stimple and Tutu and had dinner.  After dinner we took him to Baskin Robbins and let him get his very own scoop of chocolate ice cream which he insisted on eating with the tester spoon instead of the real spoon.  You will have to imagine the mess--we didn't take the camera!  It was pretty late already so I'm sure we looked like terrible parents taking our two year old to get ice cream at 9 PM.  Oh well!

We had intended to do a dinner with friends or something as a low-key party for him, but this week has just been so crazy with other activities that we just could not seem to fit it in the schedule.  I think he had a pretty good day anyway.