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BZ2 Ultrasound

We had an exciting day last Friday.  We got to see the sonogram images for BZ2!  We had a sonogram when he or she was just six weeks (four weeks gestation) when I was concerned that things weren't going well, but you couldn't see a whole lot in those pictures.  It is truly amazing to see what all is going on in there right now.  We could see all the chambers of the heart pumping away.  She checked out all of the little bitty organs and measured everything imaginable.  BZ2 was yawning and sucking on his or her fingers as well as being generally uncooperative with the ultrasound tech.  When it was all said and done we asked how much he or she weighs and it is a grand total of one pound!  Isn't that just amazing that all of the little parts are built and functioning (well, as much as they need to right now) and it is inside of a one pound little body!  And that begs the question why in the world is my belly so big then?   

We got to bring Koa to the appointment with us, but when I made the appointment they told me if I was bringing a child I would also need to bring a baby sitter as he would not be allowed in the room until the last five minutes.  I was a little annoyed by this policy, but decided if we were going to need one babysitter we would just invite anyone who would like to come along.  So, our friends Wes and Jessi and Tracie all took off work to come join in the fun.  The tech was very nice and let all of them come in the room for the entire time.  However, she was puzzled about why we would bring all of our friends along when we weren't going to find out the sex of the baby.  I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed watching the miracle take place on the computer screen.

Of course, the still pictures are never quite as good as the actual ultrasound, but we have a few to share.  This is the only one I have on the website for now.  We haven't had a chance to really mess with the scanner since then because it has been so busy around here.  I knew Tutu was probably chomping at the bit to see something so I took time to do one picture this morning before we head off to the Kam Flea Market for some produce (yeah, I know, it doesn't sound like a place to buy produce, but it is!)

After our appointment on Friday Zak took the rest of the day off and he and Wes and I all headed out to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden for a weekend of camping.  Jessi and our friend, Stacy, joined us later.  The next night we had several more friends join us for an overnight stay and a little worship service on Sunday morning.  You can see pictures of the fun weekend and beauty of the Ko'olau Mountains here.  The mountains are so massive and we were too close to get a really good picture of them, but they are really amazing!

We took all of our food and cooked over a little Hibachi and the camp fire on my cast iron griddle and skillet.  That was a lot of fun, but took a lot of prep work.  It made me appreciate the camping trips I used to take with my parents where we would pack in on horses and cook the fish we caught in the river.  That must have been quite the under-taking!!  I made a bunch of homemade snacks to take with us--some of which turned out ok, and others that didn't do so well.  I made homemade granola that was truly awful and half of it became duck food, some of it got eaten in the yogurt I made and we just tried to drown out the flavor with fresh fruit.  I have been sneaking the rest into Zak and Koa's smoothies in the AM in place of the oatmeal I usually use.  That seems to be working.  I also made some homemade corn chips that turned out ok as long as you ate them with the bean dip or salsa that I also made.  The peanut butter popcorn was a pretty big hit but I didn't think it was as good as it could have been. 

Koa got to use his new camp chair that we got for him last week at the Kam Flea Market for $3 and he thought he was very cool!  His dad gets some cool points for his successful attempt at breaking a log in half with a large rock so we could burn it.  That's my boy scout!  You will have to check out the pictures for a good visual of this event.  We will try to find a hatchet at the market today for our next camping trip. 

It is a lot of work to get ready to camp even just for the weekend and I have spent part of this week just trying to recover and get everything stowed back in our one small closet.  Maybe we'll pull it all out and go again next weekend...hmmm Waimanalo again maybe... 

What A (Father's) Day!

Well, just as I predicted, it was a busy day yesterday.  It started bright and early with Rebecca and I embarking on our 13.1 mile journey through Waikiki and over Diamond Head out to Kalani'anaole Hwy and back to Kapiolani Park.  It is really a beautiful route!  If you have to run a half marathon, I can't think of a better place to do it!  We did make it all the way back--a little slower than we would have liked, but we made it. 

My recommendation is to never do anything like that when you have not trained for it!  I was in good enough shape cardiovascularly to run it twice probably, so BZ2 was perfectly safe (for all you worry-warts out there).  However, the combination of the added 10 pounds or so, and the repetition of just running for that long really took a toll on my legs!  They were shot by the end!  In fact, we sprinted the last 100 meters or so, and when I crossed the finish line I was afraid to be still because I thought my legs would cramp up and I would not be able to move for the rest of the day.  We made it out of downtown in time to grab a lei for Zak and get showered before worship services (we missed class).  After church when we were at lunch I started to cross my legs and both my thighs completely cramped up!  I stood up from my chair and realized there were 15 people looking straight at me.  Apparently we were getting ready to pray!  When I realized what was happening, I quickly sat back down and just tried to breathe deeply until the prayer was over and I could stand up again.  If it wasn't so uncomfortable it would have been funny!

After lunch we continued with the Father's Day festivities.  Koa and I got to surprise Zak with an airplane ride where he got to help pilot a Cessna.  We went to a little charter/flight school over by the Honolulu International Airport and Zak got to take a thirty minute flight with his instructor, Jon Vong.    He spent about half an hour familiarizing Zak with gages and controls and then Zak actually got to do the take-off.  Then Jon took them out over a pineapple field and let Zak take the controls again to do some maneuvers like turns and changes in altitude.  Then they headed back to the airport and Jon did the landing.  All told we were at the airfield for about an hour and a half.  I think Zak really enjoyed it.  Almost as good as the experience itself was the cost - it was only $56 (including a $10 tip)!  Now that's a cheap, incredible adventure!  Pictures will be coming soon (hopefully!).

While we were waiting for Zak and Jon to land, Koa convinced a nice lady who worked there (he called her Auntie, just like a polite little local boy!) to let him pilot her golf cart.  When he came back inside with her he told me they had gone to the beach. 

Saturday was just about as busy as Sunday (but less painful for me!).  After I signed up for the race and picked up my packet we ran a couple of errands and then headed for the North Shore for Zak to do some of his advanced certification dives.  If you didn't read the website I linked to in the last post, to become an advanced diver a student has to do 5 "adventures dives" from about a list of 20 (along with the usual book work and written examinations).  Two of those dives are required - a deep dive and an underwater navigation dive.  The other 3 can be picked from the list.  So, Zak's 5 dives are going to be a deep dive, an underwater navigation dive, a night dive, a wreck dive, and a boat dive (dive from a boat instead of shore).

Zak's first dive on Saturday was out of Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach Park (where we got married) for his deep water dive.  It's a dive location called Hale'iwa Trench.  He had to take a math test on land before they went out and then another at depth (in this case 92 feet was the deepest spot they could find) to demonstrate the effects of nitrogen narcosis on a person in deep water.  Zak actually did better at 92 feet (by a full minute)!  So, I guess that explains something about how Zak's brain functions!  Zak did his second dive at Shark's Cove (Don't worry Regina, there are very few sharks - its mostly named for some of the lava rock formations.)  In this one he had to do some underwater navigation which involved first counting how many fin kicks it took him to swim 100 meters.  Then using a compass and counting his kicks, he had to swim a square underwater and end up within 6 meters of where he started.  I figure after 8 years of navigating a submarine he ought to be good at this, but he explained to me that he uses lasers and gyro navigators on a sub and not a compass.  He still passed his dive though.

While Zak was diving, Koa and I played around at the park and then down near Shark's Cove.  Koa desperately wanted to snorkel, so I helped him put a mask on and tried to help him stick his face in the water with it on.  Just as he would get his face right up to the water he would lose confidence and stand back up (and hit me in the face with his head on one occasion).  Then he just wanted to splash around and throw rocks (with the mask on, of course).  He finally took the mask off and decided to make "juice" in his sand bucket.  The ingredients for the juice were sand and soy.  He liked putting the soy in because it got a good reaction from me when I would say, "Ewww, not soy!" and I would pick it out and throw it away.

Zak is well on his way to becoming an advanced diver.  He has three dives left and he is loving it!  I'm so glad he is finally getting to do some of the fun things he has put off because of the boat and then school the whole time we have been here.  Fortunately he has some really good friends to do these things with, too!  You can see the pictures we have of him diving so far in the SCUBA Diving photo album.  What a fun weekend with a fun Daddy!!  We are so blessed!

Both Saturday and Sunday we were gone all day and didn't get home until after 9 PM and Koa hardly napped at all either day.  So, Monday has been a somewhat relaxing day with a short trip to the beach to get some salt water therapy for my sore legs!  Hopefully we will be mostly recovered by tomorrow.

I Know I'm Slow

If it makes anyone feel any better about my negligence to this blog, I apparently didn't know we had moved on into January because I have been telling people that Koa is 21 months old all month.  It just dawned on me today that if his birthday is coming up in March he probably isn't really still 21 months old.  Ooops! 

We started out the new year at some friends' house with a fondue party, dipping anything we could find in cheese or chocolate!  We have been in Hawaii for seven years now, and I still am in awe of just how over the top people go with fire works for the New Year celebration.  Normal households will buy professional fireworks and set them off on their front lawn or driveway or wherever they deem necessary.  When we drive down the neighborhood streets for about four hours prior to midnight (and a while after) it is like a war zone!  Poor Koa thought he was at war.  It scared him pretty bad.  Once we got in the house and he realized that the rest of us were not concerned about all the noise he calmed down and enjoyed the party along with everyone else.

We have had a very busy January so far.  Zak has been dedicated to filling out grad school applications like a mad man.  You would think he hasn't finished school at all since he still spends most of his time in front of the computer.  He has finished three of the applications.  The first one, Harvard Divinity School, was due January 11, so he got busy pretty much as soon as we got back from the Big Island getting references and writing essays.  Then he finished Yale Divinity School, Cincinnati Bible Seminary, Pepperdine University and just tonight, Oxford University.  He still has Multnomah Biblical Seminary left to finish, so I think he is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

We also kicked off our Malama Groups right after the first of the year.  So far the first two meetings have gone really well and we've seen God working through them.  Most impressive so far has been the number of people attending groups who barely attend regular services.  While we prayed for our Malama Groups to eventually grow our congregation's attendance, we didn't expect it to happen so soon!  So,   hopefully folks will continue to come, get to know one another better, and be an example to each other and our community of what being a Christian is all about.  This next weekend the group that Zak and I are leading will be meeting in our house!  Very exciting stuff!

We also had our Christmas gift exchange with friends this past weekend (we always do it after the holidays so we don't have to try to plan around traveling schedules and this year it got pushed back quite a bit).  Since we don't get a lot of cold weather here (don't hate me for saying this) we turned the AC up and everyone wore cold weather clothes and we had cold weather food and drinks.  I made my new favorite thing, spicy hot chocolate.  This year instead of a cap on our gift price we decided to do an exact amount you had to spend.  We drew the numbers out of a hat (or some sort of receptacle) and came up with $15.68.  Only two people didn't hit the number they were given and one of them was just being rebellious.  We were not allowed to give money or just purchase a gift certificate for the exact amount.  It was quite entertaining to see what lengths people went to in order to stick to the rules.

One of the things I've been working on since the first of the year is more research concerning vaccinations.  For those who don't remember the first time we wrestled with this the final decision was to wait until Koa was two and then reevaluate and decide if there were any vaccinations we would like to get at that time.  For anyone who might be interested in this topic I highly recommend a well-written book by Aviva Jill Romm--Vaccinations:  A Thoughtful Parent's Guide.  It's not an easy read as far as I am concerned because it presents so much information in a short time and it is very scientific.  As much as I like to know the science behind it, the plain truth is I am not a scientist, so it requires a lot of re-reading for me to take in all of the information.  I am enjoying it though.  I just don't get much time to sit and read it.

Koa is getting more and more active all the time.  Initially I did not think this was possible!  He has always been an active, highly motivated child, so I thought he would just maintain that.  However the last couple of days especially I have wondered if he is sneaking caffeine tablets or something.  I have contemplated putting a stamp on his Hieny and shipping him off to the grandparents or something, but I'm afraid he would just come back with "RETURN TO SENDER" stamped on his face!  Tonight Zak took him on a walk after dinner in hopes of using up some of the energy and I actually got a moment to myself in the house.  It was really kind of nice.  I was trying to think if that has happened at all in the past two years.  I think this might have been a first!

Another thing I have just started and am really excited about is a ladies Bible study on Daniel that we are doing on Tuesday nights.  The ladies have done several studies together over the past several years, but I haven't been able to attend as regularly as I would like because of logistics.  Now that Zak is done with school for a while I am hoping I will get to become a regular.  I have been "reading" Daniel over and over when I am driving with my new Bible on CD that Hunt and Myrna got us for Christmas.  I really like it!  I enjoy listening to scripture like that where it is just read as a complete story.  I especially like having the Old Testament read because I get different things from the story when I am not having to pronounce the names in my head.

I'll stop there for now, not because I'm out of material, but because I'll spare everyone (myself included) from reading another marathon post.  Stay tuned for further posts on Koa's happenings, Malama Groups, Zak's grad school applications, vaccinations research, and whatever else happens in the weeks ahead.

Touch 'n Go

Koa's fever made an alarming resurgence yesterday and is keeping us all at an elevated state of alert.  It's very cyclical - he'll have a couple hours where you wouldn't believe he's even sick, then his body temp will spike and he'll be a (hot) zombie for a couple hours, then it'll go back down and he'll be back to normal.  He's spent probably half of these past 2 days in his bed either sleeping or just zoning out, which has been a big help.  He threw up a couple times yesterday and his temperature got as high as 103.8 before we gave him some medicine last night.  We're amazed at how well his little immune system operates - his body is battling very hard to get him healthy enough for his trip to CO (thus the high fever and throwing-up).  We were hesitant to give him any medicine for that reason - God's perfect design was operating as it should have and by interceding and forcing his body temp down, we would essentially be hampering his body's ability to combat his sickness.  The final decision to give him medicine was made at his bedtime when he couldn't fall asleep - we decided getting a good night's rest would be just as beneficial as allowing his body to continue to run at a high temperature.  Needless to say, the medicine worked, Koa's temp came down, and he was able to get some sleep (he still woke up 4 or 5 times) last night.  Today has been much of the same so we've laid low, canceled our 4th of July plans, and allowed him to continue the good fight all day.

This obviously has caused some concern over the upcoming trip to Colorado later this evening.  We're delaying making a decision about whether to abort the trip or not (or more likely just delay it) until the last minute.  The bags are packed and sitting by the front door, but we'll see if we head to the airport based on how well Koa does post-nap.  Kathy has been on the phone with the airlines quite often today talking about our options if Koa is still ill.

Pray for little Koa and his health.  We know he'll be fine and will be better long-term after this ordeal.  Even in times of illness or weakness Kathy and I are in awe of God's amazing creation: the human body.  How our bodies take care of themselves under different situations (almost without our needing to do anything) is truly a sign of God's limitless wisdom, power, and love.