A Day at Keopuolani Park

Family fun day at Keopuolani Park in Kahului.  (There is a great park with 3 large jungle gyms for children of all ages.)

Running on the little toddler jungle gym

Trying his best at the downhill swing

Enjoying the swings

My favorite picture of the day - Pure joy

BJ's First Beach Day!

We had a family outing on Sunday and went to the beach!  Being that we are from Maui, you would think we would go to the beach more often, but this was BJ's first trip to the beach and he's 14 months old! haha. The real reason is because it takes so much to pack up towels, water, extra clothes, sun screen, hats, chairs, etc... We've just been way too lazy.  Plus, I'm a freak when it comes to the sun since I've heard so many horror stories about skin cancer, so I've been pretty protective about going outside.

Still... since we are in paradise... we decided to give the beach a try and had a great time on family fun day.

Please excuse the embarrassing photo.

We decided to go the Sugar Beach in Kihei and we loved it!  You could park right next to the sand, so your car is in full view. Plus, there were lots of shady areas for us to sit on the sand and make sand castles.  I was surprised... he didn't even eat the sand!

When we first took Bj into the water, he started crying because he was scared of the waves.  No, not just cried, SCREAMED. When we took him out a little deeper, though, he enjoyed the calmness of the water and mommy splashing water on daddy. hehe.

Overall, I'd say Beach Day was a success... and we need to have them more often!

Healthy Eats

Before I had BJ, I had an image in my head of how I would be the perfect mother - and one of those attributes included feeding baby healthy, homemade foods, and sitting around the dinner table eating a family meal together.  Of course, when reality set in and time became involved, BJ started eating more and more take out and frozen meals. *Sigh* I'm imperfect.  

A recent outing at Burger King

Today, HJ and I set a goal for ourselves to be better about our entire family's eating habits.  We've been eating out way too often, and have been teaching BJ that take out and fast food is okay to eat daily.  His favorite food is French Fries and if he sees one of us eating french fries, he'll cry out in frustration because he wants to eat it too.

Sooooooo I went to the library yesterday and borrowed a book on homemade toddler foods, and I realized that in reality, it's just adult food without the salt!  After my realization, HJ and I went to the neighborhood supermarket and purchased fresh meats and veggies, and I plan to make dinner at home every day this week.   I'm really excited.  I have also fallen in love with our slow cooker... a true best friend for a busy mom!!  You just place your food in the pot before you leave the house, turn the knob to low/high heat, and voilà, your food is done when you get home from work. I love it!

I hope that you are all eating yummy meals with your families, and if you can share tips with us, I would love to hear from you.  Wish us luck. :-)

The Next Child

I'm an only child... and it can be rather lonely sometimes.  I watch siblings interact with each other and I feel sad sometimes that I will never have that connection with someone as I get older.  This is why I want Jacob to have sibling(s?) who are close in age, and I feel most only children feel the same way.  The sad part about this is that childcare is extremely expensive, so I don't think we'll be able to afford another child for awhile.  I wish that we could have another child soon, but it's just not in the cards. *Sigh*

Just some random thoughts...

Entrepreneurship

I want to own my own business.

Seriously.

I just don't have a craft that I'm good at. And I think that's a major part of owning your own business, isn't it?  Actually having something to sell.... Yah. I'm sure that would help.

I like to think I'm diverse and can do many things okay, but I'm not GREAT at one specific thing; that one thing that will make me have my own business.

If any of you have any ideas, please share.  Thanks! :-)


By the way... Jacob now says "Basketball" and "I love you"... which sounds more like "basetball" and "wovewoo"

Vocabulary

BJ's been pretty verbal lately.  He'll walk up to us, point to something, and saw a word or two... sometimes even a long length of sounds that seem like a sentence.  The most difficult part is that sometimes, he doesn't actually say words, even though he thinks he is. He gets really frustrated if he's talking to us but we don't understand him.  I think it's a really difficult stage that he's in right now because he knows what he wants but it's hard for him to verbalize it.

BJ talking to mommy

  Here are words he can say at 14 months old. (He turns 14 months on the 9th)

Jacob... how old are you - "One" - As he holds his index finger up, symbolizing the number one
"Down"
"Yah"
"Wow"
"Hi"
"Hot"
"That"
"Mom"
"Bow-wow-wow"
"Mum-mum"
"Nice" - Just learned this one
"Wa" - like water

There might be a couple of more words he can say and I'm pretty sure I'm missing some.

I think this is a pretty good list for 14 months old; especially since "No" is not in there yet. Hehe. He does something different every day.  It's amazing how much information a young child can retain!  The brain is an amazing organ. :-)