happy mother's day!

i tore this out of a magazine several years ago, and it remains my favorite quote on motherhood. happy mother's day, ladies!

dissed

so the other day kalei and i were in the kitchen working on assorted projects (i think she was drawing and i was making cards) and i started singing like the singing frog from the warner bros. cartoon. (you know, the one where the frog only sings for the construction worker and not any of the producers he takes the frog to.) so, picture me: "hello my, baby! hello, my honey! hello, my ragtime gaaaalllllll! send me a kiss by wiiiiiiiiiire! baby, my heart's on fiiiiiiiiiire!" and kalei calmly looks around the room and says: "I wish it were quiet in here." ouch!

success!

here are some of the candidates that are eligible for picture frames. i'm sure it would've been interesting to be a fly on the wall while the kids and i were having our photo shoots ("go sit next to your brother. hug him, please. i said hug him!"), but the kids had fun and were their silly selves and now we have over 100 pictures that totally capture the moments. how did we ever survive without digital cameras?!

the silliest children in the whole world!

as you might have noticed, i'm really enjoying making sweeping, exaggerated statements lately (says the most exhausted - and luckiest - mama in the world)! i've had three photo sessions with the kids to try to get just a few good pictures to put up on the wall. (kam's pictures will, of course, have center-stage, but i want at least one more of each to fill it out.) here are the results from one of the sessions. good thing i'm looking for photos that capture their personalities, right?

the most amazing baby in the whole world!

okay, so i know that everyone thinks they have the most incredible baby in the world, but deep down i know that kawelo is tops. others might run a close second, but he still holds the top spot for 10-month-olds. kawelo (aka "Baby Kawelo") is now standing for close to a minute at a time. it's hard to capture on film because he's so interested in seeing the back side of the camera!

the face of eczema

i just wanted to show why we haven't posted tons of pictures of kawelo this winter. these pictures show the whole range of severity of kawelo's eczema, from very mild to so severe that his skin is raw and swollen and bleeds easily. his face has not been clear since the weather turned cold and dry, despite the creams and ointments we constantly apply. the good news is, since the weather is warming and humidifying, his face is getting gradually clearer. i cannot emphasize this enough: WOOHOO!!!!! so, get ready to see a whole lot more of this adorable face!

a whole new girl

for her birthday, kalei wanted to get her hair cut and her ears pierced. well, we compromised - she could get her hair cut now, and her ears pierced when she's eight. so, here's a picture of how long kalei's hair was a month ago....

...and here's our girl now! as you can tell, she loves her new cut and feels like a rock star. she had nine inches cut off, and we will be donating that hair to an organization that makes wigs for cancer patients. her hair is so cute - it makes me want to get my hair cut to match! good thing she's still young enough to think that would be fun instead of lame!