plunge taken

well, all i can say is i'm glad i never had a c-section. friday morning, i had a minor outpatient surgery: a tubal ligation. i have been voluntarily sterilized. it hurts, and i'm very ouchy, but i feel good about this. james and i prayed and discussed and decided that our family is complete. kawelo is the perfect caboose to our family train, and i didn't particularly want the worry of having a surprise addition to our family when i'm 45. i didn't realize it would hurt so badly, but i have no regrets. well, i do have one regret: asking for chocolate cake when i woke up. what am i going to do with all this cake? :) -bess

new & improved

well, i finally did it. i procrastinated and made excuses until i couldn't ignore the fact that the boys needed haircuts.... BAD. so, with clippers in hand, i buzzed kawelo. it was fabulous. he didn't cry or fuss - just took it in stride. james wasn't even holding him - i plunked him down backwards in his baby tub. revelation: no matter how koa squirms and cries, the clippers are not a torture device. that gave me the confidence i needed to face tropical storm koa. koa doesn't enjoy getting his hair cut. normally, we bribe him with suckers (about 6 - they have to be replaced often since haircut suckers tend to get hairy) and james has to hold him and secure his head so that i can shave the sides and back and finger-cut the top (with his scar, i can't just shave the whole thing). this time, however, i used my head. what does koa love? movies. what has been our best purchase ever? a portable dvd player. hello?! why has this not occurred to me before? koa sat all by himself during the haircut. he still got suckers, but only complained if hair fell on him or i was blocking his view of the movie. i'm not saying that this was such a wonderful experience that i will be sure to give him a haircut every 3-4 weeks, but maybe, just maybe, i won't wait three months between trims. :)

brown thumb therapy

i know, i know, it's supposed to be green thumb therapy. however, plants sadly seem to turn brown in my care. we've had a few casualties this year. in the spring, we ripped out the existing bushes and weird rose plants in the front yard and transplanted two boxwoods from the back to the front and planted a beautiful dogwood tree. then there was a tragedy: a late frost. ol' jack frost, that gardener's nemesis, came and started the slow death of one of the boxwoods and the dogwood. he started the ball rolling, and i'm sad to say i finished them off. i remembered to feed my kids, but i forgot to water the plants. apparently they need watering more often than once a week. who knew? we did have some success this summer with impatiens. since our front yard is mostly shade areas, the impatiens are huge! and still thriving! it's a minor miracle! in fact, i was so encouraged by their success, that yesterday i bought this piece of paradise. the tall plant in the picture is supposedly a variety of hibiscus that is hardy even in winter. her name is lucy althea (hibiscus "lucy") and she promises to have large, red flowers all summer. she is now in the spot where our dead stick of a dogwood has stood all summer. her instruction card says to keep her soil evenly moist. i'll do my best. i hope she makes it.

big sister

bald is beautiful

kawelo is three months old now. he is happy and balding. i remember kalei's hair mostly fell out, also, but since she's a girl, we just left it and let it grow in and be all different lengths until it was long enough to shape into a bob. what do i do with kawelo's wispies? koa's head was shaved at 10 weeks, so i don't know what to do with a boy in this situation. he's got the full "friar tuck" look going with wispies on top and thicker, longer growth on the sides and back. do i shave him? the chinese shave babies' heads so that the hair will grow in thicker. he could use some of that. some people leave boys' hair alone till they're one and then cut it. i definitely can't let it go that long without action. i am nothing, if not a woman of action! :) and my action is: wait another week or so and see if it's still bugging me. :)

such sweet sorrow

what's that line from "romeo & juliet" - "parting is such sweet sorrow..." that's exactly how i feel about kalei's old clothes. twice a year a local church hosts a consignment sale and this will be the second one i've participated in as a seller. we know we're finished having children and there's no need to hold onto the clothes kalei has outgrown, but it's still kinda hard to part with some of the more adorable ones. i picked them out just for her! she looked so incredibly cute in them! of course, she'd look cute in a paper bag, but these clothes remind me of when she was still my baby. i know it's time to move on and look ahead, but there are a few items that i simply need to hold onto - i can't handle too much sweet sorrow at once. :)

road to maturity

several events in the past year have led to my feeling more like a grown-up. even though i had two kids already, i didn't really feel like i was older than 20 until we bought our home last summer. buying our home was awesome! i could paint the walls any color i chose (thank you, james, for that freedom!) and replace flooring and plant whatever i wanted. however, there is a side to home-ownership that is decidedly un-fun. replacing the chimney cap. fixing the air conditioning. having shingles replaced. even though each of these is totally not where i want to spend money, they are necessary and i need to look beyond the money vacuum and see the benefits of home maintenance. kalei's going to school has also inspired more maturity in me. now it really matters that she is in bed by 9, and that she eats enough breakfast so that her brain doesn't shut down 2 hours after she gets to school. each of these events has prodded me to put aside my own desires (to ignore the rusty chimney cap and blow some money at the pottery barn outlet! or to let kalei and koa stay up until james gets home after teaching a night class!) and focus on what's best for the kids, or the house. now i get to focus on what's best for our family. i'd really like to go to china. i think it'd be awesome to stand on the great wall. however, the prophets have counseled us for longer than i've been alive that debt is a no-no. we have been warned and warned to get out of it as fast as we can. so, with that in mind, i've decided to stay home. james' trip is paid for, but he won't make enough by teaching the class to even cover my airfare. i'm disappointed, but, honestly, china was never on my list of top 5 places to visit. so, like the mature person i'm trying to be, i'll set my goals and focus on debt-reduction so that we will be in a better place by the next summer olympics. that way, i'll be able to go somewhere that is in my top 5: london. :) -bess