milestones...

Today my son turns 6. There's something about six, isn't there? I can’t believe it, I can barely handle it. Every year on this day I wonder why kids can’t just stay small for a little bit longer. I used to be able to talk myself out of that kind of thinking, reminding myself there’s no way I want to still be changing diapers or going through bottle feeding or needing a stroller… But this year, I’m not coming up with any of those things.


He’s pretty fun right now. He can feed himself. He can get into the fridge to get himself a juice box. He still needs help brushing his teeth and hasn’t started losing them yet. He has really cool friends and genuinely cares about them. He’ll still watch Sprout on television, but he started to like cartoons even I can handle watching over and over again. He has his own iTouch, which keeps him occupied when I need him to be. He likes learning how to read but loves being read to. He’s super smart, but not a smart-ass. It’s a pretty good age. Why is it that going up from 5 to 6 seems so momentous?

My friends and I were talking about this, and we think a big part of the difference is that after size 5T is just 6. I mean, I'm sure there are some 6T's out there, but not that I've ever seen. He will no longer be anywhere near toddler-hood, even the clothes know it. While Kindergarten is a huge step, it's also precious. First grade is first grade, and that's what happens when you turn 6 (hopefully), and somehow it seems more like the beginning of ‘real school’.

Yesterday was H's last time in the play area at Cafe Sip -n- Play, which has been our home for so long now. Now that he’s 6 he's too "old" to be in the play area now (although, let's face it, he's been too big to be in there really for quite some time - all the mommies of little ones look at him like he's King Kong ready to eat their babies). It was emotional for me - I had to fight off the stinging of tears before we left.

Then again, he's brighter, faster (well, kind of, athleticism still seems to avoid him), doing things like reading and writing, and becoming an even more impressive little artist than ever before. The last few days he’s been drawing everything he likes (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Ninjago Legos, etc.) cast as “Angry Birds”, which he claims he’s ‘obsessed’ with. Maybe not his most mind blowing work, but it’s freaking hilarious.

I know it’s always going to be amazing, watching him grow, seeing how he progresses, and I know I should learn how to appreciate these milestones that he passes. I’m not sure I’m able to quite handle 6 yet. Ok. Someone just pass the tissue and tell me to get over it. Could we at least find a way to pause my aging while he gets older? (I want you to know that I am sitting here and there’s one of those infomercials on for skin care that makes you look like you’re 20 years younger than you are, endorsed by some dermatologist with an exotic accent. Clearly, at only $59.95 and free shipping it’s influencing my train of thought…)

Happy Birthday, kid.

the boy who lived...

(this post is originally from sometime in November 2011, but for some reason my iphone wouldn't upload it)

H and I are reading through the Harry Potter series, which is fantastic, because it's fun for both of us! I'm amazed at his ability to keep up and pay attention (sometimes not so much). A lot of his incentive is that he's able to watch the movie after we finish each book.

We're on the fourth book now, which I'm reading a bit more slowly, since as the books go on the language and content grow up a little, while H still remains a five year old.

At any rate, it's thrilling for me that he's so excited and interested in something I love so much. Just in case you'd like a little proof, I was getting shoes out of our shoe cabinet in the front hall when something caught my eye. This was in front of the door to the closet under our stairs:

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kindergarten = mortality, amongst other things.

Whatever!  How can this possibly be happening?  In a few days H will be starting Kindergarten.  I mean, come on. seriously?  I'm pretty sure none of us will cry, but I'm making no actual promises, since Josh may drop a tear or two...

What really worries me is that H may not be ready for it - he has been really acting up lately - not listening, getting really physical with friends, and I'm pretty sure he said "freaking flashlight" today, although he won't own up to it.  (Hilarious, a little, but nothing I want happening in his class!)  Then again, he only has a half day, so how hard can it be?  On the other side of the coin, how much can he learn?  His preschool was only a half day as well, so maybe the transition won't be as hard as I think it might.  Only - new school, new teacher. Who knows.  He'll probably take it like a champ.

My friend pointed out to me last night that perhaps most of my anxiety is rooted in the changes that it will cause for me - no longer near my other 'parent friends' from pre-school, my mornings out and about will no longer be an assumed thing since the new school is about 5 blocks away and not across town, those kinds of things.  Does this mean that I will have to come home and clean the house like a regular housewife?  Please say no!  I'm the worst 'housewife' in the world.  (Or, home-maker for those of you who are offended by antiquated titles for people, like 'stewardess'.)

Sorry, I know this entry is sort of all over the place.  I'm being distracted by Iron Chef America.

Why I am I always late? (or, why is everyone else so early?

Many of you may know that I am physically addicted to my watch. I wear it all day, all night, and only take it off to swim and to shower. Which is why I have the most awesome (depending on your view I guess) "watch tan". It indicates how much sun I've been getting lately, if nothing else. I'm always checking the time, for whatever reason. And yet, as many of my friends would complain, I am consistently late.

I don't think I was always like this. My father always taught us handy nuggets of knowledge like - get to work at least 10 minutes early, so that you can get settled before your work time actually starts - getting coffee is not actually a part of the work day. (!!!)

Part of my problem started after I got married (sorry Josh). Being with him up where we lived always made me late for work, which made my work life seriously stressful, which is an unnecessary add-on in New York. The new commute never settled with me, and post 9/11 NYC always seemed delayed with cops and firemen everywhere - anyone who had to change trains at Grand Central like I did would understand...

Josh (sorry again) also comes from a family of last-minuters, hemming and hawing at the door as we're trying to get anywhere, its quite hilarious. "Did you remember to..", "Oh wait", "turn on the alarm", etc. So maybe its hereditary. And any of our friends know that sayingwe're out the door means add on 20 minutes for Josh to take a shower first. And another 5 for him to put on his shoes, which for some unknown reason he refuses to do until its literally time to leave.

But enough of blaming my husband. Having a kid doesn't help either. No one will argue with that. When they're babies, you have to do a checklist before you go anywhere - formula, diapers, wipes, bottles, extra clothes and so on. Don't forget the baby!

And as they get older, you have to pull teeth for them to do anything, least of all get ready to go anywhere, to put a toy down, to get their clothes and shoes on - so I guess I can use H as an excuse some of the time.

But really is it that makes me so late all of the time? Is it because I was raised in Hawaii and I live on an internal "Hawaiian-time" clock? (You know, cause we're so relaxed and all we do is sip coconut milk and go to the beach, so there's no reason to rush.) That would be a great excuse except that if you believed that then you obviously haven't met my aforementioned father. He is a combination of everything that makes him punctual: Japanese, very polite (which are usually the same thing), an Army man, raised in the '50s, my grandparent's son, and someone who has been the boss at his company. There are other things but you get the picture. He was raised in Hawaii and Hawaiian-time doesn't seem to have affected him in the slightest, and he would have never stood for it with us. If we were going to be even 5 minutes late for curfew, we needed to call. I often wonder how we did that back when we were teenagers with out cell phones.

I want to say right now that I don't mean to be disrespectful to any friends when I am not on time. I honestly do not. I just ask that you add an "-ish" to the decided time for me to show up anywhere. You know, like "eleven-ish".

I'm not late for picking H up from school, except that one time I was stuck on the bridge! But the last two years of preschool have done me no favors. Since it's just "preschool", and we live clear across town, I haven't been too worried about showing up on time, although I wasn't ever too late. I'm worried that my lax attitude will not be cured by the time Kindergarten starts, in a month or so, even though the school is so close we could spit on it. I guess we'll see if I can handle it. But I digress.

I think (I mean, I know) I have some sort of time management issue, if I'm really honest about it. But its only when I'm at home and trying to get ready or something. This didn't affect my last couple of jobs, mind you (note to possible future employers), just other stuff.
Somehow I can just drift off when I'm trying to decide what to wear or what eyeliner to use (which of course is hilarious considering I'm always wearing the same thing and use my black eyeliner 95% of the time). Sometimes I'll be searching through the (clean) laundry for something to wear and I'll absent-mindedly start folding it or sorting it before I realize that hey! I need to get moving! I guess this wouldn't be a problem if I ever got around to folding the clothes and doling them out to their respective drawers, closets, etc. One Day Maybe.

Just to make myself look and feel better I want to share with you about a couple of my last bosses and how they made "late for work" completely epic.

Boss #1 would show up 20 - 30 minutes late, dressed in a something from a rummage sale (with holes and all) and had the gall to lecture us about getting grant reports finished quickly and whether she thought capri pants were acceptable. She'd have work on her desk so long she'd forget about it, and all of our vendors would be sitting and waiting for us to approve stuff, and then she expected everything to still be done by the original end date even though she was days behind on her junk.

Boss #2 would literally show up late by an hour or more, then go into his office and fall asleep. I could see him from my desk and hear him snoring! But the difference between bosses was that I actually liked him a lot, and he taught me that you can use Bounce dryer sheets to ward off mosquitos!

So, how do I fix this problem? Guilt, perhaps? That doesn't seem to make it happen, although I do feel awful when I'm late, at least most of the time. Heaven knows it could really get worse with age... Maybe it's not fixing the problem, but coming up with better excuses.





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Location:Pnw

this has always baffled me...

I'm sure that most of us have seen this at one point or another - unless of course, you've never been in a car or are somewhat unobservant. How is it that shoes end up on highways and freeways? Or really, the road at all? Especially one shoe?

My mother told me that the way she got me to finally give up the bottle was not retrieving it after I hurled it out of the car window while we were moving, and she said that it was gone and there weren't anymore. I hardly think toddlers are throwing shoes out the window, well, not in every case.

Are those people who put their feet up on the dashboard (that drives me crazy!) losing one shoe (that's what you get for putting your dirty feet up on the dashboard) in a strong wind or a moment of clumsiness?

Perhaps these shoes are bouncing out of the back of trucks or angry girlfriends are making a small statement of ire?

I think if the shoes could talk, they would quote Talking Heads: "And I ask myself, how did I get here?"

On the flip side, a couple years ago in Miami, Florida, thousands of shoes were mysteriously found on an expressway and messed with morning traffic for hours until they could clear it out. I'm not sure if they ever found out where they originally came from, but the shoes went to charity. Ugh can you imagine having to re-pair all of those shoes? Maybe there was some sort of lemming complex? Who knows? Here's a photo from abc news:




Oh well, whatever. Random stuff.

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Location:the couve

a new era

i understand its been a really long time since i've posted anything at all. part of the reason is because i am rarely ever on my laptop these days - its fritzy for one, and i'm always on my iphone, which is a little difficult to blog from. its no fun typing one finger at a time on the screen. but, readers rejoice! if you're into the blog. i've just bought a bluetooth keyboard for my iphone.
it came in today from amazon, thank you mom and dad for the shopping card... and so far so cool!

hopefully it will serve me well. just in case you're wondering, it is compact and folds in half and is about the size of my wallet. or, as my husband says, just small enough to lose easily. so, yay to technology!

no promises, because the other reason for the silence is sheer laziness, but i'm hoping this will be the cure.

the pic above is H finally on a two-wheeler bike! unfortunately the training wheels i bought sucked and need to be replaced.

more later,

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Location:pnw

Tempus Fugit...

Today my darling crazy hyper little boy turns 5. I can barely stand it. We've had really relaxing time visiting the family on Kauai- which has been nearly perfect minus a very small group of us have come down with either a really bad virus or strep throat, so we've been kinda hiding out the last few days.
And just in case you are wondering how many ppl are sick...within our family and immediate group that is always together, that's like: my sister, her husband - I'm not sure about her three boys, my brother, his wife, at least 2 out of their 3 kids, my aunt, 2 out of the 3 of my cousin's kids that she's watching while their parents are hopefully germ-free in New Zealand, my cousin Wes' wife and both their kids, plus our friend/extra brother Gregg. I think that covers it.

Ah well, we seem to be avoiding it, so H and I are out for a birthday treat and toy shopping! I have no idea where these years went. Time on Kauai moves so slowly, it's no wonder everyone says it's a great place to raise children- it takes them longer to grow up..?

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