Hawaii! - Two Memorable moments

 Erik and I took an incredible trip to Hawaii in January of 2020. Erik met with the Honolulu Fire Department for school and I enjoyed the beach during the day. We spent the evenings together and stayed a couple of extra days to do some sight seeing. I don't know if I will ever be able to write all I want to about it, but here are some pictures from a couple of memorable moments.

We were there over Erik's birthday. On his birthday we attempted to snorkel on our own. We bought masks and breather things at WalMart and went to a place Erik had read about that has warm water from a cooling tower of a power plant. We got there around 4 PM. The sun sets around 5 or so. It turns out the warm water is several yards, maybe even 1/2 mile off shore and I chickened out. I was nervous that we'd drown. The water was kind of choppy. I felt a little foolish. So we just stayed closer to shore. Erik and I both cut our legs on the coral. It turns out just wading in isn't a good idea when the ocean floor is studded with hard coral rocks. After comparing injuries and wiping up the blood, we ventured in one more time. We did some some cool fish and we even saw a seal! The seal almost came right up to shore. So even though we didn't get to see all the cool fish we had ever dreamed of seeing, we still had fun kind of snorkeling together in Hawaii on Erik's birthday!

My second memorable moment was hiking right before heading to the air port. We hiked Manoa Falls, and we knew it would be muddy. It had rained daily, though not too intensely. There was a cool waterfall at the top. Our feet got super muddy and we waited in a long line afterwards to get clean enough to feel like we could reasonably get on our 8 hour flight home afterwards! When we finished, we got dinner at Itchy Butt, which was actually a really good fried chicken bowl and Erik bought me a giant legitimate Hawaiian shaved ice! The original flavors he picked were all yellow, so the guy who was making it suggested a few other colors so that our shaved ice didn't look like pee ice.

My Chacos maiden voyage...I had just gotten them for Christmas!

The scenery was unreal and so beautiful!

We had a really nice time. It was nice not to have to worry about 4 kids and their needs the entire time. They were in good hands with Nana and Papa. It was super relaxing and a much needed rejuvenation. I now think every couple needs to get away for at least a 2 night stay periodically - yearly? quarterly? weekly? :)

I will also say, though Hawaii was really beautiful, it was just nice to have a break and be with Erik without anything truly pressing on our plates. I would be content with stateside, even Texas getaways in the future. I just think it is so nice to have a break!

Labor Day Trip and Potty Training

We took a quick trip to Nana's house over Labor Day. Sometimes the quick trips are the best because we leave so fast there is no time to agonize over what to do to get ready! Taft packed his suit case. In the small front pocket were all the clothes he needed for a night and a day. In the big pocket he had all necessary comfort items including Toothless Huggels Archibald.

We did lots of different things, as usual. We went on a walk and we saw these little minnows in a drainage ditch that were so anxious to come nibble on our hands that they would swarm our hands by the hundreds! 

The kids all got a blob of dough and made cinnamon rolls with Nana. Even Kent participated and his cinnamon rolls were finished before he could eat the entire dough ball.

We had a fun holiday on Monday, mostly swimming and having a BBQ. We also stayed for the BYU football game kickoff. It was a good kickoff to stay for because we scored two touchdowns in the first 5 minutes! Taft was particularly excited by all the excitement!

Joel has hopped aboard the potty train. We've slowly started to encourage him to use the toilet and now he's to the point that he can keep underwear dry almost all day long. It's been about 2 weeks. Last night Taft said he needed to go to the bathroom, then Joel said he had pee. We told him Taft was going and he said, "Ok, I wet my pants." And when he got up to go pee, he had wet his pants. I'm not sure if he did it before or after announcing it, but it was mostly humorous. Joel's main motivation is the the gummies he gets. We've had all assortments. Taft also benefits too, when he can. For awhile Taft had his own Lifesaver Gummies that Joel liked and Taft wanted Joel's gummies, so they would do a gummy trade each time Joel used the toilet. 

Potty training Taft and Joel over the last couple years has taught me a few things and has provided a pattern for my parenting.

I may have mentioned this before, but our family motto is "Small and Simple" and you may say it's mostly my motto. It has been a good reminder to help me that all this learning and growth happens a little bit at a time. Big results rarely occur instantaneously. This brings me to my potty training life analogy.

You may or may not remember that potty training Alyssa was just short of disastrous.  It took a really long time to get her to pee and poop on the potty. We used a lot of pull ups and bribes and what not and I was a constant stress case. I did not want to give up though. I was so worried that if I went back on what we had started, that I would mess it up and she would think you could just quit the hard things. Potty training Taft was significantly easier. His personality is different, we waited until he was older, etc. etc. But I also think we knew better how to celebrate the small successes and I was more ok with recognizing that some days are diaper days, so put the diaper back on and relax! I think Joel will be much the same. Through small, consistent efforts, he will potty train. Consistently going in the morning, after quiet time, and before leaving the house will eventually turn into total bladder control, which will lead to bowel control which will lead to potty trained Joel. So now, my analogy for life, and particularly homeschool. 

I feel much of the same stress with Alyssa with homeschooling that I felt with potty training. I want to stick to my guns, get those math problems done, and do all that stuff you need to do to become educated. I want to be a teacher with a lesson plan that makes progress, has deadlines, and teaches at the whiteboard for an hour a day. But learning doesn't really happen like that at home. Success comes in very small ways. Success comes by starting simple, but being consistent. We didn't do 8 pages in the math workbook this week, but we did read a chapter of Sign of the Beaver every day and Alyssa worked on her times tables, which are actually fundamental to the workbook learning. Our writing exercises were a little bit ill produced, but we talked about character comparisons between different books we've read. Taft is anxiously wanting to do letter lessons; Alyssa finished the Little House series and is plowing through the Clementine books we've had on the shelf for 4 years. Success isn't always how we imagine it, but progress can happen, little by little and consistently. In the meantime I'm over here trying to be more silly than critical and take silent note of areas we can improve on in the future but don't need to be blatantly corrected right now.  Wish me luck in holding my tongue!

 

Back to school, back to school, so I don't look like a fool

 We started homeschool officially this week. Homeschool is not like normal school, but I think we're learning. We are enjoying each other and books and numbers and rain storms! Alyssa has a great science teacher. She's already learning dimensional analysis! Taft is enjoying his letter lessons (because he gets a piece of gum after). Joel is learning how to use the toilet, both peeing in it and how to flush it and Kent is always there to help me cook! It's hard to grab handfuls of brownie batter, though he tried! Everyone is doing well in our family economy and night time clean up seems to be getting faster because of it. 

We had a back to school dinner last Friday. I also put blue food coloring dots on the bottom of the pizza to let everyone know we are having another BOY in January!

Kent, the sous chef!

For innovation and technology class Erik has been building a robot arm with Taft and Alyssa. They have an R/C to control it. Taft was teaching Kent how to use it but he was a little tired of sitting up, so he just laid down and continued to control it. Such a lackadaisical life!

Alyssa also learned how to play SkipBo this week. I like to make the grunting noise that Grandma Mary used to make when I should play from my stack and not from my hand or discard pile. I scared Alyssa yesterday though because my noise was so loud!

Bare bums and babies

Here is a quick picture update from mid August. 

Joel is slowly learning how to dress himself. I'm not sure why independence seems to have onset later with Joel, but he's learning so much now! Though sometimes two legs get stuck in one hole.

Kent likes to wear this hat when the kids dress up. It gives me a chuckle every single time. Kent really likes hats in general. He'll slap one on any chance he gets.

After Alyssa's comfort blanket began to wear out a bit, Erik joked that comfort items should be more disposable so you could freshen them up every once and awhile. I'm not sure if batteries is what he had in mind...

Kent likes to be in on the 3D printer action, which is a little scary when you haven't seen Kent for awhile and this is what you find.

Sometimes Taft and Joel are silly. Taft decided one night he needed to wear hair bows and even picked a couple out for the next day. They also included Erik on the fun.

Alyssa made a t-shirt quilt with some of her old shirts. She did most of it by herself. She cut and sewed and fringed! She was diligent until the end and is happy with her final product. Kent is our table buddy. Whenever we are working at the table, he is always nearby eating a snack or doing his own little project.

Kent surprised me with this display one morning:

Oo lala!

No more t-shirt jammies for him. Full onesies or shirts and shorts from now on!