Bliss

Manu slept for 10 hours straight last night.  Oh, sweet joy!

I never thought I'd be so happy about sleep.  Waking up at 7am and realize that I hadn't been out of my bed since I got into it at 10pm was such a delightful feeling.

What a wonderful early Christmas present!

Optical Illusion

This will blow your mind.  At least it did mine.  Look at the picture of the spinning dancer below.  Which direction is she spinning?



Some people see her spinning clockwise and some counter-clockwise.  Here's the description from Wikipedia:

The Spinning Dancer is a kinetic, bistable optical illusion resembling a pirouetting female dancer. Some observers initially see the figure as spinning clockwise and some counterclockwise. Additionally, some may see the figure suddenly spin in the opposite direction. The illusion derives from an inherent ambiguity from the lack of visual cues for depth.  


 I can only get her to change directions if I stare at the bottom foot.  Even then it takes a while.  Crazy.

4 Months!

Little Manu turned 4 months old on Sunday!  This is what he did to celebrate:

Modeled his new jacket from AJ.

Slept.  (we're working on starting to sleep through the night again, and I think we're really close)

Partied it up with the Samoan ward and our friend Liu.

And for the big finale:

(please excuse my baby-talk voice in this video)

he learned to roll over!  

(unfortunately he rolls over while he's trying to go to sleep and wakes himself up, but I still think it's super cute to watch)

Happy Birthdays

Okay, let's pretend for a moment that today is October 23rd.
Happy Birthday, Nate!  I love you and am so glad that you are a part of my life.

You are an awesome Dad.  I love to watch our Manu when he's with you.  Like father, like son.

I've never seen a prouder, more loving daddy.  Manu and I are so blessed to have you.

You have a great sense of humor.

And you always keep me on my toes.  Thanks for sharing life's greatest adventures with me!  I love you!

And now, let's pretent that it's October 27th.  Manu is three months old now!  We've seen a lot of changes this month:

Manu helping with the laundry.

Manu is now enjoying tummy time!  Hooray!

Manu has also discovered his hands and loves to suck on them and whatever he can grab hold of.

And, he's still our happy little guy!  We love making him laugh with raspberries and silly noises.

We love you, Manu!

Pacific Aviation Museum

Dad, this one's for you.

A few weeks ago, Manu and I had our first big adventure together, just the two of us.  Saturday, September 24th was Smithsonian Magazine's National Museum Day, so many museums offered free admission.  So Manu and I packed up and headed out to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor to see the Pacific Aviation Museum.

When we finally got in to the museum (after a shuttle ride, a diaper change, a feeding, and another diaper change) we saw some great planes.  Dad, I thought of you a lot while I examined the different planes and Manu examined the inside of his eyelids.  So, here's some of the cool stuff we saw:

I didn't get many pictures of the really old planes in the first building because the light was bad.  This one is a F-4F3 Wildcat from the 1940s.

North American F-86E Sabre from 1947.

This is an ultralight plane.  It was tiny!

Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk I (1942)

McDonnell Douglas F-15A Eagle (1972)

Grumman F-14D Tomcat (1970)

Convair F-102A Delta Dagger (1953)

SH-60-B Seahawk

Some of the planes you could climb up and get into or see up close.  It was a pretty cool museum.  Wish you could have been there, Dad!  Hope you enjoy the photos!  

Mormons and Politics

Yes, that's right.  I'm joining the fray.

First let's take a brief look at the politics side:

There has been a ton of coverage in the news lately about Mitt Romney and how his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints effects his abilities as a potential presidential candidate.  This coverage seems to have exploded in the last few days after Pastor Robert Jeffress declared Mormonism to be a cult.  


There have been some great responses to Pastor Jeffress' ignorant remarks including these articles:


Don't judge candidates by their faith (by CNN's William Bennett.  Thanks for pointing this one out, Katie)


Latter-Day Sins (subtitle: Why don’t we challenge anti-Mormonism? Because it’s the prejudice of our age.)


Anderson Cooper and Robert Jeffress interview (video)

I'm a Mormon.  I may or may not vote for Romney.  If I do, it certainly won't be because we both belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It will be because I like his political stance best.  By the same token, I'm going to give Rick Perry fair judgment based on his politics as well.  I'm not going to discount him as a potential candidate just because he is a member of a different faith.  This is what I'm getting at - it just doesn't matter.

Bennett summed it up well in the first article I linked to by saying, "To the right and left alike, we are in the middle of a grueling presidential campaign season. It behooves us to despise and reject all forms of religious, and racial, bigotry. Politics are about policy and deciding whether a candidate shares your views of the founding principles of this country -- life, liberty, and the rule of law -- which men and women of all different faiths can agree upon."

In the video above, Jeffress is directly confronted about his remarks on Mormons.  Jeffress then explains that by "cult" he meant "theological cult" wherein a church looks to a man instead of a divine figure as the founder of their church.  He also describes the Book of Mormon as a "newer, fresher revelation."

This brings us to the second portion of this post.

I'm a Mormon.  I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Jesus Christ is the founder of my faith.  Joseph Smith is a prophet just like Moses, Noah, and Abraham.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, my Savior and Redeemer.  I believe the Bible is the word of God.  The Book of Mormon  does not replace the Bible, but is a companion to it.  It is "another testament of Jesus Christ" and witnesses powerfully of His divinity.

If you want to know what it's like to live in China, ask someone who lives there, not someone who only once saw a picture of it.  If you want to know what Mormons believe, ask a Mormon.  We're your friends and neighbors and would welcome your questions.  Ask me, I'm a Mormon.  Or visit mormon.org to learn more.

Foster Botanical Garden

Nate and I have decided that we need to get out and appreciate this beautiful little island we call home before we find ourselves having to leave and never getting to do all we wanted.  (FYI: This is not a moving announcement)  So we've instituted "family days" on Fridays when Nate dosen't have class as days to get out and see stuff together.  

So for our first family day, we went to a botanical garden here in town.  It was beautiful.  Such a lovely piece of nature in this bustling city.

Here we are at the gardens with Buddah.

The orchid garden was my favorite, I didn't even take photos of anything else.  These flowers are amazing!

This one is not an orchid.  It's a bromeliad.  

This is also not an orchid, it's called crown of thorns.  

 There was a random camel at the garden.  So naturally we took pictures with it.

Two Months Old!

Two months old!  That's right, Manu is now two months old!  I had the startling realization that October starts this weekend.  My brain has been stuck in July this whole time, and for some reason I expected the rest of the world to stay there with me until I was ready to move on.  But you didn't.

The good news is I'm catching up.  Manu and I are getting into a routine of sorts and out of the apartment.    So, I have a few photo posts in the works to show you what Manu and I (and Nate too!) have been up to lately.  But since yesterday marked two whole months since my dear Manu was born, this post is for him.

 

Remember this tiny little bundle?

Now he looks like this!  

To celebrate, Manu and I went on a walk at Ala Moana Beach Park.  As you can see, Manu was really impressed with the ocean view.

Manu and me at the beach.  

 Manu's #2 favorite place to sleep.

Manu's #1 favorite place to sleep.  (Nate was dressed up for a costume/ice cream eating contest at school)

I just realized that Manu is sleeping in the majority of these photos, it's definitely his favorite hobby, which makes for a very happy mommy.  He still sleeps really well at night; the last two nights he's gone 9 straight hours!

Here's the stats from today's dr. visit:

Length: 23 1/2 in.

Weight: 11lbs 12 oz

He also got a bajillion vaccines today in two shots and a little drink and after some initial crying, has taken it like a champ and is doing what Manu does best - sleeping it off.

Free Teachers' E-Books

Nate and I heard about this from a friend and thought we'd share.  It's a coupon for $10 worth of free e-books from Scholastic, and they're having a sale until Tuesday where many are only $1!  That's 10 free e-books!  They're all about teaching, so I hope all you teaching friends enjoy!  Neither of us are teachers by training, but we definitely found some neat things to get when we looked through the site this weekend!

p.s. The website is swamped and super slow, so you'll need to do this when you have a bit of time to wait for loading pages.

Here's where I got the coupon:

http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/10-worth-of-ebooks-from-scholastic-for-free/

Ick!

Let me preface the story of this post by saying that I hate cockroaches.  I think they're absolutely disgusting.  We have them in our apartment occasionally, rather more often than I would prefer.  We're usually quite good at changing our roach baits every three months, so it's not usually too big of a deal.  But, we've been a little distracted lately (something about having a baby), and haven't yet changed our overdue baits.

Usually if I see a roach that is mid-size or larger it is accompanied by a small shriek of disgust and a call for Nate to come with a shoe and get it.  At times I've even exchanged unfriendly words with the critters and made it very clear that they were not welcome in my home.

Last night I was putting away the dishes.  I opened up our utensils drawer (not the silverware drawer, thankfully, though they're all connected, so it only really makes a difference in my mind) and what did I see?   Yes, a mid-size roach scurrying toward the back all over my spatulas, ladle, and beaters.  Sick.

However, I was pretty tired by this point in the day and Nate wasn't home.  So, what did I do?  I closed my eyes, gave a shudder, and closed the drawer.

We need to get some new roach baits, post-haste.  And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to scrub out the drawers in my kitchen.


But, before you all decide to stop reading my blog because I post gross things about bugs, here's a picture of Manu to keep you coming back.  Some of you have seen this one before, but it's so cute I'm going to post it here as well:

Manu in his church duds.  He's wearing a tiny ie faitaga (basically a formal Samoan man-skirt.  Kind of like what Feki wears in Other Side of Heaven) that my mom made for him.

A Diapering Confession

During my pregnancy Nate and I stocked up on several different kinds of cloth diapers.  They were cute and would save the earth, but above all they were much cheaper for the long haul.  We were pretty gung-ho about it.

Then, I received a Costco-size box of diapers as a gift and I thought, "oh, that'll be nice to have around in emergencies or when I forget to do the laundry."  Then I started saying, "oh, I'll just use these until his piko (bellybutton) is all healed up."  Before I knew it we'd gone through the whole stinkin' box!  There were 216 diapers in there!

But, before we'd quite finished, another set of friends gave us a Costco-size box of diapers as a gift.  (Thanks, friends!)  So I kept using them, and using them, and using them.

Here's the confession:

I've been seduced by disposable diapers: by their ease and convenience, by the lack of laundry they add to my already exploding laundry basket.

When the second box ran low, we went to Costco and bought our own Costco-sized box of diapers.  I felt like I had to smuggle it in to the apartment before anyone saw it.

Here's the other confession:

We've used the cloth diapers for one day.  It was great - no leaks or explosions.  However, Manu was only two weeks old or so at the time and the cloth diapers just looked so huge and bulky I didn't think I'd be able to fit his little onesies over it.  Seriously they made his cute, tiny, little derrière look ginormous!  Oh the vanity!

Conclusion:

Will I ever use the drawer full of diapers I've stockpiled to save the world and save myself a bundle of cash?  Yes.  I really think I will.  Just give me a bit until I settle in to this whole mothering thing.  And until my little dear's derrière fits them better.  Then Manu will be rocking' the cloth diapers.

1 Month Old!

And now the moment you've been waiting for! Pictures of our handsome little Manu!

Manu turned one month old on Saturday! It's gone so fast I can hardly believe it! He's getting cuter every day and starting to smile and coo, which just melts our hearts every time.

We went to the doctor yesterday for his one month checkup:

weight: 10lbs 3oz

length: 22in

The doctor told us he was destined to be a huge Mid-west sized football player because he ranked in the 90th percentile. I was thinking, "I know he's gained a few pounds, but I don't think he's that big!" It turns out the nurses accidentally plotted his size on the girl's growth chart. Sorry, Manu! You're average-sized on the boys' chart.

Manu one day old. (7 lbs 15 oz; 21 in)

Manu one month old. He is such a good sleeper! I'm talking 6 straight hours last night a quick meal and then another 3 hours sleep! This mommy's feeling good today!

I just can't get enough of that smile.

Usually Manu hates tummy time, but this time he figured out a sure-fire way to get out of it altogether. Instead of the usual crying, he immediately fell asleep.

Manu

Deb has graciously asked that I, Nate, give the background for the alias that we've selected for use as we write about our newborn son on our respective blogs.

By way of introduction, you should know that for two years I served a full-time mission in the Sāmoan islands for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My time amongst the Sāmoans profoundly changed, redirected even, my life forever. In their honor then we have selected Manu for our son's alias, and here's the reason why.

As explained by my recent Sāmoan professor, ʻAumua Mataʻitusi Simanu, Sāmoan children are not traditionally "allowed to be in close proximity of the aliʻi (chiefs), particularly when they are meeting" to discuss the affairs of the village.

She continues, "In ancient times, Chief Fānene of Falealili violated this tradition by allowing his grandson to climb about him and make noise while the chiefs were seated in ceremony." Annoyed, Fanene's fellow chiefs demanded that the child be taken away, calling him a manu or animal.

ʻAumua remarks, "Fānene begged for forgiveness and, through his gift of oratory, referred to the child as an 'animal for the chiefs'--'ʻo si manu a aliʻi'"--meaning that in due time, through his association with the chiefs, the child would learn his proper place and act accordingly.

ʻAumua concludes that the "essence of the Faʻasāmoa," or Sāmoan way, is "to learn through serving and through living the culture--in the case of Fānene's grandson, through his future tautua or service" to his family, his village, his country, and his God.

Now, technically we aren't Sāmoans, but that's really only a biological technicality. The lessons that I've learned from the Faʻasāmoa--especially the importance of serving one's family, community, and God--I plan on passing on to my son as if we were Sāmoan. After all, he is, with those of his generation, the future of humanity.

Deb and the Fe'e

Right now I'm enjoying having my sister and her family in town and there will be lovely posts to come from our adventures around the island. But for now, here's a pic from our tri-stake youth conference in late March. Definitely one of the greatest moments of the conference:

Yes, I'm holding an octopus (a fe'e). Yes, it is very slimy and disgusting and my fingers are where are brain ought to be. Eww.

A Dream

Pregnancy has a lot of strange things that go along with it, and one of those seems to be odd dreams.

This weekend I dreamed that Dennis the Menace zipped me into a large suitcase so that I could be smuggled onto a 12hr plane flight. It was very uncomfortable in there.

Weird.

Enjoying Nature

We were at Costco the other day perusing the book section after our weekly shopping trip when Nate pointed out a book he thought I'd be interested in. We'd never heard of it before, but it was about someone who hiked the Appalachian trail, which I think is super cool. It talked about his experiences on the trail and the people he met, etc.

After I investigated the book further, I decided that this one wasn't for me. But, just as I was about to put it back a quote on the cover caught my eye.

"The best way of escaping into nature is to read a book like A Walk in the Woods..." said a reviewer from the NY Times.

That's funny, I thought the best way to escape into nature would be to actually get into nature, not read about someone else doing it.

Nate also just mentioned a resource he saw at the baby store today. A dvd about how kids need to play outside more. Ironic?

While it's true I believe we should all be getting ourselves outside more, we don't need to sit around inside reading up on the literature or watching dvds about it first. Just open your door and go outside, enjoy the sun, explore something!

Happy spring!

Koko Head Crater

This is Koko Head.Before I get started, I need to throw in a disclaimer or two: 1. I am a lazy blogger and I don't necessarily post things in a timely manner. 2. This hike was done last October, now people won't even let me stack my own chair at church. 3. It is still a great hike. That is all.

The trail to the top of Koko Head is a little railroad track that goes straight up the side. This photo was taken at the beginning of the climb.




This is the only photo I took on the way up because I was too busy huffing and puffing to take pictures. This is the beautiful east coast of Oahu.

I think this is looking to the north east from the top.

If you look carefully, on the horizon you can see Moloka'i, the next island to the east.




Looking south-ish to Hanauma Bay.




Closer shot of Hanauma Bay - great snorkeling. When you all come to visit, we'll take you.




Looking south-westish towards Honolulu and Diamond Head.




I'm not sure which direction this one was, but I like it anyway.