Visitors!

February was awesome!  It's the first time we've had visitors since last March when my sister, Kathryn came!  We had some dear friends, the Wilcoxsons, our neighbors from BYU, come to visit AND my sweet mother-in-law stayed for two weeks!

There was a week of overlap between the two of them and we had quite a full house and many wonderful adventures!  So many in fact that it took me a whole week to do all the laundry after everyone left!

Manu ate crayons at a restaurant.

We fed the fish at Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens.

Manu at Ho'omaluhia.

Hiking Diamond Head.  Here we are about halfway up.  Please notice how dry we are.

Here we are at the top.  No longer dry at all.  It poured.  Hard. But only while we were at the top.   As soon as we started down again, it cleared right up. As you can see, Manu was thrilled with this weather development.

Worn out from our hike.

A Valentines double date with the Wilcoxsons at an awesome all-you-can eat Korean yakiniku restaurant.  We were stuffed to the gills before we rolled ourselves out of there.  

I love, love, love visitors!

We are now accepting reservations for future visitors.  Hurry, book now!  If you need more convincing, please refer to this post, or this one, or this one, or this one, I could go on....

Sewing

Okay, I admit it.  I'm a closet sewer.
Wait!  Not a sewer, a sew-er.
One who sews.
You know what I mean, right?

Last year for Christmas, Nate bought me a sewing machine.  I'd wanted one for quite awhile, but could never justify spending all that money on a gadget for myself.  (Do sewing machines count as gadgets?) Anyway, I love it.  Here's what I've made in the last year (not counting really practical things like hems and scout patches):

pillowcases: 2
nursing covers: 2
stuffed toy owls: 8 (these are my new favorite baby gift)
stuffed toy monsters: 5
skirts: 2
dress: 1 (with my mom's help. It was hard!)
ie faitaga's: 3 (one man size and two toddler size)
printer cover: 1 (I keep the windows open and it gets really dusty)
bag holder: 1 ( to stuff all my grocery sacks in)

The monsters, mostly for my nephews.

A few of the owls, also gifts.

I made the ie faitaga Manu's wearing, but not the shirt.

And the dress - maybe I should give Mom the credit for this one.

Manu is 18 months!

On Sunday, Manu turned 18 months!  

And you all know what that means - nursery!  Yes, I've been looking forward to this for a long time now.  In fact I've been taking him for a month now so that by this time Manu would have no problem being left in the nursery for 2 hours during church.  Well, and let's face it - I wasn't getting much out of Sunday School or Relief Society chasing him around and trying to keep him quiet and entertained.  We spent a lot of time in the hall.  I love nursery already.  Church seems so much more refreshing now.

We started our celebrations with a few unapproved art projects: table, door, fridge, stove....legs, nothing is safe.  This boy loves to color!

We made some delicious peanut butter snack balls.  Manu helped by scooping all the ingredients into the bowl, onto the counter and into his mouth.  

But, he's been learning to clean up after himself, too.  

I often call Manu a little wanderer because that's what he likes to do best.  He wanders from room to room investigating and finding things to play with and entertaining himself.  He has recently discovered numbers and letters and is fascinated by them.  He asks to sing the "ABDs"over and over (for some reason C gets left out unless specifically asked).

Whenever he hears the beep of a truck backing down our street, his face lights up and he runs to to door and says "truck! see, see!" So we go out and watch.  It's usually the garbage truck and really could it get more exciting than watching a big truck lift up and empty dumpsters?  It's been a slow week so far, stuck in the house with a cold, so sometimes that's the highlight of the day.

Manu loves to sing songs and will ask for more as long as I'm willing to sing.  Except for one song.  "I Am a Child of God" is only allowed at nap time and bedtime.  If I start singing it any other time of day, he thinks I'm going to put him in bed and starts crying.  I wonder what he does when they sing it in nursery....

Manu 1 year ago:  6 months old

Manu now!

What a difference a year makes!  Happy 18 months, Manu!  It's been quite the adventure being your mom and we're just getting started!

Ketchup

... I mean catchup

... I mean catch-up

Ah! That's the one.  The holidays were wonderful and too short.  I'll post those pics soon (and by soon of course I mean eventually), but for now here's a few of Manu and I hiking Mariner's Ridge awhile back.

A "walk break" for Manu and a "stop walking break" for me on the  way up the ridge.  Unfortunately it didn't last long - ridges are not good places for toddlers to wander.  

It was a beautiful trail - steep enough to be challenging, but  easy enough that my out-of-shape self could pack 25 pounds of baby up there with out much trouble.  

Love these mountains.

And the ocean.

At the top - Manu passed out not too long after this and napped all the way down.
Shortly after this picture was taken, we met the then-mayor of Honolulu Peter Carlisle up at the top! 

Language

Manu is picking up words right and left (or perhaps I should say "up" and "down" since that is his new favorite pairing).

I love when he walks around saying "oh, my!", which is what I say to him when I come across him making a huge mess.

Of course, I think everything he says is darling.

Except "no."  That's cute only very rarely.

Nate has been working his tail off lately (Thanks!), leaving Manu and I lots and lots of time together.  And so I've recently realized that while Manu is definitely picking up language quickly, he's also at that that stage where many of his word are completely unintelligible.

That is, unintelligible to anyone besides myself.  It's one of those warm, cozy, motherhood moments to realize that you and your child have your own special language.

I know that when Manu closes a book and says "ee ee" (it's very hard to convert this into text), that he's not just making random sounds, he's really saying "the end."  Though they sound very similar, I can distinguish between "no" and "down."  "Bukaw" is Grandpa, "dup" means duck, and occasionally I even flatter myself that he's trying to copy when I say "thank you."

This must be how our Father in Heaven feels toward us.  No other person knows Manu better than Nate and I, just as no one will ever know us the way that our Heavenly Father knows us.
....

For those of you who come here for something a little less gushy:

Manu dumped out the salt shaker.  Four times in one week.  You'd think I'd learn after the first time that the table is not a safe place for the salt shaker.

This is a caricature of Manu that was taken at a birthday party last week.  I think it's cute, but doesn't look much like him.

Reading

Manu loves books.

 It must be genetically inherited from his Daddy.  He loves looking at books, reading books, and our weekly trip to the library.

Our library has toddler-sized tables near the board books.  These squatty little counters have wooden letter puzzles on them, perfect for a pint-sized library frequenter to play with.  Early on in our library adventures we had a scolding from a worn-out librarian who did not appreciate Manu's rather enthusiastic exploration of the alphabet (In her defense they were all over.  I'm sure she was tired of picking up letters).

We've since made friends with the old librarian, and even though Manu is still sometimes downright boisterous in his pursuit of alphabetical familiarity, she gives us a smile.   And Manu seems to like the library more each week.

But most of all, he loves when Nate is home to read bedtime stories to him.

Sunday Brownies

Sunday afternoon Manu helped me make brownies and boy did he have a blast!

He watched everything I did very carefully.  After I cracked an egg on the side of the bowl to add it to the batter, Manu grabbed one too and cracked it on the table.

He also wanted to scoop, stir and put things in - including the lid to the cocoa box.

After this it was straight into the tub for Manu.  With all that chocolate, there was just no way around it.