8 Things Tag

I've been tagged!!! Louisa over at Mamamidwifemadness got me. I'm really not so great with these types of things, because I never know what to say, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

RULES - Post rules before giving the facts - Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag eight people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

1. I love that my kids grow and change and get bigger and older. This does not make me sad, like it seems to do for so many other mamas I know. I do not know if I will regret this later (this lack of feeling like I have to hold on to what is/what was) but somehow I think that it enriches, rather than takes away from, my current parenting experience.

2. I detest being wet in my clothing. This doesn't exactly make me a model Seattle citizen. Fran makes fun of this all the time - yes, I do need to change when a bit of my shirt gets wet. Getting my socks wet sends a shiver of revulsion up my spine. Yes, I love to swim. I just want to be DRY when I'm supposed to be DRY. I love the sound of rain, but standing in it? notsomuch.

3. I am terrified that I don't have the interpersonal and networking skills that I need to be a midwife. That I lack adequate and acceptable personality. I'm pretty certain I can cut it academically, but if nobody would want to be my client at the end of it, what good is that? Sometimes I feel like I've got all the personality of a rock, and am utterly astounded that I have friends at all.

4. I have always been sure that I wasn't cut out to be all womanly-like. And here I am enjoying wearing skirts, reasonably good at sewing, cooking-cleaning-folding, and getting ready to be a midwife. I'm seriously considering learning how to knit. Holy hell, what happened?

5. I actually enjoy getting up before everyone else in the house. Getting coffee in peace and quiet. Sitting at the computer and not thinking about kids for a few minutes. If I don't get up before the kids, I feel frazzled and out of sorts at least until noon. If I do get up before them, we can usually get out of the house by 9 or so without stressing anyone out too badly.

6. I love sweaters. And socks. Especially nice high ones that come to my knees, and are soft but not fluffy. Mmmmm comfy.

7. Um, I'm one of the friends in this competition:

I'm a cheapskate who has a fondness for expensive things (like Jane), but I have turned frugality into a competitive sport. Unlike the average American, my family and friends and I compare notes on how little we paid for the things we bring into our homes. I am embarrassed sometimes by the things I badly want, but I also know I won't spend the money for those things.

It's true. One of my greatest accomplishments was spending 15 cents for two bags of stuff at Staples back-to-school sale last year. I pretty much have no money, 'cause we're damn poor, but we like Hanna Andersson and wouldn't be caught dead in cheap shoes...so yeah, this requires a certain level of creativity. It looks, sometimes, like I shop impulsively. But what I really do is take a mental inventory of the things that I want/kinda-need and then sit on it for MONTHS, until I happen upon the exact thing at the exact price I need. And then I just buy it with little more to-do about it. The only thing that I'd change is that I'm pretty certain there's nothing I want that I feel embarrassed about wanting. Which feels all good and non-materialistic and shit. Or maybe it just means I'm shameless. Or good at justifying stuff. Whatever.

8. I often sit down in front of the computer when I feel overwhelmed. Which means that all my digital-format schoolwork is nice and organized, but my kitchen counter is a phenomenal disaster. I mean, seriously, a huge disaster. It would probably take me a good half-hour to clean the thing off, an hour if I found appropriate places for all the bits of electronic equiptment Fran has dumped on the portion of the counter adjacent to the computer desk. *Sigh*

I can't tag anyone, because it looks like others have beat me to the punch on all the blogs I read regularly. That's what I get for stalling on this one.

Oooh, wait, I don't think Aimee has done this one yet. Aimee, you're tagged :).

My Turn

To have too much to sensibly update. But I'm going to go ahead and try anyway.

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 12th.

Clinic on the 13th.

I had an interview with a possible preceptor on the 14th. It went well but she has three other students to interview, all of them with more experience than I have.

One gloriously empty day - I think - on Wednesday. I may have squandered it by going to Target with three children. Definitely more stress than my new shirt - which Toddlerness stole before we even got out of the store - was worth. Although I did manage to get the necessities purchased. I also tried on Wednesday to reorganize my coursework from last year - the Midwifery Care learning objectives are now in a nice outlined and indexed format.

On Thursday (16th) I left early and babysat ~L~s kids all day. Slept over in a tent, watched them again the next day. The kids were great. I was tired and crabby on Friday. Left ~L~s and met Fran at the Rose Garden at Point Defiance. If my local peoples haven't been there, they should - it is beautiful. We had a nice lunch right in the middle of one of the gardens, and then walked around the zoo.

And then, as if I hadn't had enough driving for one week, we (~L~, Mack and I) decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Renaissance Faire in Gig Harbor. It was SO WORTH IT. The kids had a blast and all they could talk about coming home was how much they wanted to go back next year and how cool it would be to go in costumes next time. When Fran got home from work, the kids stayed up with him and jabbered away about all the things they'd seen. Until like 11pm, because they're nuts like that. I got piteously few photos because it was crowded and we had excited kids to keep track of (um, no offense ladies, but I think I'm doing this one as a family and not a herd next year), but here they are:

The two in red right up front are Girliness and Boyness. This guy was hillarious.



This was Boyness' favorite part of the whole experience - the mock battle. Boyness was actually really good at this, and was a really good sport (which made me very happy, because a year ago he'd have tried to ignore rules and thrown fits over not winning every match). Facing off Mack's 7yo boy:



Girliness and Boyness battle!



Girliness' favorite part of the day - a storytelling troupe!



Toddlerness' favorite part of the day - dancing to the bagpipes in the grotto!



A link to the faire's website: http://www.washingtonrenfaire.com/

A link to the band that the kids liked so much: http://www.therogues.com/

The whole thing was highly entertaining and I will definitely be dragging Fran to this next year.

Pictures

I've been semi-obsessed today with turning favorite photos black-and-white and seeing the results. A few random ones (click on them, please, I like them much better full-screen than in these little boxes):

Boyness?!

So while I was busy obsessing over Girliness growing up, look what Boyness went and did!



No, no big accidents or fistfights here - pure all-natural loss of a primary tooth. *Sigh* big Boyness.

In other news, he was violently ill last night for reasons unknown. Painted the top of the bunk (and blankets and pillows and face and hair and clothing and...you get the idea, but I'm serious about him hitting the bunk above him) in rice and salmon. OMG it was so gross. I'm usually pretty good at cleaning this stuff without losing it, but I had a seriously difficult time of it last night. He proceeded to empty his stomach completely over the course of the next hour and a half or so (thankfully, these episodes took place with the aid of a bowl and the involvment of his daddy instead of me) before passing out again. This morning, he woke up completely normal and happy and all that crap, so I remain clueless as to what happened. Clueless *and tired.* And still not done with all the barf-covered laundry.

Girliness

So Girliness is getting big. Growth spurting. Looking pre-teenish a tad early, but I see it there.

And she made dinner tonight. *sigh* my big Girliness. Put it in bowls and brought it out to everyone and didn't even act like it was extraordinary - in fact, she just kind of *did* it without announcing it or anything. Girliness has never been super interested in cooking or place-setting or even in food - sure she enjoys it but she's always been really casual about it with no passionate likes or dislikes. She's never really been a tea party and play kitchen kinda kid. So this feels like the very grown-up action of taking care of dinner, particularly with this whole attitude of no-big-deal she's got going. I'm trying to communicate that this feels different and mature even though it is nothing extraordinary for someone her age to be able to make and place a meal, and it isn't coming out right. And I'm probably just reading more into it than I should simply because I'm feeling happy/sad about her growing out of her little-girl looks.

Home on Sunday

On Sunday morning I awoke early to pack up...we were down at Kapiolani Park at 8:15 to watch Mom finish Tinman (she, incidentally, ate too much at Willows and had a difficult time of it, but I remain impressed that she can even finish such a race much less get on the boards...).



We got on the plane at 1:15. Boarding was early, the plane was delayed slightly to load more baggage, and Toddlerness threw a fit of near monumental proportions before we even began to taxi...but also passed out before we even began to taxi. After a fairly short nap she was back to being a pretty decent little human being. Bribed her with M&Ms to keep her quiet and seated during descent.

Got to the house around midnight, my dad spent the night and we left for the airport at 6:15am. Came home, slept some more, had a lazy day, reintroduced ourselves to Pine Lake Park:



The kids wondered why the water was so much colder than the last time we were there. It wasn't. They just got spoiled :).

Meanwhile, there was a full-on vegetable rebellion on our hands. First Niki's garden, then THE WORLD!!! The tomatos are growing heartily right on out of their beds...the currant tomato plant must have felt particularly imperialistic, as it now occupies a vast space some 10 feet-ish in diameter and shows no signs of letting up in the quest to claim more ground. We also felt a strange need to pick like 5 of these, even though I'm not quite sure yet what to do with them:

Saturday

On Saturday morning we headed out to Waikiki fairly early to hang out on the beach while Mom did a short workout. Kids really enjoyed a monkeypod tree. Went back to the parents' house, met FIL - he brought some great dim sum and manapua to share.

Spent the afternoon on the beach.



And the evening at Willows, which is where my sister wants to have her wedding reception. The food was great and so was the restaurant, which had some really wonderful features. The kids really dug one water feature in particular - located smack-dab in the middle of the pathway to one of the banquet halls, it shot choreographed bursts of water straight up from the pavement. Toddlerness (who was quite a handful) got to be an expert at running through them without getting wet. Alas, but our reservations were for 7:30, which is after sunset in Hawaii, and the restaurant was quite thankfully not interested in attempting to recreate daylight. No really good pictures, but eh, here's one to share anyway:

North Shore on Friday

On Friday my mom was off again and we headed around to the north shore. We found an abandoned beach. Formerly known as Pounders, it had some other name I don't remember anymore on the signs...it's in Laie. For a while, my tutu (grandma) lived on the next beach over, and when we came to visit sometimes we'd follow the shore around the bend that you see in the first picture to get to Pounders. And then try to time our departure so that we could get back to Tutu's beach before the tide came in and cut us off.




Tony found out why this place was nicknamed Pounders:



While Becca practiced her diving skills going UNDER the waves, and never did get pounded:



She even got brave enough to use the boogie board (she did catch some waves!):



And Nomi got used to being pushed and pulled by the waves:



Then we stopped at Giovanni's shrimp truck (OMG that was wonderful shrimp!):



And left our names:



Before heading to Sunset Beach:



The sand was great entertainment, which is a good thing since the drop-off at that beach is vicious. My mom took me swimming and I just about freaked out. Mom and Dad both made fun of me after we came in for sticking so close to Mom, but DAMN that was some freaky rock-fissure-murky-water shit we were swimming over. The weather turned slightly sour as we were swimming and the water got seriously spooky. Here sharky, sharky...do I look enough like a tasty sea mammal for you yet? What's that - oh fuck, a rock... Next time I swim with my mom there will be lane lines involved.

The Zoo!

We renewed our membership at the Honolulu Zoo yesterday for $35. We only go to the Honolulu Zoo once a year, but *they are reciprocal with Woodland Park and Point Defiance,* and buying memberships at those zoos (which are not reciprocal with one another) would have cost us $169 even with the internet deals. This is becoming a tradition. It might, however, become traditional to get the membership and LEAVE. That zoo is goddamned HOT. And -great- it was the day we forgot to bring water. Go figure. The kids were miserable, my dad and I were miserable, the animals were miserable...yeah. Toddlerness had a little bit too much "animal encounter" at the kiddie zoo. This goat head-butted her:

And she stuck her fingers in with the chickens and got bit:

And the cow had better be about to calf, because she was at least as surly as any 10th-month woman:

Her Royal Toddlerness is not about to be enthusiastic about farm life after this.

We did manage to have a little bit of interestingness and fun. Particularly in our first 15 minutes or so, when the elephants and monkeys were still enough to distract us from our misery.





The last time we were at the zoo, poor Rusty the orangutan was in a very old-style cell so small that he could stretch out his arms and touch both sides. Not entirely the fault of the zoo - they'd aquired him from a "collector" who wasn't exactly taking great care of him and had tried and failed a few times to get him transferred to a better equiped facility - he'd still spent years at that point in that cramped pen. This time we got there to find this wonderful change:


By the time we were most of the way through the zoo the kidlets and the adult,um,lets were miserable. A break in the shade:



Gah, still too friggin hot.

We took refuge in the movie theater in the afternoon. I took the big two to see Harry Potter (not as scary as Goblet of Fire, it just barely made the let-kids-see-it screening Fran did a few days ago). Enjoyed both the movie and visiting a familiar teenaged haunt.

A Day in the Shade

We took a hike in very shady (rainforesty) conditions today. Toddlerness got about 50 steps in before she found mud puddles...



And decided that mud on her shoes wasn't very "princess"...



And rode the rest of the way.



We found the real Fangorn Forest!





And some trees and ferns so big, it was like we were fairies.





An early glimpse of the falls:



The falls themselves:

Day at the Beach

We spent all day at the beach today! Well, almost all day. We arrived at 9:30ish, and when the kids showed no signs of letting up at noon, Tutu went to get lunch. We finally packed up around 3.

Girliness gets buried:



Boyness finds STICKS (of course!):



Is there a Toddlerness napping in there?



Girliness has this boogie boarding thing down!



We even had time to invent a WAVE DANCE!



And here's how we spent most of our day:



Toddlerness LOVED going out past where the waves were breaking and just bobbing up and down with me. I imagine she will feel the swell and dip of the sea in her sleep tonight. I am hideously burnt...maybe experimenting with a new sunscreen was not a good idea?...but Toddlerness remains unscathed despite all the time in the sun. She must have gotten more Hawaiian genes than her blonde hair and blue eyes let on.