For the past couple of weeks the girls have been asking how many days until Christmas. One day Kezia carefully lined up all her small toys in rows and called me into her room to look at the display. "Is this how many days until Christmas?" She asked. "No, Kezia," I said, "there are a LOT more days than that." "But Mom," she said, "There are like 20 toys here!!" (and what could be longer than 20 days!!) So we decided to have Christmas a bit earlier this year...like the next week. So yesterday we put up the small Christmas tree, sang Christmas songs, and passed out homemade gifts to each other.
It was fun. Nate made clay pendants for everyone, I made paper flowers, Kezia made a dog puppet for Ivy, and Ivy made a can and string telephone for Kezia.
Elysse with a necklace from Daddy
I love the kids' imaginations, and Kezia's absolute LOVE for the canine species. No matter what you give her, it turns into a dog somehow. Like her princess dresses. They are the outfits for her imaginary character Dancy the Dog. And although playing telephones with the cans was entertaining for a while, a half hour later, they were both doggies on a leash.
Kezia found an empty diaper box, drew a steering wheel on its flap and called it a car. After a week of playing with it, she wrapped it up for Ivy for "Christmas". Ivy tore off the wrapping, revealing the diaper box. She announced in a not-so-sure voice, "It's... a.....booooxxx." Kezia said, "No, it's a car, Ivy." Ivy's face lit up like a sixteen year old with a new lisence: "Oh! It's a car!! It's a car!!!"
Taking care of three kids is like treading water above a hungry swarm of sharks. I know at some point one of those sharks will want to bite, but if I can just maintain and get a few good breaths in, then maybe I can tackle a shark when it comes in for the attack. But sometimes the sharks get impatient and want to bite at the same time. At the end of the exhausting ordeal, I somehow find myself on top of the water and breathing again (and maybe a little bit scathed).
I am so grateful for that higher power that supplies me with the ability to grasp a few breaths and have the energy to keep on treading even when I feel too tired to do so. And a lot of that comes from the handfuls of "Mommy, I love you" 's that I keep hearing from Kezia and Ivy. I don't know why they say it, because they say it out of the blue, but I think God knows it's what I need right now. It's like a power boost that makes it all worth it.
I am excited for Elysse to sleep through the night. I'm to the point where I am having dreams she awakes only in the morning and I am so well rested and happy, and that pleasant dream is interrupted with her crying at 2 in the morning.
Having three kids, though has been really helpful in helping me sloooowwww waaaayyyy doooowwwnnnn and just enjoy the moment. It's really been helping the mood of everyone, and that's good. I've also learned to prioritize better and be ok if we are late or if our house is a mess or we have mac and cheese every so often.
Could any other words strung together sound so sweet? And for some reason, both of my daughters have been telling me that the last couple of days. While we play together, do our own thing, or even after having a time out, they have said to me, "Mommy, I love you." And sometimes those words are followed by a smile and a hug. And I'm lovin' it every time.
Kezia: This is only funny if you are familiar with the Argentinian ballad from Veggietales. There is a part of the song where Bob the Tomato gets upset at Larry the cucumber for accusing him of not being able to dance. "What do you mean I can't dance?" He asks. Larry responds in Spanish, "No comprendo" (I don't understand). Kezia has had a really hard time not using her hands to eat. It's like her hands are magnetized to the food. So one evening over dinner, we spent quite a bit of time deciding what to do about it. We decided to come up with a cheer to chant when Kezia only uses her utensils. As a family, we were creating all these silly cheers that we could use. When we were done, I turn to Kezia only to see her grab her food with her hands!! I said, "Kezia! Why are you using your hands? We just spent all this time talking about NOT using your hands and what we can do if you don't use your hands!! Why are you using your hands?!?" She looked at me for a second and responded, "No comprendo."
Ivy: To make sure everything is clean as a whistle on her rear end after using the potty, Ivy pulls sheet after sheet of toilet paper off the roll (and somehow still doesn't succeed at cleaning what needs to be cleaned.) After this ritual of waste the other day, I hear her flush the potty and then she called to me, "Look, Mom! It's Little Mermaid!!" I peer where she was pointing into the now clogged toilet. On top of the rising toilet water was a wispy gathering of toilet paper seemingly dancing in the twirling of the water. Who else but a three year old girl would see Little Mermaid in a clump of used toilet paper?!?
Kezia has been sick with a fever since Friday night. This is pretty significant, since I can remember only one other time in her four years on earth that she has ever been sick, besides an occasional cold. Last night she woke up and asked for a blessing. Then she said, “I want a blessing NOW!!”and she was acting all weird.Like she said, “take it off!Take it off!Take your coat off!”So I did. And then she said, “Take it off!” pointing to my hair, so I pulled my hair behind my ears, which seemed to satisfy her for a few seconds.But then she started pointing to the ceiling saying “Take it off!”She said there’s a bead up there, right next to the little d, inside the o, and it’s blinking like a light on and off like a Christmas light.She said it was “disturbing” her…(yea, talk about disturbing—there was nothing there!)Kezia was very flush in the face, but after the blessing she began to get color back and make more sense.After that, medicine, and a popsicle, she went to show daddy the “bead light” just to find it had disappeared.
Yes, this is a momentous event. I think our poor baby has had less than 10 baths since she was born. I remember growing up in my family of 7 kids that when I was young, I had baths only on Saturdays. I used to think that was pretty gross and weird....now I understand why.
Friday afternoon we got the report that the waves were the right size for the Steinlager Shaka surf contest series to begin Saturday the next day at Sunset Beach, and that the stand up surfing division will run that day. We got everything together that night and in the morning Nate drove down to register and I and the kids stopped at Grandma's to catch a bit of General Conference before heading down ourselves.
The waves at Sunset were messy and sizeable. Nate paid for his entry fee with a company check, so I joked that he is now a sponsored surfer. He got tips from his business partner Bill Ward who used to be a pro surfer. Being only his second contest, Nate said he wasn't there to place, but, quoting Karate Kid, just wanted to "put on good show".
Round 1: Nate paddled out for his first heat alongside Brian Kealana and Clay V. Nate confided in me that he has been dreaming of riding a big wave and getting barrelled (that's when the wave covers you and you surf through the tunnel it forms.) His first wave I thought he may have caught his dream wave. The wave curled over and the whitewater chased him down the face. Nate seemed to tease the wave as he danced up and down the face. We were excited when he got his second wave, a big one on the outside. He rode it really well, too. When Nate came in, he said he never was hammered so much as he was when he came in. Nate advanced to the next round-the quarter finals!!!
Round 2: The waves were cleaner now--not as windy, the waves bigger (about 8-10ft faces) but the water was still lumpy bumpy. The shore break was really big too, with the waves smashing up against the steep shore. Nate said he had a really hard time making it out, and we believed him. We cheered when he made it to the lineup. Included in the lineup were Dave Parmenter (a past pro longboarder and one of the first shapers of stand up boards), Kekoa Uemura (pro longboarder) and Kai Sallas (pro longboarder). Nate caught three waves--two really good waves. He caught one that closed out behind him and another big one on the outside.
Here's a home video of his second wave of his second heat:
Here are youtube videos of both heats. (Nate is in black in heat 1 and yellow in heat 2)
We were so excited for him! (And, I have to admit, I was nervous for him because he only surfed Sunset once on his longboard and never on his stand up board. Sunset is infamous for its really heavy waves) I waited for him to come in and he didn't come and he didn't come. The other surfers made it to shore and I still couldn't see him. I was about to turn back to the tent to ask the others if they could see him when I spotted him. He was about 30 feet from the shoreline in these little bitty waves, but they had quite a punch and Nate was barely making it through. I would learn later that he got tumbled in the waves right after his set and it took all his strength to get out of the inside. I found it very humerous that there he was surfing these big waves so well and now he was struggling through small whitewater. Nate placed 3rd in the round, beating out pro surfer Kai Salis!! He didn't advance, but he did really, really well. He was happy about the "good show" he put on, as evidenced by this photo of him emerging from the surf.
Nate, our surfing champ
Here are some other shots and videos I took while we were at the beach:
Ivy and Kezia on the shore watching Daddy surf . They kept getting closer and closer to the nasty shore break. I was grateful I moved them back just before a bigger wave covered where they were standing.
Elysse also gave her support to Daddy. She spent most of the day meditating and sending him good surfing vibes.
There was a pregnant monk seal on the beach. This endangered seal is found only found on the Hawaiian Islands and is endangered. This was only my second time seeing one, and it was a great babysitter for the girls. They spent a good while sitting and watching it under the "caution" tape that surrounded it, acting as a protection from the flow of tourists that came to see it.
Elysse with a necklace from Daddy
