A Mind of His Own

Asher has become quite strong-willed recently. He wasn't like this in his earlier days, so I'm hoping it's something that will eventually pass when he grows out of the terrible twos (he turns 2 next week!). I asked him to find his shoes so we could go to the playground. He found some shoes in the closet that fit him a few months ago. When I told him they were "too little," Asher emphatically replied, "No little! Big!" He sat down and got the shoes on all by himself. However, after a couple of minutes of wearing them, he did admit that they were too little and changed them for shoes that are just his size.

"Congratulations on Graduation!!"

These are Kaia's words for her dad tonight. After 2 1/2 years of balancing part-time school, full-time work, and family and church responsibilities, Peter is officially DONE WITH HIS MBA!!!!!!!!! (I might be a little excited. =) He just called me and he is on his way home from his last class of his MBA career. I am so incredibly proud of Peter. He has been so good at balancing all the different responsibilities in his life. I have been amazed at his selflessness in giving up nearly any free time in order to still make time for me and the kids. He has worked so hard the last 2 1/2 years (plus the months before that studying for the GMAT). He has pushed himself with goals and has had amazing experiences. I am so grateful that he decided to work and go to school at the same time so that I could have the privilege of staying home with our kids. I am so grateful for the help Heavenly Father has given us during this time; he has given us (or me) increased patience and helped me see the positive even when it's been a challenge. As hard as it has been at times, I can see so clearly now that we have developed skills that would have taken us so much longer to acquire otherwise. Since we have had so little time to share with Peter, we have become pretty good at making the time we have with him quality time. Again, I am so proud of Peter and so grateful we have made it to this step.

The kids helped me make a "Congratulations on Graduation!" poster for the door. I was having Kaia help me think of things to say. My favorite is when I asked, "Should I write 'You're such a hard worker?'" Kaia said, "Yes, and 'You say a lot of prayers!'" We have said a lot of prayers to help us through this time in our lives.

Dreams really do come true

Yesterday evening as I was preparing dinner, Kaia got busy with a few raw materials: her little table, 2 blankets, and a pillow from the couch:

After she made this little "bed," she told me, "I thought of how to make this bed while I was sleeping and then I woke up and my dream came true!" Then later I was talking with my sister-in-law Anneke on the phone and Kaia exclaimed, "Tell her dreams really do come true!"

Say cheese!

Kaia has recently gotten really into art of many forms. One aspect of this is that she loves to take pictures and have pictures taken of her or her favorite things. She was using the camera a couple days ago and took 90 pictures of her favorite princess book from the library! Of course, they were all close up and blurry but she was really proud of all her hard work.

Here are some things she has recently asked me to photograph. In the first one, she is posing with this map on the ground and pointing to our science center.

After Asher climbed up to sit next to Kaia on the couch and she stuck her arm around him, she said, "Isn't this cute, Mother? Let's take a picture." (Side note: Kaia has called me by my first name off and on for over a year. I don't know how or why she started, but I figured I wouldn't make a big deal of it and she would grow out of it. Well, it got to the point where Maile was the only thing she called me. Then in Florida, when Asher wanted me, I would hear his little voice calling, "My-lay, My-lay!" So a couple of days ago Peter cracked down and told Kaia she needed to call me Mommy. Ever since then, she has been calling me "Mother," which sounds altogether sassy when she's in one of "those" moods.)

Another side note - notice the turtle in both pictures. This is the turtle from Finding Nemo. I was feeling badly that we didn't get Asher a souvenir at DisneyWorld before we left but Kaia got a couple of Polly Pocket-type Disney princess dolls. We were in the city with my mom & sister when we ran across a Disney store, so I figured we might as well pick something up for him. We knew the turtle was the one when he looked at it and said, "Du(de)!" Then Peter asked him if he wanted to buy it. Asher exclaimed "Yeah!" and then bit him on the eye (he apparently knows the word bite but not the word buy).


Kaia is a coloring, cutting, and drawing maniac! All day long she is asking me to draw princesses, which she then proceeds to color and cut out. Now we just need to figure out something to do with all of them.

And here is Kaia having her very own tea party for a lunch of dumplings, of course having to use all 4 plates, forks, and cups at the same time. =)

Gian(t) No(se) No(se) Scare(d).

About a month ago, the kids and I went to our science center again. We went into an exhibit that has a giant blue nose that sneezes loudly on unsuspecting victims. The sneezing really scared Asher on this particular trip. He definitely has my personality in that sense - holding on to experiences that are traumatic to us. The whole time we were in Florida, he would randomly tell people, "Gian(t) no(se) no(se) scare(d)." So my mom and Brianna were really excited to come with us to the science center to see what all the fuss was about. Asher really was scared:


But kids are resilient and he quickly forgot about his fear and started hamming it up for the camera (once we'd moved on to a different exhibit):



He still tells me several times a day about this experience.