Come celebrate our 20th Anniversary with us. YOU ARE INVITED! Kala mai, for short notice.
Place : Keokea Park Pavillion, Maui.
Date: Sunday 9th of July.
Time: Mid-day, 1-ish.
Hawaiian-style food, plus probably music/karaoke and an eggcream/ice-cream float station plus bouncy castle. Fun for all ages, no one will be turned away. So much going on with our families and we will take all opportunities to celebrate ohana and our lives.
The kids both love swimming and soccer. Lots of kicking in both, you will note. Kawena is getting good at freestyle and backstroke, and just passed into the “eel” group. Both Kawena and Mom love to dive and spend a lot of time practicing sitting on the bottom of the pool and retrieving objects. Nahele loves to swim around by herself and does not hesitate to jump.
We put together a mini baby luau in Prospect park, by the Picnic House and our little New York family and lots of friends came to say Happy Birthday to Kawena. Through the night before, we whipped up a batch of bite-size LauLau, along with Chicken Long Rice, fruit salad, Squid Luau, green salad and Haupia Cupcakes! Yum.
Lils and Sean brought cousins Hana and Dasi and Uncle Nick brough pal Jen Ku. Godmother Shalini and Berton rode their bikes through the park and we celebrated her birthday later that day too! Eiko, Sho and Saya came too, though Sho was pining for his soccer pal dad Charlie for a while but who came and saved the day! Viet learned how to make fire and use the tongs really well, with help from Dad Minh, while Quynh and daughter dug into the Long Rice.
After laying out the table, with help from Nick, we grilled a huge batch of Kal-Bi. Strangley, there were no left overs, especially after Alex, Susie, Jessie, and twins Wolfson showed up! Cathy Hoang brough some macaroni salad to balance out the spread and Maia Marinelli and Takashi brought some grownup conversation to balance out the talkstory. Luckily for us, Megumi and Jason brought some laughs and a few more items for the layout. With balloons and a ball, we celebrated all afternoon – through naptime and lunchtime, eating cupcakes though the late sun and into the warm spring evening.
Kawena is 1!
Lots of presents, lots of food, and good times had by all. We were able to relax and run in the sun and bright blue water!
Kawena got 4 bears – one from Grandma Kathy, 2 from Great Grandma, and one from Uncle David. Good thing he likes bears! He also got some excellent books, toys and clothes.
Besides celebrating almost every day with Manu and Joyce and/or Grandma Sherrie, we also ran upcountry for a Kula Christmas Eve with Uncle Avi and Jen. The view was great and the wood fire was cozy! Christmas Day we were back down at the Goodness compound with the whole family – Manu, Joyce, Sherrie, Grandma, Brian, Sean, Nick and Uncles Nick and David! It was great to share time and Kawena got up to speed in witty quips and long laughs! He loved crawling around on the floor tracking the bears and the dragon, or eating with the ohana.
We made it to Maui after flying through Chicago. flight was packed with kids. slept 14 hours.
When we went into the ocean, Kawena didn’t like it as much this time. In fact his body seemed to be going into shock – feet and hands white as the dead, with a purple tinge. he stopped the blood from flowing to his extremities! But he loved crawling in the sand and grass. Exploring is his current forte – chanting DaDoDaDoDaDo like a tiny monk, while digging and uprooting grass.
We traveled quite a bit this month, to Silicon Valley and back, and to Memphis to see the Tennessee gang. Kawena was a good traveler, but he seems to have reacted to the disruption by being more clingy and easily upset. He gets upset when we go out of his range of vision, even if it is only a few feet away. But he continues to make progress in sitting, rolling, pulling himself up to standing. And at Grandma Kathy’s house, he even stood on his own for a full second before tumbling down!
San Jose was nice, good restaurants but a bit boring. You could see the effects of the building boom a few years ago with the high-tech bubble. Light rail connected everything, and hotels were high class but business oriented. Kawena stayed with Dad while Mom went to a conference on Intranets and information management. Wena loves to explore and his crawling has really taken off. He crawls some on his hands and knees, but since he wants to stand so badly, he often crawls on his hands and feet; little legs stiff and straight as if he was walking. We saw Brian for a milisecond before he flew off to Boston and we had take-out chinese food with Uncle David on our last rainy night in San Francisco. The last day we dropped in to see Great Grandpa Joe in Pleasant Hill and looked at old crinkled pictures and walked in the overgrown yard.
Uncle Nick came with us this time to Tennessee, and stayed with Tarn while we stayed with Grandma Kathy in her big clean new house. When we first arrived, we went to Tarn’s house. When he came out in overalls and a floppy black wool hat, something must have alarmed Kawena, because he took one look at silly Tarn and burst into tears! He calmed down, and crawled around on the floor with straight legs, inspecting the checkerboard floor.
We set up a fancy Thanksgiving dinner in Grandma Kathy’s dining room, kitchen and sunroom, with silverware and tablecloths and wine glasses. Leslie and Rachel came over before we even woke up and started warming everything Leslie had been preparing the whole day before: potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli with cheese, honey baked ham, ambrosia, fresh rolls, sweet iced tea, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. Tarn and Nick came over at the last moment, bearing two big deep fried turkeys – delicious! Carrie and her two girls came over, and Randy and Ken, trailed by a neighbor boy (Parker?) who was polite and hungry. We feasted like the King, in Memphis.
Well, we have been back for over a week now, half working and half trying to keep up with Kawena. Catching up with cousins and Auntie and Uncle is great fun and we realize how important family and trust really is when little ones are involved. Cousin Hana is just starting school and cousin Dassie is grown so tall and skinny. Now Wena has to catch up with the girls!
Wena seems to be reacting to all the change with caution, keen observation and a “wait and see” disposition. He still loves looking at trees and relaxing with Mom and Dad. He loves to play and loves suprises and tossing around toys and “boo!” He hardly ever cries anymore unless he is tired or hungry and he is very easy to comfort. 2 or 3 seconds and you say “shhh, its ok, sweetie, we got ya!” and he is fine. But it is all tempered a bit with a quietness, a dedicated observation, a hold pattern of some kind. He waits sometimes now, to react, until it seems safe to cut loose. Then the old yowl and crazy babytalk comes pouring out. And we know the trust is still there. He is still our Wena.
