The Evolution of Bo's Face

So, as many of you have seen, in the past few months I have lost my husband under a massive amount of hairiness on his face. What made him want to grow a beard? I don't know. What made him want to let it grow so long that he looks like a lumberjack, a member of the Arian Nation, or a terrorist? I don't know. What made him brush it upwards and go to our church Christmas party like that? I don't know. All I know is that I missed his face and after months of waiting, the moment arrived where he finally decided to shave it.


But...he couldn't simply give me what I wanted all at once. He had to drag it out for as long as possible. So he decided to shave it off in stages.


First, he shaved it into the Fu Man Chu look.


Bo's hidden talent--accesorizing.


The next day, he tried the mustache with the flavor saver.
The next day, he went for the cop look--just the mustache. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of that one.


Finally, he shaved it all off! There was much celebrating and dancing in the streets. (Side note: This is what happens when a large man tries to crawl through a little girl's play tunnel.)

About a week later, he grew back his good old goatee. That's the way I like him best. All is well in the world again. :)

9 Month Update

Ok, so I missed Naiya's 8 month birthday, but for her 9 month birthday we borrowed a friend's video camera and taped her, plus I'm blogging about it. So that makes up for missing the other one, right? Anyway, here she is--my little cutie pie. She's growing fast--20lbs already! No wonder I'm tired by the end of the day. Try lugging an extra 20 lbs around all day! And I pretty much have been literally carrying her around all day lately. She was already in the "I only want mommy to hold me and nobody else" phase, but since we got back from our trip, she only wants mommy to hold her period. All the time. She has done better the past week or so though. She has actually stayed entertained on the floor and given me time to make dinner without fussing several times. Amazing! She is such a sweetie though.


She is getting close to crawling and wants to grab everything in sight! She has her first 2 bottom teeth now and seems to believe that that's more than enough to eat everything we are eating. Baby food shmaby food--give me the real stuff! Melia is still Naiya's favorite form of entertainment. This is a life saver for me many times--especially in the car. She is still ticklish all over, which is one of daddy's favorite forms of entertainment. Overall, she is a joy in our lives and we are sooooooooo grateful to have her in our family!


Now, I decided to write a little about Melia each month too because she's changing so much and does so many cute things that I figured I should be writing about it so we can remember. So right now, Melia is 2 weeks away from being 4 years old. She's really excited about her birthday and keeps asking me every day if it's her birthday yet. She is still very into everything princess and her favorite colors are pink and purple. She loves to dance with daddy and she calls him her prince. She is very into interacting with every toy, imaginary friend and inanimate object around and likes me to be the voices for all of them. By about dinner time, I find that my brain can no longer do everything that I'm doing plus keep all of the constant conversations up in all of the different voices. The ducks end up neighing and the princesses end up quacking and the prince has a high voice, etc. That's about the time I have to give it up.


Melia is really smart and definitely keeps us on our toes. All I have to say is it's a good thing there are two of us and only one of her. I don't know what we'll do when Naiya starts talking too! :) She is such a sweetheart though. She absolutely loves Naiya and is always doing things to make her smile. She talks to everyone in the grocery store and always introduces Naiya and tells them all about her sister. She has a list of chores she does every day and gets a little allowance each week. Her latest purchase was her own pack of gum, which she was very excited about. I thought it was so sweet because every time she would chew a piece of gum, she would offer me one too. It's been kind of a ritual for Bo and Melia--every once in a while, before he goes to work, Bo will leave an envelop on the desk for Melia with a piece of gum in it for her. So this time, she left a piece of her gum for her daddy. :) I could go on and on, but I'll just end now and say that she is an absolute joy in our lives too and we love her verrrrry much!!!

My Playlist

So I just finished having a dance session with Melia and Naiya here in our living room and I thought I'd take a minute to explain the inspiration behind the latest song picks for my blog playlist. Music has always been a love of mine and a huge part of my life. You name a song and I can probably tell you a memory I have associated with it. I've always thought it would be cool if my life could have a soundtrack--you know, like whatever is happening, there should be music playing in the background to go along with the situation. But, alas, that only happens on TV and the movies. Anyway, my play list...
1st, there's Magalenha by Sergio Mendez--I love this song! It just makes me want to dance. Back when I was going to school at Cal State Long Beach, I took a class on world music that totally opened me up to music from all countries. My teacher was awesome and had been to practically every country to study all kinds of music and instruments with the locals. Plus, I have had friends from all different cultures throughout my life who have introduced me to new kinds of music and broadened my music base.
2nd--"If It Kills Me" I really dig Jason Mraz songs--especially the ones that are not necessarily the radio edit. I like the more acoustic ones where he improvises more. He's totally talented at just going off in an original way every time he sings. I heard that's actually the way he writes his songs. This particular song reminds me of an amazing routine performed on "So You Think You Can Dance".
3rd "I'm Free" by the Soup Dragons. Some songs you like just for the way they sound and some songs you like for the lyrics as well. This is one of those songs where I like the message. It reminds me of my best friend from high school.
4th and last is "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the musical "Hairspray". The latest movie version of "Hairspray" with John Travolta was one of those feel good movies that just made me smile from beginning to end. This song, to me, is like joy rising. It's just so much fun and keeps getting more and more joyful peaking at the end. One of my favorite things to do to this song is to dance with wild abandon around the house with Melia, Naiya and Bo (yes, I said Bo). :)
So there you go. A little look into part of my brain.

Leisurely Walk? I Think Not.

The night after we got back from our trip, Bo started feeling nauseous and felt kind of sick for the next few days. Last night, Melia came out of her room at 10:30pm crying and covered in throw up. This morning, I started feeling nauseous. After breakfast, Melia projectile vomitted across the room. Naiya is going through this phase where she only wants to be held by me. Since we've been back from our trip, she not only wants to be held by me instead of other people--she wants to be held by me period. All the time. So after a morning inside the house with all of us not feeling so great, I decided we needed to get out. We didn't have a car, so I loaded the girls up in the really old double stroller and went out for a "leisurely walk". My thinking was, "I'm not feeling so good, but I feel a little better. We need to get out of the house. I'll just take it easy on this walk." I don't know what made me think there is such a thing as a leisurely walk in Paradise, seeing as how there is no flat ground. It is either up hill or down hill. And the uphill starts with our driveway which is looong and is at an incline of like 30 degrees which feels like 90 degrees when you're pushing a 20 pound baby and a 38 pound almost 4 year old in a big old double stroller. So by the time I got to the top of the driveway, I was already breathing heavy. Just down our street a little way, there is another huge hill. As I pushed the stroller up the hill, I started to feel more nauseous again. I pressed on for another 15 minutes or so and then decided to give it up. I look forward to the time when we live somewhere with flat sidewalks again. :)

We're Back!

Happy New Year! We just got back from a week and a half long vacation to Southern California and it was a lot of fun! We spent most of our time with our families, but we were able to squeeze a few friends in too. There were many more that we wish we could have seen, but we just ran out of time. Although we stayed up late every night and I had to get up early every morning with the girls, I came home feeling pretty rejuvinated. I guess actually more mentally than physically. :) This past semester had really taken a toll on us with Bo being gone so much and so stressed out all the time. We literally had almost zero time together. I was so caught up in taking care of the kids and never really getting much of a break or getting out to do fun "grown up" stuff. Looking back, I think I was a little depressed. Anyway, it was so good to have Bo there every day all day and be surrounded by wonderful people on this trip. To just have fun and play games and laugh every day more than I have in a long time was so refreshing! It made me realize that we need that kind of stuff in our lives to stay balanced. I came back with a better perspective on things and I feel more motivated to do things now. I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but now is as good a time as any to think about what I really want in my life. More fun for this year definitely!