Caught...black handed?

Usually, in the mornings, Ola is awake before I'm quite ready. I put the gate up before we go to bed so that he can't get past the two bedrooms, and for the most part, there's nothing in the two rooms that he can't touch. Or, so I thought. Friday morning he was unusually quiet, and I figured he was just playing with his toys. I should have known better, because the last time this happened, he was ripping apart my scriptures. I checked on him and he looked fine...but that was without my glasses on. So I rolled over, put on my glasses, and took a second look. And that's when I saw it...Somehow, my little monster had gotten into my closet, then into my craft box, and then into my black stampin' up ink pad. After a quick inspection, I noticed that his two little hands were covered, and there were a few spots on his tummy and legs. Luckily, he hadn't gotten it on his face or in his mouth. (And luckily, it's non-toxic. Believe me, I checked.)
Upon further inspection, I found a few spots on the floor where he had obviously dropped the ink pad, ink side down; bluish-black smudges all over a large plastic container near the closet; and worst of all, yet somehow cutest of all, tiny bluish-black hand prints on my beautiful, fairly new, white sheets.

I had to laugh. Then, I had to grab my camera. After that, there was a lot of scrubbing. Wipes. Soap and water. And then, we just went and took a bath. About an hour later, it looked like blue ink instead of black and was a little less obvious. And by the end of the day, it was pretty much all rubbed off, with just a little bit left under his fingernails. Now if only I could get it off my sheets.

Toddler Bed

Aho and I have been talking about the lack of space we have in our house. So we thought that, since Ola hasn't slept in his crib for a while, we'd take it down. On Thursday, I started cleaning his room, preparing to take his crib apart, when I realized that I had stored the half rail for the toddler bed conversion under his crib. Hmmm...I wonder if he'd like to try this. So, instead of breaking the crib down, I converted it into the toddler bed. This was a little difficult, considering that once I took the front panel off, Ola thought it was his new playground and kept climbing in and out. It's a little hard to drop the frame down to the lowest point when you have a little boy walking around on top of it. I eventually got everything set up, and sat back laughing while Ola climbed in and out of his "big boy bed". He seemed to really like it, so we've been putting him to sleep in there. We hoped that maybe since he liked his bed, he'd sleep in it longer. So far, no luck. But, it has only been a few days, so I guess I can still hope. Although, last night, I woke up to find him standing by my bed. I guess it's easy to get out of or off of than a crib or a full mattress.

Party, party, party!

On August 15th, we had Ola's 1st birthday luau. Because of his love of animals, I chose a safari animal theme, complete with elephants, lions, giraffes, monkeys, and hippos. After all the planning and work, about 4 straight months of party stuff, I was really happy when everything worked out well. We had a bouncer and balloon animals for this kids, good entertainment, cute decorations, and great Hawaiian food. But best of all, we had lots of family and friends to help us celebrate. Sadly, my poor Ola boy had only had one very short nap that day, so he was not quite in his normal happy mood. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait for the next birthday. =)

The beautiful banner, thanks to the help of Uncle Cameron, Aunty Lohi, and the wonderful Cricut!
My paper mache elephant card box. Not exactly what I had planned on, but not bad.
Our wonderful balloon twisters. Ola got a giraffe to go with his theme, but I didn't catch a picture.
Our 'ono Hawaiian food courtesy of Laverns. Rice, poi, laulua, kalua pig, chicken long rice, squid luau, lomi salmon, pineapple, sweet potatoe, and haupia. Oh, and the Ing/Tuitele chocolate cakes. Yum!!!
Me and my boy...both very tired. Happy Birthday Ola Boy! Mommy loves you!

Not quite measuring up

Two days after Ola's 1st birthday, we went to our pediatrician for his 12 month well baby check-up. They took all his measurements, including head circumference, height, and weight. They checked his eyes, ears, nose, lungs, and hips, and also gave him his three shots. We always take all his measurements and shots in the exam room, then head to the doctor's office to wait for the verdicts. So, following the exam, we headed there to wait.
The doc came in and began by pointing out where Ola was on the graph of average children his age, and simply said, "his growth is really great. He's right where he should be." I, however, took one look at the two dots WAY on the bottom of the growth curves, and thought otherwise. Knowing me very well, and knowing I'd freak out, our pediatrician had tried to avoid telling me that Ola was in the 10th percentile for both height and weight. I guess he didn't think I'd notice his marks were on the bottom of the chart. But, he did reassure me that despite the numbers, Ola's growth is actually looking really good, and that a lot of boys are behind for a while and then hit their growth spurts later. I simply told him "I hope you're right!"
At 12 months, our boy is 20 lbs., 7 oz., and 28 1/2 in. He may only be in the 10th percentile, but great things come in small packages (we just hope he gets some height and weight at some point).

the big ONE!!

Today, our baby boy turned one. It's hard to decide if the past year has dragged on, mostly due to lack of sleep, or flown bye. But really, I can't believe that he is actually one. Because we're having his big party later in the month, we didn't plan much for today. Just a few presents, a cake which never got made (thanks to mommy using all the eggs for breakfast and leaving none for the cake), and a last minute trip to Chucky Cheese.


When Ola woke up this morning, I took him downstairs so he could open his present. For a while, he was more interested in the tissue paper than the actual present.

When he finally realized what was inside the tissue paper, he had the biggest smile. If anyone thought we were boring parents, just giving our kid books for his birthday, all they'd have to do is look at this picture. With the combined efforts of mommy and daddy, Ola got 7 new books for his birthday. Baby Giggles, Baby Colors, Where the Wild Things Are, Five Chinese Brothers, Horns to Toes and in Between, Pajama Time, and the Belly Button Book. As of tonight, we've already read 5 of them. =)

To finish off the day, we made a last minute trip to Chucky Cheese. Ola wasn't afraid of the big walking rat at all. In fact, when Chucky stood up to walk around and see other kids, Ola followed after him, pointing and talking. He was a quick fan.


But, my favorite part of the day, was when we sang him Happy Birthday. Aho did it first, after which he told me I had to see what Ola did when he sang to him. FYI, that snorting you hear is Ola laughing.