Animals

We had a fun trip to the zoo last week with our church playgroup. I failed to take many pictures of ACTUAL animals. Just mostly cute kiddos.

Suzy and Iain looking for hippos

Keaton climbing on a giraffe (statue)

Keaton and Bronwyn on the playground

There's some animals! Keaton's favorite part of the zoo is definitely the African Savanna.  And who doesn't love these animals? Giraffes and zebras are unmistakable evidence that God has a sense of humor. 

Speaking of funny animals...

Look carefully behind Mark's high chair... I used to see this little fellow out on our lanai politely peeking his head out from the corner of the air conditioner, carefully observing what we were having for lunch. He silently waited in expectation for us to go inside so he could indulge on the leftovers dropped on the ground or table by my messy boys. He no longer feels the need to be polite or wait for us to go inside. I guess he's hoping Mark will just reach back and feed him. He's like a little pet now.

He doesn't mind if I take pictures of him gorging himself of the leftover peanut butter on a plate we left out on the lanai for 5 minutes after lunch.

Here he is back in May after he lost his tail. Did you know geckos can lose their tails, and they grow right back? Lizards still kinda gross me out, but they eat roaches. I keep telling myself that.

Speaking of entitled pets...

Her hair is all grown back now as you can see. She's found a new place to snuggle up - Mark's changing table.

She annoys me most of the time. 

But she eats geckos AND roaches. 

I just keep telling myself that...

Swimming and other big steps

We've been spending a lot of time 

at the pool this summer

My friend Suzy has been coming to our pool once a week to give Keaton and his friend Bronwyn a few lessons. 

A couple of weeks ago, Keaton just took off!

floating on his back

Mark loves the water!

He also loves crawling around...

Finding gross stuff to put in his mouth

He took nine steps tonight! Go Marky!

10 months

Oh, Marky. How can you be 10 months old already?

"Aren't I getting a little old for this, Mom?"

This boy is a mess mess MESS! I love his feisty sweet personality that he lets me see a little more of each day. 

A few new tricks this month:

Claps

Plays peek-a-boo

Waves bye bye

Drinks from a sippy cup

Dancing to music

He is standing without support for longer periods, but has yet venture out with many stand alone steps. Crawling is just faster and more efficient, I guess...

He's developing quite a vocabulary: 

"Uh-oh"

"Mama"

"Nana" (Banana)

He's showing more interest in books now (beyond tearing the pages out and eating them), and will sit for longer to play with certain toys.

His bath is his favorite time of the day. He also loves the pool and the beach. 

He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, which drives his mama absolutely CRAZY! Oh, how I miss you, Paci! 

Keaton is still his favorite person in the whole wide world.

Unfortunately, he's getting a little pickier about food. He still opens his mouth for anything, but promptly removes the food from his mouth if the texture or taste is not quite what he expected. He then examines it carefully and chooses to either put the food back in and eat or throw the food to the ground. Let's hope this is not the beginning of the end for my good little eater...

T minus 27 days until Girls Trip '11. I've got to get this boy weaned!

"Good luck with that!"

Overall, I'm blessed to have a very happy, healthy, hilarious 10 month old. He adds so much joy to our lives everyday! 

The many faces of KRay

I love this little man. 

Even when he needs a haircut and his face wiped.

He's growing up WAY too fast. 

The 4th

We spent most of the day at home hanging out and picnicking by the pool. After naps, we headed over to the Heaths and grilled out for dinner. The boys had a blast running around together and playing "yard darts" with the dads. 

Buds

I'm not the littlest anymore!

Weeeeeeee!

Family pictures are getting harder.

A little better

After dinner we walked to the beach for some pops! Fireworks over the water...wow!

The Sandbar

The fun continued on Sunday when our friends, the Millers invited us go out with them on their boat to the Sandbar after church. The Sandbar is essentially a sunken island in the middle of Kaneohe Bay. At low tide, it provides large shallow land mass where people come park their boats, grill out, and swim. It's a local treasure, and it's literally in our back yard. It was a gorgeous day with just enough sunshine to keep the water blue and just enough cloud cover to keep us cool. 

Mark had to borrow an infant life vest. It was pink, and he was not so happy about it.  

Wow! Ocean and Mountatins - beautiful!

After grilling a yummy lunch on the boat, we spent some time in the water. We were not there during low tide, so the water was about to our waists. It was like a giant swimming pool!  

Me and my boys

Jamie and Joe

What a fun day! Thanks for this awesome experience, Miller Family!  

Tide Pools at Baby Makapu'u

Scott and I are always on the lookout for the perfect beach. I'm worried we are ruined forever when we return to the mainland with so many amazing beaches to choose from here. Lanikai we love because it's beautiful and relatively calm most of the time. Ko'olina lagoons are also beautiful and very kid-friendly, but is not as convenient (a whole 35 min drive) and parking is usually an issue. North shore beaches are fun to watch surfers, but the water is usually to rough to really swim much with kids. 

On Saturday, I was excited to try out Baby Makapu'u after reading about it on one of my favorite local blogs, Oahu Mom. During low tide, the ocean leaves little tide pools that are perfect for kids. 

Mark loved splashing around in the water. This also kept sand out of his mouth, which makes Mama happy too.

We were having such a blast, we decided to call the Heaths and see if they wanted to join us for some beach time.  

Keaton loved jumping from the rocks into the pools. 

A local man and his boys were there collecting sea creatures with nets. They caught an eel, a starfish, and some other really cool tropical fish in a big pretzel jug. They let us take a look before they let everything go.

Hooray! I think we may have found a new favorite beach!