My Michael

Michael always made you orange juice popsicles. And wrapped you up in dish towels and sat you on a beach towel to eat them in his living room.
You would burst into Michael and Tutu's yellow cottage and instantly shout out in the cutest, most bossy pants voice ever "Michael??? Tutu??" and it cracked us all up every time.
You always rubbed noses Polynesian style with Michael.
Your level of expressiveness and incredible vocabulary made Michael smile and laugh so much.
You spent every Sunday your first few years spending the day with Michael and Tutu while I taught. It was your special time with your grandparents. They would take you out to breakfast, or Starbucks, or Hawi, or the playground, or on walks through the nature park "huge jungle".
Michael cherished the times I dropped you off at his house alone so he could have 100% one on one time with just you and him. After a hard day of playing, sometimes I would walk in and find you sitting on a cozy chair watching TV eating a popsicle. My favorite memory is when I was driving to the store and I saw you up on Michaels shoulders going out for a stroll together.
Michael was determined to always teach you something new each time he saw you, and couldn't wait to see how much knowledge you could absorb. Sometimes, though, he'd teach you things like how to open the tall cupboard doors from the bottom and it ended up making things more challenging for mama/tutu! But it sure was fun seeing how much you could remember!
Sometimes you saved your Mr. Big Ones just for Michael. I was so proud that he knew how to change your diaper!! That was true love!
Michael and Tutu were able to pick you up from school in October. You must have told EVERYONE they were coming and you were so proud. When they showed up, everyone said "Are you Michael and Tutu??" like they were celebrities.
I have sent Michael, Tutu, Poppy, and Grandma Lama a daily picture or video of you since birth.
Michael knew so many quotes, and songs, and little sayings and quips. He always sang "There were birds all around" and recited poems and songs like "The Hendersens will all be there, it'll be second to none" and a Dr. Seuss quote about going past the alphabet Z. I wish I wrote them all down.
Michael always found the good in people. He never spoke poorly of anybody to you or me. He loved Sadie and Jenna. And he wrote you a letter since he knew his time with you was now so limited.
Michael was afraid of how old he was going to be when you graduated high school. But now it makes me cry to see how little we all knew about age and time. It is the hardest thing, to watch someone so strong and resilient, someone who I joked had regenerative lizard DNA and always "grew back", get so sick so fast, but I am so grateful he was able to write you a letter for you to have the rest of your life. And that I had the chance to hold his hand, kiss him, and tell him how much it has meant to me to be his daughter in law and mother of his most beloved grandchild.
Other things I know you will always remember:
Michael loves pears
Michael loves bikes and canoes
Michael always makes horse and bird noises when he shows up
Michael and you would always "wrassle" on the futon mat.
Michael always built fires.
Michael grows beautiful orchids
Michael and you would bounce the ball off his roof and it would come rolling back down to you.
Michael always played with the hose and you would squirt him, and wash his car with him.
Michael always put you on his shoulders and took you on adventure walks.
Michael always let you explore his car.
Michael always said "Beautiful, beautiful, boy"

Michael has been very very sick with cancer the past few months. Everything has been happening very quickly, and nobody expected this to happen. You can sense that something is wrong. You are witnessing a lot of sadness and pain right now. Poppy and Grandma Lama have come out to help provide a small distraction during this horrible time. I wish more than anything this wasn't happening right now.

Michael wanted to spend every possible moment he could with you. He couldn't wait until he got to come up to Waimea, and the second he showed up in town he would call or text to see if you were awake and around for a play date.  I've never seen anybody need to be around you as much or as badly as he wanted too. His soul couldn't exist without you. You are his absolute, most favorite person on this earth. And his incredible bond and inexplicable draw to you can be seen by everyone around. I'm positive he survived his bike accident 3 years ago because he was meant to meet you, love you, and know you. I wish so much that you had more time to be together. You two were old souls who had the chance to hold one another once again. I know you found each other. I know he will always be near you, and I hope as you grow you can always feel his love. I promise to always keep him alive in our hearts and minds.

Two and a Half!

Funny stories and sayings from this month:

-I overheard you say from downstairs calling upstairs to dad: "Come play with me dada! I'm cute!"

-Dada tried to give you a shower and he turned the water on to get it warmed up. You said "I can't go in shower. I'm serious dad! It's too cold!"

-When I put you in the swing at the playground it always seems to lull you into a trance and put you in a much calmer and better mood. Sometimes you will swing for 30 minutes! You still talk about the dragon park slide in Seattle. You have become very brave with slides! I'm actually the one who gets scared at times! And you tell me "It's not scary mama. It's fun!"

-You tell lots of stories now. My favorite was when I asked you "Alistair, where were you before you were here with mama and dada?" you said "I was floating. On a space ship. In outer space. With a goose. He changed me. He changed my diaper all day!" (This also happened to be a story during a week where I wanted you to wear your big boy underpants more often instead of changing your diaper!)

-School is still a difficult and stressful place for you. You are always super happy once I pick you up. But there is a lot of anxiety in the process of going. And one day this month you cried "I can't go to school! I go to the beach!!"

-You knew a second trip to Seattle was going to take place in 6 weeks. But every day during those 6 weeks you asked if we were going on the airplane. When the day was finally near, you told Pop Pop via facetime "I have my tickets. Pilot can't be mad!"

-I told you carrots were good for your eye sight. So you stuck the carrot in your eye. That was a parenting fail!

-I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You are an awesome traveler! You LIVE to fly on airplanes! Everyone commented on how well behaved you were!! You are always perfectly well behaved. You napped both times (I put you in the ergo and bounce you in the bathroom since there is no other place I'm allowed to stand up!) The only time you ever get upset is when we land! You always always say "Let's do it again! Let's go again!" and everyone laughs. This past trip when we landed you said "OK we get off and stretch our legs, then get back on the airplam and go again!" Everyone REALLY laughed that time. At the airport you saw the A in Alaska and said "A for Alistair!" Since the Salernos play a lot of card games, you also picked out the A in Ace cards and also learned all the suits (cwubs and spades). You even identified the numbers correctly. I watch you play a toddler numbers and letters program on your ipad and I'm surprised by how much you get correct (lower case a, Upper case B etc). Things that amused you on this flight at 2.5 years: Travel reusable sticker boards; your precious bead collection box; animal stacking dolls; cheap dollar store model airplanes and dinosaurs; a travel magnetic ball maze; and the ipad of course. A funny moment was when you stood up and asked the person day dreaming behind us "Hello! What are you thinking about?"

You bond more and more with Poppy and Gwama Lama. And Uncle Panda and Lisa and Aunt Kimi too. I just love it! Thanks to facetime you are SO used to seeing them almost every day and talking with them. You have always been so comfortable with them and I know it makes them so happy. But anytime I tried to come join you, you said "Go away mama. Go teach!" And anytime a second person approached you, you'd try to get them to leave a little more discretely. You told Aunt Kathleen "Go in the house?" and she said "Oh, you want to go in the house with me? OK! Let's go!" and you said "You go in by yourself Kathleen".

-Tutu and Michael had company one night (the neighbor Mike). You wanted to vacuum, but Tutu said "No, we can't vacuum. We have company over!" and you thought about it, walked over to Mike, patted his shoulder and said "Goodbye Mike!"

-You like to say "I'm thinking about" whenever you are delaying something.

You love watching dada work. And Uncle Johnny. Any tool they take out you go and grab your identical alistair sized tools and work along with them. You love to pretend to build a house yourself.

You are still adjusting to school. Sometimes the idea of going makes you very anxious. I'm hoping it gets easier now that we are back on schedule. You are always very happy when I pick you up. Sometimes you want to go running on an adventure walk through the nature park down the street from your school.

-This month you were playing with your beads and you said "a big angel and a baby angel are sitting beside you me. They can't open my toy box so I help them". Then you said "We are human. We are human. The angel is smiling". We don't talk about angels either! Sort of weird, but sort of cool if you are tuned in to some other realm!

-You love to say "I'm happy to see you!" and also ask "You proud of me?" One time this month I told you I only wanted to play with one toy at a time instead of bringing all your toys to your cozy nest. You pouted and said "Mama, you mad at me?"

-Because of all the traveling and changes going on, you usually wake up at some point in the night and come up to our room. On vacation you sleep in bed with us all night. Sometimes you have a tigger bup bup around 5am and then fall back into the hardest sleep. And nothing wakes you up (not us brushing our teeth, showering, making coffee, blending smoothies, talking....you name it!)

-Eating, pooping, and sleeping are a big more challenging lately. BUT you did poop in the potty once already. And when you are happily nudie or wearing big boy underpants (Grama lama called them big boy panties and you said 'not panties Gwama Wama! Big boy underpants!") you always use the potty when you need to go. You even climb up and off all by yourself! You've discovered a love of banana bread and fresh plums this month.

Two Years 5 Months

Biggest news this month: You started Montessori Preschool! You absolutely loved your classroom visit a few weeks before school started. You impressed the teacher with your amazing long attention span and your skill of playing with the Russian Staking dolls just like the ones at Granda Lamas house.
And the very first day you happily went and took your shoes off and put them into the cubby you had picked out. You walked into the classroom and said "Bye Bye Mama!" When we got home that day I told you we needed to run errands so you very quickly put your toys back on the shelf, just like at school. But very quickly you learned that many little toddlers aren't used to saying goodbye to their working moms and dads and they had a very hard time transitioning. This made you feel sad and it's been challenging to get you happy about going to school. You would rather stay in your "new house!" But after 2 weeks of going just 3 days a week for 3.5hrs in the morning, we finally had a happy drop off at school. Mr. Squirrel puppet played a big part of that successful morning. You couldn't wait to show Mr. Squirrel your new school. You love walking by the bigger preschool and seeing the class pet guinea pig. So I think school will continue to get easier and easier. You have had a lot of one on one attention, but learning to coexist with others is an important life tool.
Another important life tool we are working on is falling asleep on your own. Moving, traveling for 3 weeks, and starting school were big changes and you've been doing a lot of sleeping in the "big bed" upstairs. You get very upset if we put a baby gate in your doorway to keep you in your room. The past 2 nights there haven't been any tears because I turned on the "candle" nightlight in your room so it isn't dark. And we quietly and sleepily talk about everyone we know "going to sleep". It goes like this "Poppy goes to sleep. Gwama Wama goes to sleep. Lisa goes to sleep"...when I run out of names I start talking about animals and objects like firetrucks and trains. You usually doze off within 15 minutes. When you DO come upstairs in the middle of the night, you do tend to sleep in which we all enjoy. Sometimes until almost 8am. In fact we were almost late to the first day of school because you slept in for the first time ever!
You LOVE to swim. I can hardly get you to come out of the water. You could spend all day in the water. You were born the year of the water snake so it's very fitting.
You've been giving me lots of "I love you mama" and it melts my heart.
You POOPED IN THE POTTY! All by yourself. Two nights ago. We haven't been pushing the potty training, just letting you run around nudie (which you prefer). You were so proud. I almost cried in happiness. Funny the things that get us parents SO excited these days!
I can't get you to eat vegetables, so I put them in the food processor and add them to your smoked salmon poke or mac and cheese. I add kale and spinich to smoothies. You discovered your love of popcorn and chicken drum sticks this month.
We walked out the door the other day and you said "Let's sit on Moki and Ruby's bed. Let's think about it. Let's sit down and have a conversation".
You also tell us you are "proud of us" which is so cute. You also are so precious when you say in the sweetest little voice "I can't climb up on your bed. I'm too little"
We are enjoying you so much. There are some typical toddler moments, but 95% of the time you are the most pleasant and enjoyable happy little buddy!

2 Years 4 Months

 Fathers Day 2015

 My two handsome men

 10 Year Wedding Anniversary Dinner at Spaghetti Shack in San Francisco

 Road Trip up the West Coast!

 You with your Aunt Shaye Shaye and Aunt Kimi

 My cute cabbage patch baby!

 First big boy hair cut at Rudy's in downtown Seattle

 Muir Beach, CA

 Impromptu Grimm location tour, Portland OR

 My tribe

 You at 6 months and 2 years 4 months at the Ace Hotel

 You are going to be a timpani player for sure!

 More Grimm Tour

 You said 'Mama we are twins!"

 Your mama's DNA make up!

Your dada's DNA make up! (Part of our 10 year anniversary gift idea!)

Here you are at 2 years 4 months old! We took a 3 week road trip and you were AWESOME! Our little gypsy baby. A rock star waking up in a different city every morning. We brought your "cozy nest" along so that helped you feel comfortable.
New sayings and doings this month:
You constantly ask questions and create conversation (something strengthened on our road trip when you had to communicate with so many different people etc) You asked Aunt Shaye when you noticed her cut on her leg "aunty Yay Yay? You got a boo boo? You fall down? You were running? You tripped? You fall in a ditch?"
You say in the cutest voice "Wook it! You see that? You see that right there?" for everything you notice.
You do the funniest pig oink. We walked into Seattle's REI and you were sooo excited you started snorting. We asked you "are you being a fun hog right now?!"
You told Gwama Wama you wear a life jacket and you can swim all by yourself!
I talked with you on the phone when I was out running errands in Seattle and you said "Mama? Aunty Yay Yay coming home soon. You petting Moki?"
You recall stories and experiences from the day and tell us about it. You remember experiences from weeks/months ago. You remembered sooo many things from last summer at Granda Lama's house (and you were only 16 months old then!!!)
You got your first big boy hair cut by a very tattooed, pierced, dread locked and shaved gal at Rudy's barber shop in Seattle and you weren't phased at all. You look so much more grown up now!
At the Dragon Park on MI, you were about to go down the slide and said "Mama, what you doing?" and I said "I'm ready to catch my sweetie pie". So from then on, every time you went down the slide you'd say "Ready? Catch my sweetie pie?"
You still tell me "I can't like that" or "I can't want that" for anything you don't want to hear/do.
You sing constantly. You know all your ABC's, you love All about the Bass, you sing and do the motions for head shoulder knees and toes. And Boomdiada from Wee Sing. You love to sing eensie weensie spider in the shower.
You are very into trains and planes and balloons. When we landed in Kona you wanted to fly again! Please!?? Everyone laughed. I think we could take you on a long flight to Europe since you are sooo good on the plane!
You start preschool next week!! I can't believe it!

Two Years 3 Months

Biggest news this month: We moved into the "new house". You tell people "HUGE house. New House. Alistair built it. With the dingo!" And since moving into the new house, you moved into a big boy bed. Well, you call it your cozy nest, and it's a travel inflatable toddler bed that we will be taking on our road trip this summer. Since moving out of the old house, we've had some rough nights, lots of waking up at 1am, 3am and so on. Some nights you sleep the WHOLE night, so hopefully it gets easier and easier. Before I bed you and I chant a little duet. It goes
Me: "Alistair is going to sleep the whooooole...."
You: "Night"
Me: "He won't get out of bed till the....."
You: "Morning"
Me: "If he gets scared or sad he should....."
You: "Hug Bam Bam"
Me: "And Alistairs knows that mommy and daddy are...."
You: "Riiiiiight there"
Here are some of your latest sayings and doings:
You say "I can't want it" or "I can't like it" when you don't want to do something. Our godson Oliver said those same phrases when he was 2 and Alex and I thought that was so funny 8 years ago.
You are obsessed with books. Some days we spend hours cuddled up in bed reading. You've memorized the entire book "I'm Dirty". You love Papa Get the Moon. Good night Moon (my favorite as a child!) And any book about diggers and trucks.
Like a parrot, you constantly say in such a cute voice "Hey Mama, what's goin' on? Dada, how you doing?" When I ask you how you are doing you say "Pretty good!" When I call your name looking for you, you say "I'm right heeeeere!" We were taking a family walk and dada was teaching you not to walk in the middle of the road. You would stay on the shoulder for a few seconds but then wander back into the middle. Dada sternly said "Alistair! Look where you are? Where are you?" and you thought about it and proudly pointed to yourself and said "Right here!" We both cracked up.
Sometimes you will say "Goodbye! See you next week!"
You hold up a pretend phone and say "Hello?? I can't HEAR you!" (I wonder where you learned that from?)
You love to pretend to pressure wash. Your memory is amazing. One time learning. You can recount what you did and saw, and you talk about certain memories from when you were around 20-22 months old (Gwama Wama's house. Rocks. Alistair dump them in the red car. Tunnel, eages, Gwama's white car) You got to visit your new school and watch dada paint. You had a blast playing the the Russian Nesting Dolls, and still talk about them. If I say something you agree with you reply with this funny accent "A haaa" (like a fancy "uh huh") And you still do this funny thing where you will say something like "Alistair go outside?" and I'll say "You want to go outside?" and you say excitedly "OK!" like it was my idea. Now that it's summer we've had some fun high schoolers babysit you. I love seeing how friendly and outgoing you are. You blow kisses to strangers. You still love pretending you are cat. You've been doing a lot more make believe. (frisky puppy after a bath. pretending to pour and drink coffee). You love to say "whats that?" and lately I've been playing a game where I tell you it's something totally wrong to make you laugh. Like you'll point to a ceiling fan and say "Mama, what's that?" and I'll say "That's....a banana" and you laugh and say "That's not a banana!" and the game goes on and on! It keeps you amused and entertained when we have to stand in long lines.
You love playing in the "jungle" (bushes)
You know the ENTIRE alphabet, and also the entire songs to Twinkle Twinkle and Eensy Weensy spider. You love the song "Boom di ada" from the Wee Sing CD in the car. You can match pitches and can remember the same pitch for a few minutes.
You continue to be the most happy, most well behaved, and sweetest little love. Each stage I find myself wishing that it would last forever, but you just get more and more fun!