Julia's Mexico City

Sunday In the Park with Harper In Aprill

She's already cooler than me...

Reading Is Fundamental

Harper has many books, lucky girl. And we read to her a lot. We've bought her many books, but have also received many as gifts and hand me downs. We have so many that I am stil occasionally surprised to find new ones. This weekend I gazed over to the shelf and saw both "Nake Mole Rat Gets Dressed" and "Pigeon finds a Hot Dog." How awesome is that?
 
I also love that our book reading has a big influence on Harper as this weekend she spent a lot of time doing this:

Sweet girl.

Oh and she has my feet. WEIRD!

Making Cheerios Disappear...

It's...MAGIC!

I Haz a Hat!

Cute girl!

Sunday In The Park With New Shoes

Places to go!

Baseball With Grandma

Last Sunday we went to the park and played some baseball. Luckily Grandma didn't get a black eye.

Her Future Is So Bright...

Harper's Room Updated

We have a small house, only two bedrooms. The 2nd bedroom used to be my office, then Harper came along and it mostly became her room. But I left my desk and other furniture in there because there was no place to put it. Now that Harper is walking all the time, she needs more space. So I finally moved my office all the way out and the whole place is hers. Thanks to a visit from mom, a trip to Ikea and a bit of elbow grease this morning, Harper has a whole new room!

Here's before (and even before the crib) in October 2011:

And now today - February 2013:

Just My Sweet Girl

Seems I barely have time for much other than work these days. So morning time with Harper is super precious.

Sunday in the Park With Harper

Yes barefoot. It's February 3 in LA = 76 degrees. Lovely afternoon!

Harper Plays Hide And Seek

But hasn't quite got the hang of it.

Milestones for Harper This Week

Today she mastered sipping from a straw. This makes transitioning from bottle to sippy cup that much easier.

AND

She has been witnessed by two separate people saying (essentially) "banana" when confronted by the fruit. This would officially be her first word (other than Dada and Mama).

And when I say "confronted by the fruit" fortunately I don't mean by John Cleese.

Cold Walkies

Needed mittens on our walk this cold California January day. PS. Happy birthday to me!

Aloha 'Oe Spreckelsville

On December 21, 1975, Mom, Jen and I moved to Maui from Oahu. I was 8, just about to turn 9 and Jen had just turned 13. That was 37 years ago. It was a whole new start for us three, a start to a wonderful life on Maui.

Sunrise on Christmas Day, 2012

That era is over now as Mom is moving on. She sold the house and is moving this week to a smaller place Upcountry. (Still Maui, just a different neighborhood.) It's a good move, filled with new beginnings and possibilities and opporunities. But it's also a big huge sad good-bye to an amazing home and so many memories. It's a hard good-bye too because there is so much Jen in that house and Jack and GrandmaJane too. I cried every day I was home over Christmas. Every day. I missed Jen so much because of course she would have come to have a last Christmas there too.

I have to keep reminding msyelf that mom is not leaving Maui, just Spreckelsville. But it will be different from now on, especially with new owners because who knows how different the house will become. 

I wrote down a bunch of memories of the house. One specific sound got me going on making a list. The sound of the squeak of the latch on the cabinet under the sink in mom's bathroom. It's made that same distinctive squeak for 37 years.

The ocean is a big part of mom's house. The house is not on the beach, but right near it (last house before the beach). You can be lulled by the sound of the waves, though it's not too loud. When the surf is big, then you can hear it really well.

Spreckelsville is under the departure path of the Kahului Airport (OGG) and I grew up listening to planes departing. There is the first plane out every morning around 5:45am, then clusters of departures throughout the day. The planes used to be so loud you could not talk on the phone when they went over. You would have to wait, then continue. Modern jets are much quieter, believe me!

We got to Maui when I was halfway through 3rd grade. I started the new school year at Lihikai Elementary in January of 1976. Starting a new school is always intimidating, especially halfway through a year. On top of that, I was the only haole in my class, in my whole grade! I took the bus every morning with about eight other kids from Spreckelsville. We would stop at the old housing near the airport (long gone now) where other kids would get on the bus. They were the "Kahului Kids" to us because they went to Kahului Elementary and would get dropped off before us. I rode the school bus for three and a half years, then switched schools in seventh grade to Seabury Hall and carpooled from then on.

The drive from Spreckelsville to Seabury takes you along Hana Highway to Baldwin Ave. in Paia, straight up to Makawao, then it becomes Olinda Road to Seabury. I was a passenger for three years, then driver for three years on that road, every school day, and then some. I know that road so well I feel like I could drive it with my eyes closed. Not much of the actual road has changed. But I knew things were different when they put a stoplight in at Paia, lo those 20 years or so ago!

Spreckelsville was a big sugar town, once upon a time, and all that is left is our neighborhood along the beach. (And that has actually grown grown since we moved in '75.) It used to be just the small sleepy roads from the Club (the Maui Country Club) to the end of Stable Road. (And there were horses and stables on Stable road when we moved there!)

My Small Kid Time Memories are many, but here are the highlights:

-Roller skating in the garage. It was the smoothest surface in the neighborhood.

-Slip and slide in the front yard down the hill.

-Eating ripe mangoes right off the (neighbor's) tree.

-Going from the beach to the pool at the Club and back, and back again.

-My good childhood friend Patty who lived down the block.

-Flossie and her dog Uku across the street! ('Uku means "flea" in Hawaiian and Uku was black lab.)

-Our cat Peach, who was a feral kitten when we found and adopted her, and Daisy, the beagle mix Jen found at the pound.

-Cane spiders in the house after the sugar cane was burned off before harvest. Maybe it's not a highlight, but more like a hard to forget memory that is so specific to that place!

When we moved there in '75 our address was PO Box F, Paia. Then it became 204 Kealakai Place, which it remains. It will be really hard to now have to look up my mom's new address! But THANK GOD she is keeping her phone number. Man, that would have really knocked me for a loop. To this day whenever I pick up a new phone to test, I always dial that Maui number.

One of my last best memories is that Harper took her very first steps in the house! How wonderful to have a big first for her there to treasure along with all the other memories.

It was so tough to say good-bye. I walked through the house about 3 times, crying every time, before actually leaving for the airport. I touched the walls and said "thank you" to all it has given me, to my family. I am very sentimental so this goes deep for me, almost like a death in the family. (Of which there have been too many already.) But in the end, it's just a house and my mom moves forward to new things and I can't wait to see where she goes!

As Lili'uokalani said so well:

Aloha ʻoe, aloha ʻoe	Farewell to thee, farewell to thee
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo	The charming one who dwells in the shaded bowers
One fond embrace,	One fond embrace,
A hoʻi aʻe au	'Ere I depart
Until we meet again	Until we meet again
ʻO ka haliʻa aloha i hiki mai	Sweet memories come back to me
Ke hone aʻe nei i	Bringing fresh remembrances
Kuʻu manawa	Of the past
ʻO ʻoe nō kaʻu ipo aloha	Dearest one, yes, you are mine own
A loko e hana nei	From you, true love shall never depart

366/2012: Day 366!!! Holy Crap I Made It!

When I started this project "366/2012" (which if you haven't figured it out yet is a photo-a-day during 2012 = 366 photos because it's a leap year...) I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep it going. But I did. I did miss a few days here and there, but hey, not bad for having a newborn in the house, then a full time job and newborn! Couldn't have done it without Kurt's photos from time to time as well.

Tonight's photo is this:

Harper was asleep and we toasted our first full year of parenthood. Hooray for us, we made it this far!

Let's look back on the sweet Bubela Boo: here is Day 1 of the project, January 1, 2012:

Oooooohhhh, she was only 3 weeks old and so little! Darling girl.

Time didn't fly for the first three months, though I will be honest and say we got a sleeper and we appreciate it every. single. day. But what a great year of parenthood.

Big thanks to Elise for suggesting the project, it's been a great time! Of course I'll be posting pics of Harper along the way in the coming year, but less often of course. Stay tuned!

Can't wait for Lucky '13!

 

 

366/2012: Day 365 2nd Christmas

The Freys from Seattle were here for a 2nd Christmas. Harper got hand-knitted booties from auntie Joanie!

366/2012: Day 364 Baby at Baby Beach

366/2012: Day 363 Overwhelmed

Late afternoon at Baby Beach. I'm overwhelmed by how much I'll miss my house. 37 years. Aloha.

366/2012: Day...Christ! I Miscounted Again!

Harper opens her present from tutu Diane.

366/2012: Day 362 Sugar Cove

We walked down to Sugar Cove beach today. I haven't set foot on that beach in decades and it's right down the street from mom's house. Funny.