Strawberry picking

We have a hanging strawberry plant out back and every couple of days, Lainey and Daddy go out to pick strawberries from what apparently is Lainey's plant. There are never more than a few ripe at a time and she gobbles them up as fast as she can, often reaching for the next one while her mouth is still full from the previous.

I managed to sneak one before she got outside and they are tasty so I can't blame her for not wanting to share.

Sums it up

Obviously without the labor and delivery.

From Dooce.com:

I think the best way to describe what it's been like to bring a second child into the family is to imagine having a jazz band blasting an improvisational set in your left ear while listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Christmas carols in your right ear, and there you are, a drummer in a rock band, and you're on stage in front of 30,000 people trying to keep the beat to an acoustic version of "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols.

I'm trying to find the rhythm. I'm getting there, but it's slow going. This is all to say, thank you for being patient with me, I know posting has been light and it will continue to be for the next little while as I navigate a path through all this chaos. I'm still physically healing, and even though I gave birth without any drugs, the recovery has been just as painful and frustrating and ongoing as it was after giving birth with an epidural. I've got a post coming about labor, about how transforming the experience was for me, but it's a long one and I'm still hammering away at all the tiny details. All while attached to my adorable, chubby caterpillar who from day one made it quite clear that she'd rather be no where else on earth than nestled right into my chest. I will tell you this, it has been so much better this time, still a little bumpy and rough here and there with one or two absolute freak outs, but I've been so much more diligent about taking every moment I can to stare at her and adore her every feature. And the weirdest thing has happened, this whole experience has increased my love for Leta by a measure I didn't know was possible. I can say that right now, here this morning as my second child dozes on my breast, that I have never been happier in my entire life.

Progress

After waiting very impatiently, I finally got the remote for my camera that I ordered. I decided to use my 50mm lens with the remote and see what kind of photos I could get with me in them for once. So I whipped out my nifty black backdrop (an $8 bedsheet from Walmart) as well as a blue blanket and got Mr. B to pose for me. After a little tweaking in Picasa, I like the results. While not perfect, I feel like my skills as a photographer are improving. Until I get Photoshop and learn how to use it, I'll just have to live with things like the strap from my shirt showing, wrinkles and that nasty vein that pops out on my forehead. For now, I'm just happy as a duck in water to have a picture of my boy and I. I'd love one of Lainey and I as well but that girl just doesn't want to sit still for me. I'm going to have to get creative in persuading her to cooperate.
And I think it's nice that Beau will have something that Lainey doesn't have.
That's just the neurotic mommy part of me talking.

Happy Birthday Grandma "Cougar" Mary Liz!

We love and miss you and hope you have a great day today! This isn't the best picture, but we thought it was fitting for a woman so fascinated with a homeless woman's feet!

Hope to see you soon! Love, Nic, Robert, Laineybug and Beau

P.S. Ok, so I'm feeling a little bad about posting the first picture. It's not a flattering shot by any means but it is how we picture ML: intensely reading her map (she was well armed with them the entire trip) when someone says something interesting and she NEEDS to know what was said due to her insatiable curiosity.
Nonetheless, here's another more flatering photo depicting sweet, happy, loving Grandma Mary Liz. How could we not love you? XOXO

Yesterday

Breakfast at Patty's Eggsnest

This is Robert's third Father's Day and the first two were kinda duds in my opinion. My plans just never seem to work out the way I want. So this year, I had lots of ideas and plans. And what happened--I come down with a nasty cold. Nevertheless, I tried my best to make it a good day for Robert. I gave him Sunday morning "off" from having to get up with Beau but he chose to trade it for Saturday morning instead. [He gets up with him on the weekends so I can sleep in a bit.] He went to the casino Friday night and came home a winner so that was good. Sunday we went out for breakfast and pretty much just spent the day at home after a trip to the grocery store. What a day huh? And then HE cooked dinner. I really suck at this Father's Day thing. He is such a great dad and I REALLY wanted to make him feel appreciated. Robert always makes Mother's Day so special for me and I just can't seem to get my act together to do the same for him. I guess I'll have to start planning for next year now so I can get it right for once.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Happy Father's Day Dad! I hope you have a great day! I miss you and wish I could be there to spend the day with you.
Remember who loves you....ME!! (your favorite)

First taste of food

This is gonna be good!

Beau had his first taste of food (rice cereal) this afternoon. Even before he got his first bite, you could tell he knew something good was going to come from me putting him in the high chair. I was expecting him to, a) spit most of it out, b) eat very little, and 3) not care for it. I was wrong on all three! He loved it, ate all of it, and didn't purposely spit out any of it! I've had a feeling he's been ready for solids for awhile. He watches us eat and so I waited for him to be really good about holding his head up (and I kept forgetting to buy rice cereal) before attempting to feed him. Lainey hated rice cereal and would spit it out immediately until she was 6 months old. I'm so so SO happy to see that my little guy is haping up to be a good eater!! After he was done we could tell he knew he'd done and experienced something cool. He just kept smiling and looking at all of us.

Yum!

Final post on trip

Like the weekend Robert's parents had the kids, I feel guilty for not feeling more guilty about leaving them. However, we seldom even get a date night and with Robert leaving for work before the kids wake up and getting home after 6pm every evening, we barely see each other except on weekends. I love my kids more than anything on earth but it's hard being a stay at home mom. While working have their own stresses and worries, I worry about having enough patience, am I teaching them the right things in the right way, etc. Then there's the isolation and loneliness and sometimes, even boredom. It's impossible to understand until you experience it for yourself. It's a lot easier to handle one child than two. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining in the least. I love my life. As the song goes, "life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride." It's fuller and 100 times more beautiful with kids than it ever was without. But it's not really mine anymore. Once you become a parent, they become your #1 priority (or should in my opinion) and your life changes. You change. At times over the last couple of years, I've felt like I've lost part of myself. And I need a break once in awhile. I haven't been the mom I want and know I can be. With any other job, you get a vacation and no one questions you for taking time off. Being a stay at home parent garners no respect in our society. I see and feel it on a regular basis. I want to be the best parent I can and in order to do that, I need to take care of myself once in awhile. So while I missed my babies while we were gone, I enjoyed myself as well. As parents, we feel a responsibility to model a healthy marriage for our children. We know how fortunate we are ;.and thank God every day for the blessings He has given us.

Back to the point of this post, this are the last of my Hawaii pics. Some are dumb and goofy, I know. But what do you expect when you let me loose with no kids and a camera?

My surfer dude

In the background is Laie Point. Created when a tsunami punched a hole in the island!

Red pineapples. Also, sprinkled salt on a pineapple is delicious!!
Who knew?

One final sunset photo. Didn't see the Green Flash but have seen a photo verifying its existence.

We didn't hike Diamond Head or visit Pearl Harbor but we managed to fit in a tiny bit of culture.
This is a WWII bunker a short hike from our hotel.

My new friend that I hope to visit again soon!
Yummy Dole Whip

My favorite food on the island: Kahuku shrimp from Giovanni's Shrimp Truck.
Yes, an actual truck. So good I had to take a picture. I could've eaten it very day.
I signed our names on the truck. Look for us if you go.

"Bob Dole"

Well, that's all folks! Pics of the real stars of the Reid family coming soon!

Waikiki and North Shore

Most people stay at one of the many MANY hotels on Waikiki when visiting Oahu. In fact, there are only 4 resorts outside of Waikiki on the entire island. We chose this island mainly because we'd never been and since we didn't have the little ones with us, figured it would be a good chance to explore a different island. Honestly, I think we were a little afraid to visit Maui. We've taken Lainey twice and I think seeing all the familar places would have made us miss them too much. We wanted a quiet, easy trip and Waikiki was just not it. It would have been fun to explore that island kid-free as well but in the end chose the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore due to its proximity to recommended beaches and activities. We planned on taking a day trip to Waikiki and ended up going there two days. I'm very glad we chose to stay at the North Shore but can see the appeal of Waikiki. It's like Vegas on the beach, a real beach, not like Mandalay Bay's version. The beaches on the North Shore however, were practically empty. A few times, it was just us. Of course, the high season for the North Shore is winter when the surf produces the great waves but nonetheless, it was like night and day difference.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I love this movie and have seen it at least 10 times. The first time was well before we decided to change the destination of our kid-free vacation. Then once I started looking at Oahu, the resort became all that more appealing. Not only was FSM filmed there but the 17th hole on one of the golf courses was where Sayid shot a guy on Lost, another favorite of mine. We didn't do the hike to that location and I wasn't about to spend my vacay golfing of all things so I didn't get a shot of that one. We also didn't get to see the Kapua Suite as only those with "Oprah money" can afford it. [If you haven't seen the movie, I definitely recommend it. Just know that its stupid humor.] We did however see the backdrop for the front desk and the cottages where they stayed. I know, I'm a geek. But at least one that's easily amused.

After watching the movie again, we discovered that we went to the same cliff that Peter and Rachel jump off--Laie Point. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I got a little excited about it! These four people all jumped and had a hard time getting out of the water. They had to climb the rocks and time it just right or the waves pushed them either against the rocks or pulled them back out. One girl's lost her bikini bottoms.

If a picture tells a thousand words....

what does a 1000 pictures do?

At the last minute I bought an extra memory card for my DSLR. I'm so glad I did as I filled a 2 gb card in less than 2 days! After downloading three memory cards, I realized I took over 1000 pictures in 6 days. A little crazy I know. Ok, maybe more than a little crazy but I love taking pictures. Many, if not most, are bracketed photos of sunsets and beach scenes and won't get printed. My goal for the trip was to discover as many beaches on the island as possible. We stayed up at the North Shore and spent most of our time up there with the exception of two days at the southern end of the island at Waikiki when the weather at the North Shore was cloudy and rainy. I haven't tallied it up yet but I'm guessing we visited at least 10 different beaches. We had planned on touring the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor but were too lazy to get up early enough to make the drive and waiting in line for 3 hours in the nice warm sunshine just wasn't appealing. We did manage to visit the Dole Plantation and learned how to pick a good pineapple and enjoyed some yummy Dole Whip ice cream. Other than that, we took our convertible out in the morning, found a beach that looked good, got some sun, grabbed lunch somewhere (the Kuhuku shrimp trucks were my fave), headed back to the hotel to clean up and then looked for good places to watch and photograph sunset. It's amazing how tired we were at the end of the day from doing really nothing!

Since I have a ton of photos to go through, I'll start with sunset pics. These are some of my favorites along with one at sunrise. The resort we stayed at is unique in that you can see both sunrise and sunset over the water. The one morning I did get up and motivated to catch sunrise, it was pretty cloudy. The other morning I just missed the sunrise by about 5-10 minutes.

Sunrise
This wasn't a fabulous sunset but once I saw this tree after a long trek up the beach, I was
determined to get a photo of it at sunset.

Sunset Beach

Waimea Bay

Waimea Bay again (yes, that is Robert. He loved jumping off that rock.)
Turtle Bay Sunset Beach

Waimea Bay yet again

Kuilima Cove

Sharks Cove (no sharks but tons of fish)

From the balcony of our room

Fabulous Hawaiian Getaway

We arrived home late last night from Oahu and were met by two sick babies and one tired and sick Grammy. Lainey seems to be on the mend but Beau is clearly not feeling well and is pretty cranky, which was my first clue something was wrong. He is never cranky.

So, a trip report and pictures will just have to wait a bit. The trip was great. I highly recommend a trip to Oahu, in particular, the North Shore. I've never been anywhere where you have an entire stretch of beach to yourself. Waikiki is Vegas with a beach in my opinion, but definitely worth a night or two. We spent two days there soaking up the sun, people watching, and attempting to surf. My goal for the trip was to photograph as many sunsets, sunrises and scenary as possible and am proud to say I learned a ton about my camera and all its settings.