Thank You

Okay, I know...some parents are obnoxious and pretend their kid is saying something but really it just sounds like gibberish....but I swear Daniel is saying "thank you."  He said it numerous times today and if you squint with your ears, it sounds like "thank you."

Okay, fine, maybe I'm an obnoxious parent.

Anyway, here are some photos from the weekend.  Danny and I went to the park while Tom went for his run on a beautiful morning.

At daycare, he sleeps on the floor with a boppy pillow, so he was pretending to take a nap in the hall.  He thought it was funny.

Uncle Dave caught a gecko for Danny to see up close!

We went to the big pool in Kihei and these boys were looking cute in their swim wear.

Cherries

Snack time!

Cherries were on sale!  Delicious and good for decorating your mouth and hands!

Evening Walk

Making this boy walk the line..

He loves piggy back rides, but hasn't quite figured out that he needs to hold on just yet..

Lately

Playing trains!

Splashing in puddles after some rain.  This must just be something we're all born with.  We've never taught him to splash in puddles, but as soon as we went outside, that's what he wanted to do.  It was awesome.  I have a cute video but it won't let me load...oh well.

Daniel's reaction when I told him it was time to go pick up Tom from work.

Yesterday morning we went outside to watch our neighbor trim the hedge.  Daniel was so mesmerized by it that we set up our chairs and sat there for a good 40 minutes to watch.  It wasn't a bad way to enjoy my coffee.

Oh, something noteworthy I should mention...Daniel hasn't nursed since last Tuesday morning!  I'm going to go ahead and call that officially weaned!  It was a pretty easy process for us that only involved fussing about it one morning.  Yahoo!

Gecko!

Daniel makes this sound like he's practicing his French nasalized vowels.  I love it.

Today we went to the park to meet Tom as he finished up his run.

And Daniel's big accomplishment for the day is learning to say "gecko."  A true island boy!  He will NOT stop saying it and it's making bedtime a little difficult, but it's super awesome.  My new favorite word of his.

Teddy Bear Picnic

After sharing his grapes with old Pooh Bear, Danny decided he could use a sip of milk too..

Simple Pleasures

Life really is all about the simple pleasures, isn't it?  Here's Danny looking amazed at the huge rig the roofers parked in our driveway.  

Also he's probably enjoying the simple pleasure of not wearing pants..

Later we had some fun dinner time shenanigans with an oven mitt.

And the Livin' is Easy

Finally!  Summer break!  I'm finally done teaching 5 weeks of summer school!  Phew.

You know it's summer vacation when this little bean gets to try some of our ice cream cones!

Unfortunately a nasty cold that he's been fighting all week put Danny in a not so great mood on Saturday. 

Finally on Sunday he was feeling better and even helped clean the floors..ha

This morning we got up and went to see the ducks.  We spent about an hour watching the ducks and chickens.  Danny basically said "guh guh" (quack quack) and "doo DOO doo" (cock-a-doodle-doo) the entire time.  It was pretty awesome.

Sure beats workin'!

Slippahs

This kid knows he's growing up on the island!  Bought these flip flops (or slippahs as they're called in Hawaii) yesterday and he is obsessed.  

They aren't for everyday wear yet, but I may have to pry them off his feet.  The good news is we just bought him a new pair of regular shoes and they have a dog on them, so he likes those too.

Reading Buddies

This is my last week of summer school (big huzzah!) but daycare is closed, so we're trying our best to make do.  Today that involved Daniel coming to school with me for 2 classes.  They were my best classes, also my smallest at only 9 students per class, so it wasn't too big of a deal.

At the end of class I looked over and saw just about the sweetest thing ever...

Not only was he reunited with his beloved Brown Bear book, but he had two friends to read it to him!

Sweeping

Daniel would not stop fussing at me while I was trying to sweep because he wanted to help.  After I finished up, I gave him the broom and he went straight to his bedroom to sweep up.

His technique needs work, but at least he went over to put the broom away when he was done.

Recently.

Here are a few photos from the last few days...

Danny wearing my John Deere hat..

Tom was busy on Friday night so Daniel took me out to dinner at our favorite pizza place.

It was awesome, he was good company and we had a great time.

Went to the library on Saturday and Danny immediately found Brown Bear, Brown Bear and sat down to read it.  It's his favorite book but has "disappeared" to my classroom recently (I'm using it for a lesson, I'm not just being cruel).

At home he found my headband and rocked it for a little while.  Apparently he likes putting my things on his head..

I woke up early this morning to go for a run while these two lazy bums got to sleep in.  They were even still sleeping when I got home at 7!

We decided to have him cuddle his Pooh bear.

He was very happy to see Pooh when he woke up.  This kiddo loves this giant Pooh bear.

This afternoon Danny helped wash the car.

Gotta start them working young!

Challenge

If I write it on the blog, it's binding...so here goes.

Tom came up with an awesome running challenge for us that we started last week.  He went for a run last Saturday and when he came home told me that I had 24 hours to "reply" with a run of my own.

So I went for a run last Sunday morning...for the 2nd time in 2 years, not exaggerating.

I've run 5 times since then for a grand total of 6 runs since last Sunday!  Our challenge is working.  Each of us has gone for both evening and really early morning runs (we leave the house at 7am, so when we run in the morning, it's around 5:45).

So far there are no rules on distance, time, speed, etc.  We're just trying to build good habits.  Hoping we can keep this up for awhile!

Fourth of July

Happy 4th of July!  We played with some sparklers and the camera to get that fun shot last night.  

In big news, Daniel has been sleeping so much better at night recently.  He's been sleeping until about 4am, nursing, then sleeping for another two hours or so.  Well last night, we hit a new record!  He slept from 6:30pm until 5:15am!  Yahoo!  This has been a long time coming!  He was waking up every couple of hours for about the first 14 months of his life...

AND today 5:15am was the only time he nursed.  He's going to be weaned before we know it.  He gave up pacifiers on his own a few months ago.  Now we just have to get him to drink milk from a cup instead of a bottle...baby steps.

Anyway, back to our day.  Here's the boy modeling his sunglasses very seriously this morning...

He took a really great morning nap and then we decided to go to the aquarium for a special treat.  We didn't want to be outside in the heat of the day, so this was a great special indoor activity.  Just like at the rodeo, he screeched and squealed pretty loudly.  He was SO excited!

After an afternoon nap, we had some time in the kiddie pool (no pics), ate some dinner, and then walked around outside to chase chickens.  We have at least two, but I think three, families of baby chicks that live around our house.  Daniel loves them and will follow them everywhere.  They're pretty friendly with him, too.

Danny got to see some sparklers.  We'll wait til next year to let him hold one on his own...

Even in the light he thought they were pretty awesome.

All in all, a successful day.  So nice to have a day off and for it to feel like summer.  Work's been keeping us busy, even though I'm just working half time.  Looking forward to some more summer nights coming up!