It's Alohi Time

I just posted about Po'okela's 7 month stuff, so I decided that it would be time to share about Miss Alohi.  I love my sunshine girl, she is growing up into a lovely young lady.  Here she is at target playing dress up! I think we changed her dress about 5 times before we could leave. Thankfully she was completely content just trying on the dresses and didn't actually want to take one home.  This dress pictured to the right, she called it the poof dress.  She twirled and sang for a few ladies that were shopping for dresses for their granddaughter.  I've come to a conclusion that my girl who once loved Lighting McQueen and race cars, has moved on to girlie things.   

While we are on the topic of girl things... She cheers... Plays in her princess tent (thanks papa & nana)... Finds her way into my closet to find heels...

The girl loves to bake... cookies and cupcakes have become a monthly thing...

Oh and I can't forget the tea parties she has... Normally she sets it up for her bears, baby and Po'okela, but in this picture I let her practice pouring water from tea pot to cups and back again at the table.  She played here for about an hour and would NOT look at me when I asked her for a picture.

Other things she likes to do is take pictures. I've deleted most of them and was searching for a couple to post about, but this is all I could find. Seeing that my laundry basket is off to the side, I'm sure it was laundry day and I was in the laundry room switching out stuff.  So here you are... a picture of Alohi's feet!

With all this fun, Alohi's most favorite pass time is to dress up like a princess!  Here she is sporting her Cinderella dress, showing off her Cinderella movie. Sorry it's blurry, she could not stand still because she was SOO excited! (she also has tangle princess dress and Belle)

The Little Mermaid

Sleeping Beauty

And here she is with a few of her friends from MOPS having an all girl princess play date!! As you can see, there are enough dresses to go around. They changed outfits I don't know how many times, along with shoes (that her friend brought over to share, which meant each girl got to each have a pair of shoes). Then they got out the princess dolls to have a tea party.  They played so well together, I hope to have them all over again because it was just so much fun!

Along with lots of play time, I do like to do educational things with her.  We paint, color, and draw. She practices her letters and read lots of books.  She has gotten very good at spelling her name and writing it.  Counting is fun and challenging all at the same time, but she does practice (I'll blog about that activity another time). She does education and fun things on her iPad, but we limit that to special days or when Rylan and I need to talk about things coming up.  Here she is coloring and water color painting.  

Ke'alohilani Tamala Kocher, you are so much of a sunshine into our lives!! I love you sweet girl!!

First Bible Class for Po'okela

Since moving here, we have joined Central Church of Christ. Alohi loves her bible class since there are about 8-12 kids depending on the Sunday.  However there hasn't been a class for Po'okela or in the nursery.  So after a while of visiting we approached the children's minister to see if it would be okay for us to introduce a nursery curriculum. Of course they didn't say no! So we are using the same songs that we had at Mayfair and we are working on getting/making all the things we need to teach the curriculum.  Today was the first day we had the kids sit at the table while I sang songs (or played the CD).  As you can see they were interested in eating all the animals that we sang about.  They made it through most of the songs before someone got hit in the head with Noah's hammer.  (Next week we will put a space between them.) Over all it was a fun first time class with Po'okela! 

Po'okela, Brady and Beezily (I think thats how to spell her name)

Po'okela 7 Months

My little man is growing so quickly and I am enjoying every minute of it! In this last month you have done so much more and sister has had to learn to let you do things on your own.  She likes to do everything for you, especially explore all your toys or show you how to use them.  Normally you don't mind at all, unless its something you are chewing on and you  let her or me know that you aren't happy about it.  She has woken you up from our night time sleep by throwing a stuffed animal into your crib. She obviously got in trouble for it. When I asked her why she did it, she said you needed to snuggle. Let's hope she doest do that again, since I told her she would get a spanking if she did.  Other than that you two get along. 

  

Above: Sitting with your sister playing with your animals that you like her to pull down on and you laugh when they jiggle back up.

Right: Taking a ride in the double jogging stroller! You just looked around and enjoyed the ride!

Below: You don't like it when you lose sight of me, so I find myself placing you in the room I am working in so you don't scream. Here you are in the kitchen playing and sister could not let you do it by your self.  At one point you two were sword flighting with them.

This month you LOVE food.  You have eaten a number of table food things already that I am sure we never let your sister have when she was this age.  I am sure you will transition to table food much faster than your sister because I let you have it already (no teeth yet, but I still let you have the soft stuff).  Here is as list of foods you have had: bread (texas road house rolls are your favorite), chips (you swiped one off my plate and I didn't know), tortilla soup, french fry, ice cream (vanilla and cookies & cream), bread sticks, sweet potato fries, pancakes, and apples.  You get pretty mad when we are eating and you aren't.  I have introduce all the baby food meats to you and so far you aren't a fan of the ham, but the rest you will eat mixed up in veggies and by themselves. Your favorite meal is breakfast, when you get oatmeal or rice cereal and fruits (occasional pancake).  

                              

I'm still nursing you and you have started to sign milk, but I need to watch for it. This month as been a transition month for your nursing.  You have been sleeping longer and I needed to wake you up from your nap to feed you, so after doing some reading and research I decided that you were problem ready for 3 1/2 to 4 hour feedings. The first day I tried it you when 3 1/2 hours in between nursing (which you get food at these times as well) and now you are going 4 hours, with a cup of juice offered to you late in the afternoon.  With this new schedule we have had to change things up & early evenings has turned into your fussy time, but we will get back into the routine of things and I know it will all work out!

This last month while I was working at the Y, you got to met a couple of new kids. You were always so popular with them. There you learning to play with more toys.  Leggos were your favorite and here is a picture of the kids greeting you first thing in the morning. I'm sure you would have stay in your carrier the whole morning with all their singing and admiring.  

At home you play so much!  Here's a few shots of you at home playing, exploring and having fun!

My smiley boy!! My happy boy!! My sweetie boy!! But best of all you are such a good boy! Happy 7 months Po'okela!!

St. Patty's Day 2012

I know this is late, but we have been busy and/or fighting seasonal allergies.  Last week friday I hosted a play date for our MOPS group and had the theme of St. Patty's Day.  We had 7 kids running around and having a blast! I think Alohi had the most fun since friends came to her new house.  Po'okela slept through most of it, but when he was awake he took it all in.  I had ever intention of taking pictures of that day, but some how forgot with just visiting with other moms.  I did get pictures of the things I made for the party. I got most of the ideas from pinterest!  Here's some of the goodies Alohi and I made.

 

I had originally planned on having all of these above, but a bag of M&M's only has so many green ones, which I then moved on to the brown ones and still ran out of M&M's, so I did this instead.  I liked it much better than the M&M ones!  And if you look carefully I made a few 4 leafed clovers too!

I cut the tops off a green pepper to use as a stamp to make more clovers.  This was Alohi's. I think they turned out pretty good. I know I could have drawn stems on them, but next year!

I made enough of these for each kid to have as a snack (I won't use as much pudding next time).  At the bottom of each cup there was a "gold coin" (rolo candy) that was a special treat for each kid.

The weather was nice and wanted to go on a rainbow search for a pot of gold, but we had two babies so we didn't do that part of the day. Instead at the end of the party each kid got a baggie of "gold" (more rolos') and a quarter.

Over all I thought it was a fun time for the kids. There are things I will do again and things I will change the next time we have a play date at our house.

On the actually St. Patty's Day we went to Brady's 1st Birthday party! Here's a picture of the Alohi and Po'okela dressed in their green wear (since I didn't get any pictures of them on the actual day of our playmate).

Bangs...

These last couple of weeks Alohi has continued to complain about her bangs being too long and asking for a hair cut.  So the other night I decided that I wasn't going to spend the money for someone to cut her bangs and I would do them myself. I should remember that I went to college to get a teaching degree and I did NOT go to beauty school.  However, I did save some money and Alohi got bangs.

My styling of her hair...

 Alohi's version of style...

Again my styling...

And Alohi's styling...

And then I say... "it will grow back!"

sleepy boy

Well I love the different ways I find a sleeping boy. He likes his sleep, but at the same time I don't think he likes light. You decide...

 Yes, he had this legs up in the air like that... Then if you look carefully there is one sock off.

 Sorry this one is so dark... he has his pacifier part of the way in his mouth and he is holding it.

 And I think this is my favorite... but worries me a little bit because his face is fully covered and the whole doctor warnings of making sure there isn't things over babies face. But when he does it himself... what do I do??

Learning to Play together

Well I think I should change that title to Alohi learning to play with brother. Since Po'okela is on the move and sitting, Alohi has taken more interest in him. I think it has more to do with all the different types of toys that are coming out for Po'okela. I try to rotate the toys, so we have something new each month and it saves me on buying new ones. Overall it has been so much fun to watch and I'm learning to tell Alohi how to play with brother before they actually start to do anything together.  Hoping that telling her the expectations first, to cut down on the time she spends in timeout.  Well here is the fun that they have and the moments I've captured.