he turns one!

A year ago on Friday, we welcomed our sweet little boy into this world. This past year has been quite the journey. We were able to celebrate his first year of life this weekend with our friends and some family. Christian's parents were able to fly out for the weekend to join in on the festivities. Special thanks to both of them for all of their help! We also have great friends out here that helped us celebrate the big day. We love them all and consider them our family as well.

Opening presents

Thank you everyone for the fun presents!

The Party

Saturday morning we were planning on having his birthday party at the beach in Kailua.

Late on Friday night we got a call from a friend warning us about the earthquake that just hit Chile, and the tsunami alert for Hawaii, scheduled for 11:00 am, right in the middle of his party. We really didn't think much of it. We thought that by tomorrow morning the warning would be called off and everything would be fine. 6:00 am Friday morning, we woke up to the tsunami alarm. I'm not sure if any of you have heard this alarm before, but it is really really loud, and really really scary sounding. They test this alarm the first Monday of the every month, and the whole island can hear it. So we were pretty startled when the alarm went off, and a little nervous about it, because it wasn't a test, it was real. We checked the news online and read that all of the beaches would be closed.

We had to come up with Plan B for his birthday party. Do we even have it? Where? Do we move it to the afternoon after the tsunamis have hit? So, the indecisive people that we are, we finally decided an hour before the party that we were just going to move it to the park and keep it at the same time. We rushed to the store to go fill up his balloons and find ice and we were surprised to see that the island had gone mad. There were long lines at the gas stations, and everyone was frantically trying to stock up on supplies before this tsunami hits. All of the store employees looked pretty stressed out, so I felt pretty dumb when I asked one of the workers if I could get some helium in my balloons. Of course the ice was all out.

Aside from the crazy/confusing morning that we had, the day couldn't have been better. The weather was beautiful and everyone turned up! Maybe because everything was closed and they didn't have any other place to be, or they just love our little Tristan. :)

Yes, he does live in these shorts. He took a quick nap when we got there and then he was ready to party!

The Entertainment

Since the party was moved from the beach, we had to quickly come up with some fun entertainment while at the park.

Shiloh and Haley impressed us with their juggling act.

We filled up our leftover balloons with water and launched them with our towels. I take water balloon volleyball very seriously.

Tristan got a hold of one of the water balloons.

Be careful Tristan.

Oh no, danger.

pop.

The Cake

He used his thumb as a spoon.

He LOVED it!

Happy Birthday sweet Tristan.

honolulu zoo

We finally got our family zoo pass, for the unbelievable price of $25 for 2 adults and up to 6 kids for the whole year. Pretty unreal. And it's a nice zoo too. Really green, and some of the habitats are pretty cool. Tristan seemed to enjoy the zoo this time around. I went with him when he was about 5 months old or so and he didn't seem to notice much. :)

Dad and T-bone. It actually turned out to be a really warm day, so those jeans and shoes didn't last too long.

T giving off energy into the Orangutan habitat.

He prefers to push his stroller, rather than be pushed.

Turtle sunbathing.

"Where are all the monkeys??"

As you can see, we would rather take pictures of our little monkey, than the zoo animals. He's so much cuter.

music highlight - Carla Bruni

One of my new favorite artists right now, Carla Bruni. She is a French singer with a beautiful voice. On top of that, she is absolutely gorgeous. You may recognize her song below from "500 Days of Summer", which we just watched last night. :) I wish I spoke French to know what she is singing about but it's pretty.

where's Tristan?

Tristan loves to hide in our linen closet, and it's really cute when he doesn't think that I can see his little hand or foot hanging out, or hear him cracking up behind the door when I say, "where's Tristan?". Kids are too cute.

so close.

He's got the stance down.

And his confidence (In the sand).

He'll be walking in no time.

I'm definitely in no rush for this boy to start walking. Please take your time T bone.

babybystevie.etsy.com

Does anyone else have a hard time finding infant/toddler ties for boys? My good friend Steph makes these adorable ties and sells them on her etsy site. There are so many cute and original ties to choose from. Go visit her site and shop away!

picture of the week

I can't help but take pictures of this little face. He is becoming a natural in front of the camera.

11 months

Our little one is no longer a baby, he's turning into a little boy! So much has changed this last month. I've realized that having an 11 month old is a lot easier in many ways, and a lot harder in many ways, if that makes sense. It's easier going to the beach with him because we can just let him loose, I don't have to hide out under the umbrella the whole time holding him. It's easier going to the grocery store with him because he can sit in the shopping cart and I don't have to worry about lugging him around in the car seat or carrying him on my hip while I shop. He can now entertain himself for longer periods of time. He can be put down to bed and comforted by his dad, I'm not the only one. He really is turning into a sweetheart, more cuddles and kisses.

Tristan enjoying some popcorn packaging.

More Dad and T time. Taken at the beach this last Saturday.

On the other hand, this boy is wild!!! He wears us out. For some reason he now thinks that the word 'NO!' is hilarious. Very disobedient. He gets into everything! On most days, it looks like our house has been broken into. All drawers and cabinets are emptied and thrown all over the floor. I have learned to just wait until the end of the day to pick it all up. He is still freakishly strong which has become more of a headache for us. His teething guard on his crib gets ripped off daily, we now have to figure out another method of blocking him from chewing up his crib and eating the paint. The child proof outlet plugs are now pulled out of the walls and have become toys, along with the outlets themselves. He knows how to get out of his car seat now! This is an advantage he has for being small. He can wiggle his way out and then unbuckle his straps. What in the world?? Our stroller is useless now. He does the same thing. 5 minutes into the ride he is standing up, tight straps and all. Tristan hasn't started walking yet (he is close), and I'm in no rush for him to start. I'm scared.

He's secretly really smart and knows what he's doing. "What can I do to make mommy really mad today?".

"I want to destroy things".

Tristan quietly contemplates his next move "What can my next plan of action be? It's perfect, Daddy's in the water, but I don't have much time."

"I got it! Attack mom and destroy her sunglasses while her eyes are closed."

This picture is deceiving. It was actually one of our bad days and I think I may have had tears running down my face while this picture was taken. It was on a Sunday and he was cr-aaaazy. He didn't nap all day, he would cry in his crib for hours. Being sleep deprived, he was fussy and mean. By 5:00pm, Christian and I had had it and took him to the park down the street, just to get him out. I was in a bad mood and was trying to enjoy myself. All of a sudden, I got hit in the back of my neck with a hard baseball. Seriously, it was perfect timing. What better way to end my day. Those tears I was holding back came flooding out. My neck and back were sore from the ball for a few days.

Aside from all of the craziness, Tristan has brought more joy to our lives than we have ever imagined. He is such a happy baby and so high on life. We have more good days than bad but I want to make sure that I document all of the rough times too, so one day he can look back at this and see what he put his mom and dad through.

I have been more motivated to keep our blog constantly updated as our personal journal, to be published in a book for us every year. (After seeing Alisa do just that with her blog, it turned out really cute.). So I am going to try my best to document our lives more, without revealing too much, here on our blog. (When I can find free time!)

Happy 11 Months (tomorrow)!

silly faces of a 10 month old

baggers

Before we had Tristan, we used to come to this beach near the North Shore, a surf spot known as Baggers. We always talked about how perfect this beach was for kids, very family friendly. You kind of get the beach to yourself, it's rare when anyone else is out. There is a fun tide pool area for kids to swim in, blocked by a reef wall. The reef rock is super soft for kids to walk around on too! Plus, dad gets to surf right out in front of us. So everyone is happy. :)

Tristan gets lubed up with sunscreen.

He makes his way to the water.

His clothes get drenched.

Tristan's gone commando.

Free at last.

Digging with dad.

We are starting to realize how much this boy loves the beach. He could play in the water all day, even when his lips turn blue (which they were!).