more beach time

A couple of weeks ago we went to a beach near Diamond Head with some friends. Tristan has taken a strong liking to the ocean. He could probably stay in the water all day if we let him, but normally when his lips start turning blue and he starts shivering, we figure it's time to take him out. Even with goose bumps and blue lips, he's still smiling and splashing in the water, as happy as can be. We are exciting for the warm Summer water to hit us in a couple of months. Not that I should complain, the water is close to 80 degrees right now on most days.

Blue lips.

Tristan's favorite thing to do after he plays and swims with his dad; snuggle up next to mom (diaper-less) and eat snacks in the warm sun.

Check out those teeth!

his phone

Tristan loves talking on his new phone that he got for his birthday. I probably shouldn't say talking, I mean yelling. Whomever he thinks is on the other end of that phone, he must not be a fan of because he's not very nice to them. I'm also pretty impressed that he knows how to use a land line phone, being that he has never seen one in his life. Only cell phones here. Well, he mostly uses the back of his head to talk into the phone, but he's getting the hang of it. It's really cute.

he's walking!

We've been a little behind with blogging. Too much has happened this past month. Tristan is no longer crawling. 100% walking! I feel like it all happened so fast. The video below took place in only two weeks. It's crazy how comfortable he became after such a short time.

Crawling to running in two weeks.

finger foods = messy boy

It's always a toss up; do I want to let him feed himself so I can get a few things done? But that means major clean-up for the floor and highchair and he will need a bath immediately after, OR do I just take the time to feed him myself (with lots of patience because he takes his time) with minor clean-up. Oy! The decisions I need to make these days.

Tristan enjoys shampooing his hair with pasta sauce.

It's messy mom, but finger foods are so much fun!

The double point.

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.