Uriah turns 1!...and then Uriah turns 14 months! (oops!)

I can't believe that Uriah is over 1 year old! And from the time I meant to do this blog, MORE time has passed and now Uriah is 14 months! I need to finish this entry already or the next thing I know, he'll be 18!

For Uriah's birthday, we kept it very low-key. Rob and I went to check out an Amish market (sidenote: it's AMAZING!!), and Uriah got a taste of some fresh churned ice cream! After that, we took Uriah to our condo's pool. He absolutely LOVES the water and is a total water baby.

We wanted to do a photo shoot for Uriah's 1st birthday, and decided to do a "cake smash." My friend Des (from high school, who happens to live literally 5 minutes down the road from us here!) is a photographer, and did Uriah's cake smash photos for us. He was very tentative with the cake, but the photos came out SO awesome! I'll post more once we get the retouched photos back!

 

At Uriah's 1 year appointment, here were his stats:

-Weight 19.14 oz.
-Height 30 3/4 in.

As per usual, he is on the lean side of the scale, but we are OK with that! He's a really good eater, and still continuing to grow at each appointment. 

He now has 7 teeth INCLUDING a set of molars on the bottom! Honestly, he may have even more at this point but it's hard to really get a look in there! We tried to take him to the dentist recently after he turned 1. I thought it would be good for us to have a dentist take a look and make sure that his teeth look good. Since he loves brushing his teeth, I thought Uriah would do well. 
I thought wrong.
He HATED it! It all started when they seated him next to this huge ceramic (and apparently menacing) bear, and he started crying. I knew then that it was going to be bad. The dentist ended up not doing much (I think they put fluoride on Uriah's teeth) since he was not happy. Rob and I decided we won't take Uriah back to the dentist for awhile so that we don't scar him for life!

Uriah's typical breakfast consists of TWO eggs scrambled in olive oil and a handful of spinach. He loves this breakfast! I'm glad that he loves spinach, too! He has gotten a lot better about eating most fruit (sliced grapes, apples, bananas, melons), and prefers fresh vegetables (cooked) to canned! He eats brown rice, and loves cheese as well as cottage cheese. The only thing he still regularly rejects is meat. We've only tried to give him ground turkey/hamburger and chicken so far, and it's really hit or miss as to whether he will be receptive or not. Mostly, it's not. I'm sure just like other foods, the texture and flavor of meat will take some getting used to! 

Uriah started walking at 12 months! That was such a cool, huge landmark to witness! AAAAAAAND then we got over it. LOL! Now that he's walking, he is loving his newfound height and expanded vantage points, and has since decided no toy will ever compare to the myriad fun that lies await in my kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, drawers, etc! Some of his ABSOLUTE favorite daily "toys" are my musubi maker, ladle, whisk, measuring cups, and potato masher. These MUST be played with at least 3 times every day. 

The following conversation is the conversation I reasonably expect is going on in Uriah's head, every time he heads to the kitchen drawers.

Uriah: Can the ladle fit in the musubi maker?! Lemme see!!!!  
Hmmm. No.
I'm surprised. 
I could've sworn it was going to fit. Oh well! Lemme just chomp on this potato masher real quick to make sure it's sturdy. Yup! My purpose here has been served. 
*discards now useless kitchen utensils*

--2 hours later--

Uriah: You know what? What about NOW?! I bet the ladle will fit in the musubi maker NOW! 
Hmmm...still no, huh? 
OK, maybe I'll just stick this measuring cup in here instead. 
JUST as fun.

--1 hour later--

Uriah: OK there is no way this ladle is not fitting in this musubi maker; obviously I was doing it wrong before.
See, now if I DO IT THIS WAY....are you kidding me?!
geez this thing is complicated. 
Forget it. I guess I'll just go unload the tupperware drawer now.

Which brings me to my next point: HE LOVES my tupperware drawer! Not so interested in banging pots and pans, but he LOVES my tupperware! Favorite pastimes include pulling out all of the tupperware, biting the tupperware, and trying to put lids on the tupperware. I HAVE noticed that (to my amazement) his brain understands differences in size, and while he still hasn't quite mastered the right lids for certain containers, he will usually grab a lid that is more or less the correct size (example: a very small lid for a very small container). I'm fascinating at seeing his problem solving skills at work!

Other skills/landmarks:
-waves bye
-says yeah, go, stop, set (ready set go), ok (otay), dada. and "oooooohhhhh." 
-sings along to some of his favorite songs: 
1 little finger
wheels on the bus
twinkle twinkle

One of the biggest recent transitions we've made is Uriah has finally moved into his own room! Hooray! We've been so busy with company, and trips that we've only been able to move him out this week (14 months), but it's been a smooth transition! It's definitely better for us, and he seems to be sleeping better in the other room, too (fingers crossed I didn't just jinx myself)

I know I've mentioned before how paradoxical time can be; on one hand, it seems like time has flown by, yet on the other, my non-Mom days literally feel like a lifetime ago. And I guess it was, really.

So much of my life has changed since becoming a Mom. I feel like I have "grown-up" a lot, both physically (as manifested by some new wrinkles, droopier and softer body parts, and this new trendy filter called "tired" I've been sporting daily) as well as mentally. I have learned greater patience, love, and a deeper level of joy and happiness than I have never previously known. Being a mother has also made me acutely aware of my own glaring faults (at least Uriah's still too young to point them out for me :P), but it has also made me determined to tackle these faults and hopefully turn them into strengths at a later point down the road.  I love my family and am so glad that we are all in this crazy life together <3

Odenton Visitor's Bureau

We have been blessed to have had so many visitors come out to see us in the time that we have been in Maryland! Our niece, Destiny, flew down from Michigan to stay with us for a little less than a week. It was so nice having her here!

For me, it was a chance to really get to spend time with Destiny and get to know her better. Whenever we have gone home to Michigan, it's usually been for a big holiday and while it's always a blast, there are so many people to mingle with that one-on-one time is a rarity! It was nice to be able to just hang out and talk story. We spent time going on a few walks, playing with Uriah, cooking (and eating!), getting our nails done, and going to the gym! It was awesome girl time, and Uriah did really well with her! We also were able to go down to the Baltimore Harbor where Destiny tried her FIRST raw oyster! She was a good sport, but it was her first and last oyster. (they were super delicious!)

We are already looking forward to her next visit :)

Our NEXT visitor was TAHANI! 

She came out for a few days because Shani was coming here for training in Virginia. Tahani came all the way from San Diego to spend Sunday with Shani, then drove to Odenton to spend some quality time with me until Wednesday night! It was SUCH a pleasant surprise; she on a whim had decided this just a few days before! I was so glad that our schedules were open and worked out! Now, what did we do? A lot of RELAXING!!! Since Tahani has moved to San Diego, her visits home have always been so busy, as she has so many people to see and things to do in such a short amount of time. We typically only got one dinner group date together, so it had been so long since we really got a chance to just BE and enjoy one another's company. We took it back  to the old days, and sat around and talked, ate, and watched some TV together. It was SUCH a good time, and was very renewing for our friendship. Don't get me wrong - we did take time out of our much ado about nothing schedules to enjoy some grinds!

Shani's training in Virginia happened to finish on her birthday, but there were no flights out to Hawaii that day. Rob and I drove out to Shani (it was maybe an hour half drive - not bad at all!) because:

1. Who wants to spend their birthday alone, in a random state?!
and 
2. IT'S SHANI!!!!! In close proximity!!

We picked her up and got to eat dinner together. The food was SO YUMMY! we had lobster poutine fries, oysters, and crab cakes! It was good food, and good company - just how I like it.

Rob's fave flavor - superman!
Now Uriah's favorite flavor, too. LOL

We are so fortunate to have friends and family willing to come visit us! We definitely appreciate it, and feel the love! 
  

Braddah Kimo and Aunty Normal take MD/DC!

In the beginning of May, Mom and Dad were able to come up for a few days to visit. It was pretty hard to coordinate their work/church/grandma/grandpa schedules, so they were only able to visit for 5 days (HNL-NY, where Hawaiian flies, is a 10 hour direct flight, then they had to drive about 4 hours to get to us in MD). Even still, we were grateful that they were able to come up, and had such a nice time! Mom and Dad got the only two standby seats on the flight to NY! This trip obviously was so meant to happen!

One thing that was enjoyable while my parents were here was that since they were both out of state, they had no other obligations or responsibilities to run off to. My parents are some of the most hard-working and busy people I know! It was nice to force them to unplug from all of that and really just spend some quality time with us :) It was also good for Uriah to get some one-on-one time with Grandma and Grandpa, particularly since it'd been a few months since they last saw him. 

We were able to maximize our time by spending our time sightseeing in D.C., organizing the house, and of course EATING! (It would not be a Kimokeo trip without the eating part!) I'm actually amazed at how much we were able to accomplish in the short amount of time! 

The first day was a half day due to the travel time, so we relaxed, went on a little walk to show Mom and Dad where we live, and ate dinner at Olive Garden. 

The second day, we went down to D.C. and were able to see the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial site, as well as the Holocaust Museum. The grounds of the Martin Luther King, Jr. site were beautiful, and peaceful. There was a wall that went through some of his most famous quote through the years, given at various sermons or gatherings. He was a brilliant man who did great things for humanity. His words still ring true and profound today.

The walk to the Holocaust museum was long, but so worth it. Parking in D.C. is CRAZY, and we lucked out and were able to secure a free parking spot along a curb (when Kelli and I went, it was $26.00 for one structure that we we were there for a few hours) so we just decided to walk. The Holocaust Museum was very sobering, as expected. I didn't quite get to explore the museum as much as I would like, as Uriah was starting to get fussy at that point. Even so, I was still able to see a lot, and feel the somberness of the space. There were two holocaust survivors who were scheduled to speak to a later group, and Mom and Dad were able to meet them. The one woman on the left of the photo really took to Uriah, and explained that she  has great-grandchildren, but that they live very far away. It was clear that she missed them. 

The following day, we had a productive day at home. Mom helped clear out our spare room that we had essentially been using as storage. We went from a place that had much more storage space in Hawaii, so downsizing has been hard for us! Our biggest problem is that we just never can seem to find the time to set aside for that type of project because:

1. we have an active, dictator/tyrannical baby
2. Who WANTS to do that stuff in free time?

She cleared out and made so much room and organized it so that our guests can actually sleep in there now! My mom was like a major home organization fairy that graced every room with her homemaking pixie dust. The bathroom got organized, the kitchen got organized, she forced me to go through bags of baby clothes boxes, and DVDs, and other types of terrible ghastly things. I AM SO GLAD SHE DID! While we still do have some work to do, the work is much less daunting and not overwhelming. She was such a huge help! 

We did another D.C. day the following day. D.C. has so much to offer in terms of sightseeing. Since my parents were on a limited time schedule, they chose what they would most like to see. We went to the Lincoln Memorial, as well as the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The museum was so interesting, and HUGE! It's the kind of place you could literally spend all day in - if you didn't have a little baby that gets bored after awhile. We were able to see everything we wanted to, though, and had a very successful day!

Uriah's first time on the grass. He was not a fan.

It wouldn't be a Kimokeo trip without some major GRINDS! We took Mom and Dad to Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse (Dad's favorite - the honey butter and dinner rolls are amazing!), Rita's Frozen Custard, and the grand finale - Fat Boy's Crab Shack! We got the hot crab dip (our favorite) and we all shared a dozen medium Maryland Blue Crabs. It was so fun! It was messy, and we were somewhat clumsy, but it was amazing!!

Dozen Maryland Blue Crabs

Broiled Crab Cakes

Despite all that grinding, me and Dad were able to get in a workout together! My Planet Fitness membership allows me to bring any guest that I want, so me, Dad and Rob all got a workout in! It was really fun!

It was so great having Mom and Dad here! It's crazy how home doesn't have to be the physical house you grew up in, or even the same state; we can find "home" in the familiar. Mom and Dad brought "home" to me :) Looking forward to going HOME home next month for REAL, though!

KJP in da HOUSE! Another visitor = fun, fun, fun!

Things have been happily busy for us here, as we have had a steady stream of company since April! Kellijoy Perriton made a spontaneous decision to visit since she had a few days off! (She works as a flight attendant) She came down for three days, and we were able to do two days in D.C., as well as to enjoy some YUMMY crab, of course! We went to the white house, Lincoln Memorial, WWII memorial, and Vietnam memorial.  Day 2 we went to the Air and Space Museum, and the museum of natural history. We had a blast! (photos detailing blast below)

I was so excited to see Kelli; Kelli and I were on the same softball team in 4th grade, and then ran into each other all the time in high school at church functions since we were both in the Kaneohe stake. I haven't seen Kelli in years, so it was so nice to be able to meet up again, just talk story, enjoy ono food, and explore!

yes.
That is a bee that flew that close to my nose, unbeNOSEst to me. lol

 

 

pilot control center

 

 

 

 

I don't remember why we were doing this,
but it was really funny at the time. National high five day..? lol

 
 

 

  

I thought this would be fun. I was wrong.