My Growing Kids

Hanalei...Two Years, Two Months

Loves:

My iphone

movies

swimming with mom

playing in the sand

looking for crabs and snails

talking on the phone, She will say, "Can you hear me?"

books...favorite at the moment Queen of Hearts a valentines day book

singing...favorite is Wheels on the Bus

cupcakes and gum, she asks for them constantly even when there are no cupcakes to be seen

counting things

I think her favorite color is purple because she always is drawn towards it. If their is a choice of colored cups or spoons or shoes, she wants the purple ones.

Hanalei Loves "Clay-Doh" as she calls it.

Granny got here this play-doh kit for her birthday and she can't get enough.

She loves to poke it with tooth picks and cut it with the spatula

A trip to the waikele outlets. There are more of these rides here

than anywhere in the world... okay I'm assuming, but there are a lot!

What's this you ask? Potty training?

We have given it a try a time or two.

We have been successful once while playing outside.

You can guess what's in the bowl...fine I'll tell you. #2

We found this little guy in our house. Hanalei said, "Little 'C'"

She knows her letters A-Z and is now learning their sounds.

She is one smart cookie!

Waimea...Three Months

At his two month (closer to 2 1/2) apt

he weighed in at 13 lbs 5 oz

He is sleeping better at night. He gets real cranky in the evening but thank goodness he takes a binky. He loves to sit up or stand up while I hold his hands. Then he gives you some adorable smiles and if your lucky, a few coos.

Waimea as you can see is getting

bigger and more adorable every day

While Hanalei played outside on the playground,

Waimea decided to take a nap in the baby swing.

Murry our kitty is always with us. He is like a guard cat.

When we go on walks he is waiting at the end of our drive for us to return.

He slept a long time...Heaven
How did I manage to get such a cutie pie

(teddy bear was totally forced into his arms but he had a good grip on it)

Rusty's little brother Marty is staying with us for the summer.

Waimea was Marty's first diaper change

The Kids

Hanalei fights us every night to get in the bath

but always has fun once she is in. She knows it all leads to bed time.

Waimea loves the bath. It calms the beast. He kicks and kicks.

Hanalei got kicked a few times in the bath and says "stop it please"

Can you see those cute dimples?
Her hair is getting outta control but she is reluctant to let me do it.
Her first pony tail...back to the drawing boards

Do you see how massive my boy is?

Easter

I was excited for Hanalei to really get into the

decorating portion of Easter. Rusty always does.

SHe was very excited about getting the dye everywhere

But when it came to the eggs she just wanted to eat them

Waimea was a little cranky... thank goodness for binkis

The next day we had a Easter party at our friends.

Hanalei found a piece of candy that needed to be eaten immediately

while hovering over her next victim

Bubbles are a toddler pleaser

I have some cute men in my life

Waimea found some eggs too
this is what happens when you ask Hanalei to smile. Adorable

Happy Easter!

Melts Your Heart

Every now and then your kids say something that really gets you all emotional. A couple days ago Hanalei woke up and I pulled her into bed with Waimea and I. She cuddled right in all cozy with Waimea and said, "My family". I had to take a picture to capture that moment. I love that she knows what family means. I LOVE my Family!

The Mural

So masters finished their work and had some time to play too. I am in love with this room. Hanalei loves it too. So for those of you less fortunate to never have been to Hawaii, this is depicting an actual place. This is the bay that we live by. I know, poor us! Waimea Bay and the Valley are beautiful. Our baby boy is named Waimea because of the joy that this place has brought to Rusty and I.

I love the trees blowing in the breeze.

This Church tower is somewhat of a historic landmark.

We live right next door to it.

I've put Waimea here a few times and he just looks at all the pretty colors

This ones dark sorry, lighting

How fun to sleep on the beach everyday

Anytime some one comes over she points to her favorite things:

Church, peacock, boat, waterfall, helicopter, rocks and trees. So she pretty much points out everything, cause she loves it all.

Waimea jump rock, where Rusty fell in love with me

Hanalei loves to feed the peacocks in Waimea Valley

She is obsessed with helicopters

this one is the coastguard that flies by often

looks kinda like Nemo

Often there are boats in the bay when it is calm.

THis last weekend was one of those days.

There was a boat in the bay and then one further out to sea.

She said "A little boat, and a big boat!"

Thank you so much to my mom Dee Dee and to my sister Sallie! You did awesome!

He Chunks Up Nicely

One month and eating well!

One Week

My Awesome friend Breanne, took these pictures for me. They turned out awesome! This is only a portion of the photos she took. It's crazy how much he has changed already since these were taken.

Hanalei has mixed emotions about her little brother. She loves to bring him a blanket and a binki. She says multiple times during the day, "Silly Brother" or "Silly My-may-ah" That one melts my heart. She tends to flip out when I need to nurse or hold the baby. She will say, "Grandma Hold the baby." Or who ever else is close, any one but mom hold the baby!!

Waimea is a great baby. He cries when he is hungry, or if we have been neglecting him for too long. He is generally easy going. He likes to eat often. I am anxiously awaiting the night he will sleep more than 3 hours with out needing to nurse. It's amazing us moms don't crash every time we get in the car.

He's Here!

Waimea Lincoln Rueckert

February 20, 2011

6 lbs 7 0z

20 inches

Well, it all started with a pedicure. My friends Breanne and I were pregnant together. So we could whine and complain to each other about all the fun things that happen to you. Also we could justify a much needed pedicure. We got to the salon and the man doing my feet tells me about the last pregnant lady he worked on, and how her water broke right then and there in their shop. I said to give me the same pedicure (haha). We then went shopping for an outfit to bring Waimea home in and had a great ladies day. That evening we went to our land lords 50th party and stuffed our selves full of the biggest crab legs ever and lots of spicy shrimp. So so good. That evening I was getting ready for bed with my usual discomfort at the end of the day. I started feeling a lot of tightness in the tummy. Then again, and again. We started timing my contractions. Every 1-2 min. We decided that was pretty close and better start heading to the hospital. I wanted to shower and rusty scrambled to get things ready. As we headed out the door we woke up Dave and told him we were having the baby and to listen for Hanalei.

We checked in at the hospital just before 2:00 am on Sunday morning. After a few hours I was dilated to a 5, so they said nows the time to get the epidural. It took a few tries to get it. Not fun. Eventually we were good to go and it started kicking in. A couple things happened: One my left leg was dead to the world. You could have cut the thing off and I wouldn't have felt a thing. The other result was that my contractions slowed dramatically. They finally decided to break my water. That helped. Then they started the pitocin. It was go time soon after.

The nurse checked me again and I was at a ten. She told the doctor the baby was ready and I was ready. SO as they all got ready I was just hanging out. It was so nice not to be in pain. I could actually pay attention to what was going on. I pushed with two contractions and there he was. What a miracle. Rusty and I both cried a little and I held my beautiful boy.

About ten minutes after he was born he started breathing hard and they were concerned. After giving him oxygen for about 30 min they decided he needed to be in the NICU and be hooked up to a CPAC. I was devastated. I wanted to love all over him. I wanted to nurse him. I wanted to snuggle him up in a warm blanket and just stare at him for hours. Instead I had to be wheeled to him and hold his little hand while he was hooked up to wires and tubes. I knew he was fine and would be fine but I wasn't. We didn't know how long he would be there, or if we would be able to bring him home with us. I was broken inside. I didn't want to talk to anyone about it because I just would break down.

After this initial bad news, the rest of the news was good. After a day and a half he was coming to the room with me and nursing and after a LONG checkout process from the NICU he was coming home with us.

He is beautiful. He looks so much Like Hanalei did at this point. He eats frequently day and night, so everyone is tired.

Hanalei is still adjusting to brother. The first few days were awful. If she wasn't freaking out because I was holding him, she was wanting to hold him and count his eyes. We have told her so many times not to touch his eyes that she now scolds her doll and says, "No Eyes!" She tells me when he is sad, wants to climb in the basinet with him, and constantly kissing him with her runny nose and all.

We are so blessed. I feel like life is perfect. We just have so much to be grateful for.