There was a lot of loving going on at the zoo today my friends. Sure I threw some flirty glances hubbies way and Harper and I definitely snuck in some kisses but this isn’t the kind of loving I’m talking about. I’m talking lovin the kind of lovin that makes you say that word in a deep drawn out kind of way. These animals were getting down, getting down and dirty!

Whoo hoo this little zoo trip just went from cutesy family time to full on “bow- chicka- bow- wow” real quick. It started off slow, real sweet and innocent. A pair of pond turtles making a little kissy – kissy at one another. Aww how cute they’re in love…

Do you see all those monkeys headed towards us? Like literally right up to where we were. Since when do monkeys and zoo animals actually care about what is going on outside their cage?

These photos are actually better in sequence because you can see the monkeys are chilaxin in the background doing there monkey thing and then heading towards us as they realize their little monkey buddy is somehow on the outside.

Here I am all, “Wow Harper you are the cutest little monkey ever”…

And then, “Holy Shit they are after him!!”

Ahh safe in my arms and still the cutest little monkey ever.

We did manage to get some pretty freaking cute pictures and then just as we were leaving one of the angry monkeys took a hand full of rocks and lobbed them over the 15 foot glass wall. Seriously they were after him and pissed off. Don’t piss off a monkey. Lesson learned. Don’t take your baby dressed as a monkey to a monkey exhibit…not a good idea. Lesson learned.

So anyway. Thank you mom and dad for the most wonderful gift. Hubby had a fantastic 28th (gasp!) birthday and we will never forget our first trip as a family to the zoo.

Happy Birthday baby!

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That’s right we’re talking about the twins again today. Old righty and lefty have still been causing Harper and I some trouble and I swear on my life if I had a mere penny for every minute I have spent hooked up to the pump I would be frigg’n rich. I’ve spent so much time on that stupid thing that I’ve seriously started hearing it form words. Last night the hum-drum of the motor said, “let down-let down-let down” and then this morning I heard, “crazy-crazy-crazy”…seriously I’ve been spending way too much time hooked up to this thing and have been contemplating just giving up breastfeeding all together.

But (you knew there was a but coming didn’t you?) I’m not one to give in. When I set my mind to something I will damn well accomplish it. Just when all hope seems lost I slap myself silly, remind myself of how perfect breast milk is for Mr.Man and recommit myself to getting him this liquid gold one way or another and plug in for one more round of crazy-crazy-crazy.

And it is crazy. It’s crazy to me that 11 weeks into this thing I am still struggling and I mean struggling! I thought we were over the hump when Harper was diagnosed with the tongue tie and had it clipped but then we struggled with re-learning how to latch and trying to convince him that my boobs are better than a bottle…swear Harper you should give us a chance.

He would latch on, give a nice big suck and then pull off as if offended. To top off the rejection he would literally shake his head from side to side as if saying nooo way, ut-uh I’m not doing it mama. I would try and try and try to get him to latch on again and the cycle just continued until he turned beet red and turned from sweet easy baby to the Hulk himself. It’s straight up exorcist scary you guys.

Defeated I would call papa in for back up and to the rescue he came bottle in hand. Not only was Harper straight up rejecting my hopes of nursing but I felt rejected too. Watching him make googly eyes at his papa was sweet but ughh feeding is supposed to be mama and baby bonding time. I’m the one sitting for days hooked up to a stupid pump and papa gets all the reward. That is some jacked up shizz if you ask me!

So feeling like my determination for this whole breastfeeding thing was quickly dwindling down I decided to try one last desperate measure to improve things. Ever heard of Japanese breast massage? Yeah…I know it sounds pretty funky but like I said I was desperate. I signed up for a two hour appointment with the ONLY Internationally Certified Lactation Consultant and breast massager in the entire chain of Hawaiian Islands and pretty much forked over my entire maternity leave paycheck for what turned out to be the most horrendous form of torture and what may also have been the miracle I was hoping for.

So yeah the “massage” was no trip to the spa. It was more like what I imagine bread making would be like. Lots of kneading, twisting, wringing out, flattening, pulling, twisting…you name it and it happened to my boobs. The experience was easily the most painful thing I have ever done in my entire life and was just so entirely wacky.

Picture me lying on a table, boobs up with the sweetest Japanese woman (with a british accent mind you) milking my breasts. If ever there was a time to feel like a cow it was pretty much now. You can greet my with moo from now on.

Milk was shooting everywhere. I swear to you it hit the ceiling and came back down. I literally went through 4 towels soaked in milk and both of us left the room dripping. She seriously had my milk dripping from her bangs…umm yeah awkward.

First of all this women has a pretty crazy job if you ask me. I wonder if she hears, “crazy-crazy-crazy” going through her head as she yanks, pulls and “opens up the ducts”. As wild as the experience was I learned so much about the evil twins and have such a better understanding of why Harper and I were struggling so much.

It goes something like this. When you’re pregnant your body makes a bunch of hormones that begin to make milk. When your baby sucks at the breast another hormone kicks in to release the milk and this removal of milk stimulates the production of more. See here is where we get a little mixed up. Harper was sucking but because of his tongue issue he wasn’t removing. But…another but here…because he was sucking my body was getting the message to make more milk but it had nowhere to go. Hence the two hour torture session of unplugging and removing old milk so that my body could make some fresh stuff and Harper could actually get somewhere since the passages were no longer clogged.

In short I had some crusty, dried up rank old milk that was blocking the good milk I was producing from getting to my hungry little baby. Because he was sucking and not actually getting anything..not because of his tongue but now because of the clogs he was wiggn’ out like the Hulk and of course preferring the bottle.

I had the massage on Friday and since then Harper has had a total of 4 bottles and more so because I’m so used to and paranoid that he isn’t going to get enough milk and less of him acting hungry. It is absolutely amazing the difference i see in our nursing time. What was once a struggle to get him to simply latch is an easy process of put boob in the general area and watch him go to town. I’ve been watching friends nurse their babies hands free for weeks now and dreaming of the day that this might happen for us and ladies and gentlemen (seriously are there any dudes out there?) we have arrived.

Not only does Harper chow like a maniac but I walked around the zoo today with this little guzzler latched on and feasting away. What once was day old stale taquitos from the quickie mart is now a full on cruise ship style buffet and the little man is loving life. Let’s just cross our fingers that things continue on this path and to make damn sure that it does I am headed back to the torture chamber this Friday for a one hour follow up session.

Not only has Naoko, my miracle massager/torturer given me the gift of nourishing my sweet babe but I finally feel like we are getting that special bonding that I so desperately craved. Just tonight Harper was beginning to fuss and he was soothed, comforted by suckling away. I literally had tears in my eyes because this was it…this what was I had been so determined to have and it is here. Whether we continue on this path of everything working perfectly or not I feel so deeply and profoundly fulfilled just cherishing this beautiful, harmonious exchange.

With each suck and swallow I felt my heart pouring into my little mans soul and felt that deep sigh of ahh…this was so worth it. So worth it.

***If you happen to be on Oahu and are having breastfeeding issues shoot me and e-mail and I will get you Naoko’s contact information.***

This Moment — a Friday ritual. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

This guy is getting silly you guys!

I’ve found a new hiking buddy and the best part is he never complains. I mean really why would he? He gets carried up, can snack on the way and gets to enjoy beautiful fews all from the comfort of his cozy Baby Nest carrier. Harper’s favorite part of hiking is feeling the wind on his face. This kid loves the wind, a natural born sailor I think. It seems to calm him down, put him to sleep and even acts as a reset button during fussy times…ah thank you mother nature!

Of course Harper’s first hike would be up to the Makapu’u lighthouse. It’s a perfect stroll for this mama, a balance of nice paved path with the challenge of a steep incline and beating sun. Of course the view never lets me down and the several whales I spotted (even breaching ones this time) are a sweet reward for all the hard work.

Join us on our hike?

        

And of course after all that hard work you have to reward yourself with some sweet treats!

Exciting things are happening around these parts – - messy, loud, expensive but very exciting things! We are in the middle of extending our living space by enclosing our lanai. We’ve thought about enclosing our lanai for some time and dreamed about how nice it would be to move hubbies cramped office space (that resides in the corner of our living room) out into his own area. Hubby dreams of an office with a real door and a real desk and maybe even a working chair but we’ve never really moved past the dreaming stage.

As Harper has joined our family it has become even more apparent that our dream needs to become a reality sooner than later…like yesterday would have been good or maybe 12 months ago when we found out I was expecting. We love love love our condo and the location but with 10+ surfboards, an in home office, and a new baby we are sadly and quickly outgrowing our space!

So here we are living amongst two by fours, steel framing stuff (I know a lot about building), saws and chipped tile working our way towards an extra 120 square feet of breathing room. The challenge we are up against is that our building plans are limited as to what other owners in our condo have previously done. The structure, materials and appearance of our enclosure has to look exactly like everyone else’s unit and unfortunately these plans were drawn up about a hundred years ago. No one has even attempted an enclosure in over 10 years and the measurements and plans are about as far off as they can be.

Once again being married to a brainiac and do it yourself kind of guy is really paying off. Hubby has poured over the plans and made his own blueprint and measurements and the process is underway. Our first obstacle was trying to carry all of the drywall and metal framing and steel studs up four flights of stairs. We quickly found out that this was actually impossible and had to come up with plan B.

This is what Plan B looks like:

Do you ever catch yourself dreaming of what your perfect day would be like? I lived mine this past weekend and it looks a little something like this:

Yes, that’s us having a picnic out to sea on our kayak with Harper safely stored in his cradle (the dry bin). We try to sneak a little adventure in wherever we can and the fun factor almost always boosts to a new level when uncle Jeff and auntie Kelly are in town.

This past weekend we decided to have a most fabulous adventure day. We set off in double kayaks with surf boards, a stand up paddle and a cooler full of treats in tow and made our way out to our new favorite break. We traded off baby time with water time and ended the afternoon with a perfect little picnic and beers before heading back to a warm hot tub, a blazing sunset and a perfectly warm outdoor shower. Ahhh this is the life!

Our fleet of water fun:

This is how Harper enjoys our kayaking:

A bright umbrella provides some fun to look at and much needed shade for this pale little guy:

One more tsunami post and then I swear I will move on to more exciting and not so depressing topics such as being pooped on for the third day in a row and babies celebrating St. Patrick’s day with whiskey and Irish car bombs- – I pinky promise

I posted back in early January that our dream of moving our boat to the Ala Wai harbor had finally come true and after last weeks tsunami we realized how truly blessed we are that our names got called on the waiting list for a slip. Before our move to the Ala Wai we were keeping our boat at La Mariana Harbor.

La Mariana’s is an adorable and authentic Tiki Bar, one of the last true Tiki Bar’s remaining in the Hawaiian Islands. We loved the atmosphere of this place and our boat neighbors were the friendliest, most encouraging and helpful buddies we could ask for. The docks however were very old, damaged and for the most part sinking.

While we were docked at La Mariana’s we witnessed the beginning of a dock overhaul project. We were even lucky enough to score a slip on the first dock to be replaced. After the tsunami we and La Mariana realized just how necessary these new docks really are because this is what happened to the rest of them: