“The hardest job in the world, is the best job in the world.”

Thanks to my buddy http://www.heatherlcollins.com/ for passing along!

This Moment- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- 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.

I’ve started keeping a journal of “What I love about right now”. Since I’ve been off the grid for a while I think sharing these little snippets will give you a pretty good insight into what we’ve been up to lately. I’ll include a few photos here and there and then we’ll call ourselves caught up and carry on!

What I love about right now…

1/27/2012

Watching my little man become enraptured in Tahitian music. Performed By aunties and uncles in celebration of a beach boy’s birthday, Harper just couldn’t resist. I love how the pull of curiosity brings him closer and closer to the beating drums and strumming guitars. When the music takes over, he dances. Just like that, no shame, no inhibitions, he just lets go and dances to the music!
I wish I could be as free as he is in moments like this.

2/8/2012

Patient, talented and a willing hubby. As I write this he is “re-doing” my Picnic and Park Day flashcards because I have to have them just right! As I sit back and dictate my dream cards and why I have to have them exactly this way he just sighs and turns back to the computer to get started. Papa knows he isn’t going to win this battle and lovingly stays up late to lend his talents to my Keiki and Me cause…what a good man and what a lucky wifey I am!

3/1/2012 Boys who spoil their mama! Ryan and Harper brought home flowers, chocolate chip cookies and papa cut his hair and shaved his beard! I’m a lucky one.

3/4/2012

3/13/2012
Reading quietly on the bed while Harper drinks his milk and having hubby snuggle in and join us.
Loving our new “art” that decorates our condo. We used to spend big bucks on decor but now we have the most priceless masterpieces covering our walls!
  
3/26/2012
3 grown ups shaking their Tahitian Hula hips to a blurry YouTube channel while one silly little boy looks on, crooked toothy grin and all!
4/9/2012
Knowing that even when I lose my temper and make mistakes, harsh responses out of anger and frustration, Harper still loves me, trusts me and knows that I love him. I am amazed at how whole heartedly he can love and forgive and move on and I wish I could be more like him in that way.

Aloha friends!

I’m sure you’ve noticed a lack of updates lately and unfortunately this is because the server mamasurfs is hosted on has been hacked. To be totally honest I don’t really know what that means other than a bunch of broken links, images that won’t load and the risk that the pages of mamasurfs have been loaded with a virus!

I hope this is not the case and that none of you have experienced these issues! Hubby is working hard to switch mamasurfs over to a more secure web server and we should be up and running within a few days. I’m so anxious to fill you in on the details of Harper’s 1st birthday party and all the fun we have been having with our big 1 year old!

Thanks for hanging in there while we deal with all this tech garbage!

Happy Birthday little man!

On this exact day one year ago I got a phone call from my doctor. I expected her to reassure me that the tests we had done the previous day showed everything was free and clear, no need to worry just sit tight and wait for baby to make his move.

Unfortunately the call went completely the opposite direction. Low fluids. High blood pressure. Low platelet count. High liver enzymes. Emergency induction. Come NOW!

Being the over planner that I am there was no need to scramble and pack our bags, that had been done WEEKS ago and was already in the car. Instead hubby and I made a few phone calls to reassure us we were doing the right thing, took a nice long shower, some final belly pics and headed out.

Hawaii was anything but sunny and gorgeous this day. We battled high winds as we wound ourselves up the Pali Hwy, dodging fallen tree branches and turning the wipers on full blast. I listened to my ipod, a mix of Kalai (hawaiian acoustic that you must check out) and some instrumental that I’ve loved and always relied on to keep me calm.

Driving to the hospital, knowing that we would soon meet our baby was a surreal feeling. This drive was completely different from how I imagined it, no gripping the arm rests during contractions, no deep breathing or worries of “will we make it”. Instead there was a mix bag of anticipation, excitement, worry and even a little doubt…am I doing the right thing?

In my mind an induction was a straight ticket to epidural. I was determined to keep this pregnancy and delivery as natural as possible and starting things off with an IV hook up was not what I had in mind. What I didn’t realize then was that this was just the start of my parenting journey and things not going as I had expected.

What I learned then and have continued to learn over the past year is that although things might not go as I had planned, if open to it, there is the chance for things to be even better than what I may have expected. There is a kind of freedom in the unexpected and the opportunity to really see what we’re made of. When things dip into unchartered waters we are challenged to dig deep, muster up all that is within us and look to the love and support of those around us to help us the rest of the way.

January 12th, 2011 went down just like that.

What happened in that delivery room was pure magic. Never have I felt more connected, confident, proud, capable or full of love. I saw myself in an entirely new light, realized how perfectly matched and lucky hubby and I are, responding to one another (more like him responding to me) with such ease and intuition knowing exactly what I needed and how I needed it.

My thoughts were filled with imagery artists can only dream of creating. I saw the beauty of nature, the kind that makes you realize there is undoubtedly some kind of God out there, gifting us with sweet breathes of fresh air, the kind you get when standing on a mountain top overlooking a field of wildflowers after a light and refreshing rain. The good kind. The pure kind. That natural high on life kind of imagery that takes your breathe away and your mind to secret places full of wonder.

I birthed naturally in this peace for a timeless 15 hours…but whose counting? I experienced a kind of time warp and honestly couldn’t have told you if 5 minutes or 5 hours had passed. In the end a beautiful, healthy 7lb 11 ounce little boy was born and tomorrow he turns 1!!!!

I am so proud to announce that Keiki and Me is ALIVE!!!

  

Please help a sista’ out by “liking” Keiki and Me on facebook and check out the website.

Also, if you’re in the Honolulu area I’d love to meet you and have you join me for our very first Zoo Walk (details on website)!

This Moment- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- 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.

Yes, we’re still alive and most of the sickness has worked it’s way out! We’ve been laying low the past few days (weeks!) and hunkering down at grandma’s house recuperating with lazy afternoon hot tub sessions and evening bike rides.

Life is rough.

I’ve been slacking on the blog front MAJORLY but promise to do better!

We have lots of excitement coming up starting with Harper’s 1st birthday, both sets of grandparents coming into town in addition to uncles and aunties, a circus themed birthday party and to top it all off mommy is in the process of launching her very own business!

Keiki and Me (website in the works) will be coming to families on Oahu very very soon offering Baby Sign Language classes, zoo field trips and eventually expanding into teaching Infant CPR/First Aid and eventually eventually offering hypnobirthing support. I’m very excited, a lot nervous and mostly anxious to get things underway. Stay tuned….

And in other news, I came across this article today and thought it was so very accurate and important to pass along to other first time mamas out there AND speaking of first time mamas, CONGRATULATIONS to mamasurfs reader Heather Collins over at www.heatherlcollins.com on the birth of her baby Mr. Lucas George Collins!

Too much goodness to put into words and not enough time. In short, Christmas was blissful other than the fact that both mama and the little one came down with a cold. We are still battling the ickies and have now passed our bug onto papa. We’re a sickly bunch but have enough warm Christmas memories and photos to carry us into 2012 (most certainly happy and hopefully by midnight healthy as well)!

Thank you to everyone near and far for making our Christmas season so magical. Your e-mails, letters, cards, skype chats, gifts and love filled our hearts and our home with the love of the season and we are so grateful for you all!

Let the photo dumping begin!