The Nature Center

Recently when Mama's friends came to town, we took them to the local nature center after a nice hike.

I got to make a little den in this tree with pillows.

They also have a great play area where there's a puppet theater.

But I made Daddy do the puppet and I wanted to be the star of the show.

Summer Activities

Hello everyone! I have been busy this summer. Recently I went to visit my Grammy and Pop Pop for Grammy's birthday. We had a lot of fun!Here I am helping Grammy open her gifts. I am a very good helper, but sometimes the envelopes can be really tricky.

ON the 4th of July I went with Daddy to see some of his friends. They went to a famous breakfast burrito place near Grammy's house.

I polished this one off.

Here I am with Auntie Simone waiting for the fireworks to begin. They went "BOOM BOOM" and "POP" and I particularly enjoyed the "purpuh" ones.

Mama joined us.

This was the view as we waited for the sun to completely set. Kinda pretty, huh?

Other recent activities include trips to the Children's Museum...

Story time with Mémé (who recently moved with Papa John to Portland!)...

Eating pizza with Uncle Colin and Auntie Beth...

And when you're with Uncle Colin, you ALWAYS have to try on his sunglasses!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What (Do You) See?

I like to "read" all by myself lately. Here's me reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear. As you can tell, I don't like help. I can do it all by "me self".

It's finally SPRING!

...and we finally have a camera again. Here is a random assortment of the past few weeks.

Since I am a big girl now, I have chores. Well, just one really. I feed our dog Sadie and I take the job very seriously.

I measure each cup just so.

...and do it every day, pants or no pants.

Also, I've now mastered the fake smile. It's really important to learn when you have as much family around as I do, especially when they all love their cameras. Evidence follows.

I was in the middle of stealing Papa John's birthday cake..."Smile, Anaya!" Here you go, folks.

I was trying to feed "pink baby" a healthy snack before her nap and what do you know, here's Mama with the camera.

Cheese!

Just relaxing with Daddy in the hammock, minding my own business when suddenly Mama needs a picture. Again.

Time to pose.


About once a week my friend Henry comes over to play. We found this great red car that when you pull it back and release it, it goes racing down the hall and usually ends in a spectacular crash into a door or baseboard. Here Henry and I stand at opposite ends of the hall.

Waiting in my volleyball stance for said car.

I rev the wheels a few times before letting it go.

Sometimes it goes really far, like under a chair.

And then there's that whole "taking turns" business. You can see how I feel about that.

But Henry's a great friend, anyway.

Our Hawaiian Vacation

Mama and Daddy have been planning a warm, tropical vacation before I turn two (and thus have to pay for a seat for me) for a while. Here are some of our recent adventures to Hawaii.

Here we are on the plane with every possible comfort item: pacifier - check (Mama's worried that I still love it so much, but she'll get over it) blanket - check, Curious George - check. He almost didn't make it. Grammy and Pop Pop gave me a BIG George (about as big as me) for Christmas and when Mama said he didn't fit in the suitcase, I balked. Thank goodness for Barnes and Noble. They had a packable version. I call him, "Hmall George". That's not a typo. The "sm" consonant blend has so far eluded me, so I use an "h" instead. I think it makes him sound more like Ahmal George, and therefore more international and operatic.

OK, so there was a sea turtle there, but he was camera shy. Anyway, here's half my head looking at the sea turtle.

Took me a while to get used to sitting on that sand. It wasn't soft and fluffy like in a sand pit. But I was so excited here to see a fish that I didn't mind.

Daddy shows me how to dig in the sand to see a crab.

I had a very close bond with my bucket and shovel this week. PS: Rocks say, "PLONK" when you drop them in the water.

Mama and I did fish faces at the pool. She didn't realize when we got dressed that we were both wearing "POKE DOT" bathing suits, but I pointed that out to her. :)

I was one happy girl after our dinner of sushi, or "sushis" as I call it. After all, who eats just one? And none of that roll business for me. Give me salmon nigiri any day!

I try on a lei and a silly face.

Here you get a nice glimpse of my fake smile. I am good at this. Any time anyone holds up a camera and says, "Anaya" I whip that sucker out. The adults eat it up.

Daddy and I on a hike. We saw wild boar and I tried to call them after they ran away, but they didn't listen. I must have yelled, "OINK!" about a thousand times, but they didn't hear me.

Mama and I later on in the same hike. I like to get a variety of viewpoints.

Here we are at a famous cliff diving spot called the End of the World. I told Mama we should jump, but she thought you might have to be two to do that. Oh well. Next time.

Me in my beach gear.

Hey that rainbow on all the license plates is in the sky!!!

Daddy hanging out on the lava.

Pretty volcano at sunset.

A snack after a long morning at the beach.

Here's Mama and I on a very windy bus into town on Valentine's Day. Again, the fake smile.

Ahmal George makes an appearance in Kailua.

Daddy and I snuggled up before bed.

The pictures end rather abruptly here because we think Daddy stepped on the camera. At any rate, it is "boken". More updates to follow...

Tagged!

Mama's friend JJ (http://thefrancis5.blogspot.com/) tagged me, which means I need to choose the 4th picture from the 4th file folder in our pictures file, post, and explain it. So, here goes:


This was taken in September, right after moving to our new house. I am all geared up to go swimming in the baby pool, but first, I need some help putting my glasses on. I mean, who swims without glasses?

Arctic Blast 2008

Right before Christmas, we had what the weather people here called, "Arctic Blast 2008". At first, it sounded a little bit over the top. I mean, Arctic Blast?? But after a while, I began to see their point. Here is a picture of Daddy and me on one of the first days of snow. I decided right away that snow is A) cold, B) wet and C) better enjoyed from the window of a warm house.

So I pulled my chair up to the window for a good look.

Here's what it looked like in the beginning: a pretty dusting of snow. Notice the pond and bench are still visible.

Pond going...

Sadie unsure of the ice that accompanied said snow.

Pond gone! Bench going...

Bench almost gone. Front yard, definitely gone.

A view of the back deck.

So much snow meant not getting out much, so I made do with opening Christmas presents sent in the mail.

I learned very quickly that opening presents in FUN! First you rip a piece of paper off.

Then you throw it as far as you can while yelling "WEEEE" at the top of your lungs.

Sometimes the boxes themselves are taped.

That takes a lot of concentration, but it's always worth it in the end.

My friend JT sent me this felt food that his mama made (isn't she crafty?) for me to use in my kitchen.