Lucky We Live Hawaii

WOW! WHAT A GREAT WEEKEND TO BE ALIVE AND LIVING IN HAWAII!!! The weather was absolutely BE-A-U-TIFUL! And it looks like it is going to continue for the rest of the week.

So what did we do? Hmm. Saturday morning we slept in till about 815 am (taking advantage while we can). Once we were up we decided that we would go to the beach and hang out for awhile. We packed up the stand up board, some beach chairs, an umbrella, and struck off on our way. We got to the beach relatively early at 930 or so and it was already pretty crowded at Lanikai. Once there we set up a mini camp and I decided to go for a paddle around the Mokulua Islands (check the map below).

While I was paddling Kelley was playing in the water with Tyla. I think she is most comfortable in the water. It has been really hot and she has been experiencing a lot of contractions. Once she is in the water she seems to be happy.

We sat at the beach for a couple hours and decided it was time to get out of the sun and went to a movie. We saw "You Don't Mess With The Johan". It was pretty darn funny if you like slap stick humor.

We went home after the movie and sat around for a while watching the olympic trials and trying to stay cool in our air conditioning. In the evening we took Tyla down to the beach for another walk (as we do almost every day).

Today (Sunday) we got up really early at 745 am (again we are enjoying while we can). We got up and went down to the beach with Tyla (something new in our lives). This morning was a little different in that Kelley was wanting to get some sort of workout. It has been 2 days since she has been able to do anything active. She has been yearning to get a good workout in because it seems that anything she does makes her have a contraction. Both Kelley and I have been on the take it easy and try not to have a baby at 28 weeks program. This program requires a lot of sitting around, something that we both need to work on.

The walk went okay. We ended up walking at a respectible pace for a little over 30 minutes (kind of funny how workouts change huh). Kelley only had 1 or 2 small contractions, which is no more than she would have had staying at home on the couch.

After our walk I decided it was time to go back to church. We went home, got dressed, and made it just in time (10:00)...for the mass to finish. I guess mass actually starts at 900am. Oh well, its the thought that counts. Besides the best parts about church is when it is over (I think I will need to confess just for saying that...)

Next I decided to go for a paddle out to "bird shit island" about 1 1/2 miles off Kailua Bay. It took me about 1:30 to complete and man was it fun. I saw a couple of fish and a great big honu on the way (check the map below. I did the shorter route on Saturday and the longer route today.) .

After a long paddle a nap was definetly needed. I napped for about 1 hour and then we were off to view a couple of open houses and get a cold stone creamery. I mean what is a Sunday without going to an open house and getting some ice cream.

Later in the evening Kelley and I decided to get Champa Thai take out and sit on the beach with Tyla, ate our dinner and watched the sun set over the Ko' Olau mountains. It was at this point that we both got a chance to reflect about how great Hawaii is and how lucky we are to be able to live here.

50/50 Chance

Okay...for those of you that don't get Ryan's humor...his last blog led most of you to believe that we're having a girl. In fact, we have a 50/50 chance of having a girl (or a boy). So in other words we still don't know. Sorry :-)

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!

I know, I know, I know. We weren't going to find out until the baby was born, BUT... Kelley had to go in to the doctor today because she was getting several contractions throughout the day yesterday, last night, and again this morning. Once we got there they hooked her up to this thing that straps around your belly so that you can hear the baby's heartbeat and little movements. It was REALLY cool.

That was where we got our first clue. The heart rate was in the 150-160 range, so we were already thinking, GIRL. We could hear the baby move around quite a bit, it was awesome. Than the doc came in. She said that Kelley was fine. She told her to stop exercising as much and to keep an eye on the amount of contractions she had in an hour. I guess 4-6 for 4+ hours is no good at this point in the game. Right as the doc was going to pull off the straps we heard this loud noise...The doc informed us that it was the little baby hiccuping.

We then went into the other room to take a look at the baby (on sonogram) and the doc wanted to check Kelley's cervix. The doc took one look at the baby and, forgetting that we did not want to know the sex of our baby, told us that she was sure it was a girl. We both looked at her with a blank stare and she replied, "yup I am 50% sure it's a girl". So there you have it! It's 50% chance that it's a girl.

I know, not quite what you were expecting uh! Not us either. Turns out Kelley's cervix is still nice and hard and placed towards the back (like I know what the heck I am talking about). I guess this is good. The doctor did say however that the little baby is carrying extremely low but that was of no concern, just an observation. She did give her permission to have me massage her feet and back several times daily and feed her food in bed. THANKS DOC!

Uh oh I gotta go, Kelley is calling me right now to get her some water...LOL!-Ryan

Law of Motion

I remember when I was in school and training for Ironman I got the feeling from certain people that training was easier for me. I heard it several times, "it's easy for you because you don't have work" (I guess working on an MBA doesn't really count as work...Ask Greg about that). Now I work like the rest of the world and I agree being sedentary all day makes motivating yourself in the evening A LOT harder. I think Sir Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion are applicable:

Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws which provide relationships between the forces acting on a body and the motion of the body.

1)A physical body will remain at rest, or continue to move at a constant velocity along a straight path, unless an external net force acts upon it.

• For me this is completely true. I sit all day in front of a computer (a body at rest). This law states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an external force acts upon it. Everyone must find their external force. It's hard to say what my external force is. I think it changes day by day and I would have to say more often than not my external force is more internal than anything. But the point remains that each person must find that which gets your body from rest to full velocity.

2)Rate of change of momentum is proportional to the resultant force producing it and takes place in the direction of that force.

• Though I would agree that a body in motion is better than a body at rest, I believe that this physical law demonstrates that an effective external/internal force will affect a greater rate of change of momentum. As I said before it is important for each of us to find that force which can affect the greatest rate of change.

3)To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

• This one seems really simple...If you keep your body at rest you will get fat, risk cardiovascular disease, diabetes, heart attack, depression, etc. If you find that external/internal force to get that body in motion you will signifcantly reduce all these risks as well as sleep better, have a better look at life, be recharged for the next work day, reduce your risk of disease, feel better and live a happier life overall.

SO I GUESS WHAT I AM TRYING TO SAY IS NO EXCUSES GET THAT BODY IN MOTION!!!

(This message is to remind myself of the same...tomorrow my external force will be this post) - Ryan

Internship Complete!!!

I got the official email today that I'm finished with my dietetic internship! What this means is that I'm done with all the hours (1220 to be exact) and assignments required to sit for the national exam, which I mentioned in a previous blog. No more having to work in nursing homes or hospitals unless I decide I want a job in one later. Yippee! Now I just have to get through one more hurdle...the national exam. I officially started studying yesterday and hope to be able to take it by the end of July...depending on when the American Dietetic Association sends me my eligibility letter. Hopefully the whole pregnancy brain holds together for me :-)

Beach Time

It's funny how a couple can go from being really, really, active to really, really, lazy! We just realized this weekend that we've been enjoying doing pretty much nothing...I think we're unconsciously preparing for being parents and enjoying the down time before craziness hits.

On Sunday after getting up at 6:00am (yep, we actually got to sleep in!) to walk Tyla at the beach, we came back home, ate breakfast, and preceded to fall asleep on the couch for TWO HOURS!! It was crazy, all the sudden we both woke up and it was already 10am. We decided that we needed to get out of the house and do some of the things we won't be able to do as easily together once the baby arrives. (We actually went to a movie on Saturday afternoon too...Love Guru...slapstick funny, but a good laugh). We got our suits on and headed to Mokapu'u Beach Park so Ryan could body surf and we could both get wet.

It was fun to actually hang out on the beach, play frisbee, and frolic in the waves...I wasn't exactly frolicking...I'm realizing that I'm not as agile as usual but still fun :-)

Here's Ryan giving the "shaka" as he's body surfing...

Mokapu'u

Here's a self-made video of us...hehehe!

Bigger at Night

Kelley has been telling me how bloated she gets at night. So we decided to see if you could actually see a difference in her belly by taking a pic in the morning and one at night. Tell us what you think.

MORNING

NIGHT

I think her belly buttin kindda looks like the end of an elephant trunk:) I think it is so cute..


KELLEY

ELEPHANT


CUTE AS A BUTTON...

-Ryan

Studying v. Baby Brain...GOODLUCK

Just wanted to share this little article on baby brain. After Kelley was just explaining about having to take a huge exam in 4-6 weeks I thought this was kind of amusing. Though Kelley may have "baby brain" she hardly needs help when it comes to taking tests. She could pass this test in the middle of giving birth if she wanted, but I don't think we will try. Enjoy the reading.
-RYAN
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Why having a baby really does make women more forgetful

Published Date: 07 February 2008
By Lyndsay Moss
Health Correspondent

WOMEN have long suspected that being pregnant has an effect on their memory – now research has confirmed expecting a baby can make you more forgetful. The so-called "baby brain" effect can have an impact on women's ability to remember new information during pregnancy and for many months after birth, researchers in Australia have found. Hormonal changes and sleep deprivation have been blamed for the condition, which is believed to affect up to 80 per cent of women. Some studies have also suggested a woman's brain may change size during pregnancy.

For the latest investigation, the researchers carried out a review of pregnancy studies conducted over the past 30 years. These showed that pregnant women had "modest deficits" in memory, especially when information was new or presented in a challenging way. Dr Julie Henry, a psychology researcher at the University of New South Wales, said: "The memory deficits many women experience during and after pregnancy are pretty much like the modest deficits you'd find when comparing healthy 20-year-olds with healthy 60-year-olds."

Dr Henry and co-investigator Professor Peter Rendell, of the Australian Catholic University, compared the memory performances of more than 1,000 pregnant women, mothers and healthy non-pregnant females involved in 14 studies around the world. They found that pregnant women were significantly impaired on some, but not all, measures of memory. They experienced most difficulty with memory tasks that relied on "executive cognitive control" – those involving novelty or significant effort." Regular, well-practised memory tasks – such as remembering phone numbers of friends and family members – are unlikely to be affected," Prof Rendell said. "It's a different story, though, when you have to remember new phone numbers or people's names, or hold in mind several pieces of information, such as when multi-tasking.

"The work, published in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, is one of the first to confirm the suspicion from endless subjective reports that "baby brain" is a real phenomenon. The results indicate that the impairment is still evident a year after childbirth, but no studies have yet investigated beyond this period.


What do you think Louise? Do you think there's any truth to this? Hopefully not, for Kelley's sake :-)

Almost Finished!

I'm finally on the homestretch of my dietetic internship. I swear, I feel like I've been in school FOREVER! (I guess I kind of have been...20 years of my life!) So I'm done with all of my internship hours and now I'm just trying to tie up some loose ends. This is the part that's a pain in my rear. I thought I had everything turned in but I just found out that I have two evaluation forms that need to be filled out for presentations I did in December and March. Now I have to track down the people that watched them and have them evaluate it, which I'm sure they can't remember what I said because it was so long ago...hopefully they liked me!

Needless to say, once I round those up my preceptor can submit all my paper work to the American Dietetic Association (ADA) so I can sit for the national exam. The ADA has been known to take a while to get everything approved so I could be waiting a while to get the approval. In the mean time I'll be studying for about 4-6 weeks (or however long it takes to get the approval letter) for the beast of an exam and pray that I can pass it (hopefully the baby brain won't get in the way...yikes!). I CAN'T WAIT to be done!!!

Monday...Monday

Aloha All.

I know that in previous posts I have talked about living for today, enjoying all life has to give, and taking it all in but today being MONDAY it's kind of hard to live by those words. In the spirit of this I have copied two poems that I like. The first one is how I aspire to feel about work on Mondays. And the second one is how I really feel. I hope you enjoy...

A Monday Poem
Work
I do not "work" Instead, I "fun"
I try to goof And get things done
At the same time Love what I do Do what I love
And then can you Honestly say
You do not work You simply fun
And do not shirk Until it's done
The object then Midst all this strife Is not to work A day in life
For if you love That which you do It is not work NowI am through
Rich Melheim

Monday must be the most horrible of days.
The reasons it's horrible are too horrible to say.
But with that said, I'll try to explain Why Monday must bring us oh so much pain.
You see on Monday, you work with a frown.
The full work week ahead has gotten you down.
The weekend has come, and the weekend has passed,
And like all weekends it just didn’t last.
But Monday sure lasts, it lasts so long.
You keep checking your watch to see what’s wrong.
But against your wishes your watch is just fine.
Against your wishes you can’t speed up time.
So you sit and you wait and you pretend to work.
You dream of a boss that isn’t a jerk.
But then you wake up and you almost cry.
You wish and you wish that the day would just die.
But wait, please listen, don’t worry my friend.
For one thing is certain, all Mondays must end.
Now that it’s been said, I’ll say it again.
More Mondays will come and more Mondays will end

Early Morning Beach Walk...(with Kelley)

I actually got up this morning for the daily beach walk with Ryan and Tyla. (Ryan decided to snap a surprise picture on my way upstairs) It's always rough getting out of bed but once I'm up and watching the sun rise from the Pacific, it's so worth it!!

Tyla has two different types of beach walks. The morning beach walk involves being anti-social and scavenging up as much "food" as she can find. This "food" consists of poop, dead fish, leftovers from the beachgoers lunches, and whatever else remotely looks like it's edible (it actually doesn't have to look edible, as long as it smells good to her). The other type of beach trip is when she's chasing Ryan down the beach on his evening run. It's a close toss up to which one she likes more, but I'd have to lean towards the morning scavenger hunt :-)

This morning she found a great surprise...another dead fish, which she proceeded to roll in making the car ride home a stinky one. Oh what memories!!

Here's Ryan getting his daily morning cup of coffee at Kalapawai Market...

By the way, for everyone that doesn't want to sign up to make a comment. You can click on the comment button at the bottom of an entry and then scroll to the bottom of the post box. Click on "anonymous" and you can post a comment without signing up. It's really easy...just sign your name at the end of your comment so we know who sends it. We'd love to hear from everyone!!

-Kelley

Spontaneous

Sorry we haven't posted in a few days...We had a good weekend which went by way too quickly. Saturday morning we brought some things to one of our friends garage sales (Thanks Megan!). We're trying to get rid of stuff (desk and office chair) we don't absolutely need in order to make room in our little condo for all the stuff a baby needs. And to our luck, we were able to sell them both along with a few other yard sale type items. It was fun to hang out and catch up with Megan and especially entertaining to watch people try to haggle over 50 cents. Come on people you probably could find that amount of change in the cracks of your couch or car. I guess that's the fun part of garage sale"ing" though.

After we made our huge sums of money, Ryan and I decided to treat ourselves to a Hawaiian Shave Ice. And for those of you who haven't experienced a REAL Hawaiian Shave Ice you're missing out. (More reason to come visit us :-) They put a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the bottom and Azuki Beans (yep, I said beans, sounds kind of gross but people sure like it...Ryan does) and then the ice with whatever flavors you want. It's quite the indulgence but really tasty!

Saturday evening, Ryan and I were assuming our position that we like to take (on the couch) when we, or should I say Ryan, decided we should actually do something spontaneous. We decided to go to dinner all the way in town (we call Honolulu town, its actually not that far...25 min...but on an island it seems like it) at a really good restaurant, John Dominis. So he called and they had a table ready in a half an hour (which is kind of shocking because you usually have to make reservations in advance). We were on it, we showered and dressed and were in the car in 5 minutes flat. I grabbed my purse and for some reason decided to see how much cash I had in my wallet. The only problem was, there was no wallet!! Oh #$@%!! Where did my pregnancy brain leave it? The last place I had it was at Shave Ice. No, I couldn't have left it there...but that was my only option so I called them up and sure enough, some wonderful citizen (yes, we still have a few left on earth) had turned it in. So now our dinner reservation that was supposed to be in a half hour was going to be late. Shucks! Our spontaneity was beginning to falter. I called and told them we'd be a "few" minutes late and they said that was fine. We ran to the Shave Ice place, and low and behold the 50 bucks we had made at the garage sale was still there!!! Thank you Good Samaritan!

Dinner was awesome. The restaurant is right on the water overlooking a pretty good surf break so we spent the whole dinner watching surfer's ripping it up. The food was great and the company even better!! What a great spontaneous adventure!

Baby Belly

This is for those of you that haven't seen me in a while and keep pestering me for a belly picture. My modesty is already beginning to disappear! It's really crazy to see your body morph right in front of your eyes. I think Baby Hatfield (the "little bean" as the Fennells like to call it :-) has made quite the growth spurt this week. I swear each day I think I can see my belly getting bigger. I still haven't quite gotten used to it. When I wake up in the morning I jump (rather roll) out of bed and forget I have this ball sticking out of me until I look down and my feet are beginning to disappear. I have to say that this is the most amazing experience I've ever had. I definitely have my days where I don't feel so great but overall, considering that I'm creating a human being inside of me, I feel pretty good. The ankle is beginning to get better...the golf ball sized lump and pretty purple colors are disappearing and I'm able to walk a lot better. In the mean time I've been trying to swim and ride my bike trainer.

Speaking of the stomach getting bigger, it's also getting in the way when I try to ride my bike. I was riding my road bike (on the trainer of course) but I've had to switch over to the mountain bike because I can sit up straighter and my legs don't smash the baby with every peddle stroke (yet!). This is not what I call entertaining but I guess it does the trick. You'll notice the small little tire on the back. I started off with the knobby tire on the back but when I would peddle it sounded like an airplane was taking off. It scared the bageebeez out of Tyla and I'm sure the whole town of Kailua so I had to switch to my slicks.

Till next time...

Laugh a Little.

Okay so my last 2 postings have been some what heavy. I mean politics and life... I think it's time to lighten up a little and laugh. I think most of you have probably seen this clip before but it just makes me laugh every time. Check it out.

Politics

So most people won't talk about politics...I am not one of them. I believe that we have absolutely no good candidate to choose from this next presidential election. I also believe that now, more so than ever before, we need a good leader and sadly I don't think either candidate will provide this. So what is left? You have to look at both candidates and ask yourself which is less destructive? I have never fully identified myself as either a democrat or republican and think the whole party system is failing us. I try to listen to arguments on both sides of the fence and stay well informed. However there are certain issues that I just can't get over. Take a look at this video. Some of the stuff mentioned is a little out there but the core of this information is startling. I see the momentum that Barrack is gaining among the ill informed and can't imagine how destructive he would be to America if voted in. We have a choice and you can well bet that my choice is not going to someone who refuses to wear a flag or pay respects to the national anthem. Issues like this go well beyond republican or democrat, this comes down to plain out right and wrong. Do the right thing.
-Ryan

Stop and Live...

Woke up this morning to my alarm clock at 0530 for my daily walk with Tyla just like every other day but today something was different. Today I was extra tired and instead of getting out of bed decided to reset my alarm for 1 hour later. 0630 I rolled out of bed and started the day that seemed to never end. From the time I got up until now I realized that I didn't stop once. I did however get up, go to work (make money), come home, and take Tyla for a 4 mile run on the beach.

So many of you are thinking, "Wow what is wrong with that day?" I'll tell you what is wrong with this day, I didn't stop to live. "What do you mean stop to live", you might be thinking. I mean I didn't stop to give my wife a passionate kiss on my way out the door. I didn't stop to tell the gate guard on the way into the Marine Corps base "thanks for his service". I didn't take time to notice the sun rising over the Mokulua Islands. I didn't stop to help that old lady to her car after checking out at the mini mart. I didn't stop and think about the sacrifices that many people have given us when I heard taps at 0800. I didn't stop working for one moment throughout the day to call my wife and tell her I was thinking about her. I didn't stop and talk to my friends on the beach as I ran by; instead I just smiled and kept on my way. I didn't stop to watch the sun as is set over the Ko' Olau Mountains. And if it weren't for this blog this may have kept up for weeks on end...this is what I call not Stopping to Live and if you aren't careful, if you don't stop to live, life will be over and the only things that will have mattered will never have been enjoyed.

Life is a rat race that we all must partake in. Just because we must be a part of this rat race don't forget to stop and live. The good thing about all of this is that I have the rest of tonight to enjoy and tomorrow is a brand new day. No matter how busy things get I won't be too busy to enjoy life.

Anyhow...sorry about the lecture. But these are the kinds of things that go thru my head when I go for runs. Crazy stuff uh. That's why running is so great. You get in touch and grounded.
-Ryan

In the Pregnancy Know

So I have never been the type of person that you would consider to be in the pregnancy know. I mean I am not the type of person who would ever really know what to say or how to act around a pregnant person. For those of you like me I am putting together this little guide of things NOT to say or do...

1) If you don't know that someone is pregnant and it isn't 100% obvious, better not to ask. This is due to the fact that the woman may or may not be pregnant at all. It's always a little ackward when you ask how far along a woman is and she replies "I am not pregnant". OOOPPPSSS! Ackward, ackward, ackward.

2) Once pregnancy is established don't say, "How far along are you? Are you sure you aren't having twins?" This question, though may have good intentions, it does nothing but make the husband have to explain to the wife for the next week that she looks great and that she is not too big.

3) Along with the previous question, don't ask "How far along are you? You look tiny." Though this may seem like a compliment this leaves the wife wondering if her baby is growing okay and once again leaves the husband having to reassure the wife for the next week that everything is okay.

4) Everyone has a delivery story and for some reason nobody wants to tell the good ones. If you have a bad delivery story to tell, keep it to yourself. The wife doesn't want to hear how painful giving birth is and how many hours of pain she will be in or how many things can go wrong. If you feel you have to tell these stories wait until after the delivery and compare stories. On the other hand if you have a nice and peaceful story now is a good time to bring that up.

Some acceptable things to say to a pregnant person would be as follows:
When are you due.
You look absolutely great, you are totally glowing.
I have never seen you so happy.
You are going to be a wonderful parent.
Congratulations.
Do you know if it is a boy or girl? If they aren't finding out and you don't think that is a good idea keep it to yourself...They aren't going to change their mind because you think it is hard to have family or friends buy the baby stuff before they are born.
Give them a call once and a while just to see how they are feeling.
Send them flowers to let them know that you are thinking of them.

One thing I have learned thru this pregnancy process is the MAJOR sacrifice that women make to bring us all into this world. Any hard thing you have ever done in your life (Ironman, college, etc.) is NOTHING compared to this. This is an endurance event unto its own. This event takes both a strong physical and mental toll on the woman and anything you can do to make it easier is ALWAYS appreciated. It is during this time in a woman's life that she needs extra reassurance that she has friends and family who care about her.

With all this said I must say SORRY to any of my friends, who were pregnant in the past, if I said anything to offend you it is because I wasn't in the know and I am sorry. I am hoping that people who read this blog that are like I was are now aware of what can be offending. So next time you see a pregnant person, whether you know them or not, let them know how beautiful they are and how much you admire what they are doing.
-Ryan

South Shore Surf

Surfed Aina Hina this morning with my friend Mark. It was descent. A little choppy. Chest to head high with a couple over sets that came thru. Went back this afternoon and surfed toes. The conditions were a little better. All in all I had two good sessions after not surfing for 2 weeks, so i was long overdue. The pic above was taken today at bowls.

-Ryan

Klutsy Kelley

Today started off to be a good day. I went for a really nice swim out to Flat Island with one of my friends, Megan, where we saw a few fish here and there and enjoyed a beautiful sunny morning. After we finished I was feeling quite ambitious and decided to go for a walk/run. I haven't been running for a while because I was having some tightening in my lower abs, so I figured it would be my usual walk. But today I was feeling really good and decided to give jogging a go. Sure enough, I was feeling great, no pain or pulling. I had my Ipod jammin' and I was shuffling right along (that's what my "running" consists of now). I was just thinking about how good it felt to break a sweat and have no pain, when all the sudden my foot hit an uneven surface (which normally wouldn't be a big deal...but being pregnant changes the ol' center of gravity) and my ankle, thanks to the hormone relaxin, decided to keep on going. Needless to say, I heard a loud pop followed by an excrutiating pain. I saved myself from falling down but shortly there after sat on the ground to reevaluate what I should do next. I was about a mile from my car and no one around asked if I was okay or needed help...what nice bystanders! There's nothing more normal than seeing a pregnant person sitting in the bike lane holding their foot. Okay, enough about the sympathetic public. I had to compose myself for the baby and managed to hobble back to my car and drive home (thank goodness it was my left foot). So here I am sitting on the couch with my foot elevated and a bag of ice. No Advil for me because of the baby, so I guess I get to tough this one out. Maybe it's practice for pain management when it's time for the real thing...delivery!

Laid Up

Kelley twisted her ankle on a run this morning. More on this to come...

Nesting

So over the last few weeks every time I do something to our house somebody has to tell me that I am nesting. After hearing that comment over and over I decided to look it up and see if I was. This is what I found:

Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.
Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing. The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth. You may become a homebody and want to retreat into the comfort of home and familiar company, like a brooding hen. The nesting urge can also be seen as a sign of the onset of labor when it occurs close to 40 weeks of pregnancy.
Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently. Women have reported throwing away perfectly good sheets and towels because they felt the strong need to have "brand new, clean" sheets and towels in their home. They have also reported doing things like taking apart the knobs on kitchen cupboards, just so they could disinfect the screws attached to the knobs. Women have discussed taking on cleaning their entire house, armed with a toothbrush. There seems to be no end to the lengths a nesting mother will go to prepare for her upcoming arrival.
This unusual burst of energy is responsible for women ironing anything in the house that couldn't out run them. Being preoccupied with ant killing, squishing them one at a time for weeks on end. Packing and unpacking the labor bag 50 times. Cleaning the kitchen cupboards and organizing everything by size to the point that you make sure the silverware patterns match when it's stacked in the cutlery drawer. Sorting the baby's clothes over and over again is a favorite theme. Taking them out of the drawers and re-folding them, putting them away and doing it over and over again. Nesting will provide interesting stories for years to come.

The problem with this definition of "nesting" is that it doesn't mention anything about the husband. Yeah sure Kelley has had some of these tendencies but I seem to be a bit more into the, "lets tear down the house and rebuild" syndrome.

Anyhow... Sorry for such a long post but I thought it was pretty humorous. The pics are of the stuff that Kelley bought for the baby's bathroom. We are going this weekend to pick up a crib because from what we are told it can take a few months for it to come in (if not in stock).

Our Morning Walk

Okay so it seems that no matter how well you know somebody you don't always really know what they do on a daily basis. In an attempt to give you all a view into my life I figured I would bring you on my morning walk.

Every mornning at 0530 I roll out of bed, put my slippas on, and Tyla and I drive 5 minutes to the beach and get a cup of joe at our favorite little store Kalapawai.


It isn't usually until I am about finished with this cup when I wake up...














From Kalapawai Tyla and I drive thru Kailua Beach, over the hill, and in to Lanikai (about a 1 minute drive). Once in Lanikai we drive to our special little beach access and go out for a stroll. This slide show depicts some of the things we see on our walk.



One of Tyla's favorite things to do is to search for food. In that constant conquest to serve her appetitie (especially for poo) she occasionally will run across a crab running for the ocean. When this happens it can be pretty funny. Although today she didn't find the crab she still likes to digg for them.


Our walk usually takes about 20-30 minutes. After Tyla is done chasing birds, eating poop, and pissing off passer bys, I load her up in the car and we head for home to get ready for work.

Once home I give her a bath, some food and water, and get ready for work...

So that's it. This has become somewhat of a daily ritual for Tyla and I. Everyone once in a while Kelley will join us. Although Kelley really likes the morning she doesn't handle getting up early really well (yeah thats gonna fly when the baby comes). I look forward to doing these walks someday with baby but I know parents always have these great dreams before baby comes and after they are here it is a whole other story. So I guess I can say I hope that I will be able to bring baby on my morning strolls but am not going to hold my breath.

Well gotta go to work.
-Ryan

Crazy Baby

Our baby is kicking but not quite this much. I can't imagine what this must feel like. I wonder if this is what Kelley has to look forward to in the coming months? From what I am told our baby can now hear sounds and will actually get startled at loud noises or bright lights. I have been reading he/she to bed every night. And I have found that the little munchkin seems to really be taking to me because when I start to read they seem to move closer to the sound of my voice. PRETTY FREAKIN COOL! - Ryan

Bathroom Remodel

Here are the picures of our bathroom remodel. I wish I had some before pics but you guys will just have to see the after. We haven't gotten all the bathroom baby decorations that Kelley bought online at Target yet, so it looks pretty bare. It doesn't look like much but trust me it was a lot of work. It will look better once we personalize it a little. What did we do? We replaced a HUGE and UGLY mirror, took down an old box style flourecent light (with framed in and very secured cover), replaced the faucets, replaced the toilet, replaced the towel and toilet paper racks, and paint from top to bottom (including molding). Taking down the old light fixture was the highlight of the project as more drywall came down than initially ancipated, making for quit a bigger job. All in all, we are pretty happy with the end result and think it will be a good place for baby to even play in the bubbles...
-Ryan

The Big White Box

Well, the fridge arrived today...and boy is it HUGE! We actually decided on the smaller of two choices and I'm sure glad we did. It looks enormous in our tiny little kitchen but it will provide plenty of space for Ryan and my hefty appetites. Good thing it's an Energy Saver model :-)

Here's a video of what it looks like (just for you Gma!)

On a side note, after the guys had installed the fridge I noticed a big scratch along our laminate flooring. Ryan had given me strict orders to make sure they didn't scratch the walls or floors and to make sure and say something if they had. So me and my quiet demeanor had to say something to the really nice delivery guy. But I got to use my husband as the excuse, so they didn't think it was me being annoying. Needless to say, the manager of the company called me shortly thereafter and came out to see this scratch (which I thought was a huge deal). He agreed to give us our delivery and discharge fee back plus a little ($100 refund). I was pretty excited. Ryan got home to see this HUGE scratch after he was really annoyed on the phone. His response was, "Is that all they did?" He thought it was an enormous gash. Regardless, they did the right thing because they had messed up our floor. And for those of you that have laid laminate flooring down, you know what a pain in the okole (translates to butt for you mainlanders) it is to fix it because you have to pull up the entire floor up until that point.

After dealing with that all day I was able to squeeze in a walk with Tyla on the beach in the morning, a swim workout at the pool in the afternoon, a nap, oh and a little work on my internship. All that and to think I started out the day feeling really bad. I still don't feel 100% but I guess that's what being pregnant is all about. Good days and bad days all blended together. Umm kinda sounds like what I think of parenthood. I am just enjoying the moment.

Fridge kicked the bucket

Here's my first attempt at posting on this thing... Two nights ago, we noticed that our Skinny Cow fudgsicles were really mushy...oh, it must be that I just bought them and they haven't had time to refreeze, I thought. Didn't think anything of it until the next day when the soy milk was luke warm. Great! Adjust the temperature to the coldest settings and today everything is melted and the fridge is room temperature. Just what we need right now, a new fridge! Isn't that how it usually works though, start one house project and a million more things have to be fixed. So today I ran to the local Sears and bought a new fridge that will be delivered tomorrow.
Man, fridges are pricey little items!

Needless to say, I had oatmeal for breakfast and soup for lunch because all of the yummy groceries I just bought are now probably salmonella and staph ridden. Man am I hungry though, the baby sure likes to eat all my food and doesn't like to leave much for me. That's okay though...I think it needs it more than me :-)

Speaking of the baby. Any ideas out there for what it is? I had a random guy (in the candy store of all places) tell me that my baby was definitely a girl yesterday. He must have x-ray vision or something, but he swore that it was going to be a girl. Everyone else out there seems to think it's a boy...I guess we'll have to wait and see! It sure is being active now. I was trying to go to sleep last night and baby decided it would be fun to do backflips and karate punches for a few hours. If that's any indication of what baby's going to be like when it arrives, we're going to have our hands full :-)

I'll post a picture of our pretty fridge when we get it.

Take Our Poll

As many of you know, Kelley and I aren't going to find out the sex of our baby until it pops out. Though this may have made life slightly annoying for certain grandparents (Ken and Jane), it makes guessing a lot more fun. Take our poll over to right right and let us know what the popular vote is on what we are having.

If you have any names that you think would be good go ahead and leave your comment here but don't expect us to use any of them. We are already set on Sha-nay-nay (girl) and Jerome (boy) or Pedro (boy) and Claudia (girl)...LOL

Bathroom Remodel

Just finished remodeling the bathroom. FUN STUFF!! It took all weekend but I think it looks ALOT better. Plenty more to get done before BABY gets here.

How Does This Thing Work?

We are working on getting this page up and running. Stand by for more good stuff.