sunday...

okay, so this was yesterday. both had just gotten in trouble. #1 was comforting #2. i think they figured out how to team up against me! (ironically, the sermon this morning touched on gentleness... with an analogy to parents. i told david last night that i was less than gentle in my yelling. the pastor defined gentleness as "acting without emotional extremes". um, totally described me!!!)

thankfully, last night, nora needed help with something, and i was feeling much more gentle. as i walked back up the stairs to help her, she said, "i am so glad you are my mom". aww.. and jamey only wanted me to put him to bed. good thing they forgive so easily!

total impromptu date night on friday night. david asked to go to benihana's. i told him i would make reservations. he got home and i asked him to make sure he knew where we were going, as there were two pf chang's on the island. i had made reservations at one of them. he looked at me, so puzzled. so, we quickly got new reservations at benihana's. he got a work call as we were leaving. then, i had to look up the number in his phone to pf's to cancel. when i hit "dial" after looking up the number, it called back work. they were a little confused when i asked if they were pf changs. oops!!! rough night for me! guess i needed the night out!

we went to benihana's down in waikiki, at a hotel on the beach. we then took a nice, leisurely walk on the beach and sat on the sand for a bit. with wonderful, hawaiian music playing in the background. it was such wonderful night!

(then came my emotional break on saturday... phew... pregnancy hormones are KILLING me! that, and my mom and best friend on the island are unreachable! no one to talk me down!!!)

my sweet girl.

i love watching this man watch football. he's so passionate about it.

today, we went to church, and then to his ship's halloween party. the kids had a great time, and were QUITE worn out tonight. we also gave my garden some coffee... quite excited to see how that works out!

i read a few articles this weekend on children. and how we shouldn't tell them when their decisions are wrong. especially pertaining to their gender assignments. (i.e., halloween costumes, boys in girl scouts, etc...) and it struck me, with those articles so fresh on my mind, how often i actually tell my kids they are wrong. or making bad choices. don't get me wrong, i REALLY try to emphasize the good choices! (you know, positive reinforcement and all...) but isn't that part of the job of parents. to help our children realize what is wrong.

"no, you can't have the 15th piece of candy today"

"no you can't just ride your bike into the street without looking both ways"

"no you can't hit your mommy cause you are mad"

"no you can't watch MORE tv today"

none of those are crazy requests of my children. and i think will make them better children. (and alive children!) and if we don't teach our kids, who will? hopefully not the kid at preschool calling them "dip wads". or the ones telling my daughter she doesn't belong in the class. (thankfully she had the balls to tell the kid her mommy and daddy had been praying about where she should go and this was it!) or the ones who tried to tell her tuesday was her show-n-tell day, not thursday, leaving her upset all day!

today, we went shopping for "operation Christmas child". it sends shoeboxes we fill to kids all around the world. hawai'i's destination is mongolia. nora and i did it last year, and this year, we decided to do it again (although, walmart on a sunday afternoon after a sugar-filled halloween party with a two year old who didn't nap SHOULD have been reconsidered!!!). david and i decided we would go as a family, and have the kids help. (much more age appropriate for a four year old, NOT a two year old who didn't understand why some box was getting toys and he wasn't!)

anyway, nora and i went through the store (a screaming james was in the car with daddy by aisle #1!!), and she pointed out things she thought would be a good idea. we got some toys. she suggested a myriad of other things. "do they have shoes, mommy?" "do they have....." at one point, she wanted to pick out some magnets. i told her they might not have refrigerators, so maybe we should stick to toys and toothbrushes.

my sweet four year old then wanted to buy a refrigerator. I LOVE HER HEART!!! i could have cried in walmart. and i hated having to tell her we couldn't buy them a fridge. and, i loved that NOT ONCE did she ask for something for herself. she was so proud to carry her shoebox through the store and pick out things for this little girl on the other side of the world.

and sweet, said, boy. he has fallen out of his bed twice while writing this post! so sad... we took his rail off the bed, since it was being torn to shreds and i was finding him with long strings every morning. i figured he was at a higher risk of strangulation than anything else... and in a week, this is the first time he's fallen out of bed! but, it got us extra snuggle time. hopefully he's good for the night now!