He's not Thomas

Here's Joseph in our front yard/cemetery.  He chose his costume about 6 months ago.  It came with a hat but Joseph didn't want to wear it.  
Can you believe this display!?  One house we went to had a PHOTO BOOTH!  Yes!  We were allowed to sit in the booth and take 4 pictures and the sheet came out instantly!  Isn't that crazy?  We need to work on our decoration for next year.  Show 'em that we can hold our own.
Here are our pumpkins.  Joseph wanted them to BOTH be happy.  I asked him if he wanted a scary one, mean one, sad one or a happy one and he chose the latter!  Such a positive kid.  My pumpkin is the one on the left, Joe's is on the right.  I think his came out SO great!  He's very artistic!  Mine is kind of primitive.
Here's Joseph with Grandma.  We had such a great time around the 'hood.  Everyone knew who he was!  They said, "Hi Thomas" and he replied, "I'm not Thomas, I'm Joseph!"  He's such a cutie pie.

"Cleaning" the Pumpkin

We were ready to carve our pumpkins.  We called Joseph outside...

He took at peek inside of the squash-like gourd and turned his head in abject disgust. We told him that it was time to clean the fleshy innards of the pumpkin out to which he responded, in a stiff manner, "Not yet!"

He ran inside the house, grabbed our Swiffer mop, and offered it to his father.  "Here!  You clean it!"  
Seeing his Mother and Father reduced to scooping out the muck with their bare hands caused Joseph to lose interest.  He'd rather, as you can see, DRAW pumpkins than have to clean them out.
He's such a little character!

Leonardo Da Joseph

"A Pumpkin Family"

ca. 2008

Stutesman's homage to the minimalist period

Joseph loves pumpkins.  They're big, orange, and round; what's not to love?  In any case, this is his artistic interpretation of pumpkins.  Isn't it beautiful?  Notice the stems.  I think his ability to draw circles is advanced.  He takes after his auntie!  We purchased this dry erase board in an attempt to be green.  It's worked out very well so far.  Unfortunately, we're confined to one color- blue.  I'm certain after expanding our dry-erase marker collection, our pictures will become more colorful.

Tired in Yogurtland

Currently, I am working on my Masters Degree in Education. It's 1:25am Monday October 27, 2008 and I've JUST finished the last research paper for this class. I am going to sleep and when I wake up... another class will have popped up on my home page and I'll have to start ALL over. Sniff, sniff. I don't know how much longer I can take it! I'm going kind of bananas here.

On a lighter note, Joseph, Grandma, and I went to Yogurtland today. Joseph got (big surprise) chocolate with "treats," grandma got chocolate with cookie dough, and I got taro, strawberry, and chocolate with mochi balls. I'm officially an addict. It is my second time in 2 days. $25 worth of Yogurtland (it was my treat both times) in two days! I know they won't be going out of business as long as I still have teeth! Heck, even if I don't I'll be sucking it through a straw! I should have spent the entire day working on my stinky paper buuuuuuuuuuut I took my mom and her dog (grrrr) to the vet for a post surgery check up. Then we went to Kahala Mall to check out Kahala Kids for a penguin Halloween Costume. Joseph decided, only recently, that he didn't want to be Thomas the Tank Engine. Now I'm freaking out because Halloween is only 4 days away! So we went to Kahala Kids to check out their selection because I had seen a television commercial advertising their wide selection of Hawaii-weather-friendly costumes. One short rack of 6 costumes, does NOT a wide selection, make! We tried to make the best of our situation by enjoying freshly popped popcorn from Carousel Candies. What a variety! I got the "local mix" and grandma got the buttered popcorn. I thought Joseph would want to share with me but he only at the plain popcorn. He doesn't care for the arare or furikake. He's his father's son, for sure!

When I go to Kahala I always experience an overwhelming wash of memories. That was where I went on my first date, where I watched my first movie without family (when it was $2.50), where we hung out after band concerts, on weekends, during the summer, after school. I saw Dances with Wolves, and Casper at Kahala Theater. I bought my first prom dress and did all my back to school shopping at Liberty House. We used to go to Pretzelmaker then sit at the tables doing our English homework, soft, buttery pretzels in hand. We shopped at Something Special every Mother's Day, ate at Burger King for lunch, snacked at Yami Yogurt, and shopped at Woolworth's. Now they're all gone! I can't believe how much has changed in the past 10 years. Then it makes me think how people and lives have changed in just 10 years. Then I wonder, naturally, what life will be like in the next 10 years. Will Hawaii be unrecognizable? Will I be unrecognizable? Different dreams, ambitions, fears, thoughts? Probably. Change is scary, sometimes.

On Friday, Joseph, Taryn, and I went to the Punahou game. Joseph looooooooooooooooooooved it!!! It was his FIRST football game. Initially, the marching band really scared him. After a few songs and some freshly popped popcorn, however, he was fine. He sat, content, munching and watching Punahou kill Pack 5. He said, "I don't want to play football." As soon as he learns how to write, I'm getting that statement on paper!

On Saturday, I took two of my students to Punahou to attend the 2008 Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery. It was awesome! There must have been thousands of students and parents walking around lower campus viewing the demonstrations and exhibits. I supported the Robotics Club (only because I saw Mr. Hu) by purchasing some mizu and musubi. The opening ceremony was interesting because the speaker was an Astronaut - Dr. Stanley Love. He was amazing! His message was clear: persistence and hope will get you to your dreams. He also showed a movie of his last voyage into space. It reminded me of Elison Onizuka and the effect his story had on my life when I studied him in the 6th grade. I was just in Kona and I didn't even stop by the space museum! We had some extra time so we went to the Bishop Museum. We spent most of our time in the Planetarium. I was so relaxed I almost fell asleep. It was neat because it was a great interdisciplinary lesson for the girls! There was a lot of science (physics and chemistry at the Lava center), geometry (shapes, coordinates, etc.) at the Planetarium, and of course, Hawaiian History. Overall, a great day!

In any case, it was a busy weekend. Now it's time to go to bed and dream of Taro yogurt with mochi balls.

Malaekahana

Chuggin' the Capri Sun on a hot and steamy afternoon.

Joseph with Uncle Jon. These two got along famously. They both LOVE peanuts. Uncle likes the unsalted and Joseph loves the regular variety.

Joseph and grandma chillin' on a log.

This past weekend Joe, Joseph, and I went camping at Malaekahana on the North Shore with my mom and brother. It was beautiful! The weather was a bit unpleasant at first but after the first evening of torrential rain it was nothing but clear skies and hot sun. Joseph loves loves LOVES camping. We told him that we were going camping in the middle of the week and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday all we heard was "I want to go camping. When are we going camping? I want to go camping." He gets certain kinds of food that he doesn't typically get like chocolate milk, chips, and smores. He also gets to play with his Cars flashlight at night. The first night he was playing with it for at least 2 hours and for a 3 year old, that is a LONG time to spend on one thing. We went swimming in the ocean (jellyfish free!) and played with our sand toys. On the last night we actually saw someone catch a puffer fish! It was so beautiful. It had large eyes that were very unfish-like. It had small fins, brown spotted skin, and spikes on the outside. We were very relieved to see that the fisherman let him go. It was lots of fun watching it swim back home. On Monday we packed it up and headed home but not before stopping in Haleiwa to get some ono grinds! We went to Jamesons By the Sea and had a nice light lunch and then, of course, to Matsumoto's for some shave ice. I got the strawberry and li hing mui with ice cream and the two boys got the same thing. I wish I had my own shave ice maker! What fun that'd be!

Another Friend Turns 3!

Our friend, Riley turned 3 last weekend and he had a great pool party at his house!  It's a relief to see that there are other children who are equally obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine.  Surprisingly, Riley is an AMAZING swimmer!  He is only 3 and yet he can swim all by himself!  Joseph is starting his second month of swim lessons at Leahi Swim School.  We're still working on building confidence in the water.  Hopefully he'll be doggy paddling sometime soon!

Happy Birthday, Cameron!

Joseph's friend, Cameron had a dinosaur-theme birthday party at Gymboree!  He had a blast!!!  There were bubbles, balls, scarfs, parachutes, slides, and cake!  Joseph took a great nap after all of that playing.