You've Had a Birthday, Shout Horray!

Our baby turned 2 yesterday! I still can't believe it, time has flown by. Whenever a milestone comes and goes I can't help but look back in shock as to how fast time goes. Anyway, Tavita had quite the funfilled (and sugar-filled) birthday. It started Friday night with Daddy and my Uncle Dale taking him and Brayden to a Utah Grizzlies game (hockey). I was so bummed I couldn't get off of work to go with them but they had fun just the same. The boys loved watching the players "push eachother into the glass really, really hard." Tavita also loved the loud music that was blasting.
On Saturday we spent the morning relaxing and watching conference. Brayden and Tavita ate nothing but sugar (sugar cereal, carmel corn, the frosting for the cake, more carmel corn etc). After the 2nd session of conference we had a little get together with a few friends. Obviously they know Tavita all too well because he got all Tonka toys. He was in heaven being surrounded with his new trucks. We then ate pizza and had cake and ice cream. Tavita was so cute with his cake. When he went down for his nap I was just putting on the base layer of frosting and when he woke up I had just finshed putting all the cars and planes on. He looked at the cake and said, "Wow!" and immediately tried to drive the cars on the road. I had a dump truck full of "dirt" and he dumped it all over the road. Junior moved the cake into the room, we let him play with the train track going around the cake then took him out after he tried eating the cake. He kept begging and begging to be let in the room to play. When we took the cake out to sing he was so excited. We cut a few slices off to eat then let the kids go to town. By the end all the adults were laughing beacuse it seriously looked like the scene of an earthquake. Broken roads, sunken cars, hills where there weren't hills etc. But hey, that cake entertained the kids for FOREVER and Brayden and Tavita have been playing with it all day today as well.

Chillin at the hockey game

Playing/Eating his cake

the big #2!

Opening presents

Tonka...

and more Tonka!

Blowin out the candles

Cutting the cake

The aftermath (this pic doesn't do it much justice, havoc had been had)

Hours later, still playing!
Top 5 Reasons I'm so glad we're blessed to have Tavita in our family...
5. His moves. This kid loves to jump and jive. You put on music and he can't help but to bust out a move or two. Even when he's snoozing on our shoulder, if he hears music he'll start kicking his leg soon he's fully awake a jammin out!
4. His sensitivity. He's so intense the majority of the time you would think him to be sensitive but he always manages to sense when you need a big hug or a cuddle session. If he sees you have an "owie" he becomes very concerened and follows you around the house with a pair of tweezers or anything else he thinks will fix the problem and pokes and the injury.
3. The way he goes to bed and wakes up. When we lay this boy down to sleep he gives us a cute wave and rolls over with his book until he's asleep. When he wakes up there's never crying he just sits up in bed and calls "Guys, hey guys!" If we take a while we'll hear him jumping around in his crib. No matter what, when we walk in we're greeted with a huge grin.
2. Curious, curious, curious. I have nver met a child more intrigued with his surroundngs or more set on discovering the world around him.
1. That contagious laugh and smile! No matter how hard of a day it's been or how much mishchief he gets into, he just needs to flash his smile or let out a giggle and I can't help but to smile back.

Our little garden, new snacs and more!

So, the Shum family is trying to go green. We officially started our garden for FHE on Monday. We're not doing anything too big since we have NO idea what we're doing and we're also going to have a new born which means our time will be little. Since it's STILL snowing outside we are starting the seeds inside. Brayden is SO excited he's been begging and begging to plant so seeds so we can pick vegetables.




The boys have discovered two new favorite snacs this past week. The 1st is mangos. I had sliced 3 of them up for dinner on Monday and they snacked on them while we were planting seeds. By the time we actually went to eat dinner there was 1/4 of one left. The 2nd was discovered by Tavita (who absolutely loves it) and I can't say any of us are at all tempted to try it. He'll go to the fridge pull out the grapes set them on the table turn around and grab the ketchup. That's right he LOVES grapes thickly coated with ketchup. I have to be honest, it makes my stomach turn a little everytime I watch him eat it.





The other day Junior turned some music on and it turned into a dance party. The boys love to dance and it's so cute to watch them. Espically when they start doing their "head-spins" and flipping around.

The Many Adventures of Tavita

Anyone that has spent 5 minutes with Tavita knows that life is never dull when he is around. The boy has some seriously amazing abilities to get into mishchief as well as the agility and climbing abilities of a monkey. This is the boy that will climb to the top bunk and then superman dive into his crib. The pain never deters him. I'll pull him out crying, set him down and he makes a break for the bunk bed again. I'm telling you, if he lives to see his 3rd birthday it'll be amazing (he turns 2 in two weeks so I'm giving him at least that long :-). Anyway, just wanted to share 3 of his latest adventures with you.
1. Binky Obsession: this boy is hopless when it comes to his binky. He'd have it in his mouth all day everyday if I let him. Two problems, #1 he's getting too old to walk around with that thing plugged in all the time. #2 (the bigger of the 2 problems) whenever he talks, he talks like he has a binky in his mouth. Anyway, for these reasons I don't let him have his binky unless he's sleeping. Due to his addiction, I have to hide the binky or else he'll go to any length to get it. I had placed his binky behind a few things on my bathroom vanity thinking it was sufficently hidden. I then found him hiding in my hamper sucking away. I don't know how he managed to climb on to the counter, get the binky, slip into the hamper and replace the lid without knocking the hamper over.



2. Goo-Gone Disaster: One morning I was racing around trying to get the boy's shoes on to take Brayden to preschool. I litterally turned my back on Tavita long enough to slip Brayden's shoes only to turn around and find him gone. I went up stairs and heard a gurgling sound like something slowly being dumped out. I raced into my bedroom and found Tavita ontop of my desk dumping Goo-Gone Gel everywhere. I had set the goo-gone on a windowsill, well out of reach, or so I thought. He somehow managed to get ahold of it and was doing a lovely job of dumping and smearing it everywhere. Of course he didn't do this without tasting a little first. His breath reaked of it. While I was frantically trying to clean up the disaster and call poison control at the same time he proceeded to try to eat a little tub of lip balm (I took it away) he immediately tried eating a candle (I took it away) he then started climbing after the lip balm again. In the end, after a hot soapy bath, a lot of juice, and 6 hours of sitting right next to him to make sure his breathing was okay he pulled through perfectly fine; as he has with all other predicaments he gets himself into.

3. Potty-training: Tavita has decided he wants to start familiarizing himself with the whole toilet thing. He's not consisently using it but since he was showing so much interest when Brayden went I thought I'd pull the training potty out so it was there for him to see. He's used it a couple times and was very excited with himself. A couple other times he asks to go even when he doesn't need to. He sits there grunting, straining, pushing on his stomach, taking the toilet apart and getting very frustrated with himself that he can't go. I try to tell him what a great job he did trying and encourage him to just try later but he refuses to let it go. I'm really worried that he's going to wind up hating potty-training because he doesn't succeed everytime he wants to go. Anyway, I snapped this cute picture. I guess he's succumbed to the fact that if he wants to go on demand rather than by need, he needs to plan on staying awhile and comes quite well-equipped for the job.

As exahusting as this boy can be, I can't help but to love this adorable boy and all the excitement he adds to our life.

Childbirth from a child's perspective

One day while we were visiting my family, Brayden and I were cuddling on the couch. He was rubbing my belly and asking how Robi was doing. Then he asked, "Mom, when Robi comes out is she going to climb up and up and then come out over your teeth?" I started laughing and told my mom what he said. She then asked him, "Brayden, is your mommy's mouth big enough for a baby to climb out." He got a contemplative look on his face, turned to me and demanded, "Mommy, open your mouth." Apparently I didn't open it enough to his satisfaction because he kept saying, "Bigger Mommy, bigger." He decided I needed a little help in the whole thing and proceeded to try to pry my mouth open. I eventually tried to explain to him in very simple terms how a baby is born but he is still pretty adament that Robi is coming out via my mouth.
My mom was able to catch his attempts to stretch my mouth:

Hawaii Trip

As I said in the last blog, after two years (almost exactly), we FINALLY made it back home for a trip. Junior could only go for two weeks but I stayed an additional two weeks with the boys and it was WONDERFUL! I couldn't believe how much I missed home: friends and family, the smell, the beach, seeing someone you know everywhere you go, the food, EVERYTHING. It just made us want to go back that much more. The boys absolutely loved being there. In fact after the 1st day there and still know Brayden always tells us he doesn't want to live in Utah anymore, that we should live at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They loved running around like little local boys in just their shorts, and all too often not even those! They loved being outside everyday, all day whether at the beach, in the pool, playing with the cat or taking walks. And oh the food: Shave Ice and BBQ plate are two of the boys favorite words. In fact, when Tavita sees that white styrofoam plate he starts jumping, claping, and shouting "yea" cause he knows there's a delightful assortment of meats and rice waiting for his devouring. I was working on a slide show but before I could get very far at all my mom put together one for our family blog that was a lot better then I would have done so I just stole hers. Thanks Mom!
Here's a few highlights that I think coincide with the slide show:
Beach: This was by far the boys favorite part of Hawaii. Aside from Sundays and a few rainy days we were there EVERYDAY, sunny or cloudy, windy or calm. Brayden took to the ocean like he never left it. The boy had absolutely no fear and we often caught him go way far out to the point where he was having to bounce to keep his head up. He was incredibly steady in the waves and could take on some pretty decent sized waves. When he did get wiped out, he'd just bounce back up laughing and go back for more. Tavita was a little more wary of the ocean. He was ok if the sun was shining and the waves were just lapping on the shore. But he got cold really easily and didn't appreciate being knocked around. Often times he was more content just to hang out in our arms or play on the sand. He did eventually warm up to the ocean and by the time we left he could often be found attempting some deep sea dives with his brothers. We lucked out and found a seal on the beach by my parents house our very first time out. Tavita kept sneaking away attempting to pet the seal, he couldn't grasp that something that appeared so docile could get pretty rough. The boys also had fun chasing crabs and we even caught one that had obviously lost a fight somwhere along the road. He was a live and running but was missing its claws and two legs. The boys had fun holding him and attempting to eat him.
PCC aka "The fun place":Everytime we passed the PCC Brayden would ask to go to "the fun place". When we went the boys had a ball. I think they could've camped out in the Samoan village for a few days. They loved watching the show, the guys climbing trees, learning to fire knife dance, start fires and climb trees. We knew a lot of the guys there and they had fun playing with the boys. They also enjoyed the rest of the center namely the Tongan drums and the Maori village. Junior took Brayden to the night show and he still constantly pretends to fire knife dance. He was so excited to meet Kap (a friend of ours that performs the fire knife) and still treasure the picture Kap gave him.
Our Hike Another thing Brayden kept begging to do was go hiking in the mountains. We figured we'd start hiking the trail to Laie Falls and after a few minutes Brayden would be ready to turn around. WRONG! That kid lasted forever. When we reached Fence Posts (a good 1 1/2 of hiking) we pretended we had reached the top and convinced him to start heading back down. He went from chuggin along no problem to being completely pooped out the last few minutes of the hike and we couldn't get him to go another stip. Super Dad to the rescue. He hiked out with Tavita on his back and Brayden in his arms.
Shopping Center: Nothing fun and exciting about this place but the boys loved visiting Auntie Janessa at the movie store, Uncle Ryan at the bank and getting treats from Foodland
Shave Ice: The boys were the entertainment of the town the 1st time we got them Shave Ice. Junior carried it out of the store and both their moths dropped in awe of the massiveness of the thing. They sat down to eat it and immediately dropped half of it. Not to deterred they attempted to eat what was left only to get a couple of bites before the rest of it was spilled. They were beside themselves with greif. The lady was kind enough to give them another for free and they were so excited. We had people telling us watching the whole escapade was more entertaining than any movie.
Trips to town: We visited the swap meet, Pearl Harbor, the Zoo and Waikiki beach. Brayden was incredibly facinated with Pearl Harbo and couldve spent all day exploring the museum looking at all the displays but his brother wasn't having it. They loved swimming in the little sectioned of part of Waikiki and thought the Zoo was great fun.

Overall our trip was extremely fun. They enjoyed making carmel corn and pizza for Grandpa's birthday, being able to take baths in the kitchen sink, playing with the boys that rent downstairs and just being able to hang out with family. Thanks again Mom and Dad for putting up with us for almost a whole month! We can't wait to go back but knowing us, it'll probably be another two years. Oh well, at least we have a whole new set of memories to enjoy until then!

Poll Time

Okay, so once again it's been forever since we've posted. We've been in Hawaii for the past month. Since it was vacation time, I thought for sure that I'd be posting like every other night with all my spare time. Reality check, we worked hard and played hard and by the time we were home with the kids in bed I was knocked out. The nights where I did stay up later I had my nose in a book (the very reason why I don't let myself read, cause I do NOTHING else). Anyway, you have my promise of an upcoming post with lots of pics but for now we wanted to take a quick poll.
Our little girl will be here in a little over 3 months. We are still hmming and hawing over the full name. Kaleiloa is a definite, 98% chance of being a first name not the middle name. We've had several people tell us that it'd be wrong not to use Robi (Row-be, still don't know how we'd spell it)since Brayden has been so insistent since the get-go that it was a girl and her name was Robi. Some say use it as a first name, others as a middle.
I have to admit the name has grown on me some but still don't know that I'd ever be able to use it as anything other than a nickname.
Poll:Do we somehow incorporate Robi into her name, if so how?
Can't promise we'll listen but it's always fun to have input!