baby maximus: so much to celebrate

He's two now.  Still a baby, right?  My giant baby.  Karl took him to the mainland last week so he could see his physical therapists.  When Maximus leaves the island his hair gets super straight and looked kind of like Rod Stewart.  So Karl cut it.  Cut ever last little blonde lock of hair off.  I can't believe how bad I mourned this.  Such a silly thing.  But I wanted to be there, and I would have saved a lock or two.  It had to be done, I guess.  Because big babies shouldn't look like Rod Stewart.  I am used to it.  It made him older.  And fatter (I guess long hair is slimming :)).  But now he just looks like my Baby Maximus again.  Good thing.

Sometimes when you are two, your birthday is spent running errands and you don't even know or care.  There are lots of reasons why being two is awesome.  

But after we finally settled down, after dinner, and baths, we stuck a couple of candles in the sugar cookies my mom sent (which is better than any cake) and sang to him.  He knew just what to do.  And he applauded himself.  Then he opened his small mountain of presents from his family from afar that loves him so.

He loved all the presents (thanks family!).  He lined them up here.  Then there.  Then there.  And then there...

And even though Maximus was perfectly happy with his small celebration, we still wanted to party.  

This has been a huge year for Maximus.  And for us.  We have a lot to celebrate and be grateful for.  So we wanted to have a big party to thank every one.  So much of the help was anonymous.  So we did our best to invite everyone,  just to cover our bases. 

Here he is resting up for the big party.  He's still a baby, right?

We had the party at the beach.  It was kind of significant.  Because, to me, it kind of means we are back.  

We set up.  And I almost cried just once because there was only a tiny pavilion left (because silly people that plan ahead took the other ones) and it was smack dab in the middle of the tents and set ups of people that may or may not be living there on a semi-permanant basis.  Which is fine, but it felt silly to be partying right in the middle of it.  But Karl said we could just move the food table, so the backdrop was the water.  And it ended up being beautiful.  

He built this Totoro out of fondant and we put it on top of a Coscto cake.  Because, let's be honest, Costco cake tastes better than a cake I would have made myself.  

Pretty water.  

And the sun set just in time to greet the guests.  Couldn't think of a prettier welcome.  

Eva over came her fear of the sewing machine and helped me sew these favors.  I am so excited she isn't afraid anymore.  Hi-chews were inside.  

This isn't everyone.  I was trying my best not to hide behind the camera.  But I want to be able to show Maximus this one day, and show him at least some of the people that love him so.  

My friends cooked green papaya chicken (thank you Jamiee!) and Kalua Pork, and chicken long rice, and teri chicken, and rice (thank you Chanel!) and everyone else brought so much food to go with it.  It was a feast.  Just the way we like to party.  

When we got home that night.  I was exhausted.  There were a lot of emotions that night.  And there were so many different people at the beach that night.  The pavilion next to us had a disco ball, and karaoke and balloons.  That was one extreme.  And then there were the pavilions filled with the guys that are there to drink their worries away.  And there were the ladies that needed our duct tape to fix their broken tent.  And they were hungry because they hiked all day and then spent the evening fixing their tent.  So we fed them.  And there was the little boy that kept following Karl around and calling him uncle, who said he was seven, and looked like he needed to eat.  And a bath.  And his big sister.  We tried to feed them, too.  Even the little stray kitten.  We fed it, too.   

Big party, lot's of food.  We were trying to get ahead a little on the thanks.  But maybe it will never happen.  Because as each person showed up, I felt more and more like they were still serving us.  Because that night, as I looked at the photos as I downloaded them, as I looked at all the people that came, and the pile of presents (sometimes people like to give super nice presents even though we try to tell them that just coming to the party is plenty and that they probably have already given so much), I felt like we were indebted even more.  

I guess that's okay.  There were people and kids and even a kitten at the beach to remind me that we have so much.  There were friends and gifts and mounds of food to remind me that we have so much.  And Baby Maximus.  What a year he has had.  He reminds me that we have so much.  I'll still sweat the small stuff, I'll still get sad when I remember that I forgot to put the little banner on the cake that I spend so much time making, I'll still get impatient when Maximus is trying to explain to me without any real words that he wanted to pour the juice himself and than he wants the juice that I poured to be dumped down the sink, I'll still probably focus on my half empty cup more often than I should.  But, this night was significant.    I will always remember the quirkiest things about it.  And all these quirks will remind me that we do have so much to celebrate.  

life via instagram

If I showed you my life on Instagram, everything would look so pretty.  Take a real photo, and you can crop what you want, filter how you want it.  

So, if you follow me on Instagram you have seen these already.  I re-post them on FB most of the time, too.  

In this one, you get to see how much Maximus loves mango.  He will eat them as fast as we can cut them.  In the hospital, when he would eat nothing else, he would eat mango.

Our church had  a luau.  We did some hula, we played some ukulele.  All of us.  For reals.  Okay, I kinda wimped out on the ukulele performing.  But it was a fun thing for my family to do.  Even Samuel does it, and seems to like it.  Maximus is sampling the kukui nut lei, here.   Doesn't he make every look delicious?

Climbing is sort of a hobby of Samuel's.  I like the way Maximus is watching him here.

This was Maximus' first real trip to the beach in months.  The therapists gave him the go ahead.  We thought it would be a year and it wasn't.  Sometimes things go better than they expect.

Lot's of sunscreen and a long sleeve shirt and he was all protected from the sun.  He played in the sand most of the time. 

We don't have much of a fall here.  I am fine with that.  But Eva got all nostalgic and starting missing falling leaves and crisp weather.  She's romantic like that.  We do what we can to make it feel like Halloween...

The painted coconuts found a home on our doorstep.  I tried to make it feel like fall.  And my friend added some webs and spiders, and Maximus was thoroughly impressed.  He was in his skeleton pajamas and I couldn't resist taking a photo.  He looks like a decoration, too. 

Ice cold coconuts.  Karl and I were eating at a restaurant and the singer people were singing, "Ice cold coconuts."  Only we both heard the song as, "I smell coconuts" and got a kick out of it.  We still sing our version every once in a while.  The opportunity comes up more than you would think, here.  They seem to sell them everywhere and our kids seem to be able to talk us into buying the 5 dollar drink every time.  Pushovers, we are.  But look, it buys peace and quiet, even if it's just for a few minutes.   

Maximus has been lining things up all over the house.  It is mostly adorable.  I don't have that gene.  I wish I did because I sure like the way it looks.  You can kind of see the way his arm looks without the gloves.  The blur of the photo kinda has a softening effect.  It looks like pink and brown candle wax was dripped all over his arm.  The scars are bumpy but soft.  My mom can't handle looking at them.  And they make Karl's mom and grandma cry.  But we are used to them here.  

They ordered some compression garments for his legs.  The baby Spanx are to help with scarring.  Those legs looks so yummy, huh?

Maximus also went for his first swim in the pool.  It was more of a dip.  He wasn't up for a swim.  He was exhausted because we weren't letting him nap so he would sleep on the plane ride.  It was an experiment.  It worked.  He slept the whole flight. He looks like a baby turtle here.  His sweetness almost oozes from this photo.  And the little peak of Samuel laughing in the corner... lot's of great emotions in this photo.

Just say no to hazing.  Karl initiates our kids into toddlerhood in our family by giving them one of his special haircuts.  I was not there for any of these.  Maybe that's where my issue is.  I had a feeling he wouldn't remember the Eva incident or the Samuel incident so I made this little collage to remind him.  The problem is, every once in a while he gives a great hair cut, so it keeps him from retiring the shears all together.  Allow me to properly mourn this one.  And I got a kick out of Maximus' blonde bird feathers.  Dads don't think about saving them.   I am sad even though when he goes to the dry air in UT it looks like Rod Stewart.  We discussed a trim, but it's all gone now.  One day these siblings can laugh and bond over this, right?  And I will laugh, too.  We will all laugh.  Ha ha.... ha... ha. Ha?

My sweet friend, Jamie, took this photo of our lanai (porch).  Karl hung some lights and it made it look all festive.  We eat a lot of our meals out here.  

Beach time, pool time, ice cold coconuts, luau, fresh picked mango, actually putting decorations up in or house... all these things are lovely.  Just lovely.  Even without the filters and the cropping, they kind of show that life is settling down.  

I really feel that way.  We went over finances and we are all caught up for the year, and finally feel steady.  Our ship came in, and landed right next to our new money tree.  Hehe.  I'm funny.  No, it's nothing like that. When the big incident happened (Maximus' hands, not his hair :)), they unknown was so scary.  Especially with finances.  But people stepped up and seemed to know what we would need even before we did.  And then they helped us.  It make me feel so safe to know that people had our backs and wouldn't let us fall.  

I'm taking down, "If you have asked how you can help..." side bar.  The help we have received has been so... helpful :).  Every penny, every prayer, every expression of concern and love.  It boosted our spirits to know how much people have been there for Maximus and for us.  

I know I say it like every single post, but, thank you.  

Thanks for helping us get our feet on the ground.