Surf's Up!

We heard on the news that that a swell was coming to the North Shore, and that the waves would be 18-20 feet high. We love to go up and see the surf when it's high, watching the truly brave (or truly crazy?) ride the towering waves. Even better, Nan and Grandpa had never seen the big waves on the North Shore, so we took them up to check it out. By some miracle, we scored a parking spot at Waimea Bay and we joined a crowd of on-lookers, sitting on the sand and watching the surf.

Although we love to swim at Waimea Bay in the summer, when the water's flat and calm, it's obviously not safe this time of year. We were careful to explain to Kathleen that we wouldn't be swimming. She accepted that limitation without any argument. She played with her bucket and "shobel" instead.

We all agreed: who could see such power and such beauty and not think of a Creator? Even though we get to see this beautiful ocean all the time, it doesn't lose its wonder....

O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty and your faithfulness surrounds you. You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.

Psalm 89:8-9

Sweet. Tooth.

Happy belated Valentine's Day, friends! We hope that your day was spent with sweet friends and loved ones, and that you indulged in just a bit of chocolatey sweetness, as well.

Kathleen received her Valentine's card from Mama and Daddy at breakfast (along with her cute heart outfit from Nan and Grandpa), and we talked about Valentine's Day and showing love to one another. Kathleen quickly made the association between hearts and Valentine's Day and candy. As soon as breakfast was over, she took me by the hand and dragged me to the pantry, repeating, "Valentine! Valentine!" Once inside the pantry, she pointed out a red tin, decorated with white hearts. "Treats!" she exclaimed. Her Valentine gift from her Golby Grandparents, a tin of candy and other treats, had arrived a few days earlier. We'd opened the box together, and sampled a treat before we'd stashed it in the pantry and told her we'd have to wait for Valentine's Day. Well, Kathleen would wait no more! Impressed by her memory and communication, we indulged her in a bit of chocolate, even though it wasn't even nine o'clock in the morning!

Kathleen enjoyed more treats that afternoon at Valentine's Day party, hosted by her bestest little friends, Luke and Grace. The children all enjoyed some tasty cupcakes and then ran off the sugar, playing in the big backyard!

Got frosting?

And although Madeline didn't get any sugar for Valentine's Day, she had her own big news to share. Her first tooth arrived! We discovered it at lunch, when she was munching on Mama's finger... Well, that explains our sleepless nights!

So, What's This About a Circus?

Inspired by Marie, I recently decided our blog was due for a bit of an update. I didn't design the new header, but discovered it out on the internet and decided it needed a home with us. Hopefully you like our new look. While I was perusing potential headers, I got to thinking about our blog and about our life. It made me realize that it was time to change not only our look, but our name. And suddenly I knew that our blog needed to be "Embrace the Circus."

Perhaps you're wondering why I'd do that. What does that even mean, "embrace the circus"? Let me tell you. Because that, my friends, is a very good story.

The phrase "embrace the circus" was born (at least for our purposes) on -- of all days -- our wedding day. We had a marvelous wedding day. We were surrounded by friends and family for a ceremony in a gorgeous little chapel and a reception overlooking the Hudson River. We had all the trappings -- a saber team, a breathtaking West Point setting, our very own bagpiper, beautiful bridesmaids and darling flowergirls and an irepressibly charming ringbearer who had offered to wear camoflauge when we'd told him there'd be "soldiers" there. And yet. Oh, and yet.

We were married the spring after September 11th, when everyone was still working out the details of tighter security. On the day of our wedding, security at West Point's gate was backed up for more than two hours. Wedding guests -- even members of our wedding party -- waited in a long line of cars. They waited well past the start of the wedding! Our wedding was delayed as long as possible to allow our guests to arrive. Even so, our chapel wasn't close to full when the ceremony started. My grandparents arrived midway through the service. My godmother miraculously appeared just before she was to read scripture. Jim's ring disappeared at some point, and my father pulled off his own wedding ring for us to use. In short, the day was a bit of a circus.

Now, I'm a detail person. I like rules and organization and order. Lack of rules and organization and order can make me a little, well, anxious. So, having a circus on my wedding day should have made me a nervous wreck. But at some point during the chaos, Jim uttered the phrase that is now a Golby standard: "Embrace the circus." And so we did. We decided not to worry about the myriad things we couldn't control. Instead, we focused on celebrating the start of our life together, on enjoying the friends and family who'd joined us, and laughing at the circus we'd unwittingly created.

And, in hindsight, God couldn't have given us a more fitting start to our life together, a sort of foreshadowing of the chaos and laughter and love yet to come. Our little family has a wonderful life -- we have have each other, we have two sweet and funny girls, we have good friends, we've lived in amazing and interesting and beautiful places, and we have a loving and powerful God. We have more than we need. So much more. And yet. Oh, and yet. There are always things that don't go the way we'd like them to. There are separations. There are disappointments. And life is generally a little more chaotic than you'd hope. My house doesn't look like Martha Stewart's and my meals don't look like Julia Child's and sometimes I bribe my toddler just to make it out of the house (much less out of the commissary).

But if we focused on all that, we'd miss the joy that we have right now. And we do have so much joy. So when things get crazy (and they always do), we try to remember to "embrace the circus." And that's what we'll be sharing with you all -- a glimpse into our wonderful, beautiful, circusy life.

Life's a Beach

So, there are things that aren't great about living in Hawaii. The cost of living, for one. Sure, we get a cost of living adjustment to help out with that, but there's still something demoralizing about paying more for something on the island than you know you'd pay on the mainland. (And that's if you can find it!) And bugs. And lizards. Even the best housekeepers find those in their homes from time to time. And even though the geckos are cute, there's something a little creepy about finding them skittering along your wall or floor or countertop. And bugs are never cute. Not to me, anyway.

But some things about living on a tropical island are exactly as great as you'd think. The last few days Nan and Grandpa and the girls and I have spent our mornings on the beach, heading out just before Madeline's first nap (so she naps there in a little tent) and returning home just before Kathleen's nap (since she'll only really nap in her bed). You just can't beat days like this -- and in February, no less!

Taking in the sun and listening to the surf, and enjoying the full thirty seconds Kathleen sat still.

On the go! The girl can't decide whether she likes the water better, or the sand. So mostly she runs back and forth between swimming and building sand castles. She's a study in perpetual motion.

Isn't she a beauty? This is just moments before she toppled over and got a faceful of sand. Poor little girl! She recovered well, though. She's a little trooper!

All this could be yours, folks. Just come visit! The Motel Golby will be open until mid-summer when it will be relocating... Well, we'll let you know where we'll be when we know!

Hearts and Crafts

During a recent trip to the post library's storytime, Kathleen showed a lot of interest in the arts and crafts portion of the program. This wasn't entirely surprising. We pull out the crayons and paper or stickers and coloring books (or some combination of the aforementioned) at least once a day. But the storytime craft offered a new (well, new-to-Kathleen, anyway) tool that Kathleen found to be a revelation in fun -- a gluestick. Kathleen could not get enough of the glue stick! She was happy to glue down anything that stood still. "Gluestick!" she'd chirp, as she'd rub it on the construction paper, the table, her fingers... By the end of the morning I literally had to peel her away from it.

Kathleen's enthusiasm for the gluestick got me to thinking about different arts and crafts we could do at home. Suddenly, I had the perfect excuse for a trip to the scrapbooking store! Now, I've not gotten my act together to the point where I can actually scrapbook, but I will happily buy scrapbooking supplies. I just love the paper and ribbons and the pens and the tools... Sadly, though, they generally sit in my scrapbooking storage container, unused and forgotten. But Kathleen's love affair with the gluestick meant that I could buy fun Valentine scrapbooking supplies and that we could actually use them. We could make Valentines!

So, on Sunday (while Daddy and Grandpa were living it up at the ProBowl) the girls and I sat down to make Valentines. I thought that the activity might require some explanation for Kathleen, but I'd forgotten that Caillou (her favorite TV character) made Valentines for his friends. Kathleen knew exactly what was going on, and would yell out, "Makin' Valentines!" as she worked.

(Sorry for the dark and blurry photos. Daytime photos are a little hard inside our cinderblock house!) Kathleen showed her own artistic style, arranging punched circles of pretty paper and little foam hearts in a distinctly modern way. Madeline supervised. And when Mama wasn't supervising quite enough, she even got in on the action:

Watch your mailbox, friends, because a Valentine might be headed your way!

Grandparents are Great

Nan and Grandpa arrived from San Francisco on Monday, much to our delight. They've slipped right into our little routines, joining us for story time at the library and walks to the park and other fun. Because we've seen them fairly consistently over the past two years, there's basically no adjustment time needed for Kathleen. She calls them by name and talks to them nonstop and snuggles up against them on the couch.

A quiet moment with Nan.

Madeline loves the extra attention, too. Two more grown-ups means extra time being held and fussed over, and who wouldn't love that?!

Whenever Grandpa comes into town, we not only get to enjoy his company, but we get to enjoy his work. Grandpa always manages to complete a number of little projects when he visits -- so far he's refinished a rocking chair and hung a few mirrors. Nan and Grandpa brought Kathleen a toy tool set, so she can help Grandpa work. Kathleen loves her new tools; the drill and hammer are particular favorites.

A tool tutorial from Grandpa. Watch out world, Kathleen's got power tools!

Sitting Pretty

Madeline surprised us yesterday: she sits! We've been practicing a lot lately, but the most we'd been able to manage was a few seconds before tumbling over. But yesterday we sat her up and she stayed that way for a few minutes... She did eventually keel over, but she did so with a lot of grace and without knocking her pretty little head. Good job, sweet girl!

My theory is that Madeline wanted to have a new trick to show her Nan and Grandpa O'Connor when they arrive tomorrow. We can't let the bigger, chattier members of the family get all the attention...

Wearing Wisdom

"Listen, my child, to your father's instruction
and do not forsake your mother's teaching,
They will be a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck."
Proverbs 1:8-9

Midweek Amusements

When we woke yesterday morning, it was pouring. Now, this sometimes happens here -- it'll be raining at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, and it'll clear up by 8 or so. But such was not the case yesterday. It just kept on raining. I should have known it would happen, because the commanding general was set to change command yesterday morning on the parade field. The girls and I were looking forward to attending and watching the band and all the battalions in the division. We'd even stopped by the rehearsal to check it out the day before. But the rain was enough to keep us away. Unfortunately the soldiers didn't get that choice. There wasn't a rain plan, so hundreds and hundreds of soldiers had to stand in the rain for several hours. Jim, of course, was one. Poor Jim.

We skipped the ceremony and visited the library's story hour instead, which is our usual Wednesday activity. Kathleen isn't very good at listening to the story. I'm not sure she even realizes that the woman in the front of the room is reading a story... But Kathleen loves the library. She spent our time there dashing around, looking at the shelves of books, repeating, "Library! New books! Library! New books!" Madeline must have been equally excited about being at the library, because she kept babbling all through story time. And we managed to log another first at the library (this one's for you, Krissy Toth): our first successful public pottying. I'm just glad it was at the children's library and not, say, Walmart.

We left the library and made a quick trip to the commissary. As we arrived at the commissary, the soldiers were marching off the parade field, and they crossed the street right next to the commissary parking lot. The girls and I took advantage of a break in the rain and walked over to watch them. Kathleen starting running in little circles and dancing when she saw the troops, yelling, "My Daddy! My Daddy! Soldiers marching! My Daddy! My Daddy!" The soldiers detailed to direct traffic thought she was hysterical. It was too bad her daddy didn't get to see her. (His battalion had been the first off the field, so they were long gone by then.) But he had a good laugh when he got home!

Keeping Busy

So, blogging has been a bit of a challenge lately. Generally the girls have napped at the same time in the afternoon, giving me (even on a bad day) at least 90 minutes to get things done. But for some reason, that just hasn't been happening lately. Instead the girls are tag-teaming -- I'll get one down just moments before her sister awakes. That arrangement is good for one-on-one time with each of the girls, which is precious, but not so good for overall productivity. So, things that can only be done when I've got two free hands and a clear head have beeen slightly neglected around here. Blogging, mopping the floors, the list goes on and on...

In an attempt to catch up, I got up early this morning. I did manage to get a little accomplished. I set two pots on the stove to simmer, one of apples and one of carrots. (We haven't started feeding Madeline fruits and veggies quite yet, but I've begun preparing some food for her so there will be plenty ready when she is.) I sat at the computer and, just as I began this entry, Madeline woke. It was about an hour earlier than I'd been expecting her, and I let her cry for a moment to see if she'd fall back to sleep. Her cries only became more insistent, so I went into her. The poor girl had gotten her leg stuck in the crib! Madeline's been rolling all over, making use of all the space in her crib, prefering to sleep on her stomach. This time her travelling didn't work out so well for her. I freed her, and tried to calm her, but no amount of soothing would convince her to go back to sleep, so she came out to work with me in the kitchen. So much for blogging!

And when the girls aren't sleeping (which is a lot!), they're busy! Kathleen is particularly busy. Lately I've found that it's best to have Kathleen very involved in whatever I'm trying to do, because a few unsupervised moments can lead to a big mess. Over the weekend we washed our cars, which was a fantastic chore for Kathleen. (Even a mess is clean, in that case!) She loved to help.

Kathleen has been helping me water flowers, sweep, plant cuttings, move laundry, do dishes, and cook. But chaos can ensue even when we're only a few feet apart. For example, a few days ago the girls and I were putting away clean laundry when Kathleen disappeared for a moment. By the time I crossed the hall and found her in Madeline's room, she'd covered her face in diaper cream. (Channeling her inner mime, perhaps?) When I stepped away from the sink yesterday while Kathleen was washing her hands, she emptied an entire bottle of lavender baby wash. Last week we were in the kitchen, cooking chili and corn muffins for our celebration of "If You Give a Moose a Muffin." (We've already eaten buckwheat pancakes for "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and cookies for "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," so we've about exhausted that game.) I was standing at the sink rinsing the beans for chili, and when I turned around, Kathleen had emptied the bottle of chili powder across the floor, and was making her own art exhibit in the middle of the kitchen. By some miracle the amount I needed for the chili was still in the bottom of the jar!

I like to remind myself that Kathleen's busyness isn't an attempt to kill me or drive me crazy. (Some days that's easier than others.) It's simply her way of exploring her world, and (hopefully) a sign of curiosity and intelligence. And although it may give me a headache some days, I really wouldn't have it any other way!

Adventure!

"Adventure" is currently one of Kathleen's favorite words. We use "adventure" frequently, to convince Kathleen that an otherwise less-than-exciting outing is just what she wanted. The commissary? An adventure! The NEX (Navy Exchange)? An adventure! Schlepping around on a hundred errands when we'd all rather go to the park? An adventure!

However, we took advantage of Friday's "training holiday" to take a more legitimate adventure and visit the Honolulu Zoo. We hadn't been in ages -- the last time we'd gone was in March, I think. We spent the ride into town talking all about the different animals we'd see. By the time we arrived, Kathleen was very excited. Madeline, a little less so.

She rode in the stroller for the beginning of our tour of the zoo, but eventually moved to the Beco. Despite her laidback posture, we think Madeline really enjoyed the morning. Even if she didn't love the animals, she was amazingly well-behaved.

We traipsed all over the zoo. Fortunately for us, the Honolulu Zoo isn't all that big, so Kathleen was fine walking most of the time. She didn't want to sit in the stroller. When she did need a bit of a ride, she elected to sit on Daddy's shoulders.

Kathleen was mesmerized by the animals, particularly by the monkeys.

She was extremely impressed by them once they started moving around. To be honest, I found it pretty impressive, too. Those guys can move! Another highlight was the giant tortoise habitat. The turtles were out, slowly crawling around their exhibit. Of course, the thing that made the turtles exciting for Kathleen (and the preschool class that showed up while we were there) wasn't so much the turtles -- it was that a sprinkler was running to keep the turtles cool in the heat, and the kids got wet, too!

And just in case walking all over the zoo wasn't enough exercise, Kathleen stopped and tested out the playground next to the Keiki Zoo. (Keiki means "child," or in this case, "children's." The Keiki Zoo is the petting zoo.) The playground is set beneath some gorgeous old trees, so it's shady and cool, even in the heat of the day. Kathleen loved it!

Eventually, we called it a day and headed for home. Not that it was a whole day -- it was more like a long morning. Although we felt sure that Kathleen would fall asleep on the car ride home, she stayed awake for some Jamba Juice. That meant we got a whole nap in the afternoon. That, in my opinion, is a perfect adventure!

Checking up on Madeline

Big smiles
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

Our littlest girl is giving us plenty to smile about these days. Madeline is amazingly social and has accumulated an array of crowd-pleasing skills -- she coos and gurgles, blows raspberries, and giggles. She'll watch until she's sure she has caught your eye, and then flash her biggest grin. She's quite the little flirt!

I can already see that our days of a stationary Madeline are numbered. We've still got a ways to go before I'll be chasing after her, but this little girl can hardly wait to get on the move! She's mastered rolling. I hadn't realized how adept she'd become until the other day, when I laid her on her back on a blanket to play while I folded laundry. I'd just straightened up when I noticed Madeline was already on her tummy, pushing herself up with one arm and reaching for a toy with the other!

And although I don't remember starting Kathleen this early, we've recently given Madeline her first couple tastes of rice cereal. So far, so good. She has taken a few tentative bites, and seems happy to be a part of meal time. I think watching all of us eat was making her a little jealous!

We took her in for her four month check up last week. (A little late, but she's still four months old!) Madeline weighed in at 14 pounds, 15 ounces, and she's 24 inches long. According to her pediatrician, those numbers put Madeline a touch above the 75th percentile. Madeline again charmed everyone in the office, and weathered her vaccinations like the little trooper she is.

And one more important thing about sweet Madeline: no one can make her laugh like her sister. Madeline laughs a lot, but she laughs most consistently for Kathleen. Honestly, half the time I can't even figure out what the two of them are laughing about. (Of course, I am well aware that in a few years time they'll be laughing about me!) Here's just one of example of our two giggling girls in action:

Surprise, Mama!

This afternoon Kathleen woke a little early from her nap. I was still nursing Madeline, so I didn't go to get her right away. Normally, if that happens, Kathleen sits in the rocking chair reading books, so I wasn't particularly concerned. Additionally, I was listening to her on the baby monitor (which we've begun doing since Kathleen's been sleeping in a toddler bed), so I felt confident that there wasn't much going on. Ah, how wrong I was!

After a few minutes, when a fully-fed Madeline had been placed in her crib, I went to get Kathleen from her nap. She had just begun fussing when I opened the door.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" I began. And then stopped, dumbstruck.

Kathleen sat on her bed, literally covered in baby powder. Her face was white like a mime's. Her bedsheets looked as though they'd been given a liberal dusting of powdered sugar. The floor was covered in powder, too, complete with toddler footprints. The air in the room was hazy with it.

My brain kicked in a few seconds later, when I told Kathleen not to move and that I'd be right back. I ran to the diaper bag, fished out the camera, and captured this moment of toddler mayhem:

After snapping two quick photos, I grabbed Kathleen and began (cautiously) to dust the powder off her. In a matter of seconds, I too, looked like I'd been rolling in powdered sugar. I tried to take stock of the damage, inspecting the linens and floor. Oddly enough, there wasn't any container of powder lying around the room.

Kathleen must have sensed my confusion, because she wriggled out of my arms and went straight to the dresser. She opened the top drawer, pulled out the now-empty bottle of baby powder, and handed it to me.

"Mama, this!" she explained.

All I could do was laugh. How could I be upset? After all, she did pick up after herself!

Soldiers Marching!

Watching the band march...

Daddy's battalion got a new commander this week, so on Monday the girls and I attended the girls' first change of command ceremony. This is a pretty impressive place to have a change of command -- from the parade field you can see the mountains, which are gorgeous. The day was sunny and warm, and the ceremony went beautifully.

We watched from a shady spot a little ways from the seating (since we're not always reliably quiet, so being right by the podium seemed a dangerous idea). To my delight, the girls were very well behaved. Madeline didn't fuss a bit. Kathleen even managed to stand with her hand over her heart for the entire national anthem. She loved the band's music and the marching soldiers. In fact, she'd say, "Soldiers marching!" every time they moved. She looked for Daddy, and I think she saw him as his company passed us. At least, she smiled like she'd seen him!

New Tricks for a New Year

Have you seen all these toys?
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

The girls are growing at a rate I find truly astonishing! Every day the two of them find new ways to entertain (and occasionally exasperate)each other (and their parents).

We recently rearranged some furniture and rediscovered the exersaucer, which had been stored in its box under Kathleen's crib. Even though we figured Madeline would be too small to use it, we decided to set it up, knowing that "too small" turns into "too big" all too quickly. Good thing we did, because Madeline took to it immediately. In fact, she seems to have been ruined for any other distracting device -- she's had enough of the bouncer and the swing. Only the exersaucer will do. She's surprisingly strong, able to hold herself up and turn herself around, looking at and testing out all the toys. And Madeline loves to have Kathleen play with her, manipulating the little puppet or demonstrating the gadgets. Madeline smiles and laughs as her big sister points out new things. The two really do get along famously.

Kathleen has also been busy trying out new things. We're so grateful for the warm weather here, because playing outside is one of our favorite things. Friends gave her a bubble-blowing lawnmower for her birthday, and she pushes it around the yard in little spurts, pausing to run after the bubbles. Kathleen's quite the little runner, and we have lots of fun playing tag and racing to the park. The other day we were playing outside when she began to use her Superman ball as a bouncer. (I'd say that she'd been inspired by Dwight Schrute, but she hasn't seen a moment of "The Office"! )

She took a number of tumbles off the ball as she bounced, but that only made her laugh harder. I wish I'd thought to take some video of it. It was hysterical!

Happy New Year! (At least in New York)

We celebrated New Year's on New York time, so that bedtime happened right on time!



We wish you and yours all the best in 2008!

Christmas Joy

Good Christian men, rejoice
With heart and soul and voice
Now ye hear of endless bliss
Joy! Joy!
Jesus Christ was born for this
He hath ope'd the heav'nly door
And man is blessed evermore
Christ was born for this
Christ was born for this

Our Christmas was full of celebration. We quite literally celebrated for days, savoring the joy of our Savior's birth and the joy of being together.

The celebrating began on the 23rd, when Kathleen was invited to a birthday party for Jesus. Our friends the Farmers hosted the event, and they did a fantastic job. The children made a nativity craft out of popsicles and clothespins. They also enjoyed an enormous bounce-house! Kathleen's not quite as good at jumping as some of the other children, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. Before the party, Daddy had been telling Kathleen how to make new friends: you walk up, you say hi, and you tell them your name. Kathleen tested out this approach at the party, racing by the other little girls on the bounce-house, calling out, "Hi!" and then patting herself on the chest and saying, "Neenie!" (That's Kathleen's version of her nickname, Leenie.) The other children didn't quite understand what she was doing, but Mama did! (And it reminded Mama that Kathleen is her own person and, at some point, will venture out into the world on her own. It was a particularly scary realization for Mama, and prompted some conversing with Jesus. Good thing it was His party.)

After lots of bouncing, the children took turns blowing out the candles for Jesus' birthday. Kathleen has been singing Happy Birthday to Jesus ever since.

On Christmas Eve our family had a splendid little dinner. We have our own (relatively young -- but we've only been married 5 years!) tradition of cooking a German feast on Christmas Eve. Now, we're not claiming that this is what Germans eat on Christmas Eve, but it's some of the foods we miss from when we lived in Germany -- bratwurst, brotchen (rolls), kasespaetzle (cheese noodles), and gurkensalat (cucumber salad). Although we weren't able to find Gluhwein this year, we toasted with some Erdinger weissbier instead! And we finished off our meal with some lebkuchen (we'll admit it's much better if you buy it fresh at a Christmas market) and some Rittersport chocolate. Yum!

After supper we went to our Christmas eve service, where a friend snapped the above photo of us. And after our beautiful, candle-lit service, we captured a very tired Kathleen wishing everyone a merry Christmas:

We enjoyed a leisurely Christmas morning, slowly emptying our stockings and opening our gifts to one another.

Because Kathleen is too small to read nametags (even our genius has her limits!) we tagged everyone's gifts with shapes: Mama was a green circle, Daddy an orange triangle, Kathleen a red heart, and Madeline a yellow star. Kathleen did a very good job of making sure everyone got the right presents!

We opened some gifts, took a break for breakfast, and then opened some more gifts. Kathleen then decided to press her new water toys into immediate service, and took a bath. By the time we finished the bath and some lunch, it was naptime. Present-opening continued in that meandering fashion for days!

After naptime friends joined us for Christmas dinner. Altogether there were eight adults, two toddlers, and four infants. It was a wonderful, slightly crazy, joyful gathering, and just as Christmas should be! We are grateful to have good friends when family is so far.

After supper, Kathleen and her friend Addie participated in a long-standing Christmas tradition: ignoring new presents and playing with the box!

We hope that your celebrations were just as joyful. Merry Christmas!

A Child at Christmastime

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
--Laura Ingalls Wilder

My heart has indeed grown tender this year as I've watched Kathleen delight in Christmas preparations. Her joy and enthusiasm in cooking, her wonder at the beauty of decorations, and her growing understanding of the gift of the Christ Child have made this season truly special.

We've given (or will give) sugared pecans to many of our friends for Christmas this year, and Kathleen was very helpful in preparing the nuts. She's not so good a measuring yet, but she's awfully good at putting measured amounts into the mixing bowl. And she loves to stir. Not everything she stirs stays in the bowl, but she's improving.

Look at me! I'm helping!

Kathleen loves our tree, which she calls a "Crissen Treat." We've had many discussions about that fact that it is a tree -- like the trees in our yard, for example -- but she insists that it's a treat. I suppose she's right, in a way. Kathleen was a big help in decorating the lower parts of our tree. It's a far cry from last year, when she pulled off the ornaments every day! The post tree-lighting ceremony was held at General's Loop (where -- you guessed it! -- the generals live), and our family walked over for the festivities. Kathleen's face when they lit the giant tree was priceless. "Oh!" she whispered, "Pretty lights!" (The fire engine was the other highlight of the tree lighting ceremony. Santa arrived on it, but since Kathleen doesn't really know who Santa is, he wasn't nearly as interesting as the fire engine itself.)

A few weeks ago we visited Ala Moana mall (the one the tourists visit, too) to have dinner and do some Christmas shopping. Although a trip to the mall happens for most people at Christmastime, a trip to Ala Moana actually qualifies as an event. There's a stage show in the center of the mall, based on the local Christmas favorite The Christmas Gift of Aloha. We hadn't thought that Kathleen would be too interested in the show; I guess we figured it would be over her head. We were absolutely wrong. We wandered over after dinner, and Kathleen watched from her Daddy's shoulders. She was transfixed. The singing, the dancing, the lights -- she loved all of it. I actually cried in the middle of the mall, overcome by the joy of watching my child transported by Christmas magic.

Kathleen has taken to singing lately. She's mastered "Happy Birthday" -- between Kathleen, Mama, and Jesus, that song gets quite a bit of use this week. Her holiday favorite, though, is "Jingle Bells." She sings it all the time. She has no interest in learning the "jingle all the way" part, however, so she simply sings "jingle bells" over and over again. We recently put her down for the night and listened to her sing "jingle bells" for nearly five minutes before she decided sleeping wasn't a bad idea after all. Another favorite is "Deck the Halls." Despite my attempts, "Silent Night'' and "Away in a Manger" haven't been nearly so popular.

And, best of all, Kathleen is learning about the real meaning of Christmas. We have a little magnet nativity set that I picked up one of the times we visited Prague, long before Kathleen was born. Kathleen loves to play with the set. (In fact, we've found the pieces all over the house, although the Holy Family seems to travel together.) She can identify Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus, and she knows that Christmas is Baby Jesus's birthday. Hearing her sweet little voice as she talks about Baby Jesus is truly precious.

Terrific at Two Years Old

Hooray, I'm two!

We know it's cliche to even mention, but it's hard to believe that it has been two years since Kathleen was born. And it's somehow harder to believe that the tiny baby we met in a hospital in Kentucky is now our energetic, talkative toddler.

We celebrated Kathleen's birthday with her favorite dinner -- a pizza picnic! We even let her have a little soda in her sippy cup. But the pizza paled in comparison to the excitement of presents. Kathleen deftly opened her gifts, cheerfully inspecting everything. It's amazing to me that last year she hardly understood the concept of presents, because she was all over it this year!

Kathleen tried on her new dress with matching purse, flipped through her new books, and took her new animal toys for spin. She also opened up her "Whose Baby Is It?" puzzle and promptly set to work, wowing us with her ability to identify animals and put together pieces.

After dinner and some playtime, we brought out the cake. Kathleen understood about the cake and candles, too. We'd barely told her to blow the candles out, and she'd done it. In fact, she was so quick that we almost missed the photo altogether, settling for this shot of extinguished candles and closed eyes.

We hope her wish comes true!

Kathleen's arrival was the answer to our prayers, and our lives with her have been a blessing beyond words. In the past two years this little girl has taught us more about joy and patience and persistence and love than we'd ever known. Hearing her say, "I luff you," watching her hug her baby sister, seeing her grow and learn and become the person she was created to be is humbling and harrowing and delightful. We love you, little girl, and we thank our God for you each and every day -- but today especially. Happy Birthday, Kathleen!

Playing Tourist

This past weekend we played tourist, and we stayed down on that small but very famous stretch of sand -- Waikiki Beach. Although many tourists who come to the island never leave Waikiki, we've found that we hardly ever go, since we live here. There are more than a few reasons: the traffic into "town" is almost always horrific, parking is a hassle, it is, after all, packed with tourists, and we live closer to the famed (and yet more laidback) North Shore. But Jim's unit had a formal ball for a welcome home celebration at a swanky hotel on Monday night, so we decided we'd take the opportunity to be tourists ourselves!

We learned an important lesson, though: our little family isn't really at the stage where staying in one room is a very good idea. Because we were worried that Madeline might wake Kathleen, I picked her up for almost every little peep, and so she was up a lot at night. And Kathleen is so inquisitive and so busy that it's a little challenging to put her down to sleep in a hotel room. She's just convinced that she'll miss something fun, so she can't really be bothered to try to sleep. At home we hardly ever have trouble getting Kathleen to bed. We have a little routine with some stories, some milk, and some singing, we say a little prayer, put her in her crib, kiss her good night and walk out the door. Since we couldn't walk out the door at the hotel, we settled for hanging out in the bathroom! We sat on the edge of the bathtub until we thought she'd be asleep, and then we'd (quietly) reclaim our hotel room. We thought we were a little crazy until we ran into the parents of another toddler at breakfast. They'd done almost the same thing! So, if we're crazy, at least we're the kind of crazy brought on by parenthood!

Despite our sleep challenges, we had a great weekend. We all got a chance to relax a bit.

Kathleen loves to swim, and she had a ball testing out the hotel's different swimming pools.

Another highlight for Kathleen: the penguins and turtles living right at the hotel. I don't know how a hotel comes to have penguins and turtles, but we sure loved visited them. We stopped by a couple times a day each day we were there!

And a random first for Madeline: her first stroller ride. Normally Madeline rides around in a sling or the beco baby carrier, but that can get a little challenging with wet swimsuits and such. We'd brought the stroller more for Kathleen, but discovered that Madeline was quite happy to lounge in it, watching her sister play.

(And, as a side note, although I've complained for months about not being able to figure out how to recline that little stroller, Jim looked at it for about two seconds and figured it out. Honestly, how did we survive without him?)

Mama and Daddy had lots of fun at the ball, and the girls had lots of fun staying up in the room with our friend Sarah while Mama and Daddy ate and danced and enjoyed grown-up conversations. We owe a HUGE thank you to Sarah for a truly stress-free night. And, for the record, friends, I'm not holding out on you -- although I took my camera to the ball, I failed to take even one photo! So, no pictures of the grown-ups. Sorry.

On Tuesday we headed home. Our adventure was fun, but exhausting. I think this picture says it all:

Short and Sweet

What a pretty girl!
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

A few days ago I scheduled our little car for an oil change. Fortunately, the dealership is right across the street from Costco, so I figured the girls and I would kill the hour-and-a-half wait time by doing some shopping. Unfortunately, I forgot that Costco wouldn't be open at 9am! After about 10 minutes of hanging out in the dealership's waiting room, I realized that the three of us absolutely had to do something, so we headed out for a little walk. We hit Starbucks for a coffee for Mama and a treat for Kathleen,and still had more than an hour to go. And then inspiration struck!

Kathleen's hair had gotten quite long, so we popped into Fantastic Sam's, intending to trim up her bangs. But she was so good that it turned into a full haircut! After a bit of discussion, the stylist and I agreed to trim her hair into a sweet little bob. (Her scraggly hair had sort of grown into a baby mullet, and I wasn't sad to see that go!) At first I was sad that I wouldn't be able to put her hair into little pigtails anymore, but now I'm pretty happy with just pinning her hair back with little clips. There's a lot less struggle, and she's still darling. The hardest thing to get accustomed to is that she just looks so grown-up now...

Tape?

So much for the shed...
Originally uploaded by the golbys.

A couple of weeks ago, a big storm blew through here in the middle of the night. The wind blew, the rain poured down in buckets, and the thunder shook everything. I was even a little scared by it, although the girls never woke up. The force of the storm knocked out the power, and it stayed off for about 18 hours. We were lucky, though -- there were parts of the island that were out of power for days.

In the morning we were able to see a bit of the damage that the storm had done. Trees were down all over post -- not to mention on the house next door. Again, we were fortunate. Aside from the inconvenience of being without power, our only storm casualty was the Army-issued shed in our backyard. It was first thing Kathleen noticed when she wandered out onto the lanai.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed. "Mama, house broken!"
I explained that, yes, the shed had fallen down in the night, because of the wind and the storm.
"Oh, no!" she repeated. "Mama, fix it! Mama, fix house!"
I told her that we'd all go out -- Mama and Daddy and Kathleen and Madeline -- and we'd look at the shed and try to fix it, but that I wasn't sure that it was something we could fix.
"Mama, Daddy fix it!" she exclaimed. And then she looked at us, perturbed that she had to explain such thing to us:
"Fix it! TAPE!"

What did you say, honey?

Everyday Kathleen speaks more and more and we get more of a glimpse into her little world. She can effectively (if not always politely) convey what she wants or what she thinks. She still often needs to be prompted to say please, but generally remembers to say thank you or "danks." She'll call, "Mommy check Mah-lin, Mah-lin crying," when she hears her sister wake up. She yells "knock" as she pounds on a door and then immediately enters a room. When she can't find something or someone, she walks around the house calling, "Where are you?" And if all's right in her little world, she looks up at us, beaming, and says, "Happy!"

Kathleen still enjoys commanding us to sing, and now will sometimes sing along. She does a pretty decent rendition of portions of "The Wheels on the Bus" -- she knows "round and round," "wah, wah, wah" and "shh, shh, shh," among others. My personal favorite is her bus driver, who says "moof on back." (She makes a little fist and moves it as she sings, only she mostly moves it forward, rather than back.) The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Old MacDonald (e-i-e-i-o) and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star are also on her repetoire.

Lately I'm particularly grateful that I don't have a problem with cursing, since living with Kathleen is a bit like living with a parrot. Fortunately "Rats!" is the only exclamation she's repeated. There's something rather comical about watching her chatter "Rats! Rats! Rats!" after I've exploded at some minor home catastrophe.

And it's a good thing I don't have many secrets, because Kathleen certainly has enough vocabulary to blow my cover. A few weeks back I had one of those worst days of mothering, when Madeline fell out of the bouncer onto the floor. Madeline was fine, thank heavens, but we took her to the ER just to make sure. Kathleen can recount the whole thing for you, "Madeline fall bouncer. Hurt. Car go doctor." There's no predicting what will inspire a retelling of my truly low points, but she can do it with gusto. Of course, Kathleen also thinks that any bump now warrants a trip to the doctor, so we wind up saying, "No, honey, we don't need to go to the doctor today for that," more than I'd have imagined.

Kathleen is constantly picking up new words and putting them into use, sometimes before she's even sure of what they mean. One of Kathleen's newest words is "favorite" and she uses it all the time. She obviously knows that it means she likes something, but as often as she uses it, we're pretty sure she doesn't know how much she likes it. This week hot dogs, pork chops, cereal, yogurt, grapes, strawberries, water, milk, the christmas tree, playdough, the church nursery, a collection of books, throwing a ball, coloring, and playing "ring around the rosies" (which she calls "pocket," as in a "pocketful of posies") have all been favorites.

We had a bit of mystery last week when Kathleen kept saying, "Summin open doken." She'd say it rapidly, and a few times in succession, and she'd do it at various times throughout the day. Jim and I were at a loss as to what it meant. We'd ask Kathleen about it, but she'd just repeat it again and laugh, looking at us as though we were complete idiots for not being able to understand. Jim finally figured it out as we were waiting at the ID card section on Thursday to get me a new ID card. (Kathleen had slid mine down the window of the car and into the car door, where it landed with a thunk, taunting me with its irretrievability. We've replaced it now, though, and I can once again go grocery shopping on my own. Well, as on my own as you can be with two children.) In a flash of brilliance Jim asked, "Do the hokey pokey?" And Kathleen shouted,"YEAH!" (Which, to be perfectly honest, sounds a lot more like "deah.") Mystery solved, the four of us wound up doing the hokey pokey in the waiting room at the ID card section, to the great amusement of the crowds of people also waiting...

And as much as Kathleen talks now, I think Madeline will talk even more. She's cooing and babbling and smiling all the time lately. We have entire (unintelligible) conversations with her. Madeline also has begun laughing, and her laugh is so sweet and happy it always makes me teary. She'll laugh outright for her daddy -- big, long laughs that are like a conversation themselves. The only way I can get her laughs is to steal them. But at least we know she's ticklish!

Getting Away from it All

If you're wondering why we haven't posted lately, it's because we escaped for a little family vacation. One of the beauties of living on our little island is that other islands are so close. The flights (about 35 minutes to Kauai or to Maui) are a perfect length for our plane-loving but very active toddler. Having visited Kauai just before Jim deployed to Iraq, we decided to spend a little time on Maui now that he has returned.

We stayed in a condo on Ka'anapali Beach -- and when we say on, we mean on! This was the view from our lanai at sunset:

We couldn't have asked for a better location. We stayed in a garden unit, so there was a nice, green lawn just off our lanai. And a few feet beyond that, the beach! Not only did we enjoy amazing sunsets, but because we were so close to the beach, we could take turns playing with Kathleen, even when Madeline needed to nap in the room. Madeline came down to the beach, too, and she seemed to enjoy it, although not as loudly or enthusiastically as Kathleen.

When Madeline wasn't enjoying the view from my lap, or having her feet dipped in the ocean, she was napping in her tent, so she didn't get too much sun. She's the only one of us who didn't get even a hint of tan on Maui!

Kathleen loved every minute of the beach time. She jumped over the waves as they rolled up the beach, and she kicked around in the water when she'd venture in further with Mommy or Daddy. It's hard to remember that as a little baby she didn't like sand, because Kathleen is crazy about sand. She has discovered sand castles, and she insisted on building them on every trip to the beach. Well, she insisted that we build them. She's much more interested in knocking over the sand castles than actually building them! Daddy buried Kathleen, which amused pretty much everyone -- Daddy, Mommy, Kathleen, Madeline, a number of on-lookers at the beach!

In the above photo, you might be able to see Kathleen's bracelets. Her cousin Ali made them for her, and sent them with her mom, Margaret. Kathleen loves those bracelets! Once she put them on, we simply couldn't get them off her. She left them on, day and night, for more than four days. And then we only managed to take them off for a few moments... Thanks, Ali; you made Kathleen very happy!

We didn't do much sight-seeing. (Somehow, trapping the girls in the car so we could drive the road to Hana didn't seem like it'd be much of a vacation for any of us.) But even if we didn't see a lot of tourist attractions, we saw lots of truly breath-taking scenery. Some of that was the location, and some of that was the company...

And we hardly even noticed that, while we were gone, November ended and December began! It still seems like summer to us!

Awed by the Island

We've finally recovered from our colds, and we've been enjoying life on our little island. It's hard to believe, but (because Jim had been gone, and then we'd been sick, and then we'd been traveling, and then we'd been sick again) Madeline hadn't ever been to the beach! We rectified that situation last Friday, driving to the North Shore and spending some time on a deserted bit of gorgeous shoreline. Winter isn't the best time for swimming on the North Shore, so we played in the sand and at the water's edge.

Kathleen and Daddy had a great time running around, and Madeline and I had a lovely quiet time, sitting on the sand and nursing. After we were all tuckered out, we hopped back into the Jeep and headed home. It was only after we were driving back that I realized: because I'd been holding Madeline and taking photos, we didn't have any photographs of her first visit to the beach!

I did the same thing this Tuesday, when we climbed Diamond Head with Jim's sister Margaret and her husband Craig, who are visiting from Illinois. I've got photos of Jim and photos of Kathleen, but Madeline and I are completely missing. I've really got to get better about that! Fortunately for us, Margaret is a much more responsible photographer, and chronicled our journey up and down -- even capturing our family all together, not only at the top, but on the way down:

Both girls did great on the trip up Diamond Head. Even though she's not crazy about the Baby Bjorn, Madeline played along and slept on the way up the mountain. She did howl for part of the trip down, but by then she was pretty hungry. Kathleen took the trip in a few different stages. She rode in the Baby Jogger until the path got really rocky, when she hopped out and walked along with us. (We stashed the folded up jogger on the side of the trail, and picked it up again on the way back down. It worked perfectly!) And when it got too steep or her little legs got too tired, Daddy carried her. By the time we reached the glorious view at the top, Kathleen was more than ready for a break and some water.

Even though all the tourists around us were complaining about the steep stairs (a set of 99 steps, and a set of 74 steps, and a bunch more random stairs), Kathleen loved them. Here's a snapshot of her and Daddy on the way down:

So, we've been all over the island, enjoying the beautiful weather and admiring the magnificence of the creation around us. There's so much to inspire here -- the lush, green mountains, the crashing surf, the sparkling rainbows, the watercolor sunset. I find myself constantly amazed that we're able to live in a place with such beauty. And when I take the time to think about the creation, I can't help but think about the Creator. This island is but a small reflection of His own beauty and His power...

For the Lord is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
In his hands are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hand formed the dry land. -- Psalm 95