mah munchkin!

two munchkins

2011-01-27T23:31:00.001-08:00

ITs been almost 2 years now since I've updated this blog! Fair to say life has kept me busy! I now have 2 delightful little girls to keep me on my feet night and day!
Adria is now 3, she just turned 3 last month.How time has most certainly flown by. From a shy little ulupo'o, she is now a most outgoing little girl with a head full of red-tinged curls! Not really sure where exactly the curls come from as both Poi and I have straight hair, but both sides of the family have some waves! The reddish tinge is definitely Poi's dads, although my great grandad did have red hair!

Adria's words are just now getting clearer, she had a lot of gibberish that was almost like a secret code only me and her dad understood- words like "kain" for drink...most of thats now all gone, she just has a few more constanants to wrestle with like x and g! little fob she is!!

This is her and her sister, Moana in pots. I put the baby in a pot and adria insisted she get in one too, I thought she wouldnt fit but look, she could, still pretty small for a big girl!

This is Adria, after Nana Adria has had a go at her with some make up!!

As you can see, shes a real monkey!!
At the mo, Adria likes to paint, to sing (pa'ulua as it is!) to help me weed and plant, and weed out my newly planted plants!!Lol! she likes to get her feet dirty, in the mud, through the puddles, whenever you give her a chance. She demolishes ice cream but also favours fried rice, saimini, vienna sausages (i know my mum would be shaking her head at me!) but also - raw cucumbers, ripe bananas and avocado are also her favourite!!

This is one of little Moana. Shes a real joy. Pretty relaxed and happy,bigger then Adria was at this age. She likes attention and hates people turning their backs on her!! thats about all that will make her cry! pretty strong , held her head up from only a few days old!!
thats all for now- til next time!!

growing quick

2009-08-02T03:16:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I last updated this blog. Adria is now 1 year and 7 months, so almost 8 months since the last entry! so much has happened. to begin with, we went on holiday with bubbles. to NZ and auzzie. The best thing about the trip was that being in a colder country meant more carpeted floors, and adria finally learnt to walk (that was earlier this year at about 13-14months old)
Then, on the 3rd of June this year, my baby sister died in a tragic car accident. Typing this out is so much easier then actually speaking those words. I can not speak those words without choking them down, and trying viciously not to cry...which is hard. It has been an enormously trying time for me and my family, and we are still confused as to how you cope with something like this, other then to just be in denial about it. its too huge.
what gets me, is that even at a very young age, my baby girl already had such a relationship with her aunty luana. She was spoilt by her.And living overseas, meant that when luana did get to come spend time with adria, she would really devote herself entirely to being with her and making her happy and teaching her things. One of those painful things is I think Luana taught her to call every 'pretty' character in her books "luana" (or 'nuana' as adria says) such as cinderella, snow white, sleeping beauty etc. every time adria sees one of those pics she gets all excited and calls out "nuana!!" it makes me laugh at times, so like my sister to teach her that. but it also makes me want to cry. After a while, she will most likely forget who taught her that, and all the great memories she had with her aunty.
I hurt because my daughter misses out on such a great relationship I know she would have had with my sister.Because i have to resort to showing her pictures, which is not the same. If this is how we are tested, I just dont understand..really i dont.

lately, my daughter has also been pointing to pretty young girls (mostly the guests at the hotel) mostly those similar in height and colouring as my sister, and calling them 'nuana'...which is also kind of heart pinchingly sad. And sometimes, she just calls out her name randomnly, which is kind of scarey almost. Sometimes it makes methink, does she see something I dont???hmmm

anyways, im going to stop there cause my grief can get heavy.
Adria is saying so much more these days. Just tonight she started to attempt "fa soifua" cos she heard me say it...but its more like "aaaa papua!!" its so cute. She has such a cute hiii and byyyeee as well. other words are mum dad nana dana (sana for uncle alesana) cow,dog,woof,fish,bird,star,NO, kain (is drink!!) yum (is food!) cake (of course that was high on list of priority words! thanks mum) car, "ka o" (as in lets go!) walk, tutu,moon, star , poo!!lol the list goes on and its fantastic watching her develop. sometimes we think she doesnt do it fast enough, but thenwe look and think gosh she really almost isnt a baby any more! and we want her to slow down!!
anyways, theres a terrible case of a young pregnant mum with swine flu that had to have her baby out early, its made us think twice about trying to expand our brood (for now) praying that this mother recovers.

11months on

2008-11-22T12:24:00.000-08:00

scarlet with pop and brother benji!all grown up now huh!

mahdi hanging out at the park

mayadas little ,mahdi- not so little any more!

self entertaining!

checking out the bar

playing with dad

11months on, a head of hair an a ton of personality. Adria has really come a long way since our last post, she is all babble these days, mamamama, bababababa, dadadadada....i think the only thing she says with meaning though is ba (bye) not so sure about dada but shell look up at us and smile when she says that so she knows we are impressed! and shell only say mama when she is crying and not getting her way (as if mama to the rescue huh!) she has not yet crawled but i think she is going to skip that step all together, she can sit unsupported and reaches grabs and bangs her legs about and is OBsessed with peoples feet (like she checks everyone out and trys to figure how it is that we all walk!!LOL) but she can stand a bit now supported which is good. here are some new pics of her and her closest allies!! tee hee!

week from hell

2008-05-31T12:32:00.000-07:00

Week from hell

Adria has not been a happy camper in the last week. It all started on the day we took her to the beach for the very first time. That morning she was feeling a bit hot, mainly her head, and as I was flustering about it, the ‘husband’ declares (in all his wisdom having had how many again, oh, yea, this is his FIRST kid) that “that’s just her, she always has a hot head!” in attempt to yet again stop me from ‘overanalysing and flustering’. anyways, I was surprised to find that she was not taking to the water as I expected, seeing as how she loooves her baths and running water and is always trying to get in it, splash, get her hands under the tap etc…but the inner voice in me, said there must be more to this then her just not wanting to get in the water.

When we got home I took her temp, first it was 37.6 which is just a low grade temp, and next it was 38.5! yikes, so I got out the cold flannel and panadol. Only the next thing I know, she was spewing, she spewed so much it started coming out of her nose as well. I freaked out and was yelling for the husband; luckily he was there in 2 secs if only to calm me down. She seemed to recover ok from that, but I had to go into the bathroom and cry. I have never seen anyone do that before (spew from both nostrils and mouth!) and the look in her eyes when it happened, it was like she was looking at me going HELP and I CANT BREATH MUM…and the doctor in me panicked. As I do with my own family, its like I get this flight of ideas...like this could lead to that which could end up in this and OMG she could die!...yup…over exaggeration kicks in every time. But I still can’t handle it, having my own loved ones be ill.

It later turned out that she is teething; she’s been drooling and gnawing on every/anything that she can get in her mouth. She loves the chilled wet rag which is often the telltale sign as the cold offers comfort to swelling gums. At the same time, she has caught dad’s cold. He’s had a cough and runny nose for a week, and has been 1) sleeping outside 2) not holding her 3) washing his hands obsessively before touching anything that may end up in her mouth/hands…but alas, all was in vain it seems, as she now has a very adult sounding cough and a runny nose as well. My poor little bubba.

She will NOT have any medication. We found out in the last month (which we were very pleased with) that she dislikes anything sweet, shell chomp down on good old mashed potato/pumpkin/carrot etc but pureed fruit?? It’s like HELL NO...what is that crap you are putting in my mouth?? her expressions seem to say! We know eventually shell most likely develop a sweet tooth, but for now, she’s loving her veges (yay) so yea, back to the medication, alas- its sweet too! So the look on her face when we try to give it to her! My my, I did not think the face was capable of so many contortions!

And to add to that, who in their right mind was genius enough to make the baby panadol in cherry vanilla flavour?? Just a micromil of that stuff is enough to make her gag, and then I tried some myself and gagged too. IT’S HORRIBLE. What happened to good old orange/strawberry?? This stuff tastes like the preservative sauce left over in the empty jar of cherries that you buy for fruit cake, with vanilla and some sort of mint/alcohol taste in there too….its like who in their right mind drinks this sh*t??? anyways, I know have 3 bottles to throw away as a result of having 1 in my house, one in my parents house and one in the travel bag (just in case..ya know??lol) On the bright side, people are forever coming to my house to ‘look over their sick little kids’ and just expect that my fridge/cupboard is full of medicine as well (no, I am not a pharmacy/cist) so at least I can give it away! (har har...like anyone else will drink it- but who knows eh!)

Anyways, so now, she is my sick little baby. She’s lost her appetite, but she is still perky and happy and loves her milk. So we’ll just nurse her, hopefully back to recovery sooner rather then later as next week is a big week for her (grandparents coming over who haven’t seen her in 2 months and aunty coming from England who hasn’t met her at all) and we all know they’ll want to play/cuddle/carry her till the cows come home, so hopefully shell be back to her normal self by then!
ciao

pics

2008-05-21T12:26:00.001-07:00

Little Scarlett Growing up quick!!
Look shes sitting up! All by herself!! And making faces too!!

My monkey being a little monkey!

pics

2008-05-18T13:21:00.001-07:00

little monkey

2008-05-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

My little precious is growing a mile a minute, I say that but in actual fact shes probably only put on half a kilo in the last month, that is kinda normal but when you measure it (on the scales) you kinda expect that shes puto n huge amounts of weight! i think she has grown mainly in personality! She is now almost 5 months, and what a blessing it has been to watch her grow and develop and achieve the silliest little things. At prestn, shes learnt to kind of 'miki'. Like you know how mosts samoans tend to call each other, or their dogs, they miki...yeah well she does that, repeatedly now! She wakes up at night, lies in bed and does that! Some palagis here at the moment have commented on it saying she must be a true samoan!! ha ha!! Little Fob in the making!

She is slowly getting stronger and stronger, funny how it always tends to be assymetrical. Like she discovered her left hand way before her right, and now pushes up on the right side mostly, eventually it all evens out. :)

I started her on solids a few weeks ago, mainly mashed up pumpkin. I didnt necessarily want to, but almost felt pressured into it, by people and family all around me. Everyone just wanting me to feed her and fatten her up quick, under the false notions that she would develop any quicker if she were fatter! anyways, i truley believe that as a direct result of that, she became horribly constipated, i had to stop solids altogether and flush her out with laxatives, but not before enduring a week of her being irritable and grumpy all day and crying everytime she tried to poo! Grr...note to self, mum knows best and don't succumb to all the well intended but not necessarily best advice from those around me!

We went for a general check up with pediatrician a few weeks back, and what was funny was her weight was good, average for her age, but her length was above average for her age (in the top 25% of all lengths for babies born) and her head circumference was Waaayyyy above average!!(top 5% or largest heads!) LOL! thats her dads head right there! sometimes when she is on her tummy looking up she tends to drop her head down every once in a while, as if it just got way too heavy!! thats why we only put her on her tummy on the bed, all the baby books say she should be doing tummy time on the floor now, but its like- are you kidding? our rock solid floor, i think she would sooner break her nose with a head bang if we did that!!LOL!

some of Adrias close allies:)

2008-05-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is Baby Scarlet levi Betham, first daughter of my dearest cuz, Lynelle, and tim, she is adrias cuzin and is also a little munchkin!

This is Mahdi Zaki Brown, first son of my dear friend Mayada, he and adria are only a few months apart, and its great to have friends going thru the same things as me, ..great to exchange info , advice, and moments..ahhh...fantastico!

update

2008-04-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

baptism outfit!

impressed by her own hands!

just chillin with mum

happy with Grandma

munchkin

2008-03-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

the headband was to hold the ears in!! not for the look!! he he!!

laxing...watching telly on the lazy boy!!

Before all the baby hair fell out!!

a little older, alot more active!

This is how she loves to sleep- Freeze! hands up!!

little miss rolly polly!

She was all smiles even from day one!

This is Adria, when she was so tiny she was like a rugby ball in her fathers hands!

These are pics of my munchkins first month! It has been really exciting for her Daddy and I to watch her grow, from a little snuggly wuggly thing, into a more defined little girl!

baby adria

2008-03-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

the first few days...