2008 Year in Review

As we're getting ready to ring in the New Year tonight, I have been reflecting on this past year and what our family has done. So here is a recap of 2008.

January started off with Vai falling at a church function and busting his forehead open. It was serious enough to warrant an ambulance ride to a hospital in the bay area. A nice looking plastic surgeon gave him what seemed like 50 stitches (mostly under the skin for minimal scaring). We felt that we had finally arrived as parents of a dare-devil boy! Our first trip to the ER.

The spring was spent busily getting ready for the "big wedding" of Uncle B and Auntie M. It was a beautiful day and Tata, Vai and Girly were perfect in their duties of groomsmen, ring boy and flower girl. It was a day we won't soon forget.

Shortly before the wedding we lost our Aunt Lisa. It was very, very sudden and we are still mourning our loss. Luckily her oldest daughter has since moved closer to us and so now we don't have to wait for so long to see each other.

Also in the spring we started this blog thingy. Sometimes it is incredibly fun and sometimes can be annoying. But I think we are still dedicated to it for the most part.

Summertime brought about a big change as Tata is now a full fledged US Citizen. Something we actually didn't foresee happening; for at least a few more years. Although not much has changed in our daily lives, it was wonderful to be able to go and vote with him and I can't wait to see his new US passport.

We took lots of weekend trips over the summer, to Paso Robles, Monterey, and southern California. Asides from their swim classes, Vai and Girly also tried their hand at baseball and both seemed to enjoy the sport. But we mostly had a great time being out of school and just hanging with friends.

Vai and Girly started school in the fall. Vai is in the big K and Girly in preschool. They both love it and even Clown boy (Tata gave him that name but I am not sure if it is the right one) wants to stay and "play" when we drop them off.

We hit Oregon in Oct. and had a blast visiting friends and family. Tata even got to play in a rugby tournament and came home with some memorable bruieses. It was a great trip and we hope we can return soon.

The fall was also one of excitement as Tata and I have gotten back to our political routes. We were both on a couple of campaign trails and loved participating in them. We both love the political arena and it was nice to be back and feel involved in our community.

As mentioned, we started off the year in the ER and we almost ended the year the same way . Clown Boy dropped a bar stool on his foot one night and we thought he broke his toe, but nope; just badly bruised it. He didn't walk for almost 5 days. Imagine carrying around a 2 1/2 year old who weighs 32 lbs. Not easy. The toe nail is still black and I am sure it will fall off in a couple of weeks.

Our Thanksgiving and Christmas was spent with lots of family around, just the way we like it. Our children love their cousins and aunties and uncles. We love being from such a big, loud and fun family. The best part is that we keep growing and so there is always someone new to love! This year we welcomed in a new aunt, two new cousins and a new cousin-in-law but we just call him uncle. Our family is our greatest blessing.

We are excited for the new year and all the adventures that it will bring.

Hair Cuts

I would like to be able to claim that my 4 1/2 year old daughter has never had a hair cut, but I can't. She was born with a full head of hair and at 3 months old we had to style it with bows and head bands just to keep it out of her face. Both her Tata and I are in love with long flowing Polynesian hair. She has the perfect combination, soft, wavy and silky hair. There is some Fijian tradition that you don't cut little girls hair until a certain date. My sister-in-law didn't have her first hair cut until she was 10 years old. However, I told Tata at the rate Girly's hair grows she will be walking on it by the age of 10. So we settled on her 5th birthday as the time when she would receive her first hair cut. Well that was a few years ago. Girly has taken it upon herself to cut her own hair. To date she has had 5 hair cuts total! Yep 5! and 4 were in the last month alone. Her first self hair cut was in March of 2006. I cried so hard, because she cut it so short in the front section it looked like she was trying to scalp herself. Until that piece grew long enough to hide in a pony tail she wore what we called the "Donald Comb-over!" I think we made her feel so bad after that because anytime we mentioned cutting her hair she would cry! Great our guilt worked! Or so we thought. If we even talked about having a professional cut it she would swell up with tears, shouting, NO! NO! NO! Phew we were safe. The first hair cut!

Well, in the last month she decided that when ever anything gets stuck in her hair she just takes a pair of scissors to remove it herself. To date she has cut out chewing gum, and 3 pony tail holders. Instead of coming to one of us and asking if we will help get them out she just finds the nearest pair of scissors and simply removes the object with long strand of hair attached. Then she proceeds to bring us the handful of hair. Some times we find the hair on the floor. She just drops it there once the annoyance is removed. Lucky for us with her curls you can't tell and it looks like she has layered hair. However there is no rhyme or reason to her layers because she just cuts randomly. After this last episode I decided that was it. We were heading to a professional to try and fix the damage. But we had another instance of immense tears. Seriously I don't get why she is so scared to have someone else cut her hair when she is willing to do it herself all the time. I have caught her trying to attempt to remove another pony tail holder and told her to come to me and I was able to untangle it with out having to remove any hair. So now I am at a loss as to what to do. I've decided I won't mention getting a professional hair cut again until her birthday. Then we can play it up to what a grown up thing it will be and how much fun it is to go and have your hair styled. I have also removed all the scissors from her sight; they are now hidden in a special place in our office. Hopefully this will derail any thoughts of cutting her hair again. Maybe this is her secret addiction. Who knows.

This is what her hair looks like today. It is any one's guess as to what it will look like tomorrow!