This is my daughter Arielle. She's 15 months old and loves to dance. Whether she's in a good mood or bad, when she hears the beat of music, she can't help but stop and get her groove on. This photo is of her mid dance move while we were visiting family in Reno, Nevada. So far she prefers disco, 60s classics, Taylor Swift and upbeat dance music. It's truly adorable to watch as she starts bouncing and swaying while she moves her arms and shoulders as she sways side to side. Even in the middle of a fit of frustration, if you turn the right song on, she'll stop crying and start dancing.

Oh, how I wish I had that kind of resiliency, to stop amidst all of the chaos and stress of life and take a moment to dance and relax. Perhaps that's the answer to many of the problems we face today. We all take ourselves too seriously, allow ourselves to get too stressed out in this world of constant communication, mobile entertainment and instant gratification. I long for the days where you'd have to wait to check voicemail when you get home at the end of the day. I know it seems all so inconvenient to those of you who are too young to know or remember answering machines or using pay phones, but there was a certain kind of peace about it. You'd be able to go throughout the majority of your day relatively undisturbed unless you worked in an office. People had no choice but to be patient and wait for you to return their call. Lately, it feels like if you don't respond to an email or reply to a call within a few minutes that you're dropped the ball, so to speak. Wouldn't your life be so much more peaceful if people had to wait until the end of the day to reach you? I know mine would be.

Let's all make a conscious effort to take a break, take a breath and relax from time to time, perhaps even taking a moment to dance.

Arielle fancies herself a big girl, even though she's only 7 months old, she thinks she's a big girl like her cousins and her brother. She watches them running around and playing and wishes she could join them. Such is life as an infant. Although she's crawling (mostly) and able to do a lot of big girl baby things, she is still too little to get out there in the muck with her cousins and brother. Soon baby girl, all too soon you will be joining them and running around. Seriously, it feels like she's growing up so quickly that the time just flies by!  She is 7 months old already and wearing size 12-18 months because well, she's a big baby and big for her age...  I get excited with the new milestones she's experiencing, getting her first two teeth is the most recent of milestones but with every new milestone is a bittersweet feeling of knowing that my baby girl will all too soon be running around, then going to school... and it goes by in a blink. Alaka'i is 13 years old. That FLEW by for me. I can still remember the way his fat cheeks felt when he cuddled up close to me as a baby, the way his sweet baby sweat smelled after he napped, the way I'd hold him when he cried after he fell. Now my little baby boy is a little man, looking towards growing up and going through puberty and all the changes that are part of that process.  It flies by in a blink. Take your time babies!!


My Arielle really enjoys any little perks we give her where she feels like a big girl. Andrew got new headphones for listening to videos on his laptop and she wanted desperately to try them for herself so he unplugged the cable that connects to the headphones to let her try them on. She absolutely loved it. She smiled and let me take pictures. She's such a dolly. I asked her "who's a big girl now?, say it Ari, It's me mama!" and she laughed and smiled. It truly was a precious moment that I will remember forever. I wrote it in her baby book last night to preserve that memory in time for her even though when she's old enough to read it, she will have long since forgotten that moment at 7 months old.

If you have children, hold them close and cuddle tight. Breathe them in and enjoy all the precious moments, the smiles, the seconds of peace and the adventures to come because all to soon, those moments will pass and your baby will grow up into a teenager and then into an adult and you'll yearn for those sweet moments burned into your memory. Being a parent is a true gift. Thank you Jesus for blessing me with two sweet babies whom I love so much!

Ear infections and teething, oh how I hate thee! I forgot how truly terrible it was to watch the baby you love and protect go through the pain inflicted with teething. Arielle is cutting teeth here, so far only one is starting to break through although many are following. It feels gritty like sand paper buried in gum tissue and oh, the poor little darling, she is in pain. She's a tough little trooper though, still smiles and laughs and is actually quite a well behaved little 7 month old (she turns 7 months old tomorrow, yikes!). She's more fussy than normal and naps have become shorter yet she keeps on pushing, keeps on trying to crawl and wants to constantly cuddle her mama and dada. I love the cuddles even though I hate seeing her suffer through the teething process.

To add insult to injury, she's also got a double ear infection that came with a runny nose. She's been yanking at her ears and even her hair (sometimes ripping a handful of her wispy hair out).  After a day or so of her doing this, I thought that I'd take her to the pediatrician. Better to be safe than sorry!  I'm so glad I did because he gave me the antibiotics for her double ear infection and although her ears are still bothering her, she's feeling better since we went.

It's been 13 years since my Alaka'i was this age and I forgot how much pain the little ones go through when they teethe and have ear infections. Sadly Arielle is her mother and father's daughter and both my husband and I were prone to ear infections growing up. I can't believe that she's old enough to get teeth already!! Wasn't it just yesterday that I gave birth to her, held her in my arms and swore to protect her and love her until the end of time?  It seems like time is flying by at such a fast pace that milestones are happening sooner than they feel like they should be.  She's already wearing 12 months in her clothing. What's next? Walking? Yikes!!! Slow down, precious baby!! Mama wants to savor these moments just a little longer.

I know those of you who saw my post yesterday or follow me on Instagram or Twitter, have probably already seen photos of my baby girl Arielle Grace Ke'ohilani. These are the first photos of her that I haven't shared with anyone yet and they're probably the most precious photos I have of her because it shows those precious moments of her birth, some of which I didn't even get to fully witness because I was under anesthesia and on the operating table.  This is our birth story.

On Monday October 6th, I had a doctor appointment (4 days prior to my due date). I was big pregnant and we knew it was going to be another big baby for me. After all, my son Alaka'i was 10 lbs 4.8 oz at birth and they say the 2nd baby would be bigger so we were expecting 9 lbs or more. The doctor who actually performed my ultrasound told me that she was in position and ready to come but I was not in labor. They decided that I should be admitted to the hospital that day to be induced because she was locked in position and I was thinning and my body was getting ready to bring Arielle into the world. Well, we checked in Monday afternoon and they gave me all of the medication and I pushed and labored all night long. I woke up the next morning and was still in labor but not progressing the way that we had hoped. I was in labor for 3 days with Alaka'i so I wasn't all that surprised.


Towards the afternoon after still being on labor inducement medication, I started to really dilate and was at 9 cm but then it stayed at 9 cm for over 3 hours. The doctors kept checking me and I didn't dilate more and the resident doctor said that I was in major stress and so was the baby and that he wanted to call my main OB and have her come down and give me a C-section. Wait, what??? A C-Section? NO!!! That was not the delivery plan I had made. I had delivered a healthy 10+lb baby boy before, I could give birth to my daughter naturally. I didn't want to have surgery!!!  Needless to say that both he and my OB expressed the need for me to have a C-Section as baby Arielle's heart rate was dropping and she was showing signs of distress.  I sobbed, I worried, I panicked and my son Alaka'i was there by my side with my husband Andrew and my mom. We've never had a C-Section in our family, I've read horror stories about them.  Heck, one of my favorite YouTube mamas had died after a C-Section due to "complications of labor". I was freaking out, like really, desperately afraid.  My son cried with worry for me and the doctors told me it was time and I agreed. They whisked me away, prepped me and my husband came in and they started to cut me open. I will spare you the nasty details and photos as they are less important than the fact that a precious little girl, my precious little girl was about to be brought into the world.

The anesthesiologist had to give me a more potent pain medication because I could feel as my doctor cut into my flesh so there was a period of time where my eyes were closed, I could hear what was going on, but I was off in an imaginary world full of colors and randomness. It was wild. I heard my name being called and it was my husband Andrew saying that our baby was being born. Then he walked away and the anesthesiologist told me to look to my right and I could see her. In my haze, I turned my head and saw the nurses and doctors checking my screaming little pink darling baby.


I closed my eyes. I opened them and my husband was there with this fluffy, soft, pink, precious baby girl and tears in his eyes. She was so beautiful, so perfect. She was my little girl. Oh she looks like me and her daddy. Oh my precious baby. Arielle Grace Ke'ohilani came into this world on October 7th, 2014 at 9:42 pm weighing 11 lbs 5.7 ounces and 23.75 inches long. She was a big, healthy, pink, beautiful, loud little baby girl. I was instantly in love and have been with her since that day. Though she's changed significantly in her looks as these last nearly 7 months have passed, she is the most beautiful little darling in the world (I swear, I'm not biased or anything) Thank you Jesus for this beautiful girl, this healthy little baby girl and our little family that Andrew and I had that was growing. Gone were the days of being alone. Gone were the days of crying holding my baby boy feeling like a failure, feeling so alone. Gone were the days raising and parenting my little boy with no partner to help me, to teach him. Now we were a family. Alaka'i and I were not a lone pair anymore. We were a family with Andrew and now with Arielle.


"What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;" Arielle Grace Ke'ohilani, my little girl. Arielle meaning Lion of God (Hebrew), Grace for God's grace (when Jesus died on the cross) and Ke'ohilani (Hawaiian meaning "heavenly harvest/harvest of heaven").  Like her brother, her name was carefully chosen and the meaning of her name in my life goes deeper than any words on a page can express.  She's such a precious little darling and I love her so!

We are a big family of Star Wars geeks, my husband more so than the rest of us. Let's just say, we own all the Star Wars films, have Star Wars comics, geek out on Star Wars merch, Andrew wore Darth Vader cuff links at our wedding and he got our son Alaka'i a pretty legit light saber, with sounds and everything, for Christmas (which you see Arielle holding in the photo). In honor of "May the Fourth Be With You" which is known as Star Wars Day and a reference to the phrase the Jedi use "May the Force Be With You, I decided to geek out and take a fun picture of Arielle as a little Leia-esque baby Jedi. I photoshopped a smoky black background to cover the carpet she was laying on to give it a little more drama. I also photoshopped Princess Amidala buns on Arielle's head for fun because, why not?

It's Monday, I am exhausted. Who's a fan of Monday's anyway? I hope you and all your Jedi, Ewok, Wookie (or whatever Star Wars race you prefer) families have a wonderful, or at least a silly Monday.

If any of you are interested in the light saber we got Alaka'i, this is where we got it: http://www.ultrasabers.com/ 

May the Fourth Be With You All!!

This is how our journey started.

In March I went to my OB to check/verify that I was in fact pregnant and turns out, I was!