Tag Archives: audio

Big Events and Finishing Strong

It’s going to be 100 degrees today. It was almost that yesterday. I can’t think of a clearer signal that summer approacheth. Around here though, the weather is a little ahead of the game—there’s still lots to be done before we can officially say Team Hokama is on summer break.

The kids have 13 days of school left, but they’re not really into “the countdown” yet in this stage of their schooling, though I know they’re ready for a long break. As usual, we don’t exactly have our summer planned out, but I’m sure it will all come together. The only definitive is our friend Adam is getting married in Medford, OR at the end of June, so we’ll be trekking up there for that. And we’ll be camping—somewhere, sometime—so that’s the “plan” so far.

Continue reading Big Events and Finishing Strong

Keana Talks Hula-Hooping

Tonight after dinner Keana got her hula-hoop out and started giving it go. We all did actually, and when I tried it, I haven’t seen Sarah laugh that hard since, well, the last time she saw me hula hoop: Fredericksburg, Texas, November 2008. Anyway, I guess Keana’s done it recently in P.E. at school which has reignited the flame, so I thought I would ask her a few questions to get the keys to her success:

As she demonstrates, Keana talks about her method. Time: 2:25

Stressed out

Maia, the past couple weeks, has really been doing a good job sleeping through the night. She previously would wake up in the middle of the night, sometimes every 1-2 hours, saying she had to pee or wanted milk or some other 3-year-old excuse. I think she was really starting to adjust to being potty trained at night, even though she had been sleeping without diapers for quite some time. I think it was also partly due to the fact that now I, Papa, was responsible for Maia in the middle of the night. No Mama, so less options and I suppose less fun.

Overall the adjustment has been great. I take her to pee before I go to bed, and she goes right back to sleep and sleeps until daylight. It is glorious. But sometimes she has a little trouble falling asleep, especially if she’s had a nap. Occasionally, when she’s freaked out, we’ve given her a little homeopathic stress-reliever called “Rescue Remedy”. In the beginning of this month, she started relating that she couldn’t go to sleep because she was “stressed out”. I think these audio clips (taken 1/4/11 around 8:15 p.m.) speak for themselves; just a little glimpse into my life with Maia, pre-bedtime.

Maia talks about being stressed out and not being able to go to sleep. time: 2:19

Maia reads a story in an effort to calm down. time: 2:06

Life is but a dream…

Keana is continually amazing me with how thoughtful and perceptive she is. She always has, ever since she was a baby really. And the best part about many of her “earth-shattering” moments is that they come straight out of the blue and knock me off my parental rocker.

For instance, on 12/17/10 Keana just asked me, “What if we’re not alive? What if we’re all dead and we’re just dreaming this?” Then she said, “Because you know that song, ‘row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is just a dream’? I don’t think I’m alive because I don’t know what alive is.” Then she pranced off to her room to play.

I tried to catch the moment in a follow-up interview; see what you think.