First Birthday Party

For Kiran's first birthday, we chose to celebrate with a weekend getaway, just the four of us.  It was the best birthday party ever!  We got to enjoy time at the beach, in the pool, watching the sunset and relaxing.  Best of all, we got to celebrate our one year anniversary of being a family of four.  Other than Kiran coming down with a fever and having to troop through the weekend, it was perfect.  Thanks, KK!

Kiran Turns One!

I can't believe it and I'm sure most of you can't believe it either.  Little Kiran is one year old!!!

We celebrated his big day with lots of quality and much needed family time.  By the end of the day, after hearing "Happy Birthday!" so many times throughout the day, it seemed like Kiran even got it a little bit! 

At one year old Kiran is: crawling, pulling up to stand, and cruising; pushing his walking toys but not walking on his own,  calling his family "dada," "mama," "bubba," (brother) and "mo mo" by name (sorry Koko!), trying to imitate many words and sounds that he hears, pointing to his nose and saying "nooos," playing with his big brother more and more, playing independently with toys like cars and making "vroom, vroom" sounds, eating finger foods and enjoying anything and everything offered to him, trying his best to get a set of teeth (he's up to two teeth and four little nubs!), sleeping from 7-5 or 5:30 and eating and then going back to sleep until 7 or 7:30, taking two solid naps a day with no sign of dropping one, sitting forward in his carseat (no, we are not following the new recommendations), loving the water and practicing his kicks and bubbles, loving books and asking for them repeatedly before naps and bed with "book! book!!" and pointing, going with the flow in his usual style, and loving being one of the boys in the Harmeling household.

 Kiran has made the transition to two kids SO much easier than we anticipated.  He is such a joy to be around for so many reasons.
Here are some special shots of Kiran over the last year...

We love you Kiran!  Happy First Birthday!

Mother's Day

It was a gorgeous Hilo day spent with my three favorite guys that started with breakfast in bed and ended with barbequed ribs with great friends.  In between, the boys and I spent the day in the water, on the beach, and on the board at Baby Beach.  I even managed to sneak in a surf session of my own while the boys were napping. 

I had some time to think about motherhood and how lucky I am to get to call myself "mommy" to Lance and Kiran.  Being a mom is definitely the most challenging "job" I have ever had and I do take it very seriously.  Maybe even too seriously at times... but having two boys and loving them as much as I do makes me want to give them the most I can and be the best I can be... and watching them learn and grow is more fun than anything else I have ever been a part of!  Being able to do all of this with Stef by my side makes it all even better.  So, while it was incredibly fun and a huge treat to be appreciated by all three of my boys on mother's day (and I wished multiple times throughout the day that mother's day was every day) I also feel that I want to appreciate the joy that Lance and Kiran give me every day as their devoted mommy.

69 Lanihuli Street

For those of you who don't already know,  Stefan has spent the last year working his buns off to purchase, design, renovate, paint, tile, furnish, and move into his very own office building.  Aloha Nui Family Practice's new home opened it's doors on May 3rd.

The move has been an arduous process to say the least.  The last several months has involved several (stressful) meetings with banks, meetings with architects, engineers, electricians, contractors, etc., etc, etc.  All of that in between running his current office, completing charts and paperwork, running back and forth to Home Depot and Lowes (in Kona), continuing to be an ever present Daddy and husband, and trying to get some sleep...

We are SO incredibly proud of our very own Dr. Harmeling.  The new office has been up and running for almost a month and life is slowly settling back to normal.  Every time we drive by the "old" office, Lance proudly exclaims that there's "No more old office!  Only the new office now!"  Hoooray!!!!!!! 

Muscles

 Lance has been working out lately.  He is determined to be able to pick Max up by the time he sees him in July.  How's he looking?

Harmeling Hair

 At it's finest!

Teeth. At last.

Say goodbye to Kiran's completely adorable gummy smile.  After eleven and a half months, he has finally scored himself two teeth.  In his own personal teething style, his first tooth to sprout was his top right fang which was quickly followed by his left middle tooth.  So basically, he has two teeth on top that are not next to each other and are off center... when they are fully in, they might be almost as adorable as the gums that I have gotten extremely attached to over the past year.

I guess I should add that I, myself, was a very late teether.  My first tooth didn't show itself until I was 18 months.  Maybe that's part of the reason that while I am relieved that he won't be toothless forever, it's a little sad to say goodbye to his mushy little mouth.