Missing Maui

With fall leaves on the ground, and winter temps starting to descend on Moraga, we made a family getaway in November to Maui, and spent ten fabulous days enjoying tropical sunshine and warm ocean water.

We were thrilled to bring along another adult -- Grandma Cecchin -- to even out our adult : child ratio,  and we also added to the fun by meeting up with Tim's brother Jeff and his wife Sarah, and four year-old cousin Marco. Finally, we convinced our friends Mark and Christine DeWeese to plan their family vacation at the same time! With a combined five kids in the entourage, no one was at a loss for a playmate, and the adults even got a couple of nighttime breaks, thanks to Grandma!

We loved every minute of our five days at Wailea (at the Marriott Wailea Beach), and followed it up with another five days at the Westin Villas in Kaanapaali. Both resorts offered beach access and plenty of kiddie fun in the way of slides, pirate ships, and wading pools. The kids lived in their swimsuits for ten days, and proved that they can't wait for the swim season to start up again! They even took up surfing, along with their very tentative parents!

The highs of the trip included taking an outrigger canoe out to sea at Kihei Beach in search of turtles (and finding at least a dozen, many of which swam directly beneath our small canoe), taking surfing lessons for two days and watching Joey fall in love with the sport, receiving our very first visit from the Tooth Fairy in our hotel room, and enjoying a lot of "unscheduled" beach and pool time with the kids, watching them explore, swim, and make new friends.

Of course, every trip has its lows, and we'll never forget temporarily losing Clara when she made her way from the kids' pool to the beach -- fearlessly solo. Just as we were on the verge of calling on hotel security for help, "Fireman Mark" found her playing by herself at the water's edge. Yikes!

We also might have erased all of the relaxation from the trip with our stressful flight home, when Molly was THAT baby for at least two and a half hours.

Overall, though, we're so thankful for the time off from work and home pressures, and the chance to make these memories as a family! Without further ado, here's a slideshow of our time away...

'Dis and 'Dat - Molly at 18 Months

At 18 months, our little "copper top" may have lost her red tresses, but she's making up for it by keeping us on her toes with her "sweet and salty" personality.

The kids helped me compile a list of the words she now says, in order of frequency. After gently informing them that they she does not, in fact, say "cool" or "wow" yet, we agreed that she has a total of 18 words. Topping the list? Dada. She uses this word far and away the most... even, much to her mother's annoyance, in front of a roomful of babysitters and parents at the gym childcare. The other day she saw me enter the room, dropped her blocks, and ran to me at full (toddler) speed, shrieking, "DADA!"

Runner-up for the most common word we hear from her these days is "Hi!" -- notably when spying older men in the grocery store or at Target. She's been known to attempt a kamikaze leap off my hip into a startled, uncomfortable 85 year-old man's arms.

She loves nodding vigorously and saying "Yeah!" as well as extending her index finger like a little dictator, and demanding "'Dat" and "'Dis." She loves to throw food and toys and dogs and exclaim "uh-oh!" and of course, she makes up for her third-child status in the house by bossing "Da-is" and "Akey" around.

She's in awe of her big sister, and will often run the length of the house and back shouting "'Ara! 'Ara! 'Ara!" when the subject in question is at school. She also knows that she could easily be parented by "Oey," and looks to him for comfort, help, food, and horseplay.

She perfected "cheese" and "please" simultaneously, and is lately always ready with a smile when a camera is around... or when someone even picks up an iPhone. During a holiday photo shoot, she was on point and definitely the star of the show, especially since uncle "KyKy" was behind the camera.

Finally, she's picked up "thanks," "juice," "no," and "cheers!" -- all to feed her sippy cup and snacks habit.

Along with new words, she's picking up some attitude and dramatic flair. She's been strutting with her hands behind her back for months now, but recently added a hands-on-hips move, has been known to cross her arms in defiance, and is not above throwing her whole body on the ground when she's really mad. These two pictures from Hawaii say it all!

But she loves cuddling, snuggling, and being toted around on Mommy's hip, and is still never more content than when she has her thumb in her mouth. She loves dancing, will bring you a book and ask to sit in your lap all day long, and wants to join in "big kid" fun as much as possible, especially when it comes to her new love affair with pen and paper.

In other words, she's growing up way too fast! Thank goodness she at least looks like a baby! She routinely gets mistaken for being under a year old, and has the stats to prove it. At her latest check-in, she weighed 21 pounds (7th percentile), was 30.25 inches tall (25th percentile), and proved that this Irish lass really is a Cecchin with a 47cm head circumference (75th percentile!).

How to Cook a Turkey

Shortly before Thanksgiving, Joey's kindergarten class compiled a list of "recipes" for Turkey Day. The kids dictated their culinary thoughts to their teacher, then drew a picture to accompany it, and the combined 19 recipes were bound together with yarn and sent home in everyone's backpacks.

Much to our relief, Joey's recipe was neither one of the following:

"We make popcorn in the microwave. Then we eat it in a bowl!"

"I like to eat mac n' cheese from the box! It's my favorite!"

Instead, his grisly, but mostly factual contribution was greatly inspired by watching his uncle Jeff fry up a turkey in a fryer set up on our driveway for our annual "Fake Thanksgiving" with the rest of the Cecchins.

"Cut the head and feet off the turkey. Cut the wings and tail off. Then cut it up and put it in a hot pot outside and then wait for a while and then you eat it!"

That's it! Add in six crazy cousins (some missing from the photos below thanks to an iPhone syncing failure... boo!), one extra dog, and a dash of roller-blading, bike-riding, a couple of baseball injuries, and movie-watching/ kid-corraling, and you have a Thanksgiving feast! Mangia!

The Mediumist

The latest from The Little Girl Who Knows Everything:

"Mommy, did you know I'm not the biggest in our family, and I'm not the littlest? I'm actually the mediumist."

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