life via instagram

If I showed you my life on Instagram, everything would look so pretty.  Take a real photo, and you can crop what you want, filter how you want it.  

So, if you follow me on Instagram you have seen these already.  I re-post them on FB most of the time, too.  

In this one, you get to see how much Maximus loves mango.  He will eat them as fast as we can cut them.  In the hospital, when he would eat nothing else, he would eat mango.

Our church had  a luau.  We did some hula, we played some ukulele.  All of us.  For reals.  Okay, I kinda wimped out on the ukulele performing.  But it was a fun thing for my family to do.  Even Samuel does it, and seems to like it.  Maximus is sampling the kukui nut lei, here.   Doesn't he make every look delicious?

Climbing is sort of a hobby of Samuel's.  I like the way Maximus is watching him here.

This was Maximus' first real trip to the beach in months.  The therapists gave him the go ahead.  We thought it would be a year and it wasn't.  Sometimes things go better than they expect.

Lot's of sunscreen and a long sleeve shirt and he was all protected from the sun.  He played in the sand most of the time. 

We don't have much of a fall here.  I am fine with that.  But Eva got all nostalgic and starting missing falling leaves and crisp weather.  She's romantic like that.  We do what we can to make it feel like Halloween...

The painted coconuts found a home on our doorstep.  I tried to make it feel like fall.  And my friend added some webs and spiders, and Maximus was thoroughly impressed.  He was in his skeleton pajamas and I couldn't resist taking a photo.  He looks like a decoration, too. 

Ice cold coconuts.  Karl and I were eating at a restaurant and the singer people were singing, "Ice cold coconuts."  Only we both heard the song as, "I smell coconuts" and got a kick out of it.  We still sing our version every once in a while.  The opportunity comes up more than you would think, here.  They seem to sell them everywhere and our kids seem to be able to talk us into buying the 5 dollar drink every time.  Pushovers, we are.  But look, it buys peace and quiet, even if it's just for a few minutes.   

Maximus has been lining things up all over the house.  It is mostly adorable.  I don't have that gene.  I wish I did because I sure like the way it looks.  You can kind of see the way his arm looks without the gloves.  The blur of the photo kinda has a softening effect.  It looks like pink and brown candle wax was dripped all over his arm.  The scars are bumpy but soft.  My mom can't handle looking at them.  And they make Karl's mom and grandma cry.  But we are used to them here.  

They ordered some compression garments for his legs.  The baby Spanx are to help with scarring.  Those legs looks so yummy, huh?

Maximus also went for his first swim in the pool.  It was more of a dip.  He wasn't up for a swim.  He was exhausted because we weren't letting him nap so he would sleep on the plane ride.  It was an experiment.  It worked.  He slept the whole flight. He looks like a baby turtle here.  His sweetness almost oozes from this photo.  And the little peak of Samuel laughing in the corner... lot's of great emotions in this photo.

Just say no to hazing.  Karl initiates our kids into toddlerhood in our family by giving them one of his special haircuts.  I was not there for any of these.  Maybe that's where my issue is.  I had a feeling he wouldn't remember the Eva incident or the Samuel incident so I made this little collage to remind him.  The problem is, every once in a while he gives a great hair cut, so it keeps him from retiring the shears all together.  Allow me to properly mourn this one.  And I got a kick out of Maximus' blonde bird feathers.  Dads don't think about saving them.   I am sad even though when he goes to the dry air in UT it looks like Rod Stewart.  We discussed a trim, but it's all gone now.  One day these siblings can laugh and bond over this, right?  And I will laugh, too.  We will all laugh.  Ha ha.... ha... ha. Ha?

My sweet friend, Jamie, took this photo of our lanai (porch).  Karl hung some lights and it made it look all festive.  We eat a lot of our meals out here.  

Beach time, pool time, ice cold coconuts, luau, fresh picked mango, actually putting decorations up in or house... all these things are lovely.  Just lovely.  Even without the filters and the cropping, they kind of show that life is settling down.  

I really feel that way.  We went over finances and we are all caught up for the year, and finally feel steady.  Our ship came in, and landed right next to our new money tree.  Hehe.  I'm funny.  No, it's nothing like that. When the big incident happened (Maximus' hands, not his hair :)), they unknown was so scary.  Especially with finances.  But people stepped up and seemed to know what we would need even before we did.  And then they helped us.  It make me feel so safe to know that people had our backs and wouldn't let us fall.  

I'm taking down, "If you have asked how you can help..." side bar.  The help we have received has been so... helpful :).  Every penny, every prayer, every expression of concern and love.  It boosted our spirits to know how much people have been there for Maximus and for us.  

I know I say it like every single post, but, thank you.  

Thanks for helping us get our feet on the ground.