My Yaca...

One last exciting happening from our trip to Fiji. While we were there Inoke's sister Wati had a beautiful baby girl. The totally exciting part about it is they gave the honor to me of being her "Yaca." Often times in Fijian culture children are named after important family members like grandparents or special uncles or aunts. The baby is then called their "Yaca" or "Name." So Wati's baby girl is now named Karla Ann after me. She is a beauty! I love her dark curls and her big eyes and she waited for me to get there before she made her entrance into the world. (Seriously, we pulled into the driveway and Wati was waiting at the dinner table bags packed ready to go to the hospital, already in labor). She was 4.4 kg or about 9lbs 7oz., and another cool tidbit her birthday is 10/21 and my birthday is 01/12. How cool is that? So here are a couple pictures of my beautiful little Yaca.

Baby Karla Ann, 10/21/2009, 9lbs. 7oz.

Yaca's sister Juju (who is a Yaca to Inoke's Grandma Sulueti), Yaca, and Nolani.

Nolani, Me, and my Yaca or as Juju always says Baby Aunty Karla. :)

Nadia giving kisses to Yaca. She loved to give her kisses... but got a little jealous if I tried to hold Yaca too much. So I waited for Nadia's naps to spend time with Yaca. :)

Fiji 2009

So as I briefly mentioned in the post before, this trip to Fiji was a lesson on flexibility and going with the flow. Things just didn't exactly fall into place as planned. Like for example the intital plan was to land in Nadi and stay one week at the Sheraton Denarau... well never put too much faith in Fijian "hook-ups" (unless they are from Wes, because Wes is the bomb with Marriott hook-ups). When we got to Nadi the hotel didn't have any record of us and we ended up staying at at the Sandalwood Lodge for one night slightly less posh than the expected resort. So since the resort for a week fell through we extended our rental car agreement and headed off to Suva to meet Inoke's family. Lucky thing his sister Balavu was able to call a friend and get us a good rate for three nights at the Warwick Resort and Spa. Finally after eight years of marriage I got to experience the "tourist" version of Fiji for a few heavenly days. It was awesome. We had a wonderful time and I told Inoke next trip I am staying a full week at the Warwick again. The rest of our trip we stayed up at Balavu's home in Tamavua. I love that place, just hate the misquotes... but that is Fiji for you. It was so fun hanging out with the nieces and nephew, fixing Nolani and Yaca's hair for school each morning, and getting plenty of laughs from little Juju's attempts to communicate with her broken English (She goes is five and lives in the village on Gau so she is still learning English). Even with all the bumps in the road, the trip was a success and Nadia loved playing with her cousins and being carried around by her Ta Levu. In the end Inoke and I were able to look back at all the little Plans that fell through and laugh about it.

Nadia's First Birthday

So we are home from our little trip to Fiji. (I am going to break this down to two posts, one on the birthday and the other on the trip in general). Nadia's birthday was great. She looked so adorable in her Fijian Masi Costume, and she really enjoyed all the attention. It was quite comical watching her walk around and squeal with delight as the kids gathered around to sing happy birthday. Of course being an American Mommy my main concern was making and decorating the cake; Inoke's main concern was the REAL FOOD. In the end both of us worked it out so I ( I mean we) were happy. I got to bake my billion cupcakes and make home made butter cream frosting and decorate the princess cake... and Inoke got his chops, drumsticks, chop suey, curry, taro, cassava, and potato salad. It was a good deal in the end.

Fijian tradition is to take the mother and baby and dress them in the masi , present the tabua (whales tooth) then bring them back and present them to the family. I just have to say that I have never seen such a beautiful costume in my life. I absolutely adore Nadia's little salusalu and masi. They were perfect.

Here are some shots of the little festivity:

And here is the invitation that I designed but didn't get to the print shop before going to Fiji... Let me just say that while I was totally bummed that I hadn't gotten them printed up before our trip; in the end it was better. The time changed, the place changed, the everything changed. This trip was one of those trips where you need a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D... because things just don't ever go according to Plan A.

Hello, England

Last week was a bit of a whirl wind. We received news on Tuesday evening that Inoke's youngest sister Talei had given birth to twins and one of the babies had passed away after only 42 hours on Earth. It was very emotional and devastating to learn of Baby Nicole's passing. Since we are able to travel so freely abroad as US Citizens, (Something that I definitely take for granted) Nadia and I hopped on a plane Wednesday and headed for London to offer our support and love to Talei and Jona as they prepared for Nicole's funeral. This was my first time to England. While we were there for a sad reason, I couldn't help but be in awe by the beauty that surrounded us. Talei lives about 3 hours north of London in New Castle, it was such a scenic drive I barely noticed the length. It was a quick trip as we are already scheduled to fly out to Fiji for Nadia's first birthday this Sunday morning, but I was so grateful to be able to be there physically and to say good bye to Baby Nicole until we meet again in the next life. Nadia absolutely adored Baby Katie. She kept kissing her and resting her cheek on her head; Katie just looked up and half smiled. It was like they were old friends reunited again. We will defiantly be going back to England again, next time we will stay longer and see the sights. For now here are a few pictures of our little trip.

Happy Birthday Princess Nadia!

I love you, I love you, I love you! You are my little angel sent straight from heaven and I am so happy to be your mommy. You bring a smile to my face every day my little princess.

Eleven and 3/4...

I have a hard time fathoming the concept that my little girl is going to be one next week! Holy smokes how is it possible? She gets sweeter by the day and has the cutest kindest little personality; she is always sharing her toys and food with you. I adore each and every moment we spend together...(even when she is screaming her head off while I am in the shower because she is going through the "you can't be out of my sight" phase). Lately we have been experimenting on new hair styles for her curly locks. I can't wait for her sides to grow into those beautiful ringlets that she is bound to have. Here are a couple pictures from this morning:

Nadia's New Trick...