Mimi has a problem..

No no no..... Mimi's PARENTS have a problem! We have a 2 1/2 year old who is definitely showing her defiant personality these days! Oy-vay! A very snippy "NnnnO" is what we hear all day and a constant battle between pants and no pants, nap and no nap, food and no food.

She's most happy these days strutting around the house in a pair of my heels (kids/princess/dress up heels just don't cut it) and insists that her pants be rolled up above the knees when doing so. I have no idea where she gets that from! I swear I don't walk around the house in my shiny stilettos and shorts! And i really don't think she's learned it from Curious George either, although maybe I missed the episode of George being curious..... ;)

She still sings her heart out to whatever is playing and her favorite songs are "I knew you were trouble"-Taylor Swift and "A-Team"-Ed Sheenan. I admit they're a little adult, especially a-team but she loves them so much and sounds so cute singing them that I figure what's the true harm... I mean really, she's 2. At this point she's just learning vocabulary and pronunciation not so much context, right??

We mastered potty training a couple weeks ago and have had just a couple accidents since. She loves pointing out everywhere she has potty-ed. "Chuch E Cheese, Mimi potty there!" "We go Target? Mimi potty Target!". I should make her a push pin map of all the places she's gone to the bathroom in :)

Let's see, what else is new with Ms.Mimi.... She was quite sick a few weeks ago :( She had pneumonia, an ear infection, an eye infection and a stomach bug all at the same time! She recovered like a champ and was making up for lost down time for a while there! She was non-stop jumping and climbing and dancing and running. It was great to see :)

I guess the other big news is that Noemi as signed to a modeling agency! Meredith Talent and Models called us and said they wanted to represent her. I had sent in her info months ago after a friend suggested that her exotic look might be in demand these days and boom, one day out of the blue they call us, we meet, they like her look and voice, love that she's bilingual, we do some headshots and she's signed! The color picture is her current headshot and the black & white is from a recent kemem :) Thanks again Kari for the shot- I love it!

I still can't figure out how to post videos off my iPad but I'll attempt again over spring break.

Take care everyone! Oh and again, please feel free to ask questions, reach out or leave a comment :)

Details about Noes kemem

Just some more FYI about Noemi's kemem:

We had a picture slideshow of our trip playing with marshallese music.

We had the kids play island inspired games:
Hot Coconut (same as Hot Potato but used a plastic coconut instead)
Island Hopper (We drew a palm tree on an island on 8 sheets of paper. We laid the paper around in a circle and basically played musically chairs but they had to hop from island to island)
Pin the coconut on the Palm tree

We had sea shell baskets as our centerpieces with hibiscus flowers poking out

My nieces learned a Marshallese dance but did not get perform it :(

Anyway, just random thoughts that I forgot to share earlier.

NOE'S KEMEM!!

Well the big day came and went (although her birthday is tomorrow). We celebrated Noe's 1st Birthday surrounded with lots (lots!) of family and friends. Not everyone could make it and we completely understand being that it was Labor Day weekend and all.
Kemem's are celebrated in the Marshall Island's to wish a child a long and healthy life. The belief is that if an infant makes it to its 1st birthday, they will live a long life. I think this is due to the very high infant mortality rate (close to 30/1000, compared to 7/1000 in the US).
Since we are a tri-cultural family we decided to have 3 food stations (my dad's a chef so it was semi-affordable!) We had a Marshallese station with a Roast Pig, noodle salad and a lo mein type dish, a Mexican station with rice and beans and a pulled pork dish and an American station with baked beans, potato salad and hot dogs =9 Yummy. Here are a few pics from the party. My BIL took some great pictures for us and as soon as those are ready i'll put them up.