"I don't need a baby brother or sister. What I want is a donkey."

Welcome friends and family. This is a website dedicated entirely to Miss Selah Rain Delaney, and all of her adventures.
Under each entry, there is a comment box that you can click to leave notes and / or encouragement for Selah.
I will update often with stories, pictures, artwork and movies, so please mark this website in your "favorites" file, and visit again soon.

Much love and aloha to you all,

Hope (a.k.a. Mama)

Monday, April 5, 2010

It's been a long time...










It's been a long time since our last post on Selah's blog. We apologize for the long hiatus. Our digital camera and computer were both down for the count for a long spell... but, now we're back!



Since the last post in November (five months ago~!!???) there have been quite a few happenings...







In January, Selah decided to cut her dreadlocks. She's had these locks since about two years old, and so it was a big decision. Every few months for about the last year, she has started to mention she wanted a change in hair style. We started by trimming them into a cute pageboy style. Then, one random Sunday morning, she came to me and said, "today is the day. Let's cut my hair." Such a dramatic change to her hair was a little worrisome to us, but of course, she rocked it with ease. She was ready.








Selah has been doing very well in school, and is at the top of her class in spelling, math and Japanese language studies. She shines proudly and with great enthusiasm. Her third grade teacher Miss Warner told me through near-tears that she is extremely proud of Selah's progress and accomplishments. Selah's Japanese teacher (called Sensei) told me she is the "most enthusiastic" of all her students in Japanese -- that's a *lot* of students to be named Most Enthusiastic! We're proud, and we love hearing her sing songs in Japanese. Recently the school hosted a group of highschool age Japanese exchange students, and Selah was beside herself with joy and excitement about it. She says one day she'll "live in Japan with her ten children and hundred animals."








In February, big sister Anteia and GrandmotherYayu came for a brief but great visit. We handcrafted fairy dolls, painted pictures, tickled and giggled, swam in the hot ponds, and enjoyed some yummy meals together. We also prepped for and acquired a family of Muscovy ducks - a mother and her nine little ducklings. The girls had a wonderful time feeding, holding and oogling all of the little fluffy yellow chicks.








Selah's finishing up her fourth and final quarter of third grade. My has time flown so quickly. Unfortunately, horse riding lessons have come to an end. But, she still takes great pride in her animal husbandry here at our property. Each morning she feeds our two cats, one dog, and ten ducks before school.




Recently we were talking about how important it is to make sure the animals are fed promptly. I said, "we have to make it a priority to feed the ducks and animals each morning when we wake up. Do you know what I mean when I say 'priority'?" Selah paused a long time, and then said, "Priorities are things adults have." Well.... True, enough. Five minutes later she had her rubber boots on and was making her way outside, "I'll be right back. I have priorities."


Til next time ;0)




Sunday, November 8, 2009

Golden Birthday Number 9!


For Selah's birthday this year, she wanted a slumber party. (Actually, she wanted a roller skating party in the dome for all her friends and family, complete with disco balls, strobe lighting, in-line skates with pom-poms, "... and Michael Jackson songs ALL DAY LONG that we can dance to. Then, I want all my friends to spend the night and we'll stay up all night and eat a ridiculous mountain of candy." We compromised and settled on a slumber party.)







Five of the giggliest-greatest-girls arrived around four on Saturday afternoon. Each girl got a party bag filled with bubble gum, a headband, a colorful scrubby pom-pom puff for the shower, glitter nail polish, old maid playing cards, honking noisemakers, and ribbon wands. They overtook Selah's closet and played dress-up, got into clay-craft and mask painting, rocked the over-sized teeter totter with two gigglers on each side, punctured a hole in our dome wall play-fighting with bamboo swords, squealed, blew huge bubbles, and ate up a storm.




Selah requested a "tiered" birthday chocolate + pudding cake with real whipped cream and blueberries. She also requested NO singing of the Happy Birthday song as she generally feels too overwhelmed and embarrassed when she is sung to. She said she wanted a lot of candles and all of her wishes to come true but PLEASE! NO SONG!














After pizza, garden burgers, chips, huge wads of bubble gum, big chocolate cake faces, and a four forgotten tooth brushes, they piled into a huddle around a couple of fun-to-watch movies, and fell asleep peacefully until the sun came up at 6 a.m. Lots of tiny and feet and giggles and screeching came up with the sunlight. Pancakes and more costumes play finished out their stay, and then Papa took all the girls home.

I would venture to say this was Selah's most fun birthday ever! She's exhausted now, and waiting for more birthday cake. We can't believe it's been nine years since she graced our lives with her ever-expanding heart and kindness, silliness and greatness. We are forever thankful for her, and our love for her only deepens with each year she sprouts up a few more happy inches.














Happy Birthday Selah Rain! We love you!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween 2009: Gelfling!







One of Selah's favorite movies is The Dark Crystal, starring two elves called Gelflings that save the world from destruction. She decided she wanted to be her own version of a gelfling for Halloween this year. We trick-or-treated and visited an enchanted fairy forest at a nearby charter school.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Best Friends


I love it when Diego comes over.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Fieldtrip to Volcanoes Nat'l Park







Selah's third-grade class at Volcano Charter School takes fieldtrips every Monday to Volcanoes National Park. The park is near the school, and the fieldtrips are facilitated by Selah's teacher (Miss Warner) and Mr. Judd (a retired Park Ranger).






Tuesday, September 8, 2009

September 2009
















Here are a couple of recent snapshots of Selah... posted as requested. ;0)

Monday, August 24, 2009

"He was NOT the tooth fairy."




Selah recently went to the dentist for the first time.
She had questions about every single device and tool, machine, sound, plastic covering and especially any pastes or gels or colored tubes. Untrusting of the tools and situation overall, Selah kept her eyes trained firmly on the assistant with the sharp, loud, scary-looking tools. I think it may have been the assistant's first day on the job. Selah made her very flustered and nervous, and she dropped several sterilized items as Selah barraged her with questions. I kept assuring Selah that the best, most helpful thing she could do was to plant her little booty down in the chair, and just let them prepare for the exam.
You never want your first-ever trip to the dentist to be a traumatic one, but alas, such is life sometimes. Selah managed to swat the dentist's hand a couple of times as he attempted to administer her first novacaine injection. (This swatting resulted in her entire left cheek and upper lip to remain numb for at least three hours, which created quite a panic.) The dentist was great with Selah, and very kind and tolerant - but I can't say the same for his patient! It was highly traumatic, but thankfully, it was over quickly...
Nothing like a traumatic dental experience to motivate a life-time flosser! She was in tears on the way home, saying, "he was definitely, definitely NOT the tooth fairy. He shouldn't have been trusted."

Monday, August 10, 2009

Third Grader!




Today was Selah's very first day at Volcano School - an arts and science charter school that is well-established, financially sound, has an excellent reputation and just TEN! Minutes! from home! We have had Selah on the waiting list for the last three years; today was a special, exciting day (for all of us).


She was appropriately exhausted like you are on your first day of anything, but seemed in great spirits and without a single complaint. I thought this to be a good sign since it's such a different environment than her last school program.



Tonite, as we were reading her bed-time Jedi story, she quite impressively and smoothly read an entire comic book aloud to me with rarely a stumble (and of course, great enthusiasm).




I said, "Jeez, Kid! You're getting so smooth, you're going to be able to read anything you want!"




To which she laughed and replied, "Let's not get crazy here!"




Monday, August 3, 2009

"I really wanted a new look...."




















"...y'know, something cuter."


















Thursday, July 23, 2009

My Mainland Trip / July 2009
























































Here are some pictures from our July mainland trip...




















Selah had so much fun and there is so much to say about the amount of amazing experiences we had over that two week period. It was so wonderful to spend quality time with our family. And, I'm sure as time begins to allow for them, the stories will unfold and appear on the blog. For now, we'll start with the photos. enjoy ;0)




















Saturday, June 6, 2009

Graduated With Honor


"I graduated 2nd grade! It was very fun. And, I got to be the first one to get an award!"


Selah received recognition for most improved student of of 2008/2009 as well as the award for most well-behaved.


Proud! We are very proud!!

Monday, May 25, 2009

My Sister Teia and Me











"These are some pictures my mom took while my sister Anteia was visiting from Seattle in February of this year. Our grandma Yayu brought us these beautiful dresses from her trip to Nicaraugua. I love my dress, and I love my sister, and I love my grandma Yayu, too, of course.








What I most like to do with my sister is play! We play Star Wars, we play card games like 'Go Fish', and lots of other fun stuff.








What I like best about my sister Anteia is how much I love her, and how much she loves me."

Monday, May 4, 2009

Papa Smarter Than Mama







"Mama, I think Papa is smarter than you."






"Oh? Why's that?"






"When I ask him questions he knows the answer. When I ask you questions, you have to go and look it up."






"Huh. Hmph."






Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Lucky Me!







Today I was so lucky because three big horses wandered onto our property and ate some of our plants...






I fed the white-faced one; he was a boy. It made me feel like heaven and stars. I love horses.