Hard Boiled Eggs

Selah has discovered she LOVES hard boiled eggs.

The smell of eggs makes Paul and I absolutely sick to the point of watery-mouth-illness.

We think her new interest in hard boiled chalky egg yolk is her way of silently torturing us.

Selah's Pets

These are Selah's two dogs.

The pug is actually a "foster dog" we are caretaking while his owner is away fighting a stupid war in Iraq. Her name is Winnie, and she is about 50 years old (in human years). She's portly, she's stocky and she's old - but don't let that furry exterior fool you - she can turn Sumo Wrestler crossed-with-growling Howler Monkey in a hot second. Winnie likes to watch cartoons and movies with Selah, and becomes aggressively protective when she sees Chewbacca or any other furry creature appear on the screen. Selah likes to put bonnets on Winnie. She's hoping for a basket attachment for her bike soon, "so I can stick Winnie in there, like E.T. and Elliott, flying over the moon."

The black pup is Mosu, our Manchester Terrier who famously hunts rabbits (and ate our beloved chicken). We adopted Mosu from a local no-kill animal shelter about two years ago. He's an amazing dog, very smart and loyal, and very attached to Selah. We have to bar her bedroom shut at night because Mosu has found a way to climb her bunkbed ladder. He loves to snuggle with his favorite girl, but his fur makes her sneeze when it's slathered all over her blankets. :0(

These pets are an integral part of Selah's life, and she's just starting to be involved in their daily care and feeding. She is constantly trying to talk me into giving the dogs baths, and will randomly bring me clean rags to clean their ears. "I think I'll let the vet do that when we take them in next week," I say. "I'm a vet, I can do it," says Miss Selah. The dogs always manage to escape her intentions of ear cleaning, and I think they can sense when she's going to attack. They hide under the beds.

"They look little and sweet and stuff, but they'll bark you off our land, or... eat your chicken." Selah says.

Papa visits home

Paul has been away from home for the better part of two months. We get to see him every two weeks or so, for short stints. He's building houses for Bamboo Technologies. We were treated to a short visit home and he left again yesterday.... It was so wonderful to have him home. We're a lucky family. :0)

Ashur

One day, Selah turned to me while we were driving in the car and said, "Ashur is my boyfriend, now."

"Oh?" I smiled, and turned the radio off.

"Yes," she continued. "He's realllllllly cute, and I have him locked in my heart forever." Her hands were clasped together and she was dreamily smiling.

"Maybe we should call Papa and tell him about Ashur." I got Paul on the cell phone at his job site on Oahu (where he's building his sixth bamboo house), and he talked to her for a few minutes. She repeated what she told me, including the part where she referred to him as her boyfriend. After she and Paul were done chatting, she smiled wide and handed the phone to me.

"Hello, honey?" I said, happy to hear his voice.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Paul asks in a serious tone.

"They're just friends..." I say, laughing.

"No."

Clearly miffed and unhappy about this new development, Paul is showing signs of becoming the father that waits for the boy on the porch with a shotgun.

Later that day, after I picked up Selah from school, she explained her and Ashur had an argument.

"...But, I won't let him out of my heart. I'll put a fence up around my heart, and a lock with a key, so he can't get out.... And then I'll put caulk in between the fence bars, so he'll really be blocked in."

What could I say. Hilarious. We thought it to be especially genius that she would employ the use of caulk (a sealing agent Paul uses in carpentry) to block Ashur in forever.

I just have to say out of alllllll the children Selah could have picked to lock into her heart, Ashur is by far the cutest, sweetest, bestest choice.

For now.

Selah's Friends

Amelia (left) and Diego (right) are two of Selah's closest friends here on the Big Island. We met their family on Maui, originally, about four years ago. Wow, how time is flying...

Breakfast in Bed

Selah woke me up this morning at 7:00 am. Typically we're out the door at this time, making the 20 mile drive to her school. But, today is Friday! (No school on Fridays)

Selah: ...wake up Mama, I made coffee and breakfast for you.

Hope: ....wh-what? How did you...?

Selah: It's in the kitchen!

Hope: How long have you been awake?

Selah: About six hours!

[ not true, probably an hour ... I walked into the kitchen to find that she poured grounds into the resevoir of the coffee maker, and had cracked about 10 eggs into a pan. ]

Hope: Thanks - I can see that you really wanted to do something nice for me...

Selah: Actually, I just wanted you to wake up.

Selah's favorite thing in the whole world is a baby.

This is Dejah Mahina Kapralova (Kele and Jasmine's daughter), who was born in June of 2007.

Another Favorite Dress

Here are two more pictures of Selah, taken about five months ago, in another of her favorite dresses. This dress was given to her by Chris and Anne Marie Roche.

aloha

This is the most recent photo I've taken of Selah. She's currently over four feet tall, weighs around fifty pounds, and wears a size 2 shoe. She's modeling a new dress that was handmade in Nicaraugua from her Grandma Yayu (Susan). She was quite insistent on Winnie (the pug in the background) staying put and being a part of the experience.



Here is a video of Selah dancing with her new dress on... This video was taken approximately two weeks ago. If you can hear the audio, the song is "The River is Flowing" by Sky Cries Mary (a Seattle band). Selah has quite a diverse list of songs that are favorites, and typically she wants to hear the current favorite a minimum of between four and sixty times per day.




Currently, Selah attends Waters of Life Charter School. In her first grade class of 18 children, she is currently learning Japanese and French, Hand Crafting Skills (currently this is knitting), Yoga and Dance Movement, Reading and Story Telling. The Waldorf trained teacher of her class is Megan Cannon -- an angel born to be Selah's first grade teacher. After an exhaustive search of our limited options for her education on this island, Waters of Life opened up like a ray of sunshine from a giant cloud. Miss Megan, as they call her, will be Selah's teacher all the way through grade six. She is truly a beautiful soul, and we couldn't be happier with her fondness for Selah. When we went to our first parent/teacher conference, she began our meeting by taking a big breath, and then broke into soft tears, saying, "Selah is an amazing gift to our class. She has truly the most golden heart." You can imagine that there wasn't a dry eye in the room.



Aside from going to a great school, Selah's major interests are in Star Wars movies, the animated series about a young warrior boy who can 'bend air' called The Avatar, reading and story telling, and drawing. She's quite articulate and deliberate and focused upon whatever she's immersed in, and her imagination continues to amaze us. About one year ago, she began telling Paul and I that she had 10 brothers that only she could see. The list has grown and grown, but rarely does she include any female characters -- those come in the form of her other fascination: Fairies. On and around our very pretty land, she's found nooks and pathways, and she will often disappear for moments at a time, shouting she's found a fairy forest, and she'll be right back. She loves the idea of bridges, as well. I tend to see her dragging large planks of wood from under the house to build bridges over small burms, and using water from the hose, and dug-out crevices to create streams.



Selah talks constantly about being an animal healer or vetrinarian, and I have a feeling that one day soon she's going to bring a lost dog or chicken or wild pig home and swear that it just followed her. She will often make small terrariums out of white 5 gallon buckets, filling them with chunks of black lava rocks, making sure to spritz all the surfaces with water, and then spend four hours trying to catch slimey black salamanders that live under the rocks. These salamanders, she explains, are the good-luck-dragons for the fairies that live on our land. Ah, to be seven again.



Be well, everyone.



Love,



Hope