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)

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!!

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."

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.

Six Chix

On Febuary something, we got six little chix. We got them just in time for my sister Anteia to come and help name them. We went to the feed store, picked out six, and brought them home. I love our chix.

First, I named my two chix Eela and Eli. Then, I changed Eli's names to Precious. They are the black and white chix.

Anteia's chix are the spotted yellow-black ones. She named hers Veelo and Beebo.

My grandma Yayu wanted to name a chick Peaches, so we picked out one that looked kinda Peachy.

My mama named one Graciella, and we call her "Grazie" which means Thank You in a language. We're going to thank her for the eggs.

They just keep on growing, and growing! Soon they will give us brown and blue eggs. I love my chix. I feed them two times a day, and this week, we'll move them out to their new chicken coop that my papa built.

the gnome hat

I love string tricks. They are just about my favorite thing that I learn at school, except for Japanese. I really like Japanese. I make string tricks up on my own. This one on the video here is called "The Gnome Hat." My dance movement teacher Tante Rosa taught it to me. I didn't do it perfectly, but I think you get the picture, right?

love, selah

Every Saturday

Every Saturday we start the day by driving to Hilo town, and I go to ballet at the studio called Center Stage. We are learning the basics and practising for a recital in May called 'Night 'Night Gecko." I get to wear a yellow flower hat and a beautiful costume!

Next we go to the Farmer's Market and shop for our groceries. I always get fresh lemonade and carrot or banana cake. My favorites! This Saturday, they had baby goats for sale that were only a week old. I begged my mom, but she still said no. First, we're getting baby chicks. And she said we have to focus on those first. I still want the baby goats, and I already picked out names for them: misty and skip.

I love the Farmer's Market and Ballet and so now, I really like Saturdays A LOT!

Have a Great Day Today!

"Here's what I want you to know today. My Papa is feeling a lot better. Look how handsome he is.

I finally learned how to ride my bike, and I can rock it on our dirt road. I rode two miles just last weekend with my mom and dad!

I can also blow bubbles now if I have a big enough piece of gum. I'm an expert knitter in knitting class, and my yoga poses are very strong. I'm the only one in my class who can do Full Lotus. If you're having any breathing trouble or a scratchy throat, just bend at the waste and go 'head-to-knee' -- it's great for coughs. Have a good day! Love, Selah Rain."

Belated Halloween

Due to Paul's unfortunate accident (broken ribs, lacerated liver) on October 30, the photos we took of Selah for Halloween didn't make it into the computer for errrr... a couple months... Selah was NOT happy about that.

"What about my BLOG?" She emplored. "You must post these photos at once!"

This year she had a myriad of ideas about her halloween costume. It had to be home-made. Not "Store-Made" as she calls the plastic ones you can get from any local drug store. "Store-made is for not-creative people," she explained. I asked her if she expected me to make her costume, she replied with a look I could only describe as "Duh, Mom."

For months prior the costume ideas ranged from Ewok-Princess-With-Wolf-Jacket-Cape to Frog-Goddess-With-Feather-Helmet. I wish so much I could have peered into her brain to see what her image of these costumes were. I wish even more I had the sewing skills to pull them off.

We took Selah to see the new animated Star Wars film "Clone Wars" and it was in the theatre that day that Selah found her ultimate costume idea: Ahsoka Tano, the new young girl initiate to join the Jedi's on their fight to preserve the good of the universe.

I made her costume and we're all proud to report that she WON her costume contest at school for "best home-made costume" and I must say, it was the best one there, hands down! (Hooray!) I've never seen quite a pleased, proud, confident, surprised look on Selah's face, all at once. I broke into tears for her posture as a Winner. It feels pretty good to see your child so fulfilled during what has been a very difficult and challenging period for us.

Love!

(P.S. Paul is doing much better, and recovering quite well !! )

Classic Selah Rain.

a few recent photos of our the family

Kids Say The Darndest Things...

I was walking hand-in-hand with Selah exiting our local grocery store. A small group of people were standing near the entrance, talking with a very old woman. The old woman was smiling and nodding, and leaning desperately onto a carved cane. She looked sweet and wise.

I overheard someone say, "Tell 'em how old you are now, Mom!"

And the old woman said she was 103 years old.

"It is AMAZING she is still alive, huh, Mama?!!!" Says Selah as we're in perfect earshot.

Plume

Hope: Wow. Look at that beautiful plume.

Selah: I don't know what a "plume" is. What I see is a galloping bunch of horses, wrestling up over each other, into the sky. They're taking Pele's message to the Sun.

Anteia Samara DeLaney

Selah proudly, proudly, proudly introduces her older sister, Anteia Samara DeLaney!

"What do you want to say about Anteia on your blog?"

"Well, I want to say everything. I want to say that Anteia is not my half-sister, to me, she's my WHOLE sister. And she's my best friend, too. She's all of that together, like the ingredients of love. [Pantomimes stirring something yummy in a big bowl] Teia loves me and cares for me. She's Papa's daughter. She's amazing! And very smart! She's a soccer player and a great singer. she can reallllly sing 'Amazing Grace' can't she? I love Teia. That's everything. Type it in."

Anteia lives with her mama and grandmother in Seattle, Washington. She's indeed a soccer star, a natural-born performer (like both of her parents) and very, very dear to all of us.

Simple Pleasures

Overheard conversation between Selah and friend at gymnastics class:

"I wanted my bangs cut. So, you know, I could have some hairs cut off the front. Now I can see better, and they help me balance for my head stands. I'm adorable!!"

Obon Festival

On Saturday night, the local Japanese mission held it's annual Obon Festival. The "Bon Dance" is one performed with reverence to one's ancestors, and is a walking meditation performed round a large tower strung with lights.

Selah's Japanese instructor Sensei (pictured left, explaining the different regional dances to Selah) invited all the children to come down and join her at the festival. From young to old, the people moved rhythmically, synched together in their regional dances. Some wear their silk kimonos, some cirlce in their local flip-flops and surf shorts. My favorite part was watching the colorful kimono'd elders smiling and turning in unison. The colors were beautiful.

Selah brought along her friend Kayla :0) I think Selah's favorite part of any activity is its potential for being a party. Whether people are spinning fire balls, performing a cultural walking meditation, or just standing around talking, if it feels like it's got party-potential, Selah is ALL OVER IT.

...Wonder where she got that?!! (wink) :0)

Second Grader!

Hello, loved ones!

Second grade started this year with lots of pleasant surprises!

Selah's charter school made several improvements to their site, including a fifteen-passenger van instead of the gas-hogging giant yellow school bus. Last year, each time I would meet the school bus, I noticed that at least one out of three children deboarded in tears. Come to find out, the bus driver was passing out pounds - yes pounds - of candy to the first graders. I'd watch the bus drive in, and notice the children were literally bouncing off their seats. I asked the bus driver to please not give out the candy, as it was clearly not helping keep them calm and safe during their ride afters school. It continues to be a mystery to me that school buses do not have seatbelts! I can't imagine a more important place for a child to be buckled in! So, I'm very excited about the new passenger van, and the elimination of the yellow school bus. We have a different driver this year, Mr. Hawkley, and he is an Waldorf-trained teacher, who keeps things very safe and calm. Selah prefers Mr. Hawkley, she says, "he keeps it all in order.".

The charter school is located in Seaview, which is a small beach community, located literally across the street from a gorgeous natural bay lined with black / sparkling lava rock. When it's not school-time, the location where the charter school is also known as the Seaview Performing Arts Center for Education, or "S.P.A.C.E." The owners are an ex-circus troupe, who are now providing a 'space' for children and adults, and entire families, to come and learn circus tricks, gymnastics, Angola Capoeira, singing & voice instruction, among other amazing classes.

Yesterday after class, Selah had her first gymnastics lesson, and was pleased as punch to learn that there were lots of children from her second grade class that would join her in tumbling. This was the first class I've ever seen Selah participate in where she's deeply involved and interested -- riveted, even -- right until the last minute of the cool down exercises. She ran hard, she played hard, she took a few spills. She didn't want me taking any photos of her in gymnastics class because she wasn't wearing a leotard. So, next Wednesday, she said she'll suit up, and be ready for her close-up!