Just the Five of Us

Mom snapped some photos before church last week.  It's hard to get five people lookin' good at the same time!  Here are two where we're all semi-normal.

Our Healing Garden

To answer your questions, yes, that was our yard in the Egg Hunt post. Isn't it beautiful?! It's one of the many perks of our new house. We're so happy here.

Actually there are four houses on the property, and we share the yard. And the gardener maintains the grounds. And we just set up our hammock in the screened-in porch. Woo-hoo! (I've been waiting 8 years to set up this hammock I bought in Venezuela.)

I feel like I'm living in one of those holistic-health, healing-garden, estate-places. Perfect for my post-partum recovery.

The big yard

Our house

This was one fabulous sunset.

I made this sign to announce our new arrival, and to give directions to friends since we have no street names or numbers.

Grandma Triumphs Again

My mom, Ann Fillmore, is a super hero.

She fears no diaper, no matter how gross.

She prepares a dozen meals in one morning.

She endures stacks of library books.

She's washed every dish in the house, multiple times.

She beats me in card games (that's actually not hard).

She makes my project dreams come true.
She completes all my daily tasks plus her own to-do's with ease.
She lets me nap everyday.
She calms a screaming newborn,
she occupies a mischievous toddler, and
she engages a curious little girl
... at the same time.

This woman amazes me.

Thanks for coming, Mom! We love you and miss you so much.

How's Owen?

"MALOSI."

That means strong & healthy. He's now 3 1/2 weeks (can you believe it's been that long?!) and everyday he looks slightly different. We can't tell who he resembles. He's just Owen.

Caught it.

Aren't newborns' heads just amazing? (Amazingly huge...)

We Adore Our Sweet Baby Owen

Egg Hunts

Saturday we enjoyed two egg hunts.  First the kids had a Primary activity at Maliumai beach resort.  Then we had an egg hunt in our yard with our neighbors.  My mom came into town again last Thursday, and she has been a huge help and lots of fun, of course!

Primary activity:

She did have fun, despite the frown.

Primary Picture.  Can you find Ella and Isaac?

Grandma helped the kids find eggs and get their lunch.

Then that afternoon our neighbors and some friends came over for a potluck/BBQ/egg hunt. Ella and Isaac decorated Easter egg balloons.

Enjoying the fruits of the day.

(Yes, that is a Halloween bucket.  We know no seasons here.  Easter... Halloween... just fill it with candy.)

Failele-Mother of a Newborn

I'm embarrased to say that one of my favorite things about recovering from childbirth is getting meals brought right to my door.

This morning our friends Lole and Ana brought over breakfast for me, the Failele. They explained that the failele, or mother of a newborn, needs nourishment early in the morning. They brought supoesi, or papaya soup. I'd been served this in the hospital, too and really liked it. Ana's supoesi had tapioca as a thickener. It was delicious, along with with wheat bread and butter they brought.

Last night for dinner our Korean friend Shin showed up at 5 pm with byoku, Seoul style. It was sesame beef soup with seaweed served over rice. She was so cute as she marched in the kitchen, plugged in her Zojirushi, found all the utensils, and served me up a nice warm bowl. She told us that new mothers eat this for every meal for a month. And they also serve it on birthdays. It tastes really good, I like it a lot, but I don't think I could eat it exclusively for a month. A few days, sure.

Our Kiwi friend (NZ) brought a fruit-based iron tonic. Our American friends brought chocolate chip cookies. Other friends brought Carl's Jr., casseroles, pastas, chicken soup, panipopo, and ice cream cones.

I feel so blessed to be here with such diverse and generous friends. So in case my family was wondering, yes, everyone's taking good care of me.