We spent all day at the beach today! Well, almost all day. We arrived at 9:30ish, and when the kids showed no signs of letting up at noon, Tutu went to get lunch. We finally packed up around 3.
Girliness gets buried:
Boyness finds STICKS (of course!):
Is there a Toddlerness napping in there?
Girliness has this boogie boarding thing down!
We even had time to invent a WAVE DANCE!
And here's how we spent most of our day:
Toddlerness LOVED going out past where the waves were breaking and just bobbing up and down with me. I imagine she will feel the swell and dip of the sea in her sleep tonight. I am hideously burnt...maybe experimenting with a new sunscreen was not a good idea?...but Toddlerness remains unscathed despite all the time in the sun. She must have gotten more Hawaiian genes than her blonde hair and blue eyes let on.
We had a sunny day yesterday! We went hiking to the lighthouse at Makapuu.
Actually, the hike never goes TO the lighthouse, which would be too dangerous for the kidlets - and the photos are clear that it is dangerous enough already - but instead winds a slightly wider and more secure path to some point above the lighthouse. The day was clear and beautiful, and we could see two of the neighbor islands (most days you can kinda see one...) - the camera didn't do a great job on this one but you can see it:
The big kids enjoyed feeling like they ruled the world (so high up!):
Keeping hydrated:
Toddlerness went back and forth from this:
To this:
After baking in the sun all morning (the hike took from 9-noon) we high-tailed it to the nearest beach, which also happens to be one of our *favorite* beaches (really!). The tide was high but the kids are much better at working with some wave action this year. They checked out all the marine life in the tide pools, and walked the rocks. Toddlerness did take a tumble, but it was on the relatively safe rocks right up on shore, and after a few minutes sitting on Papa's beach chair and eating raisins, she was back in the action.
Some snorkelling action:
Toddlerness "lost" her swimsuit:
And made a new friend!
They started out with 1-2-3-JUMP and by the time Toddlerness' new friend had to leave, they were up to 26-27-28-JUMP!
Girliness became the tide pool tour guide:
And Toddlerness spent some time rehoming the 'opihi. This is particularly fitting, as "young children clinging to a loved one are often lovingly called: ‘opihi."
Another stop for shave ice at the end of the day:
The kids somehow escaped further sunburn, despite things like forgetting to bring the sunscreen and so not re-applying, shedding the swimsuit, etc. Toddlerness got quite as much sun as I did and was using the same sunscreen I was...and she's not burned. But me? I *am.* My EYELIDS are sunburnt. WTF? Eyelids and the center of my back (not my shoulders). I swear it was the same sunscreen applied at the same time, and all I can figure is 1) I didn't put it on my eyelids, durh, and 2) toddlerness plus backpack on my back rubbed it off that center spot on my back. Come to think of it, look at this photo:
The burn is right where the straps meet the backpack. Methinks there is greater use of t-shirts in my future.
The kids are having a BLAST with all this swimming stuff. They would probably have spent all day at the tidepools yesterday if we let them. We might need to spend some time in the shade today
We woke up to a downpour on Sunday. It is tough to catch a downpour in a neighorhood with your camera, but I tried:
It was a great day to meet Grandpa and Grandma for brunch at the Hale Koa. After we got back from that, the weather was still dreary but it was hot, so we headed to the beach. We apparently weren't the only ones who had decided that hot plus clouds was OK with them. Toddlerness' hole was even pre-dug. Boyness and Girliness had a gentle reintroduction to the concept of waves (just enough wave that they could ride the boogie board in to shore, not so much that they were having to fight or get rolled).
We pretty much spent the morning on *me*. I, you see, had a small (ahem) issue of impacted cerumen to deal with. I couldn't hear and it was driving me totally bonkers. After 3 rounds of Murine Ear Wax Remover and a salad-dressing (olive oil and vinegar) flush, and then a vigorous warm-water irrigation, I have regained my hearing. Alas, my ear canal is so irritated that my whole jaw hurts, however. And alas (again) that I did not bring my medicine arsenal, which has the ear oil in it.
Anyway, once I'd managed to reestablish hearing, we packed back up and headed out to the beach. Toddlerness threw another royal fit over putting on sunscreen. We did manage, eventually, to slather everyone up with generous portions of the gooey white stuff. Because the weather is iffy (courtesy of tropical depression Cosme), we headed once again to Ala Moana, just because we were least likely to be rained on there. We were drizzled on just a tad, but it remained nice and warm and we barely noticed. Boyness had fun for a couple of minutes before the reemergence of the craptastic chaffing rash - I think we'll need to get a hold of some surf shorts for the kid (although my mom advocates for the Speedo), because I think the liner of the shorts is causing a lot of grief.
How Boyness spent most of his beach time (poor kid):
Toddlerness' favorite beach things: swimming nekkid and chasing pigeons. Alas, but I didn't have the camera on me while she was chasing the pigeons (SHOO!!! Shoooo!!! *giggle giggle*)
So the kids went to bed early last night and woke up early (5:45) this morning. We baked some muffins and bought some snacks at the neighborhood store, and were at the beach by 8:30. Toddlerness took a nap on the beach right away, and the older kids played themselves silly - they probably would have stayed there as long as we let them, but we left around noon. The kids rediscovered the wonder of spam musubi, apple bananas, shave ice, and taco poke. Girliness and I are sunburnt - Boyness and Toddlerness seem to have escaped. Girliness and Boyness are both rashing up something fierce and we're not sure why - hopefully we can figure it out and stop it, because the rashes seem to feel really "raw" and they hurt. Green goo rocks, but they're washing it off almost as fast as I can put it on. Back in the pool with Uncle Marty now, actually.
We survived our plane ride to Hawaii with only one toddler tantrum (over having to sit with the seatbelt on during descent). Both Girliness and Boyness had to sit "by themselves" (sandwiched between unfamiliar people a row behind myself and my father, respectively. They did just dandy.
So we spent the better part of the afternoon reaquainting ourselves with Papa's pool.
I've got a lovely sore throat today, and toddlerness is sounding a tad hoarse. Fuckness.
I am taking a doula client, unless things fail to work out. My first since school started. Birth center birth. Revising the contracts now, actually. I was using the DONA ones before and I actually don't like them very much.
Went hiking with my dad yesterday. Lovely trail, 3.5ish miles, kids did great. Carried a sleeping toddlerness the last mile or so though. Yeah, in my arms. Not so great. The kids had a wonderful time. Forgot the camera, which sucks even more than the usual forget-the-camera situation because 1) we rarely see my dad and 2) I just resolved to take more photos, since we only have like a dozen from last month and for us that is pathetic.
We had a brief drop-in from Aimee and family. Her family is lovely, her children are wonderful, and everyone was happy and got along. Seriously. It was great to see Aimee and she looks happy and healthy :).
My dad is coming in tomorrow and the house is in a state of near-total messness, aside from the kid craft/art/desk/whatever area that I reorganized a couple days ago. Ah, well. We are off to Hawaii sometime next week, for a bit of time with the family. And lots and lots of pictures and happy childhood memories for the kids, I hope. Send us some happy not-getting-sick vibes, since we've had stomach ailments in sequence each time we've visited and would like very much not to keep up the pattern.
