Missing Hawaii

I am, of course, happy to be home with my kiddos and all things familiar. But on Saturday night, sitting on the couch at 10pm, after a bit of a bad parenting day looking around at my messing house, I longed for Hawaii. The peace, tranquility, escape from reality. I’m just going to say this–parenting if frickin’ hard work. I give kudos to those of you who have more than 2 kids–maybe even to those of us who have more than one or any for that matter. It’s hard work. Yes kids are amazing and all but parenting more difficult than I could ever articulate. The older my kids get the more fun it is but the harder it is. Noah has a mind of his own and he isn’t shy about sharing it with you and protesting and pushing limits. I have a short fuse and an emotional fuse at that. I react and shouldn’t. But, alas, I do. Zoë is pretty good but takes after her brother and just laughs when I get mad/upset. I know that I should be more calm and cool and collected. But we are who we are.

Back to paradise and it was paradise.  Hubby and I were able to just be married for 8 days.  It really was a second honeymoon.  It was amazing and we really did reconnect.  But, then we returned to the real and overwhelming world.  I missed the connectedness we had in Hawaii and need to find a way to get that back.  It really is a testament to our love but also to the sheer business of our lives with two kids who do not stop.  EVER.

Highlights:

1.  Being in Hawaii with the man I love
2.  Our condo–was so nice
3.  Scuba Diving
4.  Our Jeep–essential on the Big Island (we spent a lot of time in the car)*
5.  Fresh seafood and fresh fruit
6. The scenery
7.  Kayaking with dolphins
8.  The peace and quiet of relaxing by the pool
9.  Kona coffee
10.  Black sand beach–that was soft as silk and completely deserted**
11.  The green sand beach and the 4wd marathon to get there–beats walking
12.  The Ahi Poke from Foodland in Waimea
13.  Swimming with green sea turtles
14.  Hiking a rain forest and volcanic crater in the same day
15 and up.  The freedom for adult activities whenever we wanted

Lowlights:

1. It ended
2.  Spending so much time in the car*
3.  Surface lava flow at Kilauea stopped a week before we arrived
4.  Not allowed to bring home bananas and fish
5.  Not enough days for scuba diving
6. Underwater camera broke during 2nd dive
7.  Dead whale on the beautiful black sand beach**

Overall it was really an amazing amazing trip and I am lucky to have had it and lucky to be married to the man I am.

Just When You Think You Have This Parenting Thing Licked

For the past five months or so–probably longer as the time really just blends together–Noah and Zoë have been sleeping in the same bed.  Well, Noah has grown tired of his sister kicking him and Zoë has tired of the boy sheets.  She wanted girl sheets.  So, we have been talking to Zoë about getting her her own bed.  We kept using the time indicator “after Hawaii” as though there was life before Hawaii and then after.  So, it is now officially “after Hawaii” and Zoë was ready for her “girl” bed.

I went shopping yesterday sans kids to pick out a bed for Zoë.  Currently they will still be sharing a room, even though we have more than enough space for them to have their own room.  I also knew that I had promised Noah he could get bunk beds when he was 5.  I started thinking–do I buy Zoë a bed and then when Noah wants bunk beds do I then get him those and then I have an extra bed w/no where to really put it when they decide they no longer want to share a room.  I was trying to think practically.  We are a house that is over furnitured (I know that isn’t a word).  I/We tend to buy furniture impulsively and then run out of room.  Our house is overcrowded as it is.  I love furniture.  I cannot wait to have a house that is bigger so that I can overfill it too with furniture I don’t need.

Well, I bit the bullet and bought bunk beds.  Noah is certainly old enough for them and is climbing skills are great for his age.  The rails are high enough to keep him from falling out.  The whole time I was contemplating this, I just kept thinking about Noah and if he was ready for bunk beds. When I got home I could see the trepidation on Bill’s face about the possibility of Noah falling out, etc.

You are probably already thinking what I didn’t think until we had the bed put together.

Zoë says “Me sleep top”

Oh shit.  I didn’t for a minute think that Zoë would want to sleep on top. That totally isn’t cool to a 2-year-old daredevil who tells everyone she is four and a big girl.  How could I not have considered that my 2-year-old wouldn’t want to just climb on up.  We had a “long” serious talk with her about climbing up on to Noah’s bed when Mommy and Daddy aren’t up stairs and telling her very sternly that she is under no circumstances to climb up in Noah’s bed when it is sleeping time.  She pouted with her lower lip stuck out and said so very sadly “okay.  Noah sleep in my bed sometimes?”

We assured her that Noah could climb into her bed sometimes if he wanted to but that she was a big girl and needed her own girl bed.  She loves her girl bed–but she looks so small in it.  Last night went well.  Noah made it down his ladder safely in the middle of the night to climb into our bed and Zoë as still sound asleep in her own big girl bed at 7 this morning when I woke her up.

Any gamblers out there want to bet how long it takes her to climb up into Noah’s bed?  I’m giving it a week.  I still have a lot to learn.

Back To The Real World

I have been home from Hawaii for four days now and have to return to work tomorrow.  Hawaii was awesome and now that I have spent some quality time with my kids–who did not travel to Hawaii with us–I will have more time to pull together my thoughts on the trip and post some photos (there are some on facebook).

But let me just say is was amazing.  I had the time of my life.  Hawaii really is paradise–but not in an of itself.  It was paradise because of who I was with.  My husband, best friend and partner.  No one I would rather be with.

Aloha

After 2 days on the Big Island, we gave managed to see over half of the island. The time difference has been the hardest. We have been up at 330 the first two mornings but that has allowed is to have two full days worth of activities each day.

Today I actually slept in til 530-woohoo!!! Hiked throug a volcanic crater yesterday–totally awesome. It had some steam pockets so that was a cool. It’s amazing to see all the “new’ land. We touched land that in the surface was younger than us it was pretty cool.

Today and tomorrw we are scuba diving–the Big Island happens yo be a great place to shore dive–so I’m excited about that.