Putting The Grand In Grandparents

My parents flew out for a visit earlier this month. Even though my Mom flew over with us to help out when we made The Big Move last July, this was the first visit where they were able to see what our new life in Hawaii looks like now that all the furniture is in place, the artwork and photos are hung on the wall, the kids are enrolled in school and sports, and I've finally put all my pictures into my scrapbooks.

No, wait -- that last one still hasn't happened. Wishful thinking.

But you get the idea. And I have to say I think they liked what they saw.

The kids were so happy to see their Grandma and Opa -- and not just because they arrived with two completely full suitcases of gifts, either. My parents, grateful to finally be able to flex their Grandparent muscles after seven months of separation, spent most of their time playing London Bridge, giving horsey rides, flying airplanes, and reading stories.


John and I kept busy during their visit, too, taking full advantage of the rare opportunity for FREE BABYSITTING. We went out on lots of dinner dates, rocked our socks off at The Police concert, and even went surfing together in front of Diamondhead in East Waikiki. (OK, truth be told, John surfed and I paddled around for two hours, a little more than slightly intimidated by the shallow rocky bottom underneath me and the six years since I was last on my surfboard.)

As one of his belated Christmas gifts, we rented Dad a BMW motorcycle for the day so he could check out the rest of the island. He made sure to give exhilarating albeit low-gear rides to interested five-year-old riders, and allowed not-at-all-interested, two-year-old onlookers the opportunity to just pose for a photo with the engine off.

We went to Chinatown, where Dad had his first taste of dim sum and got friendly with a flounder, whom he invited over for dinner that night.

We paid a visit to Sea Life Park, Oahu's charming little version of San Diego's Sea World.

And, of course, there was much soccer. (With the cutest referee, by the way.)

Bottom line:

It was a great visit.

The grandparents need to come more often and stay longer when they do.

The end.

2007: A Year In Photographic Review

January: The kids visited Disneyland for the first time.

February: We all felt the love between siblings.

March: John and I took a closer look at our potential new home state.

April: Shea turned two.

May: We took a last family portrait in CA before starting to pack our things.

June: Finn turned five and John left for Hawaii.

July: The kids and I said goodbye to California.

August: Finn started kindergarten....

September: ...and soccer, too.

October: At the pumpkin patch.

November: On Oahu's North Shore.

December: Our first Hawaii Christmas.

Here's hoping all your dreams come true in 2008.

No In-Flight Movie Shown On This Bird

Recently, a friend shared with me a funny story about how she had to leave work to pick up her son early from his after-kindergarten play program because he had been suspended after deciding it would be fun to show his butt -- or more specifically, his "brown star" -- to his classmates.

Although she and her husband punished their son later that day so he could learn a lesson about inappropriate behavior, she said they laughed about the incident behind closed doors.

"My little exhibitionist!" she chirped.

I totally understood the unique conflict -- that's so funny! that's so wrong! -- these parents faced because something similar happened at our dinner table a couple weeks ago -- an incident that forced John and I to wear our "Responsible Parents" hats while inside we were belly laughing on the floor, doubled over in pre-teen hysterics.

Let me first give you a little background.

Since we've been living in Hawaii I've, gratefully, been able to focus less on freelance writing deadlines and more on traditional, domestic responsibilities. As part of this reassignment of duties, something I call Motherhood 2.0 in my head, I've made a point to try out lots of new recipes.

I've cooked with lemongrass for the first time, sampled Korean marinades, replaced my old in-a-pinch Macaroni & Cheese standby with Udon and vegetables, and perfected a broiled Opah (moonfish) dish that will knock your sandals off.

And while I understand that some things will just fall flat on fickle young palettes, our typical house rule is "Try everything, just one bite; you never know what you might like." (It's not all annoying and sing-songy like that, though. That's just the spirit of the rule, Iago.)

This new experimentation is how we learned that Shea, the kid who eats about five food items total in the course of a typical week, loves lotus root and kidney beans. Go figure.

One night, in an attempt to put some Thanksgiving flavors on the table despite the fact that it was a balmy 82 degrees outside, I put together a pot of Creamy Sweet Potato Soup.

I'm not sure if it was the burnt orange color or odd texture that put him off, but Finn ate the rest of his dinner and left his soup completely untouched. It was only after some coaxing that we were able to get him to adhere to the One Bite rule.

This particular one bite, however, was not to his liking. Not at all.

So he jumped up and away from the table, ran to the other side of it so he was facing his empty chair and place setting, and threw up his middle finger at his soup bowl.

That's right, folks, the bird flew right across our dinner table.

"Finnegan!" we shouted, half wanting to laugh, half in shock. "What did you just do? And where did you learn that?!?"

"___ taught me in the cafeteria," he said, sheepishly.

"You're not supposed to do that," we explained while trying not to look at each other for fear of cracking up during our serious Parenting Lecture. "It's very naughty. And rude."

His response?

"But that's what you're supposed to do when you don't like something!"

Grehec Is Home

Above:

Finn's journal entry for Thursday, September 20th, 2007.

(Translation:)

Gretch is Home.

Tonight Auntie Gretch is coming over for three days.

It's true: We had our first non-Grandma-Emely visitor last week when Auntie Gretchen visited us here in our new Hawaii home!

We had lots of fun together. We went to the beach, watched Finn play soccer, and even visited John downtown, skipping over to Chinatown for some yummy lunch.


Her visit happened to fall on the autumnal equinox, so Auntie Gretch showed all of us the famous egg trick, wherein an egg stands on its end (with the assistance of little salt) as the Earth is in perfect balance.

Gretchen and I even had a chance to fill the better part of an entire day exploring Honolulu while John took the kids to the beach. Our outing started with a gorgeous hike up to Manoa Falls, assisted by some bamboo walking sticks, sunscreen and mosquito repellent.









After working up quite a hunger on the trail, we retreated to the famous Wai'oli Tea Room & Bakery, built in 1922 and set in a lush and secluded parcel of property in Manoa Valley owned by the Salvation Army.



It's also rumored to be the place Robert Louis Stevenson stayed while he lived in Hawaii. (You know, while eating scones and sipping Darjeeling.) We had a long, leisurely lunch unfettered by tiny, loud voices. Delightful.


All in all, it was a great visit -- although over much too quickly. We are reminded regularly here in Hawaii, living in the most remote major inhabited city on the planet, just how important the strong bonds of friends and family are -- no matter the distance.



And time and time again, we feel so blessed to be able to follow our dream of living in the beauty of Hawaii while at the same time keeping such a wonderful support system around the globe.

Aloha Antee Grech, indeed.

Coming Up For Air

I had forgotten about moving.

About how it requires you to process EVERY SINGLE THING you own and weigh it on the scales of importance or relevance in your life.

About how, now that we’re a family of four (as opposed to the last time we moved, when we were just Newlyweds: Plenty of Free Time Not as Much Stuff Party of Two, your table's ready), four people accumulate more than four times their worth of necessary stuff.

About how liberating and freeing getting rid of the clutter in your life can be, granting you a fresh start and a clean slate.

After about five days of weeding, packing and cleaning, running on an average of five hours of sleep each night, too much coffee and visions of sandy Hawaiian beaches, I started to feel the surreal hum of our impending life change.

And it was exhilarating.

* * * * *

John will be leaving for Hawaii this week and the kids and I will follow next month, eager to begin our new adventures in the islands.

We’ve all been looking pretty shaggy lately, what with all the moving boxes and dust flying around, so we took the chance this past weekend to get ourselves much-needed haircuts.

Here’s a shot of the results of Shea’s first sit-in-the-seat-like-a good-girl haircut. She was a champion.

The Big Reveal

My recent and conspicuous absence from this blog may have been perplexing to some of you out there. After all, just a half a year ago I was posting every single day and showed heartfelt devotion to creating daily entries. And the last few months have been, well..., pretty bloody dismal, right?

(Are you out there anymore, by the way, or have you just given up on me? I wouldn't blame you if you have, but if you're reading this I imagine you held out a glimmer of hope for a possible return to the keyboard and I thank you for it.)

You may be happy to learn that my absence wasn't born out of writer's block.

Nor was it due to blogger malaise or lack of content.

It was because John and I were methodically and diligently busy focusing all of our energies on turning one of our life's dreams into a reality.

And guess what?

It worked.

* * * * * * * * * * *

WE'RE MOVING
TO HAWAII!

As in moving all our furniture and pots and pans and CDs and books and kids and staying there.

As in not coming home 10 days later after a nice mid-winter break, tan and relaxed.

As in getting new driver's licenses and finding new supermarkets and dry cleaners and beaches and doctors and kindergartens.

We're thrilled. We're excited. And we're incredibly busy.

The next few months will be a period of transition as we move out of our place -- the one John and I moved into as newlyweds, the one where we brought our new babies to straight from the hospital, the one we've called home for the last six years -- and into suitcases and shipping containers and short-term limbo as we begin a new chapter of our lives in the islands.

I'll be back online once we're settled in and I hope to have great stories about our trans-Pacific adventures. In the meantime, here are a few photos of the spectacular slice of paradise we'll soon be lucky enough to call our new home.