Pololu Valley hike! Jan can’t decide whether to go to nearby Kiholo Bay or far away (1 hour) Pololu Valley, but Angela’s up for the bigger trip, so it’s off to Pololu we go. The kids are great in the car. Stop in Hawi for some snacks and to get a sandwich and some bagels to pack for lunch. Hawi seems like a nice little town, and we enjoy the small coffee house that’s open on New Year’s Day.
The view from the Pololu Valley lookout is indeed spectacular. The hike down to the black sandy beach isn’t too bad either. We’re pretty warm by the time we get there, so we all get our feet wet in the ocean. We retreat to the shade of some trees to eat our lunch. The girls have fun playing on a rope swing there, as well as a number of bench swings. The hike back up is considerably hotter than the hike down, and we’re all sweating hard by the time we reach the car again. We make another stop in Hawi on the way back in search of some shave ice, but the shave ice place is closed, so we have ice cream at the same coffee house we stopped at earlier. The drive back goes by quickly.
Back at Waikoloa, we spend the afternoon at the pool. Dinner at Merriman’s again. Everyone’s tired, but after dinner we stay just a bit to watch some hula. All three girls are entranced.
Mauna Kea beach. We leave very early to make sure we get a beach pass this time. There are cars in front of us, but we get pass #34 of 40. We sing the “We got a beach pass to Mauna Kea” song. Anya and Liya want to build a sand boat big enough for four people. We end up building a nice one that fits all of us.
On her third trip to a beach, Sabriya gets very comfortable with the sand and water. She happily wanders off towards the ocean to play at water’s edge, so we have to keep a close eye on her. We eat lunch at the Hau Tree restaurant by the pool. When we get back to Hali’i Kai, we see nanny Marla leaving just as we pull in. It turns out she hadn’t understood that we’d wanted her for the afternoon and the evening, so she won’t be back until dinnertime. We pack while Bree naps. Jan takes the girls to the pool, where Anya tries out her snorkel for the first time. We play Marco Polo. Marla finally comes around 5:00, and we head to to the Hualalai Grille at the Four Seasons for dinner.
When we get back, Marla says goodbye. She says she loves the girls, and says they’re all quite smart and very creative. She shows us a piece of paper on which Bree, emulating her sisters, pasted a green piece of paper. We say goodbye, then have lots of packing to do.
Bree-English Dictionary. Now that Bree is 18 mths, she is picking up new words every 5 minutes or so. Unfortunately, her physical expression of her new vocabulary isn’t always quite as clear as she thinks. Hence, we bring you the first edition of the Bree-English Dictionary.
ahp!: up
aahnnn: Honk (for honking her nose)
baba: Daddy, in Mandarin
baobao (not as strong an O sound as normal): pick me up/hug (Mandarin)
baw: ball
beeeee!: Beep! Used for anything that beeps, e.g. a microwave. Includes her nose which she likes to beep.
bwee: herself
choos: shoes (hopefully not yet insisting on Jimmy Choos!)
ki: Kick, kiss, or keys, depending on context
mao: cat (Mandarin)
mei mei: herself
nana: banana
nee-o nai: milk
rayway (the “r” sounds halfway between an r and w): Raisins, her latest addiction
ri-ya: Liya
yan-ya: Anya
Liya noticed this morning that there are two little baby Platys in our fish tank!
Jan and Liya worked on Liya’s icebox project for kindergarten. It came out really well! It has a few cool features: double styrofoam walls with insulation between them, double doors, a little window on the interior door so Liya can check on the ice cube without having to let warm air in, and a mesh to let melting water drip away from the ice cube. Anya really wanted to help, but Jan made sure Liya did all the taping and insulating herself. Anya found a useful role cutting pieces of duct tape and insulation.
Making breakfast in the morning, Jan heard a loud thump of something falling upstairs in the loft. Jan asked Anya, who was up in the loft, what it was. Anya: “Nothing much! Something that you don’t need to know about!”
A week or so ago, the girls started tracing the covers of their “Rainbow Magic” book series about fairies. Jan put together a simple light table for them using a battery-powered lamp and a glass serving tray. Angela later improved on it by putting the lamp in a plastic wash tub and setting the glass tray on top. Now the girls endlessly trace pictures of fairies. They sometimes cut them out and hang them on strings.
When Jan was a little boy, he would take rides on his cousin David’s shoulders. This was no ordinary shoulder ride though–it was a game called “Tank.” Jan would ‘steer’ the ‘tank’ by holding onto the ears and pointing David’s face in the appropriate direction.
When Jan or I hold Bree, she steers us in tank-like ways by pointing in the direction she wants to go and making a cute if rather imperious grunt until we walk towards her desired destination. Late afternoon today, Bree directed me towards the front door.
“Yes, it’s wet and cold outside!” I said brightly and turned away.
Imperious grunt.
I turned back.
More imperious grunting.
I put Queen Bree down.
Knock knock knock on the front door.
“Do you want to go outside?” I asked.
A definite nod.
Since it was close to dinner time, I had Bree’s wonderful, gift-from-God nanny (no I won’t tell you her name you can’t have her!) take the baby outside for a walk.
They returned much sooner than I expected. The nanny was cracking up, and Bree was soaked. Upon encountering her first puddle, Bree had cautiously put a toe in. Then two. And tapped her feet. Finding this utterly delightful, Bree jumped into the middle! Several times! And despite the near-freezing temperatures, decided that now would be a good time to…sit. Yes, in the middle of the puddle.
Next time, we’ll put her in rain boots.