Maui, Day 6. Happy New Year! While we’re eating breakfast, we can see a whole bunch of whales breaching and slapping their flukes out towards Kaho’olawe.
Today’s outing is to the Maui Ocean Center aquarium. On this trip Jan’s been reading with Bree a book called “Swimming with the Humuhumu” about Hawaii sealife. Each page has a picture that hides somewhere within it a little humuhumunukunukuapua’a (triggerfish). On one page, Jan had pointed out the humuhumu and said, “Oh, look, there’s our little friend!” Now as Bree walks through the aquarium, every time she sees a humuhumu, she exclaims “There’s our friend!”
Bree’s favorite room in the aquarium is an exhibit about whales. The room has lots of buttons to press, and Bree runs back and forth around the room pressing all the buttons. After we all move on to the next exhibit, Bree drags Jan back to the whale room, then pushes him around the room and makes him press buttons with her.
In the late afternoon, the girls are having so much fun by the pool that Jan grabs a takeout dinner from the Italian place across the way so the girls can continue their endless cycling between the cold pool and hot pool.
Maui, Day 7. Scooter dive! The morning of our last full day here, we leave the girls with a babysitter so we can go diving. It doesn’t feel like it’s been so long, but our dive logs say this is our first dive in nearly five years. The dive is a shore dive in front of the Fairmont Kea Lani, and to make it more fun, we rent underwater scooters: handheld propellers that let you zoom around underwater. The reef isn’t the most amazing or in the best of shape, but the scooters do let us cover a lot of ground. The highlights are a cleaning station with a 4 or 5 green sea turtles, and a large ball-shaped coral hiding a school of black damselfish. Not so fun: Jan scrapes up his leg a bit on some coral while following the divemaster through a narrow canyon. Ouch.
In the afternoon, Jan and Liya go to the beach. Inspired by yesterday’s aquarium visit and this morning’s dive, they sculpt a large sea turtle out of sand. They get some nice compliments on the generally realistic-looking result.
We’re out of creative dinner ideas, so we eat at a touristy restaurant next door. It’s called Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, and the main reason we wanted to eat there was so Bree could get a little free stuffed humuhumu toy with her meal. Wouldn’t you know it, they’re completely out of humuhumus.
Sabriya’s New Year resolution is to let go of her red doggie pacifier. Actually, this move was the recommendation of our childrens’ dentist. Sabriya’s not happy with this move at all. She loves her “Doggeesh”, and has slept with it since she was tiny. We figured we could help her transition to sleeping without a pacifier by cutting the pacifier off the dog, and letting her sleep with the dog part. No such luck! At bedtime she completely refuses the pacifier-less dog. Oh, well. Bedtime is a bit chaotic as a result, but we’re hoping it settles down a routine again soon.
Three years ago, Angela attempted to introduce the girls to a Coffin pizza tradition. Unfortunately, she didn’t remember the tradition quite right. So, while Jan continues to have BUTTER on his pizza crust, the girls insist on HONEY. Whoops!
Sabriya’s in something of a squirelly mood at bedtime this evening. She still likes a bit of warm milk before bed (although she’s basically done with bottles). As she’s drinking her milk, our cat Nutmeg comes up and begins purring. Sabriya tries to imitate the sound. Jan: “Can you purr?” Sabriya: “No! I’m not a cat.” When Jan tries to tell Bree she’s done with the milk and take away the sippy cup, Bree hugs the cup to her chest and says: “It’s my milk! … And I love it.”
Anya and Liya are too tall for the new play area at Bellevue Square! They are a bit disappointed they can’t play on the rather large assortment of neat indoor play structures. Jan consoles them by appointing them as spotters for Bree, a job they perform diligently for twenty minutes before succumbing to temptation to play themselves.
A new family tradition introduced last year also happens to be one of the silliest: “Family Jump!” Basically, anyone can call for one, and when (usually a she) does so, we all attempt to jump while hugging as a group. This doesn’t work so well with five folks of differing heights, so now we just hold hands while we jump around, yelling “Family jump! Family jump! Family jump!”
This morning Jan and Liya are reading from her new “Exploratopedia” book (published by San Francisco’s Exploratorium). One section about secret codes shows the classic Pigpen Cipher. [The book used a variant of the usual cipher.] Jan teaches Liya how to draw the key from memory, then they write each other some secret messages. Anya can’t resist, and joins in too. The girls make messages for Angela too. Angela finally tells Anya it’s time to practice piano. Anya writes one more message and hands it to Angela. Snarky and sneaky at the same time!
We make gyoza (fried Japanese dumplings) for dinner. Last night we made a trip to Uwajimaya to pick up the stuff we can’t get at the market down the block: gyoza wrappers, napa cabbage, chili oil. This afternoon Jan chops everything up, then enlists the help of the whole family (minus Bree) to wrap the gyoza. He shows the girls the special pleating technique he learned from the Wada family in Japan years ago. (The gyoza wrapping process is so labor-intensive that it was the only meal in which Mr. Wada was ever asked—or allowed to—help with.) Anya’s more interested in the gyoza wrappers than the filling, so she and Liya make some “wish gyoza”, gyoza with nothing inside. Jan also teaches the girls the special gyoza sellers chant: “Gyo-o-za… Gyo-o-za”, which must be sung in the same nasally voice used by the neighborhood gyoza truck man who cruised the evening streets near our apartment in Shibuya.