One morning on Maui, David and I had early-morning plans for a boat trip out to the crater of Molokini to go snorkeling. We awoke, dressed, and quietly slipped out of the house by 6:00 so as not to wake anyone, including Anna.
I did, however, leave her a note:
Good mommy, right?
Wrong.
When we returned, every one had already left for the beach. We went to change clothes to go and meet them, and I found this on our bed:
In case you can't decipher her writing, it says:
"Hi. Never leave like that again ok, get it, got it, good. I woke up at 6:46 and was (sad) until 7:20 almost. I put my sunscreen on. Well, I will if we go to the beach. Next time you're not doing that again. Say GOOD BYE. "
I love how she apparently watched the clock to time her misery. Her drawings show the sun and a bottle of sun-screen squirting out on her arm.
And then there's me over there, snorkeling, blissfully having forgotten AAAALLLLL about my child.
I think I should be awarded some sort of Medal of Honor for staying calm in the face of extreme peril. One night while in Hawaii, I was getting ready for bed. Anna was in the room with me. I had the blankets on our bed thrown back as I gathered my book and got settled when suddenly something flew onto the bed. As soon as it landed, it began scurrying for cover, specifically MY covers:
IT. WAS. A. COCKROACH.
As freaked out as I was, I knew that if I screamed like a girl and/or mentioned/yelled the word "cockroach", Anna would NEVER sleep in that house again, and we still had several days of vacation left.
So with as much calm as I could muster, I said "Anna, would you please go get me a paper towel?" Meanwhile I scrambled to keep it from burrowing it's way into the blankets bunched at the foot of the bed.
When Anna asked what it was, I told her it was "just a little beetle"....meanwhile I'm pretty sure I now suffer from Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. I managed to capture the beast and ran for the toilet to dispose of it. I'm pretty sure even Buddha himself would kill a cockroach that dared land in his bed, right?
My eight year old daughter needs not only braces (which is no surprise to anyone who has seen photos like this):
but she also needs glasses.
She started complaining, a month or so ago, about her eyes "going blurry" when she read. She has always LOVED to read, but she stopped doing it because her eyes bothered her. We couldn't have that, so I made an appointment for her. Frankly, I suspected the doctor would tell us that her vision is perfect and then she'd have no more excuses. And the thing is, her long-distance and reading vision IS perfect...but her peripheral vision is not. After a whole bunch of tests, the doctor showed us, in simple terms, what he found. He had a small white bottle with a red cap on it; he started out parallel with her ear and brought it around slowly, instructing her to tell him when she could see the red cap. She couldn't see it until it was at about 11:00 o'clock in front of her! So what this means is that, as she is reading, her eyes are struggling to adjust to what is going on off to the side of her, and that's what is causing the blurriness. The great news is that it is NOT degenerative and in fact can be 99.9% treated with light therapy and these special glasses that don't correct her vision but allow more light to come in from the sides so that her eyes won't have to work so hard.
So today we pick out frames and she is oddly VERY excited! I know the novelty will wear off, but she was telling me last night how much better she could see with them on. I think really validated her to know that there really is something wrong and that it wasn't her imagination or "dry eyes" which is what her teacher said when she mentioned the blurriness.
So here we go: time to hock the jewelry and sell the good silver. It's going to be an expensive next several years....
* Our first day there, taking the kids to the beach and watching Anna discover the joy of tropical water. Once "home", she wrote "I love Hawaii" on her leg...and then fell asleep before her head even hit the pillow.
* The first night with the windows open, one of the neighbors brought her guitar outside and began singing. She had the most beautiful voice; it felt like I was being serenaded by a mermaid! I was the only one in our house to hear her. (I found out later that she is an accomplished musician (her name is Erin Smith) and song-writer and even has a cd. We went to go see her play on our last night there.)
* Sleeping with the windows open and the ceiling fan on and the temperature beingjuuuust right
* Waking up each morning to the exotic chorus of bird song
* Fresh papaya and pineapple each morning for breakfast
* Watching Anna's face as she caught her first waves boogie boarding
* The beautiful warm, clear water and incredible fish
* Taking Anna snorkeling and her holding David's hand the whole time
* Snorkeling with David and hearing the humpback whales sing
* Seeing a huge sea-turtle swimming in front of us as we snorkeled behind him
* Learning to boogie board and the thrill of riding a wave all the way in to the beach
* The kids endlessly enjoying the tide pools and finding "treasures"
* The kids' excitement at discovering an orange tree in our yard and their joy at eating an orange they picked
* Anna announcing "It's time to go Gecko-hunting!"
* Going to the beach every morning and then returning to the house for a cool shower and lunch
* Sitting on our lovely lanai, enjoying the warm breeze and a glass of cold wine
* Staying in a house in the hills rather than a condo in "town"...it was soooo relaxing and quiet
* Fresh-from-the-sea Ono with fresh-from-the-tree-Mango salsa
* Getting to spend some time with just Jennifer and Nichole, lunch and shopping
* Arriving at the dive-shop at 6:00 am to sign in for our snorkel trip and unexpectedly seeing Rod and Julie and Clarissa walk through the doors; they had signed up for the same trip we did. It was a lovely way to spend some quality time with them
* Seeing dolphins leaping and sea turtles surfacing during that boat trip
* Taking the kids on a whale-watching trip and seeing their excitement at having whales surface and blow within just a few yards of where they were sitting on the boat
* The amazing turquoise water at Makena Beach; it is the perfect Hawaiian beach you envision in your mind
I'm sure I'll think of more. It was SUCH a wonderful, relaxing vacation, one that we, especially Anna, will never forget. David and I are already plotting our next trip...
Yesterday we were out taking the dogs for a walk when Anna said "Oh! I haven't said hi to my favorite tree all winter!" I've known about her favorite tree for a while. A block from our house is a tree-lined boulevard; for some reason she has deemed one of the blue-spruce trees there her favorite. Whenever we walk by, she'll go up to this particular tree and wrap her arms around it, looking up into the branches above. I give her space but often see her talking to her tree.
Yesterday she said "Mom, did you know that this tree's name is Nancy? And that one is her son, Frederick. Some people call him Fred, but he prefers Frederick."
I love her imagination and the connection she feels with the natural world. I think her grandpa would have really enjoyed this kid. I wish they'd known each other.
I am a bleeding-heart liberal, smart-ass, book-loving craft geek. Married to the love of my life, mother of 1 smart, smart-alec 10 year old. I ran my first marathon at 44 and can't wait to run another.
