Month: July 2008

From the Big Island.

Ever since Leilani got over her fear of getting water in her face and eyes, she’s turned into a real water baby. She loves to play in the water at the beach, in the yard, and in bathtub. And her favorite thing is to pour water on her head and let it drip down her hair and face—I suppose it’s the pleasure of conquering her fear.

Last week she wanted to fill her small plastic pool in the yard and played in it several times one day, in addition to running in the sprinkler. Since it’s in the backyard, I can keep an eye on her and do laundry too. It seems like we’ve been taking a lot of baths and showers, too. That’s normal because we swim in the ocean a lot, but she usually rinses the salt off at the beach already.

On Monday, we had taken a shower in the morning, and when we went swimming at Lydgate after Aunty Joy’s, Leilani rinsed off in the shower by the beach. That evening before dinner, she asked for a bath. At first I said no because I figured she was clean enough and we are already using a lot of water around the house. But then I changed my mind because I don’t want to discourage her from washing (although she mostly plays, she does wash with soap when you ask her to). So I filled the tub for a small bath and let her play in it, no washing. Since I was in a hurry to make dinner, I didn’t empty it. After dinner and watching a bit of a movie, she had to go to the bathroom. When she saw the water and had her clothes off already, she just climbed right in. So I put some more warm water in and soaped her up this time.

I think we’ve gone swimming at Lydgate kiddie pool 4 days in a row now. Leilani is much braver now and plays in the “deeper” water. She used to just stay in the shallow water, sitting and laying down where the waves wash on the beach, never more than her knee-height (9 inches, 20 cm).

She really enjoys having the waves push her around and usually squeals or laughs with excitement when they do. Even though she wasn’t really swimming, I showed her how to kick her legs when she was laying down propped up on her arms.

Her older friend Jaya can hop and swim out to the middle of the pool area (about 2 feet deep, 70 cm), and I thought that would be great encouragement, but she never wanted to leave the shallow edge, even when being held by a parent.

But about two weeks ago, she started going a bit further, to the area where she can sit and have the water up to her neck, so about 18 inches (40 cm). She likes having her body underwater, but she can still kneel or stand up whenever a wave comes (the waves in the kiddie pool are only a few inches, though every now and then they can be almost a foot).

Then when we were there last Monday afternoon, it was high tide, and that area was a little deeper. She still went there, even though the water was up to her chest when she was standing. Since it was too deep to kneel, she had to go a little deeper to get the full buoyancy on her body. That and she sometimes follows other kids around to see if they want to play with her.

And so she ended up in the “deep” end, with water up to her shoulders. These photos were taken a day later, at lower tide. But when the water was deeper, she went in to her neck for a while. I was keeping an eye on the waves for her, but she was having fun bobbing up and down, bouncing with little jumps.

She has had her face underwater, but always accidentally. In the shallow parts, she sometimes gets toppled over by a wave. She sometimes gets water in her nose or throat and coughs, but she always goes back to playing in the water. Now that she goes deeper, waves have snuck up on her and gone above her nose, but she handles it the same way. I’m glad she’s able to deal with it, soon she’ll be able to control her breathing and then she won’t have the problem at all.

A few months ago, she didn’t want the water “wings” like the other children have, so we don’t put them on. I don’t know if she’d still reject them, but since we’re always next to her watching, we feel she doesn’t need them. I’m not sure if they’d give her more confidence in the deeper water or keep her from actually using her arms in a swimming motion to keep her head up. As it is, I feel that the kicking and hopping in deeper water are great for her to get a feel for moving her body in the water. After that, it’s just a question of having the coordination to learn the strokes.

But that’s not enough effect, so she turns the water on stronger, which at this shower means full blast. I don’t think she meant to turn it on this strong, but she’s willing to try any stream of water. Before I turn it off, she wants to drink, which means more water on her face.

But Leilani is not done with the water. After several sessions in the ocean (when she gets a bit cold, she asks to be dried off and cuddled in the towel—how can a daddy resist), she asks to go take a shower. I turn the water on not too strong (to save water and not blast her) and she immediately puts her head under.     As soon as she’s comfortable with the jet of water, she puts her head under, of course. And then she turns it off by herself. She definitely loves to use lots of water, but she is good at turning off the water when she’s done, so I let her do it. Even when washing her hands in the sink, she’ll turn the water on carefully so it’s not too strong, and turn it off while soaping and when done. I really hope she keeps this habit.

Last night, Mikey came in the cat door and chased something across the kitchen and under the buffet. I didn’t see it, but I suspected it was a mouse. Sure enough, it was a young mouse with a long tail. It was really cute, once I caught it and put it in a jar. After taking its picture we put it in the field down the street.

This morning I was up in time to see the sunrise. It’s been muggy and overcast this week, with some rain at night. But the sun peeked through a hole in the clouds with some beautiful pink rays. In the foreground are the banana plants, which are giving us fruit all the time now—but we have to wait for them to ripen.

Unfortunately, this view may soon be blocked because some new neighbors are building a house right in front of the trees in the near middle-ground.

For the past three nights of putting Leilani to sleep in her bed, she’s been in denial.

The first night when I said it was time to sleep (after reading two books), she got all upset and said she just wanted to “rest.” I said that it was night time and we go to sleep, gave her a hug and a kiss and said good night (I’m still laying down in her bed to get her to sleep). She got upset again and rolled around some more. Then she wanted out of bed and I had to hold her back. That resulted in a small tantrum, like during the naps, and I gave her a short timeout in bed. She calmed herself and laid down, I fell asleep and she must have as well.

The second night was better. After reading one long story (the “big” Snow White book), I said good night and laid down to sleep next to her. She protested and said she just wanted to rest. I explained how it’s night time, she had her pajamas on and had brushed her teeth, I had let her watch some Pippi on the DVD player, and she needs to go to get some sleep now. I really want to reinforce the routine, so she knows what to expect, and that she knows it’s time for her to stop stalling and asking for things. She protested some more, but gently and we cuddled and went to sleep.

Last night I finally caught on. After all the routine and the story, I turned out the light and said it was time to rest now. She agreed and I said “rest well” and we laid down. She gave me a hug and a kiss, and turned over and went to sleep.

I don’t understand the distinction in her mind. I still think she is trying to stay awake, or hoping it’s just a nap and she can get up soon and play again, but maybe not. As long as she falls asleep and sleeps all night in her bed, which she does, I’m ready to play along.

Today, I had to take our car in for repairs, but how to do that with Leilani? The only thing I could think of was to put Mommy’s bicycle with the bicycle seat in the back and go for a ride while they fixed A’ala Pua. After I struggled to get the bike in the car (it hung out the back and I had to tie the tailgate half-open), we actually got to the garage on time at 8am.

Fortunately, the new bike path starts just across the main highway from the garage, so we didn’t have to bike on any dangerous streets. This is the section in Kapaa, next to the Pono Kai condos. I recently learned this was the site of the pineapple cannery in Kapaa, and the bike path follows the old train tracks that delivered the pineapples from the fields around town to the cannery.

Taking the car to the garage early worked out well. It was cooler and the light was pretty. I took a few artistic shots as we biked along. We were heading to Kealia beach, 3 miles (5 km) north of Kapaa along the coats on the new bike path.

Here we are at the near end of Kealia. And below is the far end, where there is a shallow and sheltered area for Leilani to swim. Right now there is lots of wind and fairly big waves, but the sheltered area is behind a man-made rock jetty.

But Leilani didn’t want to swim. As fun as it is for adults to go somewhere new and find a place to swim, Leilani only wants to go swimming in the kiddie pool at Lydgate beach “near our house” as she says. I think that’s where she’s comfortable and knows she’s safe, but unfortunately the bike path doesn’t go there yet. So she just climbed on the trees and on the bike (it stood up by itself against the tree and rocks).

She wanted to pick this hibiscus near the garage, and she’d held onto it ever since. She likes flowers, although she doesn’t like to put hem in her hair. The bike helmet, which was the only child’s helmet at the store, has elephants playing baseball (?!?), but she loves it and calls them Dumbo, after her current-favorite movie.

But her favorite attraction of the day were the big machines working back in Kapaa. Below is a dredger (and a very quick photo-stitch) that is making the channel to the boat dock deeper. It is actually an excavator sitting on a barge. After digging in the river-bottom and loading up the barge, they would unload all the sand on the shore, and a front loader would put it in a dump-truck. Then the truck would drive 150 feet (50m) and dump it in big piles that you can see in the background. I don’t know what they plan on doing with the sand, hopefully replenish some of the eroding beaches.

Leilani wanted to watch for 20 minutes until they had unloaded the barge and went back out to dig underwater. It was also fun to watch them “navigate,” because thew would use the arm of the excavator to move the barge around and up the channel by pulling on the stream-bed. Then he would just go to work, plunging the bucket into the water and scooping sand out of the bottom and into the barge. I have to admit that I enjoyed watching it too.

After all this, it was 10:30 and very hot already. I know she loves to play in the water, so I suggested we go to Baby Beach, a little beach near the bike path that is shallow and has no waves at all. But she wanted Lydgate or nothing, and she said she was hungry, so we went to get an early lunch at Papaya’s nearby–and she got a free sticker to put on her bicycle seat. Leilani ran around the grass for a while, and then we biked to the garage not far away. The car was fixed so we loaded the bike again and drove to Lydgate where she swam and splashed happily.