Da Keiki Blog

Last Saturday, October 13 we went to Koke’e to see the Queen Emalani Festival 2007. It was a beautiful day, and I got to test my new camcorder for a big shoot on Monday… maybe I’ll post a movie later.

As one can see, we have a lot of stuff with us. 80% of it is Leilani’s though (the other 20% were 2 chairs and food :-)

Andy took a great shot of a Halau (Hula troupe)

This year’s queen

We visited the Pu’u Hinahina lookout at dusk.

We are slowly getting paid-busy, rather than just advertising-busy so that’s a nice change, but the stress level around here is very high, reflecting badly on Leilani. She has regressed in several areas, doesn’t eat by herself at all anymore and needs to be bribed for going to the potty.

We just got back from the Big Island last night and it was a short compact vacation. This blog entry is going to read more like a travel guide, because it’s a sort of practice.

We reserved our cottage in Volcano Village through Hawaii Volcano Vacations (http://www.hawaiivolcanovacations.com/index.php?inc=rentals). Hale I’wi (http://www.hawaiivolcanovacations.com/index.php?inc=house&id=5) is a cozy 2 bedroom cottage that rents for $140 (+11%) tax for 3 adults. We were lucky this is low season because we booked late and this was the last one available in the Volcano village itself. It has a nice garden full of tree ferns.

Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky with the rental service. They didn’t give us the Kama’aina discount as promised and we didn’t find the continental breakfast that was included. Several messages to them didn’t get returned, so we ended up buying our breakfasts. And while the house was clean, it smelled of mold when we arrived. Fortunately, the smell went away after airing it out and turning on the gas fireplace, or I don’t know if we could’ve stayed there.

The other cottages I found online are Volcano Village Cottages (http://volcanogallery.com/volcano__village_choice_.htm). The lady on the phone was really helpful and nice, but they didn’t have anything as close or as cheap this time. But this seems like the better agency, which is why it probably books up earlier. I also found Volcano Cottages (http://www.volcanocottages.com/) in the same price range but I never called them.

In the Volcanos National Park, we really liked the Visitor Center movie and information. Last year we saw the Jagger geology museum, which we liked, but we didn’t go back. We did drive around the Halemaumau crater again, stopping at the steam vents and also the rift zone that we missed last time, as well as the inner crater. Then we went in the Thurston Lava tube again with Trude, and this time we took our flashlights all the way to the end of the unlit section.

Then we drove down the Chain of Craters Road to the petroglyphs. Those weren’t as impressive as I thought, but still neat. At the end of the road, we hiked to where the flow covers the pavement and took some neat pictures. The lava there looks recent, with all the cool formations. Unfortunately, we never had the good weather nor the time to hike the Kilauea Iki crater loop-next time.

To top off the vacation (and make up for all the rain) we booked a sight-seeing airplane ride in Hilo on our last day. Since the eruption changed in July, you can’t walk to the lava because it no longer flows into the ocean. The only way to see the flowing lava is from the air, but it’s even more impressive now because it hasn’t made any tubes. The volcano and extent of the flows are really apparant from the air. We went with Island Hoppers (http://www.fly-hawaii.com/above/hilo_tour.html) in a high-wing airplane. It was $155 each +10 tip for the two of them, and then the pilot took me up for free on the next trip. So we tipped him again with our leftover beer from the cottage.

There, do you think I am a good travel guide writer?

My mom is here! We are having lots of fun, and Leilani just loves her so much. Brushing teeth? Going swimming? Going potty while there is a party? No problem if Oma takes her. Oma is also fixing up our garden, feeding the cats, working around the house, and helping us to go to the beach more often.

Lots of other things happening here. Andy got laid off work yesterday. We did have some advanced warning, and he’ll be paid for a little longer, so we really need to ramp up the video business, and have a few keep-us-above-water plans for the meantime. Check out my main site Simplify-Your-Life.com for one of them. The Video business on my side is about 300 hours (very rough estimate) away from making money, my little camera got broken during the filming of a reception, and then completely messed up by an incompetent repair man, without much hope of even getting it back. We need to buy audio equipment, and in a year or so upgrade to HD, which is a lot of investment. Andy considers being part of the video business, and is developing his own business ideas, and he has 2 months to find a job within Sun. He is also actively trying to find a new job or contracting in Silicon Valley and looking for job openings on Kauai.

JoJo the cat got hurt and had to stay a day at the vet. She got all stiched up and needs to take antibiotics now. Mikey seems angry at us again, we don’t know why but at least he comes home to eat. Maybe it is because Leilani and I sometimes smell of other cats, we are volunteering at a cat sanctuary down the street.

Monday we are leaving for the Big Island, we’ll stay 3 nights, so my mom can see the volcano. We’ll see lavatubes, and hopefully some lava flow.

Leilani is addicted to Jamba Juice, and smoothies are becoming a staple in our household. We use them as rewards for being good at Joy’s toddler school, and also drives by the store on Tues and Thurs after “Tutu and Me”pre-preshchool. Leilani now asks for them by name, Jamba Juice is how she says smoothie (I bet some marketing person is cackling somewhere).

Andy and Trude took Leilani to Kalapaki Beach and the Marriott after running some errands in Lihue yesterday:

Leilani stayed the whole day at the toddler school today! Alone!!! She did not cry or whine a single time, and neither did she ask for me. I left at 8:45 and sat 1/2 block away at the Lihue library “on call”, to about 12:15 and then went to picked her up, she was all happy and playing.

Leilani loves the circles

The kids have to raise their hand to request songs. Leilani still requests Heidi and is a little disappointed that Auntie Joy can’t yodel :-) But she is very happy to get her second choice of “Funny Clown”

Sometimes they dress up:

Three girls in a tent:

Joy’s daughter, Elsa, who is good friends with Leilani

Leilani’s vocabulary is incredible, her sentences get better and better, just the pronounciation needs improvement. Andy pulled up the blinds, and Leilani said: “Oh! I can see better now.” One of her favorite books is “Cat Heaven” – she asks for it “Mommy please read cat heaven.” because she can not pronounce it well, and heaven sounds like “…have” or “haben” I never understand, and she then translates for me “Katzen Himmel Buch” (with much better pronounciation). Andy got days mixed up and Thursday he told her she was going to Auntie Joy’s, and she replied “No daddy, going [to] Tutu and Me”. Another one “My hair needs washing” – then she poured a glass of water she was drinking from over her head, “My hair is all clean now. All done.”

When we let her taste a mango smoothie she said “Baah. Dump it out Daddy!” – She loves smoothies, but hates mangos. Usually she wants blueberry – banana, or strawberry. She likes mainland fruit now: apples, strawberries, grapes. Island fruits: bananas, passion fruit, starfruit, lychee and all similar fruit – rambutan, longan. She does not eat guava, hardly any papaya, no figs and oranges, but likes limes and lemons.

Recent hikes: Kuilau with Adam and Jaya

And Nounou with Aditi and Jaya:

Ruby’s Birthday party

Pillowfight

What if… Leilani grew a lot of hair…

…if it was orange…

…until then: hibiscus flowers!

I am sitting at Joy’s Orchids Preschool while Leilani is off to the library with Joy and her daughter Elsa. Joy is nice enough to let me use her computer. We have been coming here 2 days a week together for almost a month, and yesterday was the first time I left Leilani alone with the whole group – 9 kids, 3 adults. During the summer time the preschool turns into a childcare.

She was not doing excellent when I left, but at least reasonably well. I told her 1/2 hour before I planned to go and notified her a few more times in between. When it was time to say bye-bye she requested a hug, held me for almost a minute (longest hug ever) and then just ran off to play with Benjamin and the toy cars. She cried 4 times during the next half hour, every time less than a minute and was easily distracted with a new activity.

To speed up the process – and to make for a smoother start of the actual school year – Joy and Elsa came over to our house for a play date last Tuesday, and today the 4 of us played here and now they are at the library.

Leilani and I really like both, Joy and Elsa, and all other kids coming here are so well behaved and seem so happy, playing, exploring, learning, it’s a great place.