Right whales

We watched an IMAX on the deep sea tonight. Leo was fascinated by the right whale, which was huge! He said, "Maybe that is like you (mommy) and me and daddy and Leify and Jose all put together!"

His favorite part was the octopus eating the crab. Lots of good family fun!

Sexy poopy eyeballs

Apr 5
Leo likes to parrot his father. He listens to Paul saying sexy Mama and practices saying the same thing. This morning, Leo came up to me and said, "Sexy poopy eyeballs" and kissed me.

Today I asked Leo if he liked being in Hawaii I thought certainly he liked the personalized attention of the nanny and the thrill of a new place. He said yes. I asked if he liked Boulder. He said he liked Boulder better. I was surprised and asked why. He said, "because Leify is there". Leif is the caregiver at the daycare in Boulder. Leo likes to describe Leif as "this big guy with a bald head and a big beard. He looks scary. But all the kids like him the best."

I'm Leo, I'm 3 and a half...

Now that we live in apartments, Leo’s gotten used to riding elevators, pressing the buttons, opening and closing the doors, and, most of all, entertaining a trapped audience.  He’ll smile at anyone in the elevator and start talking at them: “I’m Leo. I’m 3 and a half years old. My birthday is July 6. Do you want to know how I lost this tooth? I was chasing Joylin. I fell on Pop-pop’s hard tile floor and knocked my tooth out. The dentist had to STRAP me in and pull the pieces out!” Most people find it quite amusing and some even join in the fun - “have a nice life!”

The prettiest one

Leo drawing a picture: "I'm making this for Emily. She always is not nice to me, so I'm making her the prettiest one."

New home!

Yesterday, we spent the whole day moving to a new home! You would think it would be trivial to move since we only came with ourselves and a bunch of suitcases. Somehow, we had ended up accumulating a lot more stuff than we thought though.

Our new apartment is amazing and disappointing at the same time. We have this incredible view. You could sit all day and stare out the window at the beach and the sailboats and the wide expanse of ocean and up to the Diamond Head crater. We look 46 floors below us to the street and the mall and the pool and the tennis courts. We have two balconies and with the doors wide open, we get a nice breeze most of the time that cools us off and eliminates the need for AC. These are twin towers, so we look out across to the sister tower and it feels like you ought to just jump over to the neighboring apartments and say hi to those folks.

It's a new apartment. They joined two regular units to make this giant 2200 sq ft unit. Apparently, they were trying to sell this apartment for $2.5M, but no one bit, so they rented it instead. It's the crappiest $2.5M place I've ever seen, but the nicest place I've ever lived in. The finishing needed help, there's paint on the carpet and the cleaners didn't really clean up after the contractors. They didn't get the window shades up in time, and one entire side of the apartment is floor to ceiling windows, so Leo hasn't been napping and the sun wakes us up in the morning and everyone gets to see us parade around naked. The doors open up into each other in awkward ways. We rented furniture because it came unfurnished (furnished would have been $1000 more each month). So we have some beds and a couch and a kitchen table. It turns out our stuff arrives this week, so the furniture was pretty pricey for a week rental.

Yesterday Leo and I wandered the nearby streets to find lunch. We walked up and down the streets, looking for something suitable. There's a shabu-shabu (hot pot) restaurant that smelled yucky (to Leo), a Japanese grill that was closed, a pancake house, several strip clubs that were open at the time?, and then finally, we found the cheap takeout sushi/convenience store. Woohoo! A fresh tuna poki roll for $2.

Today we shopped AGAIN. The Walmart is a zoo. The Costco is worse. The Target is a lot more reasonable but 10 miles out of town. The Safeway is a zoo, even at 9pm at night, and it has very little worth buying. We've given up on a lot of organics. Parking takes forever even though the big boxes have parking garages. Everything is expensive and its amazing how crowded it is at all times of day and night. Shopping is darn unpleasant. We'll have to start growing our own food. (The Costco did have a Poki bar, however, which was a nice redeeming quality!)

I made the mistake of leaving Leo's chocolate easter bunny in the car while we shopped. Tonight, Leo and Paul scraped the melted bunny off the package and ate it. I'm hoping to redeem myself as a Mommy tomorrow by taking Leo snorkeling out in Hanauma Bay.

We scoped out our pool and recreation deck. There's a small playground structure that occupies Leo for 10-15 minutes. The pool is unheated (unlike the toasty warm pool at the hotel) and quite chilly, but it's big and I did a few laps after forcing myself to jump in. There's a good temperature hot tub that's pretty small. A couple tennis courts, a driving range, a putting green and some BBQs. There is a theatre that we want to reserve at some point soon, just to test out.

We live next to a design store. Fancy furniture and cool design. They have a restaurant too, where you can buy dinner entrees for $40-something.

Happy Easter everyone!
Love, Debbie, Paul and Leo

Labor saving device

Tonight we were leaving a sports store when Leo wanted to buy some kind of kid's collector cards for Pokemon or Bakugan or something like that. I said, no, we weren't buying anything and besides, I didn't even know what it was. So we left the store with Leo saying, "it's a labor-saving device!"

Black holes

Leo and I were arguing who loved the other more. Leo said he loved me as high as the sky and big as the ocean. I said I loved him as high as clouds and as big as redwood trees. Leo said he loved me as high as the moon. I said I loved as high as the sun. Leo said he loved me as far as "tiny Pluto". I said I loved him as far as the Milky Way. Leo said he loved me as far as a star. I said I loved him as far as the edge of the universe. Then he said he loved as far as the end of a Black Hole.

I said, "ok, you win! This is the edge of my knowledge." I concede to a three-year-old.

The ocean

After several weeks, we finally made it to the ocean. We'd been taking Leo to a calm lagoon/pond that was closer to the hotel. Leo hooted and hollered and squealed with delight. It was finally warm enough to swim and I floated him around in his life vest. He kept trying to stand and got knocked over by the "tidal waves".

On Sunday, Leo must have gotten tired of our pestering him to put on swim goggles. He put the swim mask on in the bathtub and looked at my feet and counted my fingers. I gave him a snorkel and let him practice in the bathtub. It worked so well, he snorkeled on Monday in the lagoon and practiced using the mask in the pool. We're so excited we will take him to Hanauma Bay this weekend to see some real fish! Paul has alreay snorkeled at the beach here and reports great fish but no coral.

Arrival in Hawaii!

We arrived last Monday in Honolulu. It was an extremely hectic time, visiting way too many daycares, interviewing nannies, visiting apartments and trying to line up furniture. Paul and I were part of the Governor's press conference the day after we arrived. Luckily, Pop-pop came with us so he could watch Leo while all these logistics were getting sorted out. Here's a few pictures of the first crazy week. Paul and I are now working really hard, even though we're still living out of suitcases and finding office space. Leo is doing well, having a blast in the new location with all the new sights and smells and sounds.


A kayak ride in the lagoon behind the hotel. This Hilton lagoon is perfect for wading and learning to swim. Leo has been catching fish in the lagoon too, using his crocs as nets.


Leo and Paul at the Thai restaurant.


We did a whale watching catamaran ride on Sunday. Pop-pop got sick but Leo stood in the very front of the boat, got soaking wet, and loved it! I didn't see the whales but apparently there were some, including one pretty close to the boat.



We're trying to get this apartment at the Moana Pacific, a new high rise near our work places. It's huge, but that means plenty of room for you to come visit!



Leo's new nanny, Juliana, from Brazil. We looked at 6 daycares and the waiting lists were long, there was very little outdoor space (we're in the middle of a BIG city), and the student/teacher ratios were 12:1. It was scary, so we started to look at nannies and Juliana got rave recommendations. She just moved here too, from Boston.



The rotating restaurant Top of Waikiki

Right past my brain

Leo was trying to say something while he was distracted with his toys. He kept repeating words, saying, "but but but". Paul pointed out that he was so distracted, he couldn't even talk properly. Leo replied, "Like the words I was gonna say, zoom right past my brain."

Old!

Leo pointed to the Netflix DVD that I was mailing out today, because he thought it was an incoming movie. I explained that we returned the old ones and that's how we got new ones. He asked if it was really really really old? Like as old as Daddy?

Distracted

Today Paul said Leo was supposed to put on his clothes but said he was distracted. Paul asked Leo what distracted meant. Leo said, "when something catches your eye and you play with it instead of doing what your mommy and daddy said"

Loss of innocence

In the last few weeks, Leo has had a great interest in my boobs. He thinks he can suck milk out of them. I've explained that I don't have milk anymore. But he's a little obsessed, probably the way most males (and probably females) are.

Tonight he pulled an art magnet off the fridge. It's a painting (John Grimshaw?) of a fairy, I think. Leo asked me what it was and I guessed, tinkerbell? A fairy? A dragonfly woman? He said, "its a woman with wings coming out of the water". I asked him if he like the art and he said yes. Then he said, "she's NAKED". I asked him if he liked that and he said, "YES" and gave me this smile, a sort of knowing smile. Like he knew this was some kind of taboo but he felt it strongly and was sort of impish about it.

I just don't get it. I tried real hard to be casual about all the weird nudity hang-ups that most Americans have. We take baths together. He doesn't get weird about that. But he still manages to learn the taboos. Shortly thereafter, he decided he wanted into my shirt. I had to explain again, No, I don't have milk, that was a long time ago.

I guess this boob obsession and nudity hangup is just beyond anything that I have control over.

When I'm an adult

In order to get Leo to go to sleep, I often tell him that I will sleep with him for a few minutes, then I will go upstairs and clean up, and then I will come back to check on him. Tonight he said,"when I'm an adult, I will go upstairs and clean up". I said that would be great. He said, "and then I won't play with kids toys anymore". I explained that playing with kids toys is a lot more fun than cleaning up. He said, "yes, cleaning up is not fun".

Distracted

We were explaining to Leo what the word distracted meant. It took some examples to get the point across. Leo finally got it and said, "I NEVER get distracted!"

Emily plays with me

On Feb 6, Leo brought home a drawing of his classmate Emily. Emily, like Leo, came from the TODS3 classroom and was merged into this older, bigger class, Preschool2, while the other TODS3 kids went into a smaller class, Preschool1. Cameron, who was in Preschool2 last year, remained in Preschool2 this year. The rest of Leo's classmates are approx 17 kids who were all in Preschool1 last year and all know each other well as a result.

Because of this, and because Leo is independent and conflict-avoidant, he doesn't play with the 17 kids who were in Preschool1 last year. He pretty much hangs out with the teacher, Leif, or just plays with Emily and Cameron, although Cameron often doesn't like Leo.

Anyway, the class was instructed to draw pictures of another kid in their class and tell why they liked that kid. Leo drew Emily and said he liked her, "because she plays with me". It was hard for me to hear that, being someone who had a hard time finding friends in school as well.

Saving energy

I was explaining cartoons in the Sierra Club magazine to Leo. One was about saving energy. I asked him what he did to save energy. He said, "Plug the inside of my belly up!"

Later we were exchanging insults and he said to me, "That's how you booger your mom's eyeball poop!" And when I went to write it down - "I knew she would write that down".

Poop and stuff

We're sitting in the bathroom. Leo says "this poop is really big. It could rip my butt in half!"

I farted. I said "wasn't me - it was Daddy." Leo said, "no Daddy's not here". I said it was Pop-pop. Leo said, "no, Pop-pop is in NJ". I said it was Kyla, his friend at school. He said, "no, she's at school". He wouldn't even believe the barking spider excuse.

This morning Leo was being dramatic. He said, "Dammit! How many owies can I hold in one place?", pointing to his arm. He put his hand to his forehand and said, "duh!"

Later, while gluing his art (yes, in the morning before going to school), he said, "What is that smell? It's silent but violent!"

Camp Hi-De-Ho

Leo likes to tell this ghost story about Camp Hi-De-Ho.

He says, "It's so scary it will freeze your legs off.

The name of this story is Sleep Tight. Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs BITE!

There was an owl in the woods. And he saw a GHOSTLIGHT!

And some screaming banshees.

They heard voices. Some were scary voices. And they couldn't leave their tent. Then they left the tent.

There was a dripping nose. And no tissues. NONE!"

Notes on growing up

This week, Leo has begun to draw more coherent pictures. He’s drawing identifiable faces and objects. He did a whole series of “this is the inside of a zebra”, fish, and other animals. The weird thing was that a week later, he still knew which was the fish or the zebra or whatever. Every day when I pick him up from school, the bulk of the boys are climbing on Leif (the big male teacher), the few girls in the class are playing house or dressup, and Leo is at the art table, where he’s been for the last hour. He’s gluing stuff, drawing stuff, making tons of art to take home. He loves little bits of beads and sticks and colorful stuff that he shoves into his pockets and uses for art projects. I’m going to have to get big boxes to store all his creations. At home, he makes styrofoam creations with toothpicks and skewers and colorful paper.

Thursday, he started writing words. I was amazed. He wrote MOM and NO. He gets upset when he writes the letters badly. He wrote QOOM.

Today we went to the UMC bowling alley for Jay’s birthday party. Leo had little interest in the bowling after a couple tries, and it took minutes for the ball to reach the pins. One time, I had to walk down the lane and push the ball in as it had stopped. We got a ramp and then he managed a strike! But he was mostly interested in the video games. So after much begging, I finally took him over to the South Park pinball machine. The birthday boy was also bored, so I let him play some shoot-em-up game that he was begging to play. Leo did so well with the pinball (he’s not too good at pulling the pin to shoot the ball up but he controls the flippers really well) that he was playing for a good 10-15 minutes, just getting bonus after bonus and flipping away.