Blogging from Hawaii, Day 7

The last day...sigh... Just when you get into the groove of vacation, it's time to go. I am sitting here during Peanut's morning nap packing my suitcase and looking at all of our pictures. I am so thankful that I got to have this time with my kids. I am so sad to have to leave and go back to the grind of everyday living. The Boy said to me this morning, "Mommy if I really good do you think we could stay on vacation forever?" I wish my son, I wish...

But what an amazing vacation it was. We still have all day today but as soon as we wake up tomorrow morning it is time to head back. We leave Hawaii at around 1:00pm Hawaii time and get back to California at around 9:00pm California time. We have to leave our Hotel at about 10:45am to make it all happen (remember all the STUFF we travel with from previous post?) so that will be interesting considering The Girl has gotten into the schedule of napping from 10:00am to 12:00pm every morning.

But let's not go there yet. I have another set of pictures for you all, which really, I know is the only reason you come here.

Here is The Boy and Poppy coming back up the beach with water for his sand castles. I should take a moment to have you all note how very empty the beach is. If you go anywhere on Waikiki Beach you would be hard pressed to have this much space all to yourselves. We have been VERY lucky to be able to stay on the military resort that we have privileges to because of my grandmother. When we drove to the aquarium the other day I was SHOCKED at how populated all the beaches are. My entire family is very spoiled...

My mother and I were shopping at the PX and found these matching shirts for The Boy and his Poppy...could they be any cuter?

And here is a shot of our typical evening sunset...

Yesterday my mother and I went shopping when I usually stay in the room for afternoon naps (The Girl napped in her stroller for about 45 minutes and The Boy had napped earlier while we waited for lunch). It poured down rain yesterday so the beach and the pool were out. We spent WAY too much money in this store, but ended up with some of the cutest things I have ever seen for The Girl (including this new hat).

I know a lot of you who read my blog know me and my family in real life. If you are one of those people, this will not surprise you at all. If you aren't one of those people...well this may just seem like one of the cheesiest things you have ever seen in your life, but trust me, if you knew my mother... And well, the woman does more for me than anyone could ever really imagine so I very rarely say no to her. So it was for that reason that I did not protest when she came home from her Maui vacation in October and told me she had bought matching outfits for her and Poppy and both the kids. Last night we ate dinner at Benihana at the Hilton Hawaiian Village so it seemed appropriate to don the fancy matching outfits. Behold the photographic proof...

It should be noted that when we were taking these pictures all the "kids" my age walked by and sort of smirked at the matching outfits. However all the "older generation" (my mother's age and older) stopped and commented on how adorable they outfits were and how they will treasure these pictures for all time. Again, if it makes my Mom happy...I am happy to oblige. I realized that before last night I did not have one picture of my two kids together on this vacation. Perfect opportunity...

And once I put that together it came to me that I also did not have one picture of me with my two kids. So again...make it happen (note the lack of the matching outfit, although I did don a festive Hawaiian dress to make my mother happy...)

It is no secret that my mom has a really special relationship with The Boy. But I think day by day The Girl is doing a pretty good job of worming her way into my mom's heart. It doesn't hurt that she let's her put bows in her hair and wears a matching dress... She has also learned to wave recently and is waving to me while I am snapping the picture here.

Speaking of The Girl, I should take a moment to note how brilliant she is. Not only is she waving, but she is signing to me. She has understood signs for a while now. If I make the sign for nursing she grins and crawls over to me and buries her head into my boobs and starts sucking. And just this week she started signing "all done." She knows the sign for "more" and will nod her head and open her mouth if I ask her if she wants more and she does, and if she doesn't then she will make the sign for "all done." Brilliant.

Also I discovered a few things about her eating on this trip. First of all, she hates jarred baby food. Apparently I spoiled her with all that home made stuff. But she hates it. She will tolerate a jar of fruit, but that's about it. At home she eats like 4 cubes of pureed food each meal followed by a ton of finger foods, but here she generally won't even finish an entire jar and just eats finger foods. And nurses. And nurses a lot. I don't know if it is comforting to her since we are in a strange place, or if she is making up for the pureed foods she isn't eating or what, but if she is awake, she is nursing every three hours again. I lugged the breast pump with me on vacation because she was so sick and last time she was this sick she stopped nursing because she couldn't breathe and I had to pump to give her all bottles. But not this time. I have had a week long vacation from my pump and I couldn't be happier. I am going to be so bummed to return to that pump once we get back.

Also I just have to mention that last night while eating at Benihana The Girl was hysterical. I had brought food for her but no need. She SCARFED on all the food from there. She ate white rice, fried rice, diced up asparagus, Portabello mushrooms and chicken. She was hysterical. She couldn't shovel it in fast enough. So while her brother sat quietly dipping his chop stick in a bowl of teriyaki and licking it, she was eating everything in sight. She kills me. The Boy did eventually eat all the chicken he was given but he was certainly not "shoveling it in." I love how different my two kids are. Needless to say, everyone was full after we ate and there was a battle over who got to ride back to the hotel in the stroller...

So that brings us to today. Our last day. As I mentioned, I am packing and doing laundry while The Girl is taking her morning nap right now. The Boy is down on the beach with his Gigi and Poppy making sand castles. They will be back up here around lunchtime and we will go eat something for lunch and then hit the pool for the afternoon. Yesterday it poured rain so we didn't do the beach or the pool but the weather is nice again today so we are going to live up our last day.

Thanks for following me on our vacation...I will see you all on California time.