Bits of her wish were directed at different ones of us. We have a whiner, we have several yellers and we have two children that will turn to physical pinches, jabs, pokes if the verbal route doesn’t work. The only one who was immune or excused from Nana’s birthday request was Papa—on account of Papa never does those things anyway.
We all agreed to try and do our best. We had to coerce agreement out of the children because they were pretending not to hear. My children are good children overall, but they’re very trying sometimes. Lately I’ve been losing it at both of them for various reasons. It’s age and maturity level in part, its part their own personalities and there is the added complexity of my daughter’s vision loss.
I’m not sure if I explained the above as part excuse because I don’t know what we’re doing wrong. Or if it’s just children and development and everyone goes through something at one point or another. We had a bad night our first day. There was yelling and whining and people weren’t getting along at all. Nana told us later, me specifically, story after story of other relatives with their children at similar ages where things just weren’t under control, no matter how much you tried or planned.
This morning did start out well with happy family in the car, all going to the top of the volcano. We left early for Haleakalā. The weather was nice, although long pants and jackets due to the over ten thousand foot elevation. I spent time with my daughter, who really wasn’t interested in anything. She said, “this is a seeing thing.” I knew she was bored.
She and I walked around and started feeling rocks. She wanted to keep the rocks, putting little ones in her pockets. We talked about how they were lighter than regular rocks. She and I made up songs about the rocks. There was a man performing a wedding ceremony in one area, He played his shell horn in each cardinal direction and then began to speak to the couple. We listened for a bit and then went back to the rock collecting.
Were we allowed to collect rocks? We weren’t sure. We’d just driven up, up and up, for over a half-hour to get to the top of the mountain—which was made of volcanic rock. There wasn’t exactly a shortage of rock. But was it protected rock? I never saw a sign that said it was, so we collected small rocks for my daughter and son’s friends.
We stopped in at a Mexican restaurant in a small town on the way back and then stopped a second time for shaved ice. A note in the shaved ice shop said, “snow cone is a curse word in this shop.” Then we explored the largest banyan tree I’ve ever seen. My daughter could feel it, but I don’t think got even close to understanding how big it was, there were sections of the tree everywhere. It was hundreds of years old.
Finding things that my daughter can experience sometimes has us going in directions other people might not even notice. After lunch she and I walked out and looked around the parking lot. We found some chickens off to the side, but they didn’t want to be approached so we looked at the foliage. We found a plant that had leaves as tall as my daughter. I picked her up and let her feel the leaf.
The Big Boy Update: My son was out on the beach with his grandparents when they saw a young sea turtle swimming right at the edge of the shore. The walked along beside it down the beach for a good while, letting the swimmers in front know a turtle was coming their way.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Not being able to climb the banyan tree today was tough for my daughter, She loves climbing trees.
She and I walked around and started feeling rocks. She wanted to keep the rocks, putting little ones in her pockets. We talked about how they were lighter than regular rocks. She and I made up songs about the rocks. There was a man performing a wedding ceremony in one area, He played his shell horn in each cardinal direction and then began to speak to the couple. We listened for a bit and then went back to the rock collecting.
Were we allowed to collect rocks? We weren’t sure. We’d just driven up, up and up, for over a half-hour to get to the top of the mountain—which was made of volcanic rock. There wasn’t exactly a shortage of rock. But was it protected rock? I never saw a sign that said it was, so we collected small rocks for my daughter and son’s friends.
We stopped in at a Mexican restaurant in a small town on the way back and then stopped a second time for shaved ice. A note in the shaved ice shop said, “snow cone is a curse word in this shop.” Then we explored the largest banyan tree I’ve ever seen. My daughter could feel it, but I don’t think got even close to understanding how big it was, there were sections of the tree everywhere. It was hundreds of years old.
Finding things that my daughter can experience sometimes has us going in directions other people might not even notice. After lunch she and I walked out and looked around the parking lot. We found some chickens off to the side, but they didn’t want to be approached so we looked at the foliage. We found a plant that had leaves as tall as my daughter. I picked her up and let her feel the leaf.
The Big Boy Update: My son was out on the beach with his grandparents when they saw a young sea turtle swimming right at the edge of the shore. The walked along beside it down the beach for a good while, letting the swimmers in front know a turtle was coming their way.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Not being able to climb the banyan tree today was tough for my daughter, She loves climbing trees.
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