Epiphanies

Went to the company picnic at William Mason Park.  The idea was great, the execution less than stellar.  If you are going to throw a bbq, make sure it has good food at the very least.  Hot dogs, corn, hamburgers and chicken is the lamest bbq menu you can possibly have for a company picnic.  This is how you show your employees appreciation?  They had some game booths but ran out of stuffed animals relatively quickly.  They should have had a kid only section because it was unfair that adults could play.  The booths were too simple for adults.  The emcees were probably the only hi point.  They got the crowd going with bingo, party games and such.  B won a chess set, a boogie board and two stuffed animals  (one which he won for C).  It was fun meeting Dh’s coworkers though.  I especially liked meeting Robert and his wife Ling because they were super nice and I’ve heard so much about them since we moved out here.

I jumped the gun and fed J organic whole grain rice cereal by earth’s best. Pediatricians say not to feed babies solids before 6 months but I don’t really know if I believe in that. I held off until 5 1/2 but that’s ok.

B had his munchkin performance in the The Land of Oz at school on friday the 15th. I couldn’t go because they don’t allow kids under 4. My in-laws took C to see B in it. It was chaos the night before though. B was all upset that he didn’t have the required jazz shoes so he and I ran all over Spectrum looking for jazz shoes. Miss L threatened the kids by telling them they wouldn’t be in the play if they didn’t have all the elements of their costume. She’s a real piece of work. Anyway, no one knew what jazz shoes were (including me). I figured they were really just ballet shoes for men but I wasn’t sure. Anyway, B thought they looked most like these Kenneth Cole dress shoes. I knew he was probably wrong but he was so insistent so I bought them ($54 – ouch). Needless to say, he didn’t use them in the performance. She allowed him to use black socks. I returned them to Nordstrom’s and they took it back soooo easily. I love these higher end stores.

Dh returned from his London business trip on the evening of the 16th. I was so happy to see him back. It’s pretty lonely without him. The in laws were great while he was away. They came over every day to cook dinner for us. That’s really key when you have an infant that won’t let you put him down for long. Anything I cook has to be prepped within 5 minutes or less. I think that’s the most difficult part of this third kid. I don’t remember having this problem with the other two.

We had an uneventful Father’s day. B made Dh a framed clay portrait. C made Dh a personalized cup and a painted tool belt (we did this at the park with my mom’s club friends). Then we took everyone, including my in laws, to IHOP (their suggestion). Guess they’re sick of the long lines for yum cha. Afterwards we headed to Spectrum and hung out there. We played Great States for family fun night. Was kind of too simple. I think we have to modify how we play this game. For Dh and I we didn’t look but it still was too simple. I think B needs more challenge. For C we just made him do the ‘Find’ cards. I will have to think on how to make this game more fun. It’s definitely more educational but I think it won’t be useful unless we make it more fun. Anyway, my MIL left for a wedding in NY on monday and monday night I went to hang out with my girlfriends.

We went to Roman Cucina. It was pretty good and the host was really charming and cute. It was just 4 of us that night. I split a fettucini primavera with Bh. Delish. It also happened to be martini night. Can’t get better than that. $5 martinis with an entree. I got a white chocolate martini, K got blue ice, and M and Bh both got key lime. We went into ConRev later (sex shop). Didn’t know they existed in OC.

Today, we went to see B perform in his 3rd grade play “Alien Geography”. His line was “Salem Oregon”. It was a cute production. Much more enjoyable than his ACE productions although my in laws said this year it was much better. I guess part of why I felt better was that you felt that all the parts were evenly spread out and to qualified people and NOT nepotism.

We ended tonight at Maizuru. It was pretty good and filling. I didn’t like the sashimi though. It was too cold, like it was just thawed out. That part wasn’t that enjoyable. I also had the fried oysters. I could only eat two and gave the rest away. Dh said it was the nature of the beast. After a few oysters, you just kind of don’t want to eat anymore. We reminisced a lot with the kids today. We realized B has been through a lot of strange things. Some of them:

1. Fell when he was 10 days old (ER)
2. Jaundice (ER)
3. Tylenol scare (ER)
4. Tick latched onto his scalp (via petting a wild dog in Italy).
5. Injured his toe playing baseball with his auntie
6. Ran into a fence and injured a corner of his eye at the Spectrum (ER)
7. Bitten in the back by a neighbor’s dog

C has only been through one trauma: he broke his leg jumping off a box when he was less than 2.

On another note, think I’m losing my milk so it’s just as well that I quit around now.  J is biting and he now has two teeth on his lower front.  Hurts like hell.

Went to Springacre to make a tool belt for father’s day. On the way there, we heard the song “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne. C was actually trying to sing along with it. Lots of words I really don’t want him to learn. I wonder if I have to give up my radio for the kids too. :sigh: Anyway, I tried to catch up on “So you think you can dance” and one pair of dancers danced to – you guessed it – “Girlfriend”. C exclaims, “Mommy, this is the song I like!” and proceeds to try to sing and dance to it. Oi vey. Good thing it’s a fast song because I don’t think he hears the cuss words yet. :Makes note to screen her radio station: C really loves to dance and sing. I think this may be his calling but I’m not sure at which point I’m suppose to encourage it. Seems like the men in dance get into it much later (late teens) so maybe I’ll wait until then and see if it really his destiny.

The kids went camping to Catalina with Dh this past weekend.  Dh was passing on the torch as the chief of their little Indian guide arapaho tribe.  Think they do kayaking, bow and arrow, and other “manly” things.  I like that the kids have these opportunities to be boys.  I bought the boys “The Dangerous Book for Boys” which brings  back all the cool stuff kids used to do before technology destroyed all that.  I regret that lost time where kids could just be kids.  I had a great childhood and I know my kids would miss out if we aren’t proactive about it.

I stayed home with J.  It wasn’t too bad.  I called Mary and we had a long talk to catch up.  I feel like I haven’t talked to her in ages.  It’s hard connecting with friends.  So much is going on in our lives.  You think of your friends but you don’t necessarily have time to call them all the time.  She reminded me though of the value of good friendship.  Our connection is still there and that was really cool.  I asked about her dad’s lawsuit.  Seems like they’re still in discovery.  Her deposition is coming up.  She said Jimmy had his recently and he was crying a lot of the time through it.  She said she might have a hard time because she never had any closure with her dad.  She wasn’t able to attend his funeral because she had just given birth.  It’s a chinese supersition type thing.  After I spoke to her, I tried calling my parents but I haven’t been able to get in touch with them.  They’re in Taiwan for my grandmother’s funeral but I don’t have any idea of when they will be back.  It made me afraid but I try not to think about it too much.  The parents of many of my friends seem to be passing away and it just makes me very sad for them and scared for myself.

J was an absolute darling on every plane ride. He made it really easy. No #2′s on the plane so it was great. He slept most of the time. So it makes me less leery of traveling with him.

Our plane ride out was kind of annoying. They called to let us know that our flight was delayed but we were already on route via taxi to LAX. But get this, when we got there, it was all of a sudden back on time. Their courtesy call could have really screwed us up if they had called while we were home. We would have definitely left later. Where do they get off doing that? So we had to rush to get our dinner but it turns out they served us dinner anyway. I ate it regardless ha. When we arrived in Oahu, the long line for taxis at the airport was a bit annoying because we were pretty tired. I really just wanted to go to the hotel asap but I guess “you get what you pay for” which was nothing. We didn’t plan for anything so we had to wait like all the other joe shmoe’s. The hotel was nice. We stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (recommended to us by our good friends Linda and Will). A definite good call.

We were disappointed in the “super” pool. It wasn’t so “super” after all but in the grand scheme of things, it was a slight minus. Perhaps age and experience has led us to have a higher expectation. In this case, we expected a slide. The many resorts that we’ve stayed at in the past have had some sort of slide thing for the kids. Isn’t that what a resort is all about? We have many nice pools in Socal. Why would we have to go all the way to Hawaii for just a regular pool. I suppose it’s all about having drinks and lunch served to us by the pool. Oh well.

We walked around at night but it was pretty nasty with all the roaches scurrying about so we cut that short. Besides, by the time we got out, all the cute stores we saw opened were all closed except for of course, the requisite ABC store on site. We had just missed the friday night fireworks at 8pm. Just our luck.

On the 19th:

I had read that the food at the Hilton sucked and was overpriced. Everyone said to go to the coffee shop across the street so we did. A long line greeted us so I guess we weren’t the only people with a clue. It was called the Wailana Coffee House. I ordered the loco moco which was a hamburger with eggs on it and rice. And the kid’s menu was so cheap. Lots of food for less than $3 (I can’t remember exactly how much but it was cheap). I think Dh had some portuguese sausage or something, maybe spam too. Spam seems to be big over there.

Dh and the kids went on Atlantis Submarine. I couldn’t go because they don’t allow babies to go. They don’t have the life saving certification for babies or something like that. Maybe one day I’ll get around to going. The kids liked it. They got to see tons of fish, simulated sunken ships and planes. Then we went to the pool after they got back. J was ok with the pool since it was mostly deserted this time and no kids splashing him. We also went to Waikiki beach and the kids loved racing the waves and playing in the sand. We bought sand toys there. For lunch, we ate at the Tapa Cafe and had subpar sandwiches that were really overpriced. For dinner, we ate at the Rainbow Lanai at the Hotel. Also subpar but convenient. Think Dh ordered the ahi tuna and I got the mahi mahi. The kids fell asleep at the table.

On the 20th:

Pearl Harbor Day. It was a tour. From Brandon’s travel journal: “Today I went to Pearl Harbor. It is where the U.S.S. Arizona sank. It sank on December 7, 1941. I also got a jr. Park ranger badge because I filled a ranger manual… Most of the people on the U.S.S. Arizona died. I even saw the remains of it! Japan planned a surprise attack on America. Many vessels sank on December 7, 1941.”

On another note, Justin rolled over for the first time. He’s not even 5 months yet. The younger they get the faster they seem to be reaching these milestones. I guess having older siblings really does influence their growth.

We tried the ramen at the Hanajuban Noodle Shop. Beach and pool again with a hula show. Round table pizza for dinner.

On the 21st:

We ate at Wailana Coffee shop again and got ice cream at Lappert’s ice cream. Then we walked to the International Marketplace from our hotel. It wasn’t too bad of a walk. We cut across a park and there were interesting things to see along the way. It’s on a block that is pretty much equivalent to a mix between New York’s fifth avenue and broadway. There were lots of department stores and small mom and pop type stores. The International Marketplace is really just a bunch of stalls and a food court. We ate at the food court – meat on skewers and also shared shaved ice with lychee, red beans and fruit. We decided to spend our last night in Oahu at the hotel and we ate at a Japanese restaurant Hatsuhana. It was pretty good. We had all sorts of sushi and I think Dh especially liked some mayo shrimp dish. Our conclusion: Hilton really only does Japanese food well.

On the 22nd:

The kids fed the penguins and turtles in the morning then we flew to Maui from Oahu (about 30 minutes). We stopped by Lahaina Street and ate at a food stand. Good eats. I had some ahi tuna salad. Divey food stands but the food was really good. We finally made our way to the Westin Ka’anapali Ocean Resort Villas. We had a studio but the kids really loved it. We got a discount rate as long as we sat through a two-hour time share presentation. We walked along the beach and noticed the waves were a lot rougher here. B lost his sunglasses while sitting in the ocean. A huge wave overcame him and took his new sunglasses as payment.

We had dinner at the Ocean Pool Bar & Grill. Best kid’s menu deal (with a purchase of an entree) – kids under 5 eat free always and from 5:30-9pm all kids under 12 eat free. We had prime rib and the kids had spaghetti and chicken tenders.

On the 23rd:

We went to the Whaler’s Village and had breakfast at McDonald’s. It has a lot of shops and a small museum. Dh was happy with his discovery of a map store. The skeleton of the sperm whale was cool. We also saw people parasailing at the Westin Maui nearby. Dh tried to get the kids to sign up. No deal this time. I try to think about whether I would have done it at age 4 or 8. Not sure but I think I would have. We stocked up on Passion Orange, Passion Guava and Passion Orange at the ABC store. No calpico here (a staple while we were in Oahu). Our hotel has one pathetic general store and one restaurant.

We met another family on vacation and they also had a 4 month old (born a week after J). The mom wasn’t too happy about her baby though lol. Says he’s really fussy and cries a lot. Anyway, we went back to the hotel and the kids had a lot of fun on the water slide.

On the 24th:

We went to Lahaina Street again and ate at Bubba Gump’s. Was a cute restaurant. Had little “Run Forrest Run”/”Stop” signs to let waiters know whether or not to stop and help you. We walked around afterwards since parking was validated. Usually parking is expensive. I recognized a lot of the stores and restaurants there. Guess it hasn’t changed all that much in 11 years. Later, we went to the pool/beach again and then got ready to go to the Hyatt Regency “Drums of the Pacific” Luau. It was a long line (more than 300 people) when we got there but in the end it didn’t make much of a difference. I think if you were super early it makes a difference but who wants to waste a couple of hours just to get a few seats to watch a show you’ve probably seen many times before. Girls and guys hula-ing many different hula dances – ho hum. The flame throwers are cool though but that’s at the end. The kids enjoyed it. All you can eat buffet with kahlui pork, poi, taro bread, pineapple, watermelon, ahi tuna, mahi mahi, chicken, beef, fried rice, noodles, salad and limited open bar. The kids got to eat for free – yay.

On the 25th:

We had to sit through a time share presentation which was a total waste and annoying use of our time. I don’t think I ever want to sit through another one again. After that, we relaxed by the pool and beach as we have every day. All in all, a pretty relaxing vacation. I don’t really need a vacation from my vacation like I usually do. I didn’t like the beach here as much though because of all the trade winds. Everything blew everywhere. We had to anchor all our stuff down. People’s stuff kept flying into our faces. J’s sun hat kept flying off. Someone’s baby tent even flew away. The beach part sucked here as compared to Waikiki. But the pool was better. Guess we can’t have it all. Back to Cali…