Hawaii-Monday, Day Three

Our first full day with Embla and Ellert by ourselves.

This morning at 4:30 I woke up to the sound of hysterical screaming. It is not at all nice to be woken up by any manner of screaming when you're having a dream about that you won the lottery or are scuba diving in Jamacia. Well, what does one do when you're on a dream Island itself and you get woken up by a very upset little boy missing his Mama? You drive them around the block playing relaxing Icelandic Lullabies to lull them back to sleep, of course! Kate did the honors, and although he did wake up when she pulled in, he went back to sleep a little while later. His caretakers, on the other hand, had a bit more difficult time going back to sleep. They finally gave up trying at about 6:00 and stumbled out of bed to begin the day with God's word.



It's a good thing we did that. You'll see why soon.



Next, Kate makes this fabulous breakfast-eggs, bacon, roasted potatoes, and a cantaloupe and kiwi fruit salad. We partook of the delicious feast she had made, all the while thinking how much the children would enjoy it.



But, it was not to be. Embla was up first, at 7:00, and she refused to eat a bite. She only wanted Cheerios and Froot Loops mixed together with milk. When Ellert came out of his bedroom, Kate offered him a plate full of wholesome food and he pushed it away in disgust and pointed to the Rice Krispies. It was most irritating. I put the leftover food away in hopes that they would eat it for lunch.



Arnheidur had asked us to mail some packages at the post office in Ewa Beach, so we decided to go that morning. We found the PO with little trouble, and were also able to mail our postcards in addition to the packages that Arnheidur asked us to mail. The children played and we talked about how it was a felony to mess up other people's mail boxes by swinging on the gates. ;-)

After finding the P.O. we were feeling rater optomistic and so decided to seek out the salvation army thrift store I had seen on Saturday on the way to Diamond Head. I had printed off directions, and the whole way, the google gods were good to us and we found the shops at dole cannery which were nearby the store itself. Then, we nearly got lost when we had to turn onto a one way street we didn't know. We were almost in complete despair over driving all that way and not finding our goal, but then we saw a sign for it and we were so relieved.

I've never seen a more tight parking lot! We opted for a parallel place next to a wall and then all of us went into the store. We switched off watching the children in the store and looking for clothes. Kate found a cute dress to take to Tanzania, and I found a light blue linen skirt and a little white shirt I thought that one of the little Barry girls could wear. After I rushed out to move the car for a 15 passenger van that needed to get by, we made our purchases and were off to find hwy 1.

I have never, ever driven or parked in such a BIG city and Kate and I have certainly never tried to find our way back home before, but yet, we ended up doing so without any problems except the ever-present heavy traffic. When we got home it was nearly lunchtime, so we gave them the plates that they had refused to eat for breakfast and reminded them that they had to eat them if they wanted any shave ice we would make for them. They ate some of it, and then wanted.....guess what?....cereal! I now know why Arnheidur was worried about the milk running out-they drink it like water!

The shave ice episode produced one enemy and one ally. You see, we were switching off with who got to use the cup that comes with the Dora the explorer once it was filled up with ice. Well, naurally, Ellert would get angry when it was Embla's turn. He threw a fit and we let him calm down a bit and then we asked him if he would like a different cup. He screamed more. It was hard to tell if he wanted the cup his sister had or the new one I had offered. Finally, we decided that it seemed more like he was desirous of the new cup, so once he calmed down and asked saying "please", we scooped him up some and poured on the syrup. We gave it to him and he ate it at first. While I was explaining to Embla why you never should give a child a cup when he is screaming for it, he decided it didn't have enough syrup for his liking. Out of habit, he screamed, and then proceded to roll on the floor when we told him that he had to calm down first. Eventually, I just decided to put his cup in the freezer while he threw his fit so that it wouldn't get melty. Kate took him to his room to calm down and I explained more to Embla about how to ask for things correctly and why it works when he screams to anyone that doesn't stand up to him. She seemed to really understand the whole concept, and had a few serving of shave ice and every time that she asked she said please after each request and thank you when I gave her her strawberry shave ice.

About this time Ellert came back on the scene, finally calm. We asked him "Would you like your shave ice" "

"Yes."

"Remember, say 'please,' Ellert."

"Peeas?"

We gave him his cup.

*quiet little voice*
"Tak."


The children and Kate had some down time at home and I went to check out the fitness center which was not 2 minutes from their house right on the base. It was fun, I sweated a bunch in there.


When I got home it was time for Embla to do her homework and then I got Ellert addicted to paper airplanes (he loves airplanes anyaway!) and next we painted. I was sure to line everything that could be lined with paper towels, and they painted away, but not long after the paint made their way to their hands and up their arms. After cleaning up Ellert's blue and green hands and Embla's red, purple and yellow shoulder length glove, it was quite clear that at least Embla would need a bath. I started her water and then ran off to check on Ellert and got him some cocoa puffs, his snack of choice. While this was happening, I realized that I heard a whole lot of splashy noises coming from the bathroom-more than is normal, and so I rushed in to find the bathtub much too full and the water sloshed out on all sides. It didn't help that she was rocking back and forth, back and forth in the water. It was funny for some reason and off I ran to get some towels. Once it was clean and Embla came into the kitchen for some cereal, Ellert was playing in paint, again. Thankfully he didn't get it into his har, only on his hands, which is a mess easily cleaned up. After all of the above, we went out on the beach to play for a while then came back to the house to go for a bike ride. They have two bikes with a seat on each one for the children. We rode around for a bit, stopping at a few places like the park, and then headed back home for some dinner.

We called Arnheidur after they were ready for bed because she wanted to talk to Embla every night before bed. After some major roughhousing on the bed with Kate, we decided it was way past their bedtime. They wouldn't go. Finally, we decided it would be okay if they both slept in the same bed in Ellert's room, and in about 10 minutes they were fast asleep like little angels. Kate and I quickly followed suit, but not before I had typed my fingers off to try to get my blog up to date. :-)

I crashed and slept so deeply I think that didn't move until the morning.