Thursday, January 24, 2008

Why yes, I am a mother

This post has been waiting in my draft folder because I wanted a picture to illustrate my point, but oh well. I'll post a pic when I can.

With my recent birthday and the birth of a new year, it's natural to review your life, accomplishments, and gauge if you're growing old with grace. Losing nearly all my pregnancy weight, sporting a new haircut (thank you Amanda), and being blessed with Asian slow-aging genes, I felt pretty good about myself. Our friend from Grenada, Salisha, is here now enrolling in BYUH and we were helping her get settled today--an intensely complicated journey zigzagging the entire campus. My ego got a few boosts as people incorrectly assumed I was enrolling with her instead of being the older, possibly wiser guide shepherding her about.


Then we met her roommate. A twenty year old sophomore from Vietnam. After initial pleasentries about who was from where, she politely crumbled my self image with this innocent query: so is this your mother? IS THIS YOUR MOTHER?!! Are you kidding me? Do I look old enough to be the mother of an eighteen year old? Or did I have her when I was 10? Oh, and then there's the little visual clue: me Chinese, her African.


So life continues to surpise and tickle me. Today, for the first time, I looked like the mother of an eighteen year old black girl. What will tomorrow bring?

Monday, January 21, 2008

More Fun in the Sun

Here's one more tribute to Grenadian life. It was a small playground but the sunshine and the friends made it a welcome weekly treat.

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Fun in the Sun

I love being back in Hawaii but there are things I miss about Grenada. The University Pool with our friends is one of them. Here's a tribute to the good 'ol pool days.

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Thursday, January 3, 2008

Back in Paradise

Wow, can it really be more than 2 weeks since we arrived back in the motherland? Time sure flies when you're in paradise--granted a much colder, wetter paradise than I remember. It's been more of an adjustment than anticipated--some good and some not so good.

Reflectors on the smoothly paved road: genius. With all the rain we've been having those bright little bumps are a lifesaver. Ooh, lifesavers, another thing I've missed.

Blinkers and wipers switched again. Teenagers smirking at me from the backs of trucks as I wipe away non existant rain or signal a left turn as I head to the right. Sigh. And I keep looking over my left shoulder to reverse and get a face full of seatbelt. Oh, and I miss the beeping sound that reminds me that my car is in reverse. More helpful than I had thought.

Costco. aa-ah-ahhhhhh (to be heard in surround-sound chorus). The beauty. The wonder. The large packs of affordable diapers. On the other hand, I now find warehouses full of oversized products and luxury items a bit appalling. We really do live in the land of excess.

There's no GAP here. I'm of course talking about the playgroup and not the store. The store can't hold a candle to educational daycare at the low low cost of $1.88 per half day (that's as long as 7:30 to 1pm if desired). I miss my 2 days a week of having only one kid to care for. And I miss French Fridays with Keahi coming home singing Mon Petit Lapin.

I miss the sun. It's been raining a lot and Grenada thined my blood so that now I need sweaters here. So no beach as of yet for us. We miss pooldays with our friends.

Long hot showers are like mannah from heaven. I love showering at night again. But I miss our bathtub for bathing the kids. But my mom's double sink works rather well. I was floored by how huge that sink was compared to the tiny ones in Grenada.

We now have our wimpy pet cat instead of our landlady's 2 large dogs. I like not having to watch out for dog poop in the yard but I think our cat got even more neurotic in our absence. And you've never seen such a woosie cat in your life. We had to bring his foodbowl inside so he could eat without the 5 roaming kittens bullying him away and stealing his food. So we leave the door open a bit so he can run out when he's done. Usually we wait and then close the door behind him, but a few days ago Iz walked away for a bit. When he returned he found a couple of kittens polishing off Keoni's food. He chased them outside and looked around the garage for the scaredy cat only to find him cowering under the table in the living room. He had let 2 little balls of fur come into his house, take his food and scare him farther into the house for safety. Wow. He's a tough one.

And of course there's the doting grandmother. I remember when we first flew to Grenada with 4 books and 4 toys for Keahi. They more than doubled thanks to his joint birthday party with Isaac. Now that we're back at popo's house, the boys have oodles and oodles of toys. Each of them got 9 gifts from her ranging from massive train sets to talking dogs. On Christmas morning they sat admists their booty with huge grins and eager fingers. Jarom discovered the joy of ripping wrapping paper. Of course, it was much simpler to clean up those 4 toys.


Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Chivalry is not dead

Keahi is a typical rough and tumble boy into cars and trains and wildly bouncing off of walls while vigorously shaking his head. Of course he has his softer side as seen in his love of pink, dressy heels, and tea parties. Perhaps this side of him has been influenced by his many girl friends. While some have been rowdy with the boys like Esther and Addison who can hold their own in any tumble, there have been truly girly friends like Gabe and Jada, both sweet and kind and tenderhearted. However it happened, Keahi's soft side peeks through in often amusing and occasionally sweet and tender moments of his own. Particularly with Jada. Here are some examples.

While we were having a little gettogether with some friends and their kids, Keahi actually pushed Jada's chair in for her. Twice. Without any prompting.

When Keri and I with kids in tow went to the grocery store, Keahi put his arm behind Jada's back to walk with her. When she said, "what are you doing? don't push me," Keahi responded, "I'm not pushing. I'm helping you."

I don't even know where he came up with these things but it sure was cute. Oh and there was one other girl he was intent on impressing: Diamond Cummings, a local girl in the branch, age 6. When he was told she was coming over one evening, he rushed to change out of his pajamas and into nice clothes for her. Boy they sure do start young.