It's just past 7 am in Hawaii

We returned yesterday from Hawaii. That time shift back to CST is hard. Vacation was great. Little Bit got to spend lots of time with his grandparents. He played on the beach, filling his bucket with sand, and making piles of the seed pods that had fallen from the trees. He wasn't too sure about all that "wa-der" in the ocean, though. He did his clinging baby monkey impression when DH or I took him into the surf. We showed him that he could splash the water, and he thought that was fun.

DH and I got to snorkel while Little Bit's "Pop-pop" and "Ma-maw" watched him. We saw lots of different fish. On the last day of snorkeling, we finally saw a green sea turtle swimming underwater. I was hoping we'd see one. We swam along behind him for awhile, and he led us to where four (!) more turtles were hanging out on the bottom of the ocean. We also swam out past one of the coral outcroppings to find a huge drop-off. DH later told me that he had spotted a small shark swimming at the bottom, which he tried to point out to me, but I didn't see it. At least this time in Hawaii I wasn't reading a "summer beach read" about a huge prehistoric shark (a Megaladon) eating people, a la Jaws, the way I was last time. I told DH last time that maybe I was trying to face my fear of sharks by reading that book, then going out snorkeling in the ocean.

Travelling with an almost two year old means lots of laundry. The 8 hour flight out wasn't too bad. I had lots of new toys for Little Bit -- including a pack of post-it tabs, which is the best toy ever. On the short-hop flight between islands, poor Little Bit got airsick. DH was sitting next to him when he let loose, so he got to clean up much of the mess. I had wisely packed a change of clothes for LB in the carry-on, so I could put him in clean clothes.

While waiting at the car rental place after landing, LB's tummy decided it was time to finish emptying...on me. I was holding him, looking around, when my mom said, "He's throwing up!" Like a good mom, I put out my hand and caught the barf in my hand. Well, we didn't want to inconvenience the janitors, right? Yech. I can't believe I did that. After cleaning us up in the bathroom, I changed LB into his pjs (they were the most accessible clothes). I put on a fresh shirt from the carry-on, but had neglected a fresh bra. Since I was too tired to search all our bags, I just did without.

Lesson learned, I packed a full change of clothes for LB, and a clean shirt and bra for me several days later during an all day outing to the south side of the island. The curvy mountain roads did in poor LB's tummy again. At least I didn't get barfed on that time. The carseat needed another scrubbing when we returned to our rental house. The Hawaiian sunshine took care of the rest of the smell. I think we must have done about 4 loads of laundry during our vacation.

After we said our goodbyes at the airport and my parents were on their flights back home, Little Bit kept asking, "Where Pop-pop?" and "Where Ma-maw?" It was very sweet. We told him that they had to go bye-bye, back to their house. He answered back, "My Pop-pop," just so we were clear.