Limping Along

Oh, where to even begin . . .

My Aunt Margie is still here visiting but will be heading back to Seattle tomorrow, so that's a bummer. We've been having a great time doing all the usual touristy stuff that I've mentioned on here previously, so I won't bore you with the details . . . suffice it to say it's included beach time, pool time, sight seeing, a little shopping, a lot of eating, and that kind of fun stuff.

Yesterday we experienced three funny events with Zander that are definitely worth writing about. The first one involved a whole bunch of Japanese tourists. Brian had a bunch of errands to do, and I wanted to take Margie for some more sight seeing, so we decided to split the kids up and each take one for the day . . . Brian took Charley and I took Zander. On our route, we stopped at a very beautiful scenic point with breathtaking views, and we were quickly joined by an entire bus full of Japanese tourists. There was a small set of stairs leading up to the platform with the good view, and Zander decided to go up and down and up and down these stairs, just for fun. After a couple minutes, several of the Japanese tourists were giggling and pointing at Zander, watching him in complete amazement. Margie decided to take a picture of Zander being silly, so she whipped out her camera and took a few shots. Apparently the Japanese tourists saw this as an invitation to start taking pictures of Zander too because within seconds of Margie taking pictures, I counted at least five other people doing the same. To top things off, a young Japanese woman approached me and pointed at Zander and said, "Picture?" I nodded and said "Yes, of course." I thought she was going to just take his picture. But no, she handed her camera to a friend and squatted down next to Zander, obviously wanting the two of them to be in the picture together. For a moment, I felt like the mother of a movie star. It was pretty cute. The funny thing is, this has happened several times before here on the island . . . not sure what it is, maybe the blond hair, but there's just something about these kids I guess. I wouldn't be surprised if I go to Japan someday and see Zander's face plastered on a billboard.

The second funny event occurred in a coffee shop where Margie and I decided to get a couple iced coffee drinks. We were standing in line, and Zander was just sort of wandering around, seeking out items that he knew the word for so that he could point and say the word for the object, just for our amusement . . . door, chair, window, etc. There was a woman standing in front of us with really really tight spandex shorts on, and Zander all of the sudden goes up right behind her, looks at me, points, and starts yelling, "Butt, butt, butt, butt . . . ." Needless to say I was a little bit embarrassed (I think she didn't notice but if she did she didn't show it), so I quickly distracted him with something else . . . but you have to admit, it was a little funny at the same time.

The last event happened when we got home. While I was on the phone talking to my mom, Charley asked me if they could play outside. I told her they could, but they needed to give me a couple minutes to do my daily dog duty of picking up the dog doo-doo in the yard. Not to gore you out with the details, but I usually use a glove and a plastic bag to take care of business. So here I am, on the phone, picking up dog poop, when Zander walks up to me and starts saying, "Poop, poop, poop" over and over again. I sort of just ignored him because I thought he was just commenting on what I was doing, but he kept saying it over and over again, so I finally looked up from what I was doing, and there he was standing there with a big dog turd in his hand, clearly trying to help me clean up the yard. It was super gross, but super funny at the same time. Hard to be mad at him for trying to help.

So that's my Zander news. In Charley news, we are starting back up with a two-week session of swimming lessons again today, and she is really excited. She's been practicing her moves, and her fear of the water seems to be completely gone, so I'm anxious to see how she does this time around. I'm sure she'll do great.

I just got a call from Brian a little while ago and he's getting launched over to Guam right now, which means he'll be gone for about four days, so that's a bummer . . . but hopefully it's only a few days. If you can believe it, I managed to catch ANOTHER staff infection, this time near my eyebrow, so as you can imagine I'm starting to feel like a petri dish. This is my fourth infection in less than a year. And no, I don't have MRSA/"Superbug" (already been tested for that), so I guess I just have bad luck. Plus, Hawaii is a breeding ground for bacteria since it's so warm here all the time. I went to the doctor on Friday morning for the diagnosis and medicine, but I was back at the Acute Care Center on Saturday evening because it was actually getting much worse. They switched up my meds a little and cultured the wound, so hopefully I'm on the right track with that now. Brian and I were laughing about what a romantic Saturday night we were having, spending two hours in a medical center, while Margie watched the kids. Doesn't get much better than that.

We are still not fully functional with the whole Internet/computer thing, and now that Brian is going to be gone for several days it might be awhile before it's taken care of. I will definitely have to make some adjustments to my usual computer habits. Ah, the suffering . . .