So it's "fall break" here on Kauai.... Tagen Train started pre-school in August and the schools run year-round here so there's a bunch of random 'breaks' through-out the whole year. He's LOVE-ing school so far and we're super impressed with the place and the teachers. Aveda and I have been able to join him on all the field trips and drop in whenever to hang out. The only thing I would change is somehow figuring a way to terminate all misquitos. Nightmare! Poor guy comes home with welts almost daily. grrrr. Aside from this, all is good.
Since ... Sunday there's been the craziest heat-wave here. (yeah so today is only Wednesday but we feel like we've been living in this for a month alreadY!) Kona winds (meaning NO WIND), muggy, HOT. Can't complain though because we have the privilege of pretty much living at the beach. This evening it was literally too hot to even be in our house so we packed up the kiekis and headed off to PK's - a beach where Kyle likes to surf. The beach itself is sorta sandy, sorta rocky. The kids and I don't typically hang out at this one because of how the waves crash on the shore and the reef under the water. But today - I didn't even care where we went as long as it involved us out of the house and in some form of cool water. Tagen has been, since about July, on an unusually brave streak which is pretty fun (oK, sometimes heart palpatating - is that a word? - for mama to watch)... Dada's been taking him out to the big waves to surf and duck-dive those big waves. And this evening I buckled on his life-vest and he didn't even wait for me but just charged right into the shore-break and out into the ocean. Aveda, on the other hand, has been having an unusually timid streak lately. So she sat, fully content, on the sand and watch and I went out to swim with Tagen. (For anyone reading this thinking I am a crazy mama who leaves her 3 year-old on the beach to fend for herself, it's just not case! This is a SUPER mellow place where she's not gonna get stolen and my eyes are stuck on her like glue. Besides, I'm really only like 20 or 30 feet from her....) I then decided I was was gonna break this girl of her timid fear of the waves. (Who knows why... maybe it was the heat) So I swam back to shore, popped the neon orange floaties on her arms and carried her (screaming) to the water. She screamed "I WANNA GO BACK DERRR (pointing to the shore) as we swam all the way out to where Tagen. This continued for about 3 minutes and then... she realized... it was JUST. LIKE. THE. POOL! (that she is in love with right now) and she stopped crying and had the HUGEST grin on her face and I couldn't even get the girl OUT of the ocean for a good hour! success. So we had such a blast swimming and playing out in the water. And it was the first time Tagen's really been swimming far out and at a place where there is TONS of reef fishies so I put his goggles on him and how i WISH i had video of him because I don't think words could possibly do justice to how excited he was over all the fish he was seeing right beneath him. He'd hold his breath and stick his head down under water and then pop up so excited and talking so fast I really couldn't understand what he was saying about those fish and then he'd throw is head back down before he even finished talking. And on and on it went like this for quite some time. So now, as you might imagine, they are sleeping soundly in the next room over with the ceiling fan on high because it's STILL so hot. And a side note - I don't know how this got started but every night before I leave the room I tell the kids "I'll see ya when the sun comes up" and Tagen replies "I'll see you when da sun come up!" and for some odd reason Aveda always replies "I'll see ya wen da moon come up mama!" It's been a good, hot, day.
ps - Dada's been teaching Tagen how to ride bike... hopefully this video works oK
