Midwife and snorkeling

We met with a midwife in Hilo today.  She’s delightful.  Her name is Jacqueline Hahn and she’s actually a Naturopathic Doctor as well.  She reminds me of Aunt Barbara! J  She has a fun-loving spirit about her, though she has her own beliefs about “spiritual” matters.  We are glad to have her as part of our birth team.  Baby has yet to fully drop, so I may be several weeks out still.  Ahhhhh, sometimes I think its soooo close, and now I’m thinking it’ll probably be another 3 weeks and I’ll have to induce. J  Lord, you know … but this waiting game is trying.  However, it has given me much opportunity for enjoying Hawaii.

Dancing in the rain!!

We’ve been doing some school.  Ty and Chance are learning their letters and the sounds.  Burnell and Orin are practicing their words and sentences.  We played a fun game in the car with the 4 boys – I say a letter and they come up with a word.  Later in the evening, we played rhyming games – Chance’s first time learning to rhyme.  They did wonderfully.  Today, Burnell wrote out the alphabet in lowercase letters only and wrote out some words Mama came up with.  Fun, Fun!

A Papaya orchard on our way to the tide pools

Chance standing near the tide pools

Daddy and his boys getting ready

to go snorkeling.  It was a little overcast and windy at this moment.  Neat thing about the weather is that it

changes just about every 2 minutes.

I was able to snorkel for the first time, too!!  It was a wonderful experience – and VERY romantic for me.  Holding my love’s hand and cruisin’ through the water pointing at different creatures from our Lord’s hand.  Ahhh…. Very relaxing.  I’d show you the pictures, but I look like a beached whale. J  That’s OK … Dwight said every other snorkeler looked just like me (with a belly hanging down).  The event would have been perfect, were it not for my crash on the rocks on the way back to the car.   I was trying to make sure the camera didn't get in the water.  It looked worse than it was.   I washed really well once home and now my  gashes  just look like nicks. 

Burnell and Orin went snorkeling as well.  They did quite well in the calm Kapaho tide pools.  Its amazing!  The pools look like shallow ponds, but once you get in, they’re 12-15’ deep.  (I actually asked Dwight how deep they were to get the actual numbers.  I would have said they were 50’ deep.  Hmmm… not so good with judging distances under water).

Note on Hawaii water:  it contains Staph!  How fun!  Gotta keep the wounds clean.  So far, so good.  Burnell actually had a wound that began to puss up and get red.  We had to clean it out twice, mark the circle of red, and watch.  This morning, it looks like its healing nicely.  Orin was reminded of when Hattie helped him with a similar owie. J

Little Quinty woke up with a “croup” cough.  We’re treating his fever with Peppermint Oil.  The croup is a virus that should pass within 5-6 days.  It causes swelling in the vocal cords, hence the dry cough.  No congestion, really, unless there are problems.  Got some more young coconuts today at the farmer’s market and put the coconut water in his bottle.  He downed 2 bottles immediately.  Good electrolytes for his body. J

Meet Teak and Tito!  They belong to Bob and Suzie, but LOVE being over here with us.  They lay at the front and the back doors during the days – especially if there’s rain.  They love to be pet and scratched.  Teak holds up his paw for a shake.  Orin loves Teak and Chance loves Tito the best.  Mostly, they just lay out in the grass looking dead.