... it's an ... earache, nothing but an earache...

So, I”m running behind due to… well, due to life. And a bad internet connection. which is to say, it’s not my fault. So this is going to be slap-dash, without the benefit of cool photos or graphics to distract from the slap-dashedness. Bummer.

To recap our first day:

4.45a - Wake up at home after being woken a couple of times during the night. K had to go to the bathroom. She “had a scary dream.” She… who remembers now.

5.30a - M and L come downstairs. L has woken up and is complaining about her ear hurting. She’s been dealing with a running nose for over a week now, and we’d tossed the notion of a quick doctor’s visit, just to make sure all was well. But decided it wasn’t necessary. Her cough was getting better, and her nose running less. So now it’s about 4 hours from take off, and she might have an ear infection.

7.30a - scramble to try and get an appointment. All hope of a semi-crazed morning, with us leaving the house at 8.30a are gone. Now it’s guaranteed to be a mega-crazed morning.

8a - everyone goes to the doctor’s office, where they squeeze us in to see… not a pediatrician (they don’t start until 8 and don’t have anything until 9) but a family practice doctor. Who squeezes us in. L now says her ear doesn’t hurt any longer, but we figure it’s worth the check.

8.20a - she’s got an ear infection. It’s early on, and not too bad yet, but definitely infected. The doc emails in a prescription to Bartell and we drive over, only to find that the pharmacy doesn’t open until 9a. It’s on to the airport.

8.50a-9.50a - park the car/shuttle to the airport/navigate the “ekskalators”/check in/navigate the security check/make the long walk to the bathroom/continue walking to the bagel shop/continue walking to the gate/wait while M gets coffee/another walk to the bathroom/and onto the plane.

10.30a-1.20p (PDT-HST) - we fly. too much and not enough to mention. except 4 (5?) trips to the tiny airplane bathroom w/ K. Where she pees and then I do. All within a space about 10 sq feet big.

We get to Maui and are greeted by Mom and Kim who have leis for the girls and M, rent our car (a Grand Marquis, which makes me feel like a hit man for some splinter mafia family), go shopping, get L’s prescription, drive to our condo and find it… adequate. Nothing to write a blog posting home about. Except the 2 cockroaches (one alive, the other dead).

It’s windy with rain squalls blowing in, and that means K&L&I went down to the beach for a dip. Which also means M and Kim join us, them standing in the rain and wind while the girls and I splashed in the waves and wind.

Walk to Mom’s house where K is so tired she doen’t go inside. M and she come back to the condo and go immediately to bed (about 5.30p HI time). Kim and L and I stay on another 30 minutes or so, then headed back (L nearly asleep in my arms). K’s out cold. L doesn’t take long. M and I are asleep by 7.30p.

That night we had wind and rain and about 2a L fell out of bed and was up for an hour and a half. I lay with K while M tried to get L to sleep. I could hear them talking, hear L insisting that she wanted some juice, hear L saying if she wasn't going to get any she "hated" everything. L fell asleep about 3.30, just before K woke up “starving.” I gave her 2 bowls of goldfish and then managed to coax her into lying quietly until around 4.15, at which point I swapped w/ M (K was insisting she wanted her mother). Then L woke up and we were all awake.

Prepare copious amounts of coffee!