The Stand Out

 

 



 

 

 

 

Okay so today we made our first visit to the public library for preschool story time. There are many, but we chose to go to Aina Haina Public Library because...well I knew how to get there but also it looked cute and is close to our new place. When you walk in, it looks like 1/3 of it or more is childrens books. There are super cute Hawaiian inspired ones, bilingual (Japanes/English) books. Just as cute as the library itself was the librarian doing the story time. A super sweet Japanese woman who refers to herself as "Auntie Alice". After reading 3 books and having a sing-song, all the kids got to make a craft - this week was Halloween cards. Auntie Alice invited all the children to wear their Halloween costume to next weeks story time and their treat buckets and they can parade around the library and collect candy from the different stations...Natalie's face lit up like you wouldn't believe hearing about that - stay tuned for adorable pics next week. We also got our library card so we signed out a ton of cool and different books.

 

The 'Stand Out' theme comes from me looking around the room while Auntie Alice was reading to the kids who were all intently listening as they sat on colorful floor cushions and noticing that my child was the only blondie in the entire room including parents. It dawned on me in that moment what a rich cultural experience this is.

 

A hui hou kakou,

Lisa

The set up!

E Komo Mai to my blog all!

We made it...through all the packing, renting our house out, moving to our basement suite, then off to Hawaii. Saying goodbye to important people in my life definitely one of the hardest things to do on this journey so far.  Leaving Canada behind to try on a whole new life in another country is exciting and scary but in the end will be, I think, worth it. Fear of the unknown during a big life change is a very rich experience.

Things I have learned so far:

1) My husband is an incredibly resourceful and skillful person when it comes to executing a big move like this. All the details with immigration, researching everything we'll need, how to get around, finding our home, a car, and all the fine details that surround such things, it's incredible. While I have been focused on keeping Natalie's life as normal as possible and keeping her in some remnants of a routine she is used to so as not to throw her off completely, Paul has been getting us all 'set up'.

2) My daughter is the most easy going child to do something like this with. As long as she is with us, nothing else really matters to her it seems. Fascinating. I kinda knew in my heart that is how she would be during this move but until it was tested how could I know for sure.

3) I love being my dtr's preschool teacher now. Now that we have been here a few weeks we started setting some time each day to do a little bit from these preschool educational books etc. I bought in Canada before we left. Of course it turns out they are way too easy for her she seems ready for kindergarten if not grade 1 material but I may be biased.

4) Don't eat raw taro leaf - it's toxic! - no matter how good the lau lau looks:).

A lot more than this has happened in this first month and the set up, but I will try to incorporate some of the events in future blogs, a month is simply too much to comment on in one quick blog. Think of this a sampler of what's to come.

A hui hou kakou   
Lisa