Since Grandpa knows how much I like vehicles of all sorts, he had planned to take me to the heliport to see some helicopters take off and land. I was having a bit of a fussy morning so he thought it was the perfect time to do exactly that. We went to the heliport near the airport and it was just the right time to see a bunch of helicopters. I think I saw at least half a dozen of them. Since we were near the airport I also got to see some airplanes too! I had a great time! I also impressed Grandpa with my vision as I saw helicopters coming in from far away and pointed them out to him. Thank you, Grandpa! That was a great idea!
I had the best Christmas day ever! What made it the best was spending it with family! Sure, the presents were great and going to the beach was awesome, but the best part was all the little daily interactions with family that don’t seem like much but mean the world to me. It was such a great day! But I have to be honest and say that I’m absolutely pooped. Time for a good night’s sleep. Good night and I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!
I like my routine and part of that is being read books by Mommy and Daddy. Today Grandma read me my books before bedtime. I like this kind of routine change.
Maile and Laurent are so sweet, caring, and loving. Just like my last visit, they go out of their way to take care of me and entertain me. It is so nice to be able to hang out with them again. It is only my second day here and we already picked up where we left off. We get along really well!
Grandma has seen me match my vehicle cards and was thoroughly impressed! She was even more impressed to see me match a new set of animal cards right before her eyes. Maile and Lauren were impressed two and were very supportive of my efforts (both successes and failures).
Grandma and Grandpa’s house has a very unique design where you can circle around from room to room. I enjoyed this feature during my last visit, but back then I was still crawling around. It is a lot more fun to be able to walk around and around from dining room to living room to family room to kitchen and back to the dining room again! So much repetitive fun!
There is not much I can say that can better describe our trip to the beach that you can’t see in the photos. We all had a great time and I am still pretty comfortable in the water! We had so much fun!
I wasn’t a big fan of the grass in the backyard during my first visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. But with all the walking I have been doing since my feet really toughened up and I didn’t mind walking on the grass at all. Besides, I only had shoes and no slippers so it would have been a hassle to get my socks and shoes on just go play outside.
I had fun learning to play soccer.
I was pretty good if you don’t count all the handballs.
I love Grandma and Grandpa’s house! Not only is it filled with family, but it is really big with a lot of things to do. First of all, there is a huge dining table for me to eat at and I love to eat!
There is also a lot of places to sit with several couches and chairs. I often chose to sit wherever Daddy was sitting.
I haven’t even been here a full day and I’m already having so much fun! There has already been so many great moments that we don’t have any pictures of because we were all so busy being in the moment. But just know that there was a lot of interaction between me and the whole family. I comfortably wandered around the house as if it was home and I food new things to do and explore. I already know that these are things I’ll be doing every day this trip!
By the time I got up, the rest of the household was already up for some time. There was a lot of excitement this Christmas morning. I was considering waking up earlier, but after such a long day of traveling, it was just not going to happen. But, I was happy to find that when I woke up at around 7:30 that I was feeling pretty good and not jet-lagged at all. That’s a good start to Christmas day.
Before all the present opening began, we took some pictures in front of the Christmas tree. It was a team effort trying to get me first to sit still in front of the tree and then look at the cameras. In the end, Daddy had to strategically lie down beside me to get the picture we wanted. The rest of the shots were pretty funny in how they told the story of the path to get the one good picture.
Once the picture taking was down, the rest of the Christmas morning went by pretty quickly. Present opening went by in a flash!
I got a lot of really cool presents! Grandma had a hard time trying to keep me on task and opening gifts because I kept wanting to play with the one I just opened. Then amidst all the present-opening fun I realized that I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I told Grandma that I was hungry. Luckily, I had already opened all of my gifts so I moved over to the dining room table for some breakfast.
I was very excited to be on another plane so soon! But I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t use the entertainment monitor or even lower my tray until we took off. Bummer.
I love planes so much that even taxiing was fun. Especially since it was night and there were a lot of pretty lights for me to see.
And then we were off!
Once we leveled off I was entertained by the monitors, my stickers, and of course Mommy and Daddy playing with me! I had so much fun! I was really good and didn’t cry at all. I ate some of Mommy and Daddy’s dinner and was nice an full. It was way past my bedtime so I went to sleep fairly easily. Daddy just held me while in his seat and rocked me a bit then I was fast asleep.
I had a about four hours of sleep and before I knew it we were arriving in Honolulu!
We arrived at Haneda airport without any problems. I enjoyed the flight and was really well behaved. I watched the entertainment system monitor, played with my stickers, played with some toys we brought, and I did not cry or fuss at all.
When we got to Haneda I was quite hungry and it was way past my usual dinner time. The problem was that with our flight changes bringing us to Haneda later that originally scheduled, we had a hard time finding a place to eat. A lot of the restaurants at our terminal were already closed and the ones that were open had long lines. Mommy and Daddy managed to find a convenience store and we bought a bunch of things for dinner. It is much easier to feed me nowadays since I’m eating a lot more regular food instead of baby food. We had a pretty good and fun dinner!
After cleaning up our dinner I stretched my legs a bit. I walked around restaurant row and found it fun to see the new things even though most of the places were closed.
When we moved on to the gate I again stretched my legs and went exploring. There was a lot of ground to cover and I got a bit tired. I found some nice chairs that were perfect for relaxing, but I did more climbing than relaxing.
Then it was almost time to board so Daddy took me to change my diaper and I stole his glasses for a bit.
Then we got on the plane for the long 7-hour flight to Hawaii!
There were a few hiccups as we started on our way to Hawaii. There was a slew of flight cancellations and delays this past week and we found out that one of flights fell victim as well. We were rescheduled and everything looked to be okay, but we were going to be leaving and arrive a bit later. As long as we got there safely, we were okay with the changes.
As we were leaving the house It took us a while to find a taxi, even an Uber, but we got one and made it to the airport without much problem. Let’s hope that the lack of taxis was the only problem we’ll face as we make our trip to Kauai.
I fell asleep while checking in, so I had a nice nap. Mommy, Daddy, and Obachan had a coffee while I slept. When I woke up it was about time to head to the gate. I was very rested and happy because I recognized that we were at the airport and that I was about to ride an airplane, three in fact.
I am a very good traveler and I was so excited to be on an airplane again. I had a great time looking outside at the other airplanes at the airport. I said goodbye to all of them as we pulled away from the terminal.
Even though I’m only 19-months-old and with no training, I was allowed to fly the airplane for take off. (Actually, I was just pretending while watching the tail fin camera footage of our take off on the monitor.). I think I did pretty good and would make a really good pilot!
It is my first day back on Kauai and I quickly got use to being at Grandma and Grandpa’s house again. It is so much fun to be there and I have my loving cousins always there to support and entertain me. I immediately felt at home and was feeling good about being there. And then we have a visitor.
I spotted that red-suit, white-bearded, belly-like-a-bowl-full-of-jelly guy through the window and I freaked out! I did not enjoy his visit last year in Japan and I thought that there was no way he would find me and follow me to Kauai. But there he was! Santa knows, man, Santa knows!
And where were Mommy and Daddy during this traumatic event? They were busy taking videos of my horrid experience. Thank goodness for Grandma who was there to hold me and keep me safe from Santa. But it mattered little in the end because Daddy just handed me over to the man!
I can’t say that this year’s visit from Santa went any better, but at least he brought me and awesome gift! Besides his ability to scare little kids, the guy sure knows how to gift!
What a traumatic experience. Do kids really go through this every year just to get a few gifts? I’m not sure if I’m up to it. Lauren was very supportive and comforting and let me know that this is actually something I’ll end up looking forward to. I hope so.
The best thing about traveling by plane is that when we land I get to see even more airplanes! I spent most of my free time at the airport near the windows looking at all the airplanes!
We got through customs without trouble and were able to drop off our luggage right away, so we zipped over to the domestic terminal and had a lot of time before our next flight.
We got some breakfast and I surprised Mommy and Daddy by not eating much. I was mainly because me schedule was all messed up and even though we left Japan at night on the 24th we arrived in Hawaii in the morning on the 24th. So I wasn’t really sure if it was mealtime or not. I ate a little bit and had some juice so I was good. Then it was back to wandering around the airport and looking at airplanes until our next flight.
Even though it was a very short flight I fell right asleep, even before we took off, and was still asleep when we arrived. I woke up just before we reached the baggage claim. I was very groggy and barely recognized Grandma when she greeted us. But I perk up a bit and then showed how happy I was to see her and the new book she got for me. It was a book of vehicles. What a good read.
We got our luggage, Grandpa picked us up, and then it was off to the house. We were nearly at our destination.
Daddy and I went to pick up my shoes from my nursery school and made a quick stop at the 100 yen shop to get me sticker book for the airplane. Not only did we get a sticker book but also a sheet of restickable stickers. I think this will be a nice way to pass the time on our flights today.
Mommy and Daddy are finalizing our packing for today, so I decided to stay out of their hair and just watch a little TV and play with my cars. I can recognize when they are busy and I just play by myself for a while because I know they’ll play with me as soon as they’re done.
We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and I was happy to see some familiar faces! We were greeted by my cousins and my Aunty Chris, whom I remember from my summer visit. And then I met my Uncle Matt for the first time in real life! We hit it off immediately!
I remembered the house and was instantly very comfortable there. It was different because back in the summer I wasn’t walking yet. I was crawling around everywhere. But now that I am walking the house is so much more fun. I took a quick spin to re-familiarize myself with the layout and also took notice of the new things like the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations.
We hung out in the living room, catching up, and I took an instant liking to all the snow globes that Grandma and Grandpa had (just as Grandma had predicted). We just hung out, very comfortable, as if no time had passed since our last visit. It felt like home. Because it was so normal and also since we were so busy interacting with each other, we don’t have many pictures of that time.
Needless to say it was nice to be at Grandma and Grandpa’s house!
