The kids.

Everything in Hawaii was fantastic. It rained a bit, but we didn't care. We ate too much, but we didn't care. Nothing was going to keep us from enjoying ourselves, a fact that Michael reminded me time and again when I got annoyed at petty things like stupid waitresses (I sent back some sushi and they still got it wrong!) and plans that went wrong (like Paia).

That all being said, the kids were really quite annoying almost every day. Sure, there were large amounts of time when they were very sweet, playing well together, or just hanging around doing their own thing. But they were evil a lot too. Mostly it was Elizabeth and Miranda, alternating between being bully and victim, over and over. Elizabeth would do something randomly mean (blocking Miranda from going somewhere, stealing something of hers, poking her, hiding something she wanted, or on occasion just kicking her) which would incite Miranda to start whining or making strange baby sounds. Sometimes Elizabeth's behavior was triggered by hunger or being tired, but sometimes it wasn't. She is just a mean little girl too often.

And Miranda...oh my god, the crying was endless. She cried about tiny scratches on her finger, about not getting to sit where she wanted, about a stolen crayon, about a bumped toe, about not getting enough milk, and about crabs on the beach. (At shark beach [see last year's post] after happily playing in the sand for a good 20 minutes building a big hill, she saw a tiny crab and completely flipped out. I was trying to snorkel with Elizabeth and told her just sit in the beach chair. She just kept screaming and crying. Granted, it was sincere screams of terror, but I just couldn't deal with one her while trying to help Elizabeth in the water. So I ran up to the sand, picked her up, threw her in the minivan [that we could see from the beach] and locked it. Then I went back to the water with Elizabeth. About 1o minutes later, I went to check on her to see if she was ready to come out and stop screaming. She politely said, no thank you she would stay in the car.) On another day, after a drive and walk to a new beach, she played well for about 15 mintues and then started crying and screaming about a "sun burn" on her cheek. Only later when we "debriefed" the situation did it sound like she might have been stung by a bee or something similar. She really drove me crazy with all the crying, even though I know she is only 4 and even though I, too, am a big cry baby. Enough is enough.

Parker was pretty good on most days, playing with the girls, reading to them, and generally just being happy to be there. He did complain too much about seating arrangements (who sat where when during meals) but I think most kids do that. Parker's main issue is just being a spaz. Not paying attention to where he walks and walking into old people, almost knocking them down or having to be asked 6 times to get his pjs on. He's not "anti" pjs, he just can't focus (on certain things) to get it done.

I'll end on a positive note, all three did amazingly well on the flight there and back. It helped that it was a direct flight, they each had their own backpacks of endless activities supplied by Grammy, and individual tvs to watch if they wanted. But I'll still give them credit for not kicking the seats, not having to get up every few minutes, not arguing about when to use the bathroom, and sharing the one window seat we all shared. We got compliments there and back about our "lovely children". When we landed in Oakland on the way home, they all, in unison, starting singing Jingle Bells and got through one verse before I shushed them, but not before half of the plane smiled and laughed.