damn jellies

Todd and I are convinced that Gordy is a jellyfish magnet.  He's only 5 and he's had 5 pretty bad stings already.

Yesterday we ventured to the windward side of the island for a going away party for our friends.  Gordy was in the water for a grand total of 5 minutes with all the kids before he listed his arms out of the water with a look of concern on his face calling to me.  When I got close enough, I saw the blue strings that were wrapped around his arms.  So, I carefully unraveled the tentacles from his arms trying not to let them sting him any worse than they already had and we hustled up the beach to a friend who had a spray bottle of vinegar on hand.  We doused him with it and then he decided he was ready to go back to playing on the sand - such a trooper!

All was fine until the night came.  His arms swelled up and red bumps appeared in long lines where the tentacles had been stuck.  We spent the night taking warm baths, rubbing on anti-itch cream, and laying with heating pads.  All of which, only marginally helped.

As of this morning, he's had his third dose of benedryl and he's painfully itchy.  Thank goodness he had his spring suit on, or he may have had more of a fully body issue like last time.

Damn jellies!

little harvester

I am so lucky to have a kid who likes gardening as much as I do.  We'll be hanging out and he'll say, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?... GARDENING!!"

We got some seeds recently, so he helped me plant beans, tomatoes, peas, squash, corn, peppers, radishes, carrots, and watermelon.  Gordy helped me plant all the seeds, keep them watered, and then he helped me transplant them once they grew big enough.  Some of our plants grew quite quickly, so we have green beans and radishes that we can pick a few times a week!  Gordy absolutely loves to harvest the vegetables and when we cook and eat them, he seems so proud of himself.  

He also loves pulling weeds, trimming the plants, mowing the lawn, feeding our composting worms, and spreading compost and fertilizer on the garden.  I'm a lucky mom.

all gi'ed up

Todd and Gordy were out running some errands on Tuesday and while in Haleiwa they stumbled upon a jui jitsu studio which has classes for kids.  They happened to have a 5-6 year old class that afternoon, so Todd took Gordy so that he could watch / join if he wanted to.  Without hesitation, Gordy jumped right in.  The coach was awesome and after 45 minutes of "wrestling", Gordy walked out of there saying, "That was Amazing!".  He absolutely loved his class and was ready to go back on Thursday.  After two sessions, he's hooked, so Todd ordered him a gi (jui jitsu uniform) online and we'll be going back to the studio next week for some fun, and hopefully safe wresting.

5 years old

Gordy made 5!! And again, we celebrated slightly COVID style - without a big party.  We started our day off with a croissant and chai tea latte for breakfast.  Then Gordy went to Nana's pool to swim with his friend Owen.  After lunch, we played on a slip-n-slide from our Kailua friends, went to the playground, and then had homemade pizza and firetruck cake dessert.

Gordy has grown so much in the last year.  His vocabulary has expanded quite a bit (both good and bad) and he uses such funny/big words to describe things sometimes.  He does "tricks" while riding his scooter and bike.  He swims like a fish - going down under water to grab things off the bottom of the ocean.  He loves to garden with me and will frequently ask, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?  Let's do some gardening!".  He's getting better about staying dry at night - only 2-3 accidents each month.  Mostly, he is just such a loving, caring, thoughtful, sweet little kid.  We love you more with each day Gogo!

strong protan

Gordy has always struggled with colors.  He mixes up green, orange, and brown very frequently.  Purple is always blue.  Pastels are a no-go for him.  But yellow (mele mele) has always been his favorite color.  So, we finally decided to get him tested.  The pediatric ophthalmologist only flipped through three of her thirty color cards before calling it quits and agreeing that he is color blind.  His blindness is called "strong protan" and here's what he sees vs. what a person with normal vision sees:

Once we were sure of his diagnosis, I did quite a bit of reading about it and here's what I learned:

- He sees mainly blues, yellows and greys.

- Since he doesn't see other colors the way we do, he has learned to know that shades of blues, yellows and greys are what those colors look like.

- There are glasses available that can help him to see reds and greens.  However, if we introduce him to the glasses too early, he may become reliant on them and may have trouble distinguishing colors on his own.  So, we are going to hold off on getting him glasses.

- I read a blog from another mom with a color bind kid, who recommended talking to the color bind kid and explaining to him that he sees colors in a different way than other people.  That the way he sees it is not wrong, it's just different.  And, if he's ever unsure about what color something is, he should ask someone what color they see (like how daddy has to ask mommy if his shirt smells because his nose works differently than most... the answer is almost always yes).

- That same mom recommended going into school on the first day (or two) and having a look around the classroom for anything that may be challenging for the kid due to color.  She recommended not only letting the teacher know about the blindness, but offering to help out with making things more about shapes and pictures in lieu of colors.

After the color blindness had been established, Gordy's eye exam was not quite over... with an occurrence of Retinitis Pigmentosa on the paternal side of my family, his eyes needed to be dilated to check for the RP freckles.  Thankfully, I had prepared for such an event and we had practiced eye drops the day before because he had five rounds of drops in his eyes.  He took the drops like a little champ (let's be clear, he was not happy about it though) and tolerated the entire exam with no complaints.

After a thorough check, the doctor said that he showed now signs of RP (yay!), and that other than his color blindness, his vision was great.  And, as far as Gordy was concerned, the best part of the whole thing was that he got to take home some pretty sweet glasses.

we need a better trap

St. Patrick's Day has never been a holiday on either of our radars... however, now that we have Gogo - every holiday is a celebration!  So, to get into the spirit, we diy'ed ourselves a festive leprechaun trap.  (Apparently, if you catch a leprechaun, he has to take you to his gold.)  

Sadly, our trap was not successful.  The leprechaun did come to visit in the night, but he escaped.  The good news is that before he fled our house, he left a small note with a riddle to find a secret yummy snack hidden in Gordy's rubbish truck.  

Gordy is already planning "a better trap" for next year.  

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Townies for a day

Todd happened into a job doing some "COVID theater" for a photo/video shoot in Waikiki, so Gordy and I tagged along.  We brought our bikes which turned out to be an incredibly good decision because Todd took the car and went off to work leaving the two of us on our own in the heart of the tourist strip. So, we slept in, went walking in search of breakfast and coffee, went back to the hotel for some pool/hot tub time, and then hopped on our bikes to go check out the town.  

We enjoyed a nearly empty zoo for the last hour before it closed.

We went to the Health Bar for an acai bowl and veggie wrap both of which Gogo loved!

We found some cool trees to climb around in at Kapiolani Park.

And, we found a cool playground with swings (which is rare in Hawaii).

After a long day, we met Todd back at the hotel and we all headed home... with a sleeping kiddo in the back :)  I don't know that we need to be townies very often, but it's fun occasionally!