Another simple day. Leif went to the aquarium with J while I was at work. He got himself one of those squished pennies with a shark imprinted on it. He told me all about how he turned the big crank and squished the penny. He was very proud of that. As for the rest of the day? We played lazy. We ate us some food, played with toys, tickled each other, ate pudding, brushed our teeth, gave Leif a bath, and put ourselves into bed. Yet another simple day.

This was King Kamehameha day. A Hawaiian holiday where we get off and the rest of the world has to go to work. So what did we do with our free day? We went to the grocery store, did laundry, and babysat the nephews. Chris and Teddy came over while their mom went off with her sister to go sailing. Well, the sailing was canceled and they came back after an hour, but they then went out to lunch while the kids and I went down to the park. Leif and Teddy played pretty well and were happy, but poor Chris had no one of his own age to play with and he went a little stir crazy. For a bit, they all were a little stir crazy, but eventually they worked it out and figured out how to get along. Which naturally meant that it was time to head back home. Chris sat on the couch trying to figure out how to get me to let him watch tv or play Wii while the other two played happily outside with sticks and bulldozers. The two run-away adults finally returned and scooped their two younguns away. That left just me and Leif again. By this time of course, it was dinner time. We had ourselves some food and began our night-time routine. It didn’t take long before Leif was in bed snoozing away. I did a little exercising and watched an episode of “The United States of Tara” and then joined him. It was a simple day, but nothing says simple days can’t be nice.

I don’t know how much explaining today needs. Leif spent the early hours playing with trains. Then we went to the zoo. There were a few new things we did that we didn’t do or see last time. Such as the petting zoo, seeing the Meadow Gold cow, tripping a 2 year old, the lions were out and about, the hippos were very active, seeing the orangoutangs, and hitting the reptile habitat. After the zoo, we chilled out in front of the boob tube, as we were both ridiculously exhausted. Bedtime came early for both of us. We left for the zoo at 11 and arrived home at around 6. Twas a very fun, exciting and full day. We had a great time. I really love spending time with this boy. He is really a blast to hang out with.

So today there were some family friends visiting from the east coast. They emailed me to let me know they were going to be around, and it turns out that this was the day that time to meet up and catch up a bit. It wasn’t in our original plans of going to the zoo, but it’s always nice when family friends show up for a visit.

With the updated schedule, we ended up at Ala Moana shopping center for the first half of the day after picking up the M’s when they got off their cruise ship. Unfortunately, there was a parade scheduled to head down Nimitz that morning and the traffic was ridiculous. But we made it eventually.

Our mall activities included a little last minute tourist shopping at the ABC store and a few other various shops, catching some Japanese music at the main stage, eating lunch, scoping out the awesome Koi pond, and taking a visit to the Lego store. This is where Leif roamed freely trying to get me to look at every box in the store. Being the sensible kid that he is, he picked up a small lego kit of a fireman and fireman’s atv, and stated that he was going to buy it and he was ready to go home . It was only $7 and Leif was being really patient, so I let him buy it.

We dropped the M’s back off at the airport shortly after lunch. I was considering heading over to the zoo, but Leif fell asleep in the car and thought it would be better to leave the zoo for when we could dedicate the day to it.

We arrived home at a decent hour and Lief was feeling well rested. We hopped on video chat with Gavin and Mary for a bit to find out how their adventures were going. They are having a great time visiting museums and parks and seeing all kinds of awesomeness. Leif was now very well rested and looking for something to do. The weather was nice and it was still early enough, so we went to the pool. I know it’s not the beach, but Leif really enjoyed it. Besides, we still have time to go to the beach another day. We were able to stay at the pool for about 1 1/2 hours. We played all over the stairs where he can stand for a while, then he realized he could get me to carry him to the deeper areas. I dragged him around “super fast” and made waves. Leif tried dunking his face under the water a few times. He was fairly successful. He went under all the way to just above his eyebrows. Not too bad.

After being kicked out of the pool at around 4:45, we went home to have ourselves some dinner. We were both a bit exhausted from the day. Since we missed our morning chat with Holly, we hopped on video chat with her for a bit to say hi. Leif was mostly interested in his toys, so he said his brief hellos and I love you’s, then Holly and I were able to do some chatting. After which, Leif and I played with toys. Then it was bed time. Worn out and drained, Leif went down easy. He didn’t make it through all three books. He fell fast asleep.

Finally Friday. I had been looking forward to this day because that means the weekend would be here and I can do all the things with Leif. I just had to get through this last day. It went pretty fast too. In the time before work, Leif played a bit on the phone after eating his cinnamon crunch. I let him do that every once in a while, although it means taking a chance that he might spend all my gems on Dragonvale. Oh well. Leif has also become the official bird feeder. We have a bird out back that comes every day to be fed nuts. He sits in the tree and calls for us. When Leif hears him, he grabs some nuts, places them in the tree, and then watches as the bird swoops down to collect them. And he does it all by himself. Leif. Not the bird.

After work, we spent some time thinking about what to do over the weekend. It was decided that we would go to the pool, the beach, the zoo, and Ala Moana shopping center. Once that was decided, we played. He had his little house out from during the day, so we started with that. I was a little Lego man, and he was a headless storm trooper. Headless because without his helmet, he wasn’t a bad guy. But then, he was a bus. And the bus’s sole purpose was to run over my Lego man. So much for not being a bad guy. Haha.

For dinner, Leif requested spaghetti and meatballs. Holly requested I test a drink recipe for her. It’s called a Clarige Cocktail with dry vermouth, gin, apricot brandy and triple sec. I tried it. I wonder if she was playing a practical joke on me. It was horrible. I think any drink with dry vermouth should be illegal. It’s poison. I repeat. Dry vermouth is POISON. I didn’t finish the drink. But the spaghetti and meatballs were fantastic. Leif needed a little motivation, but he ate them all. For desert we had peanut M&M’s and part of a Lindt mint chocolate bar.