Traveling with Young Children...

... is a completely different experience in comparison to traveling without them. Traveling with two is even a huge change from one. When we went to Disney World when Vinny was 2 (almost 3), it was really a piece of cake. Traveling with two children, anything but a piece of cake.

Long flight here. Getting here was very hectic. Tiana is in a stage where she pretty much doesn't want to sit still for more than 60 seconds. She just learned to walk so she doesn't want to be held, like, ever, unless she is really, really tired, in which case, she will let you hold her, but then fuss and cry meanwhile.

So... I will let you imagine our 5.5 hour flight. Try holding your "lap child" for 5.5 hours when she doesn't want to be held at all.  It was pretty much all afternoon for her, so a nap was destined to happen, but she fought it with everything she had in her. Eventually, she succumbed, so we got about an hour or so of peace. Sigh... thank gosh.

We arrived in the late afternoon, but by the time we got our rental car, stopped to stock up on groceries, and made our way to the condo, it was already dark, so we didn't really get to see what the beach looks like yet. We can tell it is crazy close and that we have an amazing view.

As we landed today, Vinny looked over at me and said, "Mahalo Mommy! Mahalo for taking me on a plane to Maui!" He is an amazing kid and I am so lucky. My guilt about taking him out of school for a week has been completely assuaged. I reluctantly told his teacher the truth, but turns out she is way cool and agreed to send a weeks worth of work. My super smarty pants son was very excited to work on his work on the plane, and even after dinner tonight at the condo, so I am not at all worried about him getting it done. We learned lots of T words. He is practically done with half of his week's work. He even voluntarily sang me the song about every "alphabet friend," these character names with letters.

It is times like this I understand homeschooling. If I was homeschooling, I would definitely need someone to assign him the work, but man... he'd rip through it like crazy. Instead, I do my own version of "unschooling" on the side, by insisting that my child not only "count the apples on the tree" in his workbook at school, but pull them off of real trees. He told me that his friends thought apple trees were really big, and asked if he would need a ladder to get them down, and he told them," No! They are small trees. I picked them from the ground!"  This sort of stuff makes me really happy.

You know what else makes me really happy. Vinny's "home school connections" sheet this week (a page of activities to do with your child, lately all relating to the letter of the week) says he should "Move like a turtle." How about swim with a turtle?  Talk about connections...   :-)

Better yet, when he was singing me the song about the letter friends, he got to V, and the letter friend's name for V is "Vinny Volcano."  Perhaps when they get to "V" week, my very own little "Vinny Volcano" can bring in pictures in a lava tube.

I <3 my kid. I <3 my life. Can't wait for morning.