Leaving Hawaii

Soon my mom and I are headed to New York to visit my grandmother, who needs us to travel to live there to take care of her.

My mom says we're going to stay on the mainland, maybe in New York and leave Hawaii from now on, because there are many possibilities for us there that we're going to explore.

I know that some day I'll return to Hawaii.

But until then, it's Aloha!

My Mom and Bro with Me

Maybe you'd like to see a picture of my mom Julia and brother Travis? Here we are having a good time hanging out together. My brother is tickling me.

The Shining Star

This is a picture I made of a Star Animal. For those grownups that don't know, a Star Animal is a toy that is a stuffed animal. The size is about six inches tall. This one is a picture of a puppy, but I got a cat one as a present for Christmas. I don't know who gave it to me, I think it was from Santa Claus.

The Orchid Tea Party

There were orchids everywhere. Twinkie picked an orchid for her big rabbit ears. She looked at the mountain view and exclaimed, "Wow! This mountain is tall!" She was looking at Mauna Kea. Twinky wasn't kidding about this mountain being tall. Measured from sea level, Mauna Kea is a mountain taller than Mt. Everest.
Tater poured the tea into the teapot. "Let's have some more tea!"
"Oooh, I've had too much tea...already," said Twinky the bunny. Twinky, Muffin, Tater and Fran had been sitting at the tea party for quite a long while already.
Muffin wanted some more spicy nori, but it was all gone. She had already eaten four pieces and the crumbs were all over the place. Tater picked up the tiny black pieces of nori, saying, "Muffin and Twinkie, you both have made a big mess here!"

"Tater, you forgot the most important things in the tea, sugar & milk," piped up Muffin. Fran said she thought there was enough of a mess without there being sweet goo everywhere. Tater filled the orange cup for Twinky and force fed her more tea without sugar and milk. The tea dribbled down Twinky's front. Fran laughed.

Tater knew what it was like to be force fed. Her half brother Travis had made dinner and had tried to force feed Tater. Travis had justified his actions by accusing Tater of hardly ever eating anything. He didn't know that earlier Tater had eaten two big pieces of pizza and every free sample offered to Costco shoppers. Tater decided the best course of action would be to change the subject.

"What would you two like to do with the orchids?" asked Tater. Twinkie answered, "We want to give orchids to our new guest, silly."

Muffin didn't know a guest might be coming. She drank some more tea and thought about that. It must be Twinkie's secret, because Twinkie was always thinking of ways to surprise Muffin. "Please, can I have some more tea?" Tater poured Muffin another tiny cupful.

Twinkie said, "Me too." She wanted to hold a cup of tea while she talked, even though she didn't want to be force-fed. "Right now our new guest is at Walmart waiting for Tater to pick her up. She's a very expensive VIP."

The phone rings... "Ding, Ding, Ding, la la la ha..."

Tater answers..."Oh yes, who is this? ...When I'll come and get you in a few days, perhaps a couple of weeks since you can't come today...Bye!"

Muffin and Twinkie asked who called on the cellphone. "It's our new guest," answered Tater.

Tater was smiling.

Muffin prompted Tater, "Does she have a name?"
"Everyone has a name, silly. Hers is Pumpkin."

Then Muffin wanted to know what sort of animal was Pumpkin...

"She's a tabby kitten, " said Tater. "She's orange and white. I don't know what kind of cat she is, but I think she has a pedigree."

"I have a pedigree too," piped up Muffin. Now, Muffin didn't know that Tater thought she was really a white labrador puppy. When Tater revealed her mistake, Muffin felt slightly indignant.

"I'm a Bichon Frize. It's a French pedigree." Muffin fell over and began to talk with a French accent. "It is just you made the mistake because I have lost my accent. That must have been why you could think of me as a ...water dog."

Muffin began to think of her family and big tears dibbled down her front, mixing with the tea she had spilled all over herself. "My ancestors came from a Canary Islands off Spain from an island like Hawaii with volcanoes called Tenerife."

Fran showed Tater where Tenerife was. It was a long way away, farther than New York.

Quite a long time later, Twinkie went out to pick a bunch of flowers in the orchid garden. At the right time, she remembers that it's time to pick up the new guest from the airport. She calls Muffin to come along, gets in her car, (which is a convertible,) and drives over to the Kona airport. They went out to a very special restaurant that the new guest knew about, where they all ate Star soup and purple sweet potatoes.

Then they drove back over to the Orchid house, while their new guest told them more about herself. Afterwards, they all went for a little walk, and this guy came over and gave them a big piece of cardboard they decided to use as a slide. They spent the rest of the day walking up and sliding down a grassy hill together, having a great time!

Me and Po

Here is a picture of me with a dog named Po. Po means "heart" in Hawaiian. He is a real "ipo," which means "sweetheart" in the Hawaiian language. Po will wrap his mouth around your hand without biting to play with you. He jumps up to greet you, but he keeps his paws to himself to be polite. When someone arrives who he doesn't know, he barks and looks very mean and dangerous. My Dad arrived to visit me and Po thought my dad was going to attack me. My dad though he could play "chase" with me without thinking about what Po might do. Po misunderstood my Dad's trying to play with me. He barked and growled and jumped against his chain. My Dad was even scared. I wasn't scared because Po and I are friends. I knew Po was trying to protect me because Po had never met my Dad before.

Seymour's Birthday Party

These kitties in the picture are having a birthday party. For awhile my mom and I were staying with a really nice orange kitty named Seymour. I made an award for them also.
At my own birthday this year, my dad brought a pinata to the party. My friends and I took turns bashing it blindfolded; but none of us could hit it hard enough to break it open so we got to bash it without blindfolds.

Tater Loves Tea Parties

This is a picture of a dog and a kitty. I would really like to adopt a puppy, but my mom says we can't have a dog right now. So I pet every puppy and dog that I meet instead.

What I Learned Today

Today I wrote in cursive script for the first time. I already knew how to make a really cool "Y" and a "t" and an "i". So I found out that it was pretty easy to make a U from making two I shapes in a row. So the first word I wrote was "tui." We looked up the word in the dictionary, and found out that a tui is a bird from New Zealand.

Then I found out that I could connect the letters to make them look like writing. It was pretty easy to make an "e" by making a loop in the "i." Then I learned that an "l" was a big long "e", but it was pretty tricky confusing the "e" with writing it in printing because their directions were switched!

The next letter I learned was a "C," which is shaped like a wave. I like to draw, so it was pretty easy to make a "C." Then I found out that I could write the word "let." Then I found out I could write the word "letter" by accident! Now I knew how to write three words.

This was something I was pretty interested in, so I found out that if I added the shape of "c" to the shape of an "I," what happened was an "a." It didn't look like the capitol "A." I was interested in writing a capitol "A" because my real name begins with an "A."

Guess I'll practice more before I put some examples here.

Instead of having you look at my first attempts at writing, maybe you'd like to see a kitty cat I made in a printmaking workshop.