Aloha from Hawaii!

Big news, I've taken my six month old daughter on vacation to Hawaii for three weeks. By myself. If you're like most of the people I've met so far, you've probably just thought "wow, that's brave!" Maybe it is but the way I see it, single mothers have to do this for much longer than three weeks and they don't get to do it in Paradise. I decided to do the vacation because Kaitlyn has never been outside without being bundled up and because I will probably never again have the opportunity to take an extended vacation with just one child to take care of.

So I thought I'd write about our visit here and my experiences in trying out single motherhood for a few weeks. The posts will be short because I'm typing on an iPad but I'll try to keep you updated with the positives and negatives.

I chose Kailua-Kona for our vacation primarily because of the vacation home rental that I found. I'm staying in a basement suite with hosts who are very baby friendly at a cost of only $46 per night. That gets me two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a shared kitchen. I'm also armed with a rental car and, most importantly, a jolly jumper.

So, how is it going? Well on the first day I wanted to nominate myself for worst mother of the year. I stopped in at a beach so that Kaitlyn could feel the sand on her toes and while I was looking for my camera she face planted into the sand. It was in her eyes, ears and of course she grabbed a fist full and shoved it in her mouth. I was too busy worrying about her eyes and dumping my water bottle in her facets flush them out to notice that the sand didn't bother her one bit. And yes, her diapers have been interesting since then.

The next couple of days have been a little better. Taking her to the beach, a planned trip this time, proved to be a lot of work and a lot of stuff to carry but was rewarded with seeing turtles and an impromptu hula show. Unfortunately the hula show woke her up just when she had fallen asleep and I had relaxed with my Kindle for the first time. At least her smiles make up for the lack of personal time!

The goal on this trip is to give her experiences that she wouldn't have in Whitehorse and to challenge myself to enjoy being alone. We'll see how we do.