BLACKOUT! Chase is 18 Months Old!

Saturday, 27 December 2008

Well, Chase's 18 Month Birthday (as if we're even counting the months!) was a blur because we spent most of the day trying to find food. Why would we do that (other than Tanya being hungry all the time)? Well, like one news reporter said, it was supposed to be a successful Black Friday for retailers...But, it turned out to be "Black" for another reason. Last night, around dinner time, there was a huge lightning and thunder storm. Then, all of a sudden...

At about 7 pm last night, the whole island of O'ahu had a blackout. (Thank goodness we had just pulled the pizza out of the oven, and Chase was just finishing up eating!). The power at our house did not come back until about 2:30 pm this afternoon. With nearly 20 hours without electricity, the Honolulu airport had to cancel flights, sirens were blaring throughout the city (and I worried about our friends with ALS who depend on ventilators - some had to be ambulanced to hospitals, many of which were full), and the whole city basically shut down. Even Barack Obama and his family lost power all night at the house they are vacationing in. No one was spared. Every single house, business, restaurant, and hotel on the island was without electricity all night. Cell phones couldn't be charged, blogs couldn't be updated, the refrigerator couldn't be opened, and the washing machine couldn't finish its cycle. Our evening newspaper was only 5 pages altogether, an indication that no one could get much done with the power out.

We have a panoramic view of Waikiki from our lanai, and at 7 pm last night, all I saw was complete darkness. Surprisingly, a fireworks show still went on by the beach, but it was about the only light visible, as all the street lights in the valley, all the houses across the mountain and below, and all the hotel lights went black. The only lights we could see were the headlights from cars driving through a complete sea of black. We were not well prepared either. The last time we had a blackout was when the earthquake hit in 2006. I remember rushing to my dad's to make sure he was okay. They didn't have a generator to run his bi-pap machine on and had to run a power cord across the street to connect to a neighbor's generator. Even though that was 2 years ago, we didn't have working flashlights or lanterns in the house. Luckily, we found some candles and matches. We bathed Chase by candlelight. Our house sure did smell nice and fragrant by morning! Lots of revelers in the valley decided to light fireworks out of boredom.

I was hoping our power would be back on by morning (especially since I had a load of Chase's clothes sitting in water waiting to go through the rinse cycle.), but this morning, I heard the loud drone of my uncle's generator on the driveway. The power actually came on for a few minutes because I heard Chase's Christmas cd playing. But, it played about one song, then went off again. That was about 6:30 am. I called yoga to see if they had classes. I knew hard core yogis would work out as long as the heaters were working! When I couldn't get through to the studio, I went back to bed. But, I got up again for the 9 am class, and found out that they had electricity! In fact, at that time, much of Kaimuki town had electricity, but our hill did not.

Thank goodness for the solar water heater because I was able to take a hot shower when I got home. Kai and Jason met us to pick up baby furniture and other newborn baby things, then they took us out to lunch for Greek food. We headed to the mall after that, as we knew they were open. Lots of people were there doing the same thing we were, killing time and finding food to eat until the power came back on. Everywhere you went you could hear people talking about the blackout, and whether their houses had power or not. We called my aunt to see if the power came back on before heading home. When we knew the power was on, we went grocery shopping so that I could cook dinner. We only opened the refrigerator once during the blackout, so we figured our food was okay. All of our lights were on by the time we returned. We were able to dry the very wet load of clothes from last night, and I was able to cook dinner.

We had a productive day, amidst the blackout frenzy. I organized Chase's toys in the dark last night, guided only by his REI shark keychain flashlight. We got a new comforter, which we've been needing for these cooler winter nights, on sale at Macy's. And, of course, Chris bought some GI Joe toys at KB Toys, for himself or Chase, I'm still not sure, but Chase sure did have a blast playing with them and talking up a storm about them.

By the way, did I mention that Chase is 18 months old today?! Yep, with his new little boy haircut and tons of energy, our little baby boy is turning into quite an active little toddler!

What Chase is Really Into These Days:

* Watching TV (uh-oh): He actually stayed focused on watching "The Grinch" for about 20 minutes on Christmas Eve, and the next day kept pointing to his Grinch shirt. But, he prefers to read books for sure. I think he's just noticing that the TV has animals and kids on it.

* Playing Peek-A-Boo: He'll cover his eyes and stay still for a LONG time (at least 5 minutes), thinking that if he can't see us, then we can't see him. He'll stay real quiet and still and we'll go, "Where's Chase?" He'll slowly peek an eyeball out and start laughing!

* Making towers of mega blocks (big LEGO type blocks) or any four sided box/block. ...Then knocking them over!

* Saying animal noises when you ask him what sound a certain animal makes. His favorites: "ROAR!" for a tiger or lion & "Moo" for cow

* Climbing and jumping all over Mommy as if she is a human jungle gym. He also loves to climb up steps, run over suspension bridges, and slide down vertical and spiral slides on jungle gyms at parks. He'll do all that, and then run over to do it all over again, about ten times in a row NONSTOP!

* Using his signs and words to communicate:

Words he signs: milk, done, more, hot

He has about 15 words in his vocabulary (including "bus", "bath", "done", "yes", "no", "rice") and he mimics everything else we say.

Chase's main staple has been poi since he was 4 months old, but we're trying to throw more variety of foods into the mix. Although Nana did give him a See's candy chocolate lollipop to lick on Christmas day, we still frown on junk foods. Because he doesn't eat a lot of processed foods, or things with excess sugar or salt, he tends to eat a lot of bland foods. He tells us what he likes and what he doesn't like. We're starting to expand his taste buds.

Now that we have our power back on, we're so grateful for the power of electricity. I plugged in my cell phone, which was on its last bar. I was able to make a home-cooked meal. I could check email and update my blog. Think we better go get new lanterns and flashlights and a battery-operated radio so that we're better equipped the next time we have a blackout.

Tonight, Chase got introduced (meaning Daddy opened the gift for him) to his big Christmas gift, a Strider bicycle, which is a balance bicycle (a bike without pedals) for little guys. He didn't want to keep his helmet on, and he was a little intimidated by the whole balancing on a seat, but he loved spinning the wheels with his hand.