We noted this morning that yesterday may have been our first day of non-terror scream sleeps from Ava. Progress!

Miranda also noted that a Wonder Weeks Leap started the day we landed. If you aren’t aware of Wonder Weeks, it’s a book that describes a series of progression stages that all babies go through, within a certain range of dates from their (proposed) birth date. Usually these Leaps are pretty terrible experiences for the parents, but they lead to new abilities for the baby. Apparently this Leap is about Ava discovering that she is a tiny, insignificant speck in a grand and cold universe. Also that mom can walk faster than her, and that she wants mom not to do that. Which could explain why we’re having more troubles here. But…there’s to many variables for us to make a conclusion!

We needed to make yesterday a bit of a shopping day to buy some groceries. Miranda wanted to go to Walmart, so we drove to Mililani. On the way, she decided she wanted to go to Carters, a baby clothing shop, which was “just past” Mililani. It was a little further, and it was a “premium outlet” shopping center, so we wandered around because Miranda loves these places.

Here’s a couple photos to break up this text:

That last one is from sweet potato at dinner. We bought a few purees to try out, and Ava enjoyed their consumption.

While she napped, I went snorkeling outside the apartment. The surf is quite high so you have to pick your spot carefully. There is a natural reef about 30m off the shore at our place, so it’s pretty safe, but I like looking at new things. I headed left. This was a bad idea – I got buffeted around quite a bit and eventually decided to swim back to shore and walk back to the apartment.

While I’m swimming, I’m always looking around. Sharp edges aren’t naturally occurring in this area, so one caught my eye.

I wondered if it was a piece of turtle shell or plastic or something. I swam down to investigate.

And bumbled straight into a complete turtle! He was hiding under a set of rocks, likely eating a tasty snack!

Here’s a couple more photos.

The visibility is pretty terrible because of the high surf, so I’m surprised the last photo worked out.

I’ve been sick for a few days with a small cold – a bit of a headache, sneezing, runny nose and stuffed up sinus’. That last part in particular is dangerous, since I’ve been a scuba diving tour tomorrow morning.

Pressure is difficult. As you go under the water, the pressure increases very very quickly – it doubles every 33 feet you go down. You notice this in the “air spaces” of your body. Most of them are flexible enough to go with the flow – they are open to other pressure spaces (like your digestive system – it’s open-ended), or your scuba mask (it’s connected to your nose, so you can blow into it). But there are 2 spaces you need to manage as a scuba diver – your inner ear, and your sinus’.

The inner ear is managed exactly as you would manage it in an airplane – you “clear your ears”. This becomes much more difficult, heading towards impossible, if you have a cold. The tubes that allow you to clear your eyes become inflamed so they don’t open as easily. In some cases, you may not be able to clear at all. I’ve tested this snorkeling yesterday, and it worked out ok.

The other space, the sinus is usually not a problem. They are usually connected to your breathing tubes, so just manage the pressure that way. But when you have a cold, they got blocked up and the blockage can create a non-manageable air space. So as you go down, you can’t “clear your sinus'”.

There are two ways of dealing with this – either don’t dive, or take medication. The “don’t dive” is difficult if you’ve booked and paid for a dive trip for a couple hundred bucks and can’t get a refund. The medication is difficult – it may not work, it may cause side-effects, or, and this is much much worse, it may work on the way down and stop working on the way up. That last one is a horror story waiting to happen.

I took the medication in Belize once. I can’t find an article saying that I did, but I’m pretty sure it was Belize. It worked out fine, despite sounding sketchy taking third-world sinus medication without know what the side effects will be. 😛

I’m feeling a bit better today, but still pretty plugged. I’m hoping my dive shop will just rebook me for another day. 🙂