Growing up Hawaiian

Kai will have playground bragging rights when he talks about where he was born. Honolulu. I was able to secure a birth certificate for him and have multiple copies, it did take the state of Hawaii a few weeks to produce them.

Almost daily, the locals make comments to Kai that he would only hear living in Hawaii.  Twice he has been called a haole.  I am not sure that calling my baby a racist term is the nicest of compliments.  Haole translates as foreigner, but he was born here.  But he is white.  So not quite kama'aina. Which leads us to one of the frequent comments he hears from both adults and children.  "He is so white."  I am usually holding him and I am pretty white myself.  Some children ask why is he so white.  Then comes the comments about his eyes.  "The baby's eyes are so large."  "He has such big eyes."  "He looks surprised."  Children will try and make their eyes large to demonstrate.  Then he is told he is lucky they are blue.  Then he is told he will be a surfer.

I never know how to response, so I usually just say Mahalo.

Kai also hears that he is so cute, handsome and adorable.  While we were in NY and Alaska those were the only comments he received.