First days thoughts

• No matter what kind of preschool you choose for your child, the more confident you are about your choice, the better, because they will cry, and knowing that you are making the right decision will make the crying a lot easier to bear.
• I have always been hesitant to use Hawaiian. Take a word like "aloha," for example. Of course I have known this word practically my whole life. Most recently, I occasionally used it when emailing students, following the lead of students and colleagues, I guess, but this often felt disingenuous to me. I also think back to some time around 2000 when some state senator put forth a measure to make "aloha" the official greeting of the Hawai'i state government or something. I think this is part of what made me hesitant to use it. What is the purpose of making it the official greeting of the Hawai'i state government? I was always suspicious of it. 'Olelo Hawai'i, and especially "aloha," is so misused, just to insinuate oneself to the audience or make oneself belong where he or she may actually be unwelcome. Some might say that grad school gave me this fear of appropriation, but I think that it is a good fear to have; I don't want others to abuse language and I don't want to abuse it myself either. In any case, having to speak a couple of sentences when I drop off and pick up my kid everyday has helped me get familiar with having the words in my mouth. When I arrive at work after dropping the kid off, I sometimes feel like it would be natural to greet people, "Aloha." It's an interesting shift for me. I haven't actually done it yet, but maybe soon (or later) I will. 
• It's dawned on me that I can keep a list of my kid's Hawaiian words, just like I did for her English words when she started talking, so here they are so far. Some are ones we had used before she started school; stars next to the new ones: nai'a, honu, mano, popoki*, hipa, hana hou*, aloha, i'a, he'e, poi (does that count?), kumu*.