Aloha, I'm Donna, known everywhere on the Internet as "Champuru." I'm a Christian, blissfully wedded to my perfect match (the yang to my yin) of 16 years and a stay-at-home mom to my miracle baby, born in October 2008. Living life in Hawaii, less than 5 miles from my hometown, seeking balance in my pursuit of family, faith, recreation, and rest. Read more on the About page.
Lil K knows what she wants and has no qualms about letting us know what it is. Observing her interaction with other children, I notice that she tends to be bossy, especially now that she can vocalize her demands. Grandma says that being bossy isn’t necessary a bad thing. After all, the world needs leaders. She’s just a leader-in-training.
But in the meantime, the girl needs to learn manners and I’ve been trying to teach her to say “please” and “thank you” and not to refer to everything as “mine.” We try to reinforce the act of sharing and she does quite well with that. But when left to her own devices, playing amongst her peers, she will sometimes tell other children what to play with, where to go/stand/sit, or “No! That’s mine,” even when it isn’t.
I remind her not to be bossy, to play nicely with her friends, and that not everything belongs to her. Is being bossy a personality trait, a phase that toddlers go through, or a behavior that I can modify?
Help! This house has room for only one diva in the family and that slot is already taken by me.
I never thought that I would become a cheerleader for poop. Every day, we wait with anticipation for the passing of the poop. And when it arrives, it is met with much fanfare because it means that it will be a good day for Lil K — and us.
A two poop day? We’re throwing a party!
We saw Lil K’s pediatrician about a week ago and she recommended prunes and prune juice. This information is from the fact sheet she gave me.
Constipation
A very common problem. Not enough fruit and vegetables, compared to the amount of rice, bread, noodles, potatoes, and meats eaten.
Not all fruits and vegetables are equal. (i.e., 5 apples a day will not help your stools much. In fact, bananas and applesauce will constipate you.) So, NO BANANAS OR APPLESAUCE.
MY FAVORITE — PRUNES! Why? Because you need so little to help your stools. I like to say, “you would need a whole bucket of vegetables and fruits” to do what just a few prunes or a little prune juice will do.
How much prune juice? How many prunes?
If you choose dried prunes, I suggest 3 to 5 prunes every day.
If you choose prune juice, I suggest 1/4 to 1/2 cup every day. Some people may need a cup or more a day. (If you don’t like the taste of prune juice, add a small amount of apple juice to it. If you do this, my rule is no apple juice without prune juice, because the apple juice has too many calories.)
There are many over the counter constipation products, but they are expensive and not nutritious like PRUNES.
Prunes are very nutritious! See the benefits below!
My 2 sons have been on prunes daily since they were 18 months old. I have had them every day for many years! TAKE PRUNES EVERY DAY!!
High in Vitamin A - the B-carotene in this helps prevent damage to cells.
High in Potassium - to help lower blood pressure, which helps lower risk of stroke.
High in Copper
High in antioxidants - This prevents cell damage (decreasing atherosclerosis) and decreases cholesterol by making it harder for the liver to make it.
Helps the good bacteria in our intestines
Helps absorb iron
Prunes. The miracle constipation remedy with many health benefits. That’s fine and dandy, but what if your toddler doesn’t want to drink/eat it? The doctor recommends starting by putting a little in your baby’s milk — just enough to change the color. Then gradually add more. You will know when your child has too much prunes/prune juice in their diet when they have a diarrhea-like stool (or two). Then, just adjust to just under that amount. The doctor suggested that all babies should be on prune juice and they should be started on this before they become picky toddlers. She recommends starting them on prune juice when they start eating solids. (I didn’t get this advice since Lil K had a different pediatrician until recently.)
Lil K used to drink diluted prune juice, but since she discovered apple juice she refuses to drink prune juice. I even mixed a teensy bit of prune juice in her apple juice and she will scrunch up her face, hand me the cup, and say, ”prune juice.”
It’s hard enough getting Lil K to drink whole milk, much less milk laced with prune juice. I tried it. BIG FAIL.
I even bought bite-sized prunes hoping she would enjoy snacking on them like raisins. Nope!
I guess I will have to go very slowly with the re-integration of prune juice into her diet. Hopefully, if I can add tiny amounts of prune juice into her water or milk, slowly increasing it over time, she will grow accustomed to it.
In the meantime, we have pharmaceutical help for when things get backed up: Miralax and glycerine suppositories as needed. I am doing whatever I can, diet wise, to avoid having to give her medication, but it’s there when we need it.
I have also found that substituting brown rice for white is helping, too. I only cook brown rice now, so the whole family benefits from this dietary change for Lil K. (If you ask Hubby, he may not consider it a “benefit,” however.) I’ve also been trying to eliminate as much refined processed starches as possible, so my next project is making a whole wheat vegetable pizza that will hopefully be as kid-friendly as it is healthy.
As I work on my meal plan for the next two weeks, I’m also doing some research on kid-friendly and healthy recipes that I can add to my repertoire. Cooking for a toddler is not the easiest thing and is often a thankless job.
Bon dance season is fast approaching an end and one of the bon dances that I look forward to each summer is held at the Pearl City Hongwanji Mission (858 2nd Street, Pearl City Hawaii).
Many people recognize this temple as the one that you can see from the freeway heading West. The mission runs a 7-day adult day care service and also holds Judo classes in its building. This may sound strange, but one of my favorite features of this bon dance is the beautiful grassy area fronting the small temple. The grass is well maintained and is the perfect place for our little ones to stretch their legs or sprawl out.
Pearl City Hongwanji bon dance
Another reason that I enjoy the Pearl City Hongwanji bon dance so much is that they feature the talents of the Young Okinawans of Hawaii (YOH). Their lively eisaa drumming has moved back to the traditional style with lots of arm motions, bending and jumping. Hard on the drummers, but great to watch!
Part of the bon dance posse (Joyce, Mom, me, Lil K, and Joni)
This year’s bon dance was well-attended — in general, as well as by the bon dance posse. The more, the merrier and tonight was certainly the case.
The lovely Doreen and Aileen
Doreen and Aileen got dressed up in their gorgeous yukata tonight. They are such an inspiration in their dedication to the art and tradition of obon dancing.
Mike
I was hoping to get a photo of Mike with one of his fabulous watercolor paintings. Maybe next time!
Shari and D joined us tonight — it was so good to see the both of them, as we don’t see them often enough.
D and Shari
And the night would not be complete unless we got a photo of Kamu — pointing! This picture is my favorite of the night.
Kamu -- pointing!
Such an awesomely fun evening. Get out there and find a bon dance to attend before the summer is over!
Today, we ventured to beautiful Manoa to attend the Koganji Temple bon dance. It was my first time at this particular bon dance and I was impressed by the gorgeous architecture of the building, the scenic backdrop, the great setup they had for concessions, and how smoothly they ran the program. Another notable difference is that they have a live taiko drummer accompanying the recorded music. It adds feeling, bringing extra energy to the music.
The only downside to the bon dance is the parking. Parking is available on-street on Oahu Avenue and we ended up walking quite far. There are also some stairs and inclines to contend with to get to the bon dance area. Although it’s fine for any able-bodied individual to handle, it would be more challenging for the elderly or physically-challenged. I’m sure they have accommodations for wheelchair access, but I didn’t inquire.
Overlooking the courtyard, bon dance circle, and concessions
We arrived just as the bon dance started at 5:30 pm, which is quite early as generally most bon dances don’t start until 6:30 or 7 pm. The grounds were already teeming with people and seating was hard to come by. Luckily, we brought our own chairs but the difficult part was finding somewhere to put them. We found a spot in the back row, fronting the food booths.
The bon dance circle is relatively small, but nicely paved.They had a designated entrance/exit into the circle, which is such a great idea, as so often people stand/sit completely around the circle which makes it hard to squeeze through.
There was an energizing taiko performance during intermission at 8:30 pm by Ryusei Taiko.
The donation/accessories booth was selling bon dance towels, yukata, fans, taiko sticks, omamori, and various glow toys for the kids.
The food booths had some great offerings: plate lunch (beef stew, sweet sour spareribs, or mixed plate), yakisoba, shave ice, mochi, grilled teriyaki corn, teri burgers, kimono dogs (hotdogs deep fried in andagi batter), andagi, and a country store selling ice cream cups and a plethora of baked goods. And, the food was GOOD!
Somewhere over the bon dance rainbow
Of course, Manoa being Manoa, it rained — but only briefly. And with the rain, there are rainbows.
It was an enjoyable evening at Koganji Temple. The bon dance is two nights: Friday and Saturday, so if you missed it on Friday, you still have a chance to catch it tonight.
It’s been nearly a week since we started Lil K’s potty training and I have to admit that I didn’t make it the one-week intensive program as I had initially intended. It is recommended to pick a week when you will be at home so you can focus on potty training, but there is rarely ever a week that we are home every single day. We had a fairly busy week and I noticed that when I put her in pull-ups, she seemed to have more accidents. Perhaps, as a friend suggested, the pull-ups feel like diapers, so she thinks it’s acceptable to use them as such.
There were lots of Mommy Fail moments within the week, too. One of which was our Thursday playdate when I made the effort to haul her potty out to the park, but failed to pack extra training panties. She peed once in the potty, then she wet her pants before my one-hour timer went off and I realized all I had were diapers in my bag. So, needless to say, the diapers went on and the training went out for the duration of the playdate.
I’m still working on the logistics of taking her out and continuing with the potty training. I picked up a Kalencom 2 in 1 Potette Plus, portable potty and trainer seat at my favorite baby store, Ohana Daze, in the Mililani Town Center. This neat little invention works like a travel potty (you can buy absorbent liners for it, so you just tie up the bag and toss the mess in the trash) — and it also folds flat into a trainer seat that you place on top of a toilet seat, so toddlers with tiny tushies can use the commode without worrying about their little bum falling in.
I had been trying to encourage Lil K to use the toilet more often, but she still seems to prefer the potty. I’m hoping that this trainer seat will help her feel more comfortable. After all, it’s much easier to simply flush the toilet than to go through the ritual of cleaning the potty every time she uses it. And being the germophobes that we are, the potty is probably the cleanest thing in the bathroom now — as we wash and sanitize the heck out of that thing after every use.
I’m still waiting for the elusive poop in the potty. She still seems to have an aversion to using the potty for anything besides #1. She has also started asking to change her underwear every time she uses the potty, even if it’s clean and dry. I have to explain to her that the panties are still clean if she didn’t pee/poop them. Sometimes she believes me, other times she insists that it’s “dirty” and wants a “new” one. Perhaps I need to check out Target and pick up some regular panties to supplement the training underwear stash for her.
Lil K is only 2 happy-face stickers shy of completely filling her chart — that’s 43 tinkles in the potty! When she completes the chart, I promised her that we would get some frozen yogurt at Menchie’s (for simplicity sake, I call it “ice cream” — but she’s happy either way). To be honest, I’m not sure if the stickers or the promise of sugary, tasty goodness is motivating her at all. She just seems content to go on the potty with or without the incentives. I still like to make it fun for her anyway.
All in all, I consider our efforts thus far successful. Baby steps.
Central Oahu Carnival, Central Oahu Regional Park (July 30-Aug 1, 2010)
The Central Oahu Carnival is a benefit for the Honolulu Armed Services YMCA and was held at the Central Oahu Regional Park (Waipio, Hawaii) on July 30-August 1, 2010. Being that I live in the Mommy Cave, I didn’t know about this great event happening practically in my backyard. Thanks to Kamu, who invited us to the fair, we didn’t miss out on this fun-filled experience.
First of all, I apologize for the quality of the photos. They are all taken with our camera phones. I had my point & shoot camera, but when Joyce tried to take photos of Lil K and I on her first Merry-Go-Round ride, my SD card failed. What awful timing. Thank God for our iPhones (and Kamu’s Blackberry!), otherwise this milestone would have gone completely undocumented. The only unfortunate thing is that camera phones still don’t handle action shots in low-light conditions very well. Disclaimers aside, let’s talk about Lil K’s first carnival!
Lil K and I on the Merry Go Round for the first time (Photo by Joyce)
We arrived early at the carnival and it seemed that the Friday evening crowd was slow to arrive, which was perfectly fine with us. I can do without dealing with throngs of people and long lines for the rides. There was little to no waiting for anything that evening, which is great when you’re dealing with an active toddler.
After having dinner under the tent, the first ride we attempted was the Merry-Go-Round. I wasn’t sure how Lil K would handle it. Observing from the outside, the Merry-Go-Round seemed to be running faster than I remember. Perhaps it was just because I was seeing it through the eyes of a concerned parents. Despite my misgivings, I paid our fare and boarded the Merry-Go-Round with Lil K in my arms. At first, I thought we would try riding in the sleigh. Ten seconds after sitting there, Lil K decided that the sleigh was boring and she wanted to sit on a horse.
Lil K decides to ride the horse! (Photo by Joyce)
She was even particular about which horse she wanted to sit on. I wanted to sit on one that was closer to the outside, but she was intent on riding a specific horse and she pointed it out to me. When the ride started, I looked at her face to see if she was scared, but she seemed just fine. The horse bobbed up and down and round and round we went. As she was riding, she was saying, “up, down, up, down, up, down.” When the ride was finished, she immediately said and signed the word, “more.”
Lil K is having a blast -- and apparently, so am I. (Photo by Kamu)
We encouraged her to try another ride and we found ourselves at the Helicopter ride. Joyce offered to take Lil K on the ride and she was happy to take her up on it. Into the helicopter they climbed and Lil K sat in the driver’s seat and immediately took the wheel. We even noticed that she had her hand on the stick shift as she was riding. The girl is learning! She sees me driving my car, which is a stick shift., so she copied.
Lil K's first helicopter ride with Aunty Joyce
Lil K has a fascination with airplanes lately. Ever since her Daddy made her a paper airplane, she often tries to fold one for herself a she gets excited when she spies an airplane flying overhead. So it’s no surprise that the “Crazy Plane” ride caught her attention.
Crazy Plane (Photo by Belle City Amusements)
I was a little skeptical about how she would tolerate this ride. It’s a swinging ride, going high into the air, swinging in large arcs and dips. Then, it goes backwards! As luck would have it, a row of young kids were sitting behind us, and they were screaming at the top of their lungs the entire ride. Lil K just sat quietly between Joyce and I. She didn’t seem afraid at all — she wasn’t clingy and didn’t utter a peep. I’m not sure if she thought it was fun or not, but at least she wasn’t frightened by it. She is a brave girl. Much braver than her mommy!
Me, Joyce, and Lil K aboard the "Crazy Plane" ride (Photo by Kamu)
Lil K also managed to go home with some lovely parting gifts thanks to Aunty Joyce and Uncle Kamu. Joyce took her to the fish pond and managed to hook the two turtles to go home with a bumpy red ball. Uncle Kamu got her a ticket to play a toddler basketball game. It was one of those “everyone wins” games, so they allowed me to carry her as she deposited the ball right in the basket. Her prize was that incredibly long inflatable stick. She couldn’t get enough of that stick and carried it around for the rest of the evening.
Lil K with her inflatable stick
The carnival was such a fun time for all of us. We wanted to return on Sunday, but it was raining. One thing that I realized that night is that I should let her experience things (as long as it’s safe) and not hold her back because of my own fears about how she would handle it. I loosened the reigns a bit at the carnival and allowed to try those rides, despite my apprehension — and she had fun!
Here’s a short video recap of some of the highlights of the night. Again, lacking my usual camera, the video was taken completely with my iPhone.
Another reason I couldn’t be a chef, aside from the obvious which is I am not a great cook, is that the sight of uncooked meat and chicken makes me a little squeamish. Today, I nearly lost my lunch when I found what looked like the remnants of feathers (?) on the chicken quarters I was preparing for tonight’s dinner. Perhaps it brings me a little too close to the source of my food, which is that not too long ago, this drumstick was attached to a chicken. With feathers.
On the other hand, the BBQ chicken turned out tasty delicious. Sans the feathers, of course. Here’s a quick chicken recipe that my mother-in-law shared with me.
Ingredients:
Chicken quarters
1/4 c. sea salt
Water to cover chicken
Your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Bullseye Original BBQ sauce)
Directions:
Mix the salt and water until the crystals dissolve. Soak the chicken quarters in the salt water for at least an hour. Remove and place in a baking pan. Baste with BBQ sauce and bake for 400º for 1 hour. Baste a few times during the baking process, to your taste.
You can make a difference in the life of a child -- I am! Our family is sponsoring Melvin, a 9 year old boy in the Philippines. Click the image below to find out more about child sponsorship and how your pocket change can change everything for a very special child.
