Who is Champuru? 
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.
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Dot-Com Days
In the days before dot-net.
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Yesterday, my uncle sent me an e-mail to wish me a happy birthday.
Hi Donna,
Happy Birthday tomorrow (9/6). I’ll be thinking of you as you celebrate your 29th birthday.
Uncle Clyde
As I read the email, I thought, “how nice of him to remember my birthday — but he got it all wrong. I’m not 29. I’m 27!”
Then, as I was replying to him, I realized that I was only 10 years off. Seriously.
There are days when I don’t feel a day over 27. Other days, when my eyes are bleary and my back is creaking, I feel like I should be a card carrying member of AARP.
Thank you to everyone who sent me a tweet, wrote on my Facebook wall, texted me, or called to wish me a happy birthday today. Celebrating my 29th birthday for the N-th time is always fun thanks to all of you.
The Big Honey Hunt by Stanley and Janice Berenstain is currently Lil K’s favorite bedtime story. She refers to it as the “honey book.” Often, I read the book twice back-to-back at her request.
This book is a cute story of the Bear family depleting their honey supply and Mama Bear tasking Papa Bear to buy some more at the honey store. Of course, Papa has other ideas and takes Small Bear on an epic adventure to fill their honey pot, experiencing many mishaps along the way.
Lil K is especially amused by the page with the porcupine launching himself on Papa Bear’s back. She exclaims, “POKEY!” when she sees the picture. The illustrations are colorful and cute. They are great for engaging young minds in observation and dialogue.
I remember enjoying the Berenstain Bears books as a child and it’s nice to be able to share these wonderful stories with my daughter.
Lil K’s sleeping schedule has been slowly creeping later and later. Recently, her bedtimes have been as late as 11pm and this morning she rolled out of bed just before 10am. We had to rush to church and we were still 15 minutes late for the 11am service. Not good.
So, today I decided to “fix” her schedule by occupying my wee one all day until she forgot there ever was such a thing as an afternoon nap. Admittedly, it required me to bend my own rules about TV viewing in order to get through the last hour and a half before she had finally reached her limit at 7pm. But 7pm was the goal. I knew if she could stay awake until then we, theoretically, should be able to segue right into bedtime without too much trouble.
At least, that’s my hope. Wish us luck!
 Monchichi wearing a Shisa costume Lil K (23 months) has been obsessed with the Shisa since she saw them at the bon dances this summer, so yesterday I decided to take this Monchichi doll out of my showcase and give it to her. I purchased this shisa while I was vacationing in Japan in 2005. I had a Monchichi doll when I was a little girl and I loved it, so when I saw this Monchichi doll dressed in a shisa costume I knew it was coming home with me. I’ve had it wrapped in plastic and stored away in a showcase ever since.
 Shisa costume is a hoodie that can be pulled down. But, really, what good is it to have in a showcase? Is it a collector’s item? I decided that it was better off in the hands of a child who will enjoy playing with it rather than being tucked away in a glass case indefinitely.
Lil K loves the Monchichi Shisa doll. She even brought it to bed and was singing, “Monchichi Monchichi…” over and over.
I’m glad I decided to take Monchichi out of my collection and give it to a very deserving little girl who will give it lots of love for years to come. At least I have these pictures to remember it in “mint” condition.
 Detail of Shisa face
Is it just my imagination or does it seem like toddler heads are a magnet for coming into contact with hard objects (e.g., tables, floors, walls)? Once infants become mobile, they’re just a head injury waiting to happen. At least that’s been my experience. It really makes me want to pad the entire house – or make Lil K wear a helmet.
I was no stranger to head injuries myself. (Which, some of you may say, explains a lot.) When I was about 4 years old, my mom was mopping the floor and I was expending my energy, running around the house. A hard lesson was learned that day: speed and slippery floors do not mix. I slid headlong into a doorknob and to this day have an indentation in my forehead bearing witness to that fact. A few years later, I was in a car accident and I hit the windshield with my head, creating a lovely spiderweb design in the safety glass. (Those were the days before child safety seats and seatbelt laws and I was sitting on my mom’s lap in the front seat. Yeah, bad idea.) Then, in high school, I suffered a concussion thanks to a boy who thought running full speed in the hall and not looking where he was going was a good idea. I temporarily lost my vision for a few hours and spent the morning in the health room while the nurse kept attempting to reach my parents. After what seemed like forever, they finally got in touch with my dad and he picked me up and took me to the doctor where I had my skull x-rayed to make sure I hadn’t fractured it. (It wasn’t.)
I remember my parents saying the Japanese word “tankobu” pretty often which means bump/lump/swelling in reference to my head.
So maybe I’m the one who needs a helmet.
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.
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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.
Sponsor a Child
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