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 15 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 her pursuit of family, faith, recreation, and rest. Read more on the About page.
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On Monday, February 22, I wrote that Baby Champuru had developed a fever. Her fever peaked during the wee hours of Thursday morning at 103.5º F and did not break until Friday. This is our first experience with such high fevers and I was constantly worried about the chance of febrile seizures. During this past week, I was on the phone with the pediatrician’s office about half a dozen times and brought her in-office twice. At both visits, the doctor checked for signs of infection or wheezing, and assured us that it was just a cold and we just needed to ride it out.
Although her fever had gone by Friday, she started coughing — or more like “barking,” which started during the wee hours of this morning. It was frightening to hear her barking like a seal, laboring to breathe and obviously upset by it. The more she cried, the worse the coughing became. Thankfully, I’m still nursing her and was able to calm her with the Great Mommy Pacifier and she fell asleep. She woke several times throughout the night and each time I nursed her back to sleep.
All of this in between the excitement of news flooding my Twitterstream of an imminent tsunami to hit Hawaii in the morning. Needless to say, it was an anxious night for me and I got little sleep.
After the tsunami warning was canceled today, Hubby went out to buy a room humidifier. I never thought I would be buying a humidifier in Hawaii. After all, this isn’t Nevada. Isn’t Hawaii humid enough already? But advice from numerous sources and experienced parents poured in, all of them suggesting bringing Baby Champuru into the bathroom while running a hot shower — or using a humidifier. We did both and she seems to be doing better so far.
I’m hoping for a markedly less exciting night. I could use the rest — especially since now I’m the one that’s sick, too.
 Toddler flossing using floss stick  Flossing is one of those things that we know is good for us, but most of us loathe to do. I have zero childhood memories of my parents flossing my teeth. And I’m sure they didn’t floss my teeth at 16 months old. So, the thought never occurred to me that we should floss Baby Champuru’s teeth. That is, until we saw the pedodontic dentist this month.
Thankfully, there are things that make the task of flossing easier. Floss picks for children are available in the dental care aisle at your local drugstore and they come in bright colors, fruit flavors, and sometimes even have characters or animals on them. We purchased three different types of children’s flossers from Longs Drugs, including this one: Fun Flossers by DenTek. They’re designed in an angled c-shape which is supposed to make it easy to reach the teeth in the back.
Right now, Baby Champuru’s teeth are only touching in the front of her mouth (top and bottom), so it wasn’t that difficult to floss. And despite the “help me” look in the photo above, she didn’t seem to mind it that much.
After I was done, she wanted to floss all of her dolls’ teeth, including her rocking horse. Good dental hygiene is a good idea for all species, I suppose.
After we returned from church on Saturday night, I was rushing around getting ready for bed. Hubby and Baby Champuru were playing in the bedroom. I had a glass of water sitting on the desk. Baby Champuru signed and said the word water, indicating that she wanted a drink of water. Hubby took the glass and held it to her mouth. She said “no” and patted the floor in front of her, indicating that she wanted him to put the glass down. Which he did. To his surprise, she took the glass in both hands, lifted it to her lips, and began to drink. Unassisted.
We had never taught her to drink from the cup on her own. We had always held the cup to her lips, tilting it ever so carefully so as not to pour too much water in her mouth. This was the first time she drank from an open cup without help.
She enjoys using the open cup, but is still prone to spilling if she gets too excited or distracted. Nevertheless, she is making great strides toward independent eating and drinking this month!
Baby Champuru has developed an affinity for spoons lately. I gave her a disposable plastic baby spoon, a plastic measuring cup, and a plate to play with and she has been pretending to cook. She also uses her stacking cups as bowls to serve us meals. She will stir her pretend soup in the measuring cup, then pour some into a stacking cup and proceed to feed it to her dolls. Or me. Whomever looks hungrier at the time.
During mealtime, she has been asking to hold the spoon. Everyone knows that: toddler + food + spoon = BIG MESS. So I had been previously hesitant to let her control the spoon. Last week, I gave her the spoon as she was eating Cheerios. Her baby doll was sitting next to her on the high chair. Using the spoon, she picked up two Cheerios and proceeded to feed it to the doll. I was surprised by her coordination and took note of this. Perhaps it was time to allow her to try feeding herself?
On Sunday, I finally decided to let her attempt to feed herself. I know it’s good for her development and I can always clean up. I’m always cleaning anyway. What’s the difference, right? With a bowl of yogurt before her, I handed her the spoon and she gleefully shoveled a spoonful of yogurt into her mouth. She stopped and looked at me, as if to gauge my reaction. I gave her a huge smile and burst out enthusiastically, “you did it! Good job! You’re feeding yourself! Mommy is SO proud of you!” She gave me the biggest smile ever. She accomplished something and she knew it. It was a great moment.
Today, I discovered that Baby Champuru has created her own word for spoon and it’s “money.”
I don’t know why or how it came to be, but whenever she wants a spoon, she says “money.” Oddly enough, when I refer to the object as a spoon she knows exactly what I’m talking about. But when she verbalizes it, she says “money.” I keep correcting her, but she refuses to call it by any other name.
Is that weird or what?
Baby Champuru had a long day and was understandably fussy. After all, she didn’t have a good nap all day — having to catch a short 45 minute nap in the car. As the afternoon wore on, she grew even more irritable and temperamental, even for a tired toddler. Hubby suggested that we take her temperature. Sure enough, she was running a slight temperature at 101.4º F.
We gave her a dose of children’s Tylenol and saw her fever decline to 99º F. I am hoping that she wakes up tomorrow without a fever and feeling better.
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